Age of Empires IV: The Holy Roman Empire 

I can't wait to betray my allies in his campaign!

Friedrich Barbarossa Bzw Friedrich Rotbart

I loved how the narrator turns out to be one of his rivals

I most certainly read that in a smooth German accent XD

Have you heard the tragedy of frederick barbarossa the red?

For Franz! Oh wait, wrong game.

@@plaidpvcpipe3792 No, that's the right game

@@swefress The Empire endures!

Charlemagne Gaming

With some ramen

@pit lord it looks great

@pit lord it looks amazing, way better than aoe 2 or anything else that you like.

this, wether a player wants to be agressive, defensive, or play as support, they should always have a tool to aport with their philosophy

Well, time to summon the elector counts

This Does have my consent.

Karl Franz approves

@@CBRN-115 I bet that's HRE campaign.

Well, at least they bring Incense and Iron

Faith, steel and... My handgunners need some floppy hats!

@pit lord nobody's gonna miss you. don't play it then

Good to see you alkhalim

@@ozzy-bj3ov Hey Alex! :D

Needs more crayons.

Yea a drink of water, I’m gonna live till 51

For some reason every time he said I kept hearing "Holy Vermin Empire".

Is it pronounced "Landsk - necht" or "Lands - knecht" ?

@@sakib9102 Lands-knecht. If you wanna hear the proper pronounciation, type the word in google translator and have it read by the german voice ;)

@@sakib9102 "Knecht" means "commoner" (as opposed to knights), and "Lands" means that the Knecht originates from the (flat) "land", i.e. the Empire - as opposed to mercenaries originating from the Swiss Alps. In the 16th century however, it was most commonly spelt "Lanzknecht", literally meaning "Pike Knecht". Btw, "Knight" and "Knecht" have the same etymological roots in Germanic language, meaning a person in someone's service. But in English it got upvalued to referring to a noble vassal whilst in German it got pejorated towards referring to non-noble subordinates.

@@aurorasdawn4681 interesting indeed.

Granted, it's not the easiest term for a non-native speaker

I just realized that having more zoom can decrease unit control because they are more size accurate

@@DavidCardonaESM You would still be able to zoom in for more accuracy, but not having a proper zoomed out view of the map kills the game's planning and set-up phases.

@@geminusleonem9365 Yeah exactly. Strategic zoom is one of the best innovations for strategy gaming. That fact that these developers haven't figured it out yet has me worried.

yeah I hope the low graphic settings are competitive-friendly. I want to compete, and so many people aswell

@pit lord The only cartoony bit is the bright colors. Subdue that and it's exactly like a classic AOE.

It's Land sharks XD

LANsharks?!

@@hubewa24 Good ol' Drongo

It's pronounced Lanshnecks, right?

@@aurorasdawn4681 It's pronounced like lands-knehcht The a in land sounds like the u in luck and the ch is pronounced similarly to the Spanish j

No

@@brigadier3596 yes

@@lorrdy7640 from side is faster. Efficency > Coolness

@@brigadier3596 In every historical illustration that i know the Bidenhander is carried this way, like a Polearm.

@@Steef560 my condolences ot the man to side who gets sliced when you pull the sword out from the back

Ding Ding

Sorry, your grace. Hit me until you're happy.

It's not a placebo the animations look smother and overall graphics look much better

You are right. The arrows have shrunk and look its arc is definiley better looking

We've been wololo'd. :P

@@JeanLucPicard85 well now that the captain is here, Janeway out HAAHAAHHAHA!

After lot of complains they have improved it a lot. At least they listen to fans which is very nice

BR?

@@gibranhenriquedesouza2843 BRíssimo. HUE.

I do realistic maps for Age of Empires 1 and 2. Check them out.

Vc por aqui que grata surpresa Canal Medieval

@@magnodemorais9317 Sempre vigilante à fidelidade histórica. Até então estou gostando.

Lol didn't expect to see a TW3 reference here, but i def dig it.

I though they use halberd as a main weapon?

Was just about to comment the same😂

Well, it is Friday. Holy Roman Empire

He says "Holy Vroman Empire" though :3

Still looks like a mobile game about smurfs. :V

It looks awful for 2021. BfME2 looked way better 13 years ago.

