Ok I know these will probably not get added but I am mostly just doing this for my own amusement. It would be cool to have a new expansion with a new set of thematically uniform civs. We have had the Conquerors which introduced the Americas, Forgotten Empires, the African Empires, The South East Asian Empires, The Turkic civs in the DE edition and I am thinking what the theme of the next expansion could be. And after some contemplation I thought it would be to cool to have an expansion based around the idea of religious reformation.
So I present you AOE2: The Kingdoms of God expansion.
Now I dont know much about balancing civs for competitive play or anything so have no idea if these ideas would make for OP or weak civs but here are some of my ideas for the civs anyway.
The Bohemians:
The Bohemians or Czechs would be a late game powerhouse with gunpowder units, Infantry, crossbows and Halbs, they should have a relatively weak Navy.
They will be classed as a gunpowder civ.
Some idea for bonuses could be:
- Free Block Printing.
- Some sort of faster work rate for villagers. Maybe 5% collection, building and repair rate.
- Monks benefit from blacksmith infantry upgrades
- Monks cost 50% less.
Unique Unit:
Their Unique Unit would be the Wagon Fort. A horse drawn wagon similar to the Korean War Wagon but with the difference being that it is a gunpowder/siege unit that fires bullets in 2 direction to either side of the wagon instead of a single bolt to the front. The units can also be āunpackedā like a treb and joined together to form an impassable wall functioning as a makeshift mobile fortress. In this mode they can be given increased damage at the cost of immobility. The unit can also be used as a transport for foot soldiers similar to a ram. Garrisoning hand cannoneers in this unit increases the firing rate of the unit this would increase the damage of the wagon fort unit while protecting the garrisoned units but the overall damage output should be less than if the units were ungarrisoned to offset the invulnerability effect on garrisoned units. This unit would be cool And unique as it would be the first time we have a unit that can fire in 2 directions at once which would make for some interesting tactical play such as driving it into the middle of a pack of infantry and shooting at enemies on both sides of the unit. This could even be encouraged more by making each single shot weaker than the normal hand cannoneers shot but the sum of the damage output from the 2 shots could be greater than a single shot from a hand cannoneer. The packing and unpacking mechanism would also make for some interesting decision making in how they are deployed.
Unique techs:
- Castle age UT: Piety - Make Monks cost food instead of gold.
- Imperial age UT: Apocalypse - Wagon Forts pack/unpack and travel speed greatly increased.
Team Bonus:
- knights have bonus attack against enemy monks and resist conversion.
The Swiss:
The Swiss while linguistically and possibly (Correct me if I am wrong) ethnically diverse throughout the Medieval period nonetheless were culturally united by their shared experience of living in the Alpine region and as such developed a unique identity and had several politically significant states during the Middle Ages and early modern period until today.
In the AOE2 game their civ could be an infantry/anti cavalry civilisation considering they had the best Medieval infantry (The Swiss Pikemen) IRL. They should have strong emphasis on economy, making them an ideal āslingingā civ in team games to reflect their historic position as being at the crossroads of several major kingdoms that they traded with and provided mercenaries to. They should have relatively weak siege and navy but strong fortifications and access to gunpowder but nothing special in the gunpowder department IMO.
Possible Bonuses:
- All market techs (cartography, coinage, banking, guilds, and caravan) are free
- Fortifications receive additional damage bonus when attacking down hill.
- Relics do not generate gold but each captured relic increases max pop limit by 5 up to a maximum of 25.
- Gold mines last longer.
- Villagers attack speed against other units increased.
Unique Units:
The Swiss Pikeman: (Imp age upgrade to Halberdier, similar to Imperial Skirmisher of Vietnamese) made out of Barracks.
Mordax: A unique axe wielding infantry with good all round stats that can build palisades and outposts. Trained in castle.
Unique Techs:
Castle Age UT: Swiss Guard - Increase infantry movement speed (so they can reach allies quicker and chase down mounted units more effectively)
Imperial Age UT: Pike Square - Increase Spear infantry line damage bonus against cavalry. (These should be the best anti-cav infantry units in the game)
Team Bonus: Allies have access to Swiss Pikeman upgrade in Imperial Age
The Fatamids:
The Fatamids while not a European civ, and not related to the Christian reformation are still thematically relevant because they were founded by religious āhereticsā who fled persecution and this was the basis of their identity. They also left a lasting religious and cultural legacy. Their architecture would be a mix of Middle Eastern and North African architecture and their wonder would be Al Azhar University.
