The Golden One - Age of Empires 3： Definitive Edition. The Swedes. Siege of Malta. Barbary Pirates.

00:00:00.000 PANTICULAR

00:00:30.000 Let's go.

00:01:00.000 Let's go.

00:01:30.000 Greetings, Laddingtons. Welcome to Age of Empires 3 Definitive Edition.

00:01:35.400 First and foremost, shout out to my Czech friend and supporter, Jean, for gifting me this fine game.

00:01:41.280 As I might have mentioned before, my schedule isn't as flexible as it used to be,

00:01:46.540 so I won't make a Let's Play series of this game, but rather just a quick view of it.

00:01:52.040 I did play it quite a bit back in the day, and I've always been a great fan of all Age of Empires games,

00:01:56.860 so I thought it's only reasonable that I do a look at this fine game.

00:02:03.040 And I've always liked the aesthetics of it.

00:02:05.240 The game really captures the adventure and exploration feel of the European powers back in the day.

00:02:11.520 So you can see the gameplay before you hear you can be the main European powers,

00:02:17.520 and this addition they've also, to my great joy, added the Swedes.

00:02:22.540 So as you see before you right now, we have a representation of Stockholm.

00:02:27.740 And if you look on the aesthetic castle to your left, it's the old Tre Kronor castle.

00:02:33.420 It unfortunately burnt down and was replaced by what you see today if you go to Old Town Stockholm.

00:02:40.160 So, otherwise, it's a quite nice representation you had before you here.

00:02:44.480 And since we are on the topic of the Swedes as a civilization in the game,

00:02:50.260 I thought to show you a few fun things in the deck builder here.

00:02:55.860 So basically, when you play Age of Empires III, you can get shipments from your home city in the form of cards.

00:03:02.340 And I saw this fun card here.

00:03:07.840 Sjurströmming ships two fish crates.

00:03:10.500 So basically, Sjurströmming is a very particular Swedish dish,

00:03:14.380 which I must admit, and I'm sorry to all fellow Swedes here,

00:03:18.420 I am not a great fan of it, and it smells horrendous.

00:03:22.140 But some people love it, and it's a part of Swedish culture.

00:03:24.620 So it was nice to see the Sjurströmming make an appearance in the game.

00:03:29.780 Then we have some other cards that I thought to show you here.

00:03:35.620 Vasa.

00:03:36.520 And this is a reference to the great battleship Vasa.

00:03:40.640 It sunk just outside of Stockholm on its maiden voyage.

00:03:43.840 Quite a tragedy.

00:03:45.360 So if you go to Stockholm today, you can go to Vasa Museet,

00:03:48.520 which is a museum where they have the ship on display.

00:03:52.200 So it was not completely lost to the ages,

00:03:55.780 but it was a great and rather humiliating incident for the Swedish crown back in the day.

00:04:03.600 But that's a nice touch to include that there.

00:04:07.280 Then also we have allotment system.

00:04:10.480 And this is a reference to the fact that,

00:04:13.180 quite similar to how the Romans did it,

00:04:15.480 that a legionnaire got a bit of land after their military service.

00:04:19.780 Same thing in Sweden,

00:04:20.920 where the soldiers got a torp,

00:04:23.160 so it's a small cottage,

00:04:24.720 and some land after a military service.

00:04:27.700 So that is represented by this fine card here.

00:04:31.460 Then, to my great joy,

00:04:36.020 I saw that you had a card called Svea Lifeguard,

00:04:39.360 Svea Livgarde,

00:04:40.220 and that is actually where I did my military service.

00:04:43.400 So whenever I play this,

00:04:45.000 if I have the time to play this game,

00:04:47.100 I will include this all at all times.

00:04:51.360 So good stuff, good stuff.

00:04:54.040 So anyway, that was all for the cards.

00:04:57.000 And also in this definitive edition,

00:04:59.120 except for the Swedes,

00:05:00.380 they've also included the Incas as a playable civilization.

00:05:04.960 Now the Incas, of course, 0.85

00:05:05.960 were a powerful empire,

00:05:08.160 South America,

00:05:08.880 until the Spanish adventurer and explorer

00:05:13.580 and conquistador Francisco Pizarro

00:05:17.080 came with a rather small band of Spanish conquistadors

00:05:21.280 to conquer the empire.

