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WIP: The Troubles
A suggestion of Elok's in his historical notions thread convinced me to blow the dust off a Northern Ireland scenario I had abandoned in the belief that maybe there would be an audience out there for one more Irish scenario. 
First of all, the history of the North is a very sensitive subject ; since the start of 'The Troubles' at least 3,000 people, mostly civilians, have lost their lives. Sadly people are still dying for no good reason there to this day.
I decided early on that a scenario about the senseless ***-for-tat revenge between the various paramilitary groups would not be appropriate, and wouldn't be much fun anyway. So I tried to consider other angles from which to create a scenario based around the troubles, and eventually wandered into 'what if' territory.
Relations between the British and Irish governments were at an all time low in the early '70's, following Britain's ill-timed military intervention in the North. They went in to try and stop the fighting, but through a series of bad (and sometimes callous) judgements against the catholic population, only ended up exacerbating the tensions e.g. Bloody Sunday, Internment. It also enraged the population of the Republic; in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday the British Embassy in Dublin was burnt to the ground by a mob intent on revenge. What if, instead of simply applying what little political pressure Ireland had on Britain, then Taoiseach Jack Lynch decided to respond by ordering Irish soldiers into the North to do the job that British soldiers should have been doing; protecting nationalists from loyalist mobs?
Despite the fact that the IRA were outlawed in the Republic, there were no doubt pro-IRA members in the Lynch government. For example in May 1970, two Cabinet Ministers, Neil Blaney and Charles Haughey, were dismissed by the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, for allegedly using Government money to import arms for the Irish Republican Army. In this scenario their influence, together with the public outcry against British action in the North, is enough to tip Lynch's hand into invading...
Well, what do you think? Plausible?
I have the map and terrain done. My first BIG thankyou is to Mercator for designing MapEdit - the reason I decided to make this scenario is due to this fantastic utility. I was way too lazy to bother to do out a map of Northern Ireland, so I used MapEdit on my map of Ireland to cut out the south of the country. Hours of work saved.
I'd like to post some screenshots of what I've done so far, but I don't know how to capture in-game images from Civ2 so that they can be posted. If someone wiser than me knows how, please tell me.
First of all, the history of the North is a very sensitive subject ; since the start of 'The Troubles' at least 3,000 people, mostly civilians, have lost their lives. Sadly people are still dying for no good reason there to this day.
I decided early on that a scenario about the senseless ***-for-tat revenge between the various paramilitary groups would not be appropriate, and wouldn't be much fun anyway. So I tried to consider other angles from which to create a scenario based around the troubles, and eventually wandered into 'what if' territory.
Relations between the British and Irish governments were at an all time low in the early '70's, following Britain's ill-timed military intervention in the North. They went in to try and stop the fighting, but through a series of bad (and sometimes callous) judgements against the catholic population, only ended up exacerbating the tensions e.g. Bloody Sunday, Internment. It also enraged the population of the Republic; in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday the British Embassy in Dublin was burnt to the ground by a mob intent on revenge. What if, instead of simply applying what little political pressure Ireland had on Britain, then Taoiseach Jack Lynch decided to respond by ordering Irish soldiers into the North to do the job that British soldiers should have been doing; protecting nationalists from loyalist mobs?
Despite the fact that the IRA were outlawed in the Republic, there were no doubt pro-IRA members in the Lynch government. For example in May 1970, two Cabinet Ministers, Neil Blaney and Charles Haughey, were dismissed by the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, for allegedly using Government money to import arms for the Irish Republican Army. In this scenario their influence, together with the public outcry against British action in the North, is enough to tip Lynch's hand into invading...
Well, what do you think? Plausible?
I have the map and terrain done. My first BIG thankyou is to Mercator for designing MapEdit - the reason I decided to make this scenario is due to this fantastic utility. I was way too lazy to bother to do out a map of Northern Ireland, so I used MapEdit on my map of Ireland to cut out the south of the country. Hours of work saved.
I'd like to post some screenshots of what I've done so far, but I don't know how to capture in-game images from Civ2 so that they can be posted.
If someone wiser than me knows how, please tell me.
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