Age of Chivalry: Hegemony map image

Age of Chivalry already has more civs than AoE2HD, which means it can't be ported there (as unlike the original game, HD doesn't support adding new civs) and with this patch it will also have more civs than the Forgotten expansion for HD, so porting it there won't be possible either (HD is less mod friendly than the original, for example it doesn't let you use custom user interfaces).

Broadly speaking the Papal States' own troops aren't that good, but they will have a very large assortment of mercenaries available to them, for which they can also get bonuses through research to further boost them. For policy decisions, they can choose between Avignon Papacy, Roman Papacy and Roman Republic, the first two of which generally boost mercenaries while the latter improves militia units (useful if you're on a map with little silver). They also have a choice of four different alliances (each policy decision will unlock two alliances, between which the player must pick) which again boost different aspects of the country.

In addition to that, the Papal States can declare a Jubilee Year once each century, which will cost food and wood and give them the same amount of resources back in florins. So it's essentially a free trade (very useful for a civ so reliant on florins!).

They also get some building bonuses - buildings cost 20% less wood and architecture research is free. Stone miners also work more quickly.

Their team bonus is that priests can convert (previously this was limited to very few civs, but now each civ can do this when allied to the Papal States).

Don't count on it. This is the labour of love of one guy doing all the research, planning and coding and making all the buildings, and another guy making all the units. Considering we get nothing in return for this you should be glad with what you get - and that, after years, this is still being worked on - rather than demand more and more countries, each of which takes a LOT of work. It's still going to be a while before this updated version will be released, as these countries I've just announced are still far from finished.

Hi, thanks for the compliments! Glad to hear you liked it! The Bohemian music is a medieval Bohemian song that was often sung before battle, so it made sense to use it as intro music for Bohemia. I've used 'local' historical music for all countries wherever possible.

Yes, Windows 8 should pose no problems at all. You just need a copy of the original AoK:TC rather than the HD version.

Thanks! The Brandenburg theme is from the Joculatores Upsalienses album 'Woods, Women and Wine' (1990), the music they perform is Hermann Finck's 'Sauff aus und machs nit lang'.
England's theme is 'Deduc, syon', performed by the New London Consort on the album 'Songs of the Middle Ages' (2000), the original composer is unknown.
The theme for Liège is 'Pavane des dieux', from the Maastricht Songbook CD from Camerata Trajectina (1999), again with an anonymous composer (but published in the early 16th century Maastricht Songbook).
Are there any others you are looking for?

Poland's is the 'Bogurodzica', a 13th century Marian hymn. Unfortunately I can't find which performance I used for it.

The Bohemian song is 'Ktož jsú Boží bojovníci', 'You who are the warriors of God', a 15th century Hussite battle song, performed by the Prague Philharmonic Choir, on the album 'The Oldest Monuments of Czech Music'.

The Austrian song is 'Clauso Cronos', another anonymous song, from the New London Consort's Songs of the Middle Ages.

Unfortunately I can't find the origin of the Danish tune right now, but I'll let you know when I do!

For the new countries:
- Papal States: 'Congaudeant catholici' (preserved in the Codex Calixtinus), from the album 'Miracles of Santiago' by Anonymous 4. (Not written for the Papacy specifically, but the song, 'let all catholics rejoice together', seemed very appropriate)

- Naples: 'Viva el Rey Don Fernando' (comp. Carlo Verardi), from the album 'Dinastia Borgia - Chiesa e Potere nel Rinascimento' by Hesperion XXI. (This was a tune written for King Ferdinand II of Aragon, who also became king of Naples)

- Hungary: musical introduction to 'Domna N'Almucs, si-us plages' (comp. Iseut de Capio/Almuc de Castelnau), from the album 'The Sweet Look and the Loving Manner' by Sinfonye. (I couldn't find any actual medieval Hungarian music - this introduction kind of catches the intended sphere, however)

Lithuania isn't in Age of Chivalry on its own, but if you play as Poland you can sign the union of Krewo and get a Lithuanian cavalry unit, the Bajoras.

Thanks for your kind words! I'm really glad you're enjoying it so much and that you've learned a lot about the middle ages! I've noticed that a lot of medieval-themed mods for games like the Total War series, or other strategy games, tend to focus on the same sets of countries, and I thought it would be interesting to instead look mostly at smaller states, of which there were far more in the period than there are today. I'm really encouraged to see people enjoy this aspect of Age of Chivalry, which hopefully makes it stand out from other mods.

Speaking of the music, the files are located in the Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\Games\Age of Chivalry\Sound\Stream folder. If you look at the files, you'll see that a lot of them still have metadata showing composer, performers, album title, etc. The two songs playing on the main menu are: 'Laus Trinitati' and 'O Pastor Animarum', composed by the German medieval abbess Hildegard von Bingen, and performed by the Oxford Camerata on the album 'Heavenly Revelations'. If you have any other questions feel free to ask, I love medieval music as a genre and am more than happy to help people find out about it. :)

I am not planning on adding any other countries.