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Jobbo_Fett posted:The blood on La Hire's sword is almost dry! Which is why we need to do Joan of Arc next.
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Mar 30, 2023 02:56
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A
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Mar 30, 2023 03:07
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B Salah al-Din Yussuf ibn Ayyud
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Mar 30, 2023 03:43
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A. Vive la France!, also just going in order because that's how I roll.
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Mar 30, 2023 03:56
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B
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Mar 30, 2023 04:59
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B. Let's kick some crusader rear end.
anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 12:45 on Mar 30, 2023 |
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Mar 30, 2023 10:00
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Joan of Arc is as good a place as any to start, BUT if I may make a suggestion: what better followup to William Wallace could there be than doing the new Longshanks campaign?
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Mar 30, 2023 10:18
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As I said, I wanted to try and ease people into the game by playing the old campaigns/providing the original experience in an updated format before tackling the new stuff. Makes a good dividing point too, so I'm not dropping dozens of potential campaigns on people at once. Also, I notice that there's a bunch of people who haven't bolded their votes! Given that this is actually shaping up to be a close contest, let me take this opportunity to remind you that non-bolded votes will not be counted.
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Mar 30, 2023 12:38
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Crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women. Personally I found the French campaign the most difficult and frustrating out of all of the original ones. All because of the English annoying unique unit. 
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Mar 30, 2023 15:00
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Rody One Half posted:
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Mar 30, 2023 15:10
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Vote's closed! Relatively close, all things considered, but Joan of Arc won out in the end.
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Mar 31, 2023 01:47
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La Hire's sword is not bloody enough...
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Mar 31, 2023 02:00
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Joan of Arc - Part 1: An Unlikely Messiah Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Frank Theme Very well, then let us begin, the tale of the Maid of Orléans.   Mission 1 Starting Text "February 19, Army Camp near Vaucouleurs. This morning I awoke to visions of fire and steel. These nightmares come more often now that I have seen my beloved France eaten away by years of war. I wandered through camp ignoring the new snowfall, but observing the wounds and weariness of every soldier under my command. Observing the desperation in their eyes. It was then that I first saw the girl. She told us that her name was Joan. She told us that she was but a peasant who did not know how to ride or fight. She told us that she intended to rescue France. The darkness lifted from the men's souls. Her voice rang with conviction, and we drank in her every word. I may have lost my faith, but Joan has not lost hers, and that is enough for me. Joan has asked our ragged band of soldiers to take her to Chinon, where the rightful ruler of France, the dauphin, hides from his foes."  You may have noticed from the intro text, but the game is about to get a whole lot wordier. Bertrand: Bonjour Joan, my colleague and I will escort you to the château of the dauphin, or else we will die trying. De Metz: I am Jean de Metz, and I will protect you with my life. Anyways, the goal of the scenario is to get Joan the Maid from here in Vaucouleurs over to the Dauphin's château in Chinon, represented by that orange dot visible on the other side of the minimap. The countryside is under assault from Burgundians and Highwaymen and the French Army itself is useless, but Joan pretty much causes every French soldier she meets to immediately join her so I'm not going to be strapped for troops. Joan herself is not very good at fighting, although not entirely defenseless and regenerates health. Which is useful, because if she dies you fail the scenario. The two knights are hero versions of their Cavalry counterparts.   Swordsman: You are Joan of Arc... I have heard your claims and believe what you say. We will follow you to Chinon! Crossbowman: Wait! You might have need of a few archers on the road ahead. No, it really is almost every French soldier on the map. Spearman: You must be wary on the road ahead. Our enemies, the English, are out in force and their Burgundian allies are thick as rats. Discretion is the better part of valor.   This scenario's pretty much entirely on rails. A scout warns you if you try to go north that there's a Burgundian fortress in that direction, so the only way forward is south. Clear out a few wolves and you eventually come across the English giving a beatdown to the French Army. De Metz comments before and after the battle... De Metz: (Pre-fight) Look out! A battle rages ahead! Stay back lest we be caught in the crossfire! (Post-fight) Another glorious loss for France. I hope you really can turn the tide of this war, Joan of Arc.  