The classic real-time strategy game Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings it just keeps growing and growing and growing. Its last expansion, decades after the game was originally released in 1999, is called Lords of the West and adds three more campaigns and two completely new civilizations: Burgundian and Sicilian.
Released today on the PC, Lords of the West is a $ 10 add-on for the definitive edition of the game launched in 2019. In addition to the three campaigns (fully dubbed), one for the Burgundian and Sicilian civilizations, as well as another for the British focused on Edward Longshanks, there are both civilizations , one focused on cavalry and gunpowder technology, while the other is based on infantry with interesting gold bonus technology.
Here are some of the highlights of the Microsoft blog post:
Burgundy
- Economic upgrades are available an era before other civilizations
- Stable technologies cost -50%
- Gunpowder units gain + 25% attack
- Relics generate gold and food
- Coustillier cavalry unit – Uses a powerful shock attack when investing in battle. ”Strong against infantry and archers. Weak vs. Camel Knights and Monks.
- Burgundy vineyard technology – Convert all food to gold in a 2: 1 ratio, farmers generate gold slowly, in addition to food.
Sicilians
- Castles and urban centers are built 100% faster
- Ground military units absorb 50% of all bonus damage received
- Farm upgrades provide + 100% additional food to farms before they need to be sown again
- Transport ships +5 cargo capacity and +10 armor against anti-ship attacks
- Serjeant – A sturdy infantry unit that can also build Donjons
- Donjon – unique fortification used to train soldiers. Units can guard in the building for protection; Archers and villagers fire additional projectiles when manned.
In addition to their exclusive units and bonuses, both civilizations also have some really interesting unique technologies that trigger massive changes when they are first researched. Burgundy vineyards, for example, instantly convert all food to gold in a 2: 1 ratio and have farmers generate a small amount of gold in addition to food supplies. Meanwhile, the Flemish Revolution automatically turns all villagers into militias, which seems drastic, but potentially fun to run or defend at the last minute.
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On the Sicilian side, there is the First Crusade, which generates 10 special Serjeant infantry units in each existing city center (up to five) and Scutage, which gives all players on a team an extra 15 gold per military unit that they control in a single amount. The two coaches could obviously work well together and also help support the teams during a longer final game.
Despite hundreds of hours in the original game, I’m still far from an expert Age of Empires II strategist, so I’ll have to wait and see how some of the elite players in the game’s small competitive landscape put these new civilizations and technologies to use. Still, it’s exciting to see the balance of the game potentially reinvigorated with another set of civilizational payoffs to choose from. At least until Age of Empires IV finally comes.