For variant civ:
Obvious:
Abbasyd → Mameluk / Ayyubid (Saladin)
Not Obvious
HRE → Black Army of Hungary? or Teutonic Order (Barbossa?)
French: Crusaders? or Burgundians? or Orlean/Joan of Arc?
China: North China? Different Dynasty? ???
The preorder pages have some additional information.
The variant civilizations are The Sultan’s Army, Empire of Jade, Jeanne d’Arc, and the Order of the Dragon.
Jump in and celebrate the successful strategies and victories of prominent Muslim leaders in each chapter: Tughtekin, Nur al-Din, Shirkuh, Saladin, Qutuz, Baybars, Shajar al-Durr, and Barsbay.
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Now that’s what I’m worried about…
Instead of real historical factions they choose semi-fictional “skins” of the existing civs.
I was expecting semi-factions like Mamluks, Burgundy, Northern Chinese nomads, etc.
Okay Jeanne d’Arc and Order of Dragon are still historical (though I don’t think you can justify a “Jeanne d’Arc” faction that is essentially different from the current French civ). “Sultan’s Army” sounds way too generic. But what is Empire of Jade?
I hope these names are just teasers. We are far from using up all relevant historical factions. I don’t want the civ roster to look like a fantasy game with generic fantasy names like “something empire” “somebody’s expeditions” “somewhere horde” “house of some animal” with those “somes” being made-up words instead of real names.
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That is really cool information!
I assume that:
The Sultan’s Army → Abbasyd
And represent Saladin and the Ayyubid of Egypt (Also known as Mamluk).
Jeanne d’Arc → French
Curious how this will be different from the “regular french” in aesthetic, but also gameplay. Was the “king” everyone assumed in the Notre-Dame screenshot actually a “she”?
Order of the Dragon → HRE
Would fit well with the screenshot we got with the HRE unit all in black, the black army, the order of dragon was founded by the king of Hungary. Does that mean Variant civs have the same landmarks though?
Empire of Jade → China
This one i have no idea what it means. Doesn’t seem to be an actual historical thing.
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That’s because all Western companies rush to India only for devs, so the best are all obviously taken, or even left India.
But there’s a sea of highly talented, tech savvy and intelligent devs in other large, sophisticated, powerful low-cost-of-living countries (far more developed than India) like Indonesia, Turkiye, Russia, Iran but Western companies don’t go there for dirty corrupt political prejudice.
So we end up with crappy “Joan D’Arc Civ” variant civs because they can’t find or pay $$ enough devs in US / Canada. We don’t get the Persians or the Mamluk Sultanate but we have “Joan D’Arc Civ”?!?! What
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I’m pretty sure that
Sultan’s Army = Mamluk Sultanate (it was part of the Abbasyd Dynasty)
Also I think Order of Dragon makes sense as a civ since it’s related to a different region of the HRE (Hungary).
But I agree that Jeanne d’arc as a civ is slightly more stretched. It may have a good variety of gameplay compared to french so I’d be fine with it.
Then call it the Mamluk Sultanate; not generic crap.
And no, the Mamluk Sultanate never ever was a part of the Abbasid Caliphate (not a “Dynasty” as they ridiculously named), which died early.
By the way the powerful Mamluk Sultanate not only defeated, it utterly destroyed and humiliated French + English +Mongols + HRE right at the context of the Crusades.
How can it even not be a full civ in this theme expansion??
I don’t agree “it’s a slight stretch”. It’s a complete JOKE.
Agreed that Mamluk would be better as name than Sultan’s army.
Then it would be the Ayyubid dynasty, which is the same region, but at a time when it was part of the Abbasyd Caliphate. I think it became the Mamluk only after the overthrow the the Abbasid… So yeah same region different timeline. Yess Ayyubid Dynasty as name would be better than a generic “Sultan’s Army”
K bye! All 4 variants will be in MP. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Yeah this is awesome. We have flame rams, so why not play as jean.
Curious to see what actually makes them different because beasty said they play as new civs. So assuming landmarks change as well. Even if it’s just their effects and not their aesthetic.
Why would they show an HRE screenshot with the old landmarks then?
That’s a strange move if the new variant civ has new landmarks they should have teased the new ones?
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Jeanne d’Arc is pure political agenda…
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Joan’s France is a better name imo.
Well, I just finished the achievement that I am missing from the AoE IV monthly event, then I went to eat for 2 hours and I found out that the trailer came out, and not because of a warning, but because I was looking to analyze promotional images of the dlc on the page steam and I find that the promotional image is now a trailer.
What a surprise!
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What I liked the most was the ram-firethrower (hehe).
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Regarding the new civs, well, there are only 2 (“plus 4 civ variants”), but they are the ones we asked for in surveys, so that’s fine.
