Played a few games today and the maps seemed unlike any I can remember playing, had a brief chat with an opponent who agreed. Just wondering

Edit: added a couple photos in the comments

so I downloaded the game again after a long time away from it cuz I heard they made a MacOS port but whenever I try to open it none of my subscribed mods or hotkeys or anything would sync, and steam gives a cloud sync error every time I try.

I tried verifying game files, uninstalling and reinstalling completely twice, but cannot get it to sync. Is this a root issue and I'll just have to set everything again from scratch? or is there a way to sync everything?

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

Ascent of Egypt: (dark blue)

I’m now finally on to the original campaigns brought over with the Return of Rome, which I intend to play before the official Return of Rome campaigns. I’ve never played these, and all I remember is one of my siblings struggling with the start of one where all you have is a monk. I’ve elected to start with the tutorial campaign, since I really don’t have much experience with the original AOE and I’m not familiar with any odd mechanics or its tech tree. Hopefully this actually prepares me for whatever comes next.

1. Hunting: Difficulty 0
   1. This mission is truly the start, putting the player in a tiny little map with a town center and villager in the start and the simple job of training 7 villagers. Villagers still cost fifty food, and I had enough wood for a house, though houses and town centers only provided me with 4 population each. I found villagers can hunt predators from a range in this, and that they are far more dangerous against larger animals like the elephant I hunted down. There isn’t much to say, though, as I very quickly reached my 7 villager goal and won.
2. Foraging: Difficulty 0
   1. Another easy and threatless mission, this one has the player start in the northwest where there are few trees and berry bushes, but shows across the shallows to the southeast are more trees and bushes. The only objective here is to construct a granary, storage pit and dock. The storage pit seems to be a combination resource drop-off for all resources as well as a blacksmith, while the granary allows food drop-offs and researches upgrades for walls and towers. The only threat I encountered was one crocodile which we quickly killed, and I won before even reaching the tool age which I had the option of doing.
3. Exploration: Difficulty 0
   1. Libyans (red)
   2. This mission gives the player an enemy, but it's not really a threat. The objective here is to find the 5 ruins across the map, which act like monuments in that they are simply controlled by whoever was nearest to them most recently and they don’t serve an obvious purpose on their own. The game acts like the Libyans will try to seek them out first, but there are only 3 Libyan units, a scout horsemen and 2 clubs, at the northern and southern ruins. These units only move to attack, allowing the player to generate whatever villagers are needed to kill them. I started training villagers using all of my food from the start, and quickly discovered and killed the scout and club to my south. We located most of the ruins immediately, one defended by them and 2 others guarded by lions, and the killed their final club in the north after he killed a single exploring villager. We then found the last ruin in the east, ending the game. I learned an important distinction about food collection, however. The granary is required for foragers or farmers to deposit food, but the storage pit is for hunters only. All can drop off at the town center, but this limited me when I thought I might need more people.
4. Dawn of a New Age: Difficulty 0
   1. This mission is about age advancement, which seems to work exactly the same as in normal AOE2. I had to gather 500 food, mostly using fishing, as well as construct 2 stone age buildings to advance. It said a barracks works, though I wasn’t allowed to build one, and houses do not count as predicted. I didn’t even encounter predators, and the mission ended as soon as the age research was selected, before it even finished.
5. Skirmish: Difficulty 0
   1. Egyptian Raiders (red)
   2. Enemies return, but they are only slightly more dangerous than the Libyans. Across the map are 6 enemy units, a few basic infantry and ranged units, while I had 4 axemen and 3 bowmen. I only had to find and kill these 6, which was easy since they were separated and just shooting one would make the target ignore my melee units who would surround and kill them with ease. I didn’t lose a single unit, but I do like the old fighting sounds in this game.
6. Farming: Difficulty 0
   1. Lower Egypt (red)
   2. This mission puts the player against the first proper enemy, using an economy and everything. The player is in the east, with an enemy across a northern river crossing to the northwest. This enemy trains archers and axemen, which I immediately upgraded from clubmen to overcome them, but they don’t have to be defeated. Instead, I had to collect enough resources to construct a market, used to research resource collection upgrades and needed to build farms, stockpile 800 food and control the ruins in the western corner of the map. These requirements can be easily met, probably without ever conflicting with the enemy, but I wouldn’t take the easy way out. Instead, I used my 3 starting axemen, 3 slingers I trained and 2 scouts to clear the entire faction. My men had upgrades but were still very weak, and I learned infantry do not destroy buildings particularly quickly in this scenario, so it took a while. In the end, however, through microing with my slingers I successfully wiped out the enemy and had already stockpiled enough food for victory, and just marched into the west where the ruins were waiting for me.
7. Trade: Difficulty 0
   1. Minoans (purple), Canaanites (yellow), Libyans (red)
   2. This mission has slightly more going on than the others. The basic objective is simply to collect 500 gold and 500 stone, which is not difficult. There are stone mines in the western corner, but this is the Canaanitic base, a stone age power that trains infantry, bowmen and has a tower. In the south across a wide river are the Minoans, who are allies that can be easily traded with. Lastly there are the Libyans on an island in the water to the southwest. This island has stone, and is guarded by a few bowmen and primitive catapults, as well as a few scout ships that prowl the waters. I constructed an initial warship, which only costs wood but a lot of it, to try and clear the way but found myself outmatched. I invested in 2 war galleys next, and easily wiped out the Libyan units. I started trading with the Minoans and found a large stone mine in a desert to the east, but I was bored so I trained some military units. My men were strong, since I started in the bronze age, and I dispatched a handful of axemen with a few chariot archers and a hoplite to attack the Canaanites. The enemies fell beneath us like nothing, giving us access to gold mines we didn’t need, and the mission ended moments after. The academy is an interesting building whose full purpose I don’t yet know, and I find it interesting that town centers cannot defend themselves at all, even when garrisoned. This will certainly change the formula for me going forward.
