Mopean
Warlord
The Western World is a mod currently in development that aims to change... almost everything about the vanilla game for historical accuracy and other such things. Not everything is perfectly accurate - I am still researching (and being really, really fascinated by what I find 
)
In this case, the mod tries to model the Western World, from the years 4000 BC to 1991 AD with as much depth, detail, and complexity as possible in Civ3. Navies and aircraft will be useful (unlike in vanilla, in my opinion). Every country will have their entire tech tree of their own flavor and unique units, and great lengths have been taken to model historical events. I will get into that stuff later.
The Western World is divided into 4 Eras, which are divided into sub-eras. I will describe the eras and sub-eras below.
The Ancient World
Medieval and Reniassance
Enlightenment and Victorian Era
- Enlightenment Perhaps it is a bit anachronistic to call the period immediately following the Protestant Revolution to be the Enlightenment but... I'm working with 4 eras here. Anyway, Spain's conquests in Mexico and Peru make it the wealthiest and most powerful country in Europe. The Habsburgs, whose rule extends over Spain, Austria (who is now Emperor in the Holy Roman Empire) and soon Italy and parts of Flanders, become extremely powerful off this deal. Tired of Protestant rebels in the Empire, Charles and the Pope excommunicate Martin Luther and the Germanic Princes that support him. A great war is fought in Germany and concluding in the Peace of Augsburg, which basically agrees to disagree about religion in Germany. Europe will be plagued with many religious and imperialist wars as the greater powers go around and stomp their feet into Asia, Africa, and the Americas and religious reform is demanded across Europe. Some seek to escape it all by venturing to the New World for a new, better life, often finding that things were not always better across the pond. Spain's power wanes. Wars get more defensive-oriented. Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden fights in the 30 years war with a completely new style of army which would later find copies and adaptations in later forces. Global conflicts are fought in India and North America, where a new country will find its way to independence in one of these wars between Europeans. Russian principalities fend off the Golden Horde and make their way colonizing East, uniting into a Russian state where Serfdom is the law. Russia will stay behind technologically until westernization efforts by Peter the Great. The Act of Union brings England and the Kingdom of Scotland together.
There are too other eras, but...
The last era is the World War 2 and Cold War era, which is divided in 2. But I think you get the point now. Being the civ3 modders you all are you've doubtlessly done the same research I have... the exhausting bike trips to the library, the index cards filling every other page for reference, the note taking and writing, the revising... ah... anyway. There are a lot of things the mod is attempting to model. While each era will not do its job as well as a specialized scenario about that time period, I'd say it gets the job done. You have enough time in each era to use your units and use most of the mechanics.
The Playable civilizations, locations, and their heights, alphabetized. All city names of every country will use their local name in their main language rather than Anglicized, Latinized, or Hellenized forms. At least, once I get the forms that haven't been -ized.
Arabia:
Height: Umayyad Caliphate
Start location: Modern Iraq
Capital: Baghdad
Agricultural and Scientific
Arabian units are fast and hard-hitting, though not the most durable. Their unique units last until the Enlightenment age, where dominance by Europeans and Ottomans lead to greatly diminished power. Arab medieval units, are, however, devastating.
Austria:
Height: Habsburg Empire
Location: Central Europe
Capital: Wien
Industrious and Commerical
Austrian units are heavily multicultural, with German, Hungarians, and Poles being the most notable. This allows them to branch into different fighting styles and tactics easily. The army doesn't excel in anything, but does well overall.
Carthage:
Height: Carthaginian Empire
Location: Tunisia
Capital: Carthage
Commercial and Seafaring
Carthaginian/North African units begin nearly completely reliant on mercenaries, except for the feared Sacred Band and the now-extinct North African War Elephant. With Roman and then Arab conquest, however, North Africa has taken the fighting style of its Arab counterparts, but with less emphasis on ranged attack and more so on defense and infantry units.
Egypt
Height: Mamluks
Location: Nile River, North Africa
Capital: Qahira
Industrious and Religious
Egyptian units start off light, fast and strong, but follow a Greek pattern of warfare after Alexander the Great's conquest. In the medieval age they take a very mobile role, with heavy cavalry fighting with supporting light cavalry skirmishers, much like their Arab and Saracen counterparts.
England
Height: Victorian Empire
Location: Great Britain
Capital: London
Industrious and Seafaring
English/British units start out average and cheap, with emphasis on ranged warfare. Later, British units become more expensive and much more powerful, reflecting the rise of the British Empire as the largest and most powerful that's ever existed. The British would come to own a third of the world, with its unrivaled navy and elite, though small, army being very potent. In the last era they become more reliant on allies and other Commonwealth members, however.
France
Height: Napoleonic France
Location: Western Europe, Gallia
Capital: Paris
Industrious and Commercial
French units begin with high hitpoints and defense, waging their Gaulic, tribal wars against the Romans dozens of times over. With civilization brought to the Gauls and the fall of Rome, they became the Franks (more or less) and Feudalism was at its best and worst. French knights become the most numerous and prestigious, and France a medieval superpower with the best military infrastructure of its time. This power would wane slightly with the rise of Spain as the first global power, but France would earn it back in the Napoleonic wars, conquering most of Europe and ruling it either directly or indirectly before finally falling after 30 years of coalition wars and a failed invasion of Russia. French modern units aren't so bad either, with some of the heaviest tanks, elite French Foreign Legion, and an above average navy.
