[Introduction] Ages of Darkness 2 - renovatio imperii -

[Pompeius Magnus]

intro

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Introduction

AoD2 – a mod based on RTW/BI – starts in 527 A.D. – the year in which Justinian became Emperor.
Rome has fallen many years ago. However, the Roman Empire in the east is well prepared, its economy is still strong and the army is powerful.

Is it possible that ‘New Rome’ will rule over the Mare Nostrum again or will the inevitable war bring it into a final decline?

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Diptych - Justinian I

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Ages of Darkness 2 - Renovatio Imperii

• A mod still under construction based on RTW/BI
• A full conversion
• Offers dozens of customised settlement layouts (no clone settlements anymore)
• New music tracks
• Many new 3D buildings for the tactical view
• A new unit roster
• A brand new building tech tree
• Made according new historical references
• A new strat-map including new textures
• New ancillaries and traits
• ...and much more exciting elements ...

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History

The year 476 A.D. is generally accepted as the formal date which saw the end of the Roman Empire in the West.
In that year, Orestes refused the request of Germanic mercenaries in his service for lands in Italy. The dissatisfied mercenaries, led by Oadacer, revolted and deposed the last Western Emperor, Romulus Augustus.
This event has traditionally been considered as the Fall of the Western Empire.

As the Western Empire declined in during the 5th Century, the richer Eastern Roman Empire would be protected from much of the attendant destruction – and in the mid 6th Century, under the Emperor Justinian, it would re-conquer Italy and parts of Illyria from the Ostrogoths, North Africa from the Vandals and southern Hispania from the Visigoths.
The re-conquest of southern Hispania was somewhat ephemeral but North Africa served the Romans for another century with parts of Italy for another five centuries, and parts of Illyria even longer.

527 A.D.
Justinian’s reign is marked by the ambitious renovation imperii – or ‘restoration of the empire’. This ambition was expressed in the partial recovery of the territories of the Western Roman Empire, including the City of Rome itself.
A still more resonant aspect of his legacy was the uniform re-writing of Roman Law, the Corpus Juris Civilis, which is still the basis of Civil Law in many modern states.

His reign also marked a blossoming of Byzantine culture while his building programme yielded such masterpieces as the church of Hagia Sophia, which was to be the centre of the Eastern Orthodox Church for many centuries.

icon 6th century

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our content

Ages of Darkness 2 offer an authentic unit roster – the result of many years of research – for all factions within the mod.

You will become part of that exciting period.
The Roman player will prepare the economy and the troops for an expensive adventure in the West.
However, the Roman player must also be prepared for a challenge in the East.

Playing one of the Western civilised ‘barbarians’ offers several features also. You might attempt to establish an empire after the Roman model or alternatively travel in a different direction.
Playing the Sassanid Empire is also a difficult task – your enemies are standing around your country and are only waiting on the right moment to invade the rich satrápēs.

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our factions

Imperivm Romanvm
Regnvm Tvringorvm
Persarmenia
Regnvm Hirae
Britanni
Regnvm Francorvm
Hvnni
Regnvm Gepidorvm
Rex Regvm
Saxones
Regnvm Vandalorvm et Alanorvm
Regnvm Visigothorvm
Scoti
Regnvm Italiae et Gothorvm
Avari
Langobardi
Regnvm Mavrorvm et Romanorvm
Regnvm Bvrgvndionvm
Regnvm Sveborvm

Click here for our poll - your vote is welcome

(note: the map is very simplyfied and doesn't show the real circumstances.
However, it gives an overview about the location of the post-roman kingdoms)

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our team

Naughteous Maximus research, advisor

SeniorBatavianHorse reading and correcting errors, english translations

Joar portraits

Wundai 3D building reconstructions (strat map and tactical view)

Thor the Bassist advisor

William the Silent research, hist.events

Apple makes brand new music tracks

constantius research, advisor

empio unit maker

jermagon research, 2D art

Pompeius Magnus mod-leader, coordination, coding, 2D work, responsible for the mod concept, research

