Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

Welcome to a new update for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition! With today’s Update we’re delivering a rather massive list of bug fixes, changes, and new features to help keep your experience vibrant! This patch delivers a set of stability improvements and bug fixes, addressing crashes, performance issues, and inconsistencies across both PC and consoles.

Gameplay has been refined with fixes to unit behavior, technologies, and civilization bonuses to ensure mechanics work as intended. Pathfinding and economic interactions, such as Mule Cart positioning, have also been improved for smoother play.

Bugfixing pass for UI, audio, and multiplayer systems, chat, lobbies, civilization selection, and Bluetooth audio quality. Smaller AI behavior changes for campaigns and co-op missions have also been implemented for better reliability.

Additional balance changes adjust unit costs, training times, and civilization bonuses to support a more consistent gameplay experience.

Be sure to dig down into the post below to get all of the smaller details before hopping in-game and checking them out firsthand. Enjoy the update!

_Developer Note: We did want to follow up on information we shared in previous patch notes, however, and talk a bit more about Console bugs and the problems some of you have been having with your experience.

We’ve seen that you’ve been scanning PUP information and looking for specifics around some of the problems you’ve been reporting to us, such as crashes, invisible units, and general instability of various kinds as you get further into Console matches. There aren’t bullets highlighting those specific issues because their shared root cause has been less of a bug fix and more of a significant engineering refactor of a few things under the hood, but we’re happy to say that today’s Update should resolve many of these problems for you!

We’ll be monitoring your feedback and looking for anything we need to continue to work on as it comes up. This particular set of problems has been a tricky one for us, as there hasn’t been any kind of quick fix we could make happen, but much heavier low-level engineering work that wound up being needed to address some of the problems you’ve been reporting. This has taken us some time and we know that’s been frustrating for many, and we appreciate both your patience as well as your continued support! As we mentioned in our previous patch notes, we’ve got an increased focus on Console going into the next year and more work we intend to do to further uplift your experience, so this really just kicks off that focus and we’ll be back with an increased set of Console-specific bug fixes and attention in future Updates._

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

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💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum 🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thank you again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team

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◆ Update 177723 ◆

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Game

Stability & Performance

• Fixed a crash while viewing a Player Profile if the game was force stopped using the Steam client.

• Fixed a crash happening on 4v4 skirmish games with 8 AI players.

• Fixed a crash on consoles that would occur when pressing Left Bumper on the gamepad while in the Villager radial Build Menu.

• Fixed a crash related to Lou Chuans attacking after the Thunderclap Bombs Unique Technology was researched.

• Fixed a rare crash that would occur when canceling the creation of a Villager at the Town Center.

• Fixed a rare crash where siege units in groups could affect movement speed.

• Fixed a rare crash that could appear if a player tries to click the “Block Player” button while also leaving the post-game statistics screen.

• Fixed performance degradation spikes that occurred whenever a terrain tile was modified.

• Improved game performance when the Building and Aura Range indicator appears for many units and buildings.

• Improved the stability of File Transfers in Custom Games lobbies and prevented players from being kicked upon transfer failures.

• Fixed a crash that reduced the memory usage during map generation.

Achievements

• Fixed the “Can I be Frank with you?” achievement being granted regardless if the “Tours (732)” Co-op Historical Battle has been completed or not.

Graphics

• Fixed Hulk Ships for Byzantines, Italians, Spanish, Portuguese, Armenians, and Georgian civilizations appearing with African ship sails while attacking.

• Reduced the size of some graphics assets (saving ~2GB with EGP installed).

Audio

• Fixed low-quality audio when using Bluetooth devices.

UI

• A new ‘More Content’ section can be accessed from the Main Menu, listing all available owned and not owned content DLCs. DLC that is not owned will also be displayed on the Main Menu screen.

• Fixed an issue where changing lobbies between the Base Game and Return of Rome variant would cause a Civilization to become automatically selected when entering the lobby.

• Fixed an issue where using Mouse and Keyboard on consoles would cause the Search Bar on the Civilization Select screen to be unresponsive.

• Fixed an issue that locked “Women’s History Month Icons” for players that had them unlocked.

• Fixed Civilization Emblem background images found in the Civilization Selection menu appearing blurry and low resolution.

• Fixed Civilization Shield icon not appearing in Ranked and Quickplay lobbies when Civilization is set to Random.

• Fixed Match Settings not appearing on the loading screen for games that used the Time Limit Victory Condition.

• Fixed typo in lobby chat notification after being locked from sending messages. Fixed text: “You cannot send any more chat messages at the moment. Please wait a few seconds and try again.”

• In the Tech Tree menu, Trade Cart icons now appear with regional Civilization icons.

Hotkeys

• Fixed an issue that, when the game is set to Windowed, using an ALT + hotkey combination would produce a Windows beep sound.

• “Select all Town Centers” hotkey now correctly includes Town Centers’ foundations.

PC

• Improved memory usage on PCs.

Xbox

• Improved memory usage on Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles.

