[Vanilla] Play the Great Empires of the Mediterranean and Middle East.

[vogtmurr]

This is a Civ 4 Scenario for The Ancient Meditteranean Mod - v1.99.

My gamespy id is vogtmurr, (how original, but I don't know if I can change it). let me know if you want to try this online. Here are the details of the scenario I created.

SETTING
It is built on The Ancient Mediterranean Mod v1.99 for Vanilla Civ4. Some of the other Expansions are cool, but this remains to me the richest most realistic ancient and medieval game experience Civ has to offer. The 18 cultures are authentic, and all the ethnically unique units have more detailed abilities and promotions than the usual ones in Civ4. (If you want any pointers about the relative strengths and weaknesses of unit types I can give you a quick primer).

MAP
On a huge map from Kazakhstan to Timbuktu, and Ireland to India. I modified the map a bit to add essential geographical details, and I added labels for some interesting landmarks and features to add some depth to the map, just because I liked them. Like any Civ game the scale does not perfectly translate to exact placement of the cities and landmarks so I had to take some artistic liberty. Check out your cities to see which limited improvements I've provided, and note the wonders and religious buildings in character with your culture. This is played at epic speed (not Marathon !), and starts with a fully populated ancient world, armed to the teeth, and ready to go to war.

START
Although I could not change the start date from 5500 BC, it is really more like 300 BC, before Rome and Carthage were locked in a death grip, and powerful Helenistic monarchies still ruled the near east. The armies are very large for the size of empires, this means as with any mature culture that has mobilized for war, that you need to immediately set your research and cultural rates way down, and optimize your choice of civics, or else go bankrupt paying military support and maintenance costs. Each empire starts with about 20 gold per population. I have found that 30-40% research, with the right civics, is sustainable for most empires to flesh out and start making money before bottoming out their treasury. Note that as soon as armies leave your boundaries costs go way up so it is good to stabilize your economy a bit first, and deal with nearby barbarians. A few empires that are more widely scattered may need to divert production to wealth or caravans for awhile till they grow their cultural boundaries, or else attack nearby neighbours and plunder. Unfortunately the AI controlled states do not always react this way, and you may either control them or invoke them in war before they start disbanding the units I painstakingly created.

BACKGROUND
The number and size of cities, and more importantly the number and type of starting units are based on a representation of the major conflicts that I gathered from a few historical sources that list these things. I won't explain the whole method but I can assure you it is completely unbiased. So each culture is really a compendium of their history before hand to hand warfare was replaced with gunpowder. For instance the Greek empire has elements of the ancient Minoan, Achaean (Trojan War era), the City States, Macedonia, and Byzantine Empire cultures. This allows a full representation of all the best or most interesting each culture had to offer. This also means that some of the more advanced units cannot be replaced until substantial research brings you to that level. Generally, siege weapons are in short supply at the beginning of the game, and taking cities early will not yield much gold anyway.

Not all cultures are equal, but there is a definite balance between power blocs in this game which I fully exploited by pre-weighting the attitudes and religions of these empires. Of course anything under your control is free to choose your alliances and enemies, but I will fully explain the orientation in the description of the initial gameboard. In terms of points in Civ4, the spread is only 665 to 765 from the weakest to the strongest.

RELIGION
First, a quick note on religion and other setups: Every culture starts with one wonder in its capital, and some cultures share the same religion, with the more senior partner being the originator and holding the highest shrine of that religion. Although 7 ancient religions are represented, there are a group of cultures that start with no religion. Other than Christianity, none produce Missionaries so there is almost no way to control the spread of other religions, and you may build shrines and monasteries to different religions in the same city if it suits you, unless you are playing out some kind of strict Theocracy civic. Only Christianity produces missionaries; and it requires actual research to discover it; but Rome alone starts with Christianity, (which after all it did become the first home of). Note that other empires' cities that share your state religion also appear on the map, although you will lack details.

OTHER CULTURES
All cultures start at the Classical level technologies. Six of the 18 cultures are minor powers that are tied closely to the major power whose religion they share, but they also have unique units and a wonder in their own capitals. They make potentially useful allies, or you can choose to conquer them, but you lose the ability to produce their unique units. They also make an ideal state for a junior level player or child to manage, with two cities and all the elements that make up the game, safe in the protective sphere of their influential patron state. I would have made them vassal states but unfortunately this scenario was only later created with Warlords or BtS. (I will work on an update that add warlords to your armies). However, this mod does provide a unique Hero unit for each culture, with good healing properties that can be reproduced any time the unit is lost in battle, like an Avatar. In addition, there are 6 minority cultures that are available in this mod, but not in this particular scenario. I have found ways to include their presence in order to fill out the historical context.

