Let’s talk about Civ representation from Europe, that never were in AoE Series. Like Scotland, Wallachia, Varangian, Moors and so forth.
While AoE Series does depict a lot of factions from Europe, especially did AoE2, there are still some odd accusations, despite having quite an impact on the history, but never got a faction in the game.
One very weird is Scotland, while mentioned in the campaign, we never got a Scotland faction, same goes for Ireland and Wales. Especially Scotland is weird, considering all the movies they are very popular and commonly worldwide known, with traits like highlanders, Claymore Swords, kilts, haggis, bagpipes and the very recognizable accent.
Wallachia The famous kingdom from Vlad the Impaler.
While also mentioned in the game, we don’t have his faction.
Varangians
It’s odd to have Vikings, but not their southern bros, the Varangians. Varangians had much higher impact on history, considering how they did protect Byzantium and formed Rus.
The catalan/aragonese ruled the western mediterranean for over 400 years.Napels, sicilly…They even controlled athens for a century. Should be included.
Celts are kind of “Rome time Civ” and don’t specifically specifically represent Scotland.
It’s like to say Gauls represent Franks.
Wallachians are ethnically Latin origin.
Varanagians was the name given to Vikings who, instead or raiding, plundering and murdering along the coasts of western Europe, # defended, traded and settled along the great rivers of Eastern Europe and Russia. Varanagians are completely different people than Vikings. It’s like compare Pirates and the British.
Moors and Berbers are like USA and England, Canada and France. The Moors were originally a nomadic people, the original inhabitants of Mauretania on the north coast of Africa. The term “Moors” is applied to Arabs, Spanish, Mauretanian Africans and Berbers who settled the Iberian Peninsula in medieval times. Moor Empire was an entity of different people.
The Varangian guard is just a Byzantine mercenary unit, not a civ or a separate people. They were mercenaries at the service of the Byzantines, initially constituted by Rus and later on Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons as well.
But you gave me an idea for a cool mechanic right now. Playing as the Rus with Byzantine allies in the same team, you could send axemen to the Byzantine town center where they get transformed to upgraded Varangian Guard units at the hands of the Byzantines (!!!) perhaps at a price too. How cool is that? (:
A European civ (never seen before) that I would be interested in seeing are the Normans of course but looks like they will be campaign-specific for now. AoEII:DE pretty much covers most of them already. I would be interested in Bulgars possibly too -added recently to II:DE, and to an Iberian Kingdom as well. Likely the Crown of Aragon. A campaign about the Sicilian Vespers or the Catalan Company would be very interesting as well, besides the reconquista.
In AoE2, the Berbers get Genitours precisely to say “WE ARE THE MOORS!!!”. There were no Genitours when the Berbers first invaded, as they were christians that fought against the Moors, in the first place.
The reason for Berbers to get them, is to say that they are undoubtedly and without question, the Iberian Moors, even having a unit that fought against them, not for them.
The members of the Varangian guard did came from Rus. A treaty between Rus’ and the Byzantine empire obliged Rus’ to provide men for Byzantine service.
Varangian guard should be a default unit for Byzantine.
Varangians on themselves sound much cooler than Vikings, as they had covered much more territory, worked as mercenaries and were equipped with much heavier armour for battles against real armies, instead to rob civilians.
The Moors were people of different ethnic background united by one believe, they are not a pure Berber faction. It’s like compare Great Britain to England.
The word Varangian itself can’t represent a separate civ or people or state. It’s just a reference from Greek and Slavonic sources to those Northmen, mostly from Sweden, who moved Eastwards. And there’s great overlap with the Rus already. If you would like Varangians as a separate civ, you got them, they are the early Rus actually. Other than that, it just referred to Norse/Scandinavian adventurers.
In the images above, the Varangians only represent the Varangian Guard. They are heavier equipped as the bulk of their gear was actually issued from imperial Byzantine armories. Although they could be carrying their own swords and axes of Norse typology as well.
Imo Scotland would be a good addition to AoE4. Plenty of historical battles, and sieges to go through.
Wallachia is not worth adding. They were generally irrelevant and just subjugated by whoever controlled the local area.
I think Vikings will surely be added in a future DLC. Besides the Byzantine Empire itself isn’t added to AoE4 so that should come first before going down to specific mercenary groups like the Varangian Guard, not even sure how that would become a civ. Would probably make sense to have them as some kind of unique unit/group of units for the future Byzantine Civ.
Scotland in the period covered by the movie didn’t have kilt, etc… it’s a totally inaccurate movie.
These guys with targe, tartan fabric, kilts were fighting with a broadsword in the 17 century.
Prior to that, some highlanders had claymore, but they didn’t look at all like this movie.
You should probably took a look to the equipments of Gallowglass.
The issue with scotland is than they are hardly interwined with england. Ireland had a lot of influence in medieval time, and got a lot of singular celtic remains. Instead of being a mismatch of germanic, anglo-saxon, norse, a small celtic heritage … as Scotland and England.
Varangians are basically the Rus", which will be in AoE4.
No, they are not the spanish. The spanish in aoe2 is exclusivly revolving around castille. My guess is the same will happen in Aoe2, considering they had a larger impact in the american colonitzation. Nonetheless, within Europe and during this time period, aragorn was much more influecial
