There is ongoing talk and discussion among many players on whether or not new civs should be introduced into AoE2: DE, with arguments ranging from new civs are necessary to keeping the videogame expanding and full of new interesting content, to HELL NO! New civs would only complicate the game further!
In my personal opinion, I am part of the latter camp: 35 civs I think are plenty. However, in the event that the game devs do decide to add new civs into the videogame (which would break their promise that Tartars, Cumans, Lithuanians, and Bulgarians would be the last civs added), I have decided to mentionONE Civ suggestion below that I think would fit quite nicely into the game.
CIV SUGGESTION: Frisians
Central European Civilization
Specialty: Infantry and Naval civilization
Unique Unit: Dutch Pikeman (Cost: 80 Food and 40 Gold) Anti-cavalry infantry unit. (HP: 65, 85 [elite]) (Attack: 8, 9 [elite]) (Rate of fire: 2.0) (Melee Armor: 4, 5 [elite]) (Pierce Armor: 1, 1)
A much better unit at killing enemy cavalry than the standard Pikeman/Halberdier. However, it is a gold-cost spear unit, much like the Incan Kamayuk. While the Kamayuk would stay as a good spear unit with the +1 range making mass-Kamayuk formations formitable, the Dutch Pikeman would be the “Teutonic Knight” of spear units by having a large amount of health and melee armor that makes it surviving prolonged melee fighting the longest of any spear unit.
Civ Bonuses: War Galley upgrade free, Trade Cogs/Trade Carts get +50% HP
Team Bonus: Gunpowder units (including Cannon Galleon and Elite Cannon Galleon) move +10% faster
Explanation: The Frisians would lack the Halberbier upgrade, so as to encourage players to make use of the Dutch Pikeman unique unit…but they would keep the Pikeman upgrade so that they still have a trash counter to enemy cavalry in the case of no more gold on the map (or lack of ability to trade for gold) I think that making them have most (if not all) naval upgrades be fitting to make the Friesians a viable water civilization. The free War Galley upgrade is a neat little bonus as it means that once you advance to Castle Age, all your ships are automatically upgraded, saving the player time. The added health to trade units is a nod to the trading prowess of the Frisians, aka the “medieval Dutch”, which would carry on into the Early Modern Era where the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands would go on to form one of the strongest colonial and trading empires in the world, rivaling that of larger nations such as Britain and France. And finally, the Team Bonus would encourage the use of Gunpowder units throughout the game…as I think that currently, gunpowder units (especially the Hand Cannoneer and the Janissary) are a bit underpowered.
Now…what do you fellows think? Should the game devs add one more or a few more civs into AoE2: DE? Why or why not? And do you think that the Frisians can likely be their own represented civ, or do the Teutons already represent the “medieval Dutch” in AoE2?