Considered one of the classics in the world of real-time strategy, Age of Empires is truly a staple entry for RTS games even up to this day.

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Age Of Civilization 2 Game Of Thrones Mod

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If you haven’t had a chance to give it a try, now is the perfect time.

Updated with an HD Edition and Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition being released just recently for the game’s 20th anniversary, one of Microsoft’s top-selling games has received multiple revamps.

Beyond just visual and gameplay upgrades, there’s tons of new content available as well. And this comes in the form of player-created mods which let you customize a whole bunch of crazy stuff.

For old-school and newer players alike, I’ve compiled a list of mods you should check out for Age of Empires II: HD Edition. For a classic that has already been upgraded, who says you can’t get a little more out of it?

25. Summons HD Water Pack V2

Though remastered in widescreen high-definition, Age of Empires has never really been known for graphics quality.

With more than enough to make up for it in terms of gameplay, the classic look of most RTS games just hasn’t changed much over time.

But things have changed a lot recently. And now gamers are more particular about looks. Especially for newer players to the Age of Empires series.

A simple improvement, sure. But you’d be surprised at what you get, because the Summons HD water pack completely changes the appearance of rivers and oceans in the game.

From the unrealistic bright blue visuals of the original game, bodies of water now appear deeper. The light reflections are just beautiful and give the game a much better feel overall.

24. Drums Of War

Here’s another small improvement that could potentially have a huge impact on your experience.

The Drums Of War mod changes the default attack sounds of the game.

Ever started a battle and felt that there just wasn’t a sense of intensity in the situation? Drums of War gives battles a more cinematic feel, replacing the anti-climactic trumpet sounds with actual war drums.

There’s even a clip of the Mighty War Horn from the Lord of the Rings films! This simple upgrade is sure to enhance that rush you get before each battle.

23. Ozhara’s Soundtracks – Game of Thrones

By now the Game of Thrones soundtrack has become one of the most recognizable all over the world.

Once the opening credits roll, that music gets you pumped for what’s to come. As a fan myself I can relate.

Well now you can get the same experience in AoE: II with Ozhara’s Game of Thrones soundtrack. It simply changes the soundtrack and menu music with songs from the series.

Enjoy the epic GoT score from the first four seasons while engrossed in your AoE2 gameplay.

22. Enhanced Blood

Probably for older audiences, these next two mods are simple enhancements for all you gore fans out there.

Though some games have options to remove blood and gore altogether, Age of Empires seems to have downplayed the visuals in this aspect. What’s war without blood, right?

This first one enhances the visuals of units killed in battle, making the aftermath appear much more devastating. A great addition to improve on the overall realism of the game.

21. Enhanced Blood II

Not being satisfied with Enhanced Blood, modder Silent Ape took it one step further with Enhanced Blood II.

Further improving on the realism of bloodied corpses of slain soldiers, death animations are further improved with this mod as well.

Taking from other mods, you can now see blood squirt and splatter from all units during battles. Dark, yet immersive.

As put in a comment on the mod page: “it looks like battles are straight out of a Quentin Tarantino film” (most likely referring to Kill Bill).

All this combined with the first Enhanced Blood mod will definitely make watching the battle sequences feel much more real and exciting.

20. Tech Tree UI

One of the handier mods on the list, Tech Tree UI is useful for both new and old fans of the game.

With 35 playable civilizations between the base game and all the expansions, it can get quite overwhelming.

Whether you’re trying to learn the game or starting over with a new civilization, Tech Tree UI is a great addition to your UI.

It simply adds the tech tree of the civilization you’re playing as in the bottom-center portion of the user interface. Also instead of showing the entire tech tree at all times, it only shows tech that has not been learned yet.

A great guide to keep track of your progression.

19. Nittlepicks Wonderful New Farms

Another aesthetic mod, Nittlepicks Wonderful New Farms, replaces the dull colorless visuals of farms.

Adding life to farm plants, you can now have blueberries, carrots, beets, and leeks. It’s a small change but quite noticeable.

A great visual upgrade to make your crop fields look much more vibrant.

18. Day/Night Cycle ENB

Further adding to the visuals of the game, you can even have a simulated day and night cycle. Nice!

Since the world in AoE II doesn’t reflect change in time, modder ModPositive decided to make it possible.

Cleverly making use of dynamic contrast, saturation, and brightness post-processing, everything in the world including buildings and units now reflect day, night, dust, and dawn.

17. Japanese Architecture

Continuing on here we’ve got some more visual upgrades – because who doesn’t want to make the game look as good as possible?

There are a lot of mods that change the appearances of buildings per civilization, but the Japanese Architecture somehow stands out to me.

Replacing buildings of Asian civilizations with more detailed, realistic textures just makes the game look much better than the original.

If you’re tired of different civilization buildings looking too similar, check this one out. You can even explore all the other architecture packs on Steam to customize the game further.

16. Sheep Launcher

There are literally hundreds of pages worth of community content available for Age of Empires II. Sifting through some of the more popular mods, I was surprised at some of the things modders have come up with.

Ever wondered what it would be like to shoot sheep from cannons?

I bet you never have, because that would just be weird.

But thanks to modder Gallas, you can do just that!

As simple as it sounds, all the mod does is replace all projectiles with sheep.

If you’re up for some stupid fun then just fire this one up. If anything, you’re sure to get a good laugh.

15. Cartoon Empires

If you thought Sheep Launcher was silly, Cartoon Empires gives the game a blocky cartoon look.

If you’re into that kind of thing, well this could be a fun mod to play around with. Just to take a break from the normal appearance of nitty-gritty war.

What’s especially funny about this one is that the modder was just doing it for fun and decided not to complete the skins.

That means some skins have been replaced while others will still show the original game skins, giving the world a strange feel to it. I still think this was a cool idea, although too bad it isn’t fully a completed piece.

Yet if you’re up for some mindless fun, here’s a good way to waste a few hours!

14. Game of Thrones Taunts V2

Another one for the GoT fans, Game of Thrones Taunts replaces the in-game speech files with popular Game of Thrones lines.

Ygritte’s “You know nothing, Jon Snow,” or

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