Design a civ for your State (US only sorry).

[Softly]

Thought this might be a fun exercise. Not meant to be taken too seriously but don’t want this thread to devolve into a bunch of stereo-type jokes either. Please do not use any current governors or leaders as I would like to keep politics out of this. Obviously will be some overlap, especially with the UU (I imagine something like minutemen could apply to a bunch of states).


Connecticut:

<Leader> Lowell P. Weicker Jr.

<Leader Ability> Radical Centrist: Holy Sites gain +1 science and Campus Districts gain +1 faith. Industrial Zones gain +1 culture and Theater Squares gain +1 prod. All trade routes provide +1 gold (additional +1 with Mercantilism).

<Civ Ability> Connecticut Compromise: Cities with populations lower than your average gain loyalty. Cities with population higher than your average gain +1 amenity.

<UB> Hedge Fund: Replaces stock exchange. Grants an additional trade route. All adjacent tiles receive +1 gold.

<UU> Minutemen: Replaces musketman and is cheaper to produce/upgrade into. +1 sight and reduced maintenance.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

Here is one I already made as sort of a joke in the other thread, granted it's about when it was a country. With Rise and Fall included I changed some things.
Texian Empire (Texas)
UA: Deep in the Heart- Plains gain +1 Culture and +1 Production. Cities gain extra tourism for every different type of terrain or features in your territory excluding ocean, tundra and snow.
UU: Texas Rangers (Replaces Ranger)- 4 Movement. Can retire to create a Great Work with at least a level 2 promotion.
UB: High School (Replaces University)- Provides 1 amenities as well reaching to cities 4 tiles away. (High School Football is big here)

Leader: Sam Houston (Capital- Columbia)
Agenda: San Jacinto- Likes to quickly end wars and likes Civilizations who do as well with high loyalty. Dislikes civilizations who wage war too long and have low loyalty.
LA: Remember the Alamo- Loyalty in cities goes up after being declared war on, or another city center/encampment is taken. Can produce a Volunteer UU at Rifling.

Leader: Mirabeau Lamar (Capital- Austin)
Agenda: Public school system- Likes to build the most Campus districts. Dislikes Civs with more Campus districts than him.
LA: Father of Texas Education- Campus districts and buildings are built in less time than usual. Cheaper to purchase tiles when choosing to construct a Campus.

 

[Softly]

Here is one I already made as sort of a joke in the other thread, granted it's about when it was a country. With Rise and Fall included I changed some things.
Texian Empire (Texas)
UA: Deep in the Heart- Plains gain +1 Culture and +1 Production. Cities gain extra tourism for every different type of terrain or features in your territory excluding ocean, tundra and snow.
UU: Texas Rangers (Replaces Ranger)- 4 Movement. Can retire to create a Great Work with at least a level 2 promotion.
UB: High School (Replaces University)- Provides 1 amenities as well reaching to cities 4 tiles away. (High School Football is big here)

Leader: Sam Houston (Capital- Columbia)
Agenda: San Jacinto- Likes to quickly end wars and likes Civilizations who do as well with high loyalty. Dislikes civilizations who wage war too long and have low loyalty.
LA: Remember the Alamo- Loyalty in cities goes up after being declared war on, or another city center/encampment is taken. Can produce a Volunteer UU at Rifling.

Leader: Mirabeau Lamar (Capital- Austin)
Agenda: Public school system- Likes to build the most Campus districts. Dislikes Civs with more Campus districts than him.
LA: Father of Texas Education- Campus districts and buildings are built in less time than usual. Cheaper to purchase tiles when choosing to construct a Campus.

"UB: High School (Replaces University)" I laughed so hard at this.

"Cheaper to purchase tiles when choosing to construct a Campus" That's a really cool idea. Firaxis should seriously consider doing this (not Texas but the mechanic). Something like tiles are 75% cheaper to purchase if you purchase them via placing a district.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

"UB: High School (Replaces University)" I laughed so hard at this.

"Cheaper to purchase tiles when choosing to construct a Campus" That's a really cool idea. Firaxis should seriously consider doing this (not Texas but the mechanic). Something like tiles are 75% cheaper to purchase if you purchase them via placing a district.

