Latest / Start the game already! / [ENG] Super short DLC preview

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[ENG] Super short DLC preview · Start the game already!

• 0:12
  Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast.
• 0:14
  We are less than a week away from the new DLC dropping and if
• 0:19
  you haven't seen the patch notes or the trailer for the last
• 0:21
  Chieftains DLC yet, honestly, where have you been?
• 0:25
  The devs have been putting out so much background information
• 0:28
  on the DLC that it was almost impossible to miss.
• 0:32
  Anyway, this DLC will be released on the 17th of February
• 0:36
  and I am getting slowly but steadily more and more excited.
• 0:40
  So I decided to do a quick episode, kind of like a preview
• 0:45
  with very condensed information for you to prepare yourself for
• 0:49
  this DLC. And this DLC isn't just another
• 0:52
  civilization package. We are finally getting that deep
• 0:56
  dive into South America that the community has been asking for
• 1:01
  since the Definitive Edition has launched.
• 1:04
  We're talking 3 new civilizations, a brand new
• 1:07
  architecture set, and on top of this DLC, we will also get the
• 1:12
  naval rework that is coming to everyone, even if you're not
• 1:16
  getting the DLC. So grab a quick coffee, sit
• 1:19
  back, and let's break down exactly what's coming.
• 1:23
  First things first, the aesthetics.
• 1:25
  We are finally moving away from the more or less generic
• 1:29
  Mesoamerican look and getting some brand new architecture.
• 1:34
  The New South American architecture set is quite
• 1:36
  stunning in my opinion. It's got much more earthy,
• 1:40
  organic feel with thatch woods and stone that actually reflects
• 1:44
  the diverse climates of Chile and the Amazon.
• 1:48
  When I took a close look at the architecture set, I got really
• 1:52
  excited for the campaigns. I can't wait to play those and
• 1:55
  hope that they've put a lot of effort not only into the
• 1:58
  storytelling, but the actual maps that make out the campaign
• 2:02
  missions. I want dense forests and high
• 2:06
  mountains. I want it to feel different from
• 2:08
  all the other campaigns we've seen so far.
• 2:11
  I quite fondly remember how big of a deal it was when the
• 2:15
  Conquerors came out and we got to play as the Aztecs in their
• 2:19
  jungle. And that feeling is exactly what
• 2:22
  I'm hoping to for with the last Chieftains DLC.
• 2:27
  And Speaking of regional flavor, there's a couple of things that
• 2:30
  the South American civilizations will have in common, which is
• 2:34
  why our beloved Inca are also getting kind of a rework.
• 2:39
  They'll get the champion Warrior along with the three new
• 2:43
  civilizations. This champion warriors kind of
• 2:46
  their scout line, but from the barracks.
• 2:49
  This is a fast moving regional infantry unit that can actually
• 2:53
  build outposts. We're also seeing slingers move
• 2:57
  into a more standardized regional role to help these
• 3:00
  civilizations deal with infantry heavy rushes.
• 3:03
  And these forceps also get settlements which serve as a
• 3:07
  drop off point for all resources and increases your pop space.
• 3:12
  So let's talk civilizations starting with the Mapuche.
• 3:17
  They are based on a group of indigenous South American tribes
• 3:20
  native to the southern Andes and Patagonia who famously resisted
• 3:26
  Inca and Spanish attempts to conquer their homelands.
• 3:30
  They supposedly focus on cavalry and counter units, which is kind
• 3:33
  of funny having no stable and all.
• 3:36
  Their unique unit is the Kona, a mealy cavalry unit with kind of
• 3:41
  a finisher mechanic. It's deals significantly more
• 3:45
  damage to units that are already wounded.
• 3:49
  Then there's the Bolas Rider, it's a short range cavalry unit
• 3:53
  that applies a slow debuff to another unit.
• 3:56
  If you get caught out in the open by a pack of these, you are
• 4:00
  probably not getting away anymore.
• 4:03
  It's going to completely change how we think about micro in the
• 4:06
  mid game when we're facing this unit.
• 4:09
  They have a unique tech called Malon that gives their bolas
• 4:13
  riders, slingers, and skurms pass through damage.
• 4:17
  This sounds incredibly strong in my opinion, especially for a
• 4:20
  castle age unique technology. Their second unique tech reduces
• 4:24
  the cost of team castle unique units and bowler riders by 15%.
• 4:30
  The Mapuche have particularly hard working villagers because
• 4:34
  their foragers drop off, plus 20% food at their settlements.
• 4:38
  They can also train Spears and skirms, so trash units their
• 4:42
  infantry, slingers and skirmishers get plus 5HP in
• 4:46
  feudal, plus 10 in castle age and plus 15HP in the Imperial
• 4:51
  age. And these last two bonuses are
• 4:54
  probably what gives them the classification as a counter unit
• 4:57
  civilization. Also their mounted units
• 5:00
  generate plus 3 gold per military unit killed, and they
• 5:04
  can see your castles whenever you build 1.
