I was thinking of how the developer’s first promised civilization was a real Indian Civ just few months after the game was released. Yet it’s been 4 new civilizations and 4 variant civilizations down the line but the promise has not yet been fulfilled. Perhaps they are working on it?
If it is a medium sized dlc then it might have 2 new civilizations and a lot of variants.
If it is a mini civilization dlc then it might be 1 new civilization and maybe no variants.
Perhaps we will get to see the Cholas/Vijayanagar/Gajapatis? as the Hindus from India and variants such as Bengals/Bahmanis/Mughals from Delhi?
I would prefer if they combine the DLC with a civ from South East Asia too such as Khmer/Ayutthaya/Burmese/Majapahits?
If it is just mini dlc one new civilization then it is surely a Hindu Indian civilization from the South only.
Maybe there will be one base hindu civilization like Vijayanagar Empire and then a variant of it as Gajapati Empire.
While am unable to discern, I saw people saying Delhi speaks Persian language. Forgive me I don’t know Hindi or Persian. Maybe they will need to create a new language set for the variants of Delhi? Do the variants introduced in the current dlc speak different language?
If we will go with “asian theme”, I would go choose Vijayanagar Empire (South India) Majapahit Empire (Indonesia) and Khmer Empire as new civilisations.
If I want to speculate forward , I would add Khwarazmian Empire as variant civ of Delphi Sultanate
My other suggestion is to make DLC with ############## theme - Majapahit Empire as new civ, and Italian civ in 2 or 3 variants (Venice, Genoa, Sicily)
In any case
it would needNew campaign to tell the historical story of these empires + demonstrate their mechanics in SP campaign.
For Example, japanese shinobi would be cool in some campaign mission, to demonstrate their use in practice
I think the great success of this DLC will greatly encourage the development team to continue focusing on highly popular civilizations. Byzantium and Japan have successfully attracted many new players to the game, which is an unprecedented achievement!
I’m pretty sure there will be DLC about Indian civilization released in the future, but it may not happen until a year or more at the earliest.
Most likely, the next DLC will have other new main civilizations, it won’t have India yet. I say this because these civilizations received a lot of votes in old polls, and would be next after the Byzantines and Japan, being:
Aztecs
Vikings (Denmark)
But following the new polls, other names are also strong, including:
Spanish
Incas
Persian
I really wanted to see a new main Indian civilization, … but most likely we will get a new variant in the next DLC and only then, who knows, another DLC would come with an entirely new civilization like India (if we are lucky).
And if I were to say which new major Indian civilization would come in the future, my guess is the Vijayanagara Empire.
There is a very good concept for the Vijayanagara Empire, link below:
Now, returning to a possible variant:
I would like to see Mughals as variant of Delhi Sultanate.
Mughals would be a more modern variant, focused on firearms, cannons, elephants with cannons and more modern gunpowder weapons than seen in the Delhi Sultanate. The period would be the 16th century and part of the 17th century (the story to be told would be between the 16th and 17th centuries, as Mughal have lasted much longer).
We can now include part of the 17th century, as the Japanese are also inspired by that same century in AoEIV, remembering that we now know that variants can focus on very short periods, in short, so anything could come here as a variant, be a famous army or dynasty or some empire that existed in the same place and used the same architectures and so on.
NOTE: I previously wrote that Mughal was at the end of the 16th century, now I have corrected it and removed the word “end”, and updated a little. The Mughal still begins in part at the beginning of the 16th century, in the year 1526.
