[NFP] Civilization VI: Possible New Civilizations Thread

[Zaarin]

All the other ones are fine but Iran? Doesn’t that fold into Persia?

Not really. Persia in game is 100% Achaemenid. I'm not much interested in the Islamic Republic of Iran, but I wouldn't mind some additional Persian civs: Sassanids being my top choice (and I'd be okay with a Sassanid alt leader of Persia as it currently stands)--but Safavids would also be interesting, especially as they were Sufis (and Kurds--and Azeri speakers).

What if, either in a VI overhaul or in VII, some number of civs were differentiated by specific luxury resources? Maybe even every civ could have a "unique luxury" to add a whole new axis of design space alongside unique units and infrastructure. They could have a start bias for that specific luxury (much like how some civs have biases for strategic resources), certain luxuries could grant particular abilities instead of the fairly generic ones we have now.

I think something like this would open up design space a bit. It would offer an economic dimension to every civ and diplomacy. And it would also provide more room for say, Bulgaria to have roses as something Byzantium doesn't have, or the Aztec and Maya to have different luxury resources instead of generalist luxury biases, or the Chola and Oman could coexist as maritime civs with different luxury bonuses.

Even if we only granted something like this to a few civs with a CA or LA, it would add more to the roster by featuring a few civs with a greater focus on amenities and trade (to balance out a very domination-heavy roster).

I think manufactured luxuries would be a prime candidate for this idea: China and Porcelain, Phoenicia and Glass, Phoenicia and Tyrian Purple, and Korea and Goryeo Ware Celadon are all examples that spring to mind.

 

[PhoenicianGold]

I think manufactured luxuries would be a prime candidate for this idea: China and Porcelain, Phoenicia and Glass, Phoenicia and Tyrian Purple, and Korea and Goryeo Ware Celadon are all examples that spring to mind.

Perhaps a combination of both! Some civs could have raw luxury bonuses, some could have manufactured luxuries.

 

[Jeppetto]

Are you sure you would be able to make something like that up for every civ tho with each actually feeling distinctive instead of needless gimmick?

 

[iammaxhailme]

I think it's somewhat unlikely we would get another Persian civ, since we already have Persia. If they were going to be that specific, they probably would have called Darius's civ the Achaemenids (maybe they could patch it if they add something like the Sassanids, though).

If we are to get another civ in that general area, I'm sure it'll be Babylon or (As)Syria.

 

[Zaarin]

Are you sure you would be able to make something like that up for every civ tho with each actually feeling distinctive instead of needless gimmick?

Three points: not every civ would have to have a unique resource; it could be to some extent map based: e.g., you have fine deposits of clay, you get Porcelain; and I would argue that manufactured resources shouldn't stay unique forever. Eventually someone smuggled the secret of glassmaking out of Tyre; Tyrian purple eventually spread to other regions of the Mediterranean and in modern times can be synthesized; the Byzantines smuggled silkworms out of China and developed sericulture in the Eastern Mediterranean; porcelain can now be made anywhere; etc.

I think it's somewhat unlikely we would get another Persian civ, since we already have Persia. If they were going to be that specific, they probably would have called Darius's civ the Achaemenids (maybe they could patch it if they add something like the Sassanids, though).

I agree with your conclusion but not your reasons. Firaxis has made it very clear that they are utterly unaware of Persian history beyond the Achaemenids. That said, including a later Persian dynasty as its own civilization would be very simple: just call it Iran, a name that is appropriate for any of the civilizations from the Achaemenids to the present day as it was always what they called their country (Old Persian Ariyan xšaçam > Middle Persian Ērānšahr > Modern Persian Irânšahr).

 

[almughavar]

I think it's somewhat unlikely we would get another Persian civ, since we already have Persia. If they were going to be that specific, they probably would have called Darius's civ the Achaemenids (maybe they could patch it if they add something like the Sassanids, though).

If we are to get another civ in that general area, I'm sure it'll be Babylon or (As)Syria.

Tbh if devs have nay qualm about implementing similar civilizations, they wouldn’t implement Greek (with 2 leaders to boot), Macedonian and Byzantine in the same game, not to mention Byzantine also overlaps with Roman at the same time.

 

[notNamed]

Tbh if devs have nay qualm about implementing similar civilizations, they wouldn’t implement Greek (with 2 leaders to boot), Macedonian and Byzantine in the same game, not to mention Byzantine also overlaps with Roman at the same time.

