European Middle Ages Mod Resurrection

[Craig_Sutter]

Here's a broad outline for a possible Hanseatic League Exploration Victory... (although it's not really exploration in this case, but economic dominance).

First... naturally, the Hanseatic League Wonder would be defunct. In anycase, it really ought to be a project and not a wonder, since the league did not really have a centre (although the city of Lubeck came close).

Project: Hanseatic League (1)
Tech: Communes
Requires: 5 Markets
Requires: either beeswax or amber or furs and salt
Required for: Kontors, Freetown Charters, Grants of Privileges, Diet of the Hansa, and Syndic
Benefits: ?

Project: Kontors (8)
Tech: Communes
Requires: Hanseatic League, Market
Requires: either beeswax or amber or furs and salt
Benefits: ?

Project: Freetown Charters (8)
Tech: ?
Requires: Hanseatic League, Guild ?
Benefits: ?

Project: Grants of Privilege (3)
Tech: Guilds
Requires: Hanseatic League, Guildhall
Requires: gold
Benefits: +1 trade route for each

Project: Diet of the Hansa (1)
Tech: Banking
Requires: Hanseatic League, 5 Banks
Benefits: creates 4 Guilder resources with Gold and 2 Guilder resources with Silver(like Broadway Wonder)

Project: League Syndic
Tech: ?
Requires: Hanseatic League, ?
Benefits: ?

I'm uncertain what would constitute a spaceship victory, here. It should be establishment of some sort of permanent League structure, far more solid than was created historically... the League eventually fractured from internal strife, so a spaceship victory should dictate the these problems be overcome. Also, some sort of Trade Monopoly throughout Europe would be a goal... never quite achieved due to competition from Dutch and other interests. Spaceship parts and modules should reflect this... the Syndic was actually the creation of a bureaucratic head to oversee League matters, but came to late, and never achieved significant sway over the League... perhaps a empowered Syndic (sort of a Secretary General or President) would be required of such a victory.

 

[Craig_Sutter]

I'll throw out ideas for a Silk Route victory in the next few days... I'm thinking, since the victory possibilities will be multiple, that they can also be exclusive to the creator of the project... there is only one Silk Route, and one Hanseatic League... I'm thinking for the New World victory, a Papal Blessing may be the outcome, and there was only one of those, as well (when the Pope granted half the world to Portugal and the other half to Spain). Others may not be so exclusive... it doesn't matter, I think, so long as they are all equally difficult to achieve.

Some of these victories may be slightly outside the timeline of the mod, however, I look at it this way... nobody achieved permanent dominance from any of these spaceship victories which did occur historically, in the end... perhaps this was because they were achieved too late, and achieving them within the timeframe of this mod means that they were accomplished soon enough to lead to long-lasting world, or at least European, domination.

 

[Craig_Sutter]

I don't know much about the unit... but according to the maker, it's of the correct time period for our mod.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=202509

 

[Drtad]

I wrote two civilopedia entries. One for Flavius Aetius and one for Ashot. I made it easy for you to put it in the text files and put them in the XML format.

Spoiler :

<TEXT>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_LEADER_ASHOT_I_PEDIA</Tag>
<English>

Ashot I Bagratuni[\H1][NEWLINE][BOLD]First King of Bagratuni Armenia[\BOLD][NEWLINE][BOLD]Lived: 862AD-890AD[\BOLD][NEWLINE][PARAGRAPH:2][BOLD]Background:[\BOLD][NEWLINE]Ashot I Bagratuni was one of the Armenian feudal lords who ruled Armenia during Arab rule. Ashot proclaimed Armenia independant and allied with the Armenian Artzruni princes and Armenia was invaded by Arabs. An enormous Arab army of 80,000 arrived on the shores of the Araxes river and was confronted by a 40,000 strong Armenian army under the "Prince of Princes" Ashot I. In the Battle of 40, as it came to be called, Ashot killed 20,000 of the Arabs while receiving minimal casualties on his own army. This major victory allowed the Abbasid caliph to accept Armenia's independance, and he allied with Ashot against Byzantine incursions, as the Imperial dynasty of the time, the Macedonian dynasty, was an Armenian dynasty who would have wanted to extend their domains to include Armenia. Ashot was, all in all, a very successful leader.[TAB]</English>
<French>in French</French>
<German>in German</German>
<Italian>in Italian</Italian>
<Spanish>in Spanish</Spanish>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_LEADER_FLAVIUS_PEDIA</Tag>
<English>

