Arabic Conquests / Rise of Islam 7th Century

[Hunterkiller]

Hello Civ3- Community,

This is the Thread for my Arabic Conquests / Rise of Islam 7th Century Scenario. Feedback and Advices would be very nice & helpful for me.

The Scenario is about the Conquest of the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire by the Rashidun Caliphate (Very Strong).

Both Empires have Alliances with weak Vassal States (Armenia, Ghassanids, Lakhmids and Lazica).

The Scenario is an Advancement of the original Civ3-Scenario: Fall of Rome.

Updates:
Update 1.1: More Civilizations / More Units / Bigger Map (Aral Sea)
Update 1.2: More Civilizations / More Units / New Leaderheads / Bigger Map (Italy)
Update 1.3: More Civilizations / More Units / New City Graphics / Bigger Map (Afghanistan)
Update 1.4: More Civilizations / More Units / New Leaderheads / Bigger Map (Tunisia)

Special Thanks to:
Sandris (Units), Vuldacon (Leaderheads / Units / Resources), Bathyskaff (Leaderheads), Kyriakos (City Graphics), Delta_Strife (Units) and Snoopy (Terrain Graphics).

Scenario Download Link:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/arabic-conquests-rise-of-islam-7th-century.27910/

Civ3-Noraze-Exe-File:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=327919

Snoopy's Terrain Graphics:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/snoopys-terrain-graphics-v4-5-for-civ3-conquests-c3c.68702/

Have Fun!

 

[CELTICEMPIRE]

It sounds cool, but when I downloaded the file it was a .rar file and I don't know what to do with that (I haven't downloaded a Civ III scenario or mod in a long time).

 

[Hunterkiller]

Hello CELTICEMPIRE, you should open the .rar file with a Program like WinZip, WinRAR, WinAce or 7-Zip and than decompress the file.

A .rar file is almost the same as a .zip file.

 

[Chalito]

Found this one, which had no reviews or comments at all and decided to check it out.

Some changes I did…
-created land bridge at Istanbul, sea intersection crossing allowed per Flintlock Mod.
-Added luxury resources to encourage the Caliphate to conquer far away lands.
-Made scenario only 126 turns every 3 months for 31 years total. I thinks that’s correct math.
-Culture flip on to keep me honest. It looked like mass amount of culture was added to create borders, so I reduced the starting culture to manageable levels, otherwise they would all flip immediately.
My AI FairPlay rules…
-no unit rushing build, destroy all trebuchet units captured.

Potential changes…
Bosra city in Jordan, change name to Busra?
I can see Iron resource without having Iron Working tech.
All new units come from the same tech for all civs. Should spread them around some.
There are also a lot of techs that appear to not do anything? Based on Fall of Rome scenario, which I haven’t played too much.


632 June
2 Army (1 unit loaded only with huge HP) like +12
48 Arabic Spearmen 1-3-1
30 Arabic Swordsmen 4-2-1
30 Ghazi Warriors 5-3-1

30 Arabic Cavalry 6-3-2 (Ignores Terrain movement cost)
20 Arabic Camels 5-2-2

1 Trigger Ship (submarine bug)
1 Galley
Population: 960,000 3rd
Land: 38,800 5th

The Trigger Ship, I’m guessing it’s supposed to be about the submarine bug, to start a war with the Parthians, but with Flintlock Mod I’m able to hold off a bit for now. I’ve got a ton of units to start with, West and East SODs ready for conquest. Anyway, let’s begin ALLAHU AKBAR!!!!!

WEST
I’m splitting the West SOD in 2 SOD’s.
SW Stack to conquer Northern Africa. takes Eiliat and advances to Pelusium to secure the Sinai pinch point.
NW Stack to conquer the Levant. takes Mu’rtah and Jerusalem! Palestine is now secured. Battle of Jerusalem was really tough.
EAST
In the East, our SOD to just move north for now and concentrate on capturing Iraq first to eliminate the Lakhmid civ.
Kadhima captured easily and the push north continues.

Our allies from the UAE, Azd Uman have captured 3 cities across the Persian Gulf from the Sassanians.


632 September
WEST
Pelusium captured and pinch point at the Sinai is now held. At this point I’m going to further break off about 6 Ghazi Warrior units to head south and capture Asyut, the rest of the group marches to Alexandria!
EAST
Al-Ubullah captured from the Lakhmid. Should there be swamps here, this is around Basra?? Splitting my mounted units without Spearmen protection to take Al-Hirah, Kashkar and Ramhormoz quickly before moving north. I want the fertile southern Iraq lands and my Banu Bakr allies are sending their own mounted units to try to take some land too! I have to beat them to these lands!

