Civ Design Challenge III - Alternate History

[Howard Tafty]

Any chance we can do civs from sources like Kaiserreich and A Man in High Castle in the future?

 

[SULOMON]

How about allowing us to pick any civ that fits the proposed Alternate History scenario next week, rather than one pre-defined state?

For example, in the "What if the Persians had successfully invaded and held Greece?" scenario you could choose between making a design for Persia itself, or for some Thracian kingdom that now borders Persia, or some rebel state trying to split itself from the empire, or even an Italian tribe or Italiot city state that now has to deal with this huge expansionist state right next to them.

So not only it would give more freedom for the designers, it would make all designs complement each other and help the worldbuilding of the setting. We could even make a quick map showcasing all the nations that we came up with.

Niao said to make a civ related to the scenario and only ideally for it to the Inca. So we are allowed to already pick any civ.

 

[Tarmont]

Niao said to make a civ related to the scenario and only ideally for it to the Inca. So we are allowed to already pick any civ.

Oh, I guess he forgot to update the OP then (It says to make something based on the Incas there)

 

[Urdnot_Scott]

Any chance we can do civs from sources like Kaiserreich and A Man in High Castle in the future?

Please no. The idea of this challenge is solid because it involves us being creative in a way one doesn't normally have to be - differentiating it from the other two design challenges. If we have to do civs based off of existing AH narratives then it just becomes a civ design challenge for fictional civs and removes the entire creative aspect of the challenge.

Plus it'd penalise people like me who have never read an alternate history narrative and don't feel like reading through hundreds of pages of history for a little challenge.

 

[Howard Tafty]

Please no. The idea of this challenge is solid because it involves us being creative in a way one doesn't normally have to be - differentiating it from the other two design challenges. If we have to do civs based off of existing AH narratives then it just becomes a civ design challenge for fictional civs and removes the entire creative aspect of the challenge.

Plus it'd penalise people like me who have never read an alternate history narrative and don't feel like reading through hundreds of pages of history for a little challenge.

Ehh I can see your point with A Man in High Castle but your mistaken Kaiserreich isnt a book but its more of a mod of Hearts of Iron 2 which is one of my favorite strategy games is essentially the scenario "What if Germany won WWI?" the only reason is that honestly i'm not really interested in writing all that much, so don't worry it's just a suggestion nobody should take weight with.

 

[SULOMON]

Oh, I guess he forgot to update the OP then (It says to make something based on the Incas there)

"Please design a civ that is in someway related to this scenario (ideally an Inca or native civ)."

 

[Tarmont]

"Please design a civ that is in someway related to this scenario (ideally an Inca or native civ)."

I've read that already, I was talking about the OP:

then design a civ based upon the Incas in the year 1800.

 

[Urdnot_Scott]

Ehh I can see your point with A Man in High Castle but your mistaken Kaiserreich isnt a book but its more of a mod of Hearts of Iron 2 which is one of my favorite strategy games is essentially the scenario "What if Germany won WWI?" the only reason is that honestly i'm not really interested in writing all that much, so don't worry it's just a suggestion nobody should take weight with.

Sure but I've never played that mod and have no idea how any of it works so wouldn't be able to take part if the challenge was based on it.

 

[senshidenshi]

In this world, Francisco Pizarro is either never born or dies before he becomes involved in the discovery and conquest of the Inca Empire. Instead, a slightly more greedy, slightly less pious and slightly more egotistic Conquistador - Juan de Grijalva (Better known to history as Sapa Ti Qirichalva I) led a revolt against Spain, declaring himself the king of the crumbling Inca Empire and hoarding the empires wealth in his new capital just outside of Cusco, Villa Grijalva. Despite the empire crumbling around him, Grijalva desperately attempted to hold on to his new empire and brought thousands of natives to the outskirts of Cusco as slave labourers. Many died but the enormous influx of slaves from the southern andes, and, later - the Amazon, allowed the region to recover from the enormous population losses it faced at the start of the Spanish campaign. Though Spain attempted to invade Juan's Empire, Incan forces were able to hold the line, bolstered by Juans conquistadors, until Portugal intervened in 1561.

This Imperial melting pot was governed by Juans descendants, the legendary Ti Qirichalva dynasty, for some 200 years, until 1754 when a palace coup, inflamed by ethnic tensions between the traditionally priveleged class of the descendants of white conquistadores, the middle classes of Andean natives and the descendants of Amazonian slaves, brought to the Incan Empire throughout the 17th century, toppled the last Ti Qirichalva Emperor - Thin Antu II - and replaced him with the first ethnically Quecha ruler in generations: Túpac Amaru I.

