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This scenario is kinda interesting in DE for some of the new additions. You can grab some free units in the western part of the map, in AoK these were just monks (I think? not quite sure) [Edit: It's a monk and 8 Elite Huscarls in AoK], in DE it's one monk and some fully upgraded Leitis (Lithuanian UU, cav unit that ignores enemy armor). The Bohemians were originally Teutons, now they are "proper" Bohemians. Their army composition didn't change though, which means they attack with mostly units that they shouldn't be able to have; only the champions and trebuchets could actually be built by a Bohemian player. The Polish were originally Goths, then became Slavs in DE and after the Dawn of the Dukes DLC became "proper" Polish. cncgnxcg fucked around with this message at 10:34 on Apr 20, 2023 |
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Apr 20, 2023 08:02
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People wanting to play along may be interested in the fact AoE 2 Definitive and its DLC is on a sale on Steam right now. Got the rest of the DLC myself, can't wait to see the mess they made out of Jan Žižka.
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Apr 20, 2023 19:19
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For some light reading on Mongol anecdotes and events that AoE2 skipped over, there's this New Yorker piece on Middle Eastern perspectives on Mongols... and Americans. ==== Another thing of note from The Horde Rides West: Genghis Khan Campaign posted:Mission 4 Starting Text Whoever Ensemble's source is, they followed this logic: Subutai's ancestral clan was called the Uriankhai. Meanwhile, the Mongols famously used "Uriankhai" to refer to several closely affliated "not actually Mongol" groups, including the Tuvans, and certain Siberian forest peoples. Many Siberian forest tribes have been reindeer herders to this day. Ergo, Subutai was also a reindeer man. It's also most likely wrong. Wikipedia: quote:Rashid-al-Din Hamadani described the Forest Uriyankhai as extremely isolated Siberian forest people living in birch bark tents and hunting on skis. Despite the similarity in name to the famous Uriyankhan clan of the Mongols, Rashid states that they had no connection. And Subutai's dad and uncle had documented jobs that didn't involve sleeping in bark tents and thinking of herding sheep and "living in towns, cities or on the plains as great suffering": they were blacksmiths. Negostrike posted:When AOE 3 demo came out it ran badly on the flimsy PC I had back then. I still kept playing it a lot anyways. Cythereal posted:Voting A: Saladin. That campaign holds a bit of a special place in my heart, because it was the first time I'd ever seen a depiction of the Crusades that was sympathetic to the Muslims and portrayed the Crusaders as bad guys, hooray public schools in the Deep South of the US. I'm reminded of this article examining a similar experience with the campaign from an Irish Catholic background. cuc fucked around with this message at 08:57 on Apr 24, 2023 |
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Apr 20, 2023 19:57
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Hah, figured there'd be a sale before I got to the part of the LP where I'd need those campaigns! Yoink! (It's okay, they'll get more out of me when I buy Return of Rome next month.) Jossar fucked around with this message at 23:11 on Apr 20, 2023 |
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Apr 20, 2023 23:08
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Genghis Khan - Part 6: Pax Mongolica Mission 6 Starting Text "Only one enemy stands in our way. France and the nations beyond are beaten from decades of Crusades. If we break Eastern Europe, then it is likely that all of Western Europe will surrender. But to break the East, we must defeat Hungary. Hungary possesses the most formidable cavalry in all of Europe. They have not only the strength of European armor, but their horses are cousins to our own, having drifted in from across the Russian steppes. The Sajo River that separates us from the army of Hungary is frozen so we will be unable to deploy boats. Instead, the battle will be won or lost over who controls the bridge. Subotai is coming with reinforcements. If we can survive the charge of Hungarian knights until Subotai arrives, then we can hope to take the bridge. Much rests on this simple bridge. If we capture the Sajo crossing, we capture Hungary. If Hungary falls, so falls Europe. With Europe and Asia under Mongolian command, our conquest of the world will be complete and final."  Mongol Soldier: Lord Ogedei, we must hold off the Hungarians until Subotai arrives. He will be here in 40 minutes. Saboteurs: Just get us close enough to an enemy building and we will give our lives for the cause! No intermediaries, the final scenario is just a 1v1 between you on the right side of the river and a large Hungarian fortress on the left. You are also given 10 Saboteurs, a hero version of the Petard unit which you can train at Castles, which uses gunpowder barrels to cause an explosion, killing itself and dealing a large amount of damage to buildings and siege weapons. These guys do more damage, and funnily enough, their appearance here predates the inclusion of the Petard as a trainable unit in the regular game: they were only properly introduced in the Age of Conquerors.  Hungarian Soldier: Charge!   Starting at 6 and a half minutes or so, the Hungarians will attack over the bridge. Unlike the Bohemians from the last scenario, who despite keeping their units from the original version of the game were weakened by the update to their new civilization, the Hungarians are buffed by the change, primarily since they can now throw the Magyar Unique Unit, the Magyar Huszar (like a regular Hussar, but better, if limited to being trained at Castles) at you.   