Alternative campaign-The English

kaskavel

Warlord
Joined
Sep 11, 2023
Messages
107
The English-The empire where the sun never sets

Intro (same for all scenarios): This is one of a series of campaigns I have created in order to try to create more interesting games. They suggest a number of self restrictions the player has to follow, depending the civilization he is playing. The purpose of them is to

  • Create fun, different, challenging and interesting games.
  • Offer the game a flavor consistent with each civilization characteristics and history
  • Support the civ’s traits and encourage game-play consistent with them.
  • Allow players to lower the difficulty level of the game.
Each one of them has been tested in practice and I present the format that I found most interesting, perhaps making 1-2 changes after running the game. I would be glad if you added extra ideas that may improve the experience. In all games I am also using the extra self restrictions I always apply to myself but that is not directly relevant to the campaigns. I guess every player has some house rules he follows, he can just combine them with the ideas presented here. One of them I have to mention though, I do not use artillery. It may influence my perception of some of the scenarios presented. In general, I am trying for years to create situations in strategy games that allow me to reduce the game level as much as possible, ideally to the neutral level where neither the player nor the AI has an advantage, while retaining the game’s challenge. I have not succeeded in that, only a couple of those scenarios may have troubled me somewhat in regent level-and that is with many extra house rules applied, but the point is that anyone can combine his game level, his own self-restrictions and the difficulty level in order to create a wildly different than usual, but still challenging game. I am always trying to have as much of the added difficulty possible applied in the late medieval-early industrial ages, the point where the player usually gets away with an overwhelming advantage. All basic victory conditions are active unless noted otherwise.

I hope you find the campaigns interesting and have something to say about them.

This one is long and complex and I apologize for it. I believe it is worth its trouble though.

Rules: Player can have 3 types of cities. 1. Core cities 2. Island colonies 3. Luxury colonies. During the ancient age, the player is allowed to found cities or capture enemy cities normally. For the scenario to work properly under the suggested map settings, the ideal number of cities acquired is 20-25 in a single island (plus some farms) or in a couple of neighboring ones, having eliminated all local opposition (see below in notes for other cases that may occur). Those are his core cities. After his revolution, the ancient age is considered over and he can no longer found/capture cities unless they are island colonies or luxury colonies. First revolution is Monarchy and player must stay in Monarchy until the end. The player can colonize any free island he finds (as long as he does not see enemy borders on it) regardless of its size. He can also found cities or conquer enemy ones in islands that have 10 or less land squares. Cities founded on empty islands or founded/conquered on islands with less than 10 land squares are called island colonies. As soon as an island has an enemy city on it and is more than 10-square sized, the player can no longer found or conquer cities there (unless it turns out to be a luxury colony). The player is not allowed to squeeze a city between two enemy cities whose cultural borders have not been unified yet in small islands, a founding site for such a city must not be a square that opponent existing cities can eventually farm. Then the player has the objective to conquer one coastal city for every luxury (and possible resource) he does not have in his territory and connect the city to this luxury. The luxury must be inside the city’s radius. Since every luxury tends to appear on a different island, the player needs to conquer 7-9 coastal cities (depending the number of luxuries he has in his core cities and the number of resources he is missing) and it is quite possible that all of those cities are on different islands around the map, possessed by different civilizations. The player achieves his objective, when he has control of all luxuries that exist on the map and all resources he needs (if he does not want horses or something for some reason, he is not obliged to capture an enemy city just so he can acquire them). If a luxury is impossible to be acquired by conquering an enemy coastal city, the player can ignore that luxury. If the player holds the objective in the beginning of the modern age or later, he has to declare war (or trick the AI to do so) against all civilizations he has attacked earlier in the game in order to capture his luxury colonies that are still around (if they have been reduced to ashes by other civilizations and only exist somewhere far away from the colony, they do not want their city back and so no war is needed). Beginning at the first round of the modern age he must enter war with one civilization each round, until all those civilizations are at war with him. This is called the independence day and the player is now trying to change the world history by holding his colonies. It can be skipped if those civilizations are already attacking the player, probably through some alliances. The player cannot turn those civilizations one against another through diplomacy, he must fight to hold his colonies by himself or with the help of third (and probably weak) civilizations. He is afterwards free to make peace whenever he can/wants to. He still cannot capture enemy cities, he just defends his colonies from the angry natives. In fact in all stages of the game his land troops cannot enter enemy territory unless they are trying to capture enemy luxury colonies/island colonies on small islands or recapture a lost core city or are attacking an enemy unit and advance due to winning (then they must fall back). He is free to bombard enemy squares, troops on enemy squares but not cities. The player wins if he achieves any kind of victory (typically histograph or space race) while holding all luxuries of the map for 10 consecutive turns prior(some stupid bomber destroying a road that can easily be rebuild in a few rounds does not count as breaking possession of the luxury for this condition). The player is free to trade during all stages of the game, so he can have a luxury for use before conquering the corresponding colony. No armies allowed.

