Ivaylo is a campaign in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. It is based on the rise and fall of Ivaylo of Bulgaria (Bulgarian: Ивайло, also spelled Ivailo; died 1281). Ivaylo, also known as Bardokva or Lakhanas, was a Bulgarian peasant who became the leader of a peasant uprising in 1277 which ultimately resulted in him becoming the tsar of the Second Bulgarian Empire.
During the Mongol invasions, a pig farmer leads a militia defending the Bulgarian villages. But when his victories attract the attention of the Tsar and his nobles, he is forced to lead a mass uprising. Can a man of such humble origins defy the established order and give his people freedom?
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—In-game campaign description
The Ivaylo campaign consists of 5 scenarios. The player plays as the Bulgarians, and the player color is blue.
The campaign is narrated by the exiled Maria Palaiologina, the wife of Konstantin Tikh—the very tsar who was killed by Ivaylo during his uprising—which Ivaylo marries after he becomes the Tsar of Bulgaria, as she told the story to her unnamed daughter from Ivaylo.
Unit[]
In the game, Ivaylo appears as a melee cavalryhero unit with his own unique sprite and icon, which he shares with Yury. He bears no armor and wields a sword and a small square shield. When killed, Ivaylo rises again as a similarly unique infantry hero, much like the Bulgarian unique unit, the Konnik, turns into a Dismounted Konnik when killed. Since the statistics of hero units are not changed when statistics of base units are changed, Ivaylo has the same statistics of Konnik at release, which account for the following Trivia.
History[]
During Ivaylo's short reign from 1278 to 1279, he managed to defend Bulgaria from Byzantine and Mongol invasions, but was forced into exile to the Mongols thanks to the treachery of the Bulgarian nobles (bolyars). Unfortunately, the Mongols later assassinated Ivaylo under the orders of Nogai Khan for being an enemy of the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos.
Ivaylo's legacy lives on when Bulgaria was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, where the hajduks are said to be inspired from folk songs and traditional legends about him, and Marxist historians even used Ivaylo as an example of early anti-feudal/bourgeois revolutionary.
Trivia[]
The campaign was changed from a two-sword difficulty to a three-sword difficulty in update 87863. This is possibly because in addition to several complex objectives and gameplay in each scenario, subsequent balance patches to several civilizations (i.e. the Slavs, Tatars, and Bulgarians) and the introduction of the Poles for the last scenario made several scenarios harder than in the initial release (i.e. the Bulgarians originally had the Paladin upgrade, but it was removed in exchange for Stirrups affecting their Knight-line units).
On release, Stirrups specifically affected the Light Cavalry line and Konniks. After a patch, the rate of fire of Konniks was reduced by an equivalent amount, due to which Ivaylo and Konniks attacked at the same rate after Stirrups. After another patch, when Bulgarians lost Paladin and Stirrups affected all cavalry, Ivaylo was buffed.
Elite Konniks probably had 1/2 armor before release.[Citation needed]
Gallery[]
Many views of Ivaylo
Many views of Ivaylo on horseback
Statue of Ivaylo, Bulgaria
Pliska Rosetta, the inspiration for the campaign icon
The user interface icon of the Bulgarians, which is similar to the campaign icon
Ivaylo as seen on the left in The Last Khans cover art