Refitted For Sequel / Age of Empires

Considered for Age of Empires I

• Stone and Wood fences were considered as decorative objects, they would return in Age of Mythology.
• Piles of pre-mined, pre-cut stone and wood available for picking (perhaps after being dropped by dead Villagers) were also considered. In Age of Empires III, similar resource crates can be found across the campaigns and scenarios in key areas, while in regular matches they could be sent from the Home City, provided initial resources or rarely found across random maps.
• A fifth resource, Trade Goods, created at the Trade Workshop was considered. The concept was revisited for II but once again, ultimately dropped. The Updated Re-release of III gave some of the Native civilizations (Haudenosaunee, and Lakota) something resembling this resource in Fur Marketplaces, buildings used to gather gold.
• When having not enough stockpiled Food or Wood for some technologies and buildings, the Player could use Gold to buy them instead. This became a key function of the reworked Market in II and appeared in all subsequent games.
• Goats, cows, and horses could be created as additional sources of food functioned as huntable animals, similar to gazelles. Only the horse remained late into development. In all AoE games (including AoM) since II, herdable animals were finally introduced. Goats and Cows were later added in AoM, and have appeared in all games since, even being retroactively introduced in both of the Updated Rereleases of II.
• Land trade units were planned. They eventually made the cut for II as the Trade Cart.
• There was a corral building used to train certain historically domesticated animals such as Goats, and Horses. III finally reintroduced this building as the Livestock Pen.

