I am a long time AoE2 player from the original discs to repeatedly buying "remasters" like 2013 and HD. Now we're onto DE with a studio committed to regular DLCs. And love that. I can stop buying remastered titles of this game for the 10th time.. And this studio gave out some bangers like Dawn of the Dukes DLCs and the DLCs around that have been some of the funnest available. I had a blast with the Lithuanian campaigns and others around it!!!

UNFORTUNATELY, Victors and Vanquished is not one of them DLCs that are a blast to play. I had thought Rise of the Rajas would be my least favorite DLC but this one takes the cake now.

The BAD:
Tedious, frustrating, time-sink, population capped, infinite enemy spawns, very narrow TIME GATES, and extremely punishing on the player.

One bad decision where you don't presave and you immediately have to start over the mission. Even if you make a bunch of saves, you may be resourced out (Seljuk with infinite spawns), timed out (where now most hard campaigns get a timer in which you are expected to beat it), or get banged up by 3-4 enemy players either almost right away or in large forces in which you can't see until it is too late. And then you cannot make a comeback because your eco is entirely messed up.

AS a defensive turtle booming player, the added timer incredibly frustrates me on top of the overwhelming difficulty that already toss into the deep end of the pool without training. I highly doubt I can beat Nobunaga nor Mstislav (and gain their achievements on hard) now.

I love challenges as I have gold starred and obtained all my achievements until this DLC. I have tried and tried and tried on this DLC, playing a campaign a different way after a dozen retries and spending too much time that I have just completely given up on this DLC. I wanted to love it but all the new "features" and challenges in this feels like modded content. This should have stayed as modded content, not DLC.

How to IMPROVE this DLC:
Remove infinite spawns (I do not mind having finite enemy wave spawns like 10-20 waves and it stops),
Reward players for alternative strategies such as allowing players to take out base camps in Constantine XI,
In Mstislav, my farms get raided and the villagers don't rebuild 1-2 farms, messing up my eco, Double the timer for Nobunaga's mission to allow beating it on hard achievement or get rid of the awful timer altogether,
In Shimazu, remove the gold "headhunting" debuff or lower it to losing 1 gold per kill instead of losing 10 gold per kill alongside with a gold mine or two in the starting player base,
...and so much more.

Out of all the missions so far.. Only the Charlemagne one was enjoyable to play.

I am a long time AoE2 player from the original discs to repeatedly buying "remasters" like 2013 and HD. Now we're onto DE with a studio committed to regular DLCs. And love that. I can stop buying remastered titles of this game for the 10th time.. And this studio gave out some bangers like Dawn of the Dukes DLCs and the DLCs around that have been some of the funnest available. I had a blast with the Lithuanian campaigns and others around it!!! UNFORTUNATELY, Victors and Vanquished is not one of them DLCs that are a blast to play. I had thought Rise of the Rajas would be my least favorite DLC but this one takes the cake now. The BAD: Tedious, frustrating, time-sink, population capped, infinite enemy spawns, very narrow TIME GATES, and extremely punishing on the player. One bad decision where you don't presave and you immediately have to start over the mission. Even if you make a bunch of saves, you may be resourced out (Seljuk with infinite spawns), timed out (where now most hard campaigns get a timer in which you are expected to beat it), or get banged up by 3-4 enemy players either almost right away or in large forces in which you can't see until it is too late. And then you cannot make a comeback because your eco is entirely messed up. AS a defensive turtle booming player, the added timer incredibly frustrates me on top of the overwhelming difficulty that already toss into the deep end of the pool without training. I highly doubt I can beat Nobunaga nor Mstislav (and gain their achievements on hard) now. I love challenges as I have gold starred and obtained all my achievements until this DLC. I have tried and tried and tried on this DLC, playing a campaign a different way after a dozen retries and spending too much time that I have just completely given up on this DLC. I wanted to love it but all the new "features" and challenges in this feels like modded content. This should have stayed as modded content, not DLC. How to IMPROVE this DLC: Remove infinite spawns (I do not mind having finite enemy wave spawns like 10-20 waves and it stops), Reward players for alternative strategies such as allowing players to take out base camps in Constantine XI, In Mstislav, my farms get raided and the villagers don't rebuild 1-2 farms, messing up my eco, Double the timer for Nobunaga's mission to allow beating it on hard achievement or get rid of the awful timer altogether, In Shimazu, remove the gold "headhunting" debuff or lower it to losing 1 gold per kill instead of losing 10 gold per kill alongside with a gold mine or two in the starting player base, ...and so much more. Out of all the missions so far.. Only the Charlemagne one was enjoyable to play.