scenarios

[mrp]

My opinion for the Scenarios I've played
Alexander cool scenario
Greek world pain in the ass namely raging horde
Desert war wacky unit prod too low lousy econ no happy resources and war wary up the ass
American Revolution boring and ends too quick
Pelponnisian war worst scenario ever lousy prod 100 turns
RTW cool scenario a tons better than POS Desert war only bad thing is lack of resources no happy or health
Napoleon Euro Highly recommended
Warlord Roman don't care for its score system

[Unimatrix11]

Since i never played a single scenario, i would have appreciated it, if You had elaborated about them in a bit more wordy (or shall i say sentency) fashion...

[ybrevo]

I haven´t played any scenarios either - or yet! - and I agree with Unimatrix11 that it would be nice to get some more information about your experiences with them. Perhaps it would be the kind of inspiration we need to try them out ...

And by the way, "up the ass", is not an expression that gives me much meaning in this forum. Actually I find it rather

ybrevo

[mrp]

Napoleon is a downloaded scenario the others are on either warlord or original
Well for the Napoleon Scenario resources have been overhauled. IT takes like 200 food to get 1 city increase but here you don't need a single farm cause towns rule
for starters cottage +1 food +1 hammer +1 commerce
plus the usual increase
then there are techs that improve this farther
Also cities only eat 1 food per level
Brits have a ship bonus
France has a land unit bonus
When you start France has a three way war with Brit, Austria, and Bavaria and army of Austrians is already on your land
Also all available world wonders are built
No jerking around with slow ass production here
Also the units pics are changed to a more army looking Approach
Also war wary is not much a problem except for capital city
Also civics have been overhauled. The only thing is there are a lot of national units with a limit of like 10 or 20
like you can only have 1 missionary at a time
Some of the cities are packed in like sardines and can't be razed

[Solomwi]

I'll recommend a completely different Napoleonic scenario, this one by AlazkanAssassin at "the other site," based one the CivIII official scenario, which I loved, but, alas, only available for Warlords so far, though the author has said he plans to adapt it for BtS.

The biggest selling point for me is the promotion system. He added several promotions, available only to GG units and with certain prerequisite promotions, that give a bonus to every unit in the same tile or surrounding tiles. For instance, "Pinch Ability" grants +5% vs. gunpowder to every nearby unit, and my favorite, "March Ability," does exactly what you'd expect... give March to each nearby unit. It not only makes attaching your generals to units very attractive, but lets a GG unit actually act as a leader on the battlefield, since it encourages assembling an army to march under and remain with the leader.

The units are pretty well balanced, and not overly complicated. Line infantry units are recruits (str. 14), which upgrade to musketmen (17), regulars (20) and finally guards (28). Grenadiers (17) are specialized for attacking cities, cause collateral damage and upgrade to grenadier guards (25). There are three types of cavalry: light cav (14, starts with Sentry, ignores terrain movement cost) and curaissiers (18, start with Blitz), both of which upgrade to guard cavalry (22, start with Blitz and Sentry, ignore movement cost), and all of which are three-movers. Conscripts (14), which can't attack, are available for garrison duty and upgrade to Conscript II (18). Riflemen (18) stand alone outside any upgrade path, and are an interesting unit with their inherent 30% (I think) retreat ability and forest/hill defense bonus, but automatic 40% reduction against cavalry units. There are several inherent bonuses/reductions in all the classes that ensure a counter for everything. Siege units are perhaps too powerful, but not so much that a port to BtS shouldn't fix it. Gurads, grenadier guards and guard cavalry are national units limited to 10 per civ.

Workers are also a national unit, with a limit of 4. You can keep any workers you capture over 4, but can't build one if you have 4 or more. The map starts with a lot of unimproved terrain, and given the AI's penchant for pillaging (which I think is even greater than in the epic game), this makes intelligent use of workers very important and capturing workers a high wartime priority. There are no settlers or missionaries.

Naval warfare is also well done. Frigates (8), galleons (4, transport capacity of 4) and ships of the line (12) are the available ships, so the variety isn't great. The author brought back the concept of capturing ships (random chance at the end of a successful battle), though. This can be especially huge for France early on.

The opening scenario finds France at war with Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Austria, Britain, Holland, Naples and Portugal, the last three British vassals (the neutrals to begin with are Spain, Denmark, Prussia and Sweden). Britain has significant fleets of both frigates and ships of the line in the Channel and Mediterranean, while France only has a handful of frigates at Marseilles and one or two along the Channel coast, and at least two techs before being able to build ships of the line (though France will probably want to focus its research elsewhere at first, which nicely mimics Napoleon's turn toward the continent in 1805). France controls Malta, Egypt and Piedmont, and has a vassal in the Rhine Confederation (Strasbourg, Frankfurt and Hamburg). Britain has an outpost at Gibraltar and the aforementioned three vassals.

