This is the last time that I will say that the devs will abandon the game. IDK, seems that the game still profitable so they are showing a wonderful support, QoL and nice new content. A new UI for a modern would be super cool.
But back for the title topic:
I was 90% sure for the Moroccans (Zaadi Sultanate) when they started to hint the last DLC that turned to be Mexico. My main reason was that they had some buildings, some units and could reuse some voices, plus for me I felt that 2 civs left me for a little bit hungry for one more.
The trend for the 2 DLCs with only one civ (Mexico and USA), had been to release civs within an existing build set (N. Europe for USA and Mediterranean for Mexico) and reuse other assets: for example, some units and voices for USA (whether they planned to originally add them for the first DE release IDK). Another thing would be aiming for great audiencies (USA have a good playerbase, and Mexico could appeal to Latin American and Spanish audiencies)
Having that in mind, although my predictions usually fail:
I think about a reused buildset and a wide and important country. Given the trend opened by the last DLCs, I would point towards some Latin American civilization: my first bet would be Brazil for it’s extension, but could be also (Gran) Colombia for it’s importance. In both cases, it would be very nice to add Arawak people, they can cover a lot of maps and replace incorrect minor civs in a lot of them. Both civs can have big audiencies.
If we follow the the reuse building assets trends but away from America, we go to Europe civs. I would avoid Europe because I think that an expansion pack themed with 30 Years / Napoleonic Wars would be better than individual European DLCs, but for the sake of fun speculation and failing prediction:
We all know that Italy is fan favourite and people have been longing for them because they were in the original design documents until they were scrapped (Lil’ Bombards and Elmetis are leftovers of that). The design was for an archaic civ, but I hope that they go if they do this civ, another concept that doesn’t overlap with current Spain implementation, with some mechanics regarding trading. Alexastor and Tilanus, FE devs and former Napoleonic Era leaders, added Italy with their mod.
The other relevant two European names are:
Denmark-Norwegian because are the last one “big” colonial empire left to be added
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth because big powerful entity on the era and Winged Lancer Hussars
But both could be interesting in a “Icy European expansion” together.
Thank for my TED talk. What about your thoughts?
(3 months later we find that they add an asian civ and I fail again to predict)
Brazil, I have the theory that they are going to place a former colony as a playable civilization for each existing European power.
Morocco, the civi is almost ready.
Italy would be fan service, but we have been asking for it literally since 2005.
No se por que me imagino que los desarrolladores hicieron a Italia hace un montón de tiempo, pero que no la lanzan nunca, y en su lugar lanzan otras civs a forma de “trollear” a los usuarios xd me imagino algo como:
Brazil to round out America’s post-colonial civs. Pretty sure AoEIII has a large playerbase in Brazil too.
European, African and Asian civs will be saved for larger DLC akin to African Royals.
Hopefully, Brazil will be the end of the post-colonial civs so they can focus on these areas. Italians, Persians, Danes, etc are highly requested. A European DLC would sell like hotcakes.
If it’s another single DLC which I’m personally not a fan of then it’s obviously Brazil…Europeans and Asians shouldn’t be released as a single civ DLC since there are a few that should come in a bundle of 2-3 instead of just adding one and ending it all.
Considering III’s time period (rounding ofc) 1500-1850, and choosing somewhere around middle of that mentioned PLC is certainly a decent guess.
Colonialism as a requirement went out of the window some time ago (honestly certainly by the time WarChiefs came out lol) so no reason to not include it now. Not a lot left in Europe to be covered tbh at this point.
If it’s an individual civilization, which the language seems to suggest, I suppose it’ll likely be another post-colonial. In terms of significance, I think it’ll be Brazil.
A new European DLC would likely fit best if they added multiple countries in a single package.
I don’t know when we will get Morocco, if ever, but I hope that it will arrive as a pleasant surprise.
Otherwise, if I somehow had personal command over the dev team, I would have them add in Persia.