Greece
Height: Byzantine Empire
Location: Greece
Capital: Athina (?) or Constantinople
Scientific and Commerical
Greek units start early and end early. Greek units are slower, more defensive-oriented, and advanced, though their cavalry reach high points also, in the form of Macedonian Companion cavalry and, when evolving into the Byzantine Empire, the great Byzantine cataphract. The greeks don't have a bad navy either, especially with use of Greek fire on their ships in the Dark Ages. However, the fall of Constantinople, city of the world's desire, puts an end to Greek unique, powerful units in the Reniassance. They do return a bit in World War 2, with the Greek Mountaineers that gave the Italians such a hard time in the Greco-Italian War.
Germany
Height: Imperial Germany
Location: Central Europe
Capital: Berlin
Militaristic and Scientific
German units are some of the best in each era. They begin hard hitting slow slow, with some of the game's best Cavalry that even Rome wanted to hire. Then with the Holy Roman Imperial rule, Germany becomes like that of a pillow or jello - taking hits and absorbing them. But Germany rapidly evolves into one of the most powerful civs in the game, from a pillow to a steel block. Rapid defeats of France and Austria unite a German Empire, but the loss of World War I would trigger a political revolution that sends Germany back into great military power again using new tactics no one's ever seen before, new technology and new weapons.
Mongols
Height: Genghis' Empire
Location: Kazakhstan
Capital: Karakorum (due for changing)
Militaristic and Expansionist
Mongol unique units only exist in the Medieval age, but they are extremely powerful, the most powerful of its time. The Mongol army should be a massive threat to Russia and Arabia, both nearby. Mongol units are fast, offensive, high bombard, high rate of fire killing machines that were turned back only very slowly and after some centuries.
Ottomans
Height: Suleyman's Empire
Location: Central Anatolia
Capital: Istanbul. Or Constantinople
Militaristic and Commercial
Ottoman units begin the game as the Hittites, with strong emphasis on chariots and iron age warfare. Hittite chariots are the best. They fade into Turkic populations and then into Byzantine occupation in the Middle Ages but make a come back in the Reniassance as the Ottoman Empire, which nearly conquered Europe at the Battle of Vienna. Ottoman armies excel in siege warfare and so are slow, tough, and pack a high bombard punch. By the Victorian era, though, the Ottoman Empire is late into its decline and is referred to as the Sick Man of Europe. In World War I, the Ottomans were defeated and a period of chaos ensued in which the Greeks were invading and yet a civil war was happening at the same time. The Turks came out on top and formed the Turkish Republic... which has no unique units.
Netherlands
Height: Dutch Empire
Location: Central Europe
Capital: Amsterdam
Seafaring and Commercial
Dutch Units follow the Germanic, Holy Roman, and then Spanish pattern for a little while, finally getting their own national units in the Enlightenment age. They are a naval power with strong cavalry and infantry. Then due to neutrality in World War I, the Dutch army becomes quite incompetent and behind the other civilized nations of the world, and mobilized too late in World War II to put up a good fight.
Persia
Height: Achaemenid Dynasty
Location: Modern Iran
Capital: Tehran
Strengths: Religious and Scientific
Persian units are some of the toughest in the early to mid game, focusing mainly on infantry and archers. You know, foot units. Later, with Seleucia and then the Sassanid Empire, Timurids and finally Iran, Persia rapidly evolves into a cavalry oriented civ and then back down to infantry again.
Portugal
Height: Portuguese Empire
Location: Iberian Peninsula
Capital: Lisboa
Strengths: Expansionist and Seafaring
Portuguese units begin the game as fast, skirmish units, up until the Reniassance, like their Spanish neighbors. With Muslim conquest and the successful Reconquista, Portugal emerged, along with Spain, as two powerful entities. Portugal became the first imperialist power in history with its occupation of Ceuta and colonization of Angola and Mozambique, trade with Japan, and colonization of Brazil. Portugal has excellent cavalry skirmishers, high RoF artillery, and naval units, until the Enlightenment comes around.
Poland
Height: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Location: Eastern Europe
Capital: Warsaw
Scientific and Industrious
Polish units start the same as Russian units, diverging in the middle ages, becoming very cavalry focused. Poland falls under German, Russian, and Austrian occupation and during this period has no unique units. However with the first world war comes independence, and with World War 2 comes some strong, cheap unique units, representing Poland's valiant, brave effort, holding out for 3 months against Soviet and German forces. One of the most famous examples is the Battle of Wizna, in which the Polish army, outnumbered, with one anti-tank gun and a few old machine guns, held back the entire German 3rd Army with tanks, artillery and thousands of soldiers for 3 days, prolonging the fall of Warsaw.
