Our latest dev blog had some content redacted at the last minute, but we’re happy to reveal that now! The producer of the Age of Empires series at Microsoft, Ryan Chaply, was present at E3 and teased some upcoming goodness for the whole Age series.
Age of Empires II HD: The African Kingdoms
First and foremost, the name is out! Age of Empires II HD: The African Kingdoms will be the name of the new expansion pack, coming out later this year on Steam.
Additionally, a new civ has been announced, including a small teaser video with further information regarding the Malians and the Berbers. As well as little hints for further additions to the game. We’ll certainly cover more of those in extended detail in future posts, but we wanted to make sure you didn’t miss out on some possible speculation 😉
E3 Teaser
We’ll keep you posted with more goodness next weeks, including some in-depth detail on the latest patch notes and the strengths of the new mod manager.
Great news! Not only for the age of empires article but also because Age of Mythology is getting new civs! From the picture I guess Celts, Phoenician and Chinese will be those civs.
And for the african kingdoms: Berbers, Malians, Ethiopians, Bantu and Portuguese.
AoM civs are very diferent from AOE2. Working on just one new civ for AoM are more demanding than working on 5 new civs for AoE2 (complete new graphics for each unit, building and tech; Distinct gameplay for each civ; 7 god power animations; 7 or more myth creatures and each with ther own animation and special powers…). The only expansion pack this game has come with just 1 new civ.
True. I’m sure Chinese will be in the game.
But let me dream!
But there is a lot of stuff they can recycle from AoE3 for the chinese.
actually no a lot, Chinese dressed differently in different period. I think the timeline of AOW should belong to Ancient Greece period, Chinese in that time was Eastern Zhou period, they wore totally different than what they wore in early-modern ear. Chinese dressed Han clothing before 1644, and dressed Manchu clothing afterward.
I haven’t played Mythology before, so I don’t really know if it follows certain timeframe or just mythology but I think the Aztecs would be a nice addition to it. Pre-hispanic mythology is really badass.
I agree in your AOAK civs.
I think Mayans fit more the timeframe and could be a great addition to the game.
Timeframe? AoM is not meant to take place in any actual historical timeframe, Greeks have units from the hellenistic period during the Trojan war and fight egyptians from before the Persian invasion and medieval vikings at the same time.
I don’t think that’s exactly true. AoM is set in the Age of Mythology, as its title subtly suggests. Mythology is not history, and that is enough to explain the seeming timelessness of it. In historical terms, it is usually true that the present is more advanced than the past, but in mythological term, the good old days tend to beat the present. If I were to date this ‘Age of Mythology’ I would take the only event I can think of from the campaigns that we kinda sorta have a date for: the Trojan War. That places the game… Read more »
And still, Greeks get units from the times of Alexander the Great and after.
Yes but as I said this game isn’t historical. In mythological terms civilization tends to degrade as time goes on. Having the Greeks fight with historically accurate sticks and stones (hyperbole, but you get my point) wouldn’t go with the game’s atmosphere, in my opinion.
By the way, this is another reason why I don’t think Romans will be showing up anytime soon. The Trojan War happened during the original game, and Aeneas must just be starting off somewhere. So unless an expansion features a significant time jump I don’t think Romans would fit, even mythologically.
Well, mythology isn’t intended to keep a strict chronology. Herakles was part of the Argonauts, which means he was contemporary to the Trojan war since he teamed up with Castor and Pollux, brothers of Helen. And still, he also fought the giants during the Gigantomachia, which happened during the Theogonia theorically BEFORE the humans were even created by Prometheus.
Wow, that… doesn’t make any sense. I thought Giants had to be killed with help from a mortal. Talk about continuity errors xD
But yeah, that’s kind of my point. There’s not a timeline, per se, but I always got the impression the game was set in some kind of vague heroic age, hence the name.
well, actually i think there is a timeframe yes. It is the ancient age. which is a long timeframe. The Egyptian civilisation and mythology represented in the game is from 3500BC to 1500BC approx. The Greek civilisation is somewhat between 1500BC and 500BC approx. The Nordics are from 500BC to 500AC approx. The middle ages started in 500AC and we don’t have any civilisation from that time in the game. With a so large timeframe from 3500BC to 500AC you can have plenty of cultures to represent including romans and mayans. But no aztecs who were a middle age state.
