Teddy Roosevelt (Rough Rider) (Civ6)

Base Game

Bull Moose

Rough Rider

[edit]

Teddy Roosevelt (Rough Rider)
Introduced in New Frontier Pass
Other names	26th President of the United States
Civilizations	American
Leader bonus - Roosevelt Corollary
+5 Combat Strength for all units inside America's home continent. Envoys sent to city-states that America has a Trade Route with count as two Envoys. Gain the Rough Rider unique unit with Rifling.
Leader agenda - Big Stick Policy
Likes peaceful civilizations that have a city on his home continent. Dislikes civilizations starting wars on his continent.
Unique
Unit	Rough Rider
Religion
	Protestantism

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"Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and resilience - the virtues that made America."

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt (27 October 1858 – 6 January 1919) was the 26th President of the United States, known for his vigorous foreign policy that sought to turn the United States into an international great power, and his many progressive reforms. He leads the Americans in Civilization VI.

Rough Rider Teddy wields a big stick on his continent, but if you leave him alone he will stay peaceful.

This is one of Teddy Roosevelt's two alternate personas, the other being Bull Moose Teddy.

Intro

And so it is upon your broad shoulders, Theodore Roosevelt, to charge forth and lead your people on their great adventure. Use your military might to give the peoples of your homeland the square deal they so desperately deserve. Surely you will raise America into the limelight and attract visitors from across the oceans just to see your lands. Bully for you, Mr. President.

In-Game

Rough Rider Teddy's color palette

Rough Rider Teddy's unique agenda is Big Stick Policy. He likes civilizations that have a city on his home continent and remain peaceful, while disliking those that start wars in his home continent.

His leader ability is called Roosevelt Corollary. His units receive additional Combat Strength when fighting on his home continent, and any Envoy sent to a city-state with which America has a Trade Route will count as two Envoys. He also gains the Rough Rider unique unit after researching Rifling.

Detailed Approach

Rough Rider Teddy Roosevelt enjoys +5 Combat Strength on his home continent and the ability to bring city-states under their sway through trade. He wants to expand rapidly across his continent while gaining the support of all nearby city-states. The Founding Fathers' civilization ability makes his choice of government important and can set him up for any victory type. His two post-Industrial unique units, including his favored Rough Riders, make him able to hit especially hard from the 20th Century onwards.

Lines

Teddy Roosevelt is voiced by Richard Tatum. He speaks American English.

Voiced

Agenda-based Approval: Thanks for keeping the peace on the continent. Bully for you!
[Note: "Bully for you" is an exclamation of commendation which is commonly associated with Teddy Roosevelt.]

Agenda-based Disapproval: No man is above the law. It behooves you to remember that.
[Note: "No man is above the law" is a quote from his Third State of the Union Address given 7 December 1903.]

Attacked: If I must choose between righteousness and peace, I choose righteousness.
[Note: This is a quote from his book America and the World War.]

Declares War: I wanted to avoid this, you know, but your idea of peace left me no choice.

Defeated: Congratulations. Instead of the United States of America, your nation will go far.
[Note: The last part is reference to his signature motto "I have always been fond of the West African proverb "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."]

Greeting: Welcome to the United States of America. If you conduct yourself well, you can consider us friends.
[Note: The second sentence is inspired by a quote from his Fourth State of the Union Address given 6 December 1904 - "Any country whose people conduct themselves well can count upon our hearty friendship."]

Quote from Civilopedia: Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and resilience - the virtues that made America.
[Note: This is a quote from a letter to S. Stanwood Menken, chairman, committee on Congress of Constructive Patriotism (January 10, 1917).]

Unvoiced

Delegation: It's good to see you. My diplomatic delegation should be arriving soon with some fresh-baked apple pies. I'm sure you'll give them a warm welcome.

Denounced by Player: How dare you!

Denounces Player: I cannot abide a ruler without dignity, and the world must be aware.

Accepts Player's Declaration of Friendship: I can't say no to that.

Requests a Declaration of Friendship: You have earned my respect. Shall we declare our friendship?

Player Accepts His Declaration of Friendship: You have my thanks.

Invitation to Capital: I'd like to exchange information about our capitals: promote free trade between nations, and all that.

Invitation to City: We have a city nearby. Would you like to visit? I could show you the stuffed bears that are now so popular.

Civilopedia entry

Scion of a wealthy family, sportsman and explorer, big game hunter, war hero, naturalist and conservationist, patriot, unabashed imperialist, author, politician. Theodore (“T.R.” or “Teddy” to his friends) Roosevelt, Jr., was the most colorful of American presidents, perfectly suited to the Progressive Era. In his role as a member of the State Assembly of New York, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Governor of New York, Vice President to William McKinley, and President of the United States, he promoted the ideals of reform and modernization. In his private life, his stoicism in the face of loss along with his courage in the face of mortal danger contributed to his image as the ideal of American masculinity. From the moment Teddy Roosevelt stepped onto the public stage, he truly was “larger than life.”

Born in October 1858 AD, Teddy was a sickly child, afflicted with severe asthma as well as every childhood disease prevalent at the time. Nevertheless, he was “mischievously inquisitive,” and soon developed a passion for zoology, which led to the pastime of taxidermy (any mother’s worst nightmare), beginning with the head of a dead seal from a local market when he was the age of seven. Homeschooled by parents and tutors, Roosevelt proved well-versed in some areas, an indifferent scholar in others. Although he entered Columbia Law School, he viewed the law as “irrational” and “tedious,” and soon dropped out to embark upon a career in politics – famously stating he “intended to be one of the governing class.”

With the backing of the Republican Party, Roosevelt launched his political career by winning a seat in the New York State Assembly in the elections of 1882, and made a mark exposing various corrupt practices in state government and sponsoring bills to improve conditions in cities. But political in-fighting proved as tedious as the law, and he “retired” for the first time to a more adventurous life in the “Wild West.”

