I think it’s going to be a dlc right? Like lords of the west etc, by the way you’re icon is amazing !! I love Roman history how did you get it?
I think they will be seperate as there are a lots of civs OR they merge the ages… like there will be stone age> bronge age > iron age> feudual age> castle age >>>>
So when you hit fedual age with Rome you can change civ to Italy or Byzantine
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@anon63664082 just grabbed the icon from the new picture for the Return of Rome announcement.
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It would be epic if they add more ages.
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If it works as a Data Mod, cool. If you can play aoe1 and aoe2 at the same time, the game is ruined.
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They said added to the “client” not the “game”.
So I assume there will be a toggle somewhere or something like that.
2 games in one client.
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I hope AOE DE players can have some treats.
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Fully agreed, it’s confusing how the announcement labeled it as a “DLC” while giving us a brief moment of confusion.
Surely the majority of the players wouldn’t want antiquity civs to be part of AoE2 
Like AoE1 Persians joining AoE2’s Persians 11111
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I believe it will be separate game mode with different rules, otherwise AoE1 civs, units and techs would need to total rebalance overhaul.
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I am excited about AoE2 DLC Return of Rome. I think it will be a separate game mod, with mechanisms of AoE2DE. Which would be good, because AoEDE feels broken. I hope they will rework the campaigns, menus, UI, QOL…
They will probably change the earliest AoE2 campaigns such as Attila and Alaric.
I hope they will add civs and campaigns to Return of Rome, but I am not sure about it at all.
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Nah I think the Romans there are fine as it is, unless they reworked all the AoE 1 civs to fit in better to AoE 2 timeline which would probably break the game.
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So is this going to be a port of aoe1 civs into the game engine of aoe2 (eg, you switch between the two games during load up) or will it be a DLC adding new ancient civs into a medieval game? I really hope it is the former, not the latter. I don’t see the sense in adding ancient civs, especially when there’s so many new medieval civs left to choose from.
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Hopefully this is a separate game not just adding aoe 1 content into aoe 2 because that would just be a jumbled mess.
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Oh wow, I really didn’t expect this. Looks great to me from what little we know – but as other people have said, I hope it is fairly separate from regular AoE2. It’s a bit difficult to interpret what “AoE1DE in the AoE2DE engine” means, considering they already use the same Genie Engine. I also hope it’s not just the AoE1 civs, but includes user interface, terrain, sounds, music, etc. – part of the appeal of AoE1 to me is its atmosphere, and those are an important part of it.
I’m not keen on the name “Return of Rome” though. Romans are a fairly small part of AoE1 – admittedly with an excessive number of official campaigns – and they were only notable towards the very end of the game’s time period. It’s like naming a remake of AoE2 “Return of Spain” or something.
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The Banned or this DLC doesn’t only have Rome on it but also Babylonian and Egyptian.
Also it says coming to the AoE2DE client not the AoE2DE game.
I think it will be separate. Not sure if it’ll be like a mod or if it’s just 2 lists of civilisations, units, buildings and technologies that exist next to each other but can’t play against each other. (maybe with the exception of custom scenarios)
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Perhaps the name “Return of Rome” is an allusion to the “Rome Returns” mod, which in principle does exactly what the new DLC is supposed to do: Integrating Age of Empires in the engine of Age of Empires 2.
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Are you serious? The original expansion for aoe was called rise of rome.
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Guys, it has 0 sense to have AoE I civs playing against AoE II ones.
For sure is a port of AoE I DE to AoE II DE engine. Probably new civs and content to justify the 3.0 remake.
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That is for me the most probable explanation. But there is a big point for me : all the aoe 1 player don’t play aoe 2de. So if they want to play at this “3.0 remake” it means they have to buy aoe 2de and a dlc.
If it has the dls label, for me, it means a mod or news civs in aoe2DE.
Probably it will come with some kind of discount for AoE I DE owners.
Having the AoE I on the II DE engine, not only means better engine for the players, but a supported engine that gets updated (pathfinding, multiplayer) and also II DE is a better tool to add new DLCs for The Return of Rome line.
Almost all the terrain of Age of Empires II it’s covered already, and have a lot of civs. The other way around, you can do plenty of DLCs for The Return of Rome: Almost all Africa, Europe is empty, Almost all Asia, and they even can go to America if they want. That’s 4 DLCs.
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