Earth 2020 - Tech 1950
Future Politics, Vintage Technology
scenario version 1.00 (for the 'Rise of Mankind' Mod v2.91)
Here's a scenario I wanted to do for a long time, where the power blocks as they may be in our near future are pitted against each other. To give you a rough idea how the scenario was created, here's some of the ideas that went into it:
- I chose the 'vintage tech' ca. 1955 level basically just to have a somewhat longer tech tree to climb to the end – which admittedly is not very logical, but works out well playable
- many teams/power blocks in this scenario are not to be understood as nation states, but rather as federations or effectively allied nations
- world wonders, religions and holy cities are set roughly like they are in the real world; exception: Taoism has been hi-jacked by me to serve as a substitute for Shintoism, Japan's rather distinctive main religion which would not have been represented otherwise.
- Natural resources are distributed roughly as they are in the real world, e.g. clustering more densely around areas like Brazil's Minas Gerais, Eastern Australia, or South Africa
- at the beginning the teams are already very unequal in power. Especially the small teams like Spain or North Korea have practically no chance of winning. The challenge is rather to see how much you can improve your standing versus your immediate peers during the course of the game
- the Civ4 rules effectively give a big advantage to teams with a big land mass. Therefore, Russia is somewhat over-represented in this scenario, while China and India with their huge populations but relatively small area are under-represented. I tried to improve that balance by 'icing' some of the Russian Siberian cities, so they would not grow quite as fast, but the imbalance is there nevertheless
- Tech wise, the 'Western' teams and Japan are the most advanced, developing nations like China and India are close, and less developed teams are a bit behind – but may be able to catch up due to their wealth in natural resources
- The map is based on the Earth map with 28 preset civs that comes with the Rise of Mankind mod v2.91. I modified only minor parts, especially where I wanted to have a good representation of water unit access e.g. for the Suez Canal, the Black Sea, the Kurile Islands, Japan, …
An outline of the politics development until 2020:The major players in this scenario are the US, and the four 'BRIC' nations Brazil, Russia, India and China. The Euro and the European Union fail, and fragment into smaller national and transnational entities like the Mediterranean Union, France, … There is however no bad feelings between the ex-EU members, but more something like regret that a grand experiment has gone awry, with no-one in particular to blame. Their disposition to each other is therefore slightly positive at the start.
The teams in detail:
- Portugal is drawn into a federation with Brazil, to which it has always maintained strong links via the Portuguese speaking Commonwealth.
- India is surrounded by less-than-friendly neighbours. Although it is not weak, the challengers may well be too many.
- China is rising... and may well decide quickly that the time has come to seize by force what cannot be gained by talking. Russia is probably too nuclear to be an easy target, but the other neighbours look tasty
- Australia together with New Zealand and some territories in the Pacific form the Transtasmanian Commonwealth (represented by the Celtic culture here, and Errol Flynn – sorry I could not think of any other well-known Australian)
- The Mediterraenean Union is not rich, and not powerful, but extremely cultured. It remains to be seen if it can turn this into a decisive advantage.
- Iran aka the Persian Empire is still a bit of an independent since it does not feel comfortable joining up with the Arab Muslims... but it has extended its influence in post-Soviet Union territories like Aserbaidschan to which it has old cultural links
- Japan has succeeded in peacefully acquiring the Kurile Islands from Russia, settling a dispute that has lingered for many decades. But if Russia becomes more assertive, will it want them back...?
- Turkey is squeezed between many powerful neighbours, but may yet turn its strategic location to its advantage. Its sphere of influence now includes Geogia, which is still seeking to safeguard itself from Russia
- France has proudly decided to go it alone after the demise of the EU. It remains somewhat influential due to its high tech level, and its far-flung colonies.
- The Arab Nation has finally managed to get a Pan-Arab leadership, and even including Pakistan which has close religious ties to the Arab Peninsula.
- Spain is one of the losers of the failure of Euro and EU. It retains a positive relationship to other ex-EU members, and also to the Spanish speaking part of South America, but is otherwise not well placed in this scenario.
- The UK has again become an independent nation, in a similar way to France. In addition to its high tech level and its colonies, it has good relations not only to other ex-EU members but also to its old Commonwealth ex-colonies like Canada.
