Warning!: You need to have installed Fantastic Worlds for this
scenario to work! 



                THE AGE OF PHILIP II: THE TIME OF THUNDER  

                 by Jesús Balsinde (jbalsinde@ucsd.edu)

                            May 4, 1998



"The Age of Philip II" is the sixth chapter of my series of scenarios 
dedicated to Spain's history. The others are "Spanish Pride", "Spanish
Civil War: the Defense of Madrid", "The Visigoths", "The Conquest of
of Mexico" and "Al-Andalus". Hope you like this one too. Feedback 
appreciated. Thanks.

 

BACKGROUND

In 1580, Philip II is at the height of his power. The first monarch in
history to rule over a united peninsula, he can now rightfully title
himself king of Spain. In medieval times, the term "Spain" or "the
Spains" had been applied loosely to the sum of states within the
whole peninsula, including Portugal, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and
Granada. From now on, that loose concept is a political reality. The
universal monarchy has indeed arrived, for Philip II rules over the 
most extensive empire the world has ever known. But Spain is not only
the world's preeminent military power. Music, art, literature, theater,
dress and manners are admired and imitated; they set a standard by 
which the rest of Europe measures its culture. However, some European
nations are intent on putting and end to all that splendor: England is
hungry for glory, France has quite a few outrages to settle, the Low 
Contries cry for liberty, Italy grows weary of interferences... No 
doubt these are serious problems, but the biggest concern for Philip II
is the Turkish menace on the Mediterranean Sea. Philip II's only 
friends, the Austrian Habsburgs, have already clashed with the Turk on
the borders of the Danube. Europe is set for a series of conflicts that
could change the face of the world for ever. Choose your side and fight
for a place in history!



INSTALLATION

This scenario will NOT work with Civ2 versions below 2.7.81, the one
provided by the Fantastic Worlds scenario disk. If you have it, make a
new folder under the Scenarios folder. Call it "Thunder" and put all 
the files in it except those files with extension .wav. Inside the 
"Thunder" folder make a sub-folder called "Sound" and place all the 
.wav files in it. Now just play. 



RULES & VICTORY CONDITIONS

Scoring in this scenario is according to the objectives system. There
are 95 objectives (cities plus wonders). The Spanish are set as 
protagonists. They have to score at least 80 points to achieve a 
decisive victory, and 60 to achieve a marginal victory. 45 objective 
points or less is a marginal defeat, and 30 or less is a decisive 
defeat. If you are playing with a civ other than the Spanish, your 
scoring objectives remain THE SAME: you do not obtain a decisive 
victory by simply keeping the Spanish under 30 points (that is fairly 
easy to achieve given how bad a strategist the AI is) but by scoring 
yourself those 80 points!!! Whichever civ you play with, scoring 80
will not prove to be an easy task. By the way, if the AI controls the
Spanish, it screws up in the first turn the neat web of alliances that
I had carefully arranged. There is no way to get around this, I think.

This scenario begins on May 1580 (annexation of Portugal) and ends on 
Sep 1598 (death of Philip II). Each turn is 2 months so there is a total
of 111 turns. It is not too much, so get moving!

These are the cities that are considered objectives and the number of
points they are worth each (note that some cities from the Neutral 
States -the Barbarians- also count as objectives and that all French, 
English, Dutch and Italian cities appearing in the scenario are 
objectives):

SPANISH		   FRENCH	      ENGLISH	        TURKS
Madrid (x7)	   Paris (x5)	      London (x6)       Istanbul (x4)
Sevilla (x3)	   Marseille (x3)     Plymouth (x2)     Budapest
Lisboa (x2)	   Bordeaux	      Leicester	        Lepanto
Nápoles		   Bayonne	      Portsmouth	Athens
Milán		   Toulouse	      Sunderland	Tunis
Bruselas	   Nantes	      Carlisle	        Tripoli
Amberes		   Lyon		      Liverpool
Franco-Condado	   Orleans            Birmingham
Valladolid	   Limoges
Barcelona	   Calais				
Granada						
Cádiz						        AUSTRIANS
Pamplona			      CITY STATES	Augsburg (x4)
		   NEUTRAL STATES     Roma (x4)	        Vienna (x3)	
		   Leipzig	      Venezia (x4)	Prague	
DUTCH		   Hamburg            Firenze (x2)	Regensburg	
Amsterdam (x4)	   Warsaw	      Torino		Trieste
The Hague (x3)	   Moscow	      Genoa		Trent
				


ADVANCES

The tech tree is the one from "Spanish Pride". There are some minor 
changes to adjust to the new environment, particularly the allocation
of specific techs (which are not researched) and the prerequisites for
"Firearm Design" (a CRITICAL advance), which are now "Democracy" and
"Economics". Everything else remains the same. 

