The Hundred Years' War

[Le Sage]

THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR
A Civilization IV, Beyond the Sword, Mod. V 4.0.





Le Sage Jan-Feb 2010​

INSTALLATION AND PLAYING

The Hundred Years' War is a mod for Civilization IV; Beyond the Sword. It was created on my system patched to the latest 3.19 version of Civ. Please tell me if it is not compatible with other versions.

To install, simply put the Hundred Years War folder in your Beyond the Sword Mod folder. The correct path for the installed folder should be C:/ProgramFiles/2KGames/FiraxisGames/CivilizationIV/BeyondTheSword/Mods.

To update Version 1 or 2 to the latest Version 3, just overwrite the old Hundred Years' War game-folders with the new ones. Choose "overwrite" where asked.

Start up Civilization as usual, and from the main menu choose "Advanced". Then choose "Load a Mod" and select "The Hundred Years' War" from the menu. The game then restarts, and when it has done so, select "Single Player Game", and "Play a Scenario" in the menu. You can then choose between the five different starting positions for the Hundred Years' War in the menu, all slightly different historical situations for you to tackle. Then you choose which side to play as.

If you want to play the bigger Campaign Map, choose Campaign 1337-1453 in that menu.



GAME NOTES

This Civilization IV mod is based on the epic conflict between France and England during the late Middle Ages (1337-1453). This war saw the end of the era of chivalry as the knight lost his superiority on the battlefield to infantry. The war also saw some great personalities; like the Black Prince, Charles V, Betrand du Guesclin and Joan of Arc. They are all present in this mod as well.

The five periods for the scenarios portray five different exciting periods during the Hundred Years' War. See the Historical Background part of this ReadMe below to choose your own period for play.

The Duchy of Burgundy as well as the Kingdom of Navarre have been included, but are not playable, except Burgundy in it's own scenario (1435). These two powers often took part in the Hundred Years' War on the side that suited them at the moment, with rapidly shifting alliances, and as such they played a vital role. The Hundred Years' War was a long conflict and was often interrupted by peaceagreements and cease-fires between England and France (Such as Brétigny 1360). Therefore, I have not removed the option to make peace with the enemy. Victory conditions are Domination. These may be changed in the future, after more extensive playtesting.

There are several new unit types for you to explore. These units constitute the Medieval armies of France and England and have been tweaked with great care to portray their real life counterparts as correctly as possible. The French Nobles are heavily armoured, strong and deadly dangerous French Knights. The English Longbowman is a tough opponent to cavalry. Both sides have access to light cavalry and artillery weapons. The English Swordsman is a standard offensive unit, while the Genoese Crossbowmen are the standard unit for France. There is also a Recon Scout unit that can travel about the map and enter opponents' territory. This one was specifically designed for the Burgundy Scenario 1435 to give Burgundy a chance to explore, however, the unit is available to all players.

Forts have become castles in The Hundred Years' War. These are the homes of the great noble knights of France and England and are great bastions and bases. To reflect this, castle tile improvements have a heightened defence bonus. Calais is under English flag by 1345. This is not purely historically correct, since in real history Calais was taken after the battle of Crécy in August 1346. Many things are not strictly historical, since I am trying to make an interesting game and not write a history book. For more on the Hundred Years' War in general, I recommend Jonathan Sumption's books.

The big camaign map supplies a different challenge than the smaller scenarios. The Campaign is played on a large map with more towns and possibilities. All the four countries are playable on that map and France and England start out at war with one another. There is no founding of cities, still, but the map is dotted with small counties (represented as Barbarians), so to expand his kingdom, the player need to persuade those counties to join his cause. Of course, in Medieval times, such persuasion was done with the sword. France and England both start out with a Great General each as well as a bit more troops than the other nations, but need to build their nations to achieve the adequate forces to attack. No nation is ready for war and they all have to be built. There are also some technologies to be researched.




CREDITS AND USEAGE NOTES

This mod is freely distributable and you may modify it however you like, use it as you wish or have it as a foundation for your own mods. Just give me proper credit if you use it. The following modders resources were used in the making of this mod and proper credit is of course asked for there as well. The leader portraits were taken from Wikimedia Commons. My thanks go out to the thriving and lively Civ modding community, and specifically our artists who make the units and other artwork availabla to modders.

