AOE4 Sultans Ascend Expansion & Campaign Review

Sultans Ascend is here! In this video I give an in-depth review of my experience trying out this major expansion to AOEIV. I cover the new mechanics, civilizations, variants, and the campaign.
More information is available on the official website - www.ageofempires.com/news/aoeiv-the-sultans-ascend-pre-order-now/
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Personal Website: www.charlesniu.com/
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:25 New Patch
2:00 New Civs
2:28 The Japanese
3:50 The Byzantines
5:41 Variant Civs
7:00 Order of the Dragon
7:56 Jeanne d'Arc
9:38 Zhu Xi's Legacy
11:04 Ayyubids
12:19 Campaign
15:12 Conclusion

[@andrewhaws7484]

I hope they continue to improve on AoE4 its been a very enjoyable game for me thus far

[@MODEST500]

Actually it's a very buggy game .been playing with rus and Mongols and extremely annoyed . Especially when you assign tasks to villagers and they do nothing except stand at the centre of a building they are supposed to build . At first I thought I was misclicking but that's what happens if you dnt frickin click on the spot for 4-5 times. I dnt know why ..

[@MODEST500]

Another bug . Saved skirmish games no longer spawn new units . They just remain in the queue forever and dnt spawn any new units. Stuck at zero . Untill you destroy the existing military buildings and build new one.

[@zeroexct]

​@@MODEST500Have you tried verifying steam files or check your mouse? I've been playing the game almost everyday and I haven't encountered the issues you mentioned.

[@profile1565]

​@@MODEST500😂😂😂 your pc is shit. Dont blame aoe4. I dont have any issues mentioned.

[@MODEST500]

@@zeroexct my mouse is fine and i have verified the input, sometimes i must have accidentally disliked but i can still reproduce the problem . whenever i assign a villager to build something , it does registers the input , it moves to the building area and stands widely in the middle of the construction site, until i double click it again, so annoying.

[@makingivan]

i actually like the documentary style in the base campaign, using real world footage as the cutscenes. shame they don’t do it again, probably too expensive

[@pascalbourelier3463]

It's better to have diversity, although I didn't mind the docu style, it really didn't make for a narrative experience, no characters, no story, no theme. Docu is what you do when you have no one to write a good story.

[@qwerty222999]

I really liked the documentary shorts you unlocked after each mission. While disconnected from the story, it serves as a good tool for teaching people about history. They did look expensive to make though, and if it's too much to create more of that, I'd rather sacrifice that over a compelling story. I really agree with Chilly when he says, that they should have taken inspiration from a campaign like Age of Mythology. I have replayed it so many times. It has characters interacting with other characters, which is the basis for a compelling story. It would also be nice if they tried to incorporate characters speaking to you during the campaign, like Stronghold Crusader.

[@danhobart4009]

@@pascalbourelier3463 Well it definitely is a story, very loosely based on history.

[@polatucos15]

from a history buff, i loved the documentary style..really good for imersion.disapointed they didnt do the same with sultans ascend but its not a dealbreaker.

[@theguy8412]

it was garbage, if I want to watch an actual documentary I watch a serious one, campaigns should be fun, base campaign was not fun, at all.

[@Dragons_Armory]