• Fixed an issue on Xbox consoles that would allow profiles that do not own the game to launch the title and enter a game match, which would result in a crash.

• Fixed an issue showing player slots as “Ready” (green text) when players set themselves as Ready and then left the lobby.

• Fixed the Map Pool Menu to display the map list on parity with all the other platforms.

• Fixed a crash that would occur after multiple games were played in succession on Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles.

PlayStation

• Fixed an issue showing player slots as “Ready” (green text) when players set themselves as Ready and then left the lobby.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

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:alertalert: DISCLAIMER

This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

Minor Update 178524

After the most recent update for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, we know players are experiencing a variety of issues. The team has been working on fixes for various crashes on Xbox that we are releasing in today's minor update. An additional update will be coming soon to address additional issues happening after the recent patch.

In the meantime, please check our Known Issues and submit a ticket if you need support: http://aoe.ms/Support Thank you for your patience and support as we work toward resolving the issues you’re experiencing.

Minor Update 179158

• Fixed an issue that would cause incorrect medals to show on various campaigns.

• Fixed an issue that caused incorrect ELO changes to display at the end of games.

• Fixed various crashes on Xbox, PlayStation and PC.

• Fixed an issue that could cause incorrect campaign achievements to unlock.

Minor Update 180059

• Fixed a crash that could occur during shutdown.

• Fixed a crash that could occur when closing player profile stats.

• Fixed an issue where dataset mods would not load if they have fewer civilizations than the game.

Hello everyone!

Today we have a new PUP for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition! This patch delivers a set of stability improvements and bug fixes, addressing crashes, performance issues, and inconsistencies across both PC and consoles.

Check out the PUP Notes

Steam owners can view the patch notes here: 🛠 May Public Update Preview Notes! (Note that you must own the game and log in to Steam to access the PUP forum.)

How to participate in the PUP

Steam owners can download the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition PUP by following the instructions below:

1. Navigate to your Steam library and right click on Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.
2. Select "Properties…" at the bottom of the menu.
3. Select the "Game Versions & Betas" tab on the left.
4. Select pup_may.
5. The build will begin downloading—once complete, you are ready to play!

Where to Give PUP Feedback

You can provide feedback in the official 🛠 Public Update Preview forums. (Note that you must own the game and log in to Steam to access the PUP forum.)

Thank you for your support and participation, we can't wait to hear what you think! We’re definitely listening and looking for every opportunity to make this the game you love to play.

Thank you!

• The World's Edge Team

Hello Community! Today we’re shipping a patch that includes some diagnostic tools that are going to help us get some more information about issues that some users are experiencing on Xbox Consoles, and as part of that we wanted to provide some awareness that we’re closely tracking the problems you’re having and that we’re very much working on these issues now.

_Developer Note: While this brief update is mostly a communication about what’s to come, we’d also like to add some context that we’ve got a lot of capacity dedicated to improving quality of life for our Console players over the next year and in general.

Our Console and our PC versions of the game are quite different under the hood. The Console versions include several unique UI and gameplay systems alongside underlying technology and engineering differences that mean certain kinds of issues will often need to be handled in slightly or significantly different ways in two different places. Depending on what kind of work effort we’re talking about, fixing issues or making changes often involves a slow step-by-step process in a linear order, with a fair bit of diagnostic process along the way.

Right now we’re focused on delivering fixes for players having problems with their game on Console and getting that in your hands as quickly as we’re able (timing still TBD). We know that you’re anxious for solutions and we sincerely appreciate your patience as we take the time needed to make sure we deliver reliable fixes and avoid additional problems. We definitely hear your concerns and we want you to know that we’re committed to supporting the overall health of our Console community for the long term!

Looking ahead, you should start to see an increased volume of fixes and changes in future patch notes that serve to uplift the experience on Console even further. This will come from an increased concentration on your Console experience overall, and you’ll see this play out over an extended period of time as we continue to service the game and build on the experience across all platforms.

As always, please continue reporting any additional issues you find, including logs and detailed info when possible. Your contributions so far have been extremely helpful, and we appreciate your support while we continue working towards a resolution.

– The Age II:DE Team_

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum 🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thank you again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team

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◆ Update 174992 ◆

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Ongoing...

Investigation

As always, we are continuing to track issues reported by the community for future updates.

For other known issues, please visit this page to see what’s being tracked!

:alertalert: DISCLAIMER

This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

Minor Update 175278

• Fixed an issue preventing mods with custom scenarios from properly transferring.

Welcome to a new update for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition! This update focuses on stability, gameplay fixes, and targeted balance tuning across both core systems and recent content. Several fixes are aimed at addressing late game performance and crashes, fixing issues with Trade Cart collisions, plus Xbox and Playstation crashes. For balance, Champi Scouts receive several adjustments to address their power level. As always, we thank you for your continuous feedback and reports.

While there are plenty of notable fixes and features to which to look forward in today’s build, here are some of the big highlights coming with this month’s update:

• Champi-line balance changes

• Console stability improvements

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

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💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum 🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thank you again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team

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◆ Update 170934 ◆

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Game

Stability & Performance

• Improved Trade Cart collision and pathfinding logic, preventing the deterioration of performance to an unstable state under some circumstances.