632 December
EAST
Another tough battle in the east as we take Al-Hirah and eliminate the Lakhmids! Lost quite a few Cavalry units though.
Ramhormoz captured and I try block the path of some of the Banu Bakr units. Hoping they take the path north, so they can eventually be the front line units against the guys coming from the Caucasus.
Kashkar captured as well, now it’s time to meet up in the Sassanian capital of Ctesiphon! But going to wait for my Foot units to catch-up, as my mounted units have degraded a bit with losses and injuries.
Sending an expeditionary force to cross into Persia proper and attack Istahkar.
Our brothers from the Azd Uman now have 4 Sassanian towns across the Persian Gulf.

 

[Chalito]

Forgot to mention I’m playing this at Emperor level, my preferred choice for scenarios with cities already built. Also mountains are not passable, so there’s quite the funneling happening. I don’t know if this makes it easier though, since I know the AI can only come from these locations.

633 March
WEST
In the Battle of Busra I have learned that the Ghazi Warriors can create other new Ghazi units! Obviously enemy forces that have seen the light and converted to Islam. It was another tough battle in the Levant, but we prevailed and Jordan is now a Muslim land! The Ghassanids are history!
Beirut also captured! A Great Leader was born here, but it looks like I can’t create another Army unit with it. Now off to Syria!
Alexandria captured after a tough fight. My mounted units go in and take HP’s off the enemy then retreat back for the other units to kill them off. So luckily I’m not losing that many units in the battles! I’ve got a bunch of red-lined Cavalry, but they will heal to fight again! For now sending in the Foot units to keep moving west! I want that Ivory resource in the present day Benghazi area.
EAST
My expeditionary force ran into Persia, ran into some trouble on their way to Ishtakhar! Going to have to wait for reinforcements!

633 June
Whoa, got a total of 9 auto-produced units in 3 cities. 3 Cav, 3 Camel and 3 Ghazi Warriors!! I’m thinking this might make the game too easy, but I’m sure the other Civs are getting auto-produced units too, hopefully..
WEST
Asyut captured by my foot units, will garrison a large force here, since I have no idea how strong that civ in Sudan is.
Emesa also captured in the Levant!
EAST
Sassanian capital of Ctesiphon is captured! Mounted units area all injured and need to rest before continuing on. New capital of the Sassanians is Isfahan, our main target anyway with the Spice resource. Going to move forward with Foot units here too.
Discovered Fortress with 4 Sassanian spearmen units at the pinch point to Istakhr. This path is really tough, that must be an important city though!
There was another fortress at the pinch point next to Nahavand, but there was only 1 enemy Spearmen here, which we quickly overpowered to take over!
Starting to feel this scenario is very easy, so went ahead and declared war on Parthians to make it tougher! Also, might as well take northern Iran too while I’m here.

Sep 633
WEST
In the Levant we captured the big city of Antioch! We also captured Callinicum, present day Ar-Raqqah, former capital of the defunct Islamic State. The whole of Syria is now mine, and I’ve reached a bit of a stopping point. I’m sending some mounted units out east to help battle the Parthians now.

Dec 633
WEST
Petras Maior captured, we are now in Lybia! The Byzantines are now sending some units to attack Antioch, so time to send mounted units to Antioch and prepare for the invasion of Anatolia. I can capture Ptolemais with the remaining Foot units.
EAST
Nahavand captured and the next target is Isfahan! Suffered a lot of losses in taking the fortress outside of Istakhr. Will stand here until I can get a big enough force to attack the city. I have no Trebuchet, so can’t bomb the population either.

June 634
WEST
Ptolemais and the Ivory resource captured! This is it for the Byzantines in the west, except for Carthage which is really far away and across the Beber lands.

Sep 634
Istakhr captured finally!!! Isfahan captured as well and the Sassanian capital moved all the way east to Herat in Afghanistan. Units getting ready for the assault on Parthia! I’m feeling overly spread out now, even though I’ve not lost that many mounted units and get a whole 6 new ones every 4 turns or so, definitely need more Spearmen units to stay back in the conquered towns though.

 

[Chalito]

So this was definitely way too easy as the Rashidun at Emperor level, but I can imagine how difficult it will be as the Sassanians or Byzantines! Part of it was me changing the culture to avoid immediate culture flip, this allowed the Arabs to move faster as the cities are quite separated by good distances. I’m thinking the Parthian clan should just be allied with the Sassanians from the beginning, so I’m going to have to adjust that a bit to find just the right amount of Culture. Possibly experimenting with passable mountains now.
I’ll have to see what free units the other Civs are getting too as the Rashidun get 9 new units every 4 turns!
Rashidun are probably Sid Level, or the one just before it, as it currently is. But then again I guess it was fairly easy for the Rashidun to expand so quickly.

 

[Chalito]

Playing as the Byzantine on Emperor Level. Mountains are now passable, had to remove the ‘Wheeled’ tag from a bunch of Foot units to do this as well.

