The Basques

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
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The Basks are more distinct from the existing european civs than any other - why? All, including romans, byzantines, teutons or slavs are indo-germanic. The basques. They even had great heroes and battles:

The Battles of Roncesvalles (778, 812, 824 AD): This is the ultimate Basque military achievement. In 778 AD, Basque warriors ambushed the rear guard of Charlemagne’s retreating Frankish army in a narrow mountain pass, completely annihilating Europe’s most powerful military force. They killed Charlemagne’s famous nephew, Count Roland, an event that inspired Western Europe’s oldest surviving epic poem, The Song of Roland. They repeated this victory twice more against Frankish invaders in the 9th century. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

  1. The War of the Bands (14th–15th Centuries): A brutal, long-running internal civil war between rival Basque noble families (the Oñaz vs. the Gamboas). It transformed the countryside into a landscape of heavily fortified tower houses (casas torre) until the Castilian Crown intervened to dismantle their power. [1, 2]
  2. The Reconquista & Las Navas de Tolosa (1212 AD): Basque knights played a pivotal role in Christian Europe’s defining victory against the Almohad Caliphate. Diego López II de Haro, Lord of Biscay, led the vanguard of the Christian coalition army that smashed the Muslim forces. [1]
  3. The Carlist Wars (19th Century): Fierce civil wars fought primarily in the Basque provinces against the central Spanish government. The Basques fought tenaciously to defend their traditional self-governing laws and liberties (fueros). [1, 2]
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I’m not against Basques as a civ, but do you have any ideas for civ bonuses, unique units, techs, etc?

That’s AoE3 period. The other two campaign ideas sound fine.

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Greeks are not indo-germanic, Finns don’t have a civ yet but they are not indo-germanic, Vikings and Balkans are proto-european not indo-germanic.

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Indo-Germanic is a different term for Indo-European which is mostly used in Germany (what a surprise). So yes Greeks are “Indo-Germanic” and so is everyone in Europe besides Basques, Finns, Estonians and Hungarians.

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I realize. I was not talking linguistics. Proto-european language was gone long ago, so that makes no sense.