The classic real-time strategy game Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings just keep growing, and growing, and growing. Its latest expansion, decades after the game was originally released in 1999, was called Lords of the West and adds three more campaigns and two entirely new civilizations: Burgundians and Sicilians.
Today on a computer, Lords of the West is a $ 10 addition to the Definitive Edition of the game released in 2019. In addition to the three (full-vote) campaigns, each one for the Burgundian and Sicilian civilizations, as well as an additional one for the British focused on Edward Longshanks, there are the two civilizations, one focused on cavalry and gunpowder technology, while the other based on infantry with an interesting gold bonus technology.
Here are some highlights from Microsoft’s blog post:
Burgundians
- Economic upgrades are available one age earlier than other citizens
- Stable technologies cost -50%
- Gunpowder units get + 25% attack
- Remains generate both gold and food
- Coustillier cavalry unit – use a powerful shock attack when you get into battle. Strong against infantry and archers. Poor against camel riders and monks.
- Burgundian Vineyards tech – Turn all foods into gold with a ratio of 2: 1; farmers are slowly generating, in addition to food, also gold.
Sisiliane
- Castles and city centers are built 100% faster
- Land military units absorb 50% of all incoming bonus damage
- Farm upgrades offer more than 100% extra food to farms before they need to be sown
- Transport ships +5 carrying capacity and + 10 weapons against attacks against the ship
- Sergeant – a hardy infantry unit that can also build Donjons
- Donjon – Unique fortification used to train Serjeants. Units can protect the protection of the building in the building; Archers and villagers fire additional projectiles when they become garrison.
In addition to their unique units and bonuses, both civilizations also have many interesting one-time technologies that cause major changes when first explored. Burgundian Vineyards, for example, instantly converts all food into gold with a ratio of 2: 1, and leads farmers from there in addition to a small amount of gold except food supplies. Meanwhile, the Flemish Revolution automatically converts all villagers into militia, which looks drastic but may be fun to chase or defend.
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On the Sicilian side, there is the First Crusade, which yields ten special Sergeant-infantry units at each existing downtown (up to five), and Scutage, which gives all players in a team 15 extra gold per military unit they control in ‘ a lump sum. . The two technologies can of course work well together and also help support teams through a longer final.
Despite hundreds of hours in the original game, I am far from an expert Age of Empires II strategist, so I’ll have to wait to see how some of the more elite players in the small competitive scene of the game use these new civilizations and technologies. Still, it’s exciting to see the balance of the game potentially reinforced with another set of civilized compromises to choose from. At least until Age of Empires IV finally arriving.