Welcome back to another episode of the Age of Empires Magazine! Once again, I am joined by Daniela!

We’ve got exciting topics to discuss, starting of course with the sixth edition of King of the Desert and a recent update with balance changes from the 2nd of december. We’ve also got a couple of Franchise News, because the South AmericaDLC has been announced for AoE II and is coming to the game in February 2026. As is the theme with our Franchise, if one game get’s something new, another game probably has something similar in store and that’s true for Age of Mythology and Age of Empires IV. We’ll finish up the episode with some emails and the tournament outlook for January 2026, where we’ll talk about the RB Wololo Ladder Qualifier and TTL Season 5. I’d also like to mention that we recorded this podcast just before the News about GL and their members have dropped, so there is no mentioning of that in this episode.

Please check out ⁠⁠Daniela over at Twitch⁠⁠:

⁠⁠https://www.twitch.tv/daniela_aoe⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠⁠

Timecodes:

00:00 Programme

02:30 News

02:12:54 Franchise News

02:26:45 Podcast News & Emails

02:39:25 Tournament Outlook January 2026

Links:

⁠King of the Desert VI⁠

Danielas Statement of MM

Balance Changes

⁠AoE 2025 Review

⁠⁠TTL 5

RB Wololo Ladder Qualifier

Macht euch bereit für einen Podcast, bei dem wir uns so richtig alt fühlen. Alles ist neu und unübersichtlich: AoE II verändert sich mit Phosphoru Rushes, Stand Ground Patrols und der Siegetower Meta. World of Warcraft ist überhaupt nicht mehr das, was es einmal war und ist kaum wieder zu erkennen. Und wenn Felix einfach mal ne Runde Hitman spielen will, scheitert er daran, weil er den Überblick über die verschiedenen Spieleversionen nicht bekommt. Christian hat wurde außerdem von Europa Universalis gemobbt. Klingt alles scheiße, aber lass euch nicht beirren, denn in Wahrheit haben wir gerade ziemlich viel Spaß mit unseren Spielen!

Viel Spaß beim Hören!

Felix & Christian

⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠

Musik: Joey Jojo vom offiziellen AoE II: DE OST.

Well, this episode is all about the Celts. But who were the Celts, really? If you're asking the Devs, it seems the answer is: whatever was shown in the movie Braveheart! For a game drawing inspiration from history, the Celts do seem like the odds one out. Sloppy research, a lousy tutorial campaign and underwhelming tech tree make it hard for the Celts to really shine amongst the many civilizations in the game, despite looking back to more than 25 years of AoE II history. Of course, being an infantery civilization doesn't make things any easier. If it weren't for Hoang, maybe the Celts would've been completely forgotten. Well, don't shed your tears just yet, I'm here to save the day and tell you everything I could uncover about the Celts, including some fun facts from what the Celts were first invisioned by the Devs, before they became the Civ we know today. I hope you enjoy this episode!

Chris

Talk to the community on:

⁠⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠⁠⁠

Timecodes:

00:00 Introduction

05:43 Wood bonus

14:47 Faster moving infantery

18:54 Stealing herdables

22:40 Faster firing siege & Team bonus

30:15 Furor Celtica

35:58 Strongholds

40:28 Woad Raider

50:35 Strategies & army compositions

01:11:25 Campaign

Music: Celts Intro Music and "Operation Monkey" of the official AoE II Soundtrack

Links:

Computer Gaming World Museum

Celtic Life International

Braveheart Critique bei Sharon Krossa

Original Handbook of Age of Kings

Cattle Raids