New Israel civilization mod!

download this module at:
http://people.cornell.edu/pages/rb62/games/civ3/civ3-israel_mod-thinker.zip

here are some extracts from the readme

ISRAEL CIVILIZATION 3 MODULE V1.4
Game Version: Civilization III - Conquests v1.22
Author: Thinker
Contact email: rcb1974 [at] yahoo [dot] com
Date: May 19, 2004

SUMMARY:
This module adds the nation of Israel to the game along with other relevant changes. Unfortunately due to a bug in the Civ 3 editor, I had to remove one civilization in order to add this one. I chose to remove the Hittites since they're the closest one to Israel. I made the following changes:

• Added Israel civilization (agricultural and religious) There are reasons why Israel could be considered militaristic, industrial, scientific, commercial, and even expansionist. In v1.3 of this mod, Israel was commercial but after more research I thought the agricultural trait would be more appropriate. In the books I've been reading, historians keep describing the Hebrews as being "agricultural".
  
• Added Israeli unique unit (UU) -- the Gibbor (4/2/2 build roads/fortress/barricades) Note: I realize that David and his gibbor, or "mighty men" lived around 1000BC. Regardless, I chose to make the gibbor UU a replacement for medieval infantry, not swordsmen. My reasoning is that historically Monotheism was required to build gibbor. But since Monotheism is only available in Civ3 during the Middle Ages (i.e. around 900AD), and since the standard unit then was medieval infantry (not swordsmen), I felt that a medieval infantry type unit rather than a swordsman type unit would be a more appropriate choice for the gibbor.
• Added Israeli great wonder -- Solomon's Temple
• Added small wonder -- Solomon's Palace
• Added government -- Theocracy
• Changed upgrade paths for units as follows: Non-Israeli civ (unchanged): Swordsman -> Medieval Infantry -> Guerilla ; Israeli civ: Swordsman -> Gibbor -> Guerilla
• Ancient Cavalry now upgrades to Knight (or your civ's Knight like unique unit)
• Crusaders now upgrade to Guerilla
• Added a new difficulty called "Fair" which eliminates all cheating done by the AI. On the Fair difficulty setting, the AI players gets exactly the same bonuses as human players.
• Added 2 variations of a similar scenario called "Iceworld". It makes for a very fair and interesting game.

DESCRIPTION OF ISRAEL
The Israelites are commercial and religious. They start the game with Ceremonial Buriel and Alphabet and build Gibbor instead of Medieval Infantry.

The Israelites started out as slaves in ancient Egypt. After enduring two centuries of bondage, God chose Moses, an Israelite who fled from Egypt, to lead the Israelites out of slavery. At first Moses unsuccessfully negotiated with the pharaoh for the freedom of the Israelites. But then God inflicted ten excruciating plagues on the Egyptians, after which the Israelites were finally permitted to leave. Soon afterwords, the Egyptians changed their minds and decided to pursue them. By the time the Israelites had reached the Red Sea, the Egyptians were already in hot pursuit. God miraculously split the sea so that the Israelites could pass through. God then lowered the water on the Egyptians, wiping out their armed forces.

After this Exodus from Egypt, the Israelites began a 40-year journey to Canaan by traveling into the Sinai Desert. There, God revealed the Ten Commandments, the basic rules and principles that have guided Jewish life into contemporary times.

For about two centuries after arriving in Canaan, the Israelite tribal confederation functioned mostly as a military alliance. Tribes would come to the aid of one another when threatened by outside forces, especially by the Philistines, a people who lived in the southern part of Canaan. Toward the end of these two centuries a prophet named Samuel emerged as the spiritual leader of the Israelites. The military threat from the Philistines continued, however, and the Israelite tribes clamored for a king who would unite the tribes and serve as military commander for the people as a whole.

The first king, Saul, did not succeed in the eyes of the biblical authors. Saul’s successor, David, reigned in about 1000 BC and was a fantastically successful monarch. According to the biblical account, he slew Goliath--a notable Philistine who was ten feet tall. Later with the help of his Gibbor, or "mighty men", David achieved other military goals and expanded the territory of the kingdom. In David’s time Jerusalem emerged as a central city for the Israelite community.