632 June

17 Workers
55 Byzantine Spearmen 1-3-1
18 Akritai 1-4-1
9 Trebuchet 0(10)-0-1

21 Galley 3-2-6

Population: 5,160,000 1st
Land: 86,300 1st

I have no offensive units anywhere, so I start building Swordsmen 4-2-1 where ever I could. The Akritai I cannot build either. Will wait and see what free units I get.
-So the Rashidun went in and took Jerusalem and Pelusium right in the first turn. They did take some losses in Jerusalem though, as that city is on a Hill.

632 Sep
Okay, so for my first move, I’ve decided to pull my Spearmen units out of Beirut, Emesa and Callinicum. I know what is about to come, so might as well save my units to fight later on. I’ve decided to set the defensive line at Antioch and Amida and start moving as many defenders as possible to these two cities.

633 June
All 3 abandoned cities have now fallen. The battles in Amida have commenced. The Rashidun are not attacking Antioch, instead they are swinging around towards Tarsus.

633 September
Oh no, the defense of Amida has collapsed and the city falls to the Muslims! Ruh Roh, and they now control the barricade on the way to Sebasteia. The road to Anatolia is completely open to them now from this front. I should’ve placed more defenders in Amida!!

634 June
Whew, well the Arabs shifted their focus to Africa and Egypt! This allowed me time to send units to reinforce Sebasteia, the new front line. In Tarsus, the Muslims were pushed back and they never really threatened Antioch, as it is heavily defended. We have lost control of Egypt and no doubt about that we will lose the two towns in Libya that we have.

634 Dec
And Petras Maior and Ptolemais have fallen. Only Carthage remains in Africa, buts it’s very far away, between Berber lands, not sure if the Rashidun will go for it.

636 June
Well, it has been a couple of years without any fighting in Anatolia! The Lazicians have continually attacked the Arabs fortified in the barricade near Sebasteai, but have not been able to dislodge them. No further attacks on Tarsus, but in this turn a large number of Muslim units were spotted heading to northern Iraq from Beirut, probably on their way to Armenia, or maybe Sebasteia! We have taken advantage in this lull to continually send a bunch of Swordsmen to Antioch and Sebasteia for the coming counterattack. I’ve been getting a various amounts of free units that I otherwise could not build, like Cataphracts, Excubitors, Crossbow Mercenaries and Dromons. I’ll wait and see what the Muslims do now and launch my counterattack soon.

636 December
The Muslims attacks have now begun on Anatolia in Antioch. The big force further north appeared heading towards Sebasteia, but then made a hard turn towards Armenia. Just a few more turns and I think I’ll be ready to for my counter attack!

 

[Kyriakos]

Wow, so many of my old graphics
The scenario looks cool too...

 

[Chalito]

Wow, so many of my old graphics
The scenario looks cool too...

Very nice work, these units look like they could've come from Firaxis!

 

[Kyriakos]

Very nice work, these units look like they could've come from Firaxis!

Damn... ^^ My own work is the cities and some terrain gfx there
Though I personally prefer the newer versions (link in my signature)

 

[Chalito]

I noticed there are no VP locations in this scenario, I'll probably add it to some important cities like Jerusalem. I also noticed that even though the mountains are now passable the AI still prefers to go through the pinch points between the mountains, even if they have to fight their way through it. So that;s good


637 June

Military Forces
20 Workers
57 Byzantine Spearmen 1-3-1
6 Trebuchet 0 (10)-0-1
17 Akritai 1-4-1
29 Byzantine Swordsmen 4-2-1
4 Crossbow Mercenary 5 (10)-2-1
5 Excubitors 5-3-1
9 Cataphract 5-3-2

21 Galley 3-2-6
3 Dromon 5-3-7

Population: 3,890,000 1st
Land: 68,000 1st

5 years have passed, since the start of the game. The Sassanians have been ripped apart but are still hanging on with about 4 core cities and 3 more outlying towns between Arab conquered territories.
Lakhmid capital is somehow still standing!! The Parthians, Armenians and Lazicians are all standing with no lost territory. But we’ll see if they can survive the Rashidun push to the north.
We’ve lost quite a bit of land, but now’s the time to recapture it!


637 September
Took the barricade near Sebasteia, but it was very costly!! Reinforced the tile with 8 defensive units. Also killed an Army unit near Antioch! These are tough with their extra HP.


637 December
Emesa captured! A bit concerned I’m losing too many defenders in their counters though.
-A big counter at Emesa, hoping this isn’t my culmination but it seems like it. And I need Jerusalem back!!!


638 March
Hunted down another Army unit in the hills at Antioch and eliminated them!
-A Trebuchet battle has begun at the Sebasteia barricade. But these units have lethal bombard!! So it will not be a stalemate for long, someone is going to win.


