[Just for fun] Unique Units for hypothetical new civs

  • Iroquois Mantlet
    The warrior carries its mantlet like a giant pavise, advancing slowly and throwing spears from cover. Think of it as a higher piercing armor but slower Skirmisher. Let it work with the Iroquois Warriors in the Scenario.

  • Dog Sled
    An Inuit sled pulled by 4 sled dogs. The sled is not tall, and the warrior on it could use bows or throw spears, so unlike the Ratha, it would not be a mounted unit and could have archer mode and skirmisher mode. Once killed, the sled dogs become units, just like Konnik. The disadvantage is that the health and attack might be lower than Ratha and Konnik.

  • Carroballista
    A kind of cart-mounted ballista pulled by two mules or horses, can move relatively fast, but does less damage or can’t pierce multiple units. Basically it looks like the current War Wagon, so if WW could be remade as I described above, then Carroballista could be brought in to inherit the old WW.

  • Springald
    A kind of defensive scorpion unit with high damage and attack bonus against cavalry, but needs to be unpacked and packed.

  • Plague Catapult
    The projectiles are fomites, garbages or diseased rotting carcasses.
    It could be a Mangonel or Trebuchet with low attack power, no bonus against buildings, but a fairly wide blast radius (symbolizing the spread of the plague).

  • Caravel remake
    Change Caravel’s projectiles from Scorpion’s bolts to cannonballs, as described in this thread, to fit the Portuguese characteristic more. We could keep the scorpion ship concept for a new unit, or give it to the Thirisadai to help this seemingly unpopular expensive ship unit.

  • Louchuan
    Literally means “Tower Ship”. A large Chinese-style warship that can carry a large number of sailors, soldiers and archers, and even set up a traction-trebuchet on the deck.
    In the scenario editor, it could be a kind of ship + unpacked trebuchet unit, or it could be a ship unit that fires a lot of arrows (perhaps about 12 at a time) and is able to transport units. This would be a good addition to the scenario of Lake Poyang.

  • Gate Blocking Knife Cart
    A siege weapon invented by the Chinese to block collapsed walls or gates. Many blades and slits were set into the mantlet of the large cart to prevent enemies from approaching and climbing, and to attack enemies from behind with spears or projectile weapons.
    In the scenario editor, it could be a rather dumbly moving siege weapon, like a Hussite Wagon with high piercing armor and the ability of reducing ranged damage, but high melee attack.


A siege archer unit with a normal range (or even shorter for better siege ability) might be acceptable as an UU, but I don’t think introducing an archer with super long range for siege to replace the generic Trebuchet is a reasonable design, especially in AoE2.

Making civs more accurate with new units is a good thing. However, the technological limitations made it impossible for the Meso civs to have a historical and realistic Trebuchet equivalent. Deliberately designing a fictional unit for this purpose is no better than Trebuchet, especially since generic units in AoE2 tend to be somewhat symbolic and representative, which the community has grown accustomed and enjoyed.

If necessary, we could perhaps start with something more reasonable, such as introducing a kind of Meso warrior who might look like AoE3 Skull Knight and willing to sacrifice himself to launch a suicide attack. Then name it Saboteur, a more general, gunpowder-free term, and use it to replace Petard, just like a reskin and rename of Petard.

I can understand that, but I feel pity that it’s similar to the Mamluk in purpose.
If it is not afraid of arrows but has other disadvantages, maybe it could be more unique.