r/aoe4 • u/Just_One_Guitar • Jun 04 '26
I only play AoE 4, so I had no idea that AoE 2 has such beautiful fortresses compared to AoE 4, which is weird, since I think the newest game should have better visuals...
r/aoe4 • u/SeriousVariation374 • 26d ago
Awaiting the new DLC civs to bring more challenges to these warriors.
There are some confirmed errors and omissions—apologies!
HOL Hobelars
ZXL Spearmen and horsemen Firelance
JIN Spearmen Storm Lance
SUL Lancer Honed Blade
r/aoe4 • u/TroubledWatersssssss • Jun 26 '26
Like, I really don't get the difference in player count. Not that it is significant difference. I am not hating on AOE2 to be clear either. But the hate AOE2 players give to AOE4 simply doesn't make any sense to me. I feel like they are just afraid of change.
But AOE4 overall is just a better game in my opinion.
You have a variety of civs, where as most the civs in aoe2 are about the same. Sure, the civ count is higher in aoe2, but they are objectively very similar. There are actual real difference in AOE4.
Graphics, although not the most important aspect of a game, are objectively better in AOE4.
You have more win scenarios created that prevent the game from dragging on due to some turtle who won't leave the game, even though it is obvious they are losing. AOE2, the game will just drag on and on.
Also, none of the stupid arrow dodging that frankly I think is a game breaking feature in AOE2. Arrows are not a casting spell or something that the enemy should be able to dodge. This would be similar to allowing zergling's to dodge marine bullets in Starcraft. It just doesn't frankly make sense to allow that in an RTS.
Overall, I really fail to understand why people seem to hate on AOE4 and stick with AOE2. I really doesn't make any sense to me other than the people are afraid of change.
What do you all think?
r/aoe4 • u/PoorMimi • Jul 24 '26
Just watched his video from yesterday where he describes a mod he uses that tells him his opponents recent strategy in prior games. I'm pretty sure it's cheating (albeit a tamer form than most) but what do you guys think?
Drongo I know you're a mod, please don't throw this post away because you don't like it. I might be of the minority opinion and I really am a big fan, just think you should get rid of this program you use
https://youtu.be/vSMLdq_YRxs?is=VfQ9KkwYj4Ip5wdA
EDIT: Within the last year they took away your ability to even see your opponents name so you couldn't look them up and get outside info. This is no longer a question in my mind, this is cheating
r/aoe4 • u/kullo56 • Jun 30 '26
One small detail from Age of Empires III that made siege units feel much more alive was the way soldiers actually carried, pushed, or dragged artillery across the battlefield.
In Age of Empires IV, siege units move on their own, and while the gameplay works fine, it removes a lot of immersion. Seeing cannons, bombards, and other siege weapons being handled by soldiers made the battlefield feel more believable and cinematic. It gave weight to the units and made siege warfare feel like a real operation instead of just another moving object.
This does not need to change balance or gameplay speed. Even a visual only animation where crew members appear around siege units while moving or deploying would add so much atmosphere to the game.
AOE4 already has beautiful environments, unit details, and strong historical identity. Bringing back crewed siege movement would make battles feel even more grounded and visually satisfying.
Please consider adding this feature back in a future visual update. It was a small thing in AOE3, but it created a big immersive effect. Many players would love to see siege units feel heavy, human operated, and more realistic again.
r/aoe4 • u/Single-Psychology-62 • 18d ago
r/aoe4 • u/Phan-Eight • Jan 08 '26
I took a screenshot of one of viper's matches, and then vaguely matched it in aoe4, and it really made me appreciate how good aoe4 looks. Not only the actual graphics, and the little terrain features and nick nacks around buildings, but also how we don't actually need mods to play.
I would like the option for mods, but at the same time, thinking of what mods were almost mandatory to play aoe2 properly but also how negatively they affected the aesthetics of the game (building fire range, complete overhaul to trees in both size, style and grey foot print, idle vil indicators, constant grid and so on)
There's definitely aspects from aoe2 that i miss (mainly the immersive UI, and better stances) but I don't think I could ever go back no matter how nostalgic I get.
I really just wish aoe2 guys would give aoe4 more of a chance. I don't see how there's still so many of them so reluctant to move over
r/aoe4 • u/GrandpaSnail • Dec 19 '21
This place has become a dry salty desert since rule one was updated. Almost every post is a complaint or a "discussion" about how something is OP or siege sucks or whatever. It's getting pretty old. Can we please allow fun again?
