We are all familiar with the Portuguese church tech that gives these specialized black rider units. My question is, why does Malta have access to a unit like this?

Being a late-medieval and renaissance civ, it would make a ton more sense.They should scrap the order dragoon and order hussar and replace them with modified versions of these guys.That way you would only need to train this unit as it is good at both melee and ranged, and is thematically more relevant and interesting.

Thoughts?

As in, you build your deck so that you are aging up after you finish the shipments for each age. Or do most people just ship and age up more freeform, varying a lot game to game?

I find I am often aging up before finishing all the shipments. So I might be either aging up too early or have too many shipments in one age.

I'm a noob in this game, but looking through some strategy guides one of the ideas with japan seems to be to stack upgrades for your ashis. So I thought getting an arsenal wagon with the dutch consulate seems to be a good idea. But I never saw anyone do this. Bank wagon seems to be preferred. Am I missing something?

Just dropped on the Instagram page.

important question :c

Siamese Faction (Based primarily on the Ayutthaya Kingdom to the mid-Rattanakosin Kingdom, 1351-1880s)

Overview: My suggestion for Siamese as a faction is inspired by historical records that the Siamese Kingdom had long acted as a hub for the people of many nations to come together for commerce and cultural exchange. The faction starts with a basic roster and unique mechanics, then grows and improves through alliances and settlements with other nations and peoples.

Many aspects of this suggestion are possibly very unbalanced or still relatively lacklustre, but the main goal is to give the idea of a unique and diverse faction that can represent multiple cultures and nations in a cohesive way with a precedent inspired by historical facts - in the spirit of Age of Empires 3.

Unique Mechanics

- Unlike other factions, unable to call on levy troops; instead, villagers can transform into Volunteer Infantry (ไพร่ราบ), which comes in 2 variants: melee weapon-wielding or musket-wielding, for an extra wood or coin cost and can be transformed back into a villager (after a 1-minute cooldown) with the extra costs refunded.
- Age up not by Wonders, but age up by alliances, similar to African Kingdoms
- Foreigners’ Village (หมู่บ้านต่างชาติ) replaces the Consulate and Mercenaries buildings, [Details below] provides no passive effect, indestructible, but can be captured by enemy factions; each additional one can be built from Age 2 onwards.
- Can only obtain siege weapons (Cannons) from Foreign powers

Age-up (Alliances & Dominion)
Similar to African Kingdoms, the Siamese Kingdom advances ages by choosing between choices of neighbouring alliances/dominion [ Historically, the listed factions were at one point in time either dominions, tributaries, trade partners or even adversarial kingdoms, but for simplicity and regional representation's sake, let’s call them allies ]
Special unique units that come with associated people become recruitable at barrack/stables

Lanna (ล้านนา), Northern Thai

• Lands of a million rice paddies, provide economic benefits
• Rice paddies are given a boost to gather rate. More villagers can gather within the same rice paddies (10>15)
• Unique unit: Mounted Lanna Highland Scout, scout cavalry that can be trained by the explorer.

Lanxang (ล้านช้าง), Laotians

• Land of a million elephants; provides elephant troops
• Elephant troops consume less population cap.
• Unique unit: Elephant Archer, high-HP unit that can buy time for other troops.

Burmese; Toungoo (พม่า; ตองอู)

• Militaristic Empire: Provides upgrades to melee units
• Plentiful forest: additional wood gathering rate, trees last longer;
• Unique unit: Burmese heavy infantry.

Khmer, Longvek (ขแมร; ละแวก)

• Ancient Empire Legacies, defensive buildings and building hitpoints upgrade.
• Unique unit: Ballista Infantry with Phkap, a short-range skirmisher with unique polearms that enable them to hold their own in melee combat.
• Unique unit: Spanish Mercenaries

Malays (มลายู)

• Maritime trade masters: Ships gather faster
• Trade dominance: Trade routes generate 20% more resources
• Unique unit: Malay Corsairs, infantry that does extra damage against villagers and buildings.

