Thracians

Civilization	Technology tree

Civilization	Technology tree

“	Launch devastating raids with your swift Rhomphaia Warriors, and profit from them with unique technologies that generate gold from combat. A variety of bonuses and technologies turn Thracian skirmishers from neglected trash units to deadly fighters!	”
—^[1]

The Thracians are a European civilization in Chronicles: Alexander the Great. They are based on the ancient Thracian tribes who inhabited southeastern Europe, to the north of ancient Greece. They focus on infantry units.

Characteristics[]

Civilization bonuses[]

Elite Skirmisher upgrade is free.
(Elite/Imperial) Skirmishers regenerate 5 (10) hit points per minute.
Battle Drills is available in the Classical Age.
All buildings except Town Centers can be built on any elevation.
Forts and towers increase the work rate of nearby miners and lumberjacks in a square of aura range 8 by 15% and serve as resource drop sites for the respective resources.
Shepherds and hunters generate 3 gold per minute while gathering from animals (excluding Foxes).

Unique units[]

Rhomphaia Warrior: Fast anti-cavalry infantry unit

Unique technologies[]

Odomantian Raiders: Infantry and cavalry gain 3 and 5 gold from killing enemy military and civilian units, respectively.
Dii Plunderers: Spearman-line, Levy-line, Hoplite-line, and Rhomphaia Warriors generate 3 wood/5 food/4 food/4 gold per minute, respectively, while attacking enemy buildings.
Bessian Metalworking: Levy line, Lancer line, and Rhomphaia Warriors strip armor from targets when attacking.
Peltasts: Skirmishers deal 50% pass-through damage.

Team bonus[]

Buildings except walls and Watch Tower line have +3 Line of Sight.

Campaign appearances[]

They are playable in the fifth scenario of the Alexander the Great campaign, Get Rich Quick. They also appear in:

Alexander the Great[]

A Lesson in Warfare
- Atheus (as Scythians) - Enemy
- Scythian Raiders (as Scythians) - Enemy
Let the Prince Decide
- Triballi (as Triballi) - Enemy
Right to Rule
- Triballi (as Triballi) - Enemy
- Getae (as Getae) - Enemy
- Pelion (as Illyrians) - Enemy
- Taulantians (as Illyrians) - Enemy
Get Rich Quick
- Autariatan Army (as Illyrians) - Enemy
- Autariatan Cities (as Illyrians) - Enemy
- Autariatan Villages (as Illyrians) - Enemy
The Cilician Gates
- Cilicians (as Cilicians) - Enemy → Potential Ally
The City at the End of the World
- Royal Scythian Army (as Scythians) - Enemy
- Scythian Raiders (as Scythians) - Enemy
- Scythian Villages (as Scythians) - Enemy
Wrath
- Mountain Cossaeans (as Cossaeans) - Enemy
- Desert Cossaeans (as Cossaeans) - Enemy
- Hill Cossaeans (as Cossaeans) - Enemy
- Plains Cossaeans (as Cossaeans) - Enemy

In-game dialogue language[]

The Thracians' voicelines are a loose reconstruction of the Thracian language, a poorly attested and extinct Indo-European language, which borrows from Phrygian and ancient Greek, adapted with appropriate sound shifts.^[2] The Thracian Priestess and King never speak.

The Greek transliteration is mainly based on the Neo-Phrygian alphabet with small adjustments.^{[note 1]}

Note: All voicelines are marked with asterisks (*), indicating that they are hypothetical reconstructions based on academic sources, and not necessarily perfectly accurate representations of the historical Thracian language.

