New and Changed Civilizations in 1.18

[HNation]

I appreciate your work, but I don't think that adding ending -u for East Slavic cities works for your goal. In pronunciation, it vanished before differentiation of russian, ukrainian and belarusian, though I don't remember when you planned to introduce Muscovy civilization. In writing, it remained literally until bolsheviks, so making it distinct feature of Kievan Rus in oppose to modern Russia just looks weird.

It apparently vanished around the time of the Mongol invasion of the Kievan Rus, so it would work perfectly for the time frame of the Kievan Rus in the mod.

 

[Cehuen]

Russia. Katorga.
It gives access to this city to accelerate production by the population, regardless of the form of government.
Properties of UB (and UP?) they are blocked in a democracy.

 

[Mr-Goriyaki]

I'm surprised no one talks about suggesting a Dawn of Man for the new Civs in this thread. So I decided to write my own just for this occasion.

Assyrians

Spoiler :

It is the year 2600 BC. The city of Assur is founded as a Sumerian settlement. But despite having been part of the Sumerian and Akkadian empires for years, it has begun to grow independently from its former masters into a new warlike people known as the Assyrians.

Hittites

Spoiler :

It is the year 1800 BC. A group of Indo-European speakers known as the Kanehorsehockyes migrated into the Anatolian steppes where they fought against the Hattians, who were a group of city-states in the region with their prominent city being Hattusa. As the Hattians grew, they began to develop as a new empire that dominated the Anatolian region.

Kushans

Spoiler :

It is the year 135 BC. After being raided by the Xiongnu Confederation for almost a century, a group of nomads called the Yuezhi migrated from their homeland in the Tarim Basin, and into the Bactria where they settled along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom, as they began to adapt their local culture and religion.

 

[BaneFire]

Kanehorsehockyes

Lmao. Kanehorsehockyes. Kanesh-ites.

 

[Crossphazer]

For Kievan Rus, I think the UHV1 goal of "have an Orthodox population of 30" is too high? Playing on Regent, Epic, in two different games, I got around 20 by 1200, being fairly aggressive with settlers. Unless the strategy is to build military units and rush the Byzantines to capture their cities (a strategy I did not try but I think would be rather difficult due to Byzantium's military strength and fortifications prior to Mongol/Ottoman invasions), I don't see how it can be done. Aggressive forest chopping perhaps? I mostly left them be.

 

[banzay13]

For Kievan Rus, I think the UHV1 goal of "have an Orthodox population of 30" is too high? Playing on Regent, Epic, in two different games, I got around 20 by 1200, being fairly aggressive with settlers. Unless the strategy is to build military units and rush the Byzantines to capture their cities (a strategy I did not try but I think would be rather difficult due to Byzantium's military strength and fortifications prior to Mongol/Ottoman invasions), I don't see how it can be done. Aggressive forest chopping perhaps? I mostly left them be.

I had Kiev, Minsk, Moscow, Ladoga (Novgorod have to few food), Kazan, and two more cites in North for fur (in order I settle/capture) . ALL with orthodox religion. You need settle Moscow (non historical, but Novgorod, as I said before, poor city, not like in 1.17 and cities in North (witch could represent with Novgorod - Novgorod Rebublic also not so good) as third city and give it more workers to grow fast.

 

[Crossphazer]

I had Kiev, Minsk, Moscow, Ladoga (Novgorod have to few food), Kazan, and two more cites in North for fur (in order I settle/capture) . ALL with orthodox religion. You need settle Moscow (non historical, but Novgorod, as I said before, poor city, not like in 1.17 and cities in North (witch could represent with Novgorod - Novgorod Rebublic also not so good) as third city and give it more workers to grow fast.

I did settle Moscow, but I don't know how you managed 2 extra northern cities by 1200 and a total size of >=30. It's also unfortunate that you have to settle Moscow early in order to achieve the UHV. I think it goes against the feel that the nation is supposed to have.

Also, the Rus unique building doesn't suit their UHV at all. You simply don't have the time to bother with the wharf, since you're going for workers/settlers/military units. Maybe the 1st UHV condition could be related to having a certain income from trade routes, either total or in a single turn. This would encourage founding cities and also building the UB.

I think someone else discussed this in a thread, but forcing Orthodoxy is a bit unfortunate because as the Rus you should be able to choose your religious path (pagan, orthodox, catholic, islamic, jewish). Russia (the later civ) being tied to Orthodoxy makes sense, as the Third Rome.

EDIT:
I am testing out replacing the Orthodoxy UHV with a UHV of "acquire X gold by trade routes by 1500". I set the target date of 1500 to represent the commerce of both the Kievan Rus' and the Novgorod Republic. I will tune the gold amount based on how much I generate by 1500 in a Regent, Epic game, where I prioritize trade route income. I will try not to set this amount too high. Conflict with Moscovy and other states should be more of a focus than simply minmaxing the income, in my opinion at least. I expect to have a PR up after such a test game. That PR can, of course, be declined.

EDIT2:
After playing a game to 1500, I realized that it might be more interesting to have a UHV-related golden age caused by succeeding this trade route income condition before the 1450 date for the salt and furs. I'm looking at a 1300 goal date. 900 income on Normal speed (which is scaled for Epic/Marathon). I'm running another game to double check that goal. Running through the game, 800 (scaled 1200 for Epic) by 1300 seems reasonable. I had to build the UB Wharf and get cities founded. It could go above 800 but I'm not a fan of very tight requirements.

Also, I've modified the 3rd goal to be "6 happiness resources" rather than 4 fur resources; it gives a bit more flexibility in how to accomplish this goal, which still focussing on Novgorod's luxury goods trade (in furs). Good opportunities for extra luxuries can be via trading, the Baltic amber, or the wine north of Constantinople (which is typically in the culture area of the Byzantines, but can be flipped with sufficient culture or a city founded south of the Kyiv area. I might bring it up to 7. I'll see when I get to 1450 in this upcoming test game.

I've also bumped up the "gold from trade" part of goal 3 quite significantly. With trading it's pretty easy to get 1000+ gold by 1450 on Epic (so the normal amount I set to 600).

Current UHV goals:

iRus: (
        DefeatedUnits(civs(iBarbarian), 25, by=1250),
        TradeRouteCommerce(800, by=1300),
        All(
            ResourceCount((sum(lHappinessResources).named(HAPPINESS_RESOURCES), 6), (iSalt, 3)),
            TradeGold(600),
            by=1450,
        ),
      
    ),