Notes on the Hundred Years War Civ II Scenario 

Intro

First off, please note that you require the Fantastic Worlds add-on to play this game, as noted on the download page. If there is the interest, I will do a CiC version, with a few less events and units. So far, I have had one request only.

The scenario is freely available for distribution, posting and editing. If you do edit it and than distribute the edited version, please note you have done so, preferably in the events-driven text box that pops up on move one.

Reading a book called "The Hundred Years War: the English in France 1337-1453" by Donald Seward inspired this effort. I recommend it highly, if you want to find out more about this period of history.

You'll notice that my scenario spans the years 1337-1455. The historical war was 1337-1453. This is because it was the expulsion of the English from their French possessions (except Calais) that was reckoned to end the war. In the game, the English may be winning in 1453! However, the game length is a suitable one, so I chose 1455, when the Wars of the Roses broke out in England, to act as an end point. Whether there would have been a Wars of the Roses if the English had won in France is debatable!

To get the full flavour of the game, play as the French or the English. However, all kingdoms are playable, and offer some interesting challenges of their own. Playing as the Burgundians, I have beaten the main two players to the Renaissance, although only at King level (this equates to Emperor level in standard CivII). The Renaissance offers a good alternative target, if you get tired of besieging cities. The Castillians also have reasonable starting strength, and the Scots can be quite fun as "spoilers". The Flemish can develop quickly if they adopt a Republic, but militarily they will always be weak. The Navarrese are in a nasty spot to begin with, though, must be the biggest challenge.

As the game intro says, read up the Civilopedia before you start to move. I put a lot of work into it, and it's crucial to understanding how the game works. The Government type bit works too.

General

All land squares are "stackable", except mountains. Watch out, though. The computer likes to pillage fortresses where you least expect, and some large armies can come to grief if you don't scout properly. After my experience with my Bonapart scenario, I decided to have most of the ocean squares stackable, too. I think this was an error, and I have removed them for the final release. There just isn't the naval concentration to justify them, and the computer leaves its units swimming around in the sea forever, when their transports are sunk!

The ships all have the submarine flag, so they can't bombard the shore. Which, in the 14th century, they didn't.

There are new terrain types. Wooded Hills should have been in the original civ in my opinion. Irrigate them and you get regular, grassy Hills. You can't mine Hills (only Mountains, VERY slowly. Use teams of Peasants.). You can convert Hills to Sheep Farming, which adds a shield, and tons of trade arrows. It takes a very long time, but it's worth it in the end. (You need the sheep farming tech - be nice to the English or Castillians - , build Shepherds, and use the Transform command: O)Again, best to get teams of Sheep Farmers on the job, otherwise it'll take you half the game.

Issues

I am really limited by the 16k ceiling on the events.txt file (which is actually a 15.8 Kilobyte limit). I have cut some of the "informational colour" in the final release, to make way for more Raiders, Peasant Revolts and outbreaks of the Plague! 

Talking of the Plague, I'm quite pleased with the way it works. I've had to create the events file manually to get Independent (Barbarian) units created, but it now works OK. When you've played a few times, you know when and where plague will strike, but there's no simple solution to that, I believe. Smart players will quickly see that if they surround target cities with units when plague is due, their cities are untouched. OK, but I prefer to "let nature take its course" and STILL beat the VP target. See if you can. I admit though, you'd have to be less than human not to move your personality units well away from the centres of infection (any big city is vulnerable) in good time! You do get some warning when Plague begins to crop up.

Warning: although there is no pollution from industrial output, the plague graves that surround afflicted cities will cause the land use to permanantly change unless they are cleared up quickly. In other words, they are pollution by another name, and will cause global warming if not cleared by peasants or shepherds. 

The tech tree is quite complex, and I'm pleased with the amount of research you need to do to stay ahead.The main lines of research are Economic (Faires, Usury, Ingenious Taxation), Academic (Libraries, Universities), Military-Gun (Early Cannon, Powder Mill, Refined Gunpowder, Cannon, Firearms) and Military-Armour (Metallurgy, Machinery, Artificing, Improved Plate). There are others, too. You need to combine most of these to reach the Renaissance. 