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previews and teasers

the Theodosian wall

the XXL preview with many battle scenes

about Britannia and its factions

the Nika riots of Constantinople

a reconstruction of Rome

a reconstruction of Rome

the Nika riots of Constantinople

the Ostrogothic army

furthermore some teasers of coming previews and 3D building projects

Hagia Sophia

the Taq-i Kisra of Ctesiphon

new romano-byzantine forts and germanic hill-forts

Aegyptus - Egypt

a teaser about the Holy city of Jerusalem

a teaser about the Sassanian army

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screenshots

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[messiah]

Awesome!

Can't wait for the mod! I don't know how much you have to do, but I really hope you make it by Christmas.

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

An excellent summation of the various previews and an overall view of the mod. Well done everyone - looking forward to this release. If I can help in any way outwith modding just let me know!

[demagogos nicator]

realy awsome, i just hope that i will be able to run it on my computer

[BasarMilesTeg]

Will be slavic people in this mode?

[Aetius1]

yes, it's a perfect summary. And the last screenshots are stunning.

[Basilisco]

I only have to say that is going the best mod of TW history. No joke.

But it would be greater if could be playable until the Rashidun horde comes up so you can battle it. That would be the perfect colophon.

[Pompeius Magnus]

You can play AoD2 up to 640 or 660AD (end-date is still not fixed)
AoD part 3 (is planned) starts in 636AD - the day before Yarmuk and ends in 800AD.

[paradamed]

Will you change the battlefield environments? (trees, grass, etc)?

[Pericles of Athens]

This is going to be a great mod cant wait till realse

[Pompeius Magnus]

Will you change the battlefield environments? (trees, grass, etc)?

yes, a new enviroment is in work.

[Poetarmato]

Very intersting, +rep.

[Ving]

Looks wonderful

[mgabor27]

I'm so waiting this mode. The time of Iustinianus is one of my favorite historical period, he was one of the greatest emperors and his army leaders also were very talents. I'm very interested in your future plans (AoD 3) too not because of the Heraclian dynasty but the chance to play in the time of the Carolingian dynasty' rises. I could never understand why didn't make a mod about them...a mod about Iustinianus was one of my dreams and it seems to be getting reality a mod about Carolus Magnus is the other one. For latter unfortunately I need waiting...

Keep up this good job, the pics are so amazing! I'm sure the game will be more amazing

[Pompeius Magnus]

many thanx for the kind words in the name of the complete team!

[The Awesome Boy]

This will be awesome!

[cocobongoclub-DJ]

That's a great work, keep on...

[Deutschland]

for colonia agrippina i would have preferred the other wall texture style since it is a former western roman province. this looks to byzantine in my eyes.

[Pompeius Magnus]

first of all: the wall texture isn't fixed yet and just a test. I made a bundle of detailed and photo-realistic wall textures. Simply said: We have others.
Regarding the stripes we discussed this question in the other thread about the byzantine forts. Many photos, images and descriptions were posted which clearly shows that the striped design was in use in the western half of the roman empire since the early era of the late antiquity - even in Britain.

If Colonia or any other AoD-city was really using that kind of wall is another question - but generally we have our limits concerning the walls and its coding.
The vanilla stone-walls are used by so called barbarians and the same stone-wall is also used by Romans. To add a complete new second wall-model is another task which is beyond our available time.

Finally we have to decide now what kind of walls serves the general appearance of that time epoch of the 5th, 6th and 7th century and we came to the result that the stripe design is a good compromise for the western half as well as for the eastern half.
However, the stones will be changed- that's for sure. Here we will use another design - similar to that of vanilla RTW/BI - but improved in some ways.

[Magister Militum Flavius Aetius]

+rep! This looks as good as the IB mods!!! Definately gonna DL this when it's released!