Speculation on Native North American civs in Civ6 vanilla

[Guandao]

This is a thread to discuss whether any Native North American civs will be in the Civ6 vanilla

In Civ2, the Sioux were added (with Sacagawea as a female leader )

In Civ3, the Iroquois were added

In Civ4, the Native Americans were added,

In the Civ5 vanilla, the Iroquois were included once more, In the Brave New World expansion, the Shoshone were added as a replacement for the Puebloans

Which Native North American civ, if any, will be included in the Civ6 vanilla?
Vote!

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I would like to see the Haida and/or the Shawnee.

 

[Guandao]

Can a Mod change the Why in the poll title to Which?

 

[Zaarin]

I'm dying to see a PNW tribe--the Haida, Tlingit, or Tsimshian particularly. Such a rich cultural history just waiting to be explored! Failing that, I hope we get a tribe that's never been featured before, ruling out the Iroquois and Sioux. Also, why are the Cree included under "Northeast"? The Cree are Subarctic.

 

[Guandao]

I'm dying to see a PNW tribe--the Haida, Tlingit, or Tsimshian particularly. Such a rich cultural history just waiting to be explored! Failing that, I hope we get a tribe that's never been featured before, ruling out the Iroquois and Sioux. Also, why are the Cree included under "Northeast"? The Cree are Subarctic.

Oops, my mistake

 

[Inawordyes]

The Cherokee could easily have a research bonus towards techs that their neighbors have already researched (or something to that effect), being that they were one of the "Five Civilized Tribes" and adopted writing, among other things, in a very short amount of time. Plus both John Ross and Dragging Canoe would be awesome leaders to introduce to the civ series.

On the flipside, I'm on-board with everybody else in the thread advocating for a PNW tribe, as there's so much that could be done with any of the tribes in the area. I'd personally advocate for the Salish under Chief Seattle.

 

[CivCube]

Definitely not the Pueblo, as demonstrated by BNW development.

 

[Zaarin]

Plus...John Ross...would be awesome leaders to introduce to the civ series.

AKA how to succinctly offend and alienate the Cherokee Nation. John Ross's policies were excellent...for the half-white population of the Cherokee Nation. Not so much for the rest of it.

 

[HanNorwood]

As much as I would like the Anasazi people, an intriguing culture with potential for some interesting gameplay, I'm afraid it won't happen, as the Pueblo people have already refused to allow Firaxis to use their language.

I voted for a Pacific Northwest tribe, as there are unique gameplay mechanics for a number of them, particularly with dugout canoes.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I would like to see a Haida civ. They sound very interesting, however I'm not sure they could find a Big Personality leader for them. On the other hand, Tecumseh of the Shawnee is about as Big Personality as Native American leaders come.

 

[Sonmi]

Voted for the Iroquois Confederacy, I think they are the ones who qualify most as a great civilization out of all the North American natives. The Huron Wyandot could also be interesting though.

 

[Inawordyes]

AKA how to succinctly offend and alienate the Cherokee Nation. John Ross's policies were excellent...for the half-white population of the Cherokee Nation. Not so much for the rest of it.

A fair point! I've done lot of research into Amerindian cultures due to the mystery behind who would replace the Pueblo in back during the pre-BNW days, but I cannot say that I know the best leader choices.

In that case, I think it's safe to say that Tsiyu Gansini (Dragging Canoe) would be the best option though, as he "is considered by many to be the most significant Native American leader of the Southeast", after all.

 

[Socrates99]

Cree with a trade bonus.

 

[Zaarin]

I would like to see a Haida civ. They sound very interesting, however I'm not sure they could find a Big Personality leader for them.

I think that's the problem with a lot Native American civs, especially since Native American cultures have been in general less centralized than most Old World civs. Aside from Tecumseh, Joseph Brant of the Mohawk was a pretty interesting guy, and there are a lot of options from the Sioux--Sitting Bull, Gall, Red Cloud, etc. Personally, though, I want to see someone new and someone considerably less obvious than the Sioux or Iroquois. I've already stated my preference for the Haida or Tlingit earlier in this thread (I want to see this kind of motif in game--seriously), but as long as it's not a repeat of the Iroquois or Sioux I'll be happy. (Actually, given some of the mythological figures who have been leaders in the past, personalities don't come any bigger than Raven, who is portrayed in the form of a man as often as a raven in PNW tales.)

 

[Krajzen]

You missed one option which I believe to be highly probable

Inca in release version instead of NA tribe.

