It will be cool, as a proposal, if you could maybe make an public, non-editable, Google spreadsheet, that is kept up-to-date, with all you scenarios/campaigns (with hyperlinks to the mod page location), maybe additional ones that you find them to be fine.
I’m telling this, as keeping track, checking for updates, is quite hard via the forum, and the mod manager.
Of course, depending if you have the time for this.
Many thanks also, for these awesome campaigns you keep on making, and the hard work put into them.
1 Like
That’s a great point, Taz! Unfortunately the original post in this thread is no longer editable or I would keep updating that one. The downside on a Google Doc is where would I let people know on the forums if I’ve updated it with new links? I’m not sure what the solution would be. Thanks for your idea, though.
Hello PhillySouljah,
This is an impressive list of custom campaigns. Congratulations and thank you for this epic work.
I would like to know
a) Is there anyway to know the dates/years when each campaign was set in?
b) I see that some of them have voice acting. Do voices appear when in-game text is displayed, say when a trigger is activated?
e) Does each campaign have 5 or 6 scenarios in them like the official DE campaigns?
f) Are there differences in Hard, Moderate and Standard modes?
Thanks in advance. I cant wait to play them all! Wish you the best!
1 Like
Hey guys, brand new custom scenario!
The Escape of Hernan Cortes (or available in the in-game mod manager)
Montezuma is dead and the city of Tenochtitlan has risen against you. As Hernan Cortes, lead your conquistadors out of the massive and hostile capital during La Noche Triste. When you win, choose a different conquistador to be your lieutenant and see if you can escape with more gold and fewer losses! An HD Classic reimagined for the Definitive Edition with all new gameplay!
Features:
-
Play the events of Montezuma 4 from the Spanish perspective.
-
How well you do determines Cortes’ place in history. Play multiple times to see if you can surpass Cortes himself!
-
Infinite replayability – 12 different endings and choice of 4 conquistadors to define your army’s strengths!
-
HD custom campaign classic completely reimagined for the Definitive Edition.
-
Fully voiced campaign.
8 Likes
When i played ‘La Noche Triste’ mission in the AOE 2 Montezuma campaign, i felt very disappointed.
It felt like a missed opportunity.
I had felt that mission could have been more epic. They should have shown Cortez and Spanish running away, Tenochtitlan in ruins, Montezuma dying etc.
A missed opportunity there.
And lo and behold i see you making an amazing campaign!
Thank you so much @PhillySouljah ! Looking forward to trying this out!
2 Likes
a) Is there anyway to know the dates/years when each campaign was set in?
The Last Neanderthal: 30,000 BCE
Three Kingdoms Cao Cao’s Ambition: 192 CE
Three Kingdoms II Red Cliffs: 208 CE
Three Kingdoms III: 223 CE
Vandals - Destroyers of Rome: 407 CE
A Journey to the West: 627 CE
City of Peace: 800 CE
Ragnar’s Raids: 9th century CE
Ironside: 862 CE
Finehair - The Conquest of Norway: 872 CE
Last Stand at Orkney: 875 CE
Blood for the Serpent God: 9th century CE
Khmer Kings of Old Cambodia: 9th to 12th centuries CE
Valhalla’s Edge: 10th and 11th centuries CE
Seljuk - Rise of an Empire: 10th and 11th centuries CE
Komnenos - The Byzantine Restoration: 1081 CE
Kings of West Africa: Various – from 1076 to 1492
The Anarchy of King Stephen: 1135 CE
Rise of Genghis Khan: 1178 CE
Fury - The Legend of Mstislav the Bold: 1203 CE
Rise of the Khmer: 13th century CE
The Last Romans: 1453 CE
The Escape of Hernan Cortes: 1520 CE
Wreck of the Santa Maria: 1525 CE
Francis Drake on the Spanish Main: 1573 CE
Shimazu - Daimyo of the Nine Provinces: 16th century CE
Haiku of the Ronin: Early 17th century CE
A Curious Incident at the Abbey: Fictional
b) I see that some of them have voice acting. Do voices appear when in-game text is displayed, say when a trigger is activated?
Varies – but generally, yes.
e) Does each campaign have 5 or 6 scenarios in them like the official DE campaigns?
No, the majority are single-scenario (though many are campaign-length scenarios!). The only one that is a multi-scenario campaign is Kings of West Africa which features 9 scenarios.
f) Are there differences in Hard, Moderate and Standard modes?
Yes. The difficulty you set matters to how difficult the scenarios are.
4 Likes
Thank you so much! This will get me playing from the oldest missions to newest ones. 30,000 BC to 17th century CE, the way i like it!
Hi @PhillySouljah
I just finished “Valhalla’s Edge” - my first custom campaign and i absolutely adored it.
“Vinland Saga” from the historic battles is one of my favorite campaign mission ever! The sagas report that a considerable number of Vikings were in parties that visited Vinland - which is essentially northern Newfoundland - modern Canada - centuries before Europeans arrived in the new world.
It was such a wonderful mission with fantastical elements. So beautifully recreated in AOE 2. Did you work on that one?
And i was so happy to see your custom campaign based on the same setting!!!
This was fun due to the fact that it encouraged exploring! There are some unique side quests - like finding clues about ancient human activity in Greenland or finding a path to the new world and more!
In this mission, I explored every sq inch of the map and first explored Greenland completely, got some 10 villagers and an army of Norsemen, Beserks and some Hero units. Then crossed to the new world and dealt with the local inhabitants. Setup a base in the new world and finally dealt with the Irish.
The campaign made you work with minuscule amount of resources and recreated the feeling of ever present danger. It made you feel like a small explorer in a giant cold and harsh world, which is how the vikings must have felt when they visited the new world.
