Unique Units ideas for all civilisations

In my opinion, you need to take advantage of the opportunity that the content of AoE1 goes to AoE2 (so far it is not known what it will look like). AoE1 has a lot of things that modern gamers find definitely unattractive. Units and technologies, and even the ability to unlock some building are chaotically scattered around the buildings, which will make a player who has never dealt with AoE1 feel bad. Let’s remember that this DLC is created not only for AoE1 players but mainly for AoE2 players. In my opinion, organizing the content of AoE1 along the lines of AoE2 will be significantly better and more intuitive for all players. Unfortunately, AoE1 players are a very small group of fans compared to the rest of the fans of the AoE series, which is why for the sake of AoE1 and its legacy, a diametrical update is necessary to adapt it to the much more convenient and logical AoE2.

I think adding a structure like the Castle from AoE2 with Unique Technologies and Unique Units for each civ would be really cool for all players. Since Gates have been added, you can add this too - right?

And being on the subject of diametrical changes in the tech tree, I am wholeheartedly in favor of yes! The tech tree in AoE1 is an illogical mess with too many techs scattered across different buildings. In my opinion, at least the technologies that unlock some buildings should be moved to Town Center or be completely implemented in Age Up as it is in AoE2. Other technologies should be transferred to the appropriate buildings so that it is logical and intuitive - just like in AoE2.

Tech tree units MUST BE REORGANIZED!!! This tree is even more chaotic and incorrect than the AoE2 tech tree. Units like Hopilites, Legion and Centurions MUST BECOME UNIQUE UNITS FOR SPECIFIC CIVS!!! This is something I’ve always disliked in AoE1. The lack of unique units is terribly disincentive to play a specific civ. Literally every civ is pretty much the same. The differences are mainly visible in the architectural sets.

AoE1 fans may disagree with me, but you have to understand that. AoE1 without upgrades and changes will fail. Old players can stick with it, but this game won’t gain new players if it doesn’t grow. I hope these AoE2 DLCs will make the AoE1 content an attractive thing for all players (including AoE2 fans). If you want success for AoE1 then you know this game needs to grow and change to increase its notoriety and playerbase.

BTW. I hope these DLCs will be displayed in the game library (e.g. on Steam) as a separate game - independent of AoE2. A discount for players with the original AoE1 DE would also be nice - e.g. AoE 1 & 2 with Returns of Rome DLC bundle (owners of AoE 1 and AoE 2 would have a super discount on these DLC :wink:).

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Rome 2 has unit called Foot Companion and Silver Shield Pikeman, which are elite version of phalangite (pikeman).

Adding Unique techs can mean that some civ bonuses will become most likely weaker.

A phalanx shield wall isn’t the same as a pike wall

If people want AoE 2 features in AoE1 … well they have AoE 2 and we got a broken AoE1. People want to compare it with AoE1, but I have played it a lot more than most players and I have a better view of what the game actually is. I spent a lot of time designing AoE1 campaigns, the Aoe 1 heave n site etc.
I know what’s broken about the game, what is not historically correct and what is missing from the game a lot more than some AoE 2 player that has opened a few times AoE1. Not trying to sound arrogant, I just have spent the years 2000-2007 playing the game and also I am interested in ancient history so I think I can offer a lot of valid points.
About the Academy, if you don’t make Hoplite line units, you will very rarely if ever even construct the buildings. And the Academy line units are very slow, expensive and in high level RM and DM - not even used, because they are extremely vulnerable to hit and run archers and siege. Not to mention that like Already said the units themselves are unique to the Greek and Romans only. I doubt the Persians fielded Hoplites against the Greeks in the Persian wars, maybe they had similarly equipped warriors but it’s still a bit comical rather than historical. Same for Shang or Koreans having Greek hoplites. Or mediteranean Triremes. A lot of things have to be thought through and changed if we want a serious remaster of the game.

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Note that AoE2 and AoE3 are constantly getting new stuff, while old stuff is being updated and improved all the time.