Considered for Age of Empires II

• The "No houses" bonus and siege cavalry unique unit was first proposed for the Mongols in Age of Kings, then given to the Huns in the II Expansion Pack The Conquerors.
• Civ specific monks were planned, but not included until the The WarChiefs Expansion Pack for III with the Aztec Warrior Priests.
• The Malians were drafted by Sandy Petersen for both II and III expansions years before the Forgotten Empires team came with the II Expansion Pack The African Kingdoms, which included them.
• Tamerlane, El Cid, and Pachacuti were included as Scenario Editor units years (or decades) before they became the heroes in their own campaigns. El Cid in the namesake Spanish campaign of The Conquerors while Tamerlane and Pachacuti had to wait until the Definitive Edition of II.
• The Conquerors was conceived as adding a new civilization per building set, plus a new Mesoamerican set. Any other starting criteria (such as creating civilizations of a new style only, like Age of Empires I's Expansion Pack Rise of Rome) and the selection would have been completely different. The Incas, eastern Europeans (with Russians and Polish as preferred options), Khmer, Tibetans, Indians, Italians, Swiss, Austrians (or "Habsburgs"), Magyars and Moors were all considered as candidates. With the exception of the Tibetans and Austrians, each and every single of these civs eventually made their way onto HD or Definitive, and even future games:
  • Incas, Indians, Italians and Magyars were added in The Forgotten, with the Indians being further split in four civilizations with the Definitive Edition DLC Dynasties of India.
  • The Moors were added as the Berbers in The African Kingdoms.
  • The Khmer were added in Rise of the Rajas.
  • The Poles were added in Dawn of the Dukes.
  • The Swiss, which were also considered, may be seen as being covered by the later introduced Burgundians, as well.
  • Furthermore, the Russians (distilled as the Slavs after the Definitive Edition of II) are a vanilla civilization for III and their supposed II counterpart, the Rus', are a vanilla civilization for IV.
  • The Habsburgs are a neutral house introduced with the Knights of the Mediterranean DLC for the Definitive Edition of III.
• There were going to be two different "superclasses" of civilizations: Sedentary (similar to the ones in the final game) and raiding. Raiding civilizations would be immune to conversion, but would also be unable to advance ages, pick relics, trade luxury goods, nor build military buildings, wonders, nor houses. Instead, their villagers would be turned into soldiers at the Town Center. The cavalry would have the ability to steal resources from other player's buildings and to kidnap villagers and bring them to their Town Center, where they would be converted to their side. If killed before making it to the Town Center, the stolen resources would appear as piles of resources that could be picked by any villager, like the crates in Age of Empires III. This rather radical Civ playstyle that revolved around converting units would be used for the Norse civilization in Age of Mythology, who can convert their Human Units into Hero Units to shift them to a different spot of the Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors setup.
• The town centers of "raiding civilizations" (Mongols, Celts, and Vikings; see below) could be packed and rebuilt elsewhere, like Trebuchets. It took nearly a decade and a half to implement this, as the Mongols schtick, in IV.
  • Since the Mongols were still supposed to be a raiding civilization at this point, and the leaked 5.0 design document called the Kara-Khitai "Tartars", it is possible that they would have been played by Turks (a sedentary civilization) instead of Mongols. A Tatar civilization would eventually make the cut in the Definitive Edition and feature Tamerlane as its campaign character.
• There would be different relics that would boost attack, defense, or conversion rates of nearby units when carried to battle, in addition to generating gold in monasteries. Some civilizations would respond better to one relic in particular: Franks to the True Cross, and Persians to the "Carpet of Chosis I". The idea of Relics giving minor buffs would be introduced in Age of Mythology, where only Hero Units could carry them.
• Town Centers could be "fortified" with a technology. This was later implemented in AoM.
• Sandy Petersen said that he'd liked a Gothic campaign about either "Alaric or Theodoric", but without specifying which of the historical kings named such would be. A Theodoric unit was included in the editor, and later used in the The Forgotten Alaric campaign (as Alaric I) and the The African Kingdoms Tariq ibn Ziyad campaign (as Roderic).
• Gaia-controlled Outlaws (in the guise of Feudal Age archers) would generate randomly, move in small groups, and attack players, like wolves. They would be attracted to trade carts and have multiplied attack against them. On the other hand, they were expected to be smart enough to retire and/or not attack when the carts were defended by enough troops. A similar concept was introduced in III with the Outlaw groups, which usually guarded treasures.
• Mercenaries would appear as a neutral faction on maps and call a bidding process for all players before switching to one player's control. The initial concept was split in two features for III: the European civilizations' Saloon building from The WarChiefs and the Native villages.
• Siege towers that garrisoned men like rams and shot multiple arrows like longboats. Reintroduced in The Forgotten, though only in the scenario editor, and finally as common units capable of unloading units on the other side of walls in The African Kingdoms (what siege towers were actually used for).
• Early on, Lancers were a separate anti-infantry cavalry unit. They were revived as an alternative to Camels for civilizations that didn't have them (Camels were not in the first draft), but were dropped completely in the end. In III' the Spanish use an anti-infantry lancer cavalry.
  • A similar "Steppe Lancer" unit was finally added to the game in the 2019 Definitive Edition, but with a different role as a long-ranged light cavalry unit.
• Kings used to have the ability to attack (technically they still do, but it is negligible and they are coded to run away from attackers). They would also boost the attack of allied units within 5 tiles. Queens (later introduced in the expansions) were considered and intended to have the same ability. The The Asian Dynasties Expansion Pack of III has a closer example in Japan's Ieyasu Tokugawa, who not only is the Japanese A.I., but can also join the battlefield. Furthermore, the Definitive Edition of III features the United States and Mexico as playable civilizations, each of which have a General instead of an Explorer, who can place a flag on the battlefield that boosts the stats of nearby units.
• A second mounted villager ("supervillager") that could gather more and faster was considered. The closest equivalent would be the Germans' Settler Wagon in III.
• After the game was released, there were considerations for a fifth age, featuring Renaissance warfare and Pike and Shot tactics among other things. III features five ages, the last of which, in the European civilizations, can also lead to the civilization becoming a rogue state in post-The WarChiefs expansions and re-releases.
• Until Dawn of the Dukes, the Lithuanians had the (dubious) distinction of being the only civilization not to have a playable campaign or scenario, and only appeared once as an enemy, in the form of a placeholder for Poland, despite the presence of Vytautas the Great as a cavalry hero in the editor. Notably, Lithuania is mentioned as the place Tokhtamysh Khan flees after the events of the third mission of the Tamerlane campaign, yet the Lithuanians never appear in the campaign itself. The aforementioned expansion adds a Lithuanian campaign based on Prince Algirdas and his brother Kestutis.
• 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 scout with pigs.
• With the Bulgarians being introduced in The Last Khans as a separate civilization from the Slavs, many felt that the West Slavs should have been given their own civilization as well, especially since unlike the Bulgarians, West Slavs were primarily Roman Catholic and not East Orthodox like the Rus' (the primary inspiration for the Slavs civilization). Although some Polish players were satisfied with the introduction of the Lithuanians (who would eventually form a union with Poland around the end of Age of Empires II's timeframe), the Polish were instead represented by the Slavs in the revised Barbarossa and Genghis Khan campaigns. This is probably due to the Lithuanians being ethnically Baltic and not Slavic, as well as Lithuania not becoming officially Christian until the late 14th Century. They were, however, depicted as Lithuanians in the Ivaylo campaign. Dawn of the Dukes finally introduced Poles and Bohemians, and a Lithuanian campaign.
• A unique unit switching attack modes had been considered by Ensemble for The Age of Kings already, first for the Samurai (being able to switch between their sword and a bow) and then for a Persian cavalry unit. It was finally implemented as the Ratha's (the Bengalis' unique unit) ability in Dynasties of India, which can switch between melee and ranged stances. The Ratha is also the return of the chariot and archer chariot to the franchise, which had been last seen in Age of Empires and Age of Mythology.
  • In addition, the Bengalis received a Monk armor bonus as part of a Balance Buff, which was previously part of the Slavs' unique technology "Orthodoxy" available before the release of Dynasties of India.
• The Genitour was planned for the original 1999 game already, but was scrapped and left unfinished in the editor, but was finally implemented as the Berbers' unique unit in The African Kingdoms. It is unknown if it was originally going to be a general or unique unit.
• Luxury Goods were considered as an additional resource. It was unique to each civilization (except Raiders, who didn't get them). Britons would make Wool, Byzantines would make Icons, Chinese would make Silk and Jade, Franks would make Beer and Glass, Persians would make Spices, Saracens would make Soap and Amber, and Teutonic Knights would make Furs. Distilled versions of this idea would make their way into future games:
  • Age of Empires III: the Asian Civilizations' Export resource (which allows them to acquire European units, techs and buildings and, in the case of Japan, complete isolationism culminating in the Meiji Restoration) and the African civilizations' Influence resource (which allows them to unlock powerful techs at the University building).
  • Age of Empires IV: the Chinese collect Tax Gold via their Imperial Officer, the Rus generate bounty by hunting animals, and the Ottomans can acquire Vizier Points via training units and advancing in Age.

