Homer's Age Readme
================

A scenario by Allard H.S. Höfelt (for Civilization II).
This scenario is NOT copyrighted, and can be freely copied. However, no
one may ask any payment for this scenario, except after having contacted
the author. If copied, this .ZIP file MUST contain all the files it
originally contained (as described at the end of this text file). I am
not responsible for any damage, malfunction, etc. this scenario may cause.
The scenario itself is created by me, except for the map, and most of my
icons I got from many places on the Internet. You may use any of my units
(marked with AHS) in your scenario, and probably most of the other units,
but I cannot guarantee that, for they aren't created by me. Thanks to you
all (I can't credit anyone, because I have forgotten and they're too many). I
only remember Michael Nielsen for making a great deal of the units and
terrains used.

Installation:
----------------
With scenario disk: Just make a directory in your \civ2\scenario directory
named homer. Unzip all files into this directory. Start Civ2, select "Begin
Scenario", goto \civ2\scenario\homer\ and highlight HOMER.SCN.

Without scenario disk: Backup all TXT and GIF files, unzip into your civ2
scenario, and start a game as above in the \civ2 dirctory.

Background Information:
-----------------------------------
This scenario places you in the shoes of one of the biggest civilizations
in Greece around 1500 BC. These are:

Cretans		- Deucalion
Mycenians	- Echelaos
Minyadians	- Kerkyon
Aiolians		- Aiolis
Ionians		- Menestheus
Phrygians	- Gordios
Trojans		- Priamos

All of these civilizations and leaders are historically accurate,
except the Phrygians, because they only started to exist around
800 BC (I thought, could be a bit more). That's because I wanted
to have a powerful and independent civilization in the west, and
not (as in real life) only provinces of bigger empires, whose centres
were mostly in the Middle East. Also, the historical accuracy would be far
less, for they are much more powerful than they could be on the map
(otherwise I should make a bigger map, but then it's less concentrated
in Greece). That's why the Phrygians already existed in 1500 BC in this
scenario (by the way, this game IS made to change history).
The names of the leaders are all perfectly accurate, except for Aiolis,
but that's because I didn't know another leader for the Aiolians. Also
Kerkyon is just the king of Eleusis (which was Minyadic until it was
conquered just some years before this scenario), but he is the far most
known representor of a civilization we almost know nothing about.
The Minyadic race stands for all the Achaic tribes in Greece from before
the arrival of Ionians and Aiolians (Dorians only in 1200BC).
All the cities are geographically perfectly placed, and most of them
(90% I think) are also historically right.

The scenario is designed for King level, and every civilization has a
good starting point, with enough cities, more than enough military units,
and plenty of possibilities.
However, for most fun it is advised that you play Trojans, Mycenians or
Cretans. It is not advised for any player to cheat, for this spoils the
entire game.
Almost every unit which you can build is new or completely modified. Also
almost every terrain, wonder and more is modified or new, and last of all,
the tech tree is completely modified.

History:
-----------
The historical background in short will follow here. Until around 1600 BC,
the biggest civilization in Greece was Crete. Crete had a perfectly
arranged military and mercenary marine. Because of this allmightiness
on sea, Crete was the master of the Aegean Sea, and also of the Greek
continent. Every upcoming civilization was immediately crushed. There
existed almost no land defence on Crete, and the minoan palaces were
without walls. (one of the only places in the world without walls in
that time). Around 1600 BC, the Minoan civilization (in Crete) was
destroyed after a natural catastrophe, a revolt and an attack from the
continent, which ravaged them almost entirely. However, they still
remained quite powerful, and still had quite a good marine. However,
land defence was now awfully poor. This caused the real end of Crete
as an important country. Freed from the constant oppressing Crete,
civilizations began to flourish on the continent. The Ionians, Aiolians
and especially Mycenians (Dorians (Sparta) only arrived around 1200 BC
far from the north) became important nations. Trade began to grow in
entire Greece (not only in Crete as before). Now the scenario begins.
The Mycenians and their then somewhat less powerful allies conquered the
growing city of Troy during 10 years of great battle. Around 1200 BC the
Mycenian civilization was destroyed, probably because of the Dorian
invasion. The other civilizations in Greece were already almost wiped
out by the Mycenians. Now the Greek Middle Ages begins. Only around 600 BC,
Greece became important again.

Other things:
-------------------

IMPORTANT:
Because I didn't want this scenario to be of an undownloadable largeness, I did NOT
include any sound effects, thus the game will use the standard Civ-sound effects, which
may give very strange and illogical effects.
JUST TURN YOUR SOUNDS OFF or make your own ones and feel free to add them to
the ZIP file and distribute it. Thank you very much.
This .ZIP file must contain: (if it doesn't please e-mail me the address
where you got it incomplete (this is freeware, but may only be copied with
all of these files including this text))
CITIES.GIF
ICONS.GIF
TERRAIN1.GIF
TITLE.GIF
UNITS.GIF
GREECE.MP
HELLAS.MP
HOMER.SCN
EVENTS.TXT
HOMER.TXT
READHOMR.TXT (this file)
RULES.TXT
This scenario is currently officially given the nice name 2.1a (sounds cool,
doesn't it?). Previous versions are uploaded only to the Compuserve Net and
not to the Internet.
This is my first scenario I ever made (although it is the second remake of it),
so I hope you will like it. If so or if not so, please send me a mail.

If you have any comments, suggestions, questions, complains, etc. please
mail me at:
AHSHofelt@compuserve.com   OR 
106116.555@compuserve.com

By the way, my home address is:
Allard Höfelt
Studler van Surcklaan 4
1861 MA Bergen (NH)
The Netherlands

I hope you will enjoy playing this scenario and feel free to distribute it in any way
you like except the things mentioned above. If you encounter an error or something
or just want to make a change before distributing it, please e-mail me at the above
address.



Thanks to:
---------------

Microprose (for this cool game)
Compuserve (for giving me Internet access)
Unkown (for having created map and icons)
...
And of course 2 U, as a player of this scenario. I hope you like it (I do).
I'm glad you've actually completely read this file (I didn't expect it, because I don't ever
read these stupid readme's but I really had to make it I thought to make this scenario
complete).
