Slavs civilization for the next release

[Deicide4u]

Could you please add Slavs in the next version of 0 A.D.?

I realize that Slavs are a very broad term, but you can use the Slavs from AoE2 DE as a starting point.
The civilization should focus on strong Melee fighters, especially cavalry. Boyars, Cataphracts, heavily armored infantry.
Economically, Slavs are not great even in modern times, but some Metal working bonus could apply. Slavs historically had great knights.

I realize that this is a game of ancient warfare, but I don't think we should strictly hold onto that period. Age of Empires 2 already broke the historical setting they're in, so why stick to it like "pijan plota", as we southern Slavs like to say.

I can answer some of your questions or add more info related to the names of buildings and units. Also, Slav mythology is great and very fun, you could draw some of inspiration from it. For example, our heroic knights are called "Zmajevi" (Dragons).

Some actual heroes:
1) Časlav Vlastimirović (Часлав Властимировић), Serbian ruler.
2) King Simeon I (Симеон I), Bulgarian.
3) Prince Rurik (Рурик), Kievan Rus.

Thank you for making this awesome game!

Edited March 20 by Deicide4u

[Obelix]

Hey Deicide4u,

I guess I share the passion or the game with you, I really love 0 A.D.

As far as I understand the timeframe around this non-existing year 0, it doesn't cover the time after AD 500. Have a look at the FAQ How about more factions? where you might find a link to Millenium A.D. covering the AD 500–1000 timeframe. E.g. Bulgarian king Simeon I. (AD 864-927) would fit in it as well.

I really want to encourage you to use the search function, where I or example found a similar request from last fall.

[Deicide4u]

Hey Obelix,

I've checked out that mod, and it's not available for Alpha 27.

Thanks for answering, I guess medieval civs are out of the question, then.

[Stan`]

The mods just need to be updated to work with the new version

[Deicide4u]

Thanks @Stan`. I saw that Dacians could be added in one of the next releases. They pretty much cover most of the region where today's Slavs live. Pretty excited to try them out once they are ready.

Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacians

[Duileoga]

On 20/03/2025 at 8:46 PM, Deicide4u said:

Could you please add Slavs in the next version of 0 A.D.?

I realize that Slavs are a very broad term, but you can use the Slavs from AoE2 DE as a starting point.
The civilization should focus on strong Melee fighters, especially cavalry. Boyars, Cataphracts, heavily armored infantry.
Economically, Slavs are not great even in modern times, but some Metal working bonus could apply. Slavs historically had great knights.

I realize that this is a game of ancient warfare, but I don't think we should strictly hold onto that period. Age of Empires 2 already broke the historical setting they're in, so why stick to it like "pijan plota", as we southern Slavs like to say.

I can answer some of your questions or add more info related to the names of buildings and units. Also, Slav mythology is great and very fun, you could draw some of inspiration from it. For example, our heroic knights are called "Zmajevi" (Dragons).

Some actual heroes:
1) Časlav Vlastimirović (Часлав Властимировић), Serbian ruler.
2) King Simeon I (Симеон I), Bulgarian.
3) Prince Rurik (Рурик), Kievan Rus.

Thank you for making this awesome game!

Buenos día o tardes;

-Estaba pensando en crear a la facción Venedi/Veneti/Veneci o Proto-eslavos para el Mod Endovélico (período 500a.C-1 a.C)¿Tiene alguna idea para las unidades , edificios , símbolos etc...o referencias?

 

Disculpen las molestias*

[Duileoga]

On 23/03/2025 at 10:06 PM, Deicide4u said:

Thanks @Stan`. I saw that Dacians could be added in one of the next releases. They pretty much cover most of the region where today's Slavs live. Pretty excited to try them out once they are ready.

Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacians

-Si le interesan los Dacios,@Lopess y estamos trabajando en ello en el mod Endovélico.

 

Disculpen las molestias* 

[Duileoga]

Buenos días ,tarde o noches:

- @Genava55 Estamos @Lopess y yo investigando sobre los proto-eslavos o Venedi de entre 500-1 a.C ¿Podrías ayudarnos con una investigación? 

 

Disculpen las molestias*

 

[Perzival12]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavs

Here is their Wikipedia, it should have most of what you need, and links to other resources.

Hope this helps!

[Genava55]

It is difficult to know when the Slavs separated from the Balts. The Kiev culture is the only one that can be definitively attributed to the Proto-Slavs. Regarding earlier cultures, there is no certainty. There are many contradictory and contested hypotheses. There is no consensus concerning their relationship with the Proto-Slavs. The cultures most frequently discussed are the Milograd culture, the Dnieper-Dvina culture, the Zarubintsy culture, and the Chernoles culture. 

In my opinion, the Kiev culture derives mostly from Dnieper-Dvina (Днепро-Двинская культура).

• Green = Dnieper-Dvina
• Orange = Brushed pottery culture
• Red = Pommeranian culture
• Blue = Milograd culture
• Hatched and dashed lines = Zarubintsy culture

 

On 12/12/2025 at 6:56 PM, Duileoga said:

Venedi

The earliest mentions of the Baltic Venedi are from Pliny the Elder and Tacitus, both writing in the 1st century AD. Too old for your mod?

Edited 22 hours ago by Genava55

[Duileoga]

12 hours ago, Genava55 said:

The earliest mentions of the Baltic Venedi are from Pliny the Elder and Tacitus, both writing in the 1st century AD. Too old for your mod?

Buenos días o tardes;

-Si, se sale del período del mod por muy poco.

12 hours ago, Genava55 said:

The cultures most frequently discussed are the Milograd culture, the Dnieper-Dvina culture, the Zarubintsy culture, and the Chernoles culture. 

-¿Usted vería viable una facción "Dnieper-Dvina" con auxiliares :Milograd,Zarubinstsy, Chernolesetc... y mercenarios Bálticos y Przeworsk, o es muy caótico y rebuscado?

-¿Sabe si los Neuri eran bálticos o eslavos ,serían un facción jugable ?

 

Disculpen las molestias*

Edited 16 hours ago by Duileoga

[Arup]

there are already so many european civs, atleast show a little less bias towards the continent??? we need an asian or african civ after this

[Genava55]

6 hours ago, Arup said:

there are already so many european civs, atleast show a little less bias towards the continent??? we need an asian or african civ after this

Duileoga is working for a mod. Don't worry, there is little chance they would be integrated in the main game.

9 hours ago, Duileoga said:

-¿Usted vería viable una facción "Dnieper-Dvina" con auxiliares :Milograd,Zarubinstsy, Chernolesetc... y mercenarios Bálticos y Przeworsk, o es muy caótico y rebuscado?

The Chernoles culture disappeared a long time ago, around the 6th century BC. The Milograd culture existed in northern Ukraine and southern Belarus for several centuries. But it was replaced by the Zarubintsy culture, which represents a bit of a cultural break. There are elements of the Zarubintsy culture that originate from Germanic cultures. This culture of Zarubintsy appeared around 200 BC and existed up to the 1st century AD. After that, there is a transition period when the culture of Zarubintsy decays and a sharp reduction in the number of settlements. The Kiev culture is a reemergence of a Balto-Slavic culture which appeared around the 3rd century AD. The question of the Slavic origin is tied to how the Kiev culture appeared. 

If you want to portray the Venedi/Veneti, they are probably further in the North. Pliny and Ptolemy locate them near the Baltic sea region. So we can suppose the Venedi/Veneti were a confederation of different Balto-Slavic tribes. Generally, the Brushed Pottery culture, the Milograd culture and the Dnieper-Dvina culture are seen as a continuum of similar populations. So if you want to suppose the testimonies from Pliny, Tacitus and Ptolemy are also valid for a more ancient period, then you can suppose these cultures were related to the Venedi/Veneti.

Like this you can use evidence from the Milograd culture, Dnieper-Dvina culture and Brushed pottery culture. 

