The best part about Indian DLC was that it attracted hardcore fans and also some casual Indian fans into buying it. The same can’t be said for African DLC. Sure, many of the hardcore fans want African DLC however they will buy an East Asian or even a European DLC. Yet, there aren’t any major markets in Africa to attract. Many casual fans don’t know or don’t care about African civs.
On the other hand, East Asian DLC will attract fans in China and other Asian countries. It’ll also attract the same fans who are asking for African DLC. So I think East Asian DLC is the next logical route.
Also, many of the African civs that are getting suggested have little to no history with other cultures during the Medieval era. I fear their campaign may be quite repetitive. I know there are various ways to make it work. I just think it’ll be more difficult than working with Asian or European civs who have more history with surrounding cultures.
13 Likes
I wish there was more about aboriginals and mercenaries in Asia, and historical battles
1 Like
Here is talking about AoE2, not AoE3. 
7 Likes
Aoe2 also needs aboriginals and mercenaries
I would disagree with you. I have played AOE2 since it’s inception. This is the game which introduced me to historical characters like Saladin, El Cid, etc. I am not alone who got such exposure to history by AOE2. Many players from Western World do feel the same. In fact I believe US can be a great market for African based DLC and do not underestimate Africa itself, after all it is quite an emerging market. Giving them a brief about life and culture of their ancestor would be great idea.
17 Likes
I do think African DLC has potential and should be touched on in fear future. For now East Asian or even Caucasus region DLC seems to be more of a safe approach for business.
4 Likes
I think it’s gonna be good but it’s not a must at this moment as we already had The African Kingdoms, I still believe in the potential of Eurasia (Caucasus and East Asia).
5 Likes
The African Kingdoms is barely any representation for an entire continent…
7 Likes
Being a total ignorant about China history… Could be possible a DLC with Chinese splitted like Indians? I mean, “historicaly” speaking. Being realistic I don’t think devs will touch AOK, or AOC civs anyway
3 Likes
Not a split but Jurchen and Tibetans/Tanguts/Tufans would be great.
5 Likes
A lot of African civs would do better than stuff like Lords of the West
And East Asia wouldnt really do that much since China is already there and most peoples that can be added dont exist anymore. Theres not any major market to be focused on beyond adding Thai, JAvanese, Swedes, Romanians and then just focus on campaigns
2 Likes
Well, that’s the point of having the general-info-about-each-civ feature included in-game.
Personally, I didn’t even know gurjaras existed before the indian dlc was officially announced. And I learned more about bengali culture and history from a civ suggestion thread that was posted here months ago. Before that thread, I would mix up dravidians and bengalis or just call them “hindu people”. Because I didn’t know any better. So after learning about them, I started to support those 2 civs for a dlc until we got this indian dlc… the dlc is pretty awesome and fun btw.
The same could happen with an african dlc. I only know about kanem, congo, and zimbabwe in a very shallow way. But the devs could include obscure info that can be included in the civ design that results in very fun civs. Malians and ethiopians are fun to use as they are, so having african civs is totally fine by me. While we can learn more about the culture and history of those civs at the same time.
I’d welcome asian civs too but the problem is that any civ that fought directly against the chinese increases the risk iof game being banned in china. So that’s a point to consider too.
13 Likes
I agree. For a lot of people those kind of historical games can be the first step to learn more by themselves. At least for me I wanted to learn more about all kinds of different civs like the Vietnamese, Inka, Malians, or the medieval culture in my own place. I think these DLCs shouldn’t focus on what kind of civ is popular (at least not anymore) and more about what civs had interesting relations to others, what kind of stories there are to tell and how it can be implemented in the game.
I just slightly disagree with the point that adding more civs to fight the Chinese is too risky. If that was the case the game should have been banned at least two times. What can certainly be a problem is adding Tibetans (even though they would make sense), but that’s an entirely different story.
9 Likes
Wait, so the game should already be banned, because Mongols conquered China?
5 Likes
I don’t buy the ‘no market’ argument. Otherwise, why on Earth did we get Lords of the West? Or Bohemians? Poles I can understand as it’s been a civ I’d say most requested…
4 Likes
Why would you think so? African Kingdoms civs are all quite good and very popular.
Does it really matter which part of the world the DLC comes from? The civs just need to be good and competent on some set of maps, so that they’re worth buying and using them. (unlike Dynasties of India)
2 Likes
Malians and Ethiopians we’re one of the Best civs that devs could ever add. Why another civs wouldn’t do the same?
1 Like
Go to love these discussion. Everybody is left and right “African civs”, “Asian civs”, “European civs”. Not that there is anything wrong with that, in fact, that’s how I think the devs decide what civs to do next, I just think it’s funny a bit.
In my opinion, while I’m a strong supporter of European civs, and others are too, the “forum doesn’t want European civs” is fake news based on this poll with a huge amount of votes:
I genuinely don’t think there is much room left in Asia.
Dividing China like Tibet and such, would be a clear “no, no” for Microsoft, because “Age of Empires 2 gets banned in China” reasons. So we can take our minds off that in my opinion. Whatever is/was part of China is out of the question, there was an is only 1 China, including Taiwan, which is China (thank you for the social points).
That being said, the only left regions are: Europe, Africa and America.
1 Like
Eh I think theres a ton of possible civs. In South East Asia, Central Asia and China you could add at least 3 of each (and theres actually good options to be added in China that wont lead to the game being banned)
1 Like
While I don’t agree casuals don’t care about Africa or african civs, I hope the next dlc is focused on east asia. Just personal preference.
2 Likes