Stability & Performance

• Fixed a crash preventing non-hosts from restoring multiplayer save files.
• Fixed a crash related to wrong loading of certain game files.
• Fixed a rare desync related to triggers and Villagers idle times interactions in some specific cases.
• Fixed a crash happening when using the Rematch feature in Custom Scenarios.
• Fixed a crash when typing “[” and “]” symbols into the search box of Units list in scenario editor.
• Using assisted farm placement no longer causes framerate drops.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the game from opening on Steam if the PC wasn’t connected to the internet.
• Mitigated a crash that occurred when the player attempted to load a Campaign save file from previous versions of the game.

Graphics

• Fixed an issue making the projectile spawn point for Elite Janissaries and Royal Janissaries units to be lower than intended.
• Fixed an issue where Achaemenid houses would immediately revert to their foundation before playing the destruction animation.

Audio

• Ungarrison sound is no longer played when units get spawned by cheats or technology effects.

UI

• Added individual complexity ratings for Historical Battles scenarios.
• Fixed an issue where the Stone Gate button in the build menu didn’t have a red glow when the player could not afford it.
• For Monks with Relics the Follow button now appears on the same button ID as for other units.
• The faster work rate of Spanish Builders is now reflected in their displayed on UI work rate.
• Fixed an issue where the scenario select button overlaps the civilization set dropdown.
• Allowed regeneration rate display for buildings if Extended Unit Stats are enabled.
• Historical Battles and Victors and Vanquished scenario screens now have their own flags in the campaign menu with the similar appearance as the campaign group flags.

Settings

• Added Regicide game mode to Return of Rome.
• Host can now select All civilization set option when they don’t own Battle For Greece.
• Removed Civilization Set option from Return of Rome.

Hotkeys

• Monks ordered to pick up a Relic are no longer selected by “Select All Military Units” hotkey.
• The hotkeys for selecting all or going to next hero units now work for all units with full hero status (hero mode attribute flag 1). Specific unit IDs can still be added in hotkeys.json for these hotkeys.
• Renamed “Change Weapon” hotkey into “Change Mode” and added a second instance of this hotkey. It can be used for assigning different hotkeys to switching to the specific weapon/mode of the unit, for example melee and ranged Ratha modes. In the default hotkey configuration, both hotkeys are set to the same key.
• Renamed Unload (2) hotkey into Unload (Siege) to avoid ambiguity.

Xbox

• Fixed an issue in the Campaign Menus that made certain UI Elements disappear when selecting “AI Difficulty” in the Historical Battles menu.
• Fixed a rare issue on Xbox One which made the game crash upon joining crossplay lobbies.
• Fixed an issue that prevented all Special Abilities from appearing in the radial menu when multiple units are selected with the selection marquee.
• Improved responsiveness of some UI controls on the Historical Battles page.
• Fixed a bug that allowed users Blocked in the game to send messages to the player via the Xbox App/Xbox OS.

New Visuals

Castle Visuals

• Introducing 25 new castle visuals, so that every single civilization uses its own unique castle. Here is a sneak peek at a few of the new Castles, can you guess which civilization they belong to?

Unique Unit Visuals

• Every elite unique unit now uses a different visual compared to its non-upgraded counterpart. With Teutonic Knight helmet crests, Samurai banners, or Janissary hats, defeat your opponents with more style than ever.

• A few units have received a new non-upgraded visual: Ballista Elephants, Longbowmen, Shotel Warriors, Plumed Archers, Kamayuks, Gbetos, Woad Raiders.
• Ballista Elephants and Shotel Warriors use their existing visual for the elite unit.

• Assigned the new elite unique unit graphics to hero units when fitting.

Regional Monk and Monastery Visuals

• Introduced 6 Monk visuals that have been distributed to the relevant civilizations. Now convert siege engines and elephants by showcasing the best clothing attire religion has to offer.
  • Added Pagan Priest as a Scenario Editor unit.
  • Added a new conversion animation for Monks. The previous animation is now used for healing exclusively.

• Introduced 3 new Monastery visuals for Byzantines, Ethiopians, and shamanistic civilizations respectively.

• Added Regional Monks visuals as Player Profile Icons options.

Animation Attack Synchronization

• Attack animations are now synced up with the actual attacks of the unit, for better visual fidelity and gameplay readability.
• Improved attack animations and attack sounds sync for various melee units.
• Introduced a new idle combat animation for Villagers, Spearman-line, Kamayuks, Ghilman, and Teutonic Knights that plays in-between attacks during combat.
• The speed of some attack animation has been adjusted to better match the attack speed of the unit. This will not impact gameplay, only the visual look of the game.

Combat and Idle Animation Updates

• Introduced a second set of attack animations for a large number of infantry and some other units, which will be randomly played in alternance with the existing attack animation.
• Fixed the issues which prevented the alternative idle animations for several cavalry units from being used in the game, as well as the grazing animations for Cows and Deer.

UI

Technology Tree Update

• Introduced new color keys for Regional Units, Regional Buildings, and Unique Buildings in the technology tree to better highlight their importance.

• Reorganized the technology tree layout for better readability and more efficient use of space, removing regional units not available for the civilization.

Consistent Wording

• Updated wording throughout the entire game to be more consistent and more accurate. Civilization bonuses and technologies will now better describe what their effects are. Introduced consistent unit family terms to unit descriptions to emphasize what upgrades they benefit from and communicate their unique traits better.
• Updated the Unit card to better separate the unit description from the upgrades list, the latter being italicized and displayed in grey color.

• Updated the Technology Tree Preview panel to display unit icons rather than their upgrade icons (showing the Arbalester unit icon rather than the Arbalester upgrade icon for example).

Fixes

• Fixed Huns Trebuchet accuracy bonus description alongside the consistent wording pass.
• Fixed Chu Ko Nu’s tooltips not mentioning blacksmith armor upgrades.
• Fixed Siege Engineers’ attack bonus not being mentioned in naval units tooltips.
• Fixed Shipwright’s creation speed bonus not being mentioned naval units tooltips.