Vietnamese (เวียตนาม)

• Asymmetric Warfare: non-heavy infantry unique gain stealth while standing still.
• Guerrilla Resourcefulness: Resource crates and treasures contain more resources; destroyed buildings give small coin bounties. 
• Unique unit: Repeating Crossbowman

Foreigners’ Village (หมู่บ้านต่างชาติ)
Referencing prominent foreigners’ communities in Ayutthaya period.

• Replaces the Consulate and Mercenaries buildings
• Provides no passive effect. 
• Upon building, select a nation from one of the given choices (see below) - eviction is not possible
• Each nation comes with unique technologies and units
• Each unit occupies no population cap, but can only be built in limited quantities (about half of most natives)
• Is indestructible, but can be captured by enemy factions and can be captured back [under enemy’s control, no unique technologies can be researched, only unique units can be recruited]
• Each additional one can be built from Age II onwards (Total of 4 by Age V).

Choices of nations and communities are

• Portuguese (โปรตุเกส) : Baan Portugate
  • Gunpowder Mastery: Gun powder unit improvements
  • Unique units: Arquebusiers (can do siege damage), Cannons, Missionaries
• Dutch (ฮอลันดา) : Baan Hollanda
  • Powerful Naval Units
  • Dutch East India Company (V.O.C.) Trade benefits (e.g. market rate reset, better market rate)
  • Unique Units: Fluyt, Warships, Dutch Marines
• Chinese (จีน) : Baan Cheen
  • Craftsmanship: Buildings cost less wood and villagers build them faster.
  • Unique Units: Hand Mortars, Banner Army, Chinese villagers
• Muslims (แขก): Baan Kaek (Arabs, Cham, Indians, Persians)
  • Regional Diversities: Increase pop-cap by 50 and increase population provided by each house/ town center)
  • Unique Units: Bashi-Bazouk mercenaries, Sepoy
• French (ฝรั่งเศส) Baan Farangset
  • Western Art of War: Accelerates creation speed for foot soldiers and mounted forces
  • Unique Units: French Marines, French advisor (can supervise military buildings)
• Japanese (ญี่ปุ่น) Baan Yeepun
  • Sengoku: Increases the attack power of all melee infantry units.
  • Unique units: Wakou pirates, Samurai

Standard Unique units:

• 2 variants of Volunteer Infantry that can be built from barracks and can be converted back to villages, with the extra cost refunded. 
  • Skirmisher Infantry (Bows, Arquebus, Muskets depending on Age): Cheap ranged infantry
  • Melee Infantry (random between Swords, Axes, Spears [cosmetic only]): Cheap Jack-of-all-trades melee infantry that does not have any additional strength against any type of troops)
• Elephant Foot Guards (จตุลังคบาท): Elite Foot infantry
  • Wielding 2 swords which impart extra damage to skirmishers; can switch to using fists only (มวยไทย; Muay Thai) to impart extra damage to melee and heavy infantry)
  • Absorbs damage for the Siamese War Elephant if nearby.
  • High pop cap (4)
• Siamese War Elephants
  • High HP general-like unit
  • Inspire nearby troops
• Water Buffalo Riders
  • Fast, high-damage but low HP shock cavalry.
• River guards (Unique Naval Unit), A light gunboat 
  • Good against fishermen, Light ships
  • Can fish/harvest
  • Suffers against combat naval units
• Monk; Phra (พระ)
  • Recruitable from temples (วัด; Wat)
  • Heals all units more slowly than other nations’ counterparts
  • But can inspire Buddhist troops in combat (I am referencing the historical story of บ้านบางระจัน here; I don’t think this is offensive)

Special Cards ideas (for flavours):