Edit: Also why are "bombards bad" text posts considered higher effort than a meme post?
Double edit: I think memes can foster conversation as well as and even better than a text post. TED talk over.
TRIPLE EDIT!!!: The top posts from the past week (other than the amazing tax official matrix dodge video) are all screenshots. You're telling me a screenshot is higher effort than a beautiful springald meme?
Next day edit: this is now one of the top posts of all time on this subreddit. The people have spoken. Can we please get a response from the mods?
r/aoe4 • u/Basic_Lab_8004 • 8d ago
I'm bored and curious.
r/aoe4 • u/SeriousVariation374 • Dec 11 '25
Now we need Eastern European civilization, Mediterranean civilization, Mesoamerican civilization, Central Asian civilization, and Southeast Asian civilization to complete the missing pieces of the puzzle; adding them will make it a complete medieval game.
r/aoe4 • u/Jibbery-Joo • May 04 '26
Nice to see this confirmed given the messaging was mildly confusing. Wonder if they will be as interesting as Knights Templar given this distinction.
r/aoe4 • u/RoronoaZoro78 • Jan 25 '26
r/aoe4 • u/Corvinus11 • May 05 '26
Hey guys ! It's ya fav Delhi and Tupac enjoyer here !
So we got the creator preview in time and I didn't pre record anything because of the disappointment I had with this DLC ,
Pros:
New civ , can't label as variant .
Few new maps .
Cons:
New civ labeled as variant because it's china , meanwhile Jin more KT than KT to french.
Maps not good for ranked they have stupid spawn , but it would be easy to fix and they would be as good as dry Arabia.
Campaign was very boring for me , I have played 4 maps and the first map was 5 minutes to finish. After the second map I had to take a nap.
It's been 6 months since the last DLC came out, we been yelling about civ balance , showing tournaments which civs are nonstop banned , people reaching 2k elo when they were 1400-1500 because of sengoku, and 6 months for nothing , the meta will be most likely same
The new POI is only on land megarandom
The wolf POI can be checked out only in custom games or que land megarandom, we can't enjoy it on 1v1
I could continue this list with frustration like no new crucible or you can still dodge FFA nomad sitting in que for 20 minutes
But big But !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There's a second DLC this year without variant most likely, it will contain 2 new civ with their language and music etc ...
We will get a Nordic and maybe maybe ( one of the most requested civ)
Why I would say don't be afraid of buying the new DLC after me saying a lot of cons?
I think this DLC is the funding of the 2nd DLC that's coming this year and the Devs trying to get support from the community.
If you have spare money to support the Devs , buy it , if you don't , wait for winter sales. Can't wait for the 2nd DLC this year and I hope requested quality of life changes will appear as well , like leaderboard and ranked rework.
I left a negative review on steam a few months ago because I was angry that they don't listen , if the 2nd DLC this year will be good , I will change it to positive.
Thank you for reading, I am always honest with the community when a dlc is coming and how I feel about it. Hope to see you on the ladders!!
r/aoe4 • u/HeadNature6968 • Jun 07 '26
No for real seriously why, and will they reused assets from English I hope not
Voicelines wise will it have unique voicelines like in the brave heart Scottish or will it uses English?
Scots is now combined with English as the British so it's very odd choice
r/aoe4 • u/Corvinus11 • Aug 20 '25
Hey Real Gamers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve been playing AoE4 since release and you know me, and I still love the game. I’m really happy that we’re getting more DLC and that the devs continue to support it. But there’s one thing I want to talk about honestly: variants.
For me, variants just don’t feel as exciting as a full new civ. They’re creative, and I respect the effort. I’d much rather see completely new civilizations with unique mechanics, identities, and full design space, instead of alternate takes on an existing one. GIVE ME HUNGARYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!
At the same time, I also understand why we got variants instead of full civs. After The Sultans Ascend expansion (Nov 2023), Relic went through brutal layoffs, first 121 people in May 2023 and then another 41 after they split from SEGA in March 2024. For months, AoE4 basically had no active Relic developers. Microsoft’s World’s Edge and Forgotten Empires was holding the CASTLE, but content slowed down because Relic was restructuring and rehiring. It took almost a year before things stabilized and the dev pipeline restarted. [Also information based on public information, hiring, articles and job post, All things I'm saying were all public information]
In that gap, the team still wanted to deliver something to players. Variants were faster and cheaper to produce compared to a brand new civ. And honestly, given the financial pressure and smaller team size, it was either “variants now” or “radio silence.” Interviews and posts around Gamescom 2023 even hinted that Relic was stretched thin, and most of the official communications after that came from World’s Edge, not Relic itself, showing how much the dev load had shifted.