The map is pretty good, too. The cities are well-spaced and for the most part well-placed, and resources are copious, but not overwhelming. All the world wonders you'd expect are pre-placed, and the Pentagon is the only one available to build. A nice bonus is that a few otherwise unavailable UBs have been put into certain cities (London and Ireland each have a trading post, as well as a lighthouse, Gibraltar has a dun, which makes it a good place to build specialized Guerilla III riflemen, Moscow has a ger and stable and Bordeaux has a mint and can build a forge). Russian barracks don't give any XP but do reduce unit build costs by 30%, as does "Ottoman Efficiency," which every Ottoman city starts out with.

I've played through it probably a dozen times, mainly as France, Britain, Spain and Russia, and it's never disappointed. I recommend playing it on a higher difficulty level than you're used to, since that just means the AI builds bigger and better stacks of units, and more units equals more fun in this case.

[mrp]

I don't think I am wild about a limit of only 4 workers. The Units work as a Rock, Paper sissors with a 50% bonus Grenadier (9) beats line (8) line beats light (7) and is the only real infantry unit that is not national light beats grenadier and imperial (11) well rather it just has a bonus towards it. cav units lancer (6) beats infantry, hussar (8)starts with blitz dragoon (6) beats cav units
some promotions like the city attack and defense have been united to 1 ability but the attack side is stronger
France gets Amsterdam as a vassal 1 Battleship (10) which beats frigate (8) which beats corvette (7) which beat battleship

France gets some frigates and about a dozen corvettes
1 general 1imperial foot and imperial cav
Brits gets 4 battleship and some frigates
you must use frigate vs frigate till you learn the large ship tech
Also france as some regular troops and 45 militia (5) which have no bonus and when you draft all governments can draft you get a militia. It is basically a sacrifice unit for those bad luck roles I am pretty sure the other nations have an army of miltia too Also Genova gets overrun on turn 1 roads have a move of 2 highway you must learn but some is placed have a move of 3 plus the prod modifier

As for terrain and workers . Terrain is worked but fairly ineffiently with farms and windmills which are probably the worst terrain improvements. France gets access to most of the world resources with an abundant source of wine. There is no limit on workers however worker move is reduced to 1 settlers aren't available but you can have 1 active missionary to ward off revolts. If you are france you won't need em for a while because you are catholic which is farely dominant
There about 10 minor nations with 1 to 3 cities and initially can only build recruits (7) a weak line unit and militia

[Blaupanzer]

Solomwi's described scenario by AlazkanAssassin sounds great! Napoleonic scenarios play out as wargames since more than half of all the pre-1815 battles fought in Europe post the Thirty Years War (160+ years) were fought in that one 18-year period. The period is part of my education specialization. Other than that little twist to standard Civ-playing, such scenarios are usually a lot of fun.

[Solomwi]

Originally posted by Blaupanzer
Solomwi's described scenario by AlazkanAssassin sounds great! Napoleonic scenarios play out as wargames since more than half of all the pre-1815 battles fought in Europe post the Thirty Years War (160+ years) were fought in that one 18-year period. The period is part of my education specialization. Other than that little twist to standard Civ-playing, such scenarios are usually a lot of fun.

One (the only) tweak I made was, due to the increased emphasis on GGs, to give every nation the Imperial trait. Since settlers aren't allowed, the only effect is that everyone generates GGs twice as fast. That's probably unfair to the AI, since a human will typically use the GGs more effectively, but it's fun, so I disregard that little issue.

[Blaupanzer]

"but it's fun, so I disregard that little issue." Go Solomwi.

[Theben]

The best scenarios are almost always fan created or modified. It's been that way since civII.

Speaking of civII, has anyone attempted a civIV recreation of 'Red Front'?

[mrp]

Does this other napoleon scenario change the unit looks of the units and change up civics and terrain but then I am not much in GG I usually just add to city to increase experience or add an academy

[Solomwi]

I think AlazkanAssassin and Paasky used a lot of the same unit artwork, though I can't remember who borrowed from whom. Regardless of the source, the units look good. The civics aren't really changed up that much. Different nations are locked into different religion and government civics, which makes gaining control of the Pyramids a nice bonus if you aren't France (which starts with them).

[mrp]

Well mine places wonders in their proper location. So Sistine Chapel is in Italy I had to put my unit producing cities on wealth cause they were making excessive units. So only building producing cities are making anything. When a national unit gets killed or I need more line infantry else they are making wealth

[Solomwi]

Originally posted by mrp
Well mine places wonders in their proper location. So Sistine Chapel is in Italy I had to put my unit producing cities on wealth cause they were making excessive units. So only building producing cities are making anything. When a national unit gets killed or I need more line infantry else they are making wealth

France starts with the Pyramids because France starts in control of Egypt.