The 30 Year's War in Europe

The 30 Year's war scenario v1.0

A Scenario based on the European Empires mod by ArbitraryGuy.

The year is 1618 and the Protestants of Germany have just rebelled against their Habsburgian rulers in Bohemia. Denmark and Sweden are coming to their aid, backed by England. The Spanish part of the Habsburgian Empire is struggling with Dutch and Portuguese separatists. France sees this as an opportunity to weaken the Habsburgians and goes to war. In the east, the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth, Russia and Sweden are all fighting for control of the Baltic. And none of them can overlook the Ottoman Empire in the South-East.

The game begins in 1618 and goes on until 1658, with 4 turns a year. Conquering the whole of Europe in this time is basically impossible, so getting the highest score before time runs out is (probably) the only way to win.

There are 18 playable civilizations, with various levels of difficulty. The Ottoman Empire, Spain, France, the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia, England and Sweden are all quite strong. But playing the Ottomans is not recommended as they start out as the biggest civilization and have great expansion possibilities, and therefore will be quite easy. For those who like more of a challenge Denmark, Prussia, Papal States, Venice, the Habsburgian Empire and Protestant Germany would be good choices. And for the experts it could be good fun trying to play as the Portuguese, Dutch, Scots, Swiss, Wallachians (although it might prove to be quite hard to win).

It should be fairly historically correct, but of course, happenings during the 30 Year’s War are all moved to the beginning of the game. And also the Ottoman Empire has been slightly reduced, simply due to the size of the empire.

I have also added some new technologies and units to this scenario.

This is a real war scenario, as most of the civillizations are at constant war with one or more other civilizations.



This Scenario is based on
Europa Europa 3: The European Empires Mod
By: ArbitraryGuy
Original Map: Arne
Also some elements of id52’s 1380 scenario
Thank you and everyone else for wonderful Europe scenarios. Hopefully you will enjoy this one as well


TO INSTALL:
You need the EE3 Mod (it can be found here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=144971
Make a copy of the EE3 folder and name it 30 years war. Then replace the files in your new folder with the ones in this file: 30 years war scenario




If you have any comments at all, please post them. This is my first scenario for Civ4, and would like to hear what I can do to improve the scenario even further.

Ok, minor change then to the download file... I have corrected the error of the misspelled mod path inthe readme file and I have moved the holy city from Ankara to Constantinopel for the Ottomans to prevent them from losing their holy city to barbarians. I've seen this happen a couple of times now and when that has happend the ottomans have quickly converted to catholism. does anyoneknow if there is a way to deny religious convertions in this game? Since the 30 years war was basically a religious war I am trying to make the various countries stick to their original religions, which is why the holy cities are somewhat inaccurate placed, at least according to history.

Could you tone down the barbarians a bit? They're a bit overpowering, at least in Africa and Anatolia (Turkey.) I lost several cities as the Ottomans, despite my best efforts. I know the Ottomans had to deal with the Saffavids in real history but the sheer numbers of the barbarians really dampens the long term potential of that civ.

That is one of thethings I've been working to avoid, so hopefully in the next version something else could be done to make theottomans less powerful. Right now a barbarian threath in Turkey was the only way to contain them a bit. I tested a couple of times with none or less barbarians, and the result was always that the Ottomans either won or came real close to winning the game. Most of their cities have very few bulidings, andthey are behing technologically, but they still seem to do well, simply due to their size.
But if anyone have any good ideas, please....

But then again, the Ottoman Empire is probably not the most fun to play here anyway and I recomend trying one of the other civilizations instead... Just now trying out playing Sweden and it seems I'm at war with everyone, but Im still doing quite allright.

But thank you very much for playing my scenario... Hopefully you will have some fun, with or without barbarbarians

I download it, and will give it a try. I like the idea so far, but I didn't play it for now. One question: You wrote:

andeloke said:

Make a copy of the EE3 folder and name it 30 year’s war.

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Are you sure it has to be "30 year’s war" not "30 years war"?

You are right... that should be "30 years war". I have edited that in the original post as well now, hopefully this hasn't caused too much problems. I hope you enjoy playing... After all, you can take a lot of credit for this, considering whose map it is...

This idea is super, andeloke!!! I downloading right now and hope to find the scenario being just as good as it looks.

andeloke said:

Just now trying out playing Sweden and it seems I'm at war with everyone, but Im still doing quite allright.

