Ohh the double Ornlu voice in the Nobunaga segment terrified me.

I love Temujin for all the references in dialogue to Genghis Khan campaign.

Shimazu deserves some bonus points for having the Shimazu in green, as they should be.

30:27 the random unit speech scared me lol wait that is actually ornlu from his let's play see 30:37

I think this is a fair write-up - good ideas, mixed execution, needs more polish, badly needs more voice acting and characters, especially for RPG-heavy scenarios. I think it is no mistake that Vortigern, where little voice acting suits the lonely and isolated time, and Ragnar, where a narrator telling a tale makes thematic sense, are some of the best feeling scenarios. I think this is better than Return of Rome and even the Mountain Royals, but not than the earlier DLC releases. It does need more polish and changes from the original mod scenarios. Still I bought it, and think it is worth the price compared to the other DLCs

Komnenos is the only scenario I can kinda forgive the bad narration due to its great design, definetly the bright star of this DLC and the map lighting added looks beautiful as the whole mediteranean u travel around

Oh boi, one great thing about the DLC is that it brought us daily Ornlu content for like 3 weeks straight, I don't think we will ever get that much content in such a short time (not that it's expected!). Other than that, I can only say what I've already said under some videos, it really is "great concepts, middling execution" the DLC. So many of these scenarios would be miles better with better narration and more dialogue and some polishing, and I think for the prize of the DLC and with regard to that 15 of these scenarios are available as free content, you can reasonably expect as much. It really just feels like this DLC was quickly thrown together to put out something and Filthy was left mostly alone. He is a great scenario creator, but some lord base humor and Jaqueline polishing could have gone a long way. My favorites are probably Robert, Stehphen, Ragnar, Kommenos, Nobunaga and Mistjslav. Among other things that already have been discussed a lot, there are 2 more particular things I didn't really enjoy. 1. The difficulty is kinda all over the place, with some scenarios feeling nearly impossible to beat (looking at you, Vortigern and Umayads in Charlamagne) while others are a literal walk in the park. And many of them follow this pattern of starting out small and surrounded by enemies, and you get curpstomped at every end, but once you start to snowball things, you just steamroll everything. The difficulty also often feels very arbitrary, with time limits or non-replaceable villagers. I know that Filthy loves his non-standard, limited eco scenarios, but I would have appreciated some more Faithe style scenario aka "here's a bunch och resources, go wild", or just some good old boom and build and destroy scenarios. Or at the very least, let me replace villagers lost to stupid DE pathfinding and not restart Ragnar 2h in. 2. Some things feel really repetitive. Did we really need 4 Viking scenarios with the same basic raiding, limited villagers and deteriorating ships mechanics? Did we need 3 Frank(ish) Central Europe "control your vassals" scenarios? Did we need like 10 scenarios centered around or at least including the British islands? I get there is a limit to how much you can do with scenarios that play out in the same general region, but sacking Paris for like the 4th time in a row really loses all meaning. I feel like the 2 weaker Viking scenarios, one out of Robert/Otto, Stephen or either Seljuk or Temujin could have been replaced with some more variety scenarios in Africa/Asia/America.

Kinda had similar experience, though for me Kommenos and Mstislav were the best scenarios (after these two I went to investigate about real historical events, so flavor was amazing). And I would put most of C tier into a D tier, I guess I have much more polarizing opinions on this DLC (I wish I could review it on steam with "Mixed" score). Lack of voice acting, new unit skins and new artwork is SURPRISINGLY noticeable. I just watched your playthrough of Jadwiga - and the difference is enormous (ok, that might be the best campaign, so it not really fair to compare it, though why not?) That said - I'm all for creating more DLCs like these, just wish for a better polish.

This is what i believe to be the gold standard for how the viking saga levels were done, hence why Mstislav was put out years afterwards. This is a very interesting and also time-sensitive level with both static and dynamic AI 15:47

I still think the best version of Constantinople's final siege is in Mehmed by Manu. That whole campaign is one of the best out there.

