Age of Empires II is still getting new civilizations, over 21 years later

The classic real-time strategy game Age of Empires II: Age of Kings keeps growing, growing and growing. Its latest expansion, decades after the game’s initial release in 1999, is called Lords of the West and adds three other campaigns and two completely new civilizations: the Burgundians and the Sicilians.

Released today on PC, Lords of the West is a $ 10 add-on for the definitive edition of the game released in 2019. In addition to the three campaigns (fully vocal), one for the Burgundian and Sicilian civilizations, as well as another for the British focused on Edward Longshanks, There are the two civilizations, one focused on cavalry and gunpowder technology, while the other is based on infantry with interesting bonus gold technology.

Here are some important points from the Microsoft blog post:

Burgundians

• Economy upgrades are available an age earlier than other civilizations
• Cost of stable technologies -50%
• Gunpowder units gain + 25% attack
• Relics generate both gold and food
• Coustillier Cavalry Unit – Uses a powerful shock attack when charging into combat. Strong against infantry and archers. Weak against camel riders and monks.
• Burgundian Vineyards Technology – Convert all food to gold in a 2: 1 ratio, farmers slowly generate gold in addition to food.

Sicilians

• Castles and city centers are built 100% faster
• Ground military units absorb 50% of all additional damage received
• Farm Upgrades provide + 100% additional food to farms before they need to be reseeded
• Transport ships +5 load capacity and +10 armor against anti-ship attacks
• Serjeant – A robust infantry unit that can also build Dungeons
• Dungeon – Unique fortification used to train serjeants. Units can line the building for protection; Archers and Villagers fire additional projectiles while in garrison.

Along with their unique units and bonuses, both civilizations also have some very interesting unique techs that trigger massive changes on their first searches. Burgundy vineyards, for example, instantly convert all food to gold in a 2: 1 ratio and cause farmers to generate a small amount of gold in addition to the food supply. Meanwhile, the Flemish Revolution automatically turns all the villagers into a militia, which sounds drastic but potentially fun to rush or defend.

On the Sicilian side, there is First Crusade, which spawns 10 special Serjeant infantry units in each existing town center (up to five), and Scutage which gives all players on a team an additional 15 gold. per military unit that they control at once. . The two technologies could obviously work well together and also help support teams throughout a longer endgame.

Despite hundreds of hours in the original game, I’m still far from being an expert Age of Empires II strategist, so I’ll have to wait and see how some of the more elite players in the game’s small competitive scene put these new civilizations and technologies to good use. Still, it’s exciting to see the game’s balance potentially reinvigorated with another set of civilizational compromises to choose from. At least until Age of Empires IV finally arrives.