A lot have already been said about possible North American Civilizations and I am the first to say to force the civilizations of North American in to the Age Of Empire mold is slightly awkward.
However the more I learn the Mississippian mound builders the more I think it is possible.
In the end we know more than a lot of people think, still there are a few blind spots. I have tried to fill those up with not always the most historical plausible option but more in the vein of fun gameplay, like the scimitar throwing Mameluke. Even I think a good historical plausible option is also viable.
I have more looked at thematic bonuses and campaigns instead of going deep into the nitty gritty of a balanced civ. That can be added later when people are enthusiastic about the possibility.
Quick overview
- Mississippian:
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Wood buildings gives 5% gold on construction.
Building the mounds were very likely a communal activity and a religious event. To symbolize that every 5% of wood used in buildings getting back as gold. Example, building a 100 wood Lumbercamp gives back 5 gold. Selling at bottom prices at the market will still gives you a better deal than building the whole map full of Lumbercamps. I am debating if farms also must count, it seems very strong however I have not done the calculations comparing to other gold bonuses like the Vietnamese Paper Money.
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Fish from Shore Fish faster.
Shells are very important, I would translate that to fishing from shore fish are faster, villager and ship.
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NEW: Bonus damage against 0 armor
NEW: Does bonus damages against 0 armor units. It gives an early Dark and Feudal Age military bonus that is quickly surpassed when opponents research technologies. But get relevant again when the Mississippian player trains the Hornet Thrower in Castle Age.
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Can build buildings on mound for 10% extra cost.
Change flat terrain into elevation with a spacial building button. I will explain it in details in the *Bonuses and Buildings* part down below.
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Start with Hunting Dog
Instead of giving them an Eagle Scout at the start, I will suggest something that I guess will be hated by a lot of people. I want to give them a Hunting Dog instead. The Hunting Dog will be the slowest and the smallest Line of Sight of any Scout unit. To compensate, beside their free population space, is that they have a unique button beside Auto Scout button. When that is on and you click on the Huntable like a Deer, it will push it towards your Town Center like the AI Scout can do on higher difficult levels. Of course you need to shoot the Deer manual and keep an eye out if the Hunting Dog will get stuck somewhere. In Castle Age the Hunting Dog will lose the Hunt ability.
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Team Bonus: Markets 25% cheaper
The Mississippian culture was widespread with trade goods traveling great distance.
- Unique Units
Castle Unique Unit: Atassa Warrior with Hunting Dog
An infantry with a big carved wooden club. The goal was to hit the opponent against the head, very quick, very effective. I see them somewhere between the Swordsman line and the Woad Raider. But the unique part of the Atassa Warrior is that they spawn together with a population free Hunting Dog.The Hunting Dog can not attack buildings and will have bonus damage against Villagers, Monks, Archers and a small bonus against Calvary. And remember the Hunting Dog has already lost their Hunt ability because being in the Castle Age!-
Alternative Castle Unique Unit: Falcon Warrior
A Spear and Skirmisher hybrid. The easiest way to do it like the Bengalis Ratha. A button where you can switch to melee attack and ranged. Another way to do it is to make it an infantry with a Coustillier like charge attack but the charge attack is ranged. I think it would look really to see a group of units throw a folly of javelins before running into battle.
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Archery Range Unique Unit: Hornet Thrower
The Hornet Thrower is a short range and low damage unit trained at the Archer Range but does blast damage and damage amour like the Obuch.
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Unique Technology
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Chunkey,
Skirmisher, Hornet Thrower (and Falcon Warrior) fires faster. -
Green Corn Ceremony (or alternative name: Falcon Feast or Thunderbird Ritual )
Eagle Warriors have a weak dodge ability.
More details explanation down about the bonuses, units, technology and campaign down below. 
Little bit of history
Mississippian culture, also called Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, started around 800 and the last kingdom felt in ~1650.
That fit nicely in the AoE II timeline.
At its height the largest city was Cahokia, it was larger than London or Paris.
Around 1100 were a lot of droughts starting to happen. The droughts continued around the time of 1600s.
Between 1200 and 1400 was a drastic increase of mound building, fortification and warfare. After 1400 most major cities started to waned. Still there where hundreds of towns in a patchwork of kingdoms. The drought period stopped around the time of the arrival of the Europeans. But before the native could bounce back from the droughts, the diseases from the Europeans toppled the large cities.
More than a dozen Native Americans are descended from the Mississippian culture. A lot of symbolism they still use today started within Mississippian culture.
What would be the name of the Civ?
The name with the largest name recognition would be of course be Mississippian. If you would like be more authentic, the etymology of the Mississippi River is from the Ojibwe they called it Misi-ziibi, meaning âGreat Riverâ.
Other option is calling after one of the culture variant like Caddoan or Appalachian.
Or after any surviving possible descendants
The last two options are the best if you would like more than one civ with the same architecture set.
Personally I would advocate for just Mississippian. They would not have called themselves like that but the Aztec did also not call themselves like that. Also Mississippian got the larges name recognition and I think getting multiple Mississippian civs are very unlikely. Even if there are multiple variation within the broader culture group.
Good candidates for the voicelines could be Muskogean or Caddoan.
Bonuses and Buildings
Probably most people interested in this type of civilization must have seen Kondrikthus gorgeous design of Mississippian Architecture Set.
Source
I love the woodhenge at the university. I think Kondrikthus design is a good baseline. I am also very curios how a snow version of this set would look like. However circled houses would not be used in the Castle Age anymore.
- Buildings already alter the ground texture is when it is build. I was wondering if that part can be altered to also become a hill.
In the Feudal Age Villagers get an extra line of building buttons. For 10% extra cost you can build on flat terrain buildings on mounds (however you canât build hills on top of hills!). With the exception buildings like Town Centers, farms and walls. I guess for walling with buildings balance, there must be one tile between mounds.
The 10% extra cost is for the bonus that you most likely have hill advantage with your buildings.
There is a suggestion to changing the percentage to a flat stone cost. That would also be a good alternative. That would make a harder âsoft capâ on how many elevated buildings you will make.
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For a military bonus I was thinking about the De Soto expedition, there is mentioned that they used longbows that could penetrate Spanish armor. To symbolize that F letching is free. (Need a Blacksmith) -
NEW: Does bonus damages against 0 armor units. It gives an early Dark and Feudal Age military bonus that is quickly surpassed when opponents research technologies. But get relevant again when the Mississippian player trains the Hornet Thrower in Castle Age.
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I have seen designs that the Mississippian donât get Stone Wall and instead get a buffed Palisade Wall, I think that is a cool and good idea but there are mentions that there are palisade (stockade) made of wattle and daub technique. Pictures of it makes it look to me not so different that the African Stone Wall set, so I am fine to let getting Stone Wall for them.
New animals
With a new continent we need also add a few new animals.
We already got Deer, Turkeys, Goose, Bear and Wolves ingame.
The new animal are of course the Bison. Other animals that could be added are the Mountain lion, Catfish and Swan.
Unique Units
In their art the Mississippian warriors could be dressed up as birds, the Thunder bird and falcons are very important.* So giving them access to Eagle Warriors line is very logical to me. (I have seen people suggesting giving them a replacement line called Falcons Warriors but I donât think that is necessary.)
*The video also got some very nice designs for the Civ Icon!
But instead of giving them an Eagle Scout at the start, I will suggest something that I guess will be hated by a lot of people. I want to give them a Hunting Dog instead.
The Hunting Dog will be the slowest and the smallest Line of Sight of any Scout unit.
To compensate, beside their free population space, is that they have a unique button beside Auto Scout button. When that is on and you click on the Huntable like a Deer, it will push it towards your Town Center like the AI Scout can do on higher difficult levels. Of course you need to shoot the Deer manual and keep an eye out if the Hunting Dog will get stuck somewhere or sniped by the enemy scout.
I was also thinking to maybe lure the Boar type but make it walk back at a similar speed as a villager so the Hunting Dog will die on longer distance to discourages Lames. But I also agree that will be probably too overpowered.
