New Scenario--The Fall of Rome

[Exile]

The crisis of the 3rd century had passed. The Empire was restored, Persia was subdued, and Diocletian ruled. But a great storm was rising on the rhine and danube frontiers. There were more barbarian raids, and great increase among the Germans. Paganism had lost its vitality, and early christianity was rising to become the religion of the Empire. The Tetrarchy was effective at raising taxes, but Diocletian's codes and laws continued to cause widespread discontent. The Ostrogoths, led by their king Ermaneric, have created large empire stretching into scythia, yet to the east wait the Huns, an unknown power of the steppes. To the east of the Empire is Persia, Empire of the Sassanian Shahs. Their goal to is reconquer the ancient empire of the Achaemenids of a thousand years earlier. Some tribes of barbarians are proving more dangerous than others. The Franks, Vandals, Ostrogoths and Visigoths, and the remote Saxons, all may become threats to the Empire in time. Beware! Great disasters will strike the Empire and there will be foul and unfortuneate omens seen in the skies!

The factions are;

ROME
Vandals
Goths
Saxons
Franks
Huns
Sassanian Persians

This one is done. All that remains to finish it are a batch of fairline units. It'll appear on the Spanish Civ2 site, I'll make the announcement.

[Exile]

A map

screenie;

[Exile]

Another map

Screenie;

[curtsibling]

Can't wait to play through the hard times of the Roman collapse!

The Empire will not fall!!!

[Arthedain]

Indeed it seams really interesting. And I for one think we really need a fall of Rome scen!

[Cyrion]

Wow!!

Can't wait to see it!

excellent theme Exile (as if you ever chose bad ones )

[McMonkey]

Far out!

Two new scenarios in the classic MGE format! I have added them both onto my now huge list of scenarios to play. I think I may book some annual leave and devote a weak of my life to CivII!!!

[EZRhino]

Sounds exciting! You've been thinking about making this one for years now haven't you?
Will the the rise of feudalism in the late empire make some impact in game?

[Exile]

True confessions.

Yes, I have been thinking about this one for years. There were several problems that kept me from going after it for some time.

The first was the problem of rebellious Roman armies. They certainly had terrific impact, so difficult to simply dismiss, and yet impossible to simulate in Civ2.

The second was devolution. How do you simulate it in Civ2? I've given it all I've got in this one. The only other thing I can do is step up the barbarian creation events, lower their numbers, so that more are created. Changing those numbers can make all the difference in whether or not a frontier is quiet or problematic. The first 75 turns the player has the harrowing situation of watching all the wonders burn out. Your ships slow down, your legions get worse, your intellectual edge disappears, your happy wonders fizzle and unrest becomes a real problem. I've toyed with the idea of stepping up the "number of cities/disorder" number. It could be made VERY difficult to keep order in the cities.

I have come up with solutions. It remains to be seen whether or not they work well.

[techumseh]

Well, well, well. You HAVE been a busy boy, haven't you? I look forward to playing both of your new scenarios.

[Exile]

Thanks Brian, good to hear from you.

As you well know, a good number of the tricks I used in this are directly attributable to you. I recall a thread I made about the devolution subject. You chimed in with several good ideas.

You can now watch them all in action. lol.

Just waiting on Gareth to get me the graphix and Sars to do some flags and it's out.

In case anyone is interested, I'm very likely going to go ahead and do what it takes to get AoB and the Mexico scenario out. Too much work to leave 'em sit where they are. Then I'll announce the WWII thing.

[EZRhino]

I have been giving alot of thought to a similar problem, simulating the "systems collapse" of the late bronze age. My current plan is kind of complex. Warfare in the bronze age was not fought by hoards of conscipts like in hollywood movies but by small warrior aristocracies and hired mercenaries lavishly equiped usually with chariots, coats of scale or bronze cuirasses and compsite bows. All of these things are VERY expensive to procure and maintain. Especially horses. These men maintained themselves with palatial economies and complex systems of adminstration focused on producing all sorts of luxury items for export. And of course constant raiding. This was indemic to all the polities of the bronze age, whether you be Egypt, Canaanite or Mycenaean, forign wars were fought more for portable treasure and slaves than for territory.

The collpase starts with the constant need to seize booty to pay for the exhorbitant maintanance costs of the palace workshops (factories and so on), which are needed to produce the very expesive (and very powerful) chariot units which are the very neccisary mode of warfare between civilized states. The booty comes both from sacking other cities and selling the expensive palatial city improvements. As these eventually dry up, you wont be able to pay for your city improvments and your civilization grinds to a halt. Toss this in with raging hordes barbarians and a few other things and thats my take on "systems collapse". The idea came from "The Vikings" scenario's pillaging and piracy. Fun scenario

With the rebelious legions you might try some variation on the succession from Harlans Mongols.

[Harry Tuttle]

Awesome, I can't wait to play it!

[Exile]

EZ, I did quite a bit of looking at the system collapse thing. Some of the experts don't like it, but it seems to go along with that "Statement of Wen-Amon" doc. In that document, an Egyptian official has a conversation with a captured sea-person, and the sea-person explains that he was an honest sailor, but that piracy got so bad he had to quit and join a big group of pirates just to feed his family. The result was the decline of trade, no ships moving, and the fortification of harbors by those towns still intact, as they resisted or prepared to resist attacks by pirate groups. In the end, everything dried up, except, apparently, Egypt, where the combined pirate army-navy eventually wound up.

Stop me if you've heard this one.

This doesn't sound so hard to simulate though.

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by Exile
In case anyone is interested, I'm very likely going to go ahead and do what it takes to get AoB and the Mexico scenario out. Too much work to leave 'em sit where they are. Then I'll announce the WWII thing.

Your 2 new scens, and now that announcement: is it Christmas or what??