Same thing with having separate US, England, Canada and Australia.

 

[iammaxhailme]

Shower thought of the day:

One thing I really appreciate about VI's design is using home terrain to further differentiate civs and craft unique gameplay niches. There aren't many civs which don't have at least some slight terrain bias, and many have a clearly communicated preference.

But it does feel like we might be approaching VI's limits for terrain biases, and many of the strongest new civ candidates could see a lot of overlap with existing niches. I particularly notice that a lot of great options for maritime civs struggle to find distinct design space against each other (Italy, Oman/Swahili, Chola, Morocco), although I would also argue that civs like the Timurids and Bulgaria also find it difficult to find design space. I would even argue the game as it is suffers from this already, as we have three American civs with pretty generic luxury resource bonuses.

But all this talk of whaling makes me see some potential for luxury resources as a foundation for building flavor and distinct gameplay niches.

What if, either in a VI overhaul or in VII, some number of civs were differentiated by specific luxury resources? Maybe even every civ could have a "unique luxury" to add a whole new axis of design space alongside unique units and infrastructure. They could have a start bias for that specific luxury (much like how some civs have biases for strategic resources), certain luxuries could grant particular abilities instead of the fairly generic ones we have now.

I think something like this would open up design space a bit. It would offer an economic dimension to every civ and diplomacy. And it would also provide more room for say, Bulgaria to have roses as something Byzantium doesn't have, or the Aztec and Maya to have different luxury resources instead of generalist luxury biases, or the Chola and Oman could coexist as maritime civs with different luxury bonuses.

Even if we only granted something like this to a few civs with a CA or LA, it would add more to the roster by featuring a few civs with a greater focus on amenities and trade (to balance out a very domination-heavy roster).

I think you're right that we're running out of terrain/map based niches, but there's still a few left that I'd like to see. Here's a few random ideas I"d like to see (although some have some overlap with current civs)...

- A civ that is good at getting food out of desert, like Canada can in Tundra. Canada's tundra farms are a bit boring, though, so perhaps a unique improvement would be more appropriate. Example: Civ could be Israel/Palestine/Whatever won't cause arguments, and the improvement could be a Kibbutz. Must be built within 2 tiles of an Oasis, Lake, or River on flat Desert or flat Plains. Gives +1 food, +1 culture, and +1 loyalty (since Kibbutzim were community centers too). +1 extra food and production on desert to make them equal to plains (Canada's tundra farms really should do this too...). Get extra yields throughout the game with some farming-relevant techs/civics like Irrigation and Civil Service.

- Some kind of shamanistic/animistic civ that has some sort of animal spirit beliefs. I think this would fit a plains tribe like the Sioux (yes I know firaxis had some drama with them). How about something along the lines of +1 faith from pastures, +1 culture from camps, and a commercial hub replacement which gets major adjacency from these two types? (It's a bit similar to the cree, but they're more food/production focused).

- I still want a proper volcano focused civ. As far as I'm aware the only things in the game that give bonuses to volcanoes specifically are one pantheon, and Rapa Nui city state improvement. Hungary gets something from geothermal fissures, but it's very minor ad besides that, nobody gets anything from that either. Sukritact's Iceland gets these things and it's such a high quality mod that I think firaxis should just give him some money to put it in the game directly, but failing that let's say something like Hawaii and make them one of those "civs with a drawback" civs. How about "districts build 50% faster adjacent to volcanoes and 25% faster adjacent to geothermal fissures" with the drawback being you're kind of encouraged to build dangerously?

- Still need celts/druids/forest worshippers. Make it similar to Boudica from Civ V.

Tbh if devs have nay qualm about implementing similar civilizations, they wouldn’t implement Greek (with 2 leaders to boot), Macedonian and Byzantine in the same game, not to mention Byzantine also overlaps with Roman at the same time.

That's a good point. I always forget that Gorgo isn't technically leading the "spartans" when she's in my game. I see a unit labeled "greek X" and think "wait, where's Pericles?"

 

[PhoenicianGold]

I think it's somewhat unlikely we would get another Persian civ, since we already have Persia. If they were going to be that specific, they probably would have called Darius's civ the Achaemenids (maybe they could patch it if they add something like the Sassanids, though).

