Dark Continent (Africa) Scenario

[KingArthur]

Had already thought to have a "nature" faction including roaming game animals and carnivores. Posts by Zubareva & Civinator prompted the syncretic idea of another effective way use animal units. Some can be immobile - in their lair. Combining microzone terrain with hidden predators (invisible default animation) will make effective bottlenecks. Other lairs can also be "cities" to autoproduce more roamers. If they're limited to size one they'll mostly be "burned" rather than captured. Size one cities are going to look like base camps anyway, so capturing won't matter much.

http://www.unknownexplorers.com/nandibear.php

 

[Blue Monkey]

Excellent links. Thank you. A whole new set of web-trails to explore.

I definitely want something like Mbuti or Batwa people. Problem is units. Scaling existing units sounds like an enormous amount of work to get right.

Thanks also for the nandi bear. Hadn't heard of it. Gives some justification for including more cryptid units I've seen and liked.

 

[Blue Monkey]

The WIP List of Civs
- to be revised based on further thought, refinements of other scenario aspects, and whatever of interest arises from discussion.



There are too many names on the map (45 iirc). Some - like Axum / Abyssinia - are where the name for a particular civ is unsettled. Some - such as Bantu - are ethnic indicators.

The main concept is to represent an alternative timeline with a variety of civilizations. Indigenous powers* that have reached the early industrial era, powerful tribal (pre-gunpowder) factions*, buffer tribes to slow down expansion, colonial powers from Europe & the Americas*, and some "specials"* such as the Sky Pirates of Libertalia and a lost civ or two.

Demoting some to preplaced barbarians - or a combined civ of limited power - will help shorten the list. What suitable UUs can be found is another limiting factor. Another possibility is combining the colonial powers into 4 generic civs. Something similar is planned for the Hollow Earth scenario: Boffins (Scientific/Industrial), Rapscallions (Expansionist/Commercial), Antiquarians (Scientific/Religious) and Imperials (Militaristic/Industrial). Wouldn't need to be the same names or attributes here. The idea is to have player factions emphasizing exploration (space race), adventuring (victory point) or imperialism (domination).


* Rough groupings. Not the same as culture groups - Africans will be split by era and the specials will require more than one culture for graphical purposes.

• Colonial powers are the boxed list
• Advanced Africans include - Andalsusia, Alawiyya Khedivate, Abyssinia, Bambara, ...
• Powerful Tribes - Kongo, Maasai, Ashanti, Zulu - at minimum
• Specials - Libertalia, Nature (animals & weather), and some others that are only rumors

 

[KingArthur]

Epic. Yes units as you say will prove tricky - might be a case of restricting the minor tribes to 1 generic + 1 special unit. Might be worth requests or recolouring of existing units. I'll have a look in my downloaded unit lib if you like..

 

[Blue Monkey]

I've scoured the db fairly thoroughly. Even downloaded a few scenarios in case there are some hidden gems. Still need a lot of time to sort through all that. I'll again be playing Desert & Mountain for a while. What Plotinus said in 2006 is still true -

As I said before, the real gaps for Africa are in the early modern/industrial period, with muskets and so on. But the gaps are getting filled, slowly but surely...

This is especially true when it comes to finding UUs for the industrialized sub-Saharan powers. Things like the Dahomey Amazon.

It's sometimes the case that what I'm looking for is here under another name. Or there are cases such as Shirou's Maasai - an excellent unit but not the Maasai needed for this scenario. It'll end up being used for some other Bantu civ.

The Units post on the first page is mostly a place for needed/requested UUs atm. Keep your eye on that for anything already made that I've missed. Thanks to W.i.n.t.e.r for the link to Therion Arms African weapons. That may help with those who respond to requests.

 

[Blue Monkey]

I guess around here if you say "what if ..." sometimes things happen so fast it makes your head spin. First unit - two actually - made for this scenario:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=11439499#post11439499

It will most likely be a UU for the Hausa or Bachwezi.



Also: updated the Civ wip map. The base is now the actual biq map.

 

[Supa]

I guess around here if you say "what if ..." sometimes things happen so fast it makes your head spin.

You caught me at the right time. Almost everything creative with the original riderless units was finished a month ago and I had merely done the repetitive tasks of creating palette and converting to FLC. So, creatively speaking, I was ready to do something. Half of the animations were already done for your request. And I had an aching spot in my heart for mounted bird ever since Dom Pedro II announced his mounted ostrich but never got the chance to finish it.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Speaking of ostriches: looking through your signature led to a resource that makes sense as a requirement for the bird.

Currently looking through some possible African legendary/cryptid names for a terror bird.

 

[Supa]

Ah, I knew I forgot something ! The darned resource ! Good thing I haven't archived the project yet.

 

[Blue Monkey]

I tend to like multi-purpose resources. Your ostrich is fine, OTOH if you do make a new one it'll get used.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Likely to call it something like Impundulu or Thekwane riders. The Hammerkop broadly matches the look & the legendary creature's behavior seems like it could only be an elite warrior's mount. The hammerkop's huge nests may get reworked for the 'pedia description. Warriors wear a cloak of impundulu feathers, sneak into the nest & steal an egg. Then they raise the hatchling to be their mount for life. Plausible?

 

[Jord Kells]

looking at the map here, I don't see Wakanda, the only known source of vibranium, the kingdom of King T'Challa aka the Black Panther. could also feature a cameo appearance by Ororo Munroe aka Storm of the X-Men

Edit:
http://marvel.wikia.com/Wakanda
http://marvel.com/universe/Wakanda
http://marvel.wikia.com/T'Challa_(Earth-616)
http://marvel.com/universe/Black_Panther_(T'Challa)

I guess it would depend on how you want to define steampunk. While X-Men, and Marvel in general, isn't generally considered steampunk (present day vs. Victorian-era [although the Marvel 1602 series is during Elizabeth] see below), there are a number of correlations. The Scarlett Witch is a mutant who uses magic, Iron Man has been steampunked multiple times (google image search), but then their is Doctor Doom who is probably the most well known of comic book characters who is very steampunk-like.

Then there is this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk_(comics)) series by X-Men illustrator Chris Bachalo.

Then there's this

(Matthew Murdoch [Daredevil], Virginia Dare, Rojhaz [Captain America], Sir Nicholas Fury, and "John" Grey [Jean Grey/Marvel Girl])

all up to you if you want to use it in some way

 

[Blue Monkey]

Links would be appreciated. Even more so an explanation of how any of that is steampunk.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Just an update to let people know the work is ongoing. Hopefully some distinctly African LM terrain. & it takes a long time to sort through hundreds of units visually to see what may work for something under a completely different name. Same goes for LHs.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Just an update to let people know the work is ongoing. Hopefully some distinctly African LM terrain. & it takes a long time to sort through hundreds of units visually to see what may work for something under a completely different name. Same goes for LHs.

What he said.

 

[Takhisis]

You mean the part about it taking a long time? Happens to everyone.

 

[Blue Monkey]

No. The part about I'm still working on it. Although, doing a semester of formal logic in 5 weeks does slow me down a little.