Civs of Tarkir

[senshidenshi]

For centuries, Tarkir has been dominated by five rivaling clans. Now their rivalries extend ever further, into the realm of the great historical empires of Earth. I tried to make this intro sound poetic but now that I'm thinking about it it's really stupid.​

For the uninitiated, Tarkir is a plane in Magic: The Gathering, in which five clans led by Khans constantly wage war against each other for control of the world, and this is an attempt to recreate that in Civ!

Suggestions are always appreciated!​

 

[senshidenshi]

Reserved for if I ever do Dragons.

 

[Howard Tafty]

Hey my childhood!! Magic the Gathering!!! I'm not going back to drawing ten mana in a row!!! Either way I'm exteremley excited for this.

 

[TranquilSilence]

As mentioned before, really excited for these - looking forward to some Bear-Punching, Dead-Raising, Ankle-Shanking fun, with a side of Siege Rhinos of course.

Any idea of what each civ would focus on?

 

[senshidenshi]

Any idea of what each civ would focus on?

Abzan seems to be more defensive and hardy than the others, but, you know, Siege Rhinos.

Jeskai would probably be science and/or faith based.

Sultai will most likely be somewhat gold-focused, with a really evil UU I've been plotting.

Mardu is a swarm thing. I was thinking of applying the generic "cheaper but weaker" thing a lot of bland UUs seem to have to every single unit, maybe with a flanking bonus as well?

Temur is going to be a bit trickier considering they're more of a "live off the land" type, but I think I could make something using Formidable. They're probably going to end up getting extra resources off tundra and stuff.

 

[senshidenshi]

I might as well post what I've thought up for the Sultai so far. It definitely needs some work, and I've done my best to annotate it:


(You can tell this picture has been heavily pixellated)
Sidisi: Sultai Brood - (Delve)*
Units move through marshes and jungles at normal speed. Upon being defeated in combat, Sultai units provide gold equal to twice their combat strength.**
UU: Rakshasha
Replaces Great Prophet. Cannot travel through borders without open borders.*** When a religion is spread to a city by a Rakshasha, every combat unit within a 1-tile radius becomes a Sultai Zombie.****
UB: Necropolis*****
Replaces Garden. Does not require fresh water. Adds +1 gold to each Jungle and Marsh tile.

--

*Delve is sort of a generic name. I'm considering changing it to "Doom of the Golden Fang", hopefully with different connotations than Tasigur.
**Just to clarify, the Sultai get this gold, not whoever defeated the unit
***If I'm not mistaken, this is a promotion Missionaries and Great Prophets get. I should be able to turn it off just by removing the promotion.
****This does not include troops inside an enemy city or Sultai troops. I can foresee a problem in which this action could result in a worker being captured by the Sultai. This could be solved by respawning the worker in the nearest empty tile, or by just giving the worker to the Sultai, as if this ability wasn't overpowered enough. A Sultai Zombie's Combat Strength would likely be scaled by time, although it'd be nice to have a suicide squad that gives you a nice lump of Gold. I might make them weak but have them provide extra gold when defeated.
*****The generic boring building. As always, suggestions for this are appreciated.

 

[Hoop Thrower]

For the Rackshasa, what if it gave a promotion to adjacent unit that allowed them to capture defeated enemies?

Sounds more flavorful.

 

[senshidenshi]

For the Rackshasa, what if it gave a promotion to adjacent unit that allowed them to capture defeated enemies?

Sounds more flavorful.

That's been done quite a bit, though. It's always nice to be original and/or reduce an opponent's army size.

 

[TranquilSilence]

Awww, No Meandering Towershell?

I really like the design for the Sultai, and the theme of gold obviously suits them very well. The only thing I'd suggest is adding a bit more synergy, perhaps making the Rakshasa purchasable, or having the Necropolis yield a small amount of faith?

In that respect they would help generate greater amounts of Rakshasa. An ideal design for the Sultai that would mimic delve could involve dead units in someway being used to buy things, or generate other units. If it was codeable you could have the Necropolis track units that die within the cities territory and count these, which can then be expended for various bonuses.

