New civ concept: The Wari

I was watching this Sunday before last and they said that with the latest LIDAR information they believe the Mayan population was as high as 10 million interestingly

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Images







Pics from YT by archaeologist Jose Ochatoma.
Wari soldiers wore red clothes, war paint, and wielded axes as their main weapons but also used spears and maces. They were well versed in falconry. They paraded captured prisoners of war usually completely naked. The Waris also used round diamond-shaped maces and metal chestplates like the chimus centuries later.
Something interesting about their military is that they portrayed their soldiers always wearing red clothes with black or yellow patterns. This could mean they had some sort of uniform. Another possibility is that they preferred red because the color represented blood.

I also noticed that in old books, the wari winged puma god is called Kon. While in recent papers, most archaeologists call it Ccoa. This means that the winged puma worshipped by both Waris and Chankas might be the same, but its name was corrupted over the centuries.

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The pictures look very interesting, specially the one that portraits the Warrior with the hawk, still I need to say that while the first ones are totally Wari, as you can see some typical patterns in their face paintings and their clothes, the last two images are from a Moche Huaca known as Huaca de la Luna.

Kon it’s believed to be the creator god of the Nazca people, represented as a boneless being with feline traits and big eyes. The Koa or Qoa is a feline creature that was worshipped in the Central Andes as a Storm (hail and rain) god and was associated with Illapa during the Tawantinsuyu. Feline gods appear regularly through the Central and Southern Andes (Chuqi Chinchay, the golden jaguar, some Moche creatures and some interpretations of Amaru, a sacred Andean serpent) and are probably inspired by the Chavin religion. Also, Jaguar’s or Puma’s skins and clothes that resemble these animals were worn by Andean peoples before and after the Wari as a symbol of power.


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I published this image on this topic some time ago, but did not specify that this is one of the few representations of the mythical leader “Ancovilca”, according to the legend that led the Chancas to the Amazon jungle after they were defeated by the Incas, the Image is of a ceramic object manufactured by Cusco artists in colonial times, they still maintained their customs of telling their stories and legends through images. Unfortunately many of these objects were destroyed after the revolution of Túpac Amaru II, some of these pieces somehow survived and ended up in the Berlin museum (although currently many of these objects have unknown location)

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This would make an interesting scenario similar to the cuman one.Might not be enough material for an full campaign but a historical battle for sure.

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Pics from YT by archaeologist Jose Ochatoma.
The Wari built thick stone walls and buildings, developed complex stone masonry, and carefully pre-planned cities. Their cities exhibit advanced urbanism that evolved through many stages. From uncarved stones put together with adobe and mud to intricately carved stone mausoleums and fortresses.

