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Your task is to drive the Britons from Frankish soil. Oh, how I hate those Britons!
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Joan strikes a blow for France...and for feminism.
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Not only will you be having fun, but you just might learn something before you're done.
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Age of Empires II: The Joan of Arc Campaign
Our exclusive look at AoE II's campaigns -- first of a four part series.
August 6, 1999
"She told us she was a peasant who did not know how to ride or fight. She told us that she intended to rescue France."
-- From the Age of Kings Joan of Arc Campaign
"This morning I awoke to visions of fire and steel. These nightmares come more often now that I have seen my beloved France eaten away in years of war. I wandered through camp ignoring the new snowfall, but observing the wounds and weariness of every soldier under my command, observing the desperation in their eyes."
-- From the Journal of Guy Josselyne, February 19, Army Camp near Vaucouleurs
IGNPC sat down with the Age of Empires II designers to discuss the new Age of Kings Campaigns. Every few weeks we'll be bringing you new info on the campaigns in the developers' own words. First in our series is the "Joan of Arc" Campaign and a brief overview of the Learning Campaign "William Wallace".
History
The story of Joan of Arc is intriguing because, frankly, it is almost impossible to believe. In the 1400s, the borders of France looked very different than they do today. Northern France, from the Loire River to the English Channel, had been claimed by England ever since Henry V’s triumphant victory at Agincourt. In southeastern France, the Duke of Burgundy had allied himself with England, and the combined Anglo-Burgundian army was slowly squeezing France from both sides.
Age of Kings: Joan of Arc Campaign
France had no king at the time, and the man with the rightful claim to the French throne, Charles VII, called the Dauphin, was considering surrender or flight. The French army was demoralized from decades of losing battles to the English. Had the situation not changed, there very well might not be a France today.
But, remarkably, the situation did change. A fifteen-year-old girl from the unassuming town of Domremy claimed that she received visions from St. Catherine and other dead saints. Despite her protestations, these saints commanded Joan Darc (the apostrophe was added later to sound more noble) to speak with the Dauphin and to command the disheartened French army with the eventual, almost ludicrous goal of liberating France from the English. And Joan did exactly that.
What is so unique about the situation was not that Joan claimed to receive visions—there are plenty of folks who claim contact with the supernatural—but that so many people from the nobility to the army to the peasantry, for whatever reason, chose to believe her. The Dauphin granted Joan’s request, and the French army swelled with new recruits, eager to follow Joan the Maid into battle. Joan led her army to a virtually unbroken string of victories. Keep in mind that she had no military training—although she was assisted by some of the most brilliant military minds in France, it seemed to be Joan’s effect on morale alone that was responsible for her success on the battlefield. To this day, she remains the only person of either sex to have command of the entire military might of an entire nation at the age of seventeen.
Obviously, this was a story we had to tell in Age of Kings.
The Joan of Arc Campaign
Like any classical saga, Joan’s story starts from humble beginnings, builds to greatness but just before the happy climax, there is a moment of great tragedy. The adventure begins when Joan must be escorted from the French army camp at Vaucouleurs to the château of the Dauphin at Chinon. From there, Joan’s army must slowly reclaim land, cities and castles from the French, starting with Orléans, and moving on to Patay, Rheims and finally Paris. Most people know of Joan’s fate, and we did not want to deviate too much from the richness of the historical story. However, the risk of defeating great leaders is making martyrs.
In Age of Empires, the campaigns loosely followed the rise of power of ancient civilizations, with a couple of brief cinematics thrown in for good measure. In Age of Empires II, the campaigns are story-based. Each campaign begins and ends with a narrative, told from the first person perspective of someone who witnessed the story unfolding. The narrative includes appropriate music and sound effects, sketches of people, events, and maps of the battlefield, and of course a professional actor with appropriate accent.
The Challenge
The narrator for the Joan story is the fictional Guy Josselyne, a veteran soldier of the French army who rises to a position of command once he chooses to follow Joan of Arc. The story continues to be told within the scenario itself, so that the players should not feel they are just playing a random map with some window dressing, but that they are actually being thrust into the historical events themselves. Everywhere possible where it did not interfere with gameplay, we deferred to history, even down to the layout of some of the French cities.
Characters, Enemies and Allies
Very detailed accounts exist of the events surrounding Joan’s life. For example, we know that the two knights that rode with Joan to Chinon were Sieurs Jean de Metz and Betrand de Poulengy, so of course both of these heroes appear in the campaign. Joan will also team up with the scoundrel La Hire, the patrician Duc D’Alençon, and Jean Bureau, Master of the Bombard Cannon. Joan will need these allies as she comes up against England’s ram-building Lord Shrewsbury and the foppish Sir John Fastolf (model for Shakespeare’s Falstaff in Henry IV).
Joan's Quest
The mighty English (Britons) and conniving Burgundians (Franks) are the main enemies in the Joan campaign. There are a few allied forces available on some of the scenarios, and there are always veteran soldiers ready to follow Joan’s banner.
Hint from the Designers
Throughout much of the Joan campaign, you will be pitting the Franks (French) vs. the Britons (English). The Britons, of course, are masters of ranged combat. There are two main strategies the Franks can use to neutralize this advantage. Franks have exceptional cavalry, and a charge of upgraded Paladins can close and defeat Longbowmen if the latter are not paired with Pikemen. Secondly, in late Imperial the Franks receive gunpowder units, such as the Bombard Cannon and Cannon Galleon. The Britons are gunpowder-poor, and may have a hard time stopping a large force of well-protected gunpowder-siege weapons.
The Bridge to Freedom
New Scenario Art
It would have been difficult to recreate Orleans, without a bridge across the Loire. Therefore, we included bridges in the scenario editor. Bridges are placed in segments, with ramps on either end and straight-sections in the middle. Bridges allow land units to cross water and prevent the passage of ships. Bridges cannot be built by villagers during the course of a scenario, but they can help create maps that look much more believable.
The Learning Campaign
Real Time Strategy games, by their very nature, can have a steep learning curve. Age of Kings has a rather robust learning campaign centered around the Scottish rebellion of William Wallace. The inclusion of triggers in Age of Kings allows us to provide a lot of instructions and feedback to the player (in authentic Scottish brogue, of course). The narrator will instruct the player how to build a tower, for example, and then when the tower is built, can congratulate the player before moving on to the next task.
Victory…French style! Ooh la la.
There are seven learning scenarios that can be played in any order. Therefore, fans new to the Age of Empires series can start with the basics of clicking where they want units to move, while veterans can skip to the end of the campaign to see how Castles, Formations and Trebuchets work before jumping into Random Maps or the four main Age of Kings campaigns. A great deal of work went into the learning campaign, and we hope that it allows casual gamers who might be intimidated by the detail of RTS games to enjoy Age of Kings.
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