Potential civs that could have one or more updates: Mongol, Tatars, Huns, Cumans, Khitans and/or Jurchens.
What else should have?
Huns get SL line maybe even turks.
Cuman Huns get a new paladin replacemnet.
Some of these civis could get a third SL line uit and third CA unit.
Maybe the editor the Khan could be a one time trainable unit for these civis.
I have some ideas about this. The Tanguts would receive the Liao Dao and Mounted Trebuchet (renamed Bubazi and Boxi Catapult, respectively) and the Castle, while the Khitans would keep everything else it currently has, including the bonuses, unique techs, tech tree, and Wonder.
The new Tangut Wonder would be based on the Western Xia Mausoleums.
They would probably have a unique technology called Iron Hawks improving cavalry and either a bonus/other tech improving camel units. They’d probably be designated an infantry and mounted unit civilization, while the Khitans would be reclassified as a pure cavalry civilization.
This split would allow minimal changes to the existing Khitans civ while making it more historically authentic and introducing a new authentic Tanguts civ.
A reskin of the Mule Cart with another animal? Its mobility is cool and plays into the momadic gameplay loop, but I’ve been told that mule carts in specific are a rather narrow thing tied to Caucasus and Tibet, not so much in the lowlands.
Packing and unpacking Town Centers? Would require some tests to determine whether it is too OP for existing cigs. Perhaps the process could be be slow and/or the TCs of these civs would have less HP.
More like “architectures”, in plural. Unless the entire set is just tents and yurts from Feudal to Imperial, you’re going to get into issues because there’s no coherent architectural style shared all the way from Mongolia to the Hunnic Empire. Mongols built stuff mixing Tibetan and Chinese styles (and Persianate and Russian further west in the Golden Horde), Huns didn’t build anything and just squatted in what Romans and Goths built earlier.
At the minimum you’d need two sets:
I. Eastern Steppe (Tibetan/Mongolian)
From yurts and wooden shacks in Feudal to the palaces and temples of Mongol and Tibetan empires.
Potential civs:
II. Western Steppe (Pontic/Caucasian?)
Given that people don’t like their Hun cities evolving into high medieval German style (valid), one solid alternative is to look up the location of one of the Hunnic remnants. Pontic-Caucasian borderlands, huh?
I imagine that Western Stepppe architecture could involve mixing (south)eastern European and Western Asian architecture styles, as a nod to many peoples who came from the east and settled in the west. Tents and cottages in Feudal (perhaps even Romani wagons, apparently based on an Ossetian design? How about Scythian wagons before them?), evolving into vernacular Caucasian and Anatolian styles later on.
Potential civs:
Even though the set would incorporate Caucasian influences, I’d exclude Georgians and Armenians from receiving it, as I think they weren’t very nomadic so a Feudal Age set based on tents and wagons might look off for them. Ideally they’d get their another set together with Byzantines.
The Khazars were settled, so they should use the Central Asian set.
The Alans also settled down in the North Caucasus, so they should use a Caucasian architecture set.
The Turks also ultimately settled, so they should remain as they are.
I mean all of the nomadic peoples eventually settled down following a successful conquest or disappeared from history. Both Khazars and Alans led semi-nomadic, pastoral lifestyles, so they fit the bill imho. Tents and stuff would only feature in the Feudal stage.
I’m opposed to any nomadic sets because I just don’t think they can work. Building silhouettes are too distinct and different to be plausibly constructed from tents, even temporarily. Every single nomadic set I’ve seen has been horrendously ugly.
I imagine the Feudal stage of nomad sets would simply look closer to the shared Dark Age set than other architectures, just with more elaborate yurts, tents etc. But I agree that extending this to Castle and Imperial Ages would look dumb.
Magyars and Bulgarians would be others to consider. I definitely don’t think magyars need ESL tho. I think ESL would infringe on their Huszars. without getting into the reasoning, I’d give Bulgarians ESL, but not Turks, but that’s not a hill I’d die on. Both should at least get SL.
At this point Paladin is so close to a regional upgrade to Cavalier. I think it’d be nice.
I don’t think CA need a 3rd unit. CA are pretty good as is. What i’d like to see is a CA split. Seems silly to me quite a few european civs have CA, and I also find it silly CA can’t fire while moving. Seems like there’s some potential there.
I’m going to link a comment I made elsewhere, but TLDR I don’t think you can properly fix Khitanguts without also splitting the Xianwei.
–EDIT–
And just to be super clear, when I say “splitting the Xianwei” I don’t mean re-naming them. I know that’s become quite confusing the post 3K
For Magyars, I think the huszars should be the steppe lancers. Essentially, they should be reworked to have the +1 range to differentiate between regular lc and them. I mean, they have those long pointy lances, might as well use them, right?
Bulgarians I actually would not want to give ESL to, if only for the fact that they gradually stepped (heh) away from their steppe traditions and adopted more and more Christian traditions over time. It wouldn’t make sense for them to continue that mode of fighting instead of transitioning into the heavy cav line/UU instead. Have the castle age SLs support from behind the main wave of melee cavalry for extra dps.
I actually could live with giving Turks ESL, funnily enough. It’s also a hill I won’t die on though, so no worries.
Thanks, I hate it even more now… 
This would be very broken id assume.
These would fit too but they seem to be based off the european settled people than nomads similar to turks.
I figured granting this ability would come with the splitting
And when you did that, you could make the nomadic CA weaker, but also fire while moving. if you just gave CA and HCA , as is, the ability to fire while moving and made no other changes, that would probably be waaaaay too good.
