Southern African representation

I don't get why the Boers have never made it into a civ game. They're fairly well-known, unique, iconic, and from an overlooked part of the world.
Since they are decendants of mostly Dutch immigrants (also Germans and lots of others) I would concur, but only after the Zulu or one of the other Nguni kingdoms/tribes are introduced first.
And as they have to come in the modern age , they may be a good alternative for the Dutch (who are probably only an Explorer age civ if they are coming in game) to evolve in.
 
I don't get why the Boers have never made it into a civ game. They're fairly well-known, unique, iconic, and from an overlooked part of the world.

I think that's because indigenous Subsaharan civs got so little space in the series prior to civ6 that almost nobody wanted one of the few precious African "slots" being taken by Western colonizers ;)

Civ6 on the other hand already featured a ton of Western colonial offshoots (America, Brazil, Canada, Australia) so nobody wanted yet another one instead more slots devoted to the remote insigenous cultures
 
Tswana would be very nice. In fact Botswana would be one of the most sensible modern African civs given its great success and actually being sort of a nation state. I don't get why we didn't get Ethiopia, Botswana, Ghana, Senegal or Kenya instead of Buganda.

It feels annoying those peoples are probably going to be put in the modern era, considering their tech level was honestly on the "ancient" level in civ7 three era division - in normal system this was never a visible problem, but here it is going to feel weird with Zulu having what, unique spear unit in the 19th century?
the shona were on my civ 6 wishlist for a while. i’d like to see them.

with the zulu thing, those spears still played a big part in their resistance against colonialism. i don’t think it’ll feel ahistorical, it would prob be even better if these units have bonuses related to fighting within their borders that can rival more “modern” units, cuz it replicates that dynamic
 
With Shawnee in Exploration and Mughals in Modern, there's no telling where the Zulu will land.

As far as southern African civs go, I would rather see Mutapa or Kilwa for the Exploration era, which could make Zulu a better fit for the Modern era. (they fit that timeframe better anyway, but who knows)
 
With Shawnee in Exploration and Mughals in Modern, there's no telling where the Zulu will land.

As far as southern African civs go, I would rather see Mutapa or Kilwa for the Exploration era, which could make Zulu a better fit for the Modern era. (they fit that timeframe better anyway, but who knows)
I wouldn't be surprised if they did get into the Modern Age just so they have the ability to compete against the British, and a hypothetical Boer civ if that happens.
 
With Shawnee in Exploration and Mughals in Modern, there's no telling where the Zulu will land.

As far as southern African civs go, I would rather see Mutapa or Kilwa for the Exploration era, which could make Zulu a better fit for the Modern era. (they fit that timeframe better anyway, but who knows)
A path like "Mapungubwe (quite out of time, but I don't think there's enough knowledge to make Gokomere a civ) > Zimbabwe or Mutapa > Rozvi" would be quite interesting. I personally would prefer Zimbabwe in Age 2, because then we would have Great Zimbabwe as an associated wonder. Or they could make Zimbabwe Age 1 (it would still be more out of time, though) and make it go to Mutapa.
 
With Shawnee in Exploration and Mughals in Modern, there's no telling where the Zulu will land.

As far as southern African civs go, I would rather see Mutapa or Kilwa for the Exploration era, which could make Zulu a better fit for the Modern era. (they fit that timeframe better anyway, but who knows)
yes, I’d love to see Mutapa. Kilwa/Swahili to me are more eastern african than southern, though that’s also underexplored (usually it’s just ethiopia, after all)
 
With Shawnee in Exploration and Mughals in Modern, there's no telling where the Zulu will land.

I wouldn't be surprised if they did get into the Modern Age just so they have the ability to compete against the British, and a hypothetical Boer civ if that happens.

While I have to say that the Impi would be a somehow anachronistic modern unit, it would at least allow one of the famous civ memes to prevail.
 
I'd second Botswana as a modern choice, they truly have had an economic miracle, managing to have make a resource economy a middle income nation without succumbing to the resource curse. They are richer per capita than South Africa now.
 
If it was fully up to me, I'd probably go

Mutapa or Zimbabwe, Kongo, Swahili, the already confirmed Songhai, Hausa (who have a confirmed leader) and a medieval depiction of Ethiopia in some capacity for exploration

Botswana, Zulu, Swazi, Tanzania, Madagascar, Nigeria, the already confirmed Buganda, and an imperial Ethiopia

I don't know about antiquity civs since i'm not super high on including cultures we don't know too much about like the early Bantu, especially ones we can't really add reasonable flavor to. Someone who knows more about african history could prob suggest some in these regions. Perhaps the Khoi-San?
 
While I have to say that the Impi would be a somehow anachronistic modern unit, it would at least allow one of the famous civ memes to prevail.
We've already seen a Bugandan unit which contains people with leather shields, throwing spears and riflemen mixed in.
And Buganda is a Modern civ.

1725329782803.png
 
We've already seen a Bugandan unit which contains people with leather shields, throwing spears and riflemen mixed in.
And Buganda is a Modern civ.

View attachment 701971
Modern includes the Mughals that were gone before the US Civil War. Spears will be used in all 3 Ages (just only at the beginning of the Third Age)
 
We can create some very interesting historical paths throughout Africa. Here are some suggestions of mine. Obviously, I'm not convinced that we have enough materials to make all of them playable civs.

1. Maghreb
Numidians > Marinid/Almohad > Morocco

Personally, I have a slightly stronger preference for Marinid, but Almohad would also work quite well. By the way, I love this path and hope to have something similar at some point in the game.

2. Sahara Desert
Garamantes > Songhai > Kaabu

I'd like to point out here that I'd have preferred them to have gone to Mali instead of Songhai, and I don't think we'll have both included.

3. Akan States
Bonoman > Denkyira > Ashanti

While Ashanti and Denkyira fit well into their Ages, Bonoman is way outside of what Age 1 would be.

4. Nigeria
Ife > Benin > Oyo

Ife is way outside of what Age 1 would be and I can't think of any other option.

5. Ethiopia
Aksum > Zagwe > Ethiopia

I think this path works quite well. We could expand this path and call it the "Horn of Africa path" and put Somali (or more specifically a Sultanate, like Ajuran) in Age 2 instead of Zagwe (or could we create a Somali path of its own?). I'd be fine if Nubia was also part of this path as Age 1.

6. Southwest Africa
???? > Ndongo > Kongo

The transition from Ndongo to Kongo works well, but I can't think of any options for Age 1.

7. South Africa
Mapungubwe > Mutapa > Rozvi and Zulu

Mutapa was very prominent in the region, so I chose it over Zimbabwe (I'd be fine if Great Zimbabwe was a Mutapa-associated wonder). The transition to Age 3 could lead to either Rozvi or Zulu, depending on the player's choice.

8. Southeast Africa
Swahili > Kilwa > Omani and Buganda (???)

This seems like a good historical path to me, but I'm not sure there are enough materials to make an Age 1 Swahili civ. Perhaps Buganda could function as an alternative successor to Kilwa?

9. Madagascar
Vazimba > Merina > Madagascar

I'm pretty sure that Age 1 of this path is too obscure to be a viable civ. Merina, however, is pretty easy to make a playable civ because it's well documented.
 
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It feels annoying those peoples are probably going to be put in the modern era, considering their tech level was honestly on the "ancient" level in civ7 three era division - in normal system this was never a visible problem, but here it is going to feel weird with Zulu having what, unique spear unit in the 19th century?

Interestingly, this is what happened in Humankind. Zulu there is an Industrial Era (c.1800-1900) culture, with their UU being a spearmen unit with a combat strength (46+8)* higher than the Modern Era riflemen (52).

*This UU has a special trait of getting +8 combat strength when attacking stronger units.
 
Interestingly, this is what happened in Humankind. Zulu there is an Industrial Era (c.1800-1900) culture, with their UU being a spearmen unit with a combat strength (46+8)* higher than the Modern Era riflemen (52).

