What lesser-known/obscure civilizations can be included in Civ7?

[Boris Gudenuf]

Yes, but not only the Phoenicians can be added in every iteration of the franchise but at the same time they can be given a different approach if needed with bonuses focusing on colonization and levying mercenary units instead of trading. On the other hand, this is exactly the right game for the Minoans to appear. Linear A is undeciphered and unspeakable, meaning that Minos and the Minoans would have never appeared under the old model in past titles.

This is, indeed, the first time a Minoan Civ is possible in a regular edition of Civilization. I am simply pointing out that there are still potential difficulties in making a decent model of the Minoans from what we know of them that remains Unique compared to other near-contemporary (same Age) civilizations like the Phoenicians.

But (sorry, @Zaarin) if there is a conflict, I would love to see a Minoan Civ replace a Phoenician Civ if that's what it took to get the Minoans into the game as a playable civilization - as posted, this is the first time that has been possible with the new model of separate Leaders and Civilizations in Civ VII.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

This is, indeed, the first time a Minoan Civ is possible in a regular edition of Civilization. I am simply pointing out that there are still potential difficulties in making a decent model of the Minoans from what we know of them that remains Unique compared to other near-contemporary (same Age) civilizations like the Phoenicians.

But (sorry, @Zaarin) if there is a conflict, I would love to see a Minoan Civ replace a Phoenician Civ if that's what it took to get the Minoans into the game as a playable civilization - as posted, this is the first time that has been possible with the new model of separate Leaders and Civilizations in Civ VII.

Just make it Carthage with a war elephant UU, if you have to differentiate it from Phoenicia.
I don't know if I need Minoan as a playable civ, but it being an IP would be a plus considered Knossos has always been a Greek city in game.

 

[Zaarin]

I think it's uncertain if the Minoans were Greek or not. The language is undeciphered which leads nowhere

Linear A is undeciphered, but we can say with some confidence that it was neither Indo-European nor Semitic (and with almost absolute confidence that it was not Greek). Recall that the same script was used used to write Greek, which we call Linear B.

es, but not only the Phoenicians can be added in every iteration of the franchise but at the same time they can be given a different approach if needed with bonuses focusing on colonization and levying mercenary units instead of trading.

The Phoenicians did many things well--explore; colonize; craft fine luxury goods like purple dye, ivories, metal bowls, votive figures; spread their religion and its iconography; spread the alphabet (which their ancestors created in the Bronze Age); viticulture and arboriculture (recall that Mago's treatise on agriculture was considered the definitive work on the subject by both the Greeks and Romans)--but if there's one thing they did better than anyone it was to create a pan-Mediterranean elite culture through trade. IMO a Phoenicia that's not primarily about trade and colonization is a deficient design.

But (sorry, @Zaarin) if there is a conflict, I would love to see a Minoan Civ replace a Phoenician Civ if that's what it took to get the Minoans into the game as a playable civilization

Just make it Carthage with a war elephant UU, if you have to differentiate it from Phoenicia.

 

[Guandao]

Ancestral Puebloan is a better term than Anasazi (which is Navajo and means "enemy ancestors").
What is Khasa?

Langkasuka on the list? It's so obscure and better off as a City-State. I rather have a Malacca/Malay Civ instead of Langkasuka.

 

[Guandao]

A lot of these choices would make better sense if a fourth age existed before the age of antiquity. Having Olmecs and Maya in the same era, Etruscans and Romans, Minoans and Greeks, Harappan and Maurya India. etc makes the game feel weird.

 

[Xandinho]

What is Khasa?

Medieval Nepalese kingdom that could be an alternative to Tibet.

 

[Phrozen]

Personally I would like to see Salish, or some other PNW culture and maybe an Algonquian civ which would be kind of blobish to be fair.

 

[Zaarin]

maybe an Algonquian civ

Shawnee are Algonquian.

 

[marius_kaparius]

Xhosa

 

[Patine]

Medieval Nepalese kingdom that could be an alternative to Tibet.

The Malla or Gorkha Kingdom?

 

[Xandinho]

The Malla or Gorkha Kingdom?

The Malla one. I think Gorkha is well documentad.

 

[8housesofelixir]

I have always been an avid supporter of a Sogdian civ (and I know @Zaarin might also be interested). They were the masters of the Silk Road and pulled the strings of the most powerful empires at the time (Byzantine, Tang, Abbasids, Turk Khanate).

Unique Infrasture - Nāf. The word originally meant "community" and refers to merchant communities and colonies that the Sogdians established throughout Central Asia.
Unique Unit - Čākar. A type of personal retinue in the Persian world that took the form of adopted sons. It was possibly a precedent of the Mamluks. Check the Encyclopædia Iranica page about them for more details.

My only worry is that even though we know a lot about the Sogdians, most of the info requires some decent academic research to find, and FXS is not particularly good at this unless they hire an in-house Inner Asia historian.

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Not necessarily a lesser-known civ, but I would say Venetians will be a good call for Civ 7, since the game now has a city-town system and would portray polities like Venetians really well.