The rebels behind the coup, Antiq Antistu in the Spanish-Quecha creole spoken widely at the time, had started as a faction of Aymara mountain men who had been drafted into the Inca-Poyo war of 1746-1752 and performed outstandingly in the tough mountainous warfare which characterised the conflict. As a result, many were given highly prestigious positions in the capital. The Antiq Antistu however, were fiercely nationalistic, believing that the Empire would only truly prosper under a native leader and that the Ti Qirichalva dynasty would always be corrupt and unjust. (even though both Thin Antu II and his father, Hura Nantus I both spoke Quecha and encouraged egalitarian reform) When an officer, Tupac Amaru, raised the possibility of a coup, they carried it out enthusiastically and within 4 months of the arrival of Alqui Chi-lo into the capital, the Emperor was dead and Tupac Amaru had taken the throne.

Magnanimously, the old nobility, the Qonqui Satato, were accepted back into the fold with some slightly reduced privileges and Amazonians were given far more rights in a new constitution which attempted to balance the ethnic divisions in the nation. Thus Amaru was granted the epithet 'Ul Unithiqador' - the unifier. The Empire unified, Amarus gaze looks west as he readies his forces for an invasion of the newly independent kingdom of the Pampas. But that's another story, for another time.

Now I feel inadequate...

 

[GPuzzle]

After many times of the lights going out in here, I finally got down writing this!

In this world, the Inca and the Spanish dragged themselves to a stalemate. While the Spanish quickly conquered much of the northside of the continent, taking lands from what are today Venezuela to even Mexico and all sorts of small islands in between, they hit a snag at the Inca. The Inca fought in their preffered terrain and held out for a small time with inferior weapons.

It was neither of these parties which brought the Inca and the Spanish to this stalemate, making the regions of what are in our world Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru something of a battlefield, littered with well defended fortresses from both sides. It was the Portuguese. Instead of attempting to launch conquest in Morocco, D. Sebastian of Portugal launched an attack on the Spanish colonies. The areas which are known as Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay today are colonies of Portugal. Unfortunately, such an agressive declaration of violence brought war to the portuguese shores. The entire country was evacuated, and Spain controls the area known as Portugal. Portugal has settled itself into the ex-colony of Brazil, a massive country with expansions from the Atlantic shores all the ways to the Andes.

The rapid development of the Portuguese in their colony, especially of their industry, as well as the cunning of Portuguese merchants led to a series of trades between the two nations. Gold for gunpowder. The Spanish colonies declared independence and entered the cycle of trade. The Spanish quickly reverted to a midly powerful but not overwhemingly powerful country.

And for a country that waited for an individual to bring them back to glory, a country so divided between small nations with no one able to unite that country for good, a country divided between border tensions and almost violent agression from local warlords of the city-states, it took the Inkarri itself to become the Sapa Inca, the Son of the Sun, and bring light back to Tawantinsuyu.

The Inkarri Emperor, as he'd be know years later, was a man of great will. A strong warrior, a cunning diplomat, a superb orator, a patron of the arts and sciences, a master strategist. Uniting himself with the Portubrazilian Emperor, he managed to unite the Inca and the Spanish colonists (who'd later call themselves Hinti, a contraction of "Sons of the Sun") under a single banner through great speeches and diplomatic maneuvers, gaining the support of many leaders, who'd later go to be the generals of his army, and conquering those that did not unite.

The Emperor would go on to lead one of the greatest and longest golden ages of the Hinti Empire, living for over a hundred years, spending over 80 of those in command of his people. Many countries in Latin America took him as an example, and many united groups were united by skilled men and women alike.

Upon his death, the Hinti Empire had gone from a split backdoor of the world to a revolutionary empire that had developed its own very refined metalworks industry, and would be one of the three American countries to lead the American Industrial Revolution - Portubrazil, United States of America (who reached all the way to Quebec), and the Hinti Empire, or Tawantinsuyu.

The Hinti Empire​

Leader: Inkarri

UA: Prophecy of Atahualpa: Worked Citadels generate Golden Age points and increase the Production of Units. +3 Culture from Citadels.

UB: Kasadinina: Mint replacement. Can be built anywhere. +2 and +1 on Copper, Silver and Gold rather than only on Silver and Gold. Whenever a Social Policy or Ideological Tenet is adopted, gain Great General points based on the city's Culture output, doubled if on Conquered Cities.

UU: Hinti: Great General replacement. Whenever it is expended, gain a burst of Culture.

 

[NiaoMeow]

Thanks for all the submissions and feedback!

