Scenario preview: The Rise and Fall of the Mughal Empire

[Luddi VII]

“The Rise & Fall of The Mughals”
~ Final Preview Before Release.

Luddi and Rambuchan would like to introduce and preview our soon to be released scenario. Here is some detail of what is in store, together with some screenies…

-----

Start Date: April 1526AD.

“Delhi was then in the control of the Lodi Sultans, a dynasty of Afghan Muslim rulers who did a great deal to enrich the architectural heritage of the city that was to become India’s capital. Despite internal dissensions the Lodis managed to field an army of 100,000 men and 1,000 elephants against (The Mughal) Babur’s paltry force of 12,000. The armies met on April 20, 1526, at the historic battlefield of Panipat a few miles north of Delhi. Despite the odds, Babur routed the Lodi Sultan (with his superior cavalry manoeuvres and cannon shots), and took possession of Delhi.”

-----

We confirm: 16 civs

All playable, with King units, all with at least one UU each, and arranged into 4 culture groups:

6 Indian Civs ~ Golkonda, Vijayanagara, Rajput, Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Bengal.

2 Persian Civs ~ Mughals & Persians. The most powerful at the start.

4 European trading companies ~ East India Co. (English), V.O.C.(Dutch version of EIC), Vasco's Traders (Portuguese) and Compagnie des Indes (French). Starting with early bases and some powerful late game action. Their kings are also amphibious.

3 backward local civs ~ Nepal, Burma and Ceylon. Representing the influence of the Far East.

And 1 wildcard civ (as local) ~ The Malacca Pirates! Arr! With Ghost Ships and amphibious UUs .

-----

The Look: The whole scenario has been given a feel which envokes all the cultural influences to India in the time period of our scenario. This has been done by including paintings (rather than graphic icons) for the tech tree, wonders and pedia entries. So you will typically work your way through first a Hindu artistic painting style into a Mughal / Persian style and eventually into 18th century European oil paintings, with some Chinese and Nepali influences along the way. The Wonder Splashes of course contain the best paintings, but you have to build em to see em!

-----

Units: Ranging from War Camels to Mahout Elepants, and from Invisible Holymen to Viceroy Cavalry, there is plenty of military action. There is particular attention paid to late middle age Firearms technologies and the tech tree’s military branch works heavily on the development of Gunpowder, leading to some serious artillery options.

There is also great emphasis on the units’ abilities through the varied terrain of Lou Long’s map. UUs are ideally suited to their kingdoms’ terrain. For example, the Vijayanagara (southern Hindu) UU the Bramin and all Elephants move more swiftly through jungle terrain and Nepal’s Gurkha UU moves well over mountains. This aspect is not to be underestimated.

-----

Wonders: Many are simply renamed eg. the Pyramids is now called 'Lingum Worship' (Lingum = Phallus or Penis). Shakespeare's is now called 'Burton's Kama Sutra' - of course it makes people very happy and rises the population above 12 . And there are many new ones including 'Kerala Martial Arts' which auto-produces Kalaripayattu Fighters, a significant aid to the Indians. There are also wonders to represent the eventual European domination of India.

One can win the game via a Spacerace / Trade Mastery Victory, which sees two Wonders being built – “Trade Mastery” (req. 2 luxs) allowing you to build the only SS part > “The Jewel In The Crown” (another 2 luxs req).

-----

Improvements: You will find many auto-producing improvements, plus the recognisable ones renamed. Amongst the auto-producing improvements are

Fakir’s Lodge: Requires Opium in the city radius in order to build. Once you’ve hooked up the narcotic supply, the mystics will come flocking and a Fakir (invisible holyman) will be auto-produced every 8 turns along with a boost of culture.

Mahout Stables: The ONLY WAY to get the best of the three Elephant units in the game. Requires Elephants resource. The intense Elephant and Mahout (Handler) training will auto-produce a Mahout every 8 turns and boosts production.

The Europeans have a heavy line of powerful auto-producing improvements but they must be used wisely.

-----

Resources: Elephants, Camels, Saltpeter, Iron, Horses etc.

Luxuries: Opium, Cotton (allows the building of a Cotton Factory in the late game), Incense, Silks, Gems, Dyes, Spices.

-----

Victory Conditions:

VPs
8 City Elimination
Dom / Conq
Space Race / Trade Mastery (as described in Wonders paragraph)
Cultural

-----

And here are some screenies

A Space Race Victory


Most of the foot units, presented in their 'culture lines'.

A mix of some of the units, many of them UUs.

A Peacetime invisible 'Fakir Raid' on The Safavid Persians, by the French!


And finally a pic of the Kerala Martial arts wondersplash, many more paintings hidden in the splashes, pedia and tech tree.

