All scenarios of this campaign have been revised to correct bugs, smoothen the gameplay and mostly to make it more approachable on lower difficulties.
General:
- All enemies will take more time to train their units and they’re all capped below your own max pop.
- The AI can now attack walls.
- Added a proper difficulty scale that should include all skill levels except maybe for the last two scenarios who are meant to be more challenging.
- On standard difficulty enemies will seldom build siege weapons and way less ships.
- Trebuchets will be seen only on hard difficulty.
- Renamed units will get all the upgrades you research.
- Added hotkeys for all special units.
- Units replacing the normal ones like Norse Warriors or Eastern Swordsmen for the infantry line are now just reskin of the common line, not whole different units.
- Techs, units and relative cost (like the new Dock) updated with the recent patches and changes.
- Units’ and buildings’ names changed to be consistent with other scenarios of the series.
- Imperial Legionaries and Centurions are not available anymore at the Academy (University). You can upgrade your Longswordmen to Legionaries in all scenarios in which Imperial Age is available.
- The Longbowman is not available anymore as soon as you reach Castle Age but it’s locked behind an upgrade that replaces the Crossbowman in all scenarios but the last one.
- In most scenarios Pagan Shrines are reskinned to Chronicles’ Temples, Asian Army Tents to Greek ones and in general new decorations are added.
- Added different types of water layers in some scenarios.
- 15 instead of 10 seconds between each dialogue to give more time for players to read them. English has improved.
- Slideshow is now slower for similar reasons, typos corrected and text won’t overrun images.
Scenario 1:
- In the first clash against Licinius, Red troops won’t try anymore to reach the Longbowmen you place on the hill, making them more deadly as originally intended.
- Adrianople (Yellow) changed to Thracians. Byzantium (Cyan) and Nicomedia (Grey) stay Byzantines but uses Chronicles’ Greek architecture and skins except for the Castle.
- Cataphracts available at the Stable in place of Knights. Camel Riders are also available.
- Heavy Swordsmen are not anymore a different unit line but a reskin of the Longswordman (thus you need to research an upgrade first to unlock them).
- Fixed an issue where you shouldn’t be able to collect Stone with the Gaia Mining Camp you can find near the Gothic base and neither should Byzantium before the objective to find it triggers.
- Changed Byzantium’s Trading Cart (for the wood quest) to a Cart to not have it wander around the map.
- The wood quest is triggered by flaring Cyan Market rather than simply clicking on it.
- Fixed an issue with Pigs being converted by Cyan Villagers when inside the Old Farm.
- Bosporus’ Goths (Purple) now have a Krepost in their camp to prevent them from falling too early. They also train Archers, Light Cavalry and Priests in addition to infantry.
- Nicomedia won’t train Legionaries and Centurions from Universities anymore but rather from the Castle.
Scenario 2:
- Castles are now available and so Cataphracts and Petards.
- You now need to flare the building you want Cyan Monks to convert instead of simply clicking on it.
- Technologies researched upon each conversion are now displayed.
- You won’t lose the scenario anymore if all Cyan Monks die since they will train more from the Basilica (Monastery).
- The objective of converting the Academy (University) in the final fortress now is unlocked only when all the other villages are converted.
- You are not able to attack the Green Fortress on the Frigidus river anymore before the arrival of Stilicho (Orange).
- Killing the 3 Witches to prevent Arbogast from regenerating is now displayed as a side objective.
- Red now has Thracian architecture and skins.
- Yellow Vestals are now Priestesses instead of renamed Young Edwiges.
- Fixed the side quest about the pagan Roman villages (Grey) rebelling. Rebels (Flemish Militias) are now a smaller number and you won’t risk to fail the quest on accident while attacking Eugenius (Yellow) since Grey will get military units only after the rebellion is over.
- Eugenius won’t train Legionaries and Centurions from Universities anymore. Priests are added to his army composition though.
- Franks can now train Priests and research a few more techs.
Scenario 3:
- Arcadiopolis (Cyan) changed to Thracians. Philipphopolis (Purple) stays Goths but uses Thracian architecture and skins.
- Cataphracts are now normally available at the Castle.
- You can unlock (Èlite) Genitours upon defeating the Vandals (Red).
- You need to flare the Saboteurs instead of simply clicking on them to demolish bridges.
