BobTheTerrible
Just Another Bob
Seeing as how Revolutions has included the "Start as minors" option, I thought maybe somewhere down the road it could be expanded on a little. One thing Civ has always left out is the Tribal/chiefdom/semi-sedentary cultures. It seems like these "tribes" could fit in with Revolutions if implemented right, with semi-sedentary bands of people forming a united culture and then settling down as a civ, and former tribes getting unruly if forced into civilization. So, here are some thoughts.
Instead of cities, Tribes get a camp/tribe unit (like in the Mongol scenario). The unit has 1 move, and like a city, has 1 population that can work any adjacent squares (even if the unit has moved). There are no cultural borders around the camp. The camp cannot store food and therefore cannot grow in size.
Seeing as how they're not urbanized food-producers, all tiles produce -1 food. The tribe has no storage and cannot grow, and are self-sufficient (can't starve).
They can't build buildings. Any food that is gathered counts as production towards units. Other camp/tribe units can be built.
They can't produce any gold, espionage, or research. However, they get technology in the same way barbarians do and can produce the same units barbarians can. They pay no maintenance costs.
Working a resource gets them the resource, so working horses lets them build horsemen, copper --> spearmen, etc.
Units produced by a tribe could have a few special advantages, such as a promotion that allows them to move twice as fast (from being familiar with the wild). This would allow them to "catch up" with enemy camp units so that intertribal warfare isn't an endless game (a camp unit constantly retreating from an oncoming army, for instance)
To form a civilization, they must store enough food to get to size 2, but only using food produced from working an agricultural tile. Once this happens, all camp units become settlers and all tiles produce the normal amount of food. Also, the tribe can choose to settle down upon capturing a city. Perhaps tribes can also pillage food from agriculturalists for a production bonus.
Camp units can be captured to form either a settler or a worker unit (50% chance of each) for the civ which captured it. The settler unit would found a city with that tribe's culture. Other tribes who capture the camp unit will make it convert to a camp of their own.
Camp units can "Stack" so that 2 camp units on the same tile both provide production towards a single unit, although both camp units are still distinct.
Camp units can spawn as barbarians, or as "Tribes," (i.e. one of the civilizations). Tribes could have a small chance of spawning on goody hut tiles, high food tiles, from barbarian camp units, or as disgruntled emigrants from an existing civilization. Tribes would potentially keep getting bigger as they build more camp units, and by the time they decide to settle into a minor civ, they could be a significant threat (or they could not decide to settle and build an invasion force and target weak civs). Since you would need a source of agriculture in order to become a civ, tiny islands without any available agriculture crops wouldn't spawn civilizations. Also, minor civs would be able to spawn as they do now, without having to go through a "tribe" phase.
My thoughts here is to get a New World that isn't all urbanized by the time you get there. It would also allow civs like the Huns or Mongols, who didn't build grand cities but still posed a big threat to the urbanized world (in civ terms, the Mongols going from one camp to slowly capturing (uniting) a bunch of surrounding camps, to eventually being large enough to pose an invasion threat). I don't know how well it can be tied into the Revolutions mod, but I think it would fit in well with the minor civs mechanic. Also, I'm not trying to suggest something unfeasible or time consuming, I just think the idea is fun to kick around.
Instead of cities, Tribes get a camp/tribe unit (like in the Mongol scenario). The unit has 1 move, and like a city, has 1 population that can work any adjacent squares (even if the unit has moved). There are no cultural borders around the camp. The camp cannot store food and therefore cannot grow in size.
Seeing as how they're not urbanized food-producers, all tiles produce -1 food. The tribe has no storage and cannot grow, and are self-sufficient (can't starve).
They can't build buildings. Any food that is gathered counts as production towards units. Other camp/tribe units can be built.
They can't produce any gold, espionage, or research. However, they get technology in the same way barbarians do and can produce the same units barbarians can. They pay no maintenance costs.
Working a resource gets them the resource, so working horses lets them build horsemen, copper --> spearmen, etc.
Units produced by a tribe could have a few special advantages, such as a promotion that allows them to move twice as fast (from being familiar with the wild). This would allow them to "catch up" with enemy camp units so that intertribal warfare isn't an endless game (a camp unit constantly retreating from an oncoming army, for instance)
To form a civilization, they must store enough food to get to size 2, but only using food produced from working an agricultural tile. Once this happens, all camp units become settlers and all tiles produce the normal amount of food. Also, the tribe can choose to settle down upon capturing a city. Perhaps tribes can also pillage food from agriculturalists for a production bonus.
Camp units can be captured to form either a settler or a worker unit (50% chance of each) for the civ which captured it. The settler unit would found a city with that tribe's culture. Other tribes who capture the camp unit will make it convert to a camp of their own.
Camp units can "Stack" so that 2 camp units on the same tile both provide production towards a single unit, although both camp units are still distinct.
Camp units can spawn as barbarians, or as "Tribes," (i.e. one of the civilizations). Tribes could have a small chance of spawning on goody hut tiles, high food tiles, from barbarian camp units, or as disgruntled emigrants from an existing civilization. Tribes would potentially keep getting bigger as they build more camp units, and by the time they decide to settle into a minor civ, they could be a significant threat (or they could not decide to settle and build an invasion force and target weak civs). Since you would need a source of agriculture in order to become a civ, tiny islands without any available agriculture crops wouldn't spawn civilizations. Also, minor civs would be able to spawn as they do now, without having to go through a "tribe" phase.
My thoughts here is to get a New World that isn't all urbanized by the time you get there. It would also allow civs like the Huns or Mongols, who didn't build grand cities but still posed a big threat to the urbanized world (in civ terms, the Mongols going from one camp to slowly capturing (uniting) a bunch of surrounding camps, to eventually being large enough to pose an invasion threat). I don't know how well it can be tied into the Revolutions mod, but I think it would fit in well with the minor civs mechanic. Also, I'm not trying to suggest something unfeasible or time consuming, I just think the idea is fun to kick around.