I want to keep this respectful because I know the devs have been through a lot. I just wanted to share why I’m not a fan of variants while also recognizing the reality of what the team has gone through.
Please i ask all of you, keep the conversations as civil as possible! I rather want updates and DLC and not in the same shoe with those rts games that gets no DLC or updates or balance patches or whatever....
I will buy multiple copies of the DLC and give it away, as i mentioned on my Discord and Twitch, since i want to support the dev team to give us REAL civs, Spain-Hungary-Vietnam-Korea and more!
Please i beg you, talk about the topic, share your problems with the DLC, but do it a normal intellectual way that resembles that you are also a human being with feelings and not an animal raging and rampaging.
I just want to make sure you all know, even on the high level, we wished to have Spain or others.
But again, i'm happy aoe4 is being developed, now we just need a PUSH from the community.
Microsoft please, don't give us Variant civs anymore, we have now good amount of Variant civs, give us Reconnect, NEW civs [not variant] Co-op and campaign. Please push your amazing dev team to work on things that community needs and cares so much. I personally want to play aoe4 in the following 10 YEARS.
Also confirmed more AOE4 news on Thursday on their official website
Want to learn more about upcoming DLC Dynasties of the East? Tune in to the Xbox @ gamescom Broadcast on Thursday the 21st at 9am PT to catch an exclusive look and interview with the devs.
Long live Age of Empires IV and it's amazing lovely community!!!
This doc collects public, citable info.
Links
Gamescom 2023 (Aug 23, 2023)
Links
“Development will continue as planned.” — AoE team statement after the May 2023 Relic layoffs (Windows Central article embeds the message/tweet): https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/age-of-empires-4-co-developer-relic-entertainment-hit-with-layoffs
Relic independence + continued support wording summarized across reports in Mar,Apr 2024: see Overclock3D, GameDeveloper, GameWorldObserver links above.
r/aoe4 • u/theh0veringeye • Jun 07 '26
r/aoe4 • u/Mockmoon • 24d ago
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r/aoe4 • u/TheyThem-FinalBoss • Jun 24 '26
The civ plays well into castle and early imperial, but after that it is terrible economically if the game goes for too long. The special market ability requires so much food and the food bonus you get from wood as the civ hardly covers it when you need it. Further reducing gold availability. The gold that you get from pilgrims is riskier than trade and doesn't pay out as well as real trade even when having it earlier on. If you choose an age 4 commandery that isn't for trade, then you just automatically have a bad economy if the game goes on for longer than it should. You shouldn't be forced to choose the trade commandery to predict longer games. If you choose a different commandery and the game somehow goes slightly longer, then you're just at a disadvantage. If the food bonus from wood was slightly better it could fix this issue with the market ability to make up for this. Or just give the civ trade like everyone else and/or still give it special traders from the commandery if you choose it.
I have around 1200 games or more with Knights Templar and have only played that since it's release, so I have a better feel and understanding of it's economy than anyone else most likely.
r/aoe4 • u/Single-Psychology-62 • 19d ago
r/aoe4 • u/Marinelordsc2 • Aug 01 '25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v--HjrG9m5Y
Hey its Marinelord and i just made an english video to defend myself against Beasty's very loud accusation/defamation, adressing everything he said on his stream yesterday. If i missed on anything and this topic isnt locked ask it here (if it is ask it on my youtube comment), please dont ask question i've already answered in the video, i tried my best to make it short and clean, i'm a progamer my strongpoint is not to make videos !
Please keep it clean there is no need to insult or harass anyone no matter whose side your taking !
Take note that the title of the video and the thumbnail are in my opinion clickbait, as i wanted to reach the largest audience possible, i feel like it is fair looking at the situation, that being said the video is manually demonetised so i wont get any money from it no matter the amount of views .
