Age LAN Server

Age LAN Server (formerly AoE 2 DE LAN Server) is a web server (with its launcher) that allows you to play multiplayer lobbies without having an internet connection to the game server ensuring the game multiplayer functionality is still available even if the official server is in maintenance or is eventually shutdown.

Note: It is not strictly limited to LAN only.

[!IMPORTANT] You will still need a custom launcher to bypass the online-only restriction that is imposed by the game to being connected to the internet and Steam or Xbox Live, depending on the platform and version, to fully play offline. My other project provides the files and information to download a Steam Emulator and play 100% offline.

🎮 Supported games:

• Age of Empires: Definitive Edition.
• Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.
• Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition.
• Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition.
• Age of Mythology: Retold (currently only the Steam version).

⚙️Features

• 🌐 Scenarios.
• 🗺️ Map transferring in-lobby.
• ↕️ Restore game.
• 📦 Data mods.
• 🗣️ Lobby chatting.
• 🎮 Crossplay Steam & Xbox.

[!TIP] See more details in Questions and Answers (QA).

AoE II: DE, AoE III: DE, AoE IV: AE and AoM: RT

<details> <summary>List of features</summary>

• 👁️ Observing (including CapturAge for AoE II: DE).
• 📩 Lobby invite.
• 🔗 Share lobby link.
• 🔍 Player Search.

</details>

AoE II: DE and AoE III: DE

<details> <summary>List of features</summary>

• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Co-Op Campaigns.
• 🔄 Rematch.

</details>

AoE II: DE

<details> <summary>List of features</summary>

• 💬 Channels.
• 🗣️ Whispering.

</details>

AoE III: DE, AoE IV: AE

<details> <summary>List of features</summary>

• 👥 Groups

</details>

AoM: RT

<details> <summary>List of features</summary>

• 🗣️ Whispering.
• 🙏 Arena of the Gods.

</details>

General limitations

<details> <summary>List of limitations</summary>

• ⚠️ Joining a game lobby from a link only works if the game is already running.
• ⚠️ Subscribing to online mods only works if using the official launcher.
• ❌ No Xbox and Steam friend integration.

</details>

AoE III: DE, AoE IV: AE

<details> <summary>List of limitations</summary>

• ⚠️ Friend list will instead show all online users as if they were friends.

</details>

AoM: RT

<details> <summary>List of limitations</summary>

• ⚠️ Friend list will instead show all online users as if they were friends.
• ℹ️ Arena of Gods:
  • No rewards are gained, all blessings and rarities are unlocked by default, including those not available in the official server.
  • Favor stash is infinite.
  • Story mode has all missions unlocked by default.
  • Challenge mode lifes are infinite, you have access to all legends, and you are max level (99) by default.

</details>

Unimplemented features

<details> <summary>List of unimplemented features</summary>

• ❌ Matchmaking: does not make sense having a likely ephimeral server with limited users, use the official server for that.
• ❌ Achievements: only the official server should be able to. Meeting the requirements of an achievement during a match might cause issues (see Troubleshooting for more details).
• ❌ Leaderboards: will appear empty.
• ❌ Clans: all players are outside clans. Browsing clan will appear empty and creating one will always result in error.
• ❌ Lobby ban player: will appear like it works but doesn't.
• ❌ Report/Block player: will appear like it works but doesn't.

Note: Most of these do not apply to Age of Empires: Definitive Edition.

</details>

Minimum system requirements

Server

Stable

• Windows: 7 (or equivalent, 10 or higher recommended).
• Linux: kernel 3.2 (see here for more details).
• macOS: Monterey (v12).

Admin rights or firewall permission to listen on port 443 (https) will likely be required depending on the operating system and configuration.

<details> <summary>Experimental</summary>

• BSD-based (OpenBSD, DragonFly BSD, FreeBSD and NetBSD).
• Solaris-based (Solaris and Illumos).
• AIX.

Note: For the full list see minimum requirements for Go 1.26.

</details>

Launcher and Battle Server Manager

• Windows without S edition/mode (recommended):
  • 7 on x86-64 (10 or higher recommended).
  • 11 on ARM.
• Linux with kernel 3.2:
  • x86-64 (recommended).
  • ARM64.

Note for launcher: If you allow (and is needed) to handle the hosts file, local certificate, or an elevated custom game launcher, it will require admin rights elevation.

