Such a wasted oppertunity.I guess they get represented by varangians.
Novgorodian Rus will be Varangians too I guess.
Don’t let older DLCs get pushed to World’s Edge, only to become Forgotten Empires.
Well - it is clear that the Varangians is a reference to the Scandinavians, predominantly from modern Sweden, that went to the east and settled there. In regards to this, I am personally OK with the Varangians. Makes sense.
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Oh, the theme is not a surprise, given the next DLC for AoE3 and AoE4.
I am a bit neutral about it.
New architecture is cool. Having kind of a campaign for Vikings is good too. I don’t think Danes were mandatory. We already have Vikings!
If only we could get a Slavs campaign. And maybe them renamed.
It will be a good time to add officially the reworked Saxons Revolt.
Also, no news of Chronicles for fall?
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I have proposed Slavs split into Ruthenians, Muscovites, Novgorodians/Novgorod.
I have proposed since some time Vikings split into Norse and Danes, with Norse carrying on the main legacy of the Vikings. Having Varangians kinda makes sense I guess but their military system is not vastly different from the Norse and early period Danes. Danes make 200% sense in game IMO.
Saxons is a good addition although I would have preferred seeing them being a civ that represents everything from migration era to HRE stem duchy, and even as the German speaking settlers in eastern Europe, in particular Transylvania - this would play well with a potential future Balkan DLC with Vlachs, Serbs, Venetians as civs.
If any dev is reading this - Please rename Vikings into Norse before launch of this DLC. It is perhaps for the nostalgia driven fans one step back but for long term steps forward I think it is one necessary move in order to update the older civs to the standards of the modern era civ and overall game formula.
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It’s look a nice DLC.. But. When we will see Rome’s Chronicles?? First or second half of 2027?
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In first quartal of 2027
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King Canute, of course (one particular spelling of his name is censored on this site).
Nice to finally see a Viking overhaul. As someone who mainly play FFA I’m exited to see if they work in post imp now. They never did before.
I’m confused about two of the civ choices though.
- Varangians were a mercenary group working for the Byzantine’s rather than a civilization, but at least they’re viking themed. Love the varangian guard as a unit, but making them a civilization feels off.
- Saxons feels out of place. This is a viking themed expansion. Go for Vinlanders, Birkebeiners, or something that’s got anything to do with vikings. Adding Saxons here you may as well have added Khmer as a Chinese civ.
Crossing my fingers hoping for vikings that work in post imp. Never met a Skandinavian that liked the original viking civ, so the overhaul is great to see.
Varangians were the name given to swedes Vikings by Slavs and Byzantines. They went through eastern Europe and founded the Kievan Rus. So, they are a civ…
I would love a slavs campaign about the Kievan rus history btw.
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This is the moment! (20 characters)
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Good to see people still remember this.
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I really hope they do. IMO, the DLC looks great (though, after the 3K fiasco, almost anything would look better). I’m a big fan of the introduction of the Grand Campaign focus in Harald Hardrada, similar to what Chronicles was doing, and I hope they expand on that in future releases. I’d also love to see some historical battles or scenario-based campaigns included in the DLC. We’ll see.
Oh yes, new standalone scenarios set in different eras could make up for the main campaigns being Viking-centered. Kalmar Union, my beloved…
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Kalmar Union fanboy 
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Fair enough, but isn’t that a bit like calling Byzantine’s Miklagardians because the vikings thought of them as the people of Miklagard? Not that I mind, but it strikes me as odd.
I’m very happy that we’re getting a viking overhaul at all. It was needed. Vikings now work in ranked, but they feel pathetic for any post imp heavy gamemode. Several more civs that could need some help here.
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If I’m not mistaken, the Saxons have the Western European architecture, which is what I gave them in my concept. It looks like they have the same Wonder as the one I gave them too. I couldn’t be happier. This is a dream come true.
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I just don’t get it. They did such a high-granularity split of the Nordics, carefully choosing new civs that fit in the timeframe, adding lots of new units and mechanics without adding too many, and carefully choosing a campaign that smoothly connects them all. They clearly know how to do this properly.
Then there’s 3K, where they were just banking on the 3K theme, thinking Asian players will blindly swallow it, and crudely stitched the Tanguts into the Khitans with “because they’re adjacent to the Tibetans” as the justification, ruining both Tanguts and Khitans.
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To me it almost looks like it should be a chronicles dlc, featuring the same person over a long period of missions must mean they did away with the title chronicles?
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