Rome
Height: Roman Empire
Location: Italian Peninsula
Militaristic and Commercial
Roman units start with emphasis on heavy infantry and their supporting skirmishers. They are expensive but strong combined tactics use will allow them to pay for themselves. However with the fall of Rome, the Italian city states become a naval power that is reliant on mercenary units such as Condotta Infantry. Italy spends most of its time split up in history, until the Kingdom of Italy was formed in the Victorian Era and becomes a great power. In World War 2 the Italians have a few good units and a strong navy, but generally their incompetence in the war is represented much more so than their few (if any) redeeming factors.
Russia
Height: Soviet Union
Location: Eurasia
Capital: Moskva
Industrious and Expansionist
Russian units begin much like Mongol units, though not at the same time period, and not as powerful. With the Medieval age the Russians become infantry focused, which turns out to be a bad idea against the Mongols. With the formation of a central, strong Russian state under Peter the Great, Russia's army is still a bit behind the West but is one of the largest. The Russians remain infantry focused, with some great cavalry units, until World War 2, in which their power compares with that of Germany - unique planes, unique tanks, unique infantry, everything. In the post-war period, the Soviet Union is at its height. Until the game ends.
Scandinavia
Height: Swedish Empire
Location: ... Scandinavia
Capital: Stockholm
Militaristic and Seafaring
Scandinavian units begin much the same as their German counterparts, diverging at the start of the middle ages in which they become a naval power and with strong amphibious infantry and almost no cavalry. The Kalmar Union under Denmark is represented by the myriad of Danish units available, but with Sweden becoming the most powerful and largest Scandinavian power, Swedish units become the norm. Scandinavia is always focused on infantry, with poor cavalry and little access to armored units in the modern age.
Spain
Height: Spanish Empire
Location: Iberian Peninsula
Capital: Madrid
Militaristic and Religious
Spanish units begin the game fast and mobile, and remain so until the Reniassance. During which Spain becomes an extremely good Naval power, as well as being able to form the world's first modern army. With Tercios, Conquistadores and Spanish Galleons, Spain will come to rule the world, being the world's first global superpower - for now. Despite its rapid decline after the Golden Age of Spain, it managed to remain economically and commercially important, with colonies and ports and outposts dotting every continent of the planet. The Napoleonic Wars put an end to Spain's great power status, with the Latin American wars of independence being triggered and Spain under French occupation, which took a bitter guerrilla war (Guerrilla is actually a Spanish-derived word -) to escape from. After this, Spain fades into a secondary power, but has a unique unit in the Victorian Era and World War 2, representing colonial wars in Africa and the bloody Spanish Civil War.
Traits to Techs:
Seafaring civs start with Weaving for Curraghs
Industrious civs start with Masonry for walls and the Pyramids
Religious civs start with Burial Ritual for temples
Agricultural civs start with Domestication allowing them to use animal resources (like cattle)
Militaristic civs start with The Wheel, for Chariots
Scientific civs start with Writing System, which is an expensive bridge tech (representing early writing systems like Cuneiform in Sumeria)
Commercial civs start with Barter, for marketplaces
Expansionist civs start with Pottery, for granaries and eventually maps
All of the following things have their own mechanic:
- Tin trade from Cornwall, Spain, and France. Tin deposits based on a map.
- Salt trade from the Tauregs across the Sahara.
- Silk Road. ( The Middle East is where all the Silk is at. If the Europeans want silk, they must buy it from the Muslims. Its assumed the Muslims got it from China. )
- Colonization and Imperialism ( on a map with only western Asia, North Africa, and Europe! )
- Slave trade. ( Killing barbarian cities will yield you a 'slaves' resource, which are a luxury resource and give a decent bonus to all resources in the square. )
- Protestant Reformation ( European countries that historically had a large protestant population have the opportunity to 'convert' to protestantism. )
- The Crusades ( Research into both History and into how the AI works will have a mechanic that represents the Muslims gaining control and letting pilgrims through or disallowing them, or Christians taking over as a result. And the Muslims will promptly respond with jihads )
- Holy Order system ( once you have enough of an Order's building, which you need Monasteries for, you can recruit special holy order units depending on your Region )
- Great Schism ( Russia and Greece [who become the Byzantines] can 'switch' to Orthodoxy )
- Mercenary system ( buy region-associated troops with cold, hard cash )
- Monasteries ( the last bastions of literacy, they can improve your tech rate )
- Villages ( a little like cottages in Civ4 )
- Trench warfare (with trenches that are capturable and offer a defensive advantage to their square, though they are immobile and must be deployed by other units. )
- Minefields ( on both land and sea. They operate a little like the mines in Escape from Zombie Island. Very useful for killing submarines, although my research revealed that in real life only 3 submarines were ever sunk due to sea mines. They were still a significant enough part of WW1 to be implemented, I feel. )
- Dark age technological decline, except in some regions ( Some of the nice tech buildings you got in the ancient age go obsolete very soon into the Medieval era. Due to resources in their regions, however, some civs that historically managed to be relatively very literate will be able to make use of a few of these old buildings to speed up their research. The Arabs, however, will have significant advantages. )
- The Black Plague ( Just trying to get the plague mechanic to hit at the right time. )
- Mongol Invasion ( especially on the Islamic world since it really changed how things ran over there. I found a way to make it not conflict with times before the Mongol's arrival, as well )
- World War 2's immediate and underlying causes ( Again, through researching the AI's behavior through threads on this forum I may have figured out a way to get WW2 to start on its own. )
- Naval and air theaters being Useful ( I found that in the vanilla game, I rarely built planes and only built ships when I needed to transport units. In my mod I aimed to make ships much more useful and realistic. They can perform a variety of roles but most importantly can allow bypass rugged terrain, shore bombardment, and naval blockade. They cannot be upgraded (like real ships) are very expensive to build and very vulnerable to aircraft. Speaking of which, bombers are very, very dangerous and for your armies to be successful against a strong air force you will really badly need fighters for air supremacy )
- Paratroopers useful ( Although their usefulness in real life is questionable, paratroopers can fight just as well as other infantry units of their time and their transport planes have more range.)
