So you've played the Fall of Rome scenario in Civilization 3 Conquests, and while you've stomped both halves of the Roman empire a billion times, you've always wondered what it would be like to save the Roman empire instead. Well, now's your chance!
First, a little bit of history: This is not my original idea. Scenario designer Gobi Bear first created this scenario, which he called Everlasting Rome, back in 2004 for the RBC succession game series. Here's the thread for the Western Roman Empire succession game, and here's the thread for the Eastern Roman Empire succession game. You can check those out if you're interested. The primary changes were making the two Roman empires playable, and locking the Anglo-Saxons, Vandals, Celts, Huns, and Sassanids into war against the Roman empires.
I played his scenario, and while I liked it, I believed that it could be improved upon. So I decide to refine it, and maybe expand it a little too. This is what I came up with. It's not terrifically fancy or ambitious, but I think it might just offer you a whole new experience. Rarely is the player challenged to MAINTAIN an empire that is on the verge of crumbling.
While I've made so many changes that I've lost track of them all, here are the major ones (and some minor ones):
General
Alliances
Units
Civilizations
Terrain, Resources and Cities
This is my first scenario, so any feedback is appreciated.
Hopefully I've uploaded the files correctly. The scenario is labelled as Fall of Rome v3 -- this has to do with the development process. Fall of Rome v2 did not have Vandal presence in Africa or faster units.
Screenshots (New!):
Celtic Italia
Holding the Line Against the Sassanids
Furthermore, I Believe Carthage Must Be Protected
Byzantine Dominance
Invading Ireland
First, a little bit of history: This is not my original idea. Scenario designer Gobi Bear first created this scenario, which he called Everlasting Rome, back in 2004 for the RBC succession game series. Here's the thread for the Western Roman Empire succession game, and here's the thread for the Eastern Roman Empire succession game. You can check those out if you're interested. The primary changes were making the two Roman empires playable, and locking the Anglo-Saxons, Vandals, Celts, Huns, and Sassanids into war against the Roman empires.
I played his scenario, and while I liked it, I believed that it could be improved upon. So I decide to refine it, and maybe expand it a little too. This is what I came up with. It's not terrifically fancy or ambitious, but I think it might just offer you a whole new experience. Rarely is the player challenged to MAINTAIN an empire that is on the verge of crumbling.
While I've made so many changes that I've lost track of them all, here are the major ones (and some minor ones):
General
- Allowed all 10 civilizations to be played. While the scenario is focused on the Romans, feel free to try your hand at one of the other 8; I have designed the scenario with playing them in mind as well.
- Disabled Cultural Conversions.
- Enabled Preserve Random Seed.
- Standardized corruption levels and tech costs (that is: they are no longer affected by the size of the last game you were playing).
- Reduced victory point location value from 25 to 20.
- Enabled Conquest victory condition. Good luck with that, though.
- Barbarian activity set to Raging.
Alliances
- As in the original Everlasting Rome scenario, the Anglo-Saxons, Vandals, and Celts are in an alliance together against Rome. The Huns and Sassanids are also individually aligned against Rome. However, the Huns are now also locked into war with the Sassanids.
Units
- All units move 1 movement point quicker than their normal counterparts. So, a 1-move Legion in Fall of Rome now has a movement speed of 2 in this scenario. Mounted units move at a rate of 3, and to compensate for losing the ability to retreat, they have gained the Blitz ability. This ensures that units -- particularly the barbarians -- will reach the front faster.
- Migrants (20-shield 1pop settlers) are now only available to Barbarian civilizations. Previously, they were available to the Sassanids as well.
- All barbarian units (Raider, Marauder, Pillager, Warlord) ignore the movement cost of hills and forests. This represents their familiarity with the terrain.
- Barbarian units no longer require iron to build.
- Gave archers their defensive bombard, just to sync them with normal C3C archers.
- Spearmen now cost 15 shields instead of 20. This is because Marauders were objectively better otherwise.
