Phantoms of Pre-Columbia: Native Civilizations of America, Asia, and Australia

I'd like to announce a new project that I'll be working on, suggested to me by Eli Khaliif, who'll be helping me make it. This project is called "Phantoms of Pre-Columbia" and will be centered around the Native Peoples of the Americas, Asia, and Australia. The project is in the very early stages of development and any help with Lua, design, art, or anything else is greatly appreciated. We have several civs on our minds currently but most are lacking a design or focus right now. As we do more research we'll come up with some ideas for them and future civs. Right now here are the civs we have planned and what we have so far:

Apache

Leader: Geronimo

UA: Desert Raiders: All units gain a 20% combat bonus when attacking during the first 5 turns of a war. Cities being razed generate no unhappiness and give gold every turn they are being razed.

UU: Renegade: Replaces Rifleman. +1 movement, ignores rough terrain movement penalties, and no movement cost when pillaging.

UU: War Band: Replaces Cavalry. +1 movement. Heals 25 HP when capturing a civilian unit. 20% more combat strength from flanking bonuses.

I want the Apache to be about quick offensive wars. The UA lets you do a lot of damage early on in a war and encourages you to raze unwanted cities as they will not hurt your empire's happiness and will help fund your war effort. The UU also helps with that as it is very fast.

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Seminole

Leader: Osceola

UA: Unconquered: Marshes act as forts when your units defend on them in your territory. Fortified units gain 25% more defense from terrain.

UI: Chickee: Available at Construction. May only be built on marshes or tiles with freshwater. +1 food, production, and culture. Increases to +2 when built on a marsh. +2 gold and culture after flight.

Second Unique: ?

The Seminole are definitely about defense and making marshes useful. Once again, I can't think of a second unique so any suggestion are welcomed.

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Taino

Leader: Agueybana II

UA: Slash and Burn: Workers clear Jungles/Forests and build Farms/Plantations 50% faster. +1 faith from farms and plantations and +1 food if they were built on cleared Forest or Jungle.

UGP: Cacique: Replaces Great General. When garrisoned, costs no maintenance and increases food production by 10%. Combat bonus to nearby units is 50% greater during defensive wars. 20% of your culture contributes to Cacique generation.

UB: Batey: Replaces Colosseum. +2 faith. +1 culture for every two citizens.

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Yupik

Leader: Apanuugpak

Yupik are another group that we haven't gotten much work on yet. They could receive some bonus to cities on different landmasses as they live on both sides of the Bering Strait. A Great Work focus could also work. Possible uniques are the qasgiq (community center) and the Sugpiaq dancer.

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Anangu

Leader:?

UA: Dream Time: Gain Golden Age points from acquiring new tiles. During a Golden Age, Natural Wonders and Holy Sites yield +2 Culture and an additional +1 Culture for every adjacent desert tile.

UU: Tingarri: Replaces Missionary. Moves twice as fast on desert tiles. May build weaker Holy Sites (+2 Faith instead of +6).

UB: Bora Ring: Replaces Shrine. +1 Faith and +1 Culture. Increases the speed of border expansion by 25% of the city's Faith output.

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Ryukyu Kingdom

Leader: Sho Shin

UA: The Three Mountains: Ryukyu and their ally gain an extra trade route upon making a Declaration of Friendship. Gain 10% more Science from science agreements for each trade route you have with the other civ.

UGP: Yukatchu: Replaces Great Scientist. Upon being expending, gain a sum of culture that is directly proportional to the total culture per turn of all civs that have a Declaration of Friendship with you.

UB Gusuku: Replaces Castle. +2 Culture. One Scientist Specialist slot that when filled provides an additional +2 Culture.

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Moros (Philippines)

Leader: Muwallil Wasit I

UA: ?

UU: Juramentado: Replaces Swordsman. Fights at full strength even when damaged. Upon being killed, gain Faith equal to the amount of XP this unit gained.

UU: Proa: Replaces Galley. ?

I just starting reading about Filipino ethnic groups and the Moros seem really interesting. I think they should specialize in defensive wars and faith.

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Other planned civs that have minimal work done so far are:
Navajo
Chukchi
Yakama
Utes
Lakota
Hopi
Visayans
Yaghan
Kaweshkar
Yolgnu
Native Tasmanians

Strawpoll for next Civ: http://strawpoll.me/4508465

Great to see the thread up! You should put it in your signature!

I'm glad to see someone showing interest in native Americans! If I could offer a suggestion, Leugi made plans for lots of these and he might want to work with yo, offer you help, or accept help, or something. Also Seminole might be coming from More Civs? But I am glad to see that the modding community is starting to fill in Africa and the pre-columbian world.

The gator icon is amazing though.

