People have been coming up with great candidates for most other regions but I don’t see much for Africa, and I have little idea myself.
A good campaign setting should:
Feature a series of related events for 4-5 scenarios
Have as diverse opponents as possible (like the Inca campaign in AOE2 is the most boring to me)
Have a consistent perspective for storytelling
Be well-known or relatable enough as it is the first African campaign
I actually think the Hausa and Ethiopian scenarios could be expanded into full campaigns as they are compressed in a rather similar way (“conquer this many states/cities”) unlike other historical battles which focus on one battle.
Sultante of oman/zanzibar centered story would be a great setting
-can fight/showcase portuguse, ottomans, ethopia, india, dutch, and later on germans brits/south africa
can incorporate many existing natives and maps
-as a civ/scenario plenty of fertile ground to expand upon given their history
-can make a Queen reference
I imagine the “Rise of the Ottomans” campaign in which the capture of not only Constantinople but also Egypt could be depicted. Moreover, of course, Napoleon’s “Emperor of the French” campaign could have had a Battle of the Pyramids scenario.
Typically African campaigns could focus on specific African civs, or it could be a campaign similar to the story of the Black family - for example, the story of a traveler who is an active participant in events on the African continent in the 19th century.
Of all Campaign’s to be made this is the most unlikely to happen as it would TRY to be historical. Mind you ALL the African tribes, more so the major ones, practiced slavery HARD ( it was practically currency). During this time period the African tribes peaked as they started to EXPORT slaves to the whole world making the majority of their wealth from the ########### (trying to avoid the censor). Hell one of the kings in Africa once said something like “Take anything from me but my slaves…”, as the British where outlawing slavery in all their colonies.
So if a Campaign was made it would be better to stick to some fantasy/old lore/story(African) then a Historical one. As it would be hard pressed as is to make a campaign with Historical connections.
Yes, but i will say that the life expectancy for any European or middle eastern or hell any non native Africans was less than 1 year in Africa.
Just as the Natives in Americans started dying from European diseases in mass; the African diseases killed off any non natives very quickly at this time period. The main reason the Africans where never really invaded directly was because of this. It was mostly done by proxy/mercenaries with modern tech, for the time, doing the conquering for whatever foreign empire that equipped/paid them.
For Ethiopia, the rise and reign of Tewodros II would make for a great campaign. He started off as an outlaw during the fractious era of princes and rose to unite Ethiopia. He invaded Sudan and fought with the Egyptians and Ottomans. Then he pissed off the British by imprisoning people and they sent an army from India to defeat him. You’d get a mix of various Ethiopian factions, Sudanese, Egyptians, Ottomans, British, and Indians all battling it out.
For Hausa, a campaign centered on the Malê revolt could touch on both Africa and the Americas. It could start off following a Hausa warrior with campaigns in Africa. Then have him get captured and sent to Brazil where he takes part in the revolt. After it was quelled, some of the rebels were deported to Africa so there could be more missions in a different part of Africa. It would cover factions like Hausa, Yoruba, Portuguese, Brazilians, Maroons, Tupis, Dahomey, and more.
And also like you said, there’s enough going on to expand the existing historical battles into a full campaign of Ethiopian-Somali wars and the Fulani jihad.
Most other campaigns would entail adding more African civs or would only be partly focused on Africa (like Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign).
The Kongo Civil War (Kongo Civil War - Wikipedia) is a good candidate. Fighting against the Portuguese, politicking with the Dutch and Ndongo, and crushing the rival factions makes for a good campaign.
You as the governor of African port city in eastern africa. At first it was an occasional raids by bandits, trading with arabs, india, and Europeans vessel. Further into the story your port city become t he object of conquest by European power, you with the arabic merchant navy defend the sea trade route while slowly the war expands on land as well
Tippu Tip could make for a really good campaign… but it’d be really, really dark narratively. He was a literal slave trader.
My bet would be Ahmad Al-Mansur, absolute madlad was planning on reversing the Reconquista and invading Spain to reclaim it for the Moors. He even allied with the British to take over the Caribbean colonies.
How did he plan to finance this?
Why by invading Mali and stealing all the gold of course!
Queen Nzinga is also a compelling story, classic deposed monarch allies with their sworn enemies and a rag tag band of allies to defeat a greater enemy that’s attempting to radically change their way of life.
But yeah, both of these would require new civs. For the only two we have available, guess Tewodros is the obvious choice.
Mind you ALL the African tribes, more so the major ones, practiced slavery HARD
“African Tribes” - The Mali Empire alone had more GDP than literally every single last contemporary European state put together.
Who did you think they were selling those slaves to? If you can make european campaigns at the peak of the slavery of course you can make african campaigns during the same period.
If I recall correctly, the OG AOE3 campaigns weren’t all based on history. The vanilla’s game campaign in particular had a LOT of fantasy and pulp adventure elements, almost like the AOM campaigns. The Chinese campaign in Asian Dynasties was also practically alternate history based on the premise “what if the Chinese beat Columbus to the Americas?”.