- Roman Garrisons were previously glorified Spearmen who were useless against anything tougher than a Raider. Now, their defense is 3 (a 50% increase), but their cost has been doubled to 40 shields. As a result, instead of being worthless, Roman Garrisons are a moderately powerful unit early on that are difficult to replace if you lose them, similar to how Legions are.
- Speaking of Legions, their shield cost has been increased from 50 to 60.
- New unit: Medium Cavalry. Available to all civilizations with Fortification. ADM: 3-2-3, 50 shields. Upgrade to Heavy Cavalry. Requires horses.
- New unit: Cataphract. Available only to Roman civilizations as a "downgrade" to Heavy Cavalry. Requires iron and horses, and has 1 less attack point. (4-3-3 vs. 5-3-3).
- Increased Dromon cost from 30 to 40.
- Increased Pillager defense from 2 to 3.
- The Romans begin with Monotheism researched.
- The Vandals begin with Sailing researched. Previously, they did not.
- Horseback Riding is required to research Fortification, because Fortification now grants Medium Cavalry.
- New Tech: Uncorrupt Rule. All non-Roman civilizations begin with it. It is a prerequisite for:
- New Tech: Monarchy. See the "Governments" section for more information. The Sassanids begin with this tech already researched, and are already a Monarchy themselves.
- Imperialism no longer has any war weariness. While I am aware that this is a significant buff to the Roman civilizations, it is my belief that OF ALL the problems the Roman empire was experiencing during this period, war weariness was NOT one of them. It's also very annoying in an Always War scenario anyway.
- Tribal Council now has communal corruption instead of minimal. If you're playing as a Barbarian, feel free to capture the most distant Roman city that you like and not have it be hamstrung by corruption.
- New Government: Monarchy. Exactly like the standard Monarchy except that corruption is minimal and unit support is 3-6-9. Probably better than Tribal Council if you're okay with possibly going through Anarchy and aren't planning on capturing distant cities (or don't mind them being corrupt).
Civilizations
- All civilizations have had their AI tweaked. All civilizations prefer to build offensive land units. Additionally, Romans and Sassanids prefer to build workers, Barbarians prefer to build settlers (migrants), Sassanids prefer to build happiness, and the Vandals, Celts, and Anglo-Saxons prefer to build naval units.
- The Vandals, Celts, and Anglo-Saxons are now seafaring in addition to militaristic and industrious.
Terrain, Resources and Cities
- Both Roman empires begin with incense colonies in Egypt. Western Rome also has a dye colony on the eastern Mediterranean coast. However, Gems and Ivory have been removed from Africa. The only source of Ivory (and Spices, and Silks) is controlled by the Sassanids.
- Various cities have had their improvements tweaked. The basic gist is that there are a lot more harbors, and a few frontier cities have walls. Notably, all British cities have walls. Recall, though, that the stronger barbarian units can destroy city improvements...
- Divided the Vandals' forces between northern Europe (as in the original scenario) and a few settlers and spearmen in north Africa. I am aware that the Vandals had to migrate to Africa (and therefore should not begin the scenario there), but it seems even less historical for them to NEVER reach that location, as they did originally.
- Connected Constantinople to Anatolia by a land bridge.
- Slightly decreased Ireland's size so that naval units built on the west coast could access the rest of the map.
- Moved Western Roman capital from Rome to Mediolanum. (This is actually historical, at least from a governing standpoint, if admittedly not a cultural one.)
- Western Rome has 3 new cities in the Mediterranean, giving them control over Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia. Salonae is also controlled by Western Rome instead of Eastern Rome.
- Eastern Rome has 1 new city on the eastern Mediterranean coast: Gaza.
- Tweaked some Sassanid city locations.
This is my first scenario, so any feedback is appreciated.
Hopefully I've uploaded the files correctly. The scenario is labelled as Fall of Rome v3 -- this has to do with the development process. Fall of Rome v2 did not have Vandal presence in Africa or faster units.
Screenshots (New!):
Celtic Italia
Spoiler :
Holding the Line Against the Sassanids
Spoiler :
Furthermore, I Believe Carthage Must Be Protected
Spoiler :
Byzantine Dominance
Spoiler :
Invading Ireland
Spoiler :
