Norse Civilization suggestion:
I’d like to make a “idea” base for how a Norse civilization should be designed in AoE 4, lets pool our ideas.
My suggestion would be the following.
Norse Unique troops:
[Villagers] - Replaced by Norsemen
Norsemen: The basic “villager” unit for Norse is a double unit with double the cost of a regular villager, and with a 75% gathering rate of regular villagers… instead, they are also the civilizations basic military unit, wielding a spear and shield in battle.
[Spearmen, Men at arms] - Replaced by Norse Warrior
Norse Warrior, in addition to the regular Norsemen, the more professional Norse warriors are recruited with a random set up equipment, being in the variant of spear and shield, sword and shield, and dane axes… each version having their stats and bonus damage based on the weapon’s usage.
[Replaces Stable with Household building]
Housecarls: The Elite troops of a jarl, the only Norse troops equipped with heavy armor, sword and shields… while lighter armored than the elite troops of other civilizations. they make up for it with both a higher base speed and the ability to inspire nearby non-housecarl infantry units. The Housecarl comes in both cavalry and infantry version… they are the only cavalry Norse gets.
Norse unique mechanics:
[Thralls]
To make up for the weaker economy the Norse civilization is in requirement of additional workforce…. that being “Thralls”, The Norse begins with a certain number of thralls… additional thralls can be acquired by defeating enemy units, enemy military units having a low chance of converting to a thrall… while enemy villagers have a high chance. Thralls can only gather supplies, and act similar to sheep’s in that they’ll turn switch allegiance if a enemy unit comes near and their unattended. Enemies can turn thralls back into villagers at their own town-center.
[Go Viking/go Raiding]
In reference to the actual meaning of “go Viking” which is basically to go raiding… the Norse trade building is replaced with a special building that can be built on both land or as a dock… thou with benefit/preference towards bring placed on a dock.
The building serves to send out raiding and trading caravans (Vikings may be known to be raiders, but they were in fact even better traders than raiders) which will seek passage to the exit of them map via waterway, or by foot… benefiting from the distance travelled like regular traders. Raiding ships, or Raiding parties (foot or water) will return with a greater amount of supplies… as well as bringing back spoils and loot which restocks a moral ability that can be triggered from the trade post once enough traps have been made.
Unique buildings:
[Household] – Replaced Stable
The Household building is a house, which gives population to the civilization but equally allows to recruit a limited number of Housecarls.
[Staging docks/grounds] – Replaces both the Docks and the trade post
This building can be built on land like a trade post, or on the water-edge to become a dock. This building allows to build a unique form of merchant/trade caravan which will seek to exit the map, and return with resources and spoils… once enough spoils has been collected, they can be distributed in order to create a morale boost to the entire civilization, giving minor but wide bonus to every unit for a period of time.
[Wooden fortification] – Replaces Stone Wall, Gate, keep, tower.
The Norse built properly fortification, but most commonly using pure logs made to fit each other in a locking formation which allowed them construct rather quickly solid defensive locations.
Each row of walls can be upgraded with stones to reinforce the walls several times to fortify specifically important locations.
Now this is a very rough sketch, and there are plenty of faults… so feel free to add your own suggestions, or to pound or support the suggestions I’ve made… perhaps you have a better suggestion or idea?