- Mountain warfare ( have access to more specialist units over time which can fight in mountainous terrain better than any other unit )
- Flavor units for every civ for every era for every unit representing whatever they were at that time and their tactics and strategy and military society ( Long title. Every unit in the game is either a flavor unit or a unique unit, although most of the Ancient era naval units are just generic. The flavor units are placed by an 'order of battle' system in which there are phantom ghost Generic units they "Replace" but don't actually exist. )
- Cultural group tech tree ( Representing the distinct differences between the Middle East and Europe. )
- With monasteries comes the Viking Age! Part of the dark age.
- and so much more!
And some features are planned but not quite figured out yet, which are:
- Feudalism *mostly done*
- Guilds
- Holy Roman Empire
- Manor Houses
- Rise and fall of Rome
- Punic Wars *mostly done*
- Alexander the Great's conquests *mostly done*
- and so much more...
Before you say that I'm Eurocentric or something for only doing a map on the Western World, I also plan to do one about India, China, and Japan, going through the same story. However its much easier to find western units for every age, so I decided to make the West first. I also know a lot more about the West, which meant a lot less research. Because the eras are so long I will also release versions that start in the same map and same rules but at different times, so that players can 'skip' to what time period they want to play in, if desired, almost like a specialized scenario except not specialized and able to move on to the next era.
I will provide a plethora of screenshots in the next post of the Ancient World which is, as of now, the only era that is completely playable though not completely done.
I welcome support, criticism and ideas from anyone. And thanks for reading. I hope I excited a few people.
)In this case, the mod tries to model the Western World, from the years 4000 BC to 1991 AD with as much depth, detail, and complexity as possible in Civ3. Navies and aircraft will be useful (unlike in vanilla, in my opinion). Every country will have their entire tech tree of their own flavor and unique units, and great lengths have been taken to model historical events. I will get into that stuff later.
The Western World is divided into 4 Eras, which are divided into sub-eras. I will describe the eras and sub-eras below.
The Ancient World
- Bronze Age: Bronze Working comes in the mid-Ancient World tech tree, beginning the Bronze Age. Short stabbing swords and armor, as well as naval technology, starts to appear. Chariots' dominance in warfare still exists but is slowly waning. Civilizations begin to consider themselves as civilized states, and all others barbarians. Bronze is an alloy of copper and arsenic or tin, however the Early Bronze age folk quickly realized the great health risks caused by arsenic (which is toxic, mind you) and sought other metals to make Bronze with. This metal was Tin, however there were only 3 major deposits of tin in Europe (And 2 more minor ones). Major deposits in Galicia (NW corner of modern Spain), Brittany (NW corner of modern France), and Cornwall managed to supply the entire European world with tin for centuries up until the Bronze Age collapse. Cornwall was especially plentiful - the Germanic words for Tin all originate from Cornish. Anyway, if one plans to make war or survive one in the Bronze Age they will need either need to trade for Tin (And thus help Spain, France, and England get something out of it) or use your own supply which is likely a Minor Deposit (located in Italy and Germany). The tin trade is the biggest feature of the Bronze Age came, and controlling it could bring your country prosperity. It is far from the only thing that happened in the Bronze Age, but I only have so much posting space.
- Iron Age: For some unknown reason, the Bronze Age collapse occurred. It's hard to say why because it was so long ago, but so many things went down. So many civilizations just ... suddenly collapsed due to the sudden inability to make Bronze(there are a lot of theories about why, look it up). Eventually they managed to recover with the discovery of iron and the ability to work it, and so the Iron Age began. It was much more intense than the Bronze Age. New weapons permitted by Iron's higher tensile strength came into being, like devastating long swords. Chariots are no longer used in warfare as normal cavalry are found to be more flexible. Powerful ships like the Trireme and Quinquereme rule the seas. This is the time of Alexander the Great, the Punic Wars, the Battle of Thermopylae and other famous Ancient events.
