SMAN's The Ancient World at War (AWAW)

[SSCnapolicl2023]

Caesar in Gaul Scenario :

Playable civs :

Caesar : https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1409489143
Vercingetorix : https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=354018636
Viridorix : https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2909828451&searchtext=
Ambiorix (Eburones) : must be created : City : Atualuca, Achel, Beek, Tongrium : 30000 warriors
Boduognatus (Nervii) :must be created : City : Bagacum, Estrun, Binche, Waudrum : 60000 warriors
Ariovistus (Suebi) :must be created : City : Ubiorum, Tiberiacum, Juliacum, Castellum and Marcomagus : 90000 warriors

City-States :

Galba (Suessiones) : City : Noviodunum : 50000 warriors
Sedullos (Lémovices) : City : Acitodunum : 10000 warriors
Lucterios (Cadurci) : City : Uxellodunum : 8000 warriors
Camulogene (Aulerci) : City : Cenomani : 8000 warriors
Commius (Atrebates) : City : Nemetacum : 6000 warriors
Dumnorix (Aedui) : City : Bibracte : 4000 warriors
Cassivellaunus (Catuvellauni) : City : Verulamium : 11000 warriors
Divico (Tigurini) : City Aventicum : 23000 warriors
Corréos (Bellovaci) : City : Bratuspantium : 60000 warriors

Use artwork from a different custom civ (examples) :

Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations By Anbrox62

LS civs by Teddyk

by JFD

Civ6 forum

 

[sman1975]

This is solid work. Only point I'd make is to avoid mixing Civ5 and 6 artwork together very much. It just looks like it doesn't belong together. I think even poor Civ5 artwork is better than detail Civ6 artwork if all the other civs have Civ5 artwork. Hopefully that made sense?

Anyways, once the rough out line for the scenario are set (and we're not far from that point), map selection is the next critical step. We've discussed the finer points of this before, but once a map is selected, you get an idea how many cities can go on it (we want to keep a minimum number of tiles between them, to give units space to maneuver).

You also get an idea how many units "look right" on the space available. At that point, since you know how many units will appear and you know the combat stats of those units, you can translate "total combat points" into actual numbers of troops - like in your previous post. It helps get the relative army sizes more historically-accurate.

For example, if the map is large enough, you'd look at Roman stats. How much of the huge empire's "resources" are available to the Gaul campaign? If you say 100,000 (not intended as accurate), you could say "A swordsman has a strength of 10. If I have room on the map to place 10 of these units, that means 100 total combat points. So, each combat point equals 1,000 soldiers. So, if Ambiorix has 30,000 soldiers, this divides down to 30 combat points, or 3 swordsman units"

And so on.

Of course the order of battle will be more involved in that. I started the work on Punic Wars scenario but the details got so deep I actually stopped work on it then translated it all into the AWAW mod family. I figured once the unit designs were completed, building scenarios from that design just made more sense.

So if we use AWAW as the basic design (including the Late Era Units), we'd look at the units available, decide which types each civ would have. Then we'd use the comparison I just described for each type. I picked Rome as the baseline simply because I suspect they'd have most of the total possible types of units.

---------

Once the units are done, getting the cities right is a good next step - exact placement of each city is the starting point. Then population sizes (using similar date as with units if available), buildings in the city, and what tile improvements are completed. Adding/deleting resources isn't too hard to do if it makes sense (e.g. if an area was famous for wines, boar hunting, horses, etc.).

On resources, we don't often want these to be game-changing, as the scope of scenarios is usually months/a few years, not 100 years per turn. So, we either remove a lot of these requirements (like iron for legions) or place an abundance of resources on the map or thru buildings.

And at this point, you have a map, you know where the cities are and what they look like, you have army sizes done and approximate location of soldiers. That's about all you need to game turn 0 success.

At that point, you'd have to examine what victory conditions should look like. Domination (capture all cities) is a popular one for this kind of scenario, since it is one of conquest vs survival. Something like "After 50 game turns [10 years] decisive Rome victory is capturing all Gaulish capitals. Marginal victory is 3 or more. A draw is less than 3. For Gaul to get marginal victory, they need to own 3-4 capitals. Decisive win is controlling all 5 capitals."