*SeZereth made some excellent collections of medieval soldiers (Medieval Unit Construction Kit 1 and 2) that are easily put together in many combinations (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=237). The English Longbowman comes from there.

*The French Nobles (Paladin with Lance) were made by Chamaedrys (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=4270). A beautiful unit that I couldn't let go unused. Chamaedrys is also the artist responsible for the updated forts in the landscape (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=2902).

* The French Light Cavalry, English Swordsmen, English Cavalry as well as the Great General all come from Danrell's excellent work (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=6311). So do the Pikeman, Recon Scout, common Archer and the Swordsman. The Lancer unit was also made by Danrell and makes its appearance on the Campaign map. It looks German, but that's quite OK. All sides in the Hundred Years' War used German mercenaries and many of the French nobles returned from Germany, where they had been engaged in the Teuton wars and Crusades, to fight for their country. It's a beautiful unit.

* Joan of Arc herself, in all her beautiful glory, comes from Achilleszero's Great Generals Volume 1 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=13369). She was just too suitable for this mod to go unused.

* The Bombard Unit was designed by Walter Hawkwood (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=11288).

* The Warship is the design of AchillesZero (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=13276).

* The map of France was created using a vanilla Civ map and Gr3yhound's excellent MapView 2.0 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=11554).

* Jdog5000 has created an excellent addition that lets you stop research progress in a Civ mod, permitting me to keep these scenarios within the Middle Ages (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=10424).

* Thanks to cool3a2 on the Civ Fanatics forum for sending me in the direction of his excellent tutorial on making those civ flags (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=315966). I was tearing my hair out before. The same thanks goes to Deanej, who helped me solve the issue with the respawning Jeanne d'Arc. One Jeanne is quite enough. Thank you also to Shiggs 713, who graciously helped me to insert new castles instead of the old forts in the landscape. Thanks also to Jeelen and AnotherPacifist for testing the scenarios and supplying some valuable suggestions. Thank you all.

* Thanks also to my sweetie. She lets me nerd on with stuff like this for hours-on-end without complaining.

 

[Le Sage]

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND


The Hundred Years' War started as the English King Edward III lay claims to the French throne. The war saw the final fall of the heavily armoured knight in favour of pure infantry; the era of the noble knight was over, and replaced my massive total war, waged by hordes of infantry. The English longbowman ruled the fields of battle during the Hundred Years' War, and with these longbows, the English were able to win three great victories; Crécy 1346, Poitiers 1356 and Azincourt 1415. The war also saw the first use of gunpowder weapons on the battlefields. The scenarios possible for play in this mod are as follows.

1345: The English have landed in northern France to prevent an invasion of the British Islands. The English longbowmen do well against the heavily armour-clad French knights. The English muster their finest, while the impressive French knight armies are mobilizing for counter offensive. The stage is set for war.

1356: After the disastrous battle of Poitiers, France is in turmoil and catastrophe and chaos lies at the gates. In the north, peasant rebels are moving against the Nobility, in the south west, the English prince Edward, the Black Prince, rules the battlefield with success, crushing all in his path. In Bretagne, a bloody civil war is fought and the French general Bertrand du Guesclin makes his entry into history. The young French prince Charles desperately needs to turn the situation.

1380: King Charles V rules France with a strong hand and during his period, France retakes it's former glory, even surpassing it. At his death in 1380, France is a well-functioning and wel-oiled machine, only to be destroyed by his weak successors. The English are weak at the beginning of this period; they have been pushed back to a few strongholds on the mainland, and in England, a peasant's rebellion is taking place. Can England turn the situation?

1429: France needs a miracle. The English have taken most of northern France and even Paris is under their banner and their armies are on the march towards Orléans. It is only a matter of time before they conquer the city and the lock to France is opened and the land lost to the English Crown forever. Then the miracle appears in the form of a young peasant girl - Jeanne d'Arc.

1435: Burgundy has broken it's alliance with England and is now branching out on it's own. Mercenaries flock to the Duchy's banners as Philip the Good makes preparations to reenter the Hundred Years' War at the time of his own choosing. (Currently this era is separately downloaded from here.)



SCREENSHOTS




The Army of Burgundy is preparing to intervene in the war.



Joan of Arc takes control over the French armies, while the English are preparing to march on Orléans to the north.



