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Civilization II scenarios - Rome

From Civilization

Contents

[edit] Introduction

The year is what historians would later call 278 BC. The part of the known world that is worth knowing extends from the Bay of Biscay to the western shores of the Caspian Sea and from Mauretania to the western Persian Gulf. Seven nations, of similar size but widely-divergent ages and histories, compete for world dominance. Each has a few hundred gold.

The least advanced have not discovered Mathematics or Seafaring. Most of the others have not discovered Iron Working.

[edit] Advances and Wonders

In 250 years great strides may be made (faster than indicated by the game hints) and even Future Technologies are possible. Wonders of the World are nowhere near as widely available as in the standard game despite what you may be told when examining the standard information about a particular advance or a recommendation to choose one. So, researching Genetic Engineering would be a complete waste of time, and you cannot reach Alpha Centauri because nobody can build the Apollo Program.

[edit] Pollution

Pollution from production is threatened (with the usual row of triangular signs) but has no effect, so one would be wasting time building a hydro plant in preference to a power plant. Pollution does arise, however, along with a population drop, from a nuclear plant meltdown.

[edit] Diplomacy

At the low levels of difficulty, nations you approach may be happy to exchange ambassadors as well as knowledge; less likely at higher levels.

If you are not a Celt, your (F3) Foreign Minister will not be able to contact the Celts initially.

[edit] Trade routes

Caravans produce much higher returns than one remembers from the standard game, even though most cities are on the one continent. Example from one chieftain-level game: caravan from Alexandria, popn 6, to Rhodes, popn 8, in 264 BC earns initially 337 gold plus 6 gold per turn.

[edit] Greeks

Four groups of Greeks have arisen from the break-up of the huge empire of Alexander the Great, who had cut the Gordian knot and then in 323 died young:


[edit] Independent Greeks and Allies under Hiero

[edit] Hints

Try to buy Miletus in the first 2 or 3 turns by landing a diplomat straight into it (selling non-vital buildings to raise the bribe money) then Sparta then Heraclea (even if its forces have destroyed Taras) and possibly Galatia, thus nipping the extremities off three powers in such a way that those powers may not try too hard or too successfully to regain them or to attack your other cities

Build on most of the Greek "one-tile" islands, on south-east Malta, and on the 3-special hill in the "toe" of Italy.

Next "conquest" target Athens - expensive to buy but strategically very valuable and probably worthwhile in the end; with any luck, you will find the Celts destroying much of the northern Macedonian support Athens should have.


[edit] Macedonian Greeks under Antigonus

    • Aggressive expansionist
    • capital Pella on the coast of what was Macedonia but became part of Bulgaria then Greece in the 20th century; key city Athens has access to both the Aegean and the Adriatic; distant outpost Hecatompylos in Persia
    • researching Iron Working, having 22 other advances (being first to discover none of them)
    • their colour is deep blue, and their new cities may have names originating in north-west Europe
    • Hints: try to buy Miletus and Pergamum in the first few turns by landing a diplomat (selling non-vital buildings to raise the bribe money) then Sparta and possibly Galatia, thus nipping the extremities off three powers in such a way that at least two of those powers may not try too hard or too successfully to regain them or to attack your other cities; then build west of Demetrias, on most of the Greek "one-tile" islands, and at or near Istanbul (then on two lower Danube tiles, the better one being at the delta with a whale and a hill). Next "conquest" target Delphi, which adds two content citizens for each temple you own until somebody discovers Theology. Distant Hecatompylos to the east grows little until irrigation arrives from a lake; good colonies can be built to the north (gold and whale, building on river) and south (bison, gold, iron, and oil, building on hill); from the north you can colonise west on a hill served by coal and wine then on several good tiles further north.


[edit] Ptolemaic Greeks under Ptolemy

    • Rational Militaristic Expansionist
    • Make good use of the Great Library at Alexandria
    • Inheritors of the ancient Egyptian civilization of Rameses (and often called "Egyptian" on screen), they extend west to Cyrene and east to Raphia in Gaza
    • researching University, having 22 other advances (being first to discover none of them)
    • their colour is yellow, and their new cities may have Spanish names
    • Hints: build (in roughly this order):
  1. between Raphia and Damascus just north of the bison
  2. on the oasis/whale cape south-east of Leptis
  3. five tiles east of Cyrene using a fish tile (leaving the wheat for an inland city)
  4. on south-east Malta (creating two forests after main growth spurt) and maybe Crete
  5. in the Tigris/Euphrates delta using coal and about seven other river tiles

[edit] Seleucid Greeks under Antiochus (who looks like Mao Tse Tung)

    • Civilized
    • Mesopotamia, Syria, southern Turkey with capital Antioch in Syria and extending to Miletus in south-west Turkey
    • researching Engineering, having 21 other advances (being first to discover none of them)
    • their colour is pale blue, and their new cities have Chinese names if an AI is in charge
    • Hints: try to buy Pergamum in the first few turns by landing a diplomat from Miletus (selling non-vital buildings to raise the bribe money) then have a try for Galatia, thus nipping extremities off two powers in such a way that those powers may not try too hard or too successfully to regain them or to attack your other cities; build southward from Damascus along the coast to forestall Ptolemaic expansion, and from Seleucia down the Mesopotamian rivers to the Persian Gulf. Nisibis should colonize the fish/iron/pheasant tile to the north. If successful with Pergamum or Galatia, build at or near Istanbul (then on two lower Danube tiles, the better one being at the delta with a whale and a hill). Next "conