Age of Empires II (2013)

Age of Empires II (2013)

The Barbarian Invasions
41 Comments
rakovsky 21 Oct, 2020 @ 11:05am 
The Campaign has 6 Scenarios total. I just played the first two because the next two dealing with later periods sound very hard: You must kill 500 Roman units in the 3rd Scenario. And the Designer calls the 4th a "Deathmatch" where the enemy has a 400 soldier capacity. I suggest playing the Goth scenarios with the "Mittelalterliche Musik" Mod (https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1505363816) I must break my review into several messages due to word limits:

SCENARIO #1. The Arrival of the Barbarians.
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DATING THE SCENARIO:
I tried figuring out what time period it takes place. I took it to date to 117 AD-410 AD, because the campaign map shows Wikipedia's map of the Roman empire dated to 117 AD. Wikipedia's map marks Rome's vassals in Hungary and Romania in pink, and the Designer put the Scenario's icon on that part of the map. You play as the Goths.
rakovsky 21 Oct, 2020 @ 11:05am 
Wikipedia's article on the Goths says :
<<Beginning in the middle 2nd century, the Wielbark culture [associated with the Goths] shifted southeast towards the Black Sea. During this time the Wielbark culture is believed to have ejected and partially absorbed peoples of the Przeworsk culture. This was part of a wider southward movement of eastern Germanic tribes, which was probably caused by massive population growth. As a result, other tribes were pushed towards the Roman Empire, contributing to the beginning of the Marcomannic Wars... The first incursion of the Roman Empire that can be attributed to Goths is the sack of Histria in 238.>> Histria is at the modern Romanian city of Istria.
rakovsky 21 Oct, 2020 @ 11:03am 
The Wikipedia article on the Macromannic Wars says: <<The Marcomannic Wars (Latin: bellum Germanicum et Sarmaticum, "German and Sarmatian War") were a series of wars lasting over a dozen years from about 166 until 180 AD. These wars pitted the Roman Empire against, principally, the Germanic Marcomanni and Quadi and the Sarmatian Iazyges; there were related conflicts with several other barbarian peoples along both sides of the whole length of the Roman Empire's northeastern European border, the river Danube. The struggle against the Germans and Sarmatians occupied the major part of the reign of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius...>>
rakovsky 21 Oct, 2020 @ 11:02am 
The second part of this first scenario has you take one of 4 relics, the easiest to get apparently being a relic from the southwest of the Rhine in Southern Germany or France. The Goths did not get that far in 117-238 AD, so you can interpret the scenario as just starting in 117-238 AD but continuing. I don't know when the Goths crossed the Rhine, but they sacked Rome in 410 AD.
rakovsky 21 Oct, 2020 @ 11:01am 
SCENARIO ADVICE:
Be careful when scouting the red walls to your west and south because their arrows are strong. Forget about trying to send a ship to Carthage through the Bosphorus.You need to make fire ships because the enemy sends in boats.