In Castle Age the Hunting Dog will lose the Hunt ability.
Trade Carts
Personal I think the Mesoamerican Trade Carts can be used again but if you want something unique, you can have the historical accurate dog drawn Travois instead. The dogs could pull about it own weight on the Travois.
Castle Unique Unit
Atassa Warrior.
An infantry with a big carved wooden club. The goal was to hit the opponent against the head, very quick, very effective.
According to early European historical accounts, they demonstrated impressive skill in using war clubs and were favorably compared to European fencing masters.
I see them somewhere between the Swordsman line and the Woad Raider.
But the unique part of the Atassa Warrior is that they spawn together with a population free Hunting Dog.
The Hunting Dog can not attack buildings and will have bonus damage against Villagers, Monks, Archers and a small bonus against Calvary. But the Villagers also got bonus damage against them in return.
And remember the Hunting Dog has already lost their Hunt ability because being in the Castle Age!
If the Atassa Warrior is a mediocre infantry then I can be persuaded to give the Atassa Warrior a charge after his Hunting Dog has been killed of a minute or so, after the charge is full they have a new Hunting Dog. But that maybe too gimmicky.
âWhy would you give the Hunting Dog concept to an American Civilization while almost all civilizations around the earth used dogs for hunting?â
Yes that is true, I think it is cool to give the sudden burst off speed of the Hunting Dog to a Civ that doesnât have Stables a cool and a plausible alternative then people running.
However there are no hints that dogs are used in warfare anywhere in Pre-Columbian America.
That would be my greatest reason not to give it to a Pre-Columbian civilization.
My sources about dogs in America:
Podcast - Dogs in the Ancient Americas â ArchaeoEd
Youtube - What Happened to the Pre-Contact Dogs? â TREY the Explainer
If the Atassa Warrior with Hunting Dog too gimmicky and too ahistorical for people taste, I propose an alternative Castle Unique Unit. The unit concept I wanted to save for a Mesoamerica civ.
The Falcon Warrior.
A Spear and Skirmisher hybrid. The easiest way to do it like the Bengalis Ratha. A button where you can switch to melee attack and ranged.
Another way to do it is to make it an infantry with a Coustillier like charge attack but the charge attack is ranged. I think it would look really to see a group of units throw a folly of spears before running into battle. The downside will be that they will likely awkward to microâŠ
Archery Range Unique Unit
The Hornet Thrower.
Here I agree I am stretching an ahistorical concept quite far but I think the unit is too cool not to share.
A lot of Pre-Columbian cultures got a variation of the Hero Twins. The Mississippian as well.
The most famous version of the Hero Twins is the one from the Maya, called the Popol Vuh.
In the Popol Vuh is a part where they had gourds filled with hornets and wasps and threw into the midst of their attackers.
Did the Mississippian got the same part of this myth? Probably not still I adore this unit concept!
Like the Incas got the Slinger at the Archery Range, a unique unit without an Elite version.
The Hornet Thrower is a short range and low damage unit but does blast damage and damage amour like the Obuch.
You would not make a complete army full of Hornet Throwers but having a handful of them helps to soften up the enemy army for your other soldiers.
Unique Castle Age Technology
Chunkey.
The existing AoE American civ all got a unique Castle Age technology benefiting the Skirmisher. I continue this tradition.
Chunkey was a very popular game where you need to throw spears at a rolling disc.
Skirmisher, Hornet Thrower, Genitour (and Falcon Warrior) fires faster.
Unique Imperial Age Technology
Falcon Feast (alternative name: Thunderbird Ritual or Green Corn Ceremony)
I wanted to give them something unique for their Eagle Warriors. I was thinking about a weaker dodge ability than the Shrivamsha Rider, but also dodging melee.
About this technology I am not that sure about, so I someone know something better, I am open for suggestions.
âWhat about AI Player Names, we donât know any names!â
How I see it we got five options.
We know a few historical leaders like Tuskaloosa, but those are all around European contact.
We can use names form legends like Red Horn
My personal favorite alternative is we can call them after different tribes.
