In the 14th century, while lesser men tear apart the decaying remains of the Mongol Empire, Tamerlane sees entrophy as opportunity. A brilliant, charismatic tactician bred on the rugged steppes of Transoxiana, can he restore the splendor of the fractured stateโeven if he must slaughter half of its inhabitants in the process?
โ
—In-game campaign description
The Tamerlane campaign consists of 6 scenarios. The player plays as the Tatars, and the player color is purple. The campaign is also available in co-op mode.
Unlike other campaigns, but similar to the Attila the Hun campaign, the story is told not by a witness of the events, but by a second-hand narrator who is implied to be Vytautas of Lithuania and relaying them as told to him by Tokhtamysh Khan, a descendant of Genghis Khan, the former Khan of the Golden Horde, and Timur's friend-turned-rival (who become an ally in the first scenario and an ally-turned-enemy in the second scenario) who tries to seek shelter with the Lithuanians as he was being hunted down by Tamerlane's generals. Tokhtamysh would later reappear in the fifth scenario of the Jadwiga campaign, as an ally of the Lithuanians.
Like other cavalry archers, Tamerlane is affected by all upgrades that affect cavalry archers as well as any other bonuses that affect them. As a hero, he cannot be converted and can regenerate health (since The Conquerors).
Timur was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who is best known for establishing the Timurid Empire in an attempt to restore the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan through a series of military campaigns across West, South, and Central Asia, as well as the Caucasus and South Russia, and even standing head-on against the Mamluks and the Ottoman Empire with a multi-ethnic army that is feared across Asia, Africa, and Europe.
A devout Muslim and a patron of arts and architecture, Timur is regarded as one of the greatest military leaders and tacticians in history, overshadowing the fact that his campaigns resulted in the deaths of 5% of the world's population at the time, or about 17 million people. The Timurid Empire was fragmented upon Timur's death, but one of his descendants, Babur, would go on to found the Mughal Empire over a century later.
Trivia[]
With a total of six scenarios, the Tamerlane campaign is the longest introduced in the The Last Khans, and one of only five campaigns with six scenarios since The Conquerors, the others being Le Loi (Vietnamese, Rise of the Rajas), The Grand Dukes of the West (Burgundians, Lords of the West), Jadwiga (Poles, Dawn of the Dukes), and Jan Zizka (Bohemians, Dawn of the Dukes).
His full name is Shuja-ud-din Timur bin Taraghay Barlas, which his laqab Shuja-ud-din means "religiously pious" in Arabic. But dramatically, Tamerlane was fighting against other Muslims rather Christians for most of his life.
His European name, Tamerlane, derives from Temลซr(-i) Lang (ุชูู ูุฑ ฺููฏ), which means "Timur the Lame" in Persian, the meaning of which refers to his permanently crippling injuries he suffered in 1363 where he was shot by two arrows, one on his right leg and another on his right hand, either while trying to steal sheep from a shepherd or serving as a mercenary in Khorasan (present-day Afghanistan).
His name is an AI player name for the Mongols in the original version of the game, and in the HD edition. However, in the Definitive Edition, it is instead an AI player name for the Tatars, possibly because Tamerlane was born in a Turkicized division of the Mongol Empire which is much closer to the Tatars civilization.
The campaign icon contains the Flag of the Timurid Empire, according to the Catalan Atlas, 1375. The top of the flagpole itself is another Turkic symbol (called Tamghas) which is closely resembled by a Tamgha placed on top of the Taj Mahal built by descendants of Timur, the Mughals. The icon also contains a Central Asian style Composite bow and quiver that were used among most steppe-based armies.
19 years prior to getting his own campaign in the Definitive Edition, Tamerlane was the subject of the popular fan-made campaign "Tamerlane: Prince of Destruction", which is Age of Kings Heaven's most downloaded campaign.
The semi-official campaign The Rise of Tamerlane, created by a Forgotten Empires campaign designer, is about Tamerlane's youth and focuses on historical events that were not covered in the official campaign. The campaign (containing four scenarios) is available for free download since December 2019. A second chapter was uploaded in December 2020 (containing three more scenarios).
Gallery[]
Timur's face as reconstructed from skull by Gerasimov
In-game cutscene artwork
Another artwork
Tamerlane as seen in the centre in The Last Khans cover art