I wanted to see here a civilization that had never before showed in an ES game. India is a great country with a very old history and great empires, they also have one of the richest mythologies on earth, so, there is a lot of new material to work with.
Hindus are a very complex and difficult to play civ. but they can be very strong if played correctly; by that I mean that their economy-military-technology-defense aren’t particulary strong or weak, but they rather work together in a way that makes the civ. be strong without having, for example, a killer economy or a base full of fortresses and defenses.
Every unit of the Indians gains favor if it is not fighting or being attacked. That doesn’t mean that you cannot fight if you want favor; villagers gain a little favor too (although less than other units), and not all units will be fighting all the time. Of course, the favor gathering rate per unit would be really slow.
They only have one real hero, which is the Rajan (king). This is a very powerful hero who attacks with both a bow and a saber an is the best myth unit killer of the game; it’s also a very good overall fighter, but, like the pharaoh, you can only have one (unlike the pharaoh, the prince doesn’t appear at the beginning of the game, you must create it, just like the Greek heroes, after you build your temple, and it doesn’t empower anything, he’s just a warrior). There is another non hero unit that counters myth units: the purohita, a mounted soldier, it’s not as good as the prince, but it has the advantage of being amassable.
They scout with the Rishi, which is weak and slow like a priest and doesn’t have a very large line of sight, but he has a very useful and peculiar ability: if you point him to a tree or an animal (not a herd animal), he will get line of sight of it; animals will explore the area they would naturally wander in, and will also get the line of sight of the animals they see; trees will slowly expand their line of sight to surrounding trees until the entire forest and a reasonable area around it are covered; it also works with gold mines, you get a rather large area covered with one goldmine. When the Rishi is killed, you can no longer see what happens in the area he had covered.
I don’t have much information about soldiers from ancient India, but here are some units made up from some history lessons found on the internet: the standard foot soldier is the kshatriya, or warrior, you can train them from the beginning and their stats increase for every age advancement. Every major god’s kshatriyas have a unique attribute, and minor gods give them more special characteristics. The standard archer is the patti, it has very good attack, but poor range, it’s good against highly armored infantry; mounted archers, or rathins are faster and have more range, but they are more expensive, they are not so easily beaten by cavalry. The senani, the army chief, is a soldier on an elephant, very powerful but very expensive and slow, so you can’t have many of them, they can beat almost everything, but their low speed makes them good targets for enemy units, they are good building killers. Spasas were actually spies; but here they are infantry soldiers with a very powerful melee attack but extremely vulnerable to arrow fire and rather low health points, though they beat both cavalry and infantry. The dutas (messengers) are light cavalry units but, when completely upgraded, they are the fastest soldiers in the game; they also have huge line of sight and are very good against archers.
The Indian titan would be Ravanna, the king of demons, he's said to have 10 heads and 20 (?) arms. He was defeated by Rama (or Raama) in the Ramayana. Thanks a lot to Ekalavya for this idea!!!!
[This message has been edited by Thot_celay (edited 06-03-2004 @ 02:35 PM).]
- Rishi scouting is faster and they have more health points.
- Myth units are created faster.
- Favor is gathered faster.
- Get free resources every time you destroy an enemy building.
- Kshatriyas have great speed.
- Avatar heroes can be trained at a special building; there are ten avatars, one on the first age, and three on each subsequent age.
- Temples, docks, barracks and houses allow units to enter and garrison inside, towers can garrison more units.
- Towers and walls have more hitpoints for every building improvement that is researched.
- Kshatriyas regenerate damage.
- Can build underground traps, which are expensive but cover a large area, each trap will kill a maximum of 5 enemy units, there’s a maximum of 3 traps on the map at the same time.
- Can train special units that serve as movable barracks, creating units from inside them, like the animals created from pharaohs of Set.
- Siege weapons and archers have more range and attack.
- Kshatriyas can build walls and towers.
- Lakshmi gives more health points to kshatriyas.
