God's Obvious Design

[Morten Blaabjerg]

This scenario attempts to simulate the history of the Spanish Armada of 1588.

Playing as the Spanish, the player has 60 turns to quell the Dutch revolt, build a large fleet and conquer England. The English player has the same time to build a strong navy to not only defend her coasts, but also harrass and raid Spanish shipping and Armada preparations. Although the scenario was primarily designed to be played as either the English or the Spanish, all the minor nations are playable and can be played for fun.

Please refer to this thread for latest update :
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=1738417#post1738417

[edited for new description and dl links]

 

[.:KNAS:.]

What's this all about?


PS. Nice graphics

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

As you may have guessed, this scenario is about the Spanish Armada of 1588. As the spanish, the player has about 48 turns to quell the dutch resistance and conquer England. The english has the same to put up strong land defences and build up a navy. Meanwhile, the french fight it out amongst themselves (the war of the three Henry's), and the scots put up a tough nuisance in the north of the british isles.

The scen is as good as done, slight modifications might be made after another round of playtesting. Gonna put in more events and rewards too after playtesting. Bottom line, I will need playtesters!

As it is now, its fun, short, and good for a quick mp run. So enjoy!

Please post your reports here, or send me an email

[download links removed - refer to the first post]

 

[.:KNAS:.]

I liked the scenario alot and i played as the English . But there was no sight of a Spanish Armada by the time that the scenario ended. I played it on King level, will give it a shot at Deity level later. Besides Scotland i also took Amsterdam, (treacheros Dutch think they own the world) Harlem, Leiden and Flushing. I didn't manage to build a single wonder though, but seing as the scenario is so short, i reckon it doesn't really matter.

 

[Ramsses]

It's Haarlem and not Haarleem.
And I think Leiden should be something more be to the left...
And Utrecht is in the middle, not at the right .

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

KNAS, its easy enough to build wonders... if you use tradesmen (freights) and disband the occasional ship (though at your peril). I'd recommend Diety, thats the only level I've played it in. At that level I find it imperative to get at least a few ones... especially great voyage...

But I think you're right, the english might have it too easy on them, as long as they have the Tower and keep their ships in the channel... in all my games on Diety, hell breaks loose at some point... -but then, I've always gone after raiding the spanish cities and pissing them off.

Spain played by the AI has a tendency to not build too many ships, which is a little off what I intended... but on the other hand, they might have bribed the dutch to carry out their dirty ops for them... -or maybe the papal funds just never arrived

-I like this flexible approach to ahistorical possibilities... Spain also has the option to go the protestant way, if they wish.... and go back to catholicism, once they've done. If they've done...

Anyway, any suggestions for how to make the spanish go to war at sea in a more devious manner?

Ramsses, there is only a little room on the map, so city placements in the border areas of the map have been a little compromised to accomodate for strategic positions etc...

 

[.:KNAS:.]

Maybe you could give the Spanish a few ships through events?

Or is that what you did?

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

yes... just opped them a bit on that one... they now receive free galleons returning from the Americas for the Armada, and napolitean galleasses from the turkish campaign in the eastern med. -that'll do I think... I've now had several full games, and each time, I have seen what appears to be the Armada fleet of some 5-10 ships approaching and coming thru the channel... so it looks alright

 

[Patient English]

Morten, I'm happy to have a look at this and generate some feedback once Colonies beta 4.0.4 is out tonight. Want me to take a look? (I.e. is the scenario still developing, or are you happy with it now?)

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

John, I'd very much appreciate some feedback -Henrik had a quick romp as the dutch the other day, and he actually commented on AIM as he played along, which was very helpful, as I was working on some additional events and tweaks at the same time. The scen is quite short, so it can be played in one or two sittings, especially playing as one of the small civs. What I really could use is some feedback on playbalance/difficulty playing as the different sides (especially the english/spanish sides). -Since I'm not the most avid civ2 player myself, I could use some second opinions.

Btw, I have just received your latest version of Colonies 4 -Looking forward to have a go at it -I have been following the playtest with great interest

 

[Henrik]

I had a go as the English as well the other day, by the end of the scenario I had conquered both Scotland and Holland (and I even managed to take Lissbon early on, which I never lost).
Unfortunatly an Armada never did show (and Spain didn't even bother to retake Lissbon after I pillaged the roads to it).
Something should be done to increase the agressiveness of the Spanish AI imho...
Also maybe you ought to add more objectives and reset the amount needed for a decisive win, just defending yourself as England shouldn't be enough for more than a minor win.

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

Historically, Spain did end up losing the Armada... so I guess your win is not surprising really... but it sounds like it was way too easy for you. Which it shouldn't be.

If you took Lisbon that is a sure reason the Armada didn't show, since thats the key spanish Harbor for the fleet. How did you manage to do that so quickly? -Could you do it without jeopardizing your naval defences of the channel? -If you could, maybe I will have to make Naval Tactics more desirable, in order to obsolete the Tower more quickly. -gonna look into it.

I have now given the spanish additional warships per events and opped the galleons fighting strength, as well as making the upgrade chain more valuable for the spanish building the Armouring Guild (hulks upgrading to carracks, crossbow to musketmen etc). The free ships help a lot, IMO, to make life pretty dangerous to the english. I have also added events to plant catholic assassins on english soil to make life difficult for them.

Any other ideas as to how make the spanish more aggressive? -without making it too easy for a human player playing the spanish side? -wouldn't wanna imbalance the mp difficulty... -as I know how efficient democracies can get in the hands of a human player. I still want England to be the aggressor, as they were pretty much perceived as such, at least by catholics.

Did the spanish actually attack you and you defended well?
-were their number of units inadequate?
-or were their ships inferior in strengths to your fleet?
-where did the spanish do their fighting, if not England?

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

Anyone feel like testing this scen from the spanish side? That would be most valuable

 

[Patient English]

I'll get on it (now Col 404 is finally out of the door)!

 

[Patient English]

1) Love the graphics! Except maybe the diplomatic dialog background, which is very hard to read anything against. The rats/pollution and Brothel improvement amused me particularly...

2) Suggestion: maybe rename the Tower of London wonder to "Elizabeth's Diplomacy" or something similar. It was mainly the hope of marrying her - and thus easing painlessly onto the thone of England - that kept the Catholic Princes of Europe dancing around her, rather than leading their armies onto the English beaches. Certainly more so than the presence of the little white-walled armoury/prison on the banks of the Thames....

3) The graphics (a major strongpoint of yours anyway) are very good. Maybe a little violently-coloured for my taste on first sight, I soon got used to them and I like the part-period, part-boardgame feel they give. Really nice work!

4) When an assasin is "expelled", why not "unmask" him. The ambassador would then apologise, rather than protest his explusion...

5) The wine resource should perhaps generate more trade or something. Same with the sheep.

6) The defensive infantry units should perhaps include Pikemen. By 1560 the Spanish Tercio was the dominant military formation. If you want to keep Musketeers, better rename them Matchlocks, although the difference in the weapon from an Arquebus was marginal.

More to follow....

 

[Henrik]

Originally posted by Patient English
1) Love the graphics! Except maybe the diplomatic dialog background, which is very hard to read anything against.

I had this problem as well, aparently you are supposed to play with the "Diplomacy Screen" turned off (when it is switched off the diplo dialogues uses the same background as the rest of the game).

If you took Lisbon that is a sure reason the Armada didn't show, since thats the key spanish Harbor for the fleet. How did you manage to do that so quickly? -Could you do it without jeopardizing your naval defences of the channel?

During my game I didn't see any Spaniards at all (but I did get to defend myself against both a few Dutch and a few French invassions), basicly I spent most of my time building up defences (which is something brittain really lacks at the start) and preparing an assault on Scotland.
Once I had done both I had only a few turns left, which I used to invade Holland (who had been declaring war on me from time to time anyway), the use of royal highways was imparative to my succes in fighting the dutch after I had bribed two initial cities.

I took Lisbon early on in a rather advanced attack involving a bombarding Galleon and lots of arcebusiers as well as an assasain who destroyed the city walls.
Then I pillaged the roads around the city and killed any units who tried to cross the wasteland...
I used mostly the arcebusiers you start out with on he Carracks/Caravels off the coast of Spain, but the Galleon I built myself in Ireland, and basicly I did not have to jeopardice anything in order to do so.