Attack and Armor Display

• Hovering over the attack or armor values of a unit on the stats card will now display the list of all attack and armor values of the unit.

• The “Eagle Warrior” armor class is renamed as “Shock Infantry” as it is now used by other units, such as Jian Swordsmen and Fire Lancers.

Main Menu

• Added buttons to open the Editors directly from the Main Menu of the game.

• Added a Code of Conduct button in the Game Options Menu.
• Moved the News button below the Game Options Button in the Main Menu.

General

• Bridges and Bridge Pieces are now visible from the game start in games with Explored map reveal.
• Bridges and Bridge Pieces now appear as Shallows on the minimap instead of Player Color/Gaia Color.
• Clearance size of Boars and Iron Boars reduced to the same size as Elephants and Rhinoceros as it was preventing elements from spawning in the adjacent tiles.
• Increased the reveal area around the Monument in King of the Hill game mode games.
• Rock terrain is now generated evenly on all sides of the Monument in King of the Hill and the Relic in Capture the Relic games.
• Handicap no longer provides bonus damage increase.
• Fishing Ships no longer require Antiquity Mode to be enabled in order to be able to gather from Oysters.
• Pressing idle Villager button while holding down Shift now selects all idle Villagers.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the blast damage with fixed value (from Logistica, Druzhina) could produce incorrect kill count in the statistics.
• Fixed an issue that was displaying the range indicator for ranged units when Building Range Indicator was enabled in the Settings.
• Fixed an issue causing villagers garrisoned in Town Centers to sometimes automatically shoot boars.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Town Centers from firing the full volley of arrows if ungarrisoned too quickly.
• Fixed a group of issues making the selected unit/building UI buttons disappear (like upon Villagers garrisoning in Town Center).
• Sheep and Turkeys can no longer receive unintentional speed boost after ungarrisoning from gurjara Mills with queued gather points.
• Fixed an issue with the “Selection Modifier Hotkeys” option which prevented the selection of multiple units when CTRL+dragging/ALT+dragging.
• Fixed an issue that under certain circumstances caused Villagers to be able to deposit any resource type in any drop-off location (including docks).
• Fixed an issue that created a mismatch due to rounding down between the amount of resources displayed on a Villager’s UI and the amount of resources deposited.
• Fixed an issue that made Warrior Priests go unresponsive after being ungarrisoned from Rams.
• Fixed an issue where converted siege units were changing their upgrade level after their new owner researched a technology.

General

• Fixed an issue where the Chinese AI would unintendedly get the 3 extra Villagers from their civ bonus in Campaign scenarios.

Campaign Missions

• Victors and Vanquished: ‘Xie An’:
  • Added new scenario ‘Xie An’ free for all owners of Victors and Vanquished.
  • Xie An provides an all-new scenario to play as the updated Chinese civilization. In Xie An, the Xie clan defends the Fei River from the northern warlord Fu Jian who has designs to conquer all of China.
    Infiltrate enemy camps with spies, bribe enemy generals, fund a rebellion, and even misdirect the enemy army as you and your outnumbered force save the Eastern Jin dynasty.
• Algridas and Kestutis #1: ‘Family Affairs’: Replaced Priests with Pagan Priests.
• Attila #1: ‘The Scourge of God’: Player now has 125 population limit as intended.
• Attila #2: ‘The Great Ride’: “Dyrrhachium” now deletes its Onager before resigning.
• Babur #3: ‘Into India’: Fixed Main Objective from not loading on Standard difficulty.
• Barbarossa #1: ‘Holy Roman Emperor’: Fixed an issue preventing enemy units from attacking the player’s walls, making the scenario easier than intended.
• Francisco de Almeida #1: ‘The Old World’: Fixed an issue preventing a particular farm from being rebuilt.
• Francisco de Almeida #3: ‘Ruins of Empires’: Prevented AI from building an infinite amount of buildings all over the map.
• Gengis Khan #1: ‘Crucible’:
  • Changed the civilization of the “Kara-Khitai”.
  • Replaced the Mangonels of the “Kara-Khitai” with Rocket Carts and their Mangudai with Cavalry Archers.
• Gengis Khan #2: ‘A Life of Revenge’: Changed the civilization of the “Kara-Khitai”.
• Gengis Khan #3: ‘Into China’:
  • Changed the civilization of “Jin” and “Tanguts”.
  • Renamed Hsi Hsia to Xi Xia and Sung to Song.
  • Siege Workshops from the “Engineers” now swap ownership to the player.
• Gengis Khan #5: ‘The Promise’: Fixed a bug allowing units to go through cliffs in a certain area of the map.
• LeLoi #3: ‘The Battle at Hanoi’: Enabled Monasteries upon activating a certain quest.
• Sforza #5: ‘Viva Sforza!’: Fixed an issue displaying incorrect water graphics in the moat surrounding Milan.
• Tamar #4: ‘Tamar the Builder’: “Alexios” may no longer block the Wonder foundation with buildings.
• Yodit #1: ‘Path of Exile’:
  • Fixed an issue preventing Samuel hero unit from displaying his HP regeneration rate.
  • Fixed ‘Fort by the River’ units from spawning after that enemy is defeated.
  • Player is no longer able to garrison in a Transport Ship of ‘Aksum’ player without paying the fee.

General

• Elite Steppe Lancer upgrade cost reduced from 900 food 550 gold → 600 food 550 gold. 
• Cavalry Archer train time increased from 34 seconds → 37 seconds.  
• Heavy Cavalry Archer train time increased from 27 seconds → 30 seconds. 
• (Elite) Elephant Archer cost changed from 80 food 70 gold → 60 food 80 gold. 
• Transport Ship garrison capacity increased from 5 → 20. 
• Careening and Dry Dock no longer improve Transport Ship garrison capacity. 
• Trade Cart base movement speed increased from 1 → 1.25. 
• Trade Cog base movement speed increased from 1.32 → 1.65. 
• Caravan effect reduced from Trade Units +50% movement speed → Trade Units +20% movement speed. 
• Siege Tower conversion distance reduced to 0.5 tiles (same as rams). 
• Buildings garrisoned with Villagers no longer fire fewer arrows after researching ranged attack upgrades.
• Mangonels now deal –1 damage to Monks.

