In the wake of the upcoming info dump, I updated my concept for the Byzantines and recorded a deep dive going into the historical inspiration behind the design. Let me know what you think!
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The issue I’m having with this design is the lack of any Greek reference or including anything Greek at all.
The Eastern Roman Empire was heavily influenced by Greek culture and orthodox Christianity, the Greek language was the main language they spoke throughout the empire or what about the Greek fire just to name a few examples. It wouldn’t had been the same without all of this.
I want the Eastern roman empire to be represented with historical accuracy as it would disrespect Greece and teach inaccurate history as well in the process. Please don’t make the same mistakes as they did back in AoE2 with them speaking Latin over Greek etc.
Really nice and well put togeather video but sad that faction design has to accomodate e-sports play (but probably true)
Makes me wonder if they will have any defensive bonuses at all if they come in.
While I do like the Aqueducts & Cistern concepts, I have to disagree with your Byzantine’s military ideas. The Byzantines were known to have the most adaptive & professional army in the medieval era, hence they should be able to have multiple roles than other civ units with the consequence of having the most expensive units among other civs, for example Cataphracts should be able to switch between archer mode & melee mode, Spearmen if upgraded can be equipped with shields & make use of testudo formation with their large numbers to defend against arrows while also defending against cavalry charges, etc.
I like those ideas, I think they’d make for some great historical flavor!
Unfortunately if you take balance in mind, they don’t really work well with the way the game works.
Spearmen in the game are designed to be countered by archers. If they had shields and could testudo they’d be rendering their own counter ineffective. It’d make a mess for balancing.
Similarly, Archers in AOEIV primarily serve to counter spears. If Cataphracts could switch modes, they’d effectively be able to fully counter their main counter - spears. I’m actually pretty hesitant with the anti-spear brace ability in my own concept, I only included it as a homage to AOE2.
Horse-archer type units in general are quite hard to balance. If you don’t do it right, they completely take over the game (due to orb-walking techniques in high level play) - just take a look at AOE3. Many of the empires represented in the game historically used Horse Archers (ie. Ottoman, China, Delhi Sultanate, etc) but yet Relic chose not to give them the unit. I think this is to keep these units feeling unique and fresh, and also to keep the sanctity of the main counter-trinity (spear-archer-cav). Units that fall outside of that trinity should never be so overwhelming that they break the flow lest the game become completely stale.
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Looks like someone was right about the aquaducts!
Maybe Relic should grant all missile infantries some sort of attack bonus against horse archers like AOE3?
AYY - and they put Cisterns in there! Woooo!