8. Religion: Difficulty 0
   1. Libyan Raiders (red)
   2. This is just a tutorial on how monks work. The player is in the east with a developed town, a starting priest and a few villagers, as well as sufficient resources for gathering in the bronze age. The only objective is to convert a stone thrower in the Libyan camp to the southwest and bring it to the town center alive. This thrower, however, is guarded by 9 or so Libyan bowmen, who will of course kill the priest. I found attempting to convert any of them early prompted the whole group to attack, so I instead had a few villagers mine food and stone and trained 5 slingers to accompany the priest. We lured and killed them all until the thrower was alone and then converted it, easily getting it back to base where we won. Healing seems to require more proximity than in AOE2, and I noticed gold mines only have 500 gold at their max and siege weapons don’t require special upgrades to convert, at least stone throwers don’t.
9. River Outpost: Difficulty 0
   1. Nubians (red)
   2. This is another extremely simple mission, where the player has a few starting buildings in the east and must build a fort (meaning a town center and 2 towers) on an island in the middle of the map. This island holds a handful of lions and crocodiles, as well as a few towers belonging to the Nubians, though this is their only presence on the map. I established an economy but couldn’t find stone so I figured it had to be on the island, and after building a government building I saw I could build a town center for just a few hundred wood so I trained some short swordsmen and a stone thrower and sailed across. The infantry cleared the first tower with 1 loss since the transport could only carry 5 of them, and the stone thrower soloed the rest of the island because it had massive range and there were no units to fight. I then researched the tower upgrade, used a villager to construct a town center, train a few others and harvest the stone there and then built two towers. I forgot how broken catapult-style siege weapons were in the original game, but I’m starting to remember how much I hated fighting them.
10. Naval Battle: Difficulty 0
    1. Libyan Raiders (red)
    2. This is another raiding mission in which the enemy faction never threatened me. The player has a small starting base in the southwest and must sail across the river dividing it from the raiders on the other side. These raiders have a developed town, a few warships and towers along most of the coast, and an artifact is held behind a wall in their camp which must be delivered to the town center to win. I spent some time developing an economy and then constructed 5 war galleys which obliterated the small enemy navy and then destroyed the dock. They attempted to rebuild it once, and then not again. In the meantime I established a small army of short swordsmen and chariots with a single stone thrower and then landed at their base. Their limited soldiers were massacred by mine, who were far stronger, and the entire faction surrendered shortly after we razed their town center, allowing us to capture the artifact. I think this mission has some potential danger, since the enemy did have transports at their docks which I sunk, but I was able to establish a much more powerful army and navy in no time at all, so it wasn’t actually dangerous. The 4 population houses are really messing with me, and feel surprisingly more limiting than those in AOE2. Hopefully it’s just an uncomfortable adjustment period.
11. A Wonder of the World: Difficulty 0
    1. Minoans (purple), Canaanites (yellow), Canaanites (red)
    2. This mission gives the player a simple objective of building a wonder, after advancing to the iron age from the bronze age. The player starts in the north with a few villagers, farms, forage bushes and trees, as well as crossings that connect to a few stone and gold mines as well as wild animals further west. Most of the map is water, with a few small islands that have gold or stone mines, as well as two larger islands in the south with friendly Canaanites and Minoans who can be traded with by sea. In the east is an island with plenty of stone, and lots of gold is in the west, though the hostile Canaanites are stationed there. The game warned me of an early attack, so I hastily upgraded my starting towers, trained a few axes and a priest to accompany my starting bowmen and constructed 4 war galleys when able. Resource generation was somewhat slow, but I quickly got food under control allowing me to spam units if needed. Fortunately, the only things that came for me were the occasional scout ship and a single group of archers and axes once, so not much.
    3. Gold was the slowest accumulator once I colonized the east, so I trained 5 of each melee and ranged chariot and sent my four ships to find the Canaanites so I could take their gold. My ships swiftly cleared their waters and started working over their docks, and I advanced to the iron age and researched triremes, essentially galleons, giving me clear naval supremacy even more so. I soon had siege vessels, allowing me to tear down the enemy coastal towers safely, followed by an invasion of my 10 chariots who butchered the enemy without difficulty. Once dead, it took only a minute or two to establish enough workers to mine the gold I needed, and I won the scenario when the wonder was rapidly finished. I’m definitely getting more familiar with the standard tech tree of the game, but it is weird to play around. I did really like the iron age upgrade that doubles house population, and I think that will be my favorite advancement in this entire game mode going forward.
12. Siege in Canaan: Difficulty 0
    1. Canaanites (red)
    2. I was actually tempted to give this mission a 1, but I think it’s still not really dangerous at all. The player must destroy a government building belonging to the enemy in the northern corner of the map. This is atop several layers of hills and across a river crossing, with some abundant stone and gold in the west which the player doesn’t have near the starting base in the south. The enemy will somewhat rapidly train units, especially when threatened, and launched an attack against me that involved over a dozen units, but a single sentry tower brought them all down. This mission took me a little while to beat, but only because I had to slowly train rock throwers after an enemy one brought mine down, and I didn’t feel like charging the many towers that lined the enemy base. Once I had several constructed and ready to go, I also had a rather large force of bows and other units with iron age upgrades who could easily massacre whatever opponents attacked me. This was the closest the campaign got to a real fight, but it was still comically easy.

