Idk about yall, but when The Conquerors Expansion came out, and the main menu changed from daytime to nighttime, that single change blew my mind as a kid.

if we include every DLC since 1999, the best one is the original The Conquerors : Unique techs, Hussars and Halbs, 5 civs, automatic reseed, no tech for Hand Canoneers, higher pop limit, infantry can garisson in rams, caravan, heresy, bloodline, thumb ring, Furious the Monkey Boy, and the list goes on...

"Perfectly square farms" That hits hard, ill have to get that dlc.

For the entire span of the game (which isn't the focus of the video) I think I put Conquerors as the best. Felt like it doubled the game's meaningful content and fixed so many problems with the base game. I remember the first time I installed it, and spent weeks wondering why I hadn't installed it earlier.

I swear Microsoft waits until I get within 5 achievements of 100% completion and then they release a new dlc.

Dawn of the dukes it's a great dlc. Absolutely deserves the #1 spot

I'm actually a Return to Rome enjoyer. I knew exactly what it was and bought it exactly for that reason (on sale for $6.99). It's he lowest rated Steam purchase I own and I enjoy it.

Return of Rome may not be popular among most Steam users, but I enjoy the nostalgia from my early childhood with the QoL of AoE2. The campaigns are good imo, and having the Romans as an AoE2 civ also feels pretty nice

The poles campaign is really great! ❤

I totally agree that The Dawn of the Dukes is the best especially due to its campaigns. I spent years asking for Georgia and Armenia, so I was glad to see them covered. I really appreciate the devs listening to the fanbase. Now I would love to see the Dracula campaign improved with the Wallachians being added as a civ.

- Why is the Dawn of the Dukes DLC so great? - It gives you the ability to place perfectly square farms, son!

Jadwiga was seriously the toughest campaign ever, followed by Rajendra.

Personally, I have all the DLC's. I spend a lot of time playing so I'm happy to support the studio

Dawn of the Dukes is such an amazing DLC, loved the Civs, the campaigns were amazing, the Polish campaign is my favorite. Truly my favorite DLC of them all.

10 years of asking a full campaign for the Chinese and Japanese. 😅

I know you touched on this at the beginning and you're right it's more of an expansion than a DLC but to me Forgotten Empires will always be the piece of AoE2 content against which all other pieces of content are measured

The Jadwiga campaign is so good, I absolutely love it. So touching.

If Rise of Rome allowed you the ability to play AoE1 civs against AoE2 civs and vice versa, I guarantee it would've been the #1 DLC on here. I don't see why they didn't try to pull that off. It would've been silly to fight the Hittites as the Ottoman Turks, sure, and that's exactly why it's a great idea.

My favourite was the Jadwiga campaign. Had me sad over a long dead lady lmao

It's interesting seeing how many of Sandy Petersen's ideas made it into the DLCs including splitting up the Indians into multiple civs and adding the Poles

"Introducing single use techs in lords of the west was not well received" Pre Patch Paper Money stares around nervously.

The Mountain Royals price problem is even worse in Brazil, here it costs 54,95 R$, by comparison all other DLC except Lords of the West are under 20 R$ and even Definitive Edition itself costs 36.99 R$, there is no excuse for a small DLC like Mountain Royals to cost almost twice as much as the base game, specifically if you concider that Definitive Edition contains the Conquerors and all the DLC from HD.

Sicilian campaign was pretty hype, with scaling heroes, a ton of interesting interactive mechanics and last but not least, covering a part of the history of Europe that's very unique and barely talked about.

Thanks for your ever perceptive comments. Looking ahead I think that the devs should focus on developing new campaigns for existing civs, although I could see a DLC based on a separation of Chinese civs based on dynasty. For example an army under the Tang Dynasty might be very different from earlier or later dynaties, and it would open the door to the development of a separate Tibetan civ. One civ missing from the Europeans is the Swiss whose unique focus on infantry should deserve some attention from the devs.

I agree with having dawn of the dukes at #1, that was such a memorable campaign. I would have moved lords of the west to #2 spot for their campaigns as well but then again I'm one of those people who purely play these games/expansions for their story campaigns and the history while never touching online.

Conquerors brought Mayans, Aztecs and Spaniards, for original AOE2 players, there won't be any better DLC ❤

I have only the dawn of the dukes dlc, and i love it, Jadwiga campaign is so well made, also the Poles as a civ is my favorite. Its Perfect

As a 90% campaign player, I like Mountain Royals a lot. The campaigns had some major bugs in the beginning, but they've fixed those and now they run quite well. I like the new civilizations, especially the Armenians. I do think that DotD is one of the best expansions period, second maybe to Conquerors because that's the one I had as a kid on CD. I think that if you had ranked all of the DLCs, including AOK and AOEIIHD, my near-total agreement with the list would be different, as I'm not a huge fan of most of the middle DLCs. I don't love The Forgotten, campaign-wise at least, although I do love the Incas and Slavs. Last Khans is also pretty mediocre, although again I do love the Bulgarians.