-------

ESTIMATED RELEASE DATE: Some time during the week ending Sunday 11th September.

 

[Gogf]

Wow, this looks great .

 

[Plotinus]

Definitely one to watch out for. The attention to detail looks great!

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

You should browse the city graphics libraury, I made a set that would work well I think for Siam, Nepal etc. Also, Redalert's Southeast Asian graphics would work very well for India.

 

[Gunner]

This looks awesome. Can't wait.

 

[Aion]

Looks very promising, can't wait to see this done.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

You should browse the city graphics libraury, I made a set that would work well I think for Siam, Nepal etc. Also, Redalert's Southeast Asian graphics would work very well for India.

Aion is another whos work would greatly benefit this mod Ludda...

 

[Corvex]

Where did you get those sikh rifleman-looking units I see in the preview?

 

[Luddi VII]

Thanks for all the feedback. You can also see this as a MAJOR update on the first mughal scenario. Compared to this, thatwas just crap. Rambuchans expertise in Indian history make this to a great scenario. And yes, it's some other city graphics that could be used, we'll maybe add some of those.

@Corvex
I don't have the link, but just go to the "Unit Artist's Library" in the unit graphics forum and look in BeBro's post.

 

[The Last Conformist]

This looks interesing!

May I ask what's the rationale for 8 city elimination?

 

[El Justo]

well done gents. this one should be a hit for sure!

 

[Luddi VII]

@TLC
Thanks. I have to admit, it's Rambuchan who've written the preview. He didn't have time to post it, so I posted it. And I didn't do any much work on the biq, mostly the graphics work. So I don't really know what to answer.

@El Justo
We hope so.

 

[Nwoll]

This looks great, I'm glad there's an Indian scenario out there now. Great Work!

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Theres a few units you should add too, if you haven't already, namely, DPII's Thai Warrior, and CamJH's Medival Indian swordsman. Also, Riptide's only two human units, the Arabic Spearman and Swordsman, would make excellilent additions, as they do look Persian.

 

[TopGun]

Hmmmm.... having become a sucker for scenarios lately, this one is going to be a "MUST-PLAY"!

 

[Plotinus]

Keep an eye open for R8XFT's Anno Domini mod which should be appearing in a week or so, as there will be a pile of units and LHs in there which you might well want to use.

 

[Luddi VII]

@SOG
The Thai Warrior and CamJH's unit is used already. I don't remember if I've used ripptide's units, but we took a decision for a time ago, that we shouldn't add so much more units. That's because we wanted to have the unit lines simple, but still with cool units, and the size of the scenario file don't need to be much bigger now.

@Plotinus
As said, I don't think we're going to add so much more units now, but I'll take a look when it comes out.

 

[EuropeanFury]

Wow, this looks great .

I agree with him, I can't wait to play it!

 

[Luddi VII]

Glad you like it.

 

[Rambuchan]

Ladies (are there any in this thread ) and Gents. Many thanks for all your kinds words and expressions of excitement. They are well received and well founded. Please accept my apologies for not answering your questions earlier, I was moving house this weekend. OK here we go:

@ TLC: The 8 City Elimination is of vital importance for historical realism because:

a) Many of the civs from the Indian culture group were gone within 100 years of the scen's start date (Bijapur, Vijayanagara, Ahmadnagar). The 8 city elimination allows for this sense of a power vaccum being created by the fall of a kingdom. It's how it happened IRL. I don't want to go into full details of how kingdoms fell, there is a whole load of historical info in the Pedia to tell you that.

b) It encourages diplomatic skullduggery. Indian (late) Medieval history is littered with jealousies, betrayals, and temporary alliances. If ever there was a land and time that took the motto: "The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend" seriously, this is it. When dealing with the invading Mughals, and later the British, Indian kingdoms consistently failed to club together to defeat the threat. This rule encourages the player to team up against the big powers to bring them down.

c) Prestige was a massive factor in Medieval India. Anyone getting their butt kicked too severely would see his mercenaries, generals and regular army switching sides. Again, if you get your butt kicked too badly, you are out the game. Same as IRL.

@ Those asking for more units: As Luddi mentioned, there are already plenty of units in the game. The Thai Warrior is a fundamental one. We packed this scen with far more units than it will be released with. The unit lines were too convoluted before. This stripping back was very much necessary for extra 'sleekness'. Having fine tuned the unit lines already, we don't intend to change them, for this release at least. But we welcome your comments and suggestions.

To update: As the preview indicates, we shall definitely be releasing this by the end of the week. There is simply the rest of the Civilopedia text left to do. The gameplay runs fine.

I would be happy to answer anymore questions any of you have.