I think "Deflective Armor" maybe inspired by the large square shaped flap pauldrons 大袖 "Osode" on old Japanese armor- like the O Yoroi, those essentially can act as impromptu small pavises against enemy missiles and at the time the old (Mounted) samurai horse archers can use them to ward off arrows from enemy archers, often they fight other mounted samurais too so this cycle has some historical basis. However considering the vast amount of Civs AOE2 and AOE3 has, and now AOE4 will have in the future. Giving it directly to the Japanese is a really odd choice. Even with screens of shields for Sengoku era foot soldiers, Japanese of all civs is not known for using many shields. And to have them have this ability to just unconditionally shrug off attacks, where as we have~ say, Norman Knights with huge tear drop shields, Sergeants, Teutonic knights (mounted) who historically did carry shields in battle is such an odd choice. Surely they cannot beat say~ tower shields and kite shields (or even Arbalétrier's pavise) in missile negation right? And yeah I totally share your point about Japan's expertise with mounted cavalry too. They are a really odd one to have been given exceptional cavalry. Knowing how great the steeds and full on history of mounted history Eurasian states have (from the Central Asian Khans to Mameluks to Sassanians etc) and even the Chinese who are able to contend with them, having Japanese cav in many ways outgun them is just not resting on any historical basis at all. Both Song and Ming were not as strong as some of the other dynasties like the Tang etc but I'd easily assert even Song and Ming had better true cavalry than mounted samurai. Genpei war and Sengoku wars at most rarely had more than several thousands of samurais and even smaller fraction of mounted ones, Takedas being the exception that's why they are tokenized with that reputation. But Song (it had cataphracts) and Ming reliably had tens if not hundreds of thousands of cavalry that are able to contend and occasionally square even with the world's best steppe polities.

[@just_me1232]

i got AoE4 on release played it for a few months then droped it, it was your shorts that convinced me to pick it back up again, glad the game is doing so well!!!

[@ashrarhussain]

i also gave this game up after 6 months of release. Now I watch casted games regularly. The devs are doing a great job! We need to keep supporting them.

[@iceykid2]

@@ashrarhussainsame I dropped it a few months after release and it seemed to have gotten better since we’ve been gone

[@trentfairley]

I personally loved the campaigns of AOE 4. The documentary style really hooked me to the point where I even watched the bonus videos. I'm a bit of a history nerd though.

[@ibrahimk.3227]

As a new player who has never played aoe, I’ve always found the game confusing yet fun. It’s been a week of this game and it’s a blast! I hope they continue to add on to the game. Can’t wait for future expansions..

personally I needed 3 months to feel at home when the game originally started... and then 6 more month to reach Conq2 (after being Masterleague in SC2) but the learning was totally fun for me

[@Wkumar07]

I downloaded the game on my Xbox a couple of days ago and I have been blown away by it. What stands out the most to me (and what I said on another one of your videos) is the language and the aesthetics of each civilization. I don't have the DLC yet but I will soon.

[@majouji]

Stay frosty, stay chilly! Great video as always mate

[@melodymondlicht8905]

just great to have you with us at this time chilly! really well done video. what you suggested about a civ building campaign made me think of hearthstone dungeon run weirdly and id love to see it happening in rts. amazing replayability for casuals.

[@ChillyEmpire]

Yes! That’s a great way to put it. A “dungeon run” style of game, with randomized bonuses a la Slay the Spire and the like for non-competitive players would be a great addition and offers a ton of replayability. Especially if it offered co-op.

[@coleshin2768]

That would be so sick

[@arkloppiola]

as someone who has read a bit about crusaders and being from that region, im really fascinated by the new campaign, the few snippets i have seen so far gave me chills.

[@danhobart4009]

Its also revisionist garbage.

[@user-nz4un6se7y]

@@danhobart4009 what do you mean?

[@nopurposeposting1548]

yea i like how they move to aoe2 campaign design, sounds like a lot of improvement based on your review. Tho since u said it still similar with the previous campaign and the mission kind of random then maybe not good enough. In aoe2 usually we follow 1 character story from start till end that way we still somewhat feel attached instead of 1 big empire.

[@HadrianDan]

Magyars and Boyars need some campaigns with AoE4 like missions with faction of Vlachs under Vlad III or something. Would pay for it if found in updates as well. It can also go as a group under Byzantines Romans.

[@caradine898]

Big agree on the upgrade paths for a campaign, that was easily the most compelling non-story part of the SC2 campaign

[@sinaa8652]

hey just a question are these new civs totally locked behind the DLC? like I can't try them in multiplayer if I don't own the DLC? or is it just the campaigns of the said civs?