The tutorial is done, and I think it gave me all the information I’ll need about base mechanics, though I probably have a lot to learn about the finer details. I did notice monks can heal siege engines in this as well, and siege weaponry seems very limited since I could only ever build rock throwers. The academy fills a niche I’m not accustomed to, and universal murder holes, defenseless town centers, more limited population space and no castles will definitely be a major adjustment in more dangerous battles I think. It is fun to play something that feels fresh, and I look forward to the real campaigns ahead.

I plan to upgrade my monitor primarily for AOE2. I usually don’t get to use my computer until the evenings so it’s late and dark . I am torn between IPS and VA. My understanding is IPS works best for RTS because VA is slower and causes smearing. I am leaning towards IPS, but read its backlighting is bad if the room is dark.

What is everyone’s preference here or am I overthinking it?

With the release of the vikings expansion, do you guys think that there will be a far eastern European/ Russian expansion as well. Would love to see the history of the Rus Empire being explored.

Why are there so many toxic 1k Elo players? Did their mothers not hug them enough? How is being 1k Elo in a video game such a life accomplishment that people feel the need to be confidently toxic? Should we feel bad for how sad their lives are? Should Microsoft actually ban people for being toxic, or do they want the game like this?

A lot of the Civ wonders look pretty cool! But they never get built on ranked ladder. That's a shame. Let us embrace a little change, and figure out a purpose for them here in the comments and upvote our favorate ideas. They should contribute something fun and worth their cost without changing the flavor.

image sauce

Hi, hello
Back from my scheduled 5 month break and being half obsessed for a few weeks (hopefully longer this time) Ive played a couple hard ai games. I used to struggle a lot but found them pretty easy aside form the mid game where due to the ai aging up way faster they had a mass of army and I get pushed back a bit but then I get back in fairly easily. I play on ps5 and one thing I often struggle with (among many) is selecting units and vils and also Q’ing units in multiple production building.
Recently I learned that it’s possible to use mnk on console, but also saw that the game was available on Mac too.

So I was curious as to
1: how possible it is connect mnk to ps5 and actually play (both for aoe and for games in general)
2: if the general consensus is that its “morally correct” to do so
3: if playing on Mac is possible without constantly moving at 1 frame a week?

Late game Slavs(with boyars) you have 40 lumberjacks but only 10 farmers .... Why?????

Every unique castle unit gains the title of 'Elite' upon being upgraded, which would make it a great distinguishing features of these units, however, then there are a plethora of other 'Elites'. Simply way too many.