Thanks for an honest review, and for all the playthroughs. I'll pass on V&V at least until it's on sale, since it doesn't add much truly new content for people who know how to download mods. But it was interesting to watch your playthroughs, and to hear Filthy's thoughts about the design. The high point for me was in the Mori playthrough of Nobunaga, where Filthy revealed how he made the Land Mine by using a barricade replaced by a modified petard disguised as a campfire :D

Fetih had potential to be one of the best scenarios in the game if we had normal pop and no time limit

The Three Kingdoms levels should have been included in this DLC with improvements as well. 29:46

The mstslav mission actually the bases can mean a lot, you should send a monk or two in each the gated bases and when your allies lose all the army switch diplomacy to neutral and use the monk to convert the building of course after research redemption, it makes the mission so much easier since the mongols do a lot of sight seeing gives you enough time to build up army, you can convert market too and sell some of your other resource if you need gold, you don’t have access to a market at all in your base so it’s also wise to save your resources instead of trashspawning save the food so you can sell it later and just use boyars and a few monks for the raids

Constantine XI is great. It reminds me of “Under the Burning Sky” and “Twilight of the Gods” from WC3:ROC and “All In” from SC2:WOL. Only thing missing is the final wave being really scary like those blizzard rts games; and pathing, especially pathing 11.

Karlsefni has quite a bit of involvement from North American groups. If they ever get a civ, would be nice to see them swapped out here for the (hilariously out-of-place) Incas. 11:48 "Chinese" should probably be in brackets for those two haha. We'll see if a later DLC fixes that...especially given how Filthydelphia's Chinese missions were not included here.

Karlsefni imho is worse than Ironside. With Ironside you can at least test yourself with efficiency in raiding> In Karlsefni, there are no threats at all, and the ''challenges'' are very small and time consuming without any substance. Not difficult, just different (in a bad way) and tedious for no reason or buildup to a greater event (attacking Ireland is a joke once you have sufficiently boomed). WIth Vortigern you also have gameplay limitations but at least they test you in a significant way. With Komnenos It could have been my favourite of all campaigns if there were more threats. I finished the campaign BEFORE the Byzantine pretender came, and if I didnt play the vanilla version I wouldnt know it would have come. At some point with billion Varangians you are unstoppable essentially, so having smarter opponents/more threats would be a nice change. Stephen has everything what Komnenos lacks imo. Mstislav is head and shoulders above the other campaigns for me. The fact that the four cities attack you makes it soo much better in contrast to the vanilla version. The fact that your allies dont make any more units after their unitial force is defeated makes sense from a balance standpoint, and lets the Mongols be distracted by destroying their cities while you pick their units off one by one. For Shimazu, I agree its weird that there is no siege, but I understand it from a game design POV. You need to make the Hero unit (Samurai hero) which are resistance to castle fire and hit pretty hard. If you want to cheese the scenario, drop the Heroes behind a castle, kite the units around them with Hussars/Mounted Samurai and you gain control of all of the surrounded enemy units once the castle is sufficiently damaged.

I definitely went off on the DLC yesterday because THE CONTENT IS GREAT, but not all of it is fit for a DLC, and MOST is old. As I said, they NEED to look at how the game SURVIVED and not only thrived once again, but reached NEW HEIGHTS---Forgotten Empires was an organic creation. Shimakaze has made more custom campaigns than any other designer, period. It is not even close, spare Neky Choi who may no longer be active. Given the amount of dedication and skill he possesses to make levels with such insane unit comps and enemies without merely spawning out of thin air, but from production buildings, is actually very difficult. If anything is off, the level becomes impossible and that is why they must all be tested. The Chinese player base is WHERE THE CAMPAIGN CONTENT is most fertile. The community on QQ for AOE 2 DE is HUGE and thriving. I recommend him but what I really allude to is CYSION NEEDS TO REMEMBER WHAT FORGOTTEN EMPIRES WAS, not what it is As for mechanics, Ilam and Neky Choi are special mentions. The fact that all these creators from Hainaut to Catsci and Jimakus etc are creating such quality without MICROSOFT MONEY behind them kind of almost makes you wonder why the MS is not taking them seriously. Since DE, they have not reached into the community as they should have similar to with Lord Basse etc. and it is perplexing. This is the time to do it. This was a huge failure and they just repackaged and rushed very complicated non-traditional missions all by the same designer. That makes no sense to me. If Filthy could do 5 levels--and his levels take a long time to make--why not get someone else to participate in the creation of the DLC as well?

