Bison numbers were estimated to be in the 30-40 million area when Europeans arrived. They were important, but they had steady predators and lived and died by the cyclic grass growth of the prairies.
These numbers were largely unchanged up to the point where the prairie nations were mostly driven back - by the 1870’s, most of the prairie nations were largely subdued and stuck on their reservations or just killed outright. Battles between the Americans and the Natives had far too few Natives to have the effect on bison populations that they used to.
The back half of the 1800’s saw a boom in bison population, with estimations reaching up to 60 million for this time period, almost double that of pre-contact numbers.
Then, almost immediately, numbers plummet to 334 in 1889. By this point, the majority of Natives hadn’t been on the prairie actively hunting en mass for nearly 20 years.
Massacre from the Americans was definitely a part of it, but the estimation of the numbers the Americans killed still only accounts for about 20-25% of the total population of bison, at around 15-20 million between 1865 and 1889.
They underwent a massive and unprecedented population boom at this time, and their own grazing habits destroyed massive swaths of the grass they relied on to live as a result of it.
True, I hate civ design that relies on micromanagement of late game eco, like infinite wood for Malta and Infinite coin for Aztecs, just give them freaking eco upgrades.
The game is balanced for 1v1 ranked play, not treaty, therefore factory cards should not be obtainable infinitely. And USA should not get a factory in age 3.
Since there are 3 cards that deliver Factories and do the same, and taking the “Porfiriato” card from Mexico as an example, I think additional effects could be added to the “Robber Barons” and “Industrial Revolution” cards. For example:
Robber Barons can be sent up to 2 times and the second time costs 1000 wood and 1000 coins. (You can only have up to 2 Factories at the same time)
Industrial Revolution makes the next Factory upgrade free.
These are just examples, the additional effects could also be diverse, with exclusive cards for certain civilizations (such as the Porfiriato).
The British can have a card that sends 1 Factory and allows you to research the “Victorian Era” technology of the House of Hanover and reduces its cost by 25%.
The French can have a card that sends 1 Factory and a Hot Air Balloon for 1000 coins.
The Germans can have a card called “Kruttz (Krupp) Factory” that sends 1 Factory and allows Factories to generate resources and train Heavy Cannons at the same time (These Cannons are paid and trained like in the Artillery Foundry, only one at a time).
Italians and Maltese can have a card that sends 1 Factory and can be sent 2 times, but they can only have 1 Factory at a time.
Some civilization may have a card that gives 1 Factory + 1 Heavy Cannon for 800 coins.
Some civilization may have a card that gives 1 Factory and allows Heavy Cannons to be produced at the Artillery Foundry in the Imperial Age (only 1 at a time).
The shipments are already strong, not needed to become them even stronger. How many villager value 2 factories have?? Which non western card has a similar value?
Westerns get too much value from industrial age compared to other civs, there is no need to become it farther stronger.
I can think of several ways to buff non-European civilizations (add 1 card for the Japanese that buff the Shrines and Dojos, add 1 Factory card to the Chinese and Indians, etc.), but the thing is that when a rework is done, a study and rebalance must also be done for all civilizations, because it is something logical and obvious.
Then asian civs have too many weak points, especially Chinese because it relies on many wonders to produces resources or army plus a factory. And native or african civs have every thing rebuidable
It would be great to add valuable cards for non western civs but among your ideas maybe india one kinda makes sense:
India has expensive units with not a great lategame economy while they need tons of wood, which depend a lot on wood crates. I would add a tech on Karni Mata instead.
Japan is strong enough after several stackable buffs and already have an upgrade on shrines (and 2 cards that buff them) whuch would kinda their industrial age 4 eco peak.
China already has 2 factories. The ““weaker”” porcelain tower compensates with german trickles plus russian factory.
Natives have no reason to age up to IV, only Hauds for training canons. Their only IV bonus is plaza units, which cant be trained fast enough even maxing plaza. Age IV feels like an obstacle for imperial age instead.
this is the forums its a mix of awesome ideas, listing of common complaints, community engagement, and people lowkey looking for external solutions (like to prevent being punished for bad factory management) to internal problems ( like not good enough to end game or think of factory placement before that)