[WARLORDS MOD + SCENARIO] Legends of Ancient Arabia

[Gordon Farrell]

LEGENDS OF ANCIENT ARABIA
Designed by Gordon Farrell​

Prepare to experience a time and a culture seldom explored in games.

A part of ancient history few Westerners are familiar with.

2500 years before the arrival of Islam, the Arab world was full of adventure, exotic weaponry, pagan cults, and aggressive tribes. They went to war, wrote poetry, spun fantastical stories and built merchant empires in the shadow of the great powers of the east and west. Assyria, Egypt, Rome and Persia all vied for domination of these passionately independent Arab tribes.

But no one conquered them.

In “Legends of Ancient Arabia,” you take command of an obscure but fierce desert tribe. They have begun to grow from their nomadic origins into a complex, settled coalition of Bedouins, merchants, warriors, and poets.

Can you lead them to military victory over their equally tenacious neighbors, as well as the great powers of Europe, Asia and Africa? Or can you grab control of the economic lifeblood of the ancient world to secure an Arabian Merchant Empire victory?

Exotic new units like Bedouin scouts, muharib warriors and noble faris horsemen will be at your beck and call as you struggle to emerge from the shadow of Arabia’s mythical past to become, in your own right, a legend of ancient Arabia.


INSTALLATION

1. Unzip “Legends of Ancient Arabia.”
2. Open the folder and locate the folder “Ancient Arabia.”
3. Open the Civilization 4: Warlords folder on your harddrive. If you used the default installation it will be on your C Drive at Program Files/Firaxis/Civilzation 4/Warlords.
4. In the Warlords folder, open Mods.
5. Drop the “Ancient Arabia” folder into Mods.
6. Start Warlords. Go to Single Player/Play a Scenario. Choose “Ancient Arabia.”
7. The Legends of Ancient Arabia mod will load automatically.

Download here:
http://www.atomicgamer.com/file.php?id=65261

To learn more about the designer:
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,51568/

 

[Gordon Farrell]

DESIGNER’S NOTES FOR “LEGENDS OF ANCIENT ARABIA”

Two years ago I was hired by BreakAway Games to research Middle Eastern culture and history. This was in preparation for a major design project BreakAway had been contracted to build, a game exploring Arabian history intended for distribution in the Middle East. The game they ultimately created dealt with the rise of Islam in the medieval period. However, through my studies I became equally fascinated with earlier, ancient Arab culture – the pagan warriors of the great desert, the rock-carving masters of Petra, the dam-building engineers of Sabaea, the power brokers of the Lakhmid and Ghassanid north.

After my work with BreakAway was completed, I found myself haunted by these exotic, pre-Islamic Arabian cultures and I decided to try to bring them into the world of strategy games. The first problem I faced is that these desert kingdoms were poorly documented. Many of them flourished in pre-literate times. Ancient Greek and Persian historians often ignored them. Modern archeologists and scholars in recent years have made great strides in reconstructing and extrapolating the historic conditions and accomplishments of the ancient Arabian kingdoms, but many gaps remain.


In my design choices I have tried to adhere to strict historical accuracy, to the extent that a reliable record exists. But in many areas I had to be inventive. Several of the individual military units, for example, are reasonable speculations of what might have been available to desert sheiks. Some buildings, like the wonders of Petra or the Great Dam of Marib, are strictly accurate. Others, like the Palace of the Arabian Princes, are inspired more by Arabian mythos.

My hope was to capture in part the actual history and in part the mythical spirit of the ancient Arabian people.

 

[Gordon Farrell]

TECHNICAL NOTES

MUSIC
The download file is 135 MB. This is due to the new music score I assembled, using MP3s from other games with Arabian-themed components. I know that designers often make the music an optional, separate download, but I just couldn't bring myself to do that this time. I mean, there's no way you can play pre-Islamic Arabian tribes while listening to medieval Christian hymns!

*** more tech notes to follow ***

 

[mice]

We need the download . I would like to try this very much

 

[Gordon Farrell]

Hi, mice! I'm working on this even as we speak!! I'll be providing the dl link in the next few minutes!

