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I got a little too excited for the release of the DLC, and long story short, ended up playing through the entire Edward Longshanks campaign on Hard already. I've always wanted to do a comprehensive review series on all of AOE2's campaigns, but that will definitely take some time- so I wanted to give everyone who hasnt had a chance to play the new British campaign my thoughts on the missions and their difficulty.
I tend to take some interest in the actual history behind the campaign, and Edward Longshanks is indeed a fascinating person, so it was fun to follow his story. I thought the moments they chose to put in campaign were very well-picked, and highlight some of his greatest moments. The highlight of the campaign for me was the final mission, Hammer of the Scots, which pits you against an old friend- William Wallace! Unfortunately, he's much more effective as an enemy than a friend, and proves for a very challenging fight, even if you manage to kill his Hero unit and scatter his army early. It's interesting to not only go up on the opposite side of the Celts/Britons rivalry, but to fight Imperial-age Celtic armies, which you don't see too often in campaigns. Celt Siege Rams are scarily good at tearing down your defenses.
My strategy for the entire series was the combination of Cavaliers and Longbowmen- the bows keep everything at bay, and the Cavs rush out to deal with problematic siege units (especially Onagers, as one good shot from a Siege Onager can decimate bowmen). Mixing in Trebuchets managed to let the army work on both offense and defense. You'll learn to adore Longbowmen over the course of the campaign- when fully upgraded they can outrange towers and Castles, which lets you poke away to great effect.
The difficulty here is very fair, especially for a one-sword campaign: I found some missions slightly harder than others, but noticed that the difficulty was relatively stable throughout the whole series. There were none that stood out as particularly brutal or particularly easy- however, if I had to pick, I'd say the hardest parts were the finale and the last 20 minutes of the second mission. You can still get through them with time and management, but fully-upgraded siege weapons are annoying for Longbowmen to bring down. There was nothing ridiculous, however, and I managed to get through all of the missions on my first or second try. Thankfully, there's nothing like Consolidation or Lombard League that sticks out in a 1 Sword campaign, s
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