New Civ Concept: Caribs

Hello everyone! ChuKoNoob here with u/anatarion for AOE2 Civ Concepts LLC, and I'm filling in for his week due to illness. As always, we try our best to make them at least somewhat faithful to history while still having unique civ bonuses, a distinctly aoe2 play-style, and of course, a balanced power level. We hope that feedback on previous civ posts has improved our designs and promoted a healthy discussion of civ balance.

Note: We decided to hold off on this concept so that the recently posted Burgundian and Swiss ideas could have a chance to be discussed and recognized, since I thought they were very good and I recommend checking them out. Additionally, any resemblance/shared bonuses between them are pure coincidence, as this idea reached the final form over a month ago.

Caribs (archer and naval civ, specializes in mobile non-cavalry)

Isolated from the outside world for centuries, the Caribs must now defend their island paradises from new arrivals and rising powers who seek to claim it for themselves. Will you be able to save your homeland? Or will European and Mesoamerican armies prove too strong for you?

Spoken Language: Carib

Architecture/Ship design: North American by Kondrikthus https://kondrikthus.deviantart.com/art/Mississippian-Architecture-Set-Age-of-Empires-2-338494647

Civ Bonuses:

• Start with free house
• Shore fish last 50% longer
• Crossbow upgrade free
• Barracks 35% cheaper
• Demolition ships do 2X damage to buildings

Team Bonus: Archery Range units can re-garrison in Archery Ranges

Unique Unit #1: Canoe - scouting boat with no attack but large LOS, available in the dock in dark age

Cost: 45 wood

Stats: 70 HP, 0/6 armor, 8 LOS, 1.5 movement speed

Attack Bonuses: None

Hidden Armor: None

Creation Time: 20 seconds

Missing Techs

Barracks: None

Archery Range: Parthian Tactics, Cavalry Archer Line, Hand Cannoneer

Stable: Missing Building

Blacksmith: All cavalry armor

Siege Workshop: Siege Onager, Bombard Cannon

Monastery: Atonement, Herbal Medicine, Heresy, and Illumination

Economy: None

University: Bombard Towers, Fortified Walls, Treadmill Crane, Siege Engineers, Arrowslits

Dock: Cannon Galleon

Castle: None

Unique Techs

Castle Age: Fortified Ranges - Converts Archery Ranges to Fortified Ranges (stats below)

Cost: 400W, 200S

Imperial Age: Fanaticism - Eagle Warriors and Blow Gunners attack 33% faster

Cost: 750F, 450G

Unique Building: Fortified Range, medium strength fortification

Cost: 175 wood (no Imperial Age upgrade, Imperial stats added on automatically)

Combat Stats: 2100(2400) HP, 6 pierce damage (requires at least one garrisoned unit), 3 range, 2(3)/9(10) armor, 3 RoF

Attack Bonuses: +5 vs ships

Hidden Armor: None

Classification: building, standard building, stone defense

Build Time: 50 seconds

Affected by all upgrades which affect towers

Keeps 10 garrison capacity from team bonus, number of arrows increases with number of garrisoned units

Unique Unit

Blow Gunner, fast ranged unit with high attack and low accuracy

Cost: 50W, 40G

Combat Stats: 35 HP (50 elite), 8 pierce attack (10 elite), 4 range, 0/0 armor, 2.4 RoF, 30% accuracy (40% elite)

Attack Bonuses: none

Hidden Armor: none

Classification: archer, unique unit, eagle warrior

Other stats: 1.2 movement speed, affected by blacksmith archer techs, university techs, and Imperial UT, but NOT Thumb Ring

Creation Time: 12 seconds

Elite Upgrade Cost: 800F, 600G

Wonder: Great Karbay (totally not a regular building that would be supersized in the game)

Civ Synergy/Design Blurb

The Caribs are an umbrella civ representing all the diverse peoples of the Caribbean and northern South America, from the Tainos on Cuba to the Teques in Venezuela. These were the first people encountered by Christopher Columbus on his voyages to the New World, and would be the first natives to face conquest by the Spaniards, and some (such as the cacique Guaicaipuro - good material for a potential campaign) resisted pretty successfully. Being a predominantly coastal and island people historically, the Caribs are given somewhat of a naval flavor, with a naval unique unit, a shore fish boost, and a bonus for demolition ships. Additionally, they are also archer-heavy, to reflect the guerilla warfare fought by Caribs against technologically superior Spanish forces, with a power spike in Castle Age, a fast ranged unique unit, and a chance to make their archery ranges harder to take down. Finally, because they are a "Meso" civ, they do get eagle warriors with a unique tech that buffs them to give them much-needed mobility and power.

This civ is designed to have a relatively smooth early game. A free house means not only 25 saved wood but gives vital working time to the starting villagers (when idle time matters most) and means that if the first house built by the vills doesn't come up fast enough, you won't get housed. On maps with any water (even BF if there are ponds), shore fish is a viable early-game eco bonus, making for extra food. Additionally, cheaper Barracks means a slightly easier drush.

Because of early-game bonuses, the archer rush of this civ will be highly above-average. Cheaper barracks means some wood saved for an archery range and archers, while the ability to re-garrison archers makes a forward archery range a more attractive strategy on open maps. And then, of course, comes the Castle Age power spike when you get instant free Crossbowman! In the late game, Fortified Ranges can make it easier to lock down already-won territory, although it is designed to be too weak to use as an offensive push tool like towers. It's a pet idea of ours, since it always made sense to us that archers should be able to fire out of the ranges they're training at (the building even has a mini-tower on it!) - however, since they are still in training, they can't shoot that far :P

Having tried our hand once at a Meso naval civ, we know how hard it is to balance one, especially when working around lack of Cannon Galleons. The Canoe UU is meant to give fast early intel on what the enemy is doing. Demolition ships do extra bonus damage to buildings partly to offset the lack of Cannon Galleons, but also to make using demos against buildings slightly viable, since it can be a rush tactic against enemy docks, however Demo ships are resource-intensive. Plus, it never made sense to us how a whole ship full of explosives can't destroy a building :P

Finally, the UU is basically an unmounted Arambai with much less HP but a fast creation time. It is classified as an eagle warrior to benefit from the Imperial Age UT, without with it's rate of fire is pretty slow.

So there you have it, the Caribs! We hope you enjoy discussing and looking at our handiwork, and we appreciate any feedback and look forward to seeing your comments!

Cheers!

Previous Civ Concepts:

• Bantu
• Chola
• Dutch
• Georgians
• Helvetians
• Iroquois
• Kanembu
• Khazars
• Mississippians
• Nepalese
• Nubians
• Polynesians
• Tartars
• Thai

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