- You need to flare the Market of Chrysopolis and the Harbour of Eleutherios (both marked with a legend and a O on the minimap) to send supplies to the East and the West respectively instead of simply having to click on one of them.
- It’s now possible to send supplies to both the East and the West from the start of the scenario instead of having to help before the East and then the West.
- The Huns (Grey) now have multiple Castles in their base that you need to destroy if you want to defeat them.
- The death of Attila now doesn’t affect his army anymore.
- The Huns train new units such as Xianbei Raiders and Keshiks on all difficulties and Cuman Chiefs and Traction Trebuchets on Hard only. They’ll start with less units on Standard and Moderate though.
- Huns can rebuild the Dock if you let them occupy the one of Philipphopolis.
- The fact you can destroy the Dock of Gallipolis (Yellow) when occupied by the Huns to stop their invasion of the city is now displayed as a side objective.
- Once you defeat either the Vandals or the Sasanians (Orange) the remaining enemy will research Castle Age techs.
Scenario 4:
- Rugians (Red) changed to Thracians.
- You now need to flare Salona’s Castle or an allied Town Center instead of simply clicking on them to order your allies to attack or defend.
- Fixed once and for all the side objective where you can sneak into Papurius’ fortress through a Transport Ship.
- All military buildings are unlocked as soon as the Eastern army returns to fight Odoacer.
- Odoacer (Yellow) can now build Barracks and train infantry.
Scenario 5:
- Èlite Catapult Galleys and Èlite Alan Cataphracts are now available in Imperial Age.
- Fixed the bug with a useless Monument countdown triggering at the beginning of the scenario.
- Goths (Purple) can now train Knights and, on Hard, Dromons.
- Fixed the hero Calonymus of Alexandria (reskinned Vasco da Gama) missing bonus attack against buildings.
- Hippo Regius (Grey) now has slightly better units and, on Hard, can build Trebuchets.
- Added a Dromon to the player’s starting navy.
- The Harbor of Carthage has been reworked to feel a little more fancy and closer to the one in Dihya.
- The Monument you capture in Carthage (ruined Arch of Triumph) will become a Wonder without countdown that you need to defend to not lose the scenario. This is to prevent a Monument victory.
- Added a “desert” filter.
Scenario 6:
- Fixed the initial army’s selection outside Ravenna to prevent some cheesing strategies. You now need to flare the main Tent rather than simply clicking on it to pick up the units.
- Added 2 Relics on the map.
- Removed the northern Goths’ regeneration made to prevent the player from attacking them too early. Now there’s a cliff to block the path to their base that gets removed later.
- Removed the Franks’ (Cyan) and Alemans’ (Green) regeneration to prevent the player from defeating them as soon as they spawn. Now they begin as allies and you won’t be able to attack them until they both settle.
- You can now attack Teia and the northern Goths as soon as you kill Totila, but this means he can attack you earlier as well.
- Once you either defeat the Ostrogoths (Purple) or you capture Rome (Yellow), the enemy left will get Imperial Age upgrades.
- Rome will now train Legionaries, Knights and defend with some Èlite Huskarls.
- Killing enemy chiefs (Totila, Teia, Leutharis and Butilinus) won’t affect their armies anymore.
- On Hard Goths and Franks will build Dromons and Catapult Galleys.
- Fixed an issue with Alemans getting stuck in front of their camp.
- The Alemans now train infantry instead of Konniks from the Barracks.
- Some units will spread the plague of Justinian, beginning from the cannibal women in the abandoned village and the Alemans occupying it later. The plague causes a bleed damage of -30 HP per minute and is transmitted upong attacking.
- Added a foggy filter to represent the climatic changes happening during the Gothic Wars.
Scenario 7:
- Added a new mechanic involving the plague. Every now and then an epidemic will hit randomly some of your units and the ones of your enemies with a bleed damage (-30 HP per minute). The disease is transmitted upon attacking. The Mangonel-line, Trebuchets and Traction Trebs also cause bleed damage to mimic them throwing infected corpses.
- On harder difficulties you’ll lose popularity for each Villager killed by the plague, even if you delete them, as to suggest the player to play more into Byzantine Monks strategically placed to check the infection.
- Fixed once and for all the taxation system. Icons of each tax level changed and displayed in the objective panel.
