So the mesoamerican civs get galleys and fire ships. AND DEMO SHIPS! First… fire ships? Why? I could see them having a canoe filled with natives throwing torches. That is a new and different skin and is worthy of content. I would buy such a skin btw.
But lets talk demo ships. And galleys. Demo ships use gunpowder, and mesoamerican civs dont have gunpowder.
Galleys are sailing tech vessels. Mesoamericans had canoes. Big beefy war canoes. So, why not replace the galley with a canoe that upgrades to a war canoe, and replace the fireship with a torch thrower canoe?
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Personally I’ve never seen the issue with demolition ships. Armenians have a bonus for them despite lacking gunpowder and a vandal civ would probably be focused on demo ships too to counter byzantines and Romans.
The aoe2 demo ships are not gunpowder units (like probably neither petards are since everyone get them), they’re ships full of highly inflammable material similar to that of fire ships (the somewhat mysterious greek fire, see the wiki for more info about that).
In game it has to do with chemistry but not necessarily gunpowder even if the game mixes up then both. When I was a kid I imagined chemistry could have been a castle age tech for those sort of “inflammable” units, then you had a proper gunpowder tech in imp to unlock bombards, cannoneers etc.
So demo ships are actually kinda ok for dark ages and maybe some native civs too, fire ships and galleons being common units are a bigger issue imo. There is a canoe in game, just use it lol.
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ship or boat filled with flammable material is also a demo ship.
Setting wooden objects on fire is a tech that predates wheel use even if its on water
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the substance used for setting things on fire was petroleum. it can’t be put off with water, so it’s perfect in warfare. greek fire isn’t too much of a mystery; it was lit petroleum, blown out of a siphon. it was used as far back as Antiquity, so it isn’t inappropiate that the american civs can make use of them. it’s like, if those civs had had access to petroleum, they would have made weapons out of it. it’s the same argument Sandy Petersen gave for american civs having blacksmith techs - they knew how to work metal, they just didn’t wear armor because the humid climate made it a health hazard.
there’s something that contradicts me: horses. the american civs in-game don’t have them because in real life they didn’t. but cavalry could have been given to them on the same basis as ships and trebuchets, right? well, my guess is that the devs wanted to try something different and found the justification in history. kind of like how cumans can build a second town center because they had to migrate; the magyars could very well have the same bonus because they were pushed away from their homeland, but, well, people weren’t ready for that bonus yet.
also, demolition ships should be unavailable to every single civ before imperial age because they use gunpowder, right?
This whole discussion is making me realize I should have included a Demo Ship discount in my Vandals concept along with a Dromon one that I already gave them.