Civ 4 mods and scenarios for "alternate history"

[gamethinks]

I am an educator who has been working with Social Studies teachers using Civilization 4 as a sort of "history lab", allowing students to investigate the larger concepts of history within the interaction of the game. I'm looking to install Civ4 on the 30 computers in my media center as part of a "game lab" for teachers who want to try using gaming in the classroom.

I'm wondering if folks out there have recommendations as to the best Mods and/or Scenarios that represent significant periods, events or turning points in real history that would serve as a starting point for students investigating historical "what-if's". Ideally, these would be Mods/Scenarios that are fairly complete, with few technical issues.

Let me know what suggestions you have. Links to threads/downloads would be appreciated, but mainly names/authors of mods or scenarios.

Thanks! And if you're interested in following, I'll post a link to the game lab website once I have it more fleshed out.

 

[lymond]

Interesting, there was a very similar inquiry posted not long ago. That is, someone wanting to use Civ as a history simulator.

As delivered, Civ is not exactly a great history simulator although it will familiarize students with some famous historical figures.

The first mod that is obviously recommended is Rhys and Fall of Civilization (RFC). One of the most popular and old mods. RFC includes Unique Historical Victories(UHVs) for each Civilization. Civs start at or near what is considered their relevance in history as well as their historical areas. Civs auto-generate throughout the game and will usurp land from previously establish Civs. For instance, say you start as Rome in the BCs and conquer Gaul and Spain as your UHV requires. France and Spain will spawn in the ADs and take over land/cities in their respective areas. RFC also has plagues at historical dates. Lastly, the RFC map is heavily modded to accommodate the overall scenario and includes historic and Civ flavored city names tied to specific tiles on the map.

You can find it here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=204

RFC is delivered with BTS, but has been updated significantly so make sure you download the latest BTS version. The modmods are even better. I recommend Dawn of Civilization modmod for an expanded version of RFC with more civs and stuff. RFC: Europe is a nice middle ages mod and represents Byzantines nicely.

Pie's Ancient Europe is nice for Ancient/Classical periods and offers some playable historical civilizations that aren't as common, but often mentioned in history books like the Hittites and Dacians:

Pies


BTS also includes Charlemagne and WWII scenarios. The Charlemagne scenario is nice for a bit of Dark/Middle age action with some Papal shenanigans.

Road to War is a large WWII mod that I think is an extension of the delivered BTS mod and probably best to play if you want a WWII game:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=337742


Overall, RFC is probably the most suited to what you are trying to do and the best "what-if" historical mod. The others are a lot of fun too and could be educational.

 

[gamethinks]

Thanks for the reply, lymond. For purposes of discussion and clarification, I agree that Civilization is not per se a great history simulator. One must take into account the simplifications that were necessary to make the game playable. Because of that, it can only familiarize students with historical specifics (people, wonders, etc.) to a limited extent - the reason for including a particular "specific" has to be tied into the game operation which may not necessarily correlate to a real historical purpose. (I don't think that, upon building the Pyramids, the Egyptians suddenly had knowledge of Hereditary Rule, Representation, Police State and Universal Suffrage.)

What I see more as the promise of Civ in the classroom is a better understanding of the broader concepts of history - access to resources driving diplomacy (or lack thereof), geography's effects on a civilization, etc.

I've got Civ 4: Complete, which has everything up to BtS including RFC. I also found Pie's Ancient Europe earlier, but haven't yet had a good chance to dig into it. These are good for broad gameplay, but what I'm more looking for is more focused mods/scenarios. For example, I found snafusmith's Blood and Iron, focusing on WWI; and Le Sage's 100 Years War mod. I'm worried that for students not familiar with it, a wide-open "Play Now" game even in a mod like RFC would be too huge for them to focus on one concept - at least, not until they've used it in a more focused way (both to learn the mechanics of the game itself and how to use it as a "lab").

 

[TheMulattoMaker]

Complete comes with Civ4Col, right? If you don't mind focusing on European expansion and the colonization of the Americas, that'd be my recommendation. Gameplay and interface is a little different from BtS, which could be an issue for your students if they get too used to Civ, but it's not that different. Col can give you pretty good ideas of exploration, colonial industry and commerce, war/peace with the Natives, etc. The one thing the devs wouldn't touch is the African slave trade, you'll have to explain that one on your own.

Oh, and welcome to CFC!

 

[lymond]

RFC is not a "Play Now" game in is standard form (I think there is a modmod that allows random starts with the map). RFC you start with a civ at an historic start date and either try to complete the UHVs or change history. For instance, have Carthage survive to modern times.

Colonization as mentioned above is definitely a more focused game. Worth a try.

As for normal BTS games, other than the mods I mentioned or perusing the C&C forum, I have not ideas other than trying to learn to mod the game yourself.

 

[Alchemind]

That's really awesome, gamethinks.

First off I'd recommend the mods section of this website, solely, as there is a unique description for each mod that you can browse through. Essentially what I think you'd be aiming for are "Scenario" mods such as "Three Kingdoms" and I think there are a few "American Revolution" mods as well. Unfortunately I dont like scenario mod's so I cant name many others.

Secondly I can tell you that when I first started playing Civ4 I've taken a great interest in our world history because of the game, as I feel many others have. It's accessible primarily through its Civopedia by which I've naturally become curious what I'm researching or what Im building and how it came to be.

I then started a game solely in the interest of learning, so what I did was at every point in which I've researched and built something, I instantly read it's Civilopedia entry and then read more in depth at Wiki.com. The game progressed extremely slowly only because I was reading so much but it was incredibly interesting having these things come to life and has perspective in what I was doing. While the game itself cannot be a very accurate simulator of history, it simply pieces the information together thats more accessible to those who lack conceptualization of history.

Salutes to you in trying to make history fun!