Thank you. I'm afraid that some people may find these kinds of posts boring and unnecessarily long, but nonetheless I do think that discussing these additions should be done with enough detail to make them more unique and interesting. Besides, a little more info can't hurt anybody and also could give people more material to discuss the topic.
Quite the opposite. I think these kind of posts are one of the most interesting.
Also, have to say that you did a great job porting the civ to RFC mechanics and in overall your version pretty much represent accurately many aspects of the Zimbabwe and gives a unique gameplay for them. My suggestions here are based upon yours, introducing other historical aspects to turn their representation even more accurate.
Yeah, I get, and honestly understand why you chose the Kingdom of Mapungubwe as starting date using the wiki info. Truth be told, I think that the only hard requirement for their spawn date is that they should start after the Swahili city-states (I have an impression that they are a very strong candidate for addition, but otherwise we can say about their existent Indy version), since the state-building process in the region is directly connected with the commercial links with these cities. My suggestion of a later spawn (and honestly, I do prefer earlier spawns, since they give more time to play!) is just because the really big and important cultural shift/leap among the Shona is around late 12th century. In this sense, it seems that we have more similarity and cultural continuity between Mapungubwe and the earlier Leopard's Kopje culture than there is between the first and Zimbabwe. Besides, as I have said, starting as Zimbabwe means starting with GZ as first city, while Mapungubwe would start few tiles north.
I agree that they should spawn after the Swahili civ if that one is included. (In my modcomp Swahile spawns in 960 AD, the start of the Kilwa Sultanate) Both options are valid choice IMO.
The interesting thing in all this story is that Mutapa and Rozvi historically really tried to monopolize the gold and ivory trade, though only the latter had some success in doing so (because it was a more centralized state and most gold sources were already exhausted giving indigenous mining techniques). I personally love your idea on this UHV because it really is a unique trade UHV. Truth be told, your three UHVs reflect arguably the achievements of the three main Shona kingdoms: the impressive stone cities of Zimbabwe, the complex commercial aspects and focus of Mutapa, and finally the successful anti-Portuguese efforts of Rozvi.
Nice to see that the UHV is even more accurate than I thought. One minor concern is that the UHV does require competition of other civs to be interesting. I think there are currently to few civs in Africa to make it interesting enough. But that shoudn't be a real problem because I think a couple of African civs will be added.
Just to reinforce my arguments for the addition of the Kanem-Bornu Empire, I'd like to show some maps (all taken from Unesco's General History of Africa) that can help us with the city names in the region. Btw, the maps below are in Portuguese (I looked the online English versions but they didn't had better quality), so I apologize for any inconveniences, but I'm here to answer any doubts.
SpoilerKanem Empire, 12th century :
The same reference says that Manan/Matan (the original KB capital) was somewhere north from Djimi, and that the change is an evidence of the sedentarization of the earlier Kanem.
SpoilerBornu Empire and Caravan Routes, 18th century :
Obs: Gazargamu is the same city as Ngazargamu, the capital of KB after the empire's core shifted to Bornu.
SpoilerBornu and Sokoto Caliphate, 19th century :
Again, I apologize for the map quality, but what I'd like to show here is the location of Kukawa (the last KB capital) in relation to other cities in Hausaland/Sokoto Caliphate.
Lastly about KB, I'd like to point other few options for UUs and UBs that I've found in the same bibliographic references of the above. For UUs, during the medieval Kanem Empire the army was divided in two main forces: the ‘asākīr, which were the permanent and professional warriors, and the djūnūd, the mobilized soldiers for seasonal military campaigns. The names seems to be in Arabic (in fact, these names are recorded by Arab geographers) and honestly I still prefer the Iron Helmets as UUs, but is a nice option to have, particularly if we want a cavalry UU given its major role on KB military. For UBs, I found some interesting references for the later part of the empire: Alooma's military fortified camps were also referred as Ribāt. The name seems to be applied not to these specific building complexes but also for all sorts of Islamic small fortifications in North Africa in general. Dandal or Dendal was the main square or street in the later Kanuri cities. These same cities were also protected by a defense system that included the Garu (and earth-built bulwark) and Belaga (a kind of trench). Likewise as in the case of UUs, I'd stick with my first option in the older post (the Wasiliram), since it looks more thematically appropriate, but is never a bad thing having more options.
One last thing that I got thinking is about another possible new African civ: the Kingdom of Madagascar. It lasted relatively for a long time (wiki states 1540-1897), represents an unique mixture of African and Southeast Asian peoples, we have some modcomps for them in the download database, and we have a reasonable information to design them in RFC mechanics. The only downside is that the kingdom was really confined to Madagascar (so in the new map they will be, at the best, a 3-city civ), but nevertheless is an idea. What are your thoughts?
One last thing that I got thinking is about another possible new African civ: the Kingdom of Madagascar. It lasted relatively for a long time (wiki states 1540-1897), represents an unique mixture of African and Southeast Asian peoples, we have some modcomps for them in the download database, and we have a reasonable information to design them in RFC mechanics. The only downside is that the kingdom was really confined to Madagascar (so in the new map they will be, at the best, a 3-city civ), but nevertheless is an idea. What are your thoughts?
Interesting idea. I would envision that Madagascar would be a civ with a gameplay different than the one of other (African) civs, similar how the gameplay of Polynesia is vastly different from any other civ. One could consider the limited area (almost an OCC) as one of the aspects that make the gameplay stand out from other civs. So personally I don't think that a limited area is a problem. It can be a feature what makes the gameplay of a certain civ unique.
I have thought about Madagascar before, but it's challenging for the reasons you mention. It appears that Madagascar has been largely isolated from most of Africa and the world for much of its history. The interesting aspect of its history is its internal unification, but that is hard to model at the scale of the mod.
I always think of civs in terms of UHV goals first because they usually supply you with an idea of what the experience of playing the civ would look like and how interesting and challenging it would be. Internal unification is hard to do, and the next big item in its history is the French colonisation. Goals that rely on AI civilisations being a sufficient threat are also not advisable. Maybe you could have a meme goal about never experiencing a plague, but I am drawing up short about them otherwise.