[vogtmurr]

Initial Gameboard

The following is a list of the cultures and their approximate relative strengths, with alliances: (population is the sum of city sizes, army and navy is in equivalent units, special refers to siege weapons, elephants, etc.)

Culture - Population - Army - Navy - Special

Hittites - 48 - 84 - 3 - 5
Egypt (ally) - 20 - 50 - 8 - 3

Persia - 59 - 65 - 8 - 30

Greek - 55 - 141 - 39 - 6

Rome - 62 - 130 - 35 - 2

Carthage - 32 - 63 - 16 - 8
Iberia (ally) - 32 - 32 - 2 - 1

Goth - 23 - 70 - 0 - 4
Germania (ally) - 20 - 58 - 0 - 4

Scythia - 37 - 60 - 3 - 2

Britons - 30 - 56 - 12 - 1
Gauls (ally) - 29 - 53 - 5 - 1

The six minor states and their affiliation are:
Nubia (Egypt), Dacia(Goth), Phoenecia (Hittite), Babylonia (Persia), Media (Persia), Kolchis (Greek).
Their individual strengths are: pop. 6 army 4-10 navy 0-6

These are starting numbers of course and do not nearly tell the full story. Some of the weaker empires have more rooom to expand, and there is no easy way to compare the strength and abilities of their individual units or potential to produce more. Greece and Rome are obviously the most powerful and are natural rivals. More insight is gained from the individual descriptions that follow:

The Hittites are in Arabia, Syria, southern Turkey, Israel. (If I could have used Saladin I would) You can think of them as the Seleukids, and the later Arabian-Semitic culture. Their capital is Jerusalem and they are the founders of Judaism. One of the stronger states, it starts with some big dusty cities between the deserts and eastern Mediterranean. Their unique units are 3 man chariot and Iron swordsman. Horse archers are also a big part of the starting element, and they have a city taking army second to none, but just a token navy of their own.With Egypt as a strong ally and Phoenecia as a vassal state, they are a match for the Greek Empire, but in addition can cultivate good relations with Persia and its vassals, making this a formidable eastern power bloc.

Egypt is one of the smallest major powers at the start, but it is a centralized state with lower maintenance costs, and their eastern flank is guarded by the Hittites. Despite being the junior partner of that alliance, they have their own founding religion, the Heliopolitan Gods, and a vassal state in Nubia to the south. War chariots and Nubian mercenaries are the unique units. The starting army is dominated by mounted units, and they have a decent little navy as well to maintain their colony on Cyprus. Think of them as the Ptolemy dynasty, with elements of the later Mamelukes. Think of Hatshepsut as Cleopatra.

Persia is one of the largest empires in size with cities dispersed from the Aegean sea to India. Their founding religion is Zoroastrian, and they have two potentially strong vassals, with Media and Babylonia sharing their religion. Persia has Immortals (spearmen) and Parthian style Persian medium cavalry as unique units, as well as examples of their vassal units, and starts with a lot of horse archers and elephants, which defend well against the Steppe horsemen of the Scythians. In addition, Persia has a minority culture within its boundaries, the Lydians (Ionian Greeks), with examples of their unique units and hero. Once those units are gone they can't be replaced. Maintenance costs may start high but the army is not overly big. Persia will initially have its hands full dealing with barbarian states and expanding its cultural boundaries. It may not be possible to hold all its cities against a determined enemy, but it has lots of good territory to expand in. Playing this empire requires a fluid strategy.

Greece as in history comprises the Greek homeland, the Aegean islands, and a strong presence on Sicily. Their unique units are hoplites and Greek biremes. The capital is Constantinople and their founding religion is the Olympian Gods. They have Kolchis as a vassal some distance away on the Black Sea, and two minority cultures, the Minoans and Thracians. Greece starts with a narrow lead as the most powerful army and navy in absolute numbers, on account of the high degree of participation of its city states. However, whereas the Greek army is dominated by hoplites and armoured spearmen, effective against horsemen, the Roman army (its nearest rival) is dominated by the more powerful legions. Similarly, while the Greek navy is dominated by triremes and biremes, the Roman navy is dominated by the larger quinqueremes. Greece is surrounded by powerful rivals, and has little room to expand except to recover some breakaway states. Greece needs safe havens to use the mobility of its small ship fleets, and keep an eye on its treasury.