according to mythology is not such a big jump to the foundation of Rome, but a big jump to their glorious time
mayans best than aztec due to timeframe
I couldn’t see the picture that well, but I also thought two of them looked respectively Celt and Chinese. However, I couldn’t say for the third one. I’m realy excited anyway, I’m a big fan of all mythologies even though I don’t know much about most of them. I wonder wether we would get a unified Celt faction or they would be split into Gauls, British ans Irish, since all of those people had their own pantheon. And I hope we’ll get more ans more factions just like what’s happening with AoE2, so WWE could get Slavs, Mesopotamians, Indians (Hinduism)… Read more »
i dont think they would split so much a religion, it will be just celts, for the same reason than romans would not make sense
Yeah, but it’s different from Romans whose pantheon was mostly the Greek pantheon with different names, the Celts pantheons were really different one from another, as far as I know.
They were some commonalities between different Celtic pantheons but yes, they had largely different gods. It’s hard to tell for sure because pretty much everything we know about the Celts comes from second-hand sources like the Roman generals who conquered most of their land and the Christian priests who eradicated their religion. I reckon that from what we know of Celtic mythology you could roughly divide it into three main groups (there are other branches, but they are too obscured to make anything out of them): Gallic/Brytonnic, Cymric (Southwestern Britain eg Wales and Cornwall) and Gaelic (Irish). A Celtic faction… Read more »
I didn’t know Brytonnic were closer to Gallic than to Cymric, I thought some gods such as Bendigeidfran were worshiped by all of Britannia but had no followers in Gauls.
I still think Romans would look a bit déjà vu, especially since Atlanteans are already quite close to the Greeks. Maybe Etruscans would be more exotic.
By the way, I think it was already a mistake to take Poseidon and, overall, Hades as Greeks’ major gods, Athena would have fit better than both of them.
Sure. To regional variations you get different gods between tribes. Cymric tribes may have had many different gods from the rest of Britain but they definitely shared deities with other Brytonnic Celts that they didn’t with the Gauls. I actually haven’t been able to find much on ancient Brytonnic gods, and what I remember I read somewhere that they had a lot in common with the Gauls’. For the Gauls you always have Caesar’s weird comparisons with Roman gods, for the Cymric you have the Mabinogi and for the Gaelics you have the Cycles. I don’t know of any comparable… Read more »
But Zeus, poseidon and hades were the most powerful, major =/= worshipped
No, not at all. Hades was almost not worshipped and never shown extraordinary powers in the mythology. As I said, Athena, Apollon or even Demeter (to stay among the first generation of Olympians) would have been more relevant.
Celts could be divided in Britons, Gauls and Iberians or they could give each one a major god which is more likely what will happen. Romans have a complete different pantheon than greek. Yes most of the romans god have equivalents in Greece but also romans give equivalents to celts gods and greeks also give equivalents to egyptian gods and more. In Greece there was 6 gods son of Chronos. Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Hestia, Hera and Demeter which were the most powerful but not all of them the most worshipped. Athena was the most worshiped in Athens, Ares was in… Read more »
Just a small correction, technically you could not call them “Iberians”, since the Iberian tribes were not even Indo-European, so certainly not Celtic. Celtiberians would be an accurate unbrella term for the IE tribes living on the Western and Northern areas of Iberia. 🙂
leovigildo – vascones, aquitanians, gascons would do?
Those were the non-Indo-European ones, thus not Celtic.
The Celtic ones were, for example the Celtici, Gallaeci, Cantabri, Astures, Lusitani (maybe, not entirely sure if they were Celtic or from another Indo-European branch, like Italic), etc.
with the celts they could make each major god of a different variation, but not three religions with 9 major gods in total, that is what i mean
Actually for The African Kingdoms, there will be Berbers, Malians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, and Portuguese. About the Portuguese unique unit, it would be the Genitor since it has been an unused unique unit in the official AOE2 for a long time. Also, the Genitors are Portuguese soldiers, so it makes sense to have them be a unique unit for the Portuguese.
Sorry bro but Egypitans are Saracens in the game. Saladin was Sultan of Egypt and the mamluks too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamluk
Egyptians were just kind of minor to the Saracens as the Saladin campaign was the only case that Saracens were Egyptians because the Saracens mostly represents the civilization of Saudi Arabia. So we will still add in the Saracens.
