polymath:
There is a lot of discussion about adding more civs to represent various peoples in SP missions by civs correctly. But there is also an issue balancing new civs for ranked MP. So, how about this for a solution.
As you probably know, Warcraft 3 Frozen throne has you fight nagas in the campaign. Nagas are a fully functional faction, with peasants, resource gathering and a full (albeit much smaller) unit and building roster. They aren’t included in MP and not balanced accordingly, but work perfectly well as a mission enemy ‘player”.
So, how about something like this for AOE2 DE? A “civ” with limited roster of unique-looking units and buildings to fight against in missions? Something like the “natives” in Vinlandsaga, but much more fully fleshed out. This would (somewhat) satisfy those, who want their favourite people to be represented, but also wouldn’t create any issues with MP balance and readability.
(Yes, I know it will never be done, but wouldn’t it be nice though?)
Yes, AoE 3 and 4, since their launches and because the low number of civs, had campaign-exclusive civs, to make it more historically accurate…
Campaign-only civilization | Age of Empires Series Wiki | Fandom
In Age of Empires III Age of Empires IV campaign-only civilizations are those civilizations which are playable by the player or encountered as AI players in the campaign mode, but are not available in other game modes like skirmish, ranked, custom lobbies, etc., whether single-player or multi-player.
For the campaign-only civilizations in Age of Empires III, see Campaign-only civilization (Age of Empires III) .
For the campaign-only civilizations in Age of Empires IV, see Campaign-only civilization (Age of Empires IV) .
For the civilizations encountered only in the Historical Battles in Age of Empires III Definitive Edition , but not campaigns, see Historical Battle-only civilization .