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                                   SONS OF HERACLES

                                  The Tale of Sparta                             

                             A scenario for Civilization II

                                   By Stefan Härtel

                               Stefan.Haertel@t-online.de

                      


                                      CONTENTS

                                   Introduction
                                   Installation
                                   Historical Background
                                   The Civilizations
                                   Rules and Victory Conditions
                                   Units
                                   Improvements, Advances, WoWs, Terrains etc.
                                   Hints&Tips
                                   Credits
                                   Sources
                                   Feedback


I. INTRODUCTION

This scenario tells the story of Sparta, from the earliest days to the conquest of the Pelopponesus and the hegemóny in Greece.
Before you play this scenario, I strongly urge you to read this readme in whole, because it contains information about this scenario that you should really know. I don't think that I am exaggarating when I say that this is a very tough scenario, very tough to manage and extremely tough to win.
Also, stay alert for any updates. Some unfortunate things have forced me to release this scenario now, without doing any further changes.

II. INSTALLATION

I can only guarantee you that this scenario will work with
Fantastic Worlds. I cannot guarantee you that it works with MGE/UCC. It will not work with CiC or lower versions. 
Create a folder under the Scenario directory, call it "SoH" or whatever, and move all the unzipped files in.
Other versions of Civ2 use other file destinations. If you have the French or German version of Civ2, you must rename all the .txt files into .Fre and .Ger to play this scenario properly.

III. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The origins of Sparta are unknown, but it is thought that the city was founded by two branches of the Dorian tribes between 1100 and 900 BC.
The first great Spartan King was Teleklos. He conquered Amyklai and Helos, and he successfully fought the first Messenian War. The Messenian Wars are comparable to the Punic Wars that Rome fought agains Carthage in the 3d century BC. After having conquered Messenia in 715 BC, the Messenians revolted again in 669 and threatened the power of Sparta mightily. The Spartans managed to surpress them again, and enslaved all the Messenian citizens. Every year now, they declared war on Messenia and took more slaves, the so-called "Helots". Meanwhile, in the east, they were facing a new enemy, Argos.
Sparta's wars against Argos did not run very well at first, but they quickly learned about Argolian warfare and adopted the system of the Hoplites, the "Hoplitepoliteia". In 546 BC, the Spartans defeated the Argolians.
In 550 the Spartans founded the Pelopponesian League, in which they united many Pelopponesian states including Arcadia and Korinthos under their rule. Thus began the golden age of Sparta...

IV. THE CIVILIZATIONS

There are seven Civs in this game, but the only really playable one is the Spartan one. If you really want to, you can also play the Corinthians, Argolians and Athenians, but playing them is more of a cakewalk, especially because Sparta will definately screw up a lot of stuff and never even conquer Amyklai. Playing the Messenians and Arcadians can be fun too, but the North Western Greeks are strongly discouraged. Sparta's Dorian neighbours are played by the Barbarians.

V. RULES AND VICTORY CONDITIONS

This scenario is set in the Objectives system. Your goal as the Spartans is to unite as much of the map as you can under your rule. In reality, the Spartans had to bribe several states such as Arcadia. This should be possible here too, but beware; You will need to put a lot of money aside to save for some bigger cities. 
There are no real "house rules" here, but I must ask you not to make use of the "settler" abilities of your Hoplites and Phalangai (see below).
There are 107 Objectives, the Spartans are set as protagonists. The scoring works as follows:

                   ------> 94 or More is a decisive Victory
                   ------> 54 or More is a marginal Victory
                   ------> 32 or More is a marginal Defeat
                   ------> 3 or Less is a decisive Defeat

Notes: Most of the *3 Objective cities (critical to have) are very small, and may dissapear after conquest if you're not careful. This should describe how difficult this scenario really is!

VI. UNITS

I strongly recommend you to read this section.

1. As mentioned above, the Spartan Hoplites and Phalanges (plural of "Phalanx") have settler abilities. Please keep in mind that only the Spartan ones have these options. 
This is supposed to simulate the lack of food and population that forbade the Spartans to send out massive armies to overwhelm the whole Pelopponesian penninsula (which would otherwise occur in the game). In reality, there were only 9000 Soldiers in average, and EVERY Spartiate (free Spartan citizen) was a soldier. Secondly, these units are VERY expensive. This is another factor that simulates the above- mentioned. It is also important for you to know that Spartan settlers (and thus also those two units) eat two units of food per turn. This way, your city growth will be very slow, which in return will hinder you to advance quickly, and thus you will have to conquer very many cities very fast. I don't really forbid you to use your Hoplites/Phalanges to irrigate, build roads or establish new settlements. You can do whatever you like, but don't blame me or anyone else when you really need a hoplite five squares away when he is just irrigating something. You can build new cities, I don't care. I will just warn you that there will be occasions where you might need every single unit you can get.

