CrossRFC
Emperor
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2008
- Messages
- 1,244
AD 550
Add Great Library to Alexandria

But in all seriousness, the Library would have been somewhere between partially and completely destroyed by then.
[AD 550]
Add Trajan's Column to Roma
I don't think the column, while still standing, would have been relevant in 550 AD, which in a way negates its bonus. It'd be like having the Iron Pillar wonder in British India: yes, it's still there, but the achievement it represents is long gone.
Add city in Cyprus (south in reach of seafood), make it Byzantine
Add city in Sardinia make it Byzantine
Add city in Corsica (north in reach of seafood) make it Visigoth
Add city on Baleares (call it Palma), make it Vandal
Add food resource to Crete (Cow) on the east tile
Add seafood resource to Crete (clam) north of Knossos
Add City (call it Gortys) to Crete (in the middle tile) make it Byzantine
Having all of these cities at the same time might be a somewhat excessive. This is most true for 320 BC, and gets less excessive as time goes on (550 AD, maybe half of that could be done).
Cyprus could indeed use a food resource because it is a terrible location at the moment.
320 BC start
Add Statue of Zeus to Athens
Civs will have to spent a Great Prophet to get their shrines, or else what's the point of that great person besides golden ages?

Also, as a general rule, Corsica is useless and should not be settled, in favour of Liguria and Sardinia (more on that). If there's a city in that area, it'd be in Sardinia, and even at that it's not the greatest city ever and should only really be in the 550 AD start, at best.
The problem with island cities is they drive up maintenance, are usually poor cities, and the AI gets little value out of them militarily because Civ IV AI is terrible on islands. Thus, giving them to the AI actually hurts them. In the case of the human player, if he wants to settle the islands, he can go ahead and build settlers to found cities there, especially since settler costs have been dramatically decreased compared to what they used to be (hint: prohibitively expensive).
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Speaking of island cities, the AI Arabs need some way to be more active on the Mediterranean and taking some of those islands. As usual, I don't think we can trust the AI to perform at sea on its own without some help

Oh, and the heresies would be very useful, especially Arianism. Without Arianism, we're missing the main point of religious tension with the barbarian invaders! It could also lead to some fun stuff where the Franks might convert to either sect of Christianity (as they could have in actual history).
Monophysitism would be helpful in assisting the Arabs take the Levant and Egypt from the Byzantines, since that heresy was a contributing factor in losing the provinces, which didn't have as much of a problem with Islam because of the antagonism of Constantinople towards heresy. It would also help balance the "negatives" of Shia in terms of Arab performance (see below).
Shi'ite Islam was "more prominent" in factions such as the Fatamids and a number of Turkish/Persian/Mongol kingdoms, all of which happens at a later date; also, it divides Islam when that religion/Arab civ needs all the help it can get reaching its historical borders. It could be included in the mod, I just wouldn't prioritize it over Arianism and Monophysitism.