Villager

Military

Bibliography

Brixhe, Cl., and A. Panayotou (1994). Le thrace. In: Langues indo-européennes. Paris, 179–203.
Brixhe, Cl. (2004). Corpus des inscriptions paléo-phrygiennes: Supplément II. Kadmos 43:1–130.
Detschew, D. (1957). Die thrakischen Sprachreste. Wien (2. Aufl. 1976).
Detschew, D. (1960). Charakteristik der thrakischen Sprache. Linguistique balkanique 2, 146–213.
Hämmig, A.E. (2013). Nevotan niptiyan, die Fluchformel der Stele von Vezirhan. Indogermanische Forschungen, 118, 125–154.
Matzinger, J. (2016). Die altbalkanischen Sprachen. (Überarbeitete und erweiterte Fassung). Wien.
Obrador Cursach, B. (2020). The Phrygian Language. Leiden / Boston. Russu, I. (1969). Die Sprache der Thrako-Daker. Bucureşti.
Schmid, W. P. (1987). Zur Thrakischen Grabinschrift aus Kölmen. Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung, 100, 351-357.
Tomaschek, W. 1894: Die alten Thraker. Eine ethnologische Untersuchung. II. Die Sprachreste. Wien.
Velkova, Ž. (1986). The Thracian Glosses. Contribution to the Study of the Thracian Vocabulary. Amsterdam.
Влахов, К. (1976). Тракийски лични имена. Фонетико-морфологични проучвания (= Studia Thracica 2). София.
Yanakieva, Sv. (2018). The Thracian Language. Orpheus: Journal of Indo-European and Thracian Studies 25, 26-68.

AI player names[]

When playing a random map game against the computer, the player may encounter any of the following Thracian AI characters.

Langaros
Cotys
Oloros
Charnabon
Cothelas
Teres
Sitalkes
Spartacus
Seuthes
Syrmos

Trivia[]

The civilization icon is a pelte shield.
- This is the first (and to date the only) Chronicles civilization whose icon is not round.
The Thracians are among the ancestors of the Bulgarians, who are featured in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, as many Thracians would be assimilated into the Southern Slavs and Bulgars during the Late Antiquity and early medieval periods.
The Thracians are one of the first two civilizations in Age of Empires II, the other being the Macedonians, that have access to Parthian Tactics and Cavalry Archers, but are unable to upgrade their Cavalry Archers to Heavy Cavalry Archers.
According to CaptureAge, a linguistic expert was hired for the reconstruction for the Thracian in-game voice lines.^[2]
The Thracians borrow elements from various Indo-European ethnic groups from ancient times. The architecture set the Thracians use has Hellenistic elements, while the in-game dialogue is influenced by reconstructions of the Phrygian language. Additionally, the Thracians are used as a stand-in civilization for various minor Indo-European cultures in the campaign (i.e. Scythians, Cossaeans, Illyrians, Triballi, etc.)
- Apart from their playable appearance, every appearance of the Thracians in the Alexander the Great campaign has their civilization name changed to represent a non-Thracian people (with the possible exception of the Triballi, whom some ancient writers believed to be a Thracian tribe).

Gallery[]

Thracians overview (AoE2)

Notes[]

↑ The in-game Thracian language phonology contains the fricatives /ʃ/ and /d̠ʒ/, while Phrygian does not. One plausible approach is using the archaic Greek letters Ϻ (san) and Ͷ (tsan), respectively, to represent these, but neither letter has been found in Phrygian or Thracian inscriptions. Thus, the final transliteration uses letters sigma and zeta, without adding diacritical marks.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 Attested in Phrygian oaths: με κε οι τοτοσσειτι Βας βεκος (Let Bas not give him bread)
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 Attested in Phrygian oaths: τιτετικμενος ειτου ας βαταν (Let him be accursed by Bas)

References[]

↑ Pre-Order Chronicles: Alexander the Great for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition on ageofempires.com
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 Comment by CaptureAge on a post on Reddit

Civilizations and technology trees in Chronicles

Battle for Greece
Achaemenids Technology tree	Athenians Technology tree	Spartans Technology tree

Alexander the Great
Macedonians Technology tree	Thracians Technology tree	Puru Technology tree

[3] The in-game Thracian language phonology contains the fricatives /ʃ/ and /d̠ʒ/, while Phrygian does not. One plausible approach is using the archaic Greek letters Ϻ (san) and Ͷ (tsan), respectively, to represent these, but neither letter has been found in Phrygian or Thracian inscriptions. Thus, the final transliteration uses letters sigma and zeta, without adding diacritical marks.

[Move_5-4] 2.0 ^2.1 Attested in Phrygian oaths: με κε οι τοτοσσειτι Βας βεκος (Let Bas not give him bread)

[Move_6-5] 3.0 ^3.1 Attested in Phrygian oaths: τιτετικμενος ειτου ας βαταν (Let him be accursed by Bas)

[1] Pre-Order Chronicles: Alexander the Great for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition on ageofempires.com

[ThracianLanguage-2] 2.0 ^2.1 Comment by CaptureAge on a post on Reddit

[1]

[2]

[note 1]

[note 2]

[note 3]