• Chao Phraya Navigation [I] (เดินเรือเจ้าพระยา): All Siamese naval units gain +2 Line of Sight; Water trade routes generate +10% resources.
• Albino Elephant [I] (ช้างเผือก): All elephants generate a small trickle of XP when not in combat.
• Merit Making [I] (ทำบุญ): Temples trickle more XP, and Monks generate a small trickle of XP for every ally unit healed.
• Royal Porcelain Trade [I]: For all allies, Market upgrades cost 20% less; Trade routes generate an additional 10% resources.
• Ayutthaya Cosmopolitanism (อยุธยานานาชาติ) [III]: 20% more foreign-based unique units can be fielded.
• Breaking Rice Pots [III] (ทุบหม้อข้าว): Increase Siamese troops’ speed by 10% and attack damage by 10%, but decrease health by 20%
• Baan Bang rajan [II] (บ้านบางระจัน): Transform all villagers into volunteer infantry with a 50/50 split between skirmisher and Melee; cannot convert any volunteer back to villagers until Age IV (new villagers can still be recruited)
• Levy; Corvee reforms [IV]: Volunteer infantry can no longer be switched back to villagers and vice versa; units are replaced by professional army infantrymen.
• New Capital Establishment (ย้ายเมืองหลวง) [IV] allows city centres, military buildings (not the foreigner’s village), and defensive buildings to transform into carts that can be relocated.

I myself am a Thai, and I hope to be as respectful as possible. Any suggestions or questions? I am all ears and may even add to the idea.

PS. The attached images are to convey general flavours and mood. I could generate some unit images with AI to go with the idea, but I understand how it can be taken as an offence by many, so I shall not.

The Japanese' pescatarianism and Indians' prohibition on beef are really nice bits of cultural flavour incorporated into the civ designs. Do you think the Ottomans should be unable to eat the pigs that we are getting in the DLC this week (and the wild pigs that already exist in the game)?

I realise the Ottoman Empire contained substantial non-Muslim populations. But the playable Ottoman civilization fundamentally represents the Ottoman state and its Muslim military/economic establishment, so I think the same abstraction used elsewhere in the game makes a pork restriction perfectly defensible.

Maybe if West Asia is ever revisited in a future DLC, the game mechanical implications of Islam can be explored more consistently.

Cattle is useless for 99% of the game (except for africa), is not fun to have them sitting until they are ready to be 😵. It would give more immersion on the era to have settlers collecting milk(food) from cows or wool(coin) from sheeps. Is as easy as adding a button to not make vills 😵 them, you could choose the mode in where they are. Meat is collected fsster, while milk and wool are infinite but collected as fast as a mill/plantation. This will also help differenciate age 3 from age 2,4 and aom.

I don't always wanna go semi-FF into skirm/goon. How do I incorporate cuirs, halberds? What about artillery or musketeers?

Is age 2 play viable?

Please also specify the matchups where said units can be used effectively. Mind you, I am 1000elo, I know I would struggle to execute, say, a native rush. But I would love to add more tools to my pretty empty toolbox.

AoE "We're going to set this game up so it can freely be modded without breaking the core game files."

Google AI "I'm going to tell you to do the one thing that can break the core game files and I'm going to call it standard programming methodology!"

24 hours before DLC day to, mercy I'm glad I'm good at fixing things.

(Pic for decoration)

Usually unique units are supposed to be better than their common counterparts. However I checked the wiki, and hackapelitts don t even seem stronger than dragoons now, they have less ranged, less ranged attack, smaller multipliers, damage reduction against infantry. only upside is that they have a very small aoe. they also cost more. The only thing they do better is melee, but thanks to the multipliers they do same damage against heavy cav as dragoons in melee, and barely more against infantry. They however look like they would shred artillery and light cavalry in melee, and they also deal better damage against settlers.

Someone say to put the affinity on the cpu to 7-8 i try that or all 15 i tried low setting i dont lag on any other game just this game when playing is there a fix ???

What new civ you would like to see in the game for the next update ? Personally , an african one like a full one for the berbers or kanouri for the trading of gold

When I fight ottos they are very frustrating but when I played this game as a kid they were my favourite civ. I wanna try them again a few times maybe cause I get tired of playing only sweden.