American Maps and Minor Civs

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
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North America

Imma be blunt here - I don't intend on expanding much past just North America, and even then, I'm not gonna be thorough. Really, I've only got a handful of ideas and mostly just want to open to floor for similar ideas and future expansions.
  1. Black Hills
    • Despite being a major focus of one of the campaigns, there isn’t a single map about the Black Hills. I’d imagine a map like this would be not dissimilar to Saguenay, except in place of a bay, there’d be dense pine trees at the base of the “bay,” a massive selection of gold mines. Players would start in the same U-formation of Saguenay, potentially with small ponds and rivers around like Great Plains, and would fight for the resource-rich acropolis that is the Black Hills. Out on the prairie, there’d be plenty of bison and antelope, but not much wood or gold.

Frankly, that’s all I’ve really got. Maybe I’ll add more later. I’m more interested in the Minor Civs aspect of this.

Minor Civs

In playing with my ideas postulated here, I think 7 new minor civs for Tortuamerica could be justified - One to replace a current minor civ from each region that is becoming a full civ, and one new one for each of the three major regions (prairie, PNW, eastern woodlands).

Prairie

Starting in my homeland, updating the Comanche to full civ status seems like the most logical choice. Replacing the Comanche minor civ in all aspects (and additionally in some more) would be the;

  1. Umoⁿhoⁿ
    • Serving much the same purpose as the Comanche do now, the Omaha-Ponca occupy an area roughly the same as the Comanche, with all the same notable qualities… just a little less known. The current Comanche Horse Archer is so generic, you could literally just rename them and their techs and it would be just as accurate. (That’s bad.)
    • These would be on the maps: Painted Desert, Texas, Sonora, Ozarks, Great Plains, and Colorado.
  1. ʔɔʔɔɔ̋ɔ́niinénnɔh
    • From the northern Great Plains, the White Clay People, the A’aninin. Closely related to the Cheyenne and Arapaho, and often seen with both, they are the only people of this trio that did not find themselves closely bonded with the Lakota. You may know them as the “Gros Ventre,” an inaccurate and rather rude name. Let’s please not use that name when they are introduced.
    • These would be on the maps: Great Plains, Dakota, Rockies, Northwest Territory, Cascade Range, and Yukon

For a new major civ in the potential future, the Iron Confederacy would be the best choice.

Eastern Woodlands

Over with the territories of the Haudenosaunee, we would elevating the Cherokee and Seminole to full civ status, with the Five Civilized Tribes. Unlike the other two regions, this one gains three minor due to two minor civs being elevated. Replacing them would be the;

  1. Šaawanwaki
    • Replacing the Cherokee would be the Shawnee. I don’t got much to say. They’d do much the same thing.
    • These would be on the maps: Ozarks, Carolina, Bayou, Great Lakes, New England
  1. Caddo
    • Replacing the Seminole, the Caddo. Again, not much to say. They’d do much the same.
    • These would be on the maps: Florida, Carolina, Bayou, Ozarks, Texas
  1. Mi’kmaq
    • For the new civ of the region, the Mi’kmaq would take place up in the northeast. They would be a fishing people, not dissimilar to the Wyandot (Huron, but need to be renamed), and much more aggressive.
    • These would be on the maps: Plymouth, New England, Carolina, Great Lakes, and Saguenay

For a new major civ in the potential future, the Anishinaabe would be the best choice.

Pacific Northwest

To the coolest art styles on the continent, the Pacific Northwest needs a lot more love. With the first act of elevating the Nuu-chah-nulth to full civ status; This is the Nootka. Best part? They’ve already got an explorer design, ready to go! Replacing them would be the;

  1. Schitsu’umsh
    • Recognized federally as the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, these would replace the current Nootka, potentially with a design relift to give the poor clubman a bit of a boost.
    • They would be on the maps: Cascade Range, Yukon, Alaska, California, Rockies, and Northwest Territories
  1. Nimiipuu
    • The Nez Perce would be the new tribe of the area, appearing as a unique mix of a Great Plains culture and that of the Pacific Northwest. This is something that could work to their strengths as a unique minor civ.

For a new major civ in the potential future, the Haida-Tlingit would be the best choice. Uniquely, however, I have a second recommendation for the PNW - which shouldn’t be surprising, given how few PNW cultures are in the game as-is.
Ideally, the Salish people should make a wonderful addition, especially if this is how the PNW communities should generate gold.

Anyway

I’ve got no ideas for Mesoamerica, nor how any ideas concerning South America. That, I’m afraid, is better left to people who know those areas better.

I would love to hear any ideas you might have.

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Oh! Something else tangentially related, but relevant, is that I wanted to push the idea of adding more Minor Civ heroes, preferably more based on history. Imagine how fun it’d be to get Geronimo with the Apache, or Chief Roman Nose with the Cheyenne.

ADD: I don’t just mean the American minor civs, either. I’d imagine there’s all sorts of interesting figures from the European Royal Houses that could show up as well.