Or something like that.

So, the SME would then run the scenario and at game turn 50, it stops action, decides who wins then pops up a window. It would let a player continue the scenario if they want to, but it wouldn't check for victory any more.

 

[SSCnapolicl2023]

SMAN,

I'm agree with you about civ5 and civ6 artwork, i can find another pics. About the number of cities for playable civs, i think 4 is enough.

I will reflect on the number of units and resources for each civ and about the real placement of each city.

 

[SSCnapolicl2023]

SMAN,

On this map, location of the Gauls factions for the AWAW scenario ;

- we have on the north east all the "belgian Gaul" factions : Nervii, Eburones, Atrebas, Bellovaci and Suessiones.
- behind the Rhine, we have The Suebi.
- Tulingi faction behind Helvetii.
- Aedui faction on the left of Helvetii
- On the south West, Lemovices and Cadurci factions.
- Faction of Vercingetorix on the south of Gaul (Arverni).

Aulerci and Catuvellauni are not on this map but easy to located on the left of Parisii for Aulerci and on the britton island for the Catuvellauni.

About the Romans, never more than 40,000 warriors for each battle but many units (resources) can come from north Italy andsouth of Gaul by boat.

 

[sman1975]

Don't go too far down that rabbit hole for now. Not until we have the exact map. Then we'll have an idea how many cities will work. That will also drive how many units look appropriate as well. Best to think of things in "relative" terms.

E.g. Say Rome is "1.0" for every criterion.

If Vercingetorix has half as much "stuff" as Rome, we'll use 0.5 for his stats.

And so forth for the rest of the civs (playable and City States).

It will help better balance total population (supporting the war) - if Rome has 4 cities all with population of 10, it has a total population of 40. Vercingetorix's cities wouldn't have more than 20 population total.

Same with total combat strength (a sum of all combat strengths of all units).

And how much gold/production, etc. all the cities produce.

Getting the relative balance between civs is crucial to balance the scenario (taking in consideration "natural" and "convenience" alliances). Once those relationships are well-defined, it's much easy to get the city sizes, number of units right, etc.


Edit: and those ratios don't have to be the same for every feature. Rome should stay the constant 1.0, but different civs may be .5 in miltary, but .75 in economics, etc.

Some of the criteria to consider are military strength (melee, ranged, siege, horse, ships), gold income, production "income," population size, "influence," and so on.

And also remember Rome is huge, but only consider the abilities that Rome actually uses to support the war.

 

[sman1975]

One more thing to add - when you get all these coefficients per civ, it helps to tally them for all 3 sides - Rome, allied Celts, and unallied Celts. Just so you have an idea how balanced the design is.

 

[SSCnapolicl2023]

SMAN,

I think you must be working on your update of WAW and The "Black Swan" companion, so I'll try to make the best progress on Caesar in Gaul scenario and take your advice into account (artwork, balancecivs allied and unallied, city state, military strength, gold/production in cities...).

I would also like to test your hundred years of war custom civs in standalone on a random map.

 

[sman1975]

Still bogged down with WAW V6. Will be a few more days at least. A major update, new content. After that, Black Swan really needs to be completed - as I plan on using that event system in all the scenarios.

For the same reason I put Punic Wars on hold until AWAW was final. I want to build all the scenarios using the AWAW (V2 + Late Era Units) design. Makes it easier for players (and designers! ).

Having an events system in place makes sense- for the same reasons. I want players to "feel" the AWAW brand, if that makes any sense?

Fortunately, BS won't take long to complete, once I get some time. A few days, tops. After that, the "AWAW Hundred Years War Scenario Family" will be the initial "test case" for the new scenario management engine. If I get it working like I hope, you should be able to design at least the "scenario spefic code" in a few hours. The artwork will take longer, as you're seeing now. But the code that drives a decent-looking scenario would be near-trivial to finish.

The "portability test" could be the Caesar v Gaul scenario. And if that works, more scenarios will follow quickly...

 

[SSCnapolicl2023]

Take your time to finish WAW V6 and especially Black Swan which will be very important for all the scenarios.

I'm sure Black Swan will bring something very exciting to the game.

So I'm going to wait for you to be available to help you as best I can to move forward on all these magnificent scenario ideas.