AoE1 needs changes to finally be attractive to players. If someone prefers the classic approach to AoE1, then he has AoE1 DE - just like AoE 2 HD and AoE3 (2007).

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For the Assyrians, I would have gone with their Siege Tower. Visually it’s more iconic and unique, and an aggressive siege engine fits their playstyle better.

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I don’t know specifically of Persian-Greek wars, but Persians fielded a lot of Greek Mercenary Hoplites.

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There are civilisation in AoE1 that have basically no units in the Barracks, Stable or Archery Range past the Tool Age so why should they build them?

You choose the only Civilisation that can’t build any Academy unit for this example.

All Bronze and Iron Age units in AoE1 don’t look very generic. Half of them look Greek and many of them have none generic names.
So you would have to add at last regional skins to units like the Long Swordsman or the Heavy Cavalry for them to not look wrong in Asia.

Same for the Triremes. They work for half of the civilisations in the game. A Korean looking ship wouldn’t work for Babylonians nor would a Chinese Spearman/Halberdier would work for Egyptians.
You would have to make almost all units unique looking.

If they haven’t done that for their big famous game AoE2 then it would be a little much to expect that for AoE1.
I think we don’t get a useful discussion if we talk about too ambiguous things.
We can be lucky if we even get unique units at all.

I think a compromise could be making the Hoplite Line a regional unit that is shared by multiple civilisations. This type of combat was very wide spread in that time and not just a Greek thing.
The first image on the wikipedia page for Phalanx is Summerian.

Of the civilisations that can build the Centurion (Carthaginians, Greeks, Macedonians, Minoans, Phoenicians, Romans, Sumerians, Yamato) more then half are Mediterranean, only Sumerians and Yamato are not.
Yamato make no sense but Sumerians used the same tactic in earlier centuries.
Only the Hit ##### and the Palmyrans have the Phalanx without the Centurion and they are also Mediterranean, just more eastern.
It wouldn’t change all that much if the complete line would be exclusive to those civilisation with the Centurions getting a new name. I don’t think many civilisations that can only build Hoplites would ever actually use them.
The Sumerians would keep the unit though. It’s like the Persians were the only none Europe Civilisation that got Paladins in AoE2 until the Cumans also got them.
Maybe remove it from Yamato and give them an Asian infantry that is shared with Shang and Choson which could also replace the Legions for Choson.

The Legion line should stay though. The name of the last unit “Legion” is obviously a little Roman sounding but the word is also often used to refer to any large army but that term only got popular in Modern times. The unit also doesn’t look Roman.
I chose the name Hastati for their unique unit instead of Legionary because of the similar sounding name.

That could actually be a cool unique unit.

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I generally like these suggestions, and the Miko in particular sounds interesting (although possibly overpowered). I agree with @TheConqueror753 that some of the names sound too generic though.

Yes, a siege tower that you can fire arrows out of would be actually useful! Probably not exclusive to Assyrians, though. Siege weapons in AoE1 are really weird, they basically function like very mobile cannons. Ancient siege warfare wasn’t really like that.

There’s nothing specifically French about a Cavalier or English about a Man-at-Arms. Cavalier is a bit of a weird one though, since (in British English at least) it usually refers to monarchists in the English Civil War, who usually didn’t fight on horseback.

Centurion is a bad fit in this line, but I’d go for Spearman, Hoplite, Phalangite personally.

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I don’t see people much complaining having knights in other region than europe in aoe2. People don’t seem to demand that Knights should be renamed into Heavy Cavalry. Regional looking units are more like mod thing if we are talking about AoE1 or AoE2.

I really don’t see much reason to start changing units or their appearance in AoE1 after so many years.

What I do hope, they will add some new units and some upgrades to some existing units such as axemen, scout and slinger etc.

Maybe you’re not looking for it…

You should really read more on history.Persians had greek hoplites when alexander invaded and all cultures around the world had some kinda armoured spearman units.