If we are to get another civ in that general area, I'm sure it'll be Babylon or (As)Syria.

I think it will be Assyria as well.

Yeah, the problem with getting a second Persian civ is that it's called "Persia." And I suspect, like China, having a singular civ is an appeal to Iranian pride, despite it spanning several long and varying empires. But that also doesn't discount the possibility of a second leader I suppose (even though I kind of view Alexander as representing the greek-ish Persian empires).

I think you're right that we're running out of terrain/map based niches, but there's still a few left that I'd like to see. Here's a few random ideas I"d like to see (although some have some overlap with current civs)...

- A civ that is good at getting food out of desert, like Canada can in Tundra. Canada's tundra farms are a bit boring, though, so perhaps a unique improvement would be more appropriate. Example: Civ could be Israel/Palestine/Whatever won't cause arguments, and the improvement could be a Kibbutz. Must be built within 2 tiles of an Oasis, Lake, or River on flat Desert or flat Plains. Gives +1 food, +1 culture, and +1 loyalty (since Kibbutzim were community centers too). +1 extra food and production on desert to make them equal to plains (Canada's tundra farms really should do this too...). Get extra yields throughout the game with some farming-relevant techs/civics like Irrigation and Civil Service.

- Some kind of shamanistic/animistic civ that has some sort of animal spirit beliefs. I think this would fit a plains tribe like the Sioux (yes I know firaxis had some drama with them). How about something along the lines of +1 faith from pastures, +1 culture from camps, and a commercial hub replacement which gets major adjacency from these two types? (It's a bit similar to the cree, but they're more food/production focused).

- I still want a proper volcano focused civ. As far as I'm aware the only things in the game that give bonuses to volcanoes specifically are one pantheon, and Rapa Nui city state improvement. Hungary gets something from geothermal fissures, but it's very minor ad besides that, nobody gets anything from that either. Sukritact's Iceland gets these things and it's such a high quality mod that I think firaxis should just give him some money to put it in the game directly, but failing that let's say something like Hawaii and make them one of those "civs with a drawback" civs. How about "districts build 50% faster adjacent to volcanoes and 25% faster adjacent to geothermal fissures" with the drawback being you're kind of encouraged to build dangerously?

- Still need celts/druids/forest worshippers. Make it similar to Boudica from Civ V.



That's a good point. I always forget that Gorgo isn't technically leading the "spartans" when she's in my game. I see a unit labeled "greek X" and think "wait, where's Pericles?"

I do like these ideas, and I would hope that ideas aren't exhausted with NFP.

The desert food civ sounds like a great Berber idea.

The volcano idea seems difficult the more I think about it. Iceland might work as a different volcano civ from Ethiopia, but all the other volcano options are island civs that also beg to have an island bias. And I think to force a civ to settle islands and next to volcanoes presents a lot of design problems. Hard to find the two together, hard to find space to expand, etc. A volcano civ, I think, would effectively be a hard mode civ, something with a deliberately higher challenge level.

 

[Zaarin]

Israel/Palestine/Whatever won't cause arguments, and the improvement could be a Kibbutz.

I'm pretty certain most people who want an Israel civ mean Israelite, not Israeli. I can't think of a single good argument for including the State of Israel over the Kingdom of Israel, and I think the obvious UI for the Kingdom of Israel is a Miqweh. Plus Israel isn't a desert outside the scarcely-populated Negev and Arabah; the rest of the country has a Mediterranean or semi-arid climate.

- Still need celts/druids/forest worshippers.

This is Civilization, not Fallen Enchantress. The Celts were not a bunch of tree-hugging hippies. They were urbanized and well-educated, with an organized religion that was every bit as sophisticated as that of Rome and Greece. The recently released Gauls represent the Celts far better than the Stereotype Queen ever did.

- I still want a proper volcano focused civ.

It's an interesting idea, but volcanoes already provide a significant risk/benefit trade-off--and many civilizations have flourished in volcanic soil, including several already in game like the Maya, Maori, and Ethiopia.

 

[8housesofelixir]

- A civ that is good at getting food out of desert, like Canada can in Tundra.

Mali's Songs of the Jeli ability does grant them food from desert tiles next to city center - up to 6 foods per city.

Actually set up farms in the desert seems to require some modern technology to me.