Anyways, I'm not going to wait around for Subotai, if he shows up, he shows up.  It's fairly easy to break into the Hungarian base, but staying there is a real pain. I throw the Saboteurs at one of their castles and destroy a lot of the infrastructure before having to fall back.   Subotai shows up with a bunch of unique Cavalry Archer units and 5 more Saboteurs. As it turns out, while the Hungarians kept pumping out troops, most of the crucial infrastructure was already shot to pieces and I only needed to destroy one last Town Center with Subotai's Saboteurs to win. Mongol Soldier: Such is the fate of the Hungarians and all who would oppose the tribes of Mongolia! Mission 6 Ending Text "Nothing stands between us and the Atlantic Ocean. The Mongol empire comprises two whole continents; Europe and Asia belong to the Hordes. Every place we entered has changed forever with our passing. Russia, once filled with quarreling city-states, much like ancient Mongolia, will forever be melded into a single, gigantic nation. Genghis Khan forged the largest empire ever created in the life of one man. His body was carried back to the River Onon, where the legendary Blue Wolf and Fallow Doe once lived. He was buried in the ground and a thousand horsemen rode over the site to disguise it. Genghis Khan's final resting place was devoured by the steppes. My people cherish the legend that their great ruler will one day return to lead his horsemen to another bloody victory." There's a whole bunch of things that didn't happen here because I went through the mission too fast. The bridge is supposed to collapse at 45 minutes, although you can cross the river because it's iced over in places. At 52 minutes, the Hungarians will start building a Wonder. Alas, I was also too slow to get the achievement for winning the scenario before Subotai shows up. Still felt pretty short and sweet, and yet the first scenario since I got mass Mangudai and siege where it felt like the enemy was an actual threat, although only on defense. The bookends of the Genghis Khan campaign are very enjoyable, it's just a shame that most of the middle is mediocre by comparison. I can see what they wanted some of those missions to look like, but the scenario design was too flimsy in the end, especially when giving the player one of the best unique units in the game to run roughshod over the "boss" factions with. Extra Slides Mission 6 - Intro Slide 1 Mission 6 - Intro Slide 2 Mission 6 - Intro Slide 3 Mission 6 - Intro Slide 4 Mission 6 - Intro Slide 5 Mission 6 - End Slide 1 Mission 6 - End Slide 2 Mission 6 - End Slide 3 Mission 6 - End Slide 4 Jossar fucked around with this message at 02:21 on Apr 27, 2023 |
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Apr 21, 2023 01:30
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Campaign Vote #4 A. Barbarossa - Teutons B. Attila the Hun - Huns C. El Cid - Spanish/Saracens D. Montezuma - Aztecs E. Battles of the Conquerors - Franks/Vikings/Turks/Britons/Spanish/Japanese/Koreans Voting lasts for 24 Hours from the time of this post. In the event of a tie, I will act as the tiebreaking vote between the two tied options. Please bold your vote in order for it to be counted, as well as noting if you are changing your vote from something else. Also, not a vote, but I'm curious to see if people want to stick with the Age of Conquerors (+Barbarossa) voting pool or not. I feel like the general consensus was to get all of the Age of Kings campaigns out of the way first, but I'm uncertain if that's because those ones had greater nostalgia than the expansion campaigns, or people just don't think the Conquerors' campaigns are very good/interesting.
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Apr 21, 2023 01:35
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In my case, it's just a case of "Let's just go in order because that satisfies my OCD." To which end, A. Barbarossa next! But yeah, worth noting, this scenario does not let you build docks; there is water where you could build them, but the building is simply disabled. And while there is a path across the river other than the bridge, most of it is not actually crossable. Of note, Subotai's reinforcements consists of Subotai himself, two hunting wolves, and ten more saboteurs. In the Definitive Edition, five of the Saboteurs are replaced with Khans, a hero unit based on the Mangudai. Also, in the original game, the Hungarians were depicted as the Teutons, since the Magyars didn't exist in-game yet. It wasn't until the Definitive Edition that the teams started going back and adding new civs to old campaigns.
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Apr 21, 2023 01:54
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Barbarossa. Going in order sounds fine to me.
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Apr 21, 2023 01:57
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A Barbarossa as well, it's fine to go in order and see how the devs start to push further what they dare do.
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Apr 21, 2023 02:08
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Let's have some E. Battles!
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Apr 21, 2023 02:08
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Ten Tons of Teutons
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Apr 21, 2023 02:12
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A. Barbarossa
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Apr 21, 2023 02:13
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El Cid!!
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Apr 21, 2023 02:16
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A Barbarossa, sticking with the game's ordering seems good to me.
