The new DLC Scenario (Conquest of the New World)

Pouakai

It belongs in a museum.
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What do people think of the new scenario? Oh, and No DLC bashing in this thread

I personlly love the Scenario, even if it's a bit short. The tech tree clearly has had a lot of work, with the new tech art, voiceovers etc. and it fits the ammount of time for the scenario perfectly. The new city-states are awesome as well, I might mod them in soon to base game.

If I had to give a bad point, it'd probably be the AI. You build a colony, like everyone else, and suddenly they all hate you.

One thing I was confused about is the Natural wonders. I found Mt. Fuji in the americas.
 
Moderator Action: For those who have posted your views of the scenario in other related threads, please feel free to repost them here. Also, any discussion about the pros or cons of DLC (i.e. off topic) will be moved to another thread.
 
D'you think it's worth the price of admission? I'm always leery of DLCs. The map packs for example, look like a huge waste of money.
 
I'm reposting my review from the previous thread, as it may have gotten lost in the clutter.

Having played the scenario 3 times, I'll weigh in on the DLC.

General Information
The scenario pits the Old World (Spain, England, France) against the New World (Iroquois, Inca, Aztecs). The scenario uses a dynamic map with a different version of the new world each spawn. The geography of the New World is not historically accurate. A nation wins the scenario by having the highest score after 100 turns. Custom rules give bonus points to certain events, such as finding China or returning New World treasure to the Old World.

Game #1: Spain
After unsuccessfully finding info about the scenario in this thread, I started a game unprepared as Spain. My caravel made a beeline for the southern tip of America in hopes of finding China first. The geography seemed a bit incorrect, but I assumed that it was different to balance certain historical islands. Soon enough I found my caravel blocked by ice and killed by scurvy (a unit promotion that slowly kills your unit while out of friendly waters). Realizing my error I decided to quit the game and try again.

Game #2: Iroquois
Playing as Hiawatha, I quickly expanded and developed techs. During this game I realized that the New World continent was random, and that either the north or south passage would be open to China. I did not build a caravel. When France settled near me I immediately declared war (too soon). With too few soldiers to take the French city (2 archers, several spearmen) France had time to build walls and defending units. Despite this, my tech rush and quick expansion yielded catapults and horsemen, allowing me to defeat the french city. They sued for peace and I agreed, noting a second french city south of my territory. I used the 10 peaceful turns to move my army south and declare war again. I took this second city and declared peace. With 10 cities and a large army I was the undisputed master of the continent and no Old World cities were present. Meanwhile, the English settled on some northern islands while the Spanish settled Aztecs lands on the southern continent and fought a protracted war. The Incans sailed for China. In the end, The Incans beat me by a score of 705 to 698. Their 3 China boats yielded too many points (IMO). I think it was 150-100-50, but I can't remember exactly.

Game #3: France
This time I played as France and determined to use the French city-state bonus (and my social policies) to secure and keep allies. I sent one caravel north and one south. Finding the north route open, I immediately built 2 more caravels and sailed to China. I won all China points. (England had a boat ahead of my 3rd caravel, but they died of scurvy near China's borders). Meanwhile, I settled 2 cities on the nearest portion of the New World. I made allies with 2 militaristic city states, who supplied me with the bulk of my army. One city's borders included one of the special 'treasure landmarks' which periodically spawned a treasure unit. I finished the research tree in this game, (obtaining piracy) and eventually fought a war with Spain. I captured all of their colonies. I won by a large margin in this game, being the 2nd or 3rd strongest world nation and having won most of the china/treasure points.

Overall Evaluation

Pros: I had fun playing this scenario. It presented me with very different games each time that I played it. It was error-free and as historically accurate as possible. While purists might argue that without a proper map it cannot be accurate, I argue that exploration was a crucial part of the era - making a known map an incredible advantage for the player. This scenario should work very well as a fun and quick multiplayer game (although I have not yet played multiplayer ciV).

Cons: I feel that it was overpriced; 2-5$ would have been more acceptable. The idea of the scenario was well-conceived, but lacked specific features that would make it worthy of purchase. For example, the tech tree should have been expanded to provide more historical units and techs (ie: early firearms). In addition, the European powers were too similar. They had no unique units or buildings, but they shared several units like the musketeer, tercio, and conquistador. I would have liked to see religion included in some way. I was surprised that the Dutch were not included (as they were instrumental in early American trade).

Final Thought: If you have been waiting for a high-quality, historical scenario, but have found most of the community-created scenarios lacking, then I recommend you purchase this DLC. I received my money's worth. If you don't want to pay for any additional content - do not buy this DLC. While I preferred the Mongolian scenario in many ways, I don't feel that it had much replay value. Having played this scenario 3 times, I will still play it twice more (to test the Incan and Spanish civs). This is the best scenario for CiV that I have played thus far.

My Rating: :):):):):):):mad::mad::mad::mad: (6/10)
 
I just won the scenario in about 80 turns on emperor as the Incans. Originally I was planning on building up some cities and then going to war with any white men that set foot near me.

After exploring a bit I found el dorado and the other wonder, whose name I can't recall (some giant mountain of precious metals/gems). I was able to grab up their land with a few purchased settlers. I also determined that the Aztecs were the only other inhabitants of "Aouth America" besides a few city states.

