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Don’t cry about the civilisations you we haven’t gotten yet. You can’t expect from the developers to add the civilisations in exactly the order you want.
I guess this won’t stop Byzantine, Japan or Denmark/Viking posters anyway.
We will likely hear more about the future of AoE4 tomorrow during the Xbox stream.
I find Malians to be interesting from a gameplay perspective, they seem to shake it up a bit more. With unique takes.
Ottomans are for me more interesting personally in terms of visuals & units particularly the Sipahi and the Jannissary.
But both are very welcome and I think they add a lot to the game regardless, also even if one doesnt like the civ from the trailers. When trying them out is where they truly shine!
More civs is always nice, whether its the one you wanted or not.
i just don’t get what the 3 emojis posted by AoE meant, as we’re getting none of the predicted civs
Will they hide something from us? 
I have a theory. This 2 new civs will be free to play but they will also add the Byzatines soon as a DLC you will have to pay for. This is very likely to happen bcos of the hints they gave us (greek fire,…) and the release of the Ottomans, their main enemy.
The Ottoman are my main civ in AoE3 so I’m happy to see them here too.
I’m kinda divided on the early Janissaries because that kind brakes the timeline. They already have Arquebus looking guns in Castle Age while all the other civs (with the exception of Rus) only get Hand Cannons in Imperial Age. So they get something more modern and on top of that an Age earlier.
But I also like gunpowder units. I mean AoE3 is my favourite AoE for a reason.
Mali on the other hand looks super interesting for very different reasons.
Their Spearman have a ranged attack and counter cavalry in melee? Sounds pretty much like an AoE3 Musketeer to me.
Unless the ranged attack is a charged attack. The description isn’t that clear on that.
AoE2 Skirmishers are also back but they replace Crossbows which have pretty much the opposite role?
Malians have so many unique units.
At last 5 were mentioned.
The 3 have a description and an additional 2 are mentioned in the Ages summery. The Sofa Horsemen and the Musofadi Gunner.
The only generic unit mentioned are the Archers and the description says they don’t have armoured units so no MAA and lancers? And their Archers do poison damage which makes them also pretty unique.
Plus unique buildings.
They also seem to have cavalry archers. Would be strange if they didn’t.
A lot of people predicted the Ottomans/Turks/Seljuks.
But maybe we’ll find out more tomorrow on the Xbox event.
I don’t expect a second DLC announcement but maybe they talk about gameplay changes like a naval rework.
Time to go though the footage frame by frame to spot anything that might be a hint for future content.
I could see them hide a unit of an upcoming civilisations somewhere in the background.
Considering AoE3 also started with 8 civilisations and also got 3 in the first Expansion a year after release that might not be that unlikely.
so the fire fighter emoji was a hint at byzantines, what about the other 2? perhaps the camping one had to do with malians? and the fishing ship was a hint at japanese? how are byzantines and japanese related though? maybe it’s italians…
My guess was
Ottomans, Venice and Byzantines.
Not Turks or Italians because of how AoE4 names it’s civilisations.
Venice was the big rival of both the Byzantines and the Ottomans.
The boat and fireman represent the byzantine fireship famous for the use of Greek fire, I cant imagine this refering to other civ. If my prediction is correct, this hint does not refer to the ‘‘free’’ civs but the DLC you will have to buy. (huns and byzantines?)
how is camping related to ottomans? they weren’t nomadic like the seljuks. Unless the ottomans timeframe includes the end of the seljuk civilization?
The description says:
In Age of Empires IV, the civilization of the Ottomans spans the years from the pre-imperial Ottoman Empire period in the 11th century CE to the mid-16th century CE.
So they don’t include the Seljuks.
I mean it was pretty obvious that they wouldn’t choose the Seljuks over the Ottomans because the Seljuk empire didn’t even last 200 years and the Ottomans originated around the same time as the Delhi Sultanate.
But the Ottomans also had nomadic background so that might still make sense.
But there is the possibility that we just completely read those Emojis wrong.
which country would Malians be??? I cant understand, is it an african civ???
Actually it is quite strange that there aren’t arquebuses for most civs, since the imperial age for most civs is supposed to be in the early 16th century and they would’ve been around for quite some time.
Also I agree with most of what you’re saying there.
That’s correct. The Empire of Mali was in west Africa, in the beautiful Sahara desert, Sahel, and savannah regions.
Based on the newest announcement (with the fact Mali and the Ottoman Empire are not closely related) and calculated ‘Rise and Fall’ Criteria, I’ll generate a new prediction for next DLCs.
Yeah they fact they bundled Ottomans and Malians kinda threw me completely off xD
Like Lolwut when did they fight each other? lol
Same.
Seems like AoE hates Arquebus.
AoE2 and AoE4 end before Arquebus and AoE3 starts with Muskets.
I think it’s because it’s a free DLC.
We likely won’t get a campaign in that DLC just those two civs.
I think we can see them as 2 additional base game civilisations.
I am so glad they aren’t bundling civs by theme. That is always an arbitrary limitation. Just add the civs people want the most, regardless of region.
Good question. I don’t know and I find it highly unlikely by Logic.
The Empire was the strongest power in the world, but it was already at war with most of European powers, Mamluks, Persia and later Russia, furthermore Mali was on the other end of the Sahara, thus incredibly tough to invade by land - no logistics could survive the vast inhospitable Sahara.
By sea, the Ottoman Empire navy focused heavily on the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Black Sea and the Mediterranean, because that’s where trade money was.
Maybe the tent is hungarians?