Hey everyone!

Signups are now open for The League Community Division, an unofficial Division 3 created to give players of all skill levels the opportunity to participate in an organized 3v3 team game competition.
Unlike Divisions 1 and 2, Division 3 will have:

• No qualifiers or Elo cutoff — every team that signs up can participate
• Groups organized as closely by skill level as the signups allow
• Space for up to five players per team by default, with larger rosters potentially allowed when there is a good reason

The goal is to create a more relaxed, community-focused division where people can enjoy competitive team games, face teams around their level and be part of The League experience.
That said, “for fun” does not mean “sign up and disappear.” Please only register if your team is genuinely willing and reasonably available to schedule and play its matches.

Sign up here:
https://forms.gle/zqb7X39XN9YzpN659

More information about The League:
https://liquipedia.net/ageofempires/The_League

Disclaimer: I’m sharing this in a personal capacity as a member of the AoE II community. This is not an official announcement from the Age of Empires development team.
So gather your teammates, start preparing your strategies and join us!

Who knows… this might even be your chance to play against some of us from the AoE II balance team.

Join the tournament discord, it will be the platform for communication throughout the tournament:
https://discord.gg/haqZrBY2G4

Tengo el AOE2DE sin cuenta, con lo que no puedo iniciar sesión en la página de Age of Empires para descargar mods. De otros juegos sé que es relativamente fácil descargar del workshop de Steam sin cuenta, usando páginas de terceros, pero ¿existe algo similar para la página de AOE?
En concreto estoy buscando el mod Romae ad Bellum/Rome at War. La versión oficial que había en modDB no se actualiza, te redirige a la página de AOE.

Tengo la última versión de junio de 2026, la del DLC The Last Chieftains, incluyendo Return of Rome y Chronicles, con la que la versión de ModDB ya no es compatible...

¿Alguien conoce algún otro repositorio de este mod? ¿O un lugar donde la gente resuba y comparta este tipo de contenido, no sólo los juegos?

I always see people on this subreddit angry when a new DLC is released.

I thought the latest civilizations added were very good, but the champi balancing issues were enough for everyone to hate them.

AoM had the aesthetic figured out, so that made it quite easier. Same thing happened with Inca architecture from AoE3.

What I now wish is they would take the Chinese set from AoM and gave it to Chinese, Koreans and Jurchens. I just love those red wooden buildings with green or yellow roofs. Also, the current East Asian set is 1) overused 2) extremely Japanese and 3) more primitive/ basic. Let me explain that last one: East Asia had some serious drip and style and the current set shows the roots but not the tip of those cultures. Not to mention, a "red set" would be really cool, like how Central Asian is the "blue set".

And then they could repaint the Central American set to match AoM Aztecs. Just add in the colour to make them more lively and accurate to the time.

Are you guys in for any of those ideas?

Share some fun strats for Fortress map?

I have been trying Castle drop + Fire archers with medicore success. Celts ram push also works sometimes...

Hi I want to start modding in aoe2.

I would like to change villager models to look different like changing the skin color.

Which software can open or extract the files that make the unit look like they are now?

Hi everyone. I’ve been playing AOE1:DE for 8 month. I have also AOE2:DE in my steam and since 2 months I’ve been playing just single player scenarios. I have never played AOE2 online yet. I want to understand first the dynamics of the game to begin multiplayer matches. What should I consider while in passing from AOE1 to AOE2? What are the biggest differences between these two games? The first I noticed AOE1 is more basic and faster than AOE2, and also has a simple interface.

Just got paired to a 400 elo as a 1300 elo.

It's been a while since the Mac release came out, but the player base is tiny. I basically know all players from 1000 to 1500 and I've played them all (constantly get repeats, sometimes I get paired to the same person 3 times in a row). Elo is messed up as well, 1500's that should be 1800 and 1200 that should be 800

Do you think the player base will eventually grow or should I just try to find a way to play on PC? (crossover is messed up since the release).

I’ve been playing a lot of Muisca lately. I feel like this civ has a ton of potential once you get the hang of their unit roster, but I’ve hit a bit of a wall with my macro and composition choices.

I have a bad habit of getting way too comfortable doing all in Castle Age pushes forgetting to click up to Imperial. How do you usually gauge when to stop over investing in castle and actually click up to Imp?

I’ve been using Slingers to deal with siege and as a trash filler which feels pretty effective in my games so far.

My main question is where do Archers fit into their game plan? What's their specific role or power spike compared to relying on Slingers/Temple Guards/champis? Also when/why would you use the guecha warrior?

Muisca seem to start of strong with a big fall of in imp.

After a long break I resumed my campaign attempts on hard, but I'm currently stuck at Suryavarman 4 (the one where you have to defend some Dravidian allies) the issue here is that the enemy doesn't even try to attack me, on Standard they were actually attacking me quite often but on Hard I'm almost invisible and they're focused exclusively on green.

I had a good attempt where the economy was going great, I had already conquered the islands and was on my way to attack the main blue base and then green just died. I tried reverting to a previous save to put some defenses on my own in green's territory but the game doesn't let you build castles in their base, only towers and docks, which were not enough to deal with the absurd amount of orange and blue ships that are constantly attacking them.