- Displayed as side objectives the possibility to tribute 1000 Food or 500 Gold to the Rebels (Grey) to earn popularity among the civilians in Rome or the Eastern army respectively.
- Slavic storehouses (Orange) are marked with a legend and it’s displayed as a side objective the fact you can destroy them to loot resources immediately while renouncing to their tributes.
- There’s a little less gold in Rome but you can now trade with a Red Dock in the southern corner of the map (Naples), for wood too.
- Deleted the Lombard (Green) Sea Gates causing Transport Ships to get stuck.
- Beneventum (Cyan) now upgrade its army at the final stage of the scenario.
- Reaching 100 popularity points, both in Rome and in the East, grants two special techs instead of one.
- Avars (Purple) will train more units such as Keshiks, Cuman Chiefs and, on Hard, Traction Trebuchets.
- Added a purely cosmetic change where sometimes the map can become very dark for a few minutes as to represent the Volcanic Winter of 536 AD (known as the “late antiquity little ice age” or the worst year in history).
Scenario 8:
- Slightly reworked the initial stealth part of the scenario. Enemies will stay on defensive and not be triggered by you attacking buildings outside of Constantinople while your ships are faster and with better LOS.
- Opportunities to sneak inside Constantinople are now shown with an O on the minimap and displayed as side objectives once you discover them. Razing buildings in the outskirt for resources is also displayed.
- The possibility of bringing a second Relic to Constantinople’s Monastery is now displayed as a side objective.
- Enemy LOS of buildings and units is now reduced at dawn and not only at night.
- Fixed a bug where triggers would mess up the scenario if you enter the hippodrome of Constantinople from a tower instead of the main gate.
- Prevented some cheese strategies allowing you to collect resources before defeating Phocas.
- Avars and Slavs (Purple) will train some more units such as Keshiks, Cuman Chiefs and, on Hard, Traction Trebuchets. They will upgrade some of their other units such as Knights and siege weapons.
- You can research Legionaries in Castle Age at the cost of losing Two-Hand Swordsmen and Champions. You can’t get Imperial Centurions anymore if you save the fortress of Theodore in time but only Èlite Longbowmen and Imperial Skirmishers.
- Changed the icon of the Fire Tower upgrade.
- Changed the Western Turkish Khaganate (Green) to Cumans. They now train Kipchaks instead of Mangudai.
- Removed Citadels from the Sasanians (Yellow and Orange).
- Removed the remote and mostly useless possibility of Avars trying to “build” a Wonder by capturing the Arch of Theodosius in Constantinople.
- Cyan and Orange won’t try to attack you before you defeat Purple and Yellow.
- Jerusalem (Cyan) renamed to Aelia Capitolina.
- Removed the “desert” filter after you get in control of Constantinople.
… And I’m sure there’s more.
For the achievements now there’s a txt file inside the zip you download that you can consult to know what every achievement is about.
Achievements for Constantinople.txt (2.5 KB)
Initially this campaign was imagined for Age of Empires Rise of Rome, playing with Romans for half the scenarios and Greeks in the others.
This is Italy devastated after the Gothic Wars. Waterfalls are meant to depict the hydrogeological instability of the time and disastrous climate changes.
That is Beneventum with the Arch of Trajan. Luckily I didn’t make this in Aoe1 cause Lombards would have called for some silly civ choice.
Again Italy in ruins… The only hint that this campaign was meant for Aoe1 is that it doesn’t follow a single character but different events in a timeframe of 3 centuries.
An Eastern Roman camp, a Slavic village and the Avars.
Constantinople, 600 AD circa.
A Gokturk camp with Khazar Raiders (Kiphacks) and the Khagan Tong Yagbu.
Ctesiphon with the Fire Temple of Mazda (the Minharet). This scenario is inaccurate cause Heraclius never reached Ctesiphon but defeated the Persians at Ninive.
Also the geography is all over the place if you look at the minimap. This might be the ruins of some Hellenistic city in eastern Anatolia.
Aelia Capitolina, soon to be known as Jerusalem.
Legionary Fortress near the Cilician Gates where Theodore, Heraclius’ half brother, is besieged by the Persians.
A Sassanid and Slavic/Avar camp.
And a Sasanian Dock on the Black Sea. A player said I should put some screenshots? Well, here you have them!
To support me: