History Trivia / AgeOfEmpiresII

** Microsoft vetoed the Janissary's tall white hat, arguing that they looked like Klansmen. So the hats were removed despite being the most distinctive part of Janissary attire. If this isn't enough of a FacePalm, bear in mind that 1) the first version of the Janissary's hat wasn't white, but changed color; and 2) such tall hats were only worn by Janissary ''archers'' in the first place (like the first concept of the Janissary, but not the one included in the game), while Janissaries armed with other weapons wore completely different hats. Furthermore, the leaked Design Doc specifically instructed the art department to make the hat look good.

* RefittedForSequel:
** The "No houses" bonus and siege cavalry unique unit was first proposed for the Mongols, then given to the Huns in ''The Conquerors''.
** Civ specific monks and buildings that would produce gold by assigning Villagers to them were planned, but not included until ''Videogame/AgeOfEmpiresIII'' and the Inca priestesess and the Dutch bank.
** The Malians were drafted for both ''Age of Empires II'' and ''III'' expansions years before ''The African Kingdoms'' included them.
** Ivaylo was suggested as a Slavic campaign in ''The Forgotten'' along with a 'level involving pig-herding', but lost out to Dracula. In the ''Definitive Edition'', Ivaylo is the Bulgarian campaign and has a mini-mission where the player has to [[CrazyEnoughToWork scout with pigs]].
** Tamerlane, El Cid, and Pachacuti were included as Scenario Editor units years (or decades) before they became the heroes in their own campaigns.
** The Italians, Magyars, Slavs (as the Russians), Incas, Indians, Khmer, and Poles had been considered as possible civilizations already for ''The Conquerors''. The Swiss, which were also considered, may be seen as being covered by the later introduced Burgundians, as well.
** It was considered during the vanilla game's development to have lancer units as separate from other heavy cavalry and capable of dealing double damage on their first hit. These would be introduced twenty years later as the Steppe Lancer line of the Cumans and Tatars and the Coustillier unique unit of the Burgundians.

** Civ specific monks and buildings that would produce gold by assigning Villagers to them were planned, but not included until ''Videogame/AgeOfEmpiresIII''.

** It was considered during the vanilla game's development to have lancer units as separate from other heavy cavalry and capable of dealing double damage on their first hit. These would be introduced twenty years later as the Steppe Lancer line of the Cumand and Tatars and the Coustillier unique unit of the Burgundians.

** An [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Theodoro actual Gothic state]] survived until 1475, well into the Renaissance, thus making it perfectly possible for Goths to fight with firearms and cannons (the Gothic language continued to be spoken there until the 18th century). However, since this isn't mentioned in any of the tie-in material and other liberties taken with the Gothic civilization (like poor cavalry and German dialogue) it is likely that the creators were not aware of it.

** Due to the unexpected success of the game, the ExpansionPack ''The Conquerors'' was rushed, so the artists couldn't do more than a new building style and probably disregarded potential units and civilizations that would require more work.

* FlipFlopOfGod: It was announced with the release of ''The Definitive Edition'' in Fall 2019 that no more expansions, civilizations or campaigns would be made. A year later, a new expansion, ''Lords of the West'', with two new civilizations (Burgundians and Sicilians) and three campaigns (Edward Longshanks, The Grand Dukes of the West and The Hautvilles) was announced for release in January 2021. Microsoft also refers to it as "the '''first''' expansion," suggesting more to come.

* LyingCreator: The ''Definitive Edition'' was announced with the 'promise' that there wouldn't be more civilizations added after it, just new campaigns perhaps. Then the "first" expansion, ''Lords of the West'' was announced just in time for Christmas 2020 with three campaigns and two civilizations (which were the subject of two of the former), and the creators' promise that they didn't ''believe'' they would make new civilizations when they said so.

* FlipFlopOfGod: It was announced with the release of ''The Definitive Edition'' in Fall 2019 that no more expansions, civilizations or campaigns would be made. A year later, a new expansion, ''Lords of the West'', with two new civilizations, Burgundians and Sicilians, and three campaigns, was announced for release in January 2021.

** Microsoft vetoed the Janissary's tall white hat, arguing that they looked like Klansmen. So the hats were removed despite being the most distinctive part of Janissary attire. If this isn't enough of a FacePalm, bear in mind that 1) the first version of the Janissary's hat wasn't white, but changed color; and 2) such tall hats were only worn by Janissary ''archers'' in the first place (like the first concept of the Janissary, but not the one included in the game), while Janissaries armed with other weapons wore completely different hats. Furthermore, the leaked Design Doc [[HarsherInHindsight specifically]] instructed the art department to make the hat look good.

** The Viking technology "Chieftains" in ''The Forgotten'' is either this or TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot. It originally increased the axe-bearing Berserks' attack against cavalry (later the attack of all infantry, but Berserks still get more), and was introduced both to give Vikings an answer to heavy cavalry without changing their unit roster, and to give Berserks a less overlaping role with Champions (which don't have to be trained at a Castle and resulted in Berserks being infrautilized). Turns out there was a real life axe that made Vikings deadlier against cavalry and would have made for a less random name for a technology: the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dane_axe Dane Axe]].

--->'''Sandy Petersen''': Microsoft’s response was "Starcraft sold a million billion copies in Korea. We need to have the Korean civ so we can compete." My response: "There’s a Korean civ in Starcraft? Is that why they sold so well?"

