The Oceti Sakowin: AKA the Seven Fires
The Seven Fires are a confederacy of Plains Natives in North America. Y’all probably know them by the incorrect name Sioux. Oceti Sakowin is their endonym, while I’ve elected to use “Seven Fires” since that is what it translates to in English.
Yes, I am aware that the Lakota are in AoE3 - However, the Lakota are only one of the three nations that make up the Seven Fires, and, for those of you counting, the Lakota are only one of the Seven Fires. Each Council Fire is a different major tribe, although the other six are roughly the same size as the Lakota are on their own. So, despite only being one of the seven fires, the Lakota are roughly half the population of the Seven Fires.
Regardless, that’s still half the population of the confederacy not being utilized within the game, which I think opens up a very interesting direction for the Seven Fires to be taken in AoE4.
Base Differences
The Seven Fires, being Native, are going to have a few differences in their foundation. Here’s an outline of the most basic.
Gold/Stone -> "Merit"
The Seven Fires, due to religious beliefs, cannot mine gold or stone directly. In return, however, they would be able to build a Market Workshop in Age 1, and their aging-up costs would be changed to Food+Wood rather than Food+Gold. The Market Workshop would combine elements of the normal Market with that of the Siege Workshop and tie in closely with the Blacksmith (maybe rename it to Armory just for consistency), and would generate Dog Caravans for free, over time. The downside is that Dog Caravans would move faster, have less health, and gather less Merit over time than a normal Trade Caravan would gain in gold. Merit would have similar uses to gold, but not quite the same - Merit would be used to gain technology related to metalworking and siege, and be usable by a unique unit similar to the Mongolian Khan and the Egyptian Pharoah - the Seven Fires’ Heyoka may use Merit as a special ability when in-combat to instantly gain technology otherwise unavailable to the Seven Fires. (More on the Heyoka later.)
Horses
As there is a need to replace two resources instead of just one, the second replacement would be for Horses. Horses would be gained slowly through trade from the Market Workshop, but killing cavalry units from the enemy would also grant the Seven Fires Horses as well. Cavalry for the Seven Fires would require at least one Horse, and upgrading Villagers into Khuwa - a mounted villager that requires no drop site - would require a horse as well. (The entire civ is aiming to become nomadic as the game progresses, the villagers need the ability to be nomadic as well.) The Heyoka would also be upgradeable into a mounted unit at some point in the game as well.
Stables would require X Horses to build, but would offer technology to slowly generate Horses over time. I would suggest putting a build limit on Stables for the Seven Fires to avoid people building a dozen at a time to explode their Horse amount.
Wood
Much shorter. The Seven Fires would be able to research a technology that would allow them to passively replant trees over time, or some other similar way to regenerate wood. As Merit and Horses are both going to be less plentiful than Gold or Stone, it stands to reason that the Seven Fires’ focus would shift heavily onto Wood/Food.
Food
The Seven Fires would begin with a high food gather rate from berries and the ability to construct farms for free, but have no way to improve the gather rate from farms or berries. However, they would have the ability to construct a Lure-type building that would allow the map to generate One bison per square on the map, with a per-square cooldown of something like 10 minutes. (I don’t know if this is possible, but it’s a cool idea.) This, combined with their high food necessity, would force the Seven Fires to become nomadic over time to improve their economy.
More Specific Things
the Heyoka
Heyoka are a religious figure in the culture of the Seven Fires - they are meant to be the best of us, a high-standing figure in a tribe… that is also an outcast. They are known as the Contrarian Clowns, and are an important figure in a tribe. They are leaders, and well-respected, but they are not in any official position of power. They are just respected and well-known. For the game, the Seven Fires would start with an infantry-type Heyoka, a fast-moving scout-type unit. Over the game, different age-up choices would allow the player to customize the usage of the Heyoka, although all would require eventually investing into making the Heyoka a mounted unit.
the Blacksmith (the Armory)
Deceptively simple. The Armory would require Merit to research items more directly and quicker, but when connected to a Market Workshop, Dog Caravans would passively slowly train Armory techs over time for free, similar to the Delhi Sultanate slowly being able to research all techs for free.
Military
- Spearman. I don’t think the Seven Fires should have a dedicated spearman. We didn’t fight cavalry on foot, we fought cavalry with cavalry. The weapons available were ill-suited to fighting cavalry as well.
- MAA. Visually, just give them a ballhead warclub. Less armor than most MAA units, but much faster. Like the Palace Guard taken to an extreme. Not a unit the Seven Fires can upgrade very heavily.
- Archer. Even children had to be competent with a bow from a young age. Archers should be heavily upgradeable and powerful.
- Crossbow. We did not have crossbows. However, we did use javelins. Replace Crossbows with Javelineers, make them a UU, and name them Igluwinyan. Javelins are, from a cultural standpoint, uniquely a woman’s weapon. The Igluwinyan would be an all-female UU, and heavily upgradeable.
- Horseman. Make them heavily upgradeable, and give them higher stats than normal, due to the requirement of having Horses alongside food+wood to train Horseman. Also, rename to Wahukheza, as the entire Seven Fires’ military would be mixed gender. War is not uniquely a men’s job. Women can do it just as well. These should be somewhere between a Knight and a Horseman in stats and job.
- Knight. Replace them with a mounted Igluwinyan. Rename them Sunkayanka Win if you like.
- UU - Akicita. These would be a generic cavalry unit with the ability to switch between melee and ranged mode, giving them the ability to respond to many situations. They would be expensive.
And just to reiterate, all military units should be of the ability to be male or female. War is not only a men’s job. Women could go to war, and often did.
Unique Buildings
House: Tipi. These would double as resource drop-sites and increase the amount of food/wood gathered from resources nearby them. Encourage players to move around with them, even after upgrading all villagers to Khuwa.
Market Workshop: Explained above.
Armory: Explained above.
Stable: Explained above.
Thipasotka: Tower-type structure that can be placed on Gold Mines and Stone Nodes to claim them for the Seven Fires player, generating Merit over time. Units may be garrisoned within to fire. They do not have to be placed on nodes, but only generate Merit when on a node.
Lure: Buildable by a Heyoka. Generates Buffalo on all available squares within the vicinity of the Lure.
Walls: Palisade and Strong Palisade, similar to the Rus.
Landmarks
Ngl, this is the most difficult part of the civ’s design. Deliberately not building massive structures was sort of religious, so “Landmarks” would be more akin to just the ability to do certain things with natural resources. I’ll have to think more on this particular one.
Anyway, that’s about all I got. If you read this far, good job! I have no idea how I kept my attention on this one particular topic long enough to actually write this much down.