De Metz: The bridge is out. The English must have destroyed it. We must find another way to Chinon. This piece of architecture, apart from looking cool, exists to justify why you can't just take the straight line path across the map to Chinon.  Bertrand: Highwaymen preying on helpless travelers. What has become of our homeland? Oh hey, the first actual fight in this scenario! It's a bunch of Feudal Age highwaymen, or is that Feudal Age units for the Castle Age era highwaymen? I have numbers on my side, heroes, and more advanced units. If you choose to directly engage the camp to the north there's a slightly tougher fight and a Tower you'll have to deal with, but it's not really necessary to keep on advancing.  De Metz: A Burgundian encampment! We'll never get through that wall without siege equipment. What you want to do is go up to this encampment without touching the walls. There's a few archers on the inside, but as long as you don't directly attack the town they'll let you ride along northwards to the next objective.  I kill a few more wolves in the woods and reach the neighboring allied French town.  Swordsman: Gather your belongings men - we follow Joan of Arc! We will carry that ram along with us. It may yet be of use. In said town are a number of additional troops, and most importantly, a Capped Ram. Don't go past that bridge by the way, because... Swordsman: Are you mad? Across that bridge lies a Burgundian castle and many men! Turn back at once! You can blow it up, but it's a tough fight for absolutely no purpose, except bragging rights.  I return to the Burgundian encampment and use the Ram to break through the walls. Despite some heckling... Burgundian Soldier: You French don't know when to give up! There isn't that much that the Archers stationed here can do to your army, especially if you lead with the Ram to soak up their fire.  From that point it's just a hop, skip, and a jump through the shallows to get to the part of the Burgundian encampment that faces the river proper. Unfortunately...  De Metz: An ambuscade! There are Burgundian soldiers everywhere! Hurry west to the river, where we can make our escape! It isn't quite as bad as De Metz makes it out to be, but there are enough Burgundian soldiers here that if you're careless you might lose the mission if you let a few get through to Joan and kill her.   Reach this Dock and two transport ships spawn in for you to make your escape down the river. A Burgundian ship patrols the river to punish players who just casually tell their Transports to march into a random spot in the fog of war, but it's easy enough to run away from. Finish jetting down the river and you can land your troops on a friendly island connected by shallows to the mainland. It has some more troops...  Crossbowman: You mean to lead the French army? Such confidence I have not seen since this war began. Very well, you have six more soldiers, Joan the Maid. ...and some Scorpions, Siege units which do damage in a line based on the trajectory of their arrows. As with most of the Anti-Unit siege, it is theoretically very devastating, but in practice depends on your ability to micro.   A group of Highwaymen and a group of Burgundians are the last real threats in the mission, though since I kept my army intact they're just speedbumps.    The rest of the scenario is just a walk through Chinon, culminating with a Courtier acting like a receptionist and saying that the Dauphin will see you now. Mission 1 Ending Text "As Joan's footsteps echoed down the marbled hall of the château, the fat and whispering dukes did naught but stare. The dauphin himself seemed afraid when she kissed his feet. 'My gentle dauphin,' she demanded, 'why does England claim what is ours? Why are you not crowned King of France as is your right?' The courtiers began to murmur. The chamberlain whispered lies into the dauphin's ear. But the dauphin pushed the chamberlain away and rose to meet Joan's gaze. She stands only to the shoulder of the shortest man, but all of us must look up to speak to her. I know not what silent conversation passed between the dauphin and his would-be savior, but it was obvious that his Majesty was in the same thrall as we." And there's the first scenario. It's very tightly organized which has its ups and downs, but mostly means that it's focused on the tactical scale of the game and telling a story. Just make sure that you don't accidentally lose a bunch of soldiers on one of the smaller fights to stupid mistakes and you'll come out alright.  I want to show something off here. If you do go and attack the Burgundian castle up at the north of the map, it looks like this. That is because starting in Definitive Edition they went and updated all the campaign factions to be represented by their relevant civilizations when appropriate. Back in the original version of the game, the Burgundians were just a differently named version of the Franks, but now they're... well, Burgundians. Extra Slides Mission 1 - Intro Slide 1 Mission 1 - Intro Slide 2 Mission 1 - Intro Slide 3 Mission 1 - Intro Slide 4 Mission 1 - Intro Slide 5 Mission 1 - Intro Slide 6 Mission 1 - End Slide 1 Mission 1 - End Slide 2 Mission 1 - End Slide 3 Mission 1 - End Slide 4 Mission 1 - End Slide 5 Mission 1 - End Slide 6 Jossar fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Apr 2, 2023 |
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Mar 31, 2023 02:57
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Mmmm... venison
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Mar 31, 2023 08:00
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I'm re-playing the game and turns out I'd played through the Celtic tutorial campaign at some point but I had zero memory of it So I started the French campaign at the same time you did - the next mission was interesting! A bit more in depth, not on rails, but definitely railroaded imo.
