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



             ROME 280 BC: CONQUEST OF THE CLASSICAL WORLD  

                 by Rick Westera (rwestera@yahoo.com)

                            July 28, 2000
                       Version 2: August 7, 2000
                       Version 3: October 22, 2000
                       Version 4: December 3, 2000
                       Version 5: January 7, 2001




This is my only Civ II Scenario to date.  The subject is the same
as the original Rome scenario - seven empires struggling for control
of the Classical World.  However, in terms of the map, the artwork,
and the gameplay, it is unique.

 

BACKGROUND

It is 280 BC.  Pyrrhus is invading Roman Italy as part of Epirus'
brief bid for world empire.  The Carthaginians rule the Western
Mediterranean and three Greek empires struggle for control of the
east, unaware of the Celtic maelstrom about to descend upon them
from northern Europe.



STRATEGY

The Celts and especially the Epirotes need to strike fast to join the
ranks of the other empires.  The Romans and Macedonians must hold off
these aggressors before they can make their own plans for dominance,
while the Carthaginians, Ptolemys, and Seleucids have a little more
breathing space (just).

In terms of tactics, you'll need a range of units.  Siege engines for
assaulting walled cities, heavy units for general combat, and fast
light units to harass troops in vulnerable terrain or to pick off
the weaker defenders.  Ships also come in a range of powers, and what
you use depends on whether you want naval suppremacy, speed, or
transportation.  Later, generals and flagships will come in handy
as fast powerful attack units with a greater range of vision.



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 "280BC" and put all 
the files in it except those files with extension .wav. Inside the 
"280BC" folder make a sub-folder called "Sound" and place all the 
.wav files in it. Now just play. 



RULES

Important rule differences:
1. Forest, swamp, and desert take 2 moves to enter and HALVE defence.
   (reflects the vulnerability of ancient troops in those terrains)
2. Mountains take 6 moves to enter.
3. Under the Imperium (Communism), cities can support 8 units for free.



VICTORY CONDITIONS

To win, conquer important cities and wonders.  This scenario was
really designed to be multiplayer, but events will pump up the power
of the computer players so that it's still a challenge when playing a
single player game.



ADVANCES

The tech tree has been redesigned and is fairly extensive.  The tech
rate is slow, but you have a *lot* of time and should still be far
into Epic Poetry (Future Tech) by the end.

NB. Hellenism (Greek only tech) is required for Mathematics, Republic,
Monarchy, and Theatre.
In the case of the first three, this really affects only the Celts -
it means they need to trade or steal to get these technologies.  In the
case of Theatre, it affects the Romans as well - Theatre is a
prerequisite for Oratory (needed for diplomatic units).




THE EMPIRES

All the empires are roughly equal in playability, although the
Carthaginians, Ptolemies, Romans, and Seleucids are given extra
technologies and units when played by the computer.  The AI has
the most advantages when playing the Romans, so if you want a
difficult single player game go for the Celts or Epirotes.

Governments are the same, except that Imperium replaces Communism
and Democracy is generally weaker (no police stations or United
Nations).  There is also Dictatorship (Fundamentalism), which is
only available to the Romans when played by the computer.



UNITS

There are four types of civilization in this game: Carthaginian,
Celtic, Greek, and Roman.  These affect what units you can build.
See UnitDetails.xls for more details.

A rough guide is as follows:

* Carthaginians:
  The Carthaginian Empire is based on trade, giving them cheap merchants
  and a wide range of mercenary troops.  Elite units are selected from
  the population of Carthage itself and are hence more expensive than
  normal.

* Celts:
  The Celts have cheap aggressive units and their own unique boats.
  Their disadvantages are poor defence and slow warriors (due to lack
  of discipline).

* Greeks:
  Over time, the Greek armies have become increasingly heavily armoured.
  This means that they are very strong but also quite slow.

* Romans:
  The Romans have well armoured, well disciplined troops. Their
  aggressive and flexible style of warfare means that they can attack
  quickly and powerfully.



THE BARBARIANS

The barbarians can be divided into three groups: the Neutrals, the
True Barbarians, and the player-controlled barbarians.

* Neutrals control the minor city states that have not yet been picked
  up by the Imperial Powers.  They tend to build defence-only units
  and are relatively harmless.

* True Barbarians appear in the Atlantic, northern Britain, northern
  Europe, Numidia, the Caucasus, Arabia, and the Russian Steppes.  The
  worst of these are the Sarmatians, who will destroy almost anything
  they come into contact with.

* Just to complicate things, if you conquer some cities, barbarian
  rebels (Celts, Numidians, Samnites, etc) will flock to your flag.



WONDERS 

The following wonders are included in this scenario:

Wonder (city)			    Replaces

Pyramids (Memphis)                  --
Hanging Gardens (Seleucia)          --
Colossus (Rhodes)                   --
Lighthouse (not built)              --
Great Library (Alexandria)          --
Oracle (Delphi)                     --
Hadrian's Wall (not built)          Great Wall
Scipio's Reforms (not built)        Sun Tzu's
Roman Constitution (Rome)           King Richard's
Statue of Zeus (Corinth)            Marco Polo's
Plato's Academy (Athens)            Copernicus'
Hanno's Expedition (Carthage)       Magellan's
Stonehenge (Dumnonii)               Cure Cancer
Homer's Epics (Pergamum)            Michaelangelo's
Archimedes' Workshop (Syracuse)	    Leonardo's 
Temple of Artemis (Ephesus)         J. S. Bach's
Silk Road (not built)               SETI	
Mausoleum (Halicarnassus)           Adam Smith's
Parthenon (Athens)                  Women's Suffrage
Circus Maximus (Rome)               Shakespeare's
Euclid's College (Alexandria)       Isaac Newton's	



HISTORICAL NOTES

1. The Carthaginian architecture is Minoan - I kept it this way
   because I liked the colour scheme.  The architecture of the other
   civilizations is much closer to reality.
2. The geography of the various empires is correct to the time, with
   the following exceptions:
   * the Celts weren't really that unified ;-)
   * Pyrrhus is given control of the independent states of Massalia,
     Delphi, and Rhodes (a la the original Rome.scn)
   * the Macedonians are given Hecatompylos (as in the original) and
     Ephesus (which had a loose Macedonian connection)
3. The leader names given are those of the greatest rivals of the
   Roman Empire (or, in the case of Scipio, its greatest builder)



CREDITS

The graphics and many of the ideas come from the Roman scenarios
of Alex the Magnificent, Michael Jeszenka, Allard H.S. Höfelt,
and Florian Borchert, as well as some units from Harlan Thompson's
Ancient Units file.  I don't know how much these people were the
original designers, but many thanks regardless and apologies to
anybody I may have inadvertently left out.

The map was created by Harlan Thompson and many of the
rules are based on those in the Avalon Hill board game Romanum
Imperium.  The general layout of the map is, obviously, based
upon Microprose's original Roman scenario for Civ II.  I am also
indebted to Jesús Balsinde for providing the layout for this
readme (POSTNOTE: I have just discovered his Celt & Iberian scenario
- this has supplied me with new classical buildings, heavy legions,
and scientists).

Having said this, there is very little in this package that I
haven't modified.   Most of the units have been tampered with to
increase clarity or historical accuracy - those which I have greatly
altered or produced myself, I have signed ("R!CK").  The same applies
to many of the other graphics.  I have also changed the map in a few
places and made the resource placement closer to what it would have
been at the time.  The rules and events, too, are now quite different
to those of the sources mentioned above.