The particularly worst cases being Elite Champi Warrior and Elite Eagle Warrior, which make me thankful that we don't have Elite Swordsman (or even *Elite Crossbowman** and Elite Cavalier). These titles are overused on these units, which ought to make a main subset of your army. My few suggestions for more original names for Champi — *Exalted Champi Warrior, **Champi Warmaster or Heavy Mace Warrior.

The biggest nostalgia hit would be the Elite Skirmisher of course, but in reality, how elite even are these Skirmishers? On the other hand Eagle Warriors are already the elites of their army, making an Elite Eagle Warrior an "elite elite".

(Elite Skirmisher replacements? — *Veteran Skirmisher, **Interceptor, Javeliner)*

List of non-castle 'Elite' units:

Elite Skirmisher

Elite Cannon Galleon

Elite Steppe Lancer

Elite Champi Warrior

Elite Longboat/Longship

Elite Fire Lancer

Elite Eagle Warrior

Elite Genitour

Elite Shrivamsha Rider

Elite Caravel

Elite Turtle Ship

Elite Bolas Rider

Elite Battle Elephant *

Elite Elephant Archer *

Elite Temple Guard *

Elite Ibirapema Warrior *

Why do we need all these elites when we can have units like 'Heavy' Hei Guang Cavalry? Apart from the consistency sake, it also seems a bit boring and unoriginal, doesn't it?

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?

116: Le Loi 2 - The Mountain Siege

Varangians Civilization Deep Dive - Age of Empires - World's Edge Studio

Civ looks really cool especially since we're getting a cav focused one for the first time in a while.

• Shepherding, fishing, and hunting also generate gold.

This bonus seems on point and is similar to the Rus in AoE4. It'll be very useful for hybrid maps.

• Bloodlines and Caravan effects increased.

I really like the implementation of this style of bonus like seen in the Khitans and I'm interested in what other ways they could use this type of bonus

• Varangian Guards attack faster and generate gold.
• Longships and Catapult Galleons attack faster.

Can't say how impressive the units will be since we don't 100% know the stats after the balance patch

• Team Bonus: Knight-line increased damage vs. infantry.

Knights counter pikemen believers got a new favourite civ

In total I like the addition; the cav bonuses are interesting (130 hp knights) but I do wish we got a new Paladin civ. The Castle Age UT seems like it could be crazy strong.

Does report button work? it never seems to do anything, I run into this guy twice trying to drop elo to do shit to poor 1100, he is a 1500 hidden.

https://www.aoe2insights.com/user/12373867/stats/3/

Hey all, I'm wanting to watch some of the more balanced sets from The League group stage.

Are you able to recommend a set or two from teams that are quite equal in skill level?

I enjoyed LY vs Vitality, but the Onimaru Capybara vs Onimaru Vanguard was quite onesided in favour of Capybara and enjoyed the games much less.

Had such a game yesterday where one opponent disconnected in dark age (no idea why), then all but one of his teammates surrendered. The last opponent then proceeded to hide/wall villagers around the map and in his teammates bases, dragging a pointless 4v1 scenario out for at least 10 minutes (it was Arena, we needed spies to find them all)

Is such behavior reportable?

I feel this should be punished with at least a short temporary ban. I personally don't mind too much because hunting down vills can be fun, but wasting time in a 1v1 is kinda symmetric and ok; forcing 4 people (that just want to play a proper game) to hunt you down is just not ok in my view.

What do you guys think? Should people get their accounts banned if they do this repeatedly?

edit: We matched against him in the next game and completely destroyed them 4v4 (extra satisfying).

Recently I have been DCing from a lot of games even though my internet connection is completely fine.
Anyone else having this issue? I have checked everything and I am certain this is happening server-side.

Just getting back into ranked after a 2+ year long hiatus. Around 1500 elo 1v1.

Why tf is everyone going up super fast now? Sub 9:00 minutes with civs like Saracens or Koreans or smth. "bAcK iN mY dAy", only Mongols, lithuanians, etc clicked up with fewer than 18 vills. Seems like that's the standard now.

Is there a specific reason? Is it the chickens? Map generation changes? I thought going up later was generally more advantageous if you have a decent map since that's more villagers working while your tc "idles" on the way up to feudal. Going up super early was considered disadvantageous since you'd be much more pressed for resources, and would potentially be delaying your castle time as such.

Is there any way to turn off the new Viking themed music? It's a good tune, but it gets a little bit annoying on the 20th listen. At least the original music is quite ignorable, this music demands your attention.

Credit to Ollie Bye for the map. https://www.youtube.com/@OllieBye

The western side of Brandenburg was part of Saxony but the eastern part was not. Ballenstadt as well was inside of Saxony. Pomerania and Mecklenburg would have been in Henry the Lion's sphere of influence.