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Mar 31, 2023 08:17
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Ah, france, truly it is a place where the french come from. I don't really know the historical background to this scenario.
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Mar 31, 2023 11:40
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It's the final stages of the French war of independence from the British Empire, it lasted about a hundred years. Poor France, so far from God, so close to the United Kingdom.
SIGSEGV fucked around with this message at 12:08 on Mar 31, 2023 |
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Mar 31, 2023 11:57
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Yeah what is it... the Lancastrian phase? The lesser Shakespeare plays were written about this time. I am all about the early phases... Henry V and all that.
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Mar 31, 2023 15:50
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Henry V has been dead for almost a decade when Joan of Arc first appears in the history books. The Battle of Agincourt took place in 1415, Henry V dies in 1422, and Joan arrives in Vaucouleurs in 1428 to ask for an escort to Chinon. She was actually dismissed the first time, but then she came back at the beginning of 1429, this time being backed up by Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy (our two heroes), and then we're all caught up with the campaign. While the Scottish campaign is heavily influenced by Hollywood stuff like Braveheart, Joan of Arc's campaign is pretty accurate, as accurate as you can get in a video game setting
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Mar 31, 2023 18:44
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my knowledge of that period of history basically begins and ends with the two Henriads, haha. but yeah, this portrayal of La Hire, at least, is the most accurate on in video games... i think? he appears in the Bladestorm games and that one absolute mad PSP SRPG... 
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Mar 31, 2023 19:07
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I can still hear all of these La Hire quotes in my mind
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Mar 31, 2023 22:09
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Aces High posted:Henry V has been dead for almost a decade when Joan of Arc first appears in the history books. The Battle of Agincourt took place in 1415, Henry V dies in 1422, and Joan arrives in Vaucouleurs in 1428 to ask for an escort to Chinon. She was actually dismissed the first time, but then she came back at the beginning of 1429, this time being backed up by Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy (our two heroes), and then we're all caught up with the campaign. Does Gilles De Raise show up?
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Mar 31, 2023 23:49
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the story of jeanne d'arc is so goddamned crazy
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Apr 1, 2023 01:59
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It's also how the English discovered there were other ways to prepare food than boiling.
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Apr 1, 2023 02:07
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Joan of Arc - Part 2: The Maid of Orléans Mission 2 Starting Text "March 26, Chinon. It is one thing for a band of dispirited soldiers to put their trust in a teenage girl. It is entirely another for that girl to be given command of the army of an entire nation. We were filled with pride when we heard the dauphin's heralds pronounce Joan the Maid as commander of the army of France. So that she may look like a general, the dauphin presented Joan with a great warhorse and a suit of white armor. Joan instructed me to look for an ancient sword buried beneath the altar of a local church. I was skeptical, but not only did the men unearth a rusted blade, but we found that the sword had belonged to Charlemagne, grandfather of France. I shall not doubt her word again. Still visible on the hilt was the fleur-de-lis. Joan adopted the fleur-de-lis as her symbol and had it blazoned upon her battle standard. Wherever Joan goes, the standard goes also. It goes with us to Orléans. The city of Orléans is one of the finest in France, but it is under siege by our enemies, England and Burgundy, and is about to fall. This war has dragged on for one hundred years with precious few French victories. The people of Orléans need a savior. They will receive Joan of Arc."  Alençon: I am the Duke D'Alençon, my lady. I will proudly ride with you to Orléans. Joan has a horse now! Instead of being a weak melee unit, she is now functionally a self-healing Paladin with slightly worse Pierce Armor but much better attack. Alençon doesn't make the tradeoff, but has slightly less attack in exchange. After that a popup comes from a Villager. Orléans Villager: Our city needs help! The English are coming! ...Don't suppose you could tell us whether they're doing a land approach or a naval approach, buddy?  French Monk: Bonne chance, Joan! I always liked this little Monk and him giving you well-wishes as you leave Chinon. No particular other reason to include him.  