 Greetings, my esteemed laddingtons. Shout out to my man, Jean, for gifting me this fine game. Very heartfelt and appreciated. So, first and foremost, I have a question for all English guys, and, well, everyone who's interested in English history. When you meditate and contemplate on the Wars of the Roses, which side are you on? Are you on the Lancaster side or the York side? Let me know in the comment section below. It's of utmost importance that we discuss this interesting topic. Now, I thought to, before I begin to get into the actual gameplay, I would like to give a book recommendation, and that is Corny Guilden's series on the War of the Roses. The Wars of the Roses. Good stuff. I always recommend everything he writes. I have read almost all of his books. I have one book which I bought immediately upon seeing that it was released, but I have saved it. It's set in ancient Greece, so I can't read it now in winter. I'm checking in from Jortunheim, a glorious snow landscape, but I must wait until reading this book until Helios comes back in force so I can sit outside in the sun. With a good cup of coffee and read that book. So I'm savoring it. I'm saving it for a good occasion. Anyway, long story short, if you want a good series on that time, I can definitely recommend Corny Guilden. Another good British author, Bernard Cornwell, recommend his books before. I'll do it again. Now, of course, the Uthred series might be his most famous one, but he has also written about the Hundred Years War, similar to this time as well, so the late Middle Ages. Now, why do I mention all of these things? Now you wonder, yes, because Edward Longshanks is a bit before, so you see there in the description. It's 1264-1307. And also last thing before I begin to get into this the gameplay of our TV series recommendation. It's based on books by Philippa Gregory. It's called The White Princess and The White Queen. Quite good actually, available at HBO. Obviously not a service I recommend per se, but they had it there at least. And worthwhile watching. I can definitely recommend those two seasons. The only thing I need to strongly object to was a sequence where they visit the Spanish court. Now, of course, the Spanish court descended from Visigoths, and the princess they're there to make a match for their son to marry the Spanish princess. She erupts into a flamenco dance. And I can assure you that no Spanish royalty would have erupted into a flamenco dance. It was something that detracted quite a bit from the quality of the series. It was yeah, not good in the least. I am a great friend and admirer of Spanish history and culture, so I need to defend Spain's good name and say that royalty did absolutely not dance flamenco dances. Anyway, that being said, the rest of the series is quite good. The third season is an absolute catastrophe, but I won't blackpill you by talking more about that. Anyway, this particular DLC, you have a new civilization, the Burgundians. I won't get into the grand dukes now, maybe for a coming video, who knows, depending on how popular this one is. Then you have the Hotavilles. I don't know how you pronounce it. To my great shame, I do not speak French, highly barbaric of me. I must redeem myself by praying extra hard in the Temple of Iron. I read German. That was my language in school. You could choose between a few different languages. The most common ones were French, Spanish and German. Anyway, this might be an interesting topic for a podcast talking about the Normans. As you see here, Robert de Hotaville left Normandy in 1047 with a small robber band. Allow me to translate it. He left Normandy with a heroic menerbund of glorious shield brothers, and they sought to mug others. That's the actual story. But in all seriousness, though, the most famous Norman, of course, William the Conqueror, conquered Mary Old England in 1066, but they were quite adventurous, these guys. Vikings imbued with a high level of thumos that made them conquer and explore. I will talk about it in another video, in a podcast, going through the history of the Normans, who can derive inspiration from them. So anyway, that might also be for a coming video if there is any interest in it. Let's get into Edward Longshanks, and you probably recognize this name. He's the villain in Brave Heart when you see this time period from the perspective of the Scots. He is the villain. You can also read about many good books about Robert the Bruce as well. You have a British author, Robin Young, female author, written great books on this time as well, from the perspective of Scots. I can definitely recommend it. Anyway, let's get into the campaign. So we have here Mary Old England, and we'll travel to Wales, Scotland, and to the Holy Land. So let's get into it. Vane Ambition. Boom. Worthy of my father's name. How much longer until these whispers become cries of rebellion? My heart quivers when I visit his tomb in the Abbey. I am wracked by fear. Claws at my soul like the talons of demons. Fear that I will prove them right. That I will disgrace this family's legacy as my grandfather did. Yet I must not give in. I will study my father's reign and hope that it will imbue me with his strength, the fortitude that I so lack. My father Edward spent his youth watching in disgust as his ineffectual father Henry drove England to the brink of ruin. When his subjects could bear his ruinous reign no more, a rebellion led by the Baron Simone de Monfort deposed Henry, leaving his kingdom in tatters. After the disastrous Battle of Lewis, the baronial forces captured and jailed my forever grandfather in Hereford. Some kings begin their rise to the throne from within the palace. Edward began his from the anguish of imprisonment. Yet even when the future seems bleak, fate occasionally extends its hand and offers allies from the most unlikely of places. All right, as always in Age of Empires, epic and atmospheric introductions. So now we're in the game. Edward Longshank's Must Revive and Gilbert de Clair's Must Revive again excuse my French if I mispronounce it. I hope I pronounced it correctly. My man, the extremely aesthetic Guyam, can tell me how my French pronunciation is. Anyway, let's get into it. Let us do so. Edward Longshanks and in no tear, this aesthetics these three golden English lions, Norman lions, absolutely aesthetic need to make some sort of legio gloria garment. On a similar note, do let me know also in the comment section who your favorite English king might be with the most interesting or inspiring or whatever. I always read the comments in Let's Play videos. We must mug these new males. Ha, there were quite many. I need to run around with them a bit so they can mug these guys. I might also edit this video a little bit to make it more exciting I suppose. These guys, they want to question the validity of my claim to the English throne is what Edward says here. The reason I am more responsive on Let's Play videos is