Map: Huge archipelago (80% water).Be careful in changing those settings, they may considerably change the type of play that is expected to follow(see notes). Wet is suggested for minimizing civs that are left without irrigation in their islands, but it is not necessary. THE FLIPPING CITIES OPTION MUST BE DEACTIVATED.

Notes: This one is a bit complex, but it pays off. There are many themes here, but the set of rules to support them got a bit too much. There are four different stages, through four different ages of the game, quite different one from another, representing four different periods of history for the English. The wild ancient years, the medieval slow progress, the age of exploration and sea-rule and the modern times where the colonies revolute against England and air force is now more important than naval force.

The wild years

England is a savage land through ancient times and this is represented in the wars that take place there in the game. The player needs to conquer the land he is going to use for the rest of the game, so he needs to be aggressive against all neighbors until England is a unified kingdom. Plus, ne needs to be fast. It is heard that while we are at war with each other under despotism, those other guys far away are building Pyramids. We need to catch up. A medium island with two civilizations is perfect for this purpose. Just eliminate your rival and you have your core of Britain ready. Use the captured cities to produce as many foreign workers as you can, the size of your army will eventually go too high….trust me. If starting location is on a small island, the player needs to find and conquer some second neighboring island in order to achieve possession of a hard core that will help him through the rest of the game (we will call that “British isles”, lol).If the second island is too big, we can conquer part of it and call it “North Ireland”, lol. If the player stands on a three civilization island or is completely isolated in a small island with no second island to conquer under reasonable corruption distance, then the campaign becomes more difficult. In the first case, the player needs to somehow avoid eliminating both rivals, he will get too strong afterwards and an emperor player having dropped his level to regent is not going to be very happy with the slaughter that follows. He probably needs to stop at 20-25 cities having captured one of each luxury the island has to offer and somehow keep his remaining neighbor peaceful (we will call that guy Scotland, lol). In the second case, he can try to beat the scenario with 10-15 cities (which is hard) or conquer something that will have high corruption and do his best with it. 80% water has the best chance of avoiding crowded islands. If you drop that percentage, you may face 4 or more civs on the same continent-island. This is still playable, but has some complications because enemies that are supposed to face you only in water, can and will now attack you from land as well, which is not very….English and is going to turn the independence day into invasion on England. Also, multiple colonies may exist on the same continent (that is not unrealistic of course, but in the game a single RoP can easily turn reinforcing a shaky held isolated colony under attack into an unbreakable fortress in a single round). There is also an increased chance that some opponent will conquer all there is to conquer and turn out to be very strong (but OK, one may view that as an extra challenge I guess). In general I tested and enjoyed the game in a setting that had my starting point on a two-civ island and maximum of civs per island on the map was three. That worked remarkably well and kept six enemy civs at more or less the same level of power, which makes the settings work at their best. They are all savages after all…

Medieval times, time to build up and explore

Finally, England is a unified Kingdom and you, Elizabeth, rule that Kingdom. You are ambitious and your nobles are hungry for more. Now, the player needs to expore, build up and perhaps capture 1-2 of his luxury colonies already. It is generally a peaceful era for the most part. You could start a war with France for 100 years…but that is not going to work well-the campaign restrictions make sure of that. Instead, we need to build up. The core cities need to become production and commerce powerhouses to support the rest of the game demands. The troop support is eventually going to climb in a 3-digit, which is a lot for medieval monarchy, so do not hold back in your building mania. At the same time, send your triremes everywhere to find and found. Those island colonies may be too far away from a corruption point of view, but they will turn out to be excellent healing ports for our huge navy to come. If you get a one square island, name it “Fawklands”, lol. Decide if you want to use the “ha ha, you have nowhere to land in order to attack me” trick or not, depending on how well the game is going for you and fortify the cities accordingly. Farm them or try to build them up as you see fit. Produce foreign workers where you can as usual. If you find a big empty island (I did not), grab it.. After finishing building up cities, you may pick up a couple of luxury colonies to begin with. I attacked the weakest opponent first before I had a fully developed invasion fleet and the strongest one next as soon as the fleet and troops were ready, so that I could cut off his growth as much as possible, but both happened to be next to me, so…it is up to the circumstances. Keep in mind some things here. As soon as you acquire your first colony, you really need to sign peace with the corresponding civ, otherwise he will not stop attacking the conlony. This reduces your manowar growth potential (see next age). So, some judgment of timing is needed here. Try to get the Magellan wonder. It is perhaps the most important one in these settings, believe it or not.

