While surfing on one of my favorite forum, I came
across this question, again. Games are meant to explore the possible,
what do they tell us about this question. I selected 3 games that offer
different perspectives.
- Civilization: Why wouldn’t they be able to survive?
- Europa Universalis: 400 years of struggle for survival.
- Colonization: The brutal confrontation
Civilization: This game asks us what must a nation
do to survive the tides of time. You are dealt with an open hand and you
can freely choose your path. Terrain is the only limit, but the start
in Central / North America is as good as any
in game terms. Like real life Pre-Columbian nations you are able to
thrive in your new environment. Like them you can focus heavily on
mathematics and astronomic after the construction of your first
pyramids. However in our timeline, these technologies did
not lead to many practical developments for the Indians. No sailing
with the help of the stars for example. In game terms it is like
rushing astronomy and religious technology without taking time to invest
in libraries, commerce and machinery… You won’t score
high, and the IA might crush you.
They already have gold and silver. Development of
tools and weapons in iron was one of the possible next step. What if
they had? They might have expended just as we have.
Europa Universalis: For those who do not know, I
encourage you to try one of the Europa Universalis. It is historically
quite accurate with a lot of depth. Here you can start 100/200 years
before contact with the Europeans. You might think
that with historical foresight you will be able to prepare and expend
before the clash. You fool! You are already doomed by your slow moving
culture. Despite a very limited technological lag at start, you will not
be able to compete. Why? Is it unfair?
Look at the technology panel: First you get a
large malus for isolation. True you don’t a lot of caravans from the
Orient nor Arab traders selling you old greek books. Then you get
another malus for being a Theocratie. I guess that this
kind of regime is less progress oriented that an Italian Renaissance
Republic. On top of that your “society sliders” are geared heavily
toward conservatism. You can change them, but the game rightly force you
to do it slowly (1 slider change every 10/15 years),
you can’t revolutionized a country in 1 year! So even with an heavy
investment in technology, will not be able to keep up with the
Europeans. These malus will decrease with time and contacts with other
nations, but it will be hard to survive long enough for
it to have an impact.
To add insult to injury you, it will be harder for
you to colonize America. Your society sliders indicate that your
population is not very willing to go out colonizing. So while you can
increase your empire, you will not be able to color
the continent as fast as the new comers. Your only option is to
overwhelm the conquistadors. You have to send hordes of warriors to stop
them on the beaches but as if technological underdevelopment was not
enough, you have no cavalry. Like real life Indians
you have to wait for Europeans to master the art of horse riding. As
you imagine, there is an important malus in battle when you can’t field
any horse during the XVI Century...
In conclusion, you game survive with a perfect
gameplan, including in radical revolution and intensive efforts toward
administrative and military technologies. But does it feel right to
invest all the gold of the Incans in funding colonies
and researching better tax authorities?
Colonization: Here they are! And it is too late.
Despite being IA only, you can learn a few things about the Indians in
this game. Sure they will adapt very quickly to gun and horses but their
main weakness is that they are very naïve
and unorganized. They will accept gifts, welcome your missionaries,
teach you how to survive in the wild even sell you lands. Sure they will
raid your settlements when unhappy, but that doesn’t mean that the
whole tribe will launch an extermination campaign
against you. Surely the Europeans who dealt with the Arabs in Spain and
then with the Turks across the Mediterranean had a much more cynical
view on inter cultural experiences. They were prepared for a relentless
campaign with no compromise. Indians come unprepared
to this clash of civilizations.
Historical addendum: A major aspect missed by all
these game is the genetical diversity enjoyed by Europeans. We had dealt
with much more viruses and bacterias during our History (from Asia and
Africa), so that our diseases had a much larger
effect on Indians that their on us. The scale of their losses (80% for
some nations) was such, that no recovery was possible.
Various Links
Did gaming help you understand History? Or on the contrary do you think that games distort reality too much?
EuroExark
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