The Mississippians are a civ concept that I came up with on the wiki years ago, as part of a pre-DE North American-focused expansion concept, but those old Mississippians frankly sucked. I entirely remade them from the ground up in my more modern style recently.
They represent the mound-building peoples of the same name present mainly throughout the Mississippi River Valley until the 14th century, when they began to decline. However, they could also broadly represent all similar cultures, referred to collectively by historians as the Mound Builders, due to their common trait of building platform mounds. They have a new North American architecture set either shared with the Iroquois or entirely unique. Their Wonder is Monks Mound, the largest of all Mississippian mounds.
The Mississippians are a monk and defensive civilization, with strong infantry, archers, and economic techs to allow them to carry out just about any strategy, similar to the Byzantines and Incas. However, they have a fairly weak navy, and their siege is average.
Talking about the concept now:
Civilization Bonuses
- Town Centers, towers, Monasteries, and first Castle spawn on hills when completed
This is an unusual bonus, so let me explain. Basically, the buildings mentioned will be on flat ground during construction, but once they are finished, hills that are the same size as the building will spawn beneath them, and they will always be 1 elevation level higher than the ground the building normally sits on. The exceptions are if the surrounding ground is already the max elevation or if the buildings are built on amphibious terrain, which doesn’t support elevation.
This bonus references the mounds that the Mississippians are famous for, which typically supported residential structures, temples, and other types of buildings, including defensive structures.
- Economic technologies can be researched again in the next age for half cost and 100% faster
I explained a bit about this bonus in a recent thread, so that might help.
While I included the bonus due to its unique nature, it also represents the vast Mississippian farming economy that freed up other types of workers to engage in craft specialization. The Mississippian economy in general was very large and supported a large population, and this bonus allowing for a strong economy matches that.
- Monks take -33% bonus damage
Mississippian religion was notably similar to that of Aztec society, involving a great deal of human sacrifice. Such ceremonies often involved dozens of victims slaughtered simultaneously. This level of bloodlust and religious zeal demonstrated by priests involved in such rituals was unmatched by the majority of clergy around the world.
- Eagles heal 5 HP per minute for every Monastery built (limit of 5)
Due to religion being such an important part of Mississippian society, it is easy to imagine their warriors being strongly motivated by it. Similar to the previously-mentioned Aztec culture, the gathering of human sacrifices would have no doubt been a significant ordeal that gave warriors increased morale and drive that they might otherwise lack. Since there were so many mounds built for religious purposes, the Mississippian people were constantly reminded of their goals, which drove them to succeed in battle.
- Team bonus: Walls and gates built 50% faster
This bonus references the thick walls built around Mississippian cities, which were either wooden palisades or earthen walls; they had no stone buildings of any kind.
Unique Unit: Cahokia Knifeman
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This is a unit somewhat comparable to the Swordsman line, but slightly cheaper, at 50 food and 20 gold (slightly more expensive if you have Supplies), and slightly weaker, at 50 HP instead of 60 (though the Elite version has 60 HP), with the same pierce armor, but no melee armor. However, it moves faster than the Swordsman line, at 1.1 instead of 0.9, and attacks faster, with 1.8 instead of 2 (the Elite version is 1.7). Its attack is also weaker than the Long Swordsman, with 7 instead of 9 (the Elite version has 9 attack). Its attack can be further improved through the Imperial Age UT, so its low value isn’t as much of a concern. The unit is trained in 12 seconds.
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The unit’s main gimmick is that it attacks in a broad swiping motion, dealing full trample damage roughly along that arc in front and to the sides. This makes it very good when massed and in close quarters, getting several times its value in damage under ideal conditions. However, it is especially susceptible to ranged units, so sending in Eagles as a meat shield while the unit gets close to melee targets is a sound tactic.
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Little information is available about Mississippian weaponry, but aside from their usage of bows, what we do know is that they made knives with long, pointed blades out of a type of stone called chert. Some of these knives may have been produced for ceremonial purposes, but they would’ve been useful as weapons of war either way. Knives allow for quick swiping cuts that would be more difficult to perform with heavier blades, due to their low weight and easy handling.
Unique Technologies
Platform Mounds: Buildings deal +50% damage from higher elevation
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Cost: 300 wood, 300 gold
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This technology synergizes well with the bonus causing defensive structures to spawn on hills, making it apply even on totally flat maps like Arena. Since the first Castle, the one that will likely research the technology, automatically spawns on a hill, it gains extra damage after this tech even compared to the normal hill bonus. It also applies to towers and Town Centers as well, making the Mississippian player harder to attack. However, keep in mind that the tech is strictly an attack boost, just like the Tatar bonus, so it does not apply to damage taken, only damage dealt.
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Platform mounds were half-pyramid-shaped dirt mounds, usually with buildings on top. Wooden staircases would be added to one side to allow access, causing them to massively resemble Mesoamerican temples. While other cultures did build platform mounds, they were most famously utilized by the Mound Builders, especially the Mississippians. North American platform mounds typically housed temples, mortuaries, chiefs’ houses, dance platforms, and other structures that may or may not have included defensive buildings.
Copperworking: Archer line and Eagles +3 attack vs siege and cavalry; Cahokia Knifemen +2 attack
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Cost: 600 food, 400 gold
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This technology makes archers much more resilient against their main counters, and Eagles gain greater utility as well. Because of this technology, Eagles can perform a much better anti-cavalry role, so Halberdiers are not available.
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Elite Cahokia Knifemen also become much stronger with this tech than without it, as they end with 15 attack with the tech and 13 without, assuming all the other upgrades are researched. That’s still 2 less attack than fully upgraded Champions, but is much closer to closing the gap stats-wise. It’s 15 attack to multiple adjacent units, not accounting for armor, so it can actually be a rather strong unit in the late game, assuming it can get up close.
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The Mississippian culture was actually quite famous for copperworking, and not only did it use copper for arrow heads, knives, and maybe even spear tips, but it also developed a process of annealing copper to make it more easily malleable, similar to how blacksmiths handle iron. While this process was useless for making weapons, since it made the copper weaker, it was used for the iconic copper plates that the culture is known for, as well as other token items.
Tech Tree
Missing Units: Halberdier, Elephant Archer line, Cavalry Archer line, Hand Cannoneer, whole Stable, Siege Onager, Bombard Cannon, Fast Fire Ship, Heavy Demolition Ship, Cannon Galleon, Dromon.
Missing Techs: Parthian Tactics, whole Stable, Barding techs, Bombard Tower, Siege Engineers, Crop Rotation, Two-Man Saw, Gold Shaft Mining, Stone Shaft Mining, Dry Dock, Shipwright.