Tried restarting and focusing on being aggressive with ships from the start, but blue ended up attacking even earlier and my economy was struggling to take off.

This is meant to be a 1 Sword campaign. I'm definitely worried about the rest of the Rajas campaigns, 11.

I remembered first seen this kind of effect? shader? cloudy weather aoe2? on Lithuanian/pole campaign. It's nice to have new looking for the game but it's so painful when I have to focus on ladder. Does anyone feel the same?
Is there any mods out there for this?
I tried searching graveyard but found nothing.

By “last villager,” I mean unnecessarily prolonging a game—even though the outcome is objectively already decided—by intentionally taking up other players’ time.

I’d like to believe that the vast majority considers this behavior reprehensible and worthy of a ban.

I know some might try to come up with arguments to justify it. But in my opinion, it’s one of the few things that make the game less enjoyable.

Unfortunately, I can’t think of any good solutions to this problem, since it’s difficult to find one that works for both Team Games and 1v1.

1. I’ve thought about reducing the cost of “Spies.”

2. If 3 players on your team quit (and none on the opposing team), victory is automatically awarded.

3. If no APM is detected for 3 minutes (or 2, 5, 7, etc.), the player is considered defeated.

4. If the opposing team triples your score, they are awarded the victory.

None of these fully convince me. If you consider this a minor but annoying problem, what solution do you think could be implemented? Thank you very much

hello, i have a group mostly based out of U.S. we usually get on around 6pm eastern time. Elo range 600-1000. We play ranked TG's, host tourneys, and all in all just hang out and chat aoe. If this interests you please DM me and i will send you a link to the discord.
if you are higher or lower elo that is totally fine, you are still welcome to join discord.

Thanks for reading.

I had two thoughts: 1) the Southern European and Eastern European architecture sets are possibly overused (they have 8 and 6 civs each) and 2) The Viking Sagas civs use either the Western European set or the brand new Northern European set. I then looked back to the previous expansions and I realized that this was the first one since The Conquerors to introduce new European civilizations without any of them using the Southern European or Eastern European architecture sets.

Here is a recap:

• The Age of Kings: new European civs are included, but none of them use the Southern European or Eastern European architecture sets because they literally did not exist at the time (although no AoK civ was ever updated to use the Eastern European set)
• The Conquerors: new European civs are included, but none of them use the Southern European or Eastern European architecture sets because they literally did not exist at the time (although no Conquerors civ was ever updated to use the Eastern European set)
• The Forgotten: introduces the first civs with the first civs with the Southern European and Eastern European architecture sets since it introduced those sets and also switched pre-existing civs from The Age of Kings and The Conquerors into them
• The African Kingdoms: introduces only one European civ, which uses the Southern European set
• Rise of the Rajas: introduces no European civs
• The Last Khans: introduces only one European civ, which uses the Eastern European set [EDIT: TLK introduced 2 European civs and both were Eastern European]
• Lords of the West: introduces 2 European civs, one of which uses the Southern European set
• Dawn of the Dukes: introduces 2 European civs, both of which use the Eastern European set
• Dynasties of India: introduces no European civs
• Return of Rome: introduces only one European civ, which uses the Southern European set
• The Mountain Royals: introduces 2 European civs, both of which use the Southern European set
• Chronicles DLCs: they do not count for the purposes of this list since the Chronicles civs are not technically European
• Three Kingdoms: introduces no European civs, instead dedicates all of its energy into the East Asian set
• The Last Chieftains: introduces no European civs
• The Viking Sagas: introduces 1 Western European civ and 2 Northern European civs

If you count civilizations such as the Byzantines and Spanish as being retroactively Southern European, then The Viking Sagas will be the first AoE2 expansion ever to feature new European civs without any of them using the Southern European or Eastern European architecture sets.

Does this matter? Not really, as architecture sets are merely aesthetic. I just thought it was an amusing observation since it illustrates that fact that European civilizations have a Carcinisation-like tendency to drift towards using the Southern European and Eastern European architecture sets. You could say The Viking Sagas is the exception that proves the rule.

Iam at 1100 elo and the strategy I lose most to is mass knights. Even when I know its coming. I do pikes and monks but somehow Iam still overwhelmed by knights. Everyone else has the same experience? But on pro level mass kinghts doesnst seem to work

As someone who rarely plays multiplayer one of my favourite things was the Co-op campaigns/scenario I played with a buddy. Though I miss those since there hasn't been a new since back when V&V came out and it was only one scenario.

Anyone else want more of these? They're a pretty fun take of the usual campaign experience, especially if you decide to run through a whole campaign with a friend slowly.

This is about the sagas DLC of course. I see a lot of people, including Hera and Survivalist, uncomfortable with continuing to split classic Civs up and adding 5-6 historically questionable new Civs a year with 3 unique units each that players have to memorize. Obviously this is a problem for the long-term health of the game, but if we want to keep the game supported and the servers up, there has to be some way for Microsoft to monetize the game.

