Hello everyone. I decided to write down my detailled thoughts about the new campaigns, in case anyone wants to discuss, share their own experiences, needs help with a mission or would like to know more about them to see if they want to buy/play them. I’ll first comment on each individual mission and give some general thoughts at the end, in comparison to other recent DLCs. Gameplay was done on legendary difficulty, making use of the pause buttons to slow things down at times.
Campaign 1, The Exiled Prince (Varangians)
1.1 Blood Under a Blackened Sky: Our introduction to Harald’s situation and subsequent exile. We play as the Vikings instead of the Variangians, which makes sense for the story. A relatively short and easy scenario, with limited options for the player, but it looks nice and introduces the treasure system.
1.2 In the Land of the Rus’: Now we play as the Varangians, in quite a big castle age build and destroy mission. There are constant attacks from all sides, and you also have to focus on your offense, so this is a bit of a jump in difficulty from the very easy introductory mission. The jarls are especially useful here as they can not only take down infantry, but also rams and ships, which makes this a good scenario to introduce the new civ.
1.3 Fires of the Whale-Road: Our first imperial age mission, very much a hybrid land and water map. A bit easier compared to mission 2, as our full tech tree allows us to unleash quite a lot of power amongst our units. Decent mission, some of the dialogue stands out.
1.4 Deaths’s Handmaid: Once again we’re conquering Sicily in an AoE2 campaign - definitely not the first time, though at least we’re not fighting byzantines this time around. This one is fairly straightforward, with some slight added time pressure via an enemy wonder. Of note, the treasure in this mission is something you might have to go out of your way to obtain, whereas the previous ones have all been ones you’d be likely to encounter at some point (though mission 2 might be a slight exception). In terms of difficulty, it’s similiar to the last one, and a bit easier than mission 2. The achievement is very easy to get.
1.5 The Bulgar-Burner: Our biggest macro mission so far, starting in imperial age with 200 population finally unlocked. Pretty much entirely land-based this time around, with a (managable, but not forgiving) timer on two side objectives. Actually, I found this one not to be too difficult all in all, and not super engaging gameplay wise - pretty standard build and destroy, the side objectives really only direct where you should strike first. The treasure once again was fairly well hidden, so it seems like this will become the norm in the future.
1.6 The Warrior Who Fed the Wolves: The Varangian Finale. This is a sprawling no-build mission across the city of Constaninople, which is a bit unusual for a finale. It’s also surprisingly easy, even on legendary, if you take the time to explore and gather all the troops and upgrades. Not sure how to feel about this, I think it would’ve served better gameplay wise earlier on in the campaign, but it does make sense for the story.
All in all, this campaign turned out to be very classic and maybe even a bit too simple, though it is rated with one sword so that’s not that unexpected. Aside from the somewhat chaotic mission 2, the difficulty was quite easy for legendary, more comparable to the Three Kingdom campaigns then Chronicles: Alexander or some of the tougher Last Chieftains missions. I did like that we got to see quite a bit of different settings and a lot of civ variety, which made me explore and use almost the entirety of the Varangian tech tree. We also get some quite memorable characters and storytelling here, and despite some of the relatively simplistic mission design, I’m rating this one an A-, as it reflects is one sword rating very well and serves as a great introduction to the story and character of Harald.
Campaign 2, The Hard Ruler (Danes/Vikings)
2.1 Kings and Cowards: Our first scenario as the Danes, and its a step up in difficulty compared to most of the Varangian missions. Once again a big macro/hybrid mission where you can decide how to put your gold to use, the treasure is again a bit harder to access. A fine introduction, though one that doesn’t incentivize you to go for the intended Dane playstyle with heavy raiding and such.
2.2 Through the Slaughter-Reeds: Already up to imperial age, and we have to deal with attacks on all fronts. The initial navy push of our foe lost me Magnus’ western docks, but after that, I was in imperial age and strong enough to stabilize, making this the first mission I had to re-play to get the achievement. However, once stabilized, this mission turned out to be a bit too simple - there is no significant lategame pressure on us, all we have to do is a lengthy clear-up. Not my favorite, to be honest.
