Sea Kings playtest

Greeting esteemed scenario leaguers. In light of my projects 6-7+ year status, I fill with trepidation that any further dalliance on my part will essentially extend this project's ultimate deadline to the heat-death of the universe. Thus, I propose a closed beta with an aim to perfect play-balance for a final release. Would any of you be interested? For now I'm interested in a playtest of the Egyptians and Hittites. A little bit later I'll add events.txt for the Mycenaeans, the Amurru, and Arzawa civilizations. No doubt there will be veritable hordes of spelling errors to contend with, as much of the writing and scripting has built up by layers many strata not unlike those of the middle-eastern tells whose story this scenario schemes to record. For that I ask your help.

If there is any interest please post here or pm me and I will send you the scenario files

At last! The gods will smile!

Can you post a direct link to the DL files, sir?

Hi Curtsibling. If it is alright I will pm you a link to google drive. I wish to spare innocent eyes the incomplete product.

If it strikes you fancy, I'm ravenous for feedback particularly regarding the difficulty of the scenario, whether certain units are redundant or overpowered, etc. In other words please give it the AGRICOLA treatment to the best of your abilities, as it is difficult for me to have much objectivity regarding play balance. Post your thoughts here if you like.

The Egyptians may be easier to play than the Hittites as they have only two thirds as many semi-random revolts as the Hittites. I'm curious whether you think they are too easy or not.

Also I thought a perfunctory preview is in order

The Sea Kings (1450-1115 BCE):
A scenario of trade and plunder on the shores of the wine-dark sea.



A dry year drives the Libyan tribes eastward with hopes to settle in the lush reeds of the Nile delta.


A brilliant feint by Šuppiluliumas leads to the complete collapse of the Mitanni empire's defense of North Syria. Leading elements of the Hittite advance dig in around Carchemish in anticipation of the siege.


Hittite warships attack a Lukka raider's enclave on the island of Alaysia.

I would love to help playtest this scenario EZ! The screenshots have whetted my appetite for Bronze Age and a game as the mighty Hittites sounds very appealing indeed.

I sent you a PM

Hi EZRhino,

I remember seeing your scenario on one of the forums, I believe, at least 4 years ago. I was immediately fascinated by the topic and amazed by the beauty of the graphics. I tried following it's development on the forums, only too eager to see it completed, but after some years of silence gave up hope of ever seeing it released.

The fact that you've decided to renew the project is very good news indeed and I look forward to the day when I can play it.

Good luck!!

That looks very nice. Most graphics look crappy, and I prefer basic stuff (e.g. 'crappy' ), but your actually looks very good. Its great see projects still being developed in Civ 2.

Thanks guys

That is excellent news indeed!
Being Cretan, I d' love to play as the Minoans... they are not a playable faction, right?

Hi Tanelorn. The scenario begins c. 1450BCE at the opening of the LHIII period, when apart from Knossos the Cretan palace culture is generally in retreat and Mycenaeans are moving in to fill the power vacuum. So given civilization's vexing constraint of only 7 playable civilizations, the Minoans sadly are not among them. The scenario civilizations are:

• Arzawa (west Anatolians)
• Hittites
• Egyptians
• Amurru (Canaanites, basically)
• Achaeans
• Sea Peoples
• Libyans

Albeit, the Sea Peoples and Libyans are never meant for play, and the present play test is for the Egyptians and Hittites only (they have special semi-random scripted revolts that I would like to test out before release. If you want I'll link you the files

Playing as Egyptians! Really having fun discovering the hidden world and bashing away at the tribals with my Pharaoh unit!

I changed the side menu background in ICONS as I found the default image made the info hard to read...

I also gave the grassland terrain generate trade, so now it is 1,1,1, - I think this helps the hardcore lack of shekels at the start, but not overmuch...

The Nakhtu-aa Close Fighters have no sound file, but that is easily fixed in rules.

Having good fun here - Will post more as the empire expands!

Great work, EZRhino!

CurtSibling said:

I changed the side menu background in ICONS as I found the default image made the info hard to read...

Click to expand...

Good advice! Ill change the contrast to help make it more readable there.

CurtSibling said:

I also gave the grassland terrain generate trade, so now it is 1,1,1, - I think this helps the hardcore lack of shekels at the start, but not overmuch...

Click to expand...

You can raze tribal villages for 200 shekels each, but they run out relatively quickly. In the long run you need to mount bigger raiding expeditions, extort gold from your neighbors, or develop trade routes. Actually I was aiming for a situaation where budgets are unsustainable without trade, as this dependence should make the later stages of the game more .... exciting

Hey guys I plan on posting a final version of the describe.txt sometime this weekend, as well as a events file for the Achaeans, Arzawa and Amurru. But I'm also very eager for balance feedback for the Hittite and Egyptian event files

Been playing this afternoon / evening as the Hittites. I have just got to the stage where I have Syrian Merchants and Transport Ships and I'm hoping I can kick start my economy and hire more troops to defend my borders against the Tribal Kashka raids and incursions from neighbouring empires. So far it has been pretty challenging and I'm looking forwards to the next era of Hittite history where I hope to build an empire in the fertile crescent and Levant!