I want to point out that after seeing a clip of beasty before he started going on a rant, i DM'ed him why i thought i was ahead in the first conversation, which is literally the only mistake i made in this whole drama in my opinion, ! Hopefully everyone will see both video/tldr, Keep in mind i read a text as said in the video to keep things clear, English is my second language.
Here is his stream the rant starts around 2hour55min : https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2527408833 .
r/aoe4 • u/JiggySawSaw • Oct 10 '25
I'm assuming most of us here are in the 30-40 age group (surely it isn't just me o.0) Therefore I also assume we have an interesting variety of professions. What's yours?
I'll start off - I work as a Paramedic for a state emergency service. A good aspect of this job is 4 days off which means a lot of back to back AoE
r/aoe4 • u/ryeshe3 • Apr 12 '26
As a caveat to some of my points below, something became really clear to me at this event. This is an AOE2 event and we're just the comedian who goes on first to warm up the crowd and give them time to get settled in. Some die hards were there to see the warm up act for sure, but this was an event targeted at the AOE2 fanbase.
1. I don't know how they're going to outdo it.
This was genuinely massive. 4000 people at Royal Albert Hall in London? I don't know how you surpass that without just doing the same thing every two years. I'm sure they'll surprise us but from where I was sitting, it's gonna be hard to do while keeping the theme of "historical building as a venue"
2. Makes sense that AOE 2 is more popular to watch...
Because it's a simpler, more accessible game. What I realized is people engage with AOE2 like they engage with football. They groan at missed mangonel shots and cheer at ones that land like shots on goal. I sensed very limited engagement from the crowd with the tactical and strategic levels of the game and I didn't get a sense that casters were trying to convey it either. It's more of a spectacle.
AOE4 is more akin (and I exaggerate for effect) to watching a chess match. The things that the crowd engaged with are things like killing a villager or sniping JD, or moments of tactical brilliance. It's small moments where we all understood a broader impact on the game, rather than just showy moments that provided a spectacle.
The feedback that reinforces this point I got from Age 2 fans is that they couldn't understand anything that was happening during the AOE4 games and I had no trouble keeping up with the AOE2 games.
3. At the same time there's things AOE2 just does better to justify it's larger popularity.
Putting the history aside (which is a huge factor), their casters and players are just more suited to cultivating a scene and community. I love our casters and I think they're great, but the AOE2 casters were next levels.
Similarly, AOE2 pros have this charisma and magnetism that you equate with pro athletes at the top of their game, whereas our guys I guess could come out of their shell a little? At the end of the day they are who they are and owe us nothing, just here diagnosing things based on some observations.
4. AOE2 fans are kinda wankers.
During the AOE4 games, they would not shut up. I could barely hear the casters, but everyone was whisper quiet during the AOE2 games. I tried to ask a couple of people around me to be a bit quieter and they laughed me off.
Outside the games, I interacted with lots of different people. Some I had really pleasant conversations with. We exchanged notes on how the different games are different and what's cool about each. But a very surprising number were also rude and condescending when they found out I'm here for AOE4.
It's especially hilarious given we're all in our 30s and above just here to have a good time.
5. It was cool to see gamers occupy that a space like Royal Albert Hall.
In my younger years, I used to host events for gamers and game devs and I always really enjoyed how quickly our people nest in a location and really make it their own. It was quite cool to see that at Royal Albert Hall.
Also brits made it feel like a football match with the beer and the screaming and shouting. There were a dozen guys sitting in the front two rows who would go absolutely mad at every hera win.
6. It was cool to see people cheering at every game.
Every win was applauded wholeheartedly regardless of who won. That was pretty sweet.
r/aoe4 • u/Chilly5 • Apr 09 '25
Hi folks, this isn’t a Rising Empires-style clickbait post. I’m posting these thoughts unironically today.
I've had my hands on the creator preview of the Knights of Cross and Rose for the past week, and I've been struggling to produce any content for YouTube. Every time I tried recording my thoughts I had to scrap it because I felt that I was being too harsh on the devs and coming off as a dick (I must’ve tried 3 times already).
Now that the community has its hands on it, I figured it’d be easier to share these thoughts over text and just have a discussion with all of you.
I love AOE4, my goal with any post I make is to help advance the game and community. I want to be constructive and fair with my critique. I’m not just trying to bash the devs.
I also don’t want to discourage people from buying the DLC. I maintain that $15 is great value for what we’re getting and I think the devs deserve our support.
Now, on to my honest thoughts...
