Italians

Civilization	Tech tree	Strategy
Italians Civilization information Introduced in  The Forgotten Architecture Mediterranean Continent Europe Focus Archers Navy Unique units  Genoese Crossbowman  Condottiero Unique technologies  Pavise  Silk Road “ Shed off the burden of the barbarian invasions that have torn your beloved peninsula apart after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Take the role as general of one of the Italian city-states — Genoa, Venice, Pisa, Ragusa, Amalfi, or even the Papal States — that emerged in the chaos and restore the might that once shone from your lands. Lead armies of Condottieri and Genoese Crossbowmen to glory or establish a trade network that dominates the Silk Road! The choice of which history to write is yours. ” —Description The Italians are a Southern European civilization introduced in Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten. They focus on archers and ships. The Italians are based on the medieval states in modern-day Italy, such as Venice, Genoa, Florence, and the Papal States. The Italians' unique unit, the Genoese Crossbowman, is an anti-cavalry archer. Their second unique unit, the Condottiero, is an anti-gunpowder infantry. Situated in southern Europe in modern-day Italy, the Italians were a prime center for European trade due to their strategic location of key port cities, in the game their Fishing Ships are cheaper. As a result, Italian cities became one of the wealthiest in the world during that time. To reflect their economic productivity, the Italians feature cheaper trade units, as well as cheaper upgrades from the Dock. The Italians were best known for being a center of culture and knowledge at the city of Florence during the Renaissance which revolutionized the way Europeans think. This made them ahead of other European kingdoms at that time as a result of trading with the more advanced Islamic and Far Eastern kingdoms, therefore the Italians can advance through the Ages at a lower cost. To represent the technological benefits of the Silk Road, Italians' gunpowder units cost less. The Italians are one of the people that are cultural descendants of the Roman civilization. The other ones are the Spanish, Portuguese, and the French, that all have also Roman origins, because all these civilizations speak Romance Languages. Overview The Italians are mainly an archer and naval civilization. Their Archery Range is pretty fit with all upgrades and technologies for the foot soldiers there. Only their Cavalry Archers are weak. Their Stable units however are good, featuring Hussars and Cavaliers with full upgrades. In the infantry department there is only the Halberdier missing, but they have the Condottiero at their disposal. Apart from the Bombard Cannon which they get at a lower cost the siege weapons are underwhelming for the Italians. However, their Monks and navy are excellent with only one missing feature each. Same goes for their economy, which only lacks Gold Shaft Mining, and their defensive structures, which do not lack a single feature at all. Overall, the Italians have a very wide technology tree that leaves little to be desired. Campaign appearances The Italians have a campaign devoted to their civilization: Sforza. They also make appearances in various campaigns: Saladin The Lion and the Demon Genoese (in the Definitive Edition) Barbarossa Pope and Antipope Milan (in the Definitive Edition) Crema (in the Definitive Edition) The Lombard League Padua (in the Definitive Edition) Attila the Hun The Fall of Rome Western Roman Empire (in the Definitive Edition) Alaric (in The Forgotten) All Roads Lead to a Besieged City Italians Legions of Rome Rome Legionaries on the Horizon! Civilians General Mageius' Camp Legionaries Emperor of the West Civilians Ravenna The Sack of Rome Rome City guard Imperial Legion Alaric (in the Definitive Edition) The Belly of the Beast Ravenna Cremona The Giant Falls Rome Imperial Legions Bari Arrival at Bari Oria Matera The Rebellion of Melus Bari Local Italians The Great Siege Bari Tariq ibn Ziyad The Battle of Guadalete Cordoba Ivaylo Where the One-Eyed Man is King Genoese Gazaria Characteristics Unique unit  Genoese Crossbowman: Archer with an attack bonus against cavalry  Condottiero: Melee infantry with an attack bonus against gunpowder units Unique technologies  Pavise: Gives foot archers and Condottieri +1/+1 armor.  