Rome is probably the most powerful starting state in the capabilities of its army and navy. As the founding state of Christianity it has an advantage towards achieving certain victory conditions much later in the game. Rome comprises the whole Italian peninsula (minus Sicily) with colonies on other islands and a strong enclave on the Adriatic coast bordering Greece, which represents the Illyrians, a minority culture of Rome. With a more or less centralized state, the Romans start with manageable maintenance costs, but high military support costs. Like Greece, Rome has no major powers as allies, and little room to expand without conflict. Unlike Greece, Rome has one other naval rival that can meet it on close to equal terms; Carthage.

Carthage is spread across North Africa, with enclaves in Sicily and Sardinia. It is the headquarters of the Mesopotamian Gods religion. Although it has a long standing rivalry with the Greeks in Sicily, its primary enemy is Rome. It is not equal to the resources Rome can bring against her, and must rely on the alliances it can forge with the Iberians in Spain, or Gauls, and Rome's preoccupation with Greece. The navy includes a high proportion of quinqueremes. The unique units are Libyan mercenaries and the Carthaginian war elephant, more powerful than its Persian counterpart. Once Carthage deals with the barbarians in North Africa it has a rich territory for expansion.

Iberia has the weakest starting army of all the major powers and only a few good ships, but it is a large centralized state which will favor its cultural and research growth without exhausting its treasury. It starts as an ally of Carthage, sharing the same religion, but an early war with Rome could be disastrous. Its unique unit is armoured slingers, which may seem weak but are good skirmishers and as effective as archers at defending cities. Iberia has one minority culture, Tartessus, with examples of their javelineers and mounted javelineers, the best skirmishers against heavy infantry. Iberia starts with one good field force capable of dealing with powerful enemies, and has good relations with the Gauls.

Germania is the power in northern Europe from the Lowlands to the Alps. Like the Egyptians they do not have many cities at the start, but a strong army with some late medieval units capable of dealing with the Gauls or Romans. Their cities are spread along a line roughly following the Rhine and upper Danube, with their backs to great northern woodlands where barbarian states wait to be discovered and absorbed. The unique units are Woodsman, an excellent forest axeman, and the Berserker. Alone they are a match for Gaul, but allied with the Goths, Dacians, and potentially Scythians, are a dangerous opponent even for Rome.

Goths are the strongest of the northern Germanic states that start with no organized religion. They are somewhat scattered along the Danube and may have high maintenance costs until they expand their empire against a few barbarians. They have no navy, but a kickass army that could decide the outcome of any Greek-Roman rivalry, or pose a significant threat of their own. They have a solid alliance with the Germans, playing either of which could represent this power bloc. They also have one potent vassal guarding their back, Dacia, with elements of their special units in their army. The unique Goth units are the Goth Berserker, specialised for taking cities, and the Huskarl - most powerful unit in the game. Only a few of those are available at the start so look after them. Goth also has good relations with Scythia, on the eastern steppes.

Scythia is an empire founded by horsemen with cities scattered from the Black Sea, through southern Russia and central Asia along the Silk Road. Their unique units are Steppe Marauders which are the best horse archers, and their starting horde adds weight to the term "numberless horsemen" you sometimes see in the diplomatic window. They also have a few units capable of defending or taking cities, and the beginnings of a fleet. Scythia's advantage initially is their distance from major rivals, and the vast teritory available for expansion, populated only by barbarian states. To maintain this territory will require frequent injections of 'booty' to keep the soldiers from going on strike when you run out of money. Scythia has good relations with the Goths and Dacians, and like them, looks to the civilized empires of the south with envy, in this case Persia and its vassals.

Britons have the whole of their island with a starting colony on Ireland. Being a centralized island state they have one of the most enviable starting positions; low maintenance costs and easy to defend. They are the founders of the Animist religion and consistent with that, Stonehenge is their Wonder. Their unique units are Swift Chariot Archer and Briton Marauder, an amphibious attack unit. The army is highly capable and there is a fleet that can dominate northern waters. The Britons favor relations with the Gauls, their fellow Celts, and have few natural enemies. I considered pitching them against the Gauls, but that would leave Gaul pinched between them and the Germans. Check out some of the cool landmarks I positioned in their empire. It would have been ideal if there was a Scottish minority culture with Highlander units, but I incorporated that in their army.