The English are preparing to assault a French town. The English Bombards destroy the French defences.



Battle raging in Northern France.

ADDITIONAL SCREENSHOTS

 

[Le Sage]

VERSION HISTORY

1.0. Initial trial release, January 25, 2010.

2.0. Major update, January 27, 2010

*Civics have been updated. All the nations now start out with proper Medieval civics.
*Castles are even more powerful. They now give a 45% Defence Bonus.
*Religions cannot be spread.
*Made the English Longbowmen stronger and made units cheaper to build overall.
*Added the Bombard, a primitive gunpowder weapon that was extensively used on all sides during the Hundred Years' War. I just had to size it down a tad. It is a strong siege weapon in this mod.
*Burgundy lacked some Techs. Corrected.
*Removed Victory Condition Time. Now you just can't wait out the enemy anymore.
*Made a Main Menu screen specific to this mod. It's a Baroque-style painting of the Battle of Crécy.
*The map has been updated. The city in the south was named Rheims, but is now accordingly Narbonne.
*The English army especially has been strenghtened to provide a real threat to France. Watch out for those English bombards!
*Added the scenario era 1380, when things are not looking so good for England. Time to turn the situation around.

The Burgundy Scenario lets you play as Burgundy, the third party during the Hundred Years' War. It is separately downloaded, at the time, but will be integrated into v3.0..

3.0. Major update, January 30, 2010

*All nations now have the Tech Optics. No research is needed.
*All nations now begin with Christianity as State Religion.
*Stengthened the English Swordsmen.
*Weakened the Pikemen.
*Gave the English Longbowmen a 30% bonus during combat with mounted units.
*Incorporated the "Burgundy Scenario", 1435, which had been published on the Hundred Years' War forum thread on Civ Fanatics before. Now you can play as the third party in the Hundred Years' War as well.
*Great Spies can no longer build the Scotland Yard.
*Worked on the problem with religions being founded. Now only one is founded. Some progress.
*Settlers can't be built no more.
*Updated leader traits.
*Forge now gives a 30% unit production bonus.
*English "Stock Exchange" was renamed "Guild Hall".
*The "Grocer" was renamed "Merchant".
*Created the new building "Jail". It reduces war weariness and gives an intelligence boost (like the later era jails also). Charles V built la Bastille in Paris during his days. It was not a real jail at first, but the jail in this mod is inspired by his Bastille.
*Inserted the Recon Scout unit instead of the Explorer. With their nationality hidden to the other nations, Recon Scouts can venture into rival territory and be your eyes and ears. They are slow, however, since mapping out enemy territory and keeping an eye on their troop movements takes time and energy.
*Updated some Buttons. Sometimes you have to do the tedious stuff too...

4.0. Major update, February 14, 2010

*Produced the Major Campaign map 1337-1453. This one is bigger than the small scenario maps I have, up until now, placed the scenarios on. Several Techs need to be researched in the new scenario.
*Maintenance penalty for distance from Capitol was lowered to go with the new map. The English should benefit most, with their possessions in Guyenne.
*Added the Lancer unit instead of Horse Archer on the Campaign map.
*Added a Warship with a cargo hold of four. To get that invasion of England going!
*Turned down overall Civilization growth rate, to simulate the plague ("The Black Death") that was raging at the time in Europe, as well as to address diseases, bad living conditions etc in the 14/15th centuries. France was periodically stagnant during this era.
*Fewer Great People are now born. I still want to have one or two of them and they can indeed do some good.
*Updated leader flavors that affect what kind of policies they make. Research and Religion should now go second to Military and Espionage for all leaders.
*Heightened leaders' unit building percentage. They correctly build more units now, fewer buildings.
*Even more strength given to the English Longbow. They now have a 50% bonus against mounted units.
*The Genoese Crossbowmen on the French side, get a 30% bonus against mounted units as well.
*The one remaning religion founded in each game poses problems still and was renamed. Now it says "A Heretic Sect has been founded in a distant land". That's an ingenius way to solve it, innit?



DOWNLOAD

Download The Hundred Years' War from the CivFanatics Download page.

 

[Agent327]

Very nice addition - I will have a look for sure!

(BTW, some screenshots would be nice too.)

