I like the look but AOE IV has a Norse-ish theme. I was hoping for my beloved Tais and Cham.
well it’s still called “age of empires”. Empires are political entitites.
If it was called “age of nations” or “age of cultures” i could possibly agree.
But I actually chose this game exactly because it IS age of EMPIRES and not cultures. I think it’s way more historically accurate and some of the civs names already break my immersion when playing it. I think using modern categories for a medieval game is cultural appropriation and anachronistic.
So yeah… I am not just fine with that, I think it’s actually the right direcion and would like to see more civs named after real exisiting empires of that time and not later defined “cultures” or even “ethnic groups”.
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This extends the list of civs without campaigns. I hope they make a proper campaign DLC after this one.
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But they have been ethnic groups/cultures from the beginning of age 2, there was no Teuton empire, Celtic empire or Viking empire in the middle ages.
There weren’t many empires in the middle ages, mostly kingdoms hence why the subtitle was Age Of Kings.
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totally agree. though these didn’t break my immersion because they are so far off that I don’t even recognize them. I see teutons either as teutonic order or HRE, not as the actual teutons. Because teutons have literally nothing to do with anything happening in the game.
But yes, I would totally be for a dlc that gives teutons or celts corresponding empire names. And I’m also fine with Viking, though it isn’t an empire. Huns also never formed a real “empire” that stood long, both are known for their military actions and represent stuff that was real at that time. So they are fitting perfectly in my immersion even if building up an economy and whatelse with them is a bit strange yeah.
ty AOEDE2 DEVS, for this DLC, yes, yes, yes, all hail AOE 2 DE
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New DLC good !
The bad
The is only one thing I dislike in this DLC :
No new sail type
Two of the existing architectural set lack proper sail : South Asian and South American. And now the Northern european.
I think I very bad because having pagan Viking with christian cross on their sail is very inaccurate. Dear Devs you make a good work in the upcoming AoE4 DLC Raiders of the north with Odin’s raven on the sail.
Could you make a new sail type with Odin’s raven for AoE2 please ?
The good
And now the good, and there is sooooo much !
Beautiful viking architectural set and the Saxon have the accurate architectural set (western european)
Three new civilizations One for all modern nordic country (Viking : Norway/Iceland, Danes : Danemarks, Varangian : Sweden+ mercenary in Byzantine Empire. And one civilization that I wanted the Saxon based on anglo-saxon England.
Nice new asset : viking tent, wooden pavement, moose, seal, wood bridge, viking shipwreck, viking running stone, fallen trunk, new type of torch, wood pillar, new pine tree, viking weapon rack, viking flag with raven (why you didn’t put this raven on their sail ?)
Longhouse 3x2 tiles who can be rotated, very good !
Longboat hauled on land : very good thing. Hauling boat on land, I hope this will be added for the Constantinople scenario because the Turk did the same in 1453.
Longboat becoming regional ship as expected.
Various UU and regional unit : Longship, mounted crossbowmen, regional infantry
A campaign with an interesting guy who travel all the viking world.
That I hope
A little rework for the existing Viking civilization removing canon galleon, now we have catapult galleon.
Replacing canon galleon by catapult galleon for more civilizations
Catapult galleon for more civilizations because now we have an alternative for pre gunpowder civilization or who are mostly land power : Bulgarians, Ethiopians, Georgians, Lithuanians, Magyars, Malians, Poles, Sicilians, Vikings
Removing the galley line for the three nordic civilizations (Danes, Varangians, Viking) and replacing the galley by longship, with a feudal version of the longship.
Mounted crossbowmen for more civilizations
Cavalry archer were not much in use in western Europe
Replacing cavalry archer by mounted crossbowmen for : Britons, Bohemians (not the last upgrade) Burgundians, Celts, Franks, Italians, Portuguese, Sicilians, Spanish, Teutons, Vikings
For eastern Europe or old civilizations (Goths, Romans) it’s better to keep cavalry archer.
Alfred the great campaign
Alfred the great campaign in an upcoming British isles DLC with Irish, Welsh, Britons renamed to English (and little reworked) Celt renamed as Scottish (and little reworked).
