Hey everyone, I just released a brand new campaign! Coincidentally fitting in with the theme of the official expansion that was just announced, this campaign centers around the Kingdom of Croatia during the tenth century. Hope you enjoy it!
From the ruins of Charlemagneās Holy Roman Empire arises the dukedom of Croatia. Led by their brilliant and charismatic ruler Tomislav, the Croats quickly grow from a disorganized collection of primitive tribes into one of the mightiest empires of Southern Europe. But with the ferocious Magyars encroaching from the north and the ambitious Tsar of Bulgaria Simeon campaigning from the east, will the soon-to-be-kingdom resist its larger neighbors or quickly recede back into obscurity?
Hey Jacqueline,
I played the first two missions of your campaign and I think it was quite enjoyable. Was this your first project?
The voice acting was a nice addition btw!
Yes, while Iāve fiddled around with the scenario editor since I was a kid, this is the first serious campaign Iāve ever completed and released. The release of Definitive Edition and especially The Last Khans campaigns awoke something inside of me, and especially when it initially looked like there werenāt going to be any new official campaigns or civilizations, I was determined to make a project that felt as much like a continuation as possible.
I had somehow stumbled upon a summary about the Battle of the Bosnian Highlands in 926, where the Croats defeated the First Bulgarian Empire at the height of their power, and wanted to build a campaign mission out of it; as I learned more about Tomislav and the pre-Hungarian Croatian Kingdom, I decided to go all the way and design a full campaign. It started off very casually, but as I kept spending more time on it, I kept adding new details - the rest of the voice acting besides my own was only added during the last month of production, for example.
Iām so delighted that youāve enjoyed the campaign so far! I should add that your own campaigns in particular were an enormous inspiration to my own; I was blown away by your gorgeous map design, and your design skills really added a lot of personality to your work. You made South America look absolutely incredible in the Pachacuti campaign, and I love the way you worked in unique gameplay mechanics while still feeling like Age of Empires II, like in āWar of Brothersā. I love that you gave distinct unit identities to the enemy factions despite the base civilizations being 100% Incas, as I did similar things to distinguish the different Slavic factions in Tomislav, as well as add more diversity to the Magyars in the first couple of missions.
I definitely plan on designing more campaigns and battles in the future - my next big project that Iāve started is a Slavs campaign based around Igor Svyatoslavich, the inspiration for the Prince Igor opera that produced āPolovstian Dancesā. Itās built around the conflict between the Russians and Cumans referenced in the Kotyan campaign, except from an opposite perspective. Itās going to be very different stylistically from the Tomislav campaign, but I plan on improving it based on whatever fares best with my first release.
Okay! Iāve made my first real update to the campaign based on feedback, mostly for the fourth mission. Itās just a few things, but I think they will help out a lot.
Changed the 50 Swordsmen + Cavalry goal in āThe Dark Horseā to 40 Swordsmen + Cavalry.
Clarified the goals and precautions in āVoyage to Apuliaā.
Removed several of Greenās towers in āVoyage to Apuliaā.
Upon triggering the Saracens to attack Siponto in āVoyage to Apuliaā, Grey will no longer change diplomatic stance with Purple to enemy; instead, Green will change diplomatic stance with Purple to enemy and send all of their land units in Italy towards the city.
I have not yet played through your campaign but loading it up and checking out the first mission, it looks very promising! Awesome job! I look forward to playing through it and seeing what you design next! Great also to see a history thatās not very well-known outside of Croatia get the attention it deserves!
By the way, one thing I noticed on the description page for the campaign: the link to your Croatian civ mod does not work ā it does not link to your mod page but to an error page. Probably an easy fix that will help players find the civ mod.
Thanks a lot! One of the major things I love about Age of Empires II is how it teaches me about medieval leaders I would have never known in the first place but does a great job of captivating me towards their history. I never knew who Ivaylo was before The Last Khans for example, but your campaign shed light on a story I found super intriguing. Doing the research for this campaign was a major part of what I enjoyed about it.
Thanks, by the way, for pointing out the broken link. For some reason, my computer kept auto-correcting the link by deleting ādetails/ā in the embedded code, so I had to repeatedly tinker with it until it finally worked. It should be more convenient to download both parts now!
I just started and this looks really promising so far, but I seem to have run into a bug. It seems like the triggers for fulfilling objectives arenāt working. For example, I brought all the hostages back to the eastern village, and made them walk all across the village with Tomislav, but nothing happened. I have since lost most of them, so have no chance of winning this objective anymore without restartingā¦
I also donāt see the number of units go up whenever I train them. Iām referring here to the knights/zubans and longsworsdmen, for which there is /40 counter. It just stays at zero.
Iād like to make sure what is going on before I go any further into this scenario as I donāt want to put hours into it before realizing I screwed my chances of beating it.
You might not have found the right hostages. If youāre thinking of the Long Swordsmen, theyāre not them. The actual hostages are a bit further northwest.
There is no counter saying exactly how many cavalry or infantry you have. You can check how close you are by changing the details in the bottom right part of the UI.
Freeing the hostages is not required to win the mission. There are other ways of obtaining Villagers to harvest an economy.
Youāre right, I assumed the swordsmen next to the village were the hostagesā¦ everything played out in the end, I guess I was a bit paranoid because of triggers not working out in other scenarios Iāve played beforeā¦ also just played through the second scenario, and I have to say I think itās really well done so far!
Great campaign, hope we see Croatians as a civ soon
Just a minor bug, but voice lines no longer work after loading a saved game. Great job otherwise, I enjoyed your campaign much more than others and itās only the first level
Thanks! Itād be awesome to see the Croats become official, even though demand is far higher for the Poles and Bohemians; regardless, it was just a ton of fun designing my own civilization and bringing it to life.
Not sure whatās up with the voice lines issue, but it could be that I just updated the campaign and your computer tried to reload it with the update. Voice lines wonāt work after you download a campaign until you restart Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.
My dream would be to work on official campaigns, but itās a matter of opportunity. Forgotten Empires already has a team of really talented campaign designers.
I do in fact have a Serbs campaign planned, specifically about Äaslav, who, despite being an arrogant villain in the Tomislav campaign, is actually a pretty heroic figure and overcame a lot of adversity to forge a powerful empire during the mid-10th century. His story will justify the mean comments he spews at Zaharija and Jelena.
My next campaign is going to be a Slavs campaign based on Igor Svyatoslavich, the titular hero of The Lay of Igorās Campaign, which inspired the Russian opera Prince Igor.
I have some historical battles in-mind, but Iām more of a full-campaign person because I like full-fledged narratives and appreciate Age of Empires II largely for its storytelling.
