*** Ancient Units and Cities ***

[Leonidas300]

I thought I would start a thread that would include only ancient units and cities up to and including the Roman Empire.

Feel free to post any units or city styles you may have done or contributed to in the past.

Personally, I prefer the ancient time period. Reading about ancient Babylon, Persia, Egypt, Greece, etc is quite interesting to me.

Probably one of the main reasons I play civ 2 is because of my love for history.

In my reading about these ancient empires I marvelled at some of the building projects that were undertaken by these civilizations: the Great Pyramid, the Ishtar Gate, the Acropolis, the Ziggurats, etc.

These were built on a monumental scale.

In keeping with this I have been working on modifiying some ancient city graphics. The graphics I chose were Bernd Brosing's excellent city styles. I like his style of creating cities.

Yet, I felt he didn't quite go far enough with some of the "finished" products. So I decided to modify them. Some modifications amount to adding a few buildings and new paint and colours, while other additions were quite substantial and time-consuming.

I prefer city graphics, especially those based in the ancient world, that are themselves, "monumental" in size. Each ancient civilization was noted for a particular building size or project, and it is this, that I have tried to emphasize in the city graphics.

I'll be adding quite a few graphics in this thread, so I guess I'll start off with the modified city style of Crete/Minoa:

My initials are LPM, and Bernd Brosing's are BB. Where NO initials appear they are Brosing's graphics.

 

[Leonidas300]

Next we have the wonderous city of Babylon, famed for its great walls, Ziggurats, and the Ishtar Gate:

 

[McMonkey]

Nice idea Leo
I am fond of the classic city styles!
I like the addition of colour to the Babylonian cities. What is the Gate of Ishtar?

 

[Leonidas300]

Nice idea Leo
I am fond of the classic city styles!
I like the addition of colour to the Babylonian cities. What is the Gate of Ishtar?

Thanks

I am not into minimalist building styles. I prefer big and bold.... especially when one goes about building an empire to last the ages....

I have been reading about the archaeological digs that have been done at many of the ancient sites around the world, and the writer, C.W. Ceram in Gods, Graves, and Scholars: The Story of Archaeology, has really captured the mystery of exploration, the thrill of discovery, and the grandeur of past civilizations.

That was when I got the bug to spend many hours modifiying and creating new city styles that help to capture the sense of wonder I gained from reading that book.

The Gate of Ishtar:

The Ishtar Gate, one of the eight gates of the inner city of Babylon, was built during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (604- 562 BC).

It was one of the eight gates of the inner city of Babylon. It was built in about 575 BC, the eighth fortified gate in the city. It is one of the most impressive monuments rediscovered in the ancient Near East. The Ishtar gate was decorated with blue glazed brick reliefs, in tiers, of dragons and young bulls. The gate itself was a double one, and on its south side was a vast antechamber. Through the gatehouse ran a stone-and brick-paved avenue, the so-called Processional Way, which has been traced over a length of more than half a mile.

King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon dedicated the great Ishtar Gate to the goddess Ishtar. It was the main entrance into Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar II performed elaborate building projects in Babylon around 604-562 BC. His goal was to beautify his capital. He restored the temple of Marduk, the chief god, and also built himself a magnificent palace with the famous Hanging Gardens, which was reported by the Greek historian Herodotus to have been one of the wonders of the world.

Here are some pictures of it:

http://www.rkcheung.com/Iraq/Ray%20Ishtar Gate.jpg

http://www.atlastours.net/iraq/ishtar_gate.jpg

 

[Leonidas300]

Next up, we have the ancient city that could represent several of the older civilizations in the past. In this instance this graphic will represent the cities of the might and power of the Assyrian civilization.

Here we see the city being dominated by the towering majesty of the mighty ziggurat, which towered high above the Mesopotamian plain. It induced both fear and awe in those that gazed upon it. The front gates have two winged bulls guarding the entrance.

Ziggurats were ancient towering, stepped structures made of mud brick that appear to have served as temples to the ancient gods of Mesopotamia. The bases of ziggurats were square or rectangular. Their walls were sloping. There were multiple squares on top of each other in diminishing size, like a step pyramid, but unlike a step pyramid there were stairs to climb to the next higher level. With a base of about 50 feet on a side, ziggurats could reach heights of 150 feet, and some were 300 feet. Others were the height of a modern seven story building. At the top was a small room assumed to be a religious place.

The best preserved ziggurat is in the city of Ur in modern Iraq. The Tower of Babel may have been the ziggurat of Marduk in Babylon.

Some pictures of ziggurats:

http://www.crystalinks.com/ziggurat.html

http://joseph_berrigan.tripod.com/id18.html

http://www.bible-history.com/babylonia/BabyloniaThe_Ziggurat.htm

http://www.meridianmagazine.com/ideas/040112zuggurats.html

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Choghazanbil2.jpg

 

[Leonidas300]

Next, we come to the civilization that has truly put the word "BIG" in "monumental" - heheh. This civilization is EGYPT.

This civ is noted for two outstanding things: the great pyramids and its great temples/buildings. It was hard to add both features in the same graphic and still do them justice.

So I created TWO city sets to represent this feature of ancient Egyptian building practices. It is up to the player which of the two he/she would like to use.

The first graphic is found below.


