I posted an earlier version of this already but I’ve made some substantial changes so I decided to post it again.
As established in my earlier post, Canaanite civilization could be villager-focused, with a gather-based favor system.
The standard hero unit is the shepherd. Shepherds act as extra villagers, gathering food at a rapid rate. Canaanites can only gather from chickens, goats, cattle, aurochs, elk, deer, gazelles, giraffes and sheep (a new herdable they start with no matter what map they’re playing on). Pigs can’t be herded or eaten. In addition to acting as villagers, shepherds are armed with staves and slings, making them formidable in battle. They form the backbone of a Canaanite army and their wide line of sight also makes them effective scouts.
The standard villager unit is the worker who builds and gathers from trees, gold mines, berry bushes and farms. Like the Norse, they have movable drop off points in the form of pack mules. Unlike the Norse ox carts, these mules also double as cavalry. Favor is acquired manually by sacrificing resources at the temple, similar to how you buy and sell resources at the market. For balance, god powers take longer to recharge.
The other hero unit is the High Priest. He can be tasked to “bless” a resource drop off to passively exchange a small percentage of resources gathered for favor. Like the Egyptian pharaoh, there is only one high priest per player who will resurrect after a period of three in-game days once killed. Each major god’s high priests have different attacks (see below).
The villager focus, and the major overlap between military and civilian sets Canaanites apart from other civilizations.
The starter military building is the war tent. At the war tent, clubmen and compound bowmen can be trained in the classical age, and khopesh swordsmen in the heroic age.
The Heroic age fortification is the masada. At the masada, iron chariots and covered rams can be trained. The iron chariot seats two warriors, one ranged and one melee. The covered ram can garrison units and resist pierce damage.
Navy is Phoenician-based. The standard warship is a quinquereme, a faster and stronger version of the trireme. Their hammer ship is the triaconter. Their siege ship is the horse-headed hippos. In addition, they have a trade ship called a gauloi.
Now onto the mythology. The Canaanite “gods” are actually a mix of gods and angels. I think this would be doable, as long as there’s a change in terminology because angels can be invoked but not worshipped. In lieu of the usual major god statues, El has a bronze snake totem, Asherah has a tree and Baal has a golden calf.
Archaic Age
El, God of Gods
- Focus: Buildings and Heroes
- Bonuses: high priests can create golems and attack by turning their staves into deadly snakes which deal poison damage. Shepherds do more damage to myth units. Relics can be garrisoned in town centers. Buildings and foundations are indestructible as long as a worker is working on them
- God power: Ophanim (summons four fiery angels of wheels and eyes who rotate around a town or village centre, providing wide line of sight and passively healing allies)
- Tech: Ark of the Covenant (temple melts enemy HP within a radius)
- Wonder: Solomon’s Temple
- Myth unit: Golem (a slow-moving but durable man of clay who builds twice as fast as a worker and gets bigger and stronger with each age)
Asherah, Lady of the Sea
- Focus: Navy and Economy
- Bonuses: workers and ships have more HP. Docks are cheaper and automatically spawn one quinquereme when built. High priests turn their staves into grasping branches that do crush damage. Starts with twice the usual amount of trees around the town centre and more gold in the bank. Starts with three pack mules instead of the usual one.
- God power: Providence (free farms generate around selected village or town center)
- Tech: Cultic Harlotry (increased gold to favor exchange rate from high priests)
- Wonder: Royal Palace of Ugarit
Baal, God of Storms
- Focus: Human Soldiers
- Bonuses: human soldiers attack faster with extra damage against heroes. Military buildings are cheaper. Military buildings automatically spawn two of any one available unit when built or converted. Masadas provide population space. High priests attack by shooting lightning at range and can use their Necromancy ability to zap dead units back to life with less HP and attack each time.
- God power: Lord of the Flies (summon a swarm of flies to devour enemy berry bushes or butchered animals)
- Tech: Moloch (workers pay back half their food cost in favor if killed)
- Wonder: Temple of Bel
Classical Age
Gabriel (El, Asherah), angel of revelation. His improvements aid your towers and navy.
- God power: Manna (free food rains down from heaven onto targeted village or town center)
- Myth unit: Cherub (flying archer with a Smite ability that deals heavy damage to a target and created a shock wave)
- Techs: Tower of David (increases tower HP and range), Noah’s Ark (doubles carry capacity of transport ships), Star of the Sea (ships regenerate HP), Ezekiel’s Vision (upgrades cherubim to guardian cherubim with higher armor)
Dagon (Asherah, Baal), god of prosperity. His improvements aid your economy.