Industrial age-age of the armada

All hell breaks loose now. As soon as you hit magnetism (I think), begin producing manowars like crazy. It is going to be the most important unit of the game. Create tens of them, as many as you can and send them around to attack EVERYONE you find. Split them into groups of four or something, so that you can bombard-bombard-bombard-attack isolated ships. If you find big stacks of frigates accompanying a galleon or two, bombard repeatedly before finally attacking them. They are not going anywhere if you patrol the waters properly, because you have +1 movement if they are not sea-faring as well plus another +1 if you got the Maggelan first. These tactics are not because we are cowards, but because we need to enslave more units compared to how many we lose. It is OK to lose some English manowars during the process, the point is to gradually replace our own manowars with foreign ones anyway. So, never risk losing a foreign manowar if an English one is available. Better to attack with the regular enslaved manowar only once the enemy is red-lined in order to promote to a veteran. In general, keeping a mix of English and foreign manowars in a stack works best, so that you can choose which one attacks at the end. Make sure the strongest manowar in the group is an English veteran or Elite one, so that an enemy frigate that manages to attack the stack does not risk sinking a valuable enslaved one. Fortify the stacks at critical points, perhaps in a distance of 7 squares one stack from the next one so that you can create a fully visible zone between the stacks. Use that to trap enemies in their islands. You will eventually recognize the routs AI likes to take, so there is no need for a full blockade circle. Do not approach 5 squares close to their cities, because a newly created enemy frigate will attack you first. Let them come close to you. Each round wake a couple of manowars from the stack, investigate 3 squares and drop back. You may spot an enemy frigate that would otherwise have attacked you first-we do not want that, awaken the whole stack and sink them. I began with something like 80-90 manowars. I had 65 English and 29 enslaved manowars at some point and a lot of rounds later I had 55 and 43.They reproduce like rabbits. Split the stacks to create new stacks. You can even begin disbanding some of the original ones when the number of enslaved ones becomes that high. Do not make peace with anyone, unless you already control one luxury colony in his island. No need to worry about fighting the whole world, they cannot hurt you at this point of the game, until you land on their home island. Build your low cost armada as high as you can. They can even face ironclads, so they will rule the sea for the whole age. In the meantime, organize the invasions to capture the luxury colonies, one by one. Do not do that too soon, or your armada will stop reproducing. Do not do that too late, you will hit modern age and you will have difficulty building the necessary infrastructure (hospitals for the defensive bonus of metropolis, harbors, barracks, culture buildings to get the luxuries, civil defense, radar towers, artilleries that cannot use airports, irrigations, airports, walls etc) in order to face the Independence Day. Yes, you read well, remember that tech called advanced flight? You finally get to use it. Trust me bro, that 25% in all of your colonies is huge, there is going to be a slaughterhouse here soon with hundreds of battles. Built a radar tower, preferably with an English worker, in the hills/mountains next to the city and fortify 1-2 infantries to guard it. Back to your invasions now, sometimes you have 2-3 options of enemy cities to conquer in order to acquire a luxury. Many things you need to take into consideration here. Defensive value of the landing square, number of luxuries you are going to exploit, growing memento of the city for metropolis bonus, your ability to follow up with the culture war in order to secure those luxuries, distance of enemy troops (they have one round to hit you, then you defend fortified from inside of a city, not to mention breaking peace in the meantime), damage you do to the enemy (especially if he is the leading enemy civ, not all cities will hurt him the same), presence of wonders (I stole the Leonardo one in my test game), proximity to allied island colonies, even aircraft movement distances. Lot of stuff to encourage some careful organization of the mission. Make peace and farm or build the colonies as you see fit, but do not neglect that defensive infrastructure. Fortify artillery, defensive units and some attacking units in the colonies. Follow up with fighters as soon as you get them. Build foreign workers to irrigate and use policemen and engineers to produce the necessary buildings. By the end of the age, pollution will hit you hard in the core cities, you probably cannot afford too many English workers during the last 1.5 ages, so you may need to build new ones or bring captured ones from the colonies. You may be attacked at some colony, while your fleet is trying to conquer a new one. Defend yourself and keep in mind we are not Mongols or Vikings, we are not to attack and destroy enemy cities, we just want to defend our colonies and our ability to bring luxuries to our people back in England so that they wont turn against the elite class that supports our throne. Bombard and kill enemy units entering your borders and perhaps bombard some squares in enemy territory, but do not try to find ways to bend the rules and destroy enemy cities. WE JUST WANT THE MONEY, not extermination of nations.