Awesome vid! And a very well-made list, totally agree with the arrangement.

It made sense to just rank the current purchasable DLCs in this video, but I would love a follow up video that ranks, The Conquerors, The Forgotten, African Kingdoms, Rise of the Rajas, and The Last Khans too.

As someone recently returning to AOE, I appreciate the insight, happy to see you still putting out nice content Spirit :)

I really hope the next one focuses on more Mesoamerican civs, or at least adds a full campaign for the Mayans. And honestly, if they end up covering all possible civs from the time period, I would be willing to pay for campaign & maps only DLCs, but of course, they would have to be lower than $15 sheesh.

You are very good at these videos. Thanks. Btw, perfect farms listed as a Pole pro is very funny!

i absolutly loves the new dlc mule cart, i even created a custom scenario where you start a game with just 3 villager and a mule cart regardless of civilization and having a lot of fun with it

Personally I would have rated DoI as the best DLC, as not only gives you 3 new civs, but overhauls an existing one (Indians -> Hindustanis) quite a lot. Also I like the approach to civ design with giving them a very spotty tech tree, but compensating for it by strong civ-boni and lots of unique and regional units. Makes these civs feel quite a bit more distinguished from the rest.

Then again, some of us loved Return of Rome because it introduced us to AoE 1, which is awesome (and often my preferred game of the two, at this point). I never would have played it otherwise, but after experiencing it I'd consider buying AoE 2 DE + RoR worth it for the AoE 1 content alone. Simpler and rougher, maybe, but tons of fun in single player. So, yeah, maybe the worst AoE 2 DLC, but AoE 1 is a great game in its own right.

I still wish a new expansion would sometime add a more generic new unit or upgrade, we have not seen that since the Conquerors. I won't mind new regional units either of course, but it could be nice to maybe see an additional barracks unit since nothing has been added there since the Conquerors while there's a lot of cavalry and archery units, several regional ones for both. Personally I think they should split the militia line into two chains, one with sword and shield through all the ages, and the other coming in at the castle age wielding a two handed sword from the start. Since it's a bit odd they change equipment like that, and this way one could be more defensive and the other more offensive. A regional unit with spear and shield could also maybe be a great alternative to the spearman, having more pierce armour but less melee armour, moving faster. Could be great for an African infantry unit that the Berbers and Saracens could also have aside from the African civs. Or maybe some sort of fast infantry raider unit armed with axe and shield that's cheap cannon fodder that deals bonus damage to villagers and buildings and could nearly instantly be recruited to serve a purpose against raids too despite being weak. They'd have a little protection against archers with their shields and would be more a nuisance to cavalry to deal with, a distraction than a real challenge. But their speed would make cavalry work a bit more to grab them.

Thx for this overview and briefly summarizing the Civs. Hands down! The best add-on to the game was back in 1999 with the Conquerors adding Mayans, Aztecs, Spanish, Huns and Koreans as well as four new campaigns, 11 new units, 26 new technologies mechanics. However, these civs have been nerfed to death despite being very popular in tournament, but underperforming. Second all time best add-on was African Kindom: I love the Serengeti map and the baobob trees. Ethiopians, Malians, Berbers, and Portugues are fun civs with current mechanics and average performance 50-51%. Especially, Portugues needed a lot of change to actually being competitive…

After watching until the end, I think in terms of uniqueness Rajas is better than AK because it gave you a lot of unique things from battle elephant, an archer that counter other archers, a unit that only cost 1/2 pop, a new map that is both land and water, a cavalry archer that always got nerfed every time even though it's only have 30% accuracy.

Poles have been one of if not the biggest civ theres been demand for. If it wasnt number 1 id be shocked.

Nice review, but I wish you hadn’t skipped The Last Khans which introduced new real world maps, or the original HD expansions. It was a bit mind-boggling when The Forgotten and The African Kingdoms came out. As a side note, the latter two expansions had a really positive impact on my life in those years!

My list: 5. Return of Rome 4. The Mountain Royals 3. Dynasties of India 2. Lords of the West 1. Dawn of the Dukes All are fantastic, though, and worth it if you are a big fan of the greatest video game of all time.

Yeah, I'm pretty interested to see what the top and bottom poles are

Thanks for this, Im looking into buying the game and this really helps with what DLCs to prioritize!

It really can't be emphasised enough what incredible SP value you get from the $20 basegame.. at the very least a year's worth of campaigns.

Dude, campaigns wise, I love how you can see the other side of the conflict in the ones from Lords of the West; but Jadwiga's cutscenes have the biggest plot twist I've seen in years (and I've seen Marvel/GOT)

I am happy with all of them. Keep them coming! :)

Nice idea! Thanks!