[@ChillyEmpire]

To play the new civs you have to get the expansion. The expansion’s campaign is for the Abbasids, which is one of the base game’s civs. The base game is 50% off right now though and the expansion is SUPER cheap for what’s included so I think it’s worth a buy.

[@SeanSmith66]

Thanks for this review! Being a new person still learning the game on a slow pace, but a super old RTS player, your final synopsis on the campaign just made me clearly realize why I was getting bored with the game so quickly. From here on out, I'm just going to hit multiplayer and maybe some AI skirmishing to learn the game.

[@slushg3326]

I was in the same boat as you for a while. I did the campaign early on and grew bored. Returned during the Xbox release and started to really enjoy the art direction and general gameplay of each civ (started with English then experimented with other civs). After a while I went back to the pc version on steam and I’ve been hooked ever since the general moment to moment gameplay in 4 is actually really enjoyable I love the soundscape as well it just completely immersed me. Point being some of the changes they have made has really elevated the game for me and it has made me appreciate AOE4 as it’s own thing more so than me directly comparing it to AOE2DE. I will try the campaign tomorrow but since they have been the weakest part of the package overall I don’t expect to enjoy it much. The civs and variant civs however, they have me really intrigued (new biomes are beautiful as well).

[@monostoriandras1301]

Teutonic Order instead of Order of the Dragon, and Templar Order instead of Jeanne d'Arc with the same design, it would be much better. North China instead of Zhu Xi. But now this is what it is.

[@qwerty222999]

It seems even worse to me, to name it the Templar Order when said order ended before Jeanne was around. While it seems pointless to name an entire civilization after a person, it still fits far better than any other suggestion I've seen, as you litterally play as the followers of Jeanne d'Arc, with herself in the front. What they could have done, is having made clear distinction between what civilization is an empire (French) and what civilization is a faction (Jeanne d'Arc), because Jeanne is a faction within the french empire. Same as all the other variant civs. They should have all been named factions instead of variants, and classic (as well as Japense and Byzantines) should be named empires in civ selection.

[@danhobart4009]

@@qwerty222999 They should have just been the Romans.

[@thekingghidorah93]

When you talked about the “building your own civ” concept and SC2, it sort of makes me wonder. Do you think a SC2 style coop mode would work for AOE4? I thought about something along the lines of “What if X and Y civs were to handle this particular battle?” You’d be able to level up a Civ over time like in coop to unlock different bonuses, etc.

[@ChillyEmpire]

Big fan of this. But currently the civs don’t specialize very much in a synergistic way.

[@thekingghidorah93]

@@ChillyEmpire That’s a good point. There were interesting synergies with each of the coop commanders back then. Perhaps they could balance them differently in coop mode similar to how different units are in the campaign.

[@nikofox3459]

What do you think futures civs will be?? Aztecs, Danes, etc

[@iceykid2]

Man I kinda wish they did new civs instead of variants

[@ChillyEmpire]

I’d be shocked if they don’t have a Viking faction in the works already considering how popular it’d be. Aztecs also seem like a shoe in, but will break significantly with the traditional model. The crusader knight assets are also in the game already. I can totally see a crusader “super variant” faction working. Essentially borrows elements and landmarks from all European civs. Similarly they have some mechanics in the campaign that play around with assassin like units. I could see an assassin “super variant” where elements from various Islamic civs all come together. I personally want to see the Khmer. We need south east Asia representation. If we move to the Americas I’d love to see not only Aztecs and Incans but also the Mississippian mound builder culture.

[@nikofox3459]

Could be a dope sacrifice mechanic for Aztecs where the more valuable unit you sacrifice the higher bonus

[@qwerty222999]

I think your map critisim is valid and could and should be fixed with mandatory "Starter" queue for new players, who can only select so called starter maps that play out the same and are friendly to new players. Starter queue could be enabled for both casual and ranked, but people should still be free to play other maps if they want to.

