The thing I was most interested in for the next installment of the Age of Empires series has been for years to revisit the time periods of the first Age of Empires. I was thrilled to learn of this remake and it might be enough to satisfy this desire (We all know Age of Empires Online doesn’t count). From paleolithic times to the iron age is indeed a MASSIVE stretch of time comprising more than AoE2 and 3 combined many times over. And I just love the thrill of starting with absolutely nothing where even developing stone tools is an exciting advancement.
Now I know that you are going to prioritize gameplay over history, but there are a lot of things you can do to really bring this ancient world to life. You’ll see that on this debate about remastering the game vs practically making a new one, I’m on the latter end of the spectrum. The first thing that comes to my mind is the civilizations that should be available:
Indians–It has always been perplexing why AoE always adds these guys last if at all. These kingdoms were enormously important in all ages of history and birthed two of the major world religions. They would have the best elephants and some major wololo.
Olmecs–one of the world’s oldest civilizations and the first in Mesoamerica.
Mayans– the height of their civilization takes place in the AoE timeline
Bantu– the Bantu expansion was one of the most significant events in human history. This is also during the AoE timeline so it’s perfect. If not the Bantu, then some kind of African civilization, like the Nubians. The less eurocentric the game, the better I say (I don’t think the Egyptians were black, but they weren’t “white” either. They were… Egyptians).
Parthians–They shared the world with their arch nemesis Rome.
Xiongnu–these guys were the reason the Chinese built their great wall. Possibly merge them with the Scythians.
Scythians–Very significant in the history of the vast steppes of Euraisa, and written about by the Greeks, Persians, and quite possibly the Chinese. This civilization and the two before could have early access to some nerfed down horse archers instead of chariots.
Syrians– Their military was often inferior to the great empires surrounding them, but the Syrians have a long, ancient history of being a center of trade and culture. Their language, Aramaic, was universal throughout the Ancient Middle East for millennia. Perhaps they would be better known for their economy in the late game.
Chinese– This is just renaming them. The Shang were an important dynasty; but, then again, so were all the other dynasties and ethnicities that occupied present day China. Who could forget the Qin? The Han? The Zhou? It seems weird to call stone age all the way to iron age the Shang, so we must rely on the oversimplification of “Chinese.”
If this is too many civs to start out with, I would even go so far as to cut/merge some of the others:
Palmyrans– I think it’s neat that they included this fascinating kingdom, but the ones above deserve to be in more than them. Did anyone play to win with them anyway?
Minoans– The Minoans were very important in the history of the Mediterranean and development of western civilization, but on the global scale, I wonder if they make the cut. Same is true for the Etruscans, though obviously they weren’t in there to begin with.
Carthaginians– I see the Carthage as simply one of the Phoenician city states and it should be _re_merged with them. The original AoE giving the Phoneticians bonuses on their elephants was an obvious nod to Hannibal and his elephants.
Macedonians–I’m just sayn’, it wouldn’t be the first time they were merged with the Greeks…
In addition, I would like to see each of the civilizations have a unique unit and a unique-looking wonder. If you take no other suggestions from this, please do that. That would be so cool.
I would definitely join the others in calling for all the practical improvements that came with AoE2 (auto farms, formations, garrisoning, etc.)
