SUGGESTION FOR GAME-DESIGN AND IMPROVEMENT: Add MERCENARIES and SPAIN

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
1
  1. Please add MERCENARY HOUSE & EMBASSY/CONSULATE available to all civ…

-Allowing players to hire other civs unique military units
-Gives more immersion to all civs or counter-play
-Note: To avoid being OP civ, you can balance it through the cost of the mercenary unit.
-Available Mercenary units and per civ should depend on its historical event… example: ENGLISH should be able to hire VIKING units since Vikings are frequently involved to ENG history, so far you only have Varangian Guards. But we can balance this onwards. You can add Gallóglaigh/Gallowglass, Ulfhednar/Vikingraider, Jomsviking (This are just examples from Vikings military units).

  1. Please add the following NEW/VARIANT CIV and MILITARY UNITS too (not today but please consider)…

SPAIN
(I know we don’t have “Spain” in medieval as it is compose of Aragon, Castile, León, Navarre and smaller states maybe just call it “Kingdoms of Spain”)

-but adding this CIV opens relation to other colonized or related CIVS such as the natives of America (Examples: Aztec and Inca), either you add this to their mercenary house or you create a completely independent CIV, either will improve the game immersion both SOLO or MULTI or RANK play.

-Also, you can relate Kingdom of Portugal which is already a kingdom by this time. (Note: not all historical state or kingdom is easy to add with same pattern to what we already have due to some CIVs did not grow to a FEUDALISM or IMPERIAL state or might not make enough historical impact or organization, but we can atleast include their military units on MERCENARY HOUSES).

-I like the military units in AOE 2 & 3, THERE’S A LOT OF THEM! (and DEVS already have this digital assets) That is why they are IMMERSIVE due to this units…

(note: I understand that this are from different times and could be hard to make accurate connection to history therefore making it hard to to create CAMPAIGN CONTENT or hard to organize a CIV same to the current design of existing civs, history and this empire or states is not generic anyway… AOE 2 is from ancient civs or early Medieval or AOE3 is a bit later than Medieval era… could be mixing up eras from ancient, medieval or after-medieval… but still we can get some idea right?)

  1. Here are my list of military units you can hire from MERC HOUSE or add on a base CIV

OTHERS FROM EUROPE
English Longbowman
Norman Cavalry
Scottish Infantry
Irish Skirmisher (Kern/light-foot soldier/javelins&buckler)
Welsh Mercenary
Landsknechts (German)
Pavise Crossbowman
Swiss Mercenary
Polish-Winged Hussar
Black Army of Hungary
Druzhina (Rus)
Catalan Mercenary (Spain)
Conquistador (Spain)
Tercois (Spain)

FROM CRUSADERS STATES MILITARY
Knights Templar (French)
Knights Hospitaller (Italy)
Teutonic Knights (Germany Austria & Bohemia)
Order of Santiago (Spain)

FROM VIKINGS
Huscarl / Jarl (can be a Hero unit)
Shield Maiden
Berserker / Viking-raiders (Dane-axe!)
Jomsviking (Shield/hatchet/shortsword!)
Ulfhednar (Looks Shamanic)
Galloglaigh/Gallowglass (Claymore and Irish-axe!)
Varangian Guards (this are real MERCS in history)

ISLAMIC/TURKIC
Janissaries
Hashshashin
Medjay
Mamluks

FROM ASIA
Wanderer (base on Chinese Wuxia/ if you can’t imagine this, think of JET LI the NAMELESS the 2002 movie “HERO”, AHAHAHAHAHA!)

Warrior-monk (random spawn from various Asian monk sects)

Jurchen Raiders (this is north China near north Korea and Mongols)
Mongol Raiders (random spawn or weapon maybe =D)

Samurai
Ronin
Shinobi
Ashigaru (Japanese)
Hwarang (Goryeo/Korea)

FROM FIRST NATIONS OF AMERICA
Eagle Warrior
Jaguar Warrior

I know it’s hard to do this in reality due to whatever reason, just sharing my thoughts… I think this will improve the game immersion… You can correct me if I’m wrong! =D

4 Likes
2

To be honest, I also had the idea that all civilizations could have mercenaries.

However, before posting the topic, I was blessed with the opportunity to speak with Beasty, and he told me that the idea had its drawbacks:

1) It would affect the uniqueness of all civs:

  • They are supposed to have strengths and weaknesses with their already established roster. If they could create any unit from any other civ, they would lose their sense of identity, and on the other hand, it would make the game unpredictable. Since the English could create Camels, or the French longbowmen, you wouldn’t know what to expect, and on top of that, it would look aesthetically bad.

2) It would affect the balance:

  • In feudal, most civs are supposed to have 4, 5, or a maximum of 6 units in a limited roster, and the most advanced is in the Castle Age, with siege, heavy armor units, and monks. Mercenaries for all civs would unbalance that order.

3) Historically, not all civs hired mercenaries, nor of all types:

  • Historically, not all civs hired mercenaries at all times or sold their units as mercenaries. Forcing them to do so would go against the game’s own representation.

  • Islamics shouldn’t be able to hire Knights Templar, French shouldn’t be able to hire English, and so on.

Now, regarding civs being able to hire “Historical Mercenaries” and under certain circumstances, I AGREE with that, but we need to be specific and not contradict points 1, 2, and 3.

Now, let’s consider the existing cases:

Byzantines

  • The best civ to talk about mercenaries, because they recruited Christians, Muslims, and pagans (Mongols). It’s well represented in that regard.

  • Only weak point: “Streltsy” (1545), were invented at a time when the Byzantines no longer existed (1452). I would suggest swapping it for another unique light unit, “Gunpowder,” from the earlier 4th Age. There will be many in the future, so when they come out, I would suggest making the change.

Another extra roster: There is still no representation for Armenians, Genoese (crossbowmen), or Aragon (Almogavar). They could include them at some point in the future. At least thanks to the Templar civ, it seems they will be able to create unique civ units that don’t yet exist in advance, if a mercenary is needed for another civ.

Varangian Guard: A good example of a historical mercenary and a unique civ unit. Originally formed by berserkers who came mainly from Rus and Sweden, they were the emperor’s elite guard. In Sweden, there are several runestones that describe Varangians joining the Byzantine army. The Emperor was able to replenish his contingents when the Norwegian king Sigurd the Crusader left him hundreds of extra soldiers while he returned to his homeland.

Ayyubid

  • They have the Bedouin, the swordsman and skirmisher, through a Landmark option.

Holy Roman Empire

  • Landsknecht is the best-known German mercenary from the Middle Ages. The game model is actually one with a Zweihander. In theory, most of them were pikemen, so they still need a landsknecht pikeman and an arquebusier to complement them.

I’d like to elaborate, but I’m tired. I’ll continue later.

2 Likes
3

No way
Mercenaries are great as a mechanic for few civs not all!

2 Likes
4

I agree to your 1, 2 and 3… this can be corrected and balanced onwards (considering history accuracy and balance on power of civ). I am just sharing my thoughts of CONCEPT that they can do… As I mentioned, units that can be hired depends on the mercenary unit’s involvement to that CIV… Example: Base civ CHINA is impossible to have Viking mercs because they are too far…

5

Mercenaries is just a bad idea.

Spain, im pretty sure the devs got the message by that point, and it’s probably one of the next civ released when they can release a new civ.

I don’t get the obsession on Spain personally, i think Viking (Danes) or Khmer or Aztecs would be a lot more unique compared to what is already in the game. Spain would probably be similar to french or hre.