- Heavenly sitars, Lakshmi gives Apsaras more health points and attack and increases their healing rate.
- Ocean of milk, Laksmi gives more range and armor to apsaras.
- Divine nectar, Lakshmi increases carrying capacity of villagers.
- Wealth of Santaana, Lakshmi reduces the creation time of villagers.
- Sarasvati increases the armor of kshatriyas.
- Sacred texts, Sarasvati reduces the cost of all improvements at the temple.
- Light of the Nakshatras, Sarasvati reduces the cost of all improvements at the armory.
- Illumination, Sarasvati reduces the research time of all technologies.
- Castes system, Sarasvati increases the effect of all economic techs.
- Yama increases the attack of kshatriyas.
- Wrath of the Adityas; Yama greatly improves the speed and attack of Pishashas.
- Abarimon; Yama grants your infantry the speed of the people of Abarimon, who have their feet turned backwards.
- Spirits of the south; Yama increases the health points and pierce armor of your infantry.
- Feast of Lamps; Yama gives a small flow of gold to your civilization.
- Devi gives horses to your kshatriyas, increasing their speed.
- Might of Durgha; Devi, in her powerful form of Durgha, improves Tiger riders to Tiger warriors, with more attack and a longer lasting multiple attack.
- The paths of Dharma; Devi guides your cavalrymen in the paths of Dharma, giving them more speed and health points.
- Iron seals; Devi reduces the cost of dutas and their training speed.
- Ganga grants torches to your kshatriyas, giving them a bonus against buildings.
- Underground city; Ganga upgrades nagas to shesanagas, with more attack, armor and health points.
- Holy waters; Ganga increases the attack of all your ships and reduces their gold cost.
- Cotton saris; Ganga’s cotton clothes protect wood choppers and help them gather wood faster.
- Chandra gives bows to your kshatriyas, increasing their range.
- Drinkers of Soma; Soma, the divine drink, improves the health points and speed of rimis.
- Lunar month; Chandra, and the moon cycle, makes your rathins more accurate and have more attack.
- Royal observatory; Chandra gives more range to archers.
- Drains system; Chandra grants your farms with draining systems to make them produce more food.
- Ganesha makes your kshatriyas cost less population.
Myth unit: Beast of Ceylon; a giant frog with a huge pearl on its head that can swallow ships entirely.
- Eyes of Rudra, Ganesha improves Maruts to Rudras, with more attack and hit points.
- Spirit of Airavata, Ganesha makes your senanis able to throw arrows to surrounding units while they attack.
- Mouse mount, Ganesha makes your senanis train almost instantly.
- Kali gives your kshatriyas a devastating special attack.
- Servants of Ravanna, Kali upgrades your rakshas to servants of Ravanna, the king of the demons, servants of Ravanna are stronger and use their special attack more often.
- Skull necklace, Kali increases the health points of all myth units.
- Arms belt; Kali makes myth units hit twice as fast (not special attacks).
- Black mother; Kali makes all human soldiers regenerate damage.
- Agni cuts the cost of your kshatriyas by half.
- Seven tongues; Agni improves your garudas to king garudas, with greater attack.
- Sikhs; Agni gives your purohitas more attack against myth units.
- The race of the Sagaras; Agni greatly increases the health points, attack, armor and speed of the Rajan.
- Flourishing cities; Agni gives your TC’s +10 pop and your houses +2 pop.
Classical: Sarasvati and Yama
Heroic:Ganga and Chandra
Mythic:Agni and Kali
Classical: Lakshmi and Sarasvati
Heroic:Devi and Ganga
Mythic:Ganesha and Agni
Classical: Yama and Lakshmi
Heroic:Chandra and Devi
Mythic:Kali and Ganesha
Loyal servants of Isis, golden mother of Egypt
I swallow the sun in a terrifying night
I spread hunger with a voracious swarm
I throw a downpour of rock upon my enemy's land
The power of Egypt is mine to command!!!