Developer Note: This improves consistency for Monks with Sanctity researched, as they will no longer randomly die due to direct hits from Mangonels.

Infantry Update

• Supplies removed. 
• Militia-line cost reduced from 60 food 20 gold → 50 food 20 gold. 
• Man-at-Arms, Long Swordsman, Two-handed Swordsman and Champion base movement speed increased from 0.9 → 0.96 (Militia unchanged). 
• Two-handed Swordsman
  • Upgrade cost reduced from 300 food 100 gold → 200 food 100 gold. 
  • Upgrade research time reduced from 60 seconds → 45 seconds. 
  • HP increased from 60 → 65. 
• Champion
  • Upgrade cost reduced from 750 food 350 gold → 650 food 350 gold. 
  • Upgrade research time reduced from 85 seconds → 70 seconds. 
  • Attack increased from 13 → 14. 
• Arson moved to Feudal Age, cost reduced from 150 food 50 gold → 75 food 25 gold. 
• Eagle Scout train time in Feudal Age reduced from 60 seconds → 50 seconds. 

Aztecs

• (Elite) Jaguar Warrior
  • Attack increased from 10 → 15, Elite 12 → 19. 
  • Bonus damage vs. Infantry reduced from 10 → 5, Elite 11 → 6. 
  • Now gain +1 attack when defeating a military unit, up to a maximum of +4 attack. 

Bengalis

• Ratha  
  • HP reduced from 105 → 100. 
  • Train time increased from 18 seconds → 20 seconds (Elite unchanged). 

Bulgarians

• (Dismounted) Konnik
  • Armor increased from 2/1 → 2/2. 

Burgundians

• Flemish Militia
  • Can now be trained at the Barracks starting in Feudal Age. 
  • Cost changed from 50 food 15 gold → 30 food 30 gold. 
  • New statistics: 
    • Feudal Age: 45 HP, 5 attack, 1/1 armor, +6 vs. Cavalry, +4 vs. Camels. 
    • Castle Age: 55 HP, 8 attack, 1/1 armor, +7 vs. Cavalry, +5 vs. Camels. 
    • Imperial Age: 60 HP, 11 attack, 1/1 armor, +8 vs. Cavalry, +6 vs. Camels. 
    • Now has Spearman armor class. 

Celts

• (Elite) Woad Raider
  • Cost increased from 65 food 25 gold → 70 food 25 gold. 
  • Base movement speed decreased from 1.2 → 1.17. 
  • Elite Woad Raider base attack increased from 14 → 15. 
• Infantry movement speed Civilization bonus adjusted from +15% faster starting in Feudal Age → +5/10/15/20% faster in Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. 

Chinese

Developer Note: The Chinese are now listed as an Archer and Gunpowder civilization and are receiving a massive update to their units and bonuses. 

• NEW units:
  • Gain access to Fire Lancers. 
  • Gain access to Rocket Carts. 
  • Gain access to Lou Chuans. 
  • Gain access to Dragon Ships (unique upgrade to Fire Ships).
• Civilization bonuses
  • NEW civilization bonus: Fire Lancers and Fire Ships move +5/10% faster in Castle/Imperial Age. 
  • Demolition Ships +50% HP civilization bonus removed. 
• Elite Chu Ko Nu
  • Attack increased from 8 → 10. 
  • Upgrade cost increased from 807 food 807 gold → 1105 food 1105 gold. 
• Rocketry
  • Cost changed from 637 wood 637 gold → 935 food 765 gold. 
  • Effect changed from Chu Ko Nu +2 attack, Scorpions +4 attack → Scorpions, Rocket Carts and Lou Chuans +25% attack; Lou Chuans fire rockets. 
• Lose access to Camel Riders. 
• Lose access to Mangonel-line. 
• Lose access to Cannon Galleons. 

Dravidians

• (Elite) Urumi Swordsman
  • Attack increased from 8 → 9, Elite 10 → 11. 
  • Movement speed increased from 1.05 → 1.10. 
• Gain access to Husbandry. 

Georgians

• Cavalry regeneration civilization bonus reduced from 5/10/15 HP → 2/8/14 HP in Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. 

Goths

• (Elite) Huskarl
  • Base cost reduced from 80 food 40 gold → 75 food 35 gold. 
  • Train time at Castles reduced from 16 seconds → 13 seconds.  
• Infantry discount per age civilization bonus reduced from -20/25/30/35% → -15/20/25/30% in Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. 

Huns

• (Elite) Tarkan
  • Attack reload time reduced from 2.1 → 1.9. 

Italians

• Pavise removed. 
• Silk Road moved to Castle Age, cost reduced from 500 food 250 gold → 250 food 250 gold. 
• New civilization bonus: Foot Archers and Condottieri +1 melee/+1 pierce armor. 
• New unique tech: Pirotechnia
  • Available in Imperial Age for 650 food 500 gold. 
  • Effect: Hand Cannoneers deal +15% pass through damage and are more accurate. 

Japanese

• (Elite) Samurai
  • Cost reduced from 50 food 30 gold → 45 food 30 gold. 
  • Now gain additional movement speed and +1 attack when charging at an enemy unit.  
• Team bonus adjusted from Galley-line +50% line of sight → +4 line of sight. 

Khmer

• (Elite) Ballista Elephant  
  • Attack reduced from 10 → 9, Elite 11 → 10.

Koreans

Developer Note: The Koreans are receiving a massive update to their units and bonuses. 

