Chimu Civ Idea

Your boy Usac is back at it, feeling more confident than ever! Let's get to it!

History - Hundreds of years before the times of the mighty Inca Empire, a major power known as the Chimor held control of much of the Peruvian coast. They began close to the Moche river and expanded from there, grabbing a foothold of the Peruvian coast by the 10th Century. With no rival until the rise of the Inca, the Chimu could convey far and wide with their art and warfare, duked out with the finest copper and bronze weaponry.

Less than a century before the arrival of Europeans, the Chimu were dismantled fully in the year 1470 by Incas but held an empire worthy of giving this game more Eagle using civs.

Gameplay: So from a historical perspective, we know some things about Chimu armies, but not too many. Like with the other Mesos, some liberties are taken. The Chimu had bronze and copper weapons and used spears, slings and bolases like much of Peru. So how do we make them different from other Mesos? Well, I notice a pattern: they all have a strong anti-infantry unit. Why? I guess to promote eagle safety as all infantry counter them. To that I say... eh? I mean sure Eagles are good, but how will the Chimor take Chamcham to new heights in newer ways than just a UU that handles infantry?

Well, I'm trying to put the pieces together, so lets get to it!

Chimu (845-1470) A Defensive Infantry Civ

• Dropsites and Houses 2x HP
• Repairmen work 3x faster but pay nothing extra.

The historical application of both bonuses is that the Chimu are characterized by gorgeous architecture. Seems fitting for a defensive bonus.

• Villagers carry 20% more resouces and move 3.5% faster, both increasing each age (cumulative) At first this bonus was just going to be 30% more food gathered per age (in and including the Dark Age) but then I figured... what if we had a civ without Hand Cart? How would it be managed? Could it be done without stealing Viking thunder? I think so, but I'm also convinced Vikings will do fine vs. this civ.

To explain better, their move speed would be as follows (in non-cumulative values):

• 1.035x faster in Dark carrying +2
• 1.071~* faster in Feudal carrying +4
• 1.109~* carrying +7 faster in Castle Age
• 1.1475~* faster in Imp Age carrying +10.

This sounds insane, but once again, they don't get Hand Cart. Wheel Barrow should not effect the total resource gain due to how the numbers work out, except maybe for farms. Heavy Plow and Wheelbarrow together might

do weird things because Heavy Plow is a flat +1 and not percentage based, so keep that in mind as you might cheat yourself out of 1 extra food per trip and determine if its worth holding off on Wheel Barrow for.

If too much, I could reduce it to 3% faster, although they'll wind up at a slight speed disadvantage when Hand Cart is researched (easier to get in Castle when you can have more TCs) until Imp Age.

• Barracks techs cost no gold

The Chimu armies wore bronze armor and wielded bronze maces. Why this effects gold, a completely different metal, and swords/spears is a mystery. In any case, the savings are significant: 5 short of 2k! Compared to the Spanish however, this bonus takes longer to kick in. In fact, the best benefactor techs, Halberdier and Elite Eagle, are late game techs. By the time that happens, the Spanish will be saving much more gold in the Feudal and Castle Age. The big issue? This is a later game bonus on a Meso civ.

Team Bonus: Eagles/Spears +2 LoS (+1 if +2 is too much)

There's no true history behind this. It's simply a filler bonus. It's also the only direct bonus their Eagles have, other than the 700g saved going to Elite, and the extra Eagle you get from saving 50g on Arson... provided I don't think Arson needs to go. Spears are tacked on because otherwise you're boosting like 5 civs, most of which you probably aren't looking to build your 2k+ 2v2 tournament teams around.

Unique Unit: Camaquen – An armored, fairly durable warrior who believes himself possessed of by the spirit of a dead, fallen warrior with a bonus vs. buildings and an attack that doesn't care about armor, essentially doing 'true damage.' One-shots Ornlus. Can regenerate but at a slower rate than Berserks. If this sounds too strong, it may, if needed, find itself more susceptible to conversion because having two spirits doesn't help you fight a holyman.

So an expensive, yet hopefully viable unit because it's equally as strong against every unit, the Camaquen Warrior is slow and armored but not as durable as the Teut Knight (they also costs more), it regenerates yet not as well as the Berserk (and is slower and more expensive) and has some pierce armor like the Huskarl but is slower, more expensive and far less spammable. Its the fact that this unit combines all the features of these Germanic soldiers into one Peruvian package that gives it its edge, but this leads to another feature:

The Camaquen Warrior does flat 'true' damage. What does this mean. Well, supposing the Camaquen's base unused armor type attack remains 7 [10 for Elite], they will always do that plus smithing damage to all enemies. From Teutonic Knights to Skirmishers to castles with Architecture... There is no variance!!! Although they do have standard building bonuses, so the building bonus is even better. For an extreme example, Castles have base armor of 8, but the Camaquin doesn't care, and still has a building bonus.

So the only units that will not take more damage are Ornlu (insta-kill), Rams (take 3 damage because they have 0 melee damage vs. -3 melee armor on rams), buildings which they get a bonus vs., and Eagles, which they get a small bonus against the way most infantry do.

The way this unit is set up, your Barracks troops still have value. They save gold on upgrades, giving Champions good value as you save 455g getting their upgrade line and an extra 50 for Arson.

Unique Unit 2: Bolasi – Ranged infantry with attack ground and splash damage like a mobile onager. Has minimum range, and considered infantry. Trains from Barracks in Castle Age. Does extra damage to siege and cavalry, making them prime partners for your Xbow armies who they keep up with in movement speed. Min range of 2

The Bolas is a very special unit. An infantry with an attack ground button, their best function is to be placed in formations with Crossbows to scare away Cavalry and Siege. While this may sound dominant, the fact is, this unit costs stone and gold, the 2 rarest resources the longer the game goes on! This means every Bolas is precious, meaning the archers (possibly not Cavalry Archers) that will just obliterate them way cost effectively as wood is better than stone. They're also not a sure fire Mangonel counter. Mangonels can almost one shot them, so a clump of these guys taking a mangonel shot before they go down (they are outranged) means they might not be trading cost effectively. I honestly would need the expert math of an expert player. I'm just the blacksmith making the sword for the sword master who can wield but cannot make.

The reason they do well vs. cavalry is because historically, Bolasi were very good at wounding horse legs or wrapping said legs together to immobilize and make useless the horse. Yes, this civ that never interacted with Horses counters them better than those who did... go figure.

As amazing as the Crossbow/Bolas combo sounds great since it uses no food, (heck, the Bolas doesn't really need Attack upgrades as his main thrust is his bonuses vs. cavalry and siege and the armor techs aren't too vital for as it can survive a Mangonel shot without any) there are problems... it'll be quite apparent when I get to the tech tree.

Castle Unique Tech: Braided Leather – Bolas have +1 range and -1 min range. Cost: 100s/200g 25sec

Imperial Unique Tech: Communication Device – All Units move, work and attack 8% faster. Cost: 650f/300w

Yes, there were ancient communication devices in Chimu lands. These guys played Telephone! So do everything faster. Values can be balanced as needed, maybe need to add a bonus vs. infantry?

Disabled Techs:

• Disable Barracks: /
• Disable Archery Range: Hand Cannoneer, Parthian Tactics, Cav Archer, Arbalest
• Disable Stable: Building
• Disabled Siege: Bombard Cannon
• Disabled Dock: Cannon Galley, Fast Fire Ship
• Disabled Blacksmith: Cavalry Armor
• Disabled Economy: Hand Cart
• Disabled University: BBT
• Disabled Monastery: Illumination, Atonement, Heresy
• Disabled Castle: Sappers

There, did you see it?! The reason the Xbow and Bolas combination is so awkward? Well, I will spell it out: They don't get Arbalest! In fact, this lack defines their imperial age for the most part. Chimu Strategy is an infantry based push, probably with a pivot into Xbows and Bolas Castle Ages and then getting out of that combo for the Imperial Age. Early on, the Chimu can mount a good defensive with 2x HP houses, and a repair rate to keep melee units from getting through house walls so effectively it hurts... maybe a bit too much even. It also works forgoing on the offensive and repairing towers more effectively.

Their best Eco bonus is the same as the Mongol: their scout TB. That's not to say their makeshift Handcart in the making isn't a good bonus either. In the feudal age, that's 44% (rounded down to +4 for most jobs, but is +15 carry for Hunters).

As a team bonus, it's awkward as most of the time, you'll want a civ with cavalry to provide a sturdy backbone for your Knight/Xbow (and Bolas) pushes if you're in say, a 2vs2 Tournament.

The Chimu certainly have an unorthodox early game prescence. By Feudal Age, they have the following stand out attributes: +4 carry (+15 for Hunt), 2x House (and dropsite) HP, faster and cheaper repairs, 40 gold saved on Men At Arms if you choose to research it, and Eagles/Spears with boosted LoS. Put together, this is a nifty combination of bonuses that culminate, hopefully into a good Feudal civ that can continue to grow into a strong infantry force that saves lots of gold (about 200 more than Spanish, although the Spanish Blacksmith effects a far more varied group of units)

Interestingly, I think other Mesos are the best civs to counter the Incas, because they have a strong focus on having anti-infantry units. Plumes have an infantry bonus, as do Slingers, but this civ's Skirmishers do just fine at destroying them. The biggest late game counter, IMHO, is the Jaguar Warrior. The Camaquin cannot trade cost effectively against them and their anti-infantry bonus. If the Chimu go for their great siege, the Aztecs can match them with Siege Onagers of their own. Without Arbalests, they're forced to go for full Xbow in Imperial Age, to kill a niche unit and Atlatl Skirms give 0 fucks! I suppose similar issues arise for Teutons with their unmounted juggernaught knights mixed with Hand Cannons and Cataphracts, but neither civ can keep up with Mesoamerican economies.

That's what makes this matchup more lopsided than Mayans vs. Goths unless my math is mistaken. The Aztecs can keep up with their powerfully early economy much better than the Goths vs. Mayans situation. Your best hope is going to be using all the saved gold on siege weapons, including, surprisingly, the ever underused Scorpion.

From a technical standpoint, the gold savings means their champions should do well vs other infantry and getting to Halberdier is surprisingly cheap.

But... is it balanced? I don't know. I'm honestly thinking it's a bit lacking as its Eagles best benefits kick in before the late Imp Age (no gold for several techs and +1 LoS) compared to the Aztecs extra damage and faster training, Mayans extra HP and Incas extra armor. Once that saved gold is gone, or in say a team game, the other Mesos pull ahead, although this civ should do fine vs. Cavalry reliant civs.