Sarecens represent the middle age civilization of Egypt, Syria and Palestine. Is more probably they add Arabians as a new civ rather than Egyptians
You know, you’re right. The Saracens do represent Egypt, Syria, and Palestine but it didn’t only represent those places, it also represented Saudi Arabia. So you were absolutely wrong in your quote “Is more probably they add Arabians as a new civ rather than Egyptians”, that’s bulls**t because we already got the Arabians which are represented by the Saracens. So as a notice, the Saracens represent Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia.
and iraq
Saracens also represent Iraq. Okay but I did at least knew that the wonder that the Saracens uses is Iraqi building. So in notice, Saracens represent Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. By the way, I do notice that the Portuguese is going to be added into The African Kingdoms which is cool because I did wanted to see the Portuguese in the official AOE2 especially that the Genitor has been an unused unique unit for a long time in the official AOE2. However, the unique sprites for the Genitor would most likely be created instead of it having… Read more »
Can ask where are you from? It seems google translate is playing with you.
Why not Aventuros as uniq unit for the portugueses?
The Aventuros can be the second unique unit for the Portguese. The one that is at Castle would be the Genitor. However, we can add in a new building called the Academy. That building would be where each civilization would have another of their unique unit at. The Academy can require a stable to be build and can be available at the Castle Age and Academy unique units will also be able to go up to their Elite levels in the Imperial Age. The Aventuros can be trained at the Academy when playing as the Portuguese. However, here’s the list… Read more »
I think Is a nice idea but I must do some corrections to your list. First I think ninjas are more chineese than japanese. And genitor is the name of a horse owned by julius cesar. Maybe the correct name for the unit you say is Genitour.
Whoops. Sorry about the spelling of Genitour. I didn’t remember that there was a ‘u’ in that word. But anyway, do you think the Academy unique unit for the Italians should be the Eltemi or something else.
I love to tell you that I did found a soldier that can be a unique Academy unit for the Turks and here’s what it is:
Piyade
If you don’t know what a Piyade is, look it up in this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaya_(military)
Now about the cost of the buildings, I would like to have the house cost restored to 30 wood but have the military buildings cost -10 wood (165 wood) because 25 wood sounds kind of too cheap.
Hey LuchoUy! I was wondering where were you recently because I didn’t get anymore replies from you yet.
Hi! I’ve been playing age of empires and waiting for the new dev blog. I think some of your ideas are nice but I don’t know if they will do something like that. Greetings!
Pd. Where are you from?
I live in America but my family came from Ireland, Lithuana, and most of all Indonesia. What about you?
About my ideas, we should make them happen because I would love it if each civ is more unique especially that Imperial Camels will no longer be a unique unit. However, I think we agree that the Portuguese unique unit at the Castle would be the Genitour while the Aventuros (Another of the Portuguese unique unit) would be trained at the Academy.
But I don’t believe they will create the academy. It would be nice to see new buildings but I really don’t think it will happen. But for sure, at least Saracens and Byzantines should have imperial camels.
You know, you should ask them to create the academy. If the academy isn’t going to be created, then the Aventuros are going to another building and it won’t be the castle because the Genitour is the one that will be at the castle.
Hey I haven’t got a reply from you yet about that you should ask them to create and academy and some other stuff.
Hey LuchoUy! About the Academy, if it won’t be added, the Aventuros would end up in a different building instead (It won’t be the castle since the Genitour will be there). I hope the Academy has been created to be in The African Kingdoms.
Can I ask where are you from?
Any news about the unique units and techs for these civs? Now it seems only camel rider of Berbers is released
What if we only have 3 new civilizations in this expansion?
Berber, Malians and Portuguese
I think I will not buy it if only 3 civs are added.
Well, both previous exansions had 5 new civs each:
Conquerors – Spanish, Aztecs, Mayans, Koreans, Huns.
Forgotten – Italians, Indians, Slavs, Magyars and Inca.
So I suppose everyone is expecting this to be the same. At least I am.
Yes I am expecting that obviously.
But what if they shit on us?
Well I suppose that for most people it would depend on the price tag, maps, campaigns etc..
I’ll still get it regardless, because Portugal.
I don’t think they’ll do. An africain expansion isn’t even conceivable without Abyssinians, and Portuguese wouldn’t make sense without at least Bakongos or Mozambicans (or both of them mashed up into a Bantu faction).
Yeah Abyssinians seem historically legit as a long-standing civ!
Who could be the guy of the left?
Where are the Zulus?????
