Now Playing: Age of Charlemagne (DLC)

Age of Charlemagne is a new campaign DLC for Total War: Attila. Set at the dawn of the great medieval kingdoms, Charlemagne plays quite differently to the core game in terms of both battles and campaign. It’s a mini-expansion of sorts, featuring a new campaign map with 8 new playable factions.

As a piece of DLC, as opposed to a fully fledged expansion, AoC recycles many elements of the core game, most notably battle maps and voice work. This isn’t unexpected, but it may disappoint some who feel this period would have benefited from the full expansion treatment along the lines of Fall of the Samurai or indeed, Attila itself. But that’s not to say that AoC doesn’t come with a substantial amount of content, or that it doesn’t introduce any new features or mechanics of its own. The 8 playable factions all offer a fairly diverse range of campaigns based around their starting positions, unique event chains and faction bonuses. 

Unlike the core game, where I wasn’t particularly interested in playing as every single barbarian horde, AoC actually makes each of its factions feel unique enough to the point that I’m interested in eventually playing them all. And if you do, you’ll get good value out of AoC. For this review, I completed two ‘Short’ campaigns, both of which I enjoyed for different reasons, and each campaign took roughly 10-15 hours to complete.

 

There are two major changes to the campaign in AoC. The first is the mechanic of War Weariness. It seems like a strange introduction given the name of this series, but it’s a smart inclusion that also changes diplomatic AI in a positive way. Essentially, the more wars you’re involved in, the more negative effects will stack up in terms of penalties to public order and morale.

There are ways to combat this by making peace, or by winning battles – after all, your people and soldiers won’t be so tired of war if you’re the one winning. It introduces an interesting dynamic to the campaign, especially compared to the core game, where it seemed like an endless war on all fronts. It also changes the behaviour of the campaign AI, which is more interested and willing to make peace, sign non-aggression pacts and maintain its existing borders rather than aggressively targeting the player.

The downside to this, however, is that it can make the campaign a little too easy. I can’t say this applies to every faction, but in the two I played, it was far too easy to manipulate the AI with alliances or non-aggression pacts to keep them sweet until I was ready to invade. It allowed me to take my time and pick and choose my targets as I pleased, as opposed to the core game, where I’d usually be under threat on all sides.

The other major change to the campaign is how it handles victory conditions. Victory conditions are now tied entirely to ‘Imperium’. Unlike the core game, you don’t simply earn imperium by winning battles or expanding your borders, but also by researching various technologies or by constructing certain buildings. This means that it’s entirely possible to ‘win’ a campaign in AoC without ever expanding your borders or going to war.

 

I can’t say if this would work for every faction, because not all begin with a substantial piece of territory, but for those that do, it seems theoretically possible to play a fairly ‘peaceful’ campaign in AoC by purely focusing on technology and settlement construction. I actually completed my second campaign by doing just that. Once I’d expanded my borders to a size I was happy with, I focused on research and construction to push my imperium over the victory limit.

It was a change I wasn’t too sure about at first, but I’d say it’s the best new mechanic of this DLC, and I hope it’s something we see more of in the future. Unlike the typical ‘take X amount of regions’ conditions of previous games, this new system allows the player to approach their campaigns, even with the same faction, in different ways. I think it could probably be tweaked and improved further (such as strong military/marriage alliances having an impact on imperium too) but it’s a good first step.

So the campaign side of AoC has some interesting new mechanics and gameplay dynamics, but what about the battles? As I’ve already said, the battle maps are recycled from the core game, which is a little disappointing, if understandable. But each faction does have an entirely new roster of units. Sort of. This is an area that may prove a little more divisive, because each faction has a very similar roster in terms of unit types and upgrades.

 

The rosters also aren’t particularly extensive, which means that regardless of which faction you choose, your army composition will likely be largely the same. I’m sure some people will be disappointed by that, but it seems to be an intended design decision, especially when you take into account the rebalancing of unit health.

It means that battles in AoC have more in common with those in Shogun 2, than with the core game. The rock-paper-scissors dynamic is far stronger in AoC, with a more uniform unit balance between every faction. As a fan of Shogun 2, I actually quite liked this aspect, although those looking for more diversity in terms of units may find it lacking.

Overall, AoC is a solid and enjoyable piece of content that’s comfortably worth its asking price. In some ways it’s a shame it’s only a DLC, because the limitations are clear to see, but nevertheless, it offers enough new content and interesting mechanics to make it worth your time. It’s a good example of DLC ‘done right’, and I hope to see more like it in the future of this series. And maybe, just maybe, AoC is laying the foundation for a possible Medieval 3. Wouldn’t that be neat?

7/10