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Apr 21, 2023 02:30
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A. Barbarossa Finishing off AoK makes the most sense to me. After that we could do the conquerors' scenario maps.
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Apr 21, 2023 02:31
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Fond as I am of the Hun campaign, let's polish off AoK with A. Barbarossa
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Apr 21, 2023 02:34
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The Conquerors campaigns are pretty good and in some ways more ambitious than what we've seen so far, but let's finish what the base game had to offer with Barbarossa.
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Apr 21, 2023 07:10
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I actually think that the Conquerors campaigns are a lot better than the base game, so let's get Barbarossa out of the way and then do the good stuff.
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Apr 21, 2023 09:36
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That loving bridge. I decided to do my main push at 40 mins - after everything was upgraded of course - and then ended with my army stuck on the other end, fighting a desperate battle to do as much damage as it could before it got obliterated by enemy base defenses (since I lost my trebuchets and saboteurs like an idiot early on). It took me three restarts to realize there was another way across the river, which was considerably less defended to boot. Not a kid thing either. This happened last week. Anyhow, Barbarossa.
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Apr 21, 2023 12:01
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Today's reading: ACOUP is a blog by a Roman military history expert primarily focusing on the intersection of pop culture and foundational knowledge about history and historiography. It has an article series that introduces some basic facts of steppe life (with asides on Great Plains natives) through the lens of criticizing the poor worldbuilding of the Dothraki: That Dothraki Horde The blog also had a minor post on the simple fact that Age of Empires series' 4X-inspired, Dune 2-invented, Warcraft 2-derived RTS gameplay doesn't resemble real empires in history. Duh, the RTS gameplay model is based on founding and fighting for interplanetary resources extraction colonies, of course they have simplified away occupation of land and local populations - unless they specifically modeled these factors in, like Seven Kingdoms or Rise of Nations. Why Are There No Empires in Age of Empires? And somehow this post, the sociology equivalent of pointing out "the earth is round", is still the only thing many people know the blog for. I'd even seen somebody vehemently dislike it! cuc fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Apr 21, 2023 |
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Apr 21, 2023 19:03
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Further fun fact, actually. This was the first map to have ice terrain. It didn't technically exist in Age of Kings. And you can tell because units walking across it would make splashy footsteps; the ice is actually repainted shallows. Definitive Edition replaced it with proper ice terrain and adjusted the rest of the map to represent the chilly climate.
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Apr 21, 2023 19:05
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Another fun fact: in original AoK, Subotai would announce his arrival with a strange "I come!" DE has replaced the line with a soldier making the announcement, removing Subotai's only line of dialog from this campaign. No worry, the medieval world's most well-traveled general not only has a speaking role in DE, he'll speak a lot more. Also: quote:Subotai's second army built a pontoon to the east and crossed it to raze the Hungarian camp (represented by the ice crossing). There was no ice during the actual battle, which took place in the spring, and the bridge was not destroyed. ==== BlazetheInferno posted:This was the first map to have ice terrain. It didn't technically exist in Age of Kings. And you can tell because units walking across it would make splashy footsteps; the ice is actually repainted shallows. It was clearly an unfinished feature Ensemble were dissatisfied with, hidden from the scenario editor and not used in other scenarios. They'd formally introduce Ice and Snow with unit footprints in The Conquerors, and snow would cover buildings - which is achieved by pasting a few ugly snow pile and icicle sprites over the roofs, a feat of genius half-assery that's uniquely Ensemble. Houses also don't have snow-covered versions, except for a single icicle hanging from the centers of Dark Age Houses, looking like an abandoned job. Neither do the animated Mills. ("Genius half-assery" is I feel, the most accurate description of Ensemble's style.)  Left: Age of Kings Ice terrain; Right: The Conquerors Ice terrain Another nature object group AoC replaced is the rocks:  Left: The Conquerors Rocks; Right: Age of Kings Rocks See, Farm queueing, scenario unit renaming and hero traits (regeneration and conversion immunity) weren't the only general features The Conquerors added! OK, a lot more, but these are the ones off the top of my head. quote:Mission 6 Ending Text Meanwhile Secret History's account is more human (quote from a random online article): quote:One day, Genghis had been hunting in the mountains of his homeland. While resting in the shade of a tree, he was overcome by the beauty of the landscape: “What a beautiful view! Bury me here when I pass away.” cuc fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Apr 21, 2023 |
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Apr 21, 2023 20:10
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Vote's closed! Barbarossa crushes it handily.
