“Nice town, I’ll take it.” 5 of the best Age of Empires II mods

Chances are that if indulging your inner warrior and conquering swathes of virtual kingdoms is your poison, then you’ve tried your hand at Age of Empires II at least once. While they’ve been other iterations of this franchise since, AOE II is still arguably the most iconic Age of Empires game of all time. 

After all, how could you not love its balanced, intuitive gameplay, the fact it allows you to hurl amusing, yet brutal taunts such as “you played for two hours to die like that?” at your vanquished opponents or that you could cheat your way to crushing your enemies with a fleet of AC Cobras that fired bullets?

So, in honour of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition’s release on xBox Series S/X, we’re taking a look back at 5 of the finest AOE II mods from down the years.

Contents:

1. Sheep Launcher
2. Game of Thrones Taunts V2
3. Enhanced Blood
4. Cartoon Empires
5. Sea of Thieves Mod

Sheep Launcher

We kick things off this week with a question: have you ever wondered what it would feel like to shoot sheep out of a cannon? Probably never or maybe once in a blue moon at the most, right? Well, just in case such a prospect has your sense of curiosity tingling, an amusing AOE II mod from a user named Gallas allows you to do just that.

It works by replacing in-game projectiles with sheep, meaning you can destroy your enemies by hurling wave upon wave of our fluffy friends at them in order to turn their infrastructure into dust.

It sounds daft, but if you’re looking for a slice of ridiculous fun, you’d be hard pressed to find a funnier mod than this one.

Game of Thrones Taunts V2

However, turning sheep into cannon fodder is far from the only amusing AOE II mod out there as this Game of Thrones-inspired mod illustrates. Essentially, this mod replaces the in-game taunts with famous lines from GOT, thereby allowing you to belittle your enemies with such zingers as “You know nothing, Jon Snow.”

Incidentally, this isn’t the only Game of Thrones mod which AOE II players can take advantage of as Ozhara also released one which allows you to take in the epic soundtrack to the aforementioned series while slaying everything in your path to imperial domination.

Enhanced Blood

If you thought that the one thing this classic title was missing was a little bit more blood, guts and gore, then there are not just one, but two mods out there to answer your prayers, the aptly named Enhanced Blood 1 and 2.

Essentially, they do exactly what they say on the tin by enhancing the visuals with blood for units killed in battle, which also adds a touch of realism to proceedings. The second of these mods also really dials up the intensity by enabling blood to squirt and splatter from all units during battle making battles look like they are, in the words of its creator, “straight from a Tarantino film”.

Cartoon Empires

However, if gore isn’t really your thing and giving this game a more cutesy, cartoony look sounds like more your cup of tea, then the Cartoon Empires mod should be up your street.

This mod essentially makes the game look a bit like it’s an episode of The Simpsons and arguably serves as a welcome distraction from the grittiness of virtual war. 

That being said, it’s worth noting that this mod’s creator didn’t actually manage to render areas of this game’s maps in this style, which means the original game skins are still showing in places, which gives quite a strange feel to the gaming experience.

Sea of Thieves Mod

Arrr’ mateys! We round this week off with a mod that encourages you to unleash your inner Long John Silver. The aim of the game here is simple: you build your own unique ships and lock horns with up to 5 of your friends on a free-for-all map as you fight to gain dominance over seas and islands.

Some users have even commented that there’s more to explore in this mod than in the main game itself. So, if you’re looking to get the most out of Age of Empires II, this mod could be exactly what you’re looking for.