As his 40-year reign neared its conclusion, David chose his son Solomon to succeed him. Solomon was also a successful monarch, who was distinguished by his great wisdom and understanding. During his rule, Solomon's Temple was established in Jerusalem. This Temple became the central shrine of the Israelites, to the exclusion of other pagan shrines.

After Solomon’s death, around 920 BC, the unified kingdom split into two. The northern kingdom, called Israel, and the southern kingdom, called Judah, became politically separate, although they continued to have much economic and social contact. Around 720 BC the Assyrians conquered the kingdom of Israel, but the kingdom of Judah was spared and continued developing its own religious culture revolving around Solomon's Temple. From the 8th century BC onward the kingdom cultivated the worship of a single God (i.e. Monotheism), at a time when polytheism was the common practice.

Babylonians from the east ultimately overran the kingdom of Judah at the beginning of the 6th century BC, in what the Judeans understood as a sign of religious failure on their part. The Babylonians destroyed Solomon's Temple, a catastrophe still commemorated by many Jews today in the fast day known as Tishah b’Ab. The Persian Empire defeated the Babylonians in about 540 BC, some 50 years after the Babylonian conquest, and added the land of Israel to its empire. The Persians ruled through a system of vassal (dependent) states, allowing conquered populations to govern themselves within the larger framework of Persian imperial law. The Temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt toward the end of the 6th century BC, becoming once again the central place of worship for the Jews. It remained so until the Romans destroyed it in 70 AD.

The Persian Empire, in turn, was overrun by Alexander the Great of Macedonia in the mid-4th century BC. For nearly two centuries, the Jews were ruled by Alexander and the monarchs who succeeded him in the states he had conquered. During this time the culture of the Greeks dominated the eastern Mediterranean region and the Near East. As far as historians can tell, the Jews continued to enjoy considerable autonomy, or self-rule, in the province of Judea.

In 63 BC the Romans added Judea to their developing empire. Judea became a place in which Jewish, Greek, and Roman cultures met amid great tension. Over time many Jews developed considerable resentment toward Roman rule, and in 66 AD open revolt broke out. The Romans finally crushed the rebellion in 73 AD, when they captured Masada, the fortress occupied by the last Jewish holdouts.


SUMMARY OF GIBBOR UNIQUE UNIT
These units replace the medieval infantry and are produced either by Solomon's Temple or an Israeli city. They are fast offensive units that can may withdraw from combat if losing the fight (unless fighting another fast unit, of course). They can also build roads, fortresses, and barricades.

Attack: 4
Defense: 2
Moves: 2
Shield cost: 50
Prerequisite: Monotheism
Prerequisite: Iron resource


SUMMARY OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE
Solomon's Temple produces a Gibbor every 6 turns and puts a Courthouse in every city on the same continent.

The city must have access to Incense and Silk in order to build Solomon's Temple.

Culture per turn: 4
Shield cost: 800

This Great Wonder can become a tourist attraction.
May trigger a Golden Age for Religious civilizations.

SUMMARY OF SOLOMON'S PALACE
Solomon's Palace acts like a second Forbidden Palace for tribes governed under a Theocracy.

Culture per turn: 2
Shield cost: 300

DESCRIPTION OF THEOCRACY
Theocracy is a form of government organized around a central set of religious beliefs that form a rigid guideline for the actions of both the ruler and the people. In a Theocracy, the people and rulers are entirely devoted to these beliefs, and are often willing to die to preserve them.

Theocratic cities are immune to propaganda and have a very low rate of corruption, but tend to be isolationist and xenophobic. Consequently, they do [not] enjoy an increase in commerce like cities under a Republic or Democracy. Newly conquered cities will not generate culture until a popular majority has been assimilated.

Worker efficiency 100%
Hurry Method Pay citizens
Corruption / Waste Minimal
War Weariness None
Draft Rate 1
Military Police Limit 1
Unit Support
per town 1
per city 2
per metropolis 3

Haven't tried it out yet (and probably won't as I don't have the time) but isn't the UU way overpowered, as well as the wonder?
Usually a Wonder doesn't have so many effects, and a UU isn't that far off from the unit it replaces...

well, the Wonder is overpowered for sure. Either the UU's attack power should be redused back to 4 or the movement back to 1. It is definetly unbalanced...