• New units:
  • Gain access to Fire Lancers. 
  • Gain access to Rocket Carts. 
• Civilization bonuses
  • Reduced minimum range for Mangonel-line Team Bonus replaced → Villagers +3 line of sight. 
• (Elite) War Wagon
  • Bonus damage vs. buildings reduced from 5 → 2. 
• (Elite) Turtle Ship
  • Now fires two volleys of rockets in-between its cannon shots.
  • Received a large number of statistical changes. Now more effective vs. Galley-line but more vulnerable vs. Demolition Ships.
    • Attacks:
      • Cannon (6s reload time)
        • Castle Age: 20 melee damage
        • Imperial Age: 25 melee damage
        • Projectile speed reduced from 7.8 → 6. 
        • Projectiles no longer affected by Ballistics. 
      • Rockets (2 volleys between cannon attacks, 3 rockets per volley)
        • Castle Age: 6 pierce damage, +7 vs Buildings, +5 vs Ships
        • Imperial Age: 8 pierce damage, +7 vs Buildings, +6 vs Ships
    • Armor:
      • Castle Age: 6/7 armor, +8 vs. Ship armor class. 
      • Imperial Age: 8/8 armor, +10 vs. Ship armor class. 
• Shinkichon
  • Cost changed from 800 wood 500 gold → 1100 food 800 gold. 
  • Effect changed from Mangonel-line +1 range → Rocket Carts and Turtle Ships +1 range, fire additional rockets. 
• Lose access to Mangonel-line

Malay

• Team bonus adjusted from Docks +100% line of sight → +6 line of sight.

Portuguese

• Organ Gun  
  • HP reduced from 60 → 50

Romans

• Legionary
  • Base movement speed increased from 0.9 → 0.96. 
• Lose access to Arson. 

Sicilians

• (Elite) Serjeant
  • Cost changed from 50 food 35 gold → 60 food 25 gold. 
  • Movement speed increased from 0.9 → 0.95. 
  • Armor changed:
    • Feudal Age: 2/2 → 2/1. 
    • Castle Age: 3/3 → 4/2. 
    • Elite: 4/4 → 6/3. 
• Donjon
  • Can now be built starting in Dark Age.
    • Dark Age statistics: 625 HP, 0/6 Armor, and cannot shoot any arrows until Feudal Age. 
  • Feudal Age Donjon unchanged. 

Developer Note: While Sicilians were already able to build Donjons to unlock Archery Ranges and Stables in the Feudal Age, the delayed timing was too restrictive for many strategies to be viable.

Slavs

• Free Supplies and Gambesons Civilization bonus changed → Free Arson and Gambesons. 

Spanish

• Missionary
  • Now affected by Cavalry armor upgrades. 

Teutons

• (Elite) Teutonic Knight
  • HP increased from 80 → 90, Elite 100 → 110. 
  • Base conversion resistance increased from 0 → 3. 

Vietnamese

• NEW units:
  • Gain access to Fire Lancers. 
• Civilization bonuses
  • Archery Range units +20% HP civilization bonus adjusted → Archery Range units and Fire Lancers +20% HP. 

Vikings

• (Elite) Berserk
  • Cost decreased from 65 food 25 gold → 65 food 20 gold. 

General

• Visual gap in the level select screen between the second and third scenarios of the Battle for Greece Grand Campaign is now removed.
• Custom technology in the Battle for Greece campaign should now show descriptions when extended tooltips are disabled.
• For Battle for Greece #10 ‘The Hot Gates’, #11 ‘Divine Salamis’, and #14 ‘The Fruits of Empire’, the persistency special naval techs are now weakened:
  • ‘Liquid Courage’ special tech additional charge attack for Lemboi decreased from +100 → +40.
  • ‘Liquid Courage’ special tech full recharge rate per second decreased from 0.33 → 0.25.
  • ‘Prayers to Artemis’ special tech additional arrows for Galleys decreased from +2 arrows → +1 arrow.
  • ‘Torsion Experts’ special tech additional range for Catapult Ships decreased from +2 → +1.
  • ‘Artillery Spotters’ special tech recharge rate per second for Leviathans decreased from 0.33 → 0.2.
  • ‘Careful Captains’ special tech additional hidden ship armor decreased from +3 → +1.
  • ‘Belligerent Captains’ special tech additional hidden anti-ship damage decreased from +3 → +1.
  • ‘Hymns to Poseidon’ special tech additional movement speed decreased from +15% → +10%.
  • ‘Strengthened Hulls’ special tech additional armor for ships decreased from +1/+1 → +1/+0.
  • ‘Oakum’ special tech additional regeneration rate for ships decreased from 30/min → 15/min.
  • ‘Hardened Marines’ special tech additional attack speed decreased from +15% → +10%.

