Trivia / Age of Empires II

• Accidentally-Correct Writing:
  • An actual Gothic state survived until 1475, well into the Renaissance, thus making it perfectly possible for Goths to fight with firearms and cannons (the Gothic language continued to be spoken there until the 18th century). However, given that this isn't mentioned in any of the tie-in material and other liberties taken with the Gothic civilization (like poor cavalry and German dialogue) it is likely that the creators were not aware of it.
  • Wild Boar hunting, obviously based on the Medieval European impressions of it as the (literal) Most Dangerous Game, was almost taken out. It's all but stated that this was over concerns with having Muslim factions (e.g. Saracens) eating pork on the screen. Yet, it actually took centuries for such dietary laws to be codified and enforced, with some Muslims claiming at times that wild boars and pigs were different animals so the former was okay to eat. Many gamers also point that boars are usually eaten in games during the Dark Age (i.e. when Arabs were still polytheists), that many majority Muslim countries have Christian minorities to this day, and that Islam allows pork when there is nothing else to eat.
  • The Woad Raider was based on the Celtic "naked fanatics" mentioned by Julius Caesar and other ancient authors. This Anachronism Stew was probably not so in the beginning, since development of Age of Empires II started before Rise of Rome and likely covered Late Antiquity before being given the Fall of Rome as a starting date. And yet, the role of Woad Raiders in the game as fast light infantry is not far from the Irish Kerns of the Middle and Modern Ages.
  • The Viking technology "Chieftains" in The Forgotten is either this or They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot. It originally increased the axe-bearing Berserks' attack against cavalry (later the attack of all infantry, but Berserks still get more), and was introduced both to give Vikings an answer to heavy cavalry without changing their unit roster, and to give Berserks a less overlaping role with Champions (which don't have to be trained at a Castle and resulted in Berserks being underutilized). Turns out there was a real life axe that made Vikings deadlier against cavalry and would have made for a less random name for a technology: the Dane Axe.
  • Aztecs use metal swords and crossbows purely because they are shared across all civilizations. However, they really used captured Spanish swords and crossbows at the final siege of Tenochtitlan, and the Nahuatl-speaking Tlaxcalans used them when they assisted the Spanish in later wars of conquest.
• Ascended Fanon:
  • The entirety of The Forgotten expansion, which began as a fan-made expansion pack named Forgotten Empires before being made official alongside HD Edition. The team behind Forgotten Empires has since been involved with continued development of the game.
  • The change to the Vietnamese' 'Paper Money' tech in Dynasties of India (from 'the player and all teammates receive a one-off payment of 500 gold' to 'Lumberjacks slowly earn gold in addition to wood') was a very common fan-suggested change, both as a way of improving a previously underwhelming tech and because it compliments the Burgundian's 'Burgundian Vineyards' tech (farmers slowly earn gold alongside food) quite well.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: "Wololo", said by the first game's Priests, is often associated with this game's Monks as well, despite the fact that they make a "Waaaaaah..." sound. This is likely due to the inclusion of the "Wololo" sound effect as a taunt, by typing '30' in the chat. This ended up being averted in Definitive Edition, which uses the more iconic "Wololo" chanting.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Microsoft vetoed the Janissary's tall white hat, arguing that they looked like Klansmen. So the hats were removed despite being the most distinctive part of Janissary attire. If this isn't enough of a Face Palm, bear in mind that 1) the first version of the Janissary's hat wasn't white, but changed color; 2) such tall hats were only worn by Janissary archers in the first place (like the first concept of the Janissary, but not the one included in the game), while Janissaries armed with other weapons wore completely different hats; and 3) there was no reason the Janissaries had to wear mostly white in the game, and any resemblance to the KKK would disappear if their clothes changed colors with the player. The leaked Design Doc even instructed the art department to make the hat look good.
  • Due to the unexpected success of the game, the Expansion Pack The Conquerors was rushed (while also stripping the dev team of most people), so the artists couldn't do more than a new building style and probably disregarded potential units and civilizations that would require more work.
  • Like it happened with the Eastern Asian civilizations in Age of Empires, Microsoft pushed for the Koreans to be included as one of the new civilizations in The Conquerors because they believed that it would increase sales in South Korea (it didn't). The craziest part: The request was made two months before release, and Starcraft I's popularity in South Korea was cited as the reason.
    Sandy Petersen: Microsoft’s response was "Starcraft sold a million billion copies in Korea. We need to have the Korean civ so we can compete." My response: "There’s a Korean civ in Starcraft? Is that why they sold so well?"
• Flip-Flop of God: It was announced with the release of The Definitive Edition in Fall 2019 that no more expansions, civilizations or campaigns would be made. A year later, a new expansion, Lords of the West, with two new civilizations (Burgundians and Sicilians) and three campaigns (Edward Longshanks, The Grand Dukes of the West and The Hautvilles) was announced for release in January 2021. Microsoft also refers to it as "the first expansion," suggesting more to come. Sure enough, in April 2021, another expansion, Dawn of the Dukes, was announced (focused on Eastern Europe).
• He Also Did: Bert "Cysion" Beeckman, the lead developer of the post-Conquerors expansions, worked on the Dutch localisations of Mario Kart 8 and Mario Party: Island Tour.
• Meaningful Release Date: Dynasties of India was announced on April 14th, which is both Puthandu (Tamil New Year) and Pohela Boishakh (Bengali New Year).
• Meme Acknowledgement:
  • Several of the Achievements reference AoE community memes such as "90 kg." (related to the Trebuchets), "Castle of Doubt" (for Daut Castle^note getting a building to near completion, only to be forced to abandon it. Named after competitive player Daut after such an incident with a castle), "Masterpiece" (for the Koreans), "Not The Viper!" (failing the Masterpiece), "Satan's Map" (related to Forest Nothing), and "Too Lame, Too Tame" (boar stealing).
  • An April 2020 update to Definitive Edition added the cheat code "Going Above and Beyond" to allow players to stack the benefits of a technology up to 256 times, after the popular 256x Mod.
• No Export for You: A port for Age of Kings was released on the Playstation 2...but only in Europe.
• Official Fan-Submitted Content:
  • After having been released in 2012, Forgotten Empires received official expansion status in Fall 2013 for the Steam rerelease.
  • The voices in the African Kingdoms campaigns have been provided by fans who have entered a contest by the developers.
  • 14 out of the 19 campaign scenarios introduced in the Victors and Vanquished DLC were originally mods created by Ramsey "Filthydelphia" Abdulrahim before being made official content with the DLC.
• Real-Life Relative: The Slavic villagers in the Definitive Edition are voiced by the parents of composer Vitalis Eirich, who composed the civilization themes for the game.
• Refitted for Sequel: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• What Could Have Been: Has its own page.
• Chronologically, the earliest campaign depicted in this series (through all expansions) is Alaric's (followed by Attila's), while the latest scenario is Noryang Point, followed by Kyoto, and the latest full campaign is Bayinnaung's.

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