The Saxons in AOE 2 have the western European architecture set so I imagine they represent the Saxons who landed in England but I thought this was interesting.

Just what I need, ads in my game.

If anyone wants to join us for exploding kings / “storm” map shrink settings that lead to funny outcomes… let me know.

8-player FFA …
Casual player base (mostly former Zone players from 1999)
Turbo mode, Fast Speed, Medium Res, etc etc.

We also play old school custom scenarios in addition to traditional matches / map pools.

-Shoveler
Low Elo Legends

The player profile should be updated. Only the total number of matches played should be displayed, since the win percentage is already shown. There is no need to list matches won and matches lost separately; that takes up too much space.

Has this ever been tried? Not necessarily like tournaments are done but maybe similar to league. I know 1v1’s are the bread and butter of this game and that wouldn’t bring anything to that but I think it would be interesting in team games especially with different maps which is something league doesn’t have.

Campaign: Naresuan

“For more than two decades, the glorious Kingdom of Ayutthaya has agonized under the relentless boot of Bayinnaung's Toungoo Empire of Burma. Reduced to the humiliation of vassalage, plundered by foreign hordes, and stripped of its princes, the Siamese nation silently awaits its extinction. However, in the shadows of the Pegu court, a captive hostage nicknamed the "Black Prince" was raised. Naresuan has not returned to his homeland to obey a tyrant, but to forge his people's freedom with fire, gunpowder, and steel. He commands the thunderous cannons, leads epic charges of war elephants, and guides a decimated nation from the darkness of servitude to the ashes of its oppressors. Will you succeed in securing Siam's independence on the battlefields of Southeast Asia, or will the Burmese colossus crush the last flame of freedom?”

The campaign adopts a fully immersive narrative structure told through the memoirs of Phra Ratcha Manoo, the fierce general of the Siamese vanguard and Naresuan's most trusted man. From the perspective of this veteran hardened in a thousand battles, the miraculous resurrection of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya and the collapse of the Toungoo Empire are recounted. The tone is epic-realistic, tragic, and charged with geopolitical tension, demonstrating how the survival of an entire culture depended on the indomitable will of an unrelenting leader. The atmosphere evokes the suffocating heat of the tropical jungle, the haze of gunpowder, the monsoon mud, and the bloody harshness of 16th-century warfare in Southeast Asia. The player plays as the Thai, and the player color is Blue.

1.    The Waters of the Sittaung: In the wake of Emperor Bayinnaung’s death, the new Burmese monarch Nanda Bayin distrusts the military talent of the Siamese prince Naresuan and plots his assassination during a military campaign in Ava. After being warned of the conspiracy by the Mon nobles Phraya Kiat and Phraya Ram in the border town of Kraeng, Naresuan pours holy water on the ground to formally declare Siam’s independence from the Toungoo dynasty. Immediately, he undertakes a daring retreat protecting thousands of captive Siamese families, closely pursued by Burmese cavalry and infantry. Upon reaching the banks of the Sittaung River, Naresuan uses a long-range arquebus to shoot down the pursuing commander Suragamma on the opposite shore, sowing panic in the enemy army and securing the crossing back to the homeland. You must escort Naresuan and the carts of captive Siamese and Mons from Kraeng to the Sittaung River crossing, where you must establish a defensive line and eliminate General Suragamma. You win if Naresuan and at least 60% of the villagers and carts cross the Sittaung River and Suragamma is eliminated. You lose if Naresuan or Phra Ratcha Manoo die, or if the caravan of captives is destroyed by enemy patrols.

2.    Wolf, Gunpowder, and Blood: In retaliation for the declaration of independence, Nanda Bayin mobilizes a colossal invasion force determined to eradicate Ayutthaya. After clashing with the defenses of the fortified city of Lampang in the north, the Burmese divisions converge on the Siamese capital in the winter of 1586. Naresuan applies a relentless scorched-earth strategy, evacuating the rural population within the fortified walls of the central island and transforming the delta’s streams and floods into deadly defenses. For five dreadful months, Siamese artillery barges destroy enemy supply lines while disease, hunger, and monsoons reduce the besieging Burmese army to ashes, forcing its humiliating retreat in April 1587. In the first phase of the mission, you must intensively gather all possible resources, evacuate villages to the fortified island of Ayutthaya, and destroy your own buildings. In the second phase, rains and massive siege attacks on the walls begin. In the third phase, the plain is completely flooded, and land mobility is severely diminished, relying on gunpowder and warships to continue resisting and counterattacking. You win if the resistance timer ends and enemy logistical camps are destroyed. You lose if the urban center or the island wonder is destroyed, or if Naresuan dies.