I will give a more thorough report once I'm further in to the scenario, but at this point I have to say that it seems like a really good challenging scenario played out in an era I, as yet, don't know a lot about. I have just dug out my Osprey Men-at-Arms Ancient Armies of the Middle East to brush up on some of the basics

Thanks for the update McM! It is gratifying indeed to follow people's adventures in a sew scenario. Please let me know about any balance issues you encounter.

I'm a little under the gun for a school deadline so I think I will have to push back the events files till later this week. There will also be some slight changes to the scenario file, the events files for the Egyptians and Hittites, a fairly final version of the describe.txt, and an updated terrain set. At some point I would like to make up a basic readme and maybe play a little bit with the diplomacy messages from the game.txt. Cheers!

I'm now up to 1240 BCE and have almost killed off the Amurru. I managed to deal with the Assyrian's with a bit of Phalanx bribery and then most of the Horsemen dispersed into the desert, should their attack be more disruptive / permanent?

One thing I think may be an error is the disapearance of any type of Transport ship from the Hittite production menu. I'm not sure which tech obsoleted them. For my test I gave the Heavy War Galley a carrying capacity of 1.

The Egyptian cities are getting huge! I will play test as them next, but with such large population growth I don't think it will be as tough as the Hittite game. The Achaeans are beginning to expand in the west and most of the other nations have been at war with me or making alliances against me.

It might be worth checking the spelling of the events text popups as there are some errors. The 'Arzawa' event springs to mind.

One thing I have noticed from taking a peak with the cheat menu is that the Egyptians build lots of military units where other nations done. I don't know if this is because of the @LEADERS settings or just because they can afford to with their large wealthy cities. It would be good if all the AI nations would do this!

I'm having a lot of fun with Sea Kings. I look forwards to the final version as I quite fancy a bash with the Sea People or the Libyans!

I would suggest increasing the movement rate of the Chariot Runner type units to 2. This way they can move and fight in the same turn. They would be useful if they had good defensive stats they could work in tandem with Chariots, but as they are attack units they are a little redundant. I have been using bribed Kashka to fulfil the role I think Chariot Runners should be doing. I have barely made any use of the Hittite Shield Barer as it is too slow and too weak and I would prefer to take the hit and use a Ram when I attack a city.

Here is a screenie of the prelude to the Battle of Megiddo:

McMonkey said:

I would suggest increasing the movement rate of the Chariot Runner type units to 2. This way they can move and fight in the same turn. They would be useful if they had good defensive stats they could work in tandem with Chariots, but as they are attack units they are a little redundant. I have been using bribed Kashka to fulfil the role I think Chariot Runners should be doing.

Click to expand...

Hi McM. Thanks for the great feedback so far.
I want the Chariot runners to be alpine type units, perhaps If I gave them an extra third of a move then they could ambush chariots from the safety of the hills?

McMonkey said:

I have barely made any use of the Hittite Shield Barer as it is too slow and too weak and I would prefer to take the hit and use a Ram when I attack a city.

Click to expand...

Did you build Kikulli's Academy? If so then I agree the Shieldbearers loose much of their utility (as the one-shot siege engines then start with veteran status).

Have you had to face down any revolts so far? Have you managed to preserve your Labarnas unit so far? Was the Assyrian invasion accompanied by text beginning with "The fickle winds of fortune are changing again in Asia."? Are the Egyptians (or earlier the Amurru) putting up a good fight?

An extra third of movement for chariot runners would indeed make them very useful otherwise I would be forced to attack with 2/3 strength unless the enemy comes to me.

I did not build Kikulli's Academy, I think the AI got there before me. I was trying to get the Shield Barers Picked status in regular combat before I used them in sieges. They are Ok, but I would like them to be a little stronger (perhaps even a single attack point?).

There have been several revolts that are a major pain in the but. I started keeping an army for internal security!

The Labarnas is the pride of my Army and has been instrumental in most of the Hittites major battles. If they were lost I would worry for my Empire!

The Assyrian event was preceded by the text you mentioned. I was lucky to have enough money to bribe most of their Phalanxes who then defended my cities against their Cavalry. If you made the Phalanx unit unbribable the Assyrian invasion would be much harder to resist!

The Amurru were holding out against the Egyptians but I made fairly short work of them.

After a long struggle I am getting the better of the Egyptians in Palestine and from early on I set up trading cities on the Nile Delta with a view to eventually taking over the Delta. There are few places to settle on the Delta with any shields and this plan has not worked out, but at least I have been able to trade fairly easily down the Nile. The Egyptians are a tough enemy!

The invasion of the Sea People's began a few turns ago and I was concerned for my trading cities in the Delta, but the Sea People offered peace to me almost immediately. I have been hit hard by the cancelling of most of my wonders, but as I am now constructing workshops and building a lot of mines I'm coping with the decline.

I have included my current save game for you to check out. I should have made saves as I went along and at crucial points in the game. Next time I playtest I will do this!