• 5:07
  Their team bonus gives Spears and skirms plus two line of
• 5:10
  sight. This is sounds incredibly
• 5:12
  strong, but I've said this about every single civilization that
• 5:17
  came out over the past five years and usually they were much
• 5:21
  more balanced than I initially thought, so I am willing to
• 5:25
  believe that this will work out. Next up, the Muska.
• 5:31
  They are based on the Muska confederations of present day
• 5:35
  Colombia, who formed the most notable civilization in the
• 5:38
  northern Andes at the time of the Spanish conquest.
• 5:42
  They kind of feel like the gold civilization to me out of this
• 5:46
  expansion, and they focus on foot Archers and monks.
• 5:50
  Their economy is built around efficiency, one could say
• 5:53
  because their settlements cost -25% resources and they heal
• 5:59
  nearby units. Advancing to the next age also
• 6:03
  costs -50 gold and caravan and gills is free for them.
• 6:08
  Their monks regain their faith 50% faster after a successful
• 6:13
  conversion, which sounds super strong to me.
• 6:18
  And the champion scout line and Archer range units have plus one
• 6:21
  melee armour in feudal, plus 2IN castle age and even plus three
• 6:26
  in the Imperial age. Their unique unit, the Gwecha
• 6:30
  Warrior, is a skirmisher unit and therefore as far as I know,
• 6:34
  the very first skirmisher unit trained from a castle.
• 6:38
  And it has quite the weird mechanic.
• 6:41
  When they die, they can actually heal other Gwecha warriors that
• 6:46
  are close by. They are close to them.
• 6:49
  Kind of like a martyr unit. Their second unique unit is the
• 6:53
  Temple Guard, a heavy infantry unit that attacks faster the
• 6:58
  longer it remains in combat. Almost like it gets into a rage.
• 7:04
  If you can't burst them down quickly, they will probably
• 7:07
  absolutely shred your frontline. This unit can be trained from
• 7:12
  both barracks and a monastery. It has an elite version and I
• 7:17
  believe it's not able to heal other units or pick up relics
• 7:21
  despite being trainable from monasteries.
• 7:24
  Their Castle age unique technology is called Herbalism
• 7:27
  and makes their Archers and champion scouts move 15% faster.
• 7:32
  That is an incredibly strong upgrade for both Archer units
• 7:37
  and infantry units. There will be no escaping them
• 7:41
  whatsoever. Huaracas is their imperial
• 7:45
  unique tech which gives their slingers one additional range
• 7:48
  and lets them train 25% faster. So boy oh boy, this save is
• 7:53
  going to be strong. Then we have the Tupi.
• 7:57
  They are based on the Tupi peoples of South America, a
• 8:01
  large grouping of pre Columbian tribes based mainly in the
• 8:05
  Amazon rainforest and on the Atlantic Coast of Brazil.
• 8:09
  It seems like their play style is all about numbers and
• 8:12
  aggression and they focus on foot Archers and infantry units.
• 8:16
  Their unique unit from the castle is the Blackwood Archer.
• 8:20
  These are cheap and here's the kicker, they train in pairs and
• 8:24
  each unit only costs half a pop space.
• 8:27
  So they really resemble the Krambit Warrior just being
• 8:31
  arranged unit. You're going to be able to mask
• 8:34
  them extremely fast. Well this is of course dependent
• 8:37
  on their creation time, but I'm assuming that will be fast.
• 8:41
  The only drawback that unique units usually have is that they
• 8:44
  are hard to mask because you will only have so many castles
• 8:48
  to produce from. This is somewhat offset with
• 8:51
  this unique unit. Now pair those with the Ibila
• 8:55
  Pima Warrior, a heavy infantry unit that deals area of effect
• 9:00
  damage, and you have a civilization that is designed to
• 9:03
  just overwhelm. This infantry unit can be
• 9:08
  trained from your barracks and it's AOE damage actually
• 9:12
  considers what direction the unit is facing because it deals
• 9:16
  equal damage to all targets right in front of it.
• 9:20
  There Castle Age unique tech improves the attack speed of the
• 9:24
  Champion Scout Line and Slingers by 25%.
• 9:27
  Their Imperial Age technology gives foot arches and
• 9:31
  fortifications the ability to deal poison damage so damage
• 9:35
  over time. Their bonuses are a wild mix of
• 9:39
  everything. They have a bonus similar to the
• 9:41
  Khmer where the Tupeevils can Garrison in settlements to
• 9:45
  secure themselves. The Tupee also start with plus
• 9:48
  25 of each resource and they get 15% of any units cost back when
• 9:54
  they die, even though I am not quite sure yet whether that only
• 9:58
  applies to military units or even villages.
