I said it before but I want to put it in writing here. Since the concept of Variant civs was introduced in AoE IV, I would love for a crusader/templar civ to be added as a rival to the Ayyubids. Reusing the assets from the campaign can make it so it takes less effort and it involves more of I understand there might be some historical sensitivity regarding the topic, but seeing how the campaign was handled throughout I am confident that the team can handle it with the understanding and delicacy it needs. Here are my suggestions to what the civ should include as well as what the base civ architecture should be:
-Base civ Should be English as it is the only one of the Western European Civs that did not get a variant
-You can do a mix between HRE, English and French in architecture and in language as well. IE: Knights speak french, Archers speak english, and infantry speaks in german
-Grand Masters that Act as kings/heroes but provide different buffs/Are mounted and/or dismounted like in the campaign scenarios from the Sultan’s Ascend
-Take heavy inspiration from techs/design included in aoe 2 and 3, particularly Sicilians and Maltese since they both have a crusader identity and an interesting design
-Make it so relics provide a different buff (maybe a landmark that does that like Reignitz or a unique bonus that changes the way relics work with the civ)
These are some of the suggestions I would love to see added in the game, I don’t see why crusaders/templar couldn’t make it as a variant civ since they are very popular in general and would add a little more variety to the game. Would love to see the devs takes on it!
Maybe instead of having barracks, archery range, stable. have a combination military building for each of the big 3 knightly orders.
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Templar Barracks (replaces stable)
- trains Horsemen
- Templar Knight (knight available in the feudal age)
- Crusaders Zeal (castle age tech Templars Knights and Horsemen charge faster and longer)
-
Hospitaller Barracks (replaces archery range)
- trains Longbowmen
- Hospitaller Crossbowmen (Heavily Armored Crossbowman)
- Hospitaller Knight (man-at-arms with charge attack damage that stuns enemy units)
- Crusaders Hospitality (feudal age tech that adds 5 garrison slots to Hospitaller Barracks, and all garrisoned units heal over time)
-
Teutonic Order Barracks (replaces barracks)
- trains Spearmen
- Teutonic Knight (heavily armored knight that can dismount to fight on foot)
- Crusaders Tenacity (feudal age tech units have +10% hp)
-
Fortification emplacement available at each crusading order barracks
- cost 300 stone, +1500 hp, +5 fire armor, adds 3 arrow slits, +5 garrison slots
The English mill influence doesn’t make sense for a crusading army I think the mill and monastery could be combined into one building. The feudal age monastery/mill could provide an influence bonus that increases the damage of units trained from buildings in the influence area based on how many relics are garrisoned.
Siege Engineering allowing infantry to build barracks.
Kings Palace changes to order headquarters allows the training of Grand Masters
Assembly Hall landmark trains unique units 100% faster.
Wynguard Palace changes to a ticket system training a free crusading army from the English, French, or HRE the units will have their civs unique upgrades applied similar to Byzantine mercenaries.
No, I’m against this because u can’t give the alliance of few european countries to one civ. I also dislike about a crusader civ that u could fight your “home civs”. if you fight for example english vs english it could be a inside conflict like king a want to beat king b. A alliance that was formed to fight the muslims and take jerusalem would not attack their own christian people.
They literally massacred christians in the cities they took, there was plently of conflict within the crusading army and Kingdom of Jeruslaem as well
I think Templar is more likely to be French variant than English