Campaign

• Battle for Greece #1: ‘Prologue: Gates of the Gods’:
  • The path to cross into the main city of Babylon is now significantly less visible before “Darius” dams the river.
  • “Tarantine Cavalry” are now called “Skirmisher Cavalry”.
  • The bridge “Darius” crosses leading into the ambush is now slightly wider.
  • During the brief naval section, the Warships will now respawn if they are all lost.
  • ‘Artaphernes’ will now correctly play his line when encountering the first brief battle regardless of difficulty.
  • Additional units added to each ‘Mercenary Camp’ found throughout Babylon.
• Battle for Greece #3: ‘The Ionian Revolt’:
  • The Towers in the “Loyal Towns” will no longer be destroyed by the enemies instead of being captured after all eight towns have been recovered.
  • The ‘Aristagoras’ enemy hero unit is no longer possible to kill.
  • ‘Artaphernes’ is no longer able to play his victory line twice at the end of the scenario if “Aristagoras” was reduced to having less than fifteen units in his army.
  • The ‘Aristagoras’ enemy hero unit HP increased from 220 → 500
  • The camp belonging to “Aristagoras” at the south of the map now has trees surrounding the walls on the side to restrict access that way.
  • “Aristagoras’s Army” now receives Blacksmith upgrades as the player reclaims towns.
• Battle for Greece #4: ‘A City Ablaze’:
  • Additional rocks added to the area at the south of the Acropolis to prevent leaving the initial fight.
  • “Aristagoras” now receives Classical Age Blacksmith upgrades and Target Practice as the player reclaims districts of Sardis.
  • The ‘Aristagoras’ enemy hero unit is no longer possible to kill.
• Battle for Greece #5: ‘Chasing Smoke’:
  • The German localization no longer refers to the ‘Ionian Strategoi’ as belonging to the blue player.
  • The camera no longer pans to Artemisia’s horse after receiving the quest to rescue the horse.
  • “Artemisia” now starts with enough units to respond to the first time the player flares her.
  • A permanent flare is no longer created at the top of the map when ‘Artaphernes’ respawns.
  • ‘Datis’ respawning now correctly flares the top of the map as well.
  • Most of the persistent effects related to the districts saved in ‘A City Ablaze’ no longer show up as intended.
  • Saving either the ‘Menagerie’ or ‘Noble Quarters’ in ‘A City Ablaze’ now gives the player a group of either Shock Cavalry or Elite War Chariots upon reaching the Classical Age as intended.
  • “Artemisia” now uses the Achaemenid flags instead of the Athenian ones.
  • ‘Artaphernes’ and ‘Datis’ will now correctly play their wounded dialogue as soon as they are wounded, rather than waiting until the player controls a Town Center.
• Battle for Greece #6: ‘Death to Traitors’:
  • Spies is now disabled.
  • “Aristagoras” counterattacks against the Sapper Tunnels are now based on their total army size rather than the number of Tarantine Cavalry they had at the time.
  • “Artemisia” now has a cooldown on her lines when paying her for a lot of siege weapons at once.
  • “Aristagoras” will now attack walls built by the player with his army.
• Battle for Greece #7: ‘Earth and Water’:
  • There are no longer two Villagers gathering from a single farm after the player receives their base.
  • On Standard difficulty, the first attack from “Carystos” is now after almost 27 minutes instead of just after 23 minutes.
  • On Standard difficulty, the first attack from “Andros” is now after 30 minutes instead of almost 27 minutes.
  • On Standard difficulty, “Naxos” now attacks every ten minutes instead of every eight minutes, and “Andros” now attacks every 15 minutes instead of every 13 minutes.
  • Players no longer start with Cretan Archers if they choose Bactrian Archers as their bodyguard in ‘Prologue: Gates of the Gods”.
  • The “OR” objective text now only appears if the player has unlocked the Emissaries, to represent the actual choice it’s meant to be.
• Battle for Greece #8: ‘The Battle of Marathon’:
  • The units received from ‘Pallene’ are no longer ignored by enemies.
  • The ‘Battle Begins’ timer has been extended by five minutes on all difficulties.
  • The ‘Melanthios’ allied hero HP increased from 60 → 180, speed reduced from 0.9 → 0.63, armor increased from 3/0 to 5/3, and attack increased from 1 → 5.
  • The army of hostile ‘Mercenaries’ surrounding ‘Rhamnous’ have been significantly reduced in number, with almost all of their archers in particular being removed.
  • Allied soldiers in ‘Oropos’ can no longer be lured outside the walls to engage in combat with enemies.
  • The ‘False Signals’ objective is now removed if the Villager associated with the quest dies.
  • The objective to ‘Return to Pallene’ no longer appears again during the final battle.
• Battle for Greece #9: ‘Raise the Sails’:
  • Hints now specify that the special naval techs available in this level will show up again later on in a weakened form.
  • The “Pirates” now receive Elite Galley, Trireme, Incendiary Ship, Bodkin Arrow, and Bracer as the player gains ‘Naval Power’.
  • Researching the ‘Fishing Baskets’ and ‘Iron Harpoons’ special naval techs are now required to complete the “Admirable Admiral” achievement.
• Battle for Greece #10: ‘The Hot Gates’:
  • ‘Leonidas’ now plays his first speech after the ‘Narrator’ plays her line during the transition to playing as the Spartans.
  • War Chariots are no longer available.
  • The resource gain from sinking enemy ships in the Athenian section now stops as intended after ‘Artemisia’ arrives.
  • The resource gain from killing enemy units in the Spartan section now stops as intended five minutes after ‘Leonidas’ is allowed to die.
  • Enemy ships are now removed after the transition to the Spartan section.
• Battle for Greece #11: ‘Divine Salamis’:
  • It is no longer possible to kill the ‘Artemisia’ enemy hero unit.
  • Destroying the “Egyptian Blockade” no longer causes permanent flares to appear on any of the “Xerxes” Forts that were already destroyed.
  • It is no longer possible to train an unlimited number of Greek Noble Cavalry if they were selected as the bodyguard in ‘The Battle of Marathon’.
• Battle for Greece #12: ‘Across the Win-Dark Sea’:
  • The quest to ‘Find the Bowl of Menelaus’ now indicates it to be hidden in a ‘Mountain Temple’.
  • The ‘Aristides’ line about the salt lake now uses the correct hero portrait.
  • The “Persian Army” now receives more resources on Moderate and Hard difficulties.
• Battle for Greece #13: ‘Wrath of the Regent’:
  • On Standard difficulty, “Pausanias” now automatically starts his attack after 26 minutes instead of after 22 minutes.
  • The “Persian Garrison” defenders now fall back into the city as the player takes the outer rings of Byzantium.
• Battle for Greece #14: ‘The Fruits of Empire’: The ‘Aristides’ final victory line will now play after the line associated with taking “Carystos” or “Naxos” to trigger victory, instead of before it.
• Battle for Greece #15: ‘Within the Long Walls’:
  • The campaign level selection screen now uses the intended icon for ‘Within the Long Walls’.
  • The special techs at the Acropolis now display their full effects properly.
  • The flags in “Plataea” for the quest now show as Blue instead of Orange as intended.
  • On Hard difficulty, the cost of the ‘Prosecute Cleon’ special technology is decreased from 4000 gold → 3000 gold.
  • The “Political Animal” achievement is no longer automatically unlocked at the start of this level.
• Battle for Greece #16: ‘I am Brasidas’:
  • All wall tiles belonging to “Methone” correctly transfer to player control upon entering the city.
  • The “Athenians” now attack with slightly fewer units per wave on all difficulties.
  • On Standard difficulty, the strength of the final “Athenians” assault is now reduced.
  • Objective markers on the “Athenians” Trade Workshops will now be properly removed if the player destroys the Trade Workshops before receiving the objective to do so.
• Battle for Greece #17: ‘Pyres on the Coast’:
  • Elite War Chariot upgrade is no longer available.
  • Flags that would appear near one of the central ‘Helot Tombs’ to indicate where units would spawn are no longer visible.
  • The ‘Brasidas’ line for stopping one of the Helot uprisings now uses the correct icon.
  • The Siege Workshop has been disabled.
  • The ‘Infantry Aura II’ and ‘Cavalry Aura I’ upgrades now display correctly in the ‘Helot Blacksmith’ if they were already chosen in ‘I am Brasidas’.
  • The “Athenians” ships no longer appear as belonging to ‘Themistocles’.
  • The ‘Statue of Helios’ event now properly triggers if “Pausanias” was given the statue in ‘Wrath of the Regent’.
• Battle for Greece #18: ‘Speeches and Spears’:
  • The lines from ‘Cleon’ when the player captures a city will no longer interfere with other city related dialogue, nor trigger for the final city captured.
  • After the final battle starts, ‘Brasidas’ will no longer use any of his normal wounded/revival lines.
• Battle for Greece #19: ‘To the Wall!’:
  • Both the “Athenian Army” and the “Athenian Navy” will now resign when both of their Forts are destroyed, instead of also requiring their ally to have lost a Fort.
  • The hints are now updated to indicate a path around the “Athenian Army” base.
  • Map revealers are now briefly created to show the path around the top of the “Athenian Army” base when the player completes the wall building section.
• Battle for Greece #20: ‘Blood and Gold’: When there are less then fifteen ships remaining in the “Athenian Navy”, vision over the remaining enemy fleet will be granted to the player.
• Battle for Greece #21: ‘The Fall of Athens’:
  • Researching any of the special infantry technologies at the Wonder will now lock the player out of the “Combined Arms” achievement for that playthrough as intended.
  • The “Athenian Navy” now receives their first set of resources at two and a half minutes instead of five minutes.
  • The “Athenian Navy” now receives additional resources every 200 seconds on Moderate and every 150 seconds on Hard, instead of every 300 seconds regardless of difficulty.
  • The Yellow flag behind the temple in ‘Athens’ is now removed.
  • The area in which “King Agis” builds his base is now permanently revealed to the player after defeating “Eleusis”.
  • The ‘Monument’ in Athens is now named “Acropolis” as intended.