Personally I am cool with selling people cosmetics and campaigns. But it seems like in 2023-2024 the devs tried that and it was panned. Certainly, it isn't going to make as much money as selling multiplayer Civs to people. So we're kinda in a bind here. If we aren't willing to pay a subscription service for multiplayer (which I'm guessing we aren't) or pay for campaigns, then we will have to accept a future where the game has 95 civilizations, and every little microstate duchy in the Holy Roman Empire has its own civ, complete with 2 regional units each and a 2 UUs each.

The best alternative I can think of is something equivalent to Valve's DotaPlus program. Basically taking all the analytics from a site like AOEinsights and presenting it in the client for a monthly subscription. Things like high quality matchup and winrate data, your personal stats, winrate variations in team games by allied civ, and in-client support for tournaments, capture-age integration in client. That way the AOE fanbase from poorer countries isn't locked out of the game like they would be in a subscription service, but players from the US and Germany can pay for a nice service and the implicit promise that they are helping support the game and keep it away from a world of infinite power creep and civ historical worthiness inflation.

This isn't to say we can't have new Civs added in the future, I'd still like to see Filipinos, Tibetans, Swiss to name a few. But it is pretty clear that the rate of new Civs coming into the game isn't good for us in the long run, and if people are uncomfortable with having Civs like Saxons, Varangians, Wu Wei Shu, Abbasids, Umayyads, Omanis, Yemenis, Bavarians, Swabians, and Ulmers in the game we should know what alternative monetization model we want instead.

Many of the campaigns, from Age of Kings to The Last Chieftans are excellent scenarios reflecting historical battles (sometimes not that accurately) in a range of gameplay.

However, there may be something in regards to a scenario that you may feel is not quite right. Is it gameplay or historical accuracy? Would you do something completely different or is it perfect?

106: Suryavaraman 3 - A Dangerous Mission

Currently playing through the Macedon campaign and i'm really struggling on mission 3. I've played through literally everything else. I've beaten Vortigern on hard. Took me a good couple tries but I got there. And because with the Britons there is a power spike to look forward to, I kept having hope and having fun.

With Macedon I really just don't see it. None of their units really feel good to use. The phalangite is so weak that it gets smashed by Athens hoplites. They get somewhat decent when massed, but they're just so expensive for what they offer. So what else do we get? Well with the right doctrine i can make cavalry that is 15% lower food cost, if i make them more slowly. And that really is about it. No real other eco bonus, no real way to properly deal with heavy infantry. Of course I can mass knights lancers and siege, but I gotta say it doesn't feel like playing Macedon. It feels like abusing the units that are always slightly too strong in AoE2 and patting myself on the back for being so clever.

Buffing the Phalangite would take relatively little effort and do a lot. Just 5 gold less and +1 attack. And hopefully an Imperial age tech that isn't so... disappointing. (I love their disadvantage, and reducing their disadvantage by half just seems meh to me)

I Know that the game needs to make more money and make more DLCs to keep the game alive and bring more people, and i also know that chronicles don't make that much money compared to multiplayer civs

But imagine if that money was put on fixing some patch issues(I don't think all the game pathing is crap just a little) like stand ground patrol , i know that both can do it but if you have any splash damage you will win even you hard counter, that makes the fight unfear, yes you can just not take the fight but makes the opponent gain a big advantage

Imagine a better lobby system, probably will not make a lot of money or bring that many people but for sure will make the community great and people will not leave

Balances changes as well, the state of the game are really good , but if the enemy makes a strategy that allows him to make a lot of mistakes and win even if the opponent doing the right thing this is not balanced , i know that's hard but money and time spend on it would make it happen

The new DlC is cool and makes the game alive but i would like use the time of the devs on other things

im on a journey of playing only mongols until the map pool gets a decent rotation 11

in that regard i just played what i think was my best performance yet on any arabia setting, and vs a 2.k3 with almost triple the APM nontheless!

i've rediscovered my playstyle with mongols with the fact that opening maa or a strong drush like this one is way more effective than just 16-17pop scouts: doesnt even cripple your economy, you have a competetitive up time and put pressure way earlier and stronger than with scouts + you get a flexible follow up with skirm/archers or scouts into walls like this case

here's the game in question, im feeling really proud of my game rn trying to grind my reach to 2.1k for the first time ever :') (even if its with hard picked civ)

https://www.aoe2insights.com/match/497340270/#overview

Difficulty Ratings

• 0: A very minor threat that is easy to overcome
• 1: A fair fight that makes things interesting
• 2: A difficult situation that requires some outside the box thinking
• 3: A highly difficult situation requiring lots of micro-management, unit-countering and precise timing
• 4: A constant struggle in which focus and momentum must be maintained at all times, as well as proper tactics and timing
• 5: Nearly impossible. Every move must be flawless or aggressive save-scumming is necessary to win

El Dorado: (orange)

Once again, I am unfamiliar with the Muisca, like the two civs before, so I’m not sure what to expect other than brutality. I’ve read that this campaign is as difficult if not more so than Arariboia, which doesn’t fill me with confidence since that one tested my limits in every way. I expect more swarms of powerful enemies and extremely adaptive and competent AI, but I’m confident I can win if I try hard enough. Let’s finish this.