Thank you for your feedback. You're right about the wonder being powerful. I'll probably eliminate at least one benefit in a future release. However, if you actually play using the Israel civ, you will discover that its not as easy as it seems to build the wonder because:

- you must be operating under a Fundamentalist government
- you have to have incense and silk
- the host city has to be have a population of at least 7. So good luck building this wonder on the outskirts of your empire where you normally would want it (since it acts as a Forbidden palace). On your outskirts you probably wont have both silk and incense not to mention population of 7 and good production.
- you have to already own at least 0.5*optimal_cities_setting number of cities
- you need 1000 shields which is 2x to 3x the normal wonder cost for this time period. This is especially difficult to achieve on the outskirts of your empire unless you get very lucky and get a scientific leader to hurry the wonder.

The "courthouse in every city" wonder benefit is less than it seems because:
1) Courthouses don't generate culture
2) The courthouse benefit 'resistant to propoganda' is N/A because
Fundamentalist govnt is immune to propoganda anyway. If you switch to a govn't other than Fundamentalist, then Solomon's Temple stops working.

As far as the unique unit goes, I might either reduce the attack strength by 1 or remove the blitz benefit. Keep in mind that the mighty man is expensive costing the same amount as a Knight, but having +1 attack and -1 defense relative to the Knight. If you think this unit is overpowered, consider the Spanish conquistador or the Numidian Mercenary.

A little nationalistic, are we? I mean, it would be nearly impossible to lose with this tribe. The unique unit is the best in the game, the temple is amazing, and there is no real competition between governments anymore. I mean, what's the point of democracy if theocracy gives you free unit support?

is it just me or is fundamintalism seem a bit over powered?...

Well, half of those hurdles towards the Wonder are simply eliminated if you happen to have a SGL, which makes for a WAY overpowered wonder. No single wonder has so many powers even with such difficult conditions for construction simply because there are always quicker ways to a wonder. You should consider removing many of the effects of this wonder and just choosing one or two. I would probably suggest you just keep the Courthouse-giving effect and possibly the Commerce or the Hospital benefit...
Also, is it just me or is Fundamentalism overpowered as well? The Fascism disadvantages have proved not to be so horrible in most cases, so they are not a fair counterbalance to the power of this gov't... You should remove some of it's features to make it fair, tho I don't know which.

regarding Fundamentalism (or Theocracy however you want to describe it) -

The reasons why you might want Democracy more than Fundamentalism are:

- Democracy gives you +1 trade to every city square that already has trade.
This made a big difference in my tests with regard to science/gold gained per turn.
- Also cities conquered under a Democracy generate culture immediately rather than having to wait for a popular majority.

The reasons why you might want Fascism more than Fundamentalism are:

- Fasism currently has about 1.5 times as much free unit support than Fundamentalism
- Better worker efficiency
- Forced labor hurry method (which in my opinion is better than Payed labor)

What I originally wanted to do to handicap Fundamentalism was to set the Hurry Method to 'none'. But then due to game engine limitations you wouldn't be able to hurry things with leaders. Instead in the next release I'll reduce the amount of free unit support (to something like 1, 2, and 3), draft rate, and bring worker rate down to 100 from 150.

Do you folks think removing the blitz bonuses to the UU would make it balanced enough? Then it would basically be just knight with +1 attack and -1 defense... That would seem reasonable to me compared to other UU's.

I also just raised the shield requirement for Solomon's temple to 1500, removed its trade bonus, and made it generate mighty men less often. SGL in practice are really very rare. Plus with my balance changes to Fundamentalism, the temple+fundamentalism combo will seem less attractive. Now even though the temple has 3x as many bonuses as a typical wonder, it costs 3x as much.

OK I rebalanced the UU, Fundamentalism, and Solomon's Temple. Just download the new version using the same link.

It's your mod, so it's your decision, but I think you should really rename the new government type to Theocracy or to a special Israel only Tora government.

Our Tora government system back then had nothing to do with the modern meaning of fundamentalism (e.g. Iran). In fact it was extremly progressive compared to other systems during that time.

The local judges were elected by the local population. The king in contrast to most monarchic system where the kings were regarded as g-d's deputies with absolute power or even g-dlike, the kings of Israel had no absolute power at all but were bound by the Tora as the constitution and law of Israel which they could not change! They had to share power with the high priests and in the earlier days even with the representatives of the tribes.

Another idea for an Israeli UU other than the usual Merkava etc. could be a 'Hebrew Warrior'/'Hasmonean Warrior'/'Judean Warrior' (name it as you like...) 2-2-1 replacing the Spearman.

When I read through Joseph Ben Matatyahu's (roman name: Flavius Josephus) description of our wars against the Greek and the Romans I noticed that we mainly used offensive and very creative tactics to break sieges like attacking the base of the besieger under favour of night using tunnels or by other means e.g. making a horrible noise by trowing stones unto metal plates and scaring them evil helenist scum away .

I dunno, do what you like, I think the Wonder is just way way too powerful. No matter what the price. Remember, someone can always prebuild to nab it easily with no competition.

i also think everything is overpowered. especially the courthouse in every city! you basicly limit corruption in distant cities to a maximum of 85%! additionally, with 2 forbidden palaces, the extra commerce in the city (a city with virtually no corruption because of the FP) and the minimal corruption makes this incredibly strong!

you should reduce the theocracy's corruption level to something around that of monarchy. don't forget that fundamentalists don't really believe in free market. a lot of trade is still done between families and clans. that may not be corruption, but it definatly isn't commerce which the whole country profits of.

another wierd thing is the combination fundamentalistic and scientific. they are normally completely mutually exclusive. strong religion = strong oposing to technological/social advancements. this goes for any religion...

last, not a balance issue, but something you got wrong:
scientific civs get bronze working to start with. imho, the isreali civ should start with alphabet, but then give them the commercial trait (although that makes the corruption yet lower )

It seems that the 'big picture' balance of the game has gone flying out the window at relativistic speeds in order to accomodate an intentional or not jinogistic desire to make your own civilisation powerful. There has to be a lot of cuts to the ludicrous advantages this faction enjoys.
The British Empire at its height effectively ruled the planet, its economic might was completely uncontested, the Royal Navy maintained a modus operandi of having a fleet two times bigger than the closest competitor so the two most powerful enemies in the world could be fended off at the same time. We squished all before us. For laying the foundations of the western world as we know it today, Firaxis gave to us in Civ III.....the Man O' War. An upgunned frigate that will be obsolete so quickly you'll need a time travelling Delorean to keep up. Even the famed Roman Legions, in this game they are post-Marius Legions no less, the truly professional paid fighting forces of Rome, get little more than a point of extra defence.
As such giving the Mighty Man, essentially a unit in real terms that would hang between warrior and swordsman in Civ III but is for reasons unknown to me, now standing alongside medieval infantry of the 1200 - 1400 era, the bonuses of Blitzkreig, no movement penalties whatsoever (one more click and these guys will be walking on water), added attacking abilities and extra movement to compliment their ability to jog over the Alpines, completely ludicrous. You're looking at a warrior with an extra point of attack here. Post Marius Roman Legions in this game are swordsmen with extra defence, and the Mighty Man is ancient even by those terms. A full plate armoured medieval warrior complete with kite shield and flail he is not. The unit you built could chew up and spit out a unit of pikemen with consummate ease! Musketeers would fall to these psychos!

Solomons Temple? Extraordinarily high culture value akin to the Great Library and extra happiness across your civilisation. Maybe something on the order of two happy faces for every city....to make it really unique, don't have it obsolete by anything like the Hanging Gardens does. In no facet of the imagination could one say that the actual temple of Solomon encouraged massive trade (you yourself outlined the huge debts incurred in its construction), allowed its home city to grow to exceptional size and ensured that everyone in the entire civilisation stopped committing criminal acts resulting in the improvement of beuracracy and lowering of crime. Unless Solomon himself starting walking the beat upon the Temples completion and was, on the side, a crime fighting hero.

Oh and, there's no need for a new form of government. Israel was notable for having a monotheisic state religion, it was still essentially a monarchy. It's a hard pill to swallow but in Israel the religion would still have been little more than a controlling factor keeping the citizens in line as the monarchy ruled, true, they are likely to be more devout than most and less unruly, but this would be represented by actually building a happiness inducing Solomons Temple first.