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Sounds exactly like Swedish history for 150-200 years about that time. (or should I perhaps use this smilie ?)

andeloke said:

The Norsemen have returned to pillage and destroy. We will take your women and drink all your beer...

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...and if your women don't want to be taken, we'll settle for the beer.

andeloke said:

hopefully this hasn't caused too much problems.

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Not to me, but may be to other players? Probably you should change the readme.txt too.

andeloke said:

After all, you can take a lot of credit for this, considering whose map it is...

Click to expand...

Well, I'm pretty happy, that these map still is that much used.

gonna try this when I get home

When I get some more feedback I might try to improve the scenario even further. As said above I have already moved Islam’s holy city to Constantinople, but I’m sure there are other things I could do as well. My major pain is the Ottomans. At this time in history they were very big. I have reduced their number of cities and made most of their cities with very few improvements. And they have a lot of barbarians to deal with. But the result is that they still do quite good, although they are way beyond the rest technologically and have fewer troops. But they make up for it with their size. Any suggestions on how to improve them?

I would also like to add some unique units. But since I’ve basically used all the graphics for the units through the new units everyone can build in this scenario I have not made that the highest priority. Any suggestions on unique units though?

I also tried to make Spain and the Habsburgians more connected, but for some reason it did not work forcing them into a defensive pact or alliance. If played as a team they are way too strong.

And as earlier mentioned, if anyone know how to prevent religious convertions, please tell me.

Finally I would like to delete all the technologies not needed. But whatever I tried, something always went wrong. So at the moment they are still there, although I have moved them and they should be impossible to research, as I have added a couple of future techs.

Any more suggestions? I would love to hear what you think, both positive and negative.

andeloke said:

Any more suggestions? I would love to hear what you think, both positive and negative.

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One little thing: IMHO "Prussia" should be renamed to "Brandenburg" for this scenario. (You simply could change the colour of the eagle to red instad of black an make Berlin the capital). This sould be, since untill 1618 Prussia was a polish Vasall, wich was inherited in 1618 by Johann Sigismund, Duke (Herzog) of Brandenburg. AFAIK, this vasall status was officially lingered until the treaty of Wehlau 1656.

I didn't play more than 5 turns for now so I can't tell you something more concrete.

Fairly closely finished a Sweden game (16 turns left), the growing unrest of my populace is growing to be a bit bothersome at this point, plus I am pretty much in the lead at this point.

What happened during my game: I used the army in Protestant Germany to effectively stop the Habsburgs right at the beginning. I gathered together a group of catapults and knights to systematically siege the barbarian cities of the Baltic and Russian west. My eastern border with Russia was anchored by Tver. Moving south with that same army, I started plugging away Polish-Lithuania cities until a sneaky Prussia launched a surprise attack taking away one of my recent prizes from Poland. Naturally, Prussia paid by losing their capital as I continued my way to gut Poland of their starting lands.

For the most part, all the borders remained intact, Spain won a couple cities from Portugal and France, also lost a few too, especially in north Italy. The victors over the Mongols were quite surprising, had a number of cities being taken by Poland and Prussia (Prussian armies even took over Ankara!). Russia is putting up a serious fight to try and dislodge Sweden from Tver, but superior technology is holding them off.

My thoughts on the scenario:
-I don't know if it is possible, but lock the state religions. I had a very embarrasing moment where Denmark converted to Catholicism so I had to bribe them back to ensuremy borders were secure. Other religious changes of note: Ottoman Empire abandons Islam to become Catholic then Orthodox, Prussia going Catholic.
-Pre-place some of the monopolies, Spain and Portugal should already have many of the New World wonders completed or at least significant progress made towards them (I am reminded of the Age of Discovery scenario from Civ2 where Spain started the game with Magellan's Expedition halfway completed). In my game, the Papal States, with no hostile neighbors, picked up 5 of the monopolies in Rome. I don't think any other nation even worked on any of the monopolies.
-I enjoyed the pre-set diplomacy settings where I could rely upon some nations for favorable tech trades and others to be just out for my blood. The one exception in my game being Prussia with Sweden, they always seemed to be despise me even though Sweden and Prussia were Protestant states at the beginning of the war. I may not know my history well enough, but I felt that they should be steady allies just like Protestant Germany.
-Military Technology, especially Military Tradition, granting the ability to build Cavalry is overpowering. For the most part, I had to focus my catapults and 5-7 musketmen/knights on one city siege at a time. Once I had sufficient numbers of Cavalry, I didn't even bother with sieges anymore since there isn't a good defense against them until Grenadiers, and a reliable defense with Riflemen.
-I like how the game begins with most of the nations starting off with large invasion/defensive stacks, it gets the ball rolling immediately, and, like the historical war, begins a campaign of strategy as to where to deploy limited resources when there is always a potential enemy at one corner of your country
-I had a fun time, I look forward to playing some of the weaker powers to balance my Swedish meteoric rise to power experience.

