[WIP] Alternate History Civilizations

This thread will follow my development of Alternate History civilizations. They will likely not make sense, since the Alternate history explanations will likely be brief and not go deep into the depths of all the things that needed to happen and not happen.
I don't want any of that "it makes no sense, because THIS happened", since Alternate History requires a suspension of disbelief to happen. If THIS happened in reality, then it DIDN'T happen in my Alternate History.


Now thats done, lets take a look at my first Civs.

Divided Japan.
To be brief, in a situation where no Atomic Bomb was used, the Americans and Russians invade Japan in a devastating battle. In the end, Japan falls, the Emperor is overthrown and the nation is divided, similar to post-war Germany, into North and South Japan. Both of these civs are going to be massive stereotypes of Communist and Capitalist ideology.

• The Federal Republic of Japan in the south.
  - The Liberal Party was put in power by the United States of America, Shigeru Yoshida was made leader with his pro-American and pro-British ideals and his knowledge of Western societies. This would lead the Liberal Party to last much longer than it did in reality.
  - There is a Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and South Japan.
  - The Liberal Party focused on rebuilding the economy after the devastating defeat in WW2, but the cooperation with American Occupation Forces allowed for them to focus entirely on growth as opposed to a military.
  - Its territory is made up of Chūbu, Chūgoku, Kantō, Kansai, Kyushu, and Shikoku.
• The People's Republic of Japan in the North.
  - The Japanese Communist Party was put in power by the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China due to shared ideology and with Stalin's support Sanzo Nosaka was made leader.
  - They did not advocate violence, and they wanted to achieve the complete restoration of Japanese Sovereignty. They want Japan to be neutral and non-aligned. Because of this the Soviet Union kept out of North Japan's affairs and avoided stationing military units for too long after helping put them in power.
  -The JCP hope to one day unite Japan but through democracy, as opposed to a violent war.
  - Its territory is made up of Tōhoku and Hokkaido.

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North Japan
Sanzo Nosaka
Sapporo
UA: Interests of the People - 50% of your Civilization's excess Happiness is added each turn to the amount of Culture that may be spent on Social Policies. - Keeping the population happy will make them more likely to accept the social reforms that North Japan is putting in place.

UU: Shunei - Has less combat strength then the Infantry it replaces but has a bonus while on or adjacent to a road or railroad. When stationed in a city it produces +1 happiness and +1 production in that city. - Shunei is the word for National Guard and it represents the defensive stance that North Japan takes.

UI: Transport Station
Unlocked at railroads and may only be built on road tiles, can't be built adjacent to each other. costs 1 maintenance. In addition to converting all adjacent roads to railroads, the transport station will generate +1 culture and production per each tile it converted, and will generate +1 of these yields if built on a city connection. - Represents the industrialisation and commercialisation of transport and infastructure in North Japan.


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South Japan
Shigeru Yoshida
Tokyo

UA: Yoshida Doctrine - Trade Routes sent to other civs that share an ideology increase Gold and Production yield in all you cities by 10% (max 50%). Gain one free Military unit when you enter a Declaration of Friendship, and an additional two when you enter a Defensive Pact. South Japan is heavily reliant on foreign policy to rebuild post-war Japan, focusing on economy rather the military, and relying on the US for military defense.

UU: Foreign Garrison - Available with the Freedom Ideology and purchasable with gold, has +10% combat strength while you have a Declaration of Friendship and an additional 10% combat strength while you have a Defensive Pact. - The US takes care of security and military defense in North Japan while it recovers. These are US soldiers stationed in Japan.

UB: Trade Complex - Replaces the Stock Exchange and its bonuses. Contains a Merchant specialist and increases gold from incoming trade by 3. Decreases the gold cost of purchasing units, buildings and tiles by 5% per incoming trade route. - Representing the skyscrapers and trade centers that would be inspired by western infastructure and architecture.


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As a general overview of the two nations -
North Japan - Peaceful isolationists. Attempting to rebuild Japan using social and economic reforms. Want full Japanese Sovereignty, believing the Americans to be too involved in Japan's business. Their isolationist style and communist views has led South Japan and America to view them as more of a threat then they are, despite the army being purely built for defense in fear that South Japan will try to stop their expansion.
South Japan - Led by a political party which is heavily relying on International trade and western influence to cause a miracle change in Japanese economy and make it stronger then before. Despite the fact the US is their only form of military defense, they say that they have full Sovereignty. The US have a strong military presence due to their fear of North Japan, since the Soviet Union was who put them in power.