Why I believe it:
1) Spain is basically confirmed (that article with "Spanish unique unit - Conquistador") and both in civ4 and civ5 Spain came simultaneously with Inca (civ4-vanilla, civ5-shared dlc)
2) Ed Beach said in separate interviews how "this time we will look more at TSL geographic balance" and "this time we will care more about South American civs" (iirc he even said "in release version" regarding the latter statement).
3) Inca fitting both "age of exploration" theme (together with Aztecs and Spain) and "terrain development" theme (famous Incan terrace farms)

I'd be really fine with Aztecs and Inca being the only Precolombian civs in release version of civ6, as I find them more "essential" than NA tribes (which would be perfect material for DLCs)

 

[Amrunril]

You missed one option which I believe to be highly probable

Inca in release version instead of NA tribe.

Why I believe it:
1) Spain is basically confirmed (that article with "Spanish unique unit - Conquistador") and both in civ4 and civ5 Spain came simultaneously with Inca (civ4-vanilla, civ5-shared dlc)
2) Ed Beach said in separate interviews how "this time we will look more at TSL geographic balance" and "this time we will care more about South American civs" (iirc he even said "in release version" regarding the latter statement).
3) Inca fitting both "age of exploration" theme (together with Aztecs and Spain) and "terrain development" theme (famous Incan terrace farms)

I'd be really fine with Aztecs and Inca being the only Precolombian civs in release version of civ6, as I find them more "essential" than NA tribes (which would be perfect material for DLCs)

I'd agree that the Inca are an excellent and likely choice for a precolumbian civ, but I don't think they need to come at the expense of a North American civ. If the developers are actually serious when they talk about including a more geographically diverse set of civs, they aren't going to leave the entirety of both American Continents with just the Incas and the US (I don't the Aztecs are as obvious a choice, but even if you do factor them in, 4 out of 18 civs in the Americas seems entirely reasonable).

Based purely on the geographic diversity criterion, I think the Haida seem like a strong possibility, but I suspect the choice will largely come down to which group would do a good job of focusing on a mechanic that the other vanilla civs don't.

 

[Zaarin]

You missed one option which I believe to be highly probable

Inca in release version instead of NA tribe.

Why I believe it:
1) Spain is basically confirmed (that article with "Spanish unique unit - Conquistador") and both in civ4 and civ5 Spain came simultaneously with Inca (civ4-vanilla, civ5-shared dlc)
2) Ed Beach said in separate interviews how "this time we will look more at TSL geographic balance" and "this time we will care more about South American civs" (iirc he even said "in release version" regarding the latter statement).
3) Inca fitting both "age of exploration" theme (together with Aztecs and Spain) and "terrain development" theme (famous Incan terrace farms)

I'd be really fine with Aztecs and Inca being the only Precolombian civs in release version of civ6, as I find them more "essential" than NA tribes (which would be perfect material for DLCs)

The problem is that "Native American" is usually used to refer to the non-Eskimo-Aleut, non-Hawaiian indigenous peoples of North America north of the Rio Grande--so including Inca and Aztecs still leaves Native Americans unrepresented, which is, IMO, a serious problem. I think it would be better to include either the Inca or the Aztecs as DLC, and we've already had strong hints about the Aztecs.

 

[Bast]

I think aside from America, the only civilizations that will get in from the Americas are Aztec and Inca. They had sizeable empires and geographically suited to TSL.

 

[Ezumiyr]

Voted for the Mississipians, but I would probably like the Haidas more when I think about it.

 

[Krajzen]

I'd agree that the Inca are an excellent and likely choice for a precolumbian civ, but I don't think they need to come at the expense of a North American civ.

Two *native* American are max because already there is going to be a much bigger problem with representing Middle East civs.
It has been said there are 18 civs in release non dlc version of civ6.
America, Aztecs, Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, India, Japan, England, Germany, France and Russia are 12 civs that have appeared in release 1.0 version of every civ game ever and are either confirmed or almost mandatory. On top of that Spain is essentially confirmed by gamestar article. If you add one black African civ (another series standard), one south east asian civ (standard since civ4) and mongolia (present in almost every initial civ release), you are still left with the entire middle east empty - and civ5 had initially persia, arabia and ottomans from here, plus release dlc of babylon. In this mess there is simply no room for more than two native americans civs on release, with aztecs being series mandatory civ and Ed saying about "south american civ (...) release version" stuff so...