New Maps

• Added two new Random Maps, Glade and Fortified Clearing.

• Added one new Real World map, Great Wall.

• Added seven “Quick Start” map variations where players spawn with six additional Villagers.
  • QS Arabia
  • QS Arena
  • QS Black Forest
  • QS Fortified Clearing
  • QS Glade
  • QS Nomad
  • QS Runestones

Map Balance

• Arabia:
  • The player forest distances are now much more equal between all players.
  • Player forests have been made generally larger.
  • The furthest player forests have been pushed slightly closer to the players.
  • Resources now generate much more unpredictably and naturally.
  • For two-player games, neutral resources now generate more towards the center of the map.
  • For two-player games, the spawn distance between players and the general location is now more varied and unpredictable.
  • Huntable animals now spawn randomly between 20 and 28 tiles from player’s town center, instead of randomly between 23 and 27 tiles.
  • There’s now a chance that huntable animals generate in groups of two and four, instead of only three.
  • Relics now generate much more unpredictably, but still reasonably evenly distributed between players.
    • One relic no longer generates in the dead center of the map.
  • Relics now scale more appropriately according to the map size.
  • Introduced a 40% chance of a new extreme elevation type on the map, which is more representative of the legacy map.
  • There’s now a 50% chance that regular huntable animals will be replaced by a group of small unpushable huntable animals.
  • Added more variety in the map themes.
• Arena
  • Player bases now scale more appropriately in size across map sizes.
  • Introduced various new themes for the map.
  • Players now only generate walls towards the center of the map.
  • There’s now a 50% chance that regular huntable animals will be replaced by a group of small unpushable huntable animals.
  • Added groups of neutral small huntable animals in the center of the map.
  • Fixed players sometimes not having forests generate inside their walls.
  • Fixed straggler trees sometimes spawning in the walls.
  • Added some elevation to the outside forests.
  • Fixed a rare bug that caused large huntable animals to not always generate in the appropriate number.
  • Relics now scale more appropriately according to the map size.
• Black Forest
  • Decreased the number of inaccessible areas on the map, trapping resources and other objects.
  • On the generations where ponds appear on the map, all players will now have access to one relatively small pond.
  • The forest clearings now appear more natural-looking.
  • Instead of clusters of three to twelve hostile huntable animals generating randomly across the map, all players now consistently generate two hostile huntable animals far from their initial town center.
  • Added more variety in the map themes.
  • All players now spawn with two relics in their forest clearing.
  • Updated the map visuals.
• BR Fall of Rome
  • Inconvertible gaia units are now placed more evenly next to each castle in the middle.
  • Replaced Bombard Towers with Fire Towers.
• City of Lakes
  • Fixed an issue that could cause the player’s gold and stone deposits to not always generate.
• Marketplace
  • Gaia Markets are now visible from the game start on Explored map reveal setting.
• MegaRandom
  • A major increase of variations for all map layouts leading to less predictability.
  • Nomad start can now feature extra Villagers (up to 14).
  • Extra food resources (herdables, huntables, forage bushes) can now appear on neutral lands.
  • New bamboo trees, water, and animals have been added.
  • A mixing of tree types for forests has been added.
• Michi
  • Gaia Markets are now visible from the game start on Explored map reveal setting.
• Nomad
  • Added a chance of a small land-lock generating.
  • Gold and stone deposits are more evenly spread out across the map.
  • Forage bush clusters are now more evenly spread out across the map.
  • The general land shape now appears more varied and natural-looking.
  • Added more variety in the map themes.
  • Increased the map dimensions by 5% on all map sizes.
  • Players now spawn with one herdable close to one of their starting Villagers.
  • Relics now scale more appropriately according to the map size.
  • Player’s starting Villagers now generate more consistently spaced across the map, ensuring all players have roughly the same walking distance.
  • There’s now a 50% chance that regular herdable animals will be replaced by two small herdable animals.
    • When regular herdable animals are present, forage bush clusters are smaller, but three small huntable animals generate nearby each of them.
    • When small herdable animals are present, the forage bush clusters are larger, but no small huntable animals are present.
  • Updated the map visuals.
• Northern Isles
  • Fixed boars sometimes failing to generate.
• Shrublands
  • Relics can no longer spawn in inaccessible locations when playing on Ludicrous map size.
• Yucatan
  • Fixed an issue that could occasionally prevent the correct number of huntable animals from generating.
  • Player’s huntable animals now generate in two groups of four, instead of one group of eight.
  • The number of individual forests on the map now scales more appropriately with the map size.
  • The amount of water on the map now scales more appropriately with the map size, resulting in fewer water canals on larger map sizes.
  • Added a varying number of neutral forage bush clusters far from players.
  • Added a varying number of neutral herds of deer far from players.
  • Forests now generate slightly further away from players, ensuring enough space for all resources to appropriately generate with reasonable spacing.
  • Increased the number of predators.
  • Relics are now distributed more evenly and balanced across the map.
  • Relics now scale more appropriately according to the map size.
  • Decreased the number of inaccessible areas on the map, trapping resources and other objects.
  • Updated the map visuals.
• Chronicles
  • Coastal: Oysters no longer block shore fish from spawning.
  • Volcanic Island: Oysters no longer block shore fish from spawning.
  • Acropolis: Oysters no longer block shore fish from spawning.
  • Nile Delta: Fix typo that caused boulders to spawn on water.
  • Baltic: Ensure spawn of central shallows.
  • Rivers: Oysters no longer spawn on Land in Frozen theme

