Filthydelphia's Campaign Collection

[PhillySouljah]

Hey guys, wanted to make a place to discuss my custom campaigns and answer any questions you have. The last thread only showcased a fraction of my scenarios so it’s time to make a new one.

You can check out each of my custom scenarios organized by genre in the links below or by searching for “PhillySouljah” via the in-game mod manager/website mod page.

Hope you enjoy them!

Epics: Massive maps with hours of gameplay and innovative game mechanics

Finehair - The Conquest of Norway
A woman’s challenge unites a kingdom. Harald was petty king of a small fjord in southeastern Norway. When his marriage proposal to the princess Gyda was scornfully rejected, he vowed to conquer all of Norway to prove his worth…

Komnenos - The Byzantine Restoration
The Roman Empire is collapsing, plagued by internal power struggles, rebellions, and foreign invasions. As Alexios Komnenos, seize the throne from a failed emperor, fight the Turks and Normans to expand your realm, and fend off pretenders and rebels with their own aspirations for your crown.

Vandals - Destroyers of Rome
As the Vandal King Gunderic, lead your tribe on a great raiding migration through the Roman Empire to find a new homeland for your people and make the name Vandal remembered throughout all of history.

Ragnar’s Raids
As legendary Viking king Ragnar Lodbrok, raid England, plunder Francia, and defeat rival jarls to become a legend of the sagas! Play an epic custom scenario based on history, the Norse sagas, and the History Channel’s Vikings series. Rise from a petty thegn through raids and plunder to become King of the North and master of the Great Heathen Army. Ragnar, your warbands await your command!

Rise of Genghis Khan
Ride with Temujin as he defeats his rivals, unites the warring tribes, and begins his path of world conquest!

Valhalla’s Edge
To the Edge of Valhalla! Survive the frozen north and discover a new land in Valhalla’s Edge!

Seljuk - Rise of an Empire
Witness the birth of the Turkish Empire! From humble nomadic beginnings, Seljuk and his descendents conquered Persia and brought the Roman Emperors to their knees! Play as the Turkish heroes Seljuk, Tughril, Alp Arslan, and Malik-Shah as you retrace their conquests and fulfill their grandest ambitions.

Defense: Defend as long as you can against enemy hordes

The Last Romans
Constantinople, 1453 A.D. Witness the ultimate battle between East and West as you defend the last bastion of the Roman Empire against impossible odds.

Last Stand at Orkney
In the 9th century, Norse raiders landed on the wind-swept shores of the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland. The fishermen and monks of the isles valiantly defended their homeland against the fearsome invaders. This is the story of their last stand.

Wreck of the Santa Maria
Shipwrecked on a distant island, a small band of sailors must fight to survive!

Classics: Traditional scenarios in unique settings

Three Kingdoms - Cao Cao’s Ambition
Dong Zhuo’s death at Lu Bu’s hand has thrown China into chaos. Six warlords fight for dominance. Which one will prevail?

Kings of West Africa
Play nine scenarios from a Battles campaign originally conceived for 2015’s Age of Empires II HD: The African Kingdoms and updated for the Definitive Edition.

Francis Drake on the Spanish Main
Raid the Spanish Main as the renowned English explorer and pirate Francis Drake. Capture galleons, raid Caribbean islands, and fill your ship’s hold with Spanish gold!

Blood for the Serpent God
The gods demand sacrifice! As the Maya Hero Twins, capture enemy warriors to satisfy the ravenous hunger of the gods in the early days of the Mayan civilization.

Khmer Kings of Old Cambodia
Witness the rise of the Khmer Empire as you battle the Chen’la, Champa, Tai, and other peoples to rule the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap Lake. Be crowned the god-king of the Khmer and build wonders that will stand the test of time.

Narrative Adventures/Puzzles: Scenarios that tell a story and challenge your thinking

City of Peace
A young woman has been murdered in Madinat al-Salaam (the City of Peace). As Harun ar-Rashid’s vizier, Jafar ibn Yahya, find her murderer in an immersive journey to the Islamic Golden Age on the verge of turmoil.

Haiku of the Ronin
Is your tongue sharper than your katana? Disgrace is a kimono unstained with blood. Disgrace is a dry tanto blade. Disgrace is a ronin. Journey with a masterless samurai as he seeks a daimyo during the height of Edo Japan. Discover kireji to write seven haiku. These seven poems will tell the Ronin’s story.

