I was just thinking that it might be cool to have a game mode similar to the Dawn of War 2 Last Stand.
I know that it’s not really the focus or scope for the AoE franchise, but onestly AoM have all the elements for it, and it always have been the odd child.
For those who don’t know what it is, this was a special mode for a strategy game set in the w40k universe (arguably this mode was even more popular than the standard game) which reused the game engine to recreate basically an RPG survival mode, with the heroes of various factions.
The way it would play is that you can select a hero (es: arkantos, Ajax, amanra and so on…) and personalize it a bit, increasing it’s stats for example it’s armor, or attack, or giving him unique abilities, which may vary from special attacks, being able to summon myth or human units, or cast god powers.
Then your hero is put in an arena with other 2 players, and have to survive against horse of different units.
For example, you can choose Arkantos as your hero, and give him a relic that increase its attack and rally ability, or another one that allows you to call for the restoration godpowers every now and then.
Then the more you fight, the more you level up your character. You might then unlock new abilities, like being able to transform into Uber Arkantos for a brief period, or to being able to summon a lighting storm.
Then you could have all campaign and standard heroes, all with different roles (tank, DPS, support, healer, summoner…) from Arkantos, Ajax, Amanra, Gargarensis, Folstag and so on…
The hordes would be made by different units of the 4 civs, with every increasing numbers, upgrades and powerful myth units.
For example in the first round you might fight just 10 hoplite, but at the 10th round you might find yourself fighting ne mean lions and toxotes with poison arrows.
Each horde would most likely be associated with a major or minor god, and send units associated with it. It later stage of the game, they might even send titans, or power campaign units, like the poseidon statue.
Onestly, this would be cool even if someone made just a mod out of it.