As always, I was wrong about everything. 11
Wait, I was right about Slinger being expanded. And new regional scout unit.
Mapuche
The Mapuche unique units are the Kona , a melee cavalryman that deals increased damage to injured targets, and the Bolas Rider , a ranged cavalryman whose projectiles slow down enemy units.
So instead of foot archer version of Lia Dao, we got CA version of WFG.
Muisca
The Muisca unique units are the Guecha Warrior , a javelineer whose death heals nearby Guecha Warriors, and the Temple Guard , a heavy infantryman that attacks faster the longer it remains in combat.
Regeneration per kill but in weird way. Other one is just a different and weaker way of Obuch attack.
Tupi
The Tupi unique units are the Blackwood Archer , an inexpensive ranged soldier that trains in pairs, and the Ibirapema Warrior , a heavy infantryman who deals area damage.
Not as much gimmick honestly. So basically a regular archer that is easier to mass in a fancy way, not traditional fast training time. The infantry unit seems cool. Iām totally fine with this type of simple ability, especially when they exist since the beginning of the game. I was actually dying to see Infantry version of War Elephant (No Druzhina doesnāt count as Slavs donāt have an infantry UU). Wish devs would make Urumi like this instead of charge attack.
Now time for predicting Slinger bonuses for each civs.
Several region-specific assets for increased immersion in South American history:
Champi Warriors ā fast infantry who can build Outposts and excel at scouting, raiding, and fighting ranged soldiers. Available to the Inca, Mapuche, Muisca, and Tupi.
Slingers ā deadly ranged soldiers who spell doom for infantry armies. Slingers serve the Inca, Mapuche, Muisca, and Tupi.
Settlements ā buildings that support population and serve as dropsites for all resources. The Inca, Mapuche, Muisca, and Tupi can all build Settlements.
I never posted it here, but my Muisca concept on another site had Guecha Warriors with an essentially identical gimmick. Itās unlikely the devs saw that, but the coincidence is too big to ignore.
I created a Japanese concept for Age of Empires IV years ago, and they didnāt change much of it, even though mine was focused on the Sengoku era.
Then, recently (2025), they made a Sengoku ci (Japanese variant), and I think they did take most of my concept ideas for many of the Clan choices, bonuses, and unique technologiesā¦ wich is really GREAT!
Yes, the devs checked the forums, so itās okay to create concepts to inspire them.
I definitely can confirm that IāVe seen a lot of different ideas posted across multiple platforms see themselves reflected in the devs actual implementations.
So they use it to get inspired. Not necessarily implement stuff exactly like proposed, but they are reading and if they see something they find interesting they use it at least for inspireation.
But sometimes devs surprise us. Like with Tupi. I have no idea how these cheap archers will work. Nobody expected somthing like this, also because Archers are already on the edge of low pop efficiency. Will they only take half a pop space like Karambits?
And it seems the Civ will actually mainly be build around the āsecondaryā UU possibly I currently donāt see how this is supposed to work actually. And do we evem het a classic āArcher Civā in the DLC then? Or will Tupi get an amazing Archer Bonus that just hasnāt been mentioned yet?
Iām not too much a fan of each civ now getting 2 UUs though. Imo the vast majority of civs should only have 1 UU - only few exceptions should have more. It makes the game too complicated. Especially if most of them get some kind of gimmicky effect. But some people seem to love that. I just think in most cases the gimmicks donāt even apply and when they then actualy do they can break stuff. I prefer when there are cleary unit type interactions. It makes the game approachable.
Iām pretty confident that this is the new āSettlementā building with its Dark, Feudal, and Castle/Imp architectures.
Iām growing more and more confident that this is the monastery
My guess on this is trade workshop, but iām less confident on this.
I wonder how theyāre going to implement the cav for the Mapuche. I thought it would be one cav unit as the unique. If I had to guess the melee cav will still be the unique unit, and the Bolas rider will be in the archery range like the cav archer is.
Curious about the definition of āinjured targets.ā Simply means targets that donāt have full HP?
Thatās understandable. They have the same in AoE3. However, just saying, then the Mapuche used bolas in battles against the Inca, they had not yet know what are horses.
The historical reference for this effect is probably the Muisca mummification culture. The Muisca people mummified members of the higher social classes in their society. Devout people placed mummies in caves, mausoleums, and temples, or carried them on their backs to inspire warriors during battle, which intimidated the enemy.
Btw, in my previous civ concepts, I used this as the reference for the Muisca UT, allowing Guecha Warriors (and their scout units) to regenerate. Not sure whether regeneration or healing nearby units upon death would be more useful in practice.