If that is not enough we can ask the descendants what they think are good traditional names.
And lastly we can take a page from Age of Mythology and use place names instead like Cahokia and Etowah. So long those places got their etymology from Native Americans.
What about the campaign!
Archaeology is our friend, instead of following a story of a hero, in this campaign you follow the story of the city Cahokia, a little bit like the Bari campaign.
I inspired this Cahokia campaign mostly from this lecture
With some flavor from:
Podcast - Archaeoed - Mississippian religion
Podcast - Archaeoed - Mississippian burial patterns
Youtube - Ancient Americas - Cahokia: Mississippian Metropolis
Youtube - World Chronicles - Cahokia: Prehistoric North Americaâs Largest City
Youtube - This is Ancient, playlist: Ancient Civilizations of North America
Spiro 2021 NCM Continuing Education Spiro and the Art of the Mississippian World - YouTube
Podcast - National Geographic - Descendants of Cahokia (Link get censored)
The icon of the campaign I think the beautiful crafted statue of Redhorn (Morningstar) would be perfect.
Of the DLC I see this campaign as the one sword difficulty.
The narration happened couple generations after the fall of Cahokia (but before the arrival of the Europeans!) The narrator is an old man traveling with a few younger people through the (mostly) abandon mounds of Cahokia. The younger men are wondering about the mounds, where the older man tells the story that has been told to him when he was younger (the Unreliable Narrator storytelling device)
The travelers could be in Cahokia to interred an ossuary at the holy ground of Cahokia and drinking Black Drink afterwards, if you want to give the story a bit more texture.
Scenario I. Around ~1050 CE
The narrator start about the rise of Cahokia, after seeing a super nova in the sky.
In the first scenario is about growing the city, convincing other cities to support you and opening up new trade routes. A bit like the first Genghis Khan scenario.
Open up the trade route up north of the river with the trade cogs the narrator mention that they now have access copper from the Great Lakes.
East with the trade cards mentions getting mica and quartz.
Down south with the trade cogs they get access to highly prized shell from the Golf of Mexico.
And west obsidian from the Rocky Mountains.
Some cities abandon their own town completely in favor of Cahokia, like most likely happened with the Toltec mounds. (No relation with the Toltec in Mesoamerica).
Scenario II. Before ~1100 CE
Capture relics (the very holy medicine bundles) from neighboring cities in order to centralize the religion.
There are different paths to do it, cooperative, coercion or with combat. Depending on how you choose.
Two examples: You could give 20 Turkeys in exchange of a relic or you could just attack that player. An ally doesnât want to open their gates for you? You can intimidate by building a castle within range or just turn enemy to them.
Scenario III. Around ~1100 CE
Drought, food scarcity, farms and fish traps can not be reseeded. Plunder Attila style Markets, Trade Workshops and Mills for food. Get X amount of food for your people to win.
With a side objective to bring relics to Spiro in an attempt to reset the world.
Scenario IV. Between 1160s-1190s
Religious institutions and priesthoods called into question.
Defend the wonder, the last ceremony to please the higher powers. (If people donât think it is too gruesome to have it explicit in game, on top of the hill where the wonder need to be build, sacrifice X amount of villager before the option to build the wonder is unlocked)
Parts of the city and outsiders are turning against you.
Scenario V. Between 1160s-1190s
Let say, you have been playing as royal purple as player color as Cahokia, in this scenario your part of the town turn from purple to rebel Cyan. In this scenario you switch sides and play as the rebelling people.
Destroy the holy sights, Monastery, Universities, Castles and the Wonder. But keep the rest of the city intact! Like a reverse Jerusalem scenario of Saladin. Also kill the nobles family and priest class in the city.
At the epilogue the narrator lamenting aloud if it would be better to forget this part of history.
A DLC need of course more than one Civ and campaign.
Haudenosaunee
The other civ I think the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Is a good candidate however I have not done a big enough deep dive to make a detailed post like I did here with the Mississippians.
A few thought I would still like to mention:
If you learn about the Mo###### Wars the fasted way to grow your tribe is to capture people and let them assimilate in your tribe.