2.3 The Wayward Men of Norway: This mission is very similiar to the Otto Victors & Vanquished scenario, though you get different tools to manipulate loyalty, mostly involving religion. Here, the achievement is easy/ideal to get again, and if you’re active on the map, this should be not too difficult, as you end up having only one real active opponent.
2.4 Blades Dyed Crimson: This is the second big fixed force mission, and a lot tougher than the Varangian finale - here, I lost almost my entire army to secure the first objective, and had to be very careful and slow with any further progress, making use of my heroes - it turned out to be not ideal that I pretty much chose eco/army upgrades instead of hero upgrades through legendary treasures when given the choice. Still, not impossible with a bit of micro, pulling enemies towards you etc. Knowing the map and better routing would’ve also made this a lot easier, in hindsight.
2.5 The Battle of Nisa: The finale for the Danes - well, not quite. We’re playing as the Vikings here (as we did in mission 4, but that didn’t matter too much since it was fixed-force). A big imperial 200 pop macro mission on land and sea, surrounded by many enemies on a relatively small map - however, as the hints say, if you’re aggressive and start attacking right away, not actually all that tough - the previous one was a lot harder for me. The AI is, as usual, just not very good with ships.
I think this campaign is a bit weaker compared to the Varangian one - we get less civ variety, less memorable characters, still nothing really new in terms of mission design, and I also feel like the Danes just don’t play as well as the Varangians, at least not in a campaign like this one - also, the fact that we’re not even playing them in the finale is a bit strange. Notably, we do have a step up in difficulty compared to the one sword Varangian campaign, so the two swords feel earned here. A B-Tier campaign for me.
Campaign 3, The Last Viking (Vikings/Saxons)
3.1 Westward, the Carrion’s Call: This is our first, and, as it turns out, only Saxon mission, and what a mission it is. Definitely the toughest mission in the DLC so far, and the first one I had to restart because I straight up lost, as I was not adequately prepared to keep my ally alive through Godwin’s gigantic attack waves - the second time around, I made sure to build up walls, castles and production on their flank as well. BTW, the attacks seem to trigger when the sixth storehouse is destroyed, so if you can delay that at all, that is propably a very good idea. Both times, I still had to take down one of the enemies on the side while the attacks already started. Difficult mission, and if one would not play these campaigns in order, this would be an overwhelming introduction, unlike what we got with the other two campaigns. Also, knowing what I know about Tostig, he is characterized quite well (a complete and utter imbecile).
3.2 The Storm-Driver of the North: We’re back to controlling the Vikings, and this is the first mission with significant time pressure. 16 minutes to complete 4 sidequests across the map with not much of a starting army or eco? Well, I was able to get two of them done, and getting the second one (I went for the eastern and southern ones) required me to reload to an earlier save to get fervor on my monk to deliver the relic in time - it was a matter of seconds. Not sure if doing 3 or all 4 of these is even possible on legendary - luckily, the remaining two potential allies were easy to take out with trebs and mostly archers, and with that, the wonder was building slowly enough that I could take my time and systematically clear out yellow and get the treasure. The wonder didn’t even end up finishing the build-up, so I am not sure how long the timer would’ve been. Still not a mission I would call easy, as I can imagine that it would be a lot harder if I wouldn’t have been able to secure a second ally - getting attacked from multiple sides could be quite dangerous with basically no time to both boom and build significant defenses, and with my choices, I was only getting attacked from the west, which made defense fairly straightforward.