How about allowing us to pick any civ that fits the proposed Alternate History scenario next week, rather than one pre-defined state?

For example, in the "What if the Persians had successfully invaded and held Greece?" scenario you could choose between making a design for Persia itself, or for some Thracian kingdom that now borders Persia, or some rebel state trying to split itself from the empire, or even an Italian tribe or Italiot city state that now has to deal with this huge expansionist state right next to them.

So not only it would give more freedom for the designers, it would make all designs complement each other and help the worldbuilding of the setting. We could even make a quick map showcasing all the nations that we came up with.

Sorry if it seemed like it had to be a pre-defined state. Also, this first scenario was not a very good one, as it was quite limiting (although you guys were still very creative!). The next scenario I have planned has over 3 options... and it involves the Mongols .

Announcement: The winner of each round will chose the scenario for the next-next challenge. This is so we do not get caught-up on people coming up with ideas ("cough"natan"cough") .

Announcement #2: I will be cutting out two days of the challenge, so it can move faster. (so please post your design by October 20th [this Tuesday])

 

[senshidenshi]

I decided to alter my design.

A lot.

 

[SULOMON]

The Incan Empire leading up till 1750.

Pizarro and his conquistadors had looked out onto the Incan lands expecting great riches and glory but the Incan land was to be his downfall but not by Incan hands. Pizarro had gathered most of his funds, equipment and some of his soldiers from a rich Spanish merchant family. A member of the family was overseeing Pizarros venture to make sure he used the best use of funds but the Merchant was amazed by Incan achievements. He was awed by the crown of Inca land for, "Few romances could ever surpass that of the granite citadel on top of the beetling precipices of Machu Piccu."

Among this he also saw great opportunity. Gold and silver were plentiful throughout from the golden temples to the rich mines that lay in the mountains. Columbus had sought oriental wealth but Inca lands seemed a much better prize. And Pizarro wanted to destroy and enslave it.
Between his own benevolence and sense of a greater opportunity the Merchant overthrew Pizarro and began peaceful relations with the Inca.

The merchant family became close with the Incan emperors. They showed the Inca the ways of European technology and Christianity. The Incans learned the way of steel and other mining techniques that led wealth without parallel as a result of mining gold and other metals. Inti was no longer the symbol of the Sun but God was, with Jesus (With the emperors being treated almost as other Jesus&#8217 also in their worship.

The Incan Empire prospered under the guidance of the Merchant family but there were deep flaws. Tradition still towered in importance and the westernization of the empire was limited. Mining and agriculture were developed but for more tribute to the Sun God and Jesus. Meanwhile weapons and education were developed little and had little resources devoted to them. Their bizarre combination of Inti and Christianity has led to much despise among the European powers. And finally the once grand and prestigious Merchant family had not stood the test of time. The prosperous, but militarily vulnerable Incan Empire has lost its diplomatic shield against Europeans eager for another chance for gold, glory and true God.

The year is 1750 and the same wealth that the world envies is the same power that could save the Inca, either through diplomacy, military investment or full westernization. Furthermore the main reason for hate against the Incan Empire, Incan Christianity, is decaying as the open-mindedness of the Enlightenment spreads across Europe and perhaps hopefully, eventually the Incan Empire. The Incan Empire is underdeveloped and hated but with wealth and religious inspired strength to lead it through the time ahead.


The Incan Empire in 1750
Capital: Cusco
UA: Riches under the Sun- 1/6th of GPT yields faith . +2 gold from gold and silver. Cities founded next to a mountain have a chance to create a gold or silver resource on the tile of the city.
UU: Cusco Prophet- When expended the Cusco the Prophet yields a lump sum of gold and faith .
UB: Sun Temple- Replaces temple. Generates 15 faith for every gold and silver resource worked by the city when built. Has a priest slot with yields 3 gold and 3 faith .

 

[Natan35]

Okay:
Sun temple- considering the UA, what's the point of a specialist with both faith and gold yields?
And it seems like a wide empire, so I think that you should make the UB cost less maintenance, and the specialist should generate gold and great prophet points(like the monks from JFD's piety).

 

[Scapegrace]

"There is a saying among the Kastilli: there is nothing new under the sun. They are wrong.

"For two centuries our people have fought and died for the old ways. Inti blesses each day with more heroes, more warriors, more priests to teach and understand the Yuraq ways of war and cure their sicknesses. Our people pushed the Kastilli to the sea and over it, across the great waters and far to their distant, blighted shore, for what but a cursed land could be their home? They sought our people's death, driven by greed and heresy, but Inti favours his sons, and Inti guides them to victory and glory.

