A scenario idea for any Ancient History Scenario makers...

[Black Dragon]

How about one based on the fall of the Assyrian Empire- at the time of it's fall it seems to be a big, interesting war with many players- Assyria, Egypt, Judah, Media and the Chaldeans- mabye even Tyre could be thrown in... I think this could make a good scemario if one of SL's Ancient History experts (Kull or Stefan?) would be willing to make it..

[Stefan Härtel]

I had the idea for an Assyrian-Urartaean dualism scenario a while ago, but other projects pushed in front, and I'd have to do some more reading on that. But I still like that idea in general. Picture it... Assyria, Urartu, Media, Bablyonia etc....

[Black Dragon]

Who was Uratu?

[Kull]

Not a bad idea. The next one on my list is "Death to Mitanni", but its only in the light research stage.

In addition to the little-known Mitanni, there are a number of very interesting empires that haven't been the single focus of a scenario. The aforementioned Assyria, Babylonia (in all its manifestations), and the Hittites all come to mind.

Urartu was a Hurrian civilization (like Mitanni) based in the mountainous lake region north of Assyria. They were tough, war-like, and one of the first ancient civs to use iron weapons. A thorn in the side of Assyria for most of its existence! If you play as Assyria in "Seeds of Greatness", you'll soon make their acquaintance!

[Stefan Härtel]

To make it more precise:
The Urartaeans were based on the area around Lake Van. Their capital, Tushpa, lay pretty much at the area of the modern city of Van. Their "modern" name is based on mount Ararat, and as such they also made appearance in the Bible. Their Persian name was "Armenians". I do not know so very much about their history yet, but they were first mentioned as the "8 lands of Uruatri" by Salmanassar I. between 1273 and 1244 BC. Their big time was in the 10th and 8th centuries BC, and they were a considerable threat to the Assyrians, having almost all the area of Turkish/Iranian Kurdistan, the Iranian mountain tribes, and, most importantly, the complete northern border of Assyria under their control, meaning their territory equalled about the Assyrian territory during that time. Even though in the 8th century the Assyrians turned out to be the winner in the struggle, nobody really knows the time and cause of the downfall of the Urartaeans, just like with the Hittites. It is thought that it was the Cimmerian invasion from the Russian plains (Ukraine and Kalmuck area) that brought the end to this powerful empire.
The Urartaeans were quite similar to the Hittites, basically because their geographical and geological presuppositions were about the same. They also built cyclopean wals around their cities, a technique unknown to the Mesopotamians, and it was propably the Urartaeans who taught the Iranians the art of irrigation. For a while they controlled also the Medians, the Persians and some minor Iranian tribes.

If you would like to know more you'll have to wait until I finish my book on them .

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Follow the masses!
30,000 lemmings can't be wrong!

Mighty Carthage fought three wars:
It was still mighty after the first one, still inhabitable
after the second one;
It could not be found after the third one.
-Bert Brecht

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[Prometeus]

Don't forget that, in this period, Egypt was a loyal ally of Assyria ( the Mageddo battle against King Josiah of Jehudah "docet" ). I think that also Lydian kingdom will fit good in this scen... Need a picture of an Assyrian Chariot ?

[Stefan Härtel]

Well, Prometeus, to be exact, Assyria and Egypt were arch-rivals at first, Assyria even conquered Egypt for a while, but when the Chaldaeans arose, the Egyptians were scared even more of those and allied to Assyria because they feared that the status quo that was quite profitable to them would be disturbed greatly. It didn't work, but it was worth the try
Not much changed except for the fact that Egypt went into war with Babylonia for another couple of years (battle of Carcemish).

------------------
Follow the masses!
30,000 lemmings can't be wrong!

Mighty Carthage fought three wars:
It was still mighty after the first one, still inhabitable
after the second one;
It could not be found after the third one.
-Bert Brecht

Visit my Homepage at: http://members.xoom.com/SHaertel/Index.html

[Prometeus]

Exactly what i was meaning to say, Stefan...
"Udite, Faraone è ruinato..." Geremia ( The Holy Bible )

[Black Dragon]

The thing about this time period though is it seems like something of a World War of the Ancient World- you have fighting all acrosss the Mid-East at once... And Right- Egypt was allied with Assyria at this time- so a good Civ list would be:

Assyrian Side:

Assyria
Egypt

Anti-Assyrian Side:

Armenians
Median Empire
Chaldeans(Babylonians)
Jews
Lydia(?), Tyre(?)

so anyone interested in making it?


[This message has been edited by Black Dragon (edited October 26, 2000).]

[Stefan Härtel]

This is a little tricky to do, because history wasn't as easy as this.
The Assyrians already rose back to power in the late 10th century BC under two powerful kings whose names I've forgotten (Ashshur-something and I think the other was named something like Ad-Din or so). You'd have to make it from there to the destruction in Nineveh to make a somewhat accurate scenario, but the things changed greatly during this time. You'd have to make Media being conquered by the Scythians and so on...

A good selection for a scenario about the 8th and 7th centuries BC would be:
Assyria
Egypt
Media
Urartu
Elam
Cilcicia or Judaea
Chaldaeans
(Leave out Asia Minor because that would be too detailed)
I think we should discuss this a little further to make out a really good topic. I'm reading something on the Assyrians at the moment, so I will propably have some more ideas later on.

------------------
Follow the masses!
30,000 lemmings can't be wrong!

Mighty Carthage fought three wars:
It was still mighty after the first one, still inhabitable
after the second one;
It could not be found after the third one.
-Bert Brecht

Visit my Homepage at: http://members.xoom.com/SHaertel/Index.html