“Cough, Cough.” This may or may not of been asked before on Heaven Games forums but I’m sure many people would like to give educated guesses and opinions as well as learn themselves. What are the historical reasons for the civilization bonuses?
Tell me in the comments below.
In a nutshell, the civs representing that area/culture etc were specialized in the areas they are given bonuses. Egyptians were heavy into religion, represented by priests in temples but would refer to their pharaohs, buildings and carvings. I read somewhere that their chariots were smaller and lighter, only using 2 wheels? or 2 riders and outmaneuvered the heavy ones that Hittites and others were using. I guess this survivability was represented by more hitpoints.
Many of the civ bonuses are quite self-explanatory based on history. Some examples below:
For example, Greeks get faster Academy units and ships as they were known for having faster ships than the Persian ships in the war with Persia, and Greek hoplites were famed warriors–the speed increase rather than hitpoint increase may be a reflection of Greek cunning or nimbleness rather than anything else (in retrospect it’s odd Greece doesn’t get other bonuses).
Egyptians get gold mining bonuses as they had immense gold and wealth from the mines in Nubia, and they are famed worldwide for their gold-based artifacts both as found in tombs and as sent as gifts to other nations (for example during Amenhotep III’s reign). The increased range for priests echoes the Afterlife tech which increases priest range, and the Egyptians are known to be obsessed with preparations for the afterlife (Book of the Dead, burials with shabti figures, etc).
Choson get swordsmen hitpoint bonuses due to the large number of bladed weapons found from the Gojoseon period, and as the nearby Chinese state (in the early states called “Yan” IIRC) called the Gojoseon warriors “cruel” which the Age of Empires manual indicated suggested the Gojoseon warriors were feared. The increased tower range reflects Korea’s historic defensive space (defending both from China and Japan, powerful neighbors to Korea). China indeed invaded Korea multiple times.
Sumerians get double farm production due to their having used the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to flood farm areas with rich silt (they were among the first to farm IIRC), and the increased villager hitpoints reflect perhaps the competence of early Sumeria in numerous areas of human development (esp. technological development).
Phoenicians get a wood cutting bonus due to their trade with the Hebrews (notably Solomon) for famed cedars, and both Phoenicia and Carthage get bonuses to ships and elephants as they were known for these in their conflicts (esp. with Rome).
Palmyra gets a variety of trade bonuses due to its status as a rich oasis city (it had incredible wealth due to its position in the Middle East, and its imposition of a tax on wealth entering the city).
Minoans resided on the island of Crete, they traded a lot with other civilisations on the main land. Hence their naval bonus. Not sure about their bowmen bonus. From what I know, the Minoans were mostly a peaceful civilisation and weren’t really involved in a lot of warfare. The small farming bonus could be because of this.
Assyrian -The archery units fire-rate bonus is probably because that was their favoured type of unit to field - the archer.
Along with the villager bonus that allow them to be possibly the best rushers of the game.
The 2nd is probably due to the fact that they dominated the other Mesopotamian civs in warfare around the “earlier” periods of antiquity, including the Egyptians.
Lazy quote from wiki:
“The Middle Assyrian Empire (1365—1020 BC) saw Assyria emerge as the most powerful military and political force in the known world, destroying the Mitanni-Hurrian empire, largely annexing the Hittite Empire, forcing the Egyptian Empire from the region, conquering Babylonia and besting the Elamites, Kassites and Phrygians among others”
You guys are taking all the easy ones 
, what about the Sumerian Catapult bonus or the Hittite ship bonus? Why does Palmyra have a camel bonus?
@AKC_HellStriker
The Minoans archer bonus has two possible reasons. Firstly, Minoan archers were used as mercenaries all of the Mediterranean but primarily employed by Rome. The second is that in the Mediterranean mostly fired arrows using the pinch draw, where you pinch the knock of the arrow, where you can only draw to your chest. The Minoans where the first in the Mediterranean to use the Mediterranean draw widely. Where you would draw with three fingers. This draw you could pull back to your ear and therefore had more power but the pinch draw was cleaner. The farming bonus could just as well be that it was the first civilization in Europe.
Everyone seems to have fair opinions so far.
There are little descriptions in the AoE manual with some of the reasons why civilization bonuses were found, but if I recall correctly there were none on on the Rise of Rome civilizations.
They were very ancient archers in the Mediterranean.
They started as hunter, check the image.
This is a Minoan archers from Knossos palace. Dated from 1500 BC.
@Epid said:
You guys are taking all the easy ones, what about the Sumerian Catapult bonus or the Hittite ship bonus? Why does Palmyra have a camel bonus?
@AKC_HellStriker
The Minoans archer bonus has two possible reasons. Firstly, Minoan archers were used as mercenaries all of the Mediterranean but primarily employed by Rome. The second is that in the Mediterranean mostly fired arrows using the pinch draw, where you pinch the knock of the arrow, where you can only draw to your chest. The Minoans where the first in the Mediterranean to use the Mediterranean draw widely. Where you would draw with three fingers. This draw you could pull back to your ear and therefore had more power but the pinch draw was cleaner. The farming bonus could just as well be that it was the first civilization in Europe.Everyone seems to have fair opinions so far.