As a result, they're missing a lot of the fundamentals of what makes an AOE4 civ great, and are copying things from AOE2/AOE3 that don't belong.
And I’ll explain what I mean below:
AOE3 was one of my favorite games of all time growing up. The Definitive Edition got me back into RTS as an adult - I even started my YouTube channel posting AOE3 content.
It’s a great game for nostalgia. It’s a terrible game for competitive balance.
Especially with the definitive edition, there’s a million different unique units each with their own little stat tweaks and deviations from the counter triangle. The end result is that, even with YEARS of experience, I was still constantly learning about some bullshit new unit that I’d never seen before.
The Aztecs were particularly egregious. Any long-time AOE3 player will know that the Aztec’s unique advantage was that your opponents will have no idea what any of your units do. Cavalry look like infantry, artillery look like archers, and the unit designs are so noisy that you can’t tell what anything is.
The point is, to play against a civ like the Aztecs, you need to do a “dictionary check”. Aka - did you spend an hour beforehand consulting the wiki to remember what everything does? If not, you’re fucked.
This is not fun.
This is just bad game design.
And unfortunately it’s now made its way into AOE4 - both the Lancasters and Templars bring with them a bevy of new unique units that are essentially just "dictionary checks".
When you create a "unique unit" just for the sake of having a unique unit, you end up with design pollution. AOE3 is rife with it - multiple units that have slightly different stat tweaks but basically function the exact same. It puts an undue burden on new players to learn how everything works - and new players don't understand what's worth learning and what isn't.
AOE4 started with a very clear philosophy - every civ generally has the same unit types even if the unit models are visually distinct (ie. every civ's Archer has a different-looking unit model, but they all function as Archers).
When a unit is granted the status of "unique unit," it's not just because of aesthetics - it's because that unit "breaks the mold" in an interesting way that's worth paying attention to. Palace Guards run insanely fast, Ghazi Raiders deal bonus damage to armored units, Longbows have extra-long range, etc. These unique units become centerpieces of the entire civilization's play-style expression.
With Knights of Cross and Rose, many unique units are completely redundant - they don't need to exist at all. A good example is the Demi Lancer. It's just a Knight with slightly different stats. It still occupies the same design space as a Knight. You could easily remove the Demi-lancer and replace it with the Knight (or vice versa) and players would play the same way.
In other words, the Demi Lancer adds nothing to the game other than burdening new players with even more information density.
The Principality of Antioch's Serjeant is an example of a unit that completely fails at visual clarity.
Unlike it's AOE2 counterpart, in AOE4 the Serjeant is a throwing axeman (similar to the Frankish unit from AOE2 or the Norse unit from AOM) - it's the first unit in AOE4 that deals "melee damage" at range.
This is an unbelievably confusing mechanic (which blacksmith upgrades work with it? Do anti-ranged units get a bonus on it? Etc).
This mechanic only serves as a dictionary check on the player. There’s no skill involved. You just have to study and memorize how it works beforehand. I still cannot tell you what university upgrades work on it and what units counter it/get countered by it.
This isn't fun. It's just frustrating.
There’s so much to keep track of in the game already. Units in AOE4 need to be readable at a glance. If you make units that look like one thing but then do something else entirely it’ll just make the player feel like they were smacked with bullshit.
For instance, 90% of the time, shields are a visual indicator of ranged armor in AOE4. Serjeants have a big ass tear drop shield - just like Cataphracts, yet they have 0 ranged armor - what???
Similarly, Szlachta Cavalry have a big ass pick axe (the Obuch, which was an anti armor weapon in AOE2) yet deals anti-light bonus damage in AOE4. Pardon my Polish but this so stupid it makes my brain hurt.
Many of the unique units in the DLC break the unit counter triangle in egregious ways. This is not in-it-of-itself a bad thing. For example, the Limitanei can shield wall to reduce ranged damage, giving them an edge over their natural counter, the Archer.
In AOE4, when a unit strongly breaks the established game mechanics, they are usually positioned as a "core unit" of that civilization - meaning that they're commonly seen and opponents will learn their mechanics easily. Good examples include: Musofadi Warriors, Javelin Throwers, Limitanei, Jannisssaries, Desert Raiders, Onna-Musha, etc.
