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The Lords of the West is a DLC that adds two interesting new factions and 3 new campaigns, all featuring western european factions, but whose exploits take them to other parts of the world as well, from italy over the holy land to – for the first time in age of empires – the netherlands.
The Hautevilles campaign narrates the often overlooked and underappreciated history of Sicily, one of the most tolerant and prosperous kingdoms of europe where people of all faiths lived in harmony, while they were persecuting each other elsewhere. The story is told from the view of four lords from the Hauteville dynasty, descended from Norman explorers: Robert Guiscard, who makes a name for himself in southern italy, Roger de Hauteville who wrests sicily from the hands of several rivaling emirs, Bohemond who takes on emperor Alexios Komnenos’ Byzantines in Greece and later ventures further east into the Holy Land to Antioch, and Roger II who defends Sicily from relentless onslaughts from neighboring powers.
The Sicilians are the first of two new factions this DLC adds to the game. They are known for two unique units, one being a unique building known as the Donjon, which replaces their tower line, meaning it can already be built from the feudal age onward. It is more expensive than a tower, but cheaper than a castle, and can even train their unique unit, the Sergeant, starting from the feudal age as well. The sergeant is a mediocre infantry unit that however can build and repair donjons, and can be upgraded in the castle and imperial age to become a decent infantry unit in its own right. This makes the Sicilians less reliant on villagers compared to all other civs when it comes to expanding map control, as they can use their Sergeants to create and maintain forward outposts in the form of donjons, while castles and town centers built by villagers also take only half as long to build. More interesting mechanics come in the form of the First Crusade tech, which spawns 5 sergeants at every sicilian town center, so the more you build, the cheaper and bigger an army you can raise spontaneously once per game. Finally, being less vulnerable to counter units (e.g. archers to skirmishers, cavalry to spearmen & camels etc.) makes the Normans good in combat as well, only able to be bested by superior enemy units rather than by clever counters.
In the Longshanks campaign, narrated by Longshanks’ weak son (as we saw him in Braveheart) Edward II, we relive the life of his ruthlessly ambitious father, Edward I and get to play a campaign – for the first time ever – as the Britons (English). The campaign is varied and takes you from unifying England over reinforcing the crusader states, specifically the city of Acre against the attacks of sultan Baibars to building a series of castles across Wales and finally setting your sights north, to Scotland. A man who became known as the hammer of the scots, you take, as already referenced in the tutorial campaign, Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Dunbar, the Stone of Scone, and eventually capture William Wallace. The legendary trebuchet Warwolf also makes an appearance.
In the Grand Dukes campaign, you play as Burgundy, a now extinct nation that is vilified among the Aoe community for capturing Joan of Arc and delivering her to the English. During the campaign however, you get to hear the Burgundian side of the story, how France back then wasn’t one nation but three, with those who later become “the French” at the time in fact only being known as the Armagnac faction, and both English and Burgundians also having claims to the throne; how burgundian leader John the Fearless raced to capture Paris before the English did, but was assassinated by armagnacs, and whose son, Philip the Good, therefore swore revenge to the armagnacs and their peasant girl, Joan, but is initially preoccupied by Jacqueline of Hainault, who together with her husband, Humphrey of Lancaster, causes no end of troubles to the northern Burgundian holdings. Battles take him all the way north to Holland, where he participates in the Hook and Cod War and lays siege to the cities of Leiden, Utrecht and Rotterdam, eventually returning south to Compiegne to capture Joan.
The Burgundians are an aggressive faction that gets to upgrade their Knights to Cavaliers in the Castle Age already at a massive discount, along with other techs that arent available to other factions until Imperial Age, all their other technologies cost less food, their gunpowder units have an attack bonus, their farms can produce gold, and they can even transform all their villagers into improved Halberdiers called Flemish Militia, should the need arise. Their unique unit is the Coustillier, a mediocre knight that however has a powerful charge attack that recharges, thus making them useful at ambushing things like siege weapons on their way to your gates and castles.
Overall, I’d say this DLC is worth getting. Even though it doesn’t introduce any exotic new chapters of history like some of the eastern DLCs do, it provides further depth to some of the “enemy” factions encountered in the original Age of Kings campaigns as well as giving us insights into the history of Sicily and the Netherlands.