- God power: Idolatry (erects a monolith with an altar on land or water that acts as a dropoff point for resources that will automatically be exchanged for favor)
- Myth unit: Ghoul (a monster that can eat friendly workers to heal itself with its Mouth of Hell ability)
- Techs: Sea of Galilee (fishing ships work faster), God of Grain (farm boost), Cedars of Lebanon (increased wood gather), Mammon (myth units repay favor cost in gold when killed)
Samael (El, Baal), angel of death. His improvements aid your walls and armory.
- God power: Scapegoat (summons a large black goat that attacks by self-destructing in a fiery explosion that heals allies within a radius)
- Myth unit: Lilith (an owl demon that swoops down on victims and spawns imps with its Mother of Demons ability)
- Techs: Lord of the Wall (walls less vulnerable to crush damage), Tree of Knowledge (armory techs research faster), Sting of Death (archers and arrow ships do divine damage), Mark of Cain (armor boost for all human units)
Heroic Age
Raphael (El, Baal), angel of health and guardian of travelers. His improvements aid your trade units and shepherds.
- God power: Consumption (targeted enemy mortal unit infected with a disease that rapidly spreads to their nearby allies, draining their health until they die)
- Myth unit: Ifrit (club-wielding fire demon with who can send multiple enemies flying with its Bloody Mace ability)
- Techs: Ships of Tarshish (gauloi speed boost), Gift of the Magi (caravans carry more gold), Sling of David (increases ranged attack of shepherds), Staff of Moses (increases melee attack of shepherds)
Ashtoreth (Asherah, Baal), goddess of war and beauty. Her improvements aid cavalry and navy.
- God power: Light-Bringer (temporary LOS on all explored territory)
- Myth unit: Ziz (a giant griffin with a whirlwind attack that does AOE damage and a Great Egg ability that drops an egg like a bomber)
- Techs: Horsemen of the Apocalypse (iron chariot and pack mule melee attack), Ships of Kittim (navy attack and speed), Rahab (allows you to train leviathans at your dock)
Lailah (El, Asherah), angel of the night and conception. Her improvements aid workers and buildings.
- God power: Plague of Darkness (temporarily blacks out a section of the map for the enemy)
- Myth unit: Corpse Bride (restless corpse of a wronged woman who sucks the souls out of its victims with its Kiss of Death ability)
- Techs: Immaculate Conception (workers train faster and have more HP), Shamir (buildings will slowly build themselves after a foundation is laid), Breath of Life (worker and golem speed boost)
Mythic Age
Michael (El, Asherah), angel of battle. His improvements aid your infantry and heroes.
- God power: Passover (instantly cancels time-limited enemy god power)
- Myth unit: Seraph (a flying serpent that spits venom)
- Techs: Armor of God (infantry and hero armor), Sword of the Spirit (khopesh swordsman attack), Aaron’s Rod (high priests attack, boost favor, heal allies and create golems faster), Secrets of Enoch (seraphim upgrade to chalkydri who fly faster and spit fireballs)
Milcom (Asherah, Baal), god of royalty. His improvements aid ranged units and masadas.
- God power: Abomination (temporarily converts all enemy temples and claims the relics inside them)
- Myth unit: Nephil (a giant wielding a spear that can stab multiple units at once with its Spear of Goliath ability)
- Techs: Gog and Magog (Iron chariot and covered ram attack speed), Bow of Conquest (arrows fired by all ranged units and masadas deal crush damage, increasing their effectiveness against siege engines, buildings and ships), Kingdoms of the Earth (allows one more masada to be built)
Uriel (El, Baal), angel of judgement. His improvements aid your myth units.
- God power: Fire and Brimstone (burning rain that damages buildings, destroys crops and petrifies units)
- Myth unit: Alukah (a werewolf that regenerates as it kills and can turn any unit it kills into another alukah)
- Techs: Mark of the Beast (boosts attack bonus of myth units against human units), Apocalypse of Baruch (allows you to summon behemoths at your temple), Blood Moon (increases the odds of a unit killed by an alukah becoming another alukah)
The titan could be Abaddon, a winged angel of destruction who rises from the underworld to punish mankind. He wields a flaming sword and spews devouring locusts from his mouth.
Maps:
Gehenna
Mount Ararat
Garden of Eden
Armageddon
Red Sea
Gilead
Carthage
Jordan River
Mount Sinai
Mesopotamia
Relics:
Bald Head (summons two bears that respawn if killed)
Forbidden Fruit (all techs cheaper)
Ring of Solomon (summons an ifrit that will respawn if killed)
Necronomicon (boosts the attack of shades, mummies, minions, anubites, einherjar, draugr, lampades, ghouls, corpse brides and alukah)
Sands of Time (summons a phoenix that respawns if killed)
Dagon Sphere (blocks enemy god powers within a radius)
Sword of War (cavalry melee attack)
Nehushtan (blocks enemy myth units from using special attacks within a radius)