The Romanians are an umbrella civ that encompasses all the Romanian people of Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia that saw many invasions from the Ottomans, Magyars and even the Mongols.
Being a minor power, the Romanians played defense for most of the time in their history and had to rely on hit and run tactics, with an army made up partially by very professional troops and partially by trained peasants for the meat grinder, this will be reflected in their playstyle. A tough nut to crack when you attack them, and hit and run tactics when they attack you.
Vlad the Impaler ruled 3 times over Wallachia with help from different parties (as we can see in his campaign, where you play as the Turks, Slavs & Magyars due to lack of a Romanian civ), during the Ottoman invasion of Wallachia, Vlad the Impaler used scorched earth tactics to weaken their opponents, with the final blow supposedly being the Night Attack at Targoviste where Vlad’s forces infiltrated and confused the Ottoman camps, with the intended goal being the assassination of the Sultan, but the Sultan was away from his tent at that time so the mission failed. And afterwards the forest of 23,844 (the Ottomans counted them) impaled turks during their march to Targoviste.
An important ally and cousin of Vlad the Impaler was Stephen the Great of Moldavia who didn’t have such a cruel reputation but was rather a good ruler with argicultural reforms and new taxation laws, in fact the economy of Moldavia was pretty good. Stephen the Great was unsuccessfully consted by Hungary and also Poland and the Moldavian military was able to defend. This brings out the point that the Moldavian military was able to win battles where outnumbered. A great example is the Battle of Vaslui where the Moldavians decisevly defeat the invading Ottomans.
In terms of military choices, the Romanians had a focus on heavy cavalry for their main surprise punch but likewise used light cavalry, as well as infantry and cavalry archers due to inspiration from the Tattars.
One important aspect for their infantry was that during war time a giant levy of peasants over the age of 14 was possible. Peasants in general, had to be armed by law and they would be sentenced to death if they didn’t carry a weapon.
Romanians - Defensive and Cavalry civ.
→ The ‘story’ behind the Romanians is that they will have fully upgraded generic Elite Skirmishes and above average Halberdiers with their unique unit (final upgrade) Portar to reflect the levy of trained peasants, fully upgraded generic Cavalry Archers and Hussars and the star of the show would be the Paladin with an unique twists: lacks the final armor upgrade, but has a special upgrade from the castle. They are also missing Crossbowmen and Chemistry.
Unique Units:
Portar (Halberdier upgrade) → +5 Hit Points, +1 Armor, +1 Pierce Armor.
Viteji (Light Cavalry with Range Attack) → 65 Hit Points, 7 Melee Attack, 6 Pierce Attack, 4 Range, 0 Melee Armor, 2 Pierce Armor.
Elite Viteji → +15 Hit Points, +1 Melee Attack, +1 Pierce Attack.
Bonuses:
Shepherds and Hunters slowly generate wood in addition to food.
Receive +100 wood and +100 food when advancing to the next age.
Stable units 5% cheaper in Feudal age and 10% cheaper in Castle age.
Skirmishers +1 attack in Castle age and another +1 attack in Imperial age.
UT1: Order of the Dragon → Knight Line gets +1 attack and +1 melee armor.
UT2: Small Host → Halberdiers are upgraded into Portars.
Team Bonus: Cavalry +2 damage vs buildings.
Missing:
Archery Range:
- Crossbowman
- Hand Cannoneer
Barracks:
- Eagle Scout
Stable:
- Camel Rider
Siege:
- Armored Elephant
- Bombard Cannon
Blacksmith:
- Plate Barding Armor.
Dock:
- Cannon Galleon
- Heavy Demolition Ship
- Galleon
- Dromon
- Shipwright
University:
- Heated Shot
- Chemistry
- Bombard Towers
- Siege Engineers
Monastery:
- Devotion
- ################ (the golden cup, forums thinks it’s profanity, if it’s profanity, why is this profane name in the game?)
- Fervor
- Illumination
- Block Printing
Mining Camp:
- Stone Shaft Mining
Story:
The 2 economic upgrades are weak by design. Made to make the Romanians stay on par with the other civs with eco bonuses early game but not to have advantage over it. It is most useful in Dark Age and then the eco bonuses will die out. Because the Romanians who will win their battles while outnumbered and with hit and run tactics are not supposed to out-eco the enemy.
Instead, what they have is above average Skirmisher late game, above average Halberdier late game if upgraded with UT2, cavalry archer & champions as a decent but not great option, the castle unique unit that is a combination of Hussar & Cavalry Archer but costs more gold than the cav archer, and the unique Paladin that is missing +2 pierece armor but has +1 attack and is 10% cheaper overall (all things considered), making him a stronger than average Paladin but especially weak against archers, unlike other Paladins.