- Russia is playing on a high level of power, but due to its large size it is also exposed to many potentially hostile neighbours. Tech wise, it has some catching up to do.
- The Spanish speaking nations of Middle and South America have not abandoned their nation states, but established a joint foreign and military representation on the world stage. It remains to be seen how they will get along with their powerful neighbours.
- Canada is mostly well shielded from/too remote for direct attacks – except if they should fall out of favor with the US. Its good situation with natural resources may allow it to quietly advance its goals while the rest of the world is looking elsewhere. (represented in this mod by Native America/Sitting Bull, for lack of a more fitting alternative)
- The South Asian nations have found the rise of China so disturbing that they have come together in a Federation to protect their common interests. This Federation even includes South Korea, but is still not strong enough to stand up to China by itself. It will therefore need to find more allies...
- The Northern Union is basically paid for by oil-rich Norway, which bailed out bankrupt Iceland and Ireland after the financial crisis earlier this century. It also includes the newly independent settlements on Greenland, which is now a good place to expand, with its glaciers receding due to global warming.
- Mostly Christian Sub-Saharan Africa has come together, in order to pursue its interests better, be it while negotiating trade agreements with the industrial nations, or when facing up to the Muslim dominated Arab Nation in North Africa.
- North Korea has managed to maintain its pariah status. A couple of nukes help... but there is nowhere to go really.
- The Central and North-Eastern parts of the ex-EU have stuck together, forming the CEU. They rely on their technology and economic strength. Maybe they are the ones best placed to attempt to bring together another All European Union...
- The US is still powerful, high-tech, and so closely aligned with Israel that for the purpose of this scenario they are forming one team. But even so, they cannot pursue all their interests in the world at the same time.
Since this is my first scenario, there are some annoyances that I could not get rid of, like the scenario starting message 'The Dawn of Man'... I hope you nevertheless enjoy this world after 2020, be it as a major player, or just as a spectator trying to stay out of trouble.
Cheers,
Fred
PS. Thanks to all the contributors of the RoM mod for providing this excellent framework!
Future Politics, Vintage Technology
scenario version 1.00 (for the 'Rise of Mankind' Mod v2.91)
Here's a scenario I wanted to do for a long time, where the power blocks as they may be in our near future are pitted against each other. To give you a rough idea how the scenario was created, here's some of the ideas that went into it:
- I chose the 'vintage tech' ca. 1955 level basically just to have a somewhat longer tech tree to climb to the end – which admittedly is not very logical, but works out well playable
- many teams/power blocks in this scenario are not to be understood as nation states, but rather as federations or effectively allied nations
- world wonders, religions and holy cities are set roughly like they are in the real world; exception: Taoism has been hi-jacked by me to serve as a substitute for Shintoism, Japan's rather distinctive main religion which would not have been represented otherwise.
- Natural resources are distributed roughly as they are in the real world, e.g. clustering more densely around areas like Brazil's Minas Gerais, Eastern Australia, or South Africa
- at the beginning the teams are already very unequal in power. Especially the small teams like Spain or North Korea have practically no chance of winning. The challenge is rather to see how much you can improve your standing versus your immediate peers during the course of the game
- the Civ4 rules effectively give a big advantage to teams with a big land mass. Therefore, Russia is somewhat over-represented in this scenario, while China and India with their huge populations but relatively small area are under-represented. I tried to improve that balance by 'icing' some of the Russian Siberian cities, so they would not grow quite as fast, but the imbalance is there nevertheless
- Tech wise, the 'Western' teams and Japan are the most advanced, developing nations like China and India are close, and less developed teams are a bit behind – but may be able to catch up due to their wealth in natural resources
- The map is based on the Earth map with 28 preset civs that comes with the Rise of Mankind mod v2.91. I modified only minor parts, especially where I wanted to have a good representation of water unit access e.g. for the Suez Canal, the Black Sea, the Kurile Islands, Japan, …
An outline of the politics development until 2020:The major players in this scenario are the US, and the four 'BRIC' nations Brazil, Russia, India and China. The Euro and the European Union fail, and fragment into smaller national and transnational entities like the Mediterranean Union, France, … There is however no bad feelings between the ex-EU members, but more something like regret that a grand experiment has gone awry, with no-one in particular to blame. Their disposition to each other is therefore slightly positive at the start.