That's a good point. I always forget that Gorgo isn't technically leading the "spartans" when she's in my game. I see a unit labeled "greek X" and think "wait, where's Pericles?"

Gorgo feels off in the "Greece" primarily because while Greece is a culture civ, and Ancient Greece had a lot of cultural achievements, the real-life Sparta had none of these and was known for its uninteresting in culture/art/building output.

Only if we can have a domination Sparta separated from Athens next time.

It's an interesting idea, but volcanoes already provide a significant risk/benefit trade-off--and many civilizations have flourished in volcanic soil, including several already in game like the Maya, Maori, and Ethiopia.

I think the primary problem with volcano is map generation and RNG. You can have a volcanic soil starting bias but it is also possible that you ended up with only 1 volcano in the empire. The volcano ability will also be semi-ineffective if that volcano refused to blow up in the first 50 turns.

 

[iammaxhailme]

Gorgo feels off in the "Greece" primarily because while Greece is a culture civ, and Ancient Greece had a lot of cultural achievements, the real-life Sparta had none of these and was known for its uninteresting in culture/art/building output.

Only if we can have a domination Sparta separated from Athens next time.

This would be awful in terms of history, but in terms of gameplay, I wish they had just made Gorgo an alt leader for Alexadander instead of for Pericles (I know Alexander wasn't there at game release). Perhaps they could call Alex/Gorgo Greece and call Pericles Athens.

 

[Jeppetto]

Three points: not every civ would have to have a unique resource; it could be to some extent map based: e.g., you have fine deposits of clay, you get Porcelain; and I would argue that manufactured resources shouldn't stay unique forever. Eventually someone smuggled the secret of glassmaking out of Tyre; Tyrian purple eventually spread to other regions of the Mediterranean and in modern times can be synthesized; the Byzantines smuggled silkworms out of China and developed sericulture in the Eastern Mediterranean; porcelain can now be made anywhere; etc.

Whether they should or should not stay unique forever is besides my point.

You want civs to be tied to unique resource, one way or another. If we're talking resource on map tile and then the civ having bias towards it, you must be sure each civ can have such bias. Having resource that you have better access to is proper gameplay advantage and should be distributed equally. I care more about the gameplay than the historical accuracy. As such you must be sure that either each civ has such unique resource or come into terms with even more RNG deciding early power, as you may have one East Asian civ having Porcelain all to themself while three European civs all share Wine, for example. This sounds to me that either you are creating needless barrier for introduding more civs, or you are adding another thing which pleases people who want to see something and say "Just like the real world", while damaging gameplay consistency.

On grander scale, this could work and it already does in that the map generator tries to attach each continent set of unique luxuries, so that you get forced into trading with "exotic" foreign civs and IMHO it's enough. Trading with China from Asia has advantages for you If you're Cree from America, as by map design, they are guaranteed to have luxury you don't (Luxury unique to Asia). In exchange, you are guaranteed to have Luxury unique to America. This is enough for me. Digging deeper to this might be interesting If it's general gameplay, so much like you can be Fascist Mongolia, you can also be Scotland that invented Porcelain. But attaching these to specific civs to simulate real-world sounds like exactly something that would bring more mehs than goods.

 

[Zaarin]

Actually set up farms in the desert seems to require some modern technology to me.

I could buy building farms around Oases as comparable to building farms on Desert Floodplains, e.g., from irrigation, but yeah, actually farming straight Desert requires modern irrigation technology.

Whether they should or should not stay unique forever is besides my point.

I'd argue that it's not insofar as once it ceases to be unique it becomes available to other civilizations.

You want civs to be tied to unique resource, one way or another. If we're talking resource on map tile and then the civ having bias towards it, you must be sure each civ can have such bias. Having resource that you have better access to is proper gameplay advantage and should be distributed equally. I care more about the gameplay than the historical accuracy. As such you must be sure that either each civ has such unique resource or come into terms with even more RNG deciding early power, as you may have one East Asian civ having Porcelain all to themself while three European civs all share Wine, for example. This sounds to me that either you are creating needless barrier for introduding more civs, or you are adding another thing which pleases people who want to see something and say "Just like the real world", while damaging gameplay consistency.

Balance only matters in multiplayer, and Civ is overwhelmingly a single player game. Not every civ needs to have a unique luxury, any more than every civ has to have a unique district.