It feels very berserker-like. I guess it could be trainable at Monasteries.
It also comes from AoE3. I guess it only requires 0.5 population per unit and trains in batches of two at a time. If the Karambit were also changed to batch training, that might be nice too.
It might not be that simple. The better case is that it also has straightforward advantages, such as an attack bonus, making it feel like a Cataphract, or clearly superior HP, making it feel like a War Elephant. The less ideal case is giving it a complicated gimmick, like the Fire Archer or Jian Warrior automatically switching modes, or is leaving it with nothing but area damage so either the Militia line or it would lack a reason to be used without distinct niches.
Urumi Warriors should be characterized by their agile and flexible movements. Mastering the urumi, such a whip-like, flexible weapon, requires skill in avoiding oneās own blades.
This unit could have served as a fast-moving unit that charges for dodging projectiles like the Shrivamsha Rider. When attacking, they could instead deal area damage (no additional damage) while fully charged, in order to keep their existing special animations. So that this cavalry-poor civ an effective and decent way to counter ranged units, rather than being easily shot down by arrows before getting close but effortlessly melting an entire group of archers once up close.
As long as their units can handle archer civs more effectively, thereās no need to grant the wood discount on siege weapons without solid historical reference, when they already have extra wood and fast-firing skirmishers.
So indeed they indirectly turn the Eagle Warrior into a regional unit for the Aztecs and Mayans.
Itās actually a shame that the Aztecs and Mayans still wouldnāt use slings.
I saw a reference that the Guecha Warriors were a specific āunitā in the Muisca military, and they believed that their deaths brought life to others in the unit. I think that is what it is a reference to. Still a bit too out-there for me tbh.
Yes, the Champi Warrior, who is a scout like Chasqui from AoE 3, who can build Outpostsā¦
WFG?..
Yes, weāre going to have immortal warriorsā¦
Itās strange they didnāt include a blowgun warrior with poisoned darts or the ability to create pumas from the castleā¦
For me, itās simply the Blacksmith of these civilizationsā¦
Iām sure they read us on the forums (in fact, they do) and they take the ideas we give them, thatās why I simply like to write here because I know some dev will read itā¦
Maybeā¦it has a monastery-like feelā¦
Yes, youāre right, I hadnāt thought of that, since itās a campaign it could beā¦ the first would be the Mapuche blacksmith, the second the Tupi trade workshop, the third the Muisca monastery, the fourth the Muisca trade workshop because of the vases next to the stairs and the fifth one that looks like the folwark from Dark Age, is the Tupi blacksmith.
It will probably already be included as a general naval patch within the expansionā¦
Yes, thatās why I sayā¦ the more we interact in the forums, the more the devs read us and take our ideas for future patches and civs for the games. Itās positive feedback after allā¦ In my case, for AoE 4, I asked them to add the Frankish Axe Thrower, Teutonic Knight, and the Black Rider/Reiter for the HRE, and they added the Frankish Axe Thrower (as a Sergeant) and the Teutonic Knight for the Templar Knights, and the Black Rider for the HREā¦ Now Iām going for the Hussite Wagon and the Magyar Hussarā¦ the Huskarl too, but Iām sure itāll come with the Vikingsā¦
Yes, although I think the settlements will be like the settlements in AoM, so they would have to be like the TCsā¦
Yes, or they could simply be two archers created simultaneously for the price of oneā¦
Well, weāll have to get used to it. Even back in The Conquerors (Spanish, Koreans), and even more so in The Forgotten (Incas, Indians, Italians), the civs had two UUs eachā¦ what would be needed is to update the Age of Kings civs (Franks, Britons, Byzantines, Saracens, Turks, Celts, Goths, Japanese, etc) so they have a second UU (like happens with the Savar with Persians in TMR)ā¦ though adding heroes like Scouts would be too muchā¦
Yes, thatās right, since the bolas rider is a ranged cavalry and would have to go to the archery range, then thereās no need to include the stable for the Mapucheā¦
Exactly, the unit does more damage if it is attacked by wounded unitsā¦
Yes, but in Age of Empires 3 it makes sense, since by the 18th and especially the 19th centuries, the Mapuche people had mastered the use of horsesā¦ in Age of Empires 2 they would only be learning how to use horses (because weāre talking about the period between 1550 and 1600)ā¦
Yes, theyāre basically mummies that boost nearby troopsā¦
Yes, like the Armenian warrior monkā¦
Yes, maybe they are going to start adding units that are created in batch in certain civs to attract the public that was abandoned from AoE 3ā¦
Yes, maybe they will give some other type of slinger to those civs (Otontin Slinger?) in some future Central American dlcā¦