Random Map Scripting

Features & Improvements

• Added the ability to use simple math operators (addition, subtractions, multiplication and division).
  • Handles floating-point input values, but the final result will be rounded to the nearest whole number.
  • All numeric constants in RMS files are now in floating-point format. (This makes the effect_percent command obsolete).
• A new object attribute, require_path, has been added, only allowing an object to generate if it has a walkable path to the spawn origin.
  • Accepts one integer parameter, requiring the object to also have a direct line of sight to the spawn origin.
• The attribute find_closest now works more appropriately in conjunction with set_circular_placement and enable_tile_shuffling.
• min_distance_to_players and max_distance_to_players no longer make objects avoid neutral lands.

Additions

• Added several new colour moods (Arctic, Brumous, Darkness, Evening, Misty, Murky, Rainforest, Savannah, Spring, Steppes, Summer, Swamp and Twilight).
• Added several new invisible placeholder objects to be used in map scripts. All objects have an on- and off-tile variant.
  • Generic Placeholder (1543, 1902)
    • No terrain restrictions.
  • Land Placeholder (1544, 1905)
    • Restricted to land.
  • Amphibious Placeholder (1545, 1900)
    • Restricted to land, beaches and shallows.
  • Hybrid Placeholder (1546, 1912)
    • Restricted to beaches, shallows and water.
  • Water Placeholder (1547, 1921)
    • Restricted to water.

• Added New Trees
  • Lush Bamboo (1984)
  • Asian Pine (2016)
  • Peach Blossom (2017)
  • Willow (2025)
  • Asian Maple, Green (2027)
  • Asian Maple, Autumn (2028)

• Added new permanent stump variations for bamboo (1536), lush bamboo (1538) and baobab trees (1537).
• Added new felled tree objects that appear already cut down on game-start.
  • Felled Tree (1539)
  • Felled Bamboo (1540)
  • Felled Baobab (1541)
  • Felled Lush Bamboo (1542)
• Added three new rock objects.
  • Pillar Rock (2008)
  • Limestone Rock (2009)
  • Panda Rock (2082)

• Added three new predatory animals.
  • Black Bear (2089)
  • Polar Bear (2090)
  • Arabian Wolf (2091)
  • Additionally, the Bear and Wolf have been renamed Brown Bear and Grey Wolf, respectively.

• Added a new type of herdable animal with three color variations (brown, white, black) and only 65 food.
  • Chicken (2083, 2085, 2087)
• One new regular huntable animal has been added.
  • Argali (1896)

• Added a new type of huntable animal with three color variations (brown, white, black) and only 65 food. These animals have limited movement and will remain close to their spawn origin at all times.
  • Wild Chicken (2084, 2086, 2088)

• Added a new bird.
  • Red Crowned Crane (2026)
• New neutral wild animals have been added.
  • Wild Horse B (2092)
  • Wild Horse C (2093)
  • Wild Horse D (2094)
  • Wild Horse E (2095)
  • Monkey (2096)
  • Wild Penguin (2097)
• Added a new male (1875) and female (1876) Villager that won’t start automatically gathering resources during Empire Wars.
• Three new temporary revealers have been added that will leave part of the map explored.
  • Small Revealer, 4 LOS (1872)
  • Medium Revealer, 10 LOS (1873)
  • Large Revealer, 20 LOS (1874)
• Added new terrains.
  • Lush Bamboo Forest (113)
  • Shallow Water, Yellow (114)
  • Shallows, Yellow (115)
  • Deep Water, Yellow (116)
  • Pasture (117)
  • Pasture, Dead (118)
  • Pasture, 0% (119)
  • Pasture, 33% (120)
  • Pasture, 66% (121)
• Added a new cliff type.
  • Limestone Cliff (4)

General

• AI now has a new scout rush exclusive on Extreme difficulty. This aims to address problematic behavior in the old scout rush where it would get stuck retreating to and from a TC and repeatedly sending scouts into spears.
• Because of these improvements, AI now opens scouts from the pocket position in open land maps ~15% of the time, and will do this most commonly as Magyars.
• AI scouts have the ability to find a path to the back of the opponent’s base, and try new paths if the same result happens several times.
• AI scouts can eliminate spearman by pulling back the scout currently targeted.
• AI scouts can block villagers trying to retreat to the town center.
• Only regular maps, the Extreme AI will use a custom scouting pattern for the first few minutes, to enable pushing deer earlier into the game or from further away.

