Ranked map pool blocked behind the paywall

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
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Hi, I recently got into AoE4 moving from AoE2 and I was playing my ranked matches to get my placement before end of season and I just want to say that putting ranked maps behind the DLC is really horrible decision.

I play ladder, but I don’t want to buy DLC yet… I don’t want access to new civs when I’m just familiarizing myself with vanilla civs. I just want to play the game, play some ladder, but how am I supposed train, test and check the feeling of the maps, which are in rank pool, but are not included in the base game…

This feels like partially working functionality… Because, I assume, that before DLC I would had full access to the ladder and was allowed to train on all maps included in ranked map pool, but after DLC I was deprived of that functionality and deprived of full access to ranked map pool, that I had before? This is ridiculous decision making and feels like thievery honestly.

I am full in for supporting the game with money, which I do for aoe2, but not for the cost of stealing functions from the product and putting it behind the paywall again. Am I missing something?

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The map pool rotates, and I believe some DLC maps were made available for free for a time (when the expansion was released?). Maybe they’ll come back.

Personally, I’m not a fan of making people pay for MP maps, but at the same time making maps costs money, and nearly all of the content updates we get are free.

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