Almea8: A Civilization II scenario   

I've spent way, way too much time lately on Civilization II. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's something like SimCity, except that instead of developing a city you run a civilization, all the way from the Neolithic to the Space Age. You compete with rival civilizations, get to know and appreciate them, and then destroy them.

One of the neatest things about it is, you can create scenarios-- new versions of the game, with new units, new city advances, new technology trees, and new rules. (Ironically, over time I find that the only scenario I really, really like is Dinosaur.)

Naturally, I had to write an Almea scenario. I worked one out in the first few weeks I had the game; but I hadn't mastered the game yet, and the scenario wasn't all it could be, either.

Well, in the last year I achieved sufficient Civ2 studliness, and I've finally got around to updating the scenario.

The picture above shows a tense moment between the Xurnese (white) and the Skourenes (orange). The red-shirted guys are flaids; the blocky tablet is a Home God, representing the clay idols the Cadhinorians created to protect their homes.

• Here's a Zip file with the PC version.
• And here's a Stuffit file with the Mac version.

The scenario includes a map of eastern Ereláe, and allows you to play any of seven civs: the Verdurians, the Kebreni, the Xurnese, the Dhekhnami, the Luduyni, the Fei, and the Skourenes. (Actually there's more civs in the rules.txt file (complete with city names in cities.txt), but those are the ones activated in the scenario file.)

The technology tree has been pruned to make room for two subtrees-- Good and Evil. The Dhekhnami are the only ones to have Evil; all but one of the others have Good. Most of the good military units derive from these-- a different set for each. Some of them can be seen in the picture at the right.

There are nine techs in each of the subtrees. Each has a "normal" prerequisite tech, plus Good or Evil. Here they are, with the units they allow:

	Good		Evil		Role
Prerequisite	Tech	Unit	Tech	Unit
---	Good	Flaid	Evil	Murtany	Exploration
Mysticism	Nature Worship	Home Gods	Spirit Mastery	Clay Spirit	Defense (2d)
Monarchy	Wisdom	Centaur	Profanation	Troll	Artillery
Monotheism	Asceticism	Giant	Sycophancy	Rock Spirit	Strong defense (4d)
Metalllurgy	War Disciplines	Xaleza	Necromancy	Wood Spirit	Attack
Palaeology	Iliu Friendship	Iliu	Ktuvok Worship	Ktuvok	Mobile Warfare
Ancient Tongues	Secret Art	Wizard	Top 40 Radio	Metal Spirit	Heavy Artillery
Dynamics	Air Dressage	Airmount	Spirit Bondage	Air Spirit	Basic air unit
Genetics	Bird Breeding	Betonneuse	Child Sacrifice	Fire Spirit	Advanced air unit
Quantum Mechanics	Spell of Strength	Giant Bees Fortress Ship	Telemarketing	Curse Water Spirit Plague	Missile Naval attacker Mondo missile

The Dhekhnami won't negotiate with anyone else; you don't gain techs through conquest, and you don't get even a Diplomat till late in the game (Espionage-- you get Spies with Computers). This ensures that there's no mixing of Good and Evil till quite late. (Researching both isn't really worth it; but I didn't want the AI to waste its time doing so.)

In general, the more modern technology has been removed from the game, replaced with Almean creatures and magic. To the left you can see a little confrontation between Good and Evil; note the Centaurs and Airmounts on the Kebreni (green) side, and the Murtany and (improbably) the Water Spirit on the Dhekhnami (purple) side. There's a ktuvok hiding under the city name "Kondro".

The Luduyni start the game with neither Good nor Evil. It's an interesting and not impossible challenge to play them... there are just enough good non-magic units for defense, and by not researching the subtrees you may even get ahead in science. They also start with two Settlers instead of one, to make up for their technological disadvantage (and to keep the Verdurians from expanding too luxuriantly westward).

Some highlights:

• Flaids (the nonhuman inhabitants of Flora) are explorers; Good players start out with these instead of warriors. They can be used as cheap defense till you get something better.
• The basic defender is the Home Gods (these were Cadhinorian clay idols, Cadhinor gesit); the better one is the Giant.
• The King's Men were the professional armies of Cuzei; the Falahta those of the Cadhinorian Empire; the Xaleza the elite warriors of Xurno.
• You can get an iliu as a fairly advanced unit. They're excellent both on offense and defense, and (as befits their biology) they can mount amphibious attacks.
• The basic flying unit is the Airmount, a giant flying bird; the more powerful one is the Betonneuse. I didn't really take these from Almea; they most resemble the giant birds drawn by the French cartoonist Moebius.

• Evil civs start out with the murtany as the basic wimpy warrior, and move on to such creatures as the troll, and ktuvok (comparable to the iliu). (The Dhekhnami are given a troll to begin with; otherwise they start out at too much of a disadvantage.)
• They also have access to an elemental for each of the elements in Cadhinorian thought: clay, rock, wood, air, fire, water, and metal. These serve various functions-- e.g. clay spirits are good defenders; air spirits are your basic flying unit.
• A curse is the equivalent of a missile; it's a powerful weapon, destroyed after use.
• Instead of nuclear missiles, you have plague.

To reflect the differing history of technological progress on Almea, gunpowder is not available as an advance. You can develop Black Powder and then The Gun, which gives you Fusileers. These make excellent defenders.

Governments: Fundamentalism has been renamed Slave State, and restricted to Evil; Communism has been renamed Illumination and restricted to Good (they represent ideologies like Revaudo, in Xurno, and Jippirasti, the Lenani religion). You can get around these restrictions with the Friendship of the Ilii wonder (which, ironically, the Dhekhnami can try for).

The Wonders have all been renamed (but their functions are the same; the scenario editor doesn't allow much variation here). You can see some of them in the screencap to the right. A few of the city improvements have been renamed or their icons redrawn to fit the scenario better, too.

You're given 400 turns, of 10 years each. Interpret "A.D." as "Z.E."...

You can still build a spaceship. However, it colonizes Azháritar, a star system near Ënomai, not Alpha Centauri!