But I am open to more ideas. If you want to research them, I would be interested in reading your findings.
Yeah, finding a way to include Madagascar as interesting playable civ has these shortcomings. If anything else, they could be represented by an Indy Antananarivo (spawning ~ 1550 CE), just like we currently do with other polities like some of the Somali and Swahili city-states. Going in the same idea, I do kind of expect that we also add some Indy/Native cities to represent these minor African states, like Kano (in Hausaland/Northern Nigeria) and potentially the Luba, Lunda and Kitara kingdoms/empires in Central Africa (as brett0007 mentioned earlier in this thread) and perhaps even the infamous Zulu in this category.
I'll take a more deep look about Madagascar. Another option that I was thinking was the Ashanti Empire in West Africa (given their reputation in the military organization and their success in fending off several British invasions), but they seem less fitting for the mod giving how crowded the region already is (we have to think not only about local civs, Mali and potentially Songhai and Nigeria, but also the earlier European colonies).
I wouldn't mind having some of those mostly nomadic/warrior African civs playable but they don't start with any settlers. They can only have cities by invading other civs. Having the native Americans who are "barbarians" as well as those who spawn in Europe to give Rome problems could be playable as well, with this way. I think it would be fun.
Giving our recent discussion in this thread, I’d like to show (warning, long post incoming!) my findings for a possible Madagascar civ. I have to say that finding info about them was a little more challenging than the other civs (the wiki has surprisingly little, and other sources online are likewise not detailed), but nonetheless I’ve managed using those two main bibliographical sources that I’ve mentioned earlier in this thread (Unesco’s and Cambridge collections of African history). In short, I still agree with our earlier position that Madagascar have some issues to be a fun and unique game experience in our mod, but I think I’ve found info to at least offer some options to design the civ in RFC mechanics and to improve the area and its historical background if we go for an Indy/Native representation.
As we did before, first we have to define who is included in our Malagasy (yes, that is the demonym of the people from Madagascar and I also didn’t knew that before!) civilization. While we can agree that the civ more or less can include all historical Malagasy peoples, our focus here is on the main pre-colonial kingdoms. The most important of all, that basically united the island under the same banner in the 19th century, is the Imerina (or Merina) Kingdom, whose kings and queens were internationally recognized as rulers of all Madagascar. Nonetheless, the Imerina Kingdom only became the most powerful one on the island by the last years of the 18th century and before that there were a quite numerous kingdoms, confederations and tribes that coexisted in the island. The most important and powerful of these earlier polities were the Sakalava Kingdoms (both the initial empire and the successor Kingdoms of Ibonia [or Boina] and Menabe) on the western coast and the Betsimisaraka Confederation on the eastern coast. So, while the focus would be clearly in the Imerina and later Kingdom of Madagascar, the civ also can represent these other major polities in the island.
After defining who civilization encompasses, let's take a dive in Madagascar history, which fortunately will help us to design the civ.
SpoilerHistorical aspects of Madagascar :
Madagascar was one of the last larger landmasses on Earth to be settled by humans and its quite difficult to describe more precisely its earlier history (pre-1500 CE), giving scarce written accounts and how recent and small-scaled are the recent archeological research. The process of human colonization in the island (which conserved its pre-historic megafauna for much longer than anywhere in the world) occurred in several waves coming from distinct ethnic and cultural backgrounds, being an interesting melting pot of many civilizations that inhabited the areas around the Indian Ocean. In fact, the first migration wave was closely related to development of the Indian Ocean trade routes in the late antiquity. The earliest settlers seem to have be Austronesian peoples, coming from today Indonesia and there is linguistic and cultural evidence point specifically to a relation with the Ma'anyan peoples in Borneo; they probably migrated to Madagascar with their outrigger boats and canoes, probably searching for new products and navigating with the monsoons; Chinese accounts from 3rd to 9th centuries CE tell us about a similar (and very likely the same) peoples called Kun-lun that were prolific sailors and occasionally brought exotic products and black slaves to Chinese ports. By the 6th-7th centuries, the fall of Sassanid Persia and the emergence of the Islamic Caliphate disturbed the Indian Ocean trade, which directly affected Madagascar by isolating it from the main trade routes and introducing new competition. Curiously, these earlier Malagasy peoples seems to have reacted: some Arab accounts tell us about how peoples from al-Kamur (Comoros and Madagascar) launched a surprise attack, raiding much of modern Yemen and even briefly conquering Aden by early 8th century.
By the 10-12th centuries, much of the older commercial links in the Indian Ocean were resumed and Malagasy tribes increasingly traded with the Swahili city-states, particularly with the Sultanate of Kilwa. Some Swahili-Arab traders even established trade posts and even cities in northern Madagascar and thus a new influx of migrants and cultural influence occurred, giving rising to the Antemoro people, who even developed a writing system known as sorabe that uses the Arab script to transcribe Malagasy language.
Besides these Arab-Swahili migrants, new waves of Austronesian peoples came during the Middle Ages; some Arab scholars wrote between 10-14th centuries about how some peoples from Zalej (Sumatra or Java) raided East African ports looking for ivory, slaves and furs/pelts; other told us that some Khmer refugees settled in Madagascar fleeing from a Chinese invasion. This new influx of Austronesian migrants, many of them Indianized, seem to be somewhat related with the fortunes of the Srivijaya Empire. Finally, the last migrants were Bantu peoples from African continent, who crossed Mozambique Channel around 10th century and settled on the western coast of Madagascar, where they intermixed with the local population giving rise to the Sakalava people who retained many African influences in its religious and social practices.
By the time of Portuguese exploration in late 15th century, large migratory movements were already over (though migrations within the island were common in the following centuries). In the far north, they found some stone-built cities in Swahili-Arab style, some that even had their own sultan. The most important ones were Vohemar, then known as Iharana, and Massalagem (from Arabic Manzalājī, modern Mahajanga) on Nosy Manja islet, both quite connected with the Indian Ocean trade (particularly with Kilwa) and possibly as old as the 13th century. These were the only urbanized polities in Madagascar; the rainforests and the central plateau were inhabited by many tribes and small kingdoms, while the southern and more arid lands were populated by semi-nomad pastoralists. The Portuguese did establish a small settlement there (called Matatana, within modern Tôlanaro/Ft. Dauphin) and explored the land, but after discovering that the island was not particularly rich nor had large gold mines, they mostly ignored it afterwards.
