Age of Empires IV

AoE4World: daily RM Solo, rank Gold+ meta pulse. Filtered sample: 1,094,088 civilization appearances. Win-rate leaders: macedonian_dynasty 54.5%, knights_templar 53.3%.

Greetings, commanders of the AoE4 community, We are thrilled to announce the release of The Berber Dynasties, a fully custom civilization mod for Age of Empires IV, now available on the official AoE4 Mod Workshop. The Berber Dynasties is a custom civilization built to fill a long-absent chapter of history in the game — the great North African powers that forged empires across the Sahara and Maghreb. The Berbers are a cavalry-and-trade focused civilization built around a core Tribal System mechanic, where you forge alliances with historical confederacies — the Sanhaja , Zenata , or Masmuda — each unlocking a unique path to victory. Unique Units Unit Age Role Tuareg Spearman I Shields formation infantry, replaces Spearman Mehari Rider II Fast cavalry, counters ranged, armored cavalry & siege Saharan Trader II Accelerating trade unit with Desert Pace ability Sanhaja Camel Archer II Ranged cavalry with Camel Unease vs. enemy cavalry Zenata Lancer II Heavy cavalry with stacking Blood Fury damage Masmuda Crossbowman II Anti-heavy with deployable shield Almohad Handgunner IV Concussive Shot slows enemy units Civilization Highlights Nomadic Trade Network — Town Centers, Markets, and drop-off buildings cost 10% less Wood Enduring Generations — All units gain +5% max HP in Age II , 10% in Age III and 15% in Age IV Tribal Tent System — Build up to 4 Tribal Tents (one per age), generate free Villagers through all types of unit production Tribal Alliance — Choose between three alliance mid-game, each granting unique economic bonuses and a unique unit Tribal Market — Replaces the standard Market and costs cheaper; trains your alliance's unique units and accelerating Saharan Traders Landmarks Age Option A Option B II Ribat of the Sanhaja — cheaper, faster cavalry production Funduq of Sijilmasa — resource drop-off hub + Nomadic Attraction III Great Mosque of Tlemcen — relic conversion & Call from Minbar Dar al-Jihad of Marrakech — tribal units 20% faster & half cost IV

I'm away on trip, so can't play, so have to muse instead. Since release there's been a number of civs that were planned or expected to be played with a certain type of flavour, leaning into their civ identity, but then ultimately turned into something very different. From the OGs like Mongols instead of being cav played as a trush or fast imp civ, to Malians being sofa spam and foregoing almost any trade, to Japanese playing almost purely as fast castle mounted samurai, to KT bizarrely being a 2TC civ, to sengoku again playing as FC mounted samurai, Macedonians again FC cavalry, Tuggy basically devolving into a cheese civ with forts requiring multiple buffs before they became feasible, to Jin being a surprise flop (I admit I really thought Devs would make them OP) I've always liked this game, and I love the design and aesthetics the team creates, but I think the balance team has often not meshed very well with the idea behind the design, and we've had a large number of civs that strayed far away from the intended design or expected flavour. (Imo worst design to date were OG manors) Obviously it's impossible to predict what the new civs will do. We saw Macedonia, saw the unique infantry, and almost no one predicted they would play as a cavalry civ. No one predicted that Goku would be a FC cavalry powerhouse. It looks like Scots get pistol cavalry and unique musket infantry. They might be intended as an infantry civ, but by whatever dynamic of cheese the balance team implements, they might actually optimally play as yet another non interactive FC cavalry civ. And similarly for vikings we might have yet another Macedonia. Or some kind of KT (ie defensive eco civ). What I've always found curious is that the balance team either hasn't had the funding for or the interest in, adjusting civs that stray from an expected design. If we consider how much of Mongols existence has favoured trushing and Infantry play instead of cavalry. Or that Malians were never re-optimised to e