![[AoE2 HD] I made a rebalance mod where walls matter and upgrades aren't always upgrades](https://preview.redd.it/3pymlh5noijh1.jpg?width=140&height=140&auto=webp&s=c7087d01e2a75977df9c9d15e6d597d755e14b5f)
[AoE2 HD] I made a rebalance mod where walls matter and upgrades aren't always upgrades
[AoE2 HD] Fortress Age – an Alpha rebalance mod for slower wars, stronger defenses and meaningful upgrades
Steam Workshop:https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3783484476
Hi! I've been working on an experimental rebalance mod for Age of Empires II HD (2013) called Věk Opevnění / Fortress Age.
The idea is simple: I wanted AoE2 to feel less like a race toward the strongest upgrade and more like a long, expensive medieval war where fortifications, logistics and unit losses actually matter.
Instead of simply increasing or decreasing a few stats, the mod changes the overall philosophy of progression.
Some of the main ideas:
- Walls, towers and castles are significantly more important.
- Siege weapons are powerful, expensive strategic assets rather than disposable units.
- High-tier units are much more expensive to replace.
- Many unit upgrades are no longer pure upgrades.
- An upgraded unit can gain HP or damage while losing range, vision, attack speed or economic efficiency.
- Gunpowder weapons hit extremely hard but fire much more slowly.
- Battles are intended to last longer and developed defensive positions are much harder to break.
- The late game and Post-Imperial phase are much more important.
For example, upgrading a Crossbowman into an Arbalest gives you a much harder-hitting unit, but at the cost of a major reduction in range. Scout Cavalry can be turned into much stronger combat cavalry, but loses much of its scouting ability. Heavy Camel and Paladin upgrades give you powerful elite troops, but replacing those troops becomes considerably more expensive.
So the question is no longer always:
“Can I research this upgrade?”
but rather:
“Do I actually want this upgrade for the army I'm using?”
I am also working on a custom AI designed around the mod. It focuses more heavily on fortifications, keeps part of its army in reserve, invests more into stone, uses siege for breaking defensive positions and tries to make some of the new trade-off upgrades situationally instead of researching everything automatically. Steam currently lists the AI as the third component of the project.
The mod is currently in ALPHA, so balance is absolutely not final. I'm looking for players who enjoy slower games, turtling, huge fortified bases, long sieges and experimenting with unusual balance ideas.
I'm especially interested in feedback about:
unit balance, fortification strength, upgrade trade-offs, AI behavior and late-game pacing.
If vanilla AoE2 sometimes feels too fast and you have ever wanted to spend an hour staring at an enemy fortress thinking “how the hell am I going to get through that?” — this might be for you.
