Riverworld Scenario (CivDOS & CivWin) 1.0

You are Alice Liddell. You and a few like-minded souls have been exploring the Riverworld using the industrial state of Parolando as your home base, but when you return to Parolando, you find that things have changed for the worse! Eric Bloodaxe has taken over and commenced a bloody expansion of his territory by annexing the neighbouring territory of Soul City. Narrowly escaping Bloodaxe's minions, you have stolen a small boat and fled to the far side of the river.

There is dissension in your group. Some people have refused to go any further and have founded a small town on the riverbank, Oxford, hoping to defy Bloodaxe and build up a new base from which they can return and retake Parolando. Others feel that Oxford is too close to Parolando and that there won't be time to build up before Bloodaxe sends his armies against you. Also, you hear rumours that Bloodaxe has made peace with the Zulus, founders of Soul City, who have relocated their capital across the river and begun their own expansion, and also that there is another expansionist empire in your vicinity. Parolando on its own you might defy, but defeating all three of these aggressive neighbours may prove too much for your fledgling state.

You still have your boat. You could board it and sail up or down the river looking for a place to build, away from these looming threats. You have also heard of a nearby pass that provides a way to cross the otherwise impassable mountains that separate the great loops of the River. If the pass exists, and if you can find it, you may be able to fortify it behind you and build up in relative safety on the far side.

Finally, someone brings a rumour that the Ethicals, who built the Riverworld, maintain a powerful base somewhere. If you can find it, and defeat its guardians, it would be a major asset for your cause. But where is it? Upriver? Downriver? And how far away is it? Perhaps it's not worth the effort to find it when your very survival is at stake.

Thus the scene is set. Your goal is to win, by either conquering the Riverworld yourself or by building a spaceship to escape from it.

Game Conditions

1. You must not make peace with the Vikings, the Zulus or the Aztecs. You may make war or peace with any of the other civs (including the successors to any of the above three). (If you are a Republic or Democracy, refuse to talk to the Vikings, the Zulus or the Aztecs because otherwise your Senate may sign a treaty.) You are free to destroy or capture any civ's cities and units.

2. The game map holds a number of important surprises. Therefore, please do not use Terraform, JCivED or other such tools to view or change the map prior to or during play.

3. The impassable mountains are represented by long mountain ranges separated by a strip of ocean one square wide. Please don't build cities on the impassable mountains that might allow you to build ferries to subvert this restriction. Any such mountaintop city is proof of cheating, even if you claim not to have actually built a ferry. However you may build cities on mountaintops that do NOT give you the ability to cross the uncrossable mountains. Sailing on the River itself is always legitimate, and if you can sail a boat from the River into some other place, that's OK too.

4. If you use the save game, fast Settlers or waterbridge cheats, please mention it. I don't see the point of forbidding these hard-to-prove cheats, but obviously a win using them is lower value than a win without using them. Just be honest about it.

5. You may use the save game cheat to prevent your opponents being awarded cheap early Wonders, but you must not use the save game cheat to prevent them building Apollo Program or Manhattan Project. Deal with it.

Victory conditions:

1. Conquer the world. Best score from the conquerors. Or ...

2. Colonise Alpha Centauri. Best score from the astronauts. Or ...

3. If nobody manages (1) or (2), best score in 0 AD (or whenever you're destroyed).

Notes

1. Your opponents have a military edge on you at the start of the game. Your territory is circumscribed and hostile contact will probably come sooner rather than later. Your nearest opponents are all conducting vendetta against you and won't want to make peace (and you are forbidden to make peace with the Vikings, Zulus and Aztecs in any case).

2. Early technology is expensive. It's not terribly expensive, and once you have a decent economy going this handicap will soon be overcome, but early on you may prefer to concentrate on tax and luxuries.

3. Although you are surrended by militaristic civs, some of the other civs in the game are likely to go for peaceful development. remember, you aren't allowed to deny them Apollo Program or Manhattan project. If you're trying for Conquest, be careful they don't build spaceships. You can sail right to their capitals via the river, if you know where they are.

The files

Two versions are attached: CIVIL3 is KING level, for the standard GOTM conditions. CIVIL4 is EMPEROR level, for those who want more of a challenge.

Edit: during testing, it felt a little too easy. Eric Bloodaxe stupidly lost the frigate I gave him, which kept him out of my hair while I dealt with the other enemies! So I gave him Mapmaking and tweaked a couple of other items to make life a little tougher for Alice.