Unit AI

• Fixed a bug making Villagers go idle at resource location when ungarrisoned with “Back to Work” command after the resource is depleted.
• Fixed a bug that made units on Stand Ground issued with a right-click attack command autonomously change target even when there is no obstruction preventing them to reach the clicked target.
• Fixed a bug that made units on Stand Ground ignore secondary targets after the primary target dies when issued a SHIFT+Right click attack command on multiple units.
• Mitigated an issue that had Monks freeze if issued a movement command while converting enemy units.

Pathfinding

• Reworked Villagers’ pathfinding which was making them take illogical routes upon completion of a building.
• Fixed an issue that made split units regroup after a move command, rather than meeting at the desired location.
• Fixed an issue that prevented units from walking in straight lines despite not encountering any obstruction.
• Fixed an issue that prevented units from reaching the exact location clicked by the player.
• Fixed an issue that made Villagers break their path into more segments, resulting in slower and longer routes.
• Fixed an issue that made units take longer paths around small obstructions.
• Fixed an issue that made units backtrack before moving towards the selected location when issued multiple movement commands.
• Mitigated an issue making Villagers move one tile downwards before going to the intended spot when tasked to build a building close to them.
• Fixed an issue with lumberjacks sometimes not choosing the closest tree to the lumbercamp first.

Scripting

• Fixed a bug on sn-object-repair-level preventing AI from repairing damaged Mills, Mule Carts, Town Centers, Castles, and Monasteries.
• A new fact, fe-idle-pasture-count, has been used to count idle pastures. If using other AI commands with pastures, please use ID 1897 to count and ID 1889 to build or for any other use.

General

• Added or updated a very large number of attributes to support new gameplay functionalities, most notably alternative ranged attacks and hero active abilities such as special attacks or temporary auras.

Scenario Editor

• Added new elevation height options up to 16 (from 7).
• Fixed a crash when using Modify Attribute trigger effect with Graphics ID attributes originally set to -1.
• Added Item ID field to Research Technology trigger effect.
• Script Filename field now accepts file names with up to 100 characters.

XS Scripting

• Added float xsGetObjectAttribute(int32_t playerId, int32_t objectId, int32_t attribute) function which returns the unit attribute value of the specific player’s object ID.

Investigation

As always, we are continuing to track issues reported by the community for future updates.

For other known issues, please visit this page to see what’s being tracked!

COMING UP…

Hey Age of Empires Community!

It’s been a minute since we’ve provided some thoughts and teasers toward everything that’s happening with Age II: DE, and the last time we did we were in the middle of launching Chronicles: Battle for Greece – the newest DLC for Age II: DE from our friends at CaptureAge. 

If you haven’t played Battle for Greece yet, it’s definitely worth taking a peek at what others are saying, especially if you love Campaign content and historical narrative. We’ve been thrilled to see the reaction from everyone and we’re keeping our eyes on your feedback – thank you so much for joining us on this journey!

But let’s not bury the lead, we’re sure you have some questions right now.

The last time you heard from World’s Edge, we made the surprise announcement that Age II: DE will be coming to PlayStation 5! Or maybe, back to PlayStation? It definitely feels like a full circle moment and we got some chuckles out of the Age of Kings PS2 conversations that popped up. We know you’re curious and want details, but this one needs to wait a bit longer – we’ll have more to say about this very soon!

Today, we’re doing something a little different with our patch notes. Usually, you get these on the same day that an update is being released, but this time we’re providing patch notes in advance. We’re not yet ready to say exactly when this update is dropping, but you can expect to hear from us in mid-April. 

For anyone that was wondering when we’d be back with something new for our competitive players, this is our love letter to you. We wanted to give you some time to digest it all and get hyped while we finish up the work on one of our biggest updates ever!

We’re excited to reveal some pretty big surprises in these notes, including an absolutely massive list of new balance changes, bug fixes, feature updates, new maps, scenario editor updates, and a lot more! 

We can’t wait to see your reaction to those sweet new Castles and the many other visual updates on their way to all players of Age II: DE, absolutely free, when our next update launches.

We’re forgetting something aren’t we?

During that PlayStation 5 announcement, we also mentioned that there’s an exciting new expansion coming to Age II: DE! We even provided a couple of images to give you an opportunity to sleuth and debate what we’re cooking up. It’s been fun for us to see what everybody is guessing at! We’re not yet ready to share the full details, so keep your eyes peeled for a future announcement with a complete breakdown of everything included in the new expansion.

For those that study today’s patch notes carefully, you’re likely to find some clues. We’re not telling you where this information exists and we’re not doing much to draw any attention to it, but it’s there. It won’t tell you everything, but it’ll provide some entertainment while we wait for a more official roll-out.

Oh, and maybe we can share this too…

The next expansion for Age II: DE will include FIVE brand NEW Civs, all playable in Ranked Multiplayer. Yes, you read that correctly. Five! Is that all the DLC includes? Nope. We’ll be following up soon with more details regarding PlayStation 5, the next DLC, and news on the availability of this exciting update! 

We like to end these things by reminding everyone how thankful we are for you – the Age Community – and that it’s our absolute privilege and joy to be able to develop this game and franchise for you! We love it as much as you do, and we’re glad you’re here!

Wololo!

DISCLAIMER

Please note that this list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.