 

[Jeppetto]

Balance only matters in multiplayer, and Civ is overwhelmingly a single player game. Not every civ needs to have a unique luxury, any more than every civ has to have a unique district.

First of all, I heavily disagree with balance only mattering in multiplayer, this game is supposed to be strategy even in single-player and any desire to go farming/rpg/simulation can be already achieved with lower difficulty. Second of all, it's not just matter of balance, but gameplay consistency. Even If you disregard both of these as matter of taste, comparing it to UD is very wrong, as not every civ has UD, but every civ has something it its place that should be equal in power or the civ is compensated. Even "civs" that have extra unique have it as part of their power, even stressed more by Firaxis including it in their tooltip every now and then when the tech/civic prereq is different (such as Tagma being part of Basil II's power budget, not just some random extra).

If that's the way you want it, then yes, you could weaken the civ mildly to include unique resource as part of their power, but I think it ends up being too underwhelming to be desirable. That way it's better to have one civ that has such unique ability that they have several unique resources they may trade away - If you want the civ to be the master of trade deals. Maybe it's matter of taste, but If I were choosing civ I would find their unit, district, building or improvement far more interesting than resource. On the other hand If you don't want it to be generic luxury but for the resource itself to have some bonus, the difference being that the civs can willingly lose the bonus and give it to someone else in trade deal, while I still consider it underwhelming, I would at least with this agree it could add something interesting to the game and I could see why it would be appealing to others, that I admit.

 

[Zaarin]

First of all, I heavily disagree with balance only mattering in multiplayer, this game is supposed to be strategy even in single-player and any desire to go farming/rpg/simulation can be already achieved with lower difficulty. Second of all, it's not just matter of balance, but gameplay consistency. Even If you disregard both of these as matter of taste, comparing it to UD is very wrong, as not every civ has UD, but every civ has something it its place that should be equal in power or the civ is compensated. Even "civs" that have extra unique have it as part of their power, even stressed more by Firaxis including it in their tooltip every now and then when the tech/civic prereq is different (such as Tagma being part of Basil II's power budget, not just some random extra).

If that's the way you want it, then yes, you could weaken the civ mildly to include unique resource as part of their power, but I think it ends up being too underwhelming to be desirable. That way it's better to have one civ that has such unique ability that they have several unique resources they may trade away - If you want the civ to be the master of trade deals. Maybe it's matter of taste, but If I were choosing civ I would find their unit, district, building or improvement far more interesting than resource. On the other hand If you don't want it to be generic luxury but for the resource itself to have some bonus, the difference being that the civs can willingly lose the bonus and give it to someone else in trade deal, while I still consider it underwhelming, I would at least with this agree it could add something interesting to the game and I could see why it would be appealing to others, that I admit.

To be clear, I can't speak for @PhoenicianGold , but what I was suggesting as unique manufactured luxuries would be based more on the map than on the civ. To go back to porcelain, the Chinese developed porcelain in actual history because they had access to excellent clay and poor stone, which led them to develop exceptional earthenware, not because there is anything inherently "Chinese" about porcelain. Likewise, the Phoenicians developed Tyrian purple because of their ready access to Murex snails, not because the Phoenicians had some cultural fixation on the color purple. And to go back to my idea of unique luxuries not staying unique, once other civilizations developed the kilns necessary to make porcelain, China lost its monopoly; once Murex snails were harvested in other places, Tyre lost its monopoly; once silk was smuggled out of China and glass-making techniques out of Tyre these technologies spread. So what I'm suggesting is essentially just another manifestation of Civ6's central theme of playing the map, not simply stacking on more power creep.

(Though I still maintain that balance is of limited importance in a single player game. People complain about the Maya, but I found them one of the most fun civs to play. People talk about Korea being OP, but in my opinion Korea's just boring--same with Gran Colombia. I think it's much more important civs be "fun" or "interesting"--terms I grant are highly subjective--than "balanced" or "powerful.")

On the other hand If you don't want it to be generic luxury but for the resource itself to have some bonus, the difference being that the civs can willingly lose the bonus and give it to someone else in trade deal, while I still consider it underwhelming, I would at least with this agree it could add something interesting to the game and I could see why it would be appealing to others, that I admit.