I was friendly with the Aztecs, but apparently they began coveting my gem mountain and eventually they declared on me. Seeing as the Europeans hadn't bothered settling on "South America" my main focus became taking the Aztecs cities to boost my score. In the end none of the Europeans set foot on my continent with anything but the odd scout and seemed to only settle land in "North America" where Hiawatha was located.

France took an early lead with trips to china, but it wasn't long before I pulled ahead with a combination of points from population, land, tech, cities, and treasure. After a while their score seemed to stop going up and I was free to win without any major competition.

I eventually won after discovering about 6 treasures (I wonder if i was lucky to be able to grab both of the natural wonders that produced treasure, unless there are more than 2) and taking most of the Aztec cities. I was pretty far ahead at this point and had only been interacting with the other civs to pawn off my vast array of luxuries for gold to use buying happiness buildings and extra tiles.

I don't know if my game was a fluke, but it seemed a little easy. I'll have to try the European side next time to see if its any harder. It was my first win on emperor and gave me the achievement and I kind of feel like I cheated.

All in all the scenario was pretty fun and I do plan on playing it again. I got it as my free DLC from ordering on direct2drive and I wasn't disappointed. The incan UU is pretty awesome. Unfortunately in this game there weren't really any hills near mountains so I couldn't use the terrace farm with much effect, but being able to move onto a mountain for cheap turned out to be really useful for workers and in warfare against the Aztecs.
 
You can get points from constructing wonders too. In my game as Inca, I built Machu Picchu and the other Pyramid like one with the complicated name, giving me 200 points!
I had the "South American" Island all for myself in the game, so I happily built my empire and won after 100 turns with 200 points before anyone else.

@wilson1225: You were definitely very lucky getting both these wonders on your continent.

@zxe: You should consider, that apart from the Scenario, you also get 2 civilizations for the main game. And the latest patch made the Mongol Scenario much more enjoyable! You should try it again, it is not a pushover now.
 
The changes to horsemen and to cities along with the AI changes.

It is a hard scenario now, I was slightly disappointed by it when it was released, since you just built an army and steamrolled the world. Doesn't work like that now.
 
I've tried the scenario too, at king level only. I played as the incas (I wanted to try them), and found myself alone in the "south-east America" continent, besides a militaristic city-state (which I befriended for their gold); the European powers never tried to settle my continent (they had a couple of good spots though, and a lot of the tundra AIs love; I guess I just happened to be too southern). I haven't played with an european country yet, so take the following considerations with a pinch of salt:
- As the Americans, you start with an insane amount of money (about 2000). The game follows the usual conventions for advanced starts, so 3 settlers, 3 workers, a couple of spearmen, scouts, and archers (and not their slingers UU! That was slightly offsetting, as I didn't need many more of them). You can also abuse a bit the starting culture, and then expand like crazy.
-On the other hand, you really don't have much techs to start with, though; but there ARE horses in the new world; I took for granted that there weren't and researched horseback riding as one of the last techs. Although in the game I played, European powers were the only ones having access to gems, and they all had access to one, maybe it was just a coincidence.
-Europe is reduced to 3 cities; the rest is just untakeable terrain (it looks as if Oda had conquered half continent :p ). As it has been said, European countries don't have specific UUs or UBs, just their UA (France UA is changed to that of Alexander). Tercios, Conquistadors, musketeers, privateers, etc are available to Americans too if they research the ends of the tech tree; there is a "future tech" too, which gives a great deal of points (I was a close second in the 700s, and the difference jumped to around 200pts), but don't expect to research it by normal means (i.e., without a great scientist, or the Oxford University)
-I got the Potosí mines right off the bat. It gave me ~5 treasures, for 1000 gold and 50 VP (I couldn't tell if it affected score, because if it did, it wasn't instant) each. You can get treasure by razing cities too, but take into account that you can't raze city states or capitals so...
-it seems that natives don't suffer from scurvy.
-you can't make research pacts, and you don't have access to the Circus Maximus national wonder.

That's it. Once I'm done trying the Spanish in a normal game, I'll try the scenario again from the other side, to test the assymmetry and the doability of colonization.
 
D'you think it's worth the price of admission? I'm always leery of DLCs. The map packs for example, look like a huge waste of money.

Except for the Americas one (which is awesome), they really are.
 
Any chance we could get a title change in this thread? I got really confused thinking there was a new DLC scenario I hadn't heard about.
 
Any chance we could get a title change in this thread? I got really confused thinking there was a new DLC scenario I hadn't heard about.

What's it best to call the scenario? "Spain and Inca"?
 
The official name of the scenario is "Conquest of the New World."

In terms of strategy (on middle difficulties), as a Euro nation I built 2 extra caravels to try and beeline at least 2 of them to China, settled an anchor city in the New World, and then built pretty much nothing but conquistadors and tercio/musket. Once I had a decent sized force on land, the goal was to take over whatever tribe happened to be closest to me to get the treasure from the capital and/or razing.

As an American civ, if I was near other tribes I would look to conquer them both for the capital treasure and the land; between puppeting their cities and spamming settlers, I could amass a decent score. Since Wonders give you 100 VP I also preferred taking a GE with Meritocracy, rushing Chichen Itza, and then using the GE points from that and a workshop to get another to rush Machu Picchu later. In one odd game as the Inca where I was playing peacefully, none of the Euros ever found China so when I eventually could build caravels I just bought a couple and sent them off for a quick 300 VP which sealed the game.
 
Does anyone know how to get the treasure units in the world builder sdk
 
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