UI

• Fixed the Burmese Tech Tree from showing the Padded Archer Armor as Unavailable.

Xbox

• Fixed several issues causing the game to freeze/crash or reboot the console.

• This includes improvements to memory usage affecting stability on Xbox One models.

PlayStation

• Fixed several issues causing the game to freeze/crash or reboot the console.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

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:alertalert: DISCLAIMER

This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

Welcome to a new update for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, headlined by the Naval Overhaul, to refresh water combat, economy, and ship balance (including a new Hulk-line counter to Fire Ships). Several civilizations also gain access to Catapult Galleons, further shaking up late-game naval pressure and shoreline siege options. Multiplayer gets a quality-of-life boost with the new cross-platform Voice Chat feature in lobbies, plus added accessibility options like text-to-speech and speech-to-chat. Visually, the update rolls out new regional garrison flags and civilization-specific waypoint/gather point flags, alongside new Profile Icons for every civilization. It also features an Inca overhaul to align with the new DLCs South American civilization lineup, plus a refreshed Pachacuti campaign and a broad sweep of bug fixes and balance changes driven by player feedback.

While there are plenty of notable fixes and features to which to look forward in today’s build, here are some of the big highlights coming with this month’s update:

• Naval Gameplay Update

• New Voice Chat feature for Multiplayer lobbies

• New regional garrison flag graphics

• New civilization-specific flags for waypoints and gather points

• New Profile Icons for each civilization

• Pachacuti Campaign update

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

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💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum 🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thank you again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team

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◆ Update 169123 ◆

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Game

Stability & Performance

• Fixed a crash happening upon pressing the Restart button on the ESC menu while watching a replay.

• Fixed a crash happening upon using Assisted Farm Placement (Shift+Left Click on gather points).

• Using object-data-attack-delay in AI scripts can no longer cause a crash.

• Added a fix to prevent a crash that would occur when a new game is started while missing a player.

• Fixed a crash that would occur when launching a game with an invalid player configuration.

• Fixed a rare out-of-sync issue that could occur when starting playing on certain maps.

Achievements

• Fixed the conditions preventing players from unlocking the “Tour d’ltalie” achievement.

Graphics

• Added new graphics for Javelina:

• Fixed an issue showing wrong farm texture on certain ground types.

• Fixed Elite Caravels graphics from not displaying some elements.

• Fixed Central Asian Monk death sprites not showing properly on certain angles.

• Fixed Owls displaying the Hawk sprite when flying.

• Fixed water textures visualization on larger map sizes.

• Fixed water textures visualization when certain light reflections happened on the shoreline.

• Fixed water 3D textures not being rendered properly in the editor when the 3D Water setting is enabled in the Graphics Options.

• Fixed the flag, fire, and snow graphics placement on the Spartan Fort.

Xbox

• Fixed a crash happening upon players trying to set Rally Points for buildings with the Site Menu for not available building types. This issue was happening in controller-only mode.

• Fixed the Accessibility Narrator not providing any information on the “Vote Results” tab under the Multiplayer Menu.

• Fixed input detection in the “Select Civilization” menus, preventing players from continuously scrolling through civilizations.

• Fixed villagers ignoring queued commands and going directly to the last waypoint/resource after force-dropping resources. The issue was happening in controller-only mode.

PlayStation

• Fixed the Accessibility Narrator not providing any information on the “Vote Results” tab under the Multiplayer Menu.

• Fixed input detection in the “Select Civilization” menus, preventing players from continuously scrolling through civilizations.

• Fixed some sections showing buttons from other systems instead of PlayStation ones.

• Fixed villagers ignoring queued commands and going directly to the last waypoint/resource after force-dropping resources. The issue was happening in controller-only mode.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

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:alertalert: DISCLAIMER

This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

Minor Update 169409

Fixed an issue that would cause The Last Chieftains's achievements to unlock prematurely upon launching the game. This may cause some previous content achievements to trigger prematurely if any The Last Chieftains's achievements were previously unlocked. Unfortunately, any achievements prematurely unlocked due to the previous issue will remain unlocked.

Minor Update 169652

• Fixed a crash some players were facing when launching the game on PC.

• Fixed an issue that would cause Voice Chat to default to On when launching.

• Fixed an issue with Civ Victory achievements for Chronicle civs not firing correctly.

The team is hard at work investigating other bugs and balance feedback so keep an eye out for a more comprehensive update soon.

Welcome to an exciting update for A_ge of Empires II: Definitive Edition_! This patch brings bug fixes, balance changes, plus paves the road for the Empire Wars 1v1 ladder reset that will become the Red Bull Wololo: Londinium ladder from January 2nd to 18th, 2026. Be sure to dig down into the post below to get all of the smaller details before hopping in-game and checking them out firsthand.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

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💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum 🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thank you again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team

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◆ Update 162286 ◆

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Build Spotlight

Temporary Reset of Empire Wars 1v1 Ladder During Red Bull Wololo: Londinium

This patch is mainly paving the road for the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Empire Wars 1v1 ladder that will become the Red Bull Wololo: Londinium ladder from January 2nd to 18th, 2026, 17:00 UTC. The rating will be reset, and players may compete for a slot in the main event. The top four players advance into the main event, while 5th-12th place finishers gain an advantage for the last-chance qualifier.

