Delhi Sultanate was a set of 5 dynasties, most of which were from (modern day) Afghanistan and Turkey. It is okay if this civilization is meant to portray Afghanistan, but I hate this if this is meant to portray India, which was called Bhaarat (‘aa’ is pronounced as ‘ou’ in our; ‘a’ is pronounced as ‘u’ in mud; ‘t’ is not pronounced as ‘t’ in tomato). The natives are called Bhaarateey. Delhi Sultanate was Muslim whereas India is Hindu (more than 80% always).
Moreover the Elephants were being by natives. The Muslims used Camels. AoE2 has a corrupted image of India and I don’t want to see it AoE4. It is not yet released so it is easier to change now, unlike AoE2. Please developers, listen to me!
Indian civ needed: Raajpoots (literally sons of kings, the warrior tribe in India)
Indian campaign based on: Prithviraj Chauhan, Harshvardhan, Cholas, Pallavas, Rana Sanga, Maharana Pratap
If that’s the case, that will be great, but I highly doubt it since in AoE4 they are limiting the number of civs.
Intoducing a native Indian civ and representing the Delhi Sultanate as a Turkish/Arabian civ would be great. Even before it is released, I am sure there will be Turkish or Arabian or both.
Think of it this way, a well designed Indian civ can represent the entire region from Pakistan to Cambodia in today’s time, maybe even Malayasia and Indonesia. So they won’t need many civs for different campaigns because of the Elephant (and sometimes naval) theme in there.
I was actually really disappointed by this as well, and I can’t understand how they came to pick this Islamic minority as a faction representing the overwhelmingly Hindu Indian subcontinent.
To me it’s like taking the Almohad Caliphate that occupied Spain and calling that the European faction, completely unrepresentative of what that part of the world was all about.
And they did this despite having a culturally mixed team and the support of historians, so I’m really puzzled by the decision.
Delhi and the their splinter states controlled most of India for much of the middle ages. Yes, they were religiously and culturally different from the local populations, but the only other alternative would be creating a generic hindu Indian faction that would possibly fail to properly represent the “alien” ruling class. It still could be the better choice, though.
I suppose that, assuming that Persians will not be included in the game, Delhi works quite well to kind of represent them as well. It is still a pity that Indians will not be able to play a “true” Indian faction, so I sympathize with that. It is a bit like being Greek and having to play as the Ottoman Empire, which may for all we know be the case.
Edit: If Relic plan to implement the Persian/Timurid civ, Delhi makes a lot of sense, because that allows them to create a campaign for Timur´s sack of Delhi. Such a campaign would likely need the adding of Turkish/Ottoman civ for the Battle of Ankara. It is quite possible, though if that happens the Europeans will get very few starting civs, indeed.
they did exist, in two separate timelines. before they where conquered by the Rashidun expansions, and when they successfully revolted against the Abbasids. both time periods are solidly post classical and pre renaissance and fit in the time period.
whether its likely to be a civ at launch is another thing though.
Delhi Sultanate is just a generic representation of Indian Middle age military. It’s not focusing on Mughal or Hindu kingdoms. India was place with each state being it’s own kingdom and and had regions which span across territories.
The Mughal Empire is well known across the world, so it’s a good choice to go with Delhi Sultanate.
Humans don’t remember things based on Specifics, but on popularity. People know Delhi is in India but don’t know Delhi is capital of India. Thus to a wider audience Delhi keyword makes it clear it’s a civ from India.
There are bigger concerns to address like UI, gameplay loop, core strats, level of depth in gameplay, visibility, visuals.
Delhi sultanate was an Islamic Dynasty ruled by Mamluk dynasty, the Khalji dynasty, the Tughlaq dynasty, the Sayyid dynasty, and the Lodi dynasty. It was a Precursor to the Mughals. Pritvi Raj is already there in AOE 2 so this is a great way to represent Indian civilization.
I was a bit surprised with that choice too. I mean… how many muslim civs are there going to be? The main one should have been the Arabs. Maybe even Turks at some point.
But India? India should feature some Hindu culture, that’s their original civilization.
The choice of Delhi Sultanate is Absurd! Absolute mislead??
They had so many GREAT options:
Rajputs
Marathas
Cholas
Sikhs
A wayy coller and better campaign could be Cholas Naval conquest of Indonesia ! That could’ve been easily a good campaign that they just didnt want to research or ignored or whatever.
Exactly! I was already pissed at the choice of change in Indian flag from aoe3 to new one in, aoe3 DE
and here comes this !
Its like thev want to Boast that they are good at history and stuff! but don’t even know what to represent.
They dont listen usually ! probably tag some forum moderators! @GMEvangelos or someone maybe one of then actually be able to graso the Complex issue they have creted with the civs!
BTW @SauravT Please add the alternative Indain civ and campaign suggestion in the Original post