Main pre-1500 archeological sites
Notes: Massalagem/Mahajanga location is in Langany in the map above. Also, while the map suggest several gold mining areas, all the sources that I've read usually say that there wasn't much gold in the island and most of it came from the continent, possibly from Zimbabwe and Mutapa.
Though the Portuguese didn’t colonize the island, their presence was felt giving how they disturbed and reorganized the Indian Ocean Trade during the 16th century. The once thriving Muslim cities faded away and the local tribes and chiefdoms, now largely isolated from outside influences, slowly developed as small kingdoms. By early 17th century, new European powers appeared in the region. Initially, the Dutch became the dominant power, replacing Portugal and seeing Madagascar as a strategic point to ensure the navigation between Europe and the East Indies. In the 1640s, the Dutch colonial governor of Mauritius (in the nearby Mascarene archipelago) pleaded to the East Indies Company to allow him establish fort in the Antongil bay (an excellent natural harbor), but he was dismissed. English ships also became a common sight, involved in the slave trade and often in piracy; some Puritans tried to establish a colony in Nosy Be, a small island in the northeast coast of Madagascar, but it was soon abandoned, and the English didn’t made much more colonial efforts. The most successful colonial venture was made by the French, who established themselves as the main European power by the second part of the century. They founded Fort-Dauphin in the south and remained there between 1643-1674. The increased European presence deeply affected the political and economic developments in Madagascar. The slave trade, which was already important before during the Swahili-Arab times, became the most valuable export of Madagascar, supplying European colonies in the Americas but mostly to the nearby colonies in the Mascarenes (Mauritius and Réunion/Bourbon), which also imported foodstuff and timber from the island.
The slaves were traded with the local Malagasy chiefdoms, who often received gunpower weapons as payment. The combination of these new sources of revenue and arms, the complex relations between the pastoralist chiefdoms in the south with French adventurers and soldiers (including marriages and punitive expeditions) and the ability of domestic mobilization of some small kingdoms in the western and eastern coasts of Madagascar were key elements for the emergence of larger kingdoms. One of these, the Sakalava, emerged as the most powerful polity in the western coast under king Andriandahifotsy, who conquered many small chiefdoms and polities and assimilated them. The Sakalava empire was divided after the king’s death and the regional hegemony was shared by the successor’s kingdoms of Iboina and Menabe. European observers were impressed with the Sakalava: Dutch sailors and explorers said that Iboina capital, Marovoay, was quite populous and had a larger palace than the governor at the Cape; they also noted how the Sakalava kings were able to quickly mobilize thousands of native warriors and even maintained a small but skilled musketeer force with some small cannons; besides, they praised their surveillance system, saying that it was impossible to disembark in Sakalava territory without being noticed.
By early-mid 18th century, the Sakalava kingdoms were in decline for reasons that we are not entirely sure. The legitimacy of their kings, based on a mixed African-Austronesian religious traditions, became trickier with the increased Muslim influence in the court and several consecutive successions of queens; in addition, these polities became increasingly dependent from the slave trade, which understandably sored their relations with neighboring polities and tribes. On the other side of the island, in the eastern coast, the more intense commercial relations with European colonies in the Mascarenes gave conditions to the rise of a new powerful polity: the Betsimisaraka Confederation, united by Ratsimilahoe, the son of an English pirate and a Malagasy mother. Like the Sakalava, the Betsimisaraka were excellent sailors, engaging in piracy and often raiding East African ports to obtain slaves. Their peak, however, lasted for little time: with the death of Ratsimilahoe and his immediate successors (some that were worldly-renowned slave traders), the confederation crumbled.
It is interesting to note that Ratsimilahoe’s pirate origins weren’t that uncommon in Madagascar, since by 17-18th centuries the island and surrounding seas were a safe haven for piracy. In fact, the legendary pirate colony of Libertalia was supposed to be in the northeast coast of the island, possibly in Antongil bay. Nonetheless, there is historical records of pirate settlements there, given that the heavy flow of ships and geographical features made the area very profitable for piracy.
The decline of the Sakalava and the Betsimisaraka leaved a power vacuum that soon was fulfilled by a rising kingdom in Madagascar’s central plateau, the Imerina. The Merina people was organized in a kingdom early, in late 16th century. The noble caste that ruled, named adriana, seems to have come from one of the later migrations of Austronesian peoples into Madagascar, moving into the more inland areas and conquering the native population known as vazimba – the name refers to the original inhabitants of the island. After its establishment, rooted in Austronesian traditions, the Imerina basically stood as a small kingdom largely isolated in the middle of the island for almost two centuries. By late 18th century, the original polity was divided in four kingdoms until a new and ambitious ruler called Andrianampoinimerina reunited them. While still small in territory, the Imerina Kingdom quickly turned in the most populous polity in the island, giving their abundant surplus of rice produced in swamps and waterways. When the king was in his deathbed, he urged his son, Radama, to conquer all lands until the sea.
Madagascar in 18th century and its main polities
Radama’s ascension happened in a crucial moment that offered him many opportunities. The once powerful Sakalava and Betsimisaraka were only shadows of their former kingdoms. Outside the island, the Napoleonic wars divided the Mascarenes into French (Bourbon/Réunion) and British (Mauritius) colonies. While the French claimed Madagascar – both for historical reasons but also because Réunion do not have a good natural harbor –, the British were anxious to avoid that the island fell into rival hands. Radama, after being contacted by an envoy of the British governor in Mauritius, agreed in establishing an alliance: he pledged to end the slave trade and allow the establishment of a missionary mission in exchange to be recognized as king of all Madagascar and receive advisors, guns, horses and uniforms to modernize his armies. With this new modernized force, Radama launched a successful campaign to conquer the island, starting with the key city/port of Tamatave; by the time of his early death at 35 years old, Radama had conquered 2/3 of the island.
