[Suggestion] New Civilization - Wallachian/Vlach (from Dracula's Campaign)

Hi,

I was happy to see Dracula’s campaign in the Forgotten Empires DLC, especially since Age of Empires II is such a popular game.

Romania was never important in the play of major powers, which is why most historical games ignore Romania, but I was sightly dissapointed to notice that there’s no Vlach civilization, instead the players plays with 3 different civilizations: the Turks, the Magyars and the Slavs.

Can you make an update with the Vlach civilization? It’s a small change but it would mean a lot to many Romanians playing the game. It’s kind of weird that there is a campaign about the famous Vlad Dracula and there isn’t a Romanian civilization, instead you play as Turks, Magyars and Slavs civilizations.

It shouldn’t be too much of an effort, considering that it’s Eastern European like the Magyars and Slavs most buildings and units will look the same.

I can help with research.

The Vlachs are modern Romanians, they used to call themselves Romanians in the Medieval Age too but other nations called them Vlach which meant “stranger” in Old Germanic and was used to describe latin-speaking people.

The Vlachs were the majority in 3 principalities: Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia. Although for the most time Transylvania was under Hungary and had no Vlach rulers except for Michael the Brave in 1600, Wallachia and Moldavia was an Ottoman vassal for the most part but had numerous revolts, including that of Vlad the Impaler.

The principalities caused too much trouble to be completly integrated like Bulgaria and Greece so the Ottomans were content with just paying tribute that included gold and people in exchange allowing them a degree of autonomy including self-rule.

About their in-game specifics:

Name? Vlachs. Romanians in the Middle Ages used to be called Vlachs, but they called themselves Romanians, this is not the case anymore but back then it was how Germany calls itself “Deutschland” but England “Germany” and France “Allemagne”. Since in history the Romanians are commonly known as Vlachs and Wallachia, I believe this is the best choice.

Looks? Considering that Romania is Eastern European like the Magyars and Slavs most buildings and units will look the same.

Culture? Like the Slavs, the Romanians had Boyars as nobles and Orthodoxy as religion, the Romanian culture was influenced by the Slavic and Orthodox Christianity comes from the Byzantines.

Speciality? Romanians were used to being outnumbered in most of their battles and usually used hit & run and encirclement tactics. In Moldavia, every peasant was military trained. The hit & run tactics included shooting arrows and attacking weaker parts of the enemy army, only to retreat, then you do it again until you weaken or confuse them enough to fight an open battle.

Language? You can use modern Romanian, unlike English that changed so much that Old English is a completly different language, Old Romanian and Modern Romanian are mutually intelligible.

If you don’t like the Impaler unique unit from that link and want to keep Boyars only for Slavs you can use any of the following for Vlach unique units:
https://www.pinterest.com/liviuliv/michael-the-brave/
I personally like Wallachian Calvalryman, they are more realistic than Impalers.

If you don’t like the Bran Castle, the wonder can be Sucevita Painted Monastery.
One of the painted monasteries of Bucovina, that is currently an UNESCO heritage site.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucevi%C8%9Ba_Monastery

For civillization bonuses:

  • Knights cost 15% less (The Order of the Dragon was created with the purpose of defeating the Ottoman Empire. The nickname “Tepes” is the Romanian equivalent of “the Impaler”, “Teapa” means spike in Romanian, the real name of Vlad Tepes was Vlad Dracul, Dracul meant the Dragon)
  • Villagres have 20% more armor (Vlach military was strict, every peasant was trained to defend himself and those that refused were put to death)
  • Skirmishers fire 20% faster (Since they were most of the time outnumbered, Vlachs used harassment and hit and run tactics a lot)
    Team Bonus: Villagers carry 20% more food (There was serfdom in Wallachia, affecting Gypsies and foreign slaves but also the local population, most of the population was made of farmers and shepherds)

For AI rulers you can use:

  • Stephen III the Great (1435 - 1504) - Prince of Moldavia that won renown in Europe for his long resistance to the Ottoman Turks.
  • Michael II the Brave (1558 - 1601) - Prince of Wallachia, he achieved the first union of Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia (the three principalities largely inhabited by Vlachs).
  • Vlad III the Impaler (1431 - 1476) - Prince of Wallachia, that the campaign Dracula is about.
  • Constantin Brancoveanu (1654 – 1714) - Prince of Wallachia.
  • Basarab I the Founder (Before 1310 - 1352) - Founder of Wallachia.
  • Bogdan I the Founder (Before 1307 - 1367) - Founder of Moldavia.
  • Mircea the Elder (1355 - 1418) - Prince of Wallachia.
  • Dimitrie Cantemir (1673 – 1723) - Prince of Moldavia.
  • Vlad II the Dragon (Before 1395 - 1447) - Prince of Wallachia, father of Vlad the Impaler and son of Mircea the Elder.
  • Radu the Fair (1437 - 1475) - Prince of Wallachia, younger brother of Vlad the Impaler.
  • Matei Basarab (1588 - 1654) - Prince of Wallachia.
  • Alexandru Lapusneanu (1499 - 1568) - Prince of Moldavia.

I hope a dev will see this message. Please, make it happen, it would mean a lot to many Romanians.
It can be part of an Orthodox DLC: Romanians, Serbs, Georgians, Armenians.

3 Likes

I hate to break it to you, but there will be no new civs. Maybe a mod but no new update