You should message a mod to get whatever words that are censored whitelisted. It’s hard to follow with so much censored stuff.
There’s a few groups like the Kazakhs and Uzbeks with enough strength and longevity to make sense as standalone civs, but central Asia was an ever changing region of migrating people’s, so an umbrella civ does make a lot of sense.
A “Dynasty” system doesn’t really seem like the way to go. Almost all the options you’ve given for this and your Persia suggestion are people groups, not dynasties. Aging up by adding a khanate or horde is what you’re doing, and obscuring with little known dynasty names would be detrimental.
As you’ve stated there are a ton of potential options for allies:
- Timurids/Persians
- Kazakhs
- Kipchaks/Golden Horde
- Uzbeks/Bukharans
- Crimean Tatars
- Nxoxgxaxi (stupid censorship, disregard the x)
- Kalmyks
- Bashkirs
- Turkomans
- Oriates/Dzungars
- Mughals
Buildings:
Villages should be a Chinese exclusive thing and could use a reskin to not just be a collection of yurts.
Yurts should be the Tatar house.
Training Ground is not a great name. The central Asian peoples were not just nomads. They ruled a lot of cities along the silk road so just a standard Barracks wouldn’t be out of place. Or some kind of garrison based on these cities.
Caravanserai should not be a Stable. It should be a Tavern replacement for Islamic civs.
Aul - Fortified tower/village and could be a defensive structure.
Infantry:
I like the Recurve Archer, but the other options aren’t great. Tajiks and Caucasian Mountaineers are not Turkic or Mongol so I don’t see why they’d be a Tatar unit. Musketman is way too vague, and there’s probably a more thematic unit that could be used.
Some possible units could be the following:
Infantry:
Ghulam - Slave soldiers in Muslim armies often taken from central Asia. Probably a spearman unit. Could be shared with Persia and other civs.
Ghazi - Muslim holy warrior
Kharash - A Mongol tactic of using slaves as frontline cannon fodder. Could have weak attack other than siege, but be able to soak up a lot of damage.
Most of these are slave soldiers which would be fitting considering how much slave raiding was a part of their economies.
Artillery:
Bombard - Slower firing but heavier hitting falc equivalent. Based on Turkish artillery that was used across the Muslim world. A little more concise than “Bronze Bombard”
Hand Mortar - The Mongols used various hand cannons and this could represent that.
Cavalry:
Steppe Rider - These are the people that live on the steppe, so it would make sense to share this unit with China.
Turcoman - Seems reasonable
Tarkan & Cataphract - I’d just merge these into one beefy lancer unit with the name Tarkan
Steppe Ambusher - This unit sounds like cancer. A tactic used a lot by the Timurids was to ride around to make a dust cloud to obscure their units. A card or tech to enable some cavalry units to create dust clouds that are zones of stealth could be interesting.
Camel/Horse Mounted Artillery - The Dzungars used camel mounted artillery to repel Quing forces. This would be similar to a Zamburak with a function more like a Rifle Rider. It could even deal siege damage to be extra potent.
Navy:
Galleys make sense, but why do they have Xebecs?
The Crimean Tatars traded extensively with the Genoese at Caffa, so they could have some European ships from that interaction.