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Apr 22, 2023 01:38
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Barbarossa - Part 1: Holy Roman Emperor Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Teutons Theme Very well, then let us begin, the tale of the emperor of great ambition.   Mission 1 Starting Text "So you have come to hear the tale of Frederick Barbarossa? Better order us another round. Maybe three. You see... it is a great tale. But then again, everything about the man was great. Barbarossa was a man of great appetites... great ambition... and a great, red beard. But the question - the question you want to know - is: Was that enough? Is the will of one man enough to forge an empire? For there was no Holy Roman Empire at that time, only a gaggle of quarrelling city-states. These dubiously loyal princedoms were more interested in a loose confederation than a unified empire. But Barbarossa, he believed that he was the emperor by will of God, and he intended to bring the Holy Roman Empire back to its former glory. If that meant crushing all of the German princes, well, so be it."   Uh...  Yeah, unlike the other Age of Kings campaigns, the Barbarossa campaign just throws you right into the middle of a map with six enemy factions, who, after a little bit of time to allow for base building, will proceed to raid you incessantly. Walling up is your highest priority, even over developing your economy.  Teutonic Soldier: Your Majesty, this way leads east to Hungary. We must be careful, there are Cumans in that direction! (after finding the Cuman camp) Your Majesty, these Cuman warriors say that they will join our army for 200 gold. Meanwhile, I send this Scout off to the east where a bunch of Cumans (originally Mongolians before Definitive Edition) are camped. They're a nice boost to your forces for a really good price, once you can get a Market up. In addition to the Cavalry Archers and Siege Onagers, you also get a few of the Cumans' Unique Unit, Kipchaks (a Cavalry Archer that fires multiple arrows per burst). Cumans: A wise choice.   A couple of Burgundian Knights manage to get past my initial walls, but I kill them and finish sealing the gap. With the later addition of Castles, this pretty much finishes up my base defenses and now I can focus on booming before going on the offense.  Continuing the sequence where each civilization played in the campaigns is radically different than the one that came before it, the Teutons are the opposite of the Mongols. The Mongols are all about Cavalry Archers, the Teutons are a return to Paladins along with Infantry, and barely have any Archers or Light Cavalry at all. Whereas the Mongols favored speed in economy and units, the Teutons are ploddingly slow in all respects and heavily armored. This is exemplified in their siege - both have it, but the Mongols' unique tech makes theirs faster while the Teutons get more armor. The Mongols are all offense, all the time, the Teutons like to build deathtrap fortresses with long range Castles and high garrison buildings. The Mangudai is one of the best Unique Units in the game, the Teutonic Knight is generally considered not to provide that much bang for your buck relative to massing the Teutons' already competent Barracks Infantry. Finally, the Mongols have terrible Monks, but the Teutons have the entire tech tree and a bonus to healing range. The majority of my army for the rest of this scenario is a combination of Paladins/Halberdiers and a bunch of Monks thrown in. The hope is that the Halberdiers supported by Monks can win against units that threaten the Paladins, and the Paladins flatten everything else.  The goal of the scenario is to get 4 relics, which are already in the hands of the 6 enemy factions or are claimed quickly after the start. It is not necessarily guaranteed that each enemy faction has a relic, and an alternative method of victory is to just crush all the enemy factions, which nets an achievement. Here, Bavaria does in fact have one of the Relics and I have one of my Monks cart it off back home to my Monastery.   This map can sometimes feel like all of the enemies are just one giant homogenous blob arrayed against you, especially pre-Definitive Edition, but their individual base composition and even civilization composition can be quite different. Burgundy, Bohemia, and Austria are all different civilizations (their namesakes, except the Austrians who are Goths), and tend to favor more open base plans, though with prominently featured Castles.   Lorraine is one of the most prominent early-game raiders, but by this point is sort of just a punching bag. The Castle just outside of the northern bridge does deter early attacks, though.   Saxony is the toughest nut to crack of your opponents, and in this case sieging their town wasn't even worth it, as they didn't have one of the relics necessary for victory.  At this point I panic a little, as I see that otherwise neglected Austria is mounting a serious offense on my base, but in the end it's contained by nothing more than the Walls, Castle, and a few hastily produced Teutonic Knights.  Crisis averted, it's back to sweeping across the map. Bohemia has two relics, only one of which is necessary to grab. Taking it back to the Monastery wins the scenario.  Teutonic Soldier: By capturing all of the holy relics, you have reestablished your claim as Holy Roman Emperor. Mission 1 Ending Text "They have called Barbarossa the scourge of Europe. But he was as skilled a diplomat as he was a warrior. He united the German principalities with more than just the sword. He established a set of legal codes known as the Land Peaces. He helped the hungry by fixing an official price for grain after every harvest. The provinces of Germany quickly became the wealthiest and most powerful in Europe. The Holy Roman Empire was so successful, in fact, that it quickly became strong enough to expand." The Barbarossa campaign is generally considered to be the hardest of the Age of Kings campaigns, and it wants you to know that from the start. A lot of people like the first scenario for precisely that reason, although I think that there isn't that much special here once you manage to contain the first couple of waves of attacks. Nevertheless, I expect someone in the audience coming forward with a horror story about how this scenario took them hours upon hours to beat. Extra Slides Mission 1 - Intro Slide 1 Mission 1 - Intro Slide 2 Mission 1 - Intro Slide 3 Mission 1 - Intro Slide 4 Mission 1 - End Slide 1 Mission 1 - End Slide 2 Mission 1 - End Slide 3 Jossar fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Apr 22, 2023 |
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Apr 22, 2023 04:20
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TOOOO-TONS This mission was also... revamped? revisited? for the Barbarossa Brawl special event a while back, a very fun and challenging scored survival mission. Enemies were turbocharged, and just getting to 30 minutes was crazy hard, let alone getting a highscore.