Imerina's expansion in early 19th century
He was succeeded by his first wife (and relative) Ranavalona I, whose rule was marked by the consolidation of the earlier conquests while trying to preserve Madagascar cultural and political sovereignty against European imperial efforts. Thus, to reinforce her domestic authority, she supported the traditionalists in court and largely pursued an isolationist policy, though tried to modernize the economy with support of European renegades and adventurers – one of them, the French Jean Laborde, supervised the establishment of a military-industrial complex to produce weapons, ammunitions and small manufactures. Nonetheless, it was a difficult, complex and long process of modernization: the slave trade was finally suppressed only by the 1850s, urbanization was fairly limited (the only “true” cities were Antananarivo, the capital, and Tamatave, the main port, while the rest were small villages at the best), roads and bridges simply did not exist, and transportation of goods was done by porters on foot.
She was succeeded by a pro-Europe son, Radama II, but his rule lasted few years before being assassinated by the traditionalist faction. Afterwards, three queens ascended to the throne, however the grey eminence behind the power was the prime minister Rainilaiarivony that remained in office for little more than 30 years. The Malagasy policy became a mixture of trying to preserve its sovereignty and modernization, often taking a pro-Britain instance given increasingly French imperial ambitions and aggression. By the 1880s, the British raffled Madagascar into Africa’s split agreements, much for the Malagasy dismay. After two wars, France established a protectorate over Madagascar in 1895.
Spawn/Starting tile:
Considering the discussion above about the historical process of migrations and state-building in Madagascar, we can safely put the spawn of the civ in the 16th century, since it was during that time that the major migratory movements ended and the first kingdoms emerged from the earlier tribal organization, which included the first versions of the Imerina (the primary polity that the civ represents) and Sakalava kingdoms. A good compromise can be 1550 CE and the starting tile in Antananarivo (though it should be initially called Alasora or Analamanga, since Antananarivo was only properly founded in 1610-1625 [according the wiki] and several towns/villages/sacred places existed nearby that were the political center of the earlier Merina peoples).
Color/Flag:
None of the bibliographical sources that I’ve looked say much about national/religious/ethnic colors or symbols. The Imerina Kingdom did adopt a Western-styled flag by the 19th century, but honestly, I’m not much fond of it. The wiki page of the current Madagascar flag (that also shows several historical flags from Madagascar) say that white and red were traditional royal colors of the Merina and that green was related to the free peasants/commoners of the hova caste. Anyway, considering how we must be somewhat flexible regarding civ colors, I don’t have any strong opinion about it, so we can choose as we see more fit considering the civs more probable to be around. About the symbol, I think that we also have some liberty to take in account, choosing something easily identifiable with the island (like, for example, a lemur). If we want to look for something that has a more historical/cultural roots, I’d like to suggest the sampy, a traditional amulet that had religious, social and political meanings.
Leaders:
Focusing in the Imerina, we have as main candidates as leaders Ralambo (ruled c. 1575-1600), who is said to basically having created all the traditions and the institutions of the kingdom; then we have Andrianampoinimerina (c. 1787-1810), who was the ruler responsible in uniting the small Merina chiefdoms in a kingdom and laying down the way for future expansion; his son, Radama I (1810-1828), nicknamed “Napoleon of Madagascar” and known for both initiating a large-scale westernization of the Imerina and conquering most of the island; finally, his first wife and successor, Ranavalona I (1828-1861), whose rule was marked by an effort to strengthen her domestic authority and the reestablishment of the traditions to preserve Malagasy cultural and political sovereignty against European imperial ambitions. From the other main polities and as an alternative options, we have Andriandahifotsy (c. 1610-1658), who created the short-lived Sakalava Empire, and Ratsimilaho (c. 1712-1750), the son of an English pirate and a native mother who established the Betsimisaraka Confederation.
Narrowing down by looking which art assets are available, we do have an interesting option for Radama included in this modcomp, but things got trickier with the other possible LHs. I supposed that in lack of better alternatives we could look for generic-looking Austronesian, Polynesian and in a lesser extent Indonesian LHs. For favorite civics, I’ve think that most of the earlier ones can have Caste System (giving its role in the Malagasy traditional social organization) or Deification (giving how the cult of ancestors played a big role); Radama can have Conquest or Free Enterprise and Protestantism (taking as reference his military expansion, the most obvious option is the first one, but we may argue that wouldn’t have much use in game; the second may be my poor attempt to reference his pro-British and westernization policies that included allowing the coming of a British missionary mission that established schools, transcribed the Malagasy language in Latin alphabet and set some rudimentary industries; if not, we can always look for Monarchy) while Ranavalona could have Nationhood or Isolationism and no favorite religion.
UP:
Honestly, I’m getting a hard time to choose a good and interesting UP for Madagascar, so I’ll throw some ideas here based on the island history. The first idea, and it is the one that I think more representative for the civ, is an UP to represent how the Malagasy culture represent a unique cultural melting pot that includes Asian, African and European influences. In game terms, I think that some special culture bonus or feature could represent that, but the thing is that it probably wouldn’t be much useful for largely isolated island-based civ that shouldn’t experience much territorial expansion. Other idea is to give them a bonus food production/remove health penalty in rainforest/jungle tiles, representing the Merina ability to establish highly productive rice fields in swamps and waterways. Again, the issue here is how much this UP would be useful. Finally, we can go for a meme UP to stress the relative isolation of the island.
UU:
Kind of hard to find a reasonable option. Mods for Civ 4 respectively chose a unit called adriana [Grenadier] (which was actually the name of the noble caste for the Merina, who also served as warriors before 19th century) and menalamba [Spearman] (actually the name of an anticolonial uprising in the last years of 19th century led by the Sakalava people). Looking online for other mod versions of Madagascar for the newer civs, I’ve also found the name voromahery [Pikeman], but tbh I couldn’t get any reference for the name given that the page refers to a Malagasy article that I simply can’t understand!