that the overall amount of comments is much less so I can have the opportunity to respond to more of them. Otherwise, I usually feel quite bad if I only respond to some comments. Of course, on Gabbmine's Patreon subscribe star, I'm always very responsive. This might be the thumbnail for the video. This aesthetics, the red and then golden lions on it. Absolutely, absolutely, aesthetically pleasing. Ha, we have some other blasphemous enemies here. We need to avoid them if we can. I'm not sure we can actually. Aha, one saw us. All right, turn around lads and illuminate this bastard. I'll say note on the music. It's very literally speaking music to my ears since I grew up with this soundtrack. I've said it before, I'll say it again. Both H-Vempires 2 and H-Methology are sacred to me. I am extremely thankful for growing up with them. Extremely thankful for the interest in history they supplied me with. And yeah, sacred games, I'm sure many of you feel the same way if you've grown up with it. Good times, good times. We need to fight these guys as well. I don't think I can lose this guy because then we lose the campaign. He needs to survive. He needs to survive the jive. A great channel which I'm sure you're all fully familiar with. If you're not, search for it and enlighten yourself about pagan history and other good stuff. Good stuff, good stuff. So now I will do a little edit here and I will build up and I will get right back when I have progressed further in the campaign. So be right back. All right, so I am back. I did a little edit there as you noticed and I decided to do a little boom with my little village chairs. I built an additional town center there and one here and now I'm gathering some stone to build a castle since the forces are coming quite soon. So I'll place the castle there I suppose and I don't even know if we have enough time to build it. I suppose not. Oh well, I have created a little army that will withstand the onslaught, the baronial forces. So we'll see what is going on now. Let's say I need to gather some more wood. That is noted. So they didn't actually come to attack us. They expect us to go to them to to mug them. That is fine. I suppose that's what we'll have to do. Here is my favorite unique unit by the way. The English long woman. Highly joyous to create them. Anyway I will attack someone I suppose. The Welsh perhaps they need to be subjugated and we'll see what happens after that. We have reached the Welsh. They're not prepared to face our army or maybe they are actually and I need to make sure that Edward doesn't die here. That would be a bit silly if he does. Maybe I should actually have brought some knights or something. Go back and create some and send them up. Otherwise we might have a hard time taking down all of their buildings here. Another edit as you might have noticed. So I subjugated the Welsh. They are now on our side and now I am putting on some pressure on this kennel worth and they're being protected by baronial forces and Simon the Younger. So we need to kill this guy and hopefully get this city over to us. Now we are less than three minutes until the baronial forces attack us and we'll gonna see if we can actually conquer this city in that time. I suppose that will reduce the amount of enemies that will come at us. We'll see how that goes. I have a battering ram in addition to my army here of crossbowmen and longbowmen. So the gate is down. Can we make it in time? I don't really suppose we can. But we'll see. We can at least destroy part of their town. Maybe I shouldn't have left the home base unprotected in case they attack. But it's a gamble. We'll see how it turns out. We have a unit, a sergeant I haven't seen before. Looking quite aesthetic. Okay his knights are coming and we were just a bit too late to destroy this city. Anyway let's look over our defenses. We are at the population limit here so we can't really create more soldiers. But if we can we can train some knights and stuff. I don't really see where this laddington might be though. Maybe he comes with a surprise attack. I will then counter with our surprise flicks. Hopefully that will get him to abandon his hostility to watch us. We'll see. The rest will be compelled to fall before me and beg for mercy. Okay so that was it. We just had to subdue them. Let's continue. Like his Norman ancestors, Gilbert Declair was a shrewd opportunist. Initially a commander in the rebel army. He keenly sensed its divisions and saw that he could further his own ambitions by defecting to Edward. My father moved with alarming speed. Warchester and Glochester, Gilbert's family seat was seized without delay. After a string of further victories, he compelled the leaderless and battered rebel forces to capitulate. Known by many as long shanks, Edward was feared for his imposing stature and foul temper. While Henry was restored to the throne, all were well aware that Edward was now the true power behind it. Good stuff. Good stuff. I thought about ending the episode there, but we're actually going to have a quick look at A Man of God. I think this is the only reasonable course of action, so let's get into it. Ruthless and cunning, Edward did not always adhere to the chivalric codes that the European nobility held so dear. After massacring Simone the Younger's men in a stealthy night attack on Kenilworth, he used the captured banners to disguise his army before smashing Dimonfor at Esham. In an act of alarming brutality, the corpse of Dimonfor, an earl of England, was hacked into carrion and his head mounted on a pike. Edward had won the war and cowed the rebels into submission in just over a year, but the victory came at the cost of his honor. Nobility and clergy alike cringed at the thought of an impious butcher one day ascending to the throne of England to restore his ailing reputation and prove himself worthy of the crown. My father resolved to lead a crusade east to the Holy Land, where the situation grew increasingly dire. The voracious Mamluk Sultanate waged a fierce war of expansion, first against the Mongols and now against the beleaguered crusaders. Several fortresses quickly fell before their unstoppable onslaught. Their leader was Sultan Baibars, a man not unlike my father Edward. Originally a slave of Kumin origin, he rose to prominence through military service and had recently taken power after murdering the reigning Sultan. Having just slaughtered the population of Antioch, his armies now threatened Oka and Tripoli from the east, converging on both cities in a suffocating siege. Edward's army arrived in Oka to find the inhabitants desperate, but not beyond hope. All right, I mainly just wanted to look at that intro. We have a beautiful city here as well we need to defend but I will actually leave it there for this time and I will see you all on Telegram I suppose if you're not already following me there, also follow me on Gabb and Minds. So now thank you for watching, xoxo, boom!