Roman Britain scenario

committed hero

Chieftain
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Jan 17, 2010
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As promised, here is a Roman Britain scenario (for MGE) that only took 15 years to update.
 

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This is the final - or as final as it's gonna get, I think. I am working on a Mithraeum icon.
 

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Hi committed hero,

I've long been fascinated by Roman history so when I saw your scenario I was immediately intrigued, particularly since there aren't that many Civilization scenarios related to specific Roman battles or campaigns (there are the excellent 'Hannibal's War' by P. Dervisis and G. Birch and 'Germanicus on the Rhine' by JPetroski).

As such I couldn't resist giving yours I try. I have to admit when I read your comment in your ReadMe that stated it only took you a week to complete the project I wasn't certain what to expect. In all honesty, I'm impressed as this is a well thought out game. The unit balance is very good. The map is very well made and fun to play on. The game is quite challenging as the horde of Celtic warriors coming at you keeps you constantly on guard. I've really had to put on my tactical commander's hat in this game as it's all about correctly using the strengths of each of your combat units in the right combination to move forward and subdue the Celtic nation.

I did come across a few issues during the game that I thought I should bring to your attention that I believe should be addressed to make the game more complete:
• The victory conditions need to be revised. Rome is the protagonist in the game but already starts the game with a decisive victory (because they need 0 objectives to win the game).
• For some reason the game starts in 796 A.U.C. rather than 43 AD. [Note: You might want to reset the date by going to the Scenario Parameters and changing the starting year]
• There is a flaw in the tech path. Once the Roman player has researched all his available technologies the game crashes because you didn't give them access to the 'Future Tech (...)' advance (' Native Culture' in your scenario). I believe a designer must build the tech tree in a manner that gives all the scenario's belligerents access to this advance, otherwise, the game will crash if a player no longer has any tech's to research. [Note: I was only able to continue playing the game after changing the ' Native Culture' tech's prerequisite advances to nil, nil].

In addition, here are a few comments/observations/questions:
• I probably would have liked to see a little more use of the event file to generate messages to give the player more historical comments.
• For a map this size the movement of the naval units, in my opinion, is much too small. It takes forever for them to move around. I believe their MP's should be at least 2 or 3 times greater.
• A small point but, after taking forever to get up to the top of the map I was a little annoyed my fleets couldn't navigate around the tip of northern England. Was this done intentionally?
• What's the purpose of the 'Supplies' unit. If it's to help build expensive Roman units may I suggest increasing its cost value otherwise the amount they contributes is rather negligible (see 'Hannibal'sWar' scenario were the designers implemented a similar concept).
• The ability to irrigate farmlands is inactivated for both the ' Legionaries' and 'Slaves' units. Was that intentional?
• The ability for the ' Legionaries' and 'Slaves' units to construct 'Fortresses' is inactivated (you can only build airbases). Was that intentional?

This was a very fun scenario to play. Congratulations.
 
Follow up to my comments above:

I was looking at your event file a little more in detail and noticed that the following events won't trigger because you didn't assign the same tech to trigger them.

; Hadrian's Wall
You assign the GiveTechnology 94 and 95 when capturing Luguvallium and Arbeia respectively but require the Roman player to have received tech 96 to get the 'Wall' units.

; Sixth Legion
You assign the GiveTechnology 99 when capturing Eboracum but require that the Roman player have received tech 90 to get the 'VI Victrix' and 'General' units.
 
I'm not sure why your legionnaries cannot irrigate, mine did. They are the only units that can transform land, however. Supplies are basically only for purchasing a unit, since the prices are high. I realized halfway through that there was no incentive to build them when you have caravans available. Still, I thought having a few at the start might be helpful - but without the ability to generate trade route income at that point. I used airbases instead of fortresses so that catapults would work in them, and so the natives had a bit better protection.

You are right about the map and the inability to ferry troops around too easily. I wanted to take advantage of the risk of losing triremes.

The events trigger, but the Roman player has to research the techs for the wall and sixth legion. When the cities are captured, you get a tech in the tree which opens up the relevant paths. In the case of the walls, the units get placed on the map directly.

I wasn't sure if I had slowed down the tech enough to prevent a player from reaching the end of research. I will check to see what is easier, giving the Romans more techs to start, slowing things down more (my least favorite option), or changing Future tech.

Thanks!
 
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