MY EXPERIENCE
On HARD, the opening part where you need to destroy the Romanian Town Center was not too hard. I destroyed the towers in Moldova and then built a castle there. But the next part became overwhelming, with masses of enemy swordsmen and crossbowmen flowing through Bulgaria. Then even Elite Teutonic Knights came. One of the complicated parts about the second objective is that since you have a strong ally, your ally could take the relics while invading. If Players like one of the Commentors thought that the first mission was too easy, they could just play it on Hard. I am sure that there are lots of very good players who would not find it too hard, but there are alot of average players like me who do.
rakovsky 21 Oct, 2020 @ 10:58am 
On MODERATE, I made over 50 villagers, but then it turns out that my population limit is 110. I thought it was 200. It means that I shuld make just 27 villagers. I sent a wave of troops toward Constantinople, and two more west into southern Germany for the relics in those places, but they kept getting wiped out by troops. As the game progessed, the enemy churned out Teutonic knights. Actually, I had quite alot of resources, like 5000 gold, even after those waves, but the population limit made it so that I couldn't easily churn out a ton of troops at once. My army had like 25 people.
rakovsky 21 Oct, 2020 @ 10:57am 
On STANDARD, I made 30 villagers and 4 siege engines and used the engines to smash the gate and the towers by the wall in Moldova. The coast was clear to the Town Center in Romania, so I sent in the rams with some support, but they got massacred by enemy archers and teutonic knights and ships.
I guess I need to build a castle and fire ships before attacking the Town Center... And I probably need to use like 50 soldiers or something to attack, but that is not good because you are supposed to attack early due to the Romans' superiority. Finally, I beat it on STANDARD.
rakovsky 21 Oct, 2020 @ 10:57am 
SCENARIO #2 The Huns (5th Century AD)
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For Scenario 2, the map marked 117 AD is still used, where the arrows show the same invasion into Romania. As you progress through the Scenarios, the Campaign map shows the different locations where those Scenarios occur.
The Instructions say that you must kill the Red and Blue leaders, and that a third player supplies tributes/resources to the other two. I beat it on STANDARD.
[WALKTHROUGH SPOILER: The Red and Blue Players are in the middle and SW of the map. The Yellow player's villagers gathering resources are in the east corner, so you can first go north and then go clockwise along the edge of the map to get to the villagers to cut off the supplies going to red and blue. There is one spot in the northern part of the map where you need to chop wood a bit to clear a way for your horse archers to get through.]
rakovsky 21 Oct, 2020 @ 10:57am 
SCENARIO #5.
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The instructions say to get the relic by the monastery in the Northeast, but in fact the monastery is in the northwest, like Vatican City is in relation to Rome.

A place for potential room for improvement in Scenario #5 is that it just uses the standard AOE2 medieval architecture. I would like to recommend that the Designer use some of the Italian-style updates in AOE2's DLCs (eg. the Forgotten), like the Italian civilization, and the Roman architecture (eg. aqueducts). An AOE2 Scenario that does a great job making a pretty map with a very Roman feel is "Colosseum" (Colosseum, https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=445429494&searchtext=rome) .
rakovsky 21 Oct, 2020 @ 10:57am 
It surprised me how much its map of Rome looks like the one that I made for AOE1:ROR in my "Conversions and Catacombs" scenario. (http://aoe.heavengames.com/dl-php/showfile.php?fileid=2755) .
When I made my map I put in a cliff at the bottom to make a catacomb. I notice that the Designer's map has cliffs in the same area. Unless I was making a Scenario that needed the cliffs, I wouldn't put them there in a Rome map. Plus, users note that he took SpiritoftheLaw's map without acknowledging it. AOE1 maps can be transferred to AOE2. If he used mine, it's OK- imitation is a compliment in this case.
rakovsky 21 Oct, 2020 @ 10:56am 
Steam says his last update was February 2018, whereas I made my map in August 2018, which would mean that he couldn't have used mine. Maybe we both used the same kinds of real maps of Rome online to each draw our own AOE maps. I probably still have the files that can prove that instead of just taking another's map, I drew my own map by showing each step in the drawing process. It's just remarkable how similar the maps look.
♠ Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix ♠  [author] 4 Apr, 2019 @ 11:37am 
If you like I can delete the files that are so annoying
Varrio 4 Apr, 2019 @ 5:40am 
Thanks for deleting my comment, shows how you can't accept criticism.