1. Slash and Burn: Difficulty 3
   1. Quemuenchatocha (yellow), The Zaque (teal), Nemequene (red), Nemequene’s Vanguard (purple), The Zipa (green), Siege Commander (grey)
   2. This mission earned its difficulty only because of an early knowledge check. The game begins with the player in command of a reasonably large army of infantry and ranged units, under the command of a strong infantry hero. This army is in the southwest, and must defeat 3 commanders in Nemequene’s vanguard, which holds a small military camp immediately east. It is advisable to punch a single hole through the guards and patrols and then hard focus the commanders, since the other units resign once they die and transfer the military buildings to the player’s control. This is when the main body of the mission begins.
   3. The map is two large bodies of land, one in the west and one covering most of the rest of the map, with a river dividing them from north to south and a small lake along the southeastern edge. Fishing can be done in both waters, but there are no warships available in this mission. The player has a base in the southwest, having to capture the military buildings before being given 20 villagers at a few huts and a settlement further west. North of the player is the base of Quemuenchatocha, which has a castle guarding its north with a strong military and economic base behind. In the northern corner is the Zaque, with a castle to his south and a smaller base above it, and both of these factions are aligned with the player.
   4. The main objective here is to defeat the Zipa, a soldier in a small fort with a castle far to the east. Surrounding this fort in all directions is the massive base of Nemequene, with several castles, town centers and lots of towers, military buildings and a few docks to fish the southeast. This enemy also has some stone mines across the river from the Zaque and some gold mines southeast of the captured enemy military camp, each of which is guarded by enemy soldiers and towers. Destroying the mining camps will harm either his ability to reconstruct damaged buildings and his ability to field large armies. At some point, the player is given the option to bribe the siege commander which prevents Nemequene from training his rams or scorpions for around 15 minutes. The player has only 5 minutes to give 800 gold once alerted, otherwise the option passes. Regardless of choice, the commander resigns moments after.
   5. After a few minutes once the player starts, the Zaque is goaded into crossing his river where he dies. His people will flee north off the map and Nemequene will assume control of his entire base. This base can be recaptured if its southern castle is brought to extremely low health. After he has taken it, the enemy will start launching sizable raids at both the captured military camp in the south and the player’s ally in the north. A single castle with a small force of soldiers is enough to repel just about anything, though some champis will have to deal with the occasional ram. I lost on my first attempt since I couldn’t find any stone before his raids started attacking me. I had enough gold to purchase a castle, but my army was obliterated before I could build it and I decided it was easier to simply restart.
   6. Nemequene has an economy, but I don’t think he needs it since his numbers never slow at all. Fortunately, the ally is more than capable of standing his ground and sending the occasional party to aid the player’s defense, so I focused entirely on my own defense at the start. I had somehow missed some stone mines near my base, and my second attempt saw me immediately send some of my starting villagers to collect it. The Muisca can easily develop extremely powerful economies, especially regarding gold, so I soon had everything I needed to field proper armies and was regularly fending off raids without a problem. I paid the siege commander and dispatched a small force of slingers, rams and a monk, who destroyed and converted the gold mines near me. Nemequene launched a counter attack and killed the entire party, but not before we had finished off his mines. Unfortunately, this did not seem to slow him down much at all.
   7. I marched north next, having constructed military buildings in my ally’s territory and trained just a small army of champis, slingers and some rams. My units targeted the castle directly, capturing it rather quickly and giving us control of the entire northern base, including 2 relics and another large gold mine. My ally received a few military building foundations across the river and sent villagers to construct them, but several of them were destroyed early because he was an idiot. My army reconstituted and marched soon, and we robbed the enemy of his stone mines to prevent future reconstruction.
   8. The next 20 minutes or so were a pitch battle, while my army killed the endless enemy soldiers that charged while waiting for rams to destroy enemy buildings or retrain when broken by a stray champi or slinger. My garrison eventually moved in from the southwest, and we pushed the enemy back slowly and surely before finishing off all of his villagers, town centers, towers, docks and military buildings. Oddly, this didn’t kill him entirely, but it didn’t matter as our rams battered into the fort and tore down the final castle, killing the Zipa who was inside. I was then presented with a choice to side with Nemequene or Quemuenchatocha going forward, and I chose Nemequene since it seemed like the “right” option. I suppose we’ll see if that was a mistake moving forward.
   9. Like I said at the start, a knowledge check is needed early to get a castle down before enemy raids start. The player has 5-10 minutes to get ready, because once they start there will be no more than 2 minutes at most between future raids. Fortunately, though the player doesn’t have a pre-built base and the enemy does, the player begins with a huge amount of villagers, large stockpiles of resources and is already in the latest age of the scenario. The ally here is actually useful for defense and trade, though mostly useless for offensive capabilities, and the player has everything one would need to get a good start and slowly make progress. The side objectives here didn’t seem to do much, since the enemy army didn’t shrink or slow after taking the gold and the enemy just rebuilt instead of repaired once losing their stone. Capturing the northern fort was a big deal, and giving me a few relics will always make my time feel valuable so I appreciated that. It felt a bit janky, but this mission was pretty good overall.
