NEW SCENARIO - please try

[jamestout]

Hey - check out this new scenario based on an earlier 'prototype' one. It's set in the age of European colonisation and uses graphics borrowed from other scens (thanks), as well as some new city graphs from me.
Enjoy!
PS Grateful if someone could post it on Scenario League site!
Thanks

[McMonkey]

Good to see you are still in the Scenario creation business JT. Love the new cities. I will add a page for this scenario on the SL Wiki. I have quite a few others ready to add too. Do you have a title gif?

[curtsibling]

Great to see a new scenario from you!
I really like this unique visual style!

Will try it out soon!

[AGRICOLA]

Playing it as Germany/Deity. Want to see if strategy of capturing homelands of European colonial powers opens the door to a German empire. I suppose that this is equivalent to cutting off the head of a snake and then chopping up the rest of it at leisure.

By 1665, the Dutch are headless and Paris is about to be taken. That capture should bring in enough gold to IRB Mikey's Chapel, thereby making the populace deleriously happy.

BTW, I thought that We Love His Royal Butt should work with Monarchy. It doesn't in EMPIRES.

[jamestout]

Sadly I don't have a title gif, but would be grateful if you were able to add one McMonkey!

[McMonkey]

Ok, no probs. I will find a suitable image from Google and whip something up.

[McMonkey]

Is this any good? Did I get the scenario name right?

[jamestout]

That's excellent - although you might want to change the caption to 'Empires' to avoid confusion with the earlier scenario called 'Imperium'.
Thanks very much!

[techumseh]

Hi James, and welcome back. I haven't done more than just get started on a game of Empires, but it looks very well done and quite interesting. It might be fun for a multiplayer game.

You have a real knack for producing a consistent 'look' to your scenarios which adds to the experience. I'm looking forward to building an empire which encircles the globe!

btw, why don't you let us know a bit about the scenario, and how you aproached designing it?

[fairline]

Originally posted by techumseh
You have a real knack for producing a consistent 'look' to your scenarios which adds to the experience.

Very definitely James. Your medieval scenario had a great look to it

[jamestout]

Thanks very much everyone, hope you enjoy playing it. I think it's an interesting period of history because the 'groundwork' laid in the early seventeenth century by the European powers paved the way for their subsequent expansion. Unfortunately, given the seven-civ limitation, it isn't possible to be entirely accurate in representing all the important countries and empires of the time (e.g. if would be nice to have included the Ottomans or China as separate nations), but I think given the later history (continued rise of Europeans versus slow relative decline of non-European nations) it's justified. Also, I decided to lump together Austria, Brandenburg-Prussia and the other states of the Holy Roman Empire as 'The German Empire' - primarily to have a 'strong' power in Central Europe to counteract the Western European nations on one side and Russia on the other.
As for the look of the scenario, I don't think I can really take credit for that in this instance, given that most of the units were pilfered from other scenarios!
The medieval scenarios were more authentically 'mine', however, so I'll take that bow!
Thanks again people.

[AGRICOLA]

Here are the highlights of my first 46 turns of EMPIRES.


PHASE I . . . . . . CAPTURE EUROPEAN CITIES OF ENEMY CIVS

TURN YEAR EVENTS

03 1662 Amsterdam ( Colossus ) captured

06 1665 Groningen captured - End of Dutch in Europe

08 1667 Amsterdam builds Michaelangelo's

09 1668 Paris ( Oracle ) captured

11 1670 Tours captured

14 1673 Bordeaux captured

15 1674 Berlin builds Marco Polo

17 1676 Marseilles captured

19 1678 Lyon captured - End of French in Europe
. . . . . . .Extorted 500 from Russians in return for peace.
. . . . . . .Naval recce of St John's

22 1681 Barcelona captured

23 1682 Madrid captured

27 1686 Lisbon captured ( King Richard's, Statue of Liberty )
. . . . . . .REVOLUTION