• 10:01
  Also all upgrades from the range and barracks cost 50% less food
• 10:06
  and as a team bonus towers and castles provides 10 extra pop
• 10:10
  space. So.
• 10:12
  So I think it's a common narrative that everyone expects
• 10:16
  these civilizations to be totally opie when they come out
• 10:20
  and there is definitely going to be some tweaking with the
• 10:23
  balancing. But I am also still quite
• 10:26
  excited for these civilizations. I am excited for the fact that
• 10:30
  these are three more sifts that have no stable and only one
• 10:35
  civilization is specialized on cavalry from like car Archer
• 10:40
  units and from a unique unit from the castle.
• 10:44
  But other than that, they are mainly focused on infantry units
• 10:47
  and mostly foot Archers. So what I find interesting is
• 10:52
  that these three sifts, maybe the four with the Incas, they
• 10:57
  have certain things in common, not just the settlement building
• 11:01
  and that they have a different kind of scout unit.
• 11:05
  But the fact that they all start at the same spot with a tech
• 11:09
  tree and the civilization bonuses and unique texts are
• 11:14
  what give them extra flavor and differentiate the sift from one
• 11:17
  another. At least that's my first
• 11:19
  impression and I I find that very interesting and a smart
• 11:23
  design choice. The question now will be whether
• 11:27
  they are different enough for all all these civilizations to
• 11:32
  feel unique, or whether they are too close to one another and
• 11:37
  then there will be one that's just better than all the others
• 11:40
  and the other two civilizations or three civilizations will
• 11:43
  probably not be played as much either way.
• 11:47
  There's also the single player content and that is quite big
• 11:51
  because we're getting 3 new campaigns, The Lautaro, the
• 11:56
  Pathachinque. I'm probably totally
• 11:59
  mispronouncing these, I'm sorry. And the Arari Boya, the Mooska
• 12:04
  campaign actually features branching choices.
• 12:07
  I think I read you can make one decision and then it branches
• 12:11
  out in one of two ways, which I find quite interesting.
• 12:16
  And I'm also curious whether this is going to make me play
• 12:20
  the campaign twice and improves replayability or whether this I
• 12:25
  don't know. I'm just, I'm just sceptical
• 12:27
  whether the choice is meaningful enough for me to replay the
• 12:30
  campaign then. And I, I don't even know at what
• 12:33
  point in the campaign this this choice is actually going to
• 12:37
  happen. Well, anyway, I didn't want to
• 12:40
  ramble too much. I wanted to keep this short.
• 12:42
  I actually initially wanted to keep this under 10 minutes, but
• 12:45
  I'm failing. Of course I am.
• 12:48
  But I'm going to finish up. So even if you're not buying the
• 12:53
  DLC of or if you're deciding to maybe just get some reviews in
• 12:58
  before you buy it because you can't decide, there is content
• 13:03
  update for you anyway. So when the TLC drops on
• 13:07
  February 17th, there will be a few changes for the game for
• 13:11
  everyone. So I mentioned the naval rework
• 13:14
  that is going to be here and on the same day we're going to get
• 13:18
  2 new ship lines and a complete rebalance of how fire ships and
• 13:22
  galleys interact. Plus the Incas are getting a
• 13:25
  total facelift for free. New architecture, new units, and
• 13:29
  a modernized campaign. So this is all free for you if
• 13:33
  you decide not to get the DLC. On top of that, you'll get the
• 13:36
  three new civilizations and the three campaigns if you decide to
• 13:39
  buy the DLC. So either way, this DLC really
• 13:44
  something else that is for sure. People are probably either going
• 13:47
  to hate or love it, even though, in my opinion, it'll be hard not
• 13:52
  to at least like the fact that we can have some more American
• 13:56
  civilizations in the game. Daniela and I will be talking
• 14:00
  more in depth about the civilizations in the next
• 14:03
  magazine when we've had some time to see some pros experiment
• 14:08
  with them, when we experimented, experimented ourselves with the
• 14:11
  civilizations, and when we not only see the tech tree that have
• 14:15
  been leaked, but also the exact stats of the unit.
• 14:19
  So make sure you're following the podcast to not miss out on
• 14:24
  that episode. That's going to do it for this.
• 14:27
  I, I hope you like this. This was very different.
• 14:30
  It was less in depth and a bit more superficial, but I was
• 14:34
  trying to basically summarize all the information that has
• 14:38
  already been put out in a very dense way.
• 14:41
  So it's easier to remember when you actually get to play the
• 14:45
  civilizations. So thanks for hanging out and I
• 14:48
  hope you enjoyed this short preview for the DLC.