The AoE closed equivalent is of course monk conversions. To motivated converting I think giving 10 gold for every conversion is a good bonus for the Haudenosaunee.
A modified story of the Great Peacemaker would be a good campaign I suspect.
In the Mississippian campaign, the norther players can be done with the Haudenosaunee.
Spain
The third campaign is the campaign that tight to the rest of the existing AoE world with the Spanish conquistador Herman De Soto.
Listen to this podcast episode De Soto was a psycho
The campaign almost writes itself!
De Soto was a captain of Francisco Pizarro in his expedition into Peru and conquest of the Inca.
Not mentioned in the podcast, before joining Pizarro, De Soto started his conquistador career in Panama and Nicaragua.
The Maya and Nahuas got contact with the people of Nicaragua so it give a perfect opportunity to give the rarely used Maya & Aztec to shine as opponents in a campaign.
After that De Soto was the Spanish about the third true attempt to explore/conquer Florida and beyond.
(The other two are Juan Ponce de LeĂłn & NarvĂĄez expedition
and a âhonored mentionâ for Alonso Ălvarez de Pineda)
The De Soto was a psycho Campaign
The narrator can be Luis de Moscoso, the appointed successor after De Soto death. Alternatively the writer of A Gentleman of Elvas could be the one reflecting his time with De Soto.
1520 â 27 Nicaragua,
As true conquistador style gain x amount of gold. That can by by plundering or converting tribal chiefs and building a church in their towns.
When the gold is accumulated the Spaniard Gil GonzĂĄlez de Ăvila arrive for the struggle for control of Nicaragua.
1536 â The Siege of Cusco (Or any other interesting moment of the Inca conquest)
De Soto became very rich and returned to Spain and got married but was not satisfied. So he returned to the Americas.
1539 â Arrival in Florida and meeting a Queen.
By converting chiefs or destroying the castles De Soto capture the towns.
Close to the first town at the coast De Soto find the Spaniard Juan Ortiz, a surviving member of the earlier NarvĂĄez expedition.
When the Spanish arrive at Ucita (Tampa Bay), they start in the Feudal Age, by capturing the second city they can advance to the Castle Age and by capturing the third city go up to Imperial.
De Soto brings pigs with him. (Not important for the scenario except as early food source but historic note: Some pigs has escaped and become feral, destroying native farms and make Native American way of agriculture difficult.)
De Soto has captured his way north until he is in present day South Carolina.
After capturing the last city a queen with entourage, carried on a litter* enter at the edge of the map and ask to meet De Soto. De Soto need to be brought to her for victory for this scenario,
In the epilogue of this scenario is talked about meeting the Queen of Cofitachequi who was carried from her kingdom to the riverâs edge on a litter to meet De Soto. She gave De Soto the pearl necklace she was wearing. De Soto and his men are brought to her capital city Talimeco. A city with over 500 finely build houses and her mound palace are decorated with beautiful textiles.
De Soto ask for the yellow and white metal he is looking for. She said she donât have them but will sent trader out to get them.
*A king type unit carried on a litter would be a cool scenario unit. It can also be used in the Cahokia campaign besides representing this queen. Chiefs are know to be carried on a wooden litter in the Mississippian culture.
1540 â Tuskaloosa and Battle of Mabila (Or alternative, Fools Gold)
In the prologue narration of the scenario, three days later the traders that the Queen of Cofitachequi sent out return. But instead of gold and silver they return with copper and mica. De Soto is angry and decide to loot the city. At a different temple mound, covered with shells and pearls, De Soto opens two heavy doors and see 12 giant warrior statues looms inside, each holding different kind of weapon guarding coffins. Clearly this kingdom got warriors, but where are they?
At the same time Spaniard soldiers discover something else, bodies piled up at the temple, died of a plague.
The Queen confirms that a mysterious plague is killing her people and they are running out of food.
De Soto did not care, he want only gold and instead looted the coffins of the temple, there he found European axes and glass beads! Then the Queen confess that they are not the first Spaniard they have encountered. 10 years before they landed on the coast but died after 3 months.
