I suggest making a DLC for Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition with the following 5 civilizations:
- Romanians
- Serbians (I know we have Slavs, but they are basically Russians, we also have Bulgarians)
- Albanians
- Georgians
- Armenians
The first 3 civilizations and last 2 are going to be more different, but they will all share their differences. For example the Romanians are latin, the Serbians are slavic while the Albanians are their own thing.
They all fought the Ottoman Empire at some point, but also other nations. Serbia was even an empire for a short time (1346–1371).
We can add 1 campaign for each new nation. We already have Vlad the Impaler’s campaign from Romania / Wallachia, but we can add his cousin’s campaign, Stephen the Great from Romania / Moldavia.
Long story short about Stephen the Great: His uncle killed his father in 1451 and took his throne. Stephen the Great fled to Hungary and helped by his cousin Vlad the Impaler to gain the throne of Wallachia in 1456. In return, Vlad the Impaler helped Stephen the Great take his father throne in the same year. In 1459, Stephen the Great became a Polish vassal, this infuriated King Matthias of Hungary. In 1462 he failed to besiege Chilia but succeded 3 years later. In 1467 King Matthias of Hungary attacked Moldavia and was beaten badly by Stephen the Great. Then Stephen the Great advanced in Transylvania. In 1469 King Matthias signed a peace treaty so he would stop. When Vlad the Impaler lost the throne of Wallachia to his younger brother, Radu the Handsome in 1462, Stephen the Great knew that a war with the Ottomans was imminent since he previously took Chilia. In 1470, Stephen the Great attacked Radu the Handsome in Wallachia. In response, the Ottoman Empire sent the Tatars to invade Moldavia but Stephen the Great defeated them at Lipnic and returned to Wallachia. In 1474, Stephen the Great finally defeated Radu the Handsome who fled to the Ottoman Empire and placed Laiota Basarab as ruler of Wallachia. But 2 years later Laiota Basarab switched sides (top 10 anime betryals). The same year Laiota Basarab switched sides, Mehmed II asked Stephen the Great to give up on Wallachia, give back Chilia and pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire. Stephen the Great refused and war was on. Mehmed II sent Suleiman Pasha and Laiota Basarab to deal with Stephen the Great. Who defeated them at the Battle of Vaslui in 1475. In 1476, Mehmed II came personally to fight Stephen the Great, he defeated Stephen the Great at the Battle of Valea Alba but was unable to take Moldavia’s capital, Suceava and eventually retreated. In the same year, Stephen the Great invaded Wallachia from the east while his cousin Vlad the Impaler invaded Wallachia from the west. Laiota Basarab fled to the Ottoman Empire, Vlad the Impaler was again ruler of Wallachia, but 2 months later Laiota Basarab returned with an Ottoman army and Vlad the Impaler was killed in battle. The war lasted for 8 more years. In 1484, the Ottomans eventually managed to reconquer Chilia and Cetatea Alba and incorporate them into the Ottoman Empire, then signed a peace treaty with Stephen the Great where he would have to pay tribute and become an Ottoman vassal. In 1494, the Polish King John Albert planned a replacement of Stephen III with Sigismund, his younger brother. The 13 years of peace ended. In 1497, the Polish army marched in Moldavia under the pretext to release of Chilia and Cetatea Alba from the Ottoman Empire. John Albert suddently attacked Moldavia’s capital, Suceava, but was unable to take and eventually retreated. On the way home, Stephen the Great attacked John Albert starting the Battle of Cosmin Forest heavly crippling the Polish army. In 1948, Stephen the Great sent armies to loot and plunder Poland. In 1499, John Albert signed a peace treaty so he would stop, the Polish suzeranity over Moldavia ended. In 1500, Stephen the Great stopped paying tribute to the Ottoman Empire again, and joined the Venetian - Ottoman war (1499 - 1503) together with Hungary, he defeated the Ottoman army again, but he could not recapture Chilia or Cetatea Alba. In 1502, the Tatars of the Great Horde invaded Moldavia but Stephen the Great defeated them with the support of the Crimean Tatars. The same year, he sent troops to support Hungary and since the truce with Poland expired recaptured Pocutia from Poland. In 1503, Hungary and Wallachia signed a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire and Stephen the Great again paid a yearly tribute to the Ottomans. He died in 1504 of poor health. On his deathbed, he had urged his son and co-ruler, Bogdan, to continue to pay the tribute to the Sultan.
Serbia can have the campaign of Stefan Dusan IV who founded the Serbian Empire and Georgia can have the story of Queen Tamar the Great.
I know that it’s supposed to be called “Definitive Edition” for a reason, but as long as people play it there will always be demand for new DLC, this game is 21 years old and people still liked every new DLC. What I love about Age of Empires II’s DLC is that they don’t fundamentally change the game’s core mechanics, they just add more stuff to play, as every DLC should do.