There are little descriptions in the AoE manual with some of the reasons why civilization bonuses were found, but if I recall correctly there were none on on the Rise of Rome civilizations.
You mean Neo Cretan .
Lazy quote from wordpress.
"Cretan mercenaries are known for their skill in archery, a skill that many in the Mediterranean sought for their armies during the Hellenistic period. However, what about these Neocretans? Polybius and Livy briefly talk about them existing, usually just before a battle. (Polybius 5.3.1; Livy 37.40.8;). Stylianos Spyridakis argues in Cretans and Neocretans that Neocretans could have been indigenous Cretans prior to the Doric invasions around 1100—800 BC. Aristotle also writes how the Cretan constitution was constructed and then copied by Lycurgus, who then gave it to Sparta. (Politics 10.20-10.30). This is also similar to Linear A and B being developed in Crete and then adopted on the mainland of Greece.
Aristotle shows a close similarity between Doric Spartans and Doric Cretans which, suggests that Neocretans could be a form of perioikoi. If argued thusly, then Neocretans might not exactly be the Cretan archers that were widely sought for as mercenaries. Furthermore, true Cretan archers may just actually be made up of an aristocratic class, similar to that of Spartans.
One could argue about hoplite combat being harder or easier than that of a bow and arrow, we know that hoplites were called into battle regardless of ability in Athens. They were also required to supply their own shield, armor, spear and/or sword. Although it sounds expensive, it was probably easier to work with than using a bow and arrow. It’s far more intuitive to hack and stab with spears and swords than it is to accurately hit something with a bow and arrow. In other words, if you gave a random population–of say 100–a spear, they’d probably be better at attacking with it than a same amount of people with a bow and arrow."
If I didn’t know better, I’d think that back in 1997 the guys at ensemble occasionally tweaked Civs for gameplay reasons rather than for shear historic accuracy.
This is the same game that brings us the Yamato hoplite.
The hoplite like all units with similar titles, are more a representation that class. But all the bonuses were influenced by something historical. It’s not like they made Greeks have the strongest Horse Archers in the game.
This is just a fun little activity. I will be most surprised if there was a bonus that did no have a historical reference.
Sumerians don’t have catapults…
Palmyrans are representation of east Romans. Specially 3th Century Crisis.
Camels probably based in Dromedarii auxiliary.
@Epid said:
It’s not like they made Greeks have the strongest Horse Archers in the game.
The horse archers of Alexander’s army (which is what I believe you must be referring to) are not actually Grecian. They are the Steppe Eurasian peoples, the Scythians among some others.
@“Helios Ra”
No, it was a sarcastic comment because they didn’t train horse archers, giving them the strongest horse archers in the game would not be historical. They may have enlisted mercenary horse archers but they didn’t have a “made in house” horse archer army.
@Augustusman said:
Camels probably based in Dromedarii auxiliary.
While this maybe true, Sword of Aes on age of empires heaven theorized that the bonus is based off of a particular event involving camels. The influence being “After Palmyra fell to the romans Zenobia and her son attempted to flee to Sassanian territory on a camel.” - Sword of Aes. I think this is quite plausible.
@Epid said:
@“Helios Ra”
No, it was a sarcastic comment because they didn’t train horse archers, giving them the strongest horse archers in the game would not be historical. They may have enlisted mercenary horse archers but they didn’t have a “made in house” horse archer army.
Ah I suffered from a case of Poe’s Law then it seems, my bad.
Zenobia did indeed flee her defeat on a camel; that’s a fun explanation for why Palmyra gets the camel speed bonus. But IIRC they mostly relied on heavy clibanarii (cataphract) cavalry and archers in combat.
Palmyra’s villager bonus is almost certainly an implicit reference to Palmyra’s relative wealth and elitism as a powerful trading post.
As for the Sumerian catapults, the Age of Empires manual says that the Sumerians engaged in siege warfare between their cities and that mud brick walls didn’t stand up to those who were determined to pry the bricks loose. According to Wikipedia’s entry on Sumer (scroll down to “Military”), “Sumerian cities were surrounded by defensive walls. The Sumerians engaged in siege warfare between their cities, but the mudbrick walls were able to deter some foes.” Realistically the Sumerian infantry or archers were the sieges, not catapults, but Age represents Sumerians as determined siegers by boosting catapult hitpoints (arguably a form of determination).
The Minoan farm bonus is easy to explain: Minoans were actually avid farmers, with a livestock farming style, and even used latrines and waste dumps to grow crops (possibly): http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14619752-400-minoan-farmers-were-muckspreaders/amp/
What other historical bonuses are there to explain? I think Age I had many interesting Civ bonuses (and some bonuses like the Minoan farming bonus aid the flexibility of each Civ), but Age II’s were better themed.