I still question the historical, cultural and geographical accuracy of a link between New Granada/Colombia/Gran Colombia and the Inca with the Maya to be a bit of a stretch in cultural and historical terms.
Inca to Colombia could work, but Maya to Inca is were the link might seem forced.
What I'm not questioning now is the possibility of your predictions coming from someone with more knowledge about the game from, shall I say, more direct sources of information.
Still, let's also hope we can have, probably with future DLCs, the possibility to go from Spain to Colombia/Gran Colombia and from Muisca to Colombia/Gran Colombia.
It's because you are still thinking of these individually as "defining" the whole civ. Maya in this path isn't being led by a Mayan leader. Inca in this path isn't being led by an Incan leader. It is the New Granada territory and legacy being led by Simon Bolivar.
I really don't have any direct sources. This has all just been me trying to discern how a game that looks so seemingly disparate at first announcement might actually make sense and won't alienate civ fans.
I do think that a Spain -> Spanish colonies will happen in some form, although I struggle to think about how a Spanish leader would choose between Mexico or Gran Colombia as the endpoint. What I
think may happen is that when we get the Iberian DLC, it will proceed from Cordoba/Al Andalus along two paths, Spain and Portugal. The modern two civs will be Brazil for Portugal (Pedro I) to proceed to, and Argentina for Spain to progress to. I think it just barely works as Argentina feels more culturally successor to Spain, it parallels Brazil well, and San Martin at least was Spanish, unlike Benito or Simon. But it's still a little messy, and I haven't put much thought into how to make Spain -> Argentina more streamlined.
And then, I have a suspicion. My suspicion is that we have a normal modern "France," which will proceed naturally from Gaul -> Normans -> France when it happens. And Napoleon is getting his own "French Empire" civ, which was just so large and covered most of continental Europe that it doesn't seem fair for any one civ path to take priority; he can probably just pick from a set.
I
think the Spanish may get a "Spanish Empire" civ, separate from Spain for Isabella (or Urraca) to just go ham with. Otherwise, I still think, if my "only one leader gets any two antiquity -> exploration or exploration -> modern civ combination" theory holds, we just run out of room for Imperial Spain to progress (as otherwise Rome -> Spain -> Italy is taken by Rome/Italy path, and Cordoba -> Spain -> Argentina is taken by Argentina/"Spain" path. Think of them as like "mega Civs" even, like a variant on the normal civ for that era. Normal France participates in Vercingetorix Gaul -> Franks -> France; French Empire participates in everyone's business.
I could see Britain being replaced by "British Empire" with a Victoria leader, as well (modern). I think we can get away with Portugal and the Dutch not having mega imperial forms, they only have one major colonial place they might progress toward. But I do think that normal Mongolia, progressing from Han -> Mongolia ->Qing under Kublai, will get a "mega Mongolia" empire under Genghis. And I think Greece will get a "mega Greece" under Alexander. Maybe mega Russia under the Soviet Union. And maybe, MAYBE a "mega Arabia" under Umayyads.
I think these will be special empires, and maybe even likely some sort of early access/preorder bonus for expansions. Mega-France (modern), Mega-Spain (exploration), Mega-Britain (modern), Mega-Greece (antiquity), and Mega-Mongolia (exploration), maybe mega-Russia (modern) and mega-Arabia (exploration). Not many, but it would keep progressions in the game fair because outside of those, the rest of the world stayed a lot more territorially condensed/related and forms more natural 3-civ pathways.
I just saw you predicted/anticipated that the Colombian wonder would be the
Museo del Oro. That's very exciting for me as a Colombian architect, because it is one of the most iconic modernist buildings of Colombia and I met the architect who designed it. It would perhaps be the first wonder from the Modern Movement of architecture in the whole series.
However, even though I love the Museo del Oro as a building, I always dreamed of having the
Torres del Parque as a wonder for a modern Colombian civ. It is perhaps the most iconic building in the country, together with the bullring that surrounds it. It also looks stunning and would look awesome as a Civ wonder. When people in Colombia itself think about modern Bogotá and modern Colombia, it is this very iconic building what comes to mind.
Wow! That is pretty. The Colombian wonder prediction is extremely uncertain for me, I am not very familiar with Colombian architecture. But I do like what it represents as tying back to Muisca history, which I think will help that region coalesce a little better. Still, would not be disappointed at all if we got Torres.
This is no different from preorder bonuses they've done in the past like Babylon (Civ5) and Aztecs (Civ6).