Gaul the other Celtic power, has a large territory with room for settlement that is relatively well centralized, much like the Iberians in Spain. They share the Animist religion with their Briton allies, with whom they are roughly equal partners. They don't like Rome, but fear the Germans worse. Their unique units are the Gallic Swordsman and the Gallic Cavalier, a very powerful cavalry unit. They start with a medium sized army and small Atlantic fleet, but no ships in the crowded Mediterranean. I've played scenarios where the Gauls ended up dominating western Europe, and others where they were crushed, so they are fairly evenly matched against their enemies. They have a nice territory, with access to most resources.

Minor States may need coaxing to join you in a war against powerful enemies.

Dacia - sheltered in the Carpathian Mountains, Dacia can grow peacefully, and maybe pick off a barbarian state or two. Unique units: peltast (forest skirmisher) and Falxman (very effective swordsman).

Nubia - safely tucked away in eastern Africa, Nubia has limited access to other cultures except through its patron state Egypt. If Egypt is ever weakened, Nubia could take its place. Unique units: Nubian mercenary (strong skirmisher) and Nubian composite archer.

Phoenecia - surrounded by its patron state the Hittites, it has little room to expand, but is in a good position to accumulate wealth by trade. Unique units: Phoenecian bireme and Phoenecian merchant vessel.

Kolchis - between the Black Sea and the Caucasus, it has opportunities to explore and expand interesting territory, but far from its patron the Greek empire, it is vulnerable to Persians and Scythians. Unique units: Kolchis war chariot and Kolchis Marauder (amphibious swordman).

Babylonia - in the fertile land between the rivers it has the potential to become a populous state. Babylonia will sometimes rise to challenge a major power. Unique unit: Babylonian composite archer.

Media - potentially the strongest of the minor states, Media's position in the mountains of western Iran along the Caspian Sea allow it access to territory and barbarian states to subdue. Unique units: Wild Axeman and Mountain Rider, both pretty effective.

Barbarians - are not just barbarians. In many cases they are breakaway states that have refused to join an empire. If they were all gathered together in one contiguous area, they would probably be the most powerful state in the game. As it is they are just strong enough that taking them requires some effort, and provides an opportunity to gain experience. They do however have cities with improvements and will grow in some areas unless checked. There is even one state which is its own capital and has a wonder, Delphi. Think of it as the Phocian Greeks who tried to seize the sanctuary of Apollo and guard it against the other Greek cities and Macedonia.

I'll also mention that there are a few tribal villages scattered around. It is worth your while to send out scouts and explore territory, but the villages are far between and hard to find. If you've read this far, you've already got some idea of how you might divy up the empires and start a game. You know almost as much as I do about the scenario, and within 10 turns, what I know won't matter. The alignments and pacts I've presented are only recommendations, more applicable to a single player than a multi-player game. If we choose to control more empires instead of letting the game AI do it, their pre-weighted attitudes won't mean anything, and anything is possible. However, there are some combinations of different empires that can lend themselves to a balanced multi-player game, and I'd like to show you those first before you decide how to play this.

[JEELEN]

Looks interesting.

(Though I noticed some oddities, like the Hittite capital at Jerusalem: Hattusa was their capital and their territory never stretched beyond Phoenicia's Litani river - certainly not into Arabia.)

[vogtmurr]

Alliances

The alliances, with statistics below, can be divided between players and the game AI:
Cultural Block - Population - Army - Navy - Special

1. Hittites, Egypt plus 2 vassals - 80 - 148 - 18 - 12 - Combined rating: 258

2. Persia with 2 vassals - 71 - 79 - 7 - 30 - Combined rating: 187

3. Greek Empire and 1 vassal - 61 - 151 - 42 - 6 - Combined rating: 260

4. Rome - 62 - 130 - 37 - 6 - Combined rating: 235

5. Carthage and Iberia - 64 - 96 - 18 - 9 - Combined rating: 187

6. Goth, Germania and 1 vassal - 61 - 138 - 0 - 8 - Combined rating: 207

7. Scythia - 37 - 60 - 3 - 2 - Combined rating: 102

8. Britons and Gauls - 59 - 109 - 17 - 2 - Combined rating: 187

Another way to look at this in a 3 player game is to consider 3 likely coalitions:

