Suggestion: The Olmecs
Spawn at Campeche Bay (1E of the Dani Baa stone tile) in 1600 or 1500 BC
Starting techs: Mythology and Agriculture
Leader: Tezcatlipoca
Favorite civic: Despotism
UB: Colossal Head, replaces Monument, +1 artist slot
UU: Slinger, replaces Archer, cheaper
UP: The Power of Tortilla Logistics: improved resources are connected to the trade network even without roads
UHV:
- Mother Culture of Mesoamerica: Build 5 culture-producing buildings by 400 BC
- Starting the Long Count: Discover Writing, Arithmetic and Calendar by 400 BC
- The Magnetite Artifact: Be the first to discover Compass
Other points:
- Should collapse around 400 BC, leaving only ruins and allowing Dani Baa to spawn
- Core = 2-3 tiles in the lowlands around the spawn site
- Historical area = some tiles in central Mexico and Guatemala (we see Olmec influence from the Valley of Mexico to the Maya areas)
- Pagan URV2: settle three great artists
- Colors:
- Primary: yellowish jade green
- Secondary color: dark jade green
- Symbol: the face of a colossal head
Comments:
We don't have any idea what the Olmecs called themselves or their cities, let alone their leaders. I propose Tezcatlipoca as a leader name. It is the name of an Aztec jaguar god that is hypothesized to have originated with the Olmecs, and since jaguars were important in Olmec art, I think it fits. Tezcatlipoca's preferred civic represents the fact that the Olmecs must have had a centralized elite to be able to build large monuments in their main sites.
The colossal head is an obvious UB, but it's tricky to find interesting effects for yet another monument replacement... We mostly know about the Olmecs from their art, so why not an artist slot.
Finding a good UU was hard, since we have almost no knowledge of Olmec warfare. From what I gather (e.g. from
this source), their military was mostly defensive, to protect trade caravans. Thus one idea I had was a worker that could defend, but that is kind of lame. There is evidence that they invented the sling, so I went with that. I thought about using the name 'werejaguar', a common motif in Olmec art, but it is unrelated to warfare and redundant with the Aztec jaguar UU.
I'm happy with the UP idea. It sounds like a joke, but it seems that the invention of the tortilla really might be part of what allowed the Olmecs to develop complex states. The tortilla is highly portable, allowing travel on longer distances for military and trading purposes. If you want a more serious sounding name, it could be the Power of Nixtamalization (although then the link with the trade network is less obvious).
The 1st UHV goal offers some flexibility, allowing a concentration of culture buildings in the capital or spreading them out over 2-3 cities. The number of buildings will surely need to be adjusted. The 2nd goal represents their role as forerunners of several well-known Mesoamerican technologies, including the zero, the long count calendar and writing. The 3rd goal uses the very speculative fact that the Olmecs may have invented the magnetic compass 1000 years before the Chinese, as suggested by a magnetic needle artifact. I think it's a very cool goal, but may not work in-game since it requires the player to discover many techs, but somebody should try it. It also ends up similar in practice to the Maya goal of discovering the Europeans first, so other ideas are welcome.
The 2nd goal also has some overlap with other civs' goals. I think the Maya goal of discovering Calendar should be changed. I've been thinking that it's an underwhelming goal for what is probably the most impressive pre-Columbian civilization. A science goal would still be appropriate, though I'm not sure what. Maybe compare them to the rest of the world? Like "Have more technologies than the average civilization in year X".
It also overlaps with the Norte Chico goal of discovering Calendar and Writing. I think both these technologies are more closely associated with Mesoamerican than Andean civs, so I would change the Norte Chico goal to something else. Reading up about them, I learned that they may be unique as a civilization in having developed out of sea-based staple foods. This is known as the "maritime foundation of Andean civilization" theory and it is still debated, but it would be cool to represent it. Thus the replacement goal could be to acquire X seafood resources (depending on what's actually available around the city) by some early date. Cotton can be thrown into the goal too (it was used for fishing nets), implicitly requiring calendar. The maritime foundation hypothesis might also provide a more inspired UU: an upgraded workboat that can create
whaling boats from the get-go, and/or create multiple improvements, and/or is built faster (with cotton?).