Lakota Big Button Techs

[AnaWinters]

Am I Annoying You Yet

heading is ironic, but I’m procrastinating homework and suddenly realized how bizarre some of these big button techs are, so I figured I’d write a post on them, see if I can’t encourage the devs to rename them and maybe get some new art down the line.

Finally! A worthy opponent!

“Our battle will be legendary!” -the Lakota Warchief to artillery

Someone tell me why the Warchief hates artillery so much. That aside, what the hell is “Battle Anger” and where does this come from?

Here’s an interesting take - if the upgrade is meant to emulate “this person is in charge and calls the shots,” a better word for it might be Call of the Blotahunka or Eye of the Winkte, the latter of which would require new art, but I’ve got a different thing in mind for that one…

My Gucci Is Bulletproof

Bonepipe breastplates weren’t actually armor, they were status symbols in the same way that Gucci and Bentley are now. Bonepipe breastplates were made of beads that were hard to get and were expensive. Being able to afford enough to make a bonepipe breastplate was a status symbol.

Bonepipe is specifically a man’s piece - a woman wears hairpipe armor.

If I have to explain the difference between the two, you’re blinder than I am.

[Insert Generic Name Here]

[Insert generic quip here.]

How does this relate specifically to Native Americans in general, let alone a specific tribe? Find me someone who didn’t utilize flaming arrows.

Something Something Nomadic Cavalry Civ

I noticed recently that the Ottomans have this neat card called Flight Archery that does some interesting things with their cavalry archers.

Now, I have to ask - why wasn’t this implemented for the Lakota? A people so infamous for their cavalry archer techniques that they came up with this

![image|602x364, #######################################################

and this
EDIT: I guess and not this, but it was similar to the photo below making a similar point, but with a bow.

As routine parts of their cavalry skills. This didn’t impede their accuracy and made them a terror to US colonials because the Americans couldn’t return fire in any meaningful context unless they were going to kill the horse. Sorta feels like this sort of thing could be mentioned somewhere in the game, considering it’s an important and extremely unique aspect of prairie cultures horsemanship.
This might be a more interesting and impactful Big Button Tech for the Lakota - It was common enough that having to send a card for it would be overkill, and it’d make the BBTs a little more interesting.

Cheyenne Dog Soldiers

Woops, I mean Oglala Kitfox Soldiers. (Maybe update that art?)

Drums From Another Culture

This is a bizarre interpretation of our drums. Not only that, but drums are played to the beat of your heart and meant to tell stories unrelated to war. If you want something related to war, call it the Storyteller’s Rite. War dances done by the Lakota were often done using the Omaha Dance, which is personalized for the individual to tell the story of that person’s accomplishments and hopes in battle. The point of the dance is to tell a story of your deeds.
Drums themselves aren’t connected to war. The Omaha dance is, but I personally like the name Storyteller’s Rite.

################################################### If you’re curious, here’s a good video of some drummers, and you can sorta see the drum, but it’s not a Lakota one.

EDIT: Nevermind, guess I can’t post YouTube links.

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Eye of the Winkte

I alluded to this at the beginning, and I’d like to address it now. I remember, vaguely, there’s an unused BBT which is a single warrior doing something and it reminded me of something I think worth noting.

This piece of art is titled End of the Trail, by Allin Sorenson, though the original sculpture was done by James Earle Fraser. The warrior depicted is Seneca (specifically, it’s Chief John Big Tree), not Lakota, but the design is deeply imbedded in our own culture - my own gramma has several pieces beaded in this design, and my aunt favours it for her artwork around the house.

It’s a powerful piece, and it’s worth emulating for the Lakota - While the obvious name would be End of the Trail, I think Eye of the Winkte would be a more interesting, and optimistic, take on the piece, and to portray the warrior as looking forward instead of being so forlorn.

I don’t know if the franchise art can pull so clearly from something so well known, but it’s worth a shot to mention.

As for the name… I picked Eye of the Winkte because the Winkte Dream Cult was seen as seers, and a Winkte would often be chosen to scout ahead and to bring back information. They were thought to be able to seek good fortune and the favour of the spirits for the tribe’s future protection.

And for those who don’t know, Winkte are gay men.

[Kingfisher1787]

@AnaWinters

I noticed recently that the Ottomans have this neat card called Flight Archery that does some interesting things with their cavalry archers.