Alençon: This Burgundian rabble shall not stop us! On the road to Blois, you're attacked by some Burgundians. Definitive Edition including their Unique Unit makes them surprisingly dangerous for a random fight, but with heroes and focus fire they're manageable.  French Soldier: Welcome to Blois, Joan of Arc. The army of France is yours to command. You're given a moderate number of soldiers and a number of Trade Carts that need to be brought to Orléans to provide the city with supplies. Lose any of them and you fail the mission.    Go the land route and you'll have to deal with all the carts being present while you fight a decent sized Burgundian road blockade, complete with a Guard Tower. Walk along the coast, however, and the game gives you a dock and two Transport ships. Put Joan and the Trade Carts on these and you can just hop across the river and ride directly to Orléans without any interference. Getting Joan to the Gates gives you control of the Town and getting the Trade Carts to the Town Center gives you a whole bunch of supplies.  Taking control of Orléans trades one loss condition for another. Here's the city's Cathedral. If it gets destroyed, you lose.   I quickly tech up to Castle Age, put down a Siege Workshop, and start cranking out some Battering Rams. Hmm, I feel like I'm forgetting about something. What was it again?  Oh, right.   Once the Rams start waddling their way over, I grab Alençon and the rest of the army, send it to the other side of the Burgundian encampment and assault it from a position which encourages them to leave the safety of their Guard Tower rather than have me fight through it. In an ideal world, the fight would have finished just in time for the Rams to do the dirty work of taking down the Tower, but they are really slow and the army has to take that out as well.  The ultimate goal of the mission is fairly straightforward - destroy a single one of the enemy's Castles. One of them happens to be right next to the Burgundian camp. In addition to taking the least amount of maneuvering to get to, this Castle also happens to belong to the English faction that never gets Murder Holes even on the higher difficulties. That means their buildings can never attack directly below them, so if you blow up everything around the Castle and have 1 Ram plinking away at it, you will eventually win, although it might take a while.  The Southern English aren't going to just take this lying down though, they have a bunch of Knights and will keep producing more in attempt to repulse your attacks.   I break through the walls and start working on the immediate threat of the Guard Tower, before moving to the Castle itself. That Southern English Battering Ram in the first shot isn't a defense unit, by the way, it will slowly make its way up to attack Orléans if you let it.   The Northern English finally manage to send some units to start attacking Orléans... about 20 seconds before I complete the scenario objective. English: Can it be that the French have finally learned to fight? Mission 2 Ending Text "Joan prophesied that she would be wounded at Orléans. At the height of the battle, an arbalest bolt knocked her from her horse. We could not believe our misfortune. But as we carried Joan away from the carnage, the battle was won. Orléans was free. When we entered the city, the entire population cheered us on from windows, rooftops, and city streets. They fired artillery into the night sky and shouted aloud their nickname for Joan: 'La Pucelle'—The Maid of Orléans." For those of you expecting an epic battle, I am sorry to disappoint. This scenario is 3/4 prep time, followed by a battle which mostly consists of my starting forces serving as a shield for Battering Rams. If you move fast enough, there's pretty much no threat of the English ever seriously contesting you - the one exception to this being if you try to take on the Castle before you're ready, fail your first attack, and then have to deal with a prolonged siege as you rebuild your forces for a second go around. This is the last time you can get away with this nonsense. The rest of the campaign is either built around objectives that explicitly expect you to rush and have been adjusted accordingly, or much bigger fights. 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 - Intro Slide 6 Mission 2 - Intro Slide 7 Mission 2 - Intro Slide 8 Mission 2 - Intro Slide 9 Mission 2 - End Slide 1 Mission 2 - End Slide 2 Mission 2 - End Slide 3 Mission 2 - End Slide 4 Jossar fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Apr 1, 2023 |
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Apr 1, 2023 02:25
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tithin posted:Does Gilles De Raise show up? I don't think he has ever appeared as a major character in any modern Joan of Arc media. It's been years since I played AoE2 so I can't remember all the heroes that show up but considering what de Rais did after he stopped being a soldier, I get the feeling most people don't want that stinking up their stories
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Apr 1, 2023 08:40
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Aces High posted:I don't think he has ever appeared as a major character in any modern Joan of Arc media. It's been years since I played AoE2 so I can't remember all the heroes that show up but considering what de Rais did after he stopped being a soldier, I get the feeling most people don't want that stinking up their stories I looked him and sweet jesus gently caress what.