Silk Road: Halves trade unit cost. Civilization bonuses Advancing to the next Age is 15% cheaper. Dock technologies are 50% cheaper. Fishing Ships are 15% cheaper. Gunpowder units are 20% cheaper. Team bonus Condottieri are available at the Barracks. Changelog The Forgotten Advancing to the next Age is 10% cheaper. Gunpowder units are 15% cheaper. Fishing Ships have +2 Line of Sight. Cannot research Hussar. Pavise costs 550F/300F and only affects Genoese Crossbowmen. Condottieri require a Castle. Condottieri have 9 attack and 1 speed. Condottieri train in 11 seconds. Genoese Crossbowmen cost 50W/50G. The African Kingdoms Advancing to the next Age is 15% cheaper. Gunpowder units are 20% cheaper. Fishing Ships are 33% cheaper instead of having +2 LOS. Pavise now costs 300F/150G and affects all foot archers. Hussar added to their technology tree. Condottieri no longer require a Castle. Condottieri have 10 attack and 1.2 speed. Elite Genoese Crossbowmen have +5 attack against camel units. With patch 4.8, Pavise no longer incorrectly affects Skirmishers. With patch 4.8, Condottieri train in 13 seconds. Rise of the Rajas Genoese Crossbowmen cost 45W/45G. With patch 5.5, Fishing Ships are 20% cheaper. With patch 5.7, Elite Genoese Crossbowmen have +6 attack against camel units. With patch 5.7, Condottieri have 9 attack and 0 pierce armor. With patch 5.7, Condottieri have a unique armor class that resists bonus damage from gunpowder units (+10 armor), but not from other anti-infantry attacks. With patch 5.7, Condottieri train in 18 seconds. With patch 5.8, Fishing Ships are 15% cheaper. Definitive Edition Genoese Crossbowman reload time reduced from 3 to 2. With update 36906: Fishing Ships now correctly cost 15% less (the cost should be 64, not 60 as previously). With update 39284: Condottieri now have 10 attack, and Pavise now affects them. In-game dialogue language In-game, Italians units speak Medieval Latin, which is also spoken by the Byzantines. Historically, however, they spoke different vernacular languages descended from Latin. The modern Italian language was based almost exclusively on one of these vernacular languages, the variant of Tuscan spoken in the city of Florence, called Florentine. Ain? - Yes? Impero? - I command? Presto - I'm ready Salve! - Hello! Correctus - Right Ago - I do Sane - Certainly Caedo - I cut [tree] Pabulo - I forage Venatus - Meat (Hunter) Capto - I catch [fish] Colo - I cultivate Fodio - I dig/extract Condo - I build Reficio - I repair Deleo! - I destruct! Comitta! - Commit! or Comita! - Follow! Pugno! - I fight! Porro! - Forward! AI player names When playing a random map game against the computer, the player may encounter any of the following Italian AI characters: Alboin: King of the Lombards from about 560 until 572. Arechis II of Benevento: Duke of Benevento in Southern Italy. He sought to expand the Beneventos' influence into areas of Italy that were still under Byzantine control, but he also had to defend against Charlemagne, who had conquered northern Italy. Castruccio Castracani (1281 – 3 September 1328): An Italian condottiero and duke of Lucca. Domenico Selvo: The 31st Doge of Venice, serving from 1071 to 1084. During his reign as Doge, his domestic policies, the alliances that he forged, and the battles that the Venetian military won and lost laid the foundations for much of the subsequent foreign and domestic policy of the Republic of Venice. Francesco I Sforza: An Italian condottiero, the founder of the Sforza dynasty in Milan, Italy, and was the fourth Duke of Milan from 1450 until his death. Gisulf I of Salerno: Prince of Salerno (952–977), he took to using the title "prince of the people of the Lombards". Liutprand the Lombard: The King of the Lombards from 712 to 744 and he is often regarded as the most successful Lombard monarch, notable for the Donation of Sutri, which was the first accolade of sovereign territory to the Papacy. Maurizio Galbaio: The seventh traditional, but fifth historical, Doge of Venice from 764 to his death. He was the first great doge, who reigned for 22 years and set Venice on its path to independence and success. Ottone Visconti: was Archbishop of Milan and Lord of Milan, the first of the Visconti line. Under his rule, the commune of Milan became a strong Ghibelline city and one of the Holy Roman Empire's seats in Italy. Pietro Gradenigo: The 49th Doge of Venice, reigning from 1289 to his death in 1311. He is known as a founder of the Great Council of Venice, and restricted membership of the future Councils only to the descendants of those nobles who were its members between 1293 and 1297. The oligarchic system was created as a result of this reformation. Pope Gregory VII: Born Hildebrand of Sovana, he was Pope from 22 April 1073 to his death in 1085. One of the great reforming popes, he is perhaps best known for the part he played in the Investiture Controversy, his dispute with Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor that affirmed the primacy of papal authority and the new canon law governing the election of the pope by the College of Cardinals. Simone Boccanegra: The first Doge of Genoa. He became doge in 1339, but was ousted from power six years later. He regained the position in 1356, retaining it until his death in 1363. History The Italians are the peoples who have continuously populated the Apennine Peninsula since roughly 572 AD. Although the Italian Peninsula served as the seat of power for the Roman Empire, in 476 AD Rome fell to the Germanic tribes under the rule of Odoacer. In 493, the Byzantines (Eastern Romans) succeeded in convincing the king of the Ostrogoths, Theodoric the Great, to conquer Odoacer’s Italy. When Theodoric died in 526, the peninsula fell back into disorder, leaving it open to a Byzantine invasion led by General Flavius Belisarius in 535. However, Byzantine rule was mostly displaced by 