Age of Empires IV:
THE VIETNAMESE
VIETNAM CIVILIZATION MOD
Check out the Youtube Short for a quick run-down!
The Vietnamese center around “asymmetric warfare” in a way unlike any other civ in the game. They’re all about light infantry, hit and run tactics, traps, and “being a rat” - at least until the late game, that’s when they can unleash some truly awesome gunpowder weapons.
I was especially inspired by the Panzer Elite playstyle from Company of Heroes - mines, booby traps, scorched earth tactics. It’s an archetype that I felt was sorely missing from AOE4’s current roster - so we made it happen ourselves!
To make my original design 6 work within AOE4’s modding constraints, I significantly overhauled the design, but kept the same essence. The full updated design PDF is viewable here.
My personal highlights:
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Worker Elephants are like Norse Ox Carts from Age of Mythology - a mobile resource drop-off. AND IT FEELS AMAZING.
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Setting up minefields of traps is hilarious and possibly OP.
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Rocket Elephants are 0% based on history and 100% based on rule of cool.
To install the mod:
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Visit the mod manager tab in-game, and look for the Vietnamese mod by hosein81 and hit “subscribe” to install the mod.
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Set up a game and make sure you enable the “Vietnam” tuning pack.
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Pick China if you want to play as the Vietnamese (Unfortunately we cannot create a completely new civ, so Vietnam replaces China currently).
Known issues to watch out for (full list available on design PDF):
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Surrendering/Quitting games as Vietnam sometimes causes crashes for other players - be careful in team games!
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Don’t set AI to Vietnam. They don’t know how to do anything.
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Unfortunately modding tools don’t allow us to add new assets, so all visuals/audio are recycled from what’s already in the game.
ORIGINAL DESIGN CONCEPT
The Dai Viet were famous for their defensive wars of attrition against the Chinese and the Mongols. This faction primarily represents the Đại Việt empire of northern Vietnam, but also takes inspiration from other polities in the region as well. The Vietnamese are historically an underdog civilization, and not all too popular, though they were featured in AOEII and Civilization 6. In this concept I take inspiration from their history of guerrilla warfare and unconventional tactics. They have a heavy emphasis on defense, including the unique ability to place "Bamboo Traps", and shoot poisoned arrows from garrisoned units.