Medieval and Reniassance
- The Dark Ages: Despite many varying attempts by great rulers in both the East and West of Rome, the Fall that they saw coming had split the empire into many pieces. Germanic people's migration due to fleeing from the Huns, the political corruption, and weakening Roman military, saw Rome fall in 476 AD, where the Dark Ages begin. Iberia is populated by Visigoths, Western Europe by Franks and Anglo-Saxons. The Eastern Roman Empire has been fighting with the Sassanid dynasty in Persia for some time now, and will eventually go on a conquering spree where it reclaims the City of Rome and much of Italy and North Africa. However, they are pushed back. The Viking Age is beginning and the Vikings raid and pillage monasteries for gold from their Longboats, settling in Russia along rivers and in Great Britain (other places too, but these being the most significant.) Later, Islam rises in Arabia and the Umayyad Empire is created during the Muslim conquests which reach into Spain and overwhelm the Visigothic Empire. Not too long later, and with some help from Charles Martel, the Asturian Kingdom will famously begin the 700-year long struggle: The Reconquista. Asturia will over time evolve into the Kingdoms of Castille, Aragon, Navarra, and Galicia.
Meanwhile, the Frankish kingdom ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, lead by Charlemagne, fights many wars and conquers many lands, while also promoting learning and literacy until his kingdom was split into 2 pieces. The first piece would become the Kingdom of France, the second into the Holy Roman Empire, due to the Gavelkind type of inheritance system in Dark Ages Europe. Monasteries become the last bastions of literacy. The Kievan Rus appear in Eastern Europe. This is my favorite era to work on so far because there is so much going on, and my research into the Islamic world has proven incredibly fascinating (as has the Dark Age European world in general) - High Medieval: It is the 11th Century and Europe is finally catching up to the Ancients and passing them by. Paper, the windmill, and the clock arrive to Europe from the Middle East, and later the Astrolabe. Arabs translate the works of Aristotle(perhaps as a joke) and other Greek and Roman literature back into Latin. In this sub-era, the Mongols invade, the Crusades begin, and Europe slowly comes out of the Dark Ages. The Reconquista rages on in Iberia, William the Conqueror lands in Great Britain in 1066 to fight the Battle of Hastings and found a kingdom in England. The Byzantines have lost much of their old land to Muslims, and split off from the Catholic Church in the Great Schism due to the Pope and Emperor excommunicating each other, creating the Orthodox branch. The Umayyads split into many different Muslim kingdoms, which proved disastrous when the Mongols invaded. In the 1260's, the Egyptian army fighting in Syria deployed hand cannons for the first time in history, and likewise for the first time, managed to beat the Mongol army to an extent that they were not able to recuperate from the defeat as they normally could. Portuguese explorers sail as far south into Africa as Angola. Many Russian principalities come to exist. Oh, and I almost forgot the Hundred Years' War, which extends into a part the Late Medieval.
- Late Medieval (Reniassance): The Age of Exploration and European imperialism begins. With Arab navigational techniques and equipment and with ship designs borrowed from Arabs, late in this time the Americas are "discovered" (despite people already being there) and promptly exploited. Portugal becomes the first imperialist power by seizing the city of Ceuta from Morocco. The Kalmar Union brings Scandinavians together - for a time. The Protestant reformation begins in the finale of the era. The Printing Press brings literacy to the masses like never before - spreading the news about the New World, among other things. Gunpowder revolutionizes warfare, as Pike and Shot tactics would be the way of fighting until the mid-1600's.
Enlightenment and Victorian Era
- Enlightenment Perhaps it is a bit anachronistic to call the period immediately following the Protestant Revolution to be the Enlightenment but... I'm working with 4 eras here. Anyway, Spain's conquests in Mexico and Peru make it the wealthiest and most powerful country in Europe. The Habsburgs, whose rule extends over Spain, Austria (who is now Emperor in the Holy Roman Empire) and soon Italy and parts of Flanders, become extremely powerful off this deal. Tired of Protestant rebels in the Empire, Charles and the Pope excommunicate Martin Luther and the Germanic Princes that support him. A great war is fought in Germany and concluding in the Peace of Augsburg, which basically agrees to disagree about religion in Germany. Europe will be plagued with many religious and imperialist wars as the greater powers go around and stomp their feet into Asia, Africa, and the Americas and religious reform is demanded across Europe. Some seek to escape it all by venturing to the New World for a new, better life, often finding that things were not always better across the pond. Spain's power wanes. Wars get more defensive-oriented. Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden fights in the 30 years war with a completely new style of army which would later find copies and adaptations in later forces. Global conflicts are fought in India and North America, where a new country will find its way to independence in one of these wars between Europeans. Russian principalities fend off the Golden Horde and make their way colonizing East, uniting into a Russian state where Serfdom is the law. Russia will stay behind technologically until westernization efforts by Peter the Great. The Act of Union brings England and the Kingdom of Scotland together.
There are too other eras, but...
The last era is the World War 2 and Cold War era, which is divided in 2. But I think you get the point now. Being the civ3 modders you all are you've doubtlessly done the same research I have... the exhausting bike trips to the library, the index cards filling every other page for reference, the note taking and writing, the revising... ah... anyway. There are a lot of things the mod is attempting to model. While each era will not do its job as well as a specialized scenario about that time period, I'd say it gets the job done. You have enough time in each era to use your units and use most of the mechanics.