It’s nice to hear that you had a good time playing CivPlayer.
When I played as Sweden I had somewhat the same progress as you had, although I managed to stay away from war with the Prussians. (Although I was considering attacking them myself. Their open border with the habsburgians was really annoying. Habsburgian knights showing up around Riga all the time… And as in your game, Tver became the battleground. I did however managed to capture some of western Poland and Danzig early in the game, but lost most of the cities, as Prussia’s cultural borders expanded, and I lost access to those cities from mainland Sweden.

But to answer to you replies:
I would love to be able to lock religions. So if anyone know how, please tell me.

Pre placement of the monopolies is a good idea. I might look more into that. Giving a couple to Portugal might make them a bit stronger. I have also experience that the Papal States are able to build quite a few, but then again they usually end up fighting someone as well, usually a long distance war against some non-catholic nation or Venice.

Prussia is actually supposed to be equally hostile towards both Poland and Sweden. But I might tone that down a bit. Maybe someone could help me out on the history part here. I’ve been told many different things by now. Some think they should be most friendly towards Sweden, some towards Poland. And then again, as Arne said in the post above, they didn’t really exist, but should be Brandenburg instead… Any suggestions?

When it comes to the cavalry I have considered changing it up a bit, maybe ensure that the AI researches riflemen (or at least Genadiers) before cavalry or make cavalry less powerful. Again, I’m open to suggestions.

Thank you for your comments CivPlayer. And good luck playing again.

andeloke said:

Some think they should be most friendly towards Sweden, some towards Poland. And then again, as Arne said in the post above, they didn’t really exist, but should be Brandenburg instead… Any suggestions?

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Hard to say... Like written above, the Duchy of Prussia was inherited by the Duke of Brandenburg in 1618, but Prussia still was a Polish vasall. During 30-Y-W's Brandenburg was an Swedish ally. Later on, during Swedish-Polish War (1655-60) Brandenburg changed the sides and became a Polish ally. Finaly the claim of Brandenburgain rule over the Duchy of Prussia was recognised in 1656 by Sweden and in 1657 by Poland. So, take you choise...

Good scenario, probably the best i've played for civ 4. I'm playing as the austrians and having great fun

The most minor nitpick in the world, but dynastic family names are also used as adjectives. That is, you should say that people are revolting against their Habsburg (or Valois, Stuart, etc.) masters, not their Habsburgian ones.

i havent played this scenario yet but it sounds good. one question, do you ahve barbarians in ireland. there was a rebellion in ireland in 1641

I also tried a game as Sweden.

The Prussians were a bit anoying with cultural take overs of newly captured Polish cities. I managed to capture central Poland though lossing the coastal access to Prussia culture was a pain. In my simultanious campaign in the East I was able to easily hold Russia at bay, while Liberating the Baltic states after dealing with the Barbarians.

I am not sure whether to finish off Poland or deal with the Prussian cultural menace with grenadiers rather than cathedrals. History would suggest that this is the point where Sweden over extended its self and lost it's Baltic Empire.

Enjoyable senario well worth improving on with more suitable units as they become available and tweeked tech tree. I will certainly be playing it again to discover some of the asapects of it I ignored in my bid to become Dictator of Mittle Europa.

Great work! Of course I played as the PLC, pretty fun, those dukal Prussians are harder than you think. Sweden and Russia hardly attack, just the Swedish units at the beginning possibly can cause any damage. But everyone asks me to declare war on the Hasburgians. Should I go for it because the whole world is at war with them or support my Catholic beneficiary? And a question: If you research I think it's called New World Conquest or the other one, does it all of a sudden expose a map of the world? I am looking for a major modification of the whole world, set in any time period. 1775 is ok, it just hardly has any cities. But anyway, I could try Spain or France to test it, but I will not leave my Poland-Lithuania!