Brave New World's 9 new Civs

[King William I]

Pirates weren't exactly a civilization - more outlaws from other nation-states. Everyone pirated trading ships, occasionally because a government sanctioned it (the English, the Ottomans, etc.) and often without approval. Having a Pirate civilization would be like having a Gangster civilization or a bandit civilization. It wouldn't make sense in the context of this particular game.

True but one must admit, Henry Morgan would make a great leader screen

 

[phaethon16]

Ha, a gangster civ would be funny.

 

[ubergeneral]

How the frick is Bolivar like Hercules of Gilgamesh? I know he has a lofty place in history but he's not a great epic superhero

 

[phaethon16]

How the frick is Bolivar like Hercules of Gilgamesh? I know he has a lofty place in history but he's not a great epic superhero

Thank you! He was great, but not at that level.

 

[ImperialChaos]

The only historic figure that can be equated to Hercules or Gilgamesh is, of course, Theodore Roosevelt. Back on topic, when would they possibly reveal another civ? Is there a 2k event coming up?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

At the Haunted Hollows live stream they said new info was coming out in a week or two. Actually one said next week, and then another added the following week. It was sort of awkward. I'm leaning towards the week after now, reading between the lines.

 

[PhilBowles]

So, most civs of the expansions seem to be focused around the new features that come with the expansion - Ed Beach has indicated this, and it was the case in G&K. We have cultural, tourism and trade civs now, so just from a gameplay perspective, which possible civs could have a focus on archaeology/exploration and the world congress?

They might not choose their civs like this at all, but I think it's worth considering

The most obvious choice for exploration was made into a trade civ instead, so I doubt there will be a civ specifically focused on this.

World Congress would make sense for founder members of the UN and other major treaty organisations, or the capital states of those unions. An obvious candidate is Belgium due to Brussels' position in the EU, and would also fit well with the Scramble for Africa scenario and Belgium's role in the conference that sparked that. This is however a very unpopular choice around here. It's possible they'll do what they did with espionage in G&K, and 'outsource' a world congress-relevant ability to an existing civ such as Ethiopia rather than build a new civ ability around it.

Archaeology again makes most sense for existing civs, and above all the French. It looks as though their theming bonus will play with archaeology, and this may be the closest we get to an archaeology civ. It's also been suggested that their chateau may replace the archaeological landmark.

From recollection, Beach didn't say specifically that the new civs would mostly relate to the BNW themes specifically, he said they mostly had abilities or units that were relevant to the game stage BNW focuses on - i.e. the late game.

To me, this suggests that we can identify the three civs that were included by 'popular demand' rather than game mechanics: Portugal, Assyria and Zulu. Portugal and, marginally, Assyria have abilities that interact with the BNW mechanics, but not with the late game. Indeed Portugal's ability becomes progressively weaker over time, as civs connect more resources of their own. The two other revealed civs both have effects that tie in to the late game: Poland's social policy ability lets it get through ideologies more quickly, while Brazil is primed for a particular victory condition, and also has a WWII UU.

That implies that all of the remaining civs have to have some ability or likely UU/UB/UI that are relevant mainly in the late game. This is likely to rule out medieval-Renaissance civs like Venice, Silk Road civs or the Khmer.

**From Java, they controlled all Indonesia territory including Kamboja ( Campa ), Singapore ( Temasek ),some of Phillipine, biggest part of Malaysia, all Kalimantan/ Borneo, biggest part of Papua even some of our Historian says at its height they succesfull controlled Madagascar in east africa.

They didn't. Madagascar was not unified until the 17th-18th Centuries. The Merina, who became Madagascar's dominant - and unifying - ethnic group, are like most of Madagascar's ethnic groups of Indonesian descent, but through colonisation rather than conquest. They are thought to have arrived in Madagascar long before the Majapahit empire existed.

 

[SnowKomodo]

To me, this suggests that we can identify the three civs that were included by 'popular demand' rather than game mechanics: Portugal, Assyria and Zulu. Portugal and, marginally, Assyria have abilities that interact with the BNW mechanics, but not with the late game. Indeed Portugal's ability becomes progressively weaker over time, as civs connect more resources of their own. The two other revealed civs both have effects that tie in to the late game: Poland's social policy ability lets it get through ideologies more quickly, while Brazil is primed for a particular victory condition, and also has a WWII UU

Didn't realize Assyria was a fan favorite. Since I'm somewhat new to the forums, has it been a squeaky wheels favorite around here?

 

[Verified_Confection_Being]

Didn't realize Assyria was a fan favorite. Since I'm somewhat new to the forums, has it been a squeaky wheels favorite around here?

I think it sat around 11th in the polls for a while, which is a pretty respectable place.

Didn't get anywhere near the popularity of Indonesia, Zulu, Portugal or even Poland though.

I would rather say that Poland and Zulu are the only two fan favourites that could actually feature in the game right now. All the other civs in some way show off new gameplay.

By my reckoning there's at least one fan fav left. One that's disconnected from the expansion systems. There could in fact be more than are connected to the expansion's systems.

 

[Dragonflow]

The only historic figure that can be equated to Hercules or Gilgamesh is, of course, Theodore Roosevelt. Back on topic, when would they possibly reveal another civ? Is there a 2k event coming up?