So, going short, we have some issues here because there is no clear option to choose for it. For civilian UUs, perhaps a unique worker can be called hova, which is the name of the free commoners for the Merina, but I guess that this option is a kind of stretch (since the hova became politically powerful by being merchants and not exactly for their manual labors in agriculture). Regarding military units, I’ve also found quite little. Before the 16th century, most Malagasy warriors fought with simple spears and bows with pointed heads made of clay; it seems that iron weapons were uncommon besides coastal regions under Islamic/Swahili influence. By 18th century, iron-made weapons became common and most of native warriors used spears (assegai-type), javelins, bows, round-wooden shields and even small catapults and cutlasses. Besides, gunpower weapons (though most were obsolete or in poor condition) were also somewhat common, particularly in the coastal regions that were directly involved in trade with European powers. After the rise of Imerina, king Radama I modernized the army in European fashion, using both western uniforms and weapons from Napoleonic era to create a professional and permanent army. His successors had a varying degree of success in maintaining this force updated, even tough Ranavalona established an arsenal capable of producing small weapons and ammunition by mid-19th century. By the time of colonial conquest, the Malagasy armies were somewhat modern, however the domestic crisis severely weakened their organization and cohesion as fighting force, paving way for the somewhat easy French conquest.
Considering all these issues, I think that the better candidate for UU is a naval unit, the Lakana, which is a traditional ship of the Malagasy peoples. These boats were common for all coastal Malagasy but particularly for the Sakalava and Betsimisaraka, who employed it quite successfully to make slaver raids in East Africa and for piracy. Can replace Caravel (or any medieval ship) and function basically as an earlier available Privateer; it would be nice to give it a nice special bonus (if that’s possible) that when you sink an enemy ship, you gain its cost as .
UB:
Madagascar has a distinctive architectural style (with its own wiki article), that in many aspects reflects the island’s cultural melt pot: we can find Indonesian (particularly Borneo), African and European influences. In general, the Malagasy used organic materials to build their huts in coastal areas while using more complex wattle and daub techniques in central highlands and southern semi-arid plains. Interestingly, as good wood became a more expensive and rare material in these latter areas, wood-built houses became a symbol of wealth and power for the Merina nobility; with growing European influence in 19th century, particularly during Ranavalona I rule, bricks and Western building techniques and styles also became more common for the larger cities. Please note that I’ve deliberately focused on the Imerina kingdom here; while I’m not too sure about available art assets, we can find several historically accurate options as UBs.
Rova (Castle): essentially a Malagasy castle, the rova is used as UB in basically all mods/games that have Madagascar. The most famous one is the rova of Antananarivo, which you can see it in the spoiler tag bellow. One thing that we need to consider, however, is that using the modern rova of Antananarivo may seem too much European (since was essentially rebuilt in European style during the 19th century); if we go to a more traditional indigenous style, I’d suggest using the earlier wood-built (though also from 19th century and also in the spoiler tag) version. About the bonus, I’m not much sure, but probably we should think in something directly related to one of the UHVs.
SpoilerRova of Antananarivo :
Fokonolona (Courthouse): this was the traditional village councils, where the hova caste made their gatherings to take common decisions. I’ve found the a wiki article in French for those who can read it; since the fokonolona isn’t really a building, we are more free to find any art assets that we may deem interesting and just like the above, we can decide the bonus thinking in the UHVs.
Menakely (Estate): the menakely was essentially a fief that relatives of the Imerina king and nobles received. Again, we are free to choose the art assets and special effects that we want.
UHVs: as noted by Leoreth before, one of the main issues in designing Madagascar as an interesting civ is about the possible UHVs, since most of its earlier history is about domestic unification/state-building process and afterwards is the French colonial conquest, both things that may be problematic to represent properly in game. So here go my suggestions:
The Kingdom of Madagascar: culturally control every single tile of Madagascar (perhaps we can add Comoros, an island feature in our map, to make things more challenging?) and build certain buildings in every city you control (including UB, whichever it would be, and also Castle, Estate, Courthouse, Forge, Smokehouse, Baths and Walls) by 1830.
Represents basically the process of internal unification. The challenge here is to do everything in time considering Madagascar relative late spawn (which hopefully would make the area near and perhaps even the island populated by other civs) and the initial backward technological level.
Libertalia: obtain 2000 Gold with blockades, trading slaves and sinking ships by 1750
Represents the historical piracy activities in Madagascar. The proposed UU would fit quite nicely here and the stimulus to go actively raid also is interesting to break our common notions that Madagascar was absolutely isolated during history.
Modernizing within the Tradition: maintain pleased or better relations with the two most powerful European civs and enter in the Industrial Age before 1890.
Basically represents an ahistorical success in fending off European efforts and completing Madagascar 19th century modernization. If we find this UHV lacking, we can add other requirements, including performing diplomatic missions with Great Statesman (Madagascar did actually sent diplomatic missions to Paris and London), adopting modern civics (after all, they did adopt a kind of Constitutional Monarchy) or constructing industrial-age buildings (like Factories).
Reconnecting with our forefathers: control or have an alliance (defensive pact, excellent relations or vassalage) with Indonesia.
Ahistorical UHV to represent the unique origins of this African civ.
Pandemic-free isolation: never experience a plague.
A meme UHV just for fun, just like was mentioned before.
Expansion/resources overview:
As stated before, one of the main challenges with a Malagasy civ is that in terms of expansion, they largely stayed limited within Madagascar and surrounding islands, so the core and expansion areas should be limited around these areas: considering that the main polity represented by this civ would be the Imerina Kingdom, I’d say that the central plateau (the tiles in the middle of the island) should be the core and the rest of the island be historical. Nonetheless, it is important to note that they really were not that isolated from the outside world; as remarked before, giving how essential was the Indian Ocean trade both for emergence and colonization of Malagasy people and also for the developments and changes in Malagasy society and polities during history; they did were prolific sailors and raided areas on East Africa and even in a few occasions on Arabian Peninsula, but the only lands that they did conquered and maintained certain control for some extent of time were some islands in modern Comoros (which are island features in our large map).
