Isn’t it frustrating that Africa until now didn’t get more expansions and civs? After the last announcement about south america civs I was not satisfied honestly even with the Chinese one before.
It is a continent with very rich history and a lot of empires that can have a space in AOE2. It is somehow weird that until now we have only like 3 civs only for Africa!!!
Here are some good civs in my mind that could really make a great addition to have it in the game (even though I am not a fan of adding more civs honestly since I think we have too many but since it seems the devs won’t stop to add anyway…)
So here are some:
Kanem-Bornu: West African empire. Was one of the oldest and longest-lived empires in the world and certainly in African history (c. 9th-19th century).
Great Zimbabwe: Southern African kingdom famous for its massive stone structures, indicating extensive trade networks.
Kingdom of Kongo: Powerful kingdom in Central Africa, adopting Christianity and maintaining diplomatic ties with Europe.
Songhai Empire (c. 1464-1591 CE): Largest west African empire. Known for military might and efficient administration under rulers like Askia Muhammad, who centralized government and supported education.
Adal sultanate (Somalians): was a powerful medieval empire in the Horn of Africa (modern-day Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti) flourishing from roughly 1415 to 1577
Recently they seem to be doing regional yearly themes across AOE2 and AOM, E. Asia in 2025, the Americas in 2026, I would not be at all suprised if its Africa for 2027. Because I agree, Africa needs some more representation. I espeically would like to see Kongo and some form of Swahili civ at the very least. It’s only Africa adjacent but i’d like to see an Andalusian civ in Iberia to represent Iberian muslims as well. and I think it could be slid in with an Africa DLC.
Setting aside whether there is sufficient commercial potential for development and creativity in design, it seems Africa would need another 2 or 3 DLCs to be adequately represented.
The first DLC I think would most likely focus on the Western Sahel, featuring the Soninke, Songhai, and Kanuri. The current African architecture set would become the Western African architecture set:
Malians
Soninke (representing the Ghana Empire and Sosso Empire)
Songhai (representing the Gao Empire and Songhai Empire)
Kanuri (representing the Kanem-Bornu Empire)
The second DLC could focus on the Eastern side, featuring the Nubians and Somalis. The new Eastern African architecture set would include:
Ethiopians
Nubians
Somalis
The third DLC, if possible, could focus on Bantu groups, featuring the Kongolese, Shona, and Swahili. The new Tropical African architecture set would include:
Kongolese
Shona (for the Great Zimbabwe)
Swahili (likely using the Eastern African set instead)
If we are fortunate enough for even more DLCs, the following one could include the Yoruba, Wolof, and Benin.
However, given their decisions on East Asian civs, I wouldn’t be that optimistic. A more likely scenario I think is having only two DLCs. If there are really just two, personally I’d like to have the Bantu as a single civ in the second DLC as an umbrella, and wait for the small possibility of a third DLC to split it further.
Yes, the devs have realized that players are tired of European DLCs and are going to explore uncharted regions of the game (now South America - although I think those civilizations were a better fit for AoE3 - and maybe North America, and then at least two DLCs for Africa, which we shouldn’t ask for for a while xd)…
I agree with everything, I would only replace Soninke with Hausa because it’s possible to create campaigns that are more or less connected between Songhai (Askhi Muhammad), Hausa (Kanta Kotal) and Bornu (Idris Alooma).
If I were to make an African DLC I would do 4 factions:
-Shona (for the Great Zimbabwe) - Defensive civilization
-Nubians - Archer civilization (UU Archer of the eyes) - Appear in Yodit
-Yoruba (mostly based on the Oyo Kingdom) - Generalist civilization (UU: They would get the Gbeto instead of the Malians*)
-Swahili - Naval and trade civilization - Appear in the Francisco de Almeida campaign
*The Gbeto were the Fon people of Dahomey (modern Benin), but while Benin is nowhere near the Malian Empire, it is to the Yoruba lands, so much so that the Oyo Kingdom did conquer the Fon at some point, so they are far more fitting for them
The Kongolese would be my 5th choice and Kanembu (Kanem-Bornu Empire) the 6th, but I feel like that’s too many civs, there’s also more that could be added, but I felt like going for diversity and covering the most regions, while still taking into account interactions with civs that are already in the game were important, like the Hausa are also a fine choice, but they are from a similar region of the Yoruba, same with the Shongai or Ghanians and the Mali, it’s all subjective tho, I do understand my pitch may be too focused on East Africa, adding the Kongolese and/or maybe another Gulf of Guinea civilization like the Akan or Hausa might be a good idea
If I was selecting civis id only go for 2 somalis and an umbrella bantu civi.Im not a fan of this game having 100 civis before 2030 at the rate things are going.
That’s like having an umbrella “Germanics” civ encompasing the Vikings, Teutons, Britons, Goths, Bohemians, etc. Or a “Latins” civ for the Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, Franks, etc.
Tho to be fair that is kinda what the Indians used to be and what the Slavs were before they added a lot of the other Slavic civs (it’s bad)
I’m not optimistic about Africa receiving more than two new DLCs. The chance of getting only one is even clearly higher than getting two.
Making Bantu a umbrella civ to cover at least the Kongolese and Shona is a reasonable compromise. If a third one comes in the future, it can be split then, but if not, at least they will have coverage even if it may not be perfect.
Some proponents of the new Indian civs view the Dravidians in the same way. But we all realize that if the Indian subcontinent were to get a new DLC, it would be a long long time from now.
the next one is indeed Africa, either that or a Saracen split (or a mix).