And you can add Germanic mercenaries from the Przeworsk culture (Lugians) and from the Zarubintsy culture (probably the Scirii). You can also add Sarmatian and Scythian mercenaries.

Edited 6 hours ago by Genava55

[Deicide4u]

@Duileoga

Here is some interesting info for your mod. This is from the Wiki page about South Slavs, not sure how accurate

"Jordanes (fl.  6th century CE), Procopius (c. 500 - c. 565) and other late Roman authors provide the probable earliest references to southern Slavs in the second half of the 6th century. Procopius described the Sclaveni and Antes as two barbarian peoples with the same institutions and customs since ancient times, not ruled by a single leader but living under democracy, while Pseudo-Maurice called them a numerous people, undisciplined, unorganized and leaderless, who did not allow enslavement and conquest, and resistant to hardship, bearing all weathers. They were portrayed by Procopius as unusually tall and strong, of dark skin and "reddish" hair (neither blond nor black), leading a primitive life and living in scattered huts, often changing their residence. Procopius said they were henotheistic, believing in the god of lightning (Perun), the ruler of all, to whom they sacrificed cattle. They went into battle on foot, charging straight at their enemy, armed with spears and small shields, but they did not wear armour."

[Genava55]

Excerpts from Gimbutas' book on the Balts:

Spoiler

Now we must revert to the archaeological remains in the areas where we do find a continuum of culture in the upper Oka, upper Dnieper, and upper Nemunas basins. Many hundreds of fortified hill-top villages are reported from this region, located on the highest banks and promontories of lakes, by small rivulets or at their confluence with larger rivers. They usually appear in groups at a distance of about 5 km. from one another. As they are situated on the highest spots in the vicinity, it is sometimes possible to see from one hill-fort one or two others. It seems that a group of about five to ten villages belonged to a unit, which may have formed a tribal district. This type of layout of hill-fort groups apparently continued here long after Chalcolithic and Bronze Age times. There are no traces of larger settlements or towns.

Such accumulations of villages are known on the upper Oka and its tributaries Zhizdra, Ugra, Upa, Nara, and others. I purposely enumerate these river names because they are considered to be of Baltic origin. Hill-forts are also grouped on the River Protva south-west of Moscow, and around Smolensk, Vitebsk, Minsk, Homel, and other towns in Byelo-Russia where a number of Baltic river names can be identified; there are many groups in eastern Lithuania and Latvia as well. For the Early Iron Age and for the first centuries A.D. fortified hill-top villages are the basic sources of information. In contrast to the earlier periods and to the area of the western Balts, cemeteries are as yet hardly known here. We are thus better informed about the pattern of settlement and economy than about the burial rites, cults, social stratification, and representative artifacts.

Villages were fortified with ramparts and ditches, and occupied an area of some 30–40 × 40–60 m. or more, on which about ten houses were built. The ramparts, 1–2 m. high, were built of stone, earth, or clay. Very often ramparts were of baked clay, and these were interwoven and solidly covered with timber. These were the most durable and still exist. Some of the recently discovered ramparts have “mysterious openings,” which are the subject of many legends. The ditches outside the ramparts sometimes reach 3–7 m. in depth and 10–15 m. or more in width. In plan the village was of various shapes: oval, elliptical, triangular, or even rectangular, depending on the natural shape of the river bank or the promontory into the lake. Before the houses were built the area was leveled, the lower parts being raised. Ramparts were normally on the inland side which, if not fortified, was accessible to enemies and wild animals. Sometimes ramparts encircled the whole village or protected it from several sides.

Frequently, hill-forts have yielded cultural layers of many periods; some of them were used for millennia. Their character and defence structures changed very slowly. In 1957 a whole village of ten houses dated to the third century B.C. came to light as a result of excavations by T. N. Nikol’skaja at the hill-fort of Nikolo-Lenivets on the bank of the River Ugra, tributary of the Oka. Aboveground, timber houses stood in two rows very close to each other, oriented NE–SW. Between the two rows was a street about 3 m. in width. Houses were rectangular and of about the same size, either 9 × 3 m. or 6 × 3 m., and most of them had hearths inside. Those without hearths presumably were for housing livestock, and for barns. The living-quarters were divided into two or three compartments, each probably occupied by a family. Houses were built of vertical timber posts placed in the corners and at the middle of each wall; the space between the posts was filled in with horizontal logs or interwoven twigs, after which the walls were thickly daubed with clay. The roofs were pitched, and supported by strong posts in the middle of the house. Floors were tamped with clay, and open hearths were somewhat below floor level and surrounded by a clay wall.