Reworking of the existing scenarios
Charlemagne : Saxons : Goths ----> saxons
Also in this scenario a new objective can be to destroy Yggdrasil, I see a beautiful wonder on the steam page.
Hasting : all the Goths players ----> saxons
William the Conqueror : Franks ----> Sicilians
Vortigern : Saxons : Vikings ----> saxons
York : Wessex : Goths ----> saxons
Bari 3 : Vikings ----> Varangians
Otto : Vikings ----> Danes
Finehair : Danes : Vikings ----> Danes
Norse : Vikings ----> Varangians
Southern Jarls : Vikings ----> Varangians
Ragnar : Northumbria : Teutons ----> saxons
Wessex and Anglia : Britons ----> saxons
Also all the scenarios featuring viking will be reworked !
Scenarios who must not be reworked
Barbarosa 1 and 2 : there is Saxony but it"s better to keep them as Teuton because the late medieval duchy of the Holy Empire is better fitted by the Teutons.
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Bohemians don’t have cav archers at all. Vikings (and other Viking-based civs) getting mounted xbows is kinda weird, because crossbow wasn’t known in Viking Age Scandinavia.
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Yeah, tbh for the most part with this DLC my opinions range from good to eh ok fair enough. The only thing I really don’t like is how they did the campaign. I would have much preferred Hardrada get just 1 regular 6-scenerio campaign (probably the Viking campaign) and then give the others their own protag; maybe Rurik for the Varangians, Alfred the Great for Saxons, and…probably something Danelaw for the Danes, dunno details on that one. I feel like letting Hardrada hog everything is a missed opportunity. But oh well I guess; it ain’t changing now.
I still hold hope that some day we’ll get this
In some ways yes, in some ways no. Each section of Hardrada’s campaign has some parts played as the new civs and some parts played as Vikings. It’s not as bad as what the Khitans and Jurchens got, but I will agree that it’s not satisfactory IMO. Hopefully custom campaign makers can fill in.
Yeah, I did find myself wishing they put the Viking raven sigil on the sail for these civs. A bit of a minor item but would’ve been cool.
I do hope they don’t reserve mounted xbows to only these new civs, yeah.
I suppose that could be possible. I do hope we get SE Asia or Africa or North America or Meso America first though. Heck even the Balkans is higher on the priority list than this IMO. But I’ll concede a British isles rework does have a place on the wanted list…even if that place is pretty much dead last, it is still there.
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So we have Vikings, Danes, Varangians, but werent Danes and Varangians also Vikings? This is stupid.
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Is Champi Warrior even finished yet?
I’m grateful. The six distinct units also piqued my interest. However, I specifically thank the AOE2 developers for this new DLC
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Awesome! i remember like half a year ago or longer we discussed “what if they add vikings, then what do we want to see?”
And i proposed jomsvikings as an important part of the vikings. But also that it would be interesting to see the actual Saxons where we keep using the Goths.
This does create the opening to historically redo the Goths xD
Because these new infantry units pretty much represent the germanic hauskarl.
On the Steampage is more info, the Mounted Crossbowman is also added!!
I think the guys with the shield on the back and long axe in hand, are the Varangian Guard which apparently is a shared unit between these factions.
The red guys that arrive on the beach have spears that makes them the Saxon Heart Troops.
And the yellow army, with the heavily armoured infantry guys with a lot of yellow cloth over their outfit must be the Jomsvikings.
With the purple and teal guys in the screen you can also see a new monk outfit.
Also this shows a Byzantine Castle with Varangian Guards??? is that the Varangians or will the Byzantines get the Varangian Guard too?
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Hell yea Byzantine. Now we can get Cheirosiphons and Flamethrowers!
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I’d love Margaret I so that not all campaigns are set in the same time period.
This is a historical unit not something made up.
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I like this dlc 
It seems lovely 
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I hope that someone will make little mod and rename Vikings to Norse and Varangians to Swedes. By the way, is it hard to make this kind of mod?
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Not that hard, there are mods renaming Three Kingdoms already.
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Kinda bummed about the lack of Finns. Everything Germanic. Eh.
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