Culture (Unit + Quarter) Speculation Thread

[Siptah]

It’s definitely heavily Persian influenced architecture though and not Maghrebinian, Near Eastern, Levantine, Turkish, or Arabian architecture. It doesn‘t leave too many other choices besides Iran in that era.

 

[Narcisse]

ok, good to know ! Put Qadjar Iran in industrial is maybe a sort of compromise allowing to not put Safavids in Early Modern and Iran in Modern

 

[BuchiTaton]

ok, good to know ! Put Qadjar Iran in industrial is maybe a sort of compromise allowing to not put Safavids in Early Modern and Iran in Modern

I hope that industrial culture with the Zamburak EU are the Afghan/Pashtun to represent the Hotak-Durrani-Afghan Emirate to add some more variety to the map.

Safavids and their Qizilbash EU still could be a great option for early modern muslim Iran representative on future expansions/DLCs.

 

[Narcisse]

I understood than the screenshot with the industrial culture looks Persian, and don't look like Maghrebian, Turkish, etc ...
But could it be Afghan ? I don't have a good knowledge about their architecture. And it's really hard to find early images of Afghan cities, like Kaboul before the huge amount of destruction. Or whatever they will be or not in the game, this screenshot could be about them too ?

Honestly, I think it's pointless to search alternative possible cultures for this screenshot.
Even if a great part of the City Center is different from Ali Qapu Palace, the central part with the columns is too similar.

Damn I would really like to have the Safavids - Mughals - Ottomans gunpowder trio in early modern, but I suppose I will need to wait dlc/mods for that

 

[Siptah]

Could be Afghan, their architecture for representative buildings was quite similar to that of Iran. But I think we‘ll see a culture that really is Safavid Iran, just pushed back to the industrial era.

 

[Krajzen]

Could be Afghan, their architecture for representative buildings was quite similar to that of Iran. But I think we‘ll see a culture that really is Safavid Iran, just pushed back to the industrial era.

Safavid state has collapsed almost immediately in the very early 18th century, so it can't be an industrial culture, and so far devs are unwilling to arbitrarily change eras of cultures. Afterwards theere was an Afsharid one - man state ruled by the military genius ("Persian Napoleon") Nader Shah, but it is still the first half of 18th century, and not industrial neither in soul nor in even the most generous timeframe of the industrial age. Then there was a Zand dynasty in the second half of 18th century, which stabilized Iran and was patron of arts and culture, and Qajar dynasty in 19th century. It has failed to industrialize country or defend Caucasus from Russia, but the country was peaceful, and arts and culture flourished again (Qajars were very prominent especially in architecture). Qajar state has fallen only in 1925, and for the next 95 years Iran was systematically modernizing and catching up, while being tormented by the constant political drama.
Personally I think we'll simply get "Iranians" in either modern or industrial era, to sum up the establishment of a modern Persian state, and maybe in the future we'll get separate EM Safavids. There are simply so many different regimes in Iran over last 300 years, and none of them was so succesful that it deserves a particular focus IMO (frankly I think last 200 years were comparatively the darkest age in Iranian history as a civilization). But in the same time, modern Iran has somehow managed to emerge as a big, strong and (relatively) developed country, enough to deserve some sort of existence in late eras of a game like that.

I think cultures with a comparably messy political history over last 150 - 200 years are simply going to get one general incarnation, as ["this modern nationality"], without focusing on particular regimes, in either industrial or modern era, depending on the case. That's IMO the cleanest way to get Iran, Germany, Japan, Turkey [very problematic], Italy [moderately problematic] etc. China and India would be an exception, as they could be reliably split into very different cultures of Maratha - India and Qing - China. Although you could separate Austria, Austro - Hungary, Prussia and Germany into different cultures if you really wanted (I kinda expect for them to do that to enable "cool militarist Prussia" without the horror of "modern German militarist culture").

 

[Narcisse]

Yes, Iranians (aesthete ? Qajar) were the most supposed on discord. And it was added like this in the speculation spreadsheet.

We know than there is Industrial Germans in the game. We have seen them in some screenshots with the militarist affinity symbol. Maybe their name or affinity will be change until their reveal.
They had the specific https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzes_Kreuz_(Symbol) for emblem in screenshots.
And U-boat (EU) and Zeche Zollverein factory (EQ) were supposed by screenshots/artworks. Again thanks to the discord poeple which identified all of this.
Obviously it's not sure, there is sometimes generic unit/building with emblematic skin (like the generic european district looking like Garnier Opera).

The modern/contemporary era is really uncertain,, really curious how this era will be represented. But I am really dubious about modern Turkey. I see them regularly in wishlist / speculation list.
The most part of industrial/modern era, Turkey was really in bad times; it's recently than there is a big revival of their military forces and of their economy (which it's not stable btw). It's seems too recent to be represented in the game.
They were hurted so bad by Ottoman's fall, all their territories exploding, being neutral or pawn in the modern wars, with unstable political sphere, coups, ethnic problems, ...
I prefer to see original cultures which we saw rarely in 4X games, born from the dead empires, like Yougoslavia, ...

In my humble opinion, I prefer to make a "what if" scenario, with trenscended Ottomans, and let some place for other culture. (And I hope to see some 'Turk" additions in previous era, like Seljuks for medieval. To have some clash with Byzantine, an Mamluks aha)

Italian is possible for industrial yes, Meiji or modern japanese, why not, or later in dlc. Like you said, "without focusing on particular regimes", we need to have good and unique "Archetypes" for each era, to create our own culture.

