MAP: The Viking Islands

[rmendis]

Hi,

I've created a map where all strategic & luxury resources are on isolated islands. Some rule changes (as suggested by player1 in his MOD) have been made to units to emphasize mobility and combat of air and sea units in this mostly aquatic world.

The game can be played at Diety level by an experienced Civ3 player.
Definitely worth a play if you liked the Promised Land or Skull island map.

Version 1.0 [Downloaded 28 times]

Version 1.1
1. Changed the name to "The Viking Islands"
2. Added a smaller map - that is a Large version as well. Though not tested. (Please if you do encounter resources not fully isolated please let me know - coordinates, etc. and i shall upload a corrected map).
3. Defense AI flag given to Paratrooper instead of offense.

Thanks,
ravi

[Gramphos]

If you should call this a Scenario it shall have a written objective. Otherwise it shall be a map.

[rmendis]

I've edited the post correcting the wording to 'map' instead of 'scenario'.

[rmendis]

FYI: I should add that this map (similar to the Promised Land and Skull Island) demonstrate limitations of the Civ3 AI. Though the AI is more powerful than before, it can't adapt to irregularities or plan for long term goals.

You may find that playing this map at tha highest level requires a leap of faith. You will start off incredibly disadvantaged, but with time and as you aquire resources and luxuries the civs miss, you become stronger.

To test the map, i played the game at Emperor level and found it got incredibly easy at the end. No challenge i won. So now, i'm playing it at Deity level.

So it starts off with lots of exploration and colonisation but ends with lots of combat and battle.

[sabrewolf]

screenshot?

[rmendis]

As you can see in this map all tradable resources (strategic and luxury) have been surrounded by coastal squares - that is they are isolated islands.

[ghen]

This means you just expand your culture borders to enclude these islands and then make cities when rubber/alum appear on them.. Also, this means that you won't be getting iron or horses until you get a city with a harbor on the respective island..

[rmendis]

Originally posted by ghen
This means you just expand your culture borders to enclude these islands and then make cities when rubber/alum appear on them.. Also, this means that you won't be getting iron or horses until you get a city with a harbor on the respective island..

Well, i'd say, start colonising those islands right from the start.
They are more secure (until Amphibious warefare is discovered) anyway.

What happens is that the AI civs miss these islands altogether.
They sometimes colonise the larger resource islands (ones where there are a cluster of resources - but almost always they tend to be luxury resources and not strategic resources).

I'd hate to spoil the fun of playing the map, but the civs pretty much miss most strategic resources...so towards the end of the game you are the only player with strategic resources available to build advanced units.

The AI civs mostly end up with Longbowmen and Riflemen.
If you are unlucky (well, not really), one or two of the civs may aquire 1 or two resources at the most. This means none of them end up with the resources necessary to build the Spaceship for example. So a Space Race victory becomes a doddle.

[sabrewolf]

don't forget that you don't know yet where which (non-ancient) resource is. if you're unlucky, you'll won't get any coal and rubber (100 islands are a lot to settle).

meanwhile you can't forget colonising the mainland. after all, you do still need research and economy! if the AI destroyes your mainland cities, you're left with a bunch of scattered island cities with virtually no production (until offshore platforms of course...)

but the biggest trouble is that the AI probably can't handle this kind of massive island-grabbing strategy. and he also can't deal with the luxury slider very well. that means a human has a great advantage.

this map may be great in a special kind of MP, covered with hundreds of barbarian galleys.

possibly, you could give every land unit the amphibious flag... makes it important to reinforce your defence or build barracks on the islands...

but anyway... nice idea

[rmendis]

Originally posted by sabrewolf
don't forget that you don't know yet where which (non-ancient) resource is. if you're unlucky, you'll won't get any coal and rubber (100 islands are a lot to settle).

Because the map was originally a CIV3 generated map before it was modified to isolate resources on islands, resources are pretty much evenly distributed.

The key is to securing iron, horses, saltpeter, coal...early in the game ASAP. As i said, the game gets much easier as youplay on...so surviving the initial game is the real challenge.

You don't have to secure *all* the islands

meanwhile you can't forget colonising the mainland. after all, you do still need research and economy! if the AI destroyes your mainland cities, you're left with a bunch of scattered island cities with virtually no production (until offshore platforms of course...)

You have to colonise some mainland, particularly area between the islands. Remember although your islands are secure because of no amphibious units, this doesn't mean that they cannot be aquired through Cultural influence.

So use the resources you aquire from the islands to secure and defend your land cities that help establish your culture and borders.

but the biggest trouble is that the AI probably can't handle this kind of massive island-grabbing strategy. and he also can't deal with the luxury slider very well. that means a human has a great advantage.

That's right.
It's why the game can be played at Deity level.

I created the map to demonstrate the deficiency of the AI and to allow me to play at Deity level - something i've not done before

this map may be great in a special kind of MP, covered with hundreds of barbarian galleys.

possibly, you could give every land unit the amphibious flag... makes it important to reinforce your defence or build barracks on the islands...

Well, it should give a huge advantage to Vikings (i can't play Vikings - cos i'm a Mac user who is still waiting for PtW).

I am trying to keep rule changes to a minimum that emphasize sea and air units and de-emphasizes mechanized units for mobility and combat on this mostly aquatic, island riddled world.

The most important change is that Settlers can be airlifted and transported by helicopter.

This means that later on in the game, when you're re-colonizing conquered territory, you can airdrop (via helicopter) a settler onto these islands (including the inland ones where you can establish an airport to trade its valuable resource). So re-colonisation becomes just as efficient as colonisation on land.

[rmendis]

I have a shortlist of new names:

1. The Viking Islands
As the game would be a pradise for Vikings with their amphibious special unit. Though there is actually a Finnish place that is referred to as the Viking Islands which consists of an archipelago of 2000 islands.
2. Viking Paradise.
3. Nautica.
To highlight the aquatic island riddled nature of the map.

Any preferences for those who have played the map already?

Mine is Viking Islands.

[sabrewolf]

rmendis,
doesn't matter if you don't have PTW. you can modify an existing civ (or create a new one) and make a unit with the same stats as the berserker. the only difference is the lack of the animation... but that's not important for gameplay.

berserk:
ADM: 6,2,1
amphinious attack, starts golden age, foot unit, upgrade unit
comes with invention, replaces longbowman (so make the upgrade path archer ==> berserker ==> longbowman)
cost: 70

have fun

[rmendis]

Settled on The Viking Islands for this set of maps.
Uploaded a new version that includes a smaller map - that is a Large size map. Possibly more to follow. It's not been tested unlike the original/huge map.

I've been playing the original map at Diety level with all 16 Civs and looks like i could win the game again, though it is incredibly SLOW...so i decided to add the Large map as well for a faster game.