Umm, you obviously haven't read the readme in the zip file that addresses lots of your concerns. First of all, there is a reason why the UU is a middle age unit -see the readme. Second, the new UU no longer blitzs, and with the old UU the movement penalties _did_ apply to everything except hills and mountains. But that issue is N/A anyhow because the new UU has standard movement penalties. its currently 5/2/2 no blitz, but its going to be 4/2/2 in the next release. There are other nasty UU's that appear in the same era like the Viking berserker that has an attack of 6, which means it basically has a 50% chance to kill riflemen AND it can pop up out of a ship all in 1 turn. The russian Cossack also has attack of 6 AND zone of control AND blitz AND moves of 3.

The temple doesnt make anyone happy, and the government has been handicapped so that its about on par with the Republic. Third, with everyone complaining about the temple, remember that anyone can build it not just Israel. The reason for the trade bonus was because after its completion, many rulers came to visit Solomon and essentially payed to hear his wisdom. Some of those people are the Queen of Sheba and the Babylonians. It brought in so much wealth that when the babylonians saw it all during a peaceful visit, they decided to invade some years later (in ~590BC) to loot everything. The reason for the forbidden palace bonus was because right along side the temple was built Solomon's PALACE which was even more expensive than the temple. in my mod rather than have 2 wonders, i just made 1 expensive wonder. if you have a problem with that go play another mod.

The only thing that affects game balance is the UU, since thats the only alteration that affects just the Israel civ. Other players can benefit from the other changes i made, not just Israel. And the AI adopts to my changes very well. It switched to my new govnt and used the UU just fine. Next time before you go slamming someone's mod, try first reading the info on the current version.

That's not true. An overpowered wonder can tip the balance of a game. On lower levels it's just a prize for the human player, on higher levels the human isn't likely to reap this wonder. There are plenty of existing wonders that could have had more powers, but they don't because wonder have to be bonuses, not gamebreakers...

Hi there ThinkerRCB, I love your MOD. I don't think it is overpowerd at all. If I may a little note here: Mighty Man is the english translation for the Hebrew word for what David called them, Gibborum (don't know if spelling is exzactly right). I would suggest calling the UU by that name.

Giborim, probably. Or Gibborim. Doesn't matter really. The direct translation, at least in modern Hebrew, would be "Heroes". iirc, it should be the same in Biblical Hebrew.

OK fine. But there are ways to deal with corruption if you don't have a courthouse. The first one is the following method to build a courthouse:

Thankfully since corruption doesn't affect your food production, you can basically turn your food into shields. Just irrigate, build a granery, and switch to a govn't that allows forced labor. If you're an agricultural civ this works even better. If you have happiness problems, just get luxuries, of keep killing of your unhappy citizens by forcing them to work. Then if you need to build something that costs lots of shields, wait 20 turns for your population to reach like 5 or 6. Then use the forced labor method repeatedly in the same turn (or every other turn) by constantly switching to higher and higher city builds that are 20 or so shields apart. This way you can theoretically get 20 production per turn. In practice this amounts to about 10 production, but it could be 20 depending on which build items are available to you. It becomes 20 if you have available a set of city builds that are spaced 20 shields apart. This works in a totally corrupt city thats half way around the world from your palace. I've used this method to build courthouses, barracks, units etc quickly. The AI opponents don't conciously use this trick, but a human player might.

The communism govnt gets a 2nd forbidden palace too. But like my wonder it only works under the appropriate govnt. Oh back to powerful UU's, the Samurai which costs 70 shields too has not 1 move/turn, but 2 and defense of 4 with attack of 4. So these guys are TWICE as strong in attack as a musketman, and EQUAL in attack as a rifleman but wait, they fight with swords. The cusader is also a sword wielder and has an even better attack it being 5, but only 1 move/turn. Anything with just 1 move can be plopped into an army anyhow giving it 2 moves.

If you want to know my rational for some of the wonder bonuses then read 1 Kings 10. If you want to know the why the Babylonians decided to sack Jerusalem in 587BC, read 2 Kings 20:14-20. Incidentally it mentions Hezekiah's tunnel which you can still see in Jerusalem today and is another city improvment/small wonder that modders could incorporate into their Israel mods.