This would be cool. The faster release of arrows from Bow Riders would be nice for Lakota. Only question would be whether it would be op? Bow Riders are very good already

[platypus_slayer1]

if botto cav archers, on top of their faster hand cav and sipahi and million other overtuned units, can get instant animation cav archers with 1.5x vs villagers on top of their already solid stats and card boosts, i can actually see this being ok to have something going for lakota BRs
BR stack to high heaven but the animation being attached to a big button is probably not the end of the world if it comes in say age3 or 4 and would help the civ not just roll over to goons in 3

[Kingfisher1787]

Also, after thinking about it. Bow Riders lost the lack of a penalty against vills, so that would seem to make this less of an issue.

[AnaWinters]

Honestly, I just wish they’d push the majority of Lakota’s power budget back into their cavalry. The infantry units are meant to become moot - they only have three and lack any real ways to upgrade two of them, outside the new cards. They aren’t meant to be widely used.

You don’t make a civ with five base cavalry units and then encourage them to not use any of those units. This is the civ where the devs should go wild and make a cavalry version of every other unit in the game - A siege grenadier, a musketeer, a skirmisher, a pikeman, an artillery piece, etc. This is the civ where the cavalry should be the wildest, because it should be most, if not all, of their army.

ADD: Looking at it, the Lakota regularly use a whole 4 out of the 9 cavalry units they can access in any given game. Axe Rider, Bow Rider, Rifle Rider, and Warchief.

The vast majority of games go without using the Cheyenne Rider or the Comanche Horse Archer. A few strategies use the Comanchero in it. A handful of Tokala Soldiers might be used in any given game. Tashunke are almost never used.

Why do they have access to so many cavalry units if there’s neither incentive nor reason to use those cavalry units?

[SirBarnzy1]

@AnaWinters

You don’t make a civ with five base cavalry units and then encourage them to not use any of those units. This is the civ where the devs should go wild and make a cavalry version of every other unit in the game - A siege grenadier, a musketeer, a skirmisher, a pikeman, an artillery piece, etc. This is the civ where the cavalry should be the wildest, because it should be most, if not all, of their army.

Absolutely. I mean why bother with even adding the Lakota if it’s just going to be shoe-horned into the typical unit layout.

Having the typical unit structure moved to almost all cavalry units as you mentioned is a good game ‘gimmick’. Now we have a dismounting mechanic, you could just remove War Huts completely for Lakota and have a cavalry-production building with the War Huts defensive element as the main military building. Almost all unit types could then be Mounted as default, but with the option to dismount them should you wish to change them to the infantry version if someone has gone anti-cav heavy. Obviously the focus will be sticking with cavalry and relying on their speed to negate the some anti-cav measures, however if’s its really stacked in your favor, it will allow you to dismount a horsemen where it may be more favorable.

[AnaWinters]

While the dismounting idea is cool, I’d prefer if that be kept solely as a gimmick of the Tokala Soldier and force the remainder of the units be mounted. Having pure cavalry is both a weakness and a strength - If Tokala Soldiers were more attainable, they’d be a strong counter into heavy infantry anti-cavalry units, like halbs and samurai. As it is, Rifle Riders are too easily countered and too expensive to use effectively.

Let the Tokala mount in its normal form, but dismount to increased melee armour and gain the Deflection passive, retaining their strong anti-infantry melee attack but with increased range, similar to a pike or meteor hammer.

Adjust the Tashunke Prowler to be the Itkunyan Prowler, with the addition of a large shield, as grenadier siege trooper cavalry units and lower the siege damage across the board of the cavalry units.

Make the Cheyenne Rider the Cheyenne Dog Soldier (the poll voted for this name) and make it more easily accessible to the Lakota - With its status as the only heavy melee cavalry that is also anti-cavalry, it would be an invaluable unit for the Lakota to have regularly in their roster, and it would show how heavily the Lakota depended on our friendship with the Cheyenne throughout history, to the point where we share reservations with them and name our own after them now.

Remove and replace the Comanche Horse Archer with the Arapaho Cloud Sister, and make them equally accessible to players as a strong Carbine Cavalry mercenary unit.

There’s so many ways to make the civ historical and more fun and actually lean into the gimmick they started with, but the devs insist on making them rely on the same unit comp as every other civ and all they’ve succeeded in doing is removing the unique aspects of the civ.

Why play the Lakota when any other civ can do the same thing with infantry that scale better?

[Nevonidas]

@AnaWinters

Omaha dance

Then we get a dance again?

Just kidding, don’t scalp me!

@AnaWinters

The vast majority of games go without using the Cheyenne Rider or the Comanche Horse Archer. A few strategies use the Comanchero in it. A handful of Tokala Soldiers might be used in any given game. Tashunke are almost never used.

Totally agree