They would be classified as a Navy and Monk civ. They should have a pretty broad tech tree, access to heavy cavalry, light cavalry and camels, crossbows and good infantry but no gunpowder. Their siege options should be ok but not great but their defences should be strong. They should get stronger than usual war galleys (extra pierce armor perhaps?) but no galleon upgrade. This would kind of be historically accurate as they had a relatively strong navy first but were later outclassed by the Byzantines and Crusaders and so the gameplay should reflect this, strong early game on water but weak later on.
Possible Bonuses:
- Herd animal decay rate reduced.
- Theocracy available in castle age and is free (needs monastery). (This is because I feel their monks should have an advantage converting enemies early on in the game, as they converted many native Berbers in their early days of setting up in Egypt.)
- Galley line has bonus damage against land based units. (to reflect the Fatamidās tendency to use their fleet to secure coastal areas rather than the high seas.)
- Galley line has +1 pierce armor each age starting with the Feudal age.
Unique Unit:
Kutama Horseman - A fast cavalry unit that could potentially have an attack bonus against camels. This would reflect the fact that the main enemy of the Fatamids were the Abbasids (represented in game by the Saracens???) and this would introduce an interesting spin on the game mechanics by introducing an anti āanti-cavalry cavalryā unit giving this civ and their UU a very special niche. These should be faster than knights but not as fast as camels so the camel player can still decide to engage or not engage in battles.
Unique Techs:
Castle Age UT: ahl al-kitab - Monk faith restoration time between conversions greatly decreased.
Imperial Age UT: Bahriya - Galley line gold cost halved. (The Fatimids were known to conduct very brutal recruitment campaigns to recruit reluctant and often poor subjects far from the coastal cities to man their warships, this provided them with very cheap source of sailors and this tech would be a way to reflect this.)
Team Bonus: Trade cogs have extra armor and/or HP so they are extra resistant to damage.
The Poles:
So why the Poles? Poland as some might know becomes a major success story in the counter-reformation but that falls slightly outside of the AOE2 timeline but still during the early years of Protestantismās expansion Poland was still a battleground between the different religions and also a lot of protestant refugees migrated there so its kind of an important part of the picture. And anyhow the Polish kingdoms are sorely missing from the AOE2 landscape and as a major Medieval power I feel should be in the game and now that the Lithuanians and the Slavs are in they could be included as well.
The Poles could be a cavalry and Defensive civ. They shouldnāt get Paladin bust instead get a very strong Unique Unit in the Winged Hussar. They can get gunpowder units. Good infantry and good monastery.
Possible Bonuses:
- Start with +150 wood.
- Palisades can be upgraded to āgord wallā in Feudal age (possibly a TC or a market upgrade?). Kind of like the fortified wall upgrade for stone walls essentially giving the Poles access to a unique ability to build āfortified palisadesā something much stronger than palisades but weaker than stone walls with the advantage of not costing any stone.
- Masonry and Hoarding free (requires university)
- Cavalry deal increased damage to fortifications (walls, towers, castles, outposts)
Unique Unit:
Winged Hussar - Unlike the normal Hussar in the game this should be a heavy cavalry unit with a lance. I was thinking of how to make this unit feel unique and different to the tons of other cavalry units in the game, and thought it would be cool if this unit had the ability to āchargeā. Now I know the game doesnāt have proper charging mechanics for cavalry but I thought maybe it could be simulated by having the first attack against a target do more damage and also be extremely fast, followed by normal attacks. To make sure this doesnāt become abused it could be made so that each ācharge attackā can only happen immediately after the unit moves so that you canāt just stand in one spot and ācharge attackā different units around you to get the bonus damage against them. To use the attack again you would have to move to a target that is a few tiles away from your position, no idea if any of that is even programmable but I couldnāt think of anything else, keen to hear what others thinkā¦
Unique Techs:
Castle Age UT: Szabla - Knight line and Winged Hussar attack speed increased.
Imperial Age UT: Golden Liberty - monks convert enemy villagers extremely fast (almost instantly)
Team Bonus: Allies receive gold for each relic captured by the Polish player at a reduced rate (only stacks for a maximum of 5 relics), obviously this is something that would have to balanced properly but something like between 25-50% less gold per relic for divided between the allied players so the more players that are allied to the Polish player the less gold each one gets.
Now I am not an expert on the history of these civs and already mentioned not an expert on civ balancing in the game and I was more thinking about thematic cohesiveness more than anything with my suggestions so I am keen to know what others think of all this as well and what suggestions people have about it. I know none of these civs will probably be added to the game but its fun to discuss anyway.