(Funnily enough, the whole anecdote about Mansa Musa’s predecessor ########## his throne to sail across the Atlantic has inspired similar speculation of a Malian voyage to the Americas, albeit evidence remains to be found to support that scenario.)
For these reasons, I don’t think an African campaign in AoE3DE would need to be a grounded recreation of history. There is room for fiction and even fantasy.
Yes, I agree…they should extend the historical African battles and extend them with new campaigns…a Moroccan campaign with Ahmed al Mansur after the Battle of the Three Kings (1578-1603), a Hausa campaign with Queen Amina (1585 -1610) or Usman Dan Fodio after the fall of the Hausa (1810-1817) and an Ethiopian campaign with Tewodros II after his coronation (1855-1868)…
The era it takes place in is the The rise of African Empires 1500~ to Scramble for Africa 1700~
The Africans fight amongst themselves then eventually fight off Colonizers
Then… The Circle finds a Second fountain of Youth hidden in Africa… That you have to destroy or stop other African Warlords and the Circle from touching it.
Many people assumed that the arrival of an African DLC would include a campaign or campaigns, but that was not the case. It was one of the biggest criticisms of the DLC.
It’s just being vague to the point of meaninglessness. There were some ascendant regions like around the Gulf of Guinea (Oyo, Benin, Akwamu, etc), Morocco on the Barbary Coast, Shona states in the south, and Somalia states in the Horn. But overall, most African empires were declining from 1500-1700. The whole Sahel was in turmoil, Ethiopia was getting invaded by Somalia, Egypt and Sudan were conquered by the Ottomans, and Kongo was about to descend into civil war.
I’d like to see a campaign based around the Merina Kingdom unifying Madagascar.
The campaign would appear as a heavily divided RoN/risk style map of Madagascar. This would obviously mean we would have to get a Malagasy civ too
The Madagascar campaign map would be split into many different regions, mainly occupied by various Malagasy kingdoms/peoples. Gameplay-wise all Malagasy kingdoms play/look the same, though the territory they hold give them a unique bonus.
A few of the kingdoms and their regional perks:
Merina Kingdom - your kingdom. Doesn’t start with any regional perks (historically it was originally quite poor but became the most powerful).
Sakalava - with their territory covering the West, they can hire Portuguese Cannoneers as well as some unique techs for African Outlaws.
Betsimisaraka - occupying the Eastern Seaboard, they get access to Pirates and can also hire Privateers.
Bara Kingdoms - Southern central plateau kingdoms whose region enables Cattle-based perks.
Sihanaka - Kingdoms occupying Central Northeast regions. Their territory bonus allows you to start with Rice Paddies when starting a mission in the region.
A few listed from many options.
In addition to natively owned territory:
Ranter Bay / Fort Dauphin / Sainte-Marie - Pirate strongholds (single small regions). European-style pirate civs with a custom unit roster of Musket-armed Pirates, local Malagasy skirmishers, standard pirates and privateers. Has no regional benefit - in fact, whilst they stay on the map they negatively-impact you by way of bestowing neighbouring regions with stronger gunpowder armed units ( a nod to firearms being traded by euros).
In Rise of Nations-style the campaign map is turn based, with your military invasions going into the typical AoE3 gameplay. After a set amount of turns your beginning age (for the typical as AoE3 gameplay sections) goes to the next age. Ideally by Imperial Age you will have unified all of Madagascar - either way, by hitting that age the French appear, taking a random coastal region. The real outcome was that, aside from some rebellions, the French gained control, though within the campaign we can try and run the French out of Madagascar!
A Risk-style map out of the equation? Alternatively we can go the typical campaign route, though with the emphasis on the unification of Madagascar being a story that spans the different rulers of the Merina Kingdom over a number of time-jumps. A unique quirk for this campaign could be optional sub quests that reward you with Reinforcement powers (functionally similar to AD monument global powers) which you can bank and use on any mission, providing you with military or eco reinforcements (soldiers, building wagons etc).
Honestly Radama alone is a compelling story for a campaign. The son of a unifier reforming his Kingdom along western military lines and enacting his dying father wishes to bring “everything within the flood” under his suzerainty and conquering practically the entire island in the process is peak campaign material.
I’d still rather have Ranavalona as the Malagasy AI personality, but a Radama campaign would be a perfect way to have my cake and eat it too. (Yes, making a Malagasy civ has been my pipe dream for almost literally 10 years).
Yes, although Sudan or Sennar rather lasted until 1821…the only African empires that grew during this time were Morocco (which conquered the Songhai in 1591), Oyo in the 1600s, Lunda in the 1660s and Ashanti and Bamana in the 1700…
Sure, something like The African Kingdoms but for AoE 3… it should have been a dlc like The Asian Dynasties with 3 civs: Hausa, Ethiopians and Morocco and 3 campaigns for each: Usman Dan Fodio (1804-1817) (before of the Steel campaign), Kassa Hailu (1852-1868) (before and between the Indian and Shadow campaigns) and Ahmed Al-Mansur (1578-1603) (between the Blood and Japanese campaigns)…
