Hello Age of Empires II Community!

We recently released our newest expansion, Return of Rome! Since then, the team here has been heads-down monitoring your feedback and figuring out how we can best respond throughout May and June.

With that, here’s a new hotfix targeting primarily bugs affecting Return of Rome, along with some overall high priority fixes. Before you dig down into the notes, here are a few highlights:

• Fixed an issue where various UI mods would cause the game to get stuck loading into matches.
  
• Fixed issues where joining lobbies could cause a crash.
  
• Fixed an issue where Lobby Sorting would not properly function.
  
• Fixed an issue where Lobby Search would not properly function.
  
• Various data issues in both AoE II: DE and Return of Rome.
  
• Fixed an issue where Return of Rome game lobbies defaulted to Low in Resources settings.

Additionally, we have heard feedback about Ranked play in Return of Rome not being easily accessible and will be adding a few things to help alleviate this issue.

First, if by chance you missed last week’s announcement, we’re holding a community vote on which AoE campaigns YOU would like to see us bring to the Return of Rome expansion!

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum
🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thanks again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team

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General

• Fixed various issues leading to crashes when joining lobbies.
  
• Fixed an issue where various UI mods would cause the game to get stuck loading into matches.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented dialogue during campaigns.
  
• Fixed an issue where Lobby Sorting would not properly function.
  
• Fixed an issue where Lobby Search would not properly function.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could not select a player when spectating or watching recorded games.
  
• Fixed an issue where pregame chats were not being displayed correctly and were only being sent to team members.
  
• Fixed an issue where campaign voice-over audio would not properly switch languages.
  
• Fixed an issue where Cannon Galleons incorrectly showed up as available for Goths.
  
• Garrison buttons are no longer displayed for units which are unable to garrison into buildings or siege units.
  
• Fixed various data issues in AoE II: DE
  
  • Legionary receives +4 attack vs Condottieri (same bonus as vs infantry)
    
  • Dromon loses unique unit armor class
    
  • Villagers no longer repair ships and siege units faster than intended
    
  • Research Percent in the post-game statistics screen now only takes actually available technologies into account to display the accurate value; Resulting in 100% with all available technologies researched.

Return of Rome

• Fixed an issue where the Return of Rome Custom Scenario File Browser would show Age of Empires II: DE scenarios.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Return of Rome main menu buttons would not appear.
  
• Removed Random Walk from Elephants to make Elephants easier to find.
  
• Fixed issues with Ruin generation.
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause asserts when creating a multiplayer lobby.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Return of Rome Main Menu would default back to the AoE II: DE colors.
  
• Changed the Sargon campaign difficulty icon to One Sword.
  
• Fixed an issue where the default dataset for campaign screens had a misleading name.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Medusa cheat did not affect all villagers.
  
• Fixed an issue where certain stats between AoE II: DE and Return of Rome were inconsistent.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented Return of Rome mods to have custom campaign slides, resulting in a black screen.
  
• Fixed an issue where Return of Rome mods did not support custom sounds.
  
• Fixed an issue where Return of Rome game lobbies defaulted to Low in Resources settings.
  
• Fixed a UI-only issue: Wheel tooltip now mentions the correct villager speed increase (60%).
  
• Fixed various data issues affecting balance in Return of Rome:
  
  • Gate construction time reduced from 70s to 35s
    
  • Broad Swordsman HP changed from 70 to 80
    
  • Long Swordsman HP changed from 80 to 100
    
  • Cataphract HP changed from 220 to 240
    
  • Palmyran Villagers receive +1P armor as well from the civilization bonus
    
  • Elephant movement speed changed from 0.83 to 0.85
    
  • Stone Thrower, Catapult, Heavy Catapult projectile speed increased from 2.49 to 3.49
    
  • Catapult Trireme, Juggernaut projectile speed increased from 2.573 to 3.49
    
  • Helepolis projectile speed reduced from 7.2 to 4.067
• Added missing balance changes from the last AoE: DE patch. The missing changes were:
  
  • Assyrian get Alchemy.
    
  • Babylonian get Chain Mail Armors.
    
  • Long sword upgrade cost to 240 F, 100 G.
    
  • Elephant Archers +15 G cost (back to their original game cost of 180 F, 60 G).
    
  • Ballista 15% faster attack speed (2.7 reload time in AoE: DE)
    
  • Helepolis -300 F upgrade cost (now 1200 F, 1000 W), +5 attack (now 45).
    
  • Legion HP reduced to 140 (from 160).
    
  • Chariot units’ conversion resistance modifier reduced to 2 (from 8).

Xbox

• Fixed an issue where graphic settings weren’t saved on Xbox One.
  