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Apr 22, 2023 06:38
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I always remember taking my starting forces and killing Burgundy super quick for the relic.
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Apr 22, 2023 10:09
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Competitive Multiplayer Overview: The Teutons Unique Unit: Teutonic Knight - slow but powerful infantry Unique Techs: Ironclad: siege weapons +4 melee armor. Crenellations: gives Castles +3 range and makes garrisoned infantry shoot arrows Civ Bonuses: Monks have double healing range Towers garrison twice as many units Murder Holes and Herbal Medicine are free Farms are 40% cheaper Town Centers can garrison +10 units Barracks and Stable units receive +1/+2 melee armor in the Castle/Imperial Age Units resist conversion Competitive Rating:Very Low The Teutons are easy to learn and play, very popular with new players, and widely regarded as one of, if not the, weakest civilization in the competitive circuit. Teutons are the defensive civilization in AoE2, and the unfortunate fact is that defense doesn't win games. In a high-end game, most of the Teuton bonuses can be summed up as 'lose more slowly' rather than 'help win.' To a great extent, this is a reflection of how the competitive multiplayer scene has evolved, Relic and Wonder victories are typically banned and most maps and play styles are built to encourage aggressive play. Teutonic Knights are likewise regarded as a booby prize of a unique unit in the competitive scene, their stats certainly look appealing, but infantry are very unpopular to begin with in the competitive scene and Teutonic Knights double down on why. They are going to die or be converted, regardless of the civ bonuses. If you need a meat shield to soak up arrow fire, that's one of the main uses of battering rams. Further, the Teutons lack some important upgrades for the competitive scene. They don't get the final tier of archers or the final arrow damage upgrade, they're stuck with scouts for their light cavalry, and they lack the final gold mining upgrade. That being said, the Teutons are always a subject to watch in patch notes. They have very strong monks, paladins with a full suite of secondary upgrades and a small civ bonus, save plenty of wood on their farm economy (important in some maps), and the extra range on castles from their tech makes more of a difference than you might think. One strong buff to how the Teutons work could easily make them a force in the competitive scene in the vein of the Franks (if almost certainly still not as good). As it stands, the Teutons have been severely left behind by the course of the game, with the Lithuanians especially being a simply better version of the same ideas.
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Apr 22, 2023 12:21
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Yeah teutons are pretty bad, so of course 10 year old me loving loved them. I mean HOLY poo poo free murder holes, aka the most important tech in the game? As to the achievement in this mission, after weathering the initial storm, it's not very hard, just kind of annoying. The AI in this mission just doesn't want to resign, so you will have to hunt down everything they have.
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Apr 22, 2023 14:55
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Barbarossa - Part 2: Henry the Lion Mission 2 Starting Text "The empire was in full bloom, and her population was rapidly expanding. The Germans felled forests, drained marshlands, and reclaimed land from the sea itself. This newfound prosperity made expansion too tempting to resist. Eager to test his military might, Barbarossa set his sights east towards the Kingdom of Poland. To assist in his invasion, Barbarossa called up one of his mightiest vassals, Henry the Lion. Henry was a powerful prince of Saxony, and his decadent palaces outshone the emperor's own. While he swore fealty to Barbarossa, some questioned whether Henry the Lion did not want the Empire for his own. By ordering Henry the Lion to aid in the subjugation of Poland, Barbarossa meant to test his oath of allegiance once and for all."  Teutonic Soldier: Your Majesty, the counties of Bavaria and Saxony will provide us with the resources needed to outfit the imperial army, but we must defend them from the Polish. You start this scenario with no villagers and a 50 pop cap limit, but you have two allies slinging you resources. Meanwhile, Poland also doesn't have a functional economy, but has Deathmatch level resources so they never need to worry about running out. Henry the Lion doesn't send you any resources, but he will send his troops to attack Poland's forward Outposts.  The first thing I do is build a couple of Fire Galleys and destroy the Polish navy. It's pretty dormant overall, but can be a problem if ignored entirely.   Both me and Poland take a few minutes to build up armies and then rush them forward. Poland uses a lot of Siege and Infantry in this scenario. The former is more dangerous, but the latter includes the Polish unique unit, the Obuch. Their claim to fame is that apart from being a competent Militia-line replacement, Obuchs also remove armor from enemy units, something which is really annoying when you're playing as the Teutons. Advance into Polish territory to start attacking them, and you trigger the following event:  Henry the Lion: Barbarossa, I have some unfortunate news for you. You see, it is I who should be Holy Roman Emperor! Kneel before the Lion! Oh no. Who could have seen this coming. If you're playing the game with sound on, this voice clip makes it extremely obvious that Henry the Lion is the campaign's narrator.  