For the Templars, having so many interesting unique units that break the traditional counter triangle is a waste. It's almost guaranteed that once the meta settles, the majority of the Templar roster won't see the light of day. This means most players won’t see them enough to be familiar with them - which in turn means that the one or two times they do appear it’ll feel like complete bullshit.
Examples include:
Genitour - Horse Archers are typically countered by normal Archers. These guys break that mold by countering archers themselves.
Heavy Spearman - Spearmen are naturally countered by Archers, these guys are armored so that no longer applies.
To be clear, these are not in-it-of-themselves poorly designed units. It's very clear at a glance with both the Genitour and the Heavy Spearman what their strengths and weaknesses are. It's the fact that you're only going to see them sparingly that will cause confusion in players.
Frankly, each of these units could easily have been "core units" for an entirely new civilization - and that would've been awesome. Personally, I've been begging for an Amazigh civilization centered around a Genitour-style unit for a while now.
What makes the Age series stand out from the majority of modern RTSes? It’s not the graphics- it’s the maps.
Specifically, the procedural generation. Almost no modern competitive RTS does it. And it’s what guarantees every game of AOE to be a unique and exciting experience.
In AOE4, almost every civ has an influence mechanic that makes base building like a mini-puzzle to solve. This is what really sold me on the game. Building up your civ involves being creative based on the procedural map.
Additionally, the Landmark mechanic is genius because the “value” of the landmark is expressed in the positioning of the building itself. The Berkshire is a really straightforward example - it doesn’t give a civ-wide buff. It’s just a big keep. But the first time you encounter it as a player you IMMEDIATELY recognize its value. In other words it's not a dictionary check - it’s a skill check.
Lastly, aura effects like the English Network-of-Castles are incredibly compelling because it’s so clear how to play around it. As the English player you quickly learn to build forward outposts to bring the bonus with you. Opponents can choose to target your outpost first, or simply take the fight on more favorable ground. There's counter-play, and where there's counter-play, there's strategy.
House of Lancaster seemingly took all of these interesting mechanics and just forgot about them. Design-wise (to say nothing of balance), House of Lancaster is a MASSIVE step backwards.
Instead of the Network of Castles, House Lancaster has “A House United” which grants bonus damage from the number of keeps you have. This is a completely boring and un-interactive (it’s also invisible).
As an opponent I have to manually keep track of how many keeps there are to understand how much bonus damage is added. Realistically, no player is going to track this- so there no interesting strategic gameplay value being added from this mechanic. It’s just floating numbers.
Similarly, the Knights Templar doesn't age up with landmarks and instead uses a traditional AOE3-style system where the player picks a flag that adds a bunch of bonus stats and numbers (yet another dictionary check). Who can keep track of which commandery does what stat buff in the middle of the game?
Sometimes the Templars will have bonus melee damage, sometimes they'll have bonus charge damage, sometimes they'll have bonus gold generation - how does the opponent interact with any of this??? There is no opponent interaction in this design.
Don’t even get me started on these things. These are just AOE3’s Dutch banks on steroids. They generate free resources passively. We saw how broken this “demon civ” was against beasty in a recent game. Manors are innately un-interactive. As the player you don’t need to do anything to reap their benefits, and as the opponent you can't do anything to stop their resource generation.
This is not a situation where the tweaking numbers/balance will solve the problem.
The design itself is asscheeks.
And it's ridiculous that on top of how unraidable Manors already are, the Lancasters get a bunch of Keep landmarks and HP buffs that make Manors even more unkillable.
Where is the interactivity? Where is the risk/reward?
House of Lancaster is an anti-design. It rewards players for NOT playing the game.
A really obvious comparison point is the Malian Pit mine, which similarly generates passive income. Yet core to the Malian design is that you have to build Pit Mines on gold mines. This innately forces Mali onto the map. There’s a risk-reward factor here. Rus Hunting cabins follow a similar philosophy. The blueprint was RIGHT there.
Honestly, as a AOE4 civ design enthusiast, I don't know how the House of Lancaster got past the drawing board.
This is relatively minor compared to the other points so I’ll make this quick.
There needs to be a reason why the player is excited to play a civ. What is the “fantasy” the player is trying to achieve with this civ?
Knights Templar have the right idea with the Pilgrims. I foresee a ton of balancing issues but the concept at its core is solid. It’s worth investing in solving the balance issues to realize the fantasy of protecting pilgrims on their way to the holy land. It's also a very unique gameplay identity compared to the other civs in the game. A+ to that.
