Shoshone Warfare

With all the great and benevolent entities that exist in our world like; music, poems, books, commerce, and technological advancements there also exist an evil twin of sorts. This twin is in a sense the reason songs of combat are sung and written, victories are recorded, nations crumble economically, and technology may be malevolent. The cause of this is war. It is something that has been connected to the human race since ancient times, even prior to our of humble species. Competition exists in all forms, in every single organism in our world. The difference for humans is that we are able to utilize tools of bronze, iron, steel, gunpowder, and others for combat.

This ties into the idea that a civilization could go to war over a variety of things; population expansion, resources, cultural differences, religious differences, ideological differences, and many more. For early human beings and even human ancestors, there has always existed this competition for resources such as food, water, etc. this is something that Charles Darwin noted in his conclusion of animals. This notion has existed in the form of an evolutionary hierarchy for animals and in the case of Social Darwinism, humans. This notion that there is a hierarchy system in the development of mankind is something that has regrettably plagued the Native Americans, Africans, Asians, and other ethnic groups aside from Caucasian.

For this instance there is no better reason for why some nations are xenophobic of others. In all honesty, if one civilization is sandwiched between two military powers then it's a safe bet that defense is on their mind. In my current game there are six civilizations including my own and they are: Rome, Indonesia, Japan, Morocco, and Persia. Four of these civilizations have a very massive track record of warfare. Sad to say that I am sandwiched between two of these, Roman and Indonesia. However, despite the neighbors and the potential hostilities that may arise, there is a sliver of hope. This bit of hope is that the world is not yet engulfed by other civilizations influence, and there remains a plethora of land to be settled for the Shoshone.

Interestingly I am not landlocked, nor am a civilization that relies on warfare. Being landlocked is something that many countries fear, in that it limits their potential to expand. I am referring to an expansion in resources, borders, land, and other entities that could lead to the development of civilizations. Being landlocked implies that a nation is surrounded by other nations, and has no potential of evading that fate unless through diplomatic unification or warfare. Take for instance the nation of Switzerland or Luxembourg, both of them are minuscule nations when compared to Germany or France, and they are surrounded by other European neighbors.

As previously stated, warfare could be traced back to any number of events or circumstances and among them are politics and power. A civilization has the desire to expand its borders at some point in time, and typically it will achieve this goal in some manner of way. In the case of many monarchies in World History, they have achieved this through either political marriages, treaties, or simply purchasing land from the other. They have also sough out the usage of the sword or firearm to speed up this process of border/territory expansion.

In addition, power is something that is intertwined with the notion of warfare. many civilizations have utilized warfare to make their power credible to the world. An ancient example would be the early city-state of Rome challenging the massive naval power of Carthage, and winning the war against them. Although, a later example would be the tragic decision of the continued American involvement in French-Indochina (Vietnam), and the devastating defeat that the U.S. had been dealt. Some rulers believed that the only way to constantly grow ones nation was through the act of warfare, and it existed through Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and other world leaders.

As you can see from Gajah's pose, he means business. War may be declared for any reason. In Gajah's case, it could be contributed to the amount of luxury resources that I have in my possession. Or it could also be because I was located outside of his peninsula and he sought expansion out of said region. It is unknown, as a civilization could make open warfare on a whim. There are certain steps to war however, which include but are not limited to: denouncing a leader, moving troops near another civilizations borders, espionage, and religious conflicts of interest.  Now, onward towards what the field of battle looks like from the Shoshone's perspective.

Now, from this perspective, the war doesn't seem that tragic. It's just a few units just engaging in mere skirmishes. However, that is because of the era of which this is taking place in. In addition, it could also be because a civilization is merely hiding their units in their own zone of sight. This is a common tactic to lure in opponents. Take another glance at Gajah's forces and note what he currently has: Three Kris Swordsman and one Pike-man unit. Despite the fact that this is a mere artificial intelligence replica of Gajah, he still uses unique tactics. Now we will fast forward seventy years in the game to 210 BC and see what has occurred.

