Pachacuti Tweak

[sTAPler27]

My biggest issue with Pachacuti is his design more or less seems to lack any real tie to his own feats and more or less just relegate him to a part of the Incan power set. From what little I know about the real person himself he pretty much is the reason the Incans became the largest empire of the Americas so why does his kit not reflect his role as a conqueror, especially when they emohasize the whole Earth Shaker label. One little addition to his power set would feel fiting and make him much more viable as a leader choice.

I think Pachacuti should gain an additional point towards all military legacy conditions if the settlement in question has 3 mountains within range. It's a simple addition that gives him a more direct path towards victory that rewards him even in the event that he doesn't immediately spawn near a mountain range.

 

[Renouf]

As much as I didn't like Pachacuti on launch (Really? A 'terrace farm' food from mountains ability? We have the whole Incan civ for that!), his design has grown on me as I've understood the game more. Put simply, his ability is 'specialists next to mountains are free', since that specialist will have no happiness cost and the building generates food. This is his rebuilding of Cuzco - urbanizing mountain terrain. But the quiet part of his ability concerns which of your buildings you want next to mountains - cultural buildings like monuments, happiness buildings like temples - means he has a buff towards these types of buildings specifically. And I really like that. Pachacuti was a conqueror, but he was also the founder of a new empire. He took the regional power of Cuzco, and conquered and integrated an entire mountain range of different groups into a cohesive Incan state. He was far more Qin Shi Huang than Genghis Khan or Alexander. Pachacuti was a militaristic expansionist yes, but his historical legacy is not mainly that of a great conqueror - he was the founder, unifier, and architect of Tawantinsuyu. His vision was political, administrative, bureaucratic - Tawantinsuyu, 'the Four Corners', refers to these states. He elevated Inti, the sun god, and Quechua became the empire's language. I think it's very fitting he has cultural and happiness (associated with religion in 7) building bonuses. Just like he built great urban stone monuments and temples along the mountains in real life to consolidate his power and culturally unify his empire, you do the exact same when you play as him! I think it's pretty slick design.

But it would be nice if he did have some combat bonuses towards conquering mountain cities, since he was good at that too. Perhaps a military persona like Qin Shi Huang got in 7. Pachacuti can be translated to 'Earth-Shaker' yeah, but also 'World-Changer' (so there's the names sorted out). I think there's room for a mitmaq analogue as well, especially with the new migrant system. Could be an interesting militaristic-expansionist character who forcibly resettles different groups as he did in real life (which was another cultural unity thing - diluting cultural identities that weren't his new Incan ruling class / culture).

 

[sTAPler27]

That's a really cool unit mechanic and a heck of a lot more creative than just "scout with mountain ability". Maybe they could remove the unrest effect from a conquered settlement immediately.