dpaajones said:
Civilization : British Empire
Leader : Queen-Empress Victoria (
could use the same images as the English leader)
Capital : London
Flag : Union Jack
Unique Unit : Dreadnought-class warship (see
Wiki article) to replace ironclad (does that exist in Civ4?)
Cities : London, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Bristol, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff, Dublin, Calcutta, Delhi, Belfast, Gibraltar, Ottawa, Singapour, Hong Kong, Sydney, etc etc!
Love this idea, but doubt you would get onto the 'oversea/empire' cities as the number of cities you appear to be able to expand to in Civ 4 is much lower. Would suggest that after 5 or 6 'British' cities (push Edinburgh, Cardiff & Belfast up the list) you continue with just 'oversea' cities. Additional city suggestion: Wasn't Egypt a target of colonial protection in the 1880's? Could Cairo or Alexandria be added to this list?
I think that the Unique Unit definately ought to be navy to represent British domination of the seas at this time. Possibly not Dreadnought though. I would think that a 'fast' unit as opposed to a 'strong' unit might better reflect the reach of the British Navy.
Don't know how many Victorian Great Scientists or Great Engineers will be needed, but here are a few I can think of off of the top of my head.
Scientists: Charles Darwin, James Clark Maxwell, Michael Faraday, Ada Lovelace, Joseph Lister
Engineers: Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Charles Babbage, Guglielmo Marconi (not British, but the Marconi Telegraph Co. was established in London), Sir Henry Bessemer (holds patent for first method for mass-producing steel), Alfred Waterhouse (Architect of London's Natural History Museum- should he be Engineer or Artist?).
Here's some more.
Artists: Charles Dickens, Edward Elgar, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Oscar Wilde.
Prophets: A difficult one to come up with names for. I'm inclined to go for political and social reformers here, rather than those linked with religon. How about Karl Marx (not British I know, but lived and worked over half his life in London. Philosophy inspired British labour movement in the 20th Century)? John Stuart Mill, William Booth (founder of Salvation Army), Benjamin Disraeli (put through the 1867 Electoral Reform Act), William Forster (Compulsory Education Pioneer).
Merchants: George Curzon (reorganised India's finance and commerce), Cecil Rhodes (founded De Beers diamond company amongst many other things), William Gladstone (champion of Free Trade), Sir Thomas Lipton (friend of Victoria's son Edward, Prince of Wales, and who made a fortune from groceries).
OK. So, they weren't off the top of my head. Got a little involved. Love the idea of a British Empire Civ. Perhaps this needs its own thread.
One final thing, perhaps I was lulled into thinking just about Victorian achievements (about 1840 onwards), but there is a whole lot of stuff that happened in the earlier part of the 1800's. Perhaps as an alternate leader we could have George IV, formerly the Prince Regent, who I am sure would have very different characteristics to Victoria (just had a Blackadder-esque moment there).
I think this has lots of potential. Comments?