On March 11th 2025, something amazing happened. You announced an upcoming DLC whose theme was China. You promised 5 new civilizations for multiplayer which has not happened for a long time. We were all super excited by this announcement. We could already guess that the Jurchen and the Tanguts would be added based on the screenshots. The internet was buzzing with speculation about the three other civilizations. The excitement was palpable.
Then, April 10th 2025, came. The DLC was announced. We are not getting 5 civilizations. We’re getting Jurchen, Khitans with a Tangut castle and Unique Unit; and bizzardly we’re getting three ancient Chinese kingdoms. The disappointment was immense. The Khitan situation is uncharacteristic of the attention to detail you have put all these years. The three Chinese kingdoms are not Medieval civilizations and their hero units are a step in the wrong direction for multiplayer AOE2.
But there is still hope. You have do a few basic things to improve the situation for us all and make this the best expansion since The Conquerors or Dynasties of India.
Step 1: Exclude the Wu, Wei and Shu from ranked multiplayer (the minimum you can do). Add them to the Chronicles.
To make this DLC legendary you can do Steps 2-5!
Copy and tweak the Wei, Wu, and Shu kingdoms and turn them into highly requested civilizations for multiplayer.
Step 2: The Khitans should be renamed to the Tanguts. The Dao Liao should be renamed to Baojia. Remove the hero unit.
Step 3: The Wei should be renamed to the Khitans. Remove the hero unit and the Huang Cavalry. Give them full knight line. Add the pasture mechanic.
Step 4: The Shu should be renamed to the Dali/Nanzhao/Bai. Remove the hero unit and the Huang Cavalry. Give them the knight line but no paladins.
Finally Step 5: The Wu should be turned into the Tibetans but you need to make some significant changes.
Rename the Jian Swordsman to Dob-Dob, the name of the Buddhist warrior monks.
Rename the Huang Cavarly to Hor Cavarly, the name of the Tibetan noble cavarly.
Remove the Hero unit.
Add pastures
Get full Horse Archer line and Parthian Tactics.
Copy paste Aztec dock tech tree.
Red Cliffs: Affect Fire Archers and Horse Archers only.
Remove the bonus: Careening, Dry Dock available one Age earlier, cost and research time -75%
New bonus: Units receive bonus armor when attacking from higher elevations.
And now you have massively improved the 3 Kingdoms DLC!
In the future you can patch better castles and wonders and new voice-lines for the civilizations above.
To me, it’s not clear which way they should rework Khitans. Castle skin can easily be fixed, no matter what. Civ design might be trickier, but must be done.
Infantry bonuses and Camel Trebuchets are Tangut and must be Tangut. I’ve actually checked Liao Dynasty’s history and I didn’t find anything about their mighty Infantry. Pasture, Herdable bonus, Blacksmith bonuses, Cavalry Archer bonus and Ordo Cavalry must be Khitan.
Honestly, they could just release 3K in Chronicles and do later another DLC for AOE2 with Jurchens, Tanguts, Khitans, etc…
So 2 DLC, and more money ! And everyone is happy.
We’re so close to the perfect East Asian DLC… with a few tweaks, the 3K civs could easily be turned into proper medieval civs. The developers don’t have to throw away all the bonuses and units. That would be a shame, because some of the new mechanics are pretty cool.
But the fact that the Jurchens and Khitans don’t get a campaign just hurts so much… and neither do the Chinese and Koreans. The Chinese, in particular, would have been the perfect candidate, considering the other DLCs where an old civ always got a campaign as an extra. It’s all so strange this time.
I’m sorry but as I said before, Wei have Xianbei Raider and Xianbei wonder, and Hei Guang Cavalry which was popular in Northern Dynasties founded by Xianbei, they only fit Xianbei in current status. Change them to Khitan need much more work.
Wu is also like what I have said to Wei, need significant changes. Wu was a faction designed to reflect Southern East China dynasties, only fit Wu or Yue.
Hei Guang Cavalry could be kept, it was popular cavalry unit in China and nearby regions in early medieval age, including the Bai and the Yue.
Another problem is the wonder, Wu and Shu all have modern Chinese buidings as their wonders, it should be changed even their name are not changed.
I kinda feel like… could this DLC be the game’s final swan song?
I don’t think devs will make any compromises or compensations, they won’t even be willing to communicate with us.
I don’t think devs will make any compromises, they won’t even be willing to communicate with us.
Ultimately, this DLC will completely divide the player base of this game, with a significant decrease in daily online users, gradually following in the footsteps of AOE3.
Low chances, but imo the rightful way to fix this:
-Move 3K to chronicles.
-Delay the release.
-Release khitans (reworked) and jurchens to the base game; and update the dlc later on to include tibetans, bais and tanguts.
OR
Release khitans (reworked), jurchens, tibetans, bais and tanguts. With even further delay, but at least doing a decent job.
I would even be fine with a new DLC with only the 2 new civs (Khitans and Jurchens), like they did between 2021 and 2023, with campaigns for them and Chinese
Yes it think I want to, keep they let do like a new regional unit of cavalry for east Asia, replace knight line current. Hei guang equipment a bit same cavalry in 10-14 century of east Asia. So they can do best for east Asia region. Yue Korean and Split China to 5 civ
Xixia has its own special forces, Tie yao zi and Bu ba zi. The former is more famous as cavalry, while the latter is a special mountain area special forces, generally without heavy armor, with surprise attacks as the main attack strategy. It should be similar to Ethiopia’s special forces.
So if it must be an infantry unit, then it must be from Western Xia.
Of course, considering its strength and popularity, it is more reasonable to choose Tie yao zi as a special unit.
Yes it think I want to, keep they let do like a new regional unit of cavalry for east Asia, replace knight line current. Hei guang equipment a bit same cavalry in 10-14 century of east Asia. So they can do best for east Asia region. Yue Korean and Split China to 5 civ 