Persians (Age of Empires II)

The Persians in Age of Empires II are a Middle Eastern civilization based on the large number of Persian dynasties that existed throughout the Middle Ages. Although their design and description were largely inspired by the Sasanian Empire, they represent all Persian factions that existed during the Middle Ages.

They were best known for their rivalry with the Roman Empire and gradual adoption of Islam following the Arab invasions. They would grow to become a major hub and center of the Islamic world, contributing much to Islamic art and culture. Like their predecessor in the original game, the Persians specialize in cavalry and navy.

Overview
The Persians are a Cavalry oriented civilization. They have a full cavalry tech tree (except for Battle Elephants) and their team bonus allows them and their allies to do bonus damage to archers. For being one of the civilizations least impacted by the Dark Age, they have a bonus for Town Centers and Docks and begin with extra resources in a standard game. Their unique unit is the War Elephant, a type of very-heavy cavalry. It deals massive damage to all units and has a huge amount of hit points, which makes it powerful in melee combat, able to take down multiple units. On the downside, the War Elephant is very slow. This, coupled with their powerful cavalry, gives them powerful offensive capabilities. However, their defenses and infantry are somewhat lacking. The War Elephant is strong against buildings, but its weaknesses are monks, heavy siege weapons and Halberdiers. War Elephants are especially vulnerable to enemy Monks, which can easily convert them due to their inability to research Heresy. They cannot build Fortified Walls and their towers are mediocre. In addition they are the only civelization to be unable to research the Two-Handed Swordsman and Champion upgrades for their infantry units.


 * Unique Unit: War Elephant (slow yet strong and devastating cavalry)
 * Unique Technologies: Mahouts (War Elephants move faster), Boiling Oil (Castles do extra damage vs. rams)

Civilization bonuses

 * Start game with +50 Food and +50 Wood
 * Town Centers and Docks have +100% HP and work 10% faster in Feudal Age, 15% in Castle Age, 20% in Imperial Age
 * Team Bonus: Knights have +2 attack bonus vs archers

Campaign
The Persians feature in a number of singleplayer campaigns. In The Age of Kings, they appear in the Saladin campaign, where they represent the crusader city of Tiberias in the 5th scenario (Jihad!), and make a minor appearance as a Persian Outpost, allies of the Saracens, that would eventually send reinforcement in the 6th scenario (The Lion and the Demon). They also appear in the Genghis Khan campaign, representing Khawarzm in the 4th campaign (The Horde Rides West), and finally, in the Barbarossa campaign, where they represent the city of Damascus in the final scenario, (The Emperor Sleeping ). In The Conquerors expansion, the Persians appear in the first scenario of the Attila the Hun campaign, The Scourge of God, as one of the three enemies the Huns face.

Saladin campaign

 * Jihad!
 * Tiberias
 * The Lion and the Demon
 * Persian Outpost

Genghis Khan campaign

 * The Horde Rides West
 * Khawarzm

Barbarossa campaign

 * The Emperor Sleeping
 * Damascus

Attila the Hun campaign

 * The Scourge of God
 * Persians

El Cid campaign

 * King of Valencia
 * Denia

In-game dialogue
All units speak Persian.
 * Āri (آری) (yes)
 * Āmāde (آماده) (ready)
 * Farmān (فرمان) (order?)
 * Salām (سلام) (hello)
 * Sahih (صحیح) (correct)
 * Mikonam (می‌کنم) (I'm doing it)
 * Chubbor (چوب‌ بر) (cut wood)
 * Olufe jam'kon (علوفه جمع‌کن) (gather the harvest)
 * Shekārchi (شکارچی) (hunter)
 * Māhigir (ماهی‌گیر) (fisher)
 * Mikonam (می‌کنم) (for farming)
 * Ma'danchi (معدن‌چی) (miner)
 * Me'mār (معمار) (builder)
 * Ta'mir kār (تعمیر کار) (repairer)
 * Hamle! (حمله!) (attack!)
 * Bejangid! (بجنگید!) (fight!)
 * Bejangid? (بجنگید؟) (fight?)

AI player names

 * Emp. Hormizd - a name of rulers of the Sasanian Empire, in early Age of Empires II era Hormizd III/Hormizd IV/Hormizd V/Hormizd VI.
 * Emp. Kavadh - a name of rulers of the Sasanian Empire, Kavadh I/Kavadh II.
 * Emp. Yazdgerd - a name of kings of the Sasanian Empire, Yazdegerd I/Yazdegerd II/Yazdegerd III.
 * King Bahram - a name of rulers of the Sasanian Empire, in early Age of Empires II era Bahram V/Bahram VI Chobin.
 * King Chosroes II - the last great king of the Sasanian Empire, reigning from 590 to 628.
 * Mohammad Shah - in Age of Empires II era the last Seljuq amir of Kerman, from 1183 until 1186.
 * Mondhir - Al-Mundhir, meaning "the warner", can refer to several kings of the Lakhmids or Ghassanids, Arab kingdoms in early Age of Empires II era.
 * Shah Rukh - Shahrukh Mirza, son of Tamerlane was the Timurid ruler of the eastern portion of the empire established by his father.
 * Shah Takash - Ala ad-Din Tekish, the Shah of Khwarezmian Empire from 1172 to 1200.
 * Yakub - Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar, a Persian coppersmith, was the founder of the Saffarid dynasty of Sistan.

History
The Persians as a culture existed for many centuries when the Middle Ages began. It had been reassembled following the conquest by Alexander in the fourth century BC and the subsequent breakup of his empire in later centuries.

The Persians had been fighting the Romans since the third century AD. The first dynasty during the Middle Ages, the Sassanid Empire stretched from Mesopotamia to India and from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, encompassing the modern nations of Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. They fought the Romans, and later the Byzantines, for control of modern Syria, Turkey, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, and Arabia. The capital of the Persian Empire was Ctesiphon, called Baghdad today. This dynasty is represented in the Attila the Hun campaign in the game, as the Huns briefly tried to invade their lands.

The lands of the Sassanids were eventually conquered by the Arabs in 651 AD, and became part of a larger empire for a time, before a new Persian dynasty emerged in 819 AD, the Samanids. Persian dynasties continued to come and go throughout the middle part of the Middle Ages, some of them being founded by peoples to the north of Iran, such as the Turks. The final of these dynasties, the Khwarezmid Empire, was eventually conquered in 1220 AD by the Mongols under Genghis Khan. As a result, this dynasty is represented in the Genghis Khan campaign in the game.

When the Mongol Empire split up, Persian became controlled by the Ilkhanate (1256-1335 AD), which eventually became more Persian than Mongol in culture. The Ilkhanate eventually fell apart and Iran became divided. A warlord from central Asia, known as Timur took control of Iran, with much bloodshed taking place. Eventually this dynasty took on a Persian culture.

The final Persian dynasty during the Middle Ages were the Safavids. They took control of Persia in 1501 AD from the Timurids, who had already been weakened by civil wars and disputes during the preceding century. The Safavids were arguably the most powerful Persian dynasty since the Sassanids and were a challenge both to the Ottoman Empire, and the Mughal Empire in India, which had been taken over from a descendant from the Timurid Dynasty.