The Rise & Fall of The Mughals ~ v2 ~

“The Rise & Fall of The Mughals ~ v2 ~ ”
By Rambuchan and Luddi VII

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~ Namaste ~ Salaam-Alaikum ~ God Bless You ~ Om Mani Padme Hum ~
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Welcome to late medieval India, a multi-faith, wealth drenched, treacherous and rapidly changing land.

Welcome to…



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Expect plenty, for the enchanting and mysterious fables of India are not entirely unfounded.

Expect untold riches, dancing girls, camel riding raiders, vicious and quite naked holy men and vast opium based economies. Expect merchants with gold plated egos and leaders with as many wives as there are days in the year. Expect terrifying elephant charges, swashbucklers, martial artists and mountain shattering cannon shot from some of the earliest gunpowder wielding empires. You can also expect culture coming out of your ears with magnificent building projects, devastating cavalry techniques, formidable ship designs, religious tolerance and quite terrible persecution - and above all of this – the chance to place this Jewel in Your Crown.

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Scenario History:

NB. You need Civ 3 Conquests to play this scenario.

Original Scenario - "The Rise of the Mughals": Luddi VII
Thread found at: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=99574

First upgrade - "The Rise & Fall of the Mughals": Luddi VII and Rambuchan
Thread found at: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=128546

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What’s changed since v1?

In short, there has been much ado about nearly everything in bringing v2 for your gaming pleasure.

Almost every part of the game has been looked at and polished up to some degree or another. I’ve been on a fairly steep learning curve with civ modding of late. That is entirely thanks to a great community hear at CFC. This all now makes for a much more authentic and enjoyable aesthetic experience, with a new soundtrack added and plenty of new artwork right across the board. The gameplay has been reworked and rebalanced considerably.

What you do want to know is that the victory settings have been altered to sharpen the whole thing up. Please check in on the new Victory Conditions below. Another significant change is that the European East India Companies have been given more cities in strategic places on the map and their starting bases have been beefed up. If you’re not playing as a European Trading Co. then you can expect to be given a fair bit of hassle, especially if you don’t nip their efforts in the bud. This doesn’t mean the Persians and Indians are no longer capable of bossing the competition, both militarily and with a Culture Victory, like before. And it doesn’t mean I haven’t paid some sweet attention to the Malacca Pirates’ ability to cause some havoc – arrr!

The length of the game has been shortened and a player’s movement through the tech tree has been adjusted. With a new maximum tech research time of 25 turns (which soon comes right down), altered tech costs, and general economic fiddlery, there is genuinely a more authentic, strategic and exciting experience.

Further, there are new wonders (small and great), new resources, plenty of new unit graphics, as well as totally new units (including UUs). There are new ‘pedia entries, neatened up old ones, new building icons, new leader heads, new wonder splashes and so on. Shipping has been reworked to provide much more authenticity and variety….

I really think I should have stuck to what hasn’t changed!

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DOWNLOAD IT NOW!
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Here is the main file pack. The size is 46.24 MB and is in Win RAR format. (Get WinRar from links)

It is strongly recommended to grab the Soundtrack (75.54MB). It adds heaps of drama and atmosphere to the experience and you need only do it once!

Biq attached at foot.

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Installation Instructions

1. Unzip the RAR file and extract it to Civilization III\Conquests\Scenarios folder. You will now have a new folder there called ‘Rise of Mughal 2’.

2. Do exactly the same with the Biq.

Now you should be able to play.

Soundtrack Installation

1. Unzip the ‘Mughals Soundtrack’ RAR file and extract it to the ‘Rise of Mughal 2’ folder you just created. That folder will now contain 3 folders (Art, Text & Sounds) and one credits file.

2. Open that Sounds Folder, take the Music.txt file out and place it in Rise of Mughal 2/Text.

You will now be hooked up for the full experience.

Please report any errors or bugs.

 

Background

April 20th 1526, The Battle of Panipat: Babur the Mughal has just defeated an army of 100,000 men and 1,000 elephants, fielded by the Lodi Sultans, a dynasty of Afghan Muslim rulers who have been ruling over much of the north of India. Against the odds, Babur’s paltry 12,000 routed the Lodi Sultan, with superior cavalry and cannon shot, and took Delhi! His descendants will encourage religious tolerance, art and culture, and will expand his fledgling empire by military means. In the south of India, a mighty Hindu Kingship is giving way to Persian and Shia influence. The Southern Deccan remains an obstacle and a prize. All this as new lightskinned traders start arriving...

The Look

The whole scenario has been given a feel which evokes all the cultural influences to India in the time period of the scenario. This has been done by including paintings (rather than graphic icons) for the tech tree, wonder splashes 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 Tibetan and East Asian influences along the way. The Wonder Splashes of course contain the best displays of the paintings, but you have to build ‘em to see ‘em! (As mentioned above, there is plenty of new game art too).

The Civs

All playable, all with King units and all with at least one UU each. They are arranged into 4 culture groups as follows:

6 Indian Civs ~ Golconda, 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 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.

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

Units

Ranging from War Camels to Mahout Elepants, from Keralite Martial Artists to Rocket Walas, and from Viceroy Cavalry to a variety of Shipping, there is plenty of military action, both on land and at sea. 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 are also non-military units in this game, including the Invisible Fakir (holyman) with Hidden Nationality who can backstab your opponent’s King or destroy his trade connections without him noticing. Also in this class is the newly introduced Inquisitor unit for the Portuguese, auto-produced by a new Wonder – The Goan Inquisition. This monk can provide good moral (bombardment) support for their troops, as well as being able to perform some worker functions. Artillery has been tweaked but is still highly effective.

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 Brahmin and all Elephants move more swiftly through jungle terrain and Nepal’s Gurkha UU moves well over mountains. The Mughal cavalry rides over hills as if they were plains. This aspect is not to be underestimated and neither is the blitz ability attached to many units.

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 custom 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. A Dutch Globe Maker and Cartographer, Gemma Frisius, has been included with a new Wonder and so has the Persian poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam.

One can win the game via a Trade Mastery Victory (Spacerace), 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 and numerous line of powerful auto-producing improvements, which can help to accumulate troops for solid empire building.

Resources: Elephants, Camels, Saltpeter, Iron, Horses etc. Charcoal has been added.

Luxuries: Opium, Cotton, Incense, Silks, Gems, Dyes, Spices. Also Tea now.

Victory Conditions:

VPs ~ 50k
9 City Elimination (no culture flipping)
Dom / Conq – 40% land, 50% population.
Space Race / Trade Mastery (as described in Wonders paragraph)
Cultural ~ 6k city, 25k whole civ.

 

THE INDIAN CULTURE GROUP

A mix of Hindu and Muslim Kingdoms. Some wealthy and powerful, others on their way out.
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Golconda:

Leader: Jamshid Qutb.


Traits: Religious, Agricultural and Commercial.

They build the Golconda Guard instead of the Pikeman / Defender / Defender of the Faith.

The Qutb Shahi Dynasty founded the Kingdom of Golconda, one of the five kingdoms that emerged after the break up of the Bahamani Kingdom. The Qutb Shahis ruled the Deccan for almost 171 years…

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Vijayanagara:

Leader: Shivaji Rama Raya


Traits: Religious, Agricultural and Commercial.

They build the Brahmin, a fast moving, attack foot unit, which ignores movement cost through jungle, has stealth attack ability. It also detects invisible Fakirs.

The Vijayanagara Empire is included in this scenario as they provide the most colourful, powerful and relevant representation of Hindu Kingship to this period, despite the fact they were roundly defeated by a temporary alliance between Golkonda, Bijapur and Ahmadnagar in 1565AD. They have been referred to as "the last bastion of native Hindu culture" by V.S.Naipaul.

Founded in 1336, the empire of Vijayanagar (named for its capital Vijayanagar, "City of Victory,") in present-day Karnataka…

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Rajput:

Leader: Rana Pratap


Traits: Militaristic, Expansionist and Religious.

They build the War Camel, a fast moving cavalry unit, which requires the Camel resource to build. It is weaker in defence to its rivals but it can detect invisible Fakir units, which you have to admit is a pretty cool compromise.

The term 'Rajput' does not occur in early Sanskrit literature nor do we hear of Rajput clans before the eighth century A.D. This proves that they were a later addition to the population of India.

The Rajputs according to Tod, are of Scythian origin. He includes under the designation of the Scythian, the nomad hordes of foreign tribes who swooped down upon India during fifth and sixth centuries A.D. Thus the term Scythian refers to the Huns and other associated tribes. Smith puts forward the following arguments to prove the foreign origin of Rajputs…

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Bijapur:

Leader: Ibrahim Adil Shah II


Traits: Industrious, Religious and Militaristic

They build the Bijapuri Bowman, a fast moving archer, of equally mediocre attack and defence.

It was Bijapur, in a temporary alliance with Golconda and Ahmadnagar, who crushed the once mighty Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagara in 1565AD.

This kingdom is one example of many which were slowly taken over or switched to the Islamic faith. The Adil Shahs maintained cordial relations with the Safavid Persians, both trading with them and assisting with the introduction of Islamic culture into India. These Muslim kingdoms of the Deccan plateau flourished from the fourteenth to eighteenth centuries. Bijapur arose to power from the ashes of the Bahmani Sultanate. The Bahmani Kingdom encompassed what later became known as The Deccan Five, three of which have been included in this scenario…

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Ahmadnagar:

Leader: Burhan Nizam

(not actual portrait)

Traits: Militaristic, Industrious and Religious

They build the Sardar Rider, which is a fast moving cavalry unit, requiring horses and iron.

The Nizam Shahis were based in Ahmadnagar from 1490 to 1636, but after 1600 ruled under the Mughals. Their brief moment of patronage produced an illustrated history, the Tarif-i Husain Shahi, celebrating the king who led the victory over the Hindu Vijayanagar state, and various royal portraits.

After the fall of the Bahmanids, their viziers the Baridis (1504–1619) continued to rule in the city of Bidar, famed for a metalworking technique invented there…. The Mughals were in control of these lands by 1600AD…

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Bengal:

Leader: Sher Shah Suri aka. Sher Khan


Traits: Religious, Commercial and Agricultural.

They build the Elephant Archer as their cavalry class UU.

Bengal is a significant area in Indian history. Birthplace of some of India's greatest literature, the venue of the Buddhas lectures and stiff resistance to the Mughals, the principality in which the British East India Company were first granted taxation rights are just some of the highlights….

 

THE PERSIAN CULTURE GROUP

Powerful, wealthy and advanced empires - looking to expand!
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The Mughals

Leader: Akbar The Great


Traits: Militaristic, Scientific and Industrious.

They build the Mughal Cavalry as their cavalry class UU, which rules the early battlefield.

Descended from Gengis Khan & Tamberlane, the Mughals were the superior force on the Sub-continent throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Their line runs: [Babur (1526-1530), Humayun (1530-1556), Akbar (1556-1605), Jahangir (1605-1627), Shah Jahan (1627-1658), Aurangzeb (1658-1707)].

Along with The Ottomans and The Safavid Persians, The Mughals make up “The Three Gunpowder Empires” of the Middles Ages…

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The Safavids

Leader: Shah Tahmasp


Traits: Commercial, Religious and Militaristic

They build the Mameluke, a fast moving Camel cavalry unit, which unsurprisingly requires camels to build. It can detect invisible Fakir units.

The Safavids were powerful kings or shahs during this period. They were however largely disinterested with military expansion toward India during the time of the Mughals, whom they saw eye to eye with mostly. They exerted plenty of influence through their friendly Muslim Sultantates in the Deccan instead to procure their share of the wealth of India. The fact that very little military attention was paid to India by the Safavids is due to the fact they were in regular combat with the prime force in the world at the time - The Ottoman Empire - which was expanding to their west. It is fortunate for you that our map does not include lands to the west or you would be getting beaten up a lot!...

 

THE EUROPEAN CULTURE GROUP

All Trading Companies. All function under 'Colonialism' government (as opposed to Monarchy, Mansab System or Feudalism).
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East India Co. (English)

Leader: Sir Thomas Roe


Traits: Commercial, Seafaring, Militaristic and Expansionist.

They build the Maxim Gun (not historically accurate but gives them the ‘oomph’ they really had) - a lethal late game artillery / foot unit, which can rip through many of the best defensive troops competitors can offer. They also have the flavoured East Indiaman to field out at sea, a seriously souped up Galleon.

The British East India Company, popularly known as "John Company", was founded by a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I on December 31, 1600. Over the next 250 years, it became one of the most powerful commercial enterprises of its time. The British East India Company's business was centered on India where it also acquired auxiliary governmental and military functions….

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V.O.C. (Dutch)

Leader: Jan Pieterszoon Coen


Traits: Commercial, Seafaring, Militaristic and Expansionist.

They build the Swiss Mercenaries as a late age Defender. Like the English, they too have the flavoured Fluyt to field out at sea, not quite as souped up but a Galleon with a bigger load.

On March 20, 1602, the representatives of the provinces of the Dutch republic, granted the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC) a monopoly on the trade in the East Indies. Its purpose was not only trade; the Compagnie also had to fight the enemies of the Republic and prevent other European nations to enter the East India trade. During its history of 200 years, the VOC became the largest company of its kind, trading spices like nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and pepper, and other consumer products like tea, silk and chinese porcelain…

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Vasco's Traders (Portuguese)

Leader: Vasco de Gama


Traits: Commercial, Seafaring, Militaristic and Expansionist.

They build the Serpe alongside cannons and the Carrack instead of the Caravel, as their UUs. They also control a pre-built Wonder - The Goan Inquisition - which auto-produces Inquisitor units.

The first Portuguese encounter with India was on May 20 1498 when Vasco da Gama landed in Calicut (present-day Kozhikode). Over the objections of Arab merchants, da Gama secured an ambiguous letter of concession for trading rights from Zamorin, Calicut's local ruler, but had to sail off without warning after the Zamorin insisted on his leaving behind all his goods as collateral. Da Gama kept his goods, but left behind a few Portuguese with orders to start a trading post....

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Compagnie des Indes (French)

Leader: Jean Baptiste Colbert


Traits: Expansionist, Seafaring and Commercial.

They build Musketeer alongside the Company Musketman.

The first French voyage to the Indies was in 1603, by Paulmier de Gonneville, of Honfleur. Almost immediately afterwards, in 1604, King Henri IV authorised the first Compagnie des Indes Orientales, with a 15-year monopoly of the Indies trade. It was formed by a Dieppe shipowner, Jean Ango, although the real spirit behind the company was a Fleming, Gérard de Roy. Things moved slowly, but by 1610 a small fleet had been bought....

 

Here is the tech tree with v2. You can see the new units, wonders etc, yet the structure remains unchanged.



This is one way to win the game, another just below.



I call this screenie "The Persian Puppetmaster", for The Safavids have the power and wealth to really pull the subcontental strings.


This test game ended up in the designed Culture Victory for the Safavids. Here is their capital.

 

Pedia Entry Screenies.





This screenie tells you why the soundtrack is so highly recommended as part of the experience. It has been carefully constructed to compliment the thematic texture of the game.





One of the new flavoured units here.

 

Terrain and territory.

The Mughals early acquistions at game start, can you build it into the formidable empire they did?


The Dutch approach Ceylon, but with what intentions?


Bijaur's Cotton stacked heartland.


The English East India Company's 'launch pad'.


This is what they can fashion from there.


A wideshot of "The Deccan", which needs conquering mostly, or at least control of it's luxuries, if you are to win the game.

 

Finally (both with Snoopy's terrain art, which isn't included), here's a diplomacy dealing screenie with the Dutch.



And a Wondersplash.




ENJOY!!!!!!!

And please post your feedback.

 

First to post!! I will download this soon. But I can't garuntee I can play it today or tomorow or Sunday, even.

 

Cool. I'm gonna DL this tomorrow (when I've sobered up ).

 

Wow, it's finally there!
Good work, I'll give it a shot. Downloading now!

 

Loved the first version, added this to my download backlog. May be a few weeks before I can play, working/game-testing on a couple of scenarios for people at the moment. I will get to this in time though.

 

The first one was fun, cant wait to play this.

 

Ram,

fine work you've done here friend! well done!

 

Thanks a lot to everyone who posted and downloaded. I hope you're having fun

I have now edited up some screenies to give you all some windows into v2 of the game. If there are too many for dial up users, please let me know and I'll reorganise.


What's left?

There are many things left to change. Amongst those are:

- Still some pop up spacing glitch on the interface. Loulong fixed part but there appear to be others. This is only superficial, don't worry, but it'd be nice to have this sorted.

- Interface art. I've plenty of ideas but not the knowledge to impement them. I'm well up for someone having a bash at this if they want. It's been a community creation so far, don't see why that can't continue!

- In city Pop heads and Advisor heads have not been changed. I don't know how.

- Diplomacy Script hasn't been changed yet, for the same reason.

- I've been considering giving the Mughals the Religious trait also, for cheap culture buildings. Not quite happy about their ability to amass culture but didn't want to overbalance this already pumped up civ.

- Victory leaderheads are not changed yet. Not sure how.

- I still have loads of stills prepared for a Bink style space race video upon achieving a Trade Mastery Victory, but that hasn't been implemented owing to my technical ignorance here. If someone wants to give me a quick tutorial I could end up banging out victory vidoes for everyone

- Other minor things that I'm sure you'll all point out.

 

I'll be setting up a game as Vijayanagara. And this time I will not go into an early war with the Deccan Sultanates ...

 

TLC: I'd wait till you've got control of some saltpeter, knowledge of gunpowder and make sure you don't lose that iron colony to your north. Remember, the ahistorical lack of gunpowder for them is because it's been set up for you to lose the Battle of Talikor a few years in - if you don't play your cards right that is. Otherwise those Brahmins are nifty jungle movers.

Also, be wary, for the new Goan Inquisition wonder doubles Velha Goa's Defences. The Portuguese actually use their heavy Serpe cannon now too

 

The iron colony in the north will be lost as soon as Raichur has a border expansion, so my first priority will be taking control of either the iron resource SE of Golconda, or the one in the extreme south.

An intriguing, if ahistorical, possibility is taking over Sri Lanka, and then blocking all communication between the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Bengal ...

 

Maybe that will happen soon, maybe it won't.

Nice thinking. There is some land grabbing to be done at game start for all civs.

A nice idea too. Sure you've got the ships for that right now? Those waters are infested with pirates you know. If you go this route, consider the range of those rocket walas too.