Why is the ladder being temporarily reset? To ensure an even playing field for all competitors, the leaderboard has to be temporarily reset. The four with the highest ELO rating achieved on the leaderboard on January 18th, at 17:00 UTC, will be directly invited to the Red Bull Wololo: Londinium event taking place in London, UK.

How does this affect you? Your experience will remain the same; however, you may find that your EW 1v1 rating will require 10 games before being shown on the leaderboard. With this change, you will be able to experience what it’s like to play on the settings and maps of one of the biggest tournaments for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. The ladder holds no restrictions—anyone is free to play on the ladder whether they intend to participate in the tournament or not.

Please be aware, there is a controller-only ladder visible for Red Bull Wololo: Londinium for those playing on Xbox and PS5 consoles. However, this ladder will not be eligible for qualification. Remember to enable cross-play, as qualification will only be available to those on the cross-play-enabled ladder.

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This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

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:alertalert: DISCLAIMER

This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

Welcome to a small update for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition! Today’s patch addresses various fixes focused on polishing the Alexander the Great campaign, including tooltips and UI improvements, lobby and matchmaking fixes for Chronicles civilizations, plus audio and narration, and more. Be sure to dig down into the post below to get all of the smaller details before hopping in-game and checking them out firsthand.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

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💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum 🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thank you again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team

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◆ Minor Update 160062 ◆

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Game

Stability & Performance

• Fixed a crash that could occur when opening older save files due to the radial menu initializing.

• Fixed a crash when launching Chronicles: Alexander the Great campaign on the Microsoft Store platform.

• Fixed a crash when starting Prithviraj 3, ‘Hand of a Princess,’ on Hard difficulty that occurred immediately after loading into gameplay.

UI

• Fixed an issue where civilization details would not appear when hovering over civs in the Skirmish Civilization Selection screen.

• Fixed an issue where civilization icons could persist for removed AI players in Skirmish after changing the civilization set.

• Fixed an issue where the player icon progress could reset after restarting the game, causing unlocked 10-win icons to be lost.

• With Extended Stats setting on, fixed an issue where the Build Queue would overlap with the Nearby Enhancement Count icon on the Achaemenid Town Center and Georgian Fortified Church.

• Fixed an issue where using the arrow keys in certain text boxes could cause the UI to become unresponsive.

Xbox

• Fixed an issue where menu narration on consoles failed to announce required button prompts across multiple menus, impacting accessibility.

• Fixed a hotkey / input related crash affecting Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X players.

PlayStation

• Fixed an issue where menu narration on consoles failed to announce required button prompts across multiple menus, impacting accessibility.

• Fixed a memory related crash affecting PS5 users.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

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:alertalert: DISCLAIMER

This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

Welcome to an exciting update for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition! This patch addresses stability and performance issues, bug fixes, and some minor balance changes! Be sure to dig down into the post below to get all of the smaller details before hopping in-game and checking them out firsthand.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

[table equalcells=1 noborder=1]

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum 🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thank you again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team

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◆ Update 158041 ◆

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Game

Stability & Performance

• Fixed a memory management crash related to building placement in Co-op.

• Fixed a crash occurring on the Xbox One platform.

• Fixed a crash on the loading screen when loading into a game on the Microsoft Store platform.

• Fixed a crash that would occur when a player accepts a multiplayer lobby invite while also loading into a campaign level.

• Fixed a crash in Skirmish and Custom Multiplayer Lobbies caused by selecting AI players to mirror using the Chronicles Civilization Set.

• Optimized cutscenes for the Chronicles DLC series on consoles, reducing download sizes.

Achievements

• The ‘Blockade Breaker’ Achievement now references the correct mission name: “Destroy both naval blockades in ‘Divine Salamis’.”

• The ‘Crisis Management’ Achievement now references the correct mission name: “Complete ‘The Fruits of Empire’ without demanding medium or high tribute.”

• Fixed an issue preventing players from getting the ‘Promachos’ Achievement after killing 10 enemy units with a Spartan Polemarch.

Graphics

• Fixed an issue which had the wrong animation play for some units during Patrol, Attack-Move and following Waypoints.

• Fixed an issue which had herdable chickens disappear in the Fog of War.

Audio

• Numerous small menu narrator fixes to help with accessibility.

UI

• Fixed an issue making Fire Lancers and Jian Swordsmen to count as two units in the units counter of the HUD when the “Military Mode” map was selected.

• Fixed an incorrect Loom technology Tooltip text.

• Fixed an issue preventing the “Remaining Population Alert” from playing under some circumstances.

• Updated some Villagers tooltips regarding new huntable animals behavior.

