Venetians Tech tree:
Barracks:
- Available: Militia → Man-at-Arms → Long Swordsman → Two-Handed Swordsman → Champion, Spearman → Pikeman → Halberdier
- Techs Available: Arson, Gambesons, Squires
Archery Range:
- Available: Archer → Crossbowman → Arbalester, Skirmisher → Elite Skirmisher, Cavalry Archer → Heavy Cavalry Archer
- Techs Available: Thumb Ring, Parthian Tactics
Stable:
- Available: Scout Cavalry → Light Cavalry → Hussar
- Techs Available: Bloodlines, Husbandry
- Missing Units: Knight line (Knight, Cavalier, Paladin), Camel line (Camel Rider, Heavy Camel Rider), Battle Elephant line (Battle Elephant, Elite Battle Elephant), Steppe Lancer line (Steppe Lancer, Elite Steppe Lancer)
Siege Workshop:
- Available: Battering Ram → Capped Ram → Siege Ram, Mangonel → Onager, Scorpion → Heavy Scorpion, Bombard Cannon
- Missing: Siege Onager, Siege Elephant
Dock - FULL:
- Available: Galley → War Galley → Galleon, Fire Galley → Fire Ship → Fast Fire Ship, Hulk → War Hulk → Carrack, Demolition Raft → Demolition Ship → Heavy Demolition Ship, Cannon Galleon → Elite Cannon Galleon, Fishing Ship, Transport Ship, Trade Cog
- Techs Available: Gillnets, Careening, Dry Dock, Shipwright
Blacksmith:
- Available: Forging, Iron Casting, Blast Furnace, Scale Mail Armor, Chain Mail Armor, Plate Mail Armor, Scale Barding Armor, Chain Barding Armor, Fletching, Bodkin Arrow, Bracer, Padded Archer Armor, Leather Archer Armor, Ring Archer Armor
- Missing: Plate Barding Armor
Monastery:
- Techs Available: Redemption, Atonement, Herbal Medicine, Sanctity, Fervor, Illumination, Block Printing, Theocracy, Heresy
- Missing: Faith
University:
- Techs Available: Masonry, Architecture, Fortified Wall, Ballistics, Heated Shot, Murder Holes, Treadmill Crane, Chemistry, Siege Engineers, Arrowslits, Bombard Tower
- Missing: Guard Tower, Keep
Castle:
- Techs Available: Conscription, Hoardings, Sappers, Spies/Treason
Town Center:
- Techs Available: Loom, Town Watch, Town Patrol, Wheelbarrow, Hand Cart
Lumber Camp:
- Techs Available: Double-Bit Axe, Bow Saw, Two-Man Saw
Mill:
- Techs Available: Horse Collar, Heavy Plow, Crop Rotation
Mining Camp:
- Techs Available: Gold Mining, Gold Shaft Mining, Stone Mining, Stone Shaft Mining
Market:
- Techs Available: Caravan, Coinage, Banking, Guilds
Civilization Bonuses:
Civilization Bonuses:
- Galley-line have +1/+2 attack in Castle/Imperial Age.
- Monks can repair siege weapons, ships, and siege ships as fast as Villagers, but cannot repair buildings.
- Heresy costs -200 gold.
- Trade Cogs and Trade Carts generate +25% gold. Markets work 15% faster.
Team Bonus: Outposts +4 Line of Sight.
Unique Units:
- Doge’s Guard (Heavy Infantry): Heavy infantry that generates gold when it kills a Villager, Monk, or Knight. Strong against Monks. Weak against Archers. (Created at Castle)
Campaign: The Blind Doge
“I am ninety-five years old, blind for nearly eighty years, and I am Doge of Venice.”
For ten years I have ruled a city of mud and merchants, and made it master of the sea. But Venice will never be safe while rivals control the waves. Dalmatian pirates raid our cities. Pisans steal our trade. The great city of Constantinople, the Queen of Cities, denies us what is owed.