• Fixed an issue where a crash would occur if players signed out while changing to Return of Rome on Xbox.
  
• Fixed an issue where messages would move around the screen during the tutorial.
  
• Fixed an issue where pressing LB would open a menu wheel that was not intractable.
  
• Fixed an issue where LB and RB would not delete a unit, but instead, would open a menu wheel.
  
• Fixed an issue where a crash could occur at the start of the game if quick commands were used before the game started.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Juggernaut upgrade could be found twice at Docks.

:alertalert: DISCLAIMER

This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

Hello Age of Empires II Community!

Last week was the release of our newest DLC, Return of Rome! Since then, the team here has been heads-down monitoring your feedback and figuring out how we can best respond throughout May and June.

First, if by chance you missed last week’s announcement, we’re holding a community vote on which AoE campaigns YOU would like to see us bring to the Return of Rome DLC!

Otherwise, we’d like to share a small look at the month ahead to help give you an idea of what you can expect in terms of Hotfixes, Updates, Events, and more coming through the month of June. Let’s get started!

Planned Updates

This summer, we’re working to hit a consistent set of Updates and Previews (Age II: DE’s PUP program on Steam), as well as increasing the stability of our Updates.

That starts with our May Hotfix.

We then have two additional Updates planned and we want to provide some insight into what that looks like. As a bit of a disclaimer first, when we’re talking about bug fixes specifically, these plans represent our targets but if a fix continues to need additional work and testing, we may pull it out of these Updates in an effort to preserve stability while giving it more time, and in that case we’d release it at our next earliest opportunity. So please view this information with the understanding that some of it may change, but these are certainly our goals.

May Hotfix

This first Hotfix is smaller in scope and targeted primarily at bugs affecting Return of Rome, along with some overall high priority fixes we’ve been able to include.

To highlight just a few:

• Fixed an issue where various UI mods would cause the game to get stuck loading into matches.
  
• Fixed issues where joining lobbies could cause a crash.
  
• Fixed an issue where Lobby Sorting would not properly function.
  
• Fixed an issue where Lobby Search would not properly function.
  
• Various data issues in both AoE II: DE and Return of Rome.
  
• Fixed an issue where Return of Rome game lobbies defaulted to Low In Resources settings.

Additionally, we have heard feedback about Ranked play in Return of Rome not being easily accessible and will be adding a few things to help alleviate this issue.

This is just a partial list and there will be more in-depth patch notes with the hotfix release.

June Hotfix

The Hotfix we’re targeting for June will focus on feedback and bugs related to Age II: DE all-up. The list below outlines the scope we’re focused on, though as mentioned above some of these may slip into the June Update proper if they need more time.

Some highlights and specifics:

• Pathing
  
  • Rare cases of units sliding backwards while attacking.
    
  • When moving groups of units there is a chance for a few of them to become stuck and immobile for a while.
    
  • Units commanded to move to a point re-group in an excessively distant location.
    
  • Villagers occasionally taking needlessly curved paths while hunting boars.
• Monks
  
  • Monks don’t always heal other nearby units when idle.
    
  • Monks walking forward after a successful conversion of an enemy unit.
    
  • Monk conversion sound missing.
• Go Back to Work
  
  • Go back to work is fully unresponsive if villagers were garrisoned with command queue.
    
  • Go back to work doesn’t send villagers to the last task assigned.
• Various crashes.
  
• Many more!

June Content Update

After those two Hotfixes, we’ll start moving back to our desired Monthly Update cadence with the June Update itself. We’re often working on multiple releases in parallel, so the June Update has been in the works for quite a while now and alongside the release of Return of Rome.

The June Update will include any reaction we need to have toward the May/June Hotfixes, but the scope of the June Update itself already includes a pretty massive collection of bug fixes and game changes that you can look forward to.

Here are a few highlights:

• Fixes for various lobby filtering issues.
  
• Further pathfinding fixes, such as:
  
  • Units not finding their way around long obstacles (such as an unfinished, but sizeable, wall).
    
  • Groups of units rarely failing to pass through narrow openings between two large obstacles.
• Further unit-AI fixes for issues such as:
  
  • Monks occasionally getting stuck after converting enemy units.
    
  • Shift queueing attack not working correctly.
• A new set of balance adjustments.
  
• Improvements to AI player behavior.
  
• Various stability improvements.
  
• Adding the Romans to Ranked play!
  
• Many more!

Additionally, we will have more to share on our plan to bring more campaigns to Return of Rome!

