What would a Neolithic scenario look like?

[IrishDragon]

I want to preface this by saying this isn't a request or any realistic expectation of a scenario. There's the obvious lack of information about what existed that far back to the point that we don't even have names for civs, nevermind leaders or cities. But I figure it might be interesting to think up possibilities for a scenario starting around 4000-5000BC.

The most obvious candidates for civs will be around Sumer and the Near East, but the ideas below are mainly inspired by reading David Anthony's 'The Horse, the Wheel and Language', about the Indo-Europeans. Hopefully others can expand and fill in other regions and ideas.

Pretty much all Neolithic civs will have collapsed by about 2000-1800BC. With that in mind, we would want the map to be relatively unaltered from the standard 3000BC scenario, with maybe only the Middle East being more developed.
To that end:

• Cities could only be razed, not captured, until a specific later date, or until a tech related to governence/subjugation has been discovered.
• When a neolithic civ collapses, its cities turn into goody huts.
• To expand on an idea mentioned before to improve explorers, ancient wonders could be rediscovered after a tech like archaeology. If a city is rebuilt on (or perhaps next to) a tile that contained an ancient wonder, the explorer could spend gold for a one off 50/50 chance of rediscovering the wonder. If it's in your territory, you get the wonder, if it's in another civs you get gold or a relations bonus. It could allow sites like Stonehenge back into the game.
• roads/improvements disappear after ~10 turns of not being covered by culture. Again this could be the case until a specific date.

The above would keep the map reasonably stable for the later game, but there'd still be a small impact and some random variability, while still allowing for a hopefully fun and fast paced prehistory game.

Add a new global victory condition: Build a Palace.
This is a throwback to Civ III but would function like the space race victory. Build a palace by say 2500BC, and it must stand for X turns. Having more resources would allow you to add different parts to your palace. The more parts, the less time it has to stay standing until victory. The palace would be a barbarian magnet.
Given the ubiquity of pottery in trade, add pottery as a resource. Having more pottery resources could also be added to the palace. Initial idea was each civ makes its own type of pottery which could be traded (ie Sumerian pottery, Egyptian pottery) although it feels convoluted. It could be something like 3 pottery resources allows you to add 3 pottery rooms. Or gives some other bonus

CIVS
These are not at all fleshed out, just potential ideas that popped into my head while reading.

The Yamnaya Culture (and predecessors) - They were highly mobile and expanded out of the Pontic-Caspian Steppe. They used two- and four-wheeled wagons and had horseback riding, some kind of Wagon UU and expansionist UHV could fit.

Spoiler :

Tripoyle Culture - Based around Ukraine-Romania, they had, according to Anthony, some of the largest settlements in the world around 3300BC, bigger than what existed in Mesopotamia. There are arguments about how organized they were or if they should be considered proto-cities.

Spoiler :

Atlantic Megalithic Culture - Could have a UHV based on building a number of megaliths (monument) along the Atlantic Coast and Britain & Ireland, and being the first to build Stonehenge.

Spoiler :

Maykop Culture - An advanced society based in the Caucasus, and possibly the site of the earliest use of bronze.

Spoiler :

Sintashta Culture - A later culture than the others mentioned (2200BC). Based around the southern Urals, they are believed to have invented the chariot.

 

[Dracosolon]

Honestly that should probably be its own mod, mechanics and pacing would be too different.

 

[a pen-dragon]

roads/improvements disappear after ~10 turns of not being covered by culture. Again this could be the case until a specific date.

This is really interesting, even without any restrictions. Realistically that would apply mostly to roads. Even today roads that are not maintained fall into disrepair and become useless. This would need to be timed such that it does not have too much of an impact on captured cities.

Maybe something like: every ~10 turns of continuously not being covered by culture a tile looses one level of improvement, e.g. one cottage stage, or an entire improvement, if it is a different one. If there is no improvement roads are destroyed.

 

[Gen1_]

City names? Can't. I think it would be an interesting opportunity to add a city-which-is-not-a-city building. Something like the famous nomad camp idea, but not nomad. Like a nameless hamlet that could build units. Then, with some specific tech, proper cities could be built.

 

[SultanRedSnake]

Graham Hancock edition? Space Race win on turn 15.