I would very much like to see Civ pick up Endless Space 2-style luxuries where luxuries have specific effects, though I'd also like to see it applied more broadly than ES2, where only "development luxuries" affect your empire. It looks like that may be the route Humankind is taking.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

- Still need celts/druids/forest worshippers. Make it similar to Boudica from Civ V.

We already have that with the Maori.

This would be awful in terms of history, but in terms of gameplay, I wish they had just made Gorgo an alt leader for Alexadander instead of for Pericles (I know Alexander wasn't there at game release). Perhaps they could call Alex/Gorgo Greece and call Pericles Athens.

Personally I like the Greece/Macedon split with Greece being represented by both Athens and Sparta. I am open to the idea of Alexander being an alternate Greek leader in Civ 7 with him representing the military side of Greece rather than Sparta.
Splitting Alex and Gorgo into Greece and having a separate Athens makes even less sense.

I could buy building farms around Oases as comparable to building farms on Desert Floodplains, e.g., from irrigation, but yeah, actually farming straight Desert requires modern irrigation technology.

Like Canada farming on tundra?
Honestly I think the Navajo could get that ability too since they did learn to farm in the desert.

To be clear, I can't speak for @PhoenicianGold , but what I was suggesting as unique manufactured luxuries would be based more on the map than on the civ. To go back to porcelain, the Chinese developed porcelain in actual history because they had access to excellent clay and poor stone, which led them to develop exceptional earthenware, not because there is anything inherently "Chinese" about porcelain. Likewise, the Phoenicians developed Tyrian purple because of their ready access to Murex snails, not because the Phoenicians had some cultural fixation on the color purple. And to go back to my idea of unique luxuries not staying unique, once other civilizations developed the kilns necessary to make porcelain, China lost its monopoly; once Murex snails were harvested in other places, Tyre lost its monopoly; once silk was smuggled out of China and glass-making techniques out of Tyre these technologies spread. So what I'm suggesting is essentially just another manifestation of Civ6's central theme of playing the map, not simply stacking on more power creep.

(Though I still maintain that balance is of limited importance in a single player game. People complain about the Maya, but I found them one of the most fun civs to play. People talk about Korea being OP, but in my opinion Korea's just boring--same with Gran Colombia. I think it's much more important civs be "fun" or "interesting"--terms I grant are highly subjective--than "balanced" or "powerful.")

I like the idea but at the same time I would be fine with only a handful of civs having access to a unique manufactured resource. Obviously Phoenicia comes to mind with Tyrian Purple which they could start off with in the game but another could be Japan which gets access to electronics whenever they build their first electronics factory.

Of course I wouldn't mind thins like porcelain but as you say it's not like porcelain is at all "unique" to China and I wouldn't consider it a unique manufactured luxury if anyone could eventually gain access to it.

 

[8housesofelixir]

Of course I wouldn't mind thins like porcelain but as you say it's not like porcelain is at all "unique" to China and I wouldn't consider it a unique manufactured luxury if anyone could eventually gain access to it.

Personally I see this as a possible interaction between resources and technologies in the future: Everyone can access to the same resource as long as a deposit of the resource is within their empire, but some civs can have the related resource-extracting and resource-manufacturing technology unlocked earlier (similar to how Gaul instant gain Apprenticeship) - therefore they extract the resources early and produce unique goods (such as porcelain) early.

(I would also like to see new interactions such as the techs behind the resource-extracting tech are locked by both science output and that resource - therefore if you don't have a stockpile of Iron, you cannot research everything after the Iron Working in the tech tree. Currently one can build modern warships without having any Iron. Although many may find a system like this complicated things too much.)

 

[Zaarin]

Like Canada farming on tundra?

Modern.

Honestly I think the Navajo could get that ability too since they did learn to farm in the desert.

Herding sheep or goats is a lot easier than growing crops.

Of course I wouldn't mind thins like porcelain but as you say it's not like porcelain is at all "unique" to China and I wouldn't consider it a unique manufactured luxury if anyone could eventually gain access to it.

It was unique to China and Korea until the 16th century, when the Japanese learned to make it from the Koreans (under duress ), and the 18th century, when Europeans learned to imitate it via the Jesuit missions to China.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

Modern.

Right but I was thinking in terms of gameplay it would have to come before the modern era.

Herding sheep or goats is a lot easier than growing crops.

I'm under the impression that they did learn the Three Sisters technique from the Pueblo and did farm corns, squash and beans in addition to herding livestock as well.