Regarding resources, I have say that it has been some time since I’ve lasted accessed the new map, so I’m not 100% sure about how it looks right now; I’m basing this discussion on Leoreth’s last post in map development thread that mentioned changes in Madagascar. Anyway, during most of the pre-colonial history, the main economic activities were the production of rice and livestock (zebu cattle): the first was introduced during the Austronesian migrations and the latter during the Bantu migrations and both products were the foundation of the Malagasy traditional economy. Rice was cultivated in swamps and river courses and became a major element for the population growth of the main kingdoms, while in the southern and more arid areas cattle was the central product of the pastoralist peoples. Within the medieval and early modern Ocean Indian Trade, Madagascar also became an important source of timber, beeswax and some spices (I’ve found references mainly about cinnamon, but nevertheless they were less important on the overall trade back then), that were traded by the Muslim cities/traded posts. After European contact and, above all, the establishment of European colonies in mainland Africa and Mascarenes islands, Madagascar became an important source for slaves – the main export of native tribes/kingdoms, who traded slaves for gunpower weapons – and foodstuff (rice and beef) for them. In the 19th century, both the Imerina Kingdom and French adventurers/colonists were focused on the development of cash crops, particularly vanilla, cinnamon, sugar and coffee; while there were some efforts to develop mining activities, they remained less important. Last but not least, from 19th century until early 20th century whaling became a somewhat important economic activity in Madagascar and surrounding seas, giving that the local sea currents were a migratory route for several species of whales. The native Malagasy peoples seem to have done some whaling earlier, but the activity was not much relevant until European/South African/American whaling companies expanded in the area.
Giving our map and its resources (Madagascar seems to have currently only a spice, uranium, rare earths, and a crab resource), I’d suggest to also add a rice near Antananarivo; it would be also interesting to also add a cow, but I’m afraid that such two powerful food resources may be too much. I also suggest changing the location of the spice, since that tile would be Fort-Dauphin, the historically most important French settlement in the island. On the sea, I’d add a whale near the northeast coast of Madagascar, though we can place it closer to the Mascarenes islands to make them more viable and interesting colonial settlements.
Pagan Religion and URVs
The traditional religion of the Malagasy peoples is a mix of Austronesian and African influences that has a strong emphasis in the cult of ancestors; while there is a many common practices and divinities that all them share, the cults and some religious practices varied according each tribe. The sources that I’ve read surprisingly wrote more about Sakalava religious practices than about the Merina ones; I suspect that part of the reason is that it was among the Sakalava, with their mixed Austronesian-African influences, that some specific cults and cerimonies regarding the legitimacy of rulers were developed and later spread among other Malagasy and also because they seem to have been more reluctant to convert to outside faiths. Nonetheless, here are my suggestions:
Pagan Religion: Fomba
Temple: Ancestor’s Shrine?
URVs (besides standard ones; the names in italics are some cerimonies/religious objects):
Fandroana: control a cow resource and build a Bath and a ´[pagan temple] in each city that you control.
Sampy: have a total of 12 specialists (including settled GP) in your cities.
Famadihana: I’m usure about how to represent it, but this is a quite exhotic and interesting exhumation ceremony really important to Malagasy religion
Now, I'd love hear from you guys. What are your opinions? Do you think that Madagascar should be a full-fledged civ in its own or may be better represented as Indy/Natives?
Reading through this paragraph; +culture leads to +food? Especially useful because Madagascar's territory would be rather lacking in food, so it gives you a useful alternative to gaining food.
Thanks again for taking the time to do all this research and then also write this comprehensive post (I almost wrote article because that's what it is!).
As earlier, I would work myself backwards from the potential goals. And I think what you have here is already rather workable. A goal that is related to modernisation makes a lot of sense, but I also like your addition of a diplomatic component. The whole story you line out here is basically the attempt at unification, consolidation, modernisation, and attaining recognition of a place outside of Europe in a race to succeed before being colonised (obviously Madagascar failed, but they came rather close, and in many ways closer than many other states). Now, that story always feels cookie cutter, but then again we don't really have any civilisation that centers this experience at the moment, so I think that is an interesting thing to add.
I also immediately perked up as soon as you mentioned the history of piracy, and like you proposed also thought that should be reflected in a naval UU and a corresponding UHV goal.
Everything else you propose is great; it's not like I have an immediate opinion on what the UB or leader etc. should be but there are enough options to have one, which is good enough. Not all unique properties need to tie together. Honestly, despite the meme status, I am kind of open to "plague can never spread to your cities" as their UP (maybe it's coronavirus wishfulness). It's better than a UP that says "we give you exactly what you need to be competitive for your UHV goals" which often feels like a crutch.
That said, I had two thoughts that are a bit more radical, and also a little contradictory:
First, I kind of felt like there is a lot of interesting stuff in your history section before your proposed spawn date. Most prominently, the expedition to conquer Aden looks like a great unexpected goal, even though it is probably too early anyway to work. But even besides that, I think the long range trade integration with Indonesia and China could be interesting to represent. And maybe the different waves of immigration from SEA would be a very interesting UP. For example, every time a city in that region changes owner, you could get population and some barbarian spawns. Maybe it could also require trade relations so you have a proactive role in attaining that? Just thinking out loud.
Secondly, my description above about Madagascar frantically trying to modernise and be respected as a sovereign nation that can negotiate with Europeans as an equal made me think of Japan, which also shares with Madagascar their island nation status. So what if we consider an alternate history victory condition that sees Madagascar turn to imperialism themselves, like Japan did? Part of Japan's motivation was the fear of being surrounded by European colonies, and therefore being deprived of resources for their economy, it's not even unreasonable to assume that Madagascar would find itself in a similar situation. Japan tried to secure territories before they could be colonised, so a goal that is a rush to capture territories in Africa before they can be colonised by Europeans could be very entertaining.
Oh, also. I did some research on what Voromahery means when I looked into Madagascar earlier, because I really don't like including a unit name where I don't know the meaning or origin. And from what I remember it turned out to just mean "army" or something generic to that extent.
Reading through this paragraph; +culture leads to +food? Especially useful because Madagascar's territory would be rather lacking in food, so it gives you a useful alternative to gaining food.
It is certainly a good, interesting and useful option. The only thing that we have to take in consideration before choosing it is the additional food resources possibly added to the island (I said about the rice and perhaps cow), because I don’t think that Madagascar should be able to have a really big population early. The only historical reference that I’ve found told that Madagascar had c. 2 million people by 1828 (the end of Radama I’s rule), while Imerina (the most populated polity) had c. 750k.