Now a new chance has come. An army of Frankish knights, thousands strong, has come to Venice begging for ships to carry their Crusade to Jerusalem. They are pious, they are brave, and they are broke.
They cannot pay for my fleet. But they can fight.
I will use them. I will make them take Zara for us, a rebel city that defied Venice. I will make them sail to Constantinople and place our puppet on the throne. And if that puppet betrays us, we will take the city for ourselves.
The Pope will excommunicate us. The Greeks will call me a devil. Let them. The blind will lead the sighted, and gold will flow to the lagoon.
I cannot see it. But I will build an empire.
Missions:
1. Siege of Zara
Zara has rebelled against Venetian rule for the last time. The Frankish Crusaders cannot pay their debt to Venice. You have convinced them to retake the city for you in exchange for half what they owe. With only four trebuchets and a handful of holy and foot men, your only reinforcements must come from Zara itself.
2. The Usurper’s Promise
Prince Alexios, son of the deposed Emperor of Byzantium, offers a fortune if the Crusade will restore him to the throne of Constantinople. He promises gold, troops for Jerusalem, and the submission of the Eastern Church to Rome. It is an offer too good to be true, but Dandolo cannot refuse.
3. The Queen of Cities
Alexios has been crowned Emperor, but he cannot pay what he promised. The Greeks have revolted and murdered him. The Crusaders are starving outside Constantinople. There is only one option left - to take the richest city in Christendom by storm.
4. Partition
Constantinople has fallen, but an empire must be divided. The Frankish knights carve out their own Latin Empire while the Byzantines resist in Nicaea and Epirus. You must secure Venice’s share - three-eighths of the capital, Crete, and the islands - and make the sea a Venetian lake.
5. The Blind Man’s Empire
It is June, 1205. You are dying in the palace of Constantinople. You have made Venice an empire stretching from Zara to the Black Sea, but will it survive you? Your final task is to secure your legacy before your last breath.
The campaign is narrated by Enrico Dandolo himself, except for the outro of the final scenario, which is narrated by the Greek Historian Nicetas Choniates, after Dandolo’s death, as depicted in the same scenario’s opening.
Trivia:
The campaign icon is the Lion of Saint Mark, the symbol of Venice.
- The Blind Doge is the first official campaign in Age of Empires II where the player color is Grey (Color 7). Previously, Grey was only used for Gaia or enemy factions, never as the playable color in a campaign scenario. The color was chosen to reflect Dandolo’s age, blindness, and the stone of Venice.
- This is the first campaign where the protagonist dies during the opening cinematic of the final scenario.
- Despite being blind, Dandolo personally leads the assault on Constantinople’s walls in Scenario 3, referencing his historical action of standing at the bow of his galley.
- The player is intentionally denied Knights, Camels, and Plate Barding Armor to force reliance on Monks, Pikemen, and Siege, mimicking the Crusader army’s composition.
Potential dialogue in the opening cinematic for Mission 5: The Blind Man’s Empire
OPENING - Voice: Dandolo - dying
[Slide 1: Dark room, Palace of Blachernae]
Dandolo [weak, heavy breathing]: June… 1205. I am… dying. Ninety-eight years. Blind for most of them.
They say you see your life at the end. I see nothing. I never have.
[Slide 2: Zara burning, Constantinople burning]
Dandolo: Zara… Christian blood, for a debt. Constantinople… for profit.
The Pope called us excommunicates. The Greeks call me a devil.
[Slide 3: Map - Venetian Empire]
Dandolo [faint pride]: Let them. The sea… is ours now. Zara… Crete… half of this city. The gold… flows to Venice.
I could not see it. But I built it.
[Slide 4: Black screen]
Dandolo : Bury me… in Hagia Sophia…[whisper]
[Ragged breath]
…I…
[Breath stops. Final soft gasp. Silence. Cinematic ends]