Campaign storytelling at it's best. Transition from Mongols to Cumans.

Spoiler warning for Mongol and Cuman campaigns.

I've been playing through all the campaign's slowly. I started by just Cherry picking the ones that interested me but after about the 3rd one I did something different, I went and found the earliest chronological one I could find and began choosing the next based on its year range after finishing each one. For the most part there are only loose tie-ins with other campaign's, with a reference here or there to other nations, land or events. Sometimes not even that.

But holy cow, after finishing the Genghis Khan campaign, and learning of the atrocities they committed in more detail, (I was aware they were Jerks to their victims beforehand) and then to follow on to the Kotyan Khan mission 1 and 2 was truly moving.

The narration for the Mongol campaign was quite poor and definitely broke verisimilitude, but forgiving that, the high quality of the Cuman narration made for a real feeling of misery, despair and survival as you succeed in the 1st mission only to read about this grand looking army getting slaughtered, outmatched and brutalized. Princes that you just aided, riding off into clouds of smoke never to be seen again.

And then mission 2 just punches you right in the face as your temporary allies get overrun and slaughtered.

I'm all for trying to break maps and spend hours trying to tickle out a win I shouldn't be able to get, but man - fleeing with feudal cavalry as post imperial Mongols chase after you was very one sided, if you tried to kill even just one of them!

These two campaigns flow on from one another so well and I wanted to share my experience with anyone who loves single player storytelling. This has been by far the greatest moment I've had in aoe2.

I'm aware that I have not been a part of this subreddit for long and may be in a small minority here as many people might just be here for the PvP scene. All good.