Reported this scenario for copyright infringement (using spirit of the law's map without credit)
Poyloos 26 Mar, 2019 @ 5:16pm 
i dont want to insult you or your intelligence, but maybe get someone who is a native english speaker, and remaster the writing, because sometimes i could hardly understand what you were trying to get across
♠ Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix ♠  [author] 9 Dec, 2018 @ 6:01am 
Muchas gracias Lunfardo. Me alegra que te haya gustado. Y una campaña pasada de moda, tan simple de jugar pero divertida al mismo tiempo.
Lunfardo 8 Dec, 2018 @ 11:29am 
muy buena campaña, realmente me hizo sentir que estaba jugando una campaña original del juego
Lupin823 5 Feb, 2018 @ 5:59am 
scenerio 5 is a bit insane. teutonic knights were enough pain and now we also have to :steamsad:cataphracts using infantry???
Medve 14 Oct, 2016 @ 2:48am 
Will you ever add the forgotten tech?
Manyiken 22 Mar, 2016 @ 1:25pm 
i completed the 1 mission
but the other missions dont appear
so i cant run them
whats the problem?
♠ Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix ♠  [author] 25 Oct, 2015 @ 1:45am 
I did not want to do it too hard because the other levels are quite challenging, I wanted to avoid that people not stufassero already start with a high difficulty.
Dumi 25 Oct, 2015 @ 12:33am 
and the first chapter is kinda easy
Dumi 25 Oct, 2015 @ 12:27am 
Hey dude.Awesome map.I will give you 10/10 if you fix the barbarians that gather only wood.they are not bulding soldiers,buldings,only gathering wood.until then you have a 9/10 from me.
♠ Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix ♠  [author] 8 Oct, 2015 @ 1:28am 
Strange. Retry download the campaign
markus.sulik 7 Oct, 2015 @ 4:30pm 
How cen I get to Chapter 2? I finished chapter 1, and cannot get to chapter 2
shiro 28 Sep, 2015 @ 3:38pm 
I concur with what Toxic said, you used someone elses' map without even giving them credit. Not cool.
Moridin 28 Sep, 2015 @ 9:43am 
I must concur with Teh - you say 4 chapters, but there's really only 1 available. Also, it was pretty clear the map was recycled.
Lore 27 Sep, 2015 @ 1:08pm 
You got the Europe map from Spirit of the LAw and didn't give credit. All you did was change a few things and say it's yours. Not cool. By the way, learn how to translate properly.
Teh 26 Sep, 2015 @ 9:50am 
omly 1 chaper not 4 chapters. I had finished the first chapter.
♠ Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix ♠  [author] 26 Sep, 2015 @ 7:50am 
Ciao. Sono contento che ti piaccia :) Comunque potrei fare la traduzione però non in tempi brevissimi :)
Angry Microwave 26 Sep, 2015 @ 7:43am 
Davvero una bella campagna,ho visto sul tuo prorofilo che sei italiano,e quindi ti volevo chidere se potresti fare anche una traduzione in italiano della campagna :)
♠ Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix ♠  [author] 25 Sep, 2015 @ 3:24am 
I agree. Soon add images
Allen 25 Sep, 2015 @ 3:23am 
Maybe add some ingame pictures on here so you can attract more attention. Just a tip! :)
Freybjörn 24 Sep, 2015 @ 6:01pm 
It's for fun, relax :D
♠ Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix ♠  [author] 24 Sep, 2015 @ 4:09pm 
I hope that now there is no problem for image . I apologize
Gunslinger 24 Sep, 2015 @ 12:50pm 
KURWA! WRONG PICTURE!
Freybjörn 23 Sep, 2015 @ 6:45pm 
Причем, блять, тут картина Три Богатыря... ._.
♠ Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix ♠  [author] 13 Sep, 2015 @ 8:27am 
Download the archive linked in the description and there should be no problem
♠ Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix ♠  [author] 5 Sep, 2015 @ 12:10am 
Hello I play on Windows 8.1 so I can not give you a precise explanation, perhaps is compatibility. That file is un'intelligienza artificial devoted to that chapter. Maybe I'll post them all together and then see if the campaign without problems, otherwise there will be a lot of fun
MainMan B 4 Sep, 2015 @ 5:56am 
I get following message when starting the campaign: "File:impero capitolo1.per. ERR5001: File open failed". I can still run the campaign, without other problems it seems. My specs: Windows 10 Home, AOE 2 HD version 4.3.761340.
♠ Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix ♠  [author] 1 Sep, 2015 @ 9:38am 
Strange. I tried to download it myself and I work perfectly. Please try again
Maennchen 1 Sep, 2015 @ 8:41am 
game does not work: P2 = error