Scenario preview: Age of Discovery revisited

[capman]

Goals
-----
- Increase game length and difficulty. Compared to the other included C3C scenarios the original "Age of Discovery" scenario is way to easy for the european powers. At least that is my impression.
- Introduce an imbalance between european nations to allow the initially more advanced, i.e. Portugal and Spain, to colonize the new world earlier. England, France and the Netherlands have to concentrate more on stopping Portugal and Spain from getting rich. So piracy and raiding cities will play an important role besides colonization. Playing as England, France or the Netherlands is obviously more challenging.
- Focus more on sea warfare.
- More realism and historical accuracy.
- Initially less empty space in the new world which means more natives.


Feedback and good ideas are welcome

Some of the changes
--------------------

Scenario Properties
- Introducing a headstart for Portugal and Spain. These european powers have just entered the age of discovery. England, France and the Netherlands are still in the Middle Ages and still need to research Astronomy, Navigation and Exploration.
- Introducing the Treaty of Tordesillas between Portugal und Spain as locked alliance.
- Turn limit: Increased to 225 with 8 months per turn. 1490 to 1640.
- Victory points: Increased to 50000

Civilizations
- Introducing the Tupi in Brasil. Mesoamerican.
- Introducing the Arawak in the Caribbean. Mesoamerican.
- Introducing the Cherokee in North America. Native American.
- Introducing the Sioux in North America. Native American.
- Introducing the Apache in North America. Native American.
- Introducing the Zulu in Africa. This is not correct as the Zulu were active in SE Africa and Shaka was alive during the 19th century. But I didn't find a suitable replacement.
- Set native american civilizations as part of the asian culture group.
- Changed Cities graphics for the asian culture group.

Civilization Advances
- Protestantism renamed to Reformation.
- Naval Ordnance has prerequesite Metallurgy.
- Fortification has prerequesite Metallurgy and not Naval Ordnance.
- Navigation enables trade over sea tiles, and not Astronomy.
- Magnetism enables trade over ocean tiles, and not Navigation.
- Replaced Scientific Method with Middle Class. Doubles work rate of workers.
- Renamed Economics to Capitalism.
- Introducing Stagnation advances to hinder the non european civilizations entering the middle ages era. If someone has a better idea how to solve this please let me know.

Improvements and Wonders
- Temple: Obsolete with advance Monotheism. Existing temples in Europe are replaced with churches.
- Library: removed. Existing libraries are replaced with monasteries.
- Newton's University: removed. Isaac Newton was not active before 1640.
- Smith's Trading Company: renamed to East Indies Company. Adam Smith was not active before 1640. It additionally requires the resources sugar and spices.
- Harbor: moved to advance Engineering and removed ability to build veteran sea units.
- Commercial Dock: renamed to Commercial Dockyard and moved it to advance Ship Building. It has additionally the ability to build veteran sea units.
- Luther's 95 Theses: University improvement is required instead of Cathedral.
- Stock Exchange: Small wonder instead of improvement. Treasury earns 5%. No additional 50% tax output.
- Introducing churches to replace temples in Europe.
- Introducing monasteries as medieval improvements for science and wealth. Available with Theology. A cathedral is required in the same city. Obsolete with advance Reformation.
- Introducing parliament as small wonder. Available with Middle Class. One additional happy citizen in all cities. Protestant monarchy is required as government to build it. Reduces war weariness.
- Introducing holy inquisition as small wonder. Available with Counter Reformation. One additional unhappy citizen in all cities. Catholic monarchy is required as government to build it. Reduces war weariness and corruption.

