My concepts for some of the most requested Civilisations
I thought about that in the past but now that I played the Closed and Open beta as well as watched the videos they uploaded so far my view on the game has changed a bit.
Byzantines
Concept
Defensive civilisation that can Age up faster than others.
They can be technologically ahead because they can risk building Landmarks earlier.
Bonuses
Landmarks are constructed faster and cost less
All buildings slowly regenerate health if in the influence of a Town Centre or Keep
Unique Units
Fire Ship (Feudal Age ship with a strong Castle Age upgrade)
Cataphract (Replaces Knight/Lancer. Does AoE damage)
Unique Technologies
Logisitcs (The influence area or Town Centre and Keep also speeds up unit movement)
Danes (Vikings)
Concept
Offensive Infantry Civilisation. Their Infantry regeneration makes up for the leak of armour compared to other civilisations MAA.
Their more sturdy traders also allow them to focus less on defence.
During the time period of AoE4 they are long Christianised and no Vikings anymore.
But I still think making them an Infantry civilisation would be fitting.
Bonuses
Infantry regenerate HP
Trade units have double HP
Unique Units
Axeman (Replaces MAA but less HP and more attack, available in Dark Age)
Longship (Replaces transport. Fires arrows when units are stationed inside like outpost)
Japanese
Concept
The style of warfare in Japan changed over time and was much more than just they typical Samurai stereotype.
The country always suffered from poor natural resources so they are designed around strong military instead of economy. Only their horseman are average.
Bonuses
Strong military upgrades
Unique Units
Sohei (Monk with Naginata. Does AoE damage and has a small bonus against cavalry. Can heal allied units. Does not replace the Spearman)
Nodachi-Samurai (Heavy infantry equipped with the large Nodachi sword. Deals AoE. Replaces MAA)
Yabusame (Armoured Horse Archer that does bonus damage against other Armoured units. replaces both the Knight and the Crossbow)
Unique Buildings
Dojo (slowly researched unique technologies for free. Can only be build once)
Unique Technologies
Kendo (Greatly increases attack Nodatch Samurai)
Kyudo (Increases range and damage of Archers and Yabusame)
Naginatado (Increases AoE of Sohei)
Sojutsu (Increases attack for spearman)
Tangashima Arquebus (Hand Cannons become a cheaper and use Arquebus instead)
Turks
Concept
Transform from a nomadic civilisation to a gunpowder civilisation.
Bonuses
All buildings can be moved in Dark and Feudal Age
All cannons are 20% cheaper and train 20% faster
Unique Units
Sipahi (Replaces both Horseman and Knight/Lancer. Decently armoured and with attack bonus against Archers)
Janissary (Heavy Castle Age Archer that can be upgraded to use an Arquebus in Imperial Age. Replaces Hand Cannon)
Great Bombard (Stronger but more expensive version of the Bombard)
Cavalry Archer (Same as Rus)
Unique Technologies
Raiding Parties (Cavalry Archer can now throw torches like melee units that do extra damage)
Rulers of the Mediterranean (Military ships are build faster)
Aztecs
Concept
Aggressive military civilisation that doesn’t have access to cavalry gunpowder, traditional siege units or the Blacksmith. Their units get stronger when they do more kills giving them a high micro potential. They also need to accumulate head bounty to gain economic bonuses forcing them to be aggressive.
They have some unique technologies that somewhat make up for the missing Blacksmith upgrades.
They mostly rely on ranged weapons.
Civilisation Bonuses:
All military units get +1 attack for every enemy they kill (up to +5) and heal 10 HP.
Head bounty system with 6 levels giving +5% collection rate of all resources each. Each kill increased the head bounty independent of enemy unit cost.
Unique Buildings
Temple (Researches a unique technology per head bounty level for free)
Unique Units
Jaguar Warrior (Replaces MAA but with less armour)
Eagle Warrior (Short range Javelin Thrower. Strong against archers)
Slinger (Cheap ranged unit that slows down enemy armoured units (no effect against light))
Light Ram (Two man carrying a log. Weaker against arrows but cheaper than normal ram)
Siege Bowman (Heavy long range Archer that deals siege damage and has bonus damage against other siege units)
Native Scout (Slower than normal scout but view range gradually increases when stationary)
Not available units
Horseman and Knight
Crossbow and Hand Cannon
All Siege units
Unique Technologies
Flower Wars (Spearman with 5 kills turn into Jaguar Warriors and Archers with 5 kills turn into Eagle Warriors)
Obsidian Weapons (All units get +2 attack)
Ichcahuipilli (All units get +2 ranged and +1 melee armour)
Jungle warfare (All military units move 10% faster)
Floating Farms (Villagers can drop of food at farms directly)
Aztec Mining (Gold mines yield 25% more gold)
Not available technologies
All of the Blacksmith upgrades
But I’m not sure how to design their navy.
Iberians
Concept
Flexible civilisation that ages up by choosing different alliances instead of building landmarks (Could also be done by building landmarks representing those alliances).
Each alliance has different bonuses and maybe even unique units.
Feudal Age
Castile
Leon
Castle Age
Navarre
Aragon
Imperial Age
Portugal
Tlaxcala
Those two are controversial but it’s just an idea.
Unique Units (may depend on alliance)
Jinete (Javelin rider)
Arquebus (Replaces Hand Cannon)
Unique Technologies
Tercio (+1/1 Armour for Spearman if next to Arquebus and the other way round)
Reconquista (Monks give +1 attack to all nearby units)
Have you seen my post on reddit a while ago? Because your concept for Byzantines and Turks is very similar to my ideas. Not accusing you of stealing or anything, just wondering. We probably just had the same basic ideas.
