Scandinavia is one of the most underused regions in Age of Empires II. So far, it’s been represented almost exclusively by the Vikings, which leaves a lot of historical and gameplay potential untapped.
After The Last Chieftains, Scandinavia would be an excellent candidate for a future DLC built around two new civilizations plus a Viking rework:
Danes
Norwegians or Swedes
Vikings (rework) → redesigned as a full rushing civilization, comparable to the Huns but viable beyond early-game aggression
This DLC could also introduce a new Scandinavian architectural set, featuring wooden buildings, distinct fortifications, and a clear Norse aesthetic, helping differentiate the region visually and thematically. And of course, new regional units, replacements and exclusive upgrades.
Overall, this would revitalize an underrepresented area of the map while modernizing one of the game’s oldest civilizations.
Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, all of them went on viking (the activity). Adding them alongside the existing Viking umbrella might not be as annoying as Wu-Wei-Shu alongside Chinese, but it’d still hurt my perfectionism.
If I went on to design a Scandinavian DLC, I’d start with renaming Vikings to Norse. It’s still an umbrella but a bit narrower, and sometimes it even excluded Denmark – so we can imagine they’d represent Norwegians and Swedes.
Then I’d add Danes as a cavalry and navy civ with high/late medieval Christian flavor, and finally the Finns with good trash units (skirms and spearmen line).
I think they can just add Danes(including Skane and Danelaw), Swedes and Norse/Norwegians (including the colonies Iceland, Greenland and Vinland/USA).
The Vikings can stay, they can cover the early time period and the smaller tribes like Frisians, Joms and other Baltic Vikings, Normans , Rus Vikings, Varangians.
Some yes, but not many, and I personally don’t think in Scandinavia. Baltics and Barbarians (Saxons, Vandals, Lombards, Alans) are the main things we still need in Europe IMO (and Andalusians, but they’re kinda different lol)
I think both, skandinavia and the balkans, are worth adding. For Skandinavia I dont see Norway but Sweden and Denmark. Both were major medieval and early-modern powers that shaped Northern Europe through warfare, trade, and innovation. Denmark controlled the Baltic chokepoints and built one of the most effective naval traditions of the era, while Sweden rose from a regional kingdom to a military powerhouse with unique tactics, professional armies, and units. Together, they’d add fresh Nordic flavor, and are perfect for unique civ mechanics and campaigns.
The balkans have Croats, Serbs and Wallachians as the last break down of the Slavic umbrella. (Slavs become Rus). There is already a nice Tomislav campaign available as Mod.
with these 2 additions, I would consider europe complete.
If I had to pick, I’d prefer Finns over Swedes, as a Norse umbrella could cover both Norwegians and Swedes. Though leaning on the Rus/Varangian side of Sweden could be interesting.
Still sad that AoE3DE had the chance of having Denmark as the overlooked 17th-19th century civ instead of endlessly having the forced pop-history Vikings theme…But then came the evil decision and cancelled everything for the entire game.
You could split the Vikings into Norse (Norwegians), Danes and Swedes and all three could share a Viking unit that could be produced from the Barracks. That’d be a raiding unit similar to an Eagle Warrior. Norse would be the current viking civ (archer and infantry focused), then Danes could be cavalry focused and the Swedes naval and gunpowder focused.
Maybe it’d be weird to mix the viking age with the later medieval period in the same civs, though. So perhaps just keep the current Vikings but add Swedes and Danes regardless (without giving them any viking units).
We already have Chinese + Wei Wu Shu and Italians + Romans + Byzantines etc so we might as well have several civs representing Scandinavia during different time periods. Portuguese and Spanish are based on the late medieval period or even the early renessaince, so why not add Swedes and Danes from this period as well.
Neither Norwegians or Finns are real civs since Norway mainly belonged to Denmark and Finland were under Swedish rule for 800 years.
I imagine Finns civ not as only the modern Finland, but also other Finnic peoples active in the medieval era, such as Estonians, Karelians, Chudes, Vepsians, Meryans, etc. Adding them would greatly increase the variability of opponents in potential Slav and Viking (or split thereof) campaigns.
Huh…that’s not a bad idea. Even the Livonian people in northern Latvia it looks like are counted as Finnic, at least linguistically. Still not super high-priority IMO but i’m warming up to the idea ngl.
