No.
No.
No.
Definitely no.
This might not be bad.
No. Shotels are iconic.
No.
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I wouldn’t replace any, but I’d add some scenario editor exclusive alternatives, including elite versions, e.g. gallowglass (reskinned woad raider), jinete (non-gunpowder alternative to conquistador), horse-riding Mameluke, etc.
Throwing axes are very closely associated with the Franks. Why would you replace them with something not especially associated with the Franks?
Woad raiders are primarily based on Picts, who were not Scots.
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I found out that while the Picts did last through the early Middle Ages, the Roman-era warriors depicted in the game would’ve been roughly contemporaneous with the Three Kingdoms or even earlier. They definitely ought to be replaced.
In fact, the Korean unique unit, the War Wagon, is a fictional unit that cannot be found anywhere in Korean history. I think it should be the first thing that gets changed.
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The first UU I’d replace would definitely be the Liao Dao. The devs actually based a UU on a modern replica sword made by a present-day person!
Just give the Khitans a heavy armored cavalry archer like a cataphract using a bow or crossbow, please.
They should also move the Iron Pagoda from the Castle to the Stable, and move the Grenadier from the Archery Range to the Castle.
Honestly, I’m kind of interested in the idea of making the Throwing Axeman, after some adjustments, a regional unit for certain Germanic barbarian civs. In that case, the Throwing Axeman could be trained at Barracks in the Feudal Age and upgraded in the Castle Age, with only the Franks able to upgrade it further in the Imperial Age.
However, the replacement UU should probably be something more specifically French than the Throwing Axeman. Something very iconic like Gendarme would be great, but the question is how it could have a distinct identity from the Paladin.
Just make the War Wagon fire rockets in a straight line and change the class to cavalry + siege from cavalry archer.
First, if there were a split, it would definitely be between the Picts and the Gaels instead. Also, the Woad Raider would belong to the Picts, not the Gaels.
If I recall correctly, the Flail Elephant is said to have originated from Sri Lanka, so it might be better to reserve it for a potential Sinhalese civ.
If the Ghulam’s role were changed to a spear unit, this civ would have a hard time dealing with archers. If changes are necessary, I’d rather turn it into cavalry and make the Leitis an infantry unit instead, since that would be more historically accurate.
That works. Although its name could be a bit more Inca instead of simply Imperial Slinger.
So why would Africans need a fast infantry unit? Do you want it to be like the Champi for Africans?
In fact, the Gascenya would be more suitable than the Shotel to become a regional unit replacing the Skirmisher, at least for East Africa. The term literally just means shield-bearer.
Making the Plumed Archer the cavalry archer equivalent for the Aztecs and Mayans? It would obviously require some balancing, but i’m open to such a concept.
If the Holcan Javalineer is just a gold-cost Skirmisher, then it needs some kind of identity to distinguish it from the Guecha Warrior, even though it would benefit from the Mayans’ unique techs.
1 Like
This sounds scary if Feudal. Even if the damage were like only 4 it still if massed should be able to delete anything else except MAYBE archers although 4 range is managable in this age. It would require shock armor bare minimum. If you can get a force of 20 you can delete entire the flimsy palisades and the villagers trying to repair them. Towers? Not an issue! You just get Arson to prolong the pain. And Goths or Teutons would be more scary than Franks since a huge discount or bonus armor will shine way sooner than the Elite upgrade!
Celts are also barbarians and these units running faster is kinda terrifying. Vikings? Norsemen threw axes and 20% more survival might be a bit horrifying
Thats just nonsense from aoe3.Adding a flail on an elephant is just dumb as you would use the elephants size and speed to distrupt enemy formations with shoke and awe.
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Landesknecht could make a good second UU for the Teutons as an upgrade to replacing Halbs.
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Let me remind you that the Woad Raider is a contemporary of Shu, Wu, and Wei at the latest. It’s extremely outside the timeline.
My impression is that they’re based more on Roman tropes about barbarian warriors than anything actually real. I think the only really dateable thing is the shield, which looks La Tène style so does predate the timeline quite significantly.