That’s why I’d only give magyars SL. an aggressive midgame option, calling to their roots, while not overshadowing their later options. Bulgarians, I’d be cool seeing have ESL, not cause they’re more deserving than magyars, but cause I’d like to see Bagains THS and Stirrups ESL. It’s a comp that can theoretically utilize both Bulgarian UTs, and is the only civ in the game that might want to attempt that kind of comp. But yeah it’s kind of a stretch. Maybe Khitanguts could try something like that, but thinking of khitanguts irks me.
Addition of the Tibetans civ.
I remember that Bubazi weren’t heavily armored infantry using two-handed swords. They were trekkers, more like fast shock infantry, fighting with one-handed swords instead.
If you’re going to use their original term in historical record, then based on Mandarin pronunciation, 潑喜 should be poxi, not boxi. It would be fine to me if it’s simply called Camel Trebuchet or Camel Catapult, I think that’s both easy to understand and fitting.
It depends on what the effect actually is. If it’s very gimmicky, then maybe making Iron Hawk a unique cavalry unit outright would be easier for people to accept than giving the civ regular Knight with some fancy special ability.
If we want to reflect the historical description, then maybe Iron Hawk could have an ability where, even after being killed (HP drops to 0), it can still move, attack, and take damage for 1 or 2 seconds, reflecting the description that even if the rider was dead, he wouldn’t fall off the horse and the horse would keep charging since the riders’ weapons and armor had been shackled to the horses. Such an ability might be too gimmicky for regular Knight.
I’d suggest a unique tech called “Alxa Camels," like the Maghrabi Camels. The Alxa Plateau was historically the main producer of Bactrian camels for the Western Xia and even modern China. This UT should provide upgrades for Camel Riders and Camel Catapults.
By the way, it’s not just camels, they also had other distinctive features that could be reflected in the tech tree. Maybe they could research Arbalester and Heavy Camel upgrades as early as the Castle Age (though some of their stats would be reduced at that stage.) Maybe they could access Bombard Cannon and Bombard Tower, and perhaps make the Bombard Tower tech free (if the Koreans have free arrow tower upgrades only.)
The strength of the Xi Xia army was actually based on its high emphasis on resource use and management, such like the system requiring all men to serve made full use of the population; strict official control over livestock, horses, and camels; investments in innovation, developing “Divine Arm Crossbow” (a type of strong crossbow with a stirrup), the mobile trebuchet mounted on camels, and possibly even the earliest form of bronze cannon.
Why choose a bunch of mounds when there may be better options?
The One Hundred and Eight Stupas are so cooooool.
Sounds cool. If we make it both +1 range and a trash unit, then it obviously needs to be nerfed somewhere else.
To the Turks, Bulgarians, and Magyars, I’d like to give only Steppe Lancers, no elite. They eventually became settled kingdoms/empires and gradually abandoned the steppe style of warfare more or less. In the timeline, only the Huns remain fully nomadic among existing civs that have not received the unit line.
Well, the Liao Dao is a pretty fast infantry, but you have a point. I suppose the Khitans could keep it, even if they didn’t use infantry historically.
A fair point.
You could be right. I originally thought of making the Mounted Trebuchet/Camel Catapult/whatever it’s called the Castle UU, but it might be best at the Siege Workshop like currently.
That sounds like a slightly different version of the Konnik. How would it play differently?
Maybe something like improved training time?
Sounds like a good idea to me.
If they get the Bombard Cannon, then the Camel Catapult should definitely become the Castle UU, because I believe they occupy the same slot in the Siege Workshop.
Oh, that’s definitely way cooler. The one I showed (which would just be a single mound, btw) is the only one that came up when I looked up Western Xia monuments, or something to that effect. This is much better.
That would be a compromise. Two-handed dao were adopted by the Chinese to counter steppe cavalry, so it would be a bit ironic. It would make sense for such an infantry unit to serve as a regional unit and replace Two-handed Swordsman for the Chinese, Jurchens, Khitans, and so on, but the Chinese already have plenty of regional units.
It could become an untrainable unit in the scenario editor, and using it as a skin for a Chinese general hero might also be a good option.
If Camel Catapult is available in the Castle Age, that means it would need a Castle Age version, and the associated balance issues would need to be addressed.
Iron Hawk wouldn’t be like the Konnik. Clearly, it wouldn’t dismount, as the historical record emphasizes that they did not fall off their horses.
Once its HP drops to 0, Iron Hawk would start rapidly consuming his charge, and only when the charge is fully depleted would it truly die. It would be like an extremely short additional life during this time, and could keep moving and attacking, and could take damage (maybe unlimited damage since it’s literally already dead). This should reflect the historical descriptions.
If you’ve played League of Legends, imagine it functioning like Sion.
Such an effect obviously wouldn’t fit regular Knights. It’s more appropriate for cavalry trained at the Castle. Although Xi Xia had over 300000 cavalry, only about 3000 were truly elite heavy cavalry, so restricting the heavy cavalry unit to the Castle is reasonable (more than the Jurchens, by the way).
Definitely it can be like that. This civ should have a weak economic bonus if needed, but excel at rushes, highlighting its aggressive nature.
Simply having the Bombard Tower and one related bonus would definitely be enough. Keeping the Camel Catapult in the Siege Workshop.
The 108 pagodas also reflect their position on major trade routes and the flourishing religious exchanges there. This supports them having fine monks.