"When we drove them to the great sea, the people rejoiced, but our task was not yet done. They had come in ships as invaders, violators, destroyers and thieves. We would show them honour! We would show them the way of our nation! And so we built, in the manner of those great barges which had foundered on the rocks. We built in their image, looked at their weapons and made them our own, and cities by the water began to grow rich and fat from the sea. Inti blessed the great ocean, and Inti blessed our great ship... and soon, soon our forefathers made landfall."
-- from Inka Qhapaq Atawascan II's famous Speech at Qhadiz, 1735

"Philip the Pious may have been regarded as an ineffectual king regardless of the events of 1618, it took but one day to turn his reign from a lacklustre but stable one into an absolute, unmitigated disaster. This was possibly the most famous battle of the Spanish Imperial Age, and entirely put paid to her colonial ambitions in South America, thwarted at various turns by the rapidly Westernising forces of Pichkantinsuyu, as it was then known. With the expulsion of the Moriscos having been a less than unqualified success (despite the protestations of the Duke of Lerma) and his attention focussed on the pacification of the Netherlands, what really hammered the final nail in the coffin of Spain's golden age was the Battle of Sagres.

"The Spanish navy of the day was reorganizing and its overall commander, the 8th Duke of Medina Sidonia, was comparatively inexperienced in naval warfare, having only been posted to the position three years after the death of his father. He proposed a pincer movement; sending transports full of troops up around Portugal, docking in Leon and linking up with the Atlantic Fleet there, and up through the Bay of Biscay and through to the French Channel to the United Provinces, taking the Dutch from the rear and (with the help of the Atlantic Fleet's complement of galleons) able to neutralise the Dutch East India Company's trade at a stroke. The Duke of Lerma roundly applauded this plan, not least because it had been made at least in part by himself - he was often entertained by the 8th Duke, what with the latter having married his daughter. The plan was mostly sound, and so, approximately fifteen thousand troops under Ambrogio Spinola were loaded up onto the transport fleet at Cadiz and set sail to link up with the fleet in Northern Spain.

"They never arrived.

"At night, during a rather wild storm off the coast of Sagres, the Spanish transport fleet encountered an enormous convoy of squat, dark, heavy-looking ships - which rammed into them at pace and unloaded a veritable horde of Incan soldiers, who had (quite by chance) fallen upon the pike-and-shot formation that was popular in the day, thanks to the prevalence of the long spear as a status symbol among the Cusco nobles and their rather limited number of guns. In addition, the traditional weapon of the common soldier, the macana, was a devastating star-headed mace ably suited to disrupting pike formations and bludgeoning through the Spanish troops.

"It had been a total accident, but as the sun dawned, the full scale of the disaster was visible. Two thirds of the Spanish fleet was sunk, the rest slowly being picked off by archers and the primitive heavy cannon the Spanish sailors came to call 'Cacafuego' due to their enormous size. Since the powder for them was comparatively scarce and since the fledgling Pichkantinsuyu navy was based around ramming and boarding actions, their single battery of aft-mounted heavy cannon actually managed to outgun the Spanish, though they were extremely vulnerable to a well-placed broadside given the "haphazard nature of their construction" (De Novo Orbis, 104).

"While the Spanish limped back to Cadiz, the Incan fleet (itself having lost a few ships and a fifth of its manpower) sailed right past the port and eventually blundered right into Tarifa. The humble fishermen of the town were awestruck by the great ships and the fact that Sapa Inka Atuway Capac I was borne aloft on an enormous throne by twenty-four equally enormous servants. However, it was the Moriscos who made them most welcome, as liberators and a sign from Allah that help was coming, and thus a rebellion began to foment.

"It is perhaps apposite, given the prominence of the Sun in Inti religion, that the place where sixth soyo of Suqtatinsuyu, known now to us as Alandalasuyu, was born had the Spanish name 'coast of light'..."
--Dr. Husayn al-Pashacapac, University of Tarifa, lecture given 3rd September, 1995

---

Alandalasuyu (Atuway Capac I)
Start Bias: Coastal
Capital: Qhadiz
UA: The Sun And The Sea
Naval Units generate Golden Age points per kill. Gain +5% Naval Unit Production for each City connected to your Trade Network (max. 50%).
UU: Cacafuego (replaces Galleass)
While it has a shorter range than the Galleass it replaces, at 1 tile, it is vastly stronger, with a Ranged Combat Strength of 26 and Melee Combat Strength of 22. It starts with the unique promotion "Hatun Illapu", allowing it to generate a small amount of Production in the Capital equal to twice the Combat Strength of the unit killed, as well as Targeting I and II. May move after attacking and can traverse Open Ocean. Upgrades to Frigate.
UB: Pukara Murya (replaces Arsenal)
+9 City Strength, +25 City HP. Additionally, Units garrisoned in a City with a Pukara Murya generate Golden Age points when attacking equal to one fifth of their Combat Strength. During a Golden Age, generates +5 Production and +5 Science, rising to +8/+8 after Military Science is researched.

