Well tested balance changes would actually be the prime candidate for “new content” considering the state of things. 11
You mean more civs competitive then at any point in aoe2s history, with only 4 or 5 truly bad 1v1 civs, and most of those about to be buffed? Yeah. Your joke falls flat
We need these campaigns for American civs:
Mississippians - Tuskaloosa - Defending the chiefdoms from Spanish Conquistadors
Iroquois - Hiawatha - The unification of the 5 Iroquois tribes, converting Tadohado, defeating the Algonquins, Hurons and small Iroquoian speaking tribes
Pueblos - Xauían - Defending the homeland from Spanish Conquistadors
Caribs - Agüeybaná II - Defending the Carib islands from Spanish Conquistadors, interracting with French explorers
Tarascans - Zuangha - Fortify your state and fight against the Aztecs Empire
Zapotecs - Cocijoeza - Ally with the Mixtecs to defeat the Aztec Empire
Toltecs - Quetzalcoatl - Conquer Mesoamerica and defeat the armies of the Mayapan League
Chimus - Minchancaman - Resist to the Incan Conquest of the Andes
Muiscans - Saguamanchica - The unification of the Muisca tribes, defeat the forces of the Northern Muiscans, Caribs and other small Chibcha speaking tribes
Mapuche - Lautaro - Steal Spanish horses, destroy Spanish army camps, defend your homeland
Other possible campaigns:
Tupis - Defend your homeland from Portuguese Conquistadors
Tlaxcalans - Ally with the Spanish and destroy the Aztec Empire
Inuits - Defend your cities from Crees and other Algonquins, Steal Cree animals
Possible battles:
Mapuche - Battle of the Maule - vs Incas
Zapotecs - vs Mixtecs (Mayans ?)
Toltecs - vs Chichimec (Aztecs)
Tarascans - vs Spanish
Inuits - vs Vikings
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The Portuguese conquered them through trade and contracts, not actual warfare, most of the time, so this may be AoE2’s first ever Economic Campaign.
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Considering the upcoming balance changes will fix almost all the weak civs, probably extra campaigns would be pretty nice.
Also some game mode like cooperative missions and similar.
Regarding player vs player, I would like to get a new random civ option, where the game proposes randomly 2-3 civs and I can pick between them.
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Regarding the balance, assuming the reveled balance changes:
- buff Indians in 1v1 (if they do not get arbs ofc)
- make Italians viable on land giving them a good eco bonus and/or a decent military bonus
- nerf Vikings/Italians water play if Koreans and Portuguese will result still too behind
Still not sure if this can be defined a new content
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I would love to see better match making. Two examples:
-When playing teamgames, you really often face opponents that are maybe 2.3k while i get a 2.7k ally. Why play 2x 2.3k vs 2x 2.7k? Why not just pair it so that both teams have 2.3k and 2.7k?
-there is no way of seeing if other players are queing as well. Why not tell me that there is no one playing 2v2 atm so i can q for 1v1/3v3/4v4 instead of letting me wait 10min for a one sided match?
About TG matchmaking:
Civilization picking and team positions should be removed. Tired of facing Indian/Khmer pocket 0-24 or Burmese cancerarambai. Also it would encourage the player to do other strategies, not just picking the same two pocket civs: Khmer and Indians, or the same six flank civs: Saracens, Britons, Vietnamese, Chinese, Mayans and Ethiopians. Look at the 4v4 pro lobby TGs, they’re just more fun because there isn’t Khmer pocket with broken Elephants or the same boring strategy every game. Also without Team Positions the game would be even more exciting. Briton, Ethiopian, Viking pocket or Bulgarian flank.
I’m looking forward to see the angry Indian-Khmer pickers rage about how MS ruined ranked matchmaking by disabling civilization picking or team positions.
Where can I sign up for this 
A selection (if not all even though it’s unlikely) with a few more African civs would be great.
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I’m searching for possible Campaigns/Battles for my 41 custom civilizations.
The Somalian one would be the Ethiopan Adal War. Somalians(Adal and Ajuran Sultanate) would ally with Turks to defeat the Ethiopians supported by Portuguese and Sudanese. It would be hybrid campaign. The Somalians would have to destroy the Portuguese fleet while Ethiopians would be the more dangerous land AI. The third enemy would be the Sudanese. They could be a different civ or just covered by Somalians or Nubians. Sudanese supported Ethiopians with Cavalry and Camels. Probably Indians (current Indians) could appear in the Campaign as a minor civilization to trade with. Somalians would be an everything civilization, but mostly focused on Camels and Gunpowder. I’d imagine faster attacking Camels, a Camel Rider Gunpowder UU and Malakh, the upgrade of Hand Cannoneers. They would have full navy and strong economy.
I know you love Polynesians, I haven’t thinking about a lot of them, but their campaign would cover the history of the Tui Tonga Empire mainly. 1. The foundation of the Tui Tonga Empire, colonising islands. 2. Fighting against smaller 6-7 Polynesian tribes during Momo’s reign 3. Interracting with Malays, Fighting against the Japenese pirates, the Tui Tonga-Samoan rivalry starts, 4-5. These would be long, Imperial Age Battles fighting against the Samoans.
I’d imagine Polynesians with an early game food economy, armored archers, strong infantry and of course Catamarans, the iconical ships of Polynesians. Their UU would be a skirmisher with 1 damage, but they would ignore pierce armor. Polynesians would cover Tongans, Maoris, Samoans, Tahitians, Easter Islanders and Hawaiians. I only mentioned bigger groups. To cover Visayans (Filippinos) and Malagasy(Merina Kingdom etc…) we need different civilizations.
Nubians would fight the Saracens, but I’ve just started to explore their history.
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Add in some Zimbabwe-Portuguese and Kongolese-Portuguese campaign and you have a perfect African expansion.
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I’d rather making a Zimbabwean campaign against other Bantu tribes, but the Kongoloese will be against the Portuguese.
About the Swahili I know almost nothing, but I think I should make a late medieval campaign about Swahili Sultanates/Cities fighting vs each other+Portuguese.
I dont want to make three campigns fighting vs Portuguese only.
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Most African conflict was internecene, the Portuguese were usually fighting for one African ruler, against other African rulers.
I know the Bonus-Overlap Police is going to call murder on this one,
but in the long haul we need 64 civilizations to better represent the world, not just 35, like explained in this graduate thesis of a post.
If we have learnt anything about AOE2, it is that “More the civs the better”.
There is nothing to lose with more and more civs covering more and more of the world.
For the LONG TERM, The game must go on, and people should be entertained with new stuff, that’s what matters.
NOT disputes over historical similarities between civs
OR over why this or that civ is insignificant.
I hereby propose 64 total civilizations for the long term of AOE2 by the time the last expansion arrives.
These 30 New Civs is the least number I can be satisfied with. Once we reach this milestone, no one will feel some group is excluded and everyone will become satisfied and love the game!
I will try to be as neutral in my civ additions as possible and everyone will get representation.
P.S. Please do not oppose this on the bases of “AI names” , remember that Mongols once had Tatar AI names and Editor Heroes too
List by architecture set from west to east.
Native American - Aruacans, Mapuche
Western European - Burgundians, Dutch
Central European - Finns, Swiss, Bohemians
Eastern European - Poles, Georgians, Armenians
Mediterranean - Croatians, Vlachs
African - Songhais, Swahilis, Congolese
Middle Eastern - Nubians
Central Asian - Afghans
South Asian - Palas, Marathas, Kannads, Tamils, Sinhalese, Oriyas
South-East Asian - Siamese, Polynesians
East Asian - Jurchens, Tibetans, Tanguts, Khitans
This will make the game amazingly addicting and allow it to depict the whole medieval world in its vibrant colours, without leaving any group behind.
ANSWER TO TYPICAL COMPLAINTS : Those who will complain of “balancing 65 civs will be so hard” etc, remember that we already have as many as 35 civs, and they are being well balanced, it shows how even after doubling the number of civs, we can still handle all of them and balance very effectively! TheViper said the game is at its best in balance despite having double the civs.
Those who complain of “Too much change”, “Too ambitious”, don’t forget the AOE2 scene was dying before the Forgotten team revived it, and that was by ONLY ONE method, by bringing more civs to shake the meta and also represent MANY more people.
Geographical locations for some of the more difficult to understand civs :
Mapuche - South Chile chief rival of Incas,
Aruacans - Caribbean(the ones Columbus found, within Aoe2 period)
Nubians - Inland Egypt + Sudan (not covered by Berbers or Saracens, but still Middle Eastern architecture),
Vlachs - Romanians (with Roman-esque architecture),
Swahilis - Tanzania+Mozambique, Different from the Congolese(Congo delta),
Khitans - Independent ethnic group between Mongols and Chinese,
Tanguts - Gansu + Xinjiang Province, Independent ethnic group between Tatars and Chinese
NOT covered by current Indians list :
Palas - East India + Bangladesh + Northeast India(Asom), look at the size of this uncovered area,
Marathas - Central India (Deccan Plateau + Gujarat + Chandela) enemy of Muslims and Delhi Sultanate(current Indians), guerllia warfare for centuries vs them,
Kannads - Vijayanagara (SW India) rivals of Tamils, and also huge GDP,
Oriyas - Orissa (Central East India) Completely Independent ethnicity since forever (Kalingas),
Tamils - Chola (SE India) rivals of Kannads, and also huge GDP,
Sinhalese - Sri Lanka, obviously independent ethnicity, and also very significant with huge GDP,
Afghans - NOT covered by Persians, Indians or Saracens (Persians does have a singular afghan AI name, but really, is that enough to do justice to this civ??? Mongols had Tatar AI names too). Far more significant in Middle ages than it is today, as today 50% of it is under Pakistan, not even Afghanistan.
NOTE 1 (“INDIA”) : Current “Indians” effectively only covers Northwest India (Rajputs+Mughals=Delhi Sultanate). It does not attempt to cover Bengal, Assam(NE India), Sri Lanka, Tamils, Vijayanagara Empire(Kannads) or the Deccan (Marathas) who were all entirely independent empires and ethnicities. India did not exist, not in anyone’s hearts.
NOTE 2 (“CHINA”) : Current Chinese also, similarly, only covers Eastern China , and does not attempt to cover Manchuria (Jurchens), Inner Mongolia (Khitans) , Taiwan, or Gansu + Xinjiang (Tanguts)
NOTE 3 (Why is Bantu missing?) : Because Swahili and Congolese are Bantu peoples.
NOTE 4 (Why is Iroquois missing?) : Iroquois founded in 16th century, out of aoe2 period.
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Araucans and Mapuche are the same people. If you want to choose a second South American, choose Muisca which was the most advanced tribe after the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas.
If you want to add 34 civs (ofc we need more) only you should are more American and African civs instead of Europeans. Dutch, Vlachs, Georgians and Wends are the only important European civs that is not aoe2.
The two Somalian Sultanates(Ajuran, Adal) were major power of Africa. They fought in many times against the Portuguese, Ethiophians and Sudanese. The first African in China was a Somalian. Ottomans were their allies and taught them, how to use gunpowder. They became the strongest gunpowder Sultanates in Africa. They even had a large fleet and very strong economy. Trading was the most important part of their economy. They even interracted with Gujarat. Somalians are Top5 civilization to add.
The second that you forgot is the Kanembu. They were a major power in Chad. They had advanced siege tactics and strong economy.
Hausa and Mossi were strong Cavalry Civilizations in Africa. Africans mainly used quilted cotton armor on their horses. Hausa even had Archer Mercenaries similar to Saracens.
Mossi are similar to Asian nomads. They were the raiders of Africa.
Zimbabweans were a major power of South Africa, they had advanced Infantry tactics, built fortified cities fought in many wars vs other Bantus
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Dutch are not even Medieval, at all.
Frisians are, but they would be very minor as a civ.
Sometimes between 1450-1600. At the upper edge of the time frame but still within. Haudenosaunee would anyway be an umbrella civ for various people from this region, which didn’t just magically appear.
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And it would be far more of an Empire (due to occupied land and number of affiliated ethnic groups) than quite a few civs in this game.
Cough Huns and Celts were never an Empire, Vikings are a Fantasy civ, Tibatans still not in the game even though they dominated Western Chine in the 12th century Cough
I wouldn’t want to miss out on them but I see your points.
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Either way we need around 70 civilizations not just the current 35.
What the Overlap Police doesn’t understand is, that more is always better for Age of Empires 2, as has been proven time and time again.
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