Campaign

The campaigns in the Age of Empires games are separate series of scenarios based on historical or mythical events that feature cinematic cutscenes, narrative elements, often special objectives, and unique units.

The Campaign Editor (contained in the Scenario Editor) allows players to create custom campaigns.

Age of Empires[]

Tutorial Campaign: Ascent of Egypt (Egyptians, previously Ascent of Egypt Learning Campaign in Age of Empires)
Glory of Greece (Greeks)
Voices of Babylon (Babylonians)
Yamato Empire of the Rising Sun (Yamato)

Demo campaigns[]

Dawn of Civilization (Egyptians, beta only)
Reign of the Hittites (Hittites, officially added in the Definitive Edition)
Armies At War, A Combat Showcase (Egyptians)

The Rise of Rome[]

The Rise of Rome (Romans, previously Rise of Rome in The Rise of Rome)
Ave Caesar (Romans)
Imperium Romanum (Romans, Palmyrans, previously Pax Romana in The Rise of Rome)
Enemies of Rome (Carthaginians, Macedonians, Romans, Palmyrans)

Demo campaigns[]

The First Punic War (Carthaginians, officially added in the Definitive Edition)

With the release of the Definitive Edition, both Reign of the Hittites and First Punic War campaigns are included officially.

Age of Empires II[]

The Age of Kings[]

The Conquerors[]

The Forgotten[]

Alaric (Goths)
Dracula (Magyars, Slavs, Turks)
Bari (Byzantines)
Sforza (Italians)
El Dorado (Incas, Spanish)
Prithviraj (Hindustanis, Gurjaras in Dynasties of India)
Battles of the Forgotten (various)

The African Kingdoms[]

Rise of the Rajas[]

The Last Khans[]

The gold, silver, and bronze medals awarded upon scenario/campaign completion.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition contains all of the original campaigns from Age of Empires II, with new ones added: The Art of War and The Last Khans. Unlike the original game, a completed scenario selection will be marked with a bronze, silver or gold medal depending on whether the scenario was beaten on the "standard", "moderate", or "hard" difficulty respectively. If an entire campaign is completed, the selection of the campaign will also feature a medal, which corresponds to the lowest difficulty a scenario is completed at. In addition, all campaigns are now classified by continent, but still show what expansion it belongs to (e.g. the Sundjata campaign is located in the African section, but still shows that it belongs to the The African Kingdoms expansion), and both Battles of the Conquerors and Battles of the Forgotten are now grouped into only one section called "Historical Battles" (located in the "Africa" section).

Note: Pachacuti replaces the El Dorado campaign from the The Forgotten expansion.

Lords of the West[]

Dawn of the Dukes[]

Dynasties of India[]

Trivia[]

It is believed that the Pachacuti campaign replaces the El Dorado due to the uncanny design of the latter, generally considered as unfit for the game. Also, the player rarely controlled properly the Incas in El Dorado; instead, the player controlled the Spanish more often, being seen more as another Spanish campaign, which is evidenced in the plot. El Dorado can still be downloaded via mods for the Definitive Edition.
Despite the fact that The Last Khans is an exclusive expansion of the Definitive Edition, in the game files it is possible to find the description of the campaigns for the expansion pack, which can be deduced that it was planned as another DLC for the HD Edition, and the Tamerlane campaign also has a slightly different description to the one seen officially.
Since the release of Dawn of the Dukes, every civilization has at least one playable campaign or scenario. Of the 39 civilizations, 29 got a playable campaign or scenario when introduced, five in the next expansion (Britons, Japanese, Turks, Vikings, and Mayans), and five in the one after that (Byzantines, Chinese, Goths, Persians, and Lithuanians).
The Franks and Saracens are tied for being the most frequently played civilizations in the Campaigns, with eight playable scenarios each.
- Additionally, the Franks have the most NPC appearances in the Campaigns, appearing a total of 58 times as of Lords of the West.
On the inverse, there are four civilizations (Chinese, Persians, Koreans, and Mayans) that are only playable in one campaign scenario. Japanese, Vikings, and Slavs are only playable in two, whilst Turks and Magyars are only playable in three.
The Definitive Edition campaigns/scenarios were made by the following campaign designers, according to a reddit post confirmed by the developers^[1]:
- Freeman1302/The King of Wessex: William Wallace, Joan of Arc, Barbarossa, Attila the Hun, Alaric, Sundjata, Gajah Mada, and the Kotyan Khan campaigns, certain Battles scenarios (Agincourt, Lepanto, Kyoto, Noryang Point, Bukhara, Dos Pilas, Honfoglalas, Bapheus, and Lake Poyang), and certain scenarios from the Dracula (scenario 3), Yodit (scenario 4), and Le Loi (scenarios 2 and 5) campaigns.
- HockeySam18: Tariq ibn Ziyad, Suryavarman, Tamerlane, Edward Longshanks, and Jan Zizka campaigns, certain Battles scenarios (York and Kurikara), and certain scenarios from the Dracula (scenarios 1, 2, 4, and 5) and Yodit (scenario 2) campaigns.
- Filthydelphia/PhillySouljah (Ramsey Abdulrahim): Francisco de Almeida, Bayinnaung, Ivaylo, Sforza, Prithviraj, and The Hautevilles campaigns.
- Bassi: Saladin, Genghis Khan, El Cid, Montezuma, Bari, Pachacuti, The Grand Dukes of the West, and Algirdas and Kestutis campaigns, certain Battles scenarios (Tours, Vinlandsaga, Hastings, Manzikert, and Cyprus), and certain scenarios from the Yodit (scenarios 1, 3, and 5) and Le Loi (scenarios 1, 3, 4, and 6) campaigns.
- Lord Basse: Jadwiga campaign.

Age of Empires III[]

The WarChiefs[]

The Asian Dynasties[]

Definitive Edition[]

The Definitive Edition contains all of the campaigns from Age of Empires III, with two new ones: Historical Battles and The Art of War. Just like Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, the completed scenarios will be marked by a medal, depending on the difficulty. It will be bronze for easy, silver for moderate and gold for hard. The The Asian Dynasties campaigns can be played freely instead of being unlocked, and some story changes were made for the The WarChiefs campaign Act II: Shadow. Three new Historical battles are also added with the expansion The African Royals. Also, another three historical battles were added with the release of the Mexicans civilization add-on.