Scope for the June Update is still in flux for the next few weeks, so pretty much daily we’re adding or adjusting bugs on this list. We’ll keep you posted with any important information we think you need to know, but hopefully this rolls out without too much difficulty in the coming weeks.

Public Update Previews

To be blunt, working in a 20+ year old code base is pretty difficult, and although we’ve modernized small pieces of it, you’re living with how easy it is for strange and unpredictable bugs to show up and cause problems. We use a lot of tools to hedge against this, from a rather large manual Test team, through to automated tools and crash reporting software. But one of our most useful tools when you engage with it is PUP – our Public Update Preview program we operate on Steam.

We’re giving that a bump here to help encourage your participation. This gives our Community both access to changes early (balance changes come to mind), as well as direct communication with our Dev Team – when a PUP build is live, we’re actively checking the related Steam forum several times a day – it’s your best/most direct way to have impact on Updates heading your way.

Last weekend, we put the May Hotfix into the pup_may_june Steam branch, and we plan on maintaining this throughout the month of June.

• An update to the May Hotfix will be going into PUP TODAY!
• The June Hotfix will be going into PUP late May/Early June
  
• The June Update will be going into PUP soon after the June Hotfix

Once each Update goes live, we’ll share more concrete patch notes and forum links to post feedback to. As a reminder:

• PUP builds are work-in-progress day-to-day game development builds, so they don’t always reflect what will eventually be released.
  
• PUP builds can only play with PUP builds, so match times can be slow compared to the live game – this is an artifact of player population, not the related networking services.

If you’re able, we welcome you to join us in PUP and leave feedback so we can take your observations into consideration when working on Updates.

Thank you and stay tuned for our May Hotfix coming soon!

A huge thank you to all of our Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition players for your record-setting support and to everyone who has played Return of Rome so far! This is the biggest DLC launch in Age of Empires II history!

We’ve been listening to your feedback and would like to share our plan to address the concerns regarding your in-game experience and your desire to see Age of Empires campaigns in Return of Rome.

We are actively monitoring the issues you’re reporting and will address them as soon as possible. This includes disruptions to your hotkey settings, issues preventing UI mods from loading in correctly, and games failing to load.

The hotkey disruption was a one-time adjustment. You can visit our support page if you need help getting them reconfigured.

Our teams are paying close attention to the reports you make and are thankful for your continued trust.



We will be officially bringing the Ascent of Egypt tutorial campaign, plus three AoE campaigns to Return of Rome, including The First Punic War campaign. These campaigns will launch in future updates to Return of Rome, similar to our Co-Op Campaign content rollout. More details about their release will be available soon.

Now is your opportunity to vote on the other two campaigns you’d like to see return to Rome! Voting is live and will remain open until the 2nd of June:


You, the Age community, are at the heart of everything we do, and we are committed to continue to earn your trust. Your input plays a crucial role in shaping our future updates. We’re currently preparing a series of hotfixes to address immediate concerns with further support coming soon.

Thank you for being with us, and be sure to vote for the campaigns you’d like to see! Wololo!

Rome is calling, will you answer? The Return of Rome DLC is now available for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition on PC! This DLC offers an incredible 17 civilizations, 3 new campaigns, a new game mode, plus an additional civilization (the Romans) added to the base game.

Inspired by the 1998 expansion for Age of Empires “The Rise of Rome”, the new Return of Rome expansion delivers familiar and brand new content for both established and new players.




Return of Rome is a completely new type of DLC for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, bringing classic Age of Empires gameplay, style and key experiences as a brand-new self-contained experience. When launching Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, simply select the Return of Rome icon on the Main Menu to transition your game into the Return of Rome DLC.


Purchasing Return of Rome will also grant you access to the bonus Romans civilization while playing in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition mode. The Romans will begin as a civilization for single player and unranked lobbies, then graduate to ranked play in the near future.


Included in Return of Rome are all 16 original Age of Empires civilizations from the Assyrians to the Yamato, allowing players to get to grips with the civilizations that started the Age of Empires journey.


Joining the ranks as the newest ancient civilization will be the Lac Viet. The Lac Viet is a fast-paced archer civilization from ancient Southeast Asia that will be exclusive to Return of Rome.



We’re also introducing 3 brand new campaigns created specifically for Return of Rome: Sargon of Akkad (Sumerians), Pyrrhus of Epirus (Macedonians) and Trajan (Romans). With new missions to tackle and stories told through the familiar AoE II: DE style, you’ll be able to live more moments from history.

The D3 Game Mode will challenge players with a new way to play. D3 is an homage to a fan favorite rule set, made popular in the Age Vietnamese professional scene, that is now fully integrated into the game.  This rule set reduces rush tactics and allows players to start their early game more robustly, only allowing fighting with a single unit until entering the Bronze Age, ensuring players reach later Ages for equal battles.  This rule set also bans walls and towers, making for exciting match ups later in the game.

