Honestly, I'm surprised they missed this opportunity with Romans

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
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The Civ design is honestly pretty interesting - lots going on, very unique.

But considering how much it’s been in the media the past few years, I’m shocked they didn’t include a bonus of some sort referencing it - Roman Concrete!

Give them the ability that all of their stone buildings slowly regenerate HP. We don’t have any building bonus like that in the game. I don’t know what you would adjust otherwise to balance them out, but it’s one of the defining factors of their masonry over thousands of years is that it lasts so long because of its ability to “self-heal” over time.

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Yes, I agree that Roman concrete should’ve been referenced. I think a tower bonus was a missed opportunity too.

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I thought the same but then they would have stepped too much on byzantine shoes. It’s very clear in fact they didn’t want to give Romans a defensive identity.
I think their design is still historically inaccurate, they could do without a navy bonus and the scorpion’s one while cool works better with ancient Romans rather than medieval ones. Also I particularly dislike their eco bonus which feels kinda thrown in…
This is how I designed them before Ror was announced:

Bonuses:

Militia line units cost 60 food and 30 gold, skirmishers and spearmen lines cost gold instead of wood and food respectively

Blacksmith’s techs for infantry and armour upgrades for archers double their effect

Outposts can shoot arrows when garrisoning military units, units garrisoned in outposts heal 8x once herbal medicine is researched

Fortified walls and ballistics free (once reached castle ages)

Unique units:

Legionary (heavy infantry unit, upgrade from long swordsman, available in the imperial age from barracks, bonus against buildings)

Centurion (heavy cavalry unit, available from the castle in castle age, gets stronger the more units it kills in a row, bonus against infantry)

Unique techs:

Foederati (available in castle age, you can train unique units of your allies from the castle)

Fasti consulares (available in imperial age, wonders of your team generate food)

Team bonus: units behind a wall get 25% less damage

Missing techs:

Archery range: parthian tactics, heavy cavalry archer, arbalester, elephant archer, hand cannoneer

Barracks: supplies, squires, eagle warrior

Stable: paladin, hussar, battle elephant, steppe lancer, heavy camel rider

Siege workshop: siege ram, bombard cannon, armoured elephant

Blacksmith:

Dock: heavy demolition ship, cannon galleon

University: treadmill crane

Castle:

Monastery: ?

Economy: two man saw, guilds

They kept the idea of legionaries upgrade and double effect on armour but the rest is pretty different.
The theme I wanted to go is them having very strong units (they were still the strongest army in Europe until they could afford to pay it!) But a crippled eco to mimic the decay of the empire due to bankruptcy rather than them ever losing big battles. So a power spike in feudal and castle age while going down in imp.
I also wanted them to be very diverse to mirror reality like with the foederati tech and access to camel raiders because of Africa and arguably steppe lancers (the late Roman army was full of mercenaries, in the west it basically fell when there were no Roman troops but just a bunch of Germanic warriors).
I made this civ in collaboration with Robbylava and his version of it is on YouTube!

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This isn’t a bonus. This is a nerf.

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Yeah but they get infantry plus 8 attack and plus 8 armour (with all blacksmith techs) so they were probably still broken, also crossbowmen and skirms with plus 8 armour.
Don’t know if the gold cost would have been enough to make up for it.

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Having no access to trash units in the late game is not a bonus. It would force you to be super aggressive every game and finish early before gold runs out. Knowing this, opponents could play super defensive and grab all the relics to drag the game out til late game. I really like the idea of garrison + arrows in outposts though.

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That’s the point! The Roman army in the west went gradually dissolving and bankrupt because of being well prepared but too expensive to maintain. So they relied on mercenaries (foederati, the castle age UT).
I think they could still do something in imperial age, since they’re quite a defensive civ they could build a wonder (Arch of Constantine in my book, the amphitheatre looks too generic and not late Roman but earlier) which generates food thanks to the imp UT and then spam light cav. Yes it’s not ideal like closing the game before but it’s not the first civ with a power spike in mid game and it adheres very well to history.
Also no trash units because they all have x2 armour than normal in imp. Crossbows, skirms with 8 melee and 8 pierce armour and legionaries with 20 attack and 10 armour. Albs too… I mean if you can’t close the game with an army like that you deserve to struggle in post imp!

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I’m not entirely sure, but I think the recipe of “roman concrete” was already lost by the time the game timeline starts

Also you could argue that the Byzantines building HP bonus is already a reference to it

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Yeah maybe it’s better for aoe1

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But the point is they will be predictable to play against. So if everybody knows Romans’ weakness is late imp when gold has run out, you can just weather the storm, mega boom, get all relics and stone wall to drag the game out.

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I mean aren’t goths and franks predictable? Still they seem to win some match right?
Of course you know what to do against them, the problem is if you’ll be able to do it.

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IDK how impactful self healing buildings are in practice (it’d largely depend on the rate) but that is very cool and flavorful.