izigame.me

Pro
- Two new civs: Georgians and Armenians from the Caucasus, a region which lays in between Asia and Europe, both featuring mobile drop-off sites for hunt, gold, stone and wood and a special type of church which shoots arrows when villagers and/or relics are garrisoned into them. Persians got a rework in the form of some new UT, a unique Chevalier upgrade and a few new civ boni. Civ overviews:
https://ageofempires.fandom.com/wiki/Armenians
https://ageofempires.fandom.com/wiki/Georgians
https://ageofempires.fandom.com/wiki/Persians_(Age_of_Empires_II)
- 16 new achievements for people interested in achieving them.
- Fully voiced campaigns and unit voice lines
- Three new campaigns, one for each of the new civs plus a Persian one.
- New unique castle models for Armenians and Georgians.
- Continued support and events.

Contra
- No new music except the new civ themes.
- No new real-world maps. At least there’s already a Caucasus map in the game where you can play the new civs on if you’re interested into making your skirmish matches “realistic”. There’s always the option to replay the Malian-Armenian Hyperwar over Texas though.
- No new architecture sets. This DLC bloats if you own all the other DLCs the Mediterranean set (does it even make sense to still call it this way if there’s Armenia and Georgia using it?) to the point that it is used by 8 civs in total (at least 6+). Meanwhile, there are sets used by 2-3 civs which anyway have a lot of potential in terms of new civs. At least, they’ve bothered to add an orthodox monastery called a fortified monastery which costs only 200 wood which can garrison villager which then shoot from inside (Teuton Death stars vibe I feel here to be honest). Makes at least this part of the set not too jarring. It’s kind of funny that there’s now two Caucasian monastery models in the game considering the Central European set also features a Caucasian church. Meanwhile, the African and Central Asian set sit at two while the Southeast Asian and American one sit at three. There are plenty options for new sets (including a Caucasian set for this DLC), among those a Southeast North American one, an Aridoamerican one, an Oceanian one, a Central African one, an East African one, a Himalayan one among many others but the devs prefer to add almost nothing at all in terms of graphics which is pathetic for the asking price of the DLC.

- No new flora and fauna. Would make each new civ addition more lovely and immersive if it would come with new animals, trees, and other decorative Gaia objects. The upcoming AOE4 DLC adds new biomes even though it’s a less popular game than AOE2, why can’t we get the same here?
- This DLC is a bad deal compared to HD DLCs, a worse deal than the Dynasties of India DLC, similar in terms of value than LotW and DotD and of course a way better deal than the Return of Rome DLC. The regional pricing is completely off to the point of certain regions paying more for this DLC than the base game. Even I am paying 50 cents more for no reason (before considering the discount) even though it contains basically the same content than Dawn of the Dukes/Lords of the West and clearly less than Dynasties of India (-1 civ).
- Still no unique castles for the old civs. I start to think they just added them to the new civs to not make it too obvious that we won't get much more graphical assets in the game.
- They also decided to keep the Persians in the Middle Eastern set instead of changing it to the way more fitting Central Asian set. Could have come alongside the rework.
Summary
Get this DLC if you’re especially interested in Georgia and Armenia, and you don’t mind them using the Mediterranean set bloating it to the point of it being used by 8 civs if you own all other DLCs. This is an average DLC for DE, a worse deal compared to Dynasties of India and a bad deal compared to HD expansions. Considering Steam doesn’t offer a neutral option for reviews and the consistent overuse of existing architecture sets is just ridiculous and continues to really get on my nerves, I pick a negative one instead.
As an update to the Eastern European stable bug, there’s still nothing happening after more than two years :( No response, radio silence. Like the bug report wouldn’t even exist. Hello? Is anybody here?....
Could the next DLC focus now on the Americas and/or Africa please though? It’s been almost a decade (or a decade in the case of the Americas) for both regions since we got anything new there. Oceania would be very welcome too.
As a side note, you should really try out Satsivi (Chicken in a Garlic-Walnut sauce). It’s an incredible culinary delight. Georgian cuisine is completely underrated.
https://annavoloshyna.com/georgian-satsivi-chicken-in-creamy-walnut-garlic-sauce/