While Age of Empires 4 is only months away, its beloved predecessor Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is still being added to. The Dawn of the Dukes expansion brings the Bohemians and the Poles as playable civilizations with unique units and technologies, as well as three new campaigns.
The Bohemians are focused on gunpowder and monks, with Houfnices, an upgrade to the Bombard Cannon, and the Hussite Wagon, a siege weapon that’s basically a mobile fortress full of rifle-armed troops. New technologies called Wagenburg Tactics and Hussite Reforms improve Bohemian firepower and monks respectively.
Meanwhile, the Poles are more about horseriders, with technologies called Szlachta Privileges and Lechitic Legacy to boost their cavalry, and access to the Winged Hussar, a unit they share with the Lithuanians (who were added in the base Definitive Edition). The Poles also get hammer-wielding anti-armor infantry called Obuchs, and a replacement for the mill called a folwark, which makes farms around it more efficient.
The Poles are playable in the Jadwiga campaign, which casts you as Poland’s first female monarch, working toward a united Poland-Lithuania. The Bohemians get the Jan Zizka campaign, which is all about using technological innovations against the Holy Roman Empire’s old-fashioned knights. A third campaign, Algirdas and Kestutis, sets two Lithuanians princes against both crusaders and descendants of Genghis Khan.
As well as the new campaigns, the Poles and the Bohemians have been added to existing missions in the Barbarossa, Genghis Khan, and Ivaylo campaigns as part of the latest patch. Said patch also includes various bug fixes and balance updates for Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, which you can check out in the full patch notes.
Dawn of the Dukes is out now on Steam.