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Apparently my prediction of the Abbasid Caliphate was true and the Mamluk sultanate or Ayyubid dynasty will not be another civ, but a variant of this one. How will this work? No idea.
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Horse archer for someone. Which will it be?
MY BETS
JAPANESE SHIPS and BO-HIYA.- As seen in the trailer, one of the large Japanese ships does not fire sprigald but rather arrows “tied to a rocket”. Those are the famous “Bo-hiya” or fire arrows (with rockets) which in my opinion was unique technology, but apparently it will replace the springald ship.
Historically they were a weapon used by the Japanese Navy of Wukou pirates during much of the Middle Ages. From what I see, the Japanese will be using the ships they used during the Heian, Kamakura and Ashikaga periods, based on Chinese junks. Since the famous “Boat Houses” from the Sengoku era do not appear (although considering that only ships from the Castles age are shown) I assume that these will be from the Imperial Age, as a substitute for the Carraca and perhaps another unique ship.
ABOUT CIVS VARIANTS.-
I have to be sad here. I had already prepared a whole speech to debate what the possible civs were, and everything was nice, but then I found out that on the main page they already revealed what civilizations they are:
What that tells us is that they will not only be Skin Cosmetics, but they will add some bonuses, unique units or even new mechanics to the specific civs. I have no idea but I can only theorize:
- Abbasid Caliphate —> Mamluk Sultanate / or Umayyad Caliphate (its predecessor)
- Chinese —> ??? (Three Kingdoms Period? Nah, very old, Kitan as a new dynasty (Liao/Jin/Yuan/Northern Yuan))?
- HRE —> Empire of Charles V (Hansburg Empire? Teutonic Kingdom?)
- French —> Crusader States and Frankokratia (Look up the term, it’s hilarious)
For the French: I theorize that the Crusader Knights of the Templar Order will be for the French variant. I assume this because these knights had their bases and major recruiting centers in France, to the point where they managed a large part of its economy and served the French crown with great care.
For the HRE: From the promotional images of black armor from the DLC, and the highlighted images of the shield with the double eagle, I assume it is the army of the Hansburg empire. The armor resembles one that I once published that Charles V used. As far as Charles V was concerned, he abused using Landsknetch armies, as well as the troops of the colonies in Sicily, but in general he would prefer the third-grade pikeman and third-grade harquebusier. be for civil Spain. Quite a few unique units have already been theorized for this civ, only time will tell which ones they decide to use for the variant, or for the basic one (Ministerialis, Prince Bishop, Rytter, Hussite Wagon, Templar Knight, etc).
Abbasid Caliphate, considering the theme of the campaigns and the variants, there are many: Nafatin, Mamluks, Assassins, etc.
For Chinese: that is difficult, because the dynasty system already exists to refer to 4 important dynasties of the Chinese medieval period. The only thing I can think of is the Kitan, or the northern Chinese dynasties (Liao/Jin/Yuan/Northern Yuan). In any case it could also be opportunity for several other unique units that the Chinese could have: such as flamethrowers, Changdao Swordsman, shaolin monk militias, Lang Xian spearman, etc.
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I’m really worried about that variant civs that leaked. J’eanne d’arc don’t even sound like a civ. Empire of Jade? HUH? Sultan’s Army? Sounds very generic. Order of the Dragon only kinda makes sense as a civ variant.
When I heard about variants my first thought was for example.
Abbasid Dynasty - Ayyubid dynasty or Mamluk Sultanate
French - Crusader States
HRE - Teutonic Order or Order of the Dragon (because it makes sense)
China - I don’t know much about China so I can’t speak about it.
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Probably not too much (past the first few hype weeks). Outside of very high elos, simpler straightforward civs like the English will always have a much higher rate than more complex civs like Delhi/China unless the balance levels of the civs are tragic (IE if the English are garbage then they will be picked less)
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Hungary should not be represented by HRE because it has never been part of it. They were ruled by the Habsburgs who were emperors of the Holy Roman Empire but it was a separate kingdom.
I think the Order of the Dragon will simply be the HRE from Sigismund of Luxembourg reign.
I think that using Sub-Civilizations you can represent interesting countries that were part of the Holy Roman Empire within HRE civ. I think that full-fledged civilizations of Scandinavians, Jagiellonians and Italians could be created, which could be the base for various Variants.
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I think the devs should make more 1 star difficulty civs like English and French. A lot of people play to relax after work and don’t want to get overwhelmed by all the complexities of the Chinese. Just make longbows and chill out. I think that is why the English/French are so high.
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I am not for sub civilisation in concept like aoe 2 where they have umbrella for west south Europe… but for same nation it can be done, I m still little bit worried about that, aoe 4 most remarkable thing is asymmetrical design, and architecture according to nations… we ll see we sure need more info about that concept
1 Like