[@arifulislamanik8581]

Can i select custom player color? It is less immersive playing england as blue and having french in team 2 as red.

[@sirp7394]

That was fixed awhile ago lol

[@Chapdadddy]

Have to turn on unique colors in UI, but yes

[@arifulislamanik8581]

@@sirp7394 does the fix apply to skirmish as well. I just want to sandbox and chill please.

[@alkrimiy]

I really like a documentary style in Norman and French campaigns. But not so much in Rus and Mongol campaigns unfortunately. I guess part of it because the work that was done by devs with English and French is more impressive due to the wide involment of local historical reenactors and a good contemporary state of many medieval structures in France and England. You can see those animated warriors on the wall of the castle today and it's unbelievable. With Rus...well, it's experts from the Guédelon Castle in France show us how Moscow Kremlin was build from wood. And obviously because it was wood, not many medieval buildings in Ukraine, Russian and Belorussia have survived to this day. Or, Hillary Merill from California explains Horse Archery. I am not an expert in Mongol history, but I feel it has the same problem. These campaigns are still good in educational terms, but they don't have a wow effect. That being said I really doubt they could make the good documentary style campaign in let's say contemporary Damascus. This is one of the reasons why I prefer campaign as they did it. Although I agree I would prefer it even more in Starcraft style.

[@ChillyEmpire]

Well put!

[@AC-hj9tv]

Wagyu cavalry when

[@SirZorgulon]

Nice review. Shame the campaign is a bit of a let down. It feels like they could learn from the recent AoE2 DLC in terms of creative campaign missions. Or some more advanced modding tools to let the community develop some cool mod content for single player. I agree also with your take on the Byzantine mercenary system. Getting zhuge nu and war elephants as Byzantines just feels wrong. Mercenaries were an important part of their armies for sure but I wish they’d kept to more historically based mercenary units: Varangian guards, Norman knights, Turkic horse archers, even Mongol Keshiks are fine.

[@lexgalexy8627]

War elephants could have been used by the byzantine empire, considering their victories over the sassanids and their use of them. Even Charlemagne had a war elephant so I don't have any issue with the eastern Roman empire having access to them. The Chinese units im more in agreement, while it is possible that certain military traditions were incorporated by some invading mongol tribes and used in the western parts of the mongol empire, I am doubtful of Chinese mercenaries getting to Anatolia

[@fellowtemplar5679]

Is it me or are the Byzantine tower models too small?

[@ChillyEmpire]

They kinda too small yeah.

[@R3nitent]

at first I thought I would watch the video at 1.5 times speed

[@BenjaminKeller]

The kernigen of the titles killed me 😅

[@anilkarakaya9343]

Big historical plot hole is that byzantines have regular monastery. Also byzantines, ottomans, abbasid, mongols: these guys were the money makers from important trade routes in this game. Byzantine not having trade benefit is also strange. While cisterns are aethetically nice and historically relevant, it is still a strange concept to be centered around in aoe. I would rather have an interesting monastery. The super cool part is the merceneries.

[@ChillyEmpire]

They get bonus Olive Oil from trade! So it's not nothing - but I get what you're saying. Chinese also don't get trade bonuses either so...all I can do is shrug with you.

[@gersonfilho898]

Guys I have a question. I remember that the developers of AOE 4 said that this game wouldn't be a game full of civs. Guessing the maximum of 13 for the whole game. We are now on 12 civs. Do you guys think we will have more in the future? There still have many civs I would love to see in that game... Like the vikings for example.

[@ChillyEmpire]

I think there’s a lot of room for more civs. With this expansion we are basically at 12-16. I could easily see a future with 20-30.

[@danhobart4009]

They're only really missing spanish, scotts, dutch, poland and italian city states. Balkan civs & Ethiopians could be included at a stretch.

[@ChillyEmpire]

​@@danhobart4009 I personally wouldn't be a fan of such a Eurocentric roster. I hope to see civs from other cultures represented instead. Europe was unfortunately a backwater for most of AOE4's time period.