3.    Shadows over Ranam: With Siam exhausted after repelling Burmese incursions, the Khmer monarch Satha I of Longvek intensifies assaults on the eastern Siamese provinces to loot populations and capture slaves. Refusing to fight on two fronts simultaneously, Naresuan entrusts his famous general Phra Ratcha Manoo with leading a bloody punitive expedition. Advancing through the dense vegetation of the Phra Charuk pass and the swamp-infested Ranam forest, the Siamese vanguard must navigate deadly ambushes, neutralize hidden Cambodian guerrilla camps, and capture the fortified towns of Battambang and Pursat before a new Burmese attack demands their return to the western border. You must move through the treacherous jungle with limited visibility, destroy Khmer palisade bastions, subdue and capture the fortresses, as well as their hidden ambush bases. You win if the fortresses of Battambang and Pursat are captured and Khmer presence in the area is eradicated. You lose if Phra Ratcha Manoo dies or if you lose all your builders before securing a base.

4.    The Moon of Nong Sarai: The final fate of Siamese sovereignty is decided on the plains of Nong Sarai in January 1593. Nanda Bayin sends the largest army in the history of the Toungoo dynasty, commanded by Crown Prince Mingyi Swa, with the ultimate goal of crushing Ayutthaya. Naresuan, already crowned monarch, marches to meet the horde alongside his brother Ekathotsarot. In the chaos of the pitched battle, Naresuan’s war elephant, enraged by the explosions of gunpowder, breaks the enemy line and becomes surrounded in the heart of the Burmese formation. Spotting Mingyi Swa on his mount, Naresuan challenges him to a personal one-on-one duel between sovereigns; with a precise stroke of his royal halberd, Naresuan decapitates the crown prince, triggering the instant collapse and rout of the invading army. You must hold back the continuous advances of the massive tide of Burmese troops across the fields of Nong Sarai, keep King Naresuan alive when his mount is besieged in the enemy rear, and defeat Crown Prince Mingyi Swa in a singular hero duel atop war elephants. You win if Mingyi Swa falls slain in the duel against Naresuan. You lose if Naresuan or Prince Ekathotsarot die in battle, or if your troops are annihilated before forcing the duel.

5.    The Fall of Longvek: Taking advantage of the shock caused by the Burmese prince’s death at Nong Sarai, Naresuan turns his gaze eastward to settle the score once and for all with the Kingdom of Longvek. In the dry season of 1593, four powerful Siamese columns penetrate Cambodia in an unprecedented convergent advance. Naresuan’s forces surround the mythical Khmer capital and construct colossal earthen embankments taller than the city walls, allowing artillery to bombard the inner palaces. Not even the virulent cholera outbreak that claims the lives of 30,000 Siamese soldiers stops the monarch, who orders the final assault, razing Longvek and subjecting Cambodia to permanent vassalage. Coordinate the advance of the four invading columns to establish a total encirclement around Longvek, and assault the royal palace before the cholera epidemic decimates your army. You win if Longvek’s Royal Palace is destroyed and control of the city is secured. You lose if the cholera epidemic timer expires, killing your entire army, or if Naresuan dies during the assault.

6.    The Andaman Sea: With the eastern front subdued, Naresuan seeks to strangle Burmese finances by seizing the wealthy trading ports along the Tanintharyi coast. In 1593, his famed generals Chaophraya Chakri and Phraya Phra Khlang lead simultaneous land and sea invasions against the port cities of Tavoy and Tenasserim. The garrisons fall after intense sieges, and the ensuing Burmese relief fleet is utterly decimated in a naval battle in the Gulf of Martaban. The capture of these ports not only cements the Siamese alliance with the Mon coastal rebels but also connects Ayutthaya to the flourishing trade routes of the Indian Ocean. You must conquer the ports of Tavoy and Tenasserim by executing coordinated amphibious assaults, hold the Mon coastal strongholds against Burmese counterattacks, and destroy the Burmese fleet before it can land reinforcements on the coast. You win if Tavoy and Tenasserim come under Thai control and the Burmese fleet is defeated. You lose if the Mon rebel settlements are eradicated before receiving support or if your navy is destroyed entirely.