638 June
Military Tech achieved, I can now build Cataphracts!!
I’ve decided to continue the push to Jerusalem and the first stop is Beirut, sending 7 Swords, 3 Cataphracts and 3 Trebuchet to attack from the hills. Leaving both Antioch and Emesa a little vulnerable!
-3 units lost at sea, from Arab Galleys!! Arrrgh!!! A big SOD with 12 Trebuchet and 12 Spearmen units are approaching Tarsus.

638 September
YUSSSS Beirut is captured!!!
-Trebuchet near Tarsus have already killed 2 of my units by themselves.


638 December
Killed 4 units and captured 4 Trebuchet near Sebasteia! I’m not going to destroy these Trebuchet just yet. Sending them to Sebasteia just in case the Muslims make a breakthrough here.
Also just realized the Cataphract has the best offense and defense of any units I can build, so I start mass production of these guys everywhere!
-The Muslims took over the barricade between the Mountains north of Tarsus, then moved their SOD away to the east, whew!


639 June
Attacks have shifted to Beirut and Emesa. Lost 3 more units at sea, it’s almost like the AI knows exactly which Galley is carrying a big load of units!

639 December
The force that was guarding the barricade near Sebasteia had grown 21 units including 4 Trebuchet due to lack of action, so I decided to open a new front and send these guys out to reconquer Amida.


640 March
Amida is retaken!!! But they have a bunch of Ghazi Warriors nearby, that were probably headed to Armenia. I think the next path forward is Callinicium before going to Jerusalem. I think the AI Rashidun is having a hard time picking which side to go, as there are enemies everywhere for them.

 

[Chalito]

Damn... ^^ My own work is the cities and some terrain gfx there
Though I personally prefer the newer versions (link in my signature)

Ahh, the cities look great too!

 

[Kyriakos]

Hm, I tried the scen too yesterday
Maybe the intended difficulty setting is the max/hardest?
Because I played two settings below hardest, as Byzantines, and I easily retook everything back after the first 20 turns, and then had around twice the army of the islamists and conquered three more cities of theirs. Moreover, Sassanids only ever lost one city... (that said, I did give two border cities to Berbers and Mahreb, (not Alexandria, but it was conquered), and the islamists never went to war with them, so I saved Prolemais from the original onslaught and created a horrible bottleneck between Antioch and Callinicum by gifting Emesa to a neutral side too- the Kazachs).
I conquered sub-dunabian Bulgaria, but then gave up due to lack of (personal) time.

Still, beautiful map, and clearly a lot of love went into making this scenario!!! Recommended. It deserves far more posts on it. (eg @Ozymandias, you may like it!)

 

[Chalito]

Yeah, I think the AI just can’t handle a frontline that stretches from Egypt to Turkey and east to Iran. I’ll see them sending a big stack in one direction and before any mission is completed, they send the whole stack in another direction.

I tend to create different versions of the same scenario to beef up the AI where they need. I think this one will probably need that,

 

[Chalito]

I’m surprised the Sassanians only lost 1 city in your game. They get ripped apart in grit southern coast by the Arabs in the UAE and Oman

 

[Kyriakos]

I’m surprised the Sassanians only lost 1 city in your game. They get ripped apart in grit southern coast by the Arabs in the UAE and Oman

I think (not entirely sure) that this happened due to two things:
My trick to give Emesa to the Khazars, meant that around 40 islamic units died in various bits of the road to Antioch (including two armies). That said, they never really were in a position to take Antioch, and at least a third of their dead were in attempts (successful or not) to take hills around it (but even when they managed to take the hill, they were driven back from it in the next turn).
Still, I suppose that if I was playing at the hardest difficulty level, Antioch would have fallen (not that this would have meant that much, due to impassable terrain).
The decision to bring Armenia into the war (along with Laz) helped a little bit, because they tended to place their own units east of Antioch, so took some hit there (but I doubt we are talking about more than 10 killed islamic units).
Amida wasn't ever threatened, by the way. No islamic units neared it, due to the Antioch chokepoint and general failure east of Antioch too.

 

[Chalito]

Oh haha! I typically try to give the AI some advantages to help help it out a bit. Yeah, Antioch is close enough to the core cities of the Byzantine Empire that you can stack some defenders before the Muslims get there. Definitely want to try this at Sid Level.

It has some “submarine bug” trigger ships for the Arabs to start fighting the Parthians with the option for peace later, maybe that could be extended to the Laz and Armenians.

 

[Ozymandias]

Looks most promising

 

[Kyriakos]

It's sad that this scenario flew under the radar for 4 years
It has quality. I wonder if @Hunterkiller is even around anymore.

 

[Hunterkiller]

Thank you for your positive Rating Kyriakos and your Playthrough Chalito. Your City Graphics looked great for this Scenario, Kyriakos. Thanks again.