AoE 3 mentioned!

The story of Van Kleiss on the Viking era during the first appearance, he gave the Nanites to Askeladd, destroy Viking Skool and give the plan to Prince Canute. After the greatest story since the Egypt and Rome, he wants to conquer all the Arctic North America.

In Mstislav can we convert some enemy villagers with the monks and get them build military buildings in the friendly cities? Because the mongols destroy all the military buildings and that is essentially the end of the mission

Generally I think the scenarios are good. But there's really a missed opportunity to not include the Three Kingdoms, Khmer and others

Karlsefni: Pretty fun puzzle, no reaplay value tho. Komnenos: Great, only one I had played before the DLC launched. The Pecheneg invasion is a kick in the teeth! Stepthen: Its wonderful design, but frustrating to play. Bitter tasting medicine type of map, Ornlus take is pretty spot on. Temudjin: I liked it but its what Ironside is to Ragnar. A lesser prototype of the Turk nomad map. Mstislav: First two thirds is too easy. Then you have to kite the final wave all over or die a horrific death. I feel you should get firect control of the allied towns if your main base dies. This map felt way too punishing, the Mongols never bugged out for me. Constantine: My first playthrough on this i almost died so its good. The achivement is pretty dumb though (babysitting vills) and there are too few objectives. I also feel the Ottoman docks should be removed so the palyer dosent accidently think destrying those in the east matter (I made Dromons for no reason since they spawn out of thin air) Feith: Would be awesome but the stupid stupid objectives and timer ruins it. If the objective was "Reduce enemy units inside the city to less than 20" and the timer just removed, we whould have an epic mega death match here. Shame. Shimazu: Lose gold for killing? Stupid timer for achi? My head hurts. Nobunaga: Each enemy builds up giga bases and the map is too big. Wierdly hard map to actually win. Not starting on the islands is so much easier and Oda is a complete joke even though they should historically win?

I really wished there was another Bulgarian campaign. Ivaylo was the best ruler in our history.

Friend and foe colours don't work in Nobunaga. 😔

One thing that I think this DLC missing is the map aesthetic redesign/detailing (not sure it's the right word). Not in the gameplay aspect but in the art aspect. Some scenarios don't feel like reaching the same level as some DLC/even base campaigns. You could compare the Caribbean map of in Drake (35:11) to let's say the map of Malaysia in Rajendra 5 which has the next level of detailing (Not the fairest comparison but you know what I mean).

I think this is now among the most difficult OFFICIAL levels in the game on hard, or certainly a contender. While once you understand how the level works it is more about concentration than anything, if you hesitate, you will be overrun, no matter who you are. The issue for me is that sometimes the attack is prolonged and once you've reached a certain degree of development and a defensive construct within the city, it is just about waiting. I don't think you can legit defeat them. As for difficulty, I admittedly have not played many of the most challenging official scenarios recently in part because many have been nerfed. I would say it is this level or perhaps Jadwiga 3 or 4, though level 3 can be done efficiently if you are familiar. Lei Loi 2 is far easier, Sundjata 5 not quite what it was even at DE launch, Bayinnaung 5 is virtually a cake walk and it was the hardest imo bar none, even when bari 4 was at the worst haha. This certainly is a challenge, especially if one is not accustomed to this kind of out of the box type level or Filthy's work in general. 18:50

And now Thorfinn have adventures of the mythical ice age, after Van Kleiss first time entered the North America and created the Nanite World. In the present day, Black Knight would be traveling to Vinland and found the Ancient Nanites!

Thorfinn's girlfriend is Princess Gudrid, she had long red hair and was raised by wolves and trolls, been at Viking Skool!! ⚔️💘

Lol! The Genghis voice 😂

AOE3 mention :0

If there's one huge gripe I have with many of the scenarios here, it's the timer. Fetih and Nobunaga have some amazing potential, just held back by the timer not letting you play around with all the stuff you're given. Komnenos feels really with the balancing of politics and taxes while listening to your advisors. Stephen was also really good with how it's a rise to power scenario where you go from very little and rise to dominant all of Britain. I feel the DLC wasn't the greatest it could be, but most certainly wasn't bad. Underwhelming is how I'd put it. We have so much given to us, yet so much holding all the good back. There could have been more, but too much holds this back. If there was a DLC tier list, I'd put this in probably high to mid C tier as it's not completely terrible, just very underwhelming.