The tech paradigm is very high (75/10). Thus reseach is not likely to 
be a big factor in this situation. If you are playing with the Spanish
do not bother. If you are playing with someone else, you may need to do
some research in order to catch up in the military race. Well, there is
always an alternative route to catch up, but you know that already, 
don't you? No tech can be acquired by conquest.



THE TRIBES

I will try to not to write very much in this section; only the 
essentials. Note in the first place that all seven civs appearing in 
the scenario are playable. The protagonists are the Spanish as they are
the easier option among the recomended civs. The other two recomended 
tribes to play with are the English and the French. The French are the
tougher option and the English are somewhere in between (closer to the
French). It could be interesting as well to try your hand at playing
with the Austrian Habsburgs or the Turks. The Dutch and City States 
(Italians) have lesser opportunities than the other civs, but this does
not necessarily mean that they are less fun to play with; just a bit
tougher than the rest.

Government switching is not permitted in this scenario. The Spanish,
French and English are monarchies, the City States are a democracy, the
Dutch are a fundamentalism, the Austrians are a Despotism, the Turks
are a Communism. Some of these government forms have been renamed to 
better fit the context, but their characteristics stay the same.

English and Spanish are always at war with each other. The same occurs
with Turks and Austrians. In addition, the Turks do not negotiate.



UNITS

There are several new units in the "Age of Philip II" scenario. Because
of the need of allocating some units to specific civs, not all of them 
are listed in the Civilopedia. Instead of listing the stats of these 
"ghost" units here, I'll let you find out for yourself. Quoting 
Microprose, half the fun is in the discovery (?). There are however 
some things you may need to know in advance:

1. There are two historical figures in this scenario, both on the 
   Spanish side. These are Don Juan de Austria -Philip II's half-
   brother- and the Duke of Alba (who might well not appear at all). 
   They are the most powerful units of the scenario but if killed, that
   is it, there is no more of these. Talking about the dead, Don Juan
   de Austria had already died at the time this scenario begins. Sorry
   for this one, but I really wanted to have him in here! If you think
   this inaccuracy is not acceptable, just go to rules.txt and rename
   the unit as Duke of Parma (for example) or even better, Spanish
   Grandee.

2. Nuns are engineer-type units (Christians only).

3. The diplomatic units are called envoys.

4. Imperial Troops are a little bit stronger than the Harquebusiers,
   and unique for the Austrian Habsburgs.

5. The Tercios (Spanish only) are the strongest ground troops at the
   beginning of the scenario. This is to reflect Spain's military
   superiority on the battlefield. For those of you who are familiar
   with "Spanish Pride", please be advised that here the Tercios are a 
   bit more powerful.

6. English and Dutch have the movement of their ships increased by two.
   In addition, the English always build veteran ships, regardless of
   whether or not their cities have a port facility. It is a fact that
   English warships were the fastest of the era and the ones that
   carried the best guns. Hence the sea advantage for the English. That
   the Dutch can also build the same ships as the English intends to
   reflect the assistance that the former received from the latter.



WONDERS 

This scenario includes all possible 28 wonders. Twelve of these are
brand new, i.e. they have not been seen before. All wonders are 
already built, and are placed in the city where they are in reality (or
as close as possible). Aside from the fact that wonders count as
objectives in this scenario, the effects of most of them are permanent.
Thus keeping control over cities containing valuable wonders should be
a must for those who want to do well in this scenario. The only wonders
that are obsolete are those whose effects were really not needed for 
the scenario. These are indicated below as well.

Wonder (city)			    Replaces		  Obsolete?