We'll get news next week or the week after. Since 2K won't be at E3 on June the 11th it's possible we'll know all the civs by then.

 

[Arachnofiend]

I wouldn't put too much stock in their absence from E3. It just means they think they'll be able to generate hype more effectively through social media than the elitist shut-in business E3 has become. And they're right.

 

[Dragonflow]

If I recall correctly we knew all the G&K civs about one month prior to release. So if the last four civs are revealed in mid-late May it'll be about a month prior to release as well, leaving June for them to show things other then new civs. I'm surprisingly confident that we'll get the last four civs revealed in May.

 

[phaethon16]

They won't all be released at once though, will they? Wouldn't they rather give us news this week, then a little more in three weeks?

 

[Dragonflow]

I believe we'll get something next week or the week after and then again something at the end of May.

 

[PhilBowles]

I think it sat around 11th in the polls for a while, which is a pretty respectable place.

Didn't get anywhere near the popularity of Indonesia, Zulu, Portugal or even Poland though.

I would rather say that Poland and Zulu are the only two fan favourites that could actually feature in the game right now. All the other civs in some way show off new gameplay.

By my reckoning there's at least one fan fav left. One that's disconnected from the expansion systems. There could in fact be more than are connected to the expansion's systems.

It's a tricky one because at least one of the 'mechanics' civs - Brazil - has been an 'in-demand' civ as well. In fact Assyria is probably the least popular of the five civs revealed so far. Even when we have the full list it's unlikely we'll be able to distinguish which are the 'mechanics' civs (which we're told make up two thirds of the expansion) and which the 'popular' civs. Assyria's theme-effect is an odd fit for the Library, and appears to be a stretch to give them relevance to the new mechanics. That suggests to me they were included mainly on fan pressure and only then tied into the expansion. They also have no late-game relevance, and I'm pretty sure it was mentioned that the two-thirds Beach referred to are specifically civs that play with the late game (the example was Brazil as a civ devoted to cultural victory, if I recall correctly; significantly, not Brazil as a civ devoted to the tourism mechanic).

Conversely, a civ may not do anything mechanically new in the sense that it doesn't make use of a new BNW resource like trade routes or tourism, but it may be a mechanical civ if it has an ability that wouldn't have been possible in G&K for balance reasons and is only 'unlocked' by a change to - e.g. - cultural victory, and one which gives it advantages in combination with new mechanics. You couldn't make Poland in its BNW form when cultural victory revolved around social policies, and the civ has an advantage when it comes to unlocking ideologies even though it doesn't specifically say in the UA "Gain bonus X when selecting ideologies". Poland was a definite fan favourite, but it segues much better with BNW mechanically than Assyria, and much better with the expansion's late-game focus than Portugal. Poland is almost certainly one of the "mechanics" civs.

If the third 'fan favourite' civ has yet to be revealed, it may be the presumed Native American civ, which it would seem is not a natural fit for the late game any more than Assyria. Of course there's still no certainty there's any such civ. The Pueblo were shown as an example of a civ that was excluded for an interesting reason; nowhere was it implied that they had originally settled on 9 civs, of which Pueblo was the only one that was ditched. It could well be that numerous civs we don't know about were also floated and eventually dropped, not to be replaced by another civ from that region.

Of course it's possible than both Assyria and Portugal are considered 'mechanics' civs after all despite their limited relevance to the late game, in which case we still have two 'fan favourite' civs left to reveal.

 

[phaethon16]

A Cherokee NA civ could potentially be a good late game civ, depending on what the focus is. Did the devs say that there would be 3 fan favorites, or that they just wouldn't really relate to the new game mechanics? Even so, I'm confident in Morocco, SE Asian civ, a NA civ, and a wildcard. Nothing I've heard really changes that.

 

[phaethon16]

I just realized, timber/cedar would make a great new luxury, so it could be connected to Phoenicia. Only problem with that is that Phoenicia isn't a great candidate, since Carthage is in, and Assyria is being included in this expansion. Luxury wood should still be in though, like mahogany or cedar.

 

[SnowKomodo]

I just realized, timber/cedar would make a great new luxury, so it could be connected to Phoenicia. Only problem with that is that Phoenicia isn't a great candidate, since Carthage is in, and Assyria is being included in this expansion. Luxury wood should still be in though, like mahogany or cedar.

It may not quite be the same but they already have lumber mills and the new Brazilwood camp. I would guess that they would want a unique luxury that is as unique as possible

 

[phaethon16]

It may not quite be the same but they already have lumber mills and the new Brazilwood camp. I would guess that they would want a unique luxury that is as unique as possible

True, I hadn't thought about that.

 

[Navelgazer]

My own predictions are for:

Morocco
Indonesia
Italy
Navajo

Which I know makes me super-iconoclastic and all. Frankly,while I know it would suffer from what I'll call the "Polynesia problem," I'd love an Inuit/Eskimo-Aleut civ for the NA slot. Yes, it's not historically accurate to pretend that they have ever truly been a unified body, but it would be a very unique civ with great flavor for an otherwise unrepresented part of the globe.