I don’t really care which civs they chose as long as we get more unique units that feel like common medieval units. I mean the only special melee infantry is the Landschneckt and the only special melee horse unit is the Fire Lancer. I would like to see more variety here. What if, for one of the civs, they split the MAA into two units. A heavy pierce armor pike man that is good against calv and archers but bad against other melee infantry, and a light armor axe wielding unit that does bonus damage against armor units but dies to archers. Then add a third unit which is a super heavy and slow Teutonic Knight style unit available in Imp. I just want more “normal” type units. Not Culverins, French Cannons, and Ribauldequins. AOE 2 at first launch had Woad Raider, Throwing Axeman, Huskarl, Teutonic Knight, Mamluk, Berserk, Cataphract and Samurai. AOE 4 has only Landschneckt, Fire Lancer and Palace Guard.
Agree. Me too.
The palace guard is just an MAA reskin. It has no different mechanics than any regular MAA even though its wielding a significantly different weapon. For those of us who played BfME games, the Chinese Palace Guard should behave more like Gonder Tower Guards: slow, heavy armored, good against other infantry as well as cavalry.
This is an image that was tweeted by the official AoE account.
They love to drop little hints, so what can we take from this image, if anything?
My read: The Delhi Sultanate was Turkic. Seljuks were Turkic people originating from an area in modern-day China (represented by Chinese architecture in the picture). This, to me, further indicates that Seljuks will be revealed at GamesCon. Additionally, it could read as two different civs that will be revealed, one Turkic, one East Asian (Japan has also been speculated as a possibility for the ‘boat’ emoji, but doesn’t fit in very well thematically with Turks + Byzantines)
This photo reminds me of an Aoe2 map called Arena
This photo reminds me that units on walls are useless bit they look cool.
- The tent is for the population limit increase
- The Boat is for the improved naval gameplay
- Fireman - I have no idea
- The camera is zoomed in very close xD
- Probably a Chinese and Delhi campaigns
- Units on the walls get better bonus
- Maybe HD graphics option with better textures
Most of them are the worst unique units of all of AoE.
They are just exaggerated stereotypes.
Woad Raider looks like a >2000 years old Celtic unit that has nothing to do in a Medieval game. Purely based on the Braveheart movie which is historically completely wrong.
Throwing Axeman throw axes that most of us couldn’t even carry. That is absolutely not how the Francisca (Frankish throwing axe) looks like.
Teutonic Knight is just a Phalanx remake from AoE1. They just have chainmail and a small knife, how are they that strong?
Mamluk a guy on a camel that throws Scimitars? Scimitars were never thrown and Mamluks used horses.
Berserker this unit is entirely based on wrong stereotypes. Berserker were champions that fought in duels for their masters. And Vikings did never wear horned helmets.
Samurai the Katana is a backup weapon not the main weapon of a soldier. It was originally planned to have the Samurai be an archer that can switch to melee mode but that was unpractical so they ditched that idea. (Now they finally brought it back in the last DLC)
Huskalrs are fine I guess. Cataphracts are close the the real thing. In realty the mostly used lances/spears, same as knights.
Why did you completely ignore archer units?
AoE4 has a lot of unique archers.
Zhuge Nu actually feel different then Archers and Crossbows unlike AoE2/3.
Arbalétrier are an interesting version of a Crossbow with their shield.
Streltsy are also more interesting then AoE2 Janissary.
Camel Archers with their anti cavalry aura are more interesting then their AoE2 equivalent.
Tower War Elephant has multiple units on top that shoot independently and also has a melee attack a lot cooler then AoE2 Elephant Archer.
Grenadier there is nothing like that in AoE2.
Mangudai also something that doesn’t exist in any other AoE, a unit that can actually shoot while moving.
But I do hope we’ll see more interesting Infantry in the future.
The only truly unique Infantry is the Landsknecht that is pretty useless in practice.
This might just be a random picture.
I feel like they used that before the game release in advertisement already.
It is possible to make a campaign about China’s Silk Road.
=camping=campaign
+:firefighter:=boat+firefighter=Fire Ship=Byzantine Empire
I hope it isnt just AoE4 they give news about, would be disappointing
Palace Guard is faster and has less armor than a regular MAA.
You’re absolutely right. The AOE 2 units are not historically accurate. But the variety of units was fun to play with. My point is we need more variety of simple melee units in AOE 4. We only have Landschneckt and Fire lancers. As for the archers, AOE 4 has done a good job which is why I did not see the reason to ask for more. What I am trying to say is that I would like to see a greater variety of infantry and melee cavalry in the expansion. Also, since you brought up the lack of authenticity in AOE 2, I have to ask, how did you feel training Aztec long swords and crossbows 
?
Huskarls are more of a Nordic or Anglo-Saxon thing. In fact the problem is with the entire Gothic civ. They are just a generic “migration period infantry nation” while Goths are more stereotypically famous for its cavalry.
Cataphracts (used to) wear Western styled armour…
BTW ironically if AOE4 has Japan I guess they will still have katana as a main weapon.
That is true, and the Palace Guard is a big deal in competitive play because of it’s stats. However, it’s not unique enough to stoke interest in a lot of people. I would never play the Chinese just for the Palace Guard experience. It’s less of a unique unit and more of an variation of an existing unit. In terms of truly unique melee infantry, there is only the Landschneckt.
I don’t like the idea of meso-american civs personally because it would feel silly playing say mongols v aztecs. At least the old world had exposure to each other during the time the game itself is set
I really hope they do what Ensemble wanted to do for AOE2 and make the Samurai a hybrid archer unit. they still have the katana but its a sidearm which would be more authentic.
It’s a reskin because it’s functionally identical to other civ’s MAA. That’s like saying that the English MAA is unique because of the extra armor. Any visual differences of the palace guard are just that, not in mechanics.
The palace guards should have been a separate, specialty melee unit with very unique traits (not just tweaks to speed an armor of a regular MAA). The guandao was slow to wield, intentionally made heavy and the weapon was used mostly for training or show. There were weapons more similar to swords in medieval China, way more practical in real combat so it was very possible to have two separate units (like we do with HRE having MAA and Landsknecht). Hell, Relic did it right with HRE now that I think of it.
Imagine Palace Guards being able to brace and have bonus damage against cavalry for example (in addition to be fairly good in regular melee). In exchange, they could be made more expensive to balance things out.
Unique melee units in AoE 2 have a very distinct feel to them. A Teutonic Knight, Samurai, Berserk, etc. all behave very differently to a Swordsman or a Champion.
Could pretty much argue the same for the MAA for english, as dismounted MAA would more often than not use pollaxes. Or literally any other two handed weaponry, shields would be less used later on.
But it would be cool if they had a versatile samurai with yumi and katana that was toggle-able. Would give more uniqueness to the civ.