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Apr 1, 2023 08:59
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Jossar posted:
since we've seen it, I think an explanation of why they're so dangerous is ok- the Burgundian UU, the coustilier, is a mounted unit like a knight, but it has a special ability: it will charge up a super powerful attack for massive damage. ie. it's base attack is 8, while the charged attack adds another whopping 20! (40 second cooldown) (represented by a bar underneath the unit, akin to a monk). And this is not including any upgrades from the blacksmith (and Burgundians get all melee attack upgrades). A fully upgraded elite coustillier's charge does the highest damage (40) in the game besides siege units- and this is after two nerfs. This makes them excellent at alpha strikes, and the ability represents the shock of an actual cavalry charge of lance wielding knights. Coustillier's are one of the game's premier raiders, able to zoom around killing villagers. The massive damage can also be a big threat in attrition scenario's like this one, where if they focused a unit they could bring it down before you realize, and losses are irreplaceable. It was likely based on a planned feature that cut from the alpha of AoE2, where regular knights would have a similar 'charge'. Mazerunner fucked around with this message at 11:39 on Apr 1, 2023 |
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Apr 1, 2023 11:33
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Jossar posted:but we found that the sword had belonged to Charlemagne, grandfather of France. One inaccuracy here: Joan's sword in most versions of the folklore surrounding her was said to be the sword of Charles Martel, Charlemagne's grandfather. If I had to guess, the game went with Charlemagne because he'd have a better chance of being known to non-French players.
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Apr 1, 2023 11:46
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Which is funny, because they would then add a Charles Martel map in Conquerors
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Apr 1, 2023 12:02
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Aces High posted:I don't think he has ever appeared as a major character in any modern Joan of Arc media. It's been years since I played AoE2 so I can't remember all the heroes that show up but considering what de Rais did after he stopped being a soldier, I get the feeling most people don't want that stinking up their stories I think I can spoil that Gilles de Rais does not show up in any form, nor is he even talked about. Not that most people would really notice, since most of the campaign's side-heroes kind of only serve as cameo appearances, and then fade out into the background of the Hundred Years' War. You can definitely see that this campaign has the marks of being a very early one with how much we're being moved around by the history, with even the nominal main character just sort of being there. Gilles de Rais shows up a lot in Japanese games, for some reason. That PSP game that was talked about earlier, for instance, along with the Fate series. Cythereal posted:One inaccuracy here: Joan's sword in most versions of the folklore surrounding her was said to be the sword of Charles Martel, Charlemagne's grandfather. If I had to guess, the game went with Charlemagne because he'd have a better chance of being known to non-French players. It bounces back and forth, given the legendary and therefore imprecise nature of the sword. It would not be entirely unreasonable to say that the sword belonged to both Charles Martel and Charlemagne though. Jossar fucked around with this message at 14:05 on Apr 1, 2023 |
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Apr 1, 2023 12:56
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yeah Gilles de Rais shows up in the absurd Jeanne d'Arc PSP game where La Hire is also an anthropomorphic lion and Jeanne herself gets magic Sailor Moon-esque transformation powers to battle the literal demons that have taken over the English leadership. He is one of the main characters and is portrayed as heroic throughout the game until (endgame spoilers) you defeat the final boss. The ultimate evil cannot actually be destroyed so one of the main characters has to contain their power in their own bodies, a la the ending of Diablo 1. Jeanne (who has survived being burnt alive at this point because her friend who looks like her was executed in her place) offers to be the one, but Gilles stops her, heroically insisting he take the burden instead. The game ends with everyone happy the Ultimate Evil and the English have been stopped. There is a scene where Gilles looks pained and someone asks if he'll be okay and he's all like, "Yeah, naw, I got this" and then the game just kinda ends. I didn't know anything about de Rais at that point. I thought he was just the cool dragoon-type character of the game and I always used him because I liked characters with spears. After finishing the game I figured I would look him up because I didn't recall learning about him from, say, AoE2. Turns out he WAS based on a really person and... welp... I have no idea who wrote Jeanne d'Arc for the PSP but it was a real wtf realization. Decent Final Fantasy Tactics clone but hooooooly poo poo the writing.