• Numerous small fixes to improve menu visuals for Accessibility.

• Fixed an issue on PS5 that prevented a player from moving the cursor / selector when the Browse Mods tab and Player Profile screen were visible.

Hotkeys

• Allow “Auto Scout” hotkey to work when the unit is moving and the “Stop” UI button is visible.

Xbox

• Fixed an issue that forced players out of gameplay when the controller was willingly turned off from the power options.

• Fixed an issue preventing audio from playing when players downloaded different audio Language Packs.

• Fixed a number of small memory leaks.

PlayStation

• Mitigated some desync occurrences in Crossplay Multiplayer Games.

• Fixed an issue where loading an old save of the William Wallace campaign would crash the game.

• Fix for some PlayStation players not being able to connect to multiplayer.

• Fixes for small graphical errors that could appear in the William Wallace Campaign if launched from PlayGo.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

[table equalcells=1 noborder=1]

:alertalert: DISCLAIMER

This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

Welcome to a small update for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition! This is the second of two small patches originally planned to address issues reported in the most recent update.

Today’s patch addresses gameplay issues and bugs reported by the community. Please check out our Known Issues page to see a list of these issues.

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum 🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thank you again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team

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◆ Minor Update 155976 ◆

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Game

General

• Fixed an issue where Microsoft Store / Game Pass on PC failed to recognize installed DLC.

Stability & Performance

• Fixed an issue where launching the game from CaptureAge with Steam not running triggered an assertion and crash instead of gracefully handling the Steam initialization error.

Graphics

• Fixed an issue where 3D Water rendering failed to display, showing flat water even with the 3D Water option enabled.

UI

• Fixed an issue where civilizations remained hidden to spectators even after the match started when Hide Civilizations and a spectator delay were enabled.

Hotkeys

• Fixed an issue where the Elite Cannon Galleon lacked a training hotkey after researching the upgrade, preventing production via hotkey.

Consoles

• Fixed an issue where appropriate player usernames were incorrectly censored.

Gameplay

General

• Fixed an issue where units could skip subsequent shift-queued attack targets if an earlier target was destroyed.

• Fixed an issue where Onagers could stop after the first target when given shift-queued attack orders.

• Fixed an issue where chickens and their variants could be lured/pushed to the Town Center instead of remaining unlurable as intended.

• Fixed an issue where deleting a Scorpion mid-shot could let its projectile destroy resource nodes.

• Fixed an issue where farms could gain infinite food.

• Fixed an issue where Poles bonus gold generation while mining stone was inconsistent.

• Fixed an issue where the Cenotes map failed to spawn the standard four starting sheep near the player.

Campaign

• Attila the Hun #1: ‘The Scourge of God’: Fixed an issue where choosing to save Bleda failed to trigger the follow-up event after the Iron Boar, blocking mission progression.

• Liu Bei #1: ‘The Oath of the Peach Garden’: Fixed an issue where the scenario objective to destroy enemy hideouts failed to complete even after the hideouts were destroyed and the enemy resigned.

Chronicles

Campaign

• Grand Campaign #5: ‘Chasing Smoke’: Fixed an issue where the various ambush sites would not trigger their intended abilities when activated.

• Grand Campaign #7: ‘Earth and Water’: Fixed an issue where the Hall of Emissaries on Delos could not be constructed because the foundation disappeared when builders approached.

• Grand Campaign #14: ‘The Fruits of Empire’: Fixed an issue where it was impossible to construct a Wonder on Delos because the foundation disappeared when builders approached.

Modding

General

• Fixed an issue where data mods containing an English strings file failed to load, unless the English file was duplicated across every language.

Ongoing...

Investigation

As always, we are continuing to track issues reported by the community for future updates.

For other known issues, please visit this page to see what’s being tracked!

:alertalert: DISCLAIMER

This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

Welcome to a small update for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition! This is the first of two small patches planned in the near future to address issues reported in the most recent update.

Today’s patch addresses key stability issues on console. Our teams are already working on a second patch to address gameplay issues and bugs. Please see our known issues page to see a list of these issues.

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum 🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thank you again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team

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◆ Minor Update 153638 ◆

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Game

Stability & Performance

• Fixed a crash that occurred when players without the Chronicles: Battle for Greece DLC tried to enter a Skirmish using a Chronicles Civilization-only set.

PlayStation

• Fixed an out of sync issue on PS5.

Ongoing...

Investigation

We are actively investigating out of sync issues reported for all our platforms, but at times these are very tricky to reproduce internally. In recent updates we’ve increased our logging to help us investigate this further, and we’re hopeful that the added detail from the new logs will help us get to the bottom of this issue!

As always, we are continuing to track issues reported by the community for future updates.

For other known issues, please visit this page to see what’s being tracked!

:alertalert: DISCLAIMER

This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

Welcome to an exciting update for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition! This patch addresses many pathfinding issues, also implementing a new “runaway/escape” feature, and improving the overall player experience. We are aware though, that the improvement will be an ongoing process and want to view this as the first of two major pathfinding patches. Be sure to dig down into the post below to get all of the smaller details before hopping in-game and checking them out firsthand.

While there are plenty of notable fixes and features to which to look forward in today’s build, here’s some of the big highlights coming with this month’s update:

• Bug fixes based on your feedback!

• Pathfinding improvements based on your feedback!

• Balance changes!

• New Maps and Map Updates!

• Quality of Life Features!

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

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💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum 🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thank you again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team

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◆ Update 153015 ◆

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Game

Stability & Performance

• Fixed a crash occurring when trying to launch the game when Steam is closed.

• Fixed a crash which could occur in prolonged games with AI players.

• Fixed an out of sync issue which was occuring on Great Wall real world map when playing with players on different game platforms.

Graphics

• Added a new running animation for Jaguars.

• Adjusted idle and walk animation settings for several animals to improve their appearance.

• Improved the fire visuals on Tarkan’s and Elite Tarkan’s torches.

• Herdable animals no longer lose their player color upon death.

• Added a chance for Hunnic Horse to use different Horse graphics instead of always using Horse A graphics.

• Terrain cracks graphics (eye candy object) can no longer appear above unit graphics.

• Updated the texture of “Ice, Navigable” terrain.

• Fences on Pastures no longer receive outlines when they are behind other buildings.

• Pastures placed on mangrove terrains now use rice farm terrain textures.

• Sheep graphics can no longer turn invisible in Return of Rome.

• Snow graphics are now correctly displayed on buildings placed on all types of snow terrains, as well as on terrains with layered snow terrain.

Audio

• Reduced the volume and frequency of The Three Kingdoms hero unit selection and command sounds.

• Adjusted the variation, frequency and volume of Chicken sounds.

• The Tarkan attack sound effect has been updated to use an enhanced version of the legacy effect (also known as “thump”), which is more audible than the previous one.

• Fixed an issue preventing the Narrator dictating the text in the Technology Tree menu.

• Narrator will now pronounce character-based words more consistently.

• Fixed issues with screen narration handling on the Multiplayer Lobby screen, Quick Taunts Selection screen, Clans screen, Mods screen, Credits screen, Help Index screens, Quick Play and Ranked screens.

• Cleaned up the menu narration system to improve menu narration.

• Fixed many minor narration issues.

UI

• Added negative regeneration rate display on UI for indication of lasting damage applied to the unit.

• Fixed an issue where an incorrect number of queued farms and fish traps was displayed when having several Mills or Docks selected.

• Fixed several instances of item display issues in the Technology Tree.

• Adjusted the frame colors for regional buildings in the Technology Tree to be more distinct from common buildings.

• The additional anti-building bonus of garrisoned rams is now correctly reflected in values in the attack tooltip.

• Monks and Warrior Priests with Relics now display all stats on their interface, same as when not carrying Relics.

• Resource gauge bar is no longer displayed for resources that are not being gathered, preventing it from being shown for decaying animals.

• Updated Change to Melee Weapon icon and tooltip to be more generic and applicable for both Rathas and Immortals.

• Fixed an issue where the auto-scout button was not displayed on the UI for animal scout units (Horses and Camels).

• The auto-scout button is now always located in the same slot as the Stop button.

• Now the scout unit must be idle before auto-scout can be activated for it.

• Random map seed is now displayed in the Objectives screen in single player and finished multiplayer games.

• Updated the appearance of the loading screen when starting a game:

• The map icon and description are now displayed.

• The most important settings are displayed with new icons.

• Only enabled checkbox settings are now visible.

• Updated the appearance of Tech Tree Preview panel:

• Swapped positions of icons and civilization description.

• Reorganized labels to better represent the tech tree.

• Slightly reduced the panel size.

• Fixed accessibility issue with focus handling ensuring that button focus is indicated by button visual style as well as highlight color.

• Fixed issue where multiple buttons/tabs could appear to be focused at once.

• The colors of players mentioned in the Scouts tab in scenarios are now correctly named when a colorblind mode is enabled.

• Improved the button selection visual display when highlighting the DLC navigation icons on the main menu.

• Added a text marque to places where the text became very small due to its length e.g. in the Taunts and Diplomacy menus.

• Changed Civilization Set dropdown in lobbies to radio buttons for the available civilization sets.

• Player and clan names in multiplayer lobbies now have a higher contrast ratio to the background.

Settings

• Added a new option which enables a visual and sound alert when queuing and training units with less than 5 remaining housing headroom.

Hotkeys

• Fixed an issue preventing research hotkeys from functioning when the “Select All Lumber/Mining Camps” hotkey is the same as “Select All Mule Carts”.

• Fixed a bug that prevented villagers from being ungarrisoned with the corresponding hotkey.

• The “Select All Town Centers” hotkey now also selects Town Center foundations.

Multiplayer

• Spectators are no longer able to see the chosen civilizations before a match starts if the “Hide Civilizations” setting is enabled.

• Added a checkbox to filter full lobbies in the Lobby Browser.

Xbox

• Fixed an issue where the Blast Radius stat could not be displayed on the UI for buildings.

• Keyboard controls are no longer displayed on various menus when playing on controller.

• Fixed an issue that made UI elements overlap on certain languages.

• Fixed an issue that swapped Fast Castle and Booming tooltips in the Art of War campaign menu.

• Fixed a crash occurring when switching from Standard to Advanced interface while in a match.

• Voiceover audio will now correctly play for non-English languages after downloading the Language Pack.

• Prevented users from seeing player’s Clan Name/Tag when certain privacy settings are enabled.

• Added controller hotkeys for Dromons and Lou Chuans.

• Added a Command Menu Shortcut for Khitans villagers to build Pastures.

• Fixed an issue where the military units added in The Three Kingdoms DLC were not counted in the military unit category display.

• Fixed an issue preventing the player to join a Multiplayer game after accepting a game invite from the main menu.

PlayStation

• Improved navigation hints on the Game Settings screen.

• Fixed menu narration so that where a language is supported it chooses the correct language narrator and when it is not it disables the narrator.

• Fixed an issue where the player chat color in the multiplayer lobby was cached from the previous session.

• Fixed a number of minor UI rendering issues.

• Fixed a number of minor text issues, with incorrect text displaying.

• Updated localized voice overs to fix some missing lines and a few minor bugs.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

[table equalcells=1 noborder=1]

:alertalert: DISCLAIMER

This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

Hello everyone!

We've got a HUGE Public Update Preview that we're excited to share with you!

This PUP introduces new balance changes and gameplay fixes, adjustments to graphics, audio, UI, performance stability, and much more including 9 NEW official maps!

Check out the PUP Notes

Steam owners can view the patch notes here: 🛠 July Public Update Preview Notes! (Note that you must own the game and log in to Steam to access the PUP forum.)

How to participate in the PUP

Steam owners can download the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition PUP by following the instructions below:

1. Navigate to your Steam library and right click on Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.
2. Select "Properties…" at the bottom of the menu.
3. Select the "Betas" tab on the left.
4. In the "Beta Participation" dropdown menu, select pup_july.
5. The build will begin downloading—once complete, you are ready to play!

Where to Give PUP Feedback

You can provide feedback in the official 🛠 Public Update Preview forums. (Note that you must own the game and log in to Steam to access the PUP forum.)

Thank you for your support and participation, we can't wait to hear what you think! We’re definitely listening and looking for every opportunity to make this the game you love to play.

Thank you!

• The World's Edge Team

Welcome to another update for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition! This will bring some balance changes and bug fixes based on your feedback.

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum 🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thank you again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team

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◆ Update 147949 ◆

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Balance Changes

General

• Fire Lancer attack increased from 8 → 9.

• (Elite) Fire Lancer cost reduced from 40 wood 50 gold → 40 wood 45 gold.

[table noborder=1]

Jurchens

• Grenadier

• HP increased from 35 → 40.

• Cost reduced from 35 food 70 gold → 35 food 65 gold.

• Attack increased from 11 → 12.

• Iron Pagoda

• Ability recharge reduced from 60 seconds → 40 seconds, Elite 50 seconds → 30 seconds.

• Upgrade cost reduced from 950 food 750 gold → 950 food 550 gold.

[table noborder=1]

Khitans

• Shepherds and Herders generate +10% additional food civilization bonus removed.

• Herder walking distance on Pastures increased.

• Herder gather rate adjusted, so the overall income is reduced from +12% → +7% compared to generic un-upgraded Farmers.

Developer Note: The Khitan food economy provided too much early tempo by receiving ~64 food from Sheep in Dark Age, followed by exceptionally efficient Pastures. These changes will adjust the overall food income to be in line with other food bonuses in the game, while maintaining the unique strengths and feel of the Pasture economy.

[table noborder=1]

Shu

• War chariot

• Speed increased from 0.8 → 0.9.

• Reload time reduced from 8 → 6.5.

[table noborder=1]

Wei

• Gain access to Gold Shaft Mining.

• Xianbei Raider

• Attack increased from 4 → 5.

• Charge attack now also shoots the main projectile with 5 damage, in addition to the existing 5 projectiles with 1 damage each.

• Charge attack now properly affected by Parthian Tactics.

• Tuntian

• Food generation per soldier increased from 1.2 food/minute → 1.8 food/minute.

• Cost adjusted from 250 food 300 gold → 250 food 300 wood.

Ongoing...

Investigation

As always, we are continuing to track issues reported by the community for future updates.

For other known issues, please visit this page to see what’s being tracked!

:alertalert: DISCLAIMER

This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

Today’s patch is aimed at addressing small audio and multiplayer fixes. Be sure to dig down into the post below to get all of the smaller details before hopping in-game and checking them out firsthand.

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum 🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thank you again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team

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◆ Update 145651 ◆

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Game

Audio

• Fixed an issue in the file path separators that caused sound mods to stop working.

Multiplayer

• Fixed an issue where World RNG could be called during the match loading screen in Arabia, causing players to instantly desync as soon as the game would start.

Ongoing...

Investigation

As always, we are continuing to track issues reported by the community for future updates.

For other known issues, please visit this page to see what’s being tracked!

What's on the Horizon?

Coming Up...

Hey Community!

With this latest update we’re primarily addressing some server requirements that don’t have a visible impact on your play experience, but we did want to make specific mention of the desyncs in MP that you’ve been reporting. These are bugs that we’re actively monitoring and working on, so please keep reporting these errors if you’re running into them. We simply want to assure you that this is of high importance to us, and we’ll be delivering fixes if they’re needed until any problems that may exist are eliminated.

Thank you so much for your patience!

—The Age II: DE Team

:alertalert: DISCLAIMER

This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

Hello everyone!

This Public Update Preview Program is to test a small update addressing recently reported out of sync issues.

If you've been experiencing any out of sync on arabia, especially, you can help make our release even better by playing the test build and reporting any new issues encountered! You can provide feedback in the official 🛠 Public Update Preview forums. (Note that you must own the game and log in to Steam to access the PUP forum.)

How to participate in the PUP

Steam owners can download the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition PUP by following the instructions below:

1. Navigate to your Steam library and right click on Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.
2. Select "Properties…" at the bottom of the menu.
3. Select the "Betas" tab on the left.
4. In the "Beta Participation" dropdown menu, select pup_may.
5. The build will begin downloading—once complete, you are ready to play!

We’re definitely listening, and looking for every opportunity to make this the game you love to play.

Thank you!

• The World's Edge Team

Today’s patch is aimed at addressing small stability and performance issues, plus bug fixes, and localization adjustments. Be sure to dig down into the post below to get all of the smaller details before hopping in-game and checking them out firsthand.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

[table equalcells=1 noborder=1]

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum 🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thank you again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team

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◆ Update 144358 ◆

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Game

Stability & Performance

• Fixed a crash affecting players using narration on specific languages.

• Fixed a crash on Xbox when aging up in Return of Rome.

• Fixed a crash on PS5 that could happen during gameplay and when loading the main menu.

Graphics

• Jurchen Monks and Monasteries now use East Asian graphics.

UI

• Changed the interface style for Khitans to Nomadic.

• Fixed several instances where the availability of technologies in the technology tree was not displayed correctly.

• Units with charge attack types no longer display the charge bonuses on their interface when targeting objects that their charge does not apply against.

• The attack of the charge projectile is now displayed in the UI for units with projectile charge types which are fully charged and not currently attacking objects that the charge doesn’t apply against.

• Fixed an issue where Donjons had incorrect armor display in Imperial Age.

Xbox

• Human players appearing in recorded Multiplayer screen statistics will now correctly display their icons, and can be interacted with (such as to mute or see their profiles), like in a live game.

• Fixed an issue where Serjeants would appear trainable in Dark Age at the Donjon.

• Fixed an issue where the Villager Priority System did not properly count Pastures for Khitans.

• Non-functional farm commands are no longer present in the Mill interface for Khitans.

PlayStation

• Fixed an issue with held keys when using Mouse and Keyboard.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

[table equalcells=1 noborder=1]

:alertalert: DISCLAIMER

This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

Welcome to another exciting update for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition – including fixes for medals and Rocket Carts, plus the newest DLC, The Three Kingdoms, is officially available on Steam!

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum 🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thank you again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team

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◆ Update 143421 ◆

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Build Spotlight

New DLC! The Three Kingdoms

Dive into China’s epic world of The Three Kingdoms, where history and legend collide in a battle for supremacy – available now on Steam!

The Three Kingdoms introduces five fascinating new civilizations, each with their own unique units and technologies: the Shu, Wei, and Wu, who represent the legendary Three Kingdoms; and the Jurchens and Khitans, who exemplify the struggle for power in northern China beyond the Three Kingdoms period.

Build 143191

Stability & Performance

• Fixed a crash occurring when loading a Victors & Vanquished: Finehair saved game.

• Fixed various stability issues.

Xbox

• Fixed a crash happening when loading a Chronicles: Battle for Greece Grand Campaign saved game.

• Fixed issue where the performance decreased after repeatedly opening and closing the Chat or Diplomacy menus.

• Fixed issue where players were unable to invite friends to a private lobby via Xbox invitations.

Gameplay Fixes

• Rocket carts can no longer fire more volleys than intended after quickly issuing many attack ground commands.

Build 143421

UI

• Fixed an issue that led to inconsistent display and processing of achieved campaign medals in different parts of the game.

Note: this change affects all campaign progress the way it was displayed in the previous version of the game. Medals will appear one tier higher for any campaign mission that has been completed without cheats.

• Fixed an issue that prevented Armenians and Georgians profile icons from being unlocked and saved for Steam users.

Xbox

• Fixed a crash happening upon entering the Historical Battles screen after obtaining a gold medal (crown) in any scenario.

Ongoing...

Investigation

As always, we are continuing to track issues reported by the community for future updates.

For other known issues, please visit this page to see what’s being tracked!

:alertalert: DISCLAIMER

This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.