Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition News

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition just kicked off its 2020 Winter Celebration, which lets players enjoy the festive season with fun mods for existing factions, and some new items and decorations. Players have until January 1st to secure these new items by completing different daily challenges over a five-day period...
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It’s that time again! Visit the official Age of Empires forum to vote for your Ranked map pool for the remainder of 2020.

[h3]1v1 Random Maps[/h3]
✔ ARABIA
✔ ARENA
✔ FOUR LAKES
✔ WATER NOMAD

[h3]Team Games[/h3]
✔ ARABIA
✔ ARENA
✔ BLACK FOREST
✔ NOMAD
✔ TEAM ISLANDS
✔ VALLEY

To participate in the community ranked map pool vote, you will need to login to the official Age forum using your free Microsoft account. Then, click the images below to jump to this week’s polls.

:alertalert: Polls are open until NOON Pacific on Sunday, December 13 (or 3:00p Eastern / 19:00 UTC), so be sure to cast your vote and check back to see which maps emerge victorious!

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With the end of the year approaching fast, the winter festivities are kicking off with a familiar celebration in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition! We've prepared an avalanche of new, winter-themed goodies—available alongside last year's rewards—for you to unlock and enjoy over the next month. All of these presents are yours to open as a part of the WINTER FESTIVAL EVENT!

• Unlock three new Winter-Themed Profile Icons!
• Unlock the Snowman-At-Arms mod to replace your Man-At-Arms with festive snowmen! ⛄⛄⛄
  
• Unlock Snowman Decorations for your Town Center!
  
• Unlock Sparkling Winter Bells to replace Gold deposits!

Starting TODAY through JANUARY 1st, complete the in-game tasks within the time limit to unlock exclusive goodies! Here are the challenges available over the next two weeks:

🎯 Sign into Xbox Live.
🏆 Unlocks the Viking Berserker profile icon.
💾 *Required* if you want to save any rewards unlocked during the event!

Each of the following challenges must be unlocked in order and on separate days:

🔒 Play any Campaign mission and receive a medal.
🧱 [Mod] Unlocks Town Center Snowman Decorations.

🔒 Defeat an AI at any difficulty in Skirmish.
🏆 Unlocks the Two-Handed-Snowman profile icon.

🔒 Play any standard game.
🧱 [Mod] Unlocks the Snowman-At-Arms, a visual replacement for the man-at-arms.

🔒 Defeat an AI at Standard or higher difficulty in Skirmish.
🏆 Unlocks the Present Onager profile icon.

🔒 Play The Art of War mission “Booming” and receive a medal. 
🧱 [Mod] Gold Mine visuals replaced by Piles of Bells. 

In addition to this year's rewards, all of last year's rewards are available for you to keep! 2019's profile icons are already in your icon library to select and show off your festive holiday spirit, and the 2019 Winter Celebration Mod can be found and downloaded in the Age mod database!




Remember: if you sign in to Xbox Live during the event, you’ll get to keep all of the mods and profile icons you’ve achieved! Sign in, earn your rewards, and enjoy the winter-themed event!

We hope you enjoy the Winter Festival Event! And don’t forget to sign into Xbox Live to ensure you keep everything you unlock!

—The Age of Empires Team

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Here is the latest Ranked Map Rotation as determined by the developer picks and community vote. For the next two weeks, you’ll be able to pick from the new set of maps listed below!

Map pools as of: 6p Pacific (9p ET / 20:00 UTC / 22:00 CEST) on Tuesday, December 01 to Tuesday, December 15

This week's 1v1 Community Map Picks are in BOLD.

This week's TG Community Map Picks are in BOLD.

It’s that time again! Visit the official Age of Empires forum to vote for your Ranked map pool for the next two weeks.

[h3]1v1 Random Maps[/h3]
✔ ARABIA
✔ ARENA
✔ MIGRATION
✔ SERENGETI

[h3]Team Games[/h3]
✔ ARABIA
✔ ARENA
✔ BLACK FOREST
✔ GHOST LAKE
✔ ISLANDS
✔ MEGARANDOM

To participate in the community ranked map pool vote, you will need to login to the official Age forum using your free Microsoft account. Then, click the images below to jump to this week’s polls.

:alertalert: Polls are open until NOON Pacific on Sunday, November 29 (or 3:00p Eastern / 19:00 UTC), so be sure to cast your vote and check back to see which maps emerge victorious!