Tbh I don’t know. About the Swahili, I have only read lightly. But I just found this paper (it’s free) about the Swahili medieval warfare and I intend to read it and bring a summary later.
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I think the next DLC should focus on the different dynasties in Chinese history.: maybe three: one for each for Tang (618-907) Sung (960-1279) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties. Instead of new civilizations the devs could assign different techs and units relevant to the different periods of Chinese history represented by these different dynasties. I think there would be a widespread market for such a DLC.; after all one of the most downloaded custom campaigns is the Three Kingdoms series.
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I have to disagree with you on Tang dynasty though. It existence began in Bronze Age and ended in Dark Ages. The game goes from Dark to Middle Ages with the later being it’s main focus.
I have no idea which dynasty you’re talking about but the Tang dynasty was from 617/8-907, which fits the AoE 2 time frame perfectely
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Just read it “the period in western Europe between the fall of the Roman Empire and the high Middle Ages, c. ad 500–1100”. Yes, it fits perfectly with AoE 2. My bad.
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This is how the Chinese in aoe4 is done and look how popular that game is.
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Here’re my ideas about potential DLCs for East and SE Asian civs, and the possible unique units (haven’t really think about their civ bonuses or their unique techs apart from the Chams and the Dians/Zangkes)
First a major DLC called Warriors of the Eastern Steppe, featuring Gokturks, Jurchens, and Tanguts.
Gokturks: their UU would be a heavy melee cavalry called Fuli or Bori, and its specialty is that it can continue fighting for 3 seconds even after it has lost all of its HP.
Jurchens: their UU would be the Tiefutu, a slow and short-ranged heavy cavalry archer with high pierce and melee armors, and its attacks ignore enemy pierce armor.
Tanguts: their UU would be the Camel Slinger, basically a camel rider armed with a slingshot and is good against infantry, can be seen as a tankier and faster version of the Inca Slinger.
New regional UU: Fire Lancer, has the same attack and range as the Fire Ship and is good against standard buildings and siege weapons. It’s trained at the Siege Workshop and is available to Chinese, Jurchens, Koreans, Mongols, Tanguts, and Vietnamese.
Gokturks don’t have access to the Fire Lancer, but they share the Steppe Lancer with Cumans, Mongols, Tanguts, and Tartars. Tanguts and Mongols are the only 2 civs that have access to both regional units.
Regarding the architectural style, the Gokturks, Mongols and Tanguts would share a new Inner Asian style that is loosely based on the Tibetan style. The Chinese, Jurchens, Koreans, and Vietnamese would share a new Pan East Asian style based on the Chinese style. And the Japanese would continue using the current East Asian style (which is based on the Japanese style).
Secondly, a minor DLC called “Peripheries of the Sinosphere”, featuring only 2 civs, Dians/Zangkes and Ryukyuans.
Dians/Zangkes: for their civ proposal, please check this thread that I made a while ago, I recently made some changes and updates to it (initially I called them Nanzhao): Civ Proposal: Nanzhao - Age of Empires II: DE / II - Discussion - Age of Empires Forum
Ryukyuans: their UU would be the Three-Barrel Hand Cannoneer, which is like a Hand Cannoneer version of the Chu Ko Nu, good against infantry and siege. This type of weapon came from Ming China, but through trade the Ryukyuans obtained some of them and equipped some of their Ashigarus with this gun.
Dians/Zangkes would also share the Fire Lancer unit with other continental East Asian civs, and they share the new Pan East Asian architectural style with them as well.
Ryukyuans, of course, would share the Japanese architectural style with the Japanese civ.
New regional UU specifically for Japanese and Ryukyuans: Ceramic Grenadier, which is again a siege infantry trained at the Siege Workshop, good against standard buildings and defenses.
Thirdly, another minor DLC called “Tales of the Southern Kingdoms”, featuring Chams and Siamese.
Chams: please check this thread, I recently made an update to it as well The Chams - new civ concept - Age of Empires II: DE / II - Discussion - Age of Empires Forum
Siamese: their UU would be an elephant carrying a small cannon on its back, and shoots out the same projectile as Hand Cannoneers and Janissary. But unlike those two units it has a blast radius and has a bonus attack against standard buildings and defenses. Their secondary UU is an unique upgrade to the Elite Battle Elephant called the Imperial Battle Elephant.
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What about making the projectile the same as the main projectile from the Hussite Wagon? Its small enough to justify a mini-cannon, but big enough to differentiate between a small cannonball and a gun pellet.
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Not going to lie, one of the civs I want the most besides Mississippians, Zimbabweans and Tongans are Tibetans.
I am going to be honest though that the same which I apply to Eastern Europe I am going to apply here, namely trying to not overfill the sets with the same civs.
I really would love to see Forgotten Empires adding new architecture sets to the game. There’s lots of stuff you could still do basically everywhere e.g. Central African set, East African set, Andean set, Aridoamerican set, Mound Builder set, High Land Asian set, Caucasian set, Steppe set, …
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That would work even better, thanks for the suggestion. I almost forgot about the Hussite Wagon.
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Tibetans are highly unlikely to be added into the game due to political reasons, Tanguts can serve as a good substitute.
None of the civs that I proposed are the same as any of the existing civs, I don’t consider them to be overfill.
Agreed with your opinion on architecture sets, the devs could make those more diverse.
@Temudhun So I read that little paper about the Swahili warfare and what I could sum up for the game was this:
Swahilis
- Thin and low walls, but many and made of coral limestone (some building bonus maybe?)
- They used houses roofs as firing platforms (houses can shoot arrows? Khmer 2.0?)
- No professional armies; they made alliances or used Bantu/foreign mercenaries
- Murder Holes (with boiling oil) and Arrowslits confirmed
- They had lookouts to warn them of enemies coming (wider LOS?)
- They used flame-shaped pikes, bows with long arrows, swords, shields with umbo(?), catapults on top of the walls and Dhows with cannons
(Trivia: they also had caravanserai; maybe some market bonus)
I didn’t see any mention of horses there, and based on this answer, I’m going to assume the Swahilis didn’t use them
in war either. Of course, I will keep looking for more, principally about the ships.
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Thanks for the answer. Many interesting things, maybe they could work as a good archer and navy civ.
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So a “Maasai morans (male warriors) who have traditionally used it in warfare and for hunting” could be used as a UU or a replacement for the eagle line as they don’t have cavalry?
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I’d give them:
Bantu Warrior (Regional Scout)
Assegai Spearman (From Castle)
Dhow (Gunpowder Ship)
Mtepe (Warship)
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by the first time i didin’t.
Good idea but won’t it be identical to a Ballista Elephant from Khmer civ?
How will it be different from Spearman from the Barracks that we already have? 
Cannon Galleon?
Just as diferemt as a cannon is to a scorpion
We already have two unique spearman units, why do you think it would be unnecessary?
Gumpowder ship doesnt equal being the same as cannon galleon. It could be a caravel like unit
Why are you questioning everything?
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Because they might look identical and people might get confused between (soon to be 3) UU Spearmen.
Smart.
The point of discussion is to question your opponent. That’s how agreements are reached. 