T.R., between stints in office annoying influential men and failed election campaigns (he lost, for instance the 1886 mayoral election for New York City by a wide margin), would travel to his Chimney Butte Ranch in the Dakota Territory, vowing there to stay. Although periodically lured back to the East, he repeatedly returned to the West as a rancher and learned to ride, rope and hunt. Teddy even served briefly as a deputy sheriff; his western sojourns are best known through a series of articles and books he authored about the “cowboy way.”

Much as he loved the West, it held no particular affection for him; the severe winter of 1887 wiped out his herd and his investment. Roosevelt returned to the East disheartened. He had, though, gained a great love of the wilderness and "roughing it." That love of adventure would drive him in his much-publicized 1909-1911 safari to Africa (where he and his fellow hunters would kill or trap over 11,000 animals for the Smithsonian Museum) and his 1913-14 expedition to the Amazon (cut short by Roosevelt’s infections and illnesses).

The failure of his ranching ventures distressed Roosevelt greatly. But Teddy had already suffered heartbreak. When he was 24, his wife Alice of two years had died two days after giving birth to their daughter in 1884. Less than a day before, his beloved mother Mittie had died of typhoid fever in the same house. The double loss left him bereft and no doubt contributed to his Western fling. But in December 1886, Teddy married his childhood friend Edith Carow, who would give him five more children to gladden his days. Even a happy marriage could not suppress his sense of adventure; during the European honeymoon with Edith, Teddy led a climbing team to the summit of Mont Blanc, a feat which gained him membership in the highly respected Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge.

With the coming of the Spanish-American War, again sensing adventure and so resigning his post as Asst. Secretary of the Navy, Teddy raised a command of his own – the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, better known as the “Rough Riders.” Lt. Colonel Roosevelt and his men saw action in several sharp fights, most notably the Battle of San Juan Hill, and returned home at the end with considerable notoriety. That notoriety certainly helped his narrow victory in the 1898 gubernatorial election in New York, not the first time Teddy’s image would resonate with the voters. At the GOP convention in 1900, he was put forth and became McKinley’s vice presidential candidate. Swept to a second term in a landslide, the unfortunate McKinley would be assassinated in September 1901; Roosevelt was sworn in as president on September 14.

T.R. would serve as President of the United States until 1909. Just as he had in the Dakotas and up San Juan Hill, he rode roughshod over convention, special interests, big trusts, and corporate corruption. In short order, he forced arbitration in the 1902 coalminers strike, established federal oversight of railroad rates, initiated the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act, and brought more than 40 antitrust suits breaking up monopolies such as Standard Oil and Northern Securities railroad trust. His foreign policy was likewise aggressive... summed up in his "Big Stick" diplomacy.

Teddy based his approach to foreign policy on the old adage of "speak softly and carry a big stick." He himself described it as "the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis." For Teddy, that meant negotiate peacefully but simultaneously threaten with the big stick - via trade embargo, military action or whatever worked. A proponent of the acquisition of the Philippines and other once-Spanish colonial holdings by the United States to become a globe-spanning power, Roosevelt’s imperialist bent was on display. But two foreign initiatives are his best-remembered legacies: the Panama Canal, and the Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded for his task as mediator to end the Russo-Japanese War. In dozens of crises and situations on the world stage, Teddy played a central and usually influential role... waving the big stick.

Despite his popularity and power, T.R.’s support for Taft as his successor led to a schism in the Republican ranks. While Roosevelt continued to espouse progressive principles, Taft along with many in the party rejected his leadership. When Teddy lost his bid to become the GOP’s presidential candidate, he founded the Progressive Party, commonly known as the “Bull Moose Party” and was promptly nominated its candidate. His platform was simple: “to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics.” Surviving an assassination attempt (though the bullet remained embedded in his chest), Teddy failed to sway enough voters and finished second in the election that brought Woodrow Wilson to office. With that, T.R. withdrew from active politics, although his continuing attacks on Wilson’s policies certainly helped the Republicans regain control of Congress in 1918. In the early morning hours of January 6, 1919, Roosevelt died in his sleep after a night of having breathing problems.

Trivia

• Rough Rider Teddy's diplomacy screen shows three wooden houses in a grassland behind a wooden fence, possibly based on the outskirts of San Juan Hill.
• Rough Rider Teddy Roosevelt's leader ability is named after his personal addition to the Monroe Doctrine, while his leader agenda references his foreign policy.
• Rough Rider Teddy wears his slouch hat with the cavalry branch insignia and a yellow neckerchief.

Gallery

Rough Rider Teddy Persona Pack

Theodore Roosevelt Civilization VI (Rough Rider) loading screen.jpg

Rough Rider Teddy on the loading screen

A photograph of Teddy Roosevelt in his Rough Rider uniform (which appears to have inspired his in-game model)

Related achievements

100th Anniversary As America make a National Park of Crater Lake and both tiles of Yosemite in one game. 2016, the year that Civilization VI was released, was the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, which manages national parks in the United States.

Let Teddy Win Win a regular game as Theodore Roosevelt A reference to the Presidents Race, in which Teddy Roosevelt had a notorious losing streak, sparking the 'Let Teddy Win' campaign.

Pizza Party! Activate Leonardo da Vinci in New York with Great Works from Michelangelo and Donatello -- and a sewer -- all in that city. A reference to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, comic superheroes who enjoyed pizza in New York City's sewers and were named after the famous Renaissance Italian artists.

A Man A Plan A Canal Panama Build the Panama Canal as Teddy Roosevelt A palindromic phrase used in homage to President Theodore Roosevelt, whose pet project the canal was.