My Mangonels, Scorpipns and their imperial upgraded Units have Crew Members thanks to a Mod👍

Here is the issue, this level is excellent as a stand alone scenario mod. In fact, it is still very cool, but it is not what most expect nor what many will ever play more than one or maybe two times all the way through. I do not believe there was the time for Filthy to modify the pre-existing levels for the DLC as I am certain that given the chance, he would only add more and more because that is his tendency. I enjoy a lot of the levels, but some are MEANT to take hours by design. It is on purpose as we know and that was definitely not clear to those who stay away from campaigns 14:27

Lol I can't believe that you placed Drake higher than both Otto and Charlemagne even while admitting that Drake doesn't even really belong in AoE2DE at all, an assessment that I can only agree with. I have fewer comments than for the previous videos, but will share some anyway :) Stephen: It was one of my favorite scenarios of the DLC as well, but what I thought created the artificial difficulty in this one was the fake objectives. Ultimately, you're told at the beginning that you need to plan to take all 10 castles while this is actually not the case at all. This becomes artificial difficulty because, knowing that, it makes Ireland and its resources there completely useless. This, in turn, means that you can just simply delete all troops there for additional pop space for your defense from the pretender, and I could have easily expended all the stone I had left for extra donjons (not that I ended up needing them, but still). Worse, once you enter free play (in my case I had only defeated Matilde and not started on the other enemies) it feels like they completely give up, making it a boring steamroll if I want to continue. Fetih: Someone in the comments compared the Constantine XI mission to some of the best WC3/SC2 missions out there. I'd compare Fetih to the one in SC2 (one of the Kerrigan storyline missions) where you are facing a huge enemy base with the objective being at the back of it, and you can easily circle around the base with a bunch of mutalisks and snipe the objective within like 10 minutes while not scratching the rest of the enemy base. It should be telling that I don't remember the name of the mission and that it's not really memorable. Komnenos/Shimazu: Combining them despite their differences, 'cause I just want to talk about the gold sink mechanism (loyalty/mercenary pay-offs whatever). They just make the missions into slower starts than they need to be, 'cause otherwise I ended up forgetting about both of these mechanisms when I had a better start to the mission, but they just felt frustrating and artificial when I at first didn't. I certainly feel like I've seen many people expressing frustration at these mechanisms, and seeing them in so many missions almost made me give up on the DLC. Nobunaga: Just like with Robert, I just don't get the artificial timer, there are better ways to ramp up difficulty, though that's the last I have to say here :).

See, these bugs being in the official levels is another issue. Testing Shimakaze's campaigns before they are even in English makes gameplay issues far more obvious. Bugs become easier to spot, and I have noticed this and wonder if anyone actually tested it and also ran the level or the replay to take a good look at how it plays and whether there are issues with vils bugging out or enemies becoming stagnant after their attack is intercepted--this can happen to Mongols on this level and is easily fixed but why was it not already smoothed out? 17:29

I am a bit disappointed that Filthy's Three Kingdoms trilogy didn't make it into the DLC. Probably due to Chinese censorship.

I didn't know Drake had a AoE2 campaign

new dlc will be new civs, right?

wow so fast

ROR and William Wallace, please?:))

First! Thanks!

I guess it's irrelevant since I already bought the DLC but boy a lot of these feel like they fall under "Great idea but middling execution." I'll still work my way through them but it's not super interesting to play against dummy AI that just waits to be killed.

Mstislav was so annyoing. You get spammed from 3 sides with post-imp units while being in castle age.

I think for this video series it would have been great to show the previous tier list of the historical battles scenarios to put things into perspective. Like, is Vortigern really on the same level as Vindlandsaga? To me, none of the DLC content comes close to S-Tier which to me means I will play this scenario over and over (as is the case with some of the best of the 25y old scenarios).

I really like most of your tierlists but this one to me seems heavily biased towards difficulty. And I think the reason behind this is because you played most of these scenarios before so only the challange is the bulk of the fun component.

