Scenario of the Week Club: 1884v7

[Mao]

I thought it'd take a bit more time for everyone to play it, but Stefan already has a review, so here it is:

quote: Negative Parts of the scenario: I'm personally of such kind that I like to write negative things first, so that the positive ones have more effect First of all, when I first started this scenario I thought it was unplayable. This was because the governments of the three most interesting civilizations, the British the Central Powers and the French were all of either Democratic or Republican government. This meant that there was a 50-50 chance that war declarations would have effect. Of course, there was the option of declaring war through negotiations with a third party, but this practically only had effect with the Free Peoples. The distribution of colonies was historically inaccurate. In 1884, there were not as many colonies in Africa and Asia, the Philippines were still Spanish and so on. Furthermore, the selection of civilizations was fair. For my part, I wouldn't merge the Turks, Norwegians, Danes and Swedish with the Germans, Spaniards, Dutch, Italians Belgians and Austrians. At least not in 1884. I would rather put the Turks in one civilization together with the Persians, merge the "minor" colonial powers (that had little importance in Europe) together with neutral states, such as the U.S. who came into the imperialistic race only after the Spanish-American war of 1898 and leave following European civs: British, French, Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy), Russia and Minor Powers. This would also prevent the Germans for example from intervening in Dutch, Spanish and Turkish territories. The most important factor there is that the Turks should not be allied to any European civilization, since one of the points in the Berlin conference was to prevent the Turks from becoming too powerful. There would be two "leftover" civs, such as the Japanese and the Free Peoples. Cities were sometimes misspelled and terribly misplaced. For example, Istanbul's official name in 1884 was Constantinople, and even Istanbul is misspelled in the scenario. The largeness of the cities Tsingtao and Hong Kong somehow gave the impression that most of the Chinese coast was under control of the British and Germans. There should be fortifications and such to show that all this was Chinese territory. Apart from that, the author seemed to have problems in which language to make the map. There was both an English and a German version (I installed the English one), but many city names were spelled in German, like Vladivostok, Astrakhan, Tehran, Rostov. The author tried to give local cities their local names, which sometimes succeeded but sometimes didn't and thus gives a bad impression. Some of the artwork was terrible. The "cowboys" or whatever they were meant to represent look ridiculous. A lot of the artwork wasn't changed, so that British and Spaniards ran around the territory with American cavalrists, while the French and Americans defend their cities with British redcoats (the British having their individual infantry having no red in their uniform). Now to the positive parts: The game was very challenging and original. It is hard to find a scenario that covers both territorial expansion in Africa and Asia by the European powers. I had a great time trying to drive the Americans out of the Phillipines in the name of his majesty Wilhelm of Germany, or giving a shot at re-uniting South America in the name of Spain's conquistadores until I was in a two-front war between Russia and France, realizing I should have done more preparations. It was, at least in some way, well-balanced, making it difficult to intervene in Persia or Russia without the neccessary amount of units. The Russians, for example, were not as highly advanced, but had a large empire and a big army, while the Central Powers were highly advanced but not as large. The Americans were highly advanced and large, but too isolated to rip this game under their control. It is hard to find a good 19th century imperialism scenario that covers more than the colonization of Africa or other single territories. This one is at least a good shot but should be "modernized" in some ways. With the mass of good new artwork and scenario-designing developements this one could become excellent.

Some suggestions for an "Upgrade"

The European cities are not enough in number. I would reccomend completley doing the job of placing cities in Europe and China and Japan so they are all two spaces a part, and make a new Terrain type called "Urban" with high food and shield output to compensante for the lack of resources. Mabye change the Glacier Terrian on the map to Urban and then change the "real" glacier spots to Tundra.

I'd also make it easier to attack cities- I remember it took a hell of alot of units to take Mexico City when I played as the Americans- I think it would more fun if you made it more fast pace by increasing the attack strength of artillery.

Also- wasn't the Trans-Siberian Railroad around at this time? And Turkey had control of Jersualem and Mecca.

I would also put more cities in South America and in Africa mabye too..

And on the civs suggestion- I agree with the "Minor Powers" idea- except I think instead of the Americans being merged with the Minor powers, the Japanese should- The Americans were isolationist at that time- and it wouldn't be realalistic if for instance American went to war because France attacked the Dutch in Indonesia- also make it so the Americans, using the Tribe editor, are as peaceful as possible, to represent isolationism. If the US were merged with the minor powers, it'd cause them to intervene more than they should.

[Civfan]

So how many people tried out for the club. I'll post my review friday morning...wont be around thursday. Well later all

[Shadowstrike]

I'm kind of busy, haven't even opened the scenario yet. Do you guys mind if I'm absent for the first couple of weeks?

[St Leo]

I played as Japan for a while and conquered most of China after modernizing its infrastructure - pretty fun, but would have been even better with a covered map.

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St. Leo
http://ziggurat.sidgames.com/
http://www.sidgames.com/forums/

[Civfan]

Abit late but here it is.... I had some fun playing this scenario.... There was alot of inaccurate parts but overall it is fun to play. My first game which didn't last long was as Great Britain. As stated before Governments as Republic and no government switching made it impossible to play....Couldn't declare war on anyone except through a third party..... Going through the scenario after playing Britain I noticed theres no use of Barbarians in the game...For such a huge scenario I think they should be included to represent minor powers in the game...
Heres my notes when I played as Japan..... First thing to notice was the cities for Japan. They are bronze age graphics. Did all conscripts were red uniforms or just the British? Like the idea about the train station. increases trade in all roads and railroads. Granary graphics looks good. Wheres the Samueri's, not constimized. Japan would not of known the entire world. they were basically isolated for many years before americans came by
There should be More avialable units at the beginning of the game. Fortifications should be included in this scenario. Some cities like Toronto are much to large for this time period. More time should be researching into the cities used. I saw to little in China and asia. More developement should of been included. For the neutrals, settlers should be created in china. An update in terrian could make this scenario look more pleasing. The standard civ2 terrian is now adays outdated and boring. A must if to be updated. The map, standard large world map could be redone.Overall its good for its time. I saw promise in it. The tech tree is there though theres no pedia. Some advances however give more units then should be. Not all armies were the same. Does G-Calvary seems alright with all for a named unit? Not if several diferent civs have that unit. The civs were another matter in this game. The Central European's and Free peoples should be replaced in this game. Prussia(Germany) should be one civ and another Ottoman empire. I saw no barbarians in this scenario. There are part of the game and should be used to represent cities in africa and China. Events can be used to stimilate there power. Terrian in the scenario needs major redoing. In Persia more desert and asia should be at least have a terrian for steplands. In africa there shoud be incuded at leaste something to do with the wealth of the contenant. Include tribes with barbarians and dimonds. Dimmonds deposits that attacked give you some cash or used it as a resource. Cities in Canada are to big. Was America this big and developed in 1884?

Well thats it...later all....