 

[Manifold]

good fight, good map

it would be great, if you fit the bombard in

 

[Le Sage]

Yes, Manifold. I was thinking about the Bombard. That unit comes with the next update. It's easy just to change the ancient Catapult into a Bombard, change it's battle statistics, and keep the Trebuchet also.

Give it a go, Jeelen, for actually, one of your scenarios served as a bit of an inspiration; The Crusades. I wanted to do something similar. I have screenshots on the Download Page, but will be adding pics to this thread as well.

 

[Le Sage]

Here are some Screens. I will have to do better ones later to include in the text.

1. The Map of France.
2. Henry V, the King of England.
3. An English-held castle on the Franco-Spanish border.
4. The Battle of Poitiers. This Poitiers was won by the French.
5. The English Army at Calais.

 

[Agent327]

Yes, I noticed you had screens on the DL page (but then I just wanted to play!)...

Yes, Manifold. I was thinking about the Bombard. That unit comes with the next update. It's easy just to change the ancient Catapult into a Bombard, change it's battle statistics, and keep the Trebuchet also.

Give it a go, Jeelen, for actually, one of your scenarios served as a bit of an inspiration; The Crusades. I wanted to do something similar. I have screenshots on the Download Page, but will be adding pics to this thread as well.

Good point on the first. I feel honoured on the second.

Had a quick playtest on all three scenarios and will give some (critical) feedback here:

1345

- Burgundy starts with no techs (???)
- Burgundy founds 3 religions (in one city), which I suspect is related to the previous
- noticed Rheims where Narbonne might be (see below)
- concluded peace with England Summer 1350 (might be correct - I don't know -, but having continuous War turned on wuould prevent this, I think)

1356

- Burgundy starts with no techs (???)
- Burgundy founds 3 religions (same as above)
- peace signed with England Summer 1360

1429

- gained Navarre as vassal (and England gained Burgundy - don't know if this was intended; I presume it was, as it wasn't possible in the previous scenarios)
- Rheims is now renamed Marseille (but that lies on the opposite side of the Rhône river)
- concluded peace in Summer 1437 after liberating Paris (turn 34)
- played this one on Monarch level, as in the previous scenarios I had no trouble at all to fight the English raids (individual units only, no armies)

General suggestions:

- disable peace - period or until a certain turn if possible
- preset the civics (France started with all the most basic civics; I didn't check the others)
- give Burgundy techs past Mysticism, including all the non-Western religon founding ones)
- give England at least an army to march into French territory in the first 2 scenarios (preferably place it next to a French city with some Trebuchets/Catapults/Bombards
- up the recommended difficulty level a bit (like to Monarch); I found it way to easy to hold off English inroads into French territory (although I lost a couple of units)

Last but not least:

- take away some techs from France so it needs to research (I could run zero tax and 30% Culture plus 30% Espionage and still increase revenue, making the outcome merely a matter of time - especially since there are no English armies threatening French cities).

I hope you don't mid my criticism; I thoroughly enjoyed playtesting all three scenarios (with the Joan of Arc one being slightly favourite). It just needs a little bit of finetuning.

BTW, I don't know what you meant by 'missing buttons'; I didn't miss any during play (unless they're civic-related, but I didn't touch civics)

 

[Le Sage]

Thanks for your points of view, Jeelen. You make some good points.

I'm updating my mod right now, so I'll give Burgundy some technologies as well. How could i have missed that? Geez. And Rheims too. I thought I had dealt with that one, but it obviously stuck. I'll rename Marseille/Rheims Narbonne, as you suggest.

I'll also give the English more siege weapons (I have added the bombard now), and will turn up the recommended difficulty too.

The Peace-agreements are actually intended. The Peace of Brétigny was signed in 1360, actually, and lasted to 1369. The Hundred Years' War was not a continually ongoing coflict, but rather a series of conflicts. I might make it harder to achieve peace between the two major parties though. The vassal-agreements with Burgundy and Navarre is also intended. Burgundy was actually England's allies during Jeanne d'Arc's days and it was Burgundians who actually captured her.

 

[mechaerik]

How big is the map?

I play on a laptop and can't play on the larger maps.

 

[The_J]

Here are some Screens.

You should link them in the first post. That will sure attract more people.

How big is the map?

I play on a laptop and can't play on the larger maps.

