Age of Warlords II will follow the same framework as my nearly-finished mod for the original Medieval (for more info please see THIS thread) but expand on it enormously. There will be 3 periods, which you can find more about in the individual threads, and the mod will encompass a near 450 year period from 1154-1603. The hope is that, slackened hardcoded limits permitting, the map will stretch from the Pacific to the centre of Germany and from Greenland down to Brazil, and feature 30 factions, with many ones unique to each period. There are contingency plans in place however should the full version not be able to be realized due to those limits.

Historically this was a highly turbulent period, one of continuous wars, expansion, immense power, religious fervour and downright brutality. The starting dates are deliberate to place you in a major situation in Medieval politics at that point:

1154 - Henry II takes the throne for England and founds the Angevin line of kings, while Emperor Frederick Barbarossa has designs on the Italian States. In the South of France meanwhile, the Heretical Cathar menace grows ever larger.

1337 - The Hundred Years War begin, destined to embroil most of Europe in its carnage.

1461 - The Wars of the Roses are in full flight after a hugely bloody battle at Towton, the Swiss-Burgundian Wars imminent and the Spaniards are ever closer to kicking the Moors out of Europe once and for all. The Age of Exploration is just beginning, with Portuguese sailors reaching as far down as Sierra Leone in Western Africa, while rumours abound of a mysterious landmass to the far, far west......

It was a time of great wars and battles, when Meso-American civilizations were destroyed, Celtic cultures lost into legend and once-great powers faded into obscurity. There was also a great evolution in warfare, with guns beginning to rule the battlefields, which resulted in the death of the knight and effectively Medieval warfare. All of these things you will hopefully be able to recreate, change or merely witness in Age of Warlords II.

The aim of this mod is to make something that while as realistic as possible does not sacrifice good gameplay and fun for authenticity. I do not want to see a faction go over to America and conquer it with a single army, and I definitely do not want to see a faction being wiped out after the first few turns. As such certain things I might do to strengthen/weaken factions, which will hopefully be as subtle as possible, may seem somewhat not true to historical events but will be worth it as they will no doubt make for a much better game in the long run (Things like starting province ownership, unit strengths and so forth).

As in the spirit of how I have previously worked I will continue to build on what CA have already done rather than overhaul the whole thing. Unlike Rome it is clear they have really done their research and made some fantastic looking units so the base is definitely there for the major factions that appear in both campaigns (English, French, HRE and so forth), and for some of the new factions the basic units (Men at Arms, Royal Knights, etc.) can merely be reskinned. Rest assured however, where they warrant re-doing they will be re-done, and while some of the new factions will need, and indeed get entirely new rosters the normal factions will get plenty of new units also. The same thing goes for buildings, events and many other aspects of the game also.

So while we do not know the modding capabilities of Medieval II yet our real hope is to exploit them to the max and add a shed load of things that I hope will make for a very exciting and unique campaign. Given the scope it might take a while to complete but I hope that you can remain patient throughout as I know the mod will be worth the wait in the end.

Thanks for supporting the mod,
BKB and the AOWII team