Age of Empires II HD
Age of Empires II gets a new expansion.Ensemble Studios

Age of Empires II, a real-time strategy game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft, has announced the release of a new expansion after nearly 17 years!

For many gamers, Age of Empire games has strokes of nostalgia and the developer is looking to recreate that magic with the new Rise of the Rajas DLC. The new DLC will be released on December 19.

The new expansion is also up for pre-ordering.

This new DLC will be inclusive of four new civilisations, a new map type and gaming tournament. Here are the four new civilisations as posted on Steam:

Burmese

  • Assemble the largest empire in the history of southeast Asia through a legion of Battle Elephants that can demolish the most powerful of defenses. The Burmese unique unit is the Arambai, a ranged cavalry unit with a deadly but low accuracy attack.

Khmer

  • Construct the largest religious monument in the world and amass an immortal army of devastating siege weapons. The Khmer unique unit is the Ballista Elephant, a mounted scorpion that can be upgraded to fire two bolts simultaneously.

Malay

  • Conquer southeast Asia with the vast island empire of Malay and upgrade your docks to harbours which can shoot arrows. The Malay unique unit is the Karambit Warrior, an extremely cheap infantry unit that can quickly overwhelm its foes.

Vietnamese

  • Lead your people to independence and wage guerrilla warfare with an extremely powerful arsenal of ranged units. The Vietnamese unique unit is the Rattan Archer, a heavily-armoured ranged unit that is effectively impervious to enemy archer attacks.

The DLC will also feature four new fully voiced campaigns namely Gajah Mada, Suryavarman I, Bayinnaung and Le Loi.

It will also have new generic units – Battle Elephant and Imperial Skirmisher. The expansion will also have new environments like massive rainforests, treacherous beaches, the new mangrove forests and shallows.

Other features include:

  • Improved AI
  • 5 New Random Maps
  • 5 New Special Maps
  • 5 New Real World Maps
  • 13 New Terrains
  • New Scenario Editor Objects
  • Spectator Mode

The original Age of Empires II was released in 1999, while the Age of Empires II HD was released in 2013. It was followed by two expansions The Forgotten and The African Kingdoms. Age of Empires II HD is available on PC and PlayStation 2.

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