New Civ Concept: Thai

Hello everyone! ChuKoNoob here from AOE2 Civ Concepts LLC, and u/anatarion and I are back with a new civ: the Thai! 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.

Thai

Nestled in Southeast Asia between more powerful empires, the Thai people have had a long history of subjugation. With increased turmoil between established empires, however, comes opportunity, allowing the Thai to throw off the oppressors’ yoke. Lead your newly-independent people as they set their sights on further expansion and empire! Pioneer religious reform and lead your unmatched elephant armies to glory!

Thai: Cavalry and Monk Civ

Spoken Language: Thai

Architecture/Ship design: Southeast Asian

Civ Bonuses

• Receive 50 stone and 100 wood per age

• Illumination is free

• Elite battle elephant upgrade costs -50%

• Infantry require atonement to convert

Team bonus: Battle elephants create 35% faster

Missing Techs:

Barracks: Eagle Warrior Line

Archery Range: Arbalest, Heavy cav archer, Parthian tactics

Stable: Hussar, Paladin, Camel

Blacksmith: Bracer

Siege: Siege ram, Siege onager, Heavy scorpion

Monastery: Heresy, faith

Economy: Stone shaft mining, gold shaft mining

University: Treadmill crane, fortified walls

Dock: Fast fire ship

Castle: None

Unique Techs:

Castle Age: Ptirup - Monasteries work 40% faster

• Cost: 300F, 300G

Imperial Age: Meritocracy - Cavalry attack 15% faster,

• Cost: 700F, 400G

Unique Unit

Krabi Warrior, anti-monk infantry

Cost: 40F, 50G

Combat Stats: 50 hp (70 elite), 9 attack (13 elite), 1/1 Base Armor, 2 RoF

Attack Bonuses: +6 vs monks

Classification: Infantry, Unique Unit

Movement Speed: 1.2

Creation Time: 12 seconds

Elite upgrade cost: 1000F, 500G

Wonder: Great Buddha of Thailand

• Unfortunately, although this is a beautiful building and hearkens back to the Greek Wonder of AOE1, we recognize that, strictly speaking, this is an anachronism for the wonder, so:

Alternate Wonder: Wat Chedi Liam

Long-ish Balance Blurb:

Basically, this civ is meant to specialize in monk rushing with battle elephant and infantry support, transitioning into elite battle elephants relatively easy in the late game, receiving a UT that makes them top-notch.

To compensate, their Dark and Feudal Age are decent, but not outstanding, although free wood can help put down a Feudal Age building to afford a Fast Castle, or even to tower rush, and once in Castle age the extra wood and stone helps afford another TC or tower.

Although they are lacking Paladin, the Imperial Age UT boosts the cavalier's damage output considerably, making them viable late-game without Paladin, as well as affecting their elephants.

Where this civ really shines, however, is monk wars (Vululu! Vululu! Oh I converted one monk...). In a prolonged monk push, a Castle is useful to stall monks, create an anti-monk UU, and research the Castle Age UT to get you ahead in monks and techs. Of course, having Illumination free in the Castle Age also helps your monks immediately, a small boost which can snowball in this situation. Additionally, infantry are better support for monks since they are no longer easily converted.

Because of its synergy, the civ heavily favors Arena and team games where it can get elephants rolling, but its eco bonus allows it to do well on more open maps as well.

Anyway, that's all I have to say for now. We will be happy to answer any questions and we accept all constructive feedback.

Cheers!