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Age of Empires 2 simply cannot be stopped. 26 years on from the game’s original launch, and six years since the release of its almighty Definitive Edition, real-time strategy’s most benevolent tyrant is still getting the kind of support that would put most live-service games to shame.
Only last month, developer Forgotten Empires unleashed a patch so colossal it has already entered the annals of the series’ history. Now, the studio’s gearing up to release another massive slice of DLC in just over three weeks’ time.
As you can probably glean from its subtitle, Age of Empires II Definitive Edition: The Three Kingdoms transports players back to ancient China in the dying days of the Han dynasty. The DLC introduces five new factions, three of which are the Shu, Wei, and Wu kingdoms the era takes its name from.
Each of these factions gets several unique units, such as the Shu’s war chariot, the Wei’s tiger cavalry, which levels up as it kills enemy units, and the Wu’s fire archer. The two remaining factions are the Jurchens, who can recruit bomb-throwing Grenadiers, and the Khitans. This last faction, which rallies around the Liao dynasty, gets access to one of the weirdest units in the DLC—the mounted trebuchet. This is a siege weapon that is apparently “carried around by camels”. As everybody knows, anything can be instantly improved by putting it on a camel.
These faction-exclusive units aren’t the only new wee fellas you’ll get to order around in the The Three Kingdoms. The DLC also introduces traction trebuchets, “literal floating fortresses” called Lou Chuans, spear-wielding fire-lancers, rocket carts (which replace mangonels) and dragon ships.
You’ll get to experiment with these new units in three new campaigns that focus on the Shu, Wei, and Wu clans respectively. These campaigns will guide players through the most notable events of the Three Kingdoms era, including the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the Battle of Red Cliffs.
Naturally, you’ll also meet some of the period’s key characters, like Zhuge Liang and a certain Lü Bu. On top of all that, the campaign also apparently features an “interactive system” that players will use to “make key decisions that shape each campaign”
You can read the full details here. While I’ll reserve proper judgement until the DLC is out, on paper at least it sounds rad. Forgotten Empires are no strangers to making excellent expansions to AoE 2 at this point, but this seems even more ambitious and comprehensive than usual. We don’t have long to wait until we find out how well all these additions and ideas work out in practice. The DLC launches on May 6.
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Kurt Indovina
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