I prefer Fante de Mar rather than Stradiot, I think it’s more appropriate for Venetians
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Well, both were used, so they are historically accurate.
The main problem is that design a cav UU is easier than an infantry UU, because cavalry units are more used in general, while there is the risk that a infantry UU becomes underused.
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Ok so it has been a long time since I could continue my work here, the job, the university and personal life all takes too much time, and I barely time to write here and watch some tournaments on my way home on the train, I can’t even start aoe2, neither to play online, nor for the editor.
Unfortunately, with barely any free time, I couldn’t test further the UU, both for a lack of time and because I couldn’t understand how to use some triggers in the editor.
I’ll upload here the file containing the test, with the unit stats already ready, so that some good-hearted aoe nerd may help me out on doing tests, and tweaking stats. If you also have more idea regarding on what should be unique about the UU, just let me know.
With the new DLC, DotD, Venice would most likely be not included from what we know now, even though they originally were a dux, the Latin state that originated the later duchies and dukes, their coins were the “ducati”, their leader was called doge (which means duke in venetian), and they are situated in the most eastern Italy, with close ties with the slavs of the Balkans…
Just joking, I’m the first to say that this is a very very big stretch, and most likely just me that would love to see this civ, and go out “cherry picking” arguments to justify its presence…
Still, until there is even a small 0.001% of possibility that they will be included in this or the next DLC, I’ll keep updating this topic. Who knows, maybe they’ll not make it in aoe2, but they’ll do it for AoE4.
Lastly, regarding bonuses and balance, I almost made my mind about the free armor for infantry bonus, what is keeping me back is that I didn’t find a historical reason to justify the bonus yet.
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The bonus is a buff for feudal age, further strengthening the concept of an aggressive civ, with poor bonuses for the late game.
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In castle and imp the bonus is pretty much self explanatory, and it have a small impact. But in feudal it comes handy in more situations.
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Militias (and eventually M@A) are consistently better, they can take more hits from vills, beat other militias (except the ones form civs with stronger bonuses) and take a bit more arrows from archers, TC and towers. They wouldn’t be a top tier Drush civ (at least about 10 civ have a better Dreus into M@A), but they would be for sure above average.
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As always, you use your extra wood for better walling/aging up sooner, go for Drush-M@A, and then transition into faster archers. All of this thought may require a further nerf on the cavalry (I was thinking of removing husbandry again).
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It’s also a defensive bonus, since a spear in feudal with the armor, can take 3 scouts and kill one before going down, so basically it’s a “reverse magyars bonus” (SotL have a video on it, check it out to see my reasoning)*, so you basically force your opponent into being more careful, or to invest more and wait for more scouts/upgrades.
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The bonus should be active upon hitting the age, without the requirement for a blacksmith, although, if it reveals to be too strong, this could be added. In the end, considering that the venetians will most likely go for archers, and rush a BS for fletching, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal.
I’ll also post the adjourned tech tree, as I did before, as soon as I’ll have time. If I’ll have time, I’ll also restart making the campaign scenarios, with the intention of adding them here, but that will probably take a lot of time…
Hey, through ornulu I found that someone made a custom campaign of the venetian doge Dandalo, the one that end up conquering Constantinople. Here is its video of anyone is intrigued, I would have personally designed some things differently, like putting the genoese fortress in the galata quarter, but overall I think it’s well made anyway.
I also liked how they made use of the trade workshops building, which I think is thematically good, I don’t like it as a substitute to the castle though. On a new civ, it may be a unique building, that costs wood (let’s say 150 wood) and gives back:
- 5 pop space
- boost the overall gold generation (so mines, relics and trade) by a percentage for each TW that you have (like, about 1% more for each TW).
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Well, it seems that the concept of the infantryman armed with an hammer was used for the poles, so it’s not available for the venetians as I theorised in the past.
I don’t know if they are similar to what I suggested here for the venetians, but still if I have helped even just a bit I’m happy of it, even if they end up to another civ.
The only thing is that an eventual venetian Civ will have to rely on their initial cavalry UU, the stradiot, which is not a big deal (even if it’s always more hard to see an eventual venetian civ, but still…).
Venice and swiss would be enough to fill europe now.
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You would have an ugly 51 civs then… but I would take those 2 civs.
I’m not a fan of the civ idea but very cool well informed post regardless
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49 dosent round up too 
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Yeah, that’s why I think they’ll add just one more civ to get to 50.
Maybe as content to advertise AoE4 after the release, with probably some campaigns.
It may be even free, or unlocked with missions like the USA for AoE3.
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At this rate, they’ll probably just add USA as civ 50… 
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Nah, I think they’ll add some serious civ…
Which one I don’t know, but we’ll see…
Anyway the discussion is getting out of topic, since efor as much as I would love it, I doubt that it will be the venetians.
Oh well, a man can dream anyway…
I was hoping there could be a Adriatic DLC to add Serbia and Venice.
After the Asia and Africa DLCs.
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Unlikely, since the engine if I’m not mistaken can support just 50 civs total, or about that.
It’s unlikely that we will see other 3 DLCs, and I don’t think that the 50th will be the venetians, maybe the serbs yes but it’s unlikely for them too.
But maybe the venetians will be a civ for AoE4 (not at the release but with a DLC), since the civs seems to be designed in that direction, and other northern states (like Genoa) will be included in the franch civ.
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You said it perfectly, a man can dream anyway…
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As long as there’s a community to buy them, they’ll sell them. I honestly don’t see AOE4 surpassing AOE2 in terms of popularity. It will be a good game, but not better than AOE2.
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But the engine can’t support them, so it’s not about having fan that buy them, but it’s about the technical limits of the game.
It’s simply not possible, and AoE4 doesn’t have to be better than aoe2 for being a good and enjoyable game.
Even if there was some limit, why wouldn’t they be able to circumvent it one way or the other? And even if there’s supposedly a limit for 48 civs, this leaves us with at least 4 expansion pack of content until the release of Age of Empires 2: Ultimate Edition XD
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We will see… anyway this is getting out of topic so it’s better drop the argument…
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Here I found an incredible, accurate, and well describing video on the venetian republic.
I’ll like it here to everyone that is intrigued by it, and I’ll post its further parts too, though for the aoe2 time frame this one is the most relevant.
Based on this videos, how would you design the venetians?
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