Questions

[sniedermeier]

I have some questions. Will the timeline be 753 B.C.-565 A.D. or will it be 500 B.C.-500 A.D. Also, when I play a culture, will I play a civilization within that culture, i.e. the Gauls within the Celtic culture?

[Historicity]

The game is based between 500 BC - 500 AD. Part One will be based on 500 BC to 0 AD, and than Part Two will feature 0 AD to 500 AD.

[sniedermeier]

What about the civilizations?

[Titus Ultor]

We have divided two of our civilizations: the Hellenes and the Celts. The Cultures page of our website gives these. Note, however, that we've revised the Hellenes structure to simply two: the Macedonians and the more generic (and thusly more encompassing) polis to represent the city-states.

Edited October 24, 2006 by Titus Ultor

[FirePowa8]

I'd like to know a bit more about how the Hellenes and Celts are divided, because right now I can't really grasp it without thinking of them as seperate civilizations. Do they start as one, and then somehow can be upgraded to either choice?

[Titus Ultor]

Sub-cultures will be more of an end-game feature than anything else in particular, representing the ultimate disparties in all aspects of life in still fundamentally related civilizations.

Basically, expect to see some wildly (even more than we plan on for every civilizaation) customizeability between games even when using the same civilization on a similiar map. It eliminates that repetitive "oh, they're such-and-such civilization, so I should respond by making this and that, as the Such-and-Suches are strong in those."

[Abadu]

But will we havediferent units for sub cultures?(how british chariots and gallic horsemans)

[Paal_101]

Bang on

Just like each civ gets it own super units (Persians get Immortals, Iberians Devotio, etc) so will each sub-culture get its own pair of super units. i.e. Brits get charioteers while the Gauls get Trimarcisia. Among others

[Undo]

But didn't the Gauls used chariots too?

[Paal_101]

They did, but not to the extent that the Britons did, especially later on during the Gallic Wars of Caesar. I *think* the last Gallic army to use chariots was the one that was defeated at Telamon in 225 BC but there is no major reference to them in the description of the battle IIRC. Chariots were already massively obsolete by the 3rd century BC and the Gauls wisely switched to regular cavalry, as which they were quite adept, while the Britons were far more renowned for their continued use of the chariot in the lat 1st BC and early 1st century AD.

*Pulls out book* Yes, Connolly in "Greece and Rome at War" says on p. 126 that writings on Telamon were the last mention of the chariot in mainland Europe. Britain is the next place it is mentioned, in 55 BC by Caesar. Between 225 BC and 55 BC there are a myriad of wars involving the Gauls and not one writer of thes events even mentions a chariot. Hence our logic

[Undo]

But will Gauls have any chariot?

[Paal_101]

No they won't since we are looking to model them after the army that the Romans would have faced during the Gallic Wars of Caesar. So they will have a heavy reliance upon traditional cavalry rather than chariots.

[Abadu]

How many super units does each civ gets?

[Mythos_Ruler]

Each civ gets 2 Super Units. These are much like the "Unique Units" each civ gets in the game Age of Kings. Since the Celts and Hellenes have sub-cultures, each sub-culture also gets two Super Units.

[Abadu]

But how are the sub cultures?you chose,lets say britons or galls how you choose politicians in AOE III?

[Yamato Take]

I have a question. Are we going to be seeing Moor and Berber Mercenaries as general mercenaries or units for Carthaginians? Or at all?

[Mythos_Ruler]

But how are the sub cultures?you chose,lets say britons or galls how you choose politicians in AOE III?

Yes, exactly. Like politicians in AOE3 or Minor Gods in AOM.

I have a question. Are we going to be seeing Moor and Berber Mercenaries as general mercenaries or units for Carthaginians? Or at all?

The game won't have mercenaries like in AOE3. If you see units like that, they will be part of a civ's "standard" units.

[Undo]

If there are no mercs, how will you give elephants to the Greeks, for example?

[Mythos_Ruler]

We won't. heh

[Undo]

But Greeks used Indian elephants...

[Mythos_Ruler]

Seleucids and Ptolemys used Indian Elephants in the 3rd Century BC. Our Greeks are from the 5th and 4th Century BC.

[FirePowa8]

I can't remember if you're allowed to reveal this or not, but what is the other Hellenic city-state super-unit (other than the Spartiate)?

[Mythos_Ruler]

The nature of super units goes in this direction: 1 Super Infantry and 1 Super Cavalry unit. In the Poleis' case, there really wasn't a dominant cavalry unit that could be used as a "Super Cavalry" unit, so what I had to do was use a specific infantry unit for the purpose. What that does is kind of drive home the point that the Greeks in the 5th and 4th centuries BC were very heavily infantry-oriented. I'll leave that up to you to speculate which exact unit I chose.

Edited November 11, 2006 by Mythos_Ruler

[Undo]

But I thought you were covering 3rd century BC Greeks as well, because you are including Romans...

[Paal_101]

The match ups work something like this:

Greeks - 5th century BC, with 4th century BC branches

Persians - 5th century BC

Romans - 3rd century BC

Carthaginians - 3rd century BC

Iberians - 3rd century

Celts - 1st century BC, with branch going into 1st century AD

In particular the Greek's main opponent in the game with be the Persians, while the Roman's will be butting heads with Carthage primarily. This allows us to focus on the Greco-Persian War and the Second Punic War, the most definitive conflicts of the classical world.

As for other civs like the Diadochi, Marian Romans, and late Achaemenid Persians of the 4th century that would allow for some more accurate campaigns and match ups, please bear with us. There are some things in motion potentially.