Civilization III Lesson Plan

[EternalAlchemy]

Hey there, so I'm a senior and I'm doing my senior project on the benefit and educational value of video games. I figured Civilization is one of the better teaching tools out there so that's what I picked Civ. III (Also, I didn't own the other ones and this one was much cheaper)

Any way, so for my product, I am generating a pre and a post test based on a social studies scenario. (Leaning towards American Revolution or Civil War) They will take the pre-test, and then have a set amount of time to play the game, and then a post test to see what they have learned.

This is where you guys come in, does anyone know a good version of either of these scenarios? And does maybe anyone know some test questions I could ask? Or, for any teachers out there, a lesson plan revolving around Civilizations? (On this material)

Thanks guys, I appreciate the help!

 

[Cyc]

I just searched for both wars and came up empty handed. I did find a Revolutionary War, but it was played on a world map, kinda different. And I found an American Civil War in 2005, again kinda different.

I do know Eclipse4449 had a Civil War Mod that we tried to play as Multi-Player, but I had difficulty bringing the game up and we never really got started. But I think he may have improved it. You might want to send him a private message and find out. \\

You'd think with all the history buffs we have here, there would be plenty of Revolutionary War and Civil War Mods for Civ3 Conquests.

 

[Lanzelot]

I think that Civ III is more focused on "world history" rather than on the history of a particular nation and/or period. So most of the stuff you'll find is for ancient history, Babylon, Sumer, Egypt, Greece, Persia, Rome, etc.

The game itself comes with 9 scenarios, which are surprisingly "historically accurate":

• Ancient Mesopotamia
• Rise of Rome
• Fall of Rome / Migration Period
• Medieval Europe (Time of the Crusades)
• Southern American Civilizations before the discovery by Columbus
• Japanese Sengoku Era
• Age of Discovery (Discovery of the New World and run for the colonies in the 16th century)
• Napoleonic Era
• Second WW - Pacific Theater

The game's online help has some basic historic information about the time and about each nation. Perhaps you should base your class upon one of these periods?!

In the "Completed Scenarios" forum you'll find more comunity-developed stuff about various periods of history, some of the really great ones are Age of Imperialism and a couple scenarios about WW I and WW II. There are many many more about a big variety of periods in history, but as Cyc already said nothing really useful for the history of the US. (Edit: just took a look at the list and noticed that a "War of Independence" has just been added two months ago. However, judging from the discussion thread, it still needs some refinement before it is "historically correct" enough to serve as an example in a history class.)

If nothing helps, you could take a look at Civ IV: it comes with a built-in scenario about the War of Independence. (But in my personal opinion, Civ IV is not as good as Civ III. Too complex and too confusing.)

 

[CKS]

I'd look at the HistoriCanada stuff, unless you need specifically USA history. Even if you do, look to see what they did; it is some sort of educational deal, and they probably have useful resources for you. I played it a couple of times, but I don't remember the details

 

[TomYo689]

Someone made an American revolution scenario but the guy didn't know anything about America so it lacks a large chunk of educational value.

You'll have no problem finding middle ages and ww2 stuff though

 

[Cyc]

Hey EA, I found a Civil War Mod for you. I'm going to load it up soon to see if it's worth recommending to you. I'm not even sure if it will run yet....

 

[Cyc]

Alright, the scenario was mainly brought to life by Rocoteh. One can play the Confederacy or the Union in this game, of course. I chose to open the game first as President Davis of the Confederacy. The game opens at week 28 of 1861 AD. We are at Manassas/Alexandria and we can see Washington D.C. across the river. Looking south and west at the map, most of your cities are small, ready for growth, but you have few large cities in your nation. These are mostly populated with Confederate Volunteers and assorted Artillery and/or Cavalry. Fast Merchant ships converted into Blockade Runners wait for their chance to slip past the Union Frigates and Sloops that dot your coast. One of the main differences between the CSA and the USA is that the Confederacy uses forced labor to rush their projects, while the US pays their laborers. But the Confederacy has the whole of the South on their side, while the North is hard pressed to recruit new soldiers. And this is an advantage for you. Without going to the second turn, I stopped and loaded up the game as President Lincoln of the United States.

As did the South, we start with a huge Armed Forces with strong units scattered along the front and in the cities, and these cities overall are larger than the ones in the South. You have sent troops across the border, just as the South have sent their irregulars north of your lines. Looking West to Missouri, you see raging Native American Indians, who seem to be on a war path...

The stage is set. It seems well worth your time, although I wish railroads were used in this mod, as the North had them 30 years prior, and the South about 11 years prior. Maybe there will be another Civil War mod with RRs later.

Here are the .zip files. Extract them into your Conquests/Scenarios folder. Then start your game under Civ Content and choose the CSA or the USA. Hope this helps. By the way, I found these on the StormOverCiv site, just in case you wanted to read about it.

I could only fit the .biq files here. I'll try and load the game files in the next post. And I'll play some more when I get the chance.

 

[Cyc]

Nope. Exceeded my limit. But here's a link to that site I mentioned above. It goes directly to Rocoteh's Civil War Scenario.

You want to download the AcwDec23.zip to complete the downoads.

 

[EternalAlchemy]

THanks so much Cyc, this is very helpful!

And thanks TomYo689, CKS, Lanzelot fot your input too

All thats left to see if i can find a lesson plan.

Also, I think I downloaded them correctly, I'm going to have to check, but I have never downloaded a mod before. So, if anyone wants to give me a detailed instruction on how to do this, It would be greatly appreciated.

If that makes any sence.....

Lastly, I managed to download the mod, and i lanched it, but it is very overwhelming with cities and what not and I'm not quite sure what I need to be doing. Any suggestions?

 

[antimuff]

Start playing!

Civ is more about "What if" than "What happened", so as a historically teaching tool it's probably not the best way to teach a historical lesson. But it would be good to say "What if Lee bypassed Washington and attempted to take New Jersey?" So it does have value for strategic and tactical analysis. A player can spend a lot of time trying to figure out the best tactics for the given turn, and via the save function, you can play it out different ways.

 

[EternalAlchemy]

Thank you Antimuff,

It's just that I'ma little pressed for time. There has to be some way I can incorporate the game into a lesson plan.

 

[Cyc]

Pre-test questions:
Who were the Presidents at the time?
Where were their capitals located?
What was a major difference in their labor rights?
How much of the current U.S was involved in the Civil War? (You can fine-tune this question)
What were some of the largest cities at the time?
What ships did the Navy have at the time, and what ships were developed?
How did the rifle develop during the war?
What rivers played a major part in transporting troops and supplies during the war?

There's 8 questions that can be answered by playing the game. I'm sure you can think of some more.

The game will cycle through each of the cities each turn. Either move you units towards the enemy or fortify them in the cities. Units like "Home Guard" that may not have a movemnt value will of course be fortified in their cities. If you know much about Civ3 Conquests, it's pretty easy. You won't be settling new cities, but Workers/Engineers work the same. Build up your forces to cover the areas that get threatened and develop your cities when needed (or prior to..). There will be population pollution for the Workers to clean up. Don't hesitate to build a road where you think you need one. And use your stronger units wisely. Cavalry is weak to stat but can get places quicker than your infantry. Some of your Artillery can take down some of those stronger enemy units. But all this will just help you play the game, you'll have to do the lesson part. Maybe you could ask the same questions again and compare results?

Good luck!

 

[Alex Dog]

Unless there's some kind of import activity (maybe running treasure like in the Spanish/Aztec speciality mods) I don't think the Civ 3 game can really capture the naval aspects of the American Civil War. Operation Anaconda was a great success, but can you imagine how big a navy the North would have to have in order to blockage the Confederacy from Cheasapeake all the way around to south Texas?