Age of Empire 4's new DLC drops today, and the Jin Dynasty is a beautifully-realized civ

Age of Empires 4 DLC has been pretty hit-and-miss over the years. The Sultans Ascend, despite being the oldest of the three currently available expansions, is by far the strongest, bringing with it a new campaign and entirely new civilizations. Since then, co-developers Relic Entertainment and World's Edge have mainly defaulted to repackaging existing civs, releasing variants that have left many less than pleased. AoE 4's latest content drop, Yue Fei's Legacy, launches today, and it brings with it a brand new civ, the Jin Dynasty, and a full-fledged campaign that'll help you get to know them a little better. From what I've played so far, the studios' execution across the board makes it well worth dipping into your gold coffers for.

Age of Empires 4 Yue Fei's Legacy lets you land on both sides of the historical coin. The strategy game's new eight-mission campaign follows legendary general Yue Fei, and commander Han Shizhong, as they seek to protect the Song Dynasty's remaining prince from the Jin invaders, before attempting to turn the tides against their ruthless enemy. Kicking off with the Jiankang Incident of 1127, you'll embark on a decade-long journey that features some solid mission variety. Between outrunning Jin assailants, dealing with bandit rebellions, and retaking Jin-conquered land, you'll have plenty of strategizing to do.

Having come from an AoE 2 background, I'd heard that the campaign content in its younger sibling wasn't nearly as good. However, I've been delighted by what I've played so far. While I won't go into too much detail, a particular highlight is a mission that has you defend a settlement from multi-directional waves of Jin aggression. This forced me to think heavily about unit positioning and how I allocated my new military creations, with the occasional panic ensuing after realizing I'd mismanaged a squad with dire consequences.

Heading into skirmish mode, I'm now piloting the Jin themselves. Hailing from Manchuria, the Jin were a Jurchen-led faction. The Jurchens were known to be semi-nomadic, with their myriad groups specializing in things like hunting, animal husbandry, and agriculture. This is wonderfully reflected in the Jin's gameplay loop. Horse-mounted villagers are ridiculously efficient, gathering resources and constructing buildings substantially faster than your run-of-the-mill vills. You can only make a limited number of these and they cost gold, however, so you'll have to alter your economic plans to facilitate them.

Then you have the powerful new Iron Pagoda units, which historically operated as the Jin's elite cavalry force - a heavily-armored troupe that excelled at charging Song forces and breaking their ranks. In-game, they also deal a decent amount of area-of-effect damage, which makes them fantastic for cleaving through melee units. As such, they cause all sorts of havoc when raiding. You'll want to keep an eye out for those Elite Spearmen buffs in the latest patch, though, as they'll quickly dispatch your cav.

Perhaps my favorite integration of the Jin comes in the form of the Meng'an Mouke Emplacement. Meng'an Mouke was a grassroots, Jurchen-rooted military system built on communal networks. Basically, rather than one massive military force, the Jin Meng'an Mouke were spread out throughout China's central plains, ready to rally to defend their lands, or undertake military campaigns.

The in-game emplacements succinctly materialize this concept. Whenever enemies come within range of one, two defensive cavalry units will pop out and automatically defend it. These are effectively free units, though you can't control their actions - they're inherently tied to the structure. While limited in that sense, it does save you resources on cav you'd otherwise have to produce, and the emplacements regenerate a fresh Meng'an Mouke Defender every two minutes.

Indeed, Age of Empires 4 Yue Fei's Legacy looks to be a strong addition to the game, and is the most comprehensive DLC it's received in some time. I'm only halfway through the campaign, and have already sunk a half-dozen hours into it, so I'm confident that you'll find it well-worth its $15 price tag - you can nab it on Steam here. The Jin remind me a lot of the Mongols, so if aggressive tempo and raiding are a bit of you, then this is a faction well worth getting to grips with.