28 1687 Government >>> Fundamentalism

30 1689 Faro & Cadiz captured - End of Portuguese in Europe

32 1691 Cartagena captured - End of Spanish in Europe

34 1693 Naval recce of Madeira, Canary Islands & Azores

35 1694 Invasion forces make 3 landings in Britain
. . . . . . .Naval recce of Bermuda, Aruba, Martinique & Barbados

36 1695 London (Magellan, Hanging Gardens ), Dublin ( Leonardo's ), Bristol, & Liverpool captured
. . . . . . .Naval recce of Bahamas, Havana, Panama, Jamaica, Santo Domingo

37 1696 Edinburgh captured - End of British in Europe
. . . . . . .Invasion force landed west of St John's



PHASE II . . . . . . TURN MEDITERRANEAN AND BALTIC INTO GERMAN SEAS
CAPTURE ENEMY CITIES IN ATLANTIC AND CARIBBEAN
PRIORITY TECHS ARE PIRATES, MAN O'WAR, ENGINEERS & RR

38 1697 St John's ( Sun Tzu ) captured
. . . . . . .Discovered PIRATES tech - amphib Pirate unit & Naval Dockyard

39 1698 Naval recce of Port Royal & Tadoussac

40 1699 Port Royal & Quebec captured - both open cities
. . . . . . .Assault force landed at Tadoussac
. . . . . . .Discovered MAGNETISM tech - Galleon & Frigate [both useless units]

41 1700 Tadoussac captured
. . . . . . .Discovered GUN DECKS tech - Man o'War

42 1701 Invasion convoy sailed for Goa from Lisbon & Marseilles
. . . . . . .Discovered MEDICINE tech

43 1702 Madeira & Azores captured
. . . . . . .Discovered CHEMISTRY tech

44 1703 Goa ( Pyramids ), Canary Islands, Milan, Venice & Budapest captured
. . . . . . .Discovered ENGINEERING tech

45 1704 Rome, Naples, Copenhagen & Bermuda captured
. . . . . . .Discovered STEAM ENGINE tech

46 1705 Gothenburg, Belgrade, Algiers, Tunis, Bahamas, Santo Domingo, Bombay, Montreal & Boston captured
. . . . . . .Discovered RAILROAD tech



This has been a fun scen to play up to this point but the pattern for the rest of it is pretty well set.
Man O'Wars and Musketeers capture coastal cities. Engineers, Mortars and Musketeers capture inland cities.
Trade generates enough gold/flasks per turn to IRB needed units and improvements and to gain 1 tech/turn.
The early discovery of RR's means that land distances are no longer a problem for slow-moving units.

The graphics are good and appropriate for the time period. The map is excellent and the "canals" north of
Panama and at Suez add greatly to the playability. I really like the ship movements ( Mv = 20 - 28 )
which seem very realistic for one year turns and the size of the map.

Much to my surprise, it turned out that Germany is probably the easiest civ to play because it starts off
with enough cities to slowly but easily capture all enemy cities in Europe. Portugal or Russia would
appear to be more of a challenge.

The only thing that really toubled me is the Statue of Liberty wonder in Lisbon. Once a player captures
this wonder and changes his government to Fundamentalism, the scen is finished to all intents and purposes.
Any problems with city happiness and unit support disappear and net cash flow more than triples from <100
to 300+ gold to permit significant IRB of units and improvements. After that, once ship chains have been
established, there is no problem with delivering enough caravans to generate 4000+ gold/flasks per turn,
enough for 1 tech/turn and to IRB most everything. Perhaps the Statue of Liberty could be removed from the
game to force players to struggle along with Monarchy until they actually discover Fundamentalism.

I had to raise the health bar on Warships by 3 pixels in order to see the entire bar. Similarly, Engineers
got bright red helmets to improved the visibility of these crucial units.

There are minor problems with details such as the description of Fundamentalism saying that it can support
10 units without costing shields whereas rules let it support only 8. Also, Fundamentalist settlers/engineers
eat 1 and not 2 foods per turn as stated in the description.


I hope that this helps. This is as far as I'm going to play. Thanks for the fun!

[AGRICOLA]

Oh yes, here's the budding Greater German Empire in 1705.