 

[Siptah]

I think the contemporary era has many possibilities and we don‘t really know much. The US, PRC, Brazil, Soviets - any others confirmed? It would be fun to get something like Denmark, Vietnam, South Africa, Switzerland, Nigeria & UAE.

 

[danza4x]

Inca confirmed?

 

[Siptah]

Hm... industrial Incas or a left out culture reveal again?

 

[Guandao]

How would the Incas fit in the Industrial Era?

I wonder who is next after the Ming, Mughals or Ottomans?

 

[Krajzen]

We may simply get them named as Tawantinsuyu in EM era. In fact, they do fit chronologically (if we assume 1450 as EM cutoff date), as they have emerged as an empire just a few decades before Spanish IIRC. Early modern Inca are no more wrong than early modern Ming (in fact, they do make more sense).

That actually does make a lot of sense, not sure why have I lost my unorthodox faith in the EM Inca.
- Less overcrowded medieval era
- Technically fitting
- Another candidate for Builder, if it is not Ming
- Other remaining cultures are Ottomans, Spain [exp], African civ and two of four: [Mughals, Poland, Sweden or Venice]

So, the question is, what African EM culture are we going to get.

Alphabetically impossible: Ashanti, Angola, Abissynia, Adal, Benin, Dahomey, Igbo,

Alphabetically possible: Kanem, Kongo, Matamba, Mossi, Ndongo, Merina, Oromo, Oyo, Rozwi, Somali, Songhai, Yoruba.

Okay, so it is not Kanem, Kongo and Matamba. I think we'll get Songhai (80% sure) or Oyo/Yoruba (10%).

 

[Narcisse]

I'm not sure than we will have an African civ this era. I would be happy to have one, but I feel we will have Songhai or Kongo in dlc later

> Ottomans, Venice and Poland are a solid scenarii triange. I'm really betting on them.
I really hope Ottomans being expansionist, it's all their story. All their wealth come from expansion, when they stopped to expand, the empire explode.
Venician being merchant, so it save the aesthete affinity for an european dlc later. And could be a funny culture chain from Byzantine.
Poland, militarist or agrarian.

I bet on industrial sweden too. Sadly I think than Mughals will be out for Incas

 

[BuchiTaton]

- Other remaining cultures are Ottomans, Spain [exp], African civ and two of four: [Mughals, Poland, Sweden or Venice]

Okay, so it is not Kanem, Kongo and Matamba. I think we'll get Songhai (80% sure) or Oyo/Yoruba (10%).

We cant dismiss Portugal, I dont see why Spanish and Dutch should let Portugal out when that dont stopped other close related cultures like Assyria and Babylon. Portugal still can be Merchant like Dutch, after all was not this the age of exploration for trading?

Also Somalians is another option for Early Modern Africa, the wars of Ethiopians+Portuguese and Somalians+Ottomans could be an interesting setting.

 

[BuchiTaton]

> Ottomans, Venice and Poland are a solid scenarii triange. I'm really betting on them.
I really hope Ottomans being expansionist, it's all their story. All their wealth come from expansion, when they stopped to expand, the empire explode.
Venician being merchant, so it save the aesthete affinity for an european dlc later. And could be a funny culture chain from Byzantine.
Poland, militarist or agrarian.

Would not make more sense to have medieval Venice to represent a trading european culture (second if count Byzantium), considering Dutch and Portugal are obvious Early Modern traders for Europe?

Plus this open place to have an Italian Aesthete representative on Early modern.

 

[Narcisse]

Sadly I think than Portuguese will not be in the vanilla game. Maybe later like other historical games. Their archetype is too similar to confirmed cultures.
There is clue about Venetians, It's why they are expected. It's not sure, but early modern is an interesting setting for them. (they are a sort of draft of upcoming european colonization)

 

[Krajzen]

Well, there are two slots and we do know that the game contains Poland and Sweden, have seen Mughal architecture (may be Taj Mahal though) and unique galleas - style ship, so... Besides an era already has naval merchant EM culture. The real question would be whether it made sense to put Dutch before Portuguese, I think that's because Germanic peoples won't get EM culture otherwise and Portugal is similar to Spain.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Well, there are two slots and we do know that the game contains Poland and Sweden, have seen Mughal architecture (may be Taj Mahal though) and unique galleas - style ship, so... Besides an era already has naval merchant EM culture. The real question would be whether it made sense to put Dutch before Portuguese, I think that's because Germanic peoples won't get EM culture otherwise and Portugal is similar to Spain.

How do we know that Poland and Sweden will be in?

 

[Siptah]

How do we know that Poland and Sweden will be in?

Sweden was spotted in one of the videos, or rather the city of Malmö was spotted.
For Poland, evidence is not convincing (at least for me), as a Winged Hussars was seen, but not with in-game graphics.

 

[dart_nimus]

So Russia will be Industrial, heh.
It seems strange, because I dont understand what exactly made it worth developers attention.
I mean Early Modern would be great as it is time when Russia grew from small Duchy of Moscow to... well... RUSSIA.
Lightning fast expansion makes it perfectly fit to Expancionist profile. Nice interaction with Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. And interesting visual style.
Industrial Russia... you can replace it with any european country. Sweden. France. Just rename cities and wow! Russia! Add little more servitude and feudalism by civics.

Also Mughals probably say good night until DLC.