 

[capman]

(attack/defense/move)

Land Units
- Pikeman: requires iron as resource. Upgrades to Mercenary.
- Longbowman: reduced attack strength to 3. Upgrades to Musketman. Reduced cost to 30.
- Medieval Infantry: reduced attack strength to 3. Not amphibious. Upgrades to Musketman.
- Knight: increased cost to 80. Reduced defense to 2. Upgrades to Reiter. All european nations start with one additional Knight.
- Musketman: the infantry attack unit during the 16th century (4/2/1). Not amphibious. Reduced cost to 50. Armies during the Renaissance consisted mainly of musketmen and pikemen for their defense.
- Musketeer: reduced cost to 50. Not amphibious. Has higher defense strength than musketman.
- Swiss Pikeman: removed.
- Swiss Mercenary: renamed to Mercenary as several european regions offered forces to hire. The elite infantry defense unit. Available to all european powers. Reduced attack strength to 2.
- Introducing the Swashbuckler as the main raiding unit. Amphibious ability. Hidden nationality. (4/1/1). Requires iron and saltpeter. Available to all european powers with the advance Piracy.
- Introducing the Reiter as 17th century cavalry unit. Blitz ability.(5/2/3). Has Zone of Control ability. Available to all european powers with the advance Military Tradition.
- Spearman: replaced graphics. Only for mesoamerican civilizations. Ignores move cost for jungle tiles.
- Archer: replaced graphics. Available with the advance Craftmanship.
- Mounted Warrior: Available to all native american civilizations.
- Introducing the Native Spearman for native american civilizations. Ignores move cost for jungle and forest tiles.
- Introducing the Native Warrior for native american civilizations. Available with the advance Warrior Code. Ignores move cost for jungle and forest tiles.

Sea Units
- Frigate: removed. Too sophisticated for the time period 1490 to 1640.
- Man-O-War: removed. Too sophisticated for the time period 1490 to 1640.
- Caravel: prerequesite Navigation and not Astronomy. Required resource is iron. Reduced transport capacity to 2. Naval Power. Sinks in Ocean. Upgrades to Galleon. Named the existing Spanish Caravels Santa Maria, Nina and Pinta.
- Carrack: set as Portugese UU as in the original game. Required resource is iron. Upgrades to Galleon. Reduced transport capacity to 3.
- Galleon: replaced graphics (credit to aaglo). Meant to be the main ship for this scenario. Available with advance Naval Ordnance. Cost is 60. (4/4/5). Transport capacity is 3. Required resources are iron and saltpeter. Upgrades to Merchantman. Not available to the English.
- Privateer: replaced graphics (credit to aaglo). Also available to the English. Blitz ability.
- Elizabethan Sea Dog: replaced graphics (credit to aaglo). The elite version of the galleon. Because of better gunnery this unit has bombarding ability. Available with advance Naval Ordnance. Increased cost to 60. (5/4/6). Transport capacity is 2.
- Introducing the Cog as medieval sea unit. Can only enter coast tiles. Upgrades to Caravel. Available with advance Medieval Combat. Cost is 30. (1/1/2). Transport capacity is 1. Existing Caravels for England, France and the Netherlands have been replaced with Cogs.
- Introducing the Galleass. Big ships with a lot of guns and space to carry troops. Used mainly for the mediterranean sea. But not meant to be used as seafaring vessel. Can only enter coast tiles. Available with Metallurgy. Cost is 100. (3/5/5). Transport capacity is 5. Required resources are iron and saltpeter. Upgrades to Merchantman.
- Introducing the Fluyt Merchantman as Dutch UU. Ignores move cost for ocean tiles. Available with Ship Building. Cost is 50. (4/4/7). Transport capacity is 3. Has bombarding ability.

 

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I think that graphics are known...

Remember that other replacements are available (mines and plantations)

 

[CellKu]

Seems to be very promising!
One question though: why did you choose the university as prerequisite for the 95 Theses? Shouldn't it be something more related to religion?

Do you have any target date for your revisited scenario?

 

[LouLong]

University back then was mostly used for studying religious law, doctrina and controversy discussion (scholasticism) so universities were definitely "religious".

 

[CellKu]

Yeahy. LouLong, you are right. I forgot that for a moment.

