Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition News

Age of Empires IV at gamescom 2021: Hands on History and New Updates

Hands on History

Today during the gamescom 2021 Xbox Stream, the Age of Empires team revealed an exciting storytelling element from the upcoming Age of Empires IV, Hands on History. This series of twenty-eight unlockable videos was filmed on location with experts around the world, and give players a deeper look into the way people lived, fought and ruled in the past. Age of Empires IV will bring history to life like never before, with Hands on History telling more stories as players build, battle and Age up!

Fans got an exclusive first look at one of the videos today, highlighting everyone’s favorite medieval weapon – the trebuchet! Shot on location at Warwick Castle in England with Mechanical Engineer Dr. Shini Somara, players saw a full-scale trebuchet in action with insight into how this weapon of war worked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNAp-SO6CvQ

Gamescom 2021 Trailer

As part of gamescom Opening Night Live, the Age of Empires IV team gave a first look at the remaining launch civilizations and campaigns; The Rus, The Holy Roman Empire, The Rise of Moscow and The Mongol Empire.

At launch, players will get to build and expand Moscow over time. The Rus’ skills in hunting, trade and construction combined with a battle-ready cavalry will see them become more powerful as they expand to new frontiers through the Ages. The Opening Night Live trailer showcased two unique units, the Streltsy and Warrior Monks (wololo!). The Streltsy’s combination of axe and gunpowder partnered with the conversion capabilities of Warrior Monks will make a Rus army a force to be reckoned with.

The Holy Roman Empire’s civilization is shaped by a powerful infantry army and early access to religious units. Seen in today’s trailer, their Prelate unit supports and heals, inspiring nearby armies to grant benefits. The two-handed sword of the Landsknecht will be an asset to any battle.

Relic Entertainment will be going live later on Friday to recap the week, chat with the Age of Empires team and answer community questions. Tune in at https://www.twitch.tv/relicentertainment on August 27, 2021 at 4:15 PM PDT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUKSBTeJ7bs
Want to learn more about Age of Empires IV? Head to the Age of Empires website to deep dive on the civilizations, learn more about the campaigns and join the conversation. The game is available for pre-order now on Steam and will be playable starting October 28!
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Age of Empires Anthology Bundle

This week we also released the newest Steam bundle: the Age of Empires Anthology!
Age of Empires Anthology titles included:

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, plus the new “Dawn of the Dukes” and “Lords of the West” expansions
Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition, plus the new “The African Royals” expansion
Age of Empires IV – Digital Deluxe Edition

*Please note: the Anthology does not include the Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition – United States Civilization.
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Gamescom Award

Congratulations to the Age of Empires IV team on a win for the Best Strategy Game award at Gamescom!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUKSBTeJ7bs

Age of Empires 4 isn't out yet, but fans are already deciding what DLC they want first

The Age of Empires IV closed beta is giving people a taste of what's to come as we get closer to the October release date, but even though the highly anticipated RTS game isn't out yet, fans are already deciding which Age of Empires IV civs they'd like to see next in terms of DLC now that we know what the launch options will be.

One poll on the official Age of Empires forums lists out 18 options, and voters have the ability to pick up to nine. The choices could be a little more defined - regions such as South Europe and North Asia are not as easy to parse as South East Asia and North America. There is a list of examples below the poll that denote a known civilisation from a region, although again not all of these are as accurate as they could be.

With a couple of hundred votes in total at the time of writing, South Europe leads the poll with 36%, followed by Mesoamerica with 34%.

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Age of Empires 4: release date, system requirements, and everything else we know

When is Age of Empires 4's release date? Well we've got some good news and some great news. The good news is, we know it's coming in the autumn. The great news is, we know exactly when it's coming, thanks to an announcement during Microsoft's press conference during E3 2021.

With the previous Age of Empires game landing over a decade ago, anticipation for a new entry in the classic RTS game series couldn't be higher if you placed it atop a saddled war elephant and marched it towards an enemy base.

News was slow for the new entry, but thankfully things are picking up: a fan preview broadcast in early 2021 blew the lid on Age of Empires 4 and gave us a ton of new information to work with, and now the recent Microsoft press conference has given us more, including a Steam page. We have rounded as much Age of Empires IV news as possible, so that you're on the same page as us. We'll keep this article updated as and when new information comes to light, but feel free to let us know if there's something important you think we've missed.

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The Age of Empires 4 beta starts this week

Age of Empires IV is due out in just a couple of months now, and we hadn't yet gotten major details about the game's planned beta - until today. The Age of Empires IV closed beta has been confirmed for August 5, and as this story goes live you've got a limited amount of time to get signed up for a chance at access.

The Age of Empires IV closed beta starts on Thursday, August 5 and will last until Monday, August 16. It will be available on both Steam and the Microsoft Store, open to "thousands" of players who've signed up for the Insider program. In order to get access to the current beta, the devs recommend you sign up as an Insider by Tuesday, August 3 (that's today) at 4:59pm PDT / 7:59pm EDT, or August 4 at 12:59am BST.

The beta will include access to the tutorial and eight-player skirmish matches for multiplayer or AI battles. You'll also be able to spectate other players. Four playable factions will be available in the beta: the Mongol, English, Delhi Sultanate, and Chinese civilisations.

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Age of Empires 4 civilisations - a quick guide

Age of Empires 4 will be releasing in October, and we now know what all eight of the launch civilisations are going to be. Initially we were only told about four during the official gameplay reveal back in April, but as part of E3 2021 we learned about the final four.

Age of Empires 4's launch civilisations are meant to represent a wide breadth of cultures and polities that existed during the game's timeframe - which is from around the 11th century through to the start of the Renaissance. There is a European flavour to the launch roster, as three out of four of the launch civs are firmly within the borders of Europe. A fourth - the Rus - are an emergent culture from the inter-mingling of Scandinavian adventurers and the local Slavic population living in western Russia.

The remaining four Age of Empires 4 civs come from other parts of the world - North Africa and the Mediterranean, central/south Asia, and then the steppes and the far east. Plenty of areas don't have any representation though, such as North/South America, central and southern Africa, and parts of south east Asia and the Pacific.

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