The Thirty Years War

[battosai]

Hello Apolyton Civ2-Creation community! How satisfying it is to know some people don't get tired of looking for new ideas for a game that has been released a proud decade ago.

Although I'm getting drunk right now I find it's a good time to offer you my project, on which I am working for a couple of months, or at least a part of it. It is a CivII MGE war-based scenario settled in the centre of the devastating epogue-making Thirty Years War in Europe.

By now I have finished the map, the cities, the main infrastructure and a tactics concept including units. I'm looking for a nice graphics showcase of the (early) 17th century, first just to have more fun while I'm working on. Lateron I would prefer to draw own graphics or work in close cooperation with an experienced drawer.

Precisaly, I need graphics for the following kinds of armies/terrains:

Infantry

Mercenary Pikemen
or better
Couple of Mercenaries (4 pikemen, 2 musketeers?)
-
Mercenary Musketeers
or better
Couple of Mercenaries (4 Musketeers, 2 pikemen?)
-
Tercios (Spanish Infantry)
-
Line Musketeers (Dutch order)
-
Line Musketeers (Swedish order)
-
Early Jägers (the prototypes of the Prussian Jägers in Boney)
-
Early Grenadeers (prototypes, grenade throwers)
-
Land's Defensions (Peasant/ City Militia)
-
Armed Peasants


Cavalry

Early Mercenary Dragoons (in contrast to the later ones they were a kind of "mounted infantry" that struggled on horses as well as on feet)
-
Early Spanish Dragoons
-
Early Dutch Dragoons
-
Early Swedish Dragoons
-
Cuirassiers (heavy armor around the torso, weapons: pistoles and blank weapons)
-
Carabineers (light armored,weapon: 1m long carabiner)
-
Lanciers/Cossacks/Croats (eastern european-style)
-
Early Hussars (eastern-european style)
-
Shock Cavalry (Swedish special unit like in ColIV)
-
Field Marshall

Ships

River barks
-
Galley
-
Galeon
-
Spanish Galleon
-
Dutch Galleon
-
Fluyt


Others

Labourers (Settler)
-
(Bridge) Pioneers
-
Tross Wagons (dont know if its an english word)
-
Fortress
-
Frozen Water (like a terrain)


Terrains

Wooded Hills (+ extra winter)
-
"Urban" (+ extra winter)
-
Trenches/ Siege Fortress (+ extra winter)
-
Bridge (is it possible to make it look compatible to every side?)
-
Evergreen (+ extra winter)
-
Snowy Meadows
-
Snowy Plains
-
Snowy Forest
-
Snowy Hills
-
Snowy Mountains
-
a coast shape that reaches deep into the ocean, maybe makes the half of the coastal square



That's it for now. Thanks to everyone who can show me a graphic for one of these or gives me any hint where to find/ how to make them professionally. If aomeone wants to see something of the scenario, a screenie maybe, i could upload it, of course. But I don't know if it's okay cause I have implented lots of graphics from John Ellis to have a better overview. At least he is the one who gave me most of the inspiration. But I haven`t asked him yet.

[techumseh]

Sounds like a good concept. It's one of my favorite subjects for a scenario. Here's an older version. It was very good for its day, and might be valuable to your effort.

http://spanish.apolyton.net/civ2/bestonet/files/30yw.zip

[curtsibling]

Indeed that old one is an old classic!

Hopefully, battosai can have a look in our pre-industrial unit threads and find units to match his needs.

[Harry Tuttle]

Yeah, what Curt said. There are a few good sets out there. Plus I think we have a few unit designers that are capable of making some really nice units for that time period.

[Eivind IV]

Definately a scenario I'd like to play!

Tell us more...What are the civs etc?

[battosai]

Sure, here we go. The Scenario starts in April 1631, a very predestinated month cause in this + the next one the political-military boundaries that mostly rested unil the end of the war were setted.

1. Lord Wallenstein, recently deposed General of the Emperor's Army. Will the genius that still has strong influence in Bohemia get a second chance and eventually become mightier than the emperor himself or starve so tragically how it happend in history? And what will happen after his death?

2. The Habsburgian Empire, recently stongly united. In April 1631 the Kinfg of Spain and the Emperor of the HRE swear an alliance against all enemies of their dynasty. In PBEM the two lines should be played by two different players (at last due to its size it would be better) but the Spaniard has to keep the leadership (taxes could be shared though).