[h5]New Achievements List![/h5]
[expand type=details][/expand]

There’s so much to explore, enjoy, and play in Return of Rome! We’re grateful to our community for the continued support, our players who helped us shape this innovative DLC and our Creator Community who’ve been showcasing the exciting additions that Return of Rome brings via our Creator Preview.




Return of Rome is available now on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2141580/Age_of_Empires_II_Definitive_Edition__Return_of_Rome/

For those loyal Age of Empires players, we have a special bundle that we created just for you which includes Age of Empires II: DE and the Return of Rome DLC at a discounted price.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/31630/Age_of_Empires_II_Definitive_Edition__Return_of_Rome_Bundle/

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Want to further expand your Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition experience? Check out the other available DLC’s that will add further civilizations and campaigns to your game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1389240/Age_of_Empires_II_Definitive_Edition__Lords_of_the_West/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1557210/Age_of_Empires_II_Definitive_Edition__Dawn_of_the_Dukes/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1869820/Age_of_Empires_II_Definitive_Edition__Dynasties_of_India/

It wouldn't be Age of Empires without cheat codes! Lay waste to your opponents with the classic Cheat Units, available in Return of Rome on May 16th!

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/2141580/Age_of_Empires_II_Definitive_Edition__Return_of_Rome/

Hello and welcome to an exciting and fun-filled update for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition! This one is full of mod fixes and new units, plus the new Return of Rome DLC – all releasing tomorrow, May 16!

Be sure to dig down into the post below to get all of the smaller details before hopping in-game and checking them out firsthand.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum
🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thanks again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team

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• All regional Trade Carts now use the appropriate sound effects.
  
• Thirisadai receives the firing sound.
  
• When clicking Start Game in a SP/MP lobby, the Civilization Jingle will no longer overlap with Lobby or In-Game Music.
  
• Taunts now correctly reduce the volume of music for the duration of them playing.

• Dying economy units can no longer be counted as workers or idle.
  
• Turbo Mode state is now displayed in the standard game Objectives.
  
• The tooltip for Monument victory banner now displays the correct text.
  
• Formation buttons are no longer displayed if in the current unit selection there is only one formation-supporting unit.

• Readded Change Weapon hotkey entry to Unit Commands group.

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[h4]Lac Viet[/h4]
Building Set: East Asian

Archer Civilization

Bonuses

• Foragers gather 20% faster
  
• Military units created 25% faster
  
• Archery Range units +2 Melee Armor

Team Bonus: Houses and farms build 50% faster

Missing technologies: Aristocracy, Mysticism, Polytheism, Afterlife, Fanaticism, Monotheism, Chain Mail Infantry, Tower Shield, Siegecraft, Engineering, Urbanization.

Missing units: Phalangite, Legion, Camel Rider, Cataphract, Helepolis, Ballista Tower, Fire Galley, Juggernaut

• D3
  
  • This rule set reduces rush tactics and allows players to start their early game more robustly, only allowing fighting with a single unit until entering the Bronze Age, ensuring players reach later Ages for equal battles.  This rule set also bans walls and towers, making for exciting match ups later in the game.
• New lobby settings

• City Watch: 300f – Bronze Age/Government Center – All Buildings +3 LoS
  
• Conscription: 450f 250g – Iron Age/Government Center – All units trained 25% faster
  
• Urbanization: 350w 150s – Iron Age/Government Center – Houses provide double population space (from 4 → 8)
  
• Theocracy: 400g – replaces Sacrifice – Only one priest must rest after a successful conversion.

Ranked lobbies and leaderboards will be available in Return of Rome.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

:alertalert: DISCLAIMER

This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

Welcome to Return of Rome, a completely new experience within Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition!

Though there will be many overlaps in gameplay between Return of Rome and Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, there are some slight differences which may not be immediately apparent when playing for the first time.

Based on that feedback, we have decided to add Romans to the ranked queue in a future update.

Here, we’re going to run through some of the differences to give you a leg up on getting started and enjoying everything Return of Rome has to offer!



Return of Rome is vastly different to all of the DLC we’ve previously released for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. Each other release has expanded on the content available in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, while Return of Rome is an entirely different beast.

Once you’ve finished downloading the Return of Rome DLC, launch Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. On the main menu screen, you’ll see the symbol for Return of Rome in the top left corner.

Clicking this Symbol will switch your game into Return of Rome, ready for you to enjoy!

To switch back to Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, simply click the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition symbol in the top left corner.