Got the top 3 DLCs as a black Friday bundle for $10 🙌🏽

Return of Rome is really for folks like me who would've liked to see AoE1 brought up to speed with other AoE games. If we're looking at just AoE2 additions then yeah, it's weak. But getting a Roman civ for those late Antiquity scenarios rocked, and really, the one thing it's missing is a Roman AoE2 campaign. That would've gone a long way towards giving it some extra AoE2 stuff. But I think that AoE1 should've been developed more, with a stronger push to AoE2-ify it. UUs and UTs at the least, probably with the Academy serving as the UU and UT building as is the Castle in AoE2. And the campaigns to be updated to a more AoE2-style narrative and design, rather than just porting over 25 year old campaigns from very early RTS era. The difference in quality between the backported campaigns and new ones is just too massive. It's honestly kinda annoying that the most recent overhauled version of AoE1 feels like it could use an overhaul again. Mountain Royals is definitely the black sheep among standard AoE2 DLCs. The price hike cuts deep. It does however mark the first time the Persians actually get a campaign, after having existed for 25 years in both AoE1 and 2, and not even being added in any other Age of games for whatever reason. Lord of the West is pretty much the middle of the pack here. But I like Burgundians in any form they take in any game, so I can't complain about anything in this DLC. It could use Normans as a separate civ from the Sicilians but it's overall alright either way. Dynasties of India feels like the strongest DLC to me, by far. Aside from adding three civs and reworking one other, they also did the correct move and made the Gurjara campaign remain as Gurjaras, rather than attempt to limit access to it just because they're a DLC civ. The Dravidians are also playable in the coop version of Suryavarman 4, as the second player slot. I only wish they would've made the Normans playable in Hastings the same way. Dawn of the Dukes holds one of the strongest narratives of the game, imo. Lithuanian and Polish storylines being interlinked and the grand campaign of Jan Žižka against the HRE are nothing to scoff at. But I would still rank it lower than Dynasties of India. The competitive strength of a civ doesn't matter as much to me because it's very volatile, given a course of several updates, so I'm not sure how reasonable of a rating it is here. Like the Bohemians, who a couple updates ago were underperforming, but are now top tier off of essentially just a unit rework.

Of course... because since the release of HD, people always asking for poles civ because they want winged hussars. Even if base hussar and Magyar huszar have wings it doesn't matter because it's not winged hussars.

Love your videos

great stuff!

I have to admit I did not know the Rome DLC came with AOE1 Content and Campaigns. Definitely going to get it now

When life gives you lemons, watch Spirit of the Law

Nice list

The interconnected campaigns is great, but to me the Algirdas and Kestutis campaign is the highlight of Dawn of the Dukes. It's kind of the closest you get to a string of co-op campaigns in the game at this point, and they have high number of reasonable paths to victory. Overall the DLC definitely feels like it has some of the most variety; going back and playing the original AOEI and II missions you realize how far the game has come in mission design.

THE CONQUERORS!!

Hey SOTL, i have an idea for a video When are you better off building fishtraps rather than long distance fishing? I'm a big fan of your content Cheers From Brazil

AoE 1 is a game I played a ton in high school so the dlc for it is top tier for me to relive the nostalgia. When AoE2 came out I barely looked back at 1 until now.

To be fair I'm already waiting for the next DLC to be released.

i definitely wish you hadn’t skipped over the earlier expansions

As someone who hasn't bought any DLCs (barely even play DE) I was able to guess the order of all 5. Not sure what that means exactly, probably that I need to get outside a bit more...

1:57 as someone who doesn't play DE i almost shit myself when the subtitles said return of rome cost $115 USD

This actually shows HOW AWESOME the base game is. I took years of deelopment and years of funding from players and devs etc but at $20 it has lots of civs, game options, campaigns

I play full random all the time, every time. So i just like having dlcs to see what i'll get. SAying this though, i'm doing all the campaigns and it surprises me even after all this time... most of them haven't been played still!

Really wish we could get an update to the Aztecs. Would also love a DLC with the Polynesians as a more water-based civilization along with more unique civilizations.

I love return of rome dlc the most, its my most favorite

13:17 As a Sabaton fan I see what you did there.

The Conquers have been around for so long (and came out so early following the OG) that in many (if not most) people's minds they are one and the same with the OG.

I'll rank it this way 5. Ror 4. Tmr 3. Dotd 2. Low 1. Doi

Everyone here says that the Conquerors dlc was the best. And i can't disagree. The ability to garrison units in my Ferrari Mongol rams is soo good. But the Conquerors switched the melee damage of bombard towers to pierce damage. That made a very powerful defensive building a useless pile of stone

I LOVE AOE1, and I LOVED playing the Return of Rome DLC yet I gotta say that I also think that the Return of Rome DLC must be placed at the end

I really hope they do one for the east like the Chinese or Japanese.