*This UU has a special trait of getting +8 combat strength when attacking stronger units.
this is a good way of making it gamey but fair, i think.
 
We can create some very interesting historical paths throughout Africa. Here are some suggestions of mine. Obviously, I'm not convinced that we have enough materials to make all of them playable civs.

1. Maghreb
Numidians > Marinid/Almohad > Morocco

Personally, I have a slightly stronger preference for Marinid, but Almohad would also work quite well. By the way, I love this path and hope to have something similar at some point in the game.

2. Sahara Desert
Garamantes > Songhai > Kaabu

I'd like to point out here that I'd have preferred them to have gone to Mali instead of Songhai, and I don't think we'll have both included.

3. Akan States
Bonoman > Denkyira > Ashanti

While Ashanti and Denkyira fit well into their Ages, Bonoman is way outside of what Age 1 would be.

4. Nigeria
Ife > Benin > Oyo

Ife is way outside of what Age 1 would be and I can't think of any other option.

5. Ethiopia
Aksum > Zagwe > Ethiopia

I think this path works quite well. We could expand this path and call it the "Horn of Africa path" and put Somali (or more specifically a Sultanate, like Ajuran) in Age 2 instead of Zagwe (or could we create a Somali path of its own?). I'd be fine if Nubia was also part of this path as Age 1.

6. Southwest Africa
???? > Ndongo > Kongo

The transition from Ndongo to Kongo works well, but I can't think of any options for Age 1.

7. South Africa
Mapungubwe > Mutapa > Rozvi and Zulu

Mutapa was very prominent in the region, so I chose it over Zimbabwe (I'd be fine if Great Zimbabwe was a Mutapa-associated wonder). The transition to Age 3 could lead to either Rozvi or Zulu, depending on the player's choice.

8. Southeast Africa
Swahili > Kilwa > Omani and Buganda (???)

This seems like a good historical path to me, but I'm not sure there are enough materials to make an Age 1 Swahili civ. Perhaps Buganda could function as an alternative successor to Kilwa?

9. Madagascar
Vazimba > Merina > Madagascar

I'm pretty sure that Age 1 of this path is too obscure to be a viable civ. Merina, however, is pretty easy to make a playable civ because it's well documented.

Maybe they are going the Ethiopia route? Aksum is already in there and I think I remember Ethiopia was in some civ game? (Could be wrong)
 
Maybe they are going the Ethiopia route? Aksum is already in there and I think I remember Ethiopia was in some civ game? (Could be wrong)
If Ethiopia was there, Songhai should unlock that as much as it unlocks Buganda. But Songhai only unlocks Buganda, which suggests That is the only SSAfrican civ in Age 3 (like Songhai Age 2 and Aksum Age 1)
 
Tswana would be very nice. In fact Botswana would be one of the most sensible modern African civs given its great success and actually being sort of a nation state. I don't get why we didn't get Ethiopia, Botswana, Ghana, Senegal or Kenya instead of Buganda.

It feels annoying those peoples are probably going to be put in the modern era, considering their tech level was honestly on the "ancient" level in civ7 three era division - in normal system this was never a visible problem, but here it is going to feel weird with Zulu having what, unique spear unit in the 19th century?
Rwanda (at least in the 21st Century thus far) has also been an amazing success story, as modern African nations go. It's economic, living standards, and internal security are very high for an African country, and Paul Kagame practically buried the Hutu-Tutsi hatred - that produced the Genocide, and two successive lower-simmer Anti-Tutsi regimes, previously - into a more or less functional, productive, mostly unified population in like 10 years. It's also, statistically, in all measured metrics, the best coutry in Africa, by far, to be a woman.
 
Maybe they are going the Ethiopia route? Aksum is already in there and I think I remember Ethiopia was in some civ game? (Could be wrong)
Ethiopia has been in the past 3 games. I believe it will get in again, though hard to say if it will be in the base game.
 
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