Just like Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, the objectives during a match in Return of Rome are very similar.

• Explore the map and discover the locations of your opponents and the four resources: Food, Wood, Gold, and Stone
  
• Produce Villagers from the Town Center to collect those resources
  
• Spend resources to construct resource drop-off sites, houses, and other important buildings
  
• Advance to the next Age; offering stronger units, buildings and technologies
  
• Train an army and command your military units in battle against opponents

Generally, gameplay will feel a lot faster and more aggressive compared to Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition – be ready for it!

Unlike Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, you do not begin with a dedicated unit for exploring the map.
When you begin a match:

• Queue some Villagers in the Town Center
  
• Command one of your Villagers to construct a House
  
• Begin exploring the nearby area with your other two Villagers for a nearby source of Food, like gazelles, elephants, or berry bushes

Note: If you’re playing on a water map, you can also try to find the coastline and some nearby fish!



Once a Villager has collected a resource, they’ll need to deposit it into a drop-off site before you can spend it. Certain resources may only be deposited into specific drop-off sites, let’s take a look at how each of them work!

[h5]Town Center[/h5]
Though the Town Center will mainly be used to train additional Villagers. It also acts as a drop-off site for every form of resource.

The Storage Pit will act as your main drop-off site for all resources, with the exception of Food collected from berry bushes and Farms.

Any Food collected from berry bushes and Farms must be dropped off at a Granary or Town Center.

• Your Villagers will not be able to drop-off Food collected from gazelle, elephants or other animals at the Granary

All Fish collected by Fishing Ships or Villagers may be dropped off at the Dock.

• Additionally, Villagers may drop-off fish at a Storage Pit

Compared to Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, where economic upgrades are housed in the relevant drop-off site. Each economic upgrade in Return of Rome is available at the Market, which can be constructed once you reach the Tool Age.
Here you can find Technologies to:

• Increase the amount of certain resources your Villagers can carry
  
• Increase the rate at which your Villagers gather certain resources
  
• Increase the speed of your Villagers and gain access to chariot units and Trade Carts
  
• Increase the amount of Food that can be harvested from Farms before rebuilding

Like Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, upgrading your units along their technology line in the Technology Tree will be available within their creation building.

• A good example is upgrading the Short Swordsman to the Broadswordsman at the Barracks; where the Short Swordsman is trained

However, additional upgrades to a unit’s base statistics are done at the Storage Pit or the Market, instead of a Blacksmith. At the Storage Pit you’ll be able to increase your units Melee Attack, Melee Armor and Missile (Ranged Attack) Armor.


Then at the Market you can increase the damage done by your Missile Units (Ranged Attack) by researching the Wood gathering technologies at the Market, and improve your Slingers by researching the Stone gathering technologies.





To construct Walls, Gates and Towers the Technology must first be researched at the Granary.

Once you’ve completed researching the Small Walls Technology, available from the Tool Age. You will be able to construct Walls and Gates.

Similarly, to construct a Watch Tower, first you will need to research the Watch Tower Technology, available from the Tool Age at the Granary.

• As you advance through the Ages, you’ll unlock Technologies to further improve your Walls, Gates and Watch Towers at the Granary – depending on your civilization’s Technology Tree

Coming from Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, you’re no doubt familiar with each civilization having a number of Bonuses, Unique Units and Unique Technologies.

In Return of Rome, this has been simplified a little. Each civilization still has unique Bonuses, but they do not have any Unique Units or Technologies.

Return of Rome retains Age of Empires' design principles of differentiating civilizations through powerful, impactful bonuses and strategy-shaping differences in the technology tree to preserve the authentic feel of the game that started it all.

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Available on Steam starting May 16!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2141580/Age_of_Empires_II_Definitive_Edition__Return_of_Rome/

Roman fortifications have been sighted on the battlefield in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition!
Lay waste to the enemies of Rome with the Return of Rome DLC, coming May 16th!

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Available starting May 16!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2141580/Age_of_Empires_II_Definitive_Edition__Return_of_Rome/

Replacing the Two-Handed Swordsman and Champion at the Barracks. The Romans can upgrade their Long Swordsman to one of their new Unique Units, the mighty Legionary!

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Defeat your opponents as the Romans with the Return of Rome DLC, coming May 16th!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2141580/Age_of_Empires_II_Definitive_Edition__Return_of_Rome/

Increase Movement and Attack Speed of nearby Militia-line Units with the Romans' new Unique Unit, the Centurion!

Conqueror your enemies as the Romans, with the Return of Rome DLC. Coming May 16th.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2141580/Age_of_Empires_II_Definitive_Edition__Return_of_Rome/