Iron sickles and grain impressions on pottery found in many villages indicate that agriculture was universal. The people maintained their farms and kept their animals in small areas beyond the villages, which occasionally were enclosed with ramparts as in the hill-fort of Svinukhovo. Grain was kept in round pits, about 1 m. in diameter. In most of the hill-fort sites over 70 per cent of the animal bones were those of domesticated, and less than 30 per cent those of wild animals. A particular abundance of horse bones, in some cases more than half of all the bones found, may indicate that the horse was used for food. Domestic animals constituted the basic food supply, although wild animals were hunted both for fur and for food. In some sites bones of furred animals such as the fox, hare, squirrel, marten, and beaver predominate; in others, those of bear, roe-deer, and wolf. Fishing was an important subsidiary activity. The presence of small net-sinkers shows that floating nets and seines were used in addition to iron or bone hooks and bone harpoons.

A bronze industry is attested by stone moulds and crucibles. Bracelets, pins, and ornamental plates of bronze or copper were made locally. Hill-forts dated to the period between the fourth and second centuries B.C. have yielded a large number of spiral-headed bronze pins and pins with leaf-shaped, fret-worked heads. Below the leaf were one or two loops apparently for the attachment of chains. Convex plates with several holes were used for attaching to the dress or to belts. Bracelets were embellished with a curving design in relief. The majority of the finds in hill-forts, however, are of bone and ceramic. Bone was used for harpoons, arrowheads, awls, needles, perforators, handles for knives and rods, buttons, children’s toys, and disc-shaped whorls; clay, for net-sinkers, variously shaped whorls, horse figurines, toys, and pottery. Pots were thin-walled, made of grey clay tempered with gravel or sand. That iron smelting was done in the villages is shown by iron knives, fishhooks, and sickles, some in unfinished shape or broken, and iron slag and clay ovens. Iron ore was obtained from the local swamps, meadows, lakes, and lake shores which abound in the forested areas of eastern Europe. The ore had to be dug out in the summer, and in the autumn and winter it was washed, dried, heated and reduced to small pieces. After that, the ore was placed in small clay ovens in layers alternating with charcoal, for smelting. Starting somewhere in the middle of the first millennium B.C., iron production gradually increased, but not before the first centuries A.D. did it replace the tools and weapons of stone and bone.

The changeless life of the, eastern Baltic tribes in the Dnieper basin was disturbed in the second century B.C. by the appearance of the Zarubincy (the name “Zarubincy” coming from the cemetery of Zarubinec south of Kiev on the River Dnieper, excavated in 1899). They invaded the lands possessed by the Milograd people along the River Pripet and up the Dnieper and its tributaries, and the southern territories inhabited by the Plain Pottery people. The Zarubincy were a peasant folk on a cultural level similar to that of the invaded cultures, but their archaeological remains contrast in every detail with those of the older population. Their settlements were larger and they lived in semi-subterranean huts as opposed to the small villages and aboveground houses of the Milograd and Plain-Pottery people. Their urn-fields are in contrast to the inhumation and cremation graves in pits or in barrows of the Milograd people. The Zarubinec urns and other pots were burnished, had a more or less angular profile, frequently possessed handles, and were decorated with a ridge applied around the neck. Their prototypes are found in the Vysockoe and Chernoleska culture of the western Ukraine (Podolia and southern Volynia) dating from the seventh–fifth centuries B.C., and its inheritors during the succeeding centuries. The most frequent finds in graves were fibulae, derivatives from the Middle and Late La Tène types of central Europe.