Teutonic Soldier: Your Imperial Highness, Henry the Lion has sovereignty over a population of peasants. We should capture them, so that we are not dependent on our allies for supplies. After Henry the Lion switches to Enemy status, I wheel around the entirety of my army to go and smash open a stone wall enclosure where he's keeping a bunch of peasants. Freeing them lets you start your own economy and escape the constraints of 50 pop cap, although you can only build up to 100. You will also note that I have a bunch of Cavalry Archers. They're mostly here because I need something to shoot any Teutonic Knights that Henry produces and because the allied counties keep feeding me more Wood and Gold than Food.   Then I level Henry's town. It's important to do all of this right after Henry shows his true colors, because if you leave him alone for too long, he'll send a bunch of Teutonic Knights/Pikemen/Rams to wreck your town. He still has a few troops on the Polish front, but this functionally defeats him and makes the rest of this scenario a straightforward fight against the Poles.   Oh right, the Poles... Honestly, you could just let your allies tank at this point and still win, but it's nice to have the economy supplement, so my army wheels around again to smash the Polish assault on Saxony.  Destroying this forward Castle and taking control of the river crossing stops the Poles from mounting any more forward assaults.  From that point on it's just about tearing down their bases spread across the east side of the map. You only need to destroy the Siege Workshops and Castles, but getting rid of the Polish Barracks stops more Infantry from streaming in.  The process only gets faster as you get access to the Imperial Age and can upgrade your Knights into Paladins, who don't need the support of the much slower Rams any more.  Oh, fun fact that I didn't really have anywhere else to put: Did you know that all of the voice lines for your units are taken from the medieval form of their Civilization's language? It's not perfect, but it's a nice touch. Mission 2 Ending Text "Henry expected to be drawn and quartered, the usual fate of traitors in those times. But Barbarossa recognized the potential for a strong ally and officially forgave him, provided that Henry the Lion would swear to support Barbarossa from now on. Amazingly, Henry agreed. Germany was unified, and Henry the Lion was pacified. But the Holy Roman Empire was not complete. Harkening back to Charlemagne, the empire claimed ownership of Italy, and especially Rome." This is a quick, well designed scenario. If you're properly positioned to handle Henry the Lion's backstab, then everything else folds up neatly and tidily. If you aren't, well, at least he'll put you out of your misery soon enough. Extra Slides Mission 2 - Intro Slide 1 Mission 2 - Intro Slide 2 Mission 2 - Intro Slide 3 Mission 2 - Intro Slide 4 Mission 2 - Intro Slide 5 Mission 2 - End Slide 1 Mission 2 - End Slide 2 Mission 2 - End Slide 3 Jossar fucked around with this message at 17:02 on Apr 22, 2023 |
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Apr 22, 2023 16:59
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Jossar posted:Oh, fun fact that I didn't really have anywhere else to put: Did you know that all of the voice lines for your units are taken from the medieval form of their Civilization's language? It's not perfect, but it's a nice touch.
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Apr 22, 2023 17:10
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anilEhilated posted:Definitely not true for the Bohemians; while there are some archaic phrases in there, they're speaking straight-up modern Czech. "It's not perfect", in this case, was meant to be a shorthand for "they got a lot of people right, and for those they didn't, at least tried to use a similar/modern variant of the language". But it definitely hurts for some civilizations more than others, especially the Aztecs who are stuck speaking some random Mayan language/mixture of languages rather than Classical Nahuatl.
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Apr 22, 2023 18:17
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While definitely a trap in competitive, Teutons are lot of fun in single player, where building your German doom fortresses and army of shambling super swordsmen is actually viable. The AI usually doesn't monk counter TKs properly in my experience, and even when they do, an AI monk is just target practice for even the laziest archer micro (like me). Send your boys out with some healers and they'll casually stroll through just about anything.
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Apr 22, 2023 18:33
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The problem at least for me is always seeing the monk in the chaotic battlefield. I can hear him converting my dudes but can't click on him 
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Apr 22, 2023 18:45
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One thing that's kinda fun is to be actively prepared for Henry's betrayal ahead of time. Position a Ram or four by his castle before the betrayal. Maybe some Petards. The Castle is by far the biggest problem in his base, everything else is simple mop-up.