 

[Plotinus]

I would strongly recommend adding the Kongo as an African civilisation. When I first played this I played Portugal and went straight to Africa in the hopes of meeting them and seeing what happened, and was most disappointed to find they had been relegated to "barbarian camp" status...

 

[capman]

Thanks for the input

Yes Rufus. Some of the graphics are yours. So credit to you. Thanks a lot.
I didn't use your Luther Theses wonder splash though...

I rather used a shot from the movie "Luther" starring Joseph Fiennes. I'm going to post it shortly in the gfx mod group.

And after seeing that movie, the university to name is the one from Wittenberg I believe.

As to target date, I still have to figure out how to post large files in this forum.
Because of all those native leader flics the total size uncompressed is 50 MB.

 

[capman]

I would strongly recommend adding the Kongo as an African civilisation. When I first played this I played Portugal and went straight to Africa in the hopes of meeting them and seeing what happened, and was most disappointed to find they had been relegated to "barbarian camp" status...

Good idea Plotinues. I tried to do exactly that by introducing the Zulu in Africa. Otherwise it would be too easy to set up diamond mines in southern Africa.

When testing the game the Zulu have expanded into Congo before the Portugese can settle there. I could rename the Zulu to another african tribe.
Which one? Any details?

For two African civs there isn't enough space.

 

[Rufus T. Firefly]

University back then was mostly used for studying religious law, doctrina and controversy discussion (scholasticism) so universities were definitely "religious".

Ok, but thesis were attached to Wittenberg catherdral's door. This is the reason because this wonder need a cathedral (and because I have made this splash). But not fear, only precisation, not diktats!

 

[Beernuts1987]

Oh boy! This was my favorite conquest and I always felt that it was too easy to win as a european power. This should increase the warfare with the natives I'll let you know how the game went after i've played

 

[Antiochus VII]

If this is the same map as the standard scenario I'd think that you could add one African civ in west Africa and another in the south. But either Congo (which has the actual queen who fought the Portugese available as leaderhead) or Songhai (use the Mali leaderhead) would be excellent choices.

P.S. IF you had at least two African civs it would allow the Portugese to play them off against one another as was historically true.

 

[Mobilize]

Awesome, you're including the Cherokee. If you need any help with that just ask me. CivArmy should be done with his Cherokee civilization complete with his fantastic 3d era-specific Ostenaco leaderhead soon.

Can't wait!

 

[frekk]

Hi,

I'd just like to note that England and France really weren't that far behind in naval tech - at least not for the purposes of discovery, if you're just looking at the Atlantic. Warfare is another matter, and they would have had extreme difficulty with the long-range expeditions Spain and Portugal undertook. But it should be noted that John Cabot, under an English charter, discovered Newfoundland at the latest in 1497 - and there are some persistant stories that there was already a summer camp there, used seasonally by Bristol fishing ships, and also that Cabot had made several earlier, unannounced voyages to the area using information provided by Bristol captains. Even assuming that 1497 was the earliest, however, it's only 5 years after Columbus' discovery.

The reason the British and French were not able to get a foothold easily was not less ability to cross the Atlantic - they could do so with not much more difficulty than the Spanish or Portuguese - but for the same reasons the Spanish had such difficulty in Mayan lands: there was no centralized state to take over. When the Aztecs and Inca fell, the Spanish found themselves in possession of centralized state apparatus that they used to control their new territories. The other native groups in the area had already been pacified, there were fine networks of roads, there were capitol cities and lesser capitols etc etc. But on the North American Atlantic Coast the natives were divided into a number of tribes and confederations who didn't have centralized state organs or systems of control and tribute, although they did have enough sophisticated political organization to be able to mount resistance and strategically coordinate organized, large-scale warfare (relative to the capacities of their populations). But they had to be conquered village by village (like the Maya). There was no capitol city to capture and no leader who was so important as the state leaders of the Aztecs or Inca, whose death or capture would make the people feel defeated. In the time it took to do that, they were able to acquire metal weapons and even firearms.