It should be no surprise that Gajah has amassed such a massive army for his attempted conquest of my lands. This is a typical strategy for all warlike civilizations; mass produce your unique unit, throw in some archers and catapults and you are guaranteed a victory. Unless your facing off with the Shoshone, then that's a different story. In this case, while the Kris swordsman of Indonesia is a very powerful unit, it has a disadvantage in the Shoshone homeland. This is due to the defensive bonus that the Shoshone have. 

Returning to the subject of the era that the war is taking place, it is important to note that it is in 210 B.C.. The reason that this is so important is because of the fact that neither he nor I have that much advanced technology to have a truly superior advantage. However, while military technology is equal in regards to research, Gajah has more units than I. This is due to his civilizations concept of warfare for advancing their people. Like other civilizations, the Indonesians' were conquerors and very powerful ones at that. Whereas the Shoshone prefer defense as opposed to offense. That is the way of war for my people, the best of offense is a fantastic defense.

Religion in Civilization: Pantheons

Religion, like culture is intertwined in the civilizations of the world. Just as the civilizations of the world differ in culture, so too do they differ in their religious practices. There may be two, three or multiple deities in a civilizations pantheon of gods. However, there may also be just one that is worshiped and the prophet may be worshiped as well. There are several religious practices that employ shrines, temples, sites, etc. Structures like these and more exist in the game. Take for example the wonder Stonehenge, which allows the player to gain +8 faith per turn. The starting religious building for all civilizations is the Shrine, which comes with researching the Pottery technology.

In the world of Civilization V, one is able to take the first step towards founding a religion when they have accumulated enough Faith. As stated, faith is gained on a point system, and can be gained by religious buildings. In addition, it could be attained by becoming Friendly or an Ally to a Religious City-State. The amount of Faith needed to found a pantheon is about 150, and once gained it is subtracted from your total amount of Faith. In any event, by gaining enough Faith a civilization is able to chose a Pantheon from a list of possible choices. This pantheon also depends who gained the ability to access it first, as it works on a first come first served basis.

Anyhow, for the Shoshone I chose the Goddess of the Hunt, which increases the food yield from Camps by +1. This serves as a link to the Shoshone, in that their territory ranged into the Great Plains, and that meant that they established camps to hunt the massive animal. In addition, they also were a Native American society that specialized in the way of horseback riding. That, and given the geography of my current map, there are at least three tiles dedicated to Deer,. By implementing this Pantheon, I'd be able to reap additional food from these Camps.

I decided to chose the Goddess of the Hunt Pantheon for my civilization.

Later in the game, if a civilization manages to amass about 600 Faith, they qualify for a Great Prophet. This unique unit allows the civilization to found their unique Religion, complete with a variety of different policies. For instance, the civilization could chose to worship a variety of different pantheons like the Faith Healer variant and move onto evolve the faith into a religion like Eastern Orthodox. There is a plethora of choices for the leader to choice from and like the various beliefs that are around the globe, they are everywhere on the globe.

It's interesting to note that while this pantheon is in place, it can be spread throughout the globe through several methods. The most prevalent method is trading, as through the exchange of goods with other civilizations there are also plenty of opportunities to spread your beliefs to others. This concept is one of the reasons that the Silk Road was a sort of hub of religions, as there were many variants of religion on the path to the Middle East, China, Europe and the Sub-Saharan worlds. So, with that knowledge in mind, it is important to understand that this is one of the best ways of exporting a religion without the use of Missionaries, Inquisitors, Great Prophet, or etc.

This is what the menu to select a religion will look like once the player has achieved the required 600 faith for a Great Prophet. If you'll notice, the initial pantheon belief is still there, with an additional four tenants. Think of this as an evolution of sorts for religion. In this instance, the Founder Belief represents the initial traditions of a religion. On the right of this photo are several options for the founder's civilization. They could choice any one of these and that would become their founder belief. Then there is the Follower Beliefs, and these bolster the cities, city-states, or civilizations who follow that particular religion.

All of this is very much what a religion appears to be like. In a traditional religion there is evidence of benefits from founding a religion for the founders, and then there are benefits from exporting that religion to the other parts of the globe. This is in a sense, religion broken down. This is excellent to reflect on, mainly in regards to why Zoroastrianism and Manicheanism failed in the Silk Road, despite being hybrids born on the Silk Road. It's a fascinating thing to observe in all honesty.

Reflecting on the similarities between this and World History,