I loved it! Wonderful work!
1 Like
How you make the sounds,find people to read the text,or use ai reading?
I was going to say that I recommend against playing them in historical order since there’s no real benefit in doing so – they don’t build upon one another and are very different styles. For that reason, I would instead jump around and pick and choose what looks interesting to you / what type of scenario you want to play.
For example, some are big, sweeping open-world epics that take 4+ hours to complete and introduce new game systems to RTS (e.g., Seljuk, Vandals, or Komnenos) while others are narrative puzzles where you control as little as a single unit (City of Peace, Journey to the West, or Haiku of the Ronin) – then there’s ones that are more traditional RTS but let you pick one of multiple factions for infinite replayability (the Three Kingdoms scenarios), etc.
So I would say you should pick and chose based on what descriptions sound best to you. I know I don’t label the type of gameplay in the descriptions, but I think you can generally figure what type of scenario it would be from the description + a few minutes of playing.
Look forward to hearing your thoughts on the scenarios!
1 Like
Thank you! Glad you didn’t begin with Last Neanderthal – to be honest, it’s so different from normal AoE gameplay that I thought it would not be a great introduction!
Valhalla’s Edge was my interpretation of Vinland Saga, an official scenario that I did not make – it was designed by the original Ensemble Studios team. I was also inspired by a community scenario for the original Age of Empires created by Andrea Rosa in his Viking campaign. Glad you enjoyed it and had the intended experience of being an explorer in a giant and harsh world!
As you’ll discover, I try to have my scenarios convey the right cultural/contextual feel: in Komnenos, you’re the Byzantines so you have to deal with taxes and politics; in Vandals, you’re a nomadic warlord so you move from resource to resource plundering your way through the Roman Empire, etc. Hope you continue to enjoy these scenarios!
1 Like
For some of my more recent scenarios, I have been using Google Text-to-Speech. Previously, I would do the voice acting with my voice.
Saw your comment on the Steam version of Valhalla’s Edge… did you play the HD or DE version? The DE version is improved.
1 Like
Yes i played in DE!
I could not find the DE version workshop page, so i commented in the HD Valhalla’s Edge Workshop page! I commented there as more people should know about this scenario!
Interesting. I appreciate the background and the inspiration behind this mission.
One difference in your mission was that - Iceland was inhabited by the Irish. Is there a historical basis to that?
I did read up and they do say there were some monasteries there. Also the Irish were a docile monk based culture those days. Maybe having 25 monks at the top of the cliff trying to convert you + few militias on the shore would have be a realistic challenge. Its fine as it is, just thinking of a variation!
Also in this mission, you are meant to go to the New World, after a lot of struggle, setup a colony and then come back to Iceland and defeat the Irish. I have seen one YouTuber, who defeated the Irish and then went to the new world to deal with the Skræling kings! Interesting to see an alternate approach is possible!
In Ornlu’s playthrough, he encountered lot of crazy Bears in Greenland. This time i did not find any. Only encountered some strong Wolves in the northern Island where there is lot of Gold and Stone.
Are the bears gone?
Also maybe there could be backstory to the ‘ancient human activity’, we encounter in Greenland?
Greenland did feel a little empty! I explored the entire ICE sheet and i thought we would get further answers as we explored Greenland. Who were the ancient people at Greenland and what were they doing there.
But it’s fine as it is. Just another unknown mystery, i guess!
I will update my findings on other missions too!
Thanks a lot for being so active and responding to the community!
1 Like
This is one of the coolest of your campaigns that I’ve played. My other two favorites would probably have to be A Journey To The West, and Blood For The Serpent God. The Tenochtitlan map is so well designed and it’s really fun to play. The best part for me though, was the first time I saw the night set. Although it isn’t a very hard trigger to do, it looked visually super cool, and it really help set the scene. I still managed to fail, because instead of trying properly, I spent all my gold loading up six donkeys and spent the entire day time using the four Conquistador units to practice hit and run around the city. It was such a cool scenario to play. Keep on creating!
1 Like
I just finished, Three Kingdoms - Cao Cao’s Ambition scenario and it was good fun.
I played all factions on HARD. In all the cases, the AI allowed you to boom and allowed you to mass up units and can easily take down every faction. Taking down all factions was easy except ‘Liu Biao’ with the AI Monk Spam and tough Rattan Archers.
I thought the AI would gang up on you and put you under pressure when you are booming. But there was no such challenge.
Finally i gave the ‘yellow turban’ challenge a go. The first part was awesome, where we used monks to convert enemy units and build up a ‘free’ army. Getting past the initial attacks was possible. After that we just had to use our 100 units of Kipchaks and Tarkans to take out enemy towns.
Taking down ‘Liu Biao’ with the AI Monk, Rattan Archer, Halb spam was too much. It was just impossible to take down buildings.
Fighting fully upgraded imperial age units with thrash Feudal age units with no upgrades is too much and on top of that we have no siege.
I mean 40 Kipchacks were firing a gallizion arrows and i could not one shot a Halberdier.
Not fun. Not fun!
But i guess the ‘yellow turban’ was meant to be a unique challenge. The first part was cool, the middle and end parts became just grindy and we needed to exploit the AI to win after a loooong time!
Again, kudos to Filthydelphia for creating a memorable scenario that has amazing replayability!
1 Like
Just out of interest, what is the best you have ever done on the Hernan Cortes campaign? In terms of numbers of Spaniards and Donkeys saved. Only looking for the stats on hard difficulty, because that is all I play on.
76 survivors and 13 donkeys.
I like the former version better than new version.