Timurid Variant Civ Concept

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
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Timurid Flag
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Hey guys! This is something I posted recently on Reddit, which you can see here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe4/comments/1k39enp/timurid_variant_civ_concept/

I just came back recently from an awesome trip to Uzbekistan. One of the most interesting things there is how much they revere Tamerlane / Amir Timur. The amount of history and architecture was also very stunning and really brought me back into the AoE4 era, which inspired me to create my first full-fledged civ variant for the Timurids. What I’ve previously seen (from other people and even myself) was suggesting that the Timurids may be a Mongol variant because of Timur’s Mongol roots, but my trip showed me this was FAR from the case. They were settled, not nomadic, people, heavily invested in arts and science. There was very little shared with the Mongols other than large-scale conquest.

But moreover, they spoke Persian like the Delhi Sultanate, a lot of the architecture is similar (including the keep design, which I believe derived from the Timurids and their Mughal descendants), and they were both heavily based on Islamic scholars (Mongols in this game are not Muslim). All the unique units, including the elephants match the Timurids as well.

For the rest of the details, you can see the details above. Regarding the heroes, I wanted to make them somewhat ‘generic’ like the King and Khan but still a focal point like Jeanne d’Arc. The rest of the civ highlights the dichotomy between warmongering Timur and scholarly Ulugh Beg.

Even though the Timurid Renaissance mechanic sounds OP, the Timurids do NOT have the free techs Delhi has or the Sacred Site bonus, so they need to mine gold like any other civ and use that to buy scholars. However, their timing should be much better than Delhi because they can research faster.

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Also, for anyone commenting on “it should be a Mongol variant not a Delhi,” I cover this ad nauseum in the Reddit comments. But basically, if you think variants strictly have to be a subset of the parent civ then yes this might present problems. However, if you look at it more from a perspective of using existing game assets, which are VERY time consuming and expensive (unit models, voice lines, building models
), everything lines up with Delhi really well
 plus all the unique units from Delhi match the Timurids. So I think this is a no-brainer, at least.

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Truth is, this civilization wouldn’t fit being represented by either Delhi or Mongol–too much of an abstraction in asset usage. All variants in the game at least fit whatever organization they belong to, and we just don’t have the assets for this particular civilization.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see them. But, I imagine the developers can’t justify making a Timurid Dynasty civilization, and we’ll have to wait for some central asian/Persian civilization to be made first before having the Timurid variant.

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Timurids are a variant civilization that I really hope will appear in the game at some point in the future.
They are on my wish list.

However, I totally disagree that they are a variant of Delhi.
I understand that you chose Delhi for lack of options.
Because the correct option would be to have it be a variant of the Persian civilization.

Timurids conquered and lived in Persia.
Timurids only sacked Delhi and left soon after, so they are not part of Delhi.

So we will have to wait for the developers to release the Persian civilization first, and only then will Timurids appear as a variant.

I would also like to see different “skins” for the Elephants (not the same as Delhi).

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Also, Caravanserai would be a unique building of the Persians and not just being exclusive to the Timurids.

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