Mod Request: Palace wins all....

[MattPilot]

Since we have so many gifted coders here, i figured i'd ask.


Concept: Capture the city with the palace improvement (capital), and automatically hand over all this civs cities to the capturing player. Exception to this rule is the "Forbidden Palace" or "Versailles". If the player has either one, the Palace will then be transfered to that city and the civ gets to live on.


Why?: This simulates the collapse of an empire with the capture of its head of government. The capital is the center of the empire. Capture it, and all collapses.

This also gives building the forbidden palace so much more of an importance. Build it quick to retain control once the capital falls. Of course, should this happen, the forbidden palace should be taken off the list (to make room for a new national wonder) and also so it is buildable somewhere else again.



Thoughts?

[Rhianni]

Too easy to exploit by a human vs AI. A player could have 1 stack of units sitting outside their palace city. Declare war and march straight there.

[MattPilot]

The AI could also be modified to garrison more units in the capital.

The palace could also be given an inherent Defensive bonus to make it harder for the capital to fall.


I don't know how it is in your games, but in mine, the AI has maybe to 2 or 3 cities where it keeps huge stacks. The capital usually always has more than 10 units.

And if its to easy to create a bigger stack than the cities' garrision, one could always move up in difficult level.

[MoonWolf]

Not sure how realistic it is that you get all cities if you capture someone capital/ government... To mention some reasons for this:

1) When Nazi-Germany sent their invasion force from Germany April 8th 1940, this was a surpise for Norway and could have led to the capture of the Royal family and the government. But when one of the key factors in this plan, the battleship Blücher, approched Oslo, it was sunk by some old cannons in a fort. This allowed the Royals and the gov to escape to the UK where they could still operate from. If something like this is to be modded into civ4, there must be a chance for the gov to escape also during surprise attacks against a capital meaning all cities will not be lost.

2) If your war hast lasted for a couple of turns when you launch an attack on the capital, the government will sure have some backup plans to escape. If you totally isolate and have superior control of the area around the capital, then you might prevent the gov from escaping thus capturing it. So, if the government escapes, there shouldn't be any possibilities to insantly gain control of all cities

3) Eventhough the government is captured, I would assume the reaming of the military (+probably some of the population) will form some sort armed resistance/ guerilla. These units should act as an independent army or be under the attacked civ's control for a few turns eventhough the civ has no cities left. This will give add the possibilty for the attacker to be kicked out (like Afghans did against Soviet, FNL against USA and Balkan partisans against Nazi-Germany)

So, if you're going to add this possibility to a mod, you should keep this considerations in mind. I do agree that capturing the government should be a real benefit. This way, the importance of a capital will increase than just loosing a lot of culture and a well-developed city

[MattPilot]

In my mod proposal, the government would only escape if it had a forbidden palace built. Or that World wonder that does the same thing as the forbidden palace.



The thing in real wars is, even if the government manages to escape after the capital falls, the country still crumbles.

WW2 and the french. Paris is taken, The north instantly crumbles, and the South forms Vichy france, which became a puppet regime of germany.

In all ancient wars, you take the capital, and the empire crumbles. It also was the case with Rome.



Now this mod doesn't necessarly mean a civ is immediately kicked out of the game when the capital is taken (with no forbidden palace). His Units would still be around and could recapture some cities before the agreesor manages to reenforce them.