Another idea that I had after writing the post is about giving certain bonuses to the civ while it still is pagan: besides a possible flat culture bonus, we can also give additional resistance against the spread of major religions and perhaps we can include the extra resistance against plagues (and so we can have our fun and little meme-related bonus here!), representing both Madagascar relative isolation and cultural melting pot.
Thanks again for taking the time to do all this research and then also write this comprehensive post (I almost wrote article because that's what it is!).
As earlier, I would work myself backwards from the potential goals. And I think what you have here is already rather workable. A goal that is related to modernisation makes a lot of sense, but I also like your addition of a diplomatic component. The whole story you line out here is basically the attempt at unification, consolidation, modernisation, and attaining recognition of a place outside of Europe in a race to succeed before being colonised (obviously Madagascar failed, but they came rather close, and in many ways closer than many other states). Now, that story always feels cookie cutter, but then again we don't really have any civilisation that centers this experience at the moment, so I think that is an interesting thing to add.
I also immediately perked up as soon as you mentioned the history of piracy, and like you proposed also thought that should be reflected in a naval UU and a corresponding UHV goal.
Everything else you propose is great; it's not like I have an immediate opinion on what the UB or leader etc. should be but there are enough options to have one, which is good enough. Not all unique properties need to tie together. Honestly, despite the meme status, I am kind of open to "plague can never spread to your cities" as their UP (maybe it's coronavirus wishfulness). It's better than a UP that says "we give you exactly what you need to be competitive for your UHV goals" which often feels like a crutch.
That said, I had two thoughts that are a bit more radical, and also a little contradictory:
First, I kind of felt like there is a lot of interesting stuff in your history section before your proposed spawn date. Most prominently, the expedition to conquer Aden looks like a great unexpected goal, even though it is probably too early anyway to work. But even besides that, I think the long range trade integration with Indonesia and China could be interesting to represent. And maybe the different waves of immigration from SEA would be a very interesting UP. For example, every time a city in that region changes owner, you could get population and some barbarian spawns. Maybe it could also require trade relations so you have a proactive role in attaining that? Just thinking out loud.
Secondly, my description above about Madagascar frantically trying to modernise and be respected as a sovereign nation that can negotiate with Europeans as an equal made me think of Japan, which also shares with Madagascar their island nation status. So what if we consider an alternate history victory condition that sees Madagascar turn to imperialism themselves, like Japan did? Part of Japan's motivation was the fear of being surrounded by European colonies, and therefore being deprived of resources for their economy, it's not even unreasonable to assume that Madagascar would find itself in a similar situation. Japan tried to secure territories before they could be colonised, so a goal that is a rush to capture territories in Africa before they can be colonised by Europeans could be very entertaining.
Well, thanks for the kind words. As may be somewhat obvious by now, I really like to make research and read about these lesser known civs. Besides, I’m much happy to help the mod in some way, since I’ve played DoC for a long time and always come back. I honestly can’t even play the vanilla Civ4 anymore and find the new Civs so lacking in comparison!
Now, about your thoughts. I agree with much of what you say about the first question. It is really fascinating this “pre-historical” period of Madagascar and it was precisely for that reason that I wrote few paragraphers about it. I do like your ideas, but the problem is that these migrations may be too early for the civ. The main issue is that we basically have no info (besides few accounts from outsiders and observers who never set foot nowhere nearby the island) about how things were going in Madagascar, so it get really hard to think design the civ realistically in an earlier date closer to these migrations. And after 1500 these migrations ended, so it wouldn’t make sense if we pursue a strictly historically accurate depiction, tough I supposed that we should always find a compromise between history and fun (this is a game after all!). But said that, I think that some of the mechanics that you thought are really interesting and maybe can be used for other civs. If anything, this info can be used to improve some aspects of the Indonesian civ (who include some of the peoples that later moved into Madagascar) or we can make special native/barbarian spawns in medieval East Africa/Arabia based on these historical accounts.
About your second thought, I have to say that I didn’t made the connection with the Japanese case before and they really have some interesting common points. Of course, we are talking here about alternative history and we can be more flexible, but honestly I’m not so sure about this possible victory condition. I mean, one thing is that this same objective of “no European colonies” can be applied to many other African civs and some of them actually did engaged in wars against European powers to expel them; we can remind, just to quote some of the most recent proposals here, both the Rozwi war against the Portuguese and the mentioned Rabih az-Zubayr campaign/jihad in the Kanem-Bornu post. The second thing that comes to my mind is that Madagascar was much more underdeveloped than Japan and modernizing was a much more costly and riskier process. The Malagasy ruling elites, being traditionalists or pro-European, knew that the island was in a serious peril if they couldn’t modernize and they did really tried to do it with all their quite limited resources, taking a very clear and realist foreign policy with the two main European powers, often pitching one against the other to avoid colonization and gain more time and resources to rush for modernization. Thus, a mix of diplomatic approach and modernization may be more unique (I can’t recall other civs with similar focus) and historically accurate.
Oh, also. I did some research on what Voromahery means when I looked into Madagascar earlier, because I really don't like including a unit name where I don't know the meaning or origin. And from what I remember it turned out to just mean "army" or something generic to that extent.
Oh, excellent! I tried to find what meant and was curious to know. It is not a great option, but then again, is a good thing to have as back up if we need.
Do you have plans to look into other civs? Not necessarily Africa too. I had considered a bunch of South American civs as well, like Muisca, Chimu/Moche, Mapuche, and maybe even Arawak/Carib.
Honestly, right now I didn't have any plans to look to other civs. Specifically about Africa, I think that we have now a more clear list of feasible civs that can be included. I probably won’t look into the more famous and well-known African civs here (such as Islamic Egypt, Nubia or Nigeria) because we already have a good picture of each here in the community.
Nonetheless, I would happily take a look on pre-Columbian civs. In fact, I did some previous research about them (I remember making some suggestions to the CNM for Inca in the new map and also made some investigation about Andean civs for 1SDAN’s DoCReborn), so probably I could start in a better position to find good sources. While some of the civs that you mention may be a bit harder to design into the mod (that is, before we solve how to properly represent tribal civs), the Andean ones seem fairly possible to include in this first moment, so I'll focus on them.