---

And there you have it. Andalusian Incas. I may not win the competition, but I can damned well be the weirdest vaguely-plausible entry!

 

[SULOMON]

"There is a saying among the Kastilli: there is nothing new under the sun. They are wrong.

]Alandalasuyu[/b] (Atuway Capac I)
Start Bias: Coastal
Capital: Qhadiz
UA: The Sun And The Sea
Naval Units generate Golden Age points per kill. Gain +5% Naval Unit Production for each City connected to your Trade Network (max. 50%).
UU: Cacafuego (replaces Galleass)
While it has a shorter range than the Galleass it replaces, at 1 tile, it is vastly stronger, with a Ranged Combat Strength of 26 and Melee Combat Strength of 22. It starts with the unique promotion "Hatun Illapu", allowing it to generate a small amount of Production in the Capital equal to twice the Combat Strength of the unit killed, as well as Targeting I and II. May move after attacking. Upgrades to Frigate.
UB: Pukara Murya (replaces Arsenal)
+9 City Strength, +25 City HP. Additionally, Units garrisoned in a City with a Pukara Murya generate Golden Age points when attacking equal to one fifth of their Combat Strength. During a Golden Age, generates +5 Production and +5 Science, rising to +8/+8 after Military Science is researched.

---

And there you have it. Andalusian Incas. I may not win the competition, but I can damned well be the weirdest vaguely-plausible entry!

Very nice backstory and design! I considered making a naval Inca design before settling on faith and gold. The only problem is how did a Galleass move across the Atlantic?

 

[Scapegrace]

Basically because I forgot to put in that it can move across Open Ocean.

I'm thick.

Edit: I should probably explain the name. The various suyu of the Incan Empire had names based around the region. This is important, because the Incan Empire, er... wasn't called the Incan Empire. At least not by them. The various peoples under Cuscoan domination were lumped together under the nation of Tawantinsuyu, which means four provinces. The original name of the Civ, and what I'd call the overarching polity of this 'verse rather than the Inca, was Suqtantinsuyu, or six provinces - the original four, the big one up the coast (somewhere near Panama and the Caribbean), and modern Andalucia, centred around Cadiz (now Qhadiz) and reaching up to just outside the old capital of Cordoba. Now, I like to think that the Moriscos and various Incan peoples would have rubbed along together fairly well, and also maintained reasonable relations with the other major European powers of the day like France and Sweden as a check on Spanish and Habsburg power, but it might not have lasted very long.

But then again, it might. The Ottomans aren't going to be much help - Lepanto's been and gone, the Sultan at the time was Ibrahim the Mad (though I'm given to understand he preferred the name Ibrahim von Wibblethorpe, High Chieftain of the Moon People) followed by Mehmet IV (who was useless), but under the Grand Vizier, there was a bit of revival - and with the Spanish having such enormous problems with Alandalasuyu, there would be a lot of room for manoeuvre. We might see resurgent Ottomans, a recaptured Tunis, Spanish and Portuguese adventures in North Africa coming to a foreshortened end... it's definitely an interesting thought experiment. =]

 

[GPuzzle]

I'd think that the Moors and the Inca would lead to even more chaos and disorder in Spain rather than rubbing along well. So we'd see massive wars between hampered empires rather than peaceful coexistence.

 

[Scapegrace]

Yeah, but that's for Spain. Not the world at large. If anything, the main benefactor is Portugal; their colonial ambitions in South America are basically unchecked. With Spain rapidly dwindling as a colonial power because of a massive insurgency that happened largely by accident, as is the way of such things, the Thirty Years War almost certainly doesn't last for thirty years, the Habsburgs are broken sooner, the Ottomans could get back into Med trade, and Suqtantinsuyu expands. The only real sticking point would be the theological ones; the Incan Inti faith might actually be worse than the Christians, since it basically demands you pay zero attention to your gods and PRAISE THE SUN (lololol memes).

 

[GPuzzle]

Isn't that more or less the Sunset Invasion expansion for EU3 IIRC?

I'll grant that it is the weirdest [FAMILY-FRIENDLY FORUM] scenario in here. And that's with mine featuring the Inca going through a Reunification process, Portugal moving to Brazil which now contains Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay...