Good morning! I’m skingrado, one of the new content designers for EU4 at Paradox Tinto, nice to meet you all! To begin with, I think it’s very important that you know that my favorite castle is Loarre, that’s my main personality trait, so I hope that gives you an idea of who I am (and, as you can imagine, I’m also a big fan of GSGs, and I used to play a lot of CK with my dad). But today I’m here to show you some of the things we’ve been working on for the North American Natives, since a lot of you asked for more content after the reveal of the new mechanics (nothing to do with castles, I’m afraid).

We’re creating completely new native mission trees (since until now they mainly had the generic missions) and we’ve started by designing six new geographical mission trees available to all tribes, according to their localization and culture at the time of contact (i.e. very close to the start of the game). You’ll notice that some of the traditional cultural areas have been merged into one single tree (Northwest Coast + Plateau, for example), more on this to come next week. I’ll be now talking about some that I’ve done:

(Notice that all icons are still placeholders).

The Northeastern Woodlands extend from the Atlantic Coast to the eastern Great Plains, going slightly above the Great Lakes in the north and bordering the Southeastern Woodlands in the south, roughly including the present Mid-Atlantic states. People from this region generally lived in villages with a few hundred inhabitants and used wigwams and longhouses for shelter, as well as canoes for traveling, fishing, trading and warfare. These villages were often placed near their crops, since the so-called Eastern Agricultural Complex was their main source of food, characteristic that they shared with the nearby Southeastern Woodlands.
Their social organization was based on clans, which were often named after some relevant animal to the area, such as wolf or bear (you’ll see more on clans in the events).

Some highlights of this tree include:

• Building tall and preparing for war with the missions Wigwams and Longhouses and Raising Palisades will grant you permanent claims in the Great Lakes, apart from local defensiveness and manpower modifiers.
• Conquering the Northeast after conquering the Great Lakes will grant you a +5% to the morale of your armies.
• I have talked before about the importance of the Eastern Agricultural Complex, so having 3 irrigation canals and a total of 50 development will improve your production efficiency and grant you some extra gold.

Then we have the North American Southwest, which mainly includes Oasisamerica and borders the Plains-Great Basin to the north. People from this region farmed as a complement to their hunter-gatherer economy (in the case of Aridoamerica tribes) or even had a truly agricultural society in the case of the Oasisamerican tribes. They also cherished precious minerals, like turquoise and cinnabar, and had some interesting ancestors that we will address now on some of the missions:

• “Against the Desert” and “Taming of the Sands” compensate the player’s concern for devastation and development, since the Chihuahuan Desert is home to some of these tribes and its harsh living conditions are rewarded with claims in the region that will provide a tool for the spreading of such knowledge to neighboring provinces.
• Yucca Palm Trees were used as food and as the base material for the making of baskets or even “shampoos”, so controlling their province of production will also increase the local production efficiency and boost the economy.
• Turquoise Mining will require owning provinces with gems, salt or gold, in which mines could be created, and will also boost production and prestige, since turquoise was a valued trade good.
• Lastly, Paquimé was the ancestral home of the Mogollon people, and includes a series of archeological ruins that were burnt around the year 1340, prior to the start of the game. Owning the province and helping rebuild it will decrease the construction and development cost by -10%.

Now moving to the part that is slightly more fun, we have designed mission trees specific to some of the best known native tribes. Today, I’ll be focusing on the Iroquois:

As you can see, culture groups in Native America have been changed, and these missions will be available to those that have “iroquois” as their primary culture. These tribes are mainly known for the famous “Iroquois League” or “Iroquois Confederacy”, which was established prior to European contact and granted these nations security and protection, as well as a saying in the Great Council that ruled over them, much like how the new Federation mechanic is going to work. The focus of this tree is to form said Confederacy and extend its power:

• The Great Peacemaker will require you to have a longhouse in which an assembly can be met, and a reduced local autonomy. This will grant you a theologian named The Great Peacemaker himself, who is the legendary founder of the Confederacy and will lower your unrest.
• After gaining some allies through Haudenosaunee, and annexing the five most prominent nations of the League, your duty will be to protect the eastern coast from European explorers, specially French, since the League engaged in the decades-long Beaver Wars against them in 1609.
• False Faces will require you to have a spymaster and a spy network of at least 25 in any other country, as well as some diplomatic power. False Faces Masks were used during ceremonies to conceal one’s true nature and completing the mission will boost your spy power and spy detection by +25% each.
• Wampum Shells were the main currency used in these nations, so building a storehouse to hoard them will increase your mercantilism.

And, of course, we have also added some events. Some are generic, others will be linked to the totemism “rework” and a few will be specific to certain tribes as well. In this case, the Iroquois culture group gets a new event chain called “The Mourning Wars”.

Mourning Wars were fought when some of the tribe’s warriors were killed in battle and the spiritual balance of the village had to be restored. For Iroquois nations, grief did not come only for the loss of a loved one, but also for the loss of harmony. Thus, they would try to compensate for it, and that compensation came in the form of mourning wars. Now, a series of events will let you decide whether you should kill in revenge for the killing (which will lead to some nasty consequences, since it goes against the spirit of the war), or maybe take some captives in replacement for the dead members of the tribe.

Expect more information on this matter next week! Thank you for reading

 

[Battlex]

finally some representation for the indigenous peoples of north America that doesn't feel like an afterthought.

Have you seen the other features?

 

[wobarch]

Hmm. This is cool, but it seems like there's a missed opportunity for missions about European interaction. Maybe two trees, one for allying with a colonizer and one for driving them all into the sea. This is just a first stab, but something like:

Friendly:
1) "Learn from the visitors" = Reform government off European nation (can't also take unfriendly path) -> large opinion boost with that nation.
2) "Forge bonds with the visitors" = Form an alliance with a nation with capital in Europe -> Claims on local territory where it is not controlled by the ally
3) "Strong friendships" = control territory from claims or have it controlled by an ally or subject -> some significant reward

Unfriendly:
1) "We must adapt to survive" = Reform government using the final native gov't reform (can't also take friendly path) -> tech/institution boost of some sort
2) "Match the invaders" = be up to date in tech in one area (or, if this is tricky to code, match a nation with capital in Europe and territory in same region) -> claims on local territory
3) "A free people" = take all claimed territory -> Get claims on all land (maybe all land held by Europeans or unclaimed) in larger region.
4) "Drive them into the sea" = No nation with capital in Europe in claimed region -> Some significant reward (+ claims in Europe?)
5(?) "Sail into the sunrise" = Conquer European claims -> idk, some reward/more claims.

Maybe these don't have to be exclusive but instead could be an option to switch partway down the friendly tree. Anyway, these can be improved on, but while the pre-contact missions are cool it's too bad they were such a dominant focus - the player is going to be thinking about Europeans mostly and it would be nice to see some content for that.

I think you could use that more in native specific AGENDAS for a tribe estate

 

[Nak'Arosh]

Nice changes, hope they take a look on South America too.

The main indigenous of this area really need take a little of love. They have here 3 main branches indigenous on Brazil side:
Tupi;
Guarani;
Gê

Near Venezuela and Carib Island they have :
Arawak;
Carib;

All of them really need changes, they have a long history of battle against Spanish and Portuguese nations. If you made a research you gonna see that they prevail more than the North American Indians, South American Indigenous destroyed many Colonies and give Portuguese really hard struggles . For my point of view they outmaneuver many times their opponents even with technology disadvantageous.

On religion side you can find many information nowadays about them, they cosmology and rituals. I think they could bring bonus on production, military and others things.

There was a lot of tribes there, not all similar.


To finish I REALLY wait to see Polynesian Tribes and Navigations

 

[Atacama]

Nice changes, hope they take a look on South America too.

Strongly agree. And I also hold the opinion that the EU series will never truly be complete until you can accurately represent the Arauco War of the Spanish against the Mapuche in South America.

The Mapuche were the only natives who managed to force Spain to sign peace treaties and to be recognized by the King of Spain as independent, sovereign nation rightfully bordering Spain. What an extraordinary achievement for mere new-world natives who barely had any technology or institutions prior to European arrival. The first of these treaties at the Parliament of Quillín in 1641. The entire Arauco war, with its intermittent periods of peace and battle, espionage, alliances and betrayals, was a fascinating part of world colonial History. Alonso de Ercilla, Spanish poet and soldier who participated in the war, related the events of the Arauco War in the epic "La Araucana" which became a hit in Europe during the Golden Century and was later praised by Cervantes in Don Quixote and by Voltaire. Mapuche leaders like Lautaro would later become symbols during the Age of Revolutions. Today it's a largely unknown story, but it inspired fascination back then and it's barely present in Europa Universalis: there is just one small event where you get one of two "Toqui" (heroic general). That does not make justice to the Arauco War.

A series that lets you play as any nation on the premise that you can lead them to victory, even the underdogs of history, should exhaust all the few examples where the underdogs actually achieved something tangible in real history. That happened in South America more than in North America. Similarly, identifying why the Mapuche did better than for example the Inca at resisting europeans, despite being much weaker, should open doors to gameplay elements for all new worlders in the series. A great part of it was surely Spanish overextension, difficult communication with the Iberian peninsula, and general poverty of the Chilean colonial nation, allowing the Mapuche to adapt to and emulate Spanish war tactics. Another is that the Incas had more developed institutions with a clear head of state, so replacing him with a Spanish Conqueror facilitated the take over of the empire without disrupting existing institutions, while the Mapuche were more barbarian in nature and did not easily adapt to any institution. Rivalries between colonial nations played a role too, and soldiers sent to one colonial nation would escape to live in another one with better opportunities, difficulting the population growth and army maintenance of the newest underdeveloped colonies.
Along with this much needed South American native flavor, a huge Colonial Nation rework is needed so this entire part of history is represented ingame. Because I feel colonization is the actual core of the Europa Universalis premise yet it feels lacking, clumsy and flavorless. Hopefully one day we get a nice colonization expansion.

 

[Gwyain]

Its certainly nice to see some love for the Americas, but what's with this inclusion of the Eastern Agricultural Complex? EAC crops had been almost entirely replaced by Three Sisters Agriculture in the Eastern Woodlands by 1000 AD, well before game start. Of the EAC crops, the only one that was still readily cultivated at the time of contact was Sunflower.

 

[Nak'Arosh]

Strongly agree. And I also hold the opinion that the EU series will never truly be complete until you can accurately represent the Arauco War of the Spanish against the Mapuche in South America.

The Mapuche were the only natives who managed to force Spain to sign peace treaties and to be recognized by the King of Spain as independent, sovereign nation rightfully bordering Spain. What an extraordinary achievement for mere new-world natives who barely had any technology or institutions prior to European arrival. The first of these treaties at the Parliament of Quillín in 1641. The entire Arauco war, with its intermittent periods of peace and battle, espionage, alliances and betrayals, was a fascinating part of world colonial History. Alonso de Ercilla, Spanish poet and soldier who participated in the war, related the events of the Arauco War in the epic "La Araucana" which became a hit in Europe during the Golden Century and was later praised by Cervantes in Don Quixote and by Voltaire. Mapuche leaders like Lautaro would later become symbols during the Age of Revolutions. Today it's a largely unknown story, but it inspired fascination back then and it's barely present in Europa Universalis: there is just one small event where you get one of two "Toqui" (heroic general). That does not make justice to the Arauco War.

A series that lets you play as any nation on the premise that you can lead them to victory, even the underdogs of history, should exhaust all the few examples where the underdogs actually achieved something tangible in real history. That happened in South America more than in North America. Similarly, identifying why the Mapuche did better than for example the Inca at resisting europeans, despite being much weaker, should open doors to gameplay elements for all new worlders in the series.

I didn't write any details about some indigenous because i thought would be a huge text. But i am really glad that you @Atacama brough to us this information, i will read in a time this Epic "La Araucana", thanks. I already know about the Mapuche but i forgot to cite them on my text.

The most important thing to know about this called 'Underdogs' is that was not a little battles or skirmishes, many of them fight a War that take at least 2 or 3 centuries to finish. For my point of view they were not too weak as many think, they won many battle and wars. They just were overwhelmed by Europeans when diseases and plagues came and spread along their land. And the most important one that was the false peace agreements, but this is part of the war. One thing to note is that the Inca and Aztec were a well developed civilization with institutions but they trust to much on Europeans, and on the other hands theses Hunters-gathered migratory tribes called for someone barbarian... didn't trust on Europeans even on their foods, religion, clothes and for not recognize the Spain King as sovereign on Earth were hunt down as animals, but yet they fought. Today you can still found some tribes on Amazon Basin, living in a old style way.


Australia and Pacific Island could get some changes too, everything depends on the Devs and I don't think that i was the first to talk about this here.
Polynesian tribes is know for being the masters seafarers, building ships that was a way faster than the European Monohull, and was more stable and reliable.
I particularly don't know every history of the world, still learning. But I know that some of them was erased to us.

I was playing Imperator Rome and I like the system of Migratory Tribe, Settled Tribe, Tribal Kingdom. I don't know if this could be applied here on EU4, i know this is a huge change and would be called a expansion that change all the mechanic of this game. But most of the new World Nations(Migratory) still like somehow stationary, motionless. On Imperator Rome if you start decentralization you could become a Migratory Tribe and rose some Civs as Military and move to other places. On EU4 you just got a bonus to reduce your cooldown and change to another place and loose everything... I don't know if there some other mechanics.


Crazy ideia : Would be good to have a choice to form a horde than monarchy or republic hahaha, the game is like say to me: you become a monarchy or republic.

For European Nations, Ottomans, Mamluks and etcs... i think the game is well design to them. Waiting for the Others.