2. The Spartans cannot build new settlers at the start. However, they will propably get a couple of them when they start invading Messenia. When you kill a Messenian, he will be enslaved and sent to Sparta as a helot (as in reality). Let me tell you that this will stop after a while, and your cities might be starving after a while, and you will concider using your Hoplites to advance the land production... (s/a)
Further, your helots aren't very good in relation to the settlers of the other Greek civilizations.
You can develop a tech with which you can build helots, but since science paradigm is low (see below) you will have to ask yourself wether it is worth it...

3. Don't expect that Hoplites, Generals or other miraculous units will pop-up randomly as you are used to with other scenarios. The Spartans did not just get some units out of nowhere, and generals were just like other soldiers.

Here are the stats of the most important units, as well as the role they were designed for:

Helots
A0 D1 M1 2h 1f Cost: 70
Role: Settler
Special: Spartan Only, cannot be built without special technology

Hoplites
A7 D4 M1 2h 3f Cost: 80
Role: Attack (Settler)
Special: Spartan Only

Phalanx
A9 D7 M1 4h 3f Cost: 120
Role: Attack (Settler)

Mothacai
A2 D4 M1 2h 1f Cost: 40
Role: Defense

Please note that the above units are Spartan-unique. The other Greek civs have their own equivalent units, though the stats are different.


VII. IMPROVEMENTS, ADVANCES, WOWS, TERRAIN ETC.

1. As you will soon notice, the city production of your homeland Laconia is low. Thus, you will often have to decide wether you need a hoplite or a temple more badly. You'll propably be short of money in critical situations. It's a hard life...

2. Another one of your problems is that you have to decide wether to invest your very little trade in taxes, science or luxury. Let me tell you that you will have to wait long before you develop a new tech, but fortunately, the tech paradigm is humane (30/10). You will also often have to decide which path you want to go; You will propably not get both, Hoplitepoliteia and Helots, thus you will need to decide wether you want Hoplites or Helots. Developing all techs within the given time is regarded as nearly impossible. Fortunately, you can also trade techs with other civs, but do you really want to give them your secrets...?

3. There are a couple of WoWs here, some are built some aren't. Several act only as eyecatchers, but most will be very important for you to have. I won't list them here, I think you will be better off when you discover them yourselves.

VIII.  HINTS&TIPS

-Move towards the west (Messenia) as soon as possible after you have secured the Barbarian cities around you; you don't want the Arcadians, your potential allies, to get hold on them!

-Once you get the hold on some helots, use them to improve your land. Automatize all but a few, and build some cities in the east.

-Build up a strong chain of fortified cities and fortifications everywhere, but especially in the east once you have clashed with the Argolians. Try moving through mountainous Arcadia (and prevent the Argolians allying with the Arcadians at all costs) when campaigning against Argos.

IX. CREDITS

First and foremost, I would like to thank my playtesters, who were (in no particular order): Chris Poulos, Giant Squid, Ioannis Coritidis, and Javier Arriaga Sevilla. Thanks also to Ioannis Coritidis once again for giving many advices on the historical aspect, Bernd Brosing for some "last minute tips", as well as all the people who posted on the Civfanatics and Apolyton forums. 
I am sorry to say that I could not as of yet do all the graphical changes that I had planned, due to computer problems. Therefore, I must thank Allard Höfelt, Erwan, and especially Alex the Magnificent for drawing so many excellent unit graphics; I myself have made the Settler, Helot, Spartan Hoplite and Phalanx, Greek Phalanx and Raider units; the Scout, Battering Ram, Sail, Transport and Galley units have either been taken from Harlan Thompson's collection of ancient units or taken from some of Microprose's scenarios.
The Barracks, Academy, Cyclopean Walls, Spartan Pride and Songs of Tyrtaios icons have been made by me; the Well icon is from Jesús Balsinde's and Jesús Munoz' Cuban scenario; the theatre graphic was made by Allard Höfelt. All other icons have either been made by Microprose or were taken from the web. The Spartan city style was made by Microprose. The terrain graphics were taken from the web; everything else was made by me.  

X. SOURCES

Ernst Baltrusch: Sparta (Munich, 1998)
Also thanks to the guys at the "Everything Spartan, Laconian and Messenian" mailing list.

XI. FEEDBACK

For comments, critics suggestion etc., you can mail me at: Stefan.Haertel@t-online.de
Unfortunately, my homepage is sort of defunct right now.