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Apr 1, 2023 15:23
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Joan of Arc - Part 3: The Cleansing of the Loire Mission 3 Starting Text "June 14, Orléans. Our rescue of Orléans was a setback for our enemies, but only a minor one. The English still possess half of France. Tragically, we have cooled our heels for weeks while the Dauphin's advisors debate. Joan became irritated with the delay and reassembled her army. She talks of nothing but her mission to drive the English into the sea. The force of Joan's will is titanic. She has gathered to her banner swearing brigands and knaves and turned them into patriots and heroes. Among them is the man La Hire. A giant clad in plate mail, he drives men on with curses and fists. There will be plenty of English necks for La Hire to break at Patay. Patay is the gateway to the Loire River Valley. The English hold the Loire in a grip of steel, whilst a huge army under Sir John Fastolf devastates the countryside. Joan leads us to Patay to capture the English castles. However, we must avoid Fastolf's army 'til we are strong enough to face his veterans."  Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - La Hire Will Beat On Your Behind That's not what the song is called. La Hire: It's better. Look, the readers have already memed you to hell and back, can we please not... La Hire: No chance! You are boring, and La Hire has arranged for a distraction to narrate the scenario without your so called "help." Oh really, and how are you going to do that? La Hire: A raid on your gold supply. That doesn't work in real life, idiot. Hey! Don't touch that! No, I don't care that it's made out of "purestrain gold", that's a stupid... La Hire: Enough of this! La Hire wishes to kill something.   La Hire: The English and their Burgundian whelps hide behind the Loire. Nothing guarding the river that explosives can't handle!   La Hire: North of the river, the Burgundians wait in force. Good! The blood on La Hire's sword is almost dry.  La Hire: La Hire even dealt the final blow! On to tougher necks to snap.   La Hire: La Pucelle makes La Hire sit around while the workers build a camp. It is necessary work, but BORING.  La Hire: Finally, some more English to kill! La Hire shall leave the walls and face them all by... *thwip* French Soldier: La Hire has been grievously wounded! ... Anyway...  Fastolf: We'll see how your knights fare against English Longbows. I'm not sure what triggers Fastolf saying this line. I think he just automatically says it after 45 in-game minutes to remind you that he exists on the map as a separate force from the rest of the English castles. Fastolf has a lot of dialogue lines like that.  During the Castle Age you also get to build multiple Town Centers, which is useful for helping your economy to run ahead. There's a limit to how useful that's going to be because you're stuck in the Castle Age in this scenario and can't research all the big, expensive Imperial Age techs.  Fastolf: An army of Rams, how quaint. The Franks are primarily a Cavalry civilization, so that's what I go heavy on, with a couple of Rams thrown in for building destruction. The AI doesn't build a ton of Pikemen, or else I would try and diversify with some of their Unique Unit, the Throwing Axeman to counter the counter. But even then, Cavalry is what you do best and everybody knows it, especially in Multiplayer.    English: The French are attacking our castles! Fastolf: Enough of this! I shall deal with Joan of Arc. The big blue blob of destruction smashes the first of the English castles. This sets Fastolf's forces on a countdown to mobilize against your base, and is the real reason why you're supposed to build up heavily before attacking the English castles.    Fastolf: Methinks this peasant girl should go back to her sheep. I come for you, Joan of Arc! (If La Hire is still on the field, he will respond with: Do your worst, you English fop!) I overprepared for this, but I also got lucky and Fastolf decided to split up his army to try and go after easy targets of opportunity rather than send the whole thing in at once. Does mean I never got Fastolf himself though.   After mopping Fastolf's army up, I get back to work sieging the second Castle, although I had started while Fastolf was getting into position, hence the wonky timing.  French Soldier: With two English castles destroyed, we have but one more to raze! (If La Hire is still on the field, he will respond with: Them Brits can't make a castle stronger than La Hire.)    There are two different castles left which can be taken down to complete the scenario, but to end it with a bang, I decide to attack the more difficult one to the North. French Soldier: That's the last of them. The English will be forced to surrender the Loire Valley back to the French. Another victory for Joan of Arc! Mission 3 Ending Text "After Patay, the myth of English invulnerability was dispelled. Now our army knows it is possible to win, but only if we are resolute and cunning. The English are a most deadly enemy, and their longbowmen time and again have decimated a charge of French Knights. To make matters worse, we now face enemies on both sides. The Dauphin's advisors spend more and more time wrangling, jealous of Joan's influence at court. I pray that Joan can complete her divine mission before the Dauphin's envious advisors betray her." From a technical perspective this update kind of turned into a disaster, but in retrospect it was funnier that way.  Here's Fastolf hiding out in the middle of nowhere. If you kill him, he just takes it with a stiff upper lip and says: "I die for England." Notably this does not automatically defeat his base, and vice-versa, defeating his base does not prevent him and a series of guaranteed Imperial Age troops from spawning in once you take the first Castle. 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 - Intro Slide 6 Mission 3 - Intro Slide 7 Mission 3 - Intro Slide 8 Mission 3 - End Slide 1 Mission 3 - End Slide 2 Mission 3 - End Slide 3 Mission 3 - End Slide 4 Jossar fucked around with this message at 17:47 on Apr 1, 2023 |
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Apr 1, 2023 17:42
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iirc Fastolf did not die at this battle irl. also #notmyfalstaff. Shakespeare's version will always trump the real life version for me
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Apr 1, 2023 18:15
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As a note: the Franks unit being throwing axemen, a type of combatant that stopped existing a century or two before this campaign is a remnant of how AOE2 was originally a migration-era/fall of Rome game. Which means that the latest expansion brings that whole idea full circle, I suppose.