 

[Kalimakhus]

First of all, this is really a great mod. The idea is unique, the implementation shows that quite a big effort was exerted, and finally the game play is engaging.

Being an Egyptian myself (i.e. an Arab) I must say that your knowledge of the obscure ancient arabia is amazing.

I will be back with some remarks later if this is okey with you. For now I am really enjoying the mod.

 

[Gordon Farrell]

Kalimakus - Thanks for the early, encouraging response! I sort of assumed the most demanding audience for "Legends of Ancient Arabia" would be Arabs and other people of Middle Eastern origin ... so the fact that my research and implementation meets with your early approval has really, really made my day! Again, thanks!

I look forward to your future comments, suggestions, and any criticisms you have to offer.

(PS - Have you gotten a "List of Greatest Civilizations" message yet?)

 

[mice]

I would place this scenario/mod in the very good to very VERY good category.

Engaging as Kalimakhus said.

I'm playing Amir Julanda. There is a lot of desert out there. wow.

Just getting culture up in my cities and setting up a trade route or two.

I noticed in the settings that it's on Agressive AI and raging barbs. Are they your recommended settings?

I really like that there is an economic victory condition. It's something I've been wanting in the game or mods for ages.

Will be keep you posted with my progress.

 

[Gordon Farrell]

mice - Glad you're enjoying it! Yeah, I found that the other civs don't attack very often so I set the defaults on Aggressive AI and Raging Barbarians. Otherwise, you don't get much of a military challenge until late in the game... unless of course you do the attacking!

Let me know how playing Oman goes! (Remember, you can go east across the Persian Gulf and mix it up with the classical civs over there if you want.)

And keep an eye on that Arabian merchant Empire victory... the other players will beat you to it if they get the chance.

 

[maxbjr]

Will this ever be released for Beyond the Swords, and what verion of warlords is it for? I tried playing it with the latest warlords update patch but it crashed when loading the map.

 

[mice]

In my Oman game I attacked King Yada'il and then built up that green land. Before that it was hard to get anything going. Next time if i play Oman i'll get in a boat and go over to that land in the east.

Questin. The bazzar. I built them on two plains tiles but got a different result.

Spoiler :

A "cottage" here, giving commerce...



A "workshop" her, giving a hammer. Same improvement, same kind of tile.

Other than that it's very interesting to try to figure out how to get some commerce coming in.

I like the blend of need for culture commerce, military. I think you got it right.

Major gripe, turn times. They are very long, especially for a BTS player.

Perhaps Kael's speed mod could help. It's what sped up BTS so much. Something to do with unnessecary python checks being eliminated.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=217981

Failing that I echo the call for it to be ported to BTS for no reason other than to speed it up.

Having said that I cant mod so I can't assist in any way .

 

[Gordon Farrell]

As it stands now, I don't think I'll be porting it to BTS. I'm taking a break from Civ4 now!

But I thought I had run this ok with the latest patch. Don't know what to do about that... mice, is your version patched up to date?

About the turn speed question... yeah, it's been a problem for awhile. I actually spent three weeks or so trying to optimize it. I got rid of 2 players and drastically reduced the Build % rate for the Romans and Persians. I'm not sure which player is hogging all the cpu power now!! Might be Elam. On my last playthru, they were seriously out of control...

Once other civs start getting eliminated, though, turns should speed up...

 

[Gordon Farrell]

Oh, about the bazaars... the second, non-producing bazaar looks like it's not on either a path or a road? They only produce $ if they're on desert paths or stone roads.

 

[sakhr]

i just want to thank you Mr Farrel for this extraordinary work i found you'v gone deep inside arabian ( Jahileete ) or préislamic culture and its really my favourit mod excellent scenario and i really hope you still work on it to make it better
i would like to sugest you some enhansment you can add
maybe you can add the arabian units created by Sepamu92 Danrell and mChugginater
better icons
maybe you can add gods buildings like shrine of Hubel (the war god) and Üqadh souk (the poesy market)
very good work mr Farrel and thank you for your huge efforts

 

[Gordon Farrell]

hi sahr!