But neither side is entirely innocent of being total *****s to each other.

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More to come, and ideas to be finalised, but i'm definetley excited to start this project.

So happy to see another alt history project!

I love the concept of alt history civs and a divided Japan is a very interesting scenario to imagine. However, I think the current designs are kind of bland, in both abilities and names. I'll offer my criticism on both designs:

North Japan:

The UA could be more interesting since I think the second half is pretty lame. How about about something that reflects the peoples will more? Like some kind of system where every city can demand that you adopt a social policy from a certain branch and if you do so a WLTKD starts in that city and you get a culture refund based on the number of cities (or citizens) supporting that decision. Idk, it would be harder to do but that UA name makes me think that there's some interesting potential for this city.

Also, in the present decision there doesn't seem to be any way to adopt policies more easily, which I think is a disadvantage for a civ based around policies, or at least one whose UA benefits more adopting several policies. Perhaps the UB or UU could provide some sort of policy boost or the UA could be reworked to facilitate policy acquisition. The UU looks too bland at this movement in time. The idea of a military unit based on the People's Liberation Army of China could probably have some more interesting features. I like the idea of the Transportation Station, it's certainly something different and does fit in nicely with the idea of an infrastructure based civ.

Also, they're a democratic communist country? If I'm reading that right then there's certainly a lot of interesting directions in which the design could go as they would be a really big oddball in the communist world.

South Japan:

Once again, I feel something more interesting could be done here. Maybe the civ could have a stronger focus on foreign intervention/assistance. Like maybe a bonus from Defensive Pacts or from friendly units in your territory. Could be a system where your allies take care of your defenses while you take control of the economy/infrastructure. I think the Ministry is kind of a boring name for the UB but I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. I do think that the infrastructure bonus is a good idea for it. I think that the UU might not be necessary at all if a system where allies were in charge of your defenses was implemented. I feel like I have an idea, but I'll have to flesh it out.

Anyway, I certainly think this is an interesting project! Especially these two civs. Now that I'm thinking about it, they're actually very interesting. Two civs based on infrastructure, but they do it in different ways. I feel like there's plenty of potential for them and I'll share any ideas I come up with that could help out.

This alternate history keeps making me want to see Armored Fighting Walkers from the Ring of Red video game...

Gotta agree with the others, that looks like an interesting project. So I took the liberty of editing your designs as bit...

People's Republic of Japan
UA: People's interests
Occupied cities do not enter anarchy upon conquest and construct any building that you destroyed upon conquest faster per each social policy you adopt. Upon getting enough culture for a social policy, there's a chance you'll get it off free, increasing with each city you own.

UU: Shunei
Replaces infantry. In adition to being cheaper and weaker(60 ), it is automatically spawned when you conquer a city. Has the "Nash control" promotion, which makes it heal and heal cities when its adjacent to them.

UI: Transport station
Unlocked at railroads and may only be built on road tiles, never adjacent to each other. In addition to converting all adjacent roads to railroads and costing only 1 maintenance, the transport station will generate +1 culture and production per each tile it converted, and will generate +1 of these yields if built on a city connection.

South Japan
UA: Renovation
+5 gold, food and production from trade routes sent to civilization following your ideology and city states allied with them. National wonders grant +4 of their yields and will also increase them by 10% empire wide per each trade route sent to their city(max. 30%).

UU: Protective Garrison
Replaces great war infantry but is unlocked with ideology choice rather than with a certain tech. Becomes 5% cheaper and 5% stronger for every city state ally and friendly civilizations. Rather than being obsolete, gains extra strength equal to the strongest infantry unit available.

UB: Investing grounds
Replaces stock exchange. Instead of its effects, it contains one engineer specialist and increases the gold from incoming trade routes for both civilizations by 3, and from outgoing trade routes by 2. Increases the yields of the city by 5% per each outgoing and 10% per each incoming trade route.

