A new expansion is out now for medieval RTS game Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. Dawn of the Dukes includes three new fully voiced campaigns and two new civilisations, the Poles and the Bohemians. The DLC arrives alongside an extensive patch that fixes many of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition’s issues with stability and AI.
Dawn of the Dukes is the second official expansion for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, and is focused on central and eastern Europe. Playing as the Poles, you’ll find they are a cavalry civilisation that, while lacking the heavy cavalry fielded by their neighbors, could nonetheless win the day thanks to high manoeuverability and organisation. The Bohemians, on the other hand, are a monk and gunpowder civilisation that relies on advanced weaponry and novel tactics to gain the upper hand on more numerous opponents.
The three campaigns cover the stories of Lithuanian princes Algirdas and Kestutis’ struggle against the Teutonic Knights, Poland’s first female monarch Jadwiga’s quest to unite Poland and Lithuania, and legendary Czech general Jan Zizka’s fight against the Holy Roman Empire.
The patch, officially titled Update 51737, makes a raft of fixes to improve game stability and performance, correct some missing music issues, address several UI bugs, and adjust some campaign balance problems.
Developer Forgotten Empires also says it’s made some tweaks to AI player logic, making computer opponents a bit savvier about advancing to the next age and waiting while crucial new technology finishes researching before picking fights. The AI will also stop taunting you about switching teams in the middle of treaty negotiations, which is one of the funnier patch notes we’ve seen this week.
Appropriately enough, the patch also adds Polish language support. Zajebiście!
The full patch notes for update 51737 are available on Steam.