And those that despise changes, there is still the legacy game and Aoe 1 DE
It’s time to go a little wild now and bet

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Depends on the stats. I thought about making it a healing unit fist and archer second. Costing like 50 Gold but maybe being weaker then a Composite Bowman (only costing 20 Gold).
I think the ability to convert enemies is worth a lot more then a ranged attack making Mikos a lot less useful then Priests.

The Assyrians could get a unique version of it or the only ones that can upgrade it to a unique unit.

I think changing the name of all 3 units is a little much.
Maybe use the name ############### instead of Centurion. They where used by Macedonia and it’s many successor states. Considering how much of the ancient world was conquered, the name was used from Egypt to India.
Also it’s actually a Phalanx type unit unlike the Centurion, which is a rank.

There are many people that want that but there is at last an equally big group that hates the idea.

Sadly that is relatively hard to do. You can’t do that without a Data mod, which means:

  1. You can’t play with people that don’t have the mod
  2. You have to update the mod with every update of the game
    People request that the developers separate the sprites of generic units by Architecture Set in the Data files for a long time.
    I and many others hope that they will one day make a DLC for regional generic units. This way people that don’t want it can just disable the DLC and also don’t even have to download the sprites.

Same but that’s a different topic. I think there might be one for that already, if not we should make one.
There are many units that kinda need an upgrade or two:
Axeman, Slinger, Bowman, Chariot Archer, Scout and Camel Rider.

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I think it’s enough to just give units that benefit from their civ bonuses alternate skins and unit name.

e.g. give unique skin to Greeks Centurion, Egyptian Chariot, Choson Swordman ,etc.

And give the units with alternative skin unique discriptions like “Greeks unique Centurion, cheaper and faster than ordinary Centurion.”

The Greeks, I didn’t like the choice. Strange not to be present the classic unit as being stronger.

The Romans got perfect, putting the most famous infantry of them.

But the Greeks without their most famous infantry, it looks very strange. When you talk about Greeks, you already think of rows of shields and spears. After all, they used it on a large scale.

In my opinion, the correct thing for the Greeks was to put a Spartan warrior with a shield and spear. Perhaps his differential before the others, would be that he moves faster on the battlefield, since the normal hoplite could be slower. Therefore, being more agile, he would be very versatile than a normal hoplite and obviously he would also be a little stronger.

As for Macedonians, I can only imagine the Falangists, who would be the spearmen with the biggest spears ever used throughout the ancient age. Some of these spears could reach 8 meters. It reminds me of the Inca single unit from AoE2 =D.


But I think the perfect Ideal would be TWO UNIQUE UNITS for each civilization. AoE2 uses this a lot.

######## are censored?

i feel like Carthage could have something else, perhaps Iberian infantry? or Balearic slingers? Carthage had lots of allies and mercenaries to draw from.

also for Assyrians id suggest siege tower/ram as their unique unit, make the archer Babylonian.

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i feel like making Greece of all factions have the fast moving units seems stranger. there are historical records such as marathon for example to draw on but that definitely weren’t Spartans doing that. greek warfare is famous for being slow moving and inflexible, they shouldnt get movement bonuses to any units.

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Assyrians: siege towers.

Palmyra kinda represent the Amorites and Arameans. Under Queen Zenobia there was a Palmyrene Empire.

Caravanserai were notable, like the building in AoE2.

The only description that i can find (sadly without a further reference) is conscripts and palmyrene archers and roman legionaries: When Palmyra rivaled the Roman Empire | Reuters
Searching further on Palmyrene Archers i find a reference to a rome 2 total war mod: armoured horse archers. ################################################################################################################ Their military is mostly archers on horseback and camel archers. While other texts mostly refer to Zenobia and her footmen.
Palmyra (Empire Divided) Missile Cavalry - Total War: Rome II - Royal Military Academy
Maybe give camel archers to Palmyra?
Trajan also seemed to have Palmyrene archers: Redirecting...
More about their archers: ######################################################################################################## The Romans also had “cohors XX Palmyrenorum” which mostly consist of infantry and cavalrymen. And also dromedarii cavalry. Cohors XX Palmyrenorum - Wikipedia