So im baffled and perplexed that we didnt get a proper MAYAN civ before moving on to the african civs. Its all cool that we get new civs and im happy for the reveal but devs consider the Mayans - the scientists of the pre-colonial age dude. I mean a game like AoEIII without the Mayans as a civ is like a human missing an arm or stg. Consider it devs. MAYAN CIVILIZATION and 2 new single player campaigns for the Francisco Pizzaro vs the Inca and a Hernan Cortez vs the Maya. I mean cmon. I’ll be happy with just the civ though but the campaigns would be the cherry on top. Devs - your turn.
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the Maya in this period where not what you might think of when you think Maya, long gone where the large cities and complex culture and what was left was small villagers, with no central authority.
the game is the colonial period, so you should look at what tribes/nations/cultures existed and what they did in the games time span from 1500 to about 1850.
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The mayans were good astronomers and all, but they weren’t even in the bronze age, so take your knowledge of them with a grain of salt. Yes they were relevant, but not in this period, and certainly not more relevant than either Ethiopia or Morocco (Empires that fought european empires with sucess).
By contrast, the University of Timbuktu - in its medieval iteration - was one of the best in the world, and the Malians and the Ethiopians were very advanced empires at the time of colonization (even though the malian empire started crumbling after 1450).
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Maya sounds cool but I think Africa DLC was right choice and we need like 5 more African Civs before Mayans and 1-2 more Asian civ before Mayans.
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The Mayans were long gone as any relevant power by the time line of AoE 3
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Mayans weren’t really relevant during the aoe3 era, they are more fit for aoe2 and aoe4, africa on the other hand, had some rich and powerful kingdoms.
If we did go back to more native civs I think Mayans wouldn’t even be top priority.
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Mayans lasted much longer than the Aztecs, they had bigger population than the Hauds or Sioux, so they are justified.
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The Mayans were not relevant 
What kind of a joke is this guys seriously?. This game is about colonization and the Mayans actually became “irrelevant” because of the spanish conquests. They were as much relevant as the inca and the Aztec. And they even lasted longer than the Aztec as one guy above posted… So no guys, the Mayans are a must in a game about the era of colonization.
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I would love to see more Native American civs, but if I had to guess, they’ll more likely include the likes of Mapuche and Tupi before Maya.
Actually, the Maya fought quite long against the Spanish Invaders, so there’s that. If the Aztecs and Incas can get into AOE3, so could Maya IMO.
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Well not during the aoe3 timeframe, but during the aoe2 timeframe they certainly were relevant, but aoe3 has a different timeline so yeah, Mayans are not super important.
Yes and unlike the Aztecs for example, there was never any large scale warfare between the Mayans and the Spanish, nor did the Mayans fight against any other of the aoe3 civs in any major way during the timeframe.
Lasting the longest doesn’t really make you the more relevant civ, the most relevant civ would be a civ that fought major wars, had technological advancements, and an important society, Mayans fit important society, but in the aoe3 timeline they didn’t make many major technological advances or fought in any wars.
There simply are more important civs to add after africa than Mayans, like Italians, Danes, Persians, Tupi, even Omani or Brazilians are more relevant.
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Omani is clearly more relevant than Italians or Tupis. It was a big colonial empire, while Italy had small states and Tupis aren’t comparable to them.
The Mayans had been long on the decline by the time of European contact and isn’t too relevant to the AOE3 timeline, as others have mentioned.
I think the only acceptable choices for a hypothetical 5th Native American civ are:
- Comanches
- Apache
- Annishinaabe/Three Fires Confederacy
- Cree
- Mapuche
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The Mayans had a period of decay after the classical period, in the 10th century, but a new period of prosperity began a century later, in which there were great foreign influences in the Mayan culture, mainly the Toltec, but the basis of civilization, the language of the general population, writing and religion (even with Toltec and other peoples influence) were Maya. It was these Mayans that were found by the Spaniards (in fact, there is an important error in the game, because the Mayan architecture presented in the game is a classic Mayan architecture, and in the game, a post-classical Mayan architecture should appear, which was even more similar to that of the Zapotecs… people who also unfortunately use classical Mayan architecture in the game. In fact, the Mayan pyramid presented is correct, it is post-classical. The other constructions are all typically classical… ). There was great Mayan resistance to the Spaniards. The Mayan territory, with its dense jungles, was more difficult to invade. Nejpetén, the last Mayan city, fell only in 1697, into the hands of Spain! Even though the cities were much smaller than the Mayan cities up until the 1400s, they held up very well, partly because they were small kingdoms, or city-states. Some Mayan warriors wore hardened cotton armor, like the Aztecs, and used latex as reinforcement. They used poisons! They had catapults with which to hurl stones or bee hives at enemies. The Mayans already had metallurgy, yes! Since the classical there are bells, copper, that they used, and in the post classical period, they learned from the Toltecs, Mixtecs, and perhaps from peoples of Central America, new techniques of working copper, copper and gold alloys, silver and gold. Only they didn’t use metals to make weapons, like the Aztecs, but arsenicated copper axes have already been found in Mayan territory, using the Purepecha technique. Whether they managed to trade or produced it is difficult to know. This “arsenic bronze”, is almost as hard as tin bronze, and does not corrode like copper. They had ingenious ways to defend themselves! It would be interesting to see them in the game yes. At the very least, if they don’t appear, the architecture is corrected and the classical structures can be used as ruins in the sets, and that elements such as Mayan slings, blowguns and bee catapults are added as native units.