I don't know, that was probably ineloquent and needlessly complex, I am certainly looking forward to the other designs. Oh yeah, and there is so much potential for interesting custom unit models with these, the Rakshasa and Rhino especially.

 

[Hoop Thrower]

You mean the turtle that attacks...and hits you the next turn?

Wonder if that'd be codeable at all. Certainly amusing anyways.

 

[senshidenshi]

Awww, No Meandering Towershell?

I really like the design for the Sultai, and the theme of gold obviously suits them very well. The only thing I'd suggest is adding a bit more synergy, perhaps making the Rakshasa purchasable, or having the Necropolis yield a small amount of faith?

In that respect they would help generate greater amounts of Rakshasa. An ideal design for the Sultai that would mimic delve could involve dead units in someway being used to buy things, or generate other units. If it was codeable you could have the Necropolis track units that die within the cities territory and count these, which can then be expended for various bonuses.

That is genuinely really cool. If I could add something like "Dead Units in a Necropolis provide Production which can be spent at any time" that could be really cool, but I'd need to mess around with GUI quite a bit.

And maybe Rakshasha could spawn when enough units die as well as being purchasable by faith?
Also I doubt the Sultai are very interested in turtling

 

[senshidenshi]

It's occurred to me, the Siege Rhino is going to turn into a walking citadel. I was thinking that maybe all adjacent enemy units lost 25% of their health and all allied units gained 25% of their health, but that's rather overpowered considering you could just spam rhinos around each other and then you have a swarm of invincible rhinos that get all their health back at the end of turn. I was thinking maybe 15% so then even if am enemy unit is surrounded by rhinos it can still survive a turn.

 

[TranquilSilence]

Yeah, that ability sounds interesting but difficult to balance, though I guess 15% to both would be kind of nice. The alternatives are that you limit the amount of Siege Rhinos in someway - making them replace the GG, or having them cost extra maintenance or whatever. You could also just give them the Siege Tower promotion, and the ability to heal nearby units every turn, though this would probably be less fun.

Do you have a design in mind for the Abzan?

 

[senshidenshi]

Yeah, that ability sounds interesting but difficult to balance, though I guess 15% to both would be kind of nice. The alternatives are that you limit the amount of Siege Rhinos in someway - making them replace the GG, or having them cost extra maintenance or whatever. You could also just give them the Siege Tower promotion, and the ability to heal nearby units every turn, though this would probably be less fun.

Do you have a design in mind for the Abzan?

That's a good idea, actually. Having them cost more maintenance as well as costing more to produce should discourage all but the brashest from spamming them.

As for a concrete design for the Abzan, it's a little trickier. I'm considering making them more defensive than the others for variety's sake. Maybe something to do with Kin-Trees and deserts? Kin-Trees could boost culture or faith depending on the number of citizens in the city, encouraging the Abzan to go tall. Then, uh, extra food in the desert? And then I'd need to add something extra to prevent them from having the lamest UA of all time.

 

[senshidenshi]

Wait, I've got a better idea:
Gain Food for each outgoing Trade Route with another Civilization or City State. The range of Trade Routes is increased for Abzan cities on desert tiles.

 

[TranquilSilence]

Wait, I've got a better idea:
Gain Food for each outgoing Trade Route with another Civilization or City State. The range of Trade Routes is increased for Abzan cities on desert tiles.

Yeah, that'd work - especially as the Abzan are known for their huge desert metropolis-thing, and defending their trade routes. The only downside is that it doesn't really reference Outlast (which is not a necessity, but would be nice), and I feel that there should be a defensive bonus - though this could come in the form of the other component.

My first idea was to have Kin Trees as a UI, that provided food and culture/faith which would generate a ghostly unit when war is declared on the Abzan - though the second part of this ability is the same as Scotland's clan castle so it wouldn't work.

What would the Siege Rhino replace, and what are you thinking for the other Unique?

