As far as "necessary" civs go for filling out the cultural map, three stand out:
* Navajo - the second largest native population in the U.S. behind the Cherokee. Hold the largest tribal territory in the U.S. Unique windtalker unit, and hogans are fairly resonant. Would fill out western U.S. The best option for an American desert civ.
Eh, as a person from outside of America I don't consider
any particular Native American tribe as
necessary in the game. I just expect one obligatory native civ from North America to represent
I hate this word this entire cultural area and for Firaxis, US company, to not be accused of racism. Anyway, my favourite new NatAm civ would be Muscogee.
* Burma - cleanly fills out the other half of southeast Asia. Older than Siam, more unique geographically and culturally than Vietnam. The paya/pagoda is a fairly iconic and resonant unique, much more Burmese than Thai.
Debatable. I guess you view Vietnam as less unique because of its cultural and geographic proximity to China, but you could say similar thing about Burma and its cultural and geographic proximity to India and Khmer (and Burma is culturally much closer to Khmer than Vietnam).
Also, Vietnam has around two times longer history, has clearer gameplay focus (hardcore military defense tactics), is more known and memetic, has
great female leader candidates
and has history of spectacular underdog victories against major empires (China, Mongols, France, US).
So I wouldn't say Burma is obvious choice here. I'd say instead:
either Burma or Vietnam is necessary
* Swahili - the "core" of the Oman empire which existed for some time prior to Islamic rule. Covers the east African coast, and so influential that Swahili is the most spoken language in Africa. Coral stone houses would make for an interesting UI, and perhaps of the "maritime trader civs" is the one most associated with luxury goods.
You know, I generally agree that it'd be awesome to see Swahilli in game, I just wanted to mention that
Swahilli city states existed for two thousand years before Omani invasion, which was long after their golden ages, and were mainly African in character - you described Swahilli as if it was the byproduct of Middleastern colonization on African coast
In fact, it was the misconception of European colonizers that 'Swahilli cities were founded by "white" Arabs because of course "savage" blacks wouldn't be capable of creating them'
Additionally, there are several other civs that I could see being included if development goes on long enough. In rough order of likelihood these are:
* Bulgaria/Armenia - both have strong cultural identities but would struggle to differentiate themselves against Hungary/Georgia.
Saying Bulgaria would 'struggle to differentiate itself against Hungary' is like saying America has 'strong cultural identity but would struggle to differentiate themselves against Mexico'
These are very different civilisations. Same with Armenia and Georgia. Personally I'd love to see both Bulgaria and Armenia in game, but I'd say their chances are almost nonexistent for civ6, especially Armenia. Maybe in civ7.
* Italy - is begging to implemented
Yes! And by the way, in my opinion Italy is by far the most 'necessary' civ right now, far beyond Swahilli, Vietnam or Burma. Come on, how can so great and infuential civilizaiton of world history still not be present in civ series because partial geographic (and completely not cultural) overlap with Rome?
...as a city-state civ centered in Vatican City.
I'm sorry but Italy is absolutely not synonymous with Papal State and I'm pretty sure a lot of people would be very disappointed
I have a question - why can't Italy get the same treatment as Greece or Maya and simply be presented as a single, united civ despite IRL being divided between numerous states in its golden ages? It makes no sense for people being fine with this anachronic unity of Greece in all civ games but suddenly be very nitpicky "oh wait Italy can't be united, it was
city states". In fact, I'm pretty sure most Italy fans would prefer Italy this way.
Just make Italy civ consist of all medieval/early modern/modern Italian cities not overlapping with Roman city names, with its capital probably being not Rome due to overlap but instead Florence or Milan, give it Lorenzo di Medici or Caterina Sforza or my favourite Matilda di Canossa as leader and it'd be perfect representation
I hate this word.
Besides, even if people had really so big problems with this idea, Italy is united anyways since second half of 19th century - then give it modern leader and medieval/renaissance stuff and everything's fine once again.
* Inuit - highly popular and successful CBR civ, alongside Siberia. I think one of this is likely to happen to give a nod to CBR, but which is anyone's guess. Probably the Inuit are more likely given that they can occupy Greenland and have more iconic uniques associated with them.
Personally I still think Inuit and Siberian natives are the dumbest civs ever proposed by civ fanbase, proposed mainly because of obsessive 'filling all gaps on the map' and 'we need snow civ', in spite of them in general being the last people of the planet Earth that could honestly be described using even the most generous definition of the world 'civilization', and in spite of fact that they are proof of why homo sapiens simply cannot natively develop urban society in tundra. The day we see Inuits as civ next to Rome we may as well add Djibouti, Texas and Liechteinstein as separate civs, and each of those would still make more sense having the same status as Rome
Yeah, I'd love to see them too.
Obligatory regretful mention of how we'll never get Tibet because Firaxis want Chinese money.
Everything else on the list is either in Gathering Storm, or wholly unnecessary to Civ VI.
Wait, if Ireland is not 'unnecessary' despite Scotland already being here for British Isles and Celts, then it is no more 'necessary' than
Bohemia, Lithuania, Belgium, Switzerland, Romania, Kievan Rus, Hittites, Yemen, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Philippines, Colombia, Mughals, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Argentina, Zimbabwe, Ashanti, Yoruba, Kanem, Mexico etc