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Incas start with a free llama
Historically speaking—because that’s what I do after all—it’s very fitting that Incas should start with a free llama. As Terence N. D’Altroy writes*: “Llama and alpaca herding became both a successful adaptation and a source of wealth for mountain peoples.” Llamas were “the principal beast of burden and source of meat for Andean peoples.” It is reported that male bucks can carry a load of 30kg for 20km a day. Not only that: “llamas and alpaca produce useful wool, but the light weight and fineness of alpaca wool make it preferable for clothes and other textiles.”
Just as sheep became part of Christian rituals**, llamas got intertwined with the religious life of the Incas. We’ve found many figurines of llamas in old ritual caches. The Temple of the Sun (or Qorikancha, “Golden Enclosure”) had real-life sized golden llama statues when the Spanish first set foot into it. It certainly contributed to the myth of the Eldorado! The Incas also named a constellation the “llama dark cloud”, which was supposedly the ancestor of all camelids. No animal was nobler than the mighty llama to the Incas.
* Terence N. D’Altroy, The Incas, 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2015.
** I’m referencing the 15th century famous Ghent Altarpiece which picture the “Mystic Lamb” or “Lamb of God”.
Inca villagers benefit from blacksmith upgrades
From all the Pre-Columbian civilizations, the Incas were most skilled at forging and bending metal. It somehow justifies their blacksmith bonus. Terence N. D’Altroy writes that “Inca smiths drew from millennia of Andean knowledge, which was the most sophisticated in the Americas.” Only they were more skilled at dealing with gold, silver and copper. They even forged platinum treasures long before it was possible in Europe*! However, to quote Terence N. D’Altroy again: “the products that they made were primarily symbolic, decorative, and status related, rather than utilitarian.” As a matter of fact: “In Inca cosmology, gold was the sweat of the Sun and silver the tears of the Moon.”
It also means that Incas didn’t wear iron armors! Indeed, they rather wore quilted armors that were more suited anyway to Andean warfare. I know I keep quoting the guy but that’s only because he writes so clearly: “Soldiers often wore quilted cloth armor that was so effective against Andean weapons [such as slings!] that many Spaniards discarded their own metal plate in favor of the lighter protection.” Isn’t that amazing!? If Age of Empires 2 was more historically friendly, it’d mean that the Scale Mail Armor tech should be renamed for the Incas to Quilted Cloth Armor. It’d be a treat and it’d help the sense of diversity within the game.
Another historical merit behind the “villagers benefiting from blacksmith upgrades” Inca bonus is that the Incas didn’t have any regular army and that any Inca subject could be drafted as a soldier. The Incas didn’t have any trade or taxation system, their economy solely relied on labor duties or “corvées”. The technical term is mita. Every Inca subject was part of a household or tribe called the ayllu. At the top of an ayllu you’d find a chief or kuraka. The kuraka’s duties were to take care of his people and grant them gifts that’d insure a fair redistribution of wealth within the ayllu. In exchange of those gifts, the Inca subjects had to engage into labor duties, or the mita. It’d range from agricultural tasks to military expeditions. Any grown-up subject (meaning any married man who’d started a family) could be drafted for the mita. Somehow, it fits the Age of Empires 2 economy model perfectly!
On a more serious note, military duties became the prerogative of a few specific ayllu within the Inca Empire. Once a tribe was conquered, its population could be scattered around the Empire to prevent any further resistance. Unrooted and taken away from their homeland, Inca subjects could then be converted into a permanent military status and be garrisoned at the frontier to insure the borders. Such was the fate of many Chachapoyas, for example. Kañari people also became a major part of the Inca military. “Up to half of the two ethnic groups was dispersed as permanent military personnel.” That’s what’d cost to you to resist and fight off the Inca conquest. There was no regular army to speak of, but the Inca Empire certainly had skilled military specialists, doomed to serve.
* The forging of platinum wasn’t mastered in Europe before 1730, cf. Henri Favre, Les Incas, 9th ed. Paris: PUF, 2011 (Que Sais-Je? no 1504), p. 101.
Inca houses support 10 population and their buildings cost -15% stones
Incas were not only great metallurgist, they were also amazing stonecutters. So amazing in fact that one could read in the Encyclopedia of the Incas* the following: “How Inca builders—who lacked iron tools and the wheel—cut stone, achieved the tight fit, and transported and hoisted the stones (some of which weigh over a hundred metric tons) has been the subject of wild speculation. These conjectures range from the intervention of extraterrestrials to the use of laser-like tools—and even the application of stone-softening herbs.” I mean, you know a civilization has done great on the tech ladder when modern people blame the aliens for their achievements.
Stonecutting was certainly more than just a science for Inca builders. Not only could they cut perfectly shaped stone blocks, they could also fit together oddly shaped stone blocks into perfectly fitted walls or even adapt their walls to the terrain they were building upon, therefore building “naturally” curved walls. It makes up for incredible construction work! You couldn’t fit the finest sheet of paper between two Inca stone blocks. You couldn’t even rebuild their walls if you dismantled it. Examples of such fine masonry were seldom found in the Ancient Greek world, especially at Delphi, but never to that extend.
Incas were also great urbanists. They really knew how to build a city and make it not only fully functional but properly amazing. The Spaniards were certainly impressed. Their only complaint was that you couldn’t fit two horses side by side in an Inca street. However, Incas didn’t have horses so… you see? It only makes sense, therefore, that Inca benefit from stone reduction cost and housing bonuses in Age of Empires 2. It honors well their stonecutting and architecture skills. I certainly could write more on the subject, but I’d like to save that for a historical analysis of the city of Cuzco in the Pakachuti campaign if you don’t mind.
