Prince of Darkness

[Marko]

Having a bit rest from TSFE, I'm currently playing Techumseh's Prince of Darkness scenario. When I play Civ2, I usually write some short stories about my games. Of course I do it in Estonian but here I try to translate it to English. Maybe somebody find it interesting..

So, here we go:


PRINCE OF DARKNESS

[Marko]

CHAPTER I
INAUGURATION
Thoth 83 - Sobek 83

Murabi, new high sultan of Euphrattis, ascends to throne. He decides to celebrate the event with completion of The Great Book of Enlightenment.
In Sobek 83, The Book is completed. The name of Murabi is now forever written to history and should not to be forgotten.

Now, when the party has ended, the sultan is starting his rule. Among many reports he hear that in western coast of Euphrattis people have seen unknown sea monster swimming around. Does it mean something about his rule? Nobody knows. After listening his advisors Murabi decided that he will not satisfy with completion of The Book but will do much more. All these "independent" barbarian cities around his borders must know who is the sultan and will be included to the Sultanate of Euphrattis. Strong army must be created and barbarian city of Jubriga will be the first target.

The map of Euphrattis sultanate:

[Shaka Naldur]

where can i download the scenario??

it´s for civ2???

[Marko]

It was a long time ago when I downloaded it. Prince of Darkness is not a new scenario. But I think that Civfanatics have it in their database:

Fantasy Scenarios

It is for MGE. But I often convert scenarios before playing to ToT because of the more interesting AI. So, my game here is played with ToT version of the scenario.

[MagyarCrusader]

Of course I do it in Estonian

An off topic question... If one could read Hungarian, could he also read Estonian? I remember you did mention that Finns and Estonians can understand each other, but what about the other Uralic languages?

[Soundwave]

Off Topic again, i wanna learn a different language!@! Other than Maori and English!

[Marko]

An off topic question... If one could read Hungarian, could he also read Estonian? I remember you did mention that Finns and Estonians can understand each other, but what about the other Uralic languages?

I know rather little about lingvistics. I have heard that Estonian-Finnish and Hungarian represent two distinct branches of Fenno-Ugrian languages. So they are not very similiar (there are only about 200 common words in Finnish and Hungarian languages). But their grammar, pronunciation etc are quite similiar.

Here are an example, compare yourself:

Estonian: Jaa all talvel elavad kalad ujuvad.
Finnish: Jaan alla talvella elavat kalat uiskentelevat.
Hungarian: Jeg alatt telen eleven halak uszkalnak.
English: Ice under in-winter living fish swim.
= In wintertime living fish swim under the ice.


Ok, back to the topic.

[Marko]

CHAPTER II
LORD VLADIMIR
Amon 83

A strange knight, Lord Vladimir, arrives in Euphrattia and demanded audience to the sultan. He told that he has a prophesy and his mission is to lead the Quest and defeat the evil Stygians. Lord Vladimir said that he will teach the sultan's craftsmen to build a warship capable of defeating the sea monsters which infest the oceans. But only when sultan helps him to build such ship and supply his expedition to the city of Quinsay. There he must defeat the barbarian prince Igor and free the Chaldean Circle from inprisonment. At the same time messengers from the west coast told that the sea monster has been seen again.

Sultan decides to help the Lord and gave orders to build two warships: one for Vladimir in Samarra city on west coast and another in Nineveh city on east coast for the royal navy. He also orders to gather a small army for the Lord's expedition: cavalry, spearmen, 2 catapults, diplomat and a boat. As long as everything is prepared the knight is a welcomed quest in sultan's palace.

Murabi thought that he has done a good business: helping the knight he show to people that he is doing something against these sea monsters who terrorize people on coast, also his navy has now got powerful warships and when Vladimir is gone for good he can return to his war plans against these barbarian "independents".


Lord Vladimir arrives..

[Marko]

CHAPTER III
VLADIMIR GOES TO WAR
Isis 82 - Ptah 82

Meanwhile, sultan decides to send a small expedition up the west coast with boat and cavalry. The task of the expedition is to map nortern seaways and find out what is behind the barbarian city Borazjan. The leader of the expedition is Plengor, young and ambitious captain.

Some Murabi's advisors, who were disturbed by Lord Vladimir's presence in royal palace, suggested to use the knight in war against the barbarian cities. In sultan's opinion it was a wonderful idea. He told to Vladimir that supplying his expedition demands great effort from sultanate and takes time. But if Vladimir agrees to help the sultan to conquer the city of Jubriga then the sultanate is strong enough for finishing all preparations at great speed. Vladimir agreed and crossed the mountains to join the army who was gathering north of Jubriga.

In Seth 82 the small army from spearmen and catapults lead by Vladimir captured Jubriga. Lord Vladimir proved to be very strong and talented. Seeing this, sultan Murabi asked the knight to capture nearby independent city Pilona too. He promised that as soon as Vladimir returns from Pilona his expedition is ready to go. Knight agreed and in Ptah 82 captured this city too.