The Last Neanderthal
Europe 30,000 BC A frozen world. A dying people. Deadly invaders. Play as Ee, a Neanderthal hunter in a dangerous and changing world.

A Journey to the West
Join Monkey, Pigsy, Sandy, and a reluctant, pacifist monk on a journey to the edges of the known world in this re-telling of the classic Chinese legend.

How to Subscribe / Play

Subscribing and playing custom campaigns is easy. Either subscribe via the in-game mod manager or at www.ageofempires.com.

Via In-Game Mod Manager
Select “Mods” from the in-game Main Menu and select “Browse Mods” to search for campaigns. Select the file you would like to download and hit “Subscribe”. Your game will download the campaign file.

Via Age of Empires Website
Go to www.ageofempires.com and select “Campaign” from the drop-down.
Select the campaign file you would like to download and hit “Subscribe”. Your game will automatically download the campaign file. This may take a few minutes. For best results, restart the game once the download is completed – this will ensure all sound files are properly installed.

How to Play
Select “Singe Player” from the main menu. Then select “Campaigns” as if you were going to play one of the official campaigns (Joan of Arc, etc.). Select the button labelled “Custom Campaigns”.

About the Author

Filthydelphia (xbox: PhillySouljah) is the award-winning designer of historical custom campaigns and official content for the Age of Empires franchise. Formerly part of the Forgotten Empires campaign team, his works include the Portuguese, Burmese, Bulgarian, Italian, Indian, and Sicilian campaigns featured in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition as well as several campaigns in Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. He also worked on Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition. Outside of Age of Empires, he is a captain in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and has an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. After leaving Forgotten Empires, he accepted a position with a major video game publisher.

Official Credits:
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
Francisco de Almeida
Bayinnaung
Ivaylo
Francesco Sforza
Prithviraj
The Hautevilles
Art of War (Booming)

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition
Yamato, Empire of the Rising Sun
Reign of the Hittites
First Punic War
Rise of Rome
Enemies of Rome
Glory of Greece (scenarios 5, 7, 8)

Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition
Raid on the Caribbean (with other designers)
Christopher da Gama’s Expedition (with other designers)

[Scintilus]

First of all, a huge thank you for all these wonderful quality campaigns. I hope there will be more campaigns to come. I also played some of your scenarios in AoE DE as well.

I have a several questions for you Philly,

1. What are your plans after the Last Neanderthal, more campaigns or perhaps go to creating some custom campaigns in AoE 3 DE too if you play that?

2. Which is the hardest campaign/scenario did you develop among the currently available ones?

3. Which is your favorite to play among your campaign collection?

4. How do you find the time to create the campaigns besides your daily work and life?

5. What is your favorite civ?

6. Are you excited for the Lords of the West DLC? Speaking of the two new civs, are you part of their campaign designs?

7. What are you hopes and expectation for AoE 2 DE’s future? More civs? More campaigns? More Modding support?

8. Lastly what are your plans this 2021?

This might sound like AMA but yea a huge fan of your campaigns. Thank you once again and wishing you prosperity.

[PhillySouljah]

Thanks for your support, Soldeo! I don’t mind answering some questions!

What are your plans after the Last Neanderthal, more campaigns or perhaps go to creating some custom campaigns in AoE 3 DE too if you play that?

Who knows?

To be honest, I may take a bit of a break. I do have a backlog of other games I’d like to play and should also focus on other parts of my pretty busy life.

Which is the hardest campaign/scenario did you develop among the currently available ones?

I’m told all the time that Bayinnaung 5, Ivaylo 3, and Raid on Babylon (from Age of Empires: Definitive Edition) are extremely hard scenarios, but there’s definitely ways to win them – once you figure it out, I’m sure most people can beat them consistently.

To be honest, though, I’ve never been a big proponent of making scenarios really hard, especially since many of my custom scenarios are on the longer side and it would really suck to invest 2-4 hours in playing a scenario only to lose! For that reason, I like to make them relatively manageable and focus on giving the player an experience of getting stronger over the course of the scenario.

Which is your favorite to play among your campaign collection?

Valhalla’s Edge. I think Age of Empires is at its best with small economies, small numbers of units, and a strong sense of exploration and danger – where great rewards or dangers could lie through the next patch of black and every life feels significant. I know Valhalla’s Edge is not my most popular scenario but it gives me what I come to Age of Empires for. It’s probably the only scenario I’ve made that I go back to and play for fun. Somehow, it feels fresh and different every time I play it.

