Prelude to the Age of Discovery
It's time to say goodbye to Rome (Rising, Falling, and Holy) and open ourselves
up to a brave new world! In other words, the C3C Age of Discovery Scenario.
Scenario Info
It's the year 1490 AD. New powers are beginning to emerge on the Iberian penninsula.
What lands and riches will be uncovered in this Age of Discovery?!
A modified tech tree is used including a variety of naval units, plantations and
some elements of the Reformation. Victory is by VP Scoring (35,000) or culture win
(4K in one city, or 20K whole civ). There are eight different country choices,
5 in Europe and 3 in America. It also uses the "Capture the Princess" mechanism, where
the princess is treature from the New World which must be returned back home for 1000 VP.
The time limit is 150 game turns, so that means 3-5 player turns each!
Europe:
France (King Francis) - Comm/Indus - 6 city (633332) +1 settler- UU Musketeer 3.5.1 (60, amph)
7 pikes, 1 MDI, 1 longbow, 4 caravels, 1 trebuchet, 1 explorer, 3 workers.
Spain (Queen Isabella) - Rel/Sea - 6 cities (644321)+ 1settler- UU Conquistador 3.2.2 ATAR (70,
7 pikes, 1 MDI, 1 longbow, 4 caravels, 1 trebuchet, 1 Conquistador, 3 workers. amphib)
Dutch (King William) - Agri/Sea - 3 cities (974) + 1settler - UU Swiss Merc 3.4.1 (50)
7 pikes, 1 MDI, 1 longbow, 4 caravels, 1 trebuchet, 1 explorerer, 3 workers.
Portugal (Prince Henry) - Rel/Sea - 6 cities (853111) +1settler - No UU, but start in GA
7 pikes, 1 MDI, 1 longbow, 3 caravels, 1 trebuchet, 1 explorere, 1 worker.
Portugal has a unique advantage - on turn 1 they start with Dias' voyage which kicks
off their Golden Age, gives +1 ship move, and one colonist per 8 turns.
England (Queen Eliz) - Comm/Sea - 5 cities (84332) +1set- UU Elizabethan Sea Dog 4.3.8 (30,
7 pikes, 1 MDI, 1 longbow, 4 caravels, 1 trebuchet, 1 explorere, 3 workers. enslave, blitz)
America: (Note, these *can* use sacrificed workers for culture, with UU or with QB's)
Aztecs (Chief Montezuma) - Agri/Mil - 1 city (3) +1set - UU Jagged Warrior 1.1.2 (10, enslave)
4 jaggies, 1 worker (plus the settler). Capital is pretty decked out! 21 culture/turn
Incans (SI Atahualpa) - Agri/Ind- 1 city(3)+1set - UU Chasqui Scout 1.1.1 ATAR (30, enslave)
4 Chasqui, 1 worker (plus the settler)
Mayans (GI Smoke Jaguar) - Agri/Indus - 1 city(3)+1set - UU Javelin Thrower 2.2.1 (30, enslave)
4 jaggies, 1 worker (plus the settler).
Starts: Mayans have jungle, Aztecs mtns, Incans combo hill,mtn,jungle, far SE of other two.
* This scenario only, Caravels *can* cross the ocean!
* Musketmen (3.4.1) and musketeers (3.5.1) have amphibious assault!
* Pikes don't need iron. Man-O-War avail to all civs.
* Missionaries (3.1.2, 30) are invis, see invis, can enslave spears, warriors & American UU's
* Colonists are like settlers but pop 1, 20 shields, available with Printing Press
* Queztal Bowman (3.1.1), any native civ, can enslave
* In Europe, Spain and Portugal prefer Catholicism, England/Dutch Protestant, French both.
* The other civ, non-playable, is the Iroquiois with Mounted Warriors
* Magellan's isn't +move, it's like a production dock and spits out one frigate per 5 turns
* Two key govts. Europe all starts in Catholic Monarchy. Protestant Monarchy will
reduce corruption and increase worker efficiency, but increase war weariness.
Each allows a different special building (Cath:Jesuit college, a normal bldg with
+50% sci and produces missionaries, Prot:Luther's 95 theses great wonder+2 happy continent)
* Min-sci rate is 75 turns, not very effective.