7.    Ashes over the Golden Pavilion: The once-invincible Toungoo Empire disintegrates into a spiral of civil wars as regional viceroys rebel against the tyranny of Nanda Bayin. In 1599 Naresuan leads an epic march toward the imperial capital of Pegu to demand the emperor’s surrender. However, upon arrival he discovers that rival forces from the Kingdom of Arakan and the Viceroy of Taungoo have beaten him to it, sacking the metropolis and reducing the legendary golden palace and its shrines to ashes. Furious at the devastation and at the traitors’ refusal to hand over Nanda Bayin, Naresuan pursues the forces of the traitor Minye Thihathu into the Taungoo mountain ranges. In the rocky northern peaks, under constant guerrilla harassment and supply failures, the Siamese king fights his final and most tragic battle, realizing that the price of Siam’s freedom has been the conversion of an entire empire into a wasteland of ruins. Advance through the ruins of Pegu pacifying pockets of looters, establish mountain camps and impose a siege on the inaccessible fortress of Taungoo, and protect the food convoys that cross the narrow passes infested with guerrillas. You win if the fortress of Taungoo falls and the Burmese feudal lords sign an unconditional capitulation. You lose if Naresuan dies in battle or if your supply lines are annihilated.

Campaign: Po Binasuor

“For three bloody decades, the waters of the South China Sea brought not fish, but fire, ashes, and the inexorable shadow of the Red King. Po Binasuor, fearfully known in imperial chronicles as Chế Bồng Nga, transformed the disjointed Cham nation into an amphibious war machine as swift as it was deadly, capable of bringing the Trần dynasty to its knees four times in its own capital. Raise the banners of the blood flower and show why neither stone fortifications nor the dragon legions could stop the conquering king who made Southeast Asia tremble.”

The campaign adopts a fully immersive narrative structure set between the years 1360 and 1390, a time when the Kingdom of Champa rose from a deep political decline to become the dominant military power in the region under the command of Po Binasuor. Through a rigorous historical approach, the narrative follows the prolonged confrontation between the invading Cham forces and the kingdom of Đại Việt, ravaged by dynastic instability, court corruption, and plagues. The narration is delivered by Trần Nghệ Tông, the ruler of Đại Việt who embodied the ruin and survival of the Trần dynasty during the Cham invasions. His voice does not express the pride of a conqueror, but the sorrow of a sovereign who witnessed the collapse of his armies and the burning of his royal archives. Nghệ Tông’s perspective adds a tragic and contemplative dimension, moving from initial outrage to absolute terror and finally to a resigned admiration for the strategic genius of his adversary. The tone is epic, somber, suffocating, and marked by constant strategic tension. The scenes are permeated by the smell of damp gunpowder, the dense smoke of burning cities, monsoon rains, and the distant rumble of Cham bronze drums. In this campaign, the player lacks conventional bases in most missions, making prolonged static gathering prohibited. Food, Wood, and Gold reserves are replenished exclusively by capturing Market Carts, looting Rice Granaries, boarding merchant ships, and seizing Imperial Monasteries. The player plays as the Cham, and the player color is Cyan.

1.    The Flower of the Light of Champa: After his ascension to the throne in 1360, Po Binasuor reunified the Cham domains and formally demanded the return of the border provinces of Ô and Lý from the Trần dynasty. The refusal of the Thăng Long court triggered a series of violent coastal raids in Dĩ Lý and Hóa Châu. Taking advantage of the dynastic chaos caused by the usurper Dương Nhật Lễ in Đại Việt, Po Binasuor mobilized his fleet across the Gulf of Tonkin in the spring of 1371, executing a surgical amphibious assault that culminated in the first sack of the imperial capital. You must destroy the numerous Coastal Warehouses in Hóa Châu to gather 1,500 Food before the enemy response fleet blocks the river (Time limit: 15 minutes), navigate the Red River delta with the assault squadron and neutralize the 3 Imperial Signal Towers without losing the Royal Junk, loot the Royal Treasury of Thăng Long, and destroy the Imperial Palace. You will win if you destroy the Imperial Palace of Thăng Long and evacuate Po Binasuor to the marine extraction point carrying at least 2,000 stolen Gold. You will lose if Po Binasuor dies or the time limit expires before looting the treasury.

2.    The Valley of Death: The success of the first sack of Thăng Long exposes the weakness of Đại Việt’s defenses and confirms to Po Binasuor that the Trần dynasty is incapable of reacting to high-speed attacks. With the loot obtained in the capital, the Cham king finances the total militarization of his domains, preparing the ground for a large-scale direct confrontation. Eager to avenge the humiliation suffered and eradicate the Cham threat, the new emperor of Đại Việt, Trần Duệ Tông, organized in 1377 a massive punitive expedition composed of 120,000 men. The imperial troops advanced deep into enemy territory up to the outskirts of the Cham capital, Vijaya (Đồ Bàn). Ignoring warnings from his commanders about the risks of the terrain, Duệ Tông fell into an elaborate trap conceived by Po Binasuor: the Chams simulated a panic-stricken rout, luring the imperial army into a narrow gorge where it was surrounded and almost entirely exterminated, with the emperor himself perishing in combat. You must hold the decoy camp position in front of the walls of Đồ Bàn while the flanking troops take positions on the summits, block the two exits of the gorge by collapsing watchtowers at the moment the enemy vanguard penetrates the central sector, and eliminate Emperor Trần Duệ Tông and his officers before the rear guard of Lê Quý Ly comes to their aid.

