First, regarding the two new variant civilizations in the recently released Age of Empires IV DLC, Knights of Cross and Rose, I believe their execution is far superior to previous variants. I’m glad we didn’t get generic names like “Crusader Empire” or “Rose Kingdom.” Overall, I love how these variants turned out, and I hope future ones can match this level of polish. For revamping existing variant civilizations, particularly Joan of Arc and Zhu Xi’s Legacy , I strongly suggest reworking their names and identities to better integrate into a game centered on empires.
Revisions for Joan of Arc and Zhu Xi’s Legacy
The official has revealed that they will remake some variant civilizations.Inspired by the Lancaster Dynasty variant for England, I think Joan of Arc could be reimagined as the Valois Dynasty, as using dynastic names feels more historically authentic. The current name feels disconnected from history, which might deter players like my friends who crave depth and realism.
For the Chinese variant, Zhu Xi’s Legacy, I also propose a complete overhaul, In fact, the game does not reflect any connection between this variant civilization and Zhu Xi’s legacy.I think we can change China’s variant civilization renaming it to the Song Dynasty. While this might overlap slightly with the base game’s China, it would be a significant improvement. The Song Dynasty could serve as a unique “dynastic system” where players start in the Song era and advance to neighboring states like Western Xia, Liao, or Jin by building landmarks. Unlike the linear progression in the base game, players could choose any dynasty path (e.g., prioritizing military bonuses from Liao dynasty or economic benefits from Jin dynasty).
Key Features for the Song Variant:
- Dynasty buildings:
- Western Xia: Township (increases population limit).
- Liao: Beacon Tower (allows rapid military unit teleportation between towers，Can only be built on the wall).
- Jin: Daoist Temple (You can put holy objects in it，generates resources; players can toggle between resources like food, wood, or gold).
- Dynasty Units:
- Western Xia/Liao/Jin units could reuse designs from Age of Empires III, such as Flail Cavalry and Manchu Mounted Archers (renamed to Jurchen Mounted Archers)，or maybe we can also refer to the upcoming Chinese DLC for Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition，I have many ideas, but I don’t think they will adopt them.
- Revised Landmark: Sun Tzu Temple could allow switching between dynasties to unlock their bonuses.
New Variant Proposal: Mongol Golden Family
For Mongolia, I envision a Golden Family variant focused on the Four Khanates (Golden Horde, Chagatai Khanate, Ilkhanate, and Ögedei Khanate). Instead of building landmarks, Entering the era by selecting the era options for the Mongolian Khan，players advance eras by selecting a khanate, each granting unique bonuses. Every time you enter an era, you will receive a Mongolian Khan，After reaching the fourth era, players unlock four distinct Mongol khans.
Unique Mechanics:
- No barracks—only stables and archery ranges (no infantry, only cavalry).
- Cavalry units have a chance to respawn as infantry upon death.
I’ve played every Age of Empires game and truly love this series. My goal is to help it evolve with creative, historically inspired content. While my English isn’t perfect (this was AI Translation), I’ve included the original Chinese text for clarity. I hope these ideas spark discussions and lead to even more exciting gameplay!
首先对于刚刚发售的帝国时代4新dlc十字与玫瑰骑士的两个新的变体文明的表现，我认为比之前的变体文明好太多了，很高兴我们没有得到类似十字军帝国和玫瑰王国这样的变体文明，总之我非常喜欢这样的变体文明，我希望今后的变体文明都可以达到这样的完成度。所以对于可能将要重做的变体文明我有一些建议。特别是圣女贞德和朱熹的遗产，我真的希望这两个变体文明可以重做包括改名字，以便更好的融入这个用帝国作为名字的游戏。
首先受到英格兰变体文明兰开斯特王朝的启发，我认为圣女贞德的重做完全可以改成瓦卢瓦王朝，使用朝代名字作为变体文明的名字是目前最好的选择。我认识的一些朋友就是因为游戏的变体文明很缺乏历史感，放弃了游戏。
然后是中国的变体文明的重做，因为我是中国玩家所以我会给中国的建议比较多。首先我也建议朱熹的遗产重做，包括名字。事实上游戏里也没有体现出这个变体文明和朱熹的遗产有什么关联。我的建议是把中国的变体文明改作宋朝，可能会跟原版文明有一点点冲突，我的理由是，宋朝时期的中国同时存在着其他王朝，他们是西夏王朝、辽朝和金朝，我的想法是可以把宋朝做成一套独特的朝代系统，第一时代从宋朝开始，通过建造地标进入时代和改变朝代。因为这几个王朝是同时存在的，所以中国的变体宋朝不需要按照顺序建造地标，比如你喜欢金朝可以先建造进入金朝的地标，或者你更需要辽朝的王朝优势可以选择辽朝的地标先进辽朝。然后这个中国的变体文明宋朝将会拥有全新的朝代建筑和朝代单位，我的想法是，西夏王朝的朝代建筑是乡镇（中国最小的行政区划），建造后可以提高人口上限。辽朝的朝代建筑是烽火台（中国古代用来传递军事情报的碉堡），只能建造在城墙上，玩家的军事单位可以通过一个烽火台快速传送到另一个烽火台。金朝的朝代建筑可以叫道观（中国道教的道士修炼的地方），道观可以放入圣物产生资源，不同的是在道观里玩家可以切换产生的资源，从而获得自己更需要的资源。跟原版文明一样只能建造3个朝代建筑。然后关于西夏辽朝金朝的王朝单位，我有很多的想法，但是我认为官方不会采纳我的建议，所以我觉得最简单的办法就是把帝国时代3里面中国的连枷骑兵、流星锤骑兵和满洲骑射（改成女真骑射）作为西夏辽朝金朝的王朝单位加入帝国时代4，或者也可以参考即将发售的帝国时代2决定版的中国DLC。至于这几个王朝的语言，西夏辽朝金朝这三个王朝受到的汉文化的影响都非常多，所以他们使用汉语也没什么问题。最后，因为宋朝与其他三个王朝同时存在，同时也是为了和原版的中国文明的玩法不同，可以重做地标孙武祠，孙武祠可以切换朝代，获得玩家想要的朝代加成。
最后是我对新的变体文明的想法，因为我对中国周边的历史更熟悉，所以我只谈谈我对蒙古文明的变体文明的一些想法。直接开始吧，我设想的蒙古文明的变体文明是蒙古的黄金家族，蒙古的变体文明就叫黄金家族，黄金家族不需要建造地标进入新的时代，而是通过蒙古可汗选择时代选项进入新的时代，黄金家族的时代选项是蒙古的四大汗国（金帐汗国、察合台汗国、窝阔台汗国、伊利汗国），每个汗国都有不同的加成，可汗选择四大汗国进入新的时代后，黄金家族会增加一个新的可汗，也就是说进入第四个时代后，黄金家族将会拥有四个蒙古可汗。关于黄金家族的一些其他特点，他们没有兵营，只有靶场和马厩，这是一个只有骑兵没有步兵的变体文明，帝国时代系列有的文明没有骑兵，所以我真的很想看到加入一个没有步兵的文明。作为补偿，黄金家族的骑兵阵亡时有一定的几率会变成步兵。