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I saw a couple of people voted Xiongnu, and as a historian who happened to have studied the Han-Xiongnu War in detail, here are my two cents:

We do have a lot of historical information about Xiongnu, but we seriously lack some details that can make an interesting Xiongnu civ design. For instance, we don't know any proper nomenclatures in the Xiongnu language. The language itself had been lost. Most historical accounts about the Xiongnu were recorded by Chinese historians, who transliterated the words into Old Chinese (a language that also required serious reconstruction efforts).

As a result, most of the Xiongnu abilities and uniques would be strangely reconstructed words, with no uniform spelling, or just generic descriptions. Not to say that we absolutely did not have a city list for them - they just didn't have any cities (unlike Scythians who eventually had some).

Similarly, the Xiongnu UB and UU would be pretty generic, as the Chinese sources didn't record anything in particular besides the generic "royal court" 王庭, "sky altar" 祭天坛, and "(horse) archers" 骑. A Xiongnu design might not be very different from other early nomadic designs, such as the V Huns and VI Scythians.



Personally, for an early nomadic empire, I would suggest the Turkic Khanate(s) (from the early Gokturk Khanate to the Toquz-Oghuz). They were powerful and influential enough to have power plays against the Sassanids, Tang, Abbasids, and even Byzantines.

Most importantly - We know their language (Orkhon inscriptions), we have a unique winter settlement for UB/UI (Kishlak), we have a city list (recorded in the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk), we have a wonder (the inscriptions were housed in massive memorial complexes that were fully excavated), we even know what their leader looked like (see the statue here)! That's enough info for a fully-fledged civ design, plus a non-Mongolian nomadic leader.

 

[Siptah]

The Malla one. I think Gorkha is well documentad.

Not to be confused with the other Malla Kingdom in Kathmandu valley though, which is very famous and well documented (and would probably a better choice than the Khasa Kingdom for civ 7). But for the purpose of this thread, that other Malla Kingdom is too well-known.

 

[Bootstrapbilly]

Would love a Nuragic civ, a early Japan civ Jomon/Kofun/Yayoi and Norte Chico/Caral-Supe.

Removing the leader from the civ allows for some really interesting representation - but I do feel Firaxis has boxed itself in a bit with Civs having to have associated wonder, to me it feels it kind of undoes what they were trying to achieve a bit. Like with the Nuragic civ, would Nuraghes be an improvement/skin and Su Nuraxi as a wonder - feels a bit more of the same? I was also dreaming up a Hittite civ but struggled with the wonder - perhaps the Hattusa green stone? I guess they could always break from the trend like we've seen with Russia not having a civilian UU. Also looks like Firaxis are willing to take some imaginative wonder designs with the Great Bath in civ 6 and the Emille bell.

 

[Patine]

Not to be confused with the other Malla Kingdom in Kathmandu valley though, which is very famous and well documented (and would probably a better choice than the Khasa Kingdom for civ 7). But for the purpose of this thread, that other Malla Kingdom is too well-known.

I was referring to the one in Kathmandu when I posed the question to Xandinho.

 

[Patine]

Not to say that we absolutely did not have a city list for them - they just didn't have any cities

This is an issue, too, with the Inuit suggestion mentioned above. The settlements in Nunavut, Northern Labrador and Far Northern Quebec, Inuvik and environs in the Northwest Territories, Greenland, the north and west coasts of Alaska, and the far eastern peninsula of Chukotka in Russia are not Inuit-founded settlements - they are depressing, soulless, clapboard, tundric rural slums, or former radar stations, whaling depots, icebreaker refueling points, mining towns, or Christian missions renamed, not overly long ago, to Inuit languages from their original European names.

 

[gdr_willter]

This is an issue, too, with the Inuit suggestion mentioned above. The settlements in Nunavut, Northern Labrador and Far Northern Quebec, Inuvik and environs in the Northwest Territories, Greenland, the north and west coasts of Alaska, and the far eastern peninsula of Chukotka in Russia are not Inuit-founded settlements - they are depressing, soulless, clapboard, tundric rural slums, or former radar stations, whaling depots, icebreaker refueling points, mining towns, or Christian missions renamed, not overly long ago, to Inuit languages from their original European names.

I think they can have some settlement names from the Inuit words of snow... I like the city naming way of Mapuche in Civ 6, there are all Mapu (land) in their language.

 

[Zaarin]

I have always been an avid supporter of a Sogdian civ (and I know @Zaarin might also be interested).

Indeed, I've been suggesting them for a long time as well.

Would love a Nuragic civ

I voted for them, but really I'd like to see a Nuragic Independent Peoples and Nuraghi as unique improvements. (Also welcome! )

I was also dreaming up a Hittite civ but struggled with the wonder - perhaps the Hattusa green stone?

Hittite wonder is super easy: Yazılıkaya.

 

[Siptah]

Hittite wonder is super easy: Yazılıkaya.

I'm not sure. It's, aside from Hattusas walls, probably the most famous surviving structure of the Hittites. But I really dread what FXS designers would do to it to make it look special on the map.

 

[Zaarin]

I'm not sure. It's, aside from Hattusas walls, probably the most famous surviving structure of the Hittites. But I really dread what FXS designers would do to it to make it look special on the map.

Yes, some reconstruction would be necessary...