* There are 3 New World Great Wonders, Temple of Kukulcan (+3happy,Leo's), the Moon (ToE),
and the Sun (BattlefieldMed+Suffrage)
* The Mayans start next to Aztecs and have 2.2.1 units. They could wipe out the Aztecs
within the first player turn, but would have a slowed tech pace and far less enslaved
workers and hence culture.
Feedback from other Players
- We've gotten several novel ideas and feedback points from players.
- Gobi Bear (designer of the scenario!) had some interesting suggestions for
adding historically appropriate variant conditions for a few of the games.
See his post above for more info, but in summary...
_ England : ASAP revolt to Protestant Monarchy; eliminate French on their soil; piracy emphasis
_ Netherlands: Declares war on Spain which is to last for 80 turns
_ Spain: Must conquer (eliminate) three of the four american civs
_ Portugal: Settles only Brazil and Africa - and goes to war with any who dare go there
_ France: Civ-wide cultural win (!) and also an extended war with Spain
Romethemonk had difficulty going for a European cultural win, mostly due to VP limitations.
Quite likely only a low difficulty setting would have a real chance for culture win.
"A real challenge would then be to get a Euro cultural victory of any kind on Emporer+ level."
"Of the MesoAmerican civs, the Mayans are by far the most difficult."
"I think that Aztecs on Demi-god would be a good challenging SG, and Maya on Emporer [too]"
"All of these could be knocked down a level for civwide victory conditions."
And to T-Hawk's expected question of which civ to try Sid with, Gobi's answer was Portugal
Discussion Items
- Any further comments (not spoilers) from those who've played this scenario before?
Do the American civs *have* to sacrifice to win? How fast/slow does this scenario run?
- I see no games reported playing AoD, but several folks have mentioned it's probably the
second easiest civ after Mesopotamia (then again, they're trying Monarch level)
Comments
- With turn limit of 150 and a guess that on the lvls we'll play the AI will VP win around
turn 100 (??), the American civs would have about 2000-3000 culture, not enough for
a victory. At 40 culture per sac-altar worker-slave, about 25-50 would help make it up.
- For *most* games, unless there is a thematic reason to do so, I have the impression that
wars in Europe would make things too easy for the player, and we may want to limit this.
- No palace jumping. Moving it to the new world removes all sense of challenge.
- My own take on AoD... I definitely like one game on Sid, a tough game going for a Euro
culture win, a non-sacrifice culture win in the New World (*if* this is remotely possible),
A high difficulty Mayan game, one game much easier than the others to target newer players,
and inclusion of at least a couple of the historically themed games. That would make for
an
initial thought of: Portugal Sid, Mayan Deity, France Emperor Cultural goal
(perhaps plus the historical Spain war), Demigod English historical theme, DG Spanish
historical New World conquest, a Netherland game of some kind - possibly Open,
a variant Iroquois (modded) game, a Monarchy Incans game, and an Open SG with Aztecs.
That's just my initial thought, but the game list will be decided by player signups!
EDIT - In fact, Arathorn, just posted a nice list. After reading that, I would modify
the list here as: non-sacrifice city-culture Incans (Mayan domination would be nice, but it's not enabled).
Sign-ups
With a very reasonable 8 (9?!) choices and some key distinctions between civs in the same
area, we would do well to fully cover the scenario, with 8 teams of 4-5 players each.
Players may sign up for two, but not more unless a team ends up short. We may well run
one of each as OPEN unless the signups are very full. Actually, someone mentioned the idea
of modding the conquest to play as the Iroquois, so I hope he or someone else chimes in
with more information or a plan for doing a Iroquois game. We'll try to have a good mix
of difficulty and approach, including one Sid, one OCC, and one European conquest.
For sign-ups, please indicate whether you have a preference for Europe/American flavor,
and/or a specific civ, as well as a difficulty *range*. If you have a preference in your
sign up for a game with/without a Gobi-esque historical flavor, mention that too!
As it turns out, the RBC13 series has recently ended, so we're good to go very soon!
Feedback, questions, and sign-ups are welcome! Let the Age of Discovery begin!
Charis
EDIT - Wow, strong initial response! I'm glad to see you guys are well rested and ready to roll!
Version we'll be using will be
1.15 unless there's compelling reason to switch.