The teams in detail:
- Portugal is drawn into a federation with Brazil, to which it has always maintained strong links via the Portuguese speaking Commonwealth.
- India is surrounded by less-than-friendly neighbours. Although it is not weak, the challengers may well be too many.
- China is rising... and may well decide quickly that the time has come to seize by force what cannot be gained by talking. Russia is probably too nuclear to be an easy target, but the other neighbours look tasty
- Australia together with New Zealand and some territories in the Pacific form the Transtasmanian Commonwealth (represented by the Celtic culture here, and Errol Flynn – sorry I could not think of any other well-known Australian)
- The Mediterraenean Union is not rich, and not powerful, but extremely cultured. It remains to be seen if it can turn this into a decisive advantage.
- Iran aka the Persian Empire is still a bit of an independent since it does not feel comfortable joining up with the Arab Muslims... but it has extended its influence in post-Soviet Union territories like Aserbaidschan to which it has old cultural links
- Japan has succeeded in peacefully acquiring the Kurile Islands from Russia, settling a dispute that has lingered for many decades. But if Russia becomes more assertive, will it want them back...?
- Turkey is squeezed between many powerful neighbours, but may yet turn its strategic location to its advantage. Its sphere of influence now includes Geogia, which is still seeking to safeguard itself from Russia
- France has proudly decided to go it alone after the demise of the EU. It remains somewhat influential due to its high tech level, and its far-flung colonies.
- The Arab Nation has finally managed to get a Pan-Arab leadership, and even including Pakistan which has close religious ties to the Arab Peninsula.
- Spain is one of the losers of the failure of Euro and EU. It retains a positive relationship to other ex-EU members, and also to the Spanish speaking part of South America, but is otherwise not well placed in this scenario.
- The UK has again become an independent nation, in a similar way to France. In addition to its high tech level and its colonies, it has good relations not only to other ex-EU members but also to its old Commonwealth ex-colonies like Canada.
- Russia is playing on a high level of power, but due to its large size it is also exposed to many potentially hostile neighbours. Tech wise, it has some catching up to do.
- The Spanish speaking nations of Middle and South America have not abandoned their nation states, but established a joint foreign and military representation on the world stage. It remains to be seen how they will get along with their powerful neighbours.
- Canada is mostly well shielded from/too remote for direct attacks – except if they should fall out of favor with the US. Its good situation with natural resources may allow it to quietly advance its goals while the rest of the world is looking elsewhere. (represented in this mod by Native America/Sitting Bull, for lack of a more fitting alternative)
- The South Asian nations have found the rise of China so disturbing that they have come together in a Federation to protect their common interests. This Federation even includes South Korea, but is still not strong enough to stand up to China by itself. It will therefore need to find more allies...
- The Northern Union is basically paid for by oil-rich Norway, which bailed out bankrupt Iceland and Ireland after the financial crisis earlier this century. It also includes the newly independent settlements on Greenland, which is now a good place to expand, with its glaciers receding due to global warming.
- Mostly Christian Sub-Saharan Africa has come together, in order to pursue its interests better, be it while negotiating trade agreements with the industrial nations, or when facing up to the Muslim dominated Arab Nation in North Africa.
- North Korea has managed to maintain its pariah status. A couple of nukes help... but there is nowhere to go really.
- The Central and North-Eastern parts of the ex-EU have stuck together, forming the CEU. They rely on their technology and economic strength. Maybe they are the ones best placed to attempt to bring together another All European Union...
- The US is still powerful, high-tech, and so closely aligned with Israel that for the purpose of this scenario they are forming one team. But even so, they cannot pursue all their interests in the world at the same time.
Since this is my first scenario, there are some annoyances that I could not get rid of, like the scenario starting message 'The Dawn of Man'... I hope you nevertheless enjoy this world after 2020, be it as a major player, or just as a spectator trying to stay out of trouble.
Cheers,
Fred
PS. Thanks to all the contributors of the RoM mod for providing this excellent framework!