How do you find the time to create the campaigns besides your daily work and life?

Really good organization/scheduling and the support of my loving wife!

What is your favorite civ?

I don’t really have a favorite civ, but I’ll say the Sicilians since they are really cool/different and I played a role in their design.

Are you excited for the Lords of the West DLC? Speaking of the two new civs, are you part of their campaign designs?

I made The Hautevilles, the Sicilians campaign.

What are you hopes and expectation for AoE 2 DE’s future? More civs? More campaigns? More Modding support?

I am excited about the future of Age of Empires II: DE! I think the franchise is in fantastic hands with Forgotten Empires and World’s Edge and whatever the future holds, I think the franchise will be better for it and fans will continue to love this game! It was bittersweet to leave the team during such a promising time!

Lastly what are your plans this 2021?

I want to focus on my new job and continuing to help make great games!

[Darkness01101]

Ooh, I hadn’t heard of The Last Neanderthal before. Intriguing!
Thanks for sharing your creations, and nice to read the impromptu Q&A

[cly0806]

Hi,phillysouljah，greeting!hopIng you to remake more campaign on the hd version,and I want to ask you who make the briton campaign? basse? or others?
We hope another new dlc in central Asia and southern Asia,please arrange it in the nearly future,
best wishes and be holy fans of you forever.

[Scintilus]

Thank you for the great answers Philly. I can’t wait to play as Sicilians and the new campaigns this coming Jan 26. All the best to your endeavors.

[PeakHornet46539]

Could we see more screenshots from the Hauteville campaign?

[PhillySouljah]

Thanks, cly0806. The Britons’ Edward Longshanks campaign was designed by HockeySam18, who also created the Tamerlane, Tariq, and Suryavarman campaigns as well as all but the 3rd scenario from Dracula and Battles scenarios such as York and Kurikara.

[cly0806]

We hope the children of dying sun or any other scenarioes in the hd version can play no bugs in DE,and hope the second dlc of asia topic ,maybe next year or this year sometimes?Hope to see it.

[mentalkud13]

Even though it’s been dated by civ choices (since it came out before Rise of Rajas), I’d really love to see “Rise of the Khmer” in DE. It was such a cool scenario, and though I’ve liked “Khmer: Kings of Old Cambodia”, “Rise of the Khmer” still feels special to me, and It’d be awesome if more people got to play this piece of HD modding history.

Looking forward to the Sicilian campaign as well!

[Darkness01101]

I had subscribed to The Last Neanderthal via the website as instructed here the other day; but when I checked the game tonight, it didn’t show up in my Mods list?

I had to manually search for it and subscribe to it via the in-game Mod Manager:

Just wanted to mention. I don’t know if that’s an AoE2:DE bug or not

[HestiaAoE]

@PhillySouljah

I made The Hautevilles, the Sicilians campaign.

Hi @PhillySouljah, in Mission 2 of The Hautevilles, the Emirs would aggressively fight you in the front line instead of staying in their base, making the mission a bit trivial. Is this intended?

[PhillySouljah]

Yes, but they only start leading their attacks many minutes into the scenario – providing an opportunity for slower-building or less aggressive players to kill them. When they get wounded, however, they attempt to retreat back to their castle, though you can prevent that by surrounding them or cutting off their escape route. I thought it provided more dynamic feeling gameplay than if the hero units stood frozen under their Castles like in some other scenarios.

[HestiaAoE]

Thanks! This is a good design! And me a slow builder confirmed

I also really love that heroes don’t need to survive and get stronger after fights. It rewards good micro and avoids the boring strategy of hiding your hero in a castle like before. I wonder though how do you count the experience gained for heroes. How many hits they landed?

[cly0806]

Hi phillysouljah,greeting,how can gpv be serperated into aoe2scenarioes?Or the official locked it to prevent the players from looking on it?How can custom campaign I made save it as aoe2campaign.gpv?Looking forward to your reply.

[PhillySouljah]

Disappointed I cannot edit the original post because I want to advertise a brand new scenario!

Three Kingdoms II: Red Cliffs
Download here or via the in-game mod manager

Cao Cao has defeated his rivals in Northern China. He now turns south to Jiangdong to finally fulfill his ambition of unifying China under his rule. But many oppose him. Who will prevail?

