So, not to distract from the furious discussion around the civs, but I was wondering how the new campaigns are. Are they well designed? Are they long? Do they justify the 10 Euro price tag (I’m not convinced the 2 civs do)? Discuss.
T-west has posted the first two missions on YouTube already if you care to look at the English campaign.
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Eh, I prefer not to spoil myself by watching let’s plays like this.
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I completed the Briton campaign, it was pretty nice, and it took me a solid bunch of hours. It wasn’t too hard (like it’s supposed to be among the easiest campaigns) but the second scenario will make you happy if you want something harder.
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The storytelling is quite weak, too bloated and full of information, more accurate than the original campaigns but far less engaging. The voice actors do a decent job most of the time but its nothing special, I noticed the arab narrator even slipped into a french accent at one point… They didn’t recycle the illustrations as much in these campaigns which was an improvement.
I’ve mostly played the Norman Campaign and the story itself is quite predictable and bland , extolling tolerance and multiculturalism, it’s basically Saladin 2.0 but less impactful.
The gameplay felt better than the other DLC campaigns I’ve played. The length is standard, five missions on the Norman Campaign. I’d say if you enjoyed the other DLCs you’ll probably enjoy this one, if you’re like me and really only enjoy the original AoK ones you will probably be a little disappointed.
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Do the Burgundians share the Franks’ voice set or have a new one? Do the Sicilians share the Italians’ voice set or have a new Sicilian one?
Burgundians has new voice lines. They speak somekind of old flemish or belgian ? Sicilians has also new voice lines the southern Italian.
Burgundians voice lines are bad IMO, I mean they sounds really bad. While Sicilians militiary are real chads “SI SENIORE” 11
About campaigns. Already did English and 3 scenarios of Burgundian and I must they were really fun for me.
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Oh wow, the Burgundians really should not be speaking Flemish or Dutch. Belgian would be French (there is no Belgian language). I mean really they could just share the Franks’ voice set.
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Yeah, sorry. My bad. I meant Dutch - for me they sound like Dutch from AoE III. I clearly can hear “Ja” or “Klaar”.
Well, I founded this on AoE II wiki:
“The Burgundian units speak their namesake (Burgundian : Bregognon ). It’s an Oïl language spoken in Burgundy and particularly in the Morvan area of the region.”
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There is no one Belgian language, so the proper Belgian language is a minority language?
On a more serious note, the Burgundian dialect/language the units speak sounds pretty French overall. Clicking on a villager gives some variation of “bonjour” for instance. I hadn’t listened well enough to spot any Dutch/Germanic words, but Fenomeno said so, so they seem to have snuck some of those in where appropriate too.
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No, I wasn’t right. I properly played with Burgundians and I think I heard soldiers responses wrong. You are right, they sounds very smilliar to French, as you pointed out - villagers are saying “bonjour”.
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I mean the Burgundian “Kingdom” was largely impactful because of the Dutch lowlands, which was its economic heartland, and that seems to be the burgundy the game is trying to portray. In fact the dissolution of the burgundian “kingdom” between france and austria (later inherited by spain) formed a major foundation for the dutch revolt and some historians argue was the basis of the Belgian state.
I played Edward Longshanks and Grand Dukes of the West. I think the campaigns are very good, story-wise, voiceover, gameplay are all excellent. Had a lot of fun. It’s awesome the Burgundian rules got a campaign, because this story is really amazing. And it’s fun to kill William Wallace and Joan of Arc of course!
However, I do feel that, after 145 campaign scenarios, it seems to become more and more difficult to do something really innovating. The typical campaign structure: four scenarios where you boom and destroy the enemy, one where you don’t have Villagers and have to survive with your initial army. Usually with a neutral player joining your side for a tribute etc. I do miss the more exceptional, memorable scenarios, like the tournament in El Cid 1, the deathmatch in Attila 5 or the fortress defence in Le Loi 2. In that sense I really liked the Ivaylo campaign, which was very unique and refreshing.
For example, the assassination of John the Fearless on the Montereau bridge would be a perfect way to start or end a scenario, but now, it’s just a small mention in the outro. If you build a Cathedral in Cambrai, why not let Cambrésis send an army of monks to the enemy? Et cetera.
I still think the two campaigns are excellent though, and definitely above average. And of course, some scenarios are also quite refreshing, for example “A Man of God” in the Edward Longshanks campaign.
Yes, normally all Burgundian possessions should have gone to the Habsburgs (“Spanish”). But the French managed to annex the duchy of Burgundy and Franche-Comté. So only the Low Countries remained in Habsburg hands. Since they were a unity (to some extent), this would lay the foundation for the Low Countries (= the Netherlands) as an entity separate from France, and while the Netherlands were technically part of the Holy Roman Empire it was mostly separate from it in practice. The Netherlands separated in the 1568-1648 war, the Southern Netherlands remained under Spanish rule, the Northern Netherlands became independent. Southern Netherlands are roughly equivalent to modern-day Belgium and Luxembourg, Northern Netherlands are now known as Netherlands in English. (They did reunite in 1815 but they were separated again in 1830, mostly due to the French.)
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Something that came to mind.
Burgundians are replacing the franks in teutons scenario what would happen if the next dlc has poland as a civi? There could be multiple versions of the same campaign.
The original one for DE without dlc civis. franks replaced with burgundians for people with dlc 1.
Franks and slaves both replaced for people with both dlcs.
Only slaves replaced for people with dlc 2.
Does this make any sense from a technical point?
You can still play against civs you do not own, even in the campaigns, the game has all the necessary data files.
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So even if I dont own the DLC the scenario burgundians will change to dlc burgundians?
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Yes.
That is exactly how it works. Your game has the Burgundians, and even the new Campaigns, it just misses the files to make them playable as a human player.
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No it’s just Burgundian dialect. More French-ish than anything.
You really ought to try out the Sicilians campaign then which was designed by the same designer who made Ivaylo 
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