Malay Minor Faction - The missing native artillery

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
1

Malay

Location:

Malaysia, Borneo, Indonesia, Siam, Philippines, Moluccas

Moluccas
Moluccas600×788 260 KB

Unique Unit:

Lantaka or Lela

Many different types of cannons were used across the Malay Archipelago and these could remedy the current lack of native artillery. Either a Lantaka or Lela cannon would be most appropriate.

Lantaka

Lantaka were muzzle loading swivel guns used mainly from ships. They could have stats and functionality similar to Leather Cannons with additional anti-ship multipliers and be available in Age II.

Lela

Lela were larger cannons akin to Falconets. They could have stats and functionality similar to Cetbang Cannons but potentially slightly lower range to compensate for being 0 population.

1920×606 89.6 KB

1000×750 279 KB

Double-barreled cannons like the Cetbang pictured below were also common. The Lela or Lantaka could also be included as such.

1920×1263 1.3 MB

Techs:

Apilan - Increased warship health

Bazaar Malay - Improves Market exchange rates and Trade Route Yields

Spice Island Traders - Berry bushes yield coin (Ethiopia’s Coffe Berries card should be given other effects to not be completely superseded)

Silat Melayu - Increased melee resistance for infantry

Taming Sari - Enables training mercenary Kris Warriors (swordsmen mainly from Java) from the Trade Post and Native Embassy (compliments the main artillery unit by providing a melee unit that can screen them)

Kris Warrior

Kris are distinctive wavy daggers originating from Java used in Silat martial arts. They would be melee heavy infantry and their unique feature could be a faster rate of fire similar to Shotel Warriors (maybe an even faster ROF of 1).

800×1118 262 KB
600×800 33 KB

Other Changes:

Indonesia Map: Bhakti Temples should also be present on this map to represent the Hindus of Bali and the lingering influence of the Majapahit empire. Their techs would also synergize with the proposed Malay techs.

14 Likes
2

Really like the idea of native artillery. Seems kind of hard to balance though as an age 2 unit.

3

It’s a good idea. I was thinking of this yesterday, of what missing native units are there. If they are costly enough like the Sufi elephants then age 2 could work. It’s not like Sweden can mass leather cannons effectively, just good supports.

Working on the design for any other SEA natives?

4

I think Tamils would also be a good option for another Southern Asian native. They have a wide enough geographic distribution that they could fit on a large amount of maps. There’s other cultures from that region that could easily fit in the game like Siamese, Javanese, and Mysoreans, but they would be better as full civs.

1 Like