The Playable civilizations, locations, and their heights, alphabetized. All city names of every country will use their local name in their main language rather than Anglicized, Latinized, or Hellenized forms. At least, once I get the forms that haven't been -ized.
Arabia:
Height: Umayyad Caliphate
Start location: Modern Iraq
Capital: Baghdad
Agricultural and Scientific
Arabian units are fast and hard-hitting, though not the most durable. Their unique units last until the Enlightenment age, where dominance by Europeans and Ottomans lead to greatly diminished power. Arab medieval units, are, however, devastating.
Austria:
Height: Habsburg Empire
Location: Central Europe
Capital: Wien
Industrious and Commerical
Austrian units are heavily multicultural, with German, Hungarians, and Poles being the most notable. This allows them to branch into different fighting styles and tactics easily. The army doesn't excel in anything, but does well overall.
Carthage:
Height: Carthaginian Empire
Location: Tunisia
Capital: Carthage
Commercial and Seafaring
Carthaginian/North African units begin nearly completely reliant on mercenaries, except for the feared Sacred Band and the now-extinct North African War Elephant. With Roman and then Arab conquest, however, North Africa has taken the fighting style of its Arab counterparts, but with less emphasis on ranged attack and more so on defense and infantry units.
Egypt
Height: Mamluks
Location: Nile River, North Africa
Capital: Qahira
Industrious and Religious
Egyptian units start off light, fast and strong, but follow a Greek pattern of warfare after Alexander the Great's conquest. In the medieval age they take a very mobile role, with heavy cavalry fighting with supporting light cavalry skirmishers, much like their Arab and Saracen counterparts.
England
Height: Victorian Empire
Location: Great Britain
Capital: London
Industrious and Seafaring
English/British units start out average and cheap, with emphasis on ranged warfare. Later, British units become more expensive and much more powerful, reflecting the rise of the British Empire as the largest and most powerful that's ever existed. The British would come to own a third of the world, with its unrivaled navy and elite, though small, army being very potent. In the last era they become more reliant on allies and other Commonwealth members, however.
France
Height: Napoleonic France
Location: Western Europe, Gallia
Capital: Paris
Industrious and Commercial
French units begin with high hitpoints and defense, waging their Gaulic, tribal wars against the Romans dozens of times over. With civilization brought to the Gauls and the fall of Rome, they became the Franks (more or less) and Feudalism was at its best and worst. French knights become the most numerous and prestigious, and France a medieval superpower with the best military infrastructure of its time. This power would wane slightly with the rise of Spain as the first global power, but France would earn it back in the Napoleonic wars, conquering most of Europe and ruling it either directly or indirectly before finally falling after 30 years of coalition wars and a failed invasion of Russia. French modern units aren't so bad either, with some of the heaviest tanks, elite French Foreign Legion, and an above average navy.
Greece
Height: Byzantine Empire
Location: Greece
Capital: Athina (?) or Constantinople
Scientific and Commerical
Greek units start early and end early. Greek units are slower, more defensive-oriented, and advanced, though their cavalry reach high points also, in the form of Macedonian Companion cavalry and, when evolving into the Byzantine Empire, the great Byzantine cataphract. The greeks don't have a bad navy either, especially with use of Greek fire on their ships in the Dark Ages. However, the fall of Constantinople, city of the world's desire, puts an end to Greek unique, powerful units in the Reniassance. They do return a bit in World War 2, with the Greek Mountaineers that gave the Italians such a hard time in the Greco-Italian War.
Germany
Height: Imperial Germany
Location: Central Europe
Capital: Berlin
Militaristic and Scientific
German units are some of the best in each era. They begin hard hitting slow slow, with some of the game's best Cavalry that even Rome wanted to hire. Then with the Holy Roman Imperial rule, Germany becomes like that of a pillow or jello - taking hits and absorbing them. But Germany rapidly evolves into one of the most powerful civs in the game, from a pillow to a steel block. Rapid defeats of France and Austria unite a German Empire, but the loss of World War I would trigger a political revolution that sends Germany back into great military power again using new tactics no one's ever seen before, new technology and new weapons.
Mongols
Height: Genghis' Empire
Location: Kazakhstan
Capital: Karakorum (due for changing)
Militaristic and Expansionist
Mongol unique units only exist in the Medieval age, but they are extremely powerful, the most powerful of its time. The Mongol army should be a massive threat to Russia and Arabia, both nearby. Mongol units are fast, offensive, high bombard, high rate of fire killing machines that were turned back only very slowly and after some centuries.
Ottomans
Height: Suleyman's Empire
Location: Central Anatolia
Capital: Istanbul. Or Constantinople
Militaristic and Commercial
Ottoman units begin the game as the Hittites, with strong emphasis on chariots and iron age warfare. Hittite chariots are the best. They fade into Turkic populations and then into Byzantine occupation in the Middle Ages but make a come back in the Reniassance as the Ottoman Empire, which nearly conquered Europe at the Battle of Vienna. Ottoman armies excel in siege warfare and so are slow, tough, and pack a high bombard punch. By the Victorian era, though, the Ottoman Empire is late into its decline and is referred to as the Sick Man of Europe. In World War I, the Ottomans were defeated and a period of chaos ensued in which the Greeks were invading and yet a civil war was happening at the same time. The Turks came out on top and formed the Turkish Republic... which has no unique units.