Notre Dame Cathedral (Paris)	    Pyramids
Worth of a Mass (Paris)		    Hanging Gardens
Hanseatic League (Hamburg)	    Colossus
Drake's Raids (Plymouth)	    Lighthouse
Formative Years (Valladolid)	    Great Library
Poblet Monastery (Barcelona)        Oracle
Ninety-five Theses (Leipzig)        Great Wall
Chivalric Tales (Madrid)	    Sun Tzu's		  Yes
White Tower (London)		    King Richard's
Street Canals (Venezia)		    Marco Polo's
The Vatican (Roma)		    --		
Copernicus' Observatory (Warsaw)    --
Windmill Networks (Amsterdam)	    Magellan's
Shakespeare's Theater (London)	    --
The Golden Fleece (Madrid)	    Leonardo's		  Yes 
San Lorenzo Monastery (Madrid)	    J. S. Bach's
La Alhambra Palace (Granada)	    Isaac Newton's	
House of Fugger (Augsburg)	    Adam Smith's
Columbus' Expedition (Sevilla)	    Darwin's		  Yes
St. Basil Church (Moscow)	    Miss Liberty	  Yes	
Golden Tower (Sevilla)		    Tour Eiffel
Florentine Way (Firenze)	    Women's
Tower of Belem (Lisboa)		    Hoover Dam
Hagia Sophia (Istanbul)		    Manhattan		  Yes
Cervantes' Theater (Madrid)	    U.N.		  Yes
Magellan-Elcano's Voyage (Cádiz)    Apollo Program	  Yes
Anglican Heressy (London)	    SETI	
St. James Chapel (Pamplona)	    Cure Cancer



FINAL NOTES

The background for the pop-up boxes in this scenario depicts a storm
(two clouds, lightning... you know). Why? Simple, keep on reading. The 
most famous event of Philip II's Age is arguably the defeat of the
Spanish Armada in 1588. English History --or better, history written in
the English language-- likes to brag about the superior seamanship of 
the English as the main reason for the disaster of the Armada. The 
English navy of course played an important role in averting the 
invasion of the island, but serious objective research has revealed 
that its contribution to the destruction of the Armada was, at best, 
minimal. Harassed by English and Rebel Dutch vessels, the heavy ships
could not dock to any Spanish port in the Low Countries. Severely
handicapped by the lack of competent leadership, the fleet was 
shattered by Atlantic storms on its way back to Spain. Hence the storm
motif in the pop-up box background.

City names-- Spanish cities have their names written in Spanish; 
English cities in English; French cities in French, and Italian cities
in Italian. I do not know a word of Dutch, German or Turkish. Thus city
names for these civs are all written in English. Neutral State cities 
(Barbarians) are too in English. Obvious choice, I think. Note however
that the premier language in Europe in the XVI century was either 
Spanish or French. Probably it would have been historically accurate to
have all those city names written in French or Spanish rather than in
English. Better than that, if you speak either Dutch, German or Turk, 
you may want to translate these names for me. Thanks in advance.
About Spanish cities, Amberes is Antwerp, and Franco-Condado is the 
Franche Comté. All other Spanish city names should be fairly obvious 
to understand. 

The tiny unit at the upper left corner of the introductory text file--
Eureka! I finally got this one to work. How? Sincerely I do not know. 
It was very surprising for me to find this unit standing up there. This 
is the first and only scenario of the six that I've designed to date 
that displays such a feature... Hmm, thinking it twice I may have a 
clue on when and why this unit does/does not appear. I'll have to play
around a bit to unravel this mystery (which is one of the most repeated
-and always unanswered- questions on Civ2 boards all over the net).



CREDITS

The map used in this scenario was made by Pedro López Rodríguez, whom
I consider to be by far the best mapmaker on the net. I have reduced 
the playable area a lot. That's why the map looks so weird in the upper
window of the Civ2 screen.

The Dutch city designs are from Allard Höfelt. The French flag was
originally designed by Harlan Thompson. I took the "fortify unit"
graphics from Fréderic Meunié's Stonehenge modpack.

The "Hanseatic League" icon was re-colorized by me from a design by 
Mark McGraw. The basic idea of the "House of Fugger" icon is borrowed
from another of his icons, called "World Bank" or something like that.
I do not know who is the author of the icon I called "Drake's Raids". I
took it from the Tour Eiffel website long time ago. All other icons are
either from different Microprose scenarios or designed by me. Some of
the latter were specifically created for this scenario.

Some of the units in this scenario were taken from different Microprose
scenarios or from the FW library. The footsoldiers, merchants and 
musketeers were all taken from Harlan Thompson's Ancient Units file but
I do not know who is/are the real author(s). If you are one of them let
me know, so I can write your name here. All units marked as JBR are 
designed by me. If you wish to use any of these for your own scenarios,
please do it, but give written credit (that is, acknowledge their 
origin somewhere in a text file just like I have done here with the 
work by others), and do NOT remove my initials (JBR) from the graphics!
Regrettably I have noticed that some people ignore this simple request.
Don't do it you too, it's not nice!

This scenario is based on the book "Philip of Spain", by Henry Kamen
(Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1997). The reading of
this book turned an otherwise unbearable trip San Diego-Madrid into a
memorable voyage to the Time of Thunder.