[@danhobart4009]

@@ChillyEmpire Ok Mr. Dunning-Kruger.

[@faizrochmad6630]

I might be too picky but i kinda disappoint with Japanese unit like Onna Musha (they technically same as Onna Bugeisha, just different term) instead Yabusame and Gunpowder unit use Handcannon instead Teppou/Hinawaju

[@ChillyEmpire]

I too am a bit confused why they added two units that basically translate as "warrior women". But I also don't hate it. The voice actors all aced their representation.

[@DoMeASolid]

Imagine if they made a game mode where you start with a blank slate and draft bonuses, units and technologies and make a civ

[@ChillyEmpire]

That’d be sick! Or perhaps each civ has some kind of thematic “template” that you build from. So they don’t all end up feeling samey

[@esnoob2282]

guys should I buy this? Im new to aoe zero knowledge. Is it beginner friendly?

[@ChillyEmpire]

Start with the base game. It’s 50% off right now. I’ll be making 5 min digestible guides that build upon my “aoe Civs in 60 seconds” to help you learn the basics.

[@esnoob2282]

@@ChillyEmpire thanks, loved your Civs in 60 s can we get the rus? 😌

[@jimmyrustles358]

I definitely agree on the Mercenary mechanic feeling really out of place and underwhelming. The worst part is that it was actually very well done in AoE3 with the Consulate mechanic and they should have just straight up copied it instead. Right now they just function as production buildings with extra steps.

[@tribalbeat6471]

Unfortunate to hear that the campaign isn't very good, but thanks for giving an honest review.

[@ChillyEmpire]

To be fair, if you’re someone who liked the base AOE4 campaign you’ll probably be impressed with Sultans Ascend campaign missions. Just wasn’t for me.

[@Jeri_se]

Juicy legacy was great

[@ceppatore7483]

Teutonic knights unit! 😭😭😭

[@lewys9204]

I loved the campaign but suck versus ai on intermediate.. I've had a few games on multi-player, won a few.. but wow can't beat intermediate skirmish games. Skirmish easy mode:- Small battalion with 1x trebuchet Intermediate skirmish game:- max army of knights and 5-8 trebuchet 😐 The ai doesn't follow the campaign style ofnwarfare of warfare. You just send everything at the enemy and cross your fingers.. honestly having 50 knights against the enemy doesn't look that aww inspiring.. it looks like ny 50 versus everything they have without strategic planning.. so I can't counter it.. it honestly feels like I got more than you therefore I win this fight. I'm not seeing a point building castles and towers cause they get knocked down so quick. Also, the difficulty from easy to intermediate is ridiculously off. Easy mode - ai.. barely get castle stage 2 by the time I hit stage 4 - 20 mins ago... Intermediate - within 5 minites the ai has about 15 archers, 2x town centres and stage 2.

[@Crowbar]

we will NEVER ever get an rts campaign on the level of starcraft 2 again, it is impossible

[@TheGayRepublicanIcon]

Stormgate is coming 💪

[@Crowbar]

@@TheGayRepublicanIcon and it will have a mediocre campaign

[@samlivingston5920]

Into Egypt has been worst mission I've ever attempted in all 4 games. Tried 3 different times won't be attempting a 4th time, fuck that shit.

[@phamphucman]

3:58 all of these greek and no prostagma, 0/10 gg ded gaem

[@cl8804]

starcraft 2? you're joking, aren't you? oh, man, i feel bad for kids today

[@stysner4580]

? Why?

[@MX009m]

i grew up playing WC AOE and SC1 games (and many other RTSs) when i was young then stopped till 4 years ago and i too say SC2 has the best campaign eve tho i dont like the scifi theme it Offred but the campaign was top notch

[@theguy8412]

​@@stysner4580 The campaign was bad, and the whole pick your stuff was a gimmick where most of your choices from WoL got dropped in HotS. WoL was half ok but then HotS and LotV murdered the lore. Sc1 had a much better campaign

[@stysner4580]

@@theguy8412 At least they tried to do something different. If they would've just did the same as SC1 people would've said it's stale...