00:05:24.700 Quite impressive,

00:05:26.000 speaking in pure military terms,

00:05:28.660 how they could conquer it,

00:05:30.380 just being so few men.

00:05:32.420 Then also,

00:05:33.200 a difference between this definitive edition

00:05:36.180 and the previous edition

00:05:37.460 is that the former Sioux

00:05:40.260 has been renamed to Lakota.

00:05:43.060 And the developers of this edition

00:05:46.000 actually consulted with Amerindian individuals

00:05:49.560 to make the representation of the tribes

00:05:53.200 more accurate.

00:05:54.860 So that's good.

00:05:57.040 Same thing here.

00:05:58.340 They were previously known as the Iroquois,

00:06:00.580 and now,

00:06:01.320 and I will see if I can get this pronunciation correctly,

00:06:05.140 Haudenoshuani.

00:06:07.800 No idea how you actually pronounce it,

00:06:09.820 but I'm guessing something like that.

00:06:11.980 So anyway,

00:06:12.520 they made some changes to the gameplay

00:06:14.240 of the Amerindian tribes,

00:06:16.540 but we're not going to get into that all too much.

00:06:19.160 But I want to show you something else.

00:06:20.960 We have historical battles,

00:06:22.700 and here we have Algiers 15-16,

00:06:27.040 and you're playing as the Barbary pirates,

00:06:29.880 and the enemy is the Spanish.

00:06:31.460 Now, of course,

00:06:31.940 I would want to have it the other way around,

00:06:34.760 considering the Spanish and French,

00:06:38.220 they did a great service for Mother Europe

00:06:41.200 back in the day.

00:06:42.580 So what happened during this time

00:06:45.080 was that in North Africa,

00:06:47.160 they staged slave raids

00:06:48.460 that reached all the way up to Iceland.

00:06:50.640 So basically,

00:06:51.560 the countries along the Mediterranean coast

00:06:53.980 and the Atlantic coast,

00:06:55.260 so France, Spain, Portugal,

00:06:56.980 France again on the Atlantic side,

00:06:59.220 England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Iceland,

00:07:03.680 were all subject to slave raiders

00:07:05.480 from the Barbary coast.

00:07:07.380 So one day,

00:07:08.540 the Spanish had had enough, 1.00

00:07:10.740 so they decided to implement their will

00:07:13.700 on some of the states there.

00:07:15.780 Same thing,

00:07:16.680 the French during the 19th century

00:07:19.240 also had enough of the slave raiders, 0.98

00:07:21.640 so they simply conquered

00:07:22.800 a lot of the territory.

00:07:24.740 But in this battle,

00:07:25.780 you are defending against the Spanish, 1.00

00:07:28.220 so you can continue your slave raids.

00:07:30.880 But yeah,

00:07:31.820 I might play it at some stage anyway,

00:07:34.140 just for the historical knowledge.

00:07:36.700 And speaking of historical knowledge,

00:07:38.380 we have also story mode here,

00:07:40.120 and I will show you this fine introduction

00:07:45.180 to the campaign.

00:07:47.680 So I played this back in the day,

00:07:49.600 and I will show it to you now.

00:07:52.660 So the Knights of St. John,

00:07:55.320 more commonly known as the Hospitallers,

00:07:57.520 they fared a bit better

00:07:58.680 than their brother organization

00:08:00.940 or even rival organization

00:08:02.780 of the Templars,

00:08:03.940 who, as I mentioned on my Instagram

00:08:05.760 the other day,

00:08:07.120 they got betrayed by the Pope

00:08:10.220 and the French King Philip

00:08:11.820 on the fateful day of Friday,

00:08:15.780 the 13th of 1307.

00:08:19.500 But the Hospitallers managed to survive,

00:08:22.160 and they eventually landed in Malta,

00:08:24.460 where they successfully led the defense

00:08:26.540 against the Ottoman invaders.

00:08:28.800 And also the capital of Malta

00:08:31.120 is named Valletta

00:08:32.280 after the Grand Master,

00:08:34.040 Sjande Vallette.

00:08:34.660 So let's look at the cinematic.

00:08:37.380 The story of why my family

00:08:39.060 first came to the New World

00:08:40.420 begins with the attack on Malta,

00:08:42.600 the last stronghold

00:08:43.660 of a dying order of Crusader knights.

00:08:46.540 This much is fact.

00:08:48.440 My ancestor Morgan Black

00:08:50.060 was with the Knights of St. John

00:08:51.620 when they defended the island

00:08:52.900 from Sahin and the Ottomans.