(most likely it was the failed colony of Lucas VĂĄzquez de AyllĂłn - Wikipedia )
De Soto soldiers asked him to stop plundering and just start colonize this city, it was a nice place and close enough to the coast.
But no, De Soto knows there are mountains to the west and where are mountains there must be gold. He pillage and burn his way west
In game the soldiers complain that winter is approaching and that they need to go south to meet the ships.
Then a group of native approach and one of them claim he is the son of the king Tuskaloosa of the Atahachi kingdom and that the Spaniards are invited at the capital.
Spaniards pas by couple of towns and one of the Spaniards mentioned that this is the most populated place yet.
The Spaniards are brought to Mabila, a small village tucked inside a strongly fortified palisade, with bastions at the corners. Two gates led into the center of the town, where a plaza was surrounded by the houses of the most important people. When your whole army is inside De Soto meet Tuskaloosa and have a short conversation.
A native army spawn around the houses and the Spaniards are in an ambush! The goal is to escape Mabila, capture a nearby village and villagers and destroy X amount of buildings. Stables are disabled in this scenario.
In this battle De Soto lost his supplies, the natives who were carrying the supplies were able to escape and the remaining supplies were lost to the fires.
Possible side objection is saving two monks left in Mabila after De Soto escaped.
In the epilogue of this scenario, in stead of continuing going south to resupply De Soto knew his men will abandon his expedition, so he decide to go northwest.
1541 â42, crossing the âFather of the Waterâ
After losing all equipment in the fires of the Battle of Mabila the Spaniards are are forced to use the Mississippian Tech tree. They needed to melt down heir arquebuses to make nails for the boats.
The Spaniards are on the east side of the Mississippi, just like The Battle at the Kalka River scenario were the Mongols will overwhelm you donât act fast enough, here you need to prepare quite fast or you will be overwhelmed by the Mississippians.
You need to make transport ships and cross the Mississippi river.
On the river and westside of the river is it still not safe but you can survive there.
In order to win you need to get something to show after you lost everything by capture 5 relics, two on the east side of the Mississippi, one on an island and the last one somewhat saver west side of the river.
In the epilogue Herman De Soto die along the river of an infection, he is weighted down by rocks and tossed into the Mississippi at night. Luis de Moscoso take charge and summarize the destruction De Soto had cause.
Of course Spain already got a campaign with El Cid. But the Spain of El Cid feels quite different that the conquistador leaning design of the Spanish. I think the Story of De Soto is one of the best conquistador story we can tell within the AoE II time frame because it touch north, central and south America.
In conclusion
If developers set their mind to it I am sure that they can make a compelling North American DLC.
Even if you would cut my more fantastical things, the Hunting Dogs for war, the Hornet Thrower (remember scimitar throwing Mameluke are in game!) and I made the second and third scenario of Cahokia campaign a little bit more violent then it probably was, but Age of Empires is a war game in the end.
Still I think Mississippian are a great addition for AoE II, they where the powerhouse of their continent and every history game got an element of âwhat ifâ and the more I learn about the Mississippian, the stronger I feel about it.
I was able to create this with free sources online. I am sure the developers can do even better research and able to talk to native descendants to make it respectful then what I can compile here in Europe.
However I donât think that they will add the Mississippians (and the Haudenosaunee for that matter) and that is because of architecture. Two new architecture sets need to be made and only be used for one civilization. That is a lot of work for little benefit.
Up till now none of the DLC after Definitive Edition have introduced new architecture sets. You could for example have Haudenosaunee Feudal Age buildings and Mississippian Castle Age in one building set but that compromise would make a very few happy I think.
I assume that the developers prefer using their time and energy for âlow hanging fruitâ civilization with reused architecture.
Too Long, Did Not Read, but want to learn more:
I would recommend mostly my main two sources for my two campaign concepts:
For Cahokia, this lecture:
For the De Soto campaign this podcast:
âThose two are still too long!â
Then I would recommend this 7 minute video, also my main argument to give them Eagle Warriors.