3. The Catholic League, recently gained its former military power back from the Emperor and currently leads the war in Germany on catholic side alone. ol'General Tilly's mercenary army now is about to capture Magdeburg and has to wipe the Swedes out of Northern germany before it's too late.

4. The German Protestant Consfessional and Constitutional Party or shorter the Protestant Electors (Saxony and Brandenburg-Prussia) recently signed an alliance to protect the constitution of the HRE and revise the Restitution Edict of Emperor Ferdinand II. But will they also sign an alliance with the Swedish king?

5. The Swedes, who just won a war against Poland are on the way to rule the Baltic Sea and recently invaded North East Germany to abolish the Habsburgian tyranny over the German confession brothers after signing an alliance with the French. Their King Gustaphus II. Adolphus has reformed both the state and the tactics succesfully. His army can be declared the most effective and most modern battle machine of the entire world, be it the hard drilled musketeers, the dynamic cavalry or the manoevrable artillery. The Swedish lion, as a what does he come - a messiahs, a conquerer or just a tool of cardinal Richelieu ?

6. The French were waiting for more than hundred years to crush the Habsburgs. Isn't this the perfect chance ? However, Richelie, who leads a clever but dark policy has turned his back to the battlefields after the unhonourable Mantuan War in Italy against Habsburg. Why not let others do this dirty job and wait until everyone else is burned out ? This wouldn't be stupid, since France isn't at far that military heavy weight that it will be at the end of the century and still hasn't got out of its inner turbulences.

7. The United Provinces are the richest people on earth and almost hold a monopole on international ship trade. They even sell goods to their arch enemies, the Spaniards, as long as the profit is higher than the risk. The war has turned to be lucky: in 1628 the Dutch captured the Spanish Silver fleet, the supplies to the Spanish Netherlands over the Channel are cutted off, and now Friedrich Heinreich, called "the Town Overcomer" is besieging the fortress of Maastricht beyond the Rhine with a modern and experienced army (which inspired the reforms in Sweden). It could be even possible to unite the whole Netherlands under the Oranian banner. But would this be really wise ?

[fairline]

You're not going for the full 1618-48? Still, should be interesting

[battosai]

Well, when I read about the first two parts of the war (Bohemian- Pfalzian (?) war; Danish-Lower Saxon War) I found they were much less interesting than the Swedish War, whcih starts in 1631, and the French-Swedish War. Furthermore, the main reason to choose this time period was the new definition of the diplomatic constellation in the early 1630s whcih wouldnt be compatible to the ones of the first two part wars.

[Arthedain]

Agreed on the Swedish war (not just because I'm a Swede). Hopefully, we will finally see some swedish units from that era. Watch out for the Lion from the north!

[battosai]

What about a map preview of this one?

[techumseh]

That's a great looking map. Do you want the rivers to be navigable (ie. ocean)? It's not always the best solution, as the AI doesn't know how to handle it very well.

[battosai]

Since I am focussing on a PBEM-scenario, the AI doesn't really matter.

I will suggest a house rule which only permits river boats to navigate and be built there. Or /And put some blocker units at the river mouths.

As an alternative to cross rivers I invented the bridge terrain, which can be transformed from and to ocean by an air settler unit.

[fairline]

Do you really need Spain, the British Isles and N Africa? Zooming in on Germany would make for a better historical play area.

Despite my carping, it is a nice map of Europe which does better justice to Britain and Ireland than most

[battosai]

Well, one of my earliest conflicts... The Thirty Years War was not a German war at least , it was a European war if not a world war. Britain and North Africa didn't play any role, though. But I need Spain because it is the most important part of the Habsburgian complex and some war happened there, too (and I wanted the conenction between Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea).

Apart from that I think that a 23.000 square map makes the German Battlefield wide enough. My historical-geographical sources (well, or my phantasy ) don't allow me to go much more into detail.

[battosai]

Some inspiration for anyone who wants to fill the lack of early 16th century unit graphics (fairline? ).

I'm aware that there are many good graphics out there. Yet I'd like to have a small bunch of men in each graphic, at least for the infantry (a swedish company consisted of 2/3 musketeers and 1/3 pikemen, so why not draw 2 musketeers and one pikeman?).