[@snaakie]

Good review, but sorry you don’t seem like the right person to give criticism on the campaign. It was painful to hear. AoE2 campaigns were awesome and have the most replay ability of all because they are sandbox with a narrative. Meanwhile you want some sort of Call of Duty campaign with lots of fluff. Please keep it at multiplayer.

[@ChillyEmpire]

I’m not an AOE2 player so I can’t speak to it, but I hear good things. I must have given the wrong impression if you think I want a lot of fluff. My main point is that a good RTS campaign makes me care. Either with narrative, or with putting “me” in the game. StarCraft 2 does a good job on both fronts - cinematic cutscenes with a great story, and unit upgrades you can unlock depending on your performance in the game. AOE4 could do something similar. Allowing the player to “build their own version” of the civ, aka choosing different kinds of permanent upgrades as you accomplish missions makes the campaign progression meaningful. I get excited to play the next stage because I Wana try out my new toys. Currently, each new campaign mission is just…another watered down version of Abbasid. It actually has less features available than if I just played a custom against an AI.

[@Joshua-jc1oc]

What about the glaring historical revisionism in the campaign? In case you’re unaware the crusades were not envisioned as offensive wars but rather as defensive in nature as they were recapturing territory lost to these Islamic invaders. I would’ve even been amenable to them showing both perspectives rather than this comically warped pro Muslim propaganda.

[@ChillyEmpire]

I grew up with a lot of pro-western propaganda. I don't mind balancing the palette a little. I wouldn't call it historical revisionism, just a different viewpoint. Think of it this way - in the base game we got an English Campaign, a French Campaign, a Mongol Campaign, etc. This is literally just "the Abbasid campaign". You just play as the Abbasids in every mission. It shouldn't be controversial that it'd take a Muslim perspective. If anything, I would demerit the devs here for being overly Eurocentric. Why would the Abbasid campaign focus on the Crusades? Not only were the Crusades a footnote in Islamic history, but historically, they hardly involved the Abbasid Caliphate at all. I personally would've preferred to see the Black flag revolution, the Sack of Baghdad, or the Battle of Talas - but these don't feature Europeans so they probably wouldn't get much traction in the west.

[@Joshua-jc1oc]

@@ChillyEmpire The European focus in the campaigns is probably due to the mostly European fan base as well as the need to choose from those battles that are able to be represented by current AOE 4 civilisations. I would’ve had no problem with a nuanced take on the crusades which could include the European motivations (which are never mentioned today) as well as the inaccurate Muslim world perspective (which is now taught as the de facto truth). If this were happening in a vacuum I wouldn’t care but it’s obvious to me that our history in the west is being mutilated beyond recognition and now we have yet another collaborator, AOE 4.

[@servantofsusa]

Europeans have no place in middle east we just got the land back

[@cl8804]

nt, billy, nt

[@viktor1337w]

they should have made campains for the 2 new civs. not this boring shit about muslims

[@servantofsusa]

Christians lost why would you play as the freaking pagan Losers

[@DanielMescoloto]

"I hope we'll get more Jean Dark style factions in the future", oh god please no! NOO!!!

[@Shellll]

As a long time Dota player, I welcome more John Dirk

[@ChillyEmpire]

I honestly think the naysayers will be pleasantly surprised once they play it. It’s a creatively implemented faction design. Makes you think differently in an emergent way, and it’s fun!

[@TheGayRepublicanIcon]

I pretty much only play RTS games for campaigns. I bought the most expensive version of Age of Empires 4 because I was hyped and knew they wouldn't let me down... boy was I wrong. I am actually offended by the campaigns. The world would be a better place if they were deleted forever. I have no desire to play Age of Empires 4 ever again. Age 2 has campaigns that are sssssooo good.