I really like your concepts for all civs. Not sure about a unit replacing two others for some civs, but it might work. Overall, good job!
Dude, these are great concepts!!
Honestly I love your ideas, these are great designs, looks well balanced and it fits really well with the way the game designed existing civs
You deserve a nice cold beer sir!!
All these civs need though are eco bonuses too so they are able to compete in economy with the others.
I like the idea of the Japanese, but I would probably make 1 change. I would make the Nodachi-Samurai. into regular Samurai with a katana, instead of a nodachi and also give them a longbow, which would then allow for this unit to replace the crossbowmen and MAA since the japanese longbow (to my knowledge) was meant for piercing armor. Since samurai usually trained with both the sword and bow, having this particular unit I feel will add a bit more historical accuracy to the unit, as well as reducing the AOE potential which could get kind of OP.
First. The Samurai didn’t use Katana before the Edo period. The Katana is designed to be carried while not using armour and to fight unarmoured enemies. Basically a police weapon.
Second. I don’t think a unit that combines MAA and Crossbow would be balanced. I was thinking of a very small AoE, mostly only affecting 1-2 units at a time unlike the Sohei which have a very large AoE but low damage.
Most Elite Soldiers were trained for different weapons.
Landsknechts for example used pole arms or arquebus too, even more so than giant two handed swords.
Calling one Japanese unit just “Samurai” implies that the other units aren’t Samurai which is wrong.
Yabusame are also Samurai and are supposed to be the main unit of this civilisation.
Technically every Japanese soldier is either a Samurai, an Ashigaru or a monk.
Samurai are professional soldiers in a very similar way to Knights while Ashigaru are conscripts.
Samurai and Ashigaru both used mostly the same weapons.
Both mostly used spears (Yari), Naginata, bows (Yumi) or later Arquebus.
Maybe the Japanese should also get a unique Archer unit called Yumi that is better against armoured. Maybe just by having a lower rate of fire but higher attack while keeping the same DPM.
But than nearly ever Japanese unit would be unique. Maybe unique technologies are enough in this case.
Good point with the samurai part. maybe more like Swordsman or something then (names are not my fortay lol!)
However, there were versions of the katana made and used in the Muromachi period. though they looked a bit different then the Katana we know and love, it was quite similar and was used all over the place starting in 1336.
Having the unique archer unit would maybe be the better option then since many people did dedicate themselves to the bow, over the sword, and vice versa.
Just my 5 cents. I really like the ides you brought!
Maybe it wouldn’t be to bad for them to also have a unique Archer unit. They already don’t have a crossbow.
The dedication into training one weapon is what the unique technologies symbolise.
You have to chose which “way” you follow first because they research slowly and you can only build one Dojo.
I would like to see Turkish Sipahi and Roman Cataphracts have a ranged mode as well . It would represent their usage of Heavy Horse Archers which were more armoured and more ranged than regular Cav Archers .
For Vikings I think they should have a replacement for their spearmen, to have a shorter spear and a shield, they’d be a little less effective against cavalry, but have higher pierce Armor and perhaps give a damage or Armor boost to archers behind them to represent shield wall tactics. Their man at arms could be a guy with a 1h axe and shield and have solid melee armor, and they could also have a unique infantry with a dane axe with lowish armor with high health and damage with upgrades to make them good against cavalry. I think it would be cool to have them represent early Vikings from Dark to Castle age and then perhaps aging to imperial would represent them Christianising and feudalising giving them access to similar units and buildings as the other European civs.
I thought about the Japanese again maybe give them multiple units called Samurai and Ashigaru to make it more clear which is which.
Japanese get two military buildings:
Barracks
Yari Ashigaru (spearman)
Horseman (Maybe also using Yari or Naginata and benefiting from the unique technologies for them)
Sohei (Light infantry with very large area AoE damage. Can heal allies)
Arquebus Ashigaru
Academy
Yumi Samurai (Heavy archer that uses Katana in melee but has no bonus damage against light also costs gold)
Yabusame Samurai (Armoured ranged cavalry that is good against armoured)
Nodachi Samurai (Heavy Infantry that deals small area AoE)
Yumi is just Japanese for bow and Yabusame for the art of shooting the bow while riding so they don’t make sense as unit names. We call them bowman and not just bow in English too, don’t we?
The Yumi Samurai would be the main unit of this civilisation that is already available in Feudal Age. They are manly archers but they are stronger in melee than other archers. They also don’t have an attack bonus against light which makes them indirectly better against armoured.
Sohei and Nodachi Samurai would only be available in Castle Age and Arquebus Achigaru in Imperial Age of course.
What civilisation are you referring to?
The Abbasides already cover the Mamluks according to their description.
They were major allies of the Spanish in the new world and helped them conquer and control many places not just the Aztecs.
For balance and gameplay reasons I would say no.
Cavalry Archers should be different units.
But that would shift them by basically 500 years. Feudal Age in AoE4 is very clearly after 1000 AD.
Only Dark Age is the Viking Age and there isn’t much combat in Dark Age.
I think Danes can be a nice civilisation without being stereotypical Vikings.
Same goes for shieldwalls. Everyone used them during that time, the French and English would need to have them too.
My idea was to replace their MAA with a two handed Axe using unit. That would imply less armour because no shield but more attach because bigger weapon.
Yes formed as an unit core but harquebus as weapon was in Russia long before that.
Hungarians had mass harquebuses infantry already in 1440s for example.
Yes one cannot disagree with that I was just pointing out that its more like tradition than other way around.
