A House Divided 1861 - 1865 ToT scenario released

Hi Techumseh,

I'm pleased to hear you are enjoying the scenario. I put a lot of effort in it and are happy to see that it seems to have paid off. But to be honest I haven't revisited it since my last update. As you know I've been working on my next project on the Vietnam War.

I will admit that I'm still surprised to hear players are having difficulty with the Confederate AI 's level of aggressiveness. I played quite a few full games during my testing and I never really recall having experienced significant drops in the AI's level of aggressiveness unless my forces were at a relatively significant distance from Rebel troops, and this despite the fact that I often traded significantly with Southern cities (as you know trade has a tendency to improve relations). As soon as I approached their lines they almost always responded with, at times, very robust counterattacks.

I wonder if it's related to the overall strategies players are using. For my part I almost always used the three pronged approach, i.e. through Virginia, Tennessee/Kentucky and the Mississippi Valley. Because of this strategy I was almost always in contact with Rebel forces on at least one of the fronts.

All the same, your idea of adding the ModifyReputation event, as we did for the French/British intervention, should resolve the problem once and for all. Let me know you're results and if positive I will add it to the event and release an updated version of the scenario.

Over the past couple of days I have been watching the film Gettysburg on You Tube. It's four and a half hours long but well worth a watch.

I will send you the e-mail of ideas for my Vietnam scenario that I promised some time ago. I have it as a draft on my work e-mail.

Hi McMonkey,

Please do send me your ideas. Techumseh as already shared many of his ideas with me as well. As you know Vietnam was a particularly complex conflict not only militarily but politically: US Escalation, the NVA infiltration into the south via the Ho Chi Minh trail, the Viet Cong, Soviet/Chinese aid, the TET Offensive, the air campaign versus the North, Pacification of the SVN countryside, Vietnamization and US De-escalation, the Cambodian and Laotian Incursions just to name a few.

Though I've been making progress, melding all these divergent elements into a coherent and naturally flowing game is proving to be quite a challenge, not to mention finding the time to work on it. As such I would be happy to get another designer's perspective.

Speaking of designers, we haven't heard any news from your own Aeterna Civitas III scenario. Any chance you will be releasing it soon? In the meantime, I've been looking at Committed Hero's 'Roman Britain' and Nicheal's 'Ancient Steel' scenarios. I haven't had the opportunity to play them yet but they both look interesting.

The hardest things to replicate in a Vietnam scenario are the victory conditions. In a WWII scenario there are front lines and victory is measured by territory taken. In a Nam scenario this would be an inaccurate way of representing the war. Ultimately the US was defeated by its own public opinion against the war, not because it suffered catastrophic losses on the field of battle. For example, militarily the Tet Offensive ended in a victory for the US. The Vietnamese suffered massive casualties and failed to hold onto any of the territory it took in the attack. However on the political level it was a massive psychological victory for the Communists as it turned US public opinion against the war. How do you represent this in a Civ2 scenario?

By using events I think it would be possible to recreate this. Perhaps all US units could be event generated and if reverses are suffered the flow of units will be curtailed.

Perhaps it would be easier and more interesting to design the scenario from the Vietnamese point of view, battling against a massively superior US AI. It would be a lot of fun sneaking units down the Ho Chi Minh trail through Laos and Cambodia, avading US air-power and planning attacks on US/ARVN controlled towns and cities to sap their will to fight (IE cut off their event generated units).

Regarding ACIII. I do need to get back on the case with that project. I don't think it is a million miles away from completion once some events issues are addressed. Its just a case of finding the time, and more importantly the energy to crack on with it. I do have a tendency to get scenarios to 90% and then bulk at the final nitty-gritty of playtesting which does take the fun out of designing for me at times.

Hi Techumseh,

Did you ever have the opportunity to complete your test with the 'ModifyReputation' event script (post #60 of this thread)? If yes, was it successfull? Let me know and I will update the event file and re-release an updated version of the scenario.

Yes, I did. I forgot all about it. Sorry! In the end, I settled on a three part event, to set English and French attitudes as well as giving the Union a rotten rep; here:

;---HATE UNION ---

@IF
CheckFlag
Who=Union
Flag=18
State=On
@THEN
JUSTONCE
ModifyReputation
Who=Union
whom=French
modifier=100
@ENDIF

@IF
CheckFlag
Who=Union
Flag=18
State=On
@THEN
JUSTONCE
ModifyReputation
Who=Union
whom=English
modifier=100
@ENDIF

@IF
RECEIVEDTECHNOLOGY
technology=27
receiver=French
@THEN
JUSTONCE
ModifyReputation
who=Union
Betray=8
@ENDIF

It works just fine.

Hi Techumseh,

Thanks for replying but I'm a little confused. The script you describe above already exists in the current event file. If you recall, we had added it to deal with the French and British attitude in the event they intervened in the war.

The post #60 was related to the fact some players were still reporting issues with the Confederate level of aggressiveness versus the Union. In that post you recommended adding the script below:

@IF
RANDOMTURN
denominator=10
@THEN
ModifyReputation
who=Union
betray=8
@ENDIF

This is the ' ModifyReputation' code I was referring to in post #65 and asking to confirm if it had resolved the Confederate attitude.

Sorry, this is all a while ago, and my memory, while very wide, is short. I looked for the event you're referring to again, and found it at another spot. So yes, I have utilized it in several games in addition to the HATE UNION events, with excellent results. It really is one of the most replayable scenarios I've ever had, and like all your scenarios, lots of fun to tinker with.