The Swiss Confederacy New Civ Cocept

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
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They are well within the timeline of aoe 4 (1291 -1798) and would be a unique experience from other civs.

No Cavalry. The Swiss were not known for their cavalry, only having access to limited amounts of light cavalry. As a Result they would have no access to a stable, only being able to recruit scouts out of the cantonal hall.

Dairy Farms. Since most of their land was not suitable to growing grain, beginning in the 1300’s and 1400’s the Swiss shifted from traditional farming to a massive pastoral dairy economy. They became famous for the invention of hard cheeses that lasted a long time and could be shipped across Europe. In game this translates to having no access to farms late game, rather they train dairy cows that produce food over time at the alpine pasture (unique building). Their late game tech ‘cheese trade,’ enables them to get a little bit of passive gold from their cows at the pasture.

Mercenary Hall. A unique building where you garrison infantry to get passive gold. One per age with a maximum garrison of 10 infantry. You can unload at any time if you need troops. More expensive units produce more passive coin. One cannot garrison artillery.

Unique infantry. Rather than recruiting spearmen and men-at-arms, they have Swiss pikemen, halberdiers.They both boast a longer reach, increased melee armour and absorb some of the damage from nearby troops (especially ranged troops) when ‘pike square technology’ has been researched.

Shock infantry. Alpine vanguards are fast cheap infantry that train quickly armed with whatever they can get their hands on. In age one they have farming implements but as they age up they get war clubs and then morning-stars by age 4. There is some historical presidence as there were some early battles before the full adoption of the pike where they used unconventional weapons and farming implements

‘Swiss Charge.’ A unique technology that provides a map-wide speed boost to all pikemen, halberdiers and alpine vanguards. The Swiss were famous for their rapid advance. The Swiss knew that cannons took minutes to reload, so they were trained to charge between artillery discharges, with an almost sprint speed pace that would quickly overrun the artillery before the second volley. Somehow they even maintained formation while doing this.

‘Lucerne hammer’ An upgrade that increases the armour penetration of halberdiers and slows hit targets for a few seconds.

Armed Civilians. Swiss villagers are armed with a spear, having a bonus vs cavalry and benefiting from the armoury upgrades same as military units.
If you have any I deas I’d love to hear them.

1 Like
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Nah, I’d leave it at 1648, which is when the HRE recognized Switzerland’s independence after the Thirty Years’ War…

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I was thinking that 1798 was when the french invaded Switzerland so they lost independence becoming the centralized Helvetic Republic for a few years, but I see your point. i will leave it at 1798 though because I feel they still had the same democratic cantonal government post-independence.

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i like this idea! Would be neat to have a civ that doesn’t have heavy cav but I think they would need something else to offset that massive gap in their military. Maybe some kind of siege, or something special from the archery range? Idk the history enough to make a suggestion that would be historically accurate, only thinking about how not having heavy cavalry would be a major drawback that would need to be compensated for in some other way.

Also, like the idea of the dairy/cheese economy, the gold generation seems a bit too similar to what the golden hoard and even the English can do already, so maybe need some other eco buff that is more unique.

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To compensate I figured they have would have a larger military than other factions because they do not need as many villagers due to dairy economy.

I see your point they need shock troops.

Alpine vanguard infantry. Fast, cheap farming implement equipped troops that do well against armour but have very little themselves. Upgrades to war clubs then mornings stars as they age up. Before developing the pike square that the Swiss were famous for, they being peasants used whatever they could get their hands on.