I think the situation Africa finds itself in is pretty different than what South America finds itself in; there’s a lot more written record of what was happening in Africa before 1492, which means more civ potential. Therefore I think it would be a terrible idea to try to cover the whole continent in 1 DLC, I think there could easily be 3 DLCs for Africa (one each for West, East, and Southern)
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They’d have to have 0 pierce armour and take bonus damage from skirmishers, like a Mameluke. Not sure how Turks would deal with them.
Sounds like a mix of camel and cataphract, so I guess it would be ok if it has 0 pierce armour? That seems unintuitive for a unit wearing quilted armour, but it wouldn’t be the first unintuitive unique unit.
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Considering they act like Arambai they don’t have a lot of range so anything that counters Arambai should work here. So use your own Turkish camels or anything that Turks use to beat Arambai.
Sorta. If you’re worried how to counter this unit that is like the ultimate cavalry remember that they use an extra half pop but the civ also lacks Heresy and possibly devotion which seems like a fair way to keep OP UUs in check. You can always salute Witt 2h swords since unlike the Mayan vs Goth situation the 2h swords will do a lot to them
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Ok, so Nubians who are in the Sahel region shouldn’t be added in a Sahel DLC, but while not being in the Horn of Africa they should be added in a Horn of Africa DLC. Got it.
In the end it really comes down to campaign civ variety.
If every other civ is in this area
And your neighbors are all here:
Then maybe when one ventures to that black circle we can finally revisit our buddies the archer of the eyes. It also wouldn’t be a Saltworks civ since salt wasn’t a major trade item like it was out west.
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Whoops, I missed that when I was commenting since that part wasn’t quoted by @TheTowerDefender.
Can’t say I’m keen on a 1.5 pop unit, to be honest. Every unit costing 1 pop space was one of the defining features of AoE and AoE2 relative to their competitiors; I find it pleasingly consistent and intuitive with some interesting side-effects. Lower pop units are fine because that’s a bonus relative to standard units (although I don’t like the weird fractions we have nowadays from unique upgrades, where you can’t hit max pop with certain distributions of units) but a higher pop unit is a negative feature. It reminds me of the kinds of “bonus” Age of Chivalry had, where you’d get things like “knights cost more but are also slower”.
Also why this unit, but not other heavy cavalry units? Or elephants? Or siege weapons?
Ah, so “a weakness akin to shock units” does mean swordsmen deal bonus damage to them! Easy to run away, though.
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Spearmen have had this issue since forever
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Maybe name the DLC after the Red Sea? Nubians, Somalis, Yemenis, maybe Egyptians too if the Saracen split is going to be a thing
I maintain the Spearman line should have 0.5 range! (Or even 0.7)
Well, technically, the southern Nubian kingdom of Alodia was located in the Sahel region; among the scant information we have about it is an account by Ibn Selim al-Aswani stating that Alodia was more fertile, more powerful, and possessed more horses than Makuria — at least during his time (the 10th century, the Fatimid period). However, Nubia proper (Nobatia, Makuria, and later their union as Dotawo) was situated along the Nile and surrounded by deserts, much like Egypt.
Furthermore, Nubia was far more connected to Egypt and by extension, the Mediterranean world than the Sahelian kingdoms were, and it appears to have facilitated the connection between Ethiopia and Europeans as well. I’ll explain this in greater detail when I can finally write the full post about Nubia that I promised.
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This is the main point. A Nubian campaign feels less fake when you have a bunch of actual local empires to contend with instead of using Songhai to fill in awkwardly
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So what’s this Lifidi and Mandekalu?
The Lifidi is indeed really good armor. Quilted with leather and light and more importantly it will NOT boil and evaporate you within like plate will when you live in a scorching landmass close to the equator!
The idea behind this tech is that it acts almost like a durable Konnik mechanic. Basically when you research Lifidi, the units that can benefit from it become wrapped in this blankety armor which has low HP but resists everything except shock damage. Once the 15-30 hp is depleted the unit turns back into its original form and stays that way. So if for example you are a knight with Lifidi you will have the Lifidi with its 25 HP and super high durability armor and once depleted you become a knight. I am thinking this tech should be limited to the Mandekalu and maybe one other unit but you can see why this one time shielding can be very good.
This mechanism by the way has existed since aoe1 with the secret Medusa unit that became a black rider and then a special catapult when they died
the Mandekalu is a cornerstone of civs around Mali, as an armored lancer however I’m a little terrified of Farimba variants being so potent! If at best it were 5 for melee Cav and 3 for anything with more than 0 range it would be more tolerable. Possibly extendable to Bracerless Camel Archers.
The Mandekalu itself is a 3 stage unit with a light stage in Feudal that would likely lose to a Steppe Lancer a regular stage when upgraded for a cheap price in Castle and the Elitr version in Imperial
One UU I had considered was the Qadi, an Islamic Judge and thus a holyman. The question is… what is it? A regional monk upgrade for Muslims? Maybe a camel mounted monk who is more durable and better ranged than a missionary but cannot carry relics? A different kind of monk/warrior hybrid. Too complex. Maybe for a “second return” to west Africa we could find a fun new regional unit. Camel Archer is enough for now.
