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ACDG4 Game One: The Sword of the Righteous 2016-10-05

Scenario Name: ACDG4 Game One: The Sword of the Righteous
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAC
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 10/14/06
Original host site: Apolyton

Backdrop1

In MY 2189 several factions discovered the wreckage of a Progenitor
interstellar spaceship on the farside of Nessus. After much
investigation it was determined that the ships star charts were intact,
and that the hyperdrive engine could be cloned.
By MY 2201 the first fleet of scoutships were built and sent out with a
mandate to investigate all of the habitable planets catalogued in the
ancient Progenitor ships start charts. The results of the expeditions
were mixed: some scoutships returned with exciting news of “Eden-class”
planets, while other scouts returned telling tales of planets who had
degraded over the eons. Still other scouts failed to return at all….
By MY2223 the “Great Diaspora of Man” had begun in earnest, with
spaceships being built poste-haste by all the Factions, and sent out
with the soul purpose of colonizing far-flung worlds. It was a race to
“get there first”, and to report back that the targeted world had been
claimed for their Parent Faction.

One unintended side effect that the “Diaspora of Man” had was that this
continual manpower drainage weakened the Parent Factions that existed on
Alpha Centauri’s Planet, with the end result being that the Peace
Keepers were able to unite all of the Factions under their banner in
MY2249. But with their dream of uniting Planet fulfilled, the Peace
Keepers then almost immediately turned their ambitions to the stars, and
of uniting all the far-flung colonies of Man under the Peace Keeper
banner as well. Much thought and energy was put into this: emissaries
were sent far and wide across the realms of Man cataloguing the various
civilizations that were developing, and documenting what adversaries
might come to pass, and how it might be best to deal with each
accordingly.
The Peace Keepers, heeding the advice of their emissaries amongst the
stars, formulated a plan that was still in essence the core of their
creed, while laying the framework to advance their new ambitions of
interstellar conquest: to offer themselves on the behalf of the
downtrodden, and when necessary to “protect” these peoples from
aggressor states. Their emissaries and diplomats preached this mantra
wherever they traveled across the galaxy, allowing those who heard it to
interpret it as they might, and planting the seed of thought that the
Peace Keepers would come to their assistance if they were threatened.
The Peace Keepers waited, and watched, and prepared themselves for the day when someone would ask for help….


Backdrop 2

Planet MY2254-443 had somehow slipped through the cracks. Although it
was geographically “right around the corner” from the Alpha Centauri
solar system, it had not been one of the planets documented in the
recovered Progenitor starlogs, and so had been passed over for
colonization during the first phases of human expansion. An experimental
Gaian Terraforming starship had accidentally stumbled onto the planet
during its maiden voyage in MY2252. The crew scanned the planet and
determined that it had once been a Progenitor colony, as there were
still many Progenitor artifacts and ruined cities scattered across the
surface. After documenting the status of the planet, the Gaian
expedition continued with their original mission and began the
terraforming process by seeding the planet with kelp and trees, and
established a small colony to monitor and oversee the process.
The Gaians, always concerned about the destruction that Man always
seemed to wrought on the ecologies He encountered, tried to keep this
planet a secret from the rest of humanity, and so did not publicly
acknowledge that they had discovered a new habitable world. However the
Morganites, possibly through the use of spy software inserted into the
entertainment packages they had sold to the Gaian explorers, learned of
the planets location. The Morganites, always shrewd businessmen,
realized that a) since the planet wasn’t officially registered, that
they could claim finders fees (even though they had never stepped foot
on the planet!), and b) once the planet was registered, they could
pocket even more money by selling sections of the planet to several
different Splinter Factions, as opposed to trying to sell the whole
planet to one Splinter group. Thus it came to pass that Splinter
Factions of the Believers, University, Spartans, and Hive came to settle
various regions of the planet. In one final brutal act of legal
manipulation the Morganites, after filing claim to the planet, had the
authorities declare the original Gaian terraformers as “illegal
settlers” on the planet they had founded, and seized the Gaian’s
terraforming stations. They then expelled the Gaians from the planet.
There are rumors that a few Gaians are still on the planet, but if its
true, they are few in numbers, and keep mostly to themselves….