Flavius Aetius[\H1][NEWLINE][BOLD]Magister Milletum of Late Rome[\BOLD][NEWLINE][BOLD]Lived: 396AD-454AD[\BOLD][NEWLINE][PARAGRAPH:2][BOLD]Background:[\BOLD][NEWLINE]Flavius Aetius is considered one of the last true Romans. He was never an emperor, but he, as magister milletum, had true power oer emperor Valentinian III. It is also notable that he probably was not even Roman, but a Scythian, German, or Thracian. Ironically, he was known as the terror of the barbarians. Her started his career by leading a large army of Huns against the emperor, and gaining control himself. Aetius did not really do anything notable, until Atilla the Hun's invasion of Gaul in 451. Flavius led a tiny force of Romans to battle the large army of Huns, so he allied with the Visigothic King Theodoric I and confronted Atilla at Chalons. This battle was an overwhelming victory for Aetius, as Theodoric was killed in the battle, eliminating a future enemy, and Atilla was forced to retreat, Atilla's first defeat. Flavius was a hero. In the following year, Attila invaded Italy proper. Flavius, with only a shadow force, was able to severely delay the Huns from making considerable progress. Because of Aetius' annoying behavior, Attila halted at the Po river and turned back. Flavius was assassinated by Valentinian III in 454.[TAB]</English>
<French>in French</French>
<German>in German</German>
<Italian>in Italian</Italian>
<Spanish>in Spanish</Spanish>
</TEXT>

 

[Craig_Sutter]

Reminds me, I've got some naval unit pedia entries to finish as well... they're on my list.

 

[Broken Hawk]

Geez, I completely forgot about formatting the barb cities.

 

[Head Serf]

Don't worry about it Broken_Hawk, I already put the new cities in. And thanks for the civilopedia entries Drtad, I'll include them immeadiately.

About the new marsh graphics from Rhye's mod, I was having trouble including them, so don't expect them for the new version.

I have most of the new unit art, and a lot of the new LH art.

 

[Drtad]

Here are a couple of entries I wrote for the Dromon and the Nakharar. Only in English again and formatted for easy insertion. I could do some Italian translating, but it would take time which I don't have anymore unfortunately.

Spoiler :

<TEXT>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_UNIT_ARMENIA_UUI_PEDIA</Tag>
<English>The Nakharar were the significant land owners of Armenia, like the feudal lords of Europe. They were administrators in peace time, and warriors in war time, fighting as a well equipped heavy cavalry unit. Nakharars with greater authority were recognized as "ishkhans," princes. The Armenian nakharar systemhas often been labeled as feudal for practical purposes, though the two systems are not exactly the same. The nakharar system has been in use since the Orontid dynasty in circa 500BC.</English>
<French>in French</French>
<German>in German</German>
<Italian>in Italian</Italian>
<Spanish>in Spanish</Spanish>
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_UNIT_BYZ_UUI_PEDIA</Tag>
<English>The dromons were the most deadly and important ships of the Byzantine navy. They were in use from the 6th to 12th centuries AD. They were based on the ancient triremes of Roman times and they used both oars and sails for propulsion. Dromons could carry up to 300 men. Most dromons were not equipped with rams, but giant flamethrowers spewing Greek Fire, and catapults which could bombard enemy positions from up to 250 meters away. They were also heavily armored.</English>
<French>in French</French>
<German>in German</German>
<Italian>in Italian</Italian>
<Spanish>in Spanish</Spanish>
</TEXT>

 

[Broken Hawk]

What, specifically, is the problem with the marsh tiles?