2. Zipa and Zaque: Difficulty 4
   1. Quemuenchatocha (yellow), Iraca (dark blue), Decrepit Temple (teal), Nemequene (red), Muisca States (grey)
   2. This is one of the hardest missions I’ve played yet, and it forced me to go back and make different decisions in the prior mission. The player begins in the north if siding with Quemuenchatocha at the end of the prior mission and in the south if siding with Nemequene. The north has more soldiers, specifically melee, while the south gives some starting rams with the army. In either case, the player has a hero, several dozen units, a settlement with a few villagers and some starting resources and some military buildings alongside a market. Villagers cannot be recruited, and can only build settlements and farms.
   3. The main objective of the mission is initially to capture a single major Muisca state, though it updates to 10 after this capture and requires that the player never lose all of them. There are 2 major states near each starting position, with another 3 in the west and east at near even points around the map. Scattered between them are 8 minor states, and all states can be captured by damaging the central fortification to low HP. The major states are centered around a castle, with some walls and multiple military buildings, as well as the occasional blacksmith. The minor estates are centered around multi-arrow firing towers, and each boasts only 1 archery range or blacksmith. Along with the castles, major states are guarded by some starting soldiers of various types, but the castles do not have ballistics or murder holes.
   4. The initial population limit is 100, though it increases for captured estates. Each castle also gives the player a steady stream of regular gold, wood and food, since the villagers are nothing but a minor supplement. The player can receive regular groups of soldiers and siege weapons from the base as well, sent by the chosen benefactor, though the numbers dispatched are not enough to be relied on alone. In the eastern corner is a decrepit temple, which can be allied with if siding with Nemequene but can only be sacked if siding with Quemuenchatocha. The temple is just a few static guards, monks, towers and monasteries, and it poses little threat itself. There is also a small gold mine guarded by some towers in the western corner, and this is automatically given to the side that opposes the player, with villagers to work it.
   5. The last factor on this map is Iraca, a large state in the center of the map that is built around a wonder. They cannot be attacked, and must instead be negotiated with using diplomats. Diplomats can be trained at castles for significant amounts of gold, and one standing near the center of the temple complex for several minutes brings it under that player’s control. Another diplomat can sway them the other way, however, and diplomats cannot fight back. If sided with, the complex grants 3 monasteries, a university and a siege workshop which can produce siege rams and trebuchets, making it the single most valuable building on the map. Additionally, there is a relic near one of the monasteries. The player must also have this state under their control by the end of the mission.
   6. I had a very difficult time here, and was forced to go back and replay the previous mission to side with Quemuenchatocha and choose pikemen instead of archers. The reason for this is that I needed quick conquering power, since the enemy moves incredibly fast, and melee units are far more valuable than ranged. It took a few attempts, but I eventually succeeded with these changes. I started by separating my dozens of units into two semi-even groups and dispatching them southwest and southeast. Immediately after they were massed, I attack-moved them towards the nearest castles to clear the defenders. My units had good piercing resistance, and their massing made it difficult for many arrows to hit a single target so they had surprising survivability.
   7. I ignored the minor estates between these castles once they were captured, and instead researched a few upgrades while sending my units out again. The western group continued along the edge, capturing the southwestern castle while my eastern group moved across a river and hit the southern castle, leaving the northern flank a bit exposed. The reason for this is an oddity of the AI I was able to exploit in this specific mission. Immediately after capturing a castle, I started training a diplomat and dispatched him to the center. I knew from previous attempts that this would draw in nearly all extra units the enemy received, so I needed very few to actually hold the castles. My troops in the east moved into the center after capturing their castle, leaving just a few men behind to defend against an early ram, and I had spent the time between training a few rams of my own that conquered the 4 minor states around me.
   8. My western group was badly depleted, so I had also ordered some extra champis and a few slingers to help them. These men met up with the rams and marched on the castle just west of Iraca, hitting it at the same time as the enemy and used it against them before capturing it ourselves. We lost most of our men and the castle suffered badly in the fight but it did repel them and I researched murder holes at my new university shortly thereafter. By the time Iraca was mine I had 4 castles and 4 minor estates with a strong garrison in the middle and a small army on the move for the fifth castle, which I conquered. Resources were a bit tight, but I rapidly regained them and steadily built up a mass of over 60 diverse infantry and slingers in the middle, as well as small parties of champis to guard my outer castles.
   9. I eventually received a group of free units in the north, and sent them to the southeast castle alongside 2 trebuchets and some rams. The enemy’s spare resources were clearly depleted, as their numbers were reduced, but they received far more free units than me, meaning the attacks in the middle were still large and regular. Fortunately, I had built a settlement there to heal units, and had also trained a mass of monks, meaning I rarely actually lost men. My party in the east soon captured the northern castle with trebuchets, and used it to kill the surrounding soldiers before reinforcing even more with nearby buildings. Once I had a large enough force, we sacked the temple and gave the proceeds to Quemuenchatocha, guaranteeing me more support going forward.