Netherlands
Height: Dutch Empire
Location: Central Europe
Capital: Amsterdam
Seafaring and Commercial
Dutch Units follow the Germanic, Holy Roman, and then Spanish pattern for a little while, finally getting their own national units in the Enlightenment age. They are a naval power with strong cavalry and infantry. Then due to neutrality in World War I, the Dutch army becomes quite incompetent and behind the other civilized nations of the world, and mobilized too late in World War II to put up a good fight.
Persia
Height: Achaemenid Dynasty
Location: Modern Iran
Capital: Tehran
Strengths: Religious and Scientific
Persian units are some of the toughest in the early to mid game, focusing mainly on infantry and archers. You know, foot units. Later, with Seleucia and then the Sassanid Empire, Timurids and finally Iran, Persia rapidly evolves into a cavalry oriented civ and then back down to infantry again.
Portugal
Height: Portuguese Empire
Location: Iberian Peninsula
Capital: Lisboa
Strengths: Expansionist and Seafaring
Portuguese units begin the game as fast, skirmish units, up until the Reniassance, like their Spanish neighbors. With Muslim conquest and the successful Reconquista, Portugal emerged, along with Spain, as two powerful entities. Portugal became the first imperialist power in history with its occupation of Ceuta and colonization of Angola and Mozambique, trade with Japan, and colonization of Brazil. Portugal has excellent cavalry skirmishers, high RoF artillery, and naval units, until the Enlightenment comes around.
Poland
Height: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Location: Eastern Europe
Capital: Warsaw
Scientific and Industrious
Polish units start the same as Russian units, diverging in the middle ages, becoming very cavalry focused. Poland falls under German, Russian, and Austrian occupation and during this period has no unique units. However with the first world war comes independence, and with World War 2 comes some strong, cheap unique units, representing Poland's valiant, brave effort, holding out for 3 months against Soviet and German forces. One of the most famous examples is the Battle of Wizna, in which the Polish army, outnumbered, with one anti-tank gun and a few old machine guns, held back the entire German 3rd Army with tanks, artillery and thousands of soldiers for 3 days, prolonging the fall of Warsaw.
Rome
Height: Roman Empire
Location: Italian Peninsula
Militaristic and Commercial
Roman units start with emphasis on heavy infantry and their supporting skirmishers. They are expensive but strong combined tactics use will allow them to pay for themselves. However with the fall of Rome, the Italian city states become a naval power that is reliant on mercenary units such as Condotta Infantry. Italy spends most of its time split up in history, until the Kingdom of Italy was formed in the Victorian Era and becomes a great power. In World War 2 the Italians have a few good units and a strong navy, but generally their incompetence in the war is represented much more so than their few (if any) redeeming factors.
Russia
Height: Soviet Union
Location: Eurasia
Capital: Moskva
Industrious and Expansionist
Russian units begin much like Mongol units, though not at the same time period, and not as powerful. With the Medieval age the Russians become infantry focused, which turns out to be a bad idea against the Mongols. With the formation of a central, strong Russian state under Peter the Great, Russia's army is still a bit behind the West but is one of the largest. The Russians remain infantry focused, with some great cavalry units, until World War 2, in which their power compares with that of Germany - unique planes, unique tanks, unique infantry, everything. In the post-war period, the Soviet Union is at its height. Until the game ends.
Scandinavia
Height: Swedish Empire
Location: ... Scandinavia
Capital: Stockholm
Militaristic and Seafaring
Scandinavian units begin much the same as their German counterparts, diverging at the start of the middle ages in which they become a naval power and with strong amphibious infantry and almost no cavalry. The Kalmar Union under Denmark is represented by the myriad of Danish units available, but with Sweden becoming the most powerful and largest Scandinavian power, Swedish units become the norm. Scandinavia is always focused on infantry, with poor cavalry and little access to armored units in the modern age.
Spain
Height: Spanish Empire
Location: Iberian Peninsula
Capital: Madrid
Militaristic and Religious
Spanish units begin the game fast and mobile, and remain so until the Reniassance. During which Spain becomes an extremely good Naval power, as well as being able to form the world's first modern army. With Tercios, Conquistadores and Spanish Galleons, Spain will come to rule the world, being the world's first global superpower - for now. Despite its rapid decline after the Golden Age of Spain, it managed to remain economically and commercially important, with colonies and ports and outposts dotting every continent of the planet. The Napoleonic Wars put an end to Spain's great power status, with the Latin American wars of independence being triggered and Spain under French occupation, which took a bitter guerrilla war (Guerrilla is actually a Spanish-derived word -) to escape from. After this, Spain fades into a secondary power, but has a unique unit in the Victorian Era and World War 2, representing colonial wars in Africa and the bloody Spanish Civil War.