Client

• Age of Empires: Definitive Edition on Steam or Xbox (only on a compatible Windows version). Recommended version 100.2.31845.0 or later.
• Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition on Steam or Xbox (only on a compatible Windows version). Recommended a late 2023 version or later.
• Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition on Steam or Xbox (only on a compatible Windows version). Recommended a late 2023 version or later.
• Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition on Steam or Xbox (only on a compatible Windows version). Recommended a 2025 version or later.
• Age of Mythology: Retold on Steam. Recommended a 2025 version or later.

Note: An up-to-date (or slightly older) version is highly recommended as there are known issues with older versions.

Binaries

See the releases page for server and launcher binaries for a subset of supported operating systems.

<details> <summary>Provided archives</summary>

• Full:
  • Windows:
    • 7 on x86-64: ..._full_A.B.C_win7_x86-64.zip
    • 10 on x86-64: ..._full_A.B.C_win10_x86-64.zip
    • 11 on ARM: ..._full_A.B.C_win11_arm64.zip
  • Linux:
    • x86-64: ..._full_A.B.C_linux_x86-64.tar.gz
    • ARM64: ..._full_A.B.C_linux_arm64.tar.gz
• Launcher:
  • Windows:
    • 7 on x86-64: ..._launcher_A.B.C_win7_x86-64.zip
    • 10 on x86-64: ..._launcher_A.B.C_win10_x86-64.zip
    • 11 on ARM: ..._launcher_A.B.C_win11_arm64.zip
  • Linux:
    • x86-64: ..._launcher_A.B.C_linux_x86-64.tar.gz
    • ARM64: ..._launcher_A.B.C_linux_arm64.tar.gz
• Battle Server Manager:
  • Windows:
    • 7 on x86-64: ..._battle-server-manager_A.B.C_win7_x86-64.zip
    • 10 on x86-64: ..._battle-server-manager_A.B.C_win10_x86-64.zip
    • 11 on ARM: ..._battle-server-manager_A.B.C_win11_arm64.zip
  • Linux:
    • x86-64: ..._battle-server-manager_A.B.C_linux_x86-64.tar.gz
    • ARM64: ..._battle-server-manager_A.B.C_linux_arm64.tar.gz
• Server:
  • Windows:
    • 7, Server 2008 R2, Home Server 2011, Embedded 7 on x86-64: ..._server_ A.B.C_ win7_x86-64.zip
    • 7, Embedded 7, Thin PC on x86-32: ..._server_ A.B.C_ win7_x86-32.zip
    • 10 (IoT), Server (IoT) 2025 on ARM64: ..._server_A.B.C_win10_arm64.zip
    • 10 (IoT), (Storage) Server 2016, Server IoT 2019 on x86-64: ..._server_A.B.C_win10_x86-64.zip
    • 10 (IoT) on x86-32: ..._server_A.B.C_win10_x86-32.zip
  • Linux:
    • ARM64: ..._server_A.B.C_linux_arm64.tar.gz
    • ARM32:
      • ARMv5 (armel): ..._server_A.B.C_linux_arm-5.tar.gz
      • ARMv6 (sometimes called armhf): ..._server_A.B.C_linux_arm-6.tar.gz
    • x86-64: ..._server_A.B.C_linux_x86-64.tar.gz
    • x86-32: ..._server_A.B.C_linux_x86-32.tar.gz
  • macOS - Monterey (v12): ..._server_A.B.C_mac.tar.gz

</details>

Note: If you are using Antivirus it may flag one or more executables as virus, this is a false positive.

Verification

The verification process ensures that the files you download are the same as the ones that were uploaded by the maintainer.

<details> <summary>Verification steps</summary>

1. Check the release tag is verified with the committer's signature key (as all commits must be).
2. Download the ..._checksums.txt and ..._checksums.txt.sig files.
3. Import the release public key and import it to your keyring if you haven't already.
4. Verify the ..._checksums.txt file with the ..._checksums.txt.sig file.
5. Verify the SHA-256 checksum list inside ..._checksums.txt with the downloaded archives.

Exceptions on tag/commit signature:

• Tags:
  • v1.2.0-rc.5: mantainer error.
• Commits:
  • 631cfa1 through 9eb66cf (both included): rebase and merge PR issue.
  • 55697d4: rebase of dependabot.
  • feb28de: partially verified due to dependabot.
  • d2b1749, 82ca9f1 an