Premise

After settling the planet that came to be called “Sanctuary” in MY2261,
the various Splinter Factions almost immediately fell into conflict. The
University, using their superior technology and weaponry, initiated a
brutal war of conquest against their neighbors the Believers. Begun in
MY2271, the University continually used their technological edge to push
the Believers back. However in MY2285, almost in desperation, the
Believers nominated a peasant girl named Joan to lead their remaining
forces. Joan had claimed to have had a vision of defeating the
University on the field of battle and leading her people to glory and
victory in Gods name. To the surprise of many this prophecy was born
out, as Joan went against every military convention and led her force
directly between two University Armies, and, before the University
commanders could recover from this unexpected military maneuver, Joan
struck and destroyed first one Uni army, and then wheeled to face the
now much smaller remaining Uni force. The Uni’s fell back in confusion.
Joan pursued, and now aided by captured Uni equipment which put them on
an equal footing tech-wise, were able to defeat the remaining Uni field
armies at Agincourt. The University leadership, realizing their cause
was lost, surrendered the following year.
Meanwhile the Spartan Splinter Faction had fallen into conflict with
their neighbors, the Hive. A war of attrition that ended up resembling
the trench warfare of World War 1 ensued, with neither Faction making
any headway in the early years. However as time progressed the Hive,
understanding its strength was also the Spartans weakness, began to mass
produce units with the idea of simply wearing down the Spartans. The
Spartans for their part also recognized this, and in an astonishing turn
of events appealed to the Believers to intervene on their behalf. The
now defacto leader of the Believers, Joan d’Arc, agreed to assist the
Spartans against the atheistic Hive, and almost immediately began
augmenting the Spartan units with her own already battle seasoned units.
With this turn of events the Morganites, who had thus far followed the
mantra that war is bad for business and had stayed out of the conflicts
on this planet, saw the prevailing winds turn in favor of the Believers
and Spartans at this time, and closed their borders to the Hive. In what
many believe to be a contrived event, the Morganites then claimed a
border violation by the Hive, and requested Believer assistance, which
then allowed the Believers to base aggressor units in Morganite
territory along the previously neutral Hive flank. In little more than
five years the Hive Splinter Faction went from winning its war against
the Spartans, to fighting for its very survival against the rest of the
planet. In these most desperate times the Hive remembered the promise
the Peace Keepers had made some years ago that they would come to the
aid of those threatened by “aggressor states”. It is now MY2299.

The Game

The Hive Splinter Faction on Sanctuary has contacted you asking for
assistance. They have asked that you place Peace Keeper units into
“Observation Posts” along its borders, in order to establish a buffer
between themselves and the other warring Splinter Factions. In return
the Hive have offered you the services of several cities in which to
base your operations from, which they state should also be considered as
part of the buffer zone between themselves and the “aggressor states”,
meaning it is your responsibility to keep the warring factions apart.
Because of Sanctuary’s proximity to Alpha Centauri the Peace Keeper
leadership realize that this is an ideal situation in which to inject
the Peace Keepers into, with the end goal being of adding this world to
the Peace Keeper fold. And so while your “official mandate” is to keep
the peace by separating the warring factions, your unofficial goal is to
bring the various Splinter Factions under sway. To that end you have
been given units that are technologically superior to those already
existing on Sanctuary, but not overly so. You have been given standard
Peace Keeper Police Units in order to carry out your mandate. But so
what if your troop transports are overly armed and armored and resemble
tanks more than cargo carriers, and that your “counter-battery” units
are far superior to any ordinance in existence on this planet? Its not
like these few units would ever be expected to conquer a whole planet,
right?

As your units disembark from their planetary drop pods and assume their
posts on Sanctuary you chance to catch a local broadcast: the local
Believer Splinter Faction is incensed by the arrival of your Peace
Keeping units, and is accusing the Hive of “striking a deal with the
devil” by allowing Peace Keeper forces to intercede on their behalf. The
Hive response is tepid at best, and you begin to realize that this
Hiverian leader does not possess the same fortitude that Yang always had
in the face of adversity, and that this Hive leader may already be
rethinking whether it was a wise decision to involve the Peace Keepers
in this “local squabble”….


This is a SMAC game. Standard everything. AIs enhanced considerably via
factional editing, base placement, and units available via the default
available units.


Directions: download the attached file and unzip into your scenarios
folder. Start SMAC, select "Scenario/ Play Scenario", and choose the
attached game (SotR). The game will then automatically start as the
Peace Keepers.

Good luck to the ACDGers!


Note: for those who wish to download and play this game as an SP
Challenge: please feel free to do so. However please refrain from
posting any results/ observations in this thread.
Author
Darsnan
Downloads
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