Zulus came about the 19th century, well outside the time span of AOE2 which ranges between the 5th and the 16th centuries.
I hope one day they’ll have the Khmers, Thai/Lao, Javanese and Vietnamese
Yeah, I’d l’île to see a south-east asian expansion as well. Maybe with Champ as ans Malines too.
it can became 4th expansion.
Indeed a expansion with 2-3 south-east asian civis would be great but it might be too much civis for the game if this expansion also has 5 civis. 18+5FE+5AK+3EK?=31+
Too much is never enough.
For a reason about string ID make the max civ. Only 27. The African Kingdom will have 4 civ. If want to add the 28 civ. It will need relocation string id for many unit.
Damn so if they add 4 here there wont be chance for a 4th expansion.
Yes it is, but only if the Developer can create a new String as is done by the ES when creating Expansion The Conquerror. If in the original version, String extremely crowded out by other strings that have been used. If forced to use the string, we have to meemindah all the strings involved.
Wtf do you mean with String?
btw i’m a developer and what you say no make sense to me.
DUDE! AOE2 can’t have too many civs. We definitely still need to put more civs into AOE3 especially the Americans.
You know, just because new expansions are developed for AoE2 doesn’t mean AoE3 won’t be covered at some point. It’s not like there’s a limited amount of civs shared by both games. And by the way, I’m not sure anybody would have worked on a new expansion for AoM without the success of the Forgotten.
There’s no need for a 4th expansion pack for AOE2 because AOE2 has a lot civs. However, I would definitely love to also see a new expansion pack for AOE3 as well because AOE3 really needs more civs especially the Americans since there’s NOT enough civs for AOE3. I really want to see the Italians as a major civilization in AOE3.
If you want to see an AOE2 expansion pack with these civs, it would end up being an expansion pack mod and NOT an official expansion pack since AOE2 has so many civs. I think The African Kingdoms should be the last official expansion pack for AOE2 to be released. While The African Kingdoms is being worked on, a new AOE3 expansion can start being in progress. After The African Kingdoms is released, someone can totally start working on a new expansion pack for AOE1. I really want to see the Indians in AOE1.
Berbers, Malians, Portuguese, Ethiopians, Vandals. That’s what I believe 🙂 looks really awesome!
why people can’t understand that portugal is not african nor relevant in this timeframe. And why vandals if we have already goths
First: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Portugal second, Portugal held power in Africa, first in the north and later via their “trading post empire” along the coast of Africa. Vandals because they fit in theme with Goths, Teutons, Celts etc and their Kingdom was in North Africa. Granted it’s early middle ages but so are Huns so they would fit in. I just think it diversifies the expansion.
Huns can pretty much represent the vandals also but it would be interesting to have them since they seem to be the only civi left out from the history section now.
By far they aren’t.
Yes Portugal did held power in Africa. But I think they probably did held power in Africa during the Middle Ages. If so, then it makes sense to add in the Portuguese.
Portugal held territories in Africa from 1415 until 1974, the longest any colonial empire ever had.
Not relevant in the timeframe? Are you for real?
Vandals would probably be a cavalry-based faction, while Goths are the most infantry-based they could be without turning meso-american.
i saw some slingers in the video, so i think slingers can be used by African civs. that is good if the units can be shared. in my opinion, imperial camel can also include in some civics, like the Berers, the Persian, or even the Chinese.
The Imperial Camel can be brought to Turks, Bizantines, Saracens and Persians in my opinion. Turks because camels are the only decent anti-cavalry unit this civ can train; Biz because of the lack of Blast Furnace and Bloodlines, making his heavy Camel negligible despite the cost bonus; Saracens for obvious reasons and Persian only for historic reason.
I agree. We want more imperial camels!!
Me too, at least sarracens and maybe persians due the cavalry techtree
I have to disagree with that.
The Byzantines didn’t employ camels to any significant degree in military roles if they employed them at all. The post-Parthian Persian empires didn’t have any regular camel units until the Safavids started using them. The Turks in central Asia did employ camels to a more significant degree (mostly as a pack animal), but the Seljuqs and Ottomans didn’t. The Mongols didn’t really rely on camels as war mounts either, but, outside of the Arab and Indian worlds, central Asia is the best candidate for semi-historical camelry. A more historically accurate distribution of the Camel, Heavy Camel, Imperial Camel line would… Read more »
You know Saracens should have Cavaliers – its a pretty much gross mistake as historically Saracen/Islamic armies composed of horsemen too. Camels were more for carrying supplies and stuff.
