I know the Asian religion minor civs are not a popular topic among posters here.
On one hand, they simply accomplish The Asian Dynasties’ need to have minor civs, without necessarily being exciting in gameplay, or thematically on-point.
On the other hand, some posters are unfamiliar with and apathetic towards the subject; some others would prefer TAD’s entire stereotypical “religions and wonders” theme scrapped, and have all Asian content redesigned from scratch, like shown in this thread.
However, we can think about it in another way:
1.) The devs aren’t going to scrap existing content. The Asian religion theme is here to stay.
2.) Ideally, minor civs should fulfill these functions:
- They are distributed wide enough to appear in multiple maps;
- One region can have multiple settlements belonging to different minor civs;
- They represent factions that are interesting but aren’t made into full civs.
And in Asia, we have highly diverse religions coexisting, each widespread and connected with sophisticated cultural traditions and migrant communities. We can see that religions actually do fulfill this role.
We also need to consider the reality that even if AoE3DE gets more Asian DLCs, we are very unlikely to get every notable Asian empire as main civs. Being represented by minor civs is better than not appearing at all.
For TAD’s existing minor civs, it’s easy to see they are thinly veiled representatives for major religions:
1.) Bhakti Temple - Hinduism
2.) Jesuit Misison - Christianity
3.) Shaolin Temple - Buddhism (Chinese, kung fu film version)
4.) Sufi Mosque - Islam
5.) Udasi Temple - Sikhism (and Sikh empire)
6.) Zen Temple - Buddhism (Japanese, samurai film version)
Upon this, KotM has added:
7.) Tengri Shrine - Tengriist Shamanism (and steppe nomads)
We can also make a list of the remaining civ candidates this forum had discussed:
- Malay / Javanese;
- Koreans;
- Vietnamese;
- Siamese;
- Burmese;
- Afghans;
- Persians;
- Omani.
With the above conditions, what minor civs do you think can be added?
Here are some ideas:
1.) Neo-Confucian School:
Units: Korean arquebusier; hwacha
Regions: Korea, China, Southeast Asia
Representing Confucianism. Doubling as Korea representation (where Neo-Confucianism was the state ideology) in case they do not receive a full civ.
2.) Theravada Temple:
Units: Burmese cavalry; elephants
Regions: Ceylon, Southeast Asia
Representing the Buddhism of Southeast Asia, replacing the Shaolin & Zen temples on maps where they don’t belong. Doubling as Burmese representation, where Buddhism was deeply ingrained in the society (Myanmar was aggressively expansionist and was no doubt a major military empire of the AoE3 period; the issue is the Siamese may simply have more cultural materials to round out a full civ’s feature list).
3.) Dorje Temple:
Units: Highland cavalry; herdsmen; yak
Regions: Himalayas, Mongolia, Silk Road, northern China
Representing the Buddhism of Himalayas and Mongolia.
4.) Raven Shrine:
Units: armored Siberian bowmen
Regions: Siberia
Refers to Kutkh. Representing the Shamanism of indigenous peoples in deep Siberia.
5.) Kamuy Shrine:
Units: Ainu hunter; bear
Regions: Japan, Kamchatka
Representing the Ainu people.
6.) Tao Shrine:
Units: Nian lancer; Nian gunner
Regions: China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Southeast Asia
Representing Taoism, Chinese folk religions, and specifically Nian Rebellion.
The above list is partially inspired by the “4th row” in TAD’s initial wonder plan, representing 3 cultures BHG didn’t intend to make into main civs:
Hwaseong Fortress, The Potala, Incomparable Monastery