Features:

• The stunning sequel to Three Kingdoms: Cao Cao’s Ambition

• Choose from one of eight factions from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms

• Play as the warlords Cao Cao, Liu Bei, or Sun Quan, the governors Liu Biao, Shi Xie, or Liu Zhang, the bandit Yan Baihu, or the barbarian lord Meng Huo

• Each faction has unique bonuses, units, and objectives

• Battle over a massive 350x350 map of China to defeat your rivals

[cly0806]

Hi philly,I think the three kingdoms 3 is a good chance to make a difference,maybe Zhugeliang six far expedition in Qishan is good.

[PhillySouljah]

Made a ton of updates based on great player feedback! These patch notes show just how big Three Kingdoms II: Red Cliffs is and how valuable feedback from players is to making these scenarios better!

• Cao Cao’s Unique Unit changed from Keshiks to Cataphracts
• Liu Bei’s unique bonus (formerly Tower Shields) replaced by triggered +2/+2 Melee/Pierce Armor to Spearman and Skirmishers
• Liu Bei begins with +300 Wood and +100 Stone to compensate for starting without a Town Center
• Liu Biao’s victory condition is now more difficult to achieve (Wonder 3x cost and takes 50% longer to build)
• Added Shi Xie victory condition to defeat at least 2 other warlords
• Yan Baihu now receives additional Gold for killing enemy units
• Yan Baihu now is allied with the Barbarians but does not share vision with them
• Yan Baihu now begins with a Siege Workshop
• Yan Baihu can now capture a Siege Workship on Liuqiu Island
• AI Warlord heroes (Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan) will be less likely to die on suicide raids
• AI Warlord Heroes now receive upgrades with each Age as the Player does
• Certain secondary heroes are now stronger at start
• AI secondary heroes will now be transported to their base when play begins (this reduces their chances of dying prematurely)
• Guan Yu melee attack increased
• Guan Yu and Zhang Fei level up slightly more quickly
• Fixed Zhao Yun’s message icon (previously matched Liu Zhang’s)
• When playing as Meng Huo, civilization name appears as Nanman instead of Chinese
• Barbarians civilization name appears as Nanman instead of Chinese
• Fixed bug where selecting a faction would reveal the locations of all Bandits
• Fixed bug as Yan Baihu that would cause the player to be unable to train Tarkans
• Fixed bug where player could not train Battle Elephants as Meng Huo
• Meng Huo now has access to Elite Battle Elephants in Imperial Age
• Notification that Liu Zhang has achieved his ambition will no longer appear if he is defeated
• Fixed Shi Xie’s castle-building objective to accurately count the number of castles

[Redstar819]

I need serious help with your Kingdoms of West Africa campaign, the first scenario…

But first, thanks for all your work! I’ve been enjoying your scenarios since before DE came out, they are a big part of what keeps me coming back to AoE2.

Now with that said, I just started your Kingdoms of West Africa campaign and I think there’s either something broken, or something I missed. The scenario is just impossible. I’ve never really had any major problems with your campaigns before, and always completed them on Hard, with maybe 1-2 retries at most. But this Almoravid scenario is just incredibly frustrating, like, uncharacteristically so for one of your scenarios. And I’ve never even made it to the third spawn of villagers. It’s reached a point where I don’t want to subject myself to try it again, for now… do you have any guidance for how we’re supposed to complete that scenario?

[PhillySouljah]

You might want to play on a lower difficulty. The scenario challenged Ornlu but he was able to successfully complete it on Hard after a few attempts – you might want to see his video to see how he pulled it off. It really is a scenario where you need to try it a few times to get everything perfect (fortunately, it’s a short scenario). If you ever lose a Villager, you’re very likely not going to win it. Therefore, at a minimum, you must keep your Villagers alive during their trek east by escorting them and drawing the enemy Light Cavalry and Camel Riders away from the Villagers. Also you want to make sure you win every defensive engagement in the city so don’t let the enemy siege wear you down – if the enemy is only able to use Camel Archers and Genitours against your walls, you have bought yourself much needed time. One more thing: since you have finite resources, there’s little point in preserving them. Spend everything you can on the upgrades and units that will have the biggest effect right away – whether you go for spearmen or camels, or whether you train crossbows to have more garrisoned in your towers, there’s different approaches you can take. But you need to get us much combat power in the field as quickly as possible – a silly but illustrative example: 10 crossbowmen at once is always better than 5 groups of 2 crossbowmen being trained over several minutes. What you should make sure you do, however, is research all the tower/wall upgrades since they will buy you time keeping the enemy units outside of the city.

That’s the best advice I can give without knowing where exactly you are struggling. Hope that helps.