[Marko]

CHAPTER IV
STYGIANS APPEAR TO THE SCENE
Sobek 82 - Re 81

Things are going extremely well, thought sultan. Sad that I can't have Vladimir as my loyal servant but even now the borders of sultanate are already greatly enlarged. Now my army will be gathered to Akkad in north. When Plengor's expedition returns and his news about northern lands are not bad, then barbarian cities Hamadan and Borazjan will be conquered.

So, in Isis 81 Lord Vladimir started his travel toward far Quinsay. He had warship, boat, 2 catapults, cavalry, spearmen and diplomat with him.

The same month fishermen from Samarra told that previous barbarian city Tingis over the western sea has fallen to unknown conquerors.

In Re 81 Plengor returns from his expedition with few men. He told that northern part of the continent is cold wilderness full of mountain ranges. Also there are no sea-passage to east. In his way back Plengor traveled along the western shore of the sea. He discovered there Stygian city Alalia and saw terrible monsters called wraths and minions. Seems that Stygians are conquered all the western lands.
Near Eridu peninsula a sea-monster attacked and sank their ship and only Plengor and some his men managed to escape and swam to the peninsula.

[techumseh]

No one is enjoying this more than the author, but I must warn you of a hazard ahead. No, it's not the Stygians - it's Courtly Fashion, otherwise known as Invention. In the original FW version, discovery of Invention changes the look of the people only. But in ToT it also changes the city graphic to the renaissance style as well. If you used the civconverter, there is no new city style provided for this, so eventually all the cities start to look like this.

So you may wish to either take Courtly Fashion out of the techtree and bridge the prereqs (preferred since each civ already has a distinctive city style) or just paste a more appropriate city style into the renaissance slot.

Now back to the wise(?) Murabi and the brave(!) Prince Vladimir.

[Marko]

Thank you for warning (and for the scenario). I'll replace the Renaissance graphics.

[Marko]

CHAPTER V
WAR WOLVES
Anubis 81 - Horus 81

The next barbarian cities which will be added to the sultanate are Borazjan and Hamadan. Hamadan doesn't have city walls, so it will be attacked first. Meanwhile diplomats will try to sneak in and demolish Borazjan's defence buildings. Sultan appointed Plengor as the commander of the northern army.

In Anubis 81 Stygian War wolves suddenly descended from mountains and appeared near Samarra. The wolves pillaged villages, destroyed irrigation and attacked Samarra. It made more than a clear that Stygians are evil and dangerous race. Sultan ordered to send a battalion of spearmen to mountains for seeking out from where the wolves came.

In Nephthys 81 the second warship was completed in Nineveh. Sultan decided to send it to east with task to explore lands behind Sardis. Menua, the experienced army commander and Plengor's rival, became the leader of the expedition.

[Marko]

CHAPTER VI
PLENGOR EARNES CREDIT
Osiris 81 - Thoth 81

In Seth 81 Plengor's army attacked and captured Hamadan with only minimal losses. Sultan's confidence over Plengor's abilities was again raised and he decided that after the capture of Borazjan he will make Plengor the chief commander of entire sultanat's military forces.

In Thoth 81 Stygian war wolves appeared near Akkad but were killed by city garrison. Expedition to mountains revealed that there isn't any hidden Stygian city. Sultan ordered that the breeding places of wolves must be found and more spearmen were sent to mountains.

Sultan thought "I will be the greatest ruler in history of Euphrattis. If everything goes well I'll create an empire. And seems that all is going smoothly. I have ruled only 2 years but own already strong army and three new cities are added to my sultanate. There is no one who can challenge me! The independents are helpless and these Stygians seem to be only a small nuisance. They can't cross the sea with their seamonsters!"

[Marko]

CHAPTER VII
BIRTH OF EMPIRE
Ptah 81 - Anubis 80

It was discovered that one wolves's breeding place is in mountains just south of Babylon. Sultan ordered to immediately occupy the place with spearmen. Seemed that the presence of spermen hold the wolves at bay: they continued to move around in mountains but didn't descend to plains.

Sultan decided to start gathering the second army in Ashur and start preparations for capturing Amaia, only remaining barbarian city in south. He appointed Nebut as a commander of the new army.

In Isis 80 at last all preparations for Menua's expedition were completed and the warship went to sea with cavalry on board.
At the same month Borazjan's city walls were destroyed and next month the city was captured. Plengor was called to Babylon and named to the chief commander of Euphrattis sultanate's army.

During the party a messemger arrives from south and told that Nebut had decided to attack Amaia without waiting the third catapult unit what was coming from Jubriga. This was against his instructions and Plengor's first order in his new office was to dismiss Nebut and halt the southern army. As Nebut was friend of Menua, Plengor's rival, his mistake was a real present and allowed Plengor to greatly strengthen his position in army.