Well, rattan archers are really tanky
Rattanky archers
(20 characters)
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Very excited.
so are we getting a flail elephant maybe? (Aoe3) or an upgrade for the EBE? I’m assuming the unique red carpet elephant there is campaign specific.
Some kind of fast pike with a bit of armour maybe? Replaces halbs for Indian civs like the WH?
And a chakram throwing UU with area damage?
And that cav is maybe some kind of raider cav? Lighter armour by the looks of it.maybe campaign specific?
Similarly, organ guns were used by many civilizations (and as far as I can tell, the Portuguese were not one of them)
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If they’re in small numbers, anything that isn’t a swordsman or an archer can counter them.
If they’re in big numbers, spears and siege do a good job.
They’re an expensive unit that is easy to counter.
If it was an archery range unit though, it would give you more excuse to make them when you wanted a strong anti-archer unit.
Plus, maybe these new civs would get bonuses for them.
It would be amazing if the Burmese got the elephant archer and Howdah effected them (it’s literally a howdah on the elephant archer’s back).
I feel like that might help with some of the Burmese archer issues.
I know that’s not a perfect response to whether or not it would be balanced, but I think there would be solutions to make them balanced.
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Where are the other pieces of the puzzle?
i looked through the community posts of the other age titles and didn’t find anything.
also nothing noticable on the other social channels yet
Another possible “concern”: If the regional elephant archer starts overlapping with both the battle elephant and the camel line you get civs that simply have a bunch of extra options compared to “regular” civs. Does that require balancing somehow? Or do these civs lose access to certain common units, like the knight line (like the current Indians do) or the cavalry archer line, giving these civs an almost mesociv-like otherness?
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I think they specifically saw this post and responded 
at least now we know
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They lack all the armour upgrades and PT(edit they have PT. So with howdah they would actually be almost as tanky as Indian ele archer)
But might still be a viable option at least in some scenarios. People will still simply convert them though? For them to be more effective they would maybe have to give Burmese heresy?(people have asked for this anyway)
Certainly would spice things up. But imo if it becomes a regional I’m guessing only Indian civs will get it
I believe Portugal would have used them at least a little, probably to a lesser extent than other Western European powers but likely a used them a little.
While it is a bit ahistorical, I think it still works thematically for the civ to have them, as a way to enforce the “later period gunpowder power” aspect the civ is going for.
Elephant archers were a thing for centuries in South Asia though and a fairly common part of elephant oriented armies.
That’s why to me it feels weird more civs not having them.
Multiple civs even had them in AoE1
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Range does make them a bit more monk-resistant than regular elephants.
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Yeah for sure. And with further thought, because howdah is in castle age. They’ll be more tanky than India EA , in castle age. And being made from ranges instead of castles might make them too snowbally in TGs unless they remove tech. Thinking about how strong the current Indian EA death ball is.
So maybe Indians (or whatever their new name will be) lose PT if they get EA from ranges? Either way sounds tough to balance
i thought that too. the mood had already started to change and more and more people feel like being held out rather than playfully baited. 
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Pretty sure this the same chakram thrower in a different view.
Maybe the chakram guy is support unit like the genitor or condo.
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Anyway, yeah, color me hyped. Curious to see the official information. India/South Asia was really ready for a boost. It was probably relative to population, area and importance in history and stuff the most underrepresented major region on the planet. I’m exited to switch to complaining about Africa and the America’s needing more civs! 
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An interesting thing to note is that the devs do actually seem to be listening to the communities’ civ suggestions.
- People (not me) were asking for Normans/Crusaders/Dutch for ages and then we got Sicilians and Burgundians, with the former basically being Normans Crusaders and the latter incorporating Flemish elements.
- People asked for Poles with Winged Hussars for ages and they got added (which is cool tbh).
- People have been increasingly asking for more South Asian civs and now we’re getting them (which I am very excited about).
I think we should go to Africa, Americas and East/South-East Asia multiple times (plus the Caucasus region) after this next DLC, and only return to Europe to add stuff like Serbs, Croats and Swiss somewhere way, way down the line.
On the other hand, some people genuinely want Basques and Venetians right now, and I think that’s crazy. Some think one civ is enough to cover South Asia. Or that Asia shouldn’t have more civs than Europe. Or that there’s nothing left of note to add to Africa or the Americas (when really they just don’t know enough about history).
If the devs are listening, I think its important that we make sure that the pro-Global voice is louder than the Eurocentrist voice, because otherwise I fear they will do stuff like breaking up Spanish into multiple civs as some suggest.
So after this Indian DLC is added, we do need to start pushing for more African and American civs as you say, because I feel there’s gonna be some people saying “well we’ve had one non-European DLC, that’s enough for now, let’s go back to Europe”, and if that is the loudest voice, they’ll get heard, even if they’re not a majority.
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I did that in the past and I hope that they listen to this. There are some areas with interesting history still not covered by the game like e.g. Central Africa.
Some people, like I, thought that Porto was going to focus on Africa. Hopefully they’re going to focus there or in America next.
Already really, really hyped about Porto though 
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Given the colours of the civs I assume its too civs facing each other. Cyan has the rajputs cavalry and the chakram warriors. This for me is the best hint its a new civ that focusses on Rajasthan and Punjab where Chakrams were used the most. Also Prithviraj, the indian campaign hero, controlled this area. So probably his campaign will be redesigned.
For red, this could just be Indians with some scenario editor units. Maybe it hints at Indians getting Battle eles, but else a civ with Camels BE EA, the new ele unit, the new spearman, doesnt seem so strong as a new.
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Already really, really hyped about Porto though
Me too!! I suppose this is how all those Poles fans felt when that civ got added 11
Really hoping they make the right decisions with the Porto DLC in terms of civ choice and design
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