This note describes the rule changes made for The Viking Islands map. The changes made to the rules are strictly limited to units, so almost all modifications to unit abilities can be read in the Civilopedia.

In this map all tradable resources (strategic and luxury) have been surrounded by coastal squares - that is they are on isolated islands.

As a result it seemed necessary to make minor modifications to unit specifications in order to enable mobility and combat in this mostly aquatic world.

The map is inspired by the Finnish archipelago of 2000 or so islands often referred to as "The Viking Islands".

rmendis@mac.com

FYI: The rule changes are based on (or are a subset of) modifications suggested by player1 (from apolyton.net Civ-forums) in the player1 Civ3 MOD. 


SEA UNITS:

Subs get movement of 4, while Nuclear Subs get movement of 5.
Submarines (nuclear version also) get attack of 10, to make them dangerous enough and force players to make their own submarines to detect enemy ones.

Also, Nuc. Submarines get reduced cost of 120 shields (was 140). Nuc. Submarines are better in every way, but not that much better to keep old price of 140 shields.

Battleship bombard capabilities are barely better compared to Destroyer (8 vs 6). So in order to fix that, Battleship gets bombard strength of 12. 

Battleship gets higher cost of 220 shields. This is mostly done in order to make Destroyers more useful.

In order to make AEGIS Cruiser better at defense against bombers (that's the point of AEGIS), I increased their defense rating to 12. It's same defense as Battleship, but since they are cheaper they become best in escort missions. Makes them more them more useful than simple submarine detectors. AEGIS Cruiser also gets higher bombard strength of 8.

Destroyers can be upgraded to AEGIS Cruisers.

Carriers and Battleships have been made same-class ships: Carriers get (same) movement rate of 5.

Man-O-War gets attack AND bombard rating of 4. My reasoning was, that historically, main difference between Ironclads and sailing ships was in ARMOR, and NOT in weapons. These changes reflect that. Ironclad has not much better offense, but has pretty good defense. With new stats Man-O-War becomes pretty interesting vessel. Has attack power of Ironclad (cannon heavy ship), while on the other hand is pretty vulnerable against Ironclads (and even Frigates).


AIR UNITS:

Also, Helicopters can now transport 2 foot units. This makes Helicopter a more useful transport unit.

Fighters, Jet Fighters, F-15 and Stealth Fighters get lethal sea and land bombard (they can kill units with bombards). All these units get Air bombard AI flag added.

Why?

These units are tactical bombers. They do their job from close distance. That way they can take out 1hp units. This won't be unbalanced since these units are much worse bombers then standard Bomber unit, and land units have huge defensive bonuses.

Jet Fighters get bombard strength of 4, to make them more distinctive from Fighters. They do have rockets anyway. Since it would lead to less powerful F-15 & Stealth Fighter, these units get increased bombard strength of 6.

In order to balance out increased Stl. Fighters bombard efficiency (compared to Stl. Bombers), Stl. Fighters gets new price of 160 shields. Costly, but anything less would make use of Stl. Bomber meaningless since Stl. Fighter has lethal bombard abilities.

Fighters and Jet Fighters get ROF of 2. I always wondered why Catapults have better bombard values then Jet Fighters. This will make those units not great bombers, but still useful since they also now have lethal bombardment ability.

Civilopedia says that Cruise Missiles can fly for thousand miles, so let it be reflected in the rules. They get bombard range of 4.

Cruise Missiles get ROF of 4 to make them more devastating, and cost-effective (since they get destroyed after attack). Also, if they are lucky, they can kill 3hp (or even 4hp) Battleship as they now have lethal air and sea bombard.

Normally, Cruise Missiles can be loaded into transports directly, but not from city since they have no active "load flag". I fixed that bug.


LAND UNITS:

Marines and Paratroopers get some changes too:
Marines get 10/8/1 stats.
Paratroopers get 8/10/1 stats.

This makes these units more valuable and gives every of them special tactic. Paratrooper will invade and hold position, while Marines will assault. These units can be especially good in Jungles and Mountains, which wheeled units can't pass. And since in modern times Infantry gets obsolete these unit take role of jungle & mountain warriors.

So Paratroopers get defense AI flag instead of offense.

Radar artillery, Settler and Leader get Airlift flag. I don't know why they are skipped in normal rules, since you can airlift tank. On the other hand Presidents (and other Leaders) do fly by the plane too.

Foot Unit flag added to Settler and Leader units, in order to make them transferable by helicopters. Since these units already got Airlift ability, there is no good reason to prevent their transport by helicopters.

IMPORTANT: In order to balance the increased mobility and strength given to air and sea units, compromises have been made to mechanized units and artillery.

All artillery units, Tanks, Panzer Tanks, Modern Armor and Mech. Infantry gain Wheeled ability. This prevents moving them on Jungle and Mountain tiles if there is no road.
Note: You can move those units on enemy roads, you just don't get road movement bonus.

Mech. Inf. has no more offense AI flag selected (has only defense AI flag now), since AI used this unit too often instead of Tanks when planning attacks (and built Tanks rarely). This should fix that AI behavior.

In addition, Mech. Infantry gets reduced attack of 10.

Modern Armor gets defense of 14 to make Mech. Inf. more important.

Cannons get (increased) ROF of 2, but their price increases to 60 shields. This is done because normally, their firepower is on average weaker then firepower of two catapults. This should make them much more worthy and will reduce some micromanagement.

Radar Artillery is mobile unit, so it gets movement of 2. Since Radar Artillery has movement of 2, it now needs Oil and Rubber (plus Aluminium).