* Gary Urton & Adriana Von Hagen (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Incas. New York, London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
Incas start with a free llama
Historically speaking—because that’s what I do after all—it’s very fitting that Incas should start with a free llama. As Terence N. D’Altroy writes*: “Llama and alpaca herding became both a successful adaptation and a source of wealth for mountain peoples.” Llamas were “the principal beast of burden and source of meat for Andean peoples.” It is reported that male bucks can carry a load of 30kg for 20km a day. Not only that: “llamas and alpaca produce useful wool, but the light weight and fineness of alpaca wool make it preferable for clothes and other textiles.”
Just as sheep became part of Christian rituals**, llamas got intertwined with the religious life of the Incas. We’ve found many figurines of llamas in old ritual caches. The Temple of the Sun (or Qorikancha, “Golden Enclosure”) had real-life sized golden llama statues when the Spanish first set foot into it. It certainly contributed to the myth of the Eldorado! The Incas also named a constellation the “llama dark cloud”, which was supposedly the ancestor of all camelids. No animal was nobler than the mighty llama to the Incas.
* Terence N. D’Altroy, The Incas, 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2015.
** I’m referencing the 15th century famous Ghent Altarpiece which picture the “Mystic Lamb” or “Lamb of God”.
Inca villagers benefit from blacksmith upgrades
From all the Pre-Columbian civilizations, the Incas were most skilled at forging and bending metal. It somehow justifies their blacksmith bonus. Terence N. D’Altroy writes that “Inca smiths drew from millennia of Andean knowledge, which was the most sophisticated in the Americas.” Only they were more skilled at dealing with gold, silver and copper. They even forged platinum treasures long before it was possible in Europe*! However, to quote Terence N. D’Altroy again: “the products that they made were primarily symbolic, decorative, and status related, rather than utilitarian.” As a matter of fact: “In Inca cosmology, gold was the sweat of the Sun and silver the tears of the Moon.”
It also means that Incas didn’t wear iron armors! Indeed, they rather wore quilted armors that were more suited anyway to Andean warfare. I know I keep quoting the guy but that’s only because he writes so clearly: “Soldiers often wore quilted cloth armor that was so effective against Andean weapons [such as slings!] that many Spaniards discarded their own metal plate in favor of the lighter protection.” Isn’t that amazing!? If Age of Empires 2 was more historically friendly, it’d mean that the Scale Mail Armor tech should be renamed for the Incas to Quilted Cloth Armor. It’d be a treat and it’d help the sense of diversity within the game.
Another historical merit behind the “villagers benefiting from blacksmith upgrades” Inca bonus is that the Incas didn’t have any regular army and that any Inca subject could be drafted as a soldier. The Incas didn’t have any trade or taxation system, their economy solely relied on labor duties or “corvées”. The technical term is mita. Every Inca subject was part of a household or tribe called the ayllu. At the top of an ayllu you’d find a chief or kuraka. The kuraka’s duties were to take care of his people and grant them gifts that’d insure a fair redistribution of wealth within the ayllu. In exchange of those gifts, the Inca subjects had to engage into labor duties, or the mita. It’d range from agricultural tasks to military expeditions. Any grown-up subject (meaning any married man who’d started a family) could be drafted for the mita. Somehow, it fits the Age of Empires 2 economy model perfectly!
On a more serious note, military duties became the prerogative of a few specific ayllu within the Inca Empire. Once a tribe was conquered, its population could be scattered around the Empire to prevent any further resistance. Unrooted and taken away from their homeland, Inca subjects could then be converted into a permanent military status and be garrisoned at the frontier to insure the borders. Such was the fate of many Chachapoyas, for example. Kañari people also became a major part of the Inca military. “Up to half of the two ethnic groups was dispersed as permanent military personnel.” That’s what’d cost to you to resist and fight off the Inca conquest. There was no regular army to speak of, but the Inca Empire certainly had skilled military specialists, doomed to serve.
* The forging of platinum wasn’t mastered in Europe before 1730, cf. Henri Favre, Les Incas, 9th ed. Paris: PUF, 2011 (Que Sais-Je? no 1504), p. 101.
Inca houses support 10 population and their buildings cost -15% stones
Incas were not only great metallurgist, they were also amazing stonecutters. So amazing in fact that one could read in the Encyclopedia of the Incas* the following: “How Inca builders—who lacked iron tools and the wheel—cut stone, achieved the tight fit, and transported and hoisted the stones (some of which weigh over a hundred metric tons) has been the subject of wild speculation. These conjectures range from the intervention of extraterrestrials to the use of laser-like tools—and even the application of stone-softening herbs.” I mean, you know a civilization has done great on the tech ladder when modern people blame the aliens for their achievements.
Stonecutting was certainly more than just a science for Inca builders. Not only could they cut perfectly shaped stone blocks, they could also fit together oddly shaped stone blocks into perfectly fitted walls or even adapt their walls to the terrain they were building upon, therefore building “naturally” curved walls. It makes up for incredible construction work! You couldn’t fit the finest sheet of paper between two Inca stone blocks. You couldn’t even rebuild their walls if you dismantled it. Examples of such fine masonry were seldom found in the Ancient Greek world, especially at Delphi, but never to that extend.
Incas were also great urbanists. They really knew how to build a city and make it not only fully functional but properly amazing. The Spaniards were certainly impressed. Their only complaint was that you couldn’t fit two horses side by side in an Inca street. However, Incas didn’t have horses so… you see? It only makes sense, therefore, that Inca benefit from stone reduction cost and housing bonuses in Age of Empires 2. It honors well their stonecutting and architecture skills. I certainly could write more on the subject, but I’d like to save that for a historical analysis of the city of Cuzco in the Pakachuti campaign if you don’t mind.
* Gary Urton & Adriana Von Hagen (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Incas. New York, London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.