I feel like the Constantine XI mission would be a really cool mission to have a Co-op version of

Important tidbits: *Hugh Jackman* is the co-creator of Vinland Saga, Viking Skool, Generator Rex and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, he previously directed the animated film, The Secret of Kells, Wolfwalkers, Shark Tale and Flushed Away. It is also the creator of Victor and Vanquished DLC for Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition. And now Hugh Jackman is directing Grendizer U!!

I found Stephen too boring because it was too easy even on hard with no trebs. Also the norman troops got stuck and didn't do anything

The love story Samurai Jack and Carmen Sandiego! 💘

Tempuujin 🥷🏻

Karlseifini is the worst for me. It's weird. It's confusing. You have to cross the entire map and come back for the main objective (why is that even the main objective?). Greenland is bare. The bears here are too strong for what we have. I ran into a bug that made bears lose most of their HP.. and that just made that part better. I don't see the point of making all of that so sluggish. Didn't like it as a mod, don't like it now. I always find something I like in every scenario.. but there. No. It's.. just no. Boring. Pointless. On the other hand I absolutely love Mstislav, except the invasion part which feels a bit weird to defeat completely. Allies don't help enough and I found that leading orange to their cities was the best way to use them.

Can’t say I disagree with much of anything in this vid. Wish there were more African scenarios, but I realize African history isn’t exactly as easy to conceptualize & discover as European/East Asian History. ^I’m talking Sub-Saharan African - North Africa is fairly well documented, all things considered. I should be clear though, I don’t want stories set in Africa just for the sake of it. I want actual, historical stuff.

Nobunaga and Shimazu are the most boring scenarios I've ever played. Easy D tier for both.

Real talk, these videos convinced me not to buy the DLC.

Karlsefni - the absolute worst scenario in the game right now, outside of the tutorials (William Wallace and Ascent of Egypt). It, like that Last Neanderthal mod, epitomizes elements that should be completely restricted to mods, not part of official content. Glacial pace, cold narration, inactive AI, RPG restrictions to the civilization, Vinlandsaga exists.... I would prefer it being removed completely. I do think there should be Feudal Age and low-eco scenarios, but this is not it. This is just horrendous. Komnenos - a functional scenario. That's about it.... Actually, it's one of few scenarios with actual voicelines. Would be perfect if the narrator was taken out of the scenario completely. Stephen - meh. I guess that the invading army is a roight an' propa fight, but it makes the other objective pointless, since the invasion army arrives too early for you to adequately ransack everyone on the island. Temujin - roast Horse to get Mangudai..... just play the Genghis Khan campaign. Mstislav - gotta admit, that Mongol army is an incredible fight. Makes me wish that Cumans were a more active player, with Kotyan contributing to the fight himself (he is in the scenario). I just wish that we could get Boyars outside of that one Castle you're guaranteed to lose unless you drag the Mongols into other cities. Perhaps the best scenario in this DLC. Constantine XI - I physically can't speak against this scenario in any way because we save Constantinople. Fetih - I despise this scenario. There's the entire city of Constantinople and the objectives railroad you into ignoring it and just sniping Constantine and capping the Monument. Those should be the final objectives after a long, grindy siege. Completely misdesigned scenario, in addition to taking away the key event of an Ottoman Turk campaign. Shimazu - haven't played it yet. Achievement criteria sounds annoying, though. Nobunaga - just don't play on hard, as there's no time limit on other difficulties. A solid scenario, I guess, but I don't find it that engaging as civ designs make it feel very artificial and it's completely devoid of narrative, which is sad because it literally is the reason for the price tag. Drake - the interesting parts of this scenario is the Boarding Galley making its first official appearance, and actual voicework rather than a soulless narration. It is better than the low eco, brainless AI scenarios the Vikings get, because you don't have an eco, and instead play with what you have, which I personally find more fun than having any sort of eco.

This whole dlc is a horrible experience that could have been otherwise fun. Starts small with a bunch of powerful enemies who attack constantly, and as you progress slowellllly (with a million saves) you become too powerful and the game becomes boring. The start is sh**t, the end is sh**t l. Nothing about feel good or have fun, just trying to prove myself. I regret buying it or spending time trying to figure it out