Of course it's up to you, but here's the Taino and Apache concepts I had on my to-do list:

Taíno
Agüeybaná II
Slash and Burn. Workers clear Jungle/Forest and build farms 50% faster; farms built on cleared Jungle or Forest tiles produce +1 food.
Boriken
Colours - SlateGray and Gainsboro
Unique Unit: Cacique. Replaces Great General. Cost: N/A. Combat: N/A. Movement: 2. Expend this unit in another civilization’s territory during peace-time for a diplomacy boost, or in the territory of a City-State for an Influence boost.
Unique Building: Batey. Replaces Colosseum. Cost: 100. Maintenance: 1. Also adds +2 Faith.
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Apache
Cochise
The Enemy. Apache units steal Food when they attack a city. When peace is declared, Apache units in (formerly) enemy territory split in two; one unit at 50% health returns to Apache territory, and the other half remains in the former enemy’s territory as barbarians at 50% health.
Chiricahua
Colours - Orange and Blue
Unique Unit: War Band. Replaces Cavalry. Cost: 225. Combat: 34. Movement: 4. This unit automatically kills any civilian units stacked with military units it attacks.
Unique Unit: Shadow People. Replaces Rifleman. Cost: 225. Combat: 35. Movement: 2. Unit ignores terrain costs and will gain a Scout-exclusive Promotion when it levels up in addition to the standard melee promotions.

Wow that Apache UA is really interesting! However, I'll probably stick with some version of the UA I have now because it's for me to program and I also want the Apache to be about quick offense. Thanks for the War Band suggestion, I'll probably use it now! I think your Taino design could help me formulate some ideas. The biggest problem I have with it is that none of the uniques have synergy with each other. I'll keep your ideas in mind though when I start working on them.

Didn't bane_ have plans for an Apache civ? Though yeah, IIRC ldvhl was part of Bane_'s team, so maybe that's the design that's been presented here.

Also, I see plenty of civs that have been done or are in development elsewhere already. Ain't you interested in some other civs further south instead? Yaghan or Kaweshkar maybe?

I just posted the first few ones that Eli suggested or that I thought of. I'll obviously expand upon the civs that I currently have here. Also, since I just found out that the civs you suggested are Chilean, would you be interested in helping out with them? I'm not as knowledgeable in South American natives as I am North American ones and since you live there I'm guessing you know a decent amount about them like how I know about the Taino and Seminole.

I'd love to, that's why I suggested them in the first place.

Ok awesome! Do you have a design in mind already?

I have a halfcooked idea for the Yaghan, mostly brought by GPuzzle's ideas + my own, and something more concrete for the Kaweshkar, though there I'm more troubled by historical research.

Oddly enough, music choices are kinda easy here.

Feel free to post it here or add me on Steam so we can discuss it. My steam is the same as my username here.

Yaghan

Leader: Jemmy Button
UA: At the End of the World: Choose from either a food or production bonus upon improving sea resources or resources in Tundra and Snow.
UU: Anan: Replaces Work Boat. Doesn't consume when improving resources, and has a small ranged attack.
UB:Akalli: Replaces Lighthouse. +1 Food from Sea Tiles. +1 Food and Production from Sea Resources and Camps.

Mostly born out of here, kinda too monothematic.

Kaweshkar

Leader: ???
UA: Life at Sea: Civilians lose no movement point from moving between land and coastal tiles. +2 Culture from Improved Sea Resources.
UU: ???
UB: ???

Work in progress, as I never bothered to do more research on them, tomorrow I may be able to come up with something, particularly if I find my teacher who's... more of an expert on the theme.

Ok so I just came up with a design for the Taino:

Taino

Leader: Agueybana II

UA: Slash and Burn: Workers clear Jungles/Forests and build Farms/Plantations 50% faster. +1 faith from farms and plantations and +1 food if they were built on cleared Forest or Jungle.

UGP: Cacique: Replaces Great General. When garrisoned, costs no maintenance and increases food production by 10%. Combat bonus to nearby units is 50% greater during defensive wars. 20% of your culture contributes to Cacique generation.

UB: Batey: Replaces Colosseum. +2 faith. +1 culture for every two citizens.

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The base of the design comes from Idvhl. I added faith from farms and plantations because the Taino's main god was the God of Cassava (or Yuca as they called it and as it's called in Spanish). They had other minor gods that had to do with fertility, water, and things of that nature also. I changed the Cacique quite a bit. Since the Taino were peacefully people I wanted to give him a peace time bonus and make him more effective when defending Taino territory. The Cacique is also acquired through culture to further represent their peacefulness. I added +1 culture for every 2 citizens to the Batey because it was where a ball game of the same name occurred which had two teams.

It still needs some tweaking. Right now my biggest concern is with the uniques possibly being OP. Is 20% too much for Cacique generation and is the UB too powerful?

I'm curious as to why you've included Asian civs in the title?

Edit: whoops, well anything other than what's listed then?

By Asian I refer to Siberians or Turkic peoples who lived in Russian territory today before the Russians got there. Current examples are the Yupik and Chukchi. There are several more that can be included like the Bashkirs, Chechens, or Uighurs. I've also been thinking about a Bedouin or Berber civ. Native Taiwanese people could also be done. It's just a matter of me being able to find good research about these groups and more.

Happy to see the Taino there. For the UA, the +1 faith from plantations is already one of the parts of the UA for Leugi's Haiti civ. I think the Taino UA is still strong enough even if you remove that part, especially because +1 faith from farms can have quite an impact in the early game.

Looks good to me! Only number I'm curious about is the +1 culture per 2 pop, which could be really, really powerful in late game.

Also to garner more hype for these civs, Osceola's leaderscreen will be done by Doctor McGann who has done some magnificent leaderscreens already for Our World.

Also for the Yupik, I'd suggest Uyaquq as a leader, mainly because he's the only notable Yupik I could find on the internet. He did help invent a writing system for his native language, so he's probably worthy enough to lead a civ.

Well, Gedemo went with Apanuugpak