Do you have plans to look into other civs? Not necessarily Africa too. I had considered a bunch of South American civs as well, like Muisca, Chimu/Moche, Mapuche, and maybe even Arawak/Carib.
Do you have plans to look into other civs? Not necessarily Africa too. I had considered a bunch of South American civs as well, like Muisca, Chimu/Moche, Mapuche, and maybe even Arawak/Carib.
On the new world in general I defiantly think the Inca need a rival id back Chimu or Chachapoya, going further north I think a decent case could be made for a Puebloan civ and/or Mississippian civ, and more controversially I think a case could be made for a pre Columbian civ in the Amazon basin, after reading "The Discovery of the Amazon according to the account of Friar Gaspar De Carvajal and other documents" along with the terra pueta and mounting archaeological finds in the amazon basin of large earthworks. I think a basic case can be cobbled together. Its actually really fascinating to look into. The Amazon we know today is most lightly a feral, depopulated shadow of the pre Columbian Amazon.
Do you have plans to look into other civs? Not necessarily Africa too. I had considered a bunch of South American civs as well, like Muisca, Chimu/Moche, Mapuche, and maybe even Arawak/Carib.
Please do. Even if the Mapuche are not going to be included it will still be very interesting to read what you came up with. I find these kind of research reports very interesting to read.
With the new map planned for 1.17 and an overhaul including the ability to add a greater number of civilisations, here are some proposals I have regarding Africa, to make it both a bit more dynamic and interesting for people to play in and with.
This first post concerns East Africa, including some minor map changes, and more importantly the introduction of a new civilisations.
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The Swahilis
Starting year: 900AD.
The Swahilis start with Zanzibar, an independent city on the island tiles, as well as a galley, a workboat, two archers, one worker and one settler.
This means they can settle one other city in their core at game start and will need to make another settler to settle the other city.
Unique Units:
Zanj Warrior. Replaces Heavy Swordsman. 7 combat strength, 1 movement. Starts with Woodsmen promotion. Higher chance to enslave a unit (say 50%? so not the 33% base, nor the 100% of the banderiante). Does not require Iron. Requires Nobility.
Ngalawa. Replaces Caravel. 4 combat strength, 4 movement. Starts with 'trade ship' promotion, allowing it to be settled in a foreign city, which gives Great Merchant points to the Swahilis, cannot be settled in the same city again. Requires Engineering.
Unique Building:
Zanj Trade Post: +50% foreign trade income, +1 trade route. Slaves can be sacrificed at the Zanj Trade Post for money and great merchant points. Replaces Customs House. Requires Currency.
Unique Power:
The Power of Ocean Trade: Trade routes can cross the ocean from game start. Gain a free merchant specialist for each different luxury resource sold to a different civilisation.
(eg, selling spices to Arabia would give you one free merchant, but after that selling spices to China would not, or selling dyes to Arabia would not either)
Historical Victory Goals:
The Zanj Trade: Generate 3 Great Merchants by 1200AD.
Basically just play your civ, aggressively securing slaves and sending off Ngalawas. Numbers can be adjusted as needed to put some pressure on and require some micromanaging in terms of civics/specialists in the capital.
Spice Road: Have 10 merchant and great merchant specialists in your capital.
Another micromanagement thing, but also including settling into your full borders to secure the farthest luxury resources, and might also require researching some additional techs and messing around with civics.
Deliberately without a time date because Swahili is a "survive invasion" civ like the Aztecs UHV3, so obviously this becomes easier should you survive into the industrial era.
Zanzibar Sultanate: Control East Africa in 1850AD.
Basically survive the Portuguese Trading Company invasion event and the assault of Pombos/Impi into your territory.
East Africa should also include Sofala and Somalia, so that you have to conduct campaigns against Portugal and Ethiopia.
Starting Civics:
Republic, Citizenship, Slavery, Merchant Trade, Animism, Sovereignty.
After adopting a religion and , they will prefer
Monarchy, Vassalage, Slavery, Redistribution, Clergy, Tributaries.
Rebirth Conditions:
Can be reborn after 1900AD.
Special Names:
Swahili City States (with Republic)
Sultanate of [Capital] (with Monarchy and Islam)
Kingdom of [Capital] (with Monarchy)
[Capital] Empire (with Monarchy and owning a contested/foreign/foreign core city)
Some various names after 1900 depending on territory controlled and capital:
Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, East Africa/East African
Qualifiers:
Ujamaa of x (with communist civics)
x Republic (with democratic civics)
East African Federation (full territory)
East African Empire (full territory monarchy)
Additional notes:
I would add another invasion event for something like an Oman civilisation (if 1SDAN's Oman is included), or perhaps Persia/Arabia. Alternatively, just have a big independent army spawn in around 1750AD that basically represents the Omani invasion of Zanzibar, which also threatens Portugal.
Mombasa should spawn as the independent city Azania in around 200AD, but become ruins in around 600AD or so. The same for Kilwa as Rhapta.
Zanzibar should spawn as independent Menouthias, but not collapse into ruins. This means the Swahili would start with one city.
I agree with 1SDAN here there should be a "Spice Road" corporation, representing the Indian Ocean trade routes, which the Swahili would benefit greatly from.
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Here's what a constellation of cities would look like:
Here are some minor proposals to Zanzibar, including moving the island up so that conquerors can spawn, and so that there are spice luxuries:
I have some ideas for other parts of Africa but this first post is long enough.
Feel free to comment regarding this proposal, other ideas for East Africa, and other parts of Africa that could be improved.
I think that Kilwa is a better capital than Zanzibar.
First of all. Kilwa was a much more important city. It was the capital of the Kilwa sultanate. Traders only began to settle Zanzibar in the 12th century. And even when it became a commercial center, Kilwa claimed overlordship over it.
Secondly, expanding the Swahili empire from Zanzibar is historically inaccurate. It is much more accurate to expand from Kilwa to Zanzibar.
Lastly, you won't be able to do anything noticable because the production of Zanzibar is terrible. It can be improved a little, but even then I think it would still be so bad that you just can't do anything.
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