Age of Conquerors is the only game that I knew the release date of and prepared my mom to drive me to the mall on the day it came out. Those were some good times. Yes I'm old 🙂

I bought Dawn of the Dukes just for the poles. My new favorite civ

I want Lords of the East now, with extended Japanese and Chinese dynasties

Not to be a nit picker but the title really should be “Ranking the AoE2 DE DLCs”. I like how this vid approached the topic, like a consumers guide, but I thought we were going to get a comparison of every DLC from the title.

I bet we'll see at least 2 more before it's over

@Spirit i think something with your Return of Rome settings is wrong. I bought the DLC recently and i see plenty / few game lobbies across different countries.

"The arrival of Winged Hussars" You cheeky devil

One question, for the Return of Rome you said it has "the most popular campaigns from the original", so does that mean it doesn't have all the AoE1 campaigns? If so that's a damn shame, I like AoE2 more from a gameplay perspective but I like AoE1's setting and campaigns more, was really looking forward to replaying them.

I'll admit I didn't expect to see it any higher, but I am still a bit disappointed to see Lords of the West at 3. Personal favorite since I just love both Burgundians and Sicilians; they're two of my top five civs, if not top three.

I grew up with the original game, before the conquerors expansion and I have to say, as great as all the new campaigns are, none of them are able to imprint such unforgettable memories as the original William Wallace campaign, or Joan of arc. Partly of course due to age, when first playing at such a young age it becomes somewhat of a core memory. However partly it feels the original style was more raw, more unpolished, even more extreme in some ways, and I am only talking about the voice acting here. It's the way these stories were told in such an emotional way that made them so unforgettable for me. The new campaigns sometimes lack this passion for me, I can always tell it's a voice actor doing his/her job. But with the storyteller of William Wallace, you had the impression that he is part of the Scottish resistance, with la hire you had a similar impression, even Bertrand and de metz! Sure it's Microsoft these days, and the people behind might have a different focus on whats important for a good game, but I somehow deeply wish, for the next dlc they could look at the original voice acting, throw a bit of that polished correctness over board and create yet some more campaigns that don't allow it's player to forget them their whole life only due to how it's story is told.

I like them all.

This will be controversial, I hope we'll see DLC for the Return of Rome DLC. The classical period of AoE1 is just a rich in history as the medieval period of AoE2 and is worth exploring. India of this era definitely would be interesting. China can be reworked into multiple civs for the Three Kingdoms and Warring States periods. Northern Europe, Southern Africa, and the Americas of this time period are fairly brushed over by media in general.

Return of Rome #5 is crazy

I feel like the region that needs the next DLC expansion is the Saracen civ. They should to be broken up into more specialized civs like the Indian civ was. Maybe: Abbasids, Mamluks, Emirate of Cordoba, etc...

I’m amazed how big AoE 2 got in content-wise thanks to DE. So much new stuff for the best RTS ever… I buy every dlc they release because I can’t have no fun in this game.

I'm dissapointed what they did to civs from Lords of the West DLC. They changed them entirely. Nerf after nerf until the civs stopped being unique. It also feels bad that Lithuanians and Persian campaigns are locked behind DLC.

Damn! I wanted to make a video abbout that, the next days.

Even though their not my favourite gameplay wise, I was really happy with how they handled the Poles Seeing my nations history represented beyond the World Wars is great to see, Królowa Jadwiga is an awesome character to show people worldwide.

I would have been more satisfied if Return of Rome beside the Roman civ added a Roman campaign for AoE2. I think that there will be no campaign for them 😔 There won't be a dlc for a dlc. ( fingers crossed it will be added later to return of rome with an update )

Hey Spirit Of The Law, guys here.

"The arrival of winged hussars" I see your Sabatons slipping up SOTL. I see it.

Nice how you acknowledge AoE 1 being more famous than AoE 2 in Vietnam. Personal exp they still play old AoE 1 in internet cafes but I imagine more people are playing on Steam now.

Small critique, but at around 5:30 you make it sound as if game mechanics overall are being changed by the DLC, when it is (for now) the case that only the newest civilizations have those new features. This could be a bit confusing to people who are new to the game.

Hey guys! Spirit of the law here!

Hey spirit of the law, guys here

I'm of a similar opinion. My personal favorite is _Dynasties of India_ - It split/fixed the Indians civ, which had been requested by the playerbase for years; added many interesting civs to the game; and had some very good campaigns for the single player, Rajendra's being my favorite. _Dawn of the Dukes_ is a close second because of the strong, overarching narrative of its campaigns, which even has its own protagonist of sorts in Jogaila.