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Apr 22, 2023 19:37
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Barbarossa - Part 3: Pope and Antipope Mission 3 Starting Text "In Rome, the pope firmly believed that it was the church, not the emperor, who was the ultimate authority for the empire. Barbarossa could not convince the pope to see things his way, so he appointed his own pope. This too was not enough, for pope and antipope promptly excommunicated each other. In the end, Barbarossa had to resort once again to politics at the point of a lance. If the pope would not listen to reason, then perhaps he would concede with two thousand German knights pouring down the Italian peninsula. The greatest of the northern cities, the virtual capital of Lombardy, was Milan. The lords of Milan were as proud as they were belligerent. Barbarossa was determined to raze Milan to the ground as a warning to all the Italian city-states, and particularly the pope in Rome. The message was clear: He, Frederick Barbarossa, was the one and true Holy Roman Emperor."  You start this mission with a small camp, but no villagers. The goal, then, is to put yourself into a position where you can build an economy.   Crema: The Germans have come down from the Alps. They are destroying our town! Fortunately, there is a weak enemy faction to the southeast, Crema, whose army can be defeated easily. From that point on you convert their villagers, and then cannibalize the rest of the town via conversion of their buildings. This is easier on Standard difficulty where you automatically start with Redemption, the building-conversion tech, but is fairly easy to achieve in any case.    From about 10 minutes onwards, the River Guard will start to attack in increasing numbers. Early on they will mostly focus on your nominal ally, Cremona, who doesn't really do much except absorb these attacks, but they will still send a couple of raids your way.   This lasts until... well, I'm not sure if it lasts specifically for the first 55 minutes, or until Cremona takes a certain amount of damage, but then I hear: Cremona: Milan is destroying our fortress. We need help or we are doomed! And then the River Guard turns the majority of its attention towards me. The River Guard is played by the Franks, who don't have an amazing navy, but then again, neither do the Teutons. And the River Guard has a lot of preexisting infrastructure devoted to cranking out ships. My floundering attempts at a water presence are promptly smashed.   But ultimately, if there's one thing that the Teutons are good at, it's playing defense. So I build up a bunch of Castles to shield my Docks before building up a large navy, mostly comprised of Fast Fire Ships to destroy the enemy Galleons, and a few Cannon Galleons for anti-building operations. Once you build enough ships, the River Guard remarks: River Guard: Barbarossa now commands a massive navy. Stay alert lest he should attempt to cross the river.    The naval operation stalled out because of the River Guard's static defenses, until I remembered that I'm playing the Teutons and ultimately the only reason this navy exists is to guard my army while it crosses the river. Paladins clear things up as usual. Once you've made it across the river, this turns Milan aggressive: Milan: The forces of Frederick Barbarossa threaten our city. Send all available reinforcements!   Milan has a mix of Hussars, Hand Cannoneers, Mangonels, the occasional Monk, and a couple of Unique Units. They don't build that many Condottieri (one of the two Italian Unique Units, a Barracks-built, fast, anti-Gunpowder Infantry), but they have plenty of Genoese Crossbowman (the other Italian Unique Unit, an Archer with Anti-Cavalry bonuses), although this is limited by the AI not having enough of them in one place at the same time to focus fire effectively. Finally, they also have a bunch of Teutonic Knights, presumably left over from pre-Definitive Edition when they were Teutons. Making a path to the Cathedral is easy enough, but the Milanese will continue to spawn troops to try and sneak attack your Monks, so you pretty much have to level all of their military buildings to stop errant Hand Cannoneers and Hussars (the latter of which have a damage bonus against Monks) from interrupting the conversion process.   Teutonic Soldier: The cathedral is ours. So then is all of Milan! Mission 3 Ending Text "Barbarossa was not kind to the Milanese. In response to one attempt at negotiations during the siege, he sent six Italians marching back into the city. Five had been blinded, but the sixth had only had his nose cut off so that he could lead the other five. Northern Italy had been mercilessly conquered and placed under Imperial governance. But Italy would not submit. If anything, the destruction of Milan made the Italian cities even more incensed at their would-be emperor." This one was tough! I didn't even include the details from a failed probe to the south, which it turns out both Milan and the River Guard will vigorously contest. But that just made it all the more satisfying when I finally cracked the River Guard and everything else fell into place. Just make sure not to accidentally destroy the Cathedral, that's a lot of time wasted to steal defeat from the jaws of victory, and I had to redirect my Paladins once to stop that from happening. Extra Slides Mission 3 - Intro Slide 1 Mission 3 - Intro Slide 2 Mission 3 - Intro Slide 3 Mission 3 - Intro Slide 4 Mission 3 - Intro Slide 5 Mission 3 - End Slide 1 Mission 3 - End Slide 2 Mission 3 - End Slide 3 Jossar fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Apr 23, 2023 |
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Apr 23, 2023 17:47
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Fun fact: There is an achievement to beat this level without converting any villagers. It's tricky, and it needs a little bit of luck on the conversion speed, but it's doable.
