Idea for Balkan DLC

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
23

Bosnians, Croats and Serbs. These three could give us a powerful interconnected campaign. How great would that be.

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24

No albanians or did you miss them?

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25

I missed them! Yesss, totally :blush::grin:

26

Yes, I put it because FE likes to put campaigns from the 14th century (Gajamada, Longshanks last missions and Algirdas and Kestutis)
But campaigns between 500 and 1000 would be ideal (we still don’t have campaigns in the 6th or 7th century) and even if they include the Yamato one, it doesn’t count, because it’s an AoE 1 campaign
so far we have:

5th century:Alaric (394-411) and Attila (434-453)

6th century:Bukhara (557)

7th century:Dos Pilas (648)

8th century:Tariq (711-732)

9th century:Devapala (810-850)

10th century:Yodith (around 960)

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27

When it comes to the Hungarian campaign I would prefer his father, John Hunyadi, over Matthias Corvinus.

As for the Vlach/Serbian campaigns, I think there is a potential for a hybrid campaign with Michael the Brave & Baba Novac. (explained in the middle of the video)

28

Correct. Boyar - Wikipedia

But, while I agree with your stance that Boyars should become a regional unit, maybe replaced the Paladin upgrade like the Winged Hussars for Poland and Lithuania, I think they would need a lot of balancing.

Would definetly make playing the Rus more interesting if the final knight upgrade would be the Boyar, and it also leaves room for a new UU. While it would also make the Balkans different from the rest to have a regional unit.

But I disagree with having the knight replaced with “ispán” and adding the Voievode as the final upgrade. Not because of history but because 3 regional units is too much. If you add all 3: Ispan, Boyar, Voievode, all 3 of them have to be different from the Knight, Cavalier, Paladin which I think will have the opposite effect. But just replacing the Paladin with Boyar would keep things balanced, not confusing while also giving that Eastern European / Balkan feel of the civ without being a complete overhaul.

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29

Well, aside from the historical aspect of those three units, I also wanted to keep the Boyar line as a replacement from the entire knight line so they could keep their lower speed, since I think it fits their ultra-heavy cavalry theme and it’s part of their identity.

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30

As someone born in Serbia just have to say what a ridiculous idea this is.

Neither were the Balkan civs historically significant enough to warrant being included nor do we need more European civs. A new American DLC would be a dream but a new African/Asian DLC would be nice too (probably the former since we already got DoI).

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31

I actually find the Serbians the most fascinating of the mentioned civilization proposals, and I speak as a Romanian (that visited and loved Belgrade and roughly learnt its history).

The geopolitical landscape is the most interesting, as it was a dangerous buffer between Christian Europe and the Ottomans. There are significant battles like Velbuzhd (1330), Kosovo (1389) (+ part 2), and half a century of the Ottoman struggle as an actual Serbian Empire, and its subsequent fall
 (is this not Age of “Empires” material?)

There is an entire dynasty arc with all the Stefan’s that tells, in my opinion, the story of the culture, politics, expansion and fall of the Serbians.

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32

So Serbia isn’t significant enough but American civs that are barely a footnote (since the major ones already are in the game) are significant?

Serbia had a very interesting history. Sure, the recent Yugoslav wars makes Serbia “the bad guy” recently, but that doesn’t undo 1500 years of history. They even had an Empire at some point. And just like the Romanians and the Hungarians resisted against the Ottoman expansion.

I suppose the Boyar would need a rebalancing, they can’t just move the Elite Boyar into the Paladin slot and be done with it. But being an alternative to the Paladin with more damage/health but lower speed would be an interesting twist.

The issue is that Knight, Cavalier and Paladin all have the same speed. So I don’t see how this could be done. Sure, maybe remove Husbandry, but you have to remove Husbandry for all Boyar civilizations.

If it ain’t to controversial the DLC could be called “Defenders of Christendom” to point out towards their resistance against the Ottomans.

