Greetings Laddingtons, welcome to H V Empires 3 Definitive Edition.
First and foremost, shout out to my Czech friend and supporter Jaun for gifting me this fine game.
As I might have mentioned before, my schedule isn't as flexible as it used to be, so I won't make a Let's Play series of this game, but rather just a quick view of it.
I did play it quite a bit back in the day, and I've always been a great fan of all HVEMPIS games, so I thought it only reasonable that I do a look at this fine game.
And I always liked the aesthetics of it.
The game really captures the adventure and exploration feel of the European powers back in the day.
So you can see the gameplay before you here.
You can be the main European powers.
And this edition, they've also, to my great joy, added the Swedes.
So as you see before you right now, we have a representation of Stockholm.
And if you look on the aesthetic castle to your left, it's the old Trekruner castle.
It unfortunately burnt down and was replaced by what you see today if you go to Old Town Stockholm.
So otherwise it's a quite nice representation you have before you here.
And since we are on the topic of the Swedes as a civilization in the game, I thought to show you a few fun things in the deck builder here.
So basically when you play H V Empires 3 you can get shipments from your home city in the form of cards and I saw this fun card here.
Susdrumming ships to fish crates.
So basically Susdrumming is a very particular Swedish dish which I must admit and I'm sorry to all fellow Swedes here I am not a great fan of it and it smells horrendous but some people love it and it's a part of Swedish culture so it was nice to see the Susströming make an appearance in the game.
Then we have some other cards that I thought to show you.
We have here Vasa and this is a reference to the great battleship Vasa.
It sunk just outside of Stockholm on its maiden voyage, quite a tragedy.
So if you go to Stockholm today you can go to Vasa Museet which is a museum where they have the ship on display.
So it was not completely lost to the ages, but it was a great and rather humiliating incident for the Swedish crown back in the day.
But that's a nice touch to include that there.
Then also we have allotment system.
And this is a reference to the fact that quite similar to how the Romans did it, that a legionnaire got a bit of land after their military service.
Same thing in Sweden, where the soldiers got a Torup, so it's a small cottage, and some land after a military service.
So that is represented by this fine card here.
Then to my great joy, I saw that you had a card called Svia Lifeguard, Svia Livgarde, and that is actually where I did my military service.
So whenever I play this, if I have the time to play this game, I will include this all at all times.
So good stuff, good stuff.
So anyway, that was all for the codge.
And also in this definitive edition, except for the Swedes, they've also included the Incas as a playable civilization.
Now, the Incas, of course, were a powerful empire, South America, until the Spanish adventurer and explorer and conquistador Francisco Pizarro came with a rather small band of Spanish conquistadors to conquer the empire.
Quite impressive, speaking in pure military terms, how they could conquer it, just being so few men.
Then also a difference between this definitive edition and the previous edition is that the former zoo has been renamed to Lakota and the developers of this edition actually consulted with Amerindian individuals to make the representation of the tribes more accurate.
So that's good.
Same thing here.
They were previously known as the Iroquois and now and I will see if I can get this pronunciation correctly.
Haudenosuani.
No idea how you actually pronounce it but I'm guessing something like that.
So anyway they made some changes to the gameplay of the Amerindian tribes but we're not gonna get into that all too much but I want to show you something else.
We have historical battles and here we have Algiers 1516 and you're playing as the Barbary Pirates and the enemy is the Spanish.
Now of course I would want to have it the other way around considering the Spanish and French.
They did a great service for Mother Europe back in the day.
So what happened during this time was that in North Africa they staged slave raids that reached all the way up to Iceland.
So basically the countries along the Mediterranean coast and the Atlantic coast so France, Spain, Portugal, France again on the Atlantic side England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Iceland were all subject to slave raiders from the Barbary coast.
So one day the Spanish had had enough so they decided to implement their will on some of the states there.
Same thing.
The French during the 19th century also had enough of the slave raiders, so they simply conquered a lot of the territory.
But in this battle you are defending against the Spanish, so you can continue your slave raids.
But yeah, I might play it at some stage anyway, just for the historical knowledge.
And speaking of historical knowledge, we have also story mode here, and I will show you this fine Introduction to the campaign.
So, I played this back in the day, and I will show it to you now.
So, the Knights of St. John, more commonly known as the Hospitallers, they fared a bit better than their brother organization or even rival organization of the Templars.
Who, as I mentioned on my Instagram the other day, they got betrayed by the Pope and the French King Philip on the fateful day of Friday the 13th of 1307.
But the Hospitallers managed to survive and they eventually landed in Malta, where they successfully led the defense against the Ottoman invaders.
And also, the capital of Malta is named Valletta after the Grand Master Sean de Vallette.
So let's look at the cinematic.
Morgan, the Ottomans have landed.
A thousand Janissaries led by Sahim the Falcon.
Alain Magnan still commands the knights, and he says we must hold them at the beach.
We'll make our stand here.
The Crusades are dead!
Your knighthood is all that remains, a relic!
I'm not ready to die just yet, Falcon, and I don't intend to see our knighthood broken.
It is already broken, Morgan.
Will you break with it?
Move the crossbow to the forward walls to attack the Janissaries.
Defend the fort at all costs!
So now we get to see a bit of the gameplay as well.
So here we have Janissaries, the Ottoman elite troops, and they were actually taken as slaves from Eastern Europe and then trained to be the elite troops of the Ottomans.
So that is the story of the Janissaries.
And I'm not gonna play through this entire scenario, but I just wanted to show a bit of it.
And I was actually in Malta when I was 15 and got to know about this highly inspiring story of the defense of Malta.
So it's always been an inspiring event for me personally.
So anyway, I know it's a common topic to discuss gaming, and I know some good men have legit criticism against gaming culture, etc.
But you know, for me, playing Age of Empires, all the games have greatly helped in my historical interest, and I've always managed to balance it in quite a good way.
Now, of course, if you are in a situation where you play too much and you skip the gym, etc., it's obviously not a good idea to do it too much.
But doing it in moderation after you've done your other duties, that's absolutely fine.
And especially a game such as this, if it really captures a good spirit, if it teaches you some history, if it gives you a higher interest in history, it's all good in my view.
So, Age of Empires 3 great aesthetics.
I'm very impressed by the new graphics here as well.
And yeah, I might play it some if I have more time in the coming time, but who knows?
So anyway, that was all for this video.
Just wanted to have a quick look, talk a bit about the Swedish historical references.
I do have a Swedish history video incoming in a few days, so stay tuned for that.
And yeah, that being said, have a great weekend ahead and thank you for watching.