 

[senshidenshi]

What would the Siege Rhino replace, and what are you thinking for the other Unique?

I was thinking the Siege Rhino could either replace the Trebuchet or the Knight.

The Kin-Tree springs to mind as another unique, although it'd be kind of boring to make it a UB and kind of difficult to make it a UI. I like your idea, but instead of the ghostly soldiers, it might be nice to have something defensive, like maybe "Non-Abzan non-civilian units cannot enter Kin Tree tiles" which effectively halts most land combat and then balance that with "Kin Tree tiles cannot be built adjacent to a city or another Kin Tree tile", which stops people from making impregnable walls, and maybe also "The number of Kin Trees in a city's borders cannot exceed the population of the city", which provides a further incentive to go tall.

Outlast would be rather difficult to represent in Civ, especially since the units could just sit there in peacetime and become overpowered.

 

[TranquilSilence]

The Kin-Tree springs to mind as another unique, although it'd be kind of boring to make it a UB and kind of difficult to make it a UI. I like your idea, but instead of the ghostly soldiers, it might be nice to have something defensive, like maybe "Non-Abzan non-civilian units cannot enter Kin Tree tiles" which effectively halts most land combat and then balance that with "Kin Tree tiles cannot be built adjacent to a city or another Kin Tree tile", which stops people from making impregnable walls, and maybe also "The number of Kin Trees in a city's borders cannot exceed the population of the city", which provides a further incentive to go tall.

I actually like this ability for the Kin-Tree, given that it could still be removed by opposing workers and such if they needed to attack the Abzan. I also don't think any other UI make use of such an ability so it has that going for it. If you wanted to use it as a UB - if getting a model or whatever proved difficult - it would work as a building which you could build multiple times (equal to number of Population, or for certain multiples of pop.) which provided a limited defensive yield by itself. This would be difficult to balance however, and the current idea is certainly better.

Outlast would be rather difficult to represent in Civ, especially since the units could just sit there in peacetime and become overpowered.

Understandable, it'd be nice if it could be referenced, but if the ability doesn't provide good gameplay elements then it should be scrapped. I was thinking whether defence/strength along trade routes would be a good minor addition to the UA, given cards like Armament Corps referencing supply trains in the Abzan military. I think it's fine as is, if a little simple (which is not a bad thing)

 

[senshidenshi]

If you wanted to use it as a UB - if getting a model or whatever proved difficult - it would work as a building which you could build multiple times (equal to number of Population, or for certain multiples of pop.) which provided a limited defensive yield by itself. This would be difficult to balance however, and the current idea is certainly better.

That could work as a UB, but it's occurred to me that instead of a detailed model we'd really just need a big tree. Now I'll just need to learn how to make a UI.

Understandable, it'd be nice if it could be referenced, but if the ability doesn't provide good gameplay elements then it should be scrapped. I was thinking whether defence/strength along trade routes would be a good minor addition to the UA, given cards like Armament Corps referencing supply trains in the Abzan military. I think it's fine as is, if a little simple (which is not a bad thing)

What about something like "Abzan Trade Routes cannot be plundered" or, if that's too OP, "When an Abzan Trade Route is plundered, there is a chance that the plunderer will be destroyed as well"

 

[TranquilSilence]

What about something like "Abzan Trade Routes cannot be plundered" or, if that's too OP, "When an Abzan Trade Route is plundered, there is a chance that the plunderer will be destroyed as well"

I'd go with the latter, as it doesn't seem too strong - something seems off about it though, can't put my finger on it however. Certainly an interesting effect, I'd really like to see a civ that can cause attrition or damage through their trade routes - though this would fit other civs.

So will the Kin-Tree have yeilds then? I'd like it to provide additional food to adjacent desert tiles - just to hammer home the desert theme, though this isn't essential.

In regards to the Rhino, I'd definitely support it replacing the knight rather than a trebuchet, given that you wouldn't end up with wasted promotions using the former.

I'm definitely liking the ideas of these civs thus far.