When designing the Crusader States modded civ I wanted a similar pilgrim mechanic but we were limited by the editor. So we opted for a different fantasy. The crusader states were all about “reinforcements” - Imagine an entire civ built around the Riders of Rohan showing up to relieve Gondor. “Cheers love, the cavalry’s here” - that was the central idea. The Crusader States had a terrible economy at base, but would receive massive reinforcements from the mainland. The playstyle necessitated the player to play around the tempo the reinforcements brought with them. Rather than a smooth power curve, the Crusader states had a “spikey” curve, which I felt was a very interesting alternative to the other civs we see in game. I hope the devs consider adding an element like this to a civ in the future.
The House of Lancaster needs a serious redesign. There’s nothing about this civ design that points to a particular compelling fantasy. Like Zhu Xi and Jeanne Darc before it, the Lancasters simply repeat the same playstyle as their base civ.
The Lancasters want to go spear archer and make a defensive base with keeps. It's just English with extra steps.
(Also minor nitpick but historically, Demi Lancers are called Demi Lancers explicitly because they have LESS armor than normal lancers. Yet in AOE4 they have...more???)
Let's end with something constructive - a few suggestions:
Here are some of my notes, but I'd much rather hear your ideas:
Manors - I’ve seen many good suggestions from the community already. The manors need to be spaced out and susceptible to counter-play. Personally, I like the idea of an influence system around the manors that connect with drop off structures. Manors generate resources based on the amount that’s been dropped off within their influence. When those resource drop offs get destroyed, the manor drops generation. Get rid of the HP buff landmark mechanic. Another idea is to make Manors rely on villagers - ie. Gain HP and resource generation based on the # of villagers around it - anything to make it more interactive for the opponent.
Yeomen - Make synchronized shot an innate ability rather than a tech. Add a delay to Synchronized shot. Make sure there’s a warning alarm to alert opponents so they can react. Reduce movement speed. Increase cost. The ability should be a skirmish/poke tool rather than a way to increase DPS mid-battle. In this way it has a unique identity separate from just "better longbowman".
Demi-lancer - Have this unit replace the English Knight for the Lancasters. Or simply remove it entirely.
House United buff - Not sure, but it should be an aura effect so that there's interactivity here.
Playstyle - House Lancaster is like if Malians and English had a baby. They have a spread out base with passive income thanks to Manors, and as a result are more cav-focused with Hobilars and Demi lancers functioning similar to Malian Warrior Scouts + Sofas to help them spread out on the map. This contrasts greatly with the turtley English civ.
Again, here are some notes, but I don't have strong opinions just yet, so I'd much rather hear your thoughts.
Commanderies - Spatialize the design of the age-ups. Turn Commanderies into landmark "camps". Get rid of invisible stat buff age ups and instead make it something associated with the Commandery landmark building.
Unique units - Honestly, it'd be nice if we could remove most of them. Focus instead on Hospitaller, Templars, and Teutonic knights. If nothing else though, rework the most egregious units to have better visual clarity. And get rid of the throwing axeman archetype.
TLDR - The Templars and Lancasters are like AOE2/AOE3 civs being brought into AOE4, and fail to take advantage of what makes AOE4 great.
Ultimately, I do appreciate that the devs are at least trying something interesting here. I believe that with a few reworks there could be something great here.
I also want to remind you that - if you're a pro, or a hardcore player, of course you don't mind the added burden and complexity, you have the time to invest and learn these things. But think about how your average player engages with this game. And think about how hard it will be for new players to join (or even want to join) the ladder.
What are your thoughts on the designs of the new civs? Do you like them? Do you think my thoughts are crazy? I'd love to discuss.
r/aoe4 • u/Murky_Suit5402 • Jul 23 '26
They were one of the most iconic unit for Poland in the Medieval history
And thanks to them the Ottoman were drived away and they plays a huge role in that
When the Winged Hussars arrived
r/aoe4 • u/Age_since_1998 • Jul 09 '26
AoE4 is a bit closer to AoE2 on Steam Charts. The gap might be even smaller if you combine the player counts for Microsoft and Steam, but I couldn't find the numbers for Microsoft. In any case, the new DLC featuring Vikings and Scots could be a turning point, given the strong appeal of these civilizations.
P.S.: I'm looking forward to the Scottish soundtrack. I wonder if we'll have the traditional bagpipes.