@@Miskolcer Well they want everyone to be able to play this game. Higher specs will leave a lot of people out of this game.

@@lordz00 While Id like prettier graphics having a 3090 but I don't mind as long as they nail gameplay. The graphics are alright. We know there will be improments.

What on earth are you on about, have you played any games the last 5 years? This looks like a mobile game, a ps3 could easily run this...

It's a collection of what ever nation / culture that spans approximately from year 500 to 1500.

landsknecht were a pike unit. these are using zwei handers, meaning these are probably members of the special regiment called forlorn hope. these troops were used to break enemy pike formations and were basically a suicide squad with double pay. if that is the case, this is pretty accurate, a squishy unit with massive AOE damage that is used as a suicide screen to wreck the enemy frontline before the main formation moves in to finish them off. That is exactly how they are supposed to be used.

Which is funny because both landsknecht and doppelsoldner were very strong melee units in aoe 3 despite their cost you could mow down anything as long as it wasnt a cannon.

@@BIGmlems One of the few good counters to the french Cuirassier in 5 hour (40 minute treaty) games.

Well they really sucked in the last beta build we got to play, so I think it just needs a rework for the game's launch.

​@@nvmtt1403 Those suiciders were called Doppelsöldner as they received double the pay. Landknechts used pikes, lances, halberds, greatswords (or rather Flambergs) and gun powder weapons. But in the game Landsknechts are completely useless and historically very inaccurate. They cost 100 gold and 20 or 60 food (don't remember) and die to everything. They can barely beat a spearmen. They are the least cost effective unit in the game by far. They are just terrible and their "huge" attack isn't that huge and does not offset their all around weakness in the slightest. And even if they had an even greater attack, it would still matter not as they are barely able to reach an opponent before dying. They have almost no armor, which is fine, but they also have one of the worst health pools, are supposed to be fast but run just as quickly as spearmen and get countered by literally everything, but especially anything that is ranged. Wearing only light armors made them very agile. Their agility is not taken into account at all. The reason for their light armor is completely ignored by the game and instead just turned into a double malus = little armor, pathetic hp. The cheapest archers already counter one of the most expensive units in the game. There is zero reason to build this unit. And everybody calling them powerful or working as intended is either blind or not capable of judgement. They are a complete disgrace of a unit and need a massive overhaul or should just be removed from the game. They offer nothing excpet being a ressource dump with no effect. They are pathetic. The whole HRE is pathetic as it offers the worst special unit in the game. Aside from their men at arms, which are good, the army of the HRE is lackluster and does not go beyond the baseline of unit designs. Anything the HRE has army wise, aside from MAA, is also available to other civs and mostly in a better or more synergetic version. If release was sometime next year, I would say "okay, a matter of development". But the release is in 11 days the state of the civ in the beta was incredibly underwhelming in regards of their army strength and uniqueness.

Landsschnecke!! xD

@@Cons1337 *shrieks in gastropod*

They should get rid of that exploding battering ram.

@@normmacdonaldliveseason3ep866 they probably haven't made death animations for siege weapons, thus the ugly exploding battering ram. (Maybe they should add it up after launch, via patches?)

@@Jan-xf8sk cope

Fanboys will be fanboys, game looks embarassing for a microsoft released product for today's time. This looks like a mobile game. And what is up with the art, why didn't they stick to AoE2 art?

@@taserrr the game is 7/10 i know, but if you compare what we see about 3 months ago we can see progress.

Age 2 is nothing compared to Age 3

@@kingstarscream320 age 3 was good, but it feeled so clunky with its units. and i dont like the card system. for me age 3 is a great rts, but the worst aoe. but its also great - i mean its aoe

The Teutonic knights didn't belong to the HRE. They were only active in some eastern provinces, but mostly in their own state (1230-1561), so it would be historicaly not really accurate to use Teutonic knights.

@@louistostmann2049 You're right but that can be just fixed by renaming the unit Germanic Knight, Crusader Knight. I think having a unit from the 11-14th century makes more sense than the Landschknecht from 15th-16th. Or just use the name Teutons, Germanics and not use HRE which includes also Bohemia, Netherlands and Italy.

