Mehmed II, also known as Mehmed the Conqueror (lived 1432-1481; 1st reign: 1444-1446; 2nd reign: 1451-1481), was an Ottoman sultan who conquered Constantinople, thus ending the Byzantine Empire and the Middle Ages in general, as well as conquering Serbia, Trebizond, Wallachia, Bosnia, the rest of Anatolia, and Albania. He also warred with John Hunyadi’s crusaders, the Venetians, and Moldavia. In general, he led a very interesting life, and his constant warring with practically everyone in the Balkans and Eastern Europe makes for a natural and very exciting campaign.
Despite covering a lot of events and time, the campaign is still five scenarios, as the final scenario depicts multiple concurrent or consecutive wars simultaneously. The first scenario is devoted to his first reign, while the other four cover his second.
In my idea for a Balkan expansion, adding the Albanians, Croatians, Serbians, and Vlachs, this campaign would be the fourth campaign added, as the Vlachs would receive the Dracula campaign. All four new civs would be enemies in this campaign, making it a natural fit, and one of the scenarios would also tie in with the Dracula campaign.
Scenarios
A Reluctant Sultan
Covers Mehmed’s brief first reign during his teenage years. John Hunyadi led an army of Crusaders into Ottoman lands. The Battle of Varna is depicted in this scenario.
Depicts the conquest of Trebizond, a Byzantine and Georgian successor state, as well as the various allies that John IV of Trebizond had managed to acquire.
Enemies: Trebizond (Byzantines), Georgian Princes (Georgians)
Ally: Ahmed the Red (Persians)
Enemies to Allies: White Sheep Turkomans (Tatars), Sinope (Turks), Karamanids (Turks)
Vanquishing the Dragon
Depicts Ottoman efforts to defeat Vlad Dracula and their eventual capture of Targoviste, the Wallachian capital.
This scenario is the continuation of Vlad Dracula 4, The Moon Rises, but from the Ottoman perspective.
Mehmed the Conqueror
Depicts the conquest of Bosnia, the Ottoman-Venetian War, the conquest of Anatolia, the war with Moldavia, the alliance with the Crimean Khanate, and the conquest of Albania, all of which occurred during overlapping timeframes.
Enemies: Venice (Italians), Gazaria (Italians), League of Lezhe (Albanians), Moldavia (Vlachs)
Enemies to Allies: Anatolian Beyliks (Turks), Bosnia (Serbians)
Not a bad idea. However, if there were four Balkan civs added, it’s hard to imagine there would be more than three or four campaigns added. But, if there were, I imagine the Albanian one would be Skanderbeg, which would also have a connection to this campaign. That would mean that at least three of the campaigns in a hypothetical Balkan DLC would be connected, which is really cool. I liked the Dawn of the Dukes campaigns because of their connections to each other.
I thought about making it a 6-scenario campaign, but I realized most of the later events occurred around the same timeframe and could be condensed into a single scenario. The only missing event is an attempted invasion of Italy.
I think the only difference is that the siege of Constantinople takes a whole scenario, the second, while the third is the one of morea. Dracula is the 4th and the conquest of Trebizond the 5th.
I was gonna do that, but I realized that I had a lot of ground to cover and that Serbia and Morea are both very close to Byzantium, so having a scenario going to all three is not a stretch.
They got that order slightly wrong. The events involving Dracula occurred slightly later than the fall of Trebizond, well, at least the final events.
It was just a joke. Honestly they could all be represented by the Bulgarians for all I care, but it could be interesting if they started as a single civ that diverged as you aged up, like in AoM.
Well, I’m pretty sure you’re the only one. The whole appeal of AoE2 is that all civs have the same fundamentals. Introducing one radically different civ that has an entirely different mechanic from all the others just isn’t AoE2. If you like that sort of thing, AoE3 or AoE4 are for you.
Sure there is. Relevant civs in important areas of the world with historical significance during the Middle Ages should always be added. It’s never “just because.” Campaign potential is a big part of it.
I’d love for this to be a Ludocris map shaped like the Balkans region and you have to conquer all of it.
As for Moldavia (Vlachs) - hero Stephen III of Moldavia could be introduced as the leader.
I mean Vlachs are still Slavs to this day. Which a lot of people complained about, because Vlachs are not Slavs.
This shouldn’t happen. But I don’t think there would be a massive uproar like in Return of Rome.
