A look back: Norse Shores

For your convenience(And mine), I have revamped the way ALB posts will look from now on.
-OVERVIEW-
This is one of the shots included in the E3 2001 press kit. This is the only shot where the wild horse can be seen. The terrain in this screenshot have been kept ever since.
-GAIA-
-Horse: Like in the original Age of Empires, ES planned to include wild horses in the game. Just like in the first game, it was eventually taken out. This screenshot show only two types, though there may have been more, the brown and yellow colors. Whether the horses were merely a source of food and decoration or something bigger, we'll never know.

-Fish: The original fish(herring and sardine, though there may have been more, were very small, if you look hard enough, you can find them swimming in the shallows. For a while this was kept until they were made bigger and more noticeable.

-Pine Trees: Their whole texture and model was changed, the snow texture on some of the trees was changed because it wasn't realistic enough.

-HUMAN UNITS-
-Norse Hero: A possible premature version of the huskarl, the hero was actually kept till stage three, but was only seen in one shot during that stage(ES does tries to hide units they aren't 100% sure on.). The hero for the norse has a small sword and carries a flag like the other two heroes. This is what inspired the flagbearer from the campaign.

-MISC.-
Runestones and rock symbols: Amazingly, these two survived to final version, so they don't need explanation. The runestone's texture looks a bit different for some reason.