A. Greek led coalition (Greece, Carthage, Iberia, Gaul, Britannia, Kolchis) overall rating: 634
B. Rome led coaliiton (Rome, Persia, Hittites, Egypt, Nubia, Media, Phoenecia, Media, Babylonia) overall rating: 680
C. Barbarian coalition (Goths, Scythia, Germania, Dacia) overall rating: 309
If I could have added all the barbarian states to this coalition it would have been truly interesting, and made it equal to the other two, but this division would only work as long as the Greek and Roman coalitions were at war with eachother.

I'm interested in whatever ideas you might have for this scenario so give it a look and we'll talk about it later. Just to give you something to look at, I'm attaching some screenshots in the next series of posts. This is by no means an exhaustive view of the entire map - there are other surprises.

[vogtmurr]

Originally Posted by JEELEN

Looks interesting.

(Though I noticed some oddities, like the Hittite capital at Jerusalem: Hattusa was their capital and their territory never stretched beyond Phoenicia's Litani river - certainly not into Arabia.)

I can only use the cultures and religions I'm given in the mod - but this scenario is not limited to these ancient starting cultures. Consider it their empire: it's intended to represent a compendium of power blocks from the ancient to medieval. As you read the text you'll see what I mean

[vogtmurr]

Screenshots #1 Anatolia, Carthaginian Homeland, Central Europe and Goth Territory

[vogtmurr]

Screenshots #2 Central Scythia #1 and #2, Coastal Spain

[vogtmurr]

Screenshots #3 Constantinople and the Lower Balkans, Dacian Homeland, Egyptian Homeland

[vogtmurr]

Screenshots #4 German Homeland, Greek Homeland, Illyria

[vogtmurr]

Screenshots #5 Ionia and Asia Minor, Land of the Britons, Lower Mesopotamia

[vogtmurr]

Screenshots #6 Median Homeland, Northern Syria and Eastern Asia Minor, Nubia,

[vogtmurr]

Screenshots #7 Part of Gallic Homeland, Part of Iberian Homeland, Part of North Africa

[vogtmurr]

Screenshots #8 Part of Scythia in Central Asia, Part of Scythian Homeland, Part of Persian Homeland

[vogtmurr]

Screenshots #9 Rome and Northern Italy, Scythia in the Far East, Semitic Homeland with Phoenecia

[vogtmurr]

Screenshots #10 Sicily Shot, Southern Italy, Frontiers of India

[vogtmurr]

Screenshots #11 The Caucasus, The Lowlands, Northern Mesopotamia

[vogtmurr]

The saved game files you can download for single or multi-game is attached here. Suppiluliumas 5380 BC is the basic scenario. You can open it as a game and save the Worldbuilder file as a scenario. If you play it as a multi-game, certain things may be lost. Check starting gold, culture points, and religion, you may have to tweak it. Any culture played as AI should retain its allegiances.

I also added a very cool Hannibal scenario which starts identical to this, but with the addition of his hero character and a wildly assorted but very interesting army poised for war in northern Spain. It is played as if you are Viriato, leader of the Iberian Tribes, (who would normally start with a very humble army), with Carthage as a friend, but when war starts you may be on your own. Its a fairly challenging experience which will test your use of these unique units. See if you can overcome the power of Rome, or even dominate the Mediterranean.

Let me know how it works out if you try it ! Good Luck.

[ashley26ph2003]

hi

I ask what Mod compatible with my Civ 4 1.7.4 or BTS 3.0.0.91 or Warlord 2.0.0.0?

[Jarlaxe Baenre]

First: This is a 1 year, 6 month, 9 day old topic.
Second: It says [Vanilla].

[vogtmurr]

Originally Posted by ashley26ph2003

hi

I ask what Mod compatible with my Civ 4 1.7.4 or BTS 3.0.0.91 or Warlord 2.0.0.0?

Yes the particular custom scenario I've attached here should work with Civ 4 - 1.7.4 - try it and let me know. (If not - you may have to roll it back one version, can't be sure right now). Someday maybe I will rebuild this for BtS v. 3.19, with all the perks including vassal states. A final TAM version for BtS is still expected.