The Dark Ages 1.740
Requires the European Middle Ages Mod 0.74, Only for Vanilla Civ4

This scenario covers the dark ages of Europe, from the years 527 to 843, or from the Byzantine Reconquest to the division of Charlemagne's Holy Roman Empire. The included civilizations are:


Byzantines
Sassanid Persia
Ostrogoths
Visigoths
Vandals
Franks
Suebi
Burgundy
Arabs
Saxons
Slavs
Vikings
Lombards
Bulgars
Avars


The map currently comes in only one size, large, and uses the same map used in the mod.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/61289/Dark_Ages_0.5_Map.JPG

This scenario can be found here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=4210).

1.5 removed after 25 downloads
1.501 removed after 820 downloads
1.560 removed after 604 downloads
1.650 removed after 677 downloads
Total of 2126 downloads


Version 1.740
-added new The Dark Ages Unlocked
-locked Marathon Speed for the normal The Dark Ages

Version 1.650
-added new Viking city : Nidaros
-improved Viking starting land
-changed the shape of Sicily and Sardinia to be more accurate
-made it compatible with the European Middle Ages Mod version 0.65.

Version 1.560
-The Franks now start with Stone Working
-Cities with Keeps now have Belfry
-Bulgar capital now has paganism (causing the Bulgars to convert to paganism)
-improved the Viking starting position with more resources
-2 additional swordsmen for the Lombards
-Bulgar cities are now significantly smaller
-This version is compatible with the European Middle Ages Mod version 0.56.

Version 1.501
-Made Rome the Catholic holy city
About the new "The Dark Ages Unlocked"
The new scenario comes with the normal The Dark Ages and is exactly the same except that it can be played at any speed and until 1500 AD, whereas the normal map ends in 843 and is locked into the Marathon speed. The victory conditions have been altered slightly for the Unlocked Version.

Noob question. I've downloaded the mod, and it works fine. How do I download the scenario, however? What folder would it go under?

The actual scenario file would go into the Public Maps folder.

A suggestion:

For better realism and fun, could u put in more civs in this scenario ? :)

I'm just pretty sure, there wasn't only 15 nations back then :p

Were there any other civilizations that built or resided in cities? If a civilization didn't live in cities (or concentrated groupings) there is no way for me to include them, because they need a city list. For instance, their were Finnish tribes in the area of Finland, but they didn't live in cities and are therefore represented only by barbarians. They also didn't have a leader.

The new version, 1.650, is now up and available for download.

Could I suggest a change a small one but none the less I think balancing. The Barbarians on the British Isles are easy to knock out I did it with one swordsman on prince level. That gives the Saxons a huge chunk of land for cheap as you can keep their cities. Only civ I have played so far but nice scenario so far. Seems, too few barbs overall to be representative of the minor tribes I think your trying to get in.

if you are the franks, the saxons will have a hard enough time defending from you think about taking over england.

The new version of the scenario is now out, now with an "Unlocked" version.

About the new "The Dark Ages Unlocked"
The new scenario comes with the normal The Dark Ages and is exactly the same except that it can be played at any speed and until 1500 AD, whereas the normal map ends in 843 and is locked into the Marathon speed. The victory conditions have been altered slightly for the Unlocked Version.

Nice scenario - I love how the different civs have different challenges. For example, the Lombards are a good exercise in war-mongering, whereas the byzantines are an empire-running challenge. Only one thing though: the byzantines might be overpowered. As it is, their army in the gallyes in the central medditerrenean can take over much of Italy, which seems ahistorical.

huh, whenever i play it, i could take over italy, but then my economy is so screwed, it aint funny, then besides, since the lombards have stephen as a leader, they are a more pycho monty, who will take your land from you.
Side Note: Headsef, you may want to have the arabs start out at war with the byzantines, because when i played as byzantium, they only took those two barb cities (Ghassanids?), and stayed there, never declaring war on me, even though i was orthodox. And you may also want to tone the franks down, i got chevaliers in roughly 650, give or take 10 years. they have WAY to much commerce.

Yeah, the franks are overpowered.

Usually as the byzantines I raze naples and that other south italian city, I hate having a city built ON a food resource. Then I raze syracuse and capture Palermo.

I was told to use this thread in the other thread.
I would like to let you know that I'm just translating from English to Italian and the work goes quickly and very well so far.
Don't worry about it: I'm really Italian.

However, I would like to say that this mod has a great lack: Vassal States! It would be more historically detailed if the next mod works on Warlords.
I could help you in this, if you need aid.

I dont think the mod will be converted into Warlords, although Head Serf is the authority on that. If it is converted to an X pack, it would probably BTS, because it also has vassal states.

That's fine!

Erm ... if you have the Saxons, you should for sure have the Britons, not to mention the Irish and the Picts. The Saxons in England in this period had no cities except those they took from the Britons, and they hadn't even taken all of those before the end of the period.

The links of this scenario are (still) down!:(