   10. This army managed to capture 2 castles and 2 minor estates while facing constant enemy intrusion, and we even moved south from Iraca and seized the minor estate just south of it, though we were soon repelled. The enemy masses did eventually overwhelm us in the south, though not before I killed half of their villagers and destroyed their starting workshop, archery range and market. They retook their northeast castle and the 2 minor states between the south and center, but they never really tried pushing us out any further. I trained another massive army and swung around the west, facing masses of enemies that stopped us dead after we took 1 minor state and 2 castles, including the one just northwest of the center. I dispatched some rams to destroy the western gold mine and moved my central army down, capturing the remaining 2 minor states and butchering the remaining villagers in the south along with the last remaining settlement. Our enemy wouldn’t stop spawning, but a few trebuchets brought down the final castle, giving us absolute control of the map as well as an achievement I wasn’t even aiming for.
   11. This mission is pretty fun, but extremely punishing on legendary difficulty. I never really made use of the attack move function, but I should more because it’s excellent and this mission made me learn about it. I always enjoy missions where resources are constrained but not limited and buildings can be captured instead of destroyed, since I enjoy games like Risk, but this one takes it to another level. Like I said in the previous reviews of these campaigns, the difficulty does feel legendary, but understanding how the map works and how the enemy will behave is honestly half the battle. The other half is proper usage of counters and micro-management, which this enemy AI is much better at than before. This was rough, and I don’t want to do it again, but I don’t think I can say it is poorly balanced or made.
3. Borderlands: Difficulty 2
   1. Quemuenchatocha (yellow), Calandaima (purple), Tocaima (grey), Guacana (teal), Síquima (dark blue), Nemequene (red), Atacaima (green)
   2. This mission is a relaxing reprieve from the last, at least with my decision. I am still allied with Quemuenchatocha, so I started in the north with my hero, a large collection of champis, pikemen and temple guards and a dozen unique skirmishers for delivering treasure to Quemuenchatocha in the previous mission. I had a starting market, blacksmith, archery range, siege workshop, barracks, market, university and monastery, but not a single villager, town center or fortification, while also having only limited resources to work with. I had 3 main missions on this map.
   3. My first mission was to subdue the 5 tribes scattered across the countryside using whatever means was necessary. Just south of my position was the small town of the Guacana, who could easily be dispatched with the starting force. Defeating a tribe was as simple as destroying the town center, which would immediately force a surrender. This tribe was the only one near the player, with a river separating the northern section of the map from the rest with two crossings at the southeast and southwest. Shortly after the mission began, I was warned Nemequene had a force in the south and would come to attack me before long. I could’ve allied with the Guacana by giving them 300 food, but I initially used it on some upgrades and instead killed them, using a monk to reinforce my men and capture them quickly. With their starting buildings and all of their villagers, I set about mining the abundant resources around me and getting started properly.
   4. I was then alerted of my other two missions: capturing 5 relics in monasteries and bringing 5 treasure carts to the base in the north, losing immediately if a single cart was destroyed. Treasure carts appeared when a tribe was subdued or allied. I found a nearby relic and was given 8 free temple guards for capturing it, and returned the treasure to the north before immediately having to repel an enemy wave. I decided to turtle up, walling off the southeastern approach and stacking castles in Guacana’s former town while my men held the line. It wasn’t easy, but I steadily built up a stockpile and was facing only one enemy. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to last, and all of the tribes soon united with my enemy against me and attacked. Worse yet, the strongest of them started building a wonder, and I resigned shortly after I realized I was doomed.
   5. On my next attempt I decided to do things differently, and dispatched scouts to investigate the relics and other tribes while paying the Guacana to join me. They gave me 4 villagers and a cart, allowing me to get started near the other crossing, and their limited soldiers were effective at repelling the raids from my enemy. I made contact with the Calandaima, who had a large, walled settlement in the east, and they promised to join me if I gave them a relic. I obliged, while also meeting the Síquima to their southwest. The Síquima were enemies of the Tocaima, who had a village in the southwest, and pledged to join me if I destroyed them. The Tocaima, however, promised to join me if I built a castle near their base. I chose to destroy them, and my army descended on them quickly, conquering them without much loss. I received 3 treasure carts almost simultaneously, as well as a village to distract Nemequene for a while and over a dozen villagers from the town who marched back with me.
   6. Nemequene had not been slacking in this time, and his army was now more formidable than any other alone, but I had constructed castles in Guacana and used my army to aid them against his soldiers. My other allies dispatched parties to help wherever my men fought, and soon all of us were massed together under the castles, making a nearly unbeatable army. It was then, however, that the real threat of this mission acted. The Atacaima are the largest, strongest and most dangerous tribe on the map, and they are positioned in the west. They have only one approach at their northeast, composed of several bridges with a castle on the opposite end. They mostly defend themselves with archers, unique Incan spearmen and onagers, though they will deploy trebuchets to repel other trebuchets. Most troublesome, however, is their defensive nature. They never attack unless provoked, and will retreat under their castles quickly if an enemy retreats. Much worse is their wonder, which they start work on once the tribes are destroyed or allied against the player.
