African Kingdoms 2 Mod - Kongolese and more

Age of Empires II: DE II - Modding
1

I have just finished a small mod that replaces the meso civs with 3 new African civs: the Kongolese, Swahili, and Nguni.

I hope you enjoy the mod and would like to receive feedback about balance changes and answer any questions about historical accuracy.

Each new civilization uses the same building set as the Malians and Ethiopians. They all lack horses due to the Tsetse Fly. And they share an infantry unit called light infantry, which can be created at the barracks and are similar to eagle warriors.

New civ descriptions:

Kongolese (Archer civ)
Bonuses:

  • Light Infantry are created faster
  • Fletching is free
  • Villagers fight using a bow
  • Archer line fires with 100% accuracy
    Unique Unit:
  • Kinani (1/2 population archer)
    Unique Techs:
  • Fidalgo (Militia line +30% hp)
  • Ku Dessiner (Archery ranges work 50% faster)
    Team Bonus:
  • All units +3 attack vs war elephants

Swahili (Naval and Monk civ)
Bonuses:

  • Monks are 20% cheaper
  • Monks +1 range in Imperial
  • Demo ships +1 blast radius
  • Monks are benefited from arhcer armor techs
    Unique Unit:
  • Siege Elephant (Cavalry with bonus vs buildings)
    Unique Techs:
  • Mashua (Trade cogs +40% hp and trade profit)
  • Waraze (Cavalry and ships +3 attack vs buildings)
    Team Bonus:
  • Docks are built 25% faster

Nguni (Infantry civ)
Bonuses:

  • Military buildings cost -25% wood
  • Villagers +5 hp
  • Can research Imperial Halberdier in Imperial
    Unique Unit:
  • Impi (Strong archer with 0 range)
  • Imperial Halberdier (Stronger halberdier)
    Unique Techs:
  • Assegai (Impi, Light Infantry, Spearmen, Skirmishers +1 attack)
  • Isihlangu (Infantry +2/+1 armor)
    Team Bonus:
  • Hand cannons move 5% faster
4 Likes
2

I really like your concept here. Though personally, I would replace the Nguni with the Shona (the people who built Great Zimbabwe) to represent the far south of Africa. AFAIK, the Nguni are mostly famous for the Zulu subgroup, who became a major power well after AoE2’s chronological setting.

3

Thanks for the feedback! Sorry for the late reply, but I was taking advantage of the government holiday to take a break.

I agree that the Nguni were not popular until later times through the Zulu and Swazi subgroups, but they still existed before those later times. We simply don’t have much information on them because of the lack of historical records during their time.

As for the Shona, they were undoubtedly more powerful than the Nguni during AoE2’s time frame, but next to nothing is known about them historically (this is especially true concerning their military, which is foundational to creating an AoE2 civ). On the other hand, I could model the Nguni off of a combination of their different subgroups, hopefully resulting in a decent historical representation.

I hope this answered any questions, and I will remain open to changing the name and other attributes of the Nguni if I find any more information on them.