Perhaps Cavaliers are appropriate to the Saracens; however, it’s not as if they lack other cavalry units– fully upgraded Hussars and Heavy Cavalry Archers count for something. I do agree that their capacity for fielding heavy cavalry is unhistorically lacking. It would have been nice if in-game Mamluks had been heavy cavalry lancers rather than the weird sword throwing camelry they are now.
We are NOT going to give Cavaliers to the Saracens because the Saracens will look overpowered as they get access to almost everything (just like the Spanish and Byzantines). Also, the Civilizations Techs do not have to be exactly based on historical reality. So however, about the Mamelukes, they can be revamped into heavy cavalry lancers rather than keeping them as weird sword throwing cavalry.
as always, remember that the gameplay has to remain enjoyable too, and that usually takes precedence over historical accuracy. Saracens have the best camel units in the game (at least they did until the Indians were introduced – saracens still have very powerful camels though), so them being restricted from cavalier probably has more to do with balancing the civ than with its historicity.
DUDE! There’s no need to give Cavaliers to the Saracens. The Saracens are already so powerful. So if we give them Cavaliers, they look overpowered. Besides there are civs in AOE1 that don’t use the Heavy Cavalry nor the Cataphract (Not talking about the Byzantines unique unit) and the Knight, Cavalier, and Paladin have a very similar unit evolution with the Cavalry, Heavy Cavlry, and Cataphract from AOE1.
Rather than giving the Turks Pikeman, we’ll give them Elite Skirmisher instead. There’s no need to give them Pikeman or Helberdier. So we will give them Elite Skirmisher instead.
Now here’s the thing. There will be no need to give the Saracens Cavaliers because they have almost access to everything. The Techs for each civ doesn’t have to be exactly based on Historical Reality. However, We will still be giving them Imperial Camel and not just that but we’ll also have the Mameluke become revamped into Heavy Cavalry Lancers since it makes more sense for them to be Heavy Cavalry Lancers. Also, Turks are NOT going to have Pikeman because there’s no need to give the Turks that unit. Instead, we’ll just give them Elite Skirmisher.
I think at this point everyone understands that you’re opposed to Saracens with Cavaliers.
Alright. By the way, since the Portuguese is going to be added, you do know that it will be having the Genitour as it’s unique unit at the Castle.
No, we don’t. Portuguese have not even been officially announced. We know there will be Malians and Berbers, camel archers, new trees and animals. That’s all that has been confirmed. Everything else is speculations made from screenshots, box art, trailer video, and what we know of medieval Africa.
Well once the Portuguese gets confirmed, the Genitour would then become a usable unique unit as it will be the Portuguese unique unit trained at the Castle. The Portuguese will also be having other unique units as well such as the Aventuros which will be trainable at a new building called the ‘Academy’ and the Caravel which will be trainable at the Dock. Also, about the building set, the Portuguese will be using the Iberian Set which will be a combination of the Mediterranean Set (the building set used for the Italians) and Western Europe Set in the Castle Age… Read more »
It would be cool if there was an unique unit based on the Knight with Lance as it used to represent many heroes, I think they are gendarmes if i am not wrong
I’m afraid you are wrong, mate. Gendarmes have nothing to do with knights, they are a rather modern military force with a public duty (police).
you are WRONG!! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gendarme_%28historical%29
Didn’t even know that a King’s body of heavily armoured knights was called “gendarmes” during the late middle ages, the term currently is applied to a military force with a police duty.
No need to reply in a rude way, though, makes you look like a cunt.
I only have 1 question…. When????? 🙂
in the vid it says fall 2015
It may not be applicable for any civilisations but how is the idea of having techs delayed or brought in earlier? Like you could have cavalier in castle age (with a premium price and cheaper in imp), forging pushed pack to Castle but cheaper/same but you can still get full upgrades. I think it is justified because civilisations develop at different times and this may allow more strats rather than FC/Fast-imp. There is already something like this in the original game with the Biz having cheaper IMP. Another idea I have, similar to what I wrote above is, having a… Read more »
“Would there be any room or work around a siege UU?”
Not in this expansion, unless there is something I don’t know about medieval african artillery. However, the war wagons used during the hussite wars could be a wonderful bohemian UU, if Slavs ever get split.