Modern age-Independence Day-RAF is the new player now

Nothing lasts for long. You will soon see the first enemy destroyers moving around. Then come the first bombers. Those are not good news for your armada. It is the way it is, the world moves forward and we move with it. Time to disband that huge manowar fleet that served us so well in colonizing the world, we will only keep the enslaved ones and redirect them against less advanced civilizations. We are not at war with more than 1-2 civs at this point anyway, so they do not reproduce fast. One could try and replace them with battleships and destroyers of course, it may be fun. But there is no need for such an expensive project. RAF can now take care of us, air superiority is more important. After all, as soon as you hit airports in all your colonies, you really do not need control of sea routes, you need firepower to defend and bombard. So, retire your fleet and fortify your cities with fighters. You now need to fortify your home island against air assaults as well. In addition, depending on your house rules with artillery, you may need many, few or no bombers at all (I used a 6 artillery per colony restriction on this one and used no bombers). If the game proceeded well and you adjusted the difficulty level correctly, you should now control all luxury colonies and be a little ahead in technology. This means AI gets to hit you with tanks and bombers soon. Finish defensive preparations and prepare to try and change history by preventing the colonized nations to expel you from their lands. Declare war (or trick them to do so) once per round (as explained in the rules) and let them try to take their lands back. If you get attacked in your core island, defend there as well and imagine that those are German aircraft . Make peace and achieve a victory condition. Only remaining enemy should be the UN. For some reason, I do not think that you are going to be elected, lol.

Epilogue: This got ridiculously big, I know. I promise to avoid creating such complicated campaigns in the future. It is just that it worked so well. Sea-faring trait is exploited and emphasized to the maximum, commercial trait is also emphasized with the need to support a huge armada, the UU is also the basic one during its age and allows the player to succeed in colonizing the world and we get quite a lot of historical facts around. Delayed ancient age full of war, advancement through dark ages, establishment of Monarchy in a unified Kingdom, age of discovery, age of manowar, age of colonization, English aircraft taking the lead and foreign countries fighting for their independence against us, perhaps a bit of WWII if you get attacked on your core island in the end as well. It worked very well for me.

Difficulty: Big, the restrictions and the objectives make this one hard to get.

Variants: There is a lot of ruling to be adjusted to the players liking here, so I will not make a list. After all, one may get an easy or hard start and bend some rules in the process. That is OK.
 
Last edited:
I think this nicely connects the way luxuries spawn along with the seafaring trait. I think this would be two or even three difficulty levels below the normal player level, probably three for me since I introduce irrigation at engineering (i.e. the AI may not stall due to lack of water). I also like the independence twist in the modern age.
 
Possibly stupid question but does 'wet' increase existence of rivers and lakes? Or simply just more jungle and marsh?

This scenario makes me want to go HUGE with the map. Alas, my old computer (even with removing sea trade and making it all air trade) really struggles at larger than 206x206 map size and I like Civs to have roughly 50-66% of the land tiles of the default game. The solution? Make 360x360 map size and manually remove around half the landmasses! I am setting up maps that might suit this challenge just now and will pick one at random in 2025, by which time I'll have totally forgotten what each map looks like.
 
Possibly stupid question but does 'wet' increase existence of rivers and lakes? Or simply just more jungle and marsh?
AFAIK, it's the latter (also Forests).
 
Interesting, I got that all wrong I guess. And I was wondering why in my recent Mongol game from the other thread I got stuck with massive flood plains....So, nothing influences the presence of rivers?
 
Its a shame and not logical that this was not implemented. As an archipelagos fan I used to manually insert rivers and lakes into maps. Then I gave up and made everyone able to irrigate without a fresh water source at Engineering. It gives the AI half a chance without much downside that I can see (other than realism).
 
Back
Top Bottom