572, when the Lombards, another Germanic tribe, invaded the region. The Italian people can thus be identified as the descendants of both the Latin peoples and the Germanic tribes. Succeeding centuries saw the Italians form a series of different city-states, independent entities whose rule generally did not extend beyond a central city and the surrounding villages. In Northern Italy, the fall of Charlemagne’s Holy Roman Empire, which had ousted the Lombards, caused a long period of instability that resulted in the creation of several city-states, including Milan, Genoa, Florence, and Venice. Central Italy fared somewhat better under the control of the Papacy in Rome, but when the Pope crowned the German Otto I the Holy Roman Emperor in 962, both northern and central Italy became involved in the convoluted affairs of the German city-states. On the other hand, Southern Italy remained under the control of Lombards and Byzantines until the eleventh century, when the Normans invaded the area and founded the Kingdom of Sicily. By the Late Middle Ages, the Italian armies were generally composed of and led by condottieri, professional mercenaries whose allegiance was given to the highest payer. Interstate conflicts usually served to maintain the status-quo of the city-states. The Italian Wars (or Renaissance Wars) of the 16th century saw the peak of these conflicts, ultimately causing the weakening of the Italian city-states. In terms of naval warfare, the Italian navies were among the best in Europe. The region’s geography made domination of the Mediterranean crucial for commerce and culture. Venice and Genoa used their navies to effectively form remarkable maritime empires which competed with other major European states and the Ottoman Empire. Medieval Italy was an intoxicating mix of ancient Roman architecture, rising theocratic power, and artistic rebellion. Central Italy, under the control of the Catholic Popes, exercised a prominent position in the religious and political matters of European Christendom. Northern Italy’s Florence became particularly important during the Late Middle Ages as the seat of the Renaissance, a period of great advances in the arts, music, and science. Florence’s Leonardo da Vinci was one of the major figures of the era, developing amazing works of art and pushing the limits of technology. Nevertheless, the constant conflicts among the Italian city-states made them susceptible to foreign control. Neighboring France, Spain, and Austria proved particularly meddlesome in Italian affairs. It would not be until 1861 that, under the leadership of Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy and Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italians finally unified into a single nation that exists to this day. Trivia The Italians in the Barbarossa and Saladin campaigns, before the The Forgotten, are represented by several European civilizations such as Britons, Teutons, Franks, and Byzantines.  The Mediterranean Monastery features architectural elements of both Gothic and Romanesque architecture. This combination is typical in Northern Italian churches and cathedrals, as well as in some chapels through Tuscany, Marche, and Umbria. The background emblem at the bottom center of the user interface is the coat of arms of Genoa. Before patch 4.4, the Italian architecture, now shared with the Portuguese, shared the same Feudal Age buildings as the Western European set (Britons, Celts, Franks, Spanish). They now have unique Feudal Age buildings of their own after the release of The African Kingdoms and patch 4.4, though they still use exactly the same Lumber and Mining Camps as the Western European civilizations. The Feudal Age architecture for the Italians and Portuguese actually comes from a fan-made mod, which became official after the release of The African Kingdoms. It is salient that almost all unique traits for the Italians are cost reductions, possibly referring to the historical fact that Italian maritime republics established extensive trade networks. The Italians' civilization icon is based on the Genoese coat of arms. Behind the scenes During the development of The Conquerors, the Italians had been considered to appear as the new civilization representing Western Europe region already. However, the Ensemble Studios team eventually picked the Spanish because they were impressed by El Cid's story and they planned to pit the Spanish against two new Native American civilizations (later Montezuma campaign). When the Forgotten Empires team was working on the Forgotten Empires mod (which eventually became The Forgotten expansion), they initially planned to add the Lombards as one of the new civilizations. But in the end, the developers modified and renamed them as the more generic Italians. Gallery The Wonder of the Italians, the Cathedral of St.Lawrence The Mediterranean architecture set the Italians share with the Portuguese The Italian user interface An Italian town, as seen in The Great Siege Italians preview in the Definitive Edition Add a photo to this gallery Video overview Italians Overview AoE2 Add a photo to this gallery References