Will be Portugal/ Byzantium.
Byzantium obvious choice to face the Ottoman Empire
What Empire was active on west Africa and would have connection to Mali from 1235 to 1670?
Portugal.
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I am not sure their plan would be to make civs that compliment the last batch, but if that’s the plan, you may be onto something.
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the mali toll booths, give a insight how portuguese feitorias might work.
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At the end of the day I’m just guessing. Just find it odd to have 2 civs with no relation to one another being added. Makes me think a couple more will be added later on.
Byzantium is an obvious option vs Ottomans.
For Mali its Portugal or Shongai.
“The first unfamiliar threat to Mali came not from the jungles or even the desert but the sea. The Portuguese arrived on the Senegambian coast in 1444, and they were not coming in peace.”
Edit: Also Portuguese/Ottoman wars is a thing.
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So for saying portugal there would be spain too right? If there would be spain there would be japan too and then korea.
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I would bet Japan comes in the next DLC (to much noise in this direction). I don’t know with who will they pair it with.
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With their choice of Mali in the first DLC, Relic has shown its willingness to favor uniqueness and variety over more ‘popular’ but less globally important civs. This is why to me it seems quite likely that the next expansion will have at least one civ unlike anything we already have. In that case something like Khmer seems quite likely. I really don’t think we will ever see a Portuguese civ, much less before we see a Spanish one.
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Completely disagree.
Portugal does not need to come after or with Spain. Stands very well on its own, as it set in motion events that reshaped the geopolitical structure of the world, for better or worse, effects that are still felt today.
If we see more campaigns down the line in an expansion or the like, complementary civs is kind of a slam dunk move for getting the most mileage out of a new addition.
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My train of thought exactly.
I do like that they added a highly requested civ with a less requested one.
Hopefully they can repeat that moving foward.
I get why you think Portuguese but I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for the PLC
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I would love to have both, but I think they are too similar to have Portugal and Spain/Castille
They both great empires, the first two global empires of the world, but I think only one should be a priority.
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Maybe the First Global Empire should have priority 
Im sure you disagree.
Altough i do not consider them similar when you do a deep dive in their story.
Portugal was always more focused on trade and being a defensive thalassocracy.
Fleets, Factories and Fortresses.
Military wise, again, difers quite a bit up until 1580, where Fidalgos, the nobleman with their Montantes, where the spearhead of the army.
Portugal had elite units of conto crossbowmen, a semi professional core of troops, crossbow being later replaced by gunpowder weapons.
Also Halberdiers trained by portuguese mercenaries thay served in the italian wars, used to great effect in East Asia by Afonso de Albuquerque.
So i disagree that they are similar, due to their areas of expansion and influence.
But if we were to choose one, i would go for Portugal that made first contact across africa and asia with countless kingdoms and empires, not to mention it waged war against mameluks, ottomans several indian sultanates, malacca, and even traded blows with china, and introducing matchlock weapons on japan that changed the course of history in that country. All within AoEIV timeline.
Don’t be so sure… I wouldn’t mind if they choose Portugal over Castille. Of couse I prefer Spain because is the larger empire…
But I still think they are prertty similar… montantes, crossbows, fleets, arquebus all of those are extensively used in all the peninsula.
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My friend, they will never put Portugal in aoe4 because it is very similar to Castilla.
I would only have a single unit, crossbowmen…
In the aoe saga it is an invented civilization.
You might be onto something here. Portugal does have considerable stuff going for them, in the Criteria Set I used in the ‘Rise and Fall’ investigation. Spain ranked higher though, at #9.
One thing I’m pretty sure, considering any reasonable Criteria Set to choose and design new civs, and considering the AoE4 civs model:
If Portugal gets chosen and designed in AoE4 my friend, that will mean bad news for Spain, near fatal news. And vice versa.
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My spanish friends disagree with me. Difference is Portugal was unified from way earlier while Spain did not exist in the timeframe of the game, if they want to talk about making things up. But i will be sure to be dropping by your Spain threads to mention that they should never be added to the game, like you have just done.
In my opinion Portugal has more interesting civ interactions overall.
I find it sad that people complain about Portugal and Spain being similar when you have France and England…
Portugal became independent from León and was one more kingdom like Navarra or Aragón.
Putting Portugal in aoe4 is like putting one of these on separate kingdoms.
The correct thing would be Castilla, or Castilla y León or Castilla y Aragón or better, Kingdoms of Spain including Portugal or that had mercenary units such as the Aragonese Almogavars and Portuguese crossbowmen.
there are dozens and dozens of potential new civs that could be added to any age of empires game. discussions about future civs should resist the impulse to begin with the answer and then defend why that civ is great.
they are all great.
the devs are not tasked with finding a great civ. the devs are tasked with finding the two civs that are most deserving on the planet to be civs 11 and 12. the only way to answer that would be to roll up your sleeves and compare all of them against each other.
Spain and Portugal and Byzantium are all great. So are the Persians, the Inca, the Japanese, the Indians, the Inca, and the Maya. Europe is the size of the country of India. In a game focused on the entire world and that already has four civs from Europe, I would not suggest that we need any more civs from there yet. 4 out of 12 is plenty.
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No. Take Castille/Aragon, and leave Portugal out of it. It stands well on its own.
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