@@martingajarsky6433 But Germanics would not fit, because the other civs represent empires/states and not some people. The teutonic order as a civ would be fine and certainly very interesting, but that would be an entirely different culture (religion, system of government, military, architecture...) than the HRE, so a simple rename would not fit.

@@louistostmann2049 Well yes and no. While the state of the Teutonic Order did not, the Teutonic Order did also have lot's of posessions in the Empire. The Grandmaster was considered a prince of the empire.

@@louistostmann2049 Oh come one dude. They aren't being historically accurate about the landsknechts either. A landsknecht formation mainly consisted of *pikemen* supported by zweihanders and later handgunners. Also they were mercenaries so they were never loyal to anyone. And there were more internal HRE wars than external ones. There was never a single war where the entirety of the HRE united against a single foe. So basically having it as a single unified faction in any game is historically inaccurate. So might as well have the freaking Teutonic knights because AOE was never a historically accurate game.

They did add more zoom , go watch the yesterday stream

@@coppykappa2235 are you sure? It looked same as before to me.

@@sukruyildizel422 also to me , but then i noticed a bit of change..

The HRE was neither holy nor roman nor an empire. It's the very definition of irony.

@@NyangisKhan it actually is sometimes roman, just as holy as other European powers and used to be an empire in it's earlier days

@@AgentLando How is a fully German and Dutch entity be roman? Also how is an entity that rivals the pope in Rome and caused hundreds to thousands of wars because of it be holy? And the holy roman emperor did not *rule* the HRE. A lot of them couldn't even command 20% of the it even if they wanted to so it's not an empire. Ask any historian and they'd back me up. The HRE was neither holy nor roman nor an empire. The HRE often massacred its own citizens just to resupply their armies. Their Landsknecht often looted and pillaged towns and villages. The rivalry with Rome caused hundreds of wars in Italy between *catholics.* The HRE and the Catholic church was so corrupt(opposite of holy) it caused 2 to 3 reformations leading to the hussite and 30 years war. EDIT: Oh and also they sacked Rome which isn't very roman nor holy.

@@NyangisKhan what I'm saying here is that the here is just a regular European power that sometimes had rome and the pope under it's control, used to be an empire in the earlier times where everything looked like the hre

@@AgentLando The papal states became a thing with Charlemagne's decree. It was never directly controlled by the HRE. Also the HRE stopped being an empire as soon as the Carolingian dynasty stopped being a thing. And in most games, especially in this one the HRE isn't the one under the Carolingian dynasty. I mean their special unit is literally the *Landsknecht.* Although it is probably the poorest and most historically inaccurate depiction I've ever seen in a game.

😂

Unfortunately I think the game devs went with the common design philosophy for RTS games that sees disproportionate scaling as a necessary evil. Otherwise the game loses much of the strategy, quick pace, and readability needed to make it fun. It's one of many ways realism was sacrifice. But if you think of AoE more like chess than a realistic battle simulator, it's not too big a pill to swallow.

My german too

Deus vult

Holy Roman is not Roman. It's German.

When you have the HRE, you need to merge it with the Teutonic Order as the Teutonic Order does not offer the timeline all the civs in AoE 4 are seemingly supposed to offer. And I am actually shocked that the HRE has zero reference to the Teutonic Order. I am afraid this is a chance wasted as the Teutonic Order will most likely not become a stand alone civ. It would make no sense. I think the HRE is in a terrible spot and is the most lackluster and boring civ although there is so much potential. Their unique units feel and work like they were just thrown into the game due to a lack of esprit and idea. There is nothing the HRE can do that other civs don't do better aside from defensive structures and men at arms. I think it's a very poor design for this civ and I hope for a big revamp at release, but that seems unlikely. There is almost no reason to play the HRE. Why would you? They feel so generic and lame.

Actually no, as Landsknechte only were a thing during the Renaissance, i.e. in the very epoch of AoE. Considering their existance from the 12th to the 15th century, Teutonic Knights might actually be the most universal German unit. Or maybe the "Ministerialis" or "Reichsritter" (Imperial Knight) would fit even better.