From YT by Fall of Civilizations channel.
“The Wari were experts at water control, and they marshaled enormous work gangs to build vast reservoirs and aqueducts that cut through the dry coastal plains and transformed the landscape of the low Andes. The Wari tamed the desert, building aqueducts up to 40 kilometers long to divert the sparse waters towards their cities. But they were never ornate or showy builders like the people of Tiwanaku. Their buildings were rough constructions, pulled together out of uncarved field stones and locked together with mud for mortar. But they still liked to build big. The walls of their cities were sometimes two to three meters thick and up to 12 meters high. The Inca built on the foundations laid by the Wari, sometimes quite literally. At certain sites you can see the walls of the Wari built from small stones, but with Inca additions extending and upgrading them in their distinctive signature style of massive megalithic stones. For reasons we don’t quite understand, the Wari soon embarked on a rapid series of expansions that saw their power spread across the Andes. Some have guessed that they might have adopted a new expansionist religion that drove them to conquer their neighbors. Others have speculated that climate shifts may have reduced the habitability of their traditional desert territory, meaning that expansion may have been a matter of survival. Either way, they were incredibly successful. Between the mid 6th to mid 7th century, while Europe continued to reel from the collapse of the Roman Empire in the west, the Wari expanded across the hostile mountains of the Andes and brought people after people under their banner. Wherever the Wari went, they built terraces. Each terrace was a remarkable feat of engineering and displayed an intimate knowledge of the soil and the plants that grew in it. The walls of these terraces were sloped backwards, angled to hold in the earth and resist earthquake damage. They were floored with broken stones for drainage which were then covered by gravel and sand. Finally, the Wari would gather rich topsoil, digging it up from the lower elevations and the river valleys and carrying it up the mountain paths, laying it out to form the top layer of the terrace. This was constantly fertilized and turned over to aerate the soil. The stone walls of the terraces absorb the heat of the sun during the day and then slowly release it into the earth throughout the night, when frosts in the mountains could be severe. This technique allowed the people of the Andes to grow food at even the highest altitudes, and transformed these rocky slopes into shelves of fertile land. In this manner, tomatoes, squashes, and pumpkins, even types of tobacco were grown in the high peaks of the Andes. One remarkable site known as Moray is thought to be a kind of laboratory where the Andean people could develop new strains and hybrids of crops for growing at high altitudes. Moray is a breathtaking series of circular terraces, looking at first glance something like a Roman amphitheatre, about 30 meters deep. Moray is located at a height of 3,500 meters above sea level, but its descending terraces act as a kind of artificial climate, with each terrace increasing the temperature as you descend in steady increments. In fact, the temperature difference from the top to the bottom of this well can be as much as 15 degrees Celsius. These ingenious techniques made the people of the Andes some of the earliest masters of bioengineering, and meant that their farmers could practice a strategy of resilience through diversity. The people of the Andes cultivated more than a thousand varieties of potato and over 150 varieties of maize. They would sometimes plant as many as 200 varieties of potato in a single field, each with different levels of frost resistance, different levels of drought resilience, and immune to different blights. These foods could be naturally freeze-dried in the cold, dry mountain air, allowing them to be stored for years on end, and ensuring that even in the immensely changeable environment of the Andes, any crisis could be ridden out. The cryptic indigenous document known as the Huarochiri manuscript pays tribute to the hard work of these ancient ancestors who made the rocky landscape of the Andes bloom. In very ancient times when a great number of people had filled the land, they lived miserably, scratching and digging the rock faces and ledges to make the terraced fields. These fields, some small, others large, are still visible today on all the rocky heights. It wasn’t only in the realm of terrace building that the Wari passed on their knowledge to the Inca. They also pioneered the kind of administrative empire that would lay the blueprint for what the Inca achieved. In every new town and city that the Wari folded into their empire, they built an administrative building built to a standard plan, suggesting a high degree of centralization in the empire. The imperial power of the Wari lasted for more than 400 years, but for reasons we can never entirely know, around the year 1000, it rapidly came apart. By the year 1100, all of the major Wari centers were abandoned and never reoccupied. The Wari Empire passed into dust, but its legacy continued. The Wari had introduced the idea of an empire that would unite the territories of the Andes, and now some of their former client states would try their hand at taking up their mantle. What followed was centuries of fragmentation and warfare in the mountains as rival states competed to fill the power vacuum that the Wari had left behind”.

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Updates

Civ role: Team support and defense.
Civ concept: Infantry and skirmishers.

-Barrack technologies are X% cheaper.
-Lumberjacks generate X gold per second while in gathering animation.
-Can build Pikillaqta and research: Terrace farms and Tiwanaku priests.

Unique units

  • Chiqtana Awqaruna (or Chiqtana warrior): Costs food and gold. Axeman that reduces the enemy’s attack stat per hit.

  • Chukiq Awqaruna (or Andean javelineer): Costs food and gold. Skirmisher that has attack bonus vs archers, unique units and eagles. Available at the archery range since the Castle age.

Unique techs

  • Bronze tupus (Castle age): Skirmisher-type units gain +1 meele armor and +X max HP.
  • Wiracocha cult (Imperial age): Eagle warriors regenerate X HP per min and attack Y% faster.

Unique building
-Pikillaqta: Highly resistant Wari center that can train villagers and trade carts, but can’t attack. It can increase the defense of nearby buildings by X%. Building it costs gold and stone. Available since the Castle age.

Team bonus
Barrack units +X LOS

Civ techs
-Terrace farms (Feudal age): For the Wari, farms last X% longer. For all teammates, farms cost -5 wood. It can be researched at the mill.
-Tiwanaku priests (Castle age): For the wari, monks regenerate their faith X% faster. For all teammates, monk-type units move 5% faster. It can be researched at the monastery.

Architecture: Andean (shared with the Incas).

Languages: Aymara and Chanka quechua (Ayacucho dialect).

Possible campaigns:

-The war between the Wari empire and the Moche kingdom (represented as Chimu).
-Conquest of South America: Pizarro and the Spanish join forces with the Chankas, Cañaris, Huancas, Chimu, etc against the Incas.
-Sarmiento de Gamboa’s version of the wars between the Chankas and the Incas. The Chankas (Wari) as protagonists of the battle of Cuzco: Yana Vilca vs Chañan Curi Coca.
-Update to the Pachacuti campaign: Incas vs Chankas (Wari) and Chimu (Chimu).