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Apr 23, 2023 18:48
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Cremona (formerly known as Carcano, no idea why this was changed) apparently tributes you a large amount of ressources when they are close to being defeated, but I have personally never seen this. The achievement is one of the more difficult ones; the most promising approach seems to be to just beeline for the cathedral immediately. You can get into Milan either by hitting one of the gates and then using a unit to keep it open when enemies open it for you, or by sneaking in via the eastern gate, which has a regular stream of trade carts flowing through. In theory you could also just keep converting military units to get an edge, but I always ended up getting overwhelmed by sheer quantity when trying this.
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Apr 23, 2023 20:20
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cncgnxcg posted:Cremona (formerly known as Carcano, no idea why this was changed) Carcano isn't a city, it's a sparsely populated rural area north of Milan, best known for the Battle of Carcano where Barbarossa lost to the Milanese. The level as designed had Carcano in the north, Crema in the east, the Adda River flowing from Lake Como, and you are converting Crema and attacking Milan. That's the extent of its semblance to real geography. It does seem like a net gain to rename the ally faction from "name of a battlefield" to the local ally Barbarossa actually had and helped take back Crema, even if the location is mildly askew.   The DE map slide removed all the context outside "Milan and a river".  
cuc fucked around with this message at 11:57 on Apr 25, 2023 |
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Apr 23, 2023 21:38
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Points of Interest: Holy Roman Emperor   This level represents the Empire of the Teutons' fractured state. The rivers are abstractions of the Rhein, Main, Danube and Elbe. Barbarossa's starting town in the center represents his home turf of Swabia and Franconia, surounded by, clockwise from 12 o'clock: Saxony, Bohemia, Cuman mercenaries in Hungary, Austria, Bavaria, Burgundy, and Lorraine. In original AoK, the 3-o'clock Cuman mercenaries were the anachronistic "Mongols", and Lorraine at 10 o'clock was "Swabia", which is weird, as Barbarossa started as the Duke of Swabia himself. However, even this vision of HRE is deceiving. A more truthful depiction of HRE's nature would be those maps that show it as a dizzying patchwork of hundreds of tiny fiefdoms. No lord had total power over their domain, and power must be constantly brokered between lord and vassals. This was Barbarossa's life when he succeeded the Duchy of Swabia; it would continue to be when he became Emperor of the Romans. quote:Mission 1 Ending Text Henry the Lion This level is an abstraction of expansion into Poland by German lords. The river in the level represents the Oder. quote:Mission 2 Ending Text In original AoK, these lines were an anachronistic riff on Lebensraum, because Deustchland plus Poland equals Blitzkrieg to American nerds who only knew Roman Empire and WW2 amirite. You can still catch a whiff of that in the DE rewrite. ==== Serial Architectural Compromiser Episode 4 Welcome back to our exploration of inconvenient architecture decisions in AoE2! When The Forgotten DLC added the Magyar and Slavic civilizations, an Eastern European civ group was naturally created, and people began calling the architecture set of Teutons and Goths (and Vikings) "Central European". This was not Ensemble's original intent, who called the set "EEurope", and would have used the set for Magyars or Slavs, if they had chosen either over Huns, "Habsburgs" or Swiss from the set's expansion candidates. One place you'll see this is the Feudal Age set, among AoE2's most unique.   In contrast to the Western European set's thatch, the roofings here are an ambiguous plant material, cut into irregular ribbons with rugged jutting ends, then haphazardly laid onto the roof, like few things you've seen in real life. The aesthetics of roughness are striking, but the practicality leaves one in doubt: whatever the material's properties, why wouldn't the builders do the best they can to trim the edges, and stack them in an efficient pattern that do not leave gaping seams for the elements? I believe the explanation may be found in a Moscow Film set for a mythical ancient Russia, aiming for visual impact over realism:  More of the set here. cuc fucked around with this message at 09:19 on Apr 25, 2023 |
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Apr 24, 2023 21:04
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It is important to note that the HRE's nightmare internal structure made it difficult to do sane and theoretically easy things, in the Middle Ages and in the Early Modern period, for example we have infinite battles over taxes and in the long and numerous wars with the Ottoman Empire we have things like the impossibility to maintain towing paths along the entirety of the Danube because some local lord doesn't want to and through a thousand negotiations and compromises to allow power to even exist, he can't legally be overruled and doing it would be an effective constitutional crisis. I never looked too closely at those roofs about twenty years ago, I though they were just oddly rough and it was probably because of extensive patching, so I though they were poor quality shale roofs.
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Apr 24, 2023 21:28
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