The 18 Nations BHG Should Have Chosen

[Hagbart]

What?! No Vikings or Scandinavians!

[Praetorian]

Oh and one did villie, phoenicians were middle easterns, and carthage was north africa by sicily.
And i agree with ya, i really wish there was carthage and persia.

[Praetorian]

and whats ctp one dead villie u mention it

[One_Dead_Villy]

I was quoting...but I assume its "Civ:Call to Power"

[Carver]

Originally posted by Locutus
I'm not too sure about Bantu either. I used to be a big Bantu-advocate (as replacement for the Zulus in the Civ series), but lately I've grown to realize that they're basically just a language group, not a civilization (it's a bit like having a Semitic civ, which includes Arabs, Jews, Babylonians, Assyrians, etc). Malians, Ethiopians, Zimbabweans, Beninians, Congolese, even Swahili would IMHO all have been better choices for an African civ, but I can certainly understand the reasoning behind Bantu. I'm already very glad that 3 African civs were picked (and that the Zulus are NOT in there), not many other games out there with such a high number...

Yes, that Bantu listing immeadiately made me raise an eyebrow. Bantu is a very large umbrella group that includes many very different peoples from sub-Saharan Africa. I would have preffered Ghana, Mali, Ehtiopia or the Swahili. But Nubia was certainly a suprising and good choice.

[Markus The Mighty]

Originally posted by Praetorian
[...]Persians had one of the largest empires, practically because they didn't fight too many hard nations to get it it was mostly sending armys in villages who had no army to defend, and other nations simply surrender to persian because of rumors that persian was strong, greeks defeated persians numerous times, if your going to include greeks there have to be persians, greek campaigns in the games or single player scenarios people might make would be much better if u make persian civ, so someone could make a Persian War campaign.

I think you underestimate the Persians a bit. They didn't build their empire on rumors, but on bloody, brutal conquest. The only reason they could hold it together was because they didn't insist on the destruction or deportation of their enemies (like, say, the Babylonians) and thus managed to unite the whole ancient Near East.
But you are right. They definately(sp?) should be in the game, at least as opponents to both Greek/Macedonians and the Egyptians.

And besides, the ancient Greek weren't a nation, too. They almost never were united in history until 19th cent. except when that unification was imposed by an outside force (like Macedonia).

[One_Dead_Villy]

http://apolyton.net/view.php?/ron/screens/2002-B/02augen/ron_02.jpg

just noticed this pic...the pic looks like it is the Taj Mahal. So will they be surprising us with an Indian civ? Although the caption says Turks, but their wonder would be more appropriate using the Hagia Sophia. Also I noticed in an older pic there is war elephant, now the 18 they listed as far as I know none used elephants with the acception of the Macedonian greeks AFTER they conquered India. So it would seem to me a waste if thats all its for, and pretty wierd if its just for anyone. Also there have been graphics for Ankor Wat, so I wonder if their is going to be a Khmer or Thai civ. Incidently they also used elephants. If they are in now they would have to in for an expack at least. They already have a lot of elements to make those civs.

[Brian Reynolds]

Most of the alternate nations you name were on our "short list" and didn't make the cut.

Which of course doesn't mean they won't be back in the expansion pack...

One of the significant decisions we had to make in forming our list was to group nations into "regional groups" because given the size & quantity (and quality!) of the buildings and structures in our game, and given that any architectural style would need art that "changed through the ages", there was a limit to the number of architectural styles we could represent.

India is an example of a nation that has an architectural style extremely & obviously different from other major nations, so there wasn't a lot from there we would be able to "re use" for other nations in a group. But like I said, there's always the expansion pack.

Another reason we have 18 nations (as opposed to, say, 20, or 63--although 18 actually represents a stretch of two from the 16 we were supposed to have ) is that each of our nations also has several special unique units (complete with full art and animation), along with in many cases "unique art" even for units that aren't unique. For example the units of African nations have dark skin--their Citizens, Musketeers, etc, have special art for this. Likewise, many Far East units have eastern style uniforms instead of European style.

Anyway, glad to hear you guys generally like the list!

Brian

[XarXo]

Oh, could you include the Crown of Aragon/Catalan Countries? we have a Yahoo! portal.

http://ct.yahoo.com

We're by far larger than basques (we are 11 millions, they only 2) so, could be a great option.

(well, in the high middle ages we were the biggest commercial power )

[Sonic]

Brian Reynolds, will modern age/information age non-unique units also differ depending on country? For example, will in WW2 (modern age) planes carry symbols of air force (cross for germany, red star for Russia, etc.)? Also, will for exmple modern age units have different uniforms (like realistic uniforms of third reich for Germany, Soviet Union for Russia, etc)? And how about different units in the last (information age)?
I know this is probably untrue because it would be hard to implement (what air force symbol give to aztecs for example). However, from here comes the next question - will cities of different cultures still differ from each other in information age? Currently Tokyo, Frankfurt, New York, Dubai, etc. looks pretty much the same - everywhere lots of glass skyscrapers, etc.

And the last question about unique units - will they just change some other unit in the game (like Panzers changing tanks for example) or will they be absolutely unique, or will there be both types units? Some units, like kamikaze fighters (Japanese) were surely unused by any other nation and thus completely unique.

[One_Dead_Villy]

well i would guess if the Aztec empire existed today they symbolisms would still include the eagle and the jaguar.

[tniem]

Can we untop this thread? It has not had any responses in the last 25 days, longer than any other post that is on my BHG front page. Thanks.

[Zero]

Originally posted by nostromo
Besides the fact that Korea is interesting in itself, I think they also included Korea to please the korean market. Korea is a nation of gamers. IIRC Starcraft sold one million copies in Korea alone.

It is absolutely true