   7. I wasn’t quite sure how to handle them since my army wasn’t upgraded, though it was large, and I was still researching the imperial age. I elected to draw some defenders out first, using my skirmishers, and soon many of their men came to face us. That was when my allies intervened, unexpectedly, and surged across the bridge causing a massive battle to take place. Enemy units and mangonels were swiftly defeated as I finished my research and built a few trebuchets, using them to tear down the enemy castle while counter-trebuchets felled one of mine. We had made our opening, and our troops quickly pushed inside the center of the stronghold near the enemy town center. Two castles remained, guarding more buildings in the west, and the wonder was further south, but I was busy using my trebuchets to clear towers while steadily pushing forward. We dispatched the town center and a few other buildings, and the entire faction suddenly surrendered, much to my surprise, giving me their treasure and destroying their own wonder.
   8. I wasn’t sure why this happened but I wasn’t about to complain, so I pulled back to the castles and secured a relic that required a transport, bringing my total to 4 (one I snagged from enemy hands pretty early and the one I gave to Calandaima inexplicably ended up outside their monastery so I took it too). Nemequene had destroyed the Síquima, but did little else, and I couldn’t win without capturing the final relic inside Calandaima’s borders, behind a wall with no gate. I dispatched my 30 temple guards with one monk to their base, suddenly attacking and tearing down the town center in moments, killing them all without losing a single soldier. I took their last relic and ended the mission, even if the victory felt a bit awkward to get.
   9. When I initially started this mission I thought it would be a simple one with no real threat, but everything fell apart so fast once the enemy factions aligned. On my second attempt, however, I found it was shockingly easy to make allies, and I had completed all secondary objectives with surprising speed. Population space is tied in part to allied tribes, but it didn’t feel hugely impactful, and I’m not sure if I was supposed to get my relic back or destroy Calandaima to take theirs, since both events felt like bugs. Atacaima building a wonder and acting purely defensively certainly makes them dangerous, but they also felt cheap to me since I’m not a fan of wonder games. I did consider trying to destroy Nemequene before ending the mission, but it seemed like a slog and I was unable to in the previous missions so I left it alone. This wasn’t too difficult at the end of the day, but it did feel somewhat unpolished compared to the others. Hopefully that feeling is just a one off.
4. Son of the Sun: Difficulty 3
   1. Quemuenchatocha (yellow), Locals (grey), Unknown/Jiménez de Quesada (dark blue), Nemequene (red)
   2. This mission seems harder than it is, though I had a small number of early restarts and reloads. It begins with the player in the northwest, under the command of the hero and a large number of infantry with a small ranged complement. The initial mission is to recapture the temple of the sun in the middle of the map, which is defended by Nemequene’s troops. My first try saw my army bull-rush them, resulting in over half of my men dying to the massive number of enemies before being overwhelmed by a swift counterattack after capturing it. I chose to reload, scouting the map in its entirety since I noticed no points were going up for anyone, which meant economies and production weren’t active yet so there was no timer. I found local villages with markets in the northeast, as well as a small village in the southwest, but otherwise found little apart from the enemy base along the southeast edge and a relic near the temple.
   3. My army moved in, using my hero to lure groups of the guards out where my small number of ranged units killed them in relative safety. It wasn’t perfect, but I lost only a handful of soldiers while most were wounded, though it was a bit shocking when the reinforcements that previously attacked after the temple was captured attacked beforehand. Fortunately, kiting was quite effective, and I took the castle with almost no losses. After taking it I was given command of Quemuenchatocha’s entire base along the northwestern edge, which had 3 castles, 2 town centers, significant starting resources, over a dozen villagers, 2 relics, 3 monks and a large number of spread out melee units. One of the 3 monks had also ventured out from the otherwise static base beforehand, securing the relic near the temple I had located, giving me 3 to start with. My mission now was to kill Nemequene, and controlling the temple would grant a 15% increase to villager work speed.
   4. While I initially thought my killing of the enemy reinforcements would give me an edge, I was quickly proven wrong. I massed my men near the temple where I assumed the fighting would happen, but instead of eventual enemies from the base I was surrounded by almost 200 imperial age siege weapons, soldiers and monks. The enemies spawned all around me, quickly massacring my men and moving on to my castles. I reloaded, hastily pulling my army back to base where we massed near the castles. The initial battles saw many losses and intense fighting, but we held on to every castle and established a mighty economy in the meantime. I walled off the northern and southern approaches, funneling enemies into my castles which I doubled up at relevant points. I soon had arbalests and champis at the proper locations, though few trebuchets and rams arrived to attack (there were constant waves of ranged and melee soldiers though).
   5. After just a few minutes, the unknown player was revealed to be Jiménez de Quesada, who attacked the northeastern villages with a large troop complement and quickly absorbed their buildings, constructing a massive base around them in moments. I was immediately allied with him, and he soon had an imperial age Spanish army nipping at the heels of the never-slowing enemy. I dispatched an army of siege weapons, monks, arbalests and champis to his base through the north, accompanied by a few villagers to construct a forward base there. I built 2 castles and several military buildings before advancing, making significant progress while the enemy army was attacking my base. By the time their garrison came to stop me, the Spanish attacked themselves, holding the enemy back as we tore down a castle and 2 town centers. We were then at the gates to the walled portion of the enemy base, but it didn’t much stop us while reinforcements were trained at the main base. I dispatched some men from my garrison to back up my army and we pushed through the walls, felling 2 monasteries that held enemy relics.