Considered for Age of Mythology

• Amanra's Commander Mnevis was originally meant to appear in the game as a fat guy riding a Hippopotamus. Judging by various developer comments, and Amanra's history file, Mnevis was most likely an early version of Stuart Black from III.

Considered for Age of Empires III

• According to lead designer Sandy Petersen, there were plans to include Native American playable civilizations already in the vanilla version but they were prevented from doing so. The WarChiefs finally introduced three of them (Iroquois/Haudenosaunee, Sioux/Lakota and Aztecs), with a fourth (Incas) coming with the Definitive Edition.
• A pre-release map list included an Andes map and described it as an Inca city in the center that you have to control to win, with neutral "warlike" Huari strongholds scattered in the country around it. In the vanilla, the Andes are not included, the Incas appear as native villages in Pampas and Amazonia only, and the Huari are not included at all (although there is a building in the Pacasmayo campaign scenario and the Editor that is probably the planned stronghold). The WarChiefs introduced an Andes map, but it was a standard map with mountains on one side, a trade route on the other, and Inca villages scattered throughout.
• Sweden was considered to be a day-1 playable faction until fairly late in development. Their unique units would have been the Fusilier (historically a French military unit) and Horse Artillery. The WarChiefs later reintroduced both as mercenaries, while the Swedes eventually made it as a playable civilization for Definitive Edition.
• The Italians were going to excel in early warfare and become weak in later ages. They'd have a second Settler unit specialized in building structures (the Architect), an unique and stronger version of the later cut anti-infantry hand cavalry (Elmeti) and a generic cannon likely replacing the falconet or culverin. The Elmeti and Lil' Bombard returned as mercenary units for The WarChiefs. The Italians would finally be featured in 2022's Knights of the Mediterranean Expansion Pack, with the Architect as one of their units, while the Elmeti and Lil Bombard received Papal counterparts.
• Petersen wanted to include the Incas as the fourth playable faction in The WarChiefs, but they were scrapped by other leads due to time and art constrains. One of the four had to go, and they thought the Incas were the least interesting and harder to find information about. They were finally added in the Definitive Edition, a decade and a half later.
• Petersen later outlined a second expansion set in Africa, with Ghana, Songhai, Ethiopia, and Kongo as new civilizations. However, the idea of setting the second expansion in Asia prevailed. The African expansion was retooled into the African Kingdoms expansion for Age of Empires II, which introduced the Ethiopians. An official expansion for AOE3's Definitive Edition (called The African Royals) was announced with the theme of African civilizations and two of them (Ethiopians and Hausa) being playable.
• While the game was developed, there were going to be maps based on Europe and the Mediterranean, but they were cut for time and conflicting with the "build a colony and ally with the natives" High Concept of the game. The Definitive Edition's Knights of the Mediterranean DLC introduces over 30 new European and Middle Eastern maps, and a further eight multiplayer maps simulating major European battlefields, including the Italian Wars, the Deluge, and the Russo-Turkish War. The random maps (such as England, Bohemia, Anatolia, Lithuania) also include more water-borne trade routes and European Royal Houses as natives, offering powerful units, renewable big-button techs, and a myriad of technologies.
• A Zweihander unit (probably a Discovery version of the Doppelsoldner) was created, then cut. The visuals were recycled into the campaign-only Boneguard Swordsman, then added into Knights of the Mediterranean as the Maltese Hospitaller, a powerful two-handed swordsman who moves faster in the proximity of allied buildings, who via cards may also move faster near enemy structures.
• A steamship was planned for the Imperial Age, presumably similar to the Ironclad introduced in The Warchiefs. The United States in Definitive Edition can train the Steamer, a more expensive Galleon analogue that differentiates itself from the Ironclad in not being able to train cavalry (fielding Gatling Guns instead), boosting its speed with Full Steam (where the Steamer sets its engines to full power for 8 seconds, increasing its speed by 40% at the cost of a 90-second cooldown), and having the ability to build Docks on suitable coastline, which no other watercraft in the game may do.
• Playing against the same civilization in skirmish mode in the original releases was impossible, which didn't made sense for a game with a Competitive Multiplayer component. Definitive Edition reimplemented this.
• An update to Knights of the Mediterranean included references to Denmark and Poland-Lithuania as aborted revolutionary factions. The first would give access to the units Royal Grenadier and Espingol, and the card "Royal Oldenburgs" which would ally the player with the House of Oldenburg. The second would give access to the units Grand Hetman (likely a hero), Scytheman, and Polish Lancer. It was later announced that Denmark and Poland would be introduced as fully playable factions in a new expansion, rather than as revolutions.

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