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The Greatest European Powers of all time, Grand Poland, Holy Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Spain, the Free Cities, and the Forces of Islam prepare for dominance. The Mongol Barbarians are prepared to sack Europe.

So the question is, whose side are you on?

So begins the scenario The Great Powers v. 1.05, written by

Dan Abbott. This is The Great Powers v. 1.05 <Great105.SCN> Scenario, Interim Release 1.

This File

This document is divided into several sections:

This File, The Alliances <and Vendettas> of the Powers, Wonders of the World, What's New? , Great Internet Resources, and Things you Should know.

The Alliances <and Vendettas> of the Powers

The Triple Alliance <Grand Poland, Low Cities, Spain>

The Triple Alliance is on somewhat shaky ground. While Grand Poland and Spain are firmly allied, Grand Poland and the Low Cities are less likely to help each other. This is made worse by the fact that the Low Cities and Spain are on the Brink of War. Grand Poland itself will probably be too busy losing to the Mongols to do anything.

Central Europe <e.g. Grand Poland, Holy Rome> and the Mongol Barbarians

Holy Rome, the weakest power in the game, and Grand Poland face an invasion from Barbarians, representing the Mongols. While Holy Rome will essentially have to build an army in case Grand Poland Falls Grand Poland can actually accomplish something. Poland should strike out an attempt to conquer the large cities of Archangel, Muscova, and Volgagrad from the Barbarians. In our timeline, the Polish people were nearly eradicated by this Asian invasion. The odds are only slightly better here.

Holy Roman Empire - Islamia

This game starts in the midst of the Jihad <Holy War>. The war will be fought in northern Africa between the Holy Roman cities of Hippo and Carthage and the Islamic cities. An early offensive is the only way for either side to win this war.

Byzantine Empire - Islamia

This will be fought in the Arabian peninsula and will probably start with the destruction of Damascus by Islamia. For Islamia to win it needs to quickly capture Tyre, Jerusalem, or Alexandria or be forced to fight a drawn-out war in the Nile Delta. If you are playing the Byzantines, you will also be faced with discontented citizens. Forsake everything except your main cities on the Aegean Straits and try to capture Babylon and the Hanging Gardens. Once this is accomplished, try to regain the Nile delta, followed by the Mediterranean coastline.

Low Cities - Spain

While these two nations are technically allies, this will not hold. The key to winning this is simple, capture as many French cities as possible from the weak Anglo-Normans. If you're the Low Cities, try real hard not to tick off Grand Poland.

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Wonders of the World

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Oracle at Athens

Lighthouse at Land's End

Pyramid of Low Lorraine

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What's New?

Not much, actually. The Great Powers 1.05 is actually an interim release to fix some problems that Yonatan and I have since found with the game. Here is what the difference is:

1. Almost everything about this file. In 1.0, it was TIPS.TXT.
2. The EVENTS.TXT, which is written in Civ2's own macro language. If you run into strange problems, though I never did during testing, simply delete this file.
3. The Barbarians are stronger
4. The City of Danzig is given its Polish name, G'dnask.
5. The scenario is no longer quite as long.
6. The "Roman Transportation System" is the remnant of the Roman road system. It connects all of Rome at its greatest, plus Germany, Poland, and Russia.
7. A promise of another, 1.06, interim release in a few months.
8. The following solution: If you want to build Wonders of the World, what do you do? Simple, open the game under Grand Poland go to the Cheat Menu. Go to Scenario Parameters, Edit Victory conditions, and toggle Count Wonders as Objectives <or something like that <g> >. Then, also under the Cheat Menu, choose "Save as Scenario" and save it as MYGREAT.SCN. There you have it!

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Great Internet Resources

First off, there is

Microprose's Civ2 site, and the Civ2 Scenarios CD site.

Http://www.civ2.com/ has much about the game.

The same is true for the Ultimate Civ2 Site.

Addicted to Civ2 is monumental <though graphics intensive>.

Rocky Mountain Civ2 Homepage is also useful and has a great webmaster.

Civ2 just wanted be Civ2 without the Fascism 2.4 patch. Either download directly

right now [caution, it is 394k], or download it at "Civ2 Mod Files," run by the same guy who runs the Ultimate Civ2 Site.

There are simply to many places to name. You might want to look at

Yahoo's Civ2 listing.

If you are having a problem with the scenario, you can always write me at

me, at abbott@dakota.net.

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Things you Should know…

About EVENTS.TXT: This file only works if you keep the entire scenario in its own file and have the Civ2 add-on CD. It only involves Poland, so you may not even want to unzip it.

The power of the Mongol Barbarians is frightening. Grand Poland and Islamia are the two buffers of civilization.

For the first few moves, you should toggle "Show Enemy Moves" to off and toggle on "Don't Pause between enemy moves." Until the Barbarians petter out it can be pretty monotonous between turns.

If you have any problems at all, or want to comment on The Great Powers, feel free to write

Dan Abbott at abbott@dakota.net.

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