Those who know me in this forum know that I’m a strong advocate for eventually turning Brazil into a Primary Civilization, like they did with the USA and Mexico. I dropped a couple of ideas here and there, but never actually made a proper pitch for it… Until now.
For the last few weeks, I have been studying Brazilian history and thinking of ways to represent it in a respectful and authentic manner in the AoE3:DE while also been fun to play. What I came up is this:
Since the Pitch would be way too long to posted on the forum, I made it on Google Docs where you all can look and leave comments and suggestions. It’s still a Work In Progress, I need to finish the Province system and think of a few more unique units and buildings. Balance is also all over the place, so balancing tips would be welcome.
I hope you enjoy my pitch as my much as I enjoyed making it and that it can help to improve the game in the future.
The truth is very interesting, it shows that you put a lot of effort into it, I hope the devs see it and it will serve them for a future Brazilian civilization.
You could even do some historical battles of the Argentine-Brazilian war, such as the Battle of Monte Santiago and the Battle of Ituizango, the Paraguayan War or Platine War. I do not know if Brazil fought against any European power, but against Argentina it was at war on multiple occasions.
Not really. Between the XVI and XVIII centuries, you did have occasional border skirmishers and raids against french and spanish colonies, but never a full-blown war. The dutch, however, did invade and occupied a large chunk of Brazil between the 1630s and 1650s before being kicked out by the locals. But all of those where before Brazil became an independent nation.
Post-independence, Brazil was a relatively peaceful nation for the time. Besides the Paraguayan and Platine wars, it had no other major conflict with a foreign nation until WWI, in which Brazil barely participated. During the XIX century, Brazil had far more internal conflicts than external ones. The 1830s were a particularly tense decade.
Awesome stuff. One idea I thought of recently is a unique boat called the Pará-Class Ironclad which replaces the default ironclad and is either stronger or available earlier. a card called Zuavos da Bahia which delivers Zouaves could be a neat historical nod as well. Maybe you could have a way to upgrade fusilerios into fusileros de navia which have a high seige and anti-ship attack like American marines. When I tried to think of a pistol outlaw all I could come up with is a unit called a Ladrão that generates money as it fights but that’s kind of thematically bland though and isn’t really based on any specific historical thing.
I still want to work more on the Navy, so far I focused more on the economy and army. The Pará Class is from the early 1900s, a bit too late to fit into the game’s time frame. The Riachuelo would be more fitting for a late-game heavy ship.
Yeah, I thought about that as well, there is even one of the Zuavos Baianos represented on one of the drawings. The devs would have to make a new skin for them, to differentiate from the Franco-Argelian Zouaves.
I did thought about having Fuzileiros Navais, but I prefered to not include them so the roster of units doesn’t look too similar to that of the USA. I might reconsider it though.
Same thing here, just a generic ‘Assaltante’ idea…
Edit: read the full thing (except for biographical notes) and it’s a really fun concept
Edit 2: based on the card name, wouldn’t it make more sense to have to select both Maranhão and Grão-Pará to unlock the “Grão-Pará and Maranhão Company” card?
And Uruguay used to be a Brazilian state, called Cisplatina back then. It seceded shortly after Brazil’s independence from Portugal, so it could be an Age II option.
When picking the Provinces and cards for each Age I tried to, roughly, make them relevant for each time period. So, I used the following logic:
Age I: 1534 - 1640
Age II: 1641 - 1749
Age III: 1750 - 1821
Age IV: 1822 - 1844
Age V: 1845 - 1888
Age V(Republic Deck): 1889 - 1899
Since I chose Maranhão to be available at Age II, I thought it made more sense for Maranhão to have the Companhia Geral de Comércio do Grão-Pará e Maranhão than Grão-Pará, which is an Age IV Province. Also, I had already chosen the Grão-Pará cards anyway.
There are three Cards that reference the Sacramento Colony/Cisplatina/Uruguay. They are “Sacramento Settlement”, “33 Orientales” and the “Triple Alliance Army” in the Unique Cards section.
I did consider having Cisplatina as one of the Provinces but since it was always a disputed territory between between Portugal/Brazil and Spain/Argentina and they broke away in the end, I decided that it was better not to and focus on the provinces that are still a part of Brazil, one way or another.
Very well done and thought out guide! I think there are some excellent ideas in here and I hope Brazil is added as the next civilization in order to round out the American trio and satisfy the large Brazilian fan base of age of empires 3.
Similar to the USA and Mexico the provincial age ups are excellent, along with the unique military units (militia, fusilero, capoeristas, gauchos, etc). I also think the immigration cards make sense due to the large amount of immigration to Brazil from Europe. The focus around town centers is very appropriate and I would also suggest the civ has a unique farm building similar but not identical to the hacienda that could maybe include fruit trees and cows in the design. It is also cool to give them some unique architecture such as the church, imperial palace, and possibly a unique looking barracks/stables hybrid building. I think rather than having a large number of revolts like Mexico, it would be better to have a smaller number of revolts that are more well designed and based off of the provinces mentioned (amazonas, minas gerias, rio grande do sul, and republican brazil in age V). I would see the Brazilian army as a quantity over quality army early game that can become strong late game with upgraded, unique units such as dragoons and fusileros.
Brazil would make the most sense as the next civ to add to the game and I really hope they do so. As a brazilian-american it would become my new main civilization and hopefully a fun civ for all to enjoy.
After Brazil, I think that Gran Colombia would be the next best pick. Argentina and/or Chile would be pretty good as well. And I would also add Haiti to the list, they have a really interesting history and could be a very unique civ. I know it’s a small country, but if Malta can be a civ, why not Haiti?
As for native civs, I would pick one more for South America, the Tupi-Guaraní or maybe the Mapuche, and one more for North America, not sure which however.
There are several good options for more North American native civs.
Haida - They have a beautiful aesthetic, a powerful navy, access to artillery, and strong fortifications and armour. The only thing they’d lack is cavalry.
Cree - They have a strong alliance network in the Iron Confederacy and with the Metis. They could have some mechanics that could be shared with the Lakota such as a Buffalo Pound structure that could generate Bison.
Maya - They resisted the Spanish/Mexicans until the 1900s. They would have been a much better pick than Aztecs since they lasted much, much longer and we’re actually contemporary with the Mexicans due to several long lasting rebellions. They deserve more than a weird double revolution.
Muscogee or Cherokee - The people of the southern woodlands and the descendants of the Mississippians. They were quite advanced and know as one of the “five civilized tribes”.
Comanche or Apache - Powerful raiders of the southern plains.
