EPS_Coleander:
AoE and RoR are historically inaccurate in themselves. Take for example the Yamato and the Ancient Egyptian again. The could never possible have done battle or met because the Yamato culture came into existence well after the fall of Egyptian Antiquity with the death of Cleopatra (who was Greek by the way.) To be 100% historically accurate, only certain civilizations would be allowed to compete with one another.
The Shang culture, although inventing many things before the Europeans, is pre-dated significantly by many Mesopotamian cultures. Also, the Shang was a single dynasty
(continuing bloodline of rulers in many Oriental cultures) after the Xia but before the Zhou (Chao) dynasties. That is only a period of approximately seven hundred years. The wheel, writing, and many metalworking technologies were invented or discovered thousands of years earlier by such Mesopotamian cultures as the Sumerians.
Military records would severely hamper accuracy as well. The Egyptians, Greeks, Macedonians, Carthaginians and Palmyrans could never win against a Roman player
simply because of the circumstances in which they became Roman territory and never again greatly re-surfaced as a unique culture. The Assyrians could never win against
Babylon, Babylon could never win against Persians and they, in turn could never conquer the Greeks/ Macedonians due to similar rules.
The Inca and Maya, to put it mildly, had relatively slow development compared to that of other Old World cultures. Simple timeframes would make each civilization in the game
compatible with few others. The Yamato could not play against anybody. Some Mesopotamians could only play against a few other Mesopotamians and the Orientals
could only compete between the Shang and the Choson. Tossing that aside, Incan road systems, for example were versatile enough to allow runners to transport messages from
modern-day Columbia to central Chile in as little as two weeks (I’m not joking, this has been referenced.) Mayan agriculture was far superior to many others among the other
civilizations in Aoe and RoR, most likely due to the diverse terrain. Central America has desert, jungle and even temperate forest biomes, many suitable for farming. They also had an astronomical calendar that used 360 days and is inaccurate to the current date by only a few hours. They were also able to use simple geometry to calculate the circumference of the Earth using the length of the shadow of a stick, similar to the method that Eratosthenes
used in Ancient Greece.
Ensemble’s warped transitions from historical accuracy to a limiting game are not helpful in teaching or learning history. Timeframes and geographic location would make this game impossible if they were to make it totally accurate. Many civilization, were also enhanced to make gameplay with them possible. The Hittites, although formidable warriors in their own time, were minor players in history. The Shang was the name for the ruling family of
the territories that would change names every two hundred years or so. If the word of history were to be followed, the Minoans would all die from natural disasters, the
Phoenician from failing economy and weak military (although there never was such a culture with that name) and the Romans villagers would simply get fed up with doing stuff
and start on their own thing.
Historical accuracy is impossible to accurately encompass in such a limiting game. Hypothetically adding a new civilization or two could not possibly make this game even
more horrifically discrediting to human history than it already is.
-Local_Yokel
P.S. Pancakes are good eatin’.