Important figures

-The Lord of Vilcabamba.
-The Lord of the Unkus.
-The Lady of the mask.
-The Queen of Huarmey.
-Uscovilca.
-Yana Vilca: Chanka general under Uscovilca. Fought against Chañan Curi Coca in Cuzco.
-Tecllo Vilca: Chanka general under Uscovilca. Fought against Inca Roca in Cuzco.
-Malma (or Mallma): Chanka general under Uscovilca. Launched an attack against the Chincha kingdom in the western region (later known as Contisuyo).
-Rapa (or Irapa): Chanka general under Uscovilca. Launched an attack against the Nazca kingdom in the western region (later known as Contisuyo).
-Ancovilca.
-Anccu Hualloc.

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More Mezo,Caribian,South American civs are sorely needed in game, this will be perfect sir.

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I’ve found this illustration of a Wari soldier with a Pickaxe-shaped axe. According to the artist, this kind of axe appears in some Wari ceramics as a weapon of high-ranked warriors.


(Artist’s youtube video with his comments on the drawing and his references [in spanish])

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This would make a nice uu.

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I love this community. Amazing presentation, Thank you.

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The image is good, although as a personal opinion the circular details of the clothing presented in the warriors are actually metallic discs that had the function of armor.

armadura bronce

Vasija Wari - copia

If the UU Wari were an axeman, I would like them to be wearing armor similar to that of the Lord of Vilcabamba.

What would have to be defined is the characteristic of this UU, what is known about the Wari is that it was an extremely warlike society (it is even curious that it is called the War-i Empire), among the options that I thought could be:

  1. Increase stats (HP, Attack, Armor, Speed) after using them in combat.
  2. Increase the statistics “passively” after 3 or 5 minutes of the game.

One of the problems was differentiating between a newly created UU (with low stats) versus an experienced UU (with high stats) - one idea was to make the rookie UU wear silver armor while the experienced UU wear gold armor.

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-Psychedelic-laced beer may have helped this ancient South American empire rule - CNN
-Psychedelic-laced beer may have helped the ancient South American empire the Wari rule - The News Motion
-Beer and drugs helped a South American empire rule, study finds. Peru’s Wari empire may have mixed hallucinogenic seeds into beer to maintain political control and help leaders bond with ordinary people over 1,000 years ago, researchers say | Daily Mail Online

Yesterday a paper about the Wari was published. Vilca seeds, hallucinogenics, were combined with chicha beer for domination and political reasons. I’m thinking that vilca seeds could be material for a possible civ bonus or tech.

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That’s highly speculative. It’s one thing to use psychodelic substances but one completely other to speculate about the intentions behind it. If there are any.
I mean Both ancient Egyptian Priests and modern pastors used frankincense without any utility, just to have more fun with the rituals. You ofc can say this “stabilized” the culture and made people more “obedient”, but that’s for sure not the major intention of using these in religious rituals.

But ofc it’s a good clickbait to immediately associate it. Unfortunately we lately see more and more of this Pseudoscience…

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Using hallucinogens for political and domination reasons, something common in some societies; the first idea that came to my mind was: “villagers are cheaper (10 less food) but have 5 less HP”, it could be a good initial economic boost but at the same time vulnerable to raiding.

The use of hallucinogens was common in Andean civilizations for religious purposes, but this is the first time I read that they were used in state parties for political purposes so this could be useful.

off-topic:
It reminded me of the Berserk, historically they used hallucinogenic plants before combat to release an angry frenzy. It would have been great to take advantage of that historical data but I guess when the game was designed in 1998 there was not the technology to use that data and they opted to give them health regeneration. It would be interesting if in the future a UU is added that has an energy bar like the Coustilliers that have the effect of temporarily increasing the speed of their attack.

As a curious fact in the Andean countries that had Inca influence, it was common for soldiers before entering combat to drink some type of “concoction” that supposedly increased their performance in combat, my father, who was a designated soldier on the border in the conflict of the 80’s, he mentioned to me that it was common to give soldiers a “concoction” containing gunpowder; ancient traditions I suppose. (I always relate this to the Starcraft Stimpack :sweat_smile:)

Infantry technologies are X% cheaper.
This seems pretty ussless. Maybe some like Infantry are X% cheaper could be better… or worse? just my idea

ahh i did bad (20 characters)

Goths exist already.

Eithdrvway it is a solid infantry bonus

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i thougth that. Maybe inf technologies research X% faster?

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TBH both wari and chimu share the same problem as the meso civs:
Lack of cavalry.
And opposed to the north american civs there is no way to justify adding any kind of cavalry to them.

With Mayans, Incas and Aztecs we already have 3 different meso civs and it’s really hard to squeeze another (or even 2) in that scheme.

If there is any idea how we could solve that eagle problem with a multi-unit solution it would be another thing but currently I just don’t want to have another eagle civ.
They just don’t produce strategically interesting games cause of the limitations this design bears.