What i can see, it seems to be relativly small. On the screens, whole france is not very big, and i guess that there's nothing more than france and britain on it.
Which is not bad, my pc is also not the most performant .

 

[Le Sage]

The map is very small. Only 18X24 Tiles, or something like that.

I kept it small, because I wanted the scenarios to be fast-paced and exciting. There was just no need for a humongous map.

 

[Agent327]

Thanks for your points of view, Jeelen. You make some good points.

I'm updating my mod right now, so I'll give Burgundy some technologies as well. How could i have missed that? Geez. And Rheims too. I thought I had dealt with that one, but it obviously stuck. I'll rename Marseille/Rheims Narbonne, as you suggest.

I'll also give the English more siege weapons (I have added the bombard now), and will turn up the recommended difficulty too.

The Peace-agreements are actually intended. The Peace of Brétigny was signed in 1360, actually, and lasted to 1369. The Hundred Years' War was not a continually ongoing coflict, but rather a series of conflicts. I might make it harder to achieve peace between the two major parties though. The vassal-agreements with Burgundy and Navarre is also intended. Burgundy was actually England's allies during Jeanne d'Arc's days and it was Burgundians who actually captured her.

You're welcome.

Now that you mention it I remember the Burgundians' rôle - not directly from history, but rather from Age of Empires (which has a pretty good Joan of Arc scenario; perhaps you know it?). I made good use of Joan of Arc in the last scenario (nice touch!), but the Black Prince appears to be just sitting in Calais (which obviously wouldn't be the case if I played the English).

Forgot to mention that I especially like historical scenarios - and here you have 3 in 1!

 

[Le Sage]

Thank you, Jeelen.

The AI doesn't seem to want to use it's great generals in this mod. I dunno why. When the AI plays the 1429 scenario as French, it doesn't use Jeanne at all, but rather puts her in Marseille (Sorry - Narbonne, as it is henceforth known), out of harm's way. The same goes when the AI controls the English. The English generals are always hidden away.

Yeah! I like my three scenarios. I will be adding a 1380 scenario tonight as well. That period should pose a challenge for the English. They had been driven back by the French to only a few strongholds on the mainland France and had to reconquer all lost territory. There was also a great peasants uprising in Southern England at the time (The Wat Tyler Rebellion, I think it was called.). A few more scenarios aimed at English players are coming with the future updates.

 

[Agent327]

Cool! Keep it up.

(BTW, would be interesting to try out your mod as a 2-player game.)

 

[Le Sage]

I just posted Version 2.0 of The Hundred Years' War., which includes Bombards, a new scenario and general fixes. The mod also has it's own background image on the Main Menu, which gives it a more professional look.

This is a major update. Referr to the Version History above.

It is still in Moderation queue, but should be cleared soon. Here's the direct download link, in the meantime.

 

[mechaerik]

The map is very small. Only 18X24 Tiles, or something like that.

I kept it small, because I wanted the scenarios to be fast-paced and exciting. There was just no need for a humongous map.

Oh, excellent. This is a nice scenario. I'm definitely going to download it.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Tried the last scenario as Henry, of course it's the easiest (won in fall of 1431).
The problems are
1. The AI doesn't know that there's no more research and all that money should have been better spent in increasing the culture slider
2. Theocracy and slavery should be the only civics allowed (since the land will never need to be worked, you won't ever need a forge and you want the extra XP from Theocracy
3. Luxembourg and Navarre should not be allowed to vassalize without a fight

Also, all these other religions founded in Luxembourg and Navarre is just, well, bizarre.

 

[Arakhor]

This looks good. I'll try it out when I'm not too busy

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Won as Edward in 1362 (normal speed). Some more observations:
1. As formulated, the English swordsman is useless in attacking due to the Genovese crossbows. I would either give the swordsman an extra 1 in strength or decrease the Genovese crossbows to strength 5.
2. Optics should really not be an option to research at all, and maybe the AI will then accumulate gold as it should and upgrade cheap units with cash.
3. Maybe let an extra tech be an option to research so that pikemen aren't automatically available.
4. Drama might also be a useful tech to be researched since it will allow generation of a great artist to boost land if you build theaters.
5. What happened to the famous advantage longbows have against French knights? I would decrease its strength to 7 but allow a 50% advantage against knights
6. Maybe also give a new tech that upgrades armor (since longbows were ineffective against plate armored knights)