New Civ Idea: Samoa

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
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Samoa

The Samoans are an empire which have roots tracing back to around 3000BC. While much of their history has been lost(due to being preserved orally) their are strong records of empires which stretched across dozens of islands, with massive war parties spreading the rule of the Tuʻi Manuʻa across swathes of ocean that would be impressive even to modern nations. Combat was frequent; John Williams, a European Explorer, recorded this:

“The wars of the Samoans were frequent and destructive…. The island of Apolima was the natural fortress of the people of Manono, a small but important island. These people, although ignorant of the art of writing, kept an account of the number of battles they had fought, by depositing a stone of a peculiar form in a basket, which was very carefully fastened to the ridge of a sacred house appropriated to that purpose. This basket was let down, and the stones were counted whilst I was there, and the number was one hundred and twenty-seven, showing that they had fought that number of battles.” - John Williams

The overall civ design is based around glass cannon infantry units supported by heavy skirmishers, an interesting twist from the usual approach! The mo’ai help protect the Toas from being converted and turning on each other. However, lacking the Elite Eagle Warrior upgrade, the civ as a whole will play more slowly than many civs, and when separated from the Toa, their vulnerability to archers will lead to their counterplay.

Bonuses

The Samoans are a naval-focused ‘meso’ civ, with a potent navy, Eagle Warriors, but no cavalry. They have two unique units and a unique building.

War Canoe
The first is a replacement for the Galley Line, the War Canoe(upgrading to War Catamaran), which can garrison units as well as fight; it can garrison archers to fire additional projectiles, or garrison infantry to move faster, similar to a Ram or Tower.

Stats: Slightly cheaper and weaker than Galley Line, unless garrisoned.

Toa
The second unique unit, produced from the Castle, is a unique Heavy Skirmisher unit, the Toa (Literally ‘spear’ and also ‘warrior’). It is unique in that, while it is focused on being anti-archer, it has heavy melee armor and high HP, protecting it from melee units.

Cost: 70W, 15G
HP: 60(70)
Armor: 2/4(3/5)
Attack: 4(5)(Deals 2 damage to Knights and Paladins when fully upgraded, rather than 1.)
Attack Speed: 2
Bonus Attack: Same as Skirmisher.

Mo’ai
The final unique option is the Mo’ai, an Outpost replacement with higher HP and armor, which also increases conversion resistance within its line of sight.

Cost: 10S
HP: 1000
Armor: 2/5
+2/2 Conversion time on all allied units in range.

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Unique Techs

Pā Puʻuhonua(Great Wall): Upgrades all Palisade Walls to Fortified Palisade Walls. Allows Fishing Ships to build Sea Walls.

Taiaha Spears: Eagle Warriors and Spearman Line have +8 Damage.
Note: This civ does not get Elite Eagle Warriors or Plate Mail Armor.

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please no. would be OP on so many maps. also do you really want quickwalls in water fights?

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I dunno…the low HP of fishing ships and high damage of war galleys would mean fishing ships would die much faster than normal land fights. If it were just a civ bonus I might agree, but as a castle age UT, I think it would be reasonable.

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Where?

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Poor choice of words? I was mostly focusing on the history-centric bonuses like their UUs and UTs. Civ bonuses don’t really need to be justified historically so much, so they can basically be whatever you want them to be, so I figured they’d probably just bring more nitpicking on things I didn’t really care about.

That being said, probably something fishing related, maybe like, “Fisherman collect wood in addition to food.” Maybe give them Gillnets for free, something like that.

Maybe Lumber Camps and Mining Camps give +5 population space? That’d be interesting.

Ooh, maybe give them the old Madrasah as a civ bonus, that could be neat. On death, monks refund 33 gold.

I dunno, like I said, this is all pretty changeable. Make it vaguely water-focused with an eco bonus and maybe a monk bonus and poof, you’re good.

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If you’re going to incorporate non-Samoan elements into this civ, you’d be better off calling it the Polynesians like I did. My concept represents not just Samoa, but also Tonga, Hawaii, and Easter Island. Your concept has moai, but those aren’t Samoan, so it seems kind of random. What’s their Wonder, anyway? My Polynesians concept has moai as both a Wonder and a UT. They seem fairly obvious as a Wonder, but you have them as a unique building.

There’s a reason I removed the ability for Micronesian Fishing Ships to build walls on the water.

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Well, the reason I chose that path is because we know so little about the history of the polynesians. With much of their history only preserved orally, much of it has been lost.

So, perhaps it’s artistic license, but the idea that the Easter Islanders were an offshoot that wasted all their stone on an outpost rush does tickle my funny bone.

What I would probably do is have the Moai be a regional building, if for no other reason than it’s so culturally distinctive. I’d probably have one other civilization from there, though I don’t know exactly what it would be.