I could have gone with a football stadium replacing the regular stadium, but I decided to combine the idea with a high school as well, since high school football is so big here. It's like another religion almost everyone follows.
Besides at many high schools you can take local university and college classes as well.

 

[Guandao]

New York:
<Leader> Franklin D. Roosevelt
<Leader Agenda> Fireside Chats: Likes Civilizations that declare a Liberation or Protectorate War, Dislikes Civilizations that declare a Colonial War or a War of Territorial Expansion.
<Leader Ability> Unfaithful Husband: The city with your first female Governor has an increase in production. The cities with your other female Governors have an increase in gold production.
<Civ Ability> The Only Part of New York State that Matters is NYC!: Capital growth increased by 100%, with +100 Gold per turn, +100 Culture per turn
<UB> Landfill: Unique Improvement, which lowers the appeal of tiles it's placed on, but increases the appeal of adjacent tiles.
<UU> Hot Dog Vendor: unique civilian unit, provides healing to adjacent military units (I can't think of a good military unit for New York State, I probably need to do some research)

Sorry people in Upstate NY/Suffolk County! It's a very NYC centric design. Though I profess ignorance about the cultures of those parts of New York. I know they are more conservative than NYC, but that's it.

 

[TyrannusRex]

West Virginia
Civ Ability: Almost Heaven - +2 appeal to Mountain and Forest tiles, +3 once Conservation is researched. Neighborhoods built between 2 or more Mountain tiles generate a Culture Bomb. +2 Production from all Mines over Strategic Resources.
Unique Unit: Mountaineer - Industrial Era unit that replaces the Ranger. Fast-moving recon unit with 45 Melee Strength and 65 Ranged Strength with 4 Movement and an Attack Range of 2. Suffers no movement penalty on Hill tiles and heals just as quickly outside West Virginia's territory as within.
Unique District: Fairgrounds - Unique district that replaces the Entertainment Complex. Generates additional Amenities as well as Food, Gold, and Culture. (I know like every state has a state fair, but it seems like each of our counties even has their own fair, sometimes more than one... we like get-togethers, okay?)

Leader: Arch Moore (Capital: Charleston - Religion: Protestantism)
Leader Ability: I-79 - When West Virginia founds a city, it immediately gains a Road connecting it to all nearby cities, whether allied, opponent, or city-state. (I almost said that my state started off with Classical Roads, one level higher, at the beginning of the game, but then I thought HA, our roads aren't THAT good!)
Leader Agenda: Eminent Domain - Likes civilizations that compete for tiles or steal tiles from civilizations other than West Virginia, especially through Culture Bombs, and will try to do this as often as possible. Dislikes civilizations who don't compete for territory or who steal tiles from West Virginia. (This is a sly reference to incidents stemming from the Buffalo Creek Disaster, where basically, the state bought a bunch of properties via eminent domain, saying they were going to build an access highway on it to help with cleanup; they didn't, they refused to sell back the land, and they got sued by 600 people.)

(Civ Theme: "The West Virginia Hills", because chances are, Country Roads is still copyrighted.)

ALSO INCLUDED IN DLC:
World Wonders:
New River Gorge Bridge - Modern Era wonder that can only be built on a Sea, Coast, or River tile situated between two pieces of land. Provides +2 Culture and allows land combat units to cross its water tile without a movement penalty.
Green Bank Telescope - Information Era wonder that can only be built on flat ground adjacent to a Campus or Spaceport. Provides +3 Science and triggers an Inspiration for one random Technology required for Spaceport projects.
Grave Creek Mound - Ancient Era wonder that provides +2 Culture and +2 Faith. (Technically a Native American construct, but still.)
Natural Wonders:
Seneca Rocks - 2-tile impassable Natural Wonder that acts like Mountains. Increases the appeal of surrounding tiles by +2. When a Great Scientist is activated here, gain the Inspiration for Natural History, if it hasn't been gained already.
Blackwater Falls - Impassable Coastal/River Natural Wonder that provides +1 Food and +1 appeal to surrounding tiles.
Spruce Knob - Impassable Natural Wonder that acts as a Mountain. Adds +2 to Science, Faith, or Housing yields from surrounding Campuses, Holy Sites, or Neighborhoods, and provides +3 bonus Tourism in later Eras. (Technically, the Knob is the peak of Spruce Mountain, but more people know it as just Spruce Knob.)

