Now that South and Meso America is present in AoE2, its interesting what Civs from North America would make sense in a DLC. Note: this is about Civs in the territory of the USA and Canada, that would need a different Architecture compared with Meso America. Biggest issue would be that they had no contact to other civs in the game (except the Vikings) before 1640, so the new Civs would mainly need to interact with each other.
Choose the top 3 Civs you think would represent North America the best while also making sense as a Civ in AoE2.
Something I posted in a different place to cover all 4 major ares in north america.
North of Mesoamerica, indigenous populations were diverse and prominent tribes or confederacies varied by region:
​Northeast:
​Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee): A politically and militarily powerful alliance of nations (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca) south of the Great Lakes.
​Algonquin Nations: A large language group encompassing many tribes east of the Mississippi, including the Massachuset, Narraganset, Wampanoag, and later the Powhatan Confederacy near the Chesapeake Bay.
​Southeast:
​Descendants of the Mississippian Cultures were prominent, with groups like the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creek (Muscogee) in the fertile valleys and coastal regions.
​Southwest:
​Pueblo Peoples: Known for their advanced irrigation and multi-story adobe structures (Ancestral Puebloans such as the Hopi), they maintained sophisticated agricultural societies.
​Apache and Navajo: Athabascan-speaking peoples who were expanding into the region.
​Plains:
​Tribes like the Sioux (Lakota/Dakota), Cheyenne, and Pawnee were active, though the widespread use of the horse (which dramatically increased their mobility and power) became more common later in the 16th and 17th centuries.
I was completely against adding NA factions earlier for this reason but since we have similar cases why not get them as well.
We can also get interesting tech tree combos like eagles and cavalry for Mississippians.they had falcon warrior’s.
Would love Haudenosaunee so much and a campaign around Hiawatha who united the 5 tribes into the confederacy.
Another civilization i’ve been reading about lately is the Hohokam. Who inhabited the area that is now Arizona. they existed between 300 and 1500 CE and supposedly built the most extensive canal network in pre-columbus Americas. Those canal systems are still being used today by the city of phoenix. Although, they never had contact with europeans, supposedly they traded with the aztecs.
A skraeling civ with a UU so frenzied that after it dies it gets back up for a few seconds and goes ballistic for a few seconds, cannot be targetted but is pretty much dead
I voted Mississippians and Other, the other two I would like to see are Taino, I think Taino are very important to cover the Caribbean, and Algonquins. Algonquins can also cover Skraelings, though its a bit of a stretch, and they can also cover a lot of eastern seaboard and northern plains peoples, so they can provide civ diversity in Mississippian campaigns, they can cover the Skraelings (the Beothuk people of Newfoundland that the Norse encountered are basically part Thule, part Algonquin on the border between those two groups’ range), and while this is probably stretching the game timeline too much, if they wanted to do a Jamestown scenerio or something Algonquins could fit for that as well. They have a lot of flexibility/utility which is a major benefit.
I could work with this, but I still think Taino also should be represented. The Spaniards hit the Caribbean islands before any of the other spots we see them, so its certainly in scope.
Mississipians I can maybe see. But even here: the largest known city had just 20 000 people in it, which is miniscule in comparison to European or even other American cities (Tenochtitlan had over 200 000), let alone China.
I think Haudenosaunee/Iroquois are too late.
For the pueblos we know so little about. The biggest known settlement (Pueblo Bonito) had just 1000 people in it.
even today there are only about 150k inuit across a gigantic area (I would love to see a medieval population estimate). I don’t think there is a reasonable way we can have a civ in aoe2 for them. the inuit never had an army afaik
for most of the other tribes we don’t know enough about them before contact with Europeans. so they fit better into aoe3
The Iroquois League was established prior to European contact, with the banding together of five of the many Iroquoian peoples who had emerged south of the Great Lakes.[56][d] Many archaeologists and anthropologists believe that the League was formed about 1450,[57][58] though arguments have been made for an earlier date.[59] One theory argues that the League formed shortly after a solar eclipse on August 31, 1142, an event thought to be expressed in oral tradition about the League’s origins.[60][61][62] Some sources link an early origin of the Iroquois confederacy to the adoption of corn as a staple crop.[63]
this is the same timeframe as all the other included Meso and South American civs.
I think 2027 is going to be the year of Africa anyway (if we’re not getting already such a DLC later this year). It might be possible that we see Chronicles 3 before. Not really interested in Chronicles though to be honest.
so we have 1450 as confirmed start date, with some speculation that they may have been around earlier. However most of the important history happens later. It would be like including the Mongols in aoe1. yes, those people groups were around, but their importance in world history came later.
no:
Maya history goes as far back as 2000 BC.
Aztec history starts in 1300 (still 150 years earlier than the Iroquois) and using Aztec to refer to the Mexica it goes back a bit further
Inca history goes back at least to the 1200s. they can also represent the empires they succeeded.
Even if they might never be added to this game, which would be a shame, I think they’re really fascinating cultures which are are in my opinion honestly underrated and should definitely be better known.
I own none of the pictures and those are just used for educational purposes here.
I’d say that the best option for a single DLC would be Mississippians, Haudenosaunee/Iroquoians, and Algonquians, as they could reasonably share one architectural set (Woodlands) and interact with each other.
As much as I’d like a Southwest campaign centered around Anasazi and Navajo, you’d need another set for them, Woodlands wouldn’t fit. I guess you could also add Yumans as an umbrella for indigenous Californians.
Pacific Northwest (Tlingits, Haida, Salish) is another very cool area, though much better suited to the AOE3 timeline.
Those are definitely underrated in general. Usually, what you see on TV and movies is a weird mish-mash of Native American cultures, with the totems being the most famous Tlingit elements in them.
