The Hundred Years War - Rise of the Black Prince (1337 - 1356 AD) -- An SMAN "Merlin" Scenario

[sman1975]

This is the collaboration space for a new family of scenarios, using the "Merlin Scenario Engine."

This scenario is DIFFERENT!!!

Most scenarios are simply Civ5 playing its normal 6000 year game plan to win a culture victory, but on a smaller map covering a shorter time-frame. Civs don't act like they're in an existential struggle.

Merlin changes all that. Providing a great number of changes to Civ5 AI behavior so that AI civs are now focused, well-bonused and very hard to beat.


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Well met again, Friends!

"The Hundred Years War - Rise of the Black Prince (1337 - 1356 AD)" is a scenario depicting the initial phase of the prolonged intermittent struggle now known as the Hundred Years War, a dynastic fight for the crown of France. These wars were fought between the Kingdoms of England and France, along with a various and rotating set of allies.

Playable Civilizations:
- Kingdom of England
- Kingdom of France
- Duchy of Burgundy
- Duchy of Brittany
- Holy Roman Empire
- County of Flanders
- Papal States (Avignon)

The Kings of England and France must raise support of the noble families who hold sway over most of France. The main struggle of the times is between these two kingdoms. However, other nations on the border of France could considerably influence the outcome of this struggle. The Burgundians and Bretons will fight strongly to maintain their relative freedom from the French crown. The Empire is always looking for new lands to add to their holdings. The Pope simply wants to survive and hopefully maintain some of the ancient wealth and influence.

Due to the feudal manner in which societies were organized, sovereigns were forced to rely on subordinate nobles to raise armies, collect taxes, and keep the peace. This scenario implements this dynamic by using Fiefdoms (aka City States), which must be influenced, bullied, or even conquered, in order to get them to comply with royal instruction.


TLDR;

- Seven playable civs: England, France, Burgundy, Brittany, Holy Roman Empire, Flanders, and Papal States

- Quarterly turns, 1337 - 1356 AD, 80 turns max; Timed and Domination victories only

- Player Civs start in the Medieval Era

- There are 65+ reskinned units, 26 new buildings (14 in so far, more coming)

- Holy Roman Empire can use “Diplomatic Intrigue,” aka Diplomatic Marriage, to acquire city states

- Most units available earlier on the tech tree than the standard game

- Research takes longer; constructing buildings and units not so much

- Magnates, or super Great Generals, are available to all Civs (coming soon)





Scenario Download Link: https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/new-scenario-hundred-years-war-1337-1356-ad.31009/


Discord Channel (used to daily interaction on scenario development): https://discord.com/channels/361641784696373248/783755251088883722

The 7 different custom civs in this scenario are available in a Civ Pack. It's not updated as often as the scenario is, but it should be playable: https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/hundred-years-war-civ-pack-1337-1356.30994/


"Merlin" is the nickname for the library of code used to drive the scenarios, to provide behavior not like Civ5's normal 6,000 year game plan. For more info on Merlin, look here: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/merlin-scenario-engine-mse.685626/



Finally, progress on this mod would be weeks behind if not for my great collaborators on Discord: Sebastien1976 and KryptonianEmperor. Merci Beaucoups!!!!

 

[sman1975]

Scenario Background


Welcome Screen:






New/Expanded Tech Tree:






The scenario uses a "scenario score" to determine who wins. This scenario score is generally a percentage of “current population vs. original population.” So, if a civ has 10 cities with 10 population each, they start with 100 population. If during the game, they conquer a few cities and on the final turn have a population of 130, then their score will be 130. If they lose a few cities and their population is only 75, then their score will be 75. The civ with the highest score will be declared the winner.






Religion is replaced with a "Feudal Loyalty" Overview. It shows how loyalty and influence the main players (England, France, Holy Roman Empire, and Papal States) have over other players:

 

[sman1975]

Playable Civs





Diplomacy Screenshots:

 

[sman1975]

Custom Units


There have been several changes with units, to provide a full array of capabilities. One thing you'll notice soon is older units are always abailable. This is intentional, as many of the later units require resources you may not have, or buildings you can't construct yet. So, even if you're very poor in resources, and don't have the needed buildings, you'll always be able to train at least some units throughout the game. And if that doesn't work, there's always mercenaries....



Custom Armies: Each civ has it's own army of custom units - to help improve the immersive qualities of the scenario:

 

[sman1975]

New Units: This scenario adds many new/modified units to the game.


Naval Units: Brittany, England, and France have new/reskinned units to use. Other civs have the older Triremes (melee), and Galleass (ranged).

Cog: A small, weaponized cargo ship. Uses an arrow-based ranged attack, and is available early in the game

Carrack: The northern European Galleass equivalent. Ranged combat.

Holk: An early Caravel-type melee ship. Not capable of open ocean faring.

Caravel: These are simply reskinned caravels.

Note: all naval melee ships (Triremes, Holks, and Caravels) have the "Prize Ships" promotion - meaning they have a change to capture defeated ships. There is also a build limit of 10 for any ship type. This is to prevent massive AI civ overbuilding.







Magnates: These are the leaders of your armies. They are similar to Great Generals, but have a defensive strength and many promotions to make them harder to eliminate. Some have extra visibility, and others have the ability to improve siege capabilities of nearby units. Once they are killed, they cannot be replaced. England and France have 4 magnates. Other playable civs have 2. City States have one.







Mercenaries: These units expend your capability - providing units that can be purchased for gold, and be available in that same turn. There is a limit of 5 of each type of mercenary.






Scenario Features

Reserved

 

[sman1975]

Reserved

 

[sman1975]

Reserved

 

[sman1975]

Instructions:


The map will have to be copied from the scenario's mod folder into the game's maps folder. Mods are generally located in some place like this:

C:\Users\user\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\MODS

Where "user" is the account you were logged-in as when you installed the game.


Using Windows Explorer, navigate to the MODS folder, then located the scenario's folder named "Hundred Years War (1337-1356 AD)"

Double-click on that folder.

You should see the "SCENARIO" folder, so double click on it.

Next, find the MAPS folder then double click on it.

Inside this folder you should see the map file, named "Hundred Years War - 1337b.Civ5Map"

This is the folder that must be copied to the game's "Maps" folder, which is usually located some place like this:

C:\Users\user\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\Maps


Once the map is copied to the correct location, it's time to enable the mod.

Go to the "MODS" area at the game's top-level menu. Accept the EULA, then scroll down the mods list until you see this:






Click on the "NEXT" button to enable the mod/scenario. Then click on "Single Player" then "Setup the Game". You should then see the following menus. Follow the instructions and the scenario should start just fine.






NOTE: This scenario won't play well with many other mods, so be very selective on what you try to merge with it. So many settings have been changed within Civ5 that compatibility will definitely be a challenge.

One mod I can recommend is the "Quick Turns" mod by Krzyzyk. It will definitely speed up AI turns:

Steam Workshop::Quick Turns

steamcommunity.com

 

[sman1975]

Events:


The "Main" Event - the start of the main scenario war:





Other events:

Offending a city state, losing influence:





A "Jubilee" - or celebration of your leadership excellence:

 

[sman1975]

Version 1.0 of the scenario (initial "final" version) has been uploaded to Steam.

Steam Workshop::Hundred Years War (1337-1356 AD)

steamcommunity.com

The first of many....