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Apr 1, 2023 19:44
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The mere fact we're talking about Franks and Goths in AoE2 at all is a remnant of that, really. Well "Frank" comes to mean a lot of different things from the Migration Period over the course of the Middle Ages, but /regardless/. We gets more of the Migration stuff in Conquerors and the Forgotten. E: actually idk what the earliest and latest campaigns are anymore, I've never finished everything from HD or Definitive, and don't even have the latest Definitive expansion. I think the earliest is Alaric, and the latest is Montezuma? Rody One Half fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Apr 1, 2023 |
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Apr 1, 2023 22:39
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Sally posted:yeah Gilles de Rais shows up in the absurd Jeanne d'Arc PSP game where La Hire is also an anthropomorphic lion and Jeanne herself gets magic Sailor Moon-esque transformation powers to battle the literal demons that have taken over the English leadership. He is one of the main characters and is portrayed as heroic throughout the game until (endgame spoilers) you defeat the final boss. The ultimate evil cannot actually be destroyed so one of the main characters has to contain their power in their own bodies, a la the ending of Diablo 1. Jeanne (who has survived being burnt alive at this point because her friend who looks like her was executed in her place) offers to be the one, but Gilles stops her, heroically insisting he take the burden instead. The game ends with everyone happy the Ultimate Evil and the English have been stopped. There is a scene where Gilles looks pained and someone asks if he'll be okay and he's all like, "Yeah, naw, I got this" and then the game just kinda ends. I also played that game and that happening had me nodding my head wisely knowing what happened. Also the francisques that are the actual signature weapons of the axe throwers are single bladed, with the blade projecting a bit up and the haft has a weird shape, both to increase the chance of striking with the blade. The twin bladed design has no real origin that I can point at but is the one that was favored in fascist illustrations and took over the representation with time. At least I suppose that was the trajectory for that, it might not be. SIGSEGV fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Apr 1, 2023 |
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Apr 1, 2023 22:57
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SIGSEGV posted:The twin bladed design has no real origin that I can point at but is the one that was favored in fascist illustrations and took over the representation with time. At least I suppose that was the trajectory for that, it might not be.
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Apr 1, 2023 23:48
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SIGSEGV posted:The twin bladed design has no real origin that I can point at but is the one that was favored in fascist illustrations and took over the representation with time. At least I suppose that was the trajectory for that, it might not be. Okay, so after a dive down the literature rabbit hole... The apparent source for this is Agathias, a Byzantine historian living in Emperor Justinian's day who, if you believe translations of his Histories, does claim that the Franks of 500s CE had double headed axes: "They have neither bows nor slings, no missile weapons except the double edged axe and the angon which they use most often." I could only find secondary sources in English attesting to him, and one relatively clean copy in Greek and Latin that isn't hidden behind an academia paywall, but I can't read with any greater accuracy than shoving into Google Translate. Whether the Franks actually had double-headed axes as a matter of archaeology/material culture is more speculative, but it is at least plausible that this isn't 100% made up... with about the same level of confidence as anything else written by an ancient historian. Rody One Half posted:
Alaric remains the earliest campaign date. The latest singular battle is Admiral Yi's defeat of the Japanese at Noryang Point in 1598, or if you want a full campaign - then the Bayinnaung campaign, which extends until 1581. The game stretches its definition of the period a lot. Jossar fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Apr 2, 2023 |
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Apr 2, 2023 00:28
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anilEhilated posted:The Minoan labrys, although that was most likely just a ceremonial symbol. The labys obviously looks like the modern representation but also is a completely different weapon, I guess it is that historian's description bringing them together. Observed material culture does indicate the one bladed design with the upward to front dogleg design.
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Apr 2, 2023 00:39
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