 

[clapyourhands]

Gonna import this over from the Create your Own Civ Thread.

California (19th century)

Spoiler :

The California Republic

Unique Ability: Gold Rush
Mines provide +0.5 housing. Other civilization's trade routes to California provide them with +2 Gold; California receives +10% population growth per each civilization sending a trade route to it, up to a maximum of 30%.

Unique Improvement: Long-Tom
Unlocks with Construction. Must be built next to a river. Provides +2 Gold. Also provides +1 Production for each adjacent mine.

Unique Unit: Forty-Niner
Replaces the Settler. Settling next to a mineable resource or river will claim all of its surrounding tiles, even those owned by foreign cities (if Mining has been researched, a mine will be built on the resource).

(Alternatively to the UU...
Unique Building: Saloon
Replaces the Arena. Does not provide base Amenities, but provides +1 Amenities for adjacent improved Wine, Tobacco, or Wheat resource.)

Leader: John Fremont

Leader Ability: Pathfinder
Reconnaissance units gain +1 Movement and can cross hills with no penalty. Gain points towards a governor title when a reconnaissance unit is promoted.

Agenda: Westward Ho!
Likes civilizations who explore and develop their territory with improvements. Dislikes civilizations who do not explore and leave land undeveloped.

________________________________________________________________

I decided to focus strictly on Gold Rush-era California, post-Bear Flag Revolt but pre-statehood. That does make "The California Republic" a bit of a misnomer, but so are "Indonesia" and "Germany". For this reason I stayed away from Mexican goverment-based units and infrastructure as well as the agricultural and cultural aspects of later California.

The crux of the playstyle I had in mind for California was to grow fast, but haphazardly and maybe a bit recklessly. One of the biggest problems of early Gold Rush "politics" (if you can call it that) was the mess of land rights after the Mexican-American War. People flooding to the west paid no heed to things like "property rights", for various reasons (Mexico had lost the war to America, so Mexicans also lost their land to Americans; Manifest Destiny; etc.) They settled where there was gold, period. The Forty-Niners didn't arrive at the start of the rush, but they're synonymous with it, and a land-stealing ability fit right in with the haphazard settling of Californian cities. Until the later years, such cities weren't even cities at all, really; just locales in places conveniently situated near gold where wooden shacks and tents could be erected. Obviously this will likely piss off the original land owners, but it fits with the theme: "mine now, figure out the rest later."

The civ ability provides housing from mines, which I thought would be very fitting; housing is the cap at which your population can comfortably live, and while the mines didn't provide more housing in that sense, they did encourage miners to lower their expectations of living conditions, drastically. This is the first half of California's population-growth oriented ability. The other plays off of the influx of immigration to the region by increasing population growth based on trade with other civilizations. To be the most accurate, this perhaps should have been based off of tourism, but tourism is such a late-game factor that population growth wouldn't be very useful by the time California had enough of it. With a boost to growth and to housing, California would be poised to rapidly increase in size; but again, it pushes to the side a few other important factors, namely food and amenities. Both of these were also severely lacking in Gold Rush life, with food prices being ridiculously inflated, and gambling and drinking being the main ways to obtain the latter. It's also important to note that this deficiency also translates to very low loyalty in California cities, however large or expansive they might be; the miners were never loyal to a nascent state-to-be, but only to gold and how to obtain it.

The saloon is an alternative to the Forty-Niner UU that does deal with the amenities issue in exchange for the land-grabbing ability. I wasn't sure which fit better--the UU ties in more with the haphazard settling at the start of the rush, while the UB ties in more with the gradual town development towards the middle and end of the rush. I'm leaning towards the UU since the playstyle would be more unique.

Fremont led a number of (somewhat reckless at times) expeditions westward and also was a major player in California politics as well. Given the strength of California's other uniques, I thought this one could be simpler and more easily tunable; faster Scouts help find more places to settle, especially in hilly areas, and the government title progress can be easily tuned so that it isn't excessive.

Overall, California is meant to grow big and grow fast, but also struggle at odds with its own size due to food shortages, lack of amenities, and disloyalty. It is encouraged to grab land whether it is already taken or not; claim the land and its resources now, and deal with the consequences later.