Remember this IS a passion project compared to all the sloppers
Isn’t this doing game design backwards? Starting from a name and then trying to figure out what it would be the name for?
Maybe a Monk unit who converts other Monk units much faster but others a bit slower? That’d fit the pattern of camel units countering certain stuff but being slightly worse at being generalists. They could heal a bit faster in order not to be completely useless apart from countering Monks.
I’d also call it a Marabout so that it’s more specifically West African themed, unless you’d like to add it to other Islamic civs
(Or the other way around – converts other units faster, but no healing. Might be a bit annoying though.)
Yes, the Songhai were originally planned for AoE 3, but since they didn’t last long, they were replaced by the Hausa… although we’ll probably see them as a Mali variant in AoE 4…
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So I figured the Sahel is so big it’s worth returning to one day.
So when we do…
The Senegal empire of the Jolof leads you along the coast and builds an empire off of naval river warfare, poison and a still famous rice. Train the Ceddo a warrior who can swap between being an elite spearman and poison archer. Keep in mind spearman infantry and archer armors persist in both stances. I know a large majority people don’t like these sorts of units but the mechanic is in and it’s being used to swap between two specialist forms instead.
The empire of Ghana rules the trade with its access to being one of the best midpoints for the trade from north to south. Utilize their access to Wangaras Caravans and utilize Strophanthus flowers in ways your enemies cannot. Their Kuraleme is an elite warrior who rides the fastest, frailest camel ever. When said camel who hits decently hard is killed the rider will war shout doing flat unmitigated damage and becomes the slowest tanky infantryman you’ve ever seen in your life! Basically the unit uses the camel as sort of a transport to bring them to where they need to be in a fight to actually hit the elephants and Teutonic Knights who can commonly run away.
While their position in Tsetse territory makes them more akin to the southern part of the continent, the Yoruba trades so heavily for heavy cavalry that while they don’t have the scout line they do have access to scout camels and knight lines. Their unique Asante cavalry are lavishly dressed heavy cavalry with enviable stats and a gold cost you think criminal. Too bad its HP is infected with Tsetse putting it on a timer if you don’t have healing on hand. Of course this mechanic might just be anti fun so instead it could be that they have an obuchian tactic that lowers damage instead? I got no idea if it’s good or not.
Their neighbors the Beninese, or you could call them the Edo instead. Train the sacred minister, the Iyase, a battlefield healer whose heal has a splash effect to heal nearby allies and can also heal things that can normally only be repaired without paying resources. Of course these heal specialists cannot convert although relics are still within their reach. Their main unit the Agojie is almost the inverse of the similarly African Amazon gbeto. They are slower but more durable and the spears they throw are not javelins but are adept at hunting beasts aka cavalry especially cavalry. Unlike the Kamayuk it can miss because unlike most ranged infantry it doesn’t have 100 accuracy. It also has spearman armor if it these ladies are too strong otherwise! Slightly anachronistic but it adds a purpose!
Finally we take to the Hausa. The Hausa way of life is a mix of cavalry and archery. The Fulani Huntsman who I’m not sure what they do. Either they fire slower arrows that cannot miss and fork out to hit a few extra targets or as hunters they generate food while shooting things! Or I dunno it’s a good archer with bonuses vs… cavalry? Their Maigadi is a barracks trained infantry with a hand cannon available in the Imperial Age only. Possible shared unit???
At sea you can train the warship known as the Poison Canoe Which upgrades to the Almadias followed by its elite form. No I’m not kidding… these were a thing!! No joke. In a sense it’s a semi limited regional unit that replaces the Galley. It’s a faster to train and move arrow ship who can poison both land units and other ships. However, Fireships and demos are immune due to the fire being a curative and head to head with a galley using no micro you will lose. It’s mostly available to civs along the Niger and Malians but it extends southward into Kongolese and their absolute obsession with poison arrows and spear tips.
I understand people don’t like unit gimmicks but it’s why I prefer reusing the ones we get in more nuanced ways
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Isn’t this just an immortal variation with poison damage?
Konnik on a camel or am I reading this wrong?
This is just weird,you have heavy cavalry but not light cavalry?horsemen are horseman with or without heavy armor.
A UU that looses HP for no reason is just terrible design.
Isnt this just a genoese xbow with a reskin?
Interesting idea go for it.
Italian UU again.
Isnt this just a hand cannon reskin?
Cant you just call it almadias heavy almadias imperial almadias? Current naming just seems odd wit a generic term becoming uniqe.
Considering the Barracks building gives food is used in both I don’t see why it can’t be here. The Hoplite is just an unmounted Monaspa who boosts Armor.
Inverse Konnik. In a sense the mount is meant to get you in there fast before it dies so the super durable slower than TK infantry can do his tanking.
The historical reason is when horses are not able to really survive you can’t really risk your trad budget, yes these people literally had to trade for mounts in a land where the tsetse killed them. As such lighter cavalry would be a waste of time since a horse who has no armor is gonna die fast.
It’s more like if the Throwing axeman was more of a spearman who still hits decently but has accuracy issues and is slower.
Depends. It is infantry so don’t use skirmishers. Probably able to be yeeted out
Not gonna argue the other aspects.