00:08:55.460 The rest, well,

00:08:57.220 like most family stories,

00:08:59.060 it's hard to separate the truth

00:09:00.660 from the legend.

00:09:04.660 Morgan, the Ottomans have landed.

00:09:18.160 A thousand Janissaries

00:09:19.280 led by Sahin the Falcon.

00:09:21.380 Alain Magnin still commands the knights,

00:09:23.660 and he says we must hold them at the beach.

00:09:26.180 We'll make our stand here.

00:09:27.800 The Crusades are dead.

00:09:31.320 Your knighthood is all that remains.

00:09:33.360 A relic.

00:09:34.520 I'm not ready to die just yet, Vulcan.

00:09:36.860 And I don't intend to see

00:09:38.100 our knighthood broken.

00:09:40.080 It is already broken, Morgan.

00:09:42.720 Will you break with it?

00:09:44.520 Move the crossbow to the forward walls

00:09:55.040 to attack the Janissaries.

00:09:56.740 Defend the fort at all costs.

00:10:00.180 So now we get to see a bit

00:10:01.700 of the gameplay as well.

00:10:03.560 So here we have Janissaries,

00:10:05.600 the Ottoman elite troops,

00:10:07.000 and they were actually taken as slaves

00:10:10.100 from Eastern Europe

00:10:11.960 and then trained to be the elite troops

00:10:14.360 of the Ottomans.

00:10:15.920 So that is the story of the Janissaries.

00:10:20.360 And I'm not going to play through

00:10:21.600 this entire scenario,

00:10:22.720 but I just wanted to show a bit of it.

00:10:24.780 And I was actually in Malta

00:10:26.460 when I was 15,

00:10:27.880 and got to know about this

00:10:31.240 highly inspiring story

00:10:32.740 of the defense of Malta.

00:10:34.140 So it's always been

00:10:35.460 an inspiring event

00:10:38.340 for me personally.

00:10:41.520 So anyway,

00:10:42.480 I know it's a common topic

00:10:43.920 to discuss gaming,

00:10:45.740 and I know some good men

00:10:47.340 have legit criticism

00:10:49.000 against gaming culture, etc.

00:10:51.480 But for me,

00:10:52.800 playing Age of Empires,

00:10:53.840 all the games have greatly helped

00:10:56.100 in my historical interest,

00:10:58.820 and I've always managed to

00:11:00.540 balance it in quite a good way.

00:11:03.040 Now, of course,

00:11:03.600 if you are in a situation

00:11:04.640 where you play too much

00:11:06.720 and you skip the gym, etc.,

00:11:08.100 it's obviously not a good idea

00:11:10.000 to do it too much.

00:11:10.880 But doing it in moderation

00:11:12.000 after you've done

00:11:12.680 your other duties,

00:11:14.600 that's absolutely fine.

00:11:16.260 And especially a game

00:11:17.180 such as this,

00:11:17.940 if it really captures

00:11:18.980 a good spirit,

00:11:20.000 if it teaches you

00:11:21.380 some history,

00:11:22.120 if it gives you

00:11:22.960 a higher interest in history,

00:11:25.220 it's all good,

00:11:26.360 in my view.

00:11:27.680 So Age of Empires 3,

00:11:29.900 great aesthetics.

00:11:30.980 I'm very impressed

00:11:32.200 by the new graphics

00:11:33.180 here as well.

00:11:34.960 And yeah,

00:11:35.900 I might play it some

00:11:36.700 if I have more time

00:11:38.960 in the coming time,

00:11:40.300 but who knows?

00:11:42.160 So anyway,

00:11:43.000 that was all for this video.

00:11:45.140 Just wanted to have

00:11:45.860 a quick look,

00:11:46.800 talk a bit about

00:11:47.500 the Swedish historical references.

00:11:50.280 I do have a Swedish history video

00:11:51.740 incoming in a few days,

00:11:54.660 so stay tuned for that.

00:11:56.840 And yeah,

00:11:57.680 that being said,

00:11:58.260 have a great week in the head

00:11:59.960 and thank you for watching.

00:12:01.180 XOXO,

00:12:02.120 Boom! 0.99

The Golden One - October 16, 2020

Age of Empires 3： Definitive Edition. The Swedes. Siege of Malta. Barbary Pirates.

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