Why is China still China and not Ming Dynasty while it was the largest kingdom in China at the time?
Why is India being called Delhi Sultanate even though India had Marathas and other powerful kingdoms in the time period,???
Marathas even conquered their way up to current day Afghanistan by 1700.
The English are still the English?? Where is Mercia, Northumbria??
I request the developers to stick to India as India and not just one kingdom in the subcontinent.
Does it make sense for Marathas, an empire founded in the 17th century, to represent a game that is primarily based in the middle ages?
The Ming I understand, but that is from the 14th to the 17th century, almost out of the aoe 4 timeline. The reason why the devs picked delhi sultanate is because it was by far the best choice. Gupta dynasty was too early, Mughal was too late, they picked who ruled india during the timeline of the game, that’s all.
Because the game’s civs are more unique and fewer in number, the devs have to group up China, or else no other culture would be represented in the game. This game spans several continents, you can’t be too specific or too broad when selecting which civs are included, I think the devs have found a good balance.
Marathas don’t fit the time period represented by AoE2. Ming were a very short lasting group. Delhi Sultanate lasted 500 years. India as a civ is like having Europe as a civ. India is a very diverse continent. Delhi Sultanate in fact open doors for more Indian representation in future expansions. For instance, Rajputs, Dakhinis, Cholas etc.
This is the World Map of 1400 AD, as you can see, India had around 10-12 influential powerful kingdoms, Delhi Sultanate among them. So to call the civilization of INDIA as Delhi Sultanate is to overlook almost 80% of India which is wrong in itself.
Developers need a rethink on the name. INDIA is INDIA. No matter what time period. Just like CHINA is CHINA and not MING Dynasty. Even Mongolia is Mongolia and not the different Khanates.
Depending on the landmarks.
You get the choose the dynasty you going for.
Tang Dynasty – Speed & vision bonus for scouts
Song Dynasty – Pop boom giving access to the village building & repeater crossbow unit.
Yuan Dynasty – Food Boom & giving access to the granary building & Fire Lancer
Ming Dynasty – Military advantage & access to the pagoda + grenadier unit.
About the Chinese, they didn’t. Chinese dynasties were conquered by the Mongols and then overthrew the Mongols creating the Ming (by far the strongest and largest dynasty in the medieval era). Chinese is simply too general. The dynasty system got an issue with the Mongol Empire as it depicted it as Chinese.
Chinese should be dynasty specific instead of all the dynasties that existed throughout the medieval era.
India was made by the british there was no india pakistan bangladesh in the middle ages.
And there was a china, england and mongolia at the time? no there wasn’t
China- Ming Dynasty, Shan, Tibet, Taiwan
Mongol- 3 Huge Khanates in Chagtai, Golden Horde and Oirats
England- Scotland, Wales, England
India- Sindh, Gujurat, Delhi Sultanate, VijayaNagar Empire, Reddys, Bengal and there is a few more.
So for them to select and call INDIA as The Delhi Sultanate while the other civlizations still retain their current proper names like CHINESE, ENGLISH and MONGOLS is grossly inappropriate to say the least.
I suggest you re read your history lessons.
Delhi sultanate is not total india its just the northern part.
England is not scotland or irland.
Tibet was not a part of china in the middle ages.
Mongol khanates were not ethnically mongol they were stepp peoples.
You seem to have mixed up united kingdom with england and ccp china with medieval china.
have u not heard about the dynasty system? china can chose its dynasty including Ming
Simple Solution - Make an “Indus” or “Hindustan” Civ that based on landmarks like Karni Mata or Agra Fort to “choose” the dynasty that they want. I completely agree that having a portion of conquered India be the representation of India is awful.
Why would you think that it’s a representation of India? It’s obviously a representation of the Delhi Sultanate. Don’t get to stuck up on the way civs are in AoE2. AoE4 is not AoE2.
Fair but then add in Marathas or Cholas or Vijaynagara etc.
If they plan for more civs in AOE4 with greater representation then Im all for it.
Yeah I’m hoping for that, too. Although new Civs from India will probably not be the first in line when it comes to new civs.
I agree that the name Delhi Sultanate feels very odd. It’s both inconsistent across the greater Age franchise and internally inconsistent with the naming of the other civs in the game. It’s super difficult to reconcile. And all of this is before whatever cultural undertones it has, which others in this thread and other threads can explain far better than me.
I’m no scholar of SE Asia, but it seems weird that the birthplace of Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and several other ancient religions is represented by a Muslim civ.
Maratha mughal vijayanagar are pretty much after the middle ages.
I think that we shouldn’t try to see these civs as a representation of today’s states. They said that the campaigns should teach us more and better about history than they did in previous games. They probably chose the civs based on that. It doesn’t matter that the Delhi Sultanatel lies in today’s Indian territory. During the time that AoE4 is set it was one of the biggest Empires in that region and due to its involvement with the Mongols I would say that it’s the right decision to choose them as a Civ for this game. I really like that they are trying to be more historically accurate and more specific in this game and don’t continue with this IMO ridiculous generalization of history.
Your England part doesn’t make sense. England was an independent nation In the Middle Ages. The English civ in AOE4 is meant to represent that nation. It it not meant to represent Scotland, Wales or Ireland. At the time the game is set they were all separate and not in any union. There isn’t any problem with the English being a civ in AOE4 and it makes perfect sense for them to be there.
Maratha Confederacy and Sikh Empire didn’t even use Elephants in War. They are soo late in time period that other technology vastly outdated the elephants. By their time gunpowder could easily knockdown elephants.
You serious you want to see late 18th century factions in a medieval era game? 
Marathas were mostly about forts, cavalry, and gunpowder.
The problem is the naming of the factions not what this factions represents. Why is Delhi Sultanate but not Kingdom of England or Empire of China?
Especially problematic is the Mongols name, because for the majority of their history they were separated tribes and kingdoms that only united for a brief period and after they were separated in different kingdoms again, even more they were part of one of the ruling dynasties of China.
So the term Mongol is very vage for the overall aproach of names for this game were a name is meant to be a representation of a medieval state, so The Mongols are a representation of the separated steppe tribes? Gengish Khan´s horde? One of the kingdoms that emerged from that? The Yuan dynasty of China?