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Yes, historically the Mayans were long gone by the time of AOE3. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t do a campaign in the Mayan times. Would be very cool. Would be better than all the ‘history’ they’re going to totally make up for the African campaign.
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The Maya were in decay, but this was far from uncommon, and civilization was reborn, it was a very strong culture and rooted in the population, it was difficult to conquer and difficult to change the minds of the people of that region. Even today there are followers of popular and altered versions of the religion of the Maya to a greater or lesser extent. On Christopher Columbus’ fourth voyage, his brother Bartholomew found a huge Mayan trading canoe around an island of Honduras Bartholomew Columbus - Wikipedia . The name of a Taino deity named Huracán is also found in the records of the Chilan Balán Maya, which records Mayan myths of origin. See that there were contacts with other peoples, with the peoples of the islands, most likely. Francisco J. Gonzalez, Taino-Maya Contacts
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@FelipeKahl I see you are a man of culture as well. Preach it brother preach it! Mayans should be a regular civ in AoEIII not a civ that we should debate wether it should be added or not. The Mayans alongside the Inca and the Aztec are the symbols of the colonial age.
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Tupi would be the most appropriate final native civ for this game. They occupied the entirety of the brazilian coast line, and also interior, with 1 million people in 1500 (the population of portugal at the time). For reference, Lakota had only 8 thousand population in the 1800’s. Mapuche had about 800 thousand in 1500.
Tupi fought fiercely against the portuguese invaders and later allied the ports against french invaders.
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i think Commanche would be the most interesting to add, because their military is the most complete with both artillery, cavalry and infantry units. they also fought both Spain, Mexico and America.
as for a possible Mayan faction, i think the first question you should ask yourself is what units you could add for them. and reality here is that they would at best just be another aztec, they just dont have that deep of a roster.
meanwhile African Civs will have access to both gunpowder and cavalry, and existed as somewhat unified states.
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Another Aztec? Its called culture in the game. If u are a modder u will see in the files something like “cultures” - europeans are similar “asian” with the wonders etc. If u want me to paint a picture for how the Maya civ can look i’ll do it:
Civ Bonuses - Stargazers: Units have x% increased amount of LOS; Mayan Calendar - Ageing up is x% faster. The community plaza can be used as a sacrificial place to sacrifice units to certain gods for their bonuses. ( maybe a sacrificial dance/ceremony as another version - explained below)
They can age up with sacrifices - the needed food and gold, or food and wood or wood and gold plus 2 villies in the first age, 4 villies second age 6 villies in the third age etc. And the age up polititians would be the top 5 Mayan pantheon. Sacrifice to Kukulcan (the elder), Ix Chel (the wise woman), Itzamna( the chief) , Ek Chuah (the warrior) and Kinich Ahau (the messenger). Ix Chel as a goddess of the moon can give you the “ambush” ability which can work as the great Buddha that will make all your units invisible for x seconds.
Kukulcan can increase your units damage against buildings, Ek Chuah can boost your warriors, and Kinich Ahau can boost your villagers work rate for farms and plantations - or your units’s speed. Plus instead of dancing on the fire pit u will throw villagers or converted spaniards/enemies with your priesteses. Or it can be done another way with a sacrificial dance where villagers that dance lose life and die while military dies instantly when put on the pit while the sacrificial dance is on.
The units:
War Hut - Holcan Spearmen, Plumed Archers, Emboscadas(ambushers) fast shock infantry with low armour and low hp that can use stealth)
Noble Hut/Kalanca units: Macuahuitl Warriors, Atlatl Spearmen (skirmisher unit), Obsidian Slingers (against buildings).
The cards i can give a few ideas:
Spanish renegades of course,
Fury Of the Gods - revolt type thing either as a card or a big button or in the TC where u sacrifice all of your villagers to a certain god and the military force gets buffed for the percent off the dead villagers and the buff would be the god they get killed for.
Ceremonial practice - x% increased buffs gains from sacrifices
Passage to Xibalba - your priestes units get increased health and can convert units faster.
Warring city-states : Your explorer and all your units get an x% increased LOS and can see units from longer distance
and more…
It can be done and it can be done good.
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Add a couple of mythical creatures and you got the first AOM2 civ ready to go, everything fine with AOEII and III, a lil hype 4the4 but…man AOM was la creme de la creme
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