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33

Yes, I think they will arrive in the next European dlc
In the Balkans you have at least 565 years (910-1475) to explore
Tomislav, Stefan Dusan, Skanderbeg, Dracula himself


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34

Serbia is the only empire that I can think of I would like to add to AOE2. There is already enough cigs to my taste
What I want is:

  • more campaigns to AOE2
  • more campaigns to ROR
  • more civs (Indian, Gauls, nomadic
) to ROR
35

Nobody is putting the important effort of giving the civs their bonuses to make them stand out. Anyone gonna do that or am I the only one who will?

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36

I’m gonna post some concepts in the comments soon. Give me a bit.

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37

First, I’m gonna start with the Albanians, who are alphabetically first.

Balkan Architecture Set (unique castle: Prezë Castle)

Cavalry civilization

Civilization Bonuses:

  • Sheep captured from twice as far away
  • Stone mines last 25% longer
  • All Blacksmith and University technologies (except Chemistry) researched instantly
  • Scout Cavalry can be directly upgraded to Hussars in Castle Age; Hussars upgraded to Koursores in Imperial Age

Team bonus: Archery Range units move 10% faster

Unique Units: Stradiot (mounted crossbowman that fires a projectile which deals blast damage), Koursor (Hussar upgrade that deals bonus damage against archers)

Unique Technologies: Blood Feuds (Hussars and Stradioti deal double damage to converted units), League of Lezhe (mounted units take -10 damage from infantry)

Wonder: Ardenica Monastery

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38

You’re not the only one.

(The video here that I can’t post is called “The Serbs - AoE2 Civilisation Concept (including tech tree)” on Youtube, I don’t know why the forum censors it, I guess that’s the devs’ way of saying "we don’t want Serbia in game)

I’m 99% sure the devs won’t copy the design of fans, but either way, they can go wild with a Dracula-themed civ (bonus for skirmishers, scorched earth, etc). Heck, you can literally make villagers able to fight back with the Vlachs and still make perfect sense due to Oastea Mica.

But either way, I think these video prove enough historical information to point out what would be unique to them.

Remember Robin Hood? Romania and Serbia had that, Hajduks, they were “bandit” peasants who would steal from rich Ottomans and give to the poor people of Serbia and Wallachia. Except unlike Robin Hood they actually existed and could very well make a scout-like unique unit.

Heck, they had bands of between 100 - 2000 people. So you can literally make a Serbian campaign with Hajduk Baba Novac and Iancu Jianu.

Baba Novac helped liberate Targoviste, Bucharest, Giurgiu, Sibiu. While Iancu Jianu killed Osman Pazvantoğlu in battle, the governor of Vidin who had a hobby of singing RAP with women. Except add an E at the end because I don’t think the forum will allow me to say the full word.

Serbia could have Hajduks. While Wallachia could have Viteji (light infantry trained in both melee and range). Basically Hussar and Cavalry Archer merged in 1 unit.

There are countless possibilities as long as you know their history.

40

Here’s the one for the Croatians. Keep in mind, the next one (the Serbians) won’t be posted for a while, as I still need to revise it to meet more modern standards.

Balkan Architecture Set (unique castle: Trakoscan Castle)

Infantry and Naval civilization

Civilization Bonuses:

  • Receive two free Fishing Ships after building the first Dock
  • Barracks, Stable, and Dock unit upgrades cost -10% in Feudal, -15% in Castle, and -25% in Imperial Age
  • Villagers +1 attack per age (starting in Feudal)
  • Careening, Dry Dock free

Team bonus: Docks work 15% faster

Unique Unit: Banus (low-attack cavalry with extremely high HP and defense)

Unique Technologies: Zupani (Barracks units +3 attack vs archers), Kondura (Galley-line gold cost removed)

Wonder: Church of St. Donatus

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41

I looked them up and they seem to be too late for AoE2.

42

Yeah, forgot about that. Iancu Jianu is indeed too later. But Baba Novac is right at the end of AoE2’s timeline. We have the Noryang Point historical battle which took place in 1598.

43

I too had tried my hand at Vlachs but that was 7 years ago so its fairly worthless.

https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/4477lc/usacs_civ_crafting_corner_part_26_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1