3.3 Fulford Gate: We’re faced with huge waves of charging enemies before going on the offensive ourselves here, once again as the vikings. Had I known the extend of early attacks I would face, and their routing,
this would’ve been a lot easier - instead, the big yellow wave hitting us resulted in a relatively close call with me forcing two additional castles up and massive villager losses, but I managed to stabilize. After that, it was a relatively straightforward mission, generally a bit tougher compared to macro missions in the first two campaigns as enemy waves are to be taken seriously here, but with a strong enough eco, not too much trouble. We did get the achievement - and its a very simple one that most people who beat the mission will get, because if you fail the condition to get it, you’re propably going to lose anyway.
3.4 The Battle of Stamford Bridge: An interesting finale, and the first mission in these campaigns that I thought truly brought something new to the table, as the system incentivizes you to stay low eco and command a huge military without actually hard-limiting your eco completely - we start with low population and subsequently get bigger forces, more pop limit and more options. The timing for sidequests and the initial forager defense is pretty rough, but doable - I did lose 2 foragers from a later attack I didn’t see coming, but was still fine - castles garrisoned with arbalests are simply very strong against the AI. Fun little touch with us having to kill exactly 1066 units at the end there. Also, another Vikings mission, so this is more of a Vikings campaign instead of a Saxons campaign, which means we have yet another added civ that doesn’t really get a full campaign to enjoy.
This campaign is a bit short with only 4 missions, and I am not the biggest fan of only getting to play the Saxons once, though it does make sense for the story (mabye there could’ve been a mission from Godwin’s perspective here?). It is another clear step up in difficulty and earns its three sword label, and with the challenges does come a bit more interesting gameplay for me. I like it slightly more than the second campaign and would give it a B+ rating, not taking into account the lack of Saxon gameplay.
General thoughts:
In terms of presentation, it seems like we’re sticking to the classic style of campaign narration instead of the more involved Chronicles style, even though some writing decisions and the idea of focusing everything on a single protagonist might be Chronicles-inspired. I think Chronicles is still superior here, but it is at least very notable that the voice actor for Harald is very good and certainly superior to a vast number of previous narrators in terms of conveying emotions, and the writing makes use of quite a few saga-like idioms, which is nice to see and adds a bit too the immersion, though at times it might be a bit long-winded. Also, bring back the classic campaign selection mode! I don’t like the black screen and loading time, even though its very short - the previous system just felt very crisp and snappy.
One thing we can definitely see accurately this time around are the sword difficulty ratings, there is a clear progression from 1 → 2 → 3 in terms of difficulty. The opening of the Saxon campaign is especially tough compared to everything that came before. I think this is a pretty notable success of the DLC, as the usefulness of that system has often been murky in the past.
I do like the treasures system as an incentive to explore, even though the choices are not very impactful (which I am fine with); I do not like it in missions with some kind of time pressure, though, as it can make things a bit frantic when trying to find the treasure. Luckily, none of the time pressure mission had that rough of a limit, but I can see some players not liking it in that context.
The achievements sadly don’t feel very interesting or challenging this time around - nothing to chase here, mostly it comes down to “do the sidequests” or “play the map well”, the only mission I specifically had to re-play for the achievement was “Through the Slaughter-Reeds”, and it’s not like that achievement is all that interesting.
I didn’t encounter any notable bugs, except for a display bug in the decisions tab in the third campaign, which I have already reported.
All in all, I think the campaign quality for this DLC is quite good, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys campaign gameplay, especially if you like the norse and their sagas. Not quite Chronicles level, but a slight improvement compared to The Last Chieftains, which I already liked a lot - fewer grindy missions, which is appreciated, a bit more balanced in terms of difficulty, improvements in presentation, though some of the mission design in TLC had more interesting and innovative approaches (I know the devs got some imo overblown criticism for the TLC mission design, but I do like them trying new things and taking chances - I know it’s a different team, but Chronicles: Alexander had some really exciting and successful new mission design ideas). This one feels like more like a return to older styles of gameplay, which was propably done on purpose, as it also features the return to an already familiar setting.
Feel free to tell me where you agree or disagree, if you’ve had a similiar or entirely different experience, or if you need any hints or help in regards to one of the missions.