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

Originally posted by Henrik
I took Lisbon early on in a rather advanced attack involving a bombarding Galleon and lots of arcebusiers as well as an assasain who destroyed the city walls.
Then I pillaged the roads around the city and killed any units who tried to cross the wasteland...
I used mostly the arcebusiers you start out with on he Carracks/Caravels off the coast of Spain, but the Galleon I built myself in Ireland, and basicly I did not have to jeopardice anything in order to do so.

I like this daring move -But of course it kills the scenario, if one can prevent the spaniards from counterattacking this way -as easily as you apparently did. The arquebusiers/caravels were meant to give the english raiding opportunities on the spanish coast (Drake sacked Cadiz destroying a lot of armada ships this way). Did you up the cavalry move in your game? -that and free galleons for the spanish should help a lot IMO in the way of the spanish kicking out the english raiders. (especially since the galleons are now a little more powerful than in this version)

I also like that you spent so much building up defences. Thats pretty much what I intended for the english player. But I can see that I can easily make it a little harder for the english. Everytime I do I'm a little afraid that an avid spanish player will have too easy a time on him conquering england, which should be tough.

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

Originally posted by Patient English
1) Love the graphics! Except maybe the diplomatic dialog background, which is very hard to read anything against. The rats/pollution and Brothel improvement amused me particularly...

I wonder why... gonna look into it. I always play with the diplomacy screen off so I haven't noticed.

2) Suggestion: maybe rename the Tower of London wonder to "Elizabeth's Diplomacy" or something similar. It was mainly the hope of marrying her - and thus easing painlessly onto the thone of England - that kept the Catholic Princes of Europe dancing around her, rather than leading their armies onto the English beaches. Certainly more so than the presence of the little white-walled armoury/prison on the banks of the Thames....

Nice idea -I had a difficult time coming up with english wonders that made sense. As the tower was also used for imprisoning and beheading people who plotted against Elizabeth, I thought that it would do, but "Elizabethian Diplomacy" sounds much better in the ingame messages.

3) The graphics (a major strongpoint of yours anyway) are very good. Maybe a little violently-coloured for my taste on first sight, I soon got used to them and I like the part-period, part-boardgame feel they give. Really nice work!

Thx!

4) When an assasin is "expelled", why not "unmask" him. The ambassador would then apologise, rather than protest his explusion...

Elaborate... not sure what you mean... you mean in the ingame texts?

5) The wine resource should perhaps generate more trade or something. Same with the sheep.

Noted.

6) The defensive infantry units should perhaps include Pikemen. By 1560 the Spanish Tercio was the dominant military formation. If you want to keep Musketeers, better rename them Matchlocks, although the difference in the weapon from an Arquebus was marginal.

Think this is an area of some changes. I'm gonna include the tercios, and also a strong defensive royal guard of some sorts for the key cities, which worked well in 'Hammer' in order to prevent the AI from abandoning key targets, and the human player in taking them too easily.

 

[Henrik]

Originally posted by Morten Blaabjerg

I like this daring move -But of course it kills the scenario, if one can prevent the spaniards from counterattacking this way -as easily as you apparently did. The arquebusiers/caravels were meant to give the english raiding opportunities on the spanish coast (Drake sacked Cadiz destroying a lot of armada ships this way). Did you up the cavalry move in your game? -that and free galleons for the spanish should help a lot IMO in the way of the spanish kicking out the english raiders. (especially since the galleons are now a little more powerful than in this version)

Wouldn't it be possible for you to set up the events so that the Galleons are created in another city, say Cadiz, or Seville in case someone is occupying Lisbon (you could even set armada ships to appear directly outside of Lisbon so as to make sure that they retake that city first ).

As for the retaking of Lison, the Spanish AI did sail around outside Lisbon some, but never actually bombarded the city (and I had made sure to rebuild the city walls, the coastal fortress, as I recall survived my attack so that might not have been a wise move anyway).
And yes I did up the cavalry move as you said they where supposed to move 2 tiles per turn rather than one.

I still think the musketeer unit is too strong on defence btw, sometimes not even the best veteran artillery can scratch it.

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

Had a long tough go as the spanish tonight. Parma took the initiative. After wiping out dutch resistance, he landed his veterans at key strongholds on the british coastline. The Armada appeared in the channel early 1586, and after prolonged battles british resistance was futile... Weymouth and Norwich surrendered to spanish forces. London fell december 1588...

The scots somehow managed to survive this game. Heavily supported by spanish techs, they held out in Edinburgh, and liberated Anstruther from the brits...