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I’ve mostly worked with indigenous peoples of the north, so ill start there. For Alaska map, he map thats based on PNW hybrid map i forget name, yukon maps we could have tlingit famous for their warriors, coin armor (from china) from traders wood armor, and variety of clubs. also have incredible artwork and metalurgy so could have mining tech, something for canoes (like all pacific northwest were expert seafarers). These were a famously dominating tribe who exceled in several areas. Also something notworthy their concept of intellectual property, ie owning songs and ideas, before it was commonplace in the west.

The aleuts would also be nice to see in Alaska due to how central their, well tbh exploitation, by russian and then american (people forget alaska was basically a colony in all but name till the early 1900s)in regards to extracting resources such as otter pelt, finding gold, and later sealing. Their kayaks were arguably some of the best small craft to brave the dangeous northern waters, on par with polynesian crafts, and a unique canoe could be really useful. These people were the whole reason Alaska and the north had any interest and given how their culture is rapidly disappearing due to effects of internment camps and disease and loss of natural res, it would be great to see them get the spotlight once

perhaps could give a similar native like the more warlike chuchuki for east siberian maps since they all shared ideas. And of course, the lapps/sami and Inuit would be great to have, could have herding techs or spawns for the sami and things like food preservation for the inuit with hunting and canoe based units.

South america the natives of patagonia, i forget the name, were also really unique and could be added to a maps based in southern argentina/chile. then the tribes of columbia, panama, and more expansion on the guarani/tupi could add variety. lots of unique weapons and technologies from the regions here.

no maps yet, but goes without saying any number of oceania maps added would and should have new natives to go with them, please no jesuit tp cop outs XD

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I’m thinking that the far-northern people, like the Saami and Inuit, should be their own expansion entirely, separate from the rest of the civs. It’d be interesting to see how the devs can creatively connect various arctic cultures.

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in a world where devs have the time (ie microsoft gives them green light to make a more niche addition), i know you’ve wanted the haida but in alaska they are federated under one umbrella in unison in most regards. while separate language and peoples, they are quite connected culturally. With a hybrid civ (instead of saying just one or the other), There’d be more than enough political, military, social, and technology to have a deep civ. then could flesh out the native maps of the north. If they added in the artwork, tools, technologies, and interesting politician structures (clans, trade, roles etc.) id say there is plenty of room.

plus as youve pointed out with lakota being not very… lakota often, Haida Tlingit being already amalgamated gives them an excuse to add other elements a la germans having all sorts of things without turning heads or misrepresenting. And these peoples together had territory bigger than some eruopean states in size and the tlingit had very much a coalition of tribes they dominated even further

and yeah inuit spread so far you’d hope they get something. one of the largest peopling of all time and we got 0 representation and as the game moves into th elate 1800s, well polar explorations were quite common and lots of interactions occurred. their culture was also very interwoven, with incredibly diverse arrangements between tribes and land use. And we know, they were often warlike before disease decimated them

i doubt any of the above wil happen, but its certainly fun to plant seeds and hope the reap :slight_smile:

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You certainly seem to know more about the PNW than I do, so I’ll let you make those suggestions. I’m all sorts of thrilled for it.

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well one cool thing that could be added to a Tlingit people is navajo shipment or native alliance. Because the Navajo and Tlingit both had oral traditions of a great migration from south Alaska to southern USA and considered themselves fellow or similar despite the literally thousands of miles in between. This was dismissed by anthropologists for decades until linguistics and later DNA proved their were from the same groups of people, and from a migration. Should there ever an Ainu native tribe/tp, or eastern Siberian people, there is also strong genetic evidence the ainu and Tlingit come from the same ancestors. And the armor and customs do overlap, but is unknown how much is from history or from their environments.

They also intergrated european fire arms and had to be dearmed when the USA took over from russia due to frequent rebellions and stand offs, so adding in musket units later would be within reason. ideally, a archaic style to more modern army (somewhat like current haude) would be appropriate.

now i think about it, their focus on diverse trade and sustenance would make an eco like current haudes focus on various crates and unit macros would make alot of sense for them. Tlingit thought it was sign of poverty to only eat what was readily available, and would seek to diversify their trade and diets as much as possible.

lastly, this is not my area of expertise but dancing and expressing themselves and preparing for war through dance is intergral. When younger i got to attend a cry ceremony but also got to witness some of the dances preparing for war. Id probably punch/shoot harder too if I was inspired by such If there was a civ, and i still might be offensive since their dances are considered property and would need to be cleared by the tribe to not appear theft, that would use the plaza mechanic it would be them. but it cant be buffalo bill or current low energy wandering, animated dances in costume would make some sense

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Meanwhile south america cries in a dark corner

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Add some ideas. This is American Maps and Minor Civs, not North American. I only covered North America because that’s what I know.
The point of the post is for people to add ideas about the entirety of the Americas.

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Well for one i hope inca doesn’t stay the only non-revolution civ of south America. E. G. Gran Columbia or Brazil could be added.

Murato and Tukano… I hope there will be done SA DLC similar to africa at she point.

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