Explanation:
The way I see it, northern Japan represents a nationalist\ communist country, which somehow end up being pretty peaceful. The UA is suppose to represent their idea of unifying Japan(well, I couldn't think of nay other way to represent that) and the policies they took in order to rparo the damage done to it. The UU name means "National guard".

Southern Japan is supposed to represent a civ influenced by the west. I imagine that such a civ will be a target for american companies to expand into, hence the investing grounds. The UA's second part is supposed to represent the whole ministries idea, and the UA is supposed to help you defend your civilization when you really begin to prosper.

Natan35 said:

Gotta agree with the others, that looks like an interesting project. So I took the liberty of editing your designs as bit...

People's Republic of Japan
UA: People's interests
Occupied cities do not enter anarchy upon conquest and construct any building that you destroyed upon conquest faster per each social policy you adopt. Upon getting enough culture for a social policy, there's a chance you'll get it off free, increasing with each city you own.

UU: Shunei
Replaces infantry. In adition to being cheaper and weaker(60 ), it is automatically spawned when you conquer a city. Has the "Nash control" promotion, which makes it heal and heal cities when its adjacent to them.

UI: Transport station
Unlocked at railroads and may only be built on road tiles, never adjacent to each other. In addition to converting all adjacent roads to railroads and costing only 1 maintenance, the transport station will generate +1 culture and production per each tile it converted, and will generate +1 of these yields if built on a city connection.

South Japan
UA: Renovation
+5 gold, food and production from trade routes sent to civilization following your ideology and city states allied with them. National wonders grant +4 of their yields and will also increase them by 10% empire wide per each trade route sent to their city(max. 30%).

UU: Protective Garrison
Replaces great war infantry but is unlocked with ideology choice rather than with a certain tech. Becomes 5% cheaper and 5% stronger for every city state ally and friendly civilizations. Rather than being obsolete, gains extra strength equal to the strongest infantry unit available.

UB: Investing grounds
Replaces stock exchange. Instead of its effects, it contains one engineer specialist and increases the gold from incoming trade routes for both civilizations by 3, and from outgoing trade routes by 2. Increases the yields of the city by 5% per each outgoing and 10% per each incoming trade route.

Explanation:
The way I see it, northern Japan represents a nationalist\ communist country, which somehow end up being pretty peaceful. The UA is suppose to represent their idea of unifying Japan(well, I couldn't think of nay other way to represent that) and the policies they took in order to rparo the damage done to it. The UU name means "National guard".

Southern Japan is supposed to represent a civ influenced by the west. I imagine that such a civ will be a target for american companies to expand into, hence the investing grounds. The UA's second part is supposed to represent the whole ministries idea, and the UA is supposed to help you defend your civilization when you really begin to prosper.

Click to expand...

I do really like those designs actually. I did struggle to do mine, and i went through multiple ideas and ended up just publishing my thread without finalising because i needed sleep. But North Japan is supposed to be pacifist. Its based on the real life Japanese Communist Party and they hate wars and nuclear weaponry. They believe in a democratic revolution.

However, i do think Yoshida Doctrine should be the UA name for South Japan.


As a general overview of the two nations (i put this in the OP as well) -
North Japan - Peaceful isolationists. Attempting to rebuild Japan using social and economic reforms. Want full Japanese Sovereignty, believing the Americans to be too involved in Japan's business. Their isolationist style and communist views has led South Japan and America to view them as more of a threat then they are, despite the army being purely built for defense in fear that South Japan will try to stop their expansion.
South Japan - Led by a political party which is heavily relying on International trade and western influence to cause a miracle change in Japanese economy and make it stronger then before. Despite the fact the US is their only form of military defense, they say that they have full Sovereignty. They have a strong military presence due to their fear of North Japan, since the Soviet Union was who put them in power.

But neither side is entirely innocent of being total *****s to each other.

I saw your changes.... I see some problems:

With North Japan, you have an OP civ(whose UA is identical to an aesthetics social policy) With a useless UU(sorry, but 1 production is meaningless in the late game)

About the Southern Japan design: I do like the UA(though are the units permanent?), but the UB seems a bit... Weak? And I quite likes the whole ministries focus, national wonders focus fits a supposedly tall civ... Oh, and I'm not fan of the Freedom only UU.