Traits to Techs:
Seafaring civs start with Weaving for Curraghs
Industrious civs start with Masonry for walls and the Pyramids
Religious civs start with Burial Ritual for temples
Agricultural civs start with Domestication allowing them to use animal resources (like cattle)
Militaristic civs start with The Wheel, for Chariots
Scientific civs start with Writing System, which is an expensive bridge tech (representing early writing systems like Cuneiform in Sumeria)
Commercial civs start with Barter, for marketplaces
Expansionist civs start with Pottery, for granaries and eventually maps
All of the following things have their own mechanic:
- Tin trade from Cornwall, Spain, and France. Tin deposits based on a map.
- Salt trade from the Tauregs across the Sahara.
- Silk Road. ( The Middle East is where all the Silk is at. If the Europeans want silk, they must buy it from the Muslims. Its assumed the Muslims got it from China. )
- Colonization and Imperialism ( on a map with only western Asia, North Africa, and Europe! )
- Slave trade. ( Killing barbarian cities will yield you a 'slaves' resource, which are a luxury resource and give a decent bonus to all resources in the square. )
- Protestant Reformation ( European countries that historically had a large protestant population have the opportunity to 'convert' to protestantism. )
- The Crusades ( Research into both History and into how the AI works will have a mechanic that represents the Muslims gaining control and letting pilgrims through or disallowing them, or Christians taking over as a result. And the Muslims will promptly respond with jihads )
- Holy Order system ( once you have enough of an Order's building, which you need Monasteries for, you can recruit special holy order units depending on your Region )
- Great Schism ( Russia and Greece [who become the Byzantines] can 'switch' to Orthodoxy )
- Mercenary system ( buy region-associated troops with cold, hard cash )
- Monasteries ( the last bastions of literacy, they can improve your tech rate )
- Villages ( a little like cottages in Civ4 )
- Trench warfare (with trenches that are capturable and offer a defensive advantage to their square, though they are immobile and must be deployed by other units. )
- Minefields ( on both land and sea. They operate a little like the mines in Escape from Zombie Island. Very useful for killing submarines, although my research revealed that in real life only 3 submarines were ever sunk due to sea mines. They were still a significant enough part of WW1 to be implemented, I feel. )
- Dark age technological decline, except in some regions ( Some of the nice tech buildings you got in the ancient age go obsolete very soon into the Medieval era. Due to resources in their regions, however, some civs that historically managed to be relatively very literate will be able to make use of a few of these old buildings to speed up their research. The Arabs, however, will have significant advantages. )
- The Black Plague ( Just trying to get the plague mechanic to hit at the right time. )
- Mongol Invasion ( especially on the Islamic world since it really changed how things ran over there. I found a way to make it not conflict with times before the Mongol's arrival, as well )
- World War 2's immediate and underlying causes ( Again, through researching the AI's behavior through threads on this forum I may have figured out a way to get WW2 to start on its own. )
- Naval and air theaters being Useful ( I found that in the vanilla game, I rarely built planes and only built ships when I needed to transport units. In my mod I aimed to make ships much more useful and realistic. They can perform a variety of roles but most importantly can allow bypass rugged terrain, shore bombardment, and naval blockade. They cannot be upgraded (like real ships) are very expensive to build and very vulnerable to aircraft. Speaking of which, bombers are very, very dangerous and for your armies to be successful against a strong air force you will really badly need fighters for air supremacy )
- Paratroopers useful ( Although their usefulness in real life is questionable, paratroopers can fight just as well as other infantry units of their time and their transport planes have more range.)
- Mountain warfare ( have access to more specialist units over time which can fight in mountainous terrain better than any other unit )
- Flavor units for every civ for every era for every unit representing whatever they were at that time and their tactics and strategy and military society ( Long title. Every unit in the game is either a flavor unit or a unique unit, although most of the Ancient era naval units are just generic. The flavor units are placed by an 'order of battle' system in which there are phantom ghost Generic units they "Replace" but don't actually exist. )
- Cultural group tech tree ( Representing the distinct differences between the Middle East and Europe. )
- With monasteries comes the Viking Age! Part of the dark age.
- and so much more!
And some features are planned but not quite figured out yet, which are:
- Feudalism *mostly done*
- Guilds
- Holy Roman Empire
- Manor Houses
- Rise and fall of Rome
- Punic Wars *mostly done*
- Alexander the Great's conquests *mostly done*
- and so much more...
Before you say that I'm Eurocentric or something for only doing a map on the Western World, I also plan to do one about India, China, and Japan, going through the same story. However its much easier to find western units for every age, so I decided to make the West first. I also know a lot more about the West, which meant a lot less research. Because the eras are so long I will also release versions that start in the same map and same rules but at different times, so that players can 'skip' to what time period they want to play in, if desired, almost like a specialized scenario except not specialized and able to move on to the next era.
I will provide a plethora of screenshots in the next post of the Ancient World which is, as of now, the only era that is completely playable though not completely done.
I welcome support, criticism and ideas from anyone. And thanks for reading. I hope I excited a few people.
,
I added the screenshots to my reserved post.
