Hi everyone! I began creating concepts and exploring alternative system ideas for Age of Mythology shortly after the Chinese pantheon released for Retold. Since then, I’ve developed several system-level pantheon concepts, and I’d like to share some of them with you. I’ll start with the Indian pantheon. Let me know what you think!
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No cavalry or camels, just elephants?
5 different elephant units seems a little extreme.
8 elephants if you count the “drop sites”
And yet no ratha/chariots either
Maybe all the heroes should be on chariots? That could be cool.
But it could also be a wild civ with a lot of different cavalry units.
- Horse Rider
- Camel Rider
- Elephant Archer
- Ratha
- Siege Elephant
- Ballista Elephant
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Could work as heroes, but I think it’s easy to make the rathas different from the Egyptian ones by making them able to fire in the move, since rathas had the archer and the driver
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If multiple civs can have a guy on a horse why can’t multiple civs have a guy on a chariot?
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I spent some time deciding which direction to take - leaning into historical units/weapons or embracing a more fantasy/mythical style. In the end, I knew I wanted a full Elephant civilization, and the Indians were the strongest fit for that identity. I have few ideas about Chariot and full cavalry civ, and that was not the route i wanted to take with the Indians. Yes, there are a lot of elephants in the design. 3 that you will be using constantly in fights, 2 for sieges(melee and range) and 3 for each resource (the changes in models will not be big with this one, only the resources carried in the basket). I did some sketches to see if all the elephants can have different visual design and to be easy to spot while playing, and was happy with the result.
I don’t think Age of Mythology aims for strict historical realism - its strength has always been flavor, style, and the rule of cool. After all, the Egyptians weren’t known for fielding war elephants or camel riders, and the Norse weren’t actually axe‑swinging, horned‑helmet berserkers who lived only for battle (the most used weapon around the Germanic people was the spear, and spear unit appeared in retold). AoM takes real cultures and then exaggerates them into something iconic, fun, and instantly recognizable. All that combined + people like elephants(me included) led me to mostly Elephant civilization design and the perfect candidate for that fantasy are the Indians.
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And yet no ratha/chariots either
Yes I think it’s better to add ratha than camel because those indians will be based upon a most earlier version of indians than those of AoE2.
Ratha : just a melle unit (cannot switch to ranged mode, or maybe a charge attack)
For elephant :
Melee elephant
Archer elephant
Siege elephant maybe with a flay
Ballista elephant
Infantry
Katar wielder
Urumi
Spearmen ?
Ranged unit
Archer
Chakram thrower
Hero
I think they need at leat one hero with no limited lifespan. To carry relic, to the temple or heal (Brahmin like AoE3 but as a footed unit or can be upgraded to be an elephant unit)