There are a few Wonders you can build, although most are pre-allocated. Invention works like the original Philosophy, and gives a free advance for the first to discover.

One major change, and something I have been trying to get fully working from the original conception of the scenario, is Plunder. The English, particularly, were in the Wars largely for the money. Their King wanted to be King of France. They just wanted French gold. The French and English Kings, and their sons, the Dauphin and the Black Prince, all have prices on their heads. Capture them, and get rich quick! Most of the ransom money will be extracted directly from the treasury of the victim. The minor nobility are also worth a few quid, but their ransoms come from their families and do not affect the treasury of their side...

Now you can plunder peasants, too. [:-D] Beat up their villages and you walk away with 150,000 saluts a time. (That's 150 gold in Civ terms.) Moreover, your victim's King has to stump up poor relief to the tune of 50,000 saluts per village. It can happen to you as well, though. So protect your villagers and look after your King.

[Saluts were small gold coins, worth about eight English shillings. They were widely in use in France at this time. I've counted them in thousands to give a better feel to Diplomacy, Trade and ransoms. The French King ransoms for three million saluts, which was what the English eventually got for King Jean "Le Bel" after the Battle of Poitiers.]

You will need to plunder, because all nations are (quite intentionally) running a budget deficit. The French deficit is huge, the Castillian one even more so, proportionately. Again, this mirrors history and the constant obsession of all medieval kings was to scrape together the cash to run their kingdoms, courts and wars. Until the advent of more.....inventive.....taxation, and a local system for raising regular revenue, duties on trade and enemies' gold were the only options to make up the inevitable shortfall. Research Economics and you maybe able to get your finances on a better footing. The English and Castillians have the advantages of the lucrative Wool Trade and existing sheep farms. It is possible to copy them to some extent, but it's a very long-term strategy.

Strategy and Tactics

Mostly for you to find out and experiment with. I tend to be excessively "historical" and I haven't tried to break the game with tactics that weren't actually used. However, if the game is built right, it won't break.

The Perfectionist route works well in the long term, but the Attilla Strategy (build only military units and go for all out attack) pays off quickly. You are unlikely to become a Renaissance Prince, but you may well conquer all France in record time and acumulate 250+ VPs.

If you're the English, you'll find your Longbowmen (particularly the mounted sort) are invaluable - particularly in numbers. If you're the French, they'll be a constant problem, until you can blow them away at a distance with Culverins.

The War was - apart from a handful of high profile battles like Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt - a series of sieges. This may not be to your taste, but that's how it was. Civ lends itself to this particularly well. Most cities will be hard to get into and you'll need a few Bombards and a bit of patience. Before Bombards, sieges were usually unsuccessful unless the defenders ran out of food. Mass enough of the various wooden siege engines and you can break in, though.

I was tempted to do detailed national notes here, but I reckon it should all become clear once you've played a few times.


Parting shots.

Some of the terrain defensive bonuses have been changed. The Civilopedia won't display these, so:

Forest, Hills and Woods = 150%
Wooded Hills = 200%
Mountains = 250%
Swamp = 50%

All other terrain is 100%

I tried to get the Crusades working as a spaceship-type project and you will see traces in the Rules text file. Unfortunately I chose "No Spaceships" when I first started the scenario - and that was that! By 1350, they were a side show for the French and English Kings, anyway.

The scenario has been pretty heavily play-tested by now and any bugs you find are really "features" that are intended to be there! (Hem, hem...)

For the curious: the French personality figures' banner is the Oriflamme. This was a French "national" flag long before the revolutionary Tricouleur. The Fleur-de-Lys was a symbol of the French King, not France.

One last thing. Can only get the city.txt working for the English and French. I haven't spent much time on this, as I don't want too encourage new city building anyway, but with all those peasants and shepherds it's probably going to occur sometimes. Any ideas?