Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (2019)

Chronolog VII a - Early Medieval Ages: Asian expansions & Arabian conquests

As of the turn of the 7th century, the dark age was apparent in Europe and, at the same time, a grand movement would rise from the Arabic lands to redraw the world map at a rapid pace. Meanwhile, empires in the east Asia would make their decisive turns in military affairs.

As I progressed on the timeline, the custom campaigns in Age of Empires II would keep filling the gaps of history between the official scenarios, helping to educate the player about the world's trajectory. Through the game, they were, again, told in a light, accessible and sometimes romanticized way.

Here below, I briefly explain campaigns that took place in the portion of the timeline, sharing some events in common with each other.

• The Kim Yusin campaign (629-676 AD) tells of the three kingdoms of Korea, leading through conquests, dealings with China and unification of the Korean peninsula.
• The Graceful Tang campaign (648-679) retells China's external conflicts that would take place in the south with the Tibetan empire and its neighbors, the central plains with the Turkic people and Korea from a different perspective.
• The Islamic conquest (Arabian Conquerors, 633-709), led by the Rashidun caliphate, spread like wildfire from Arabia up to Persia, Caucasus and across the northern Africa. This hosted a grand amount of conflicts that would be covered by the views of several civilizations involved:
  • The Sasanian empire in Persia would have its final years before getting absorbed around 650 AD, with the campaign of Apranik (~645-655) seeing the eponymous heroine survive and lead her fellow countrymen on a guerrilla warfare against their Saracen foes.
  • Makuria, the sand kingdoms in lower Nubia made tremendous efforts defending against them, and eventually making a treaty (Baqt) for peace. (642-802)
  • Khazarian History tells of how the Turkic tribes emigrated from the central plains and established themselves in Caucasus. The constant threat of the Islamic conquerors motivated an alliance with the Byzantine empire, and the time they decided to convert to Judaism. (626-730)
  • The Berber tribes in Algeria, fought back under the leadership of king Kusaila (Aksel) and his wife Dihya (Al-Kahina). The campaign (647-703) under her name retells of both their accomplishments, intrigues with different factions involved and the anti-heroic view of her endeavors.
  • Tariq ibn-Ziyad's official campaign (711-732) retells the Islamic conquest of Iberia, which would be under their control for several centuries to follow. In the midst, there was a power shift where the Umayyad caliphate took over after the Rashidun.
  • Through the campaign of his namesake (716-739), Charles Martel gains the Frankish people's favor and gains power putting stability in western Europe. In defense at Tours in Gaul, they went face to face with the Islamic invaders under the Umayyad caliphate, following Tariq's campaign events. Charles' legacy included the forming of the knighthood and his grandson, known as Charlemagne. (768-814)

Once again, it was all an interesting history segment to check in on. I'm taking a well-needed break from the Age of Empires grind to focus on a more general backlog in gaming. Yet the continuation compels...

The Roman Empire <-- Chronolog First Post

Chronolog V c - Late Antiquity: The Roman Empire

Jumping back in time a bit for the article's sake, the post focuses more on events in and around Europe. Before I progressed to the common era, not much Roman Empire (post-Caesar) history came to my attention in the past. But I've learned that the first few centuries had left Rome with political struggles before it reached its peak. Ryse: Son of Rome had a fictional story involving emperor Nero and his brutal policies that affected the plot, Age of Empires had a scenario covering the year of the four emperors (69 CE) and then AoE II's Trajan campaign for the general's story, which tell of his accomplishments that ushered an era known as Pax Romana (Roman Peace). The torch would be passed to the following, respected successors like Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, albeit not covered in the games above.

In the centuries that followed, the official AoE II campaigns covered just a few parts of the geopolitical events, surrounding figures like Alaric of the Goths and Attila the Hun. Imagine how much history I could unlock with custom-made campaigns* - all thanks to the dedicated fan community - that brought up stories and battles involving:

• Constantinople, the newly defined capital of the eastern Roman empire.
• The generals of the western and eastern Roman empires including Majorian, Aegidius, Belisarius and Theodoric the Great.
• The troubles that the barbarian tribes stirred up, including the Vandals migration in Carthage and plunder of Rome, the fate of the British isles, as well as the back-and-forth fighting over Italy.
• The final years of the Western Roman Empire before its dissolution.

So, it was another Age of Empires-concentrated period of the journey that took 4 months (with guides and some cheats) until I saw the point that would arguably mark the end of the late Antiquity era. (about the turn of the 7th century with the pause between the campaigns in the Chronolog)

I have taken a break from the Chronolog journey to focus on my backlog in general and let my AoE burnout settle down. I'll continue a bit further, now that the blog post has caught up. A new era comes in...

*A number of those campaigns in my Chronolog list in Google are borrowed from Julix' custom campaigns list (mentioned in my introduction post) and his affiliate.

Games involved in the Chronolog:

• I Am Jesus Christ - Prologue (mentioned in an earlier post)
• Age of Empires: Definitive Edition
• Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (incl. the official campaigns Alaric and Attila the Hun + the custom campaigns)
• Ryse: Son of Rome

The Three Kingdoms of China <-- Chronolog First Post --> Early Medieval Ages: Asian expansions & Arabian conquests