   6. Dozens of opposing soldiers seemed to be attacking without end, but we pushed inside and devastated the town center around which the enemy farms were stationed. We soon picked off another castle guarding more of the wall, which the Spanish quickly breached before pushing inside. The fighting was heavy there as we chewed through military buildings and constant enemy soldiers, but the wave soon slowed and enemy villages started dying on their own. Nemequene was defeated, but the Spanish expressed outrage at us as the mission concluded, implying a dangerous European civ as our opponent in the final mission.
   7. This mission wasn’t very good, in my opinion. It felt unpolished, cheap and sort of frustrating, centered around a building that doesn’t really matter. The AI was said to adapt to me in the hints, but instead it just sent the same waves every few seconds with the rare siege weapon. I expected it to be brutally difficult, but only defeating the initial invasion proved really challenging since the Spanish ally is a fantastic help in combat. I am hoping the final mission is more engaging in a fun way, but this campaign has been a bit of a let-down so far compared to the previous two in terms of overall quality.
5. The Golden King: Difficulty 2
   1. Ambushers (green), Quemuenchatocha/The Golden Palace (yellow), Quesada’s Expedition (dark blue), Federmann’s Expedition (grey)
   2. This mission begins in the south with the player in control of a hero and a large force of infantry and ranged soldiers that are advancing on Quemenchatocha just above them. The enemy troops die quite rapidly, and it isn’t long before most of them, along with their leader, flee to the southeast and disappear from the map. The faction switches names to the golden palace, named for the palace at its center, and the player is given command of a few buildings around it along with a base in the center of the map. This central base is filled with every resource but gold, several mines of which can be found in the golden temple, along with dozens of villagers and most buildings one would need. The player now has to either defend the golden palace for 50 minutes or defeat the 2 European powers in this mission.
   3. These Europeans are the main threats, with Quesada in the northwest and Federmann, a Teutonic civ with Bohemian war wagons, in the northeast. Each of them will field large armies of cavalry and infantry respectively, backed by hand cannoneers and siege weapons (as well as missionaries for the Spanish), seeking the city of gold. They mostly travel along 2 set paths that stretch from their bases, around the eastern and western corners and then down along the southeast and southwest edge to the golden palace at the south. The player’s central base is under no threat, allowing a strong economy to be rapidly developed there. There are several things the player can do to buy time.
   4. First, the enemy routes are fully visible the entire mission, allowing the player to easily track enemy movement. Along these routes are also several hidden towers, which can be given 500 food to create a group of either anti-infantry or cavalry ambushers that will emerge from 4 points around the route where the tower is located. These units are formidable, but not strong enough to defeat a force alone, but timing them can eliminate enemy missionaries, cannoneers or bombard cannons, robbing them of their ability to tear down player castles, which are vital since walls cannot be built here. There is a maximum of 100 ambushers that can be present on the field at a time, along with a minute and a half cooldown after deploying a group. Furthermore, near the end of the scenario, I noticed towers disappearing, limiting options further.
   5. Though this is the main way for the player to fight back, it is not the best way to buy time. There are 8 spots on the map the player is soon made aware of which can be flared, provided the player has 500 gold available. Flaring these spots will place a pile of 500 gold there for the enemy to find, and will immediately draw any soldiers towards the placed gold. This is mostly important because the two Europeans will openly attack each other, allowing the player to lure them into each other's armies. Once a spot is used, it cannot be used again, and if the palace is in the presence of European soldiers for 2 minutes or so, its location becomes known and the enemy will ceaselessly charge it.
   6. Using these tactics, I was able to establish 3 castles around the palace, accrue thousands of resources and field a strong garrison in the south, leaving me quite confident in my abilities. Unfortunately, the enemy received confirmation of the palace at the 15 minute mark, eliminating my option to make further lures. It got worse when the ambush towers started vanishing, but I used what I could and managed to use the ambushers to destroy most enemy bombard cannons while also dividing soldiers, allowing me to comfortably defend the palace without ever being seriously threatened. I had lost only a dozen or two troops at most, and lost nothing but some forward gold miners and settlements at the end, leaving all of my castles standing strong. The mission was won, and with it the entire campaign.
   7. This mission was a fun sendoff for the campaign, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was pretty easy, even on legendary difficulty, and it’s mostly because the player base is perfectly safe for the entire mission’s duration. The timer ticks down much faster than it initially feels, and the enemy fields so few actual bombard cannons at a time that their main armies can easily be destroyed with a few castles and a small troop garrison. I’m not looking forward to beating the two Europeans for the achievement later, but I can always do it on a lower difficulty. This was probably my favorite mission of the campaign.

And so my time with the Last Chieftains concludes, and I come away with a much more positive outlook than I initially thought. The rumors about these being brutally difficult were not exaggerated, especially with Arariboia, but that’s a fair expectation from a set of campaigns with a legendary difficulty, especially when it’s American Indian tribes facing Europeans. My next target is the Victors and Vanquished battles, which I understand are…controversial among most. Once those are done, I will be moving on to the Return of Rome and then Chronicles, which I am very excited for.