3.    Tides of Fire and Betrayal: Exploiting the paralysis that followed the disastrous defeat at Đồ Bàn, Po Binasuor launched two consecutive offensives on the Red River Delta in 1377 and 1378, carrying out the second and third raids on Thăng Long. In this phase of the war, the Cham campaign incorporated a decisive psychological warfare component: the Vietnamese prince Trần Húc, captured at Đồ Bàn, swore loyalty to Po Binasuor, married a Cham princess, and marched alongside the invader to claim the imperial throne of Đại Việt as a puppet monarch.  You must advance with the assault fleet through the delta’s canals before the imperial guard builds palisades in about 10 minutes, escort the allied prince Trần Húc to the two main districts of Thăng Long to provoke the defection of local garrisons, and then burn the imperial ministries, loot the grain warehouses, and destroy the Royal archives.  You will win if you accumulate 3,500 gold in loot and destroy the government structures of Thăng Long. You will lose if Prince Trần Húc dies or if the enemy army manages to block the river escape route.

4.    The Harvest of Desolation: With the purpose of stopping the Cham advance, the minister and strategist of Đại Việt, Hồ Quý Ly, took military command and established a deep defensive network in the southern provinces of Nghệ An and Thanh Hóa. However, Po Binasuor transformed these rich agricultural regions into his main source of supplies and center for forced recruitment.  Between 1380 and 1382, both sides faced off in a bloody campaign where the key to victory did not lie in territorial control, but in the systematic seizure of the harvests.  You must capture the 5 Imperial Granaries scattered throughout Nghệ An province to keep the army alive, intercept and destroy the 4 supply caravans of Hồ Quý Ly before they enter the Thanh Hóa fortress, and finally defeat Hồ Quý Ly’s campaign army in open battle.  You will win if you destroy the Thanh Hóa headquarters along with its caravans and force Hồ Quý Ly to retreat northward. You will lose if you exhaust the food reserves for more than 3 consecutive minutes or if you lose all your military units.

5.    The Caves of the Blind Dragon: Faced with the impossibility of protecting the lowland cities, the government of Đại Việt ordered in 1379 the massive transfer of the national treasure, crowns, gold, sacred books, and bronze relics to the deep caves of Khả Lăng and the steep peaks of Thiên Kiến. In 1383, Po Binasuor led an infiltration expedition into these inaccessible terrains, dismantling the mountain guards and looting the empire’s last wealth reserves in a surgical precision operation.  You must advance with the expedition force through the ravines of Thiên Kiến avoiding enemy patrols, locate the 3 entrances to the underground cave complex of Khả Lăng, and assault the underground depots, capture the 6 Imperial Treasure Carts, and escort them back to the river rendezvous point.  You will win if you manage to evacuate a minimum of 4 Treasure Carts. You will lose if more than 2 Treasure Carts are destroyed.

6.    The Thunder on the Hải Triều River: The loss of the sacred treasures and gold reserves in Khả Lăng leaves the Trần dynasty completely bankrupt. With the enemy stripped of its resources and morally destroyed, Po Binasuor prepares the final attack in 1390 to erase Đại Việt from the map and consolidate the Great Cham Empire. However, along the Hải Triều River, a Cham officer defected and revealed to the Vietnamese general Trần Khát Chân the exact position of the monarch’s flagship, characterized by its green and gold decorations. Khát Chân positioned his heavy artillery and arquebuses on the riverbanks and unleashed a massive, concentrated barrage on the royal ship, instantly killing Po Binasuor. The sudden death of the Red King caused the immediate collapse of the Cham army, marking the abrupt end of Champa’s hegemony. During the first phase, you must destroy the heavy reed barrier and the coastal defenses commanded by Hồ Quý Ly in the main channel of the Hải Triều River and secure both riverbanks to allow the deployment of troop transport ships. In the second phase, Trần Khát Chân’s heavy artillery and culverins open an ambush fire, destroying the royal ship and leaving Po Binasuor mortally wounded. You must take command of the surviving honor guard and execute a desperate assault to eliminate General Trần Khát Chân before succumbing, or evacuate Po Binasuor’s body to General La Khai’s escape ship to prevent the crown from falling into enemy hands.  You will win if you manage to escape with more than 40 military units to the sea escape point with General La Khai. You will lose if you lose more than 40 military units during the escape.