** The Viking technology "Chieftains" in ''The Forgotten'' is either this or TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot. It increases the axe-bearing Berserks' attack against cavalry, and was introduced both to give Vikings an answer to heavy cavalry without changing their unit roster, and to give Berserks a less overlaping role with Champions (which don't have to be trained at a Castle and resulted in Berserks being infrautilized). Turns out there was a real life axe that made Vikings deadlier against cavalry and would have made a less random name for a technology: the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dane_axe Dane Axe]].
** Aztecs use metal swords and crossbows purely because they are shared across all civilizations. However, they really used captured Spanish swords and crossbows at the final siege of Tenochtitlan, and the Nahuatl-speaking Tlaxcalans used them when they assisted the Spanish in the wars of conquest.

** The Viking technology "Chieftains" in ''The Forgotten'' is either this or TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot. It increases the axe-bearing Berserks' attack against cavalry, and was introduced both to give Vikings an answer to heavy cavalry without changing their unit roster, and to give Berserks a less overlaping role with Champions (which don't have to be trained at a Castle and resulted in Berserks being infrautilized). Turns out there was a real life axe that made Vikings deadlier against cavalry: the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dane_axe Dane Axe]].

** An [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Theodoro actual Gothic state]] survived until 1475, well into the Renaissance, thus making it perfectly possible for Goth sto fight with firearms and cannons (the Gothic language continued to be spoken there until the 18th century). However, since this isn't mentioned in any of the tie-in material and other liberties taken with the Gothic civilization (like poor cavalry and German dialogue) it is likely that the creators were not aware of it.

** An [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Theodoro actual Gothic state]] survived until 1475, well into the Renaissance, thus making it perfectly possible to picture Goths fighting with firearms and cannons (the Gothic language also survived there until the 18th century). However, since this isn't mentioned in any of the tie-in material and other liberties taken with the Gothic civilization (like poor cavalry and German dialogue) it is very likely that the creators were not aware of it.

** The [[TheBerserker Woad Raider]] was based on the Celtic "[[FullFrontalAssault naked fanatics]]" mentioned by UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar and other ancient authors. This AnachronismStew was probably [[TheArtifact not so in the beginning]], since development of ''Age of Empires II'' started before ''Rise of Rome'' and likely covered Late Antiquity before being given the Fall of Rome as a starting date. And yet, the role of Woad Raiders in the game as fast light infantry is actually not far from the Irish [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kern_(soldier) Kerns]] of the Middle and Modern Ages.

** [[https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/bywv6d/theres_some_fun_community_references_and_memes_in/ Several of the Achievements]] reference [=AoE=] community memes such as "90 kg." (related to the Trebuchets), "Castle of Doubt" (for Daut Castle), "Masterpiece" (for the Koreans), "Not The Viper!" (failing the Masterpiece), "Satan's Map" (related to Forest Nothing), and "Too Lame, Too Tame" (boar stealing).

** Civ specific monks and buildings that would produce gold by assigning Villagers to them were planned for the original game, but not included until ''Videogame/AgeOfEmpiresIII''.

** An April 2020 update to ''Definitive Edition'' added the cheat code "Going Above and Beyond" to allow players to stack the benefits of a technology up to 256 times, after the popular [[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1360916823 256 Mod]].

* MemeAcknowledgement: [[https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/bywv6d/theres_some_fun_community_references_and_memes_in/ Several of the Achievements]] reference [=AoE=] community memes such as "90 kg." (related to the Trebuchets), "Castle of Doubt" (for Daut Castle), "Masterpiece" (for the Koreans), "Not The Viper!" (failing the Masterpiece), "Satan's Map" (related to Forest Nothing), and "Too Lame, Too Tame" (boar stealing).

* Chronologically, the earliest campaign depicted in this series (through all expansions) is Alaric's (followed by Attila's), while the latest is Bayinnaung's.

* BeamMeUpScotty: "Wololo", said by the first game's Priests, is often associated with this game's Monks as well, despite the fact that they make a "Waaaaaah..." sound. This is likely due to the inclusion of the "Wololo" sound effect as a taunt, by typing '30' in the chat.

** An [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Theodoro actual Gothic state]] survived until 1475, well into the Renaissance, thus making it perfectly possible to picture Goths fighting with firearms and cannons (the Gothic language also survived there until the 18th century). However, since this isn't mentioned in any of the tie-in material and other liberties taken with the Gothic civilization (like poor cavalry and German dialogue) it is likelier that the creators were not aware of it.

** The [[TheBerserker Woad Raider]] was based on the Celtic "[[FullFrontalAssault naked fanatics]]" mentioned by UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar and other ancient authors. This AnachronismStew was probably [[TheArtifact not so in the beginning]], since development of ''Age of Empires II'' started before ''Rise of Rome'' and likely covered Late Antiquity before being given the Fall of Rome as a starting date. And yet, the role of Woad Raiders in the game as fast, support light infantry is actually not far off from the Irish [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kern_(soldier) Kerns]] of the Middle and Modern Ages.

** Like it happened with the Eastern Asian civilizations in ''Age of Empires'', Microsoft pushed for the Koreans to be included as one of the new civilizations in ''The Conquerors'' because they believed that it would increase sales in South Korea ([[AllForNothing it didn't]]). The craziest part: The request was made ''[[TroubledProduction two months]]'' before release, and ''Videogame/StarcraftI'''s [[FollowTheLeader popularity]] in South Korea was cited as the reason.