Normans as the variant civ of French?

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
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I maybe late on this one considering the civs must have been already designed, but let’s give it a shot.

Firstly, the Normans would find tough competition being an own civ, so they can be a candidate for the variant civ.

What’s going on for Normans?

  1. William the Conqueror, the Hautvilles family as recognisable figures

  2. Most important Duchy of France historically

  3. Already appears in campaigns, which can be replaced by the variant civ

  4. Fought the Byzantines and in the Crusades, so they can have appearances in the campaign (so they fit the theme of the expansion)

Other possible candidates:

  1. Duchy of Orleans (considering Joan of Arc)
  2. Duchy of Burgundy (already a civilization in AoE2)
  3. Kingdom of Jerusalem and other crusader states (shared with the HRE, also in the theme of the expansion)
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Yes, it could be… I thought that Jerusalem could enter as a civ variant of the HRE or the Byzantines…

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The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Crusader State they were not ####### of the Roman Empire, so making them a variant of the Byzantines would be strange.

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5

Best variation for french is the templar order or the hospitaller order.

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4KKOMNENOS
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The Kingdom of Jerusalem was Byzantine protectorade between the Second and Third Crusades (1147-1193)…

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After this expansion, the variant civs honestly open up the possibilities for many other civs, including the Normans.

Of course, I’m not entirely sure if the Normans work as a full civ, or specifically as a French variant:

  • The Normans technically became the predecessors of the English of the same game, in fact that was seen in the first campaign.
  • Historically they would lack firearms and cannons in Imperial, except for the freedom of giving them the English Imperial age, o the French Imperial Age.
  • Other name could be Duchy of Normandy.
  • After that I have no more excuses, it depends on the creativity of those who make models and if they come up with unique mechanics or units different from the basic English ones.
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They should have done this in reverse. Arabs - variant civs, Abbasids, Mamluks, etc. Byzantines → ERE, Armenia, Georgia, Bulgaria. Franks —> Capetians, Carolingians, Normans. Its all in reverse.

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Most likely, they will split civs into other variants…

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Agree with this :100:. Since the New DLC is about the crusades, they should add Hospitallers, Templars and Teutonic Orders as variant civs just like what they did to the Order Of The Dragon. They also mentioned the part of the campaign where we are about to fight crusader military orders. I wish someone create a topic in suggesting these variant civ orders to be added in the Sultan’s Ascend DLC.

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