For many Civs, there is a DLC of India in the medieval period, but in general for the time period (800-1650), I would say that these are the main ones:
1.- Vijayanagara Empire.- It occupy the central area in the south of India. They were formed from the Hoysala, creating their own architecture and using languages from central India. They were an Empire that swore to defend the religious freedom of the Hindus against the Islamic expansion of the Deccan Sultanates. In practice they allowed religious tolerance of various cults, including Islamic and Christian missionaries. Most of their technology and weapons were imported from abroad, they would have some mechanics associated with trade and military technology. (1336–1646 AD)
2.- Chola.- They occupied the southern area of India, and created an Empire that conquered the coast of India up to Bengal, and went so far as to invade kingdoms outside of India, controlling several areas of Indonesia. Advantages would be infantry, Religion, and Agriculture powered by Water Tanks (which captured rainwater), as well as having war elephants and tower elephants available. It could be released as Muvendar to include the Late Pandya Kingdom, (848–1279 AD, Muvendar:Pandyas1422 AD –1618 AD)
3.- Rajputs Kingdoms.- From the North-West of India. This is the name given to the kingdoms dominated by Indian kings (Raos/Rais), from a warrior caste exclusive to that area known as Rajputs. Even with the emergence of the Delhi Sultanate and the Deccan Sultanates, they remained in their territory dominated by impassable hill forts, waging war of resistance to the sultanates and even to the powerful Mughal Empire. Advantages would be Cavalry, Religion and Defense with Hill Forts, and included the Gurjara Pratihara in the early ages. (~730 AD → ~ 1650 AD)
4.- Deccan Sultanates.- Below the Delhi Sultanate, in central India. The first being the Bahamani Sultanate, they were kingdoms that expanded taking advantage of the weakened state of Delhi after the Timurid invasion. They were the greatest enemies of the Vijayaganara Empire with which they bordered. They would be a Variant of the Delhi Sultanate (Same architecture, religion, language, base unit model), but with other Landmarks, unique technologies, and some new unique units and some changes in their epithets for some new mechanics. Included the Hoysala Empire arquitecture in the early ages (1347–1686).
5.- Eastern Gangas.- Kingdoms of the East of India, mainly on the coast. They were the largest exporters of War Elephants from India, taking them by ship or overland, either to the Delhi Sultanate or to the Vijayaganara. The most important part of their army were the elephants, to the point that they neglected the cavalry, which was difficult to raise in their area. Included the Gajapati Dynasty (493 - 1541)
6.- Extra Civ to have rivals in the Campaign.- If it is Chola, it should be “Srivijaya”, If it is from the Rajput it could be Timuridos. Vijaganagara already has the Chola, Deccan and Eastern Gangas as rivals so it’s fine. If it is Delhi Sultanate, it could have the Persians.
Variants have the same dialogue lines and architecture as their parent civ. Unfortunately, this makes the concept of a Delhi variant a little tricky, because there are plenty of other Persian-speaking alternatives, but Delhi’s architecture is distinctly Indian, so the only thing that would really fit would be some particular dynasty of the Delhi sultanate, like the Tughlaqs or Ghurids.
Note, in addition to Tughlaqs or Ghurids, there are two more: Suri Empire and the Mughal Empire, which also use language and architectural style from the region.
However, I understand that the Mughal would be a variant civilization at the end of the AoEIV period, so it is not guaranteed that it will have any chance… but as it does not need to focus on a long period of history because it is precisely a variant, given the others variants already made so far, anything is possible.
I’m really curious to see which variant the developers will choose for Delhi Sultanate.
Maybe I didn’t make it clear enough or answer more clearly. Sorry.
These variants are for the Vijayanagara Empire (in case it really is a new civilization in any DLC in the future)
Vijayanagara architecture is a combination of Chalukya, Hoysala, Pandya and Chola styles.
One thing must be remembered… There is no way for us to guess which variants will be made… because the developers may approach a different path than ours… perhaps they will choose to focus on a famous Hero or army or another lesser-known Dynasty and so forth.
I will place some maps below, showing the maximum territories of each Empire or Dynasty in South India and I will end with the Empyre Vijayanagara, showing that he incorporated all the others.
Maps:
Chera Dynasty (between the 200s BCE and the 1100s CE)
The differences between “Vijayanagara” and "Muvendhar / The three Tamil Kings " (Chera, Chola and Pandya dynasties) are quite visible, according to the concepts already shared and mentioned previously.
Now if you were to separate the variants… Chera, Chola, Pandya and maybe even Hoysala… the differences wouldn’t be so striking, but it is possible to make changes. We are seeing this in the variants that were released in the DLC, you can always change something.
But let’s be real, the developers won’t make more than one variant for every main civilization in AoEIV. As the aim of AoEIV is to have unique gameplay in each civilization, it is more likely that all main civilizations have at least 1 variant and perhaps some other civilization may have 2 or 3 variants, HOWEVER , this main Civilization that has more variants than the others, it will certainly be the exception and not the rule to be followed.
Therefore, the best option for a variant of the Vijayanagara Empire would be the variant named Muvendhar or also known by the name “The three Tamil Kings”.
In short: the Cheras, Cholas, Pandyas were certainly the greatest dynasties that ruled South India, and their contributions to literature, art, architecture and administration are still celebrated today. I wouldn’t want to take the risk of choosing one and not re-presenting the others.
“The three Tamil Kings / Muvendhar” will be the best option and everyone will be happy. kkkk =D
