SCENARIO: Ancient Challenges

[Another Poster]

Map size: 118 x 122
Civs: 5 (Romans, Chinese, Iroquois, Russians and Egyptians)
Difficulty level: any
Barbarians: Raging

This scenario tries to tackle the problem that a lot of civ games tend to have: predictabilaty (sp?).

Each civ has some advantages and disadvantages, wich in the first place were created to allow more fun, and secondly perhaps to raise some new strategic questions.
Some rule changes were made, but I’ll post that right after this one, together with a screenshot of the mini-map and some more spoiling things.

edit: new version is below! (discovered some flaky errors through gameplay)

[Another Poster]

screenshot

umm...sorry, how do i post a screenshot?

anyway, here's pretty much al the other information you could want. I made up a little story, just for fun.

Rule changes:

World sizes: changed ‘Tiny’ to ‘slightly bigger than standard’=118 x 122
Optimal no. Of cities for this size is 20, tech rate 300, normal corruption settings.

I did this to create a more realistic map with all the ocean I was planning (see section ‘Story’ for the full, well, story)

AI to AI trade levels: chieftain – 110
Warlord - 115
Regent – 120
Monarch – 135
Emperor – 155
Deity – 180 (ouch!)
Tech trading plays a pretty big part in this scenario.

Galleys can’t be upgraded and have a movement of only two. The Great Lighthouse is availale at Engineering. I’ve raised the cost to 500 shields, but the Great Lighthouse now also acts as the Great Library (wich by the way has already been built). It’s a pretty attractive wonder I guess, in a game where sea travel is very important if you choose so. Watch out though, still only sea movement allowed and only +1 movement with Great Lighthouse (it’s rendered obsolete by steampower). This was done obiously to ensure some parts would develope isolated for a long time.

Barbarians base unit is spearman, and advanced unit is horseman. They’re also set to raging, so watch out for them.

Goverments:
Only unit support costs per town, city and metropolis have been changed. For Despotism it’s no 5, 5, 5 and for Monarchy it’s 4, 6, 8. This was done because some civ’s have to maintain a fairly large army in the Ancient Age.

Each civ has 500 start gold, except for Russia, wich hold 600.


The Story.

At around 6000 b.c. this world, wich was made up of one big island, got struck by a meteorite. Luckily it the oceans, but some years later the world did face a heavy consequence: the meteorite had triggered a huge earthquake, wich was now shifting the plates of the earth around, and pieces of the island drifted apart from each other. Three parts were created, once the dust settled, and some of the civilizations who had once lived together in close bonds, were now isolated by the vast oceans.

The civs:

Rome

The Romans had been the superior civilization on the planet, but they drifted into isolation. It’s military is now undeveloped, since there are no enemies to fight, although the prestigieus Romans do have barracks (along with aquaducts, walls, libraries, granaries and temples) in all their 17 cities. They also have five workers.

Their challenge: They are islolated, so no techor resource trading, and they don’t have any Iron.

China

The Chinese people were a people used as slaves by the Romans, but were given their own towns, under restrictions ofcourse. In the chaos following after the great quake, the Chinese peoople decided to fight for their freedom. Blod shed,but as the islandsere drifting further apart, the ‘civil’ war was no langer attainable,and theChinese people got their freedom, taking their towns with them. Since their villages were close to the Roman Iron deposits, now THEY have the iron, and the rest of the world is left without. However, the Chinese civilization is new, and is yet to grow. They too are isolated.

Their challenge: The Chinese have, as said, a small nation in comparison to the oter civilizations, and are backward inthe deelopment of their cities, since the Romans did not pay any attentionto the Chinese needs. They don’t have any big military and only 7 cities, but with lots of room to grow to be the biggest civ around.

The Iroquois

In a far past, around 10,000 bc, the Iroquois belonged to the same tribe as the Chinese. They split up however, after what must have been a great argument in differences. When the Romans enslaved the Chinese, they saw the Iroquois as a part of the Chinese and wanted to enslave them. The Iroquois chief owever proposed a deal, offering some of their fine wines and a hjongous sum of gold in return for their independence, and the Romans accepted. Thus grew the Iroquois empire onward to great heights, limited only by the ever watchful Romans and the Iroquois neighbouring people, the Egyptians.

Their challenge: The Iroquois have a fairly large and well developed nation, but it’s stretched out. On top of that their neighbours are the Egyptians, the biggest militairy force around, so their isn’t a way to easily expand borders.

The Egyptians

The Egyptians are the second best developed civ, after the Romans. They hold a big emire and a large military. Just before the great earthquake they were on their yto taking on their rivals, the Romans. No, they could look to one of the other two civs within their reach. The southward Iroquois are probably the easiest target, since Egypts nrothern border with Russia is being terrorisd by lots of raging barbarians, who arised from discontented intellectual groups, as a response to the planned aggressions towards the Romans.

Their challenge: perhaps Egypt holds the best cards in this game, bt they do have some problems to overcome: firt there are the intellectual ‘barbarians’ who, with their scholared warrios, can really be a pain. Second, the large size of the Egyptian empire might draw them int a war with both Iroquois and Russians, who won’t let Egypt doinate so easil. And finally, before going to war with either Russia or the Iroquis, the Egyptians must consider they might be left without valuable resources.

The Russians

Alle the way up in the north are the Russians, living in a small, part tundra and part grassland terrain. They once held a bigger empire, but that land was lostto a rebellious faction of the people,ho had urged the Russian govenment to start a war against the Egyptians to contain their aggression an in a ay, support their long-time friends the Romans. The Russian government consisted of highly educated people though, and thought that peace would alays bring so much more than war.Thus a part of the emire fought an independence war, wich they one, and found an ally in, ironically, the pacifist rebels from Egypt. This by the way, is the main reason why tese ‘barbarians’ havent been able to grow to the standards of a real civilization. There is not one true leader, and so their actions are uncoherent, and unpredictable.
The russians are highly educated and have soe of the prettiest buildings in the world. The psoss the Great Library, and also the Great Wall, to keep out the aggressive rebels.

Their challenge: Although defensively the Russian have a nicely maintained army, they are not wel thaught in the art of war, nor do they have much offensive units. Also, their land mass is quite small, including some tundra, so they are likely to fall behind in production and science eventually, if they choose not to fight the barbarians and expand towards Egypt.

[Another Poster]

corrected version

here's the correct version

[Another Poster]

i see someone has downloaded my scenario. how do you like it and any comments?