God's Obvious Design

[hardjoy]

Turns out the stack error was caused by a mistake in the tech tree, cutting it in two unconnected halves, making the one half completely unresearchable.

Even though future tech was set at nil, the game would crash when a civ came to choose an advance for new research project, and when negotiating for techs with other civs. Don't quite understand the nature of this error yet, but now everything seems to be back to normal. Nothing about the no, no techs caused any problems.

[hardjoy]

Originally posted by Boco
Where's the latest version of this scenario posted (sorry if I missed a link earlier in the thread)? Maybe some fresh eyes could help with the tech tree problem.

I removed the link earlier in the thread because the version posted was out of date. The new version introduces a much more interesting and historically accurate setup, with more detail and colour than the previous version. Gonna post the latest version here as soon as its ready for final rounds and adjustments.

The crash/stack error was a serious mistake. Somehow a key tech (monarchy) had gotten its preq's completely screwed up (no idea why). But now everything seems to be working again

[hardjoy]

Final rounds of adjustments

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/hardjoy/Armada_v1_4.zip

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/hardjoy/Armada_v1_4_sound.zip

[hardjoy]

The Irish Catholics revolt in response to the beheading of Mary Stuart...

[hardjoy]

Feel free to download this last playtest version from the links above and post any comments you might have in this thread. I'm especially interested in playbalance issues, units that are too strong/weak, and details such as if the Spanish take Antwerp, and when, and if they land troops in England, when, how and where... If the scenario is too short, how difficult it was, if there's too much gold around etc.

It has been a pain in the butt to make Spain play more offensively, and I'm afraid I only halfway succeeded. But its fun, and more often than not, the Spanish Armada actually manages to crowd the English Channel, which is quite threatening playing as the Dutch or the English.

The scenario clearly shows why it was so difficult for the Armada to rendezvous with Parma. Supposedly the most brilliant military commander of the time, in this scenario he is perhaps the dumbest, superceded by only the duke of Medina Sidonia, the Spanish naval commander. All this military power at their disposal, and yet not able to ferry those damn troops across the Channel...

[teic]

In 1584 i'm forced to change goverment when there is pestilence near Amsterdam.Or Is this normal?

[teic]

The English invade Spain and capture three cities. Than they sign a peace treaty

[hardjoy]

The English are the aggressor in the conflict of the Armada, Drake sacked Cádiz and raided big time in Galicia. The Spanish will no doubt kick out the English again, but the English taking Spanish possessions makes them hate each other big time, even if they do agree to a peace treaty. -Historically, England even sent a 'counter-armada' aimed at the conquest of Lisbon, which miserably failed, however.

Think I'm gonna name the peace treaty "an armistice" instead -this seems more reasonable. The AI makes peace and war time and time again as long as the English "elizabethan diplomacy" wonder is working (great wall). It pretty much resembles history, the first part of the scenario is intended to simulate the rising tension between the two major players, before escalating into open war.

The Dutch start the game in anarchy (revolt) and their leader must work to unite the provinces under his leadership.

If you play as the Spanish you must take care to keep all your agreements unless you have the nobles behind you, or else you will lose control of government. (holy empire=democracy) -this shouldn't have anything to do with the pestilence, which only shows once in a while, but can be very difficult getting rid off.

All that said, the scenario is intended not to show off history like it happened, but explore what can happen if different commanders were in charge... The setup is as historically detailed as can be, but from there, the scenario can go in a whole variety of directions.

Can you keep me posted on the progress of your game? -If you play as Spain, how difficult is it to throw out the English swashbucklers? -how difficult to conquer the Netherlands and England?

[teic]

Liège=Luik
Lilli=Rijsel
I think

[teic]

Naval guns attack Maastricht and Ghent????Maybe change the name in just Guns or something
Second peace treaty

[hardjoy]

I should have guessed... -you play as the Dutch

The AI manages to actually use the naval guns, but not in the way a human player would.

It also uses them moderately on land, which is a little odd, but okay. The alternative is giving the guns the sub flag so they can attack ships only, but then ships won't be able to bombard with them, as intended, and I will have the guns floating around in the ocean.

[teic]

Scenario ended: England was the supreme power in the hole scenario. They held 3 spanish and 3 French cities. And most of scotland.
Spain sended a armada. A few landings in the netherlands.Antwerpen(antwerp) didn't fall in the beginning. The spanish Netherlands held a few cities.
Maybe you should do something about the Dutch navy(which was strong then) I had no ships after a few turns.

[hardjoy]

How much did you manage to conquer of the Spanish possessions in Flanders, and how tough was it? -Did you lose Antwerpen at all or manage to keep it?

I'm also quite curious to know what happened to the pest. In all the games I've seen, the pest spreads quite well, but is eventually eliminated. (for the Dutch its a 1 out of 80 chance event, so its supposed to be quite rare -it can happen more often in the mediterrenean)

I did include more Dutch ships in a previous version, but removed a couple of them. If they have too many, the AI has a tendency to invade England on turn 1, and cancel their alliance right away...

England starts with an equally weak navy, and even Spains Armada leaves much to be desired. But the Dutch have all the most productive cities in this scenario, so they should be able to quickly rebuild a huge navy, if they want. All the powers will have to build masses of ships if they want to win the scenario.

[teic]

2 or 3 cities. It was altough it needed Just an cannon and an calvanst to take a city. Many units were killed by naval guns.

In the previous game i had a pest wich captured Amsterdam, so i stopped that one.

Maybe more mechant ships with low attack rate. The republic did much of the trade over seas then.

I didn't build any ships because i had no problems at sea(England or the coastal fortresses killed them)and I needed only more land units.

[hardjoy]

Originally posted by teic
I didn't build any ships because i had no problems at sea(England or the coastal fortresses killed them)and I needed only more land units.

Sounds like a precise description of a historical situation...