It depends what “ought” means. If you want AoE2DE to be free of anachronism then yes, if you want it to be a remaster of the classic '90s RTS game Age of Empires II, then no.
I think the best “fix” would be an official mod reskinning it and renaming it Gallowglass.
It’s an inaccurate depiction of a real thing used in the Imjin War. See, for example, these reconstructions:
Admittedly they are more like Hussite wagons than the war wagon as it’s depicted in-game, but the overall idea of Koreans having something like this as a unique unit is not totally out there. (And much more reasonable when you think about how much harder it was to find information back when it was designed 26 years ago.)
Edit: if the name “war wagon” seems silly… well, Google translate thinks these things should be called “fire chariots”.
Koreans have been messed around too much recently. Please no more changes to them (except perhaps some to revert the recent rework).
2 Likes
It’s just an imagination, nothing is set in stone. In the Feudal Age it might only have a range of 3 and maybe just 3 attack. A fairly long training time, a slow firing speed and a slow movement speed could also be pretty effective ways to limit it even with civ bonuses. The core value is that you can start massing them earlier, so by the time you hit the Castle Age you already have a group of axe ready to rush. If you still want to make it the main unit in the Feudal Age under those conditions, then in theory the opponent should have enough room to mass more archers faster.
By the way, the Teutons’ armor bonus only starts in the Castle Age, and in my imagination, aside from the Franks, the unit could be available to the Goths and the Vikings. Not sure about the Celts and Teutons. Also aside from the Franks, the others would have to transition to other units by the mid-to-late Castle Age at the latest.
If I remember correctly, in AoE3 it’s also clearly mentioned that it’s from Sri Lankan legends.
What I mean is, if I had to choose between the Picts and the Gaels for the Woad Raider, choosing the Picts would be relatively more accurate.
Personally, I don’t mind reskinning and renaming it, or even completely changing its stats and gimmicks, into another unit, like the commonly mentioned Gallowglass, to let the Celts better represent the Gaels. But I also believe nostalgia will make many people want to keep it in the regular game.
Well Iv never herd of such legends or seen any ddepictions of an elephant with flails,Im from sri lanka and have studied local history as a subject.
What I mean is, AoE3 itself has admitted that it’s not based on confirmed history. As for where they saw the reference for the flail elephant, they have never said, so I don’t know either.
Edit:
I tried searching a bit. It’s said that in P.E.P. Deraniyagala’s 1959 book Some Sinhala Combative, Field and Aquatic Sports and Games, the author notes on page 27 that war elephants were trained to defend themselves by swinging heavy iron chains with their trunks. However, I haven’t seen the original passage myself, so I can’t guarantee the accuracy of this claim.
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The book can be found with Google Books. While it’s copyrighted and not fully accessible for free, I’ve got this snippet:
Such frescoes and early records reveal that elephants were trained to slash the enemy with swords or strike them with length of chain or iron clubs which they carried in their trunks (fig. 12).
While fig. 12 is not seen, its caption is “A war elephant from the 17th century fresco at Degaldoruva temple.”
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Replace Woad Raider with Schiltron Pikemen for the Scots. Schiltron Pikes are more effective (and more expenseive) Spearmen that get a Schiltron circle formation instead of box formation available which makes them even better against cav but even weaker to archers.
Woad Raider would go to the Picts, which would be rather an extreme roundabout way for a unit replacement, but hey-ho!
While frescoes are a great source to dive into the past sometimes it has fantasy elements attached.Look at the below image of soldiers whike they have real weapons soe of them have snakes around them.I highly doubt throwing snakes is a good idea.
In other words a variation on what tusk swords does?
Perhaps the maces increase building damage to a large degree but this makes me hope the civ would have elephant siege
Following the logic of the last DLC, the plumed archer from the Maya could become the new standard archer line for american’s civs, going archer - plumed archer - eliter plumed archer, with the properly adapted stats, without being a reskin only, the Maya would then need a new UU
remind me which castle UU was made a regional unit and had to be replaced in the last DLC
It wasn’t a castle UU but it was, nonetheless, a UU after all, so, the logic persist because there is a precedent to follow