Ah! You hadn't totally retreated from the battlefield following your cancellation in early 2025, Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition's Baltic Powers DLC! It was just one of your strategic tricks to lull your enemies into a false sense of security. Now, with the time finally being right, you've re-emerged to stake your claim on a September release.

As aged empire-dwellers might remember, February 2024's New Year, New Age stream saw AoE3 devs World's Edge tease plans to add in Denmark and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as playable civilisations later that year. Sadly, when January 2025 arrived, it brought an announcement that the DLC had been cancelled. "Pushing to ensure that the game was included [in the stream] meant we announced content before it had been built, and we now feel that announcement was premature," the devs wrote.

Roll the calendar on to July 2026, and that canned DLC's not only still kicking, but preparing to come out on September 10th. Dubbed The Baltic Powers, the DLC delivers the promised Danes and Poles, along with new game modes, maps, and challenges.

The Danes are a civ "built around economic intelligence, naval control, and layered defense", designed to suit "players who like to read the battlefield and turn information into advantage". Meanwhile, controlling the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is all about building "an agrarian powerhouse capable of turning economic momentum into devastating cavalry force".

Arriving with them are maps based on conflicts like the Livonian War, the Dano-Swedish Wars, and the wars of the Three Kingdoms. The Polish-Lithuanian civ even get their own unique challenge scenario, based around defending their realm in the face of a relentless attack and timing Winged Hussar strikes right in order to survive. Two more general game modes have also arrived: Regicide mode awards an instant win if you take out the enemy's Regent, while Independence mode forces you to grind out a victory without support from a home city.

If you fancy a taste of the new DLC, there's a free open beta for it running from July 23rd to August 6th, with instructions for opting in on Steam here. Finally, it's worth being aware that the free trial version of Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition currently available on Steam is set to disappear on August 13th.