Thank you so much for your comments and suggestions. I'm really glad you're enjoying this mod. Part of what I wanted to do was just give gamers in the West a chance to learn more about Arabian culture. I think knowing more about a peoples' history can be fascinating and can really help individuals develop an understanding and a sense of appreciation that transcends the propaganda and hostilities so many of our leaders seem eager to fuel.

I'm thinking more and more that I will do a v2 of this mod, or even port it into BtS as others have suggested, so I'd be very interested in getting more feedback from you!

i would like to sugest you some enhansment you can add maybe you can add the arabian units created by Sepamu92 Danrell and mChugginater

I'm not familiar with their work. I'll check on it right away!

better icons

Which ones don't you like?

maybe you can add gods buildings like shrine of Hubel (the war god) and Üqadh souk (the poesy market)
very good work mr Farrel and thank you for your huge efforts

Poesy Market sounds perfect! Part of what I wanted to communicate was the Arab love of poetry, and it's importance in the formation of Arabian civilization. Can you think of any others I missed?

Hubel the war god... is this a pagan god? Did he have his own cult? Is he a jiin? Please tell me more!

 

[sakhr]

Im really honored mr Farrel you reply my post and im really happy that you are interested of making a v 2 of Legends of Ancient Arabia,

the poesy market did existed in mecca it was called Ôqath suq it show how the poesy was important in building the arabian culture,
Hubell - pagan war god of preislamic arabia and master of mecca gods also you have : Al-ozza - Al-lattee ferlity and love godness considerd as the official godness of mecca, Statues of them inside and outside Caâba attired pilgrims from all arabia. -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubal- -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzza- -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allat-
-the ("Hana" in arabian) a kind of bar where beer and prostitute was the favorite pass time of poeples and poets
-the sheikh place or sitt (sheikh majles) was the central place of the town, and where only important people nobles and poets are allowed to discuss wars and commerce or to listen best poesy,usually on open air

-the map could be better
-bedouin scout can be upgade to (rahhala) or traveler as a spy
-the spearmen can be changed by the spearmen created by Danrell for arabia utits
-the sharif-faris can be swordsmen created by Danrell but mounted
-the faris can be spearmen created by Danrell but mounted
-the Muhareeb can be upgrade to armored
-the Nabateans can be added to the scenario as playable
-the icons are ok
-the emir tent must be fixed
- a good scenario will include only arabian peninsula + the nabateans and to win it you must conquer all the other kingdoms it will give better speed if the other factions removed
finally excuse me please for my poor english Legends of ancient arabia is a great mod im really enjoying it.
im waiting your reply
with all my respect

 

[sakhr]

Here are the units you can have a look also there is petra wonder

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=cat&id=47&page=2&sort=date

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=71866

 

[Gordon Farrell]

Hey sakhr! Thanks again for your great feedback. You made a lot of terrific suggestions and I'm afraid I'm still in the process of, well, processing them! But I wanted to give you a quick reply of appreciation!

Also, the Nabataeans were in fact a civilization that I created. I removed them and the Rub' al Khali tribe, the Kindites, in order to get the game to play faster. But all the files for Nabataea, including leaderhead art, are still in the version you have. If you have any adeptness with XML, you could activate them easily!

So, yeah, I agree they deserve their own place in the sun. However, removing them gave the Hijazi and the Palmyraeans more room to expand. I'm not really sure which way to go right now, though.

EDIT: Holy cow, that Petra wonder looks awesome! Thanks for the link! I'll definitely use it!!

 

[sakhr]

Hi Mr Farrel im glad you have apprecieated my suggetions
im really waiting the new version,
i dont know if you have already see this petra
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=5890

 

[AmazonQueen]

This is I think the most interesting mod I've seen
Visited Jordan this summer. It is a fascinating region.
I'm d/l this tonight and hope to try it over the weekend.