Pictures of large Egyptian buildings can be found here:

http://touregypt.net/karnak.htm

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/egyptjournal/luxor.html

http://www.eyelid.co.uk/karnak1.htm

 

[Civinator]

Thanks for opening this thread. Even with Civ 3, the Civ 2-cities do a very good job. So I´m always interested in good Civ 2 city-graphics that are not contained in the normal Civ2-city -samplers at CFC and at Apolyton, not only for gameplay with Civ 2, but also for Civ 3!

And may be this thread is a good place to say "a big thank you" to all Civ 2 city-graphic masters, who did and do such a good job.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=4863067&postcount=15

 

[Leonidas300]

Thanks for opening this thread. Even with Civ 3, the Civ 2-cities do a very good job. So I´m always interested in good Civ 2 city-graphics that are not contained in the normal Civ2-city -samplers at CFC and at Apolyton, not only for gameplay with Civ 2, but also for Civ 3!

And may be this thread is a good place to say "a big thank you" to all Civ 2 city-graphic masters, who did and do such a good job.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=4863067&postcount=15

Civinator:

Many thanks for your very kind words.

Speaking for myself, modding and graphics can be time-consuming, but it is always a labour of love. And it is always great to get feedback.

I like Civ 2 because it is so easy to modify almost every aspect of the game.

And I could look at graphics for hours - love the detail and work that modders put into them.

Also, I wanted to mention that I will make available for download the complete sets of the city graphics you see here so that everyone will be able to use them as replacement city sets in all your ancient scenarios.

Thanks again

Cheers!

 

[Leonidas300]

Next, we have the second set of city graphics for Egypt.

The first set above focused on Egypt's large buildings. This second set will center on the Great Pyramids of Egypt.

The Great Pyramid at Giza: A marvel of construction and a towering colossus of two million 2-ton stones, it was the tallest building in the world until 1888.

It was truly one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Here is a set of city graphics with which to build an empire that will last throughout the ages...

"Man fears time; time fears only the pyramids."


Here are some sites for you to go exploring:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Egypt.Giza.Sphinx.02.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_pyramids

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pyramid/explore/

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pyramids/pyramids.html

 

[Leonidas300]

Time for a screenshot to see what some of these cities look like in-game.

The screenshot below is from a game I am currently playing. The Hittite Empire has grown into a superpower of the ancient world. It's cities are spread across much of the near east; its mighty armies and chariots have marched throughout the land seeking conquest over the weak and unprepared.

Side note: see if you can spot the underwater ruins...

 

[McMonkey]

They look good man!
Which scenario is that? Do you have a link so I can download it?
Ta

 

[Leonidas300]

They look good man!
Which scenario is that? Do you have a link so I can download it?
Ta

Glad you like -

What you're seeing in that screenshot cannot be downloaded anywhere. It's an older scenario I kinda liked, so I revamped everything for my own personal use - including all new graphics for units, cities, and terrain; revised unit statistics, etc...

I often do this for scenarios I like to play - kinda puts my own personal touch on scenarios.

I will, however, make some of the graphics I have used for it available for download.

Cheers!

 

[Leonidas300]

Here is another screenshot that gives a good indiction of what the Egyptian cities look like in-game.

Spread along the great Nile River, the Egyptian cities come to life in all their splendour, as thousands of workers, under the direction of their over-seers, seek to feed the burgeoning populations. And, under the watchful eye of Pharoah, they toil under the hot sun, as great buildings and pyramids rise up from the sun-baked sand to stand as eternal monuments for the ages....

 

[Leonidas300]

Next up, we come to the wonderous cities of ancient Perisa, a vast empire of southwest Asia.

I didn't have to do much for this city set, as I liked most of what was already there. Mainly, I touched up the last city with some colour, a few changes here and there, and fleshed out the sides. I feel that a city should take up the full space of the area it is in.

Some sites to explore:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Proskynesis.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Empire

http://www.crystalinks.com/persia.html

 

[Leonidas300]

Next, we have the wonderous cities of ancient Greece.

I liked this city set by BeBro, but I didn't care for the original statute. So I substituted another for it and fixed up the gate, fleshed out the sides of the city, and added some foliage.

Hope you like



Explore the acropolis here:

http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen3/f42_acropolis.html


Some other interesting sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acropolis_of_Athens

http://www.culture.gr/2/21/211/21101a/e211aa01.html

 

[Leonidas300]

Sticking with the Greek theme, I did up something a little special: this is a Golden Greek temple with statue, surrounded by the buildings on the Acropolis.

This drawing was made from a variety of images and compilations, along with some fine tune painting.

This image could be used as a "Wonder" either in a Greek scenario or in a fantasy scenario. It could be placed in the Unit file, which means it could be captured or destroyed.

The Seven Wonders of the World:

http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/

http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/artemis.html

http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/

 

[Eivind IV]

Vey nice, Leonidas300! Great to see you're still around.

 

[Leonidas300]

Vey nice, Leonidas300! Great to see you're still around.

Thanks Eivind IV

I'm still doodling away...

Great to see you here too.

Cheers!

 

[Sark6354201]

Great work! As an aside, does anyone know if there is a way to create more city styles for each civ? It would be a lot of fun to expand beyond the original 4, and have a unique city style for individual civs or whole other groups (like meso america).

 

[Sark6354201]

double post