 

[Drtad]

Here is the Nakharar unit from Chivalry: Total War. I think it is a pretty accurate picture of what it could have looked like.

 

[alinurdengizich]

Will you adopt this mod for warlords . I'm imagining to play this wonderful mod with vassal system etc. Well ... It'd be really great !

 

[Head Serf]

Yes, it will be adopted for Warlords eventually, however, it will be a fairly long while before that happens. And thank you Drtad for the picture and pedia entries!

 

[Craig_Sutter]

This may be useful in directing civs to certain religions...

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=187622

 

[Drtad]

Great Lords for the Armenian region:

Vahram Pahlavouni-House of Pahlavouni held off numerous Byzantine and Turkish invasions, and also internal rebellions, he crowned Gagik II king in 1041.
Smbat Bagratuni-House of Bagratuni landowner, battled and heavily defeated the Arabs at Varnakert, 705
Theodoros Rshtuni-House of Rshtuni landowner nakharar class, famous for battling initial Arab juggernaut armies. Defeated Arabs three times, named sparapet. Also famous for surrender.
Gregory Magistros-House of Pahlavouni landowner, famous linguist, scholar, and public functionary
Roupen Roupenian-House of Roupenian prince in Armenia related to last king of Ani, Gagik II after Turkish victory at Manazkert (Manzikert) Roupen fled Armenia with his retinue of Nakharars, Didebuls, and various Caucasian soldiers who pledged their loyalty to him. Arrived in Cilicia in ~1080, banded all the Armenian principalities together and launched a rebellion against Byzantium, thus creating a New Armenia (Kingdom of Armenian Cilicia)

 

[Head Serf]

Thank you again everyone. No one needs to worry about any byzantine-related civilopedia entries, I'm using some from Amra's Byzantium mod.

My new Nakharar graphics looked pretty terrible, so the only changes that I'm gonna keep in them for 0.5 is a new, more wooden looking shield, and the armor is less shiny. Most of the UUs have new art, and most of the leaders have new LHs also. I've also fixed the problem where the leaderheads had no buttons. All I'm gonna do before I put up the new version is the new victories, which I can hopefully get done this weekend.

 

[Head Serf]

Ok, well, I've been working on the new Hanseatic Victory and here's what I think would work best:

The first step in the victory is building the wonder "Hanseatic League". It will come around the middle of the game, maybe Communes or Guilds. After the player builds the "Hanseatic League" (a project), they can start building other parts of the victory after getting the proper techs. 8 Kontors, (also projects) will be required, 1 Diet of the Hansa will be required, and 1 Syndic of the League will be required. Lastly, I thought, there should be something called "Hanseatic League Member" that would represent the various cities joining the league. 8 would be required, and each city could only build one naturally. Unfortunately, to make it so that each city can only build one, I would have to make it a building or national wonder. My plan is that the "Syndic of the League" would require having 8 cities as "Hanseatic League Members" before it could be built, because I cannot make a building or national wonder a prerequisite for victory normally. Also the various requirements would get a production boost of +150&#37; when it had a certain resource, such as salt, furs, beeswax, gold, amber, or silver, depending on the project.

I tried to keep the system fairly close to your system, Craig, and if you guys have any comments, please tell me.

 

[Head Serf]

Well, apparently I cannot make a certain number of buildings a prerequisite for a project, so I'm going to have to make the "Hanseatic League Member" requirement a little differently.

I'm going to make several, maybe 6? national wonders all by the name of "Hanseatic League Member". Each one will produce a different resource, each by the same name, that will increase the production of the "Syndic of the League" by +50&#37;. The "Syndic of the League" will be very costly and almost unattainable without getting at least 3 or 4 of the member cities.

 

[Craig_Sutter]

I wasn't able to find the schema for the projects, so didn't know what they could do. You may wish to reconsider the order I placed things in as well... there's no reason that the League needs to be the first stage, it could be a later project set up by others. Much of my proposal was spit-balling, so it definetely needs refinements. If you need any advice let me know, at least for ideas.

One thing, each of the various projects and wonders should give benefits, as well... I don't know what's available to projects, but Kontores, for instance, should give something similar to markets or trading related buildings. The Grants of Privileges would be best for giving +1 trade routes each (which would be +3, if you have 3 of them as requirements for spaceship)

Do you want me to make up ideas for another victory? I've been thinking about Silk Route and various other exploration victories. And another possible on would be a Holy Roman Empire victory where a civ constitutes a more vigourous and united Empire than historically.

Anyhow, an idea for West European Exploration victory would involve:

School of Navigation
Atlantic Fishing Fleet - requires Whale and gives resource- Grand Banks Fisheries
Claim of Sovereignty (planting the flag)
X number of American Colonies
Cinque Ports National Wonder requires 5 dockyards (represents Royal Navy)

These are not in an ideal order, and again the idea needs refinement.

Silk Route Victory

Silk Route Project prereq for all...
For Persia and Turks and maybe Byzantium...and any others that seem right. Represents control, political and territorial, of the silk route.

Silk Route Project prereq for all... it produces Silk Resource

x number of oases
3 Gifts to Monarchs
1 Embassy to the Chinese

BAby crying so have to go now...

 

[Head Serf]

Unfortunately very, very little is given to projects. The only things they can do as far as benfits go are giving techs that all civilizations know, reducing the chance of ICBMs hitting your territory, and enabling units and buildings (such as the Manhatten project enabling ICBMs and Bomb Shelters). I was thinking that there should probably be no more than 3 or 4 possible "exploration" victories because any more would make things very messy and such. I was thinking that 3 would be:

1. Hanseatic League Victory
2. New World Colonisation Victory
3. Silk Road Monopoly Victory

The Hanseatic League Victory would fit well for countries on the Baltic Sea,
the New World Colonisation Victory would work well for countries on the Atlantic and Western Mediterrainian, and the Silk Road Victory for countries in the western med and black sea areas. I don't think any areas are really missed between the three.

 

[Craig_Sutter]

To those, I would add a Spice Route Victory, going around the Horn of Africa, or through the Red Sea for the Egyptians and Arabs.

Possible benefits for the ones you mentioned, plus this one, would be...

Pepper resource for Spice Route.
Silk resource for Silk Road.
Aztec Gold, or Tobacco or Chocolate, for the New World (could be any of the three).

Resource requirements might be camels for the Silk Route. We've already got a batch for the Hanseatic. I've mentioned whales for the New World. And I suppose Spice for the Spice Route.

Extra resources so gained should happen some time before the final stage of lift off, so some benefits are derived from them before the end game.

Keeping in mind that these victories are more than just finding the routes, but also consolidating them, giving the resources before the final stages are built makes sense, as some trade occurs before the final dominance of the trade from that area is finalized. Silk can be gotten very early, much before the route becomes monopolized... and same for the others.

Just some ideas for components...

Caravanserai for the Silk Route... require camel.
West and East African Colonies for Spice Victory... perhaps give a Slave resource (unless the idea in game is too unpleasant).

Possible needed resources for different stages might be Gold (when it comes to buying off Monarchs or the Chinese Emporer).

Conversely, overseas Colonies (esp Africa and New World), might give a gold resource, or gems.

I'd be interested in seeing the final victories and their component/effects when you've rounded it out.

The final components need to be somewhat near the end of the tech tree... my Hanseatic Victory idea ended somewhat before then. One must figure out how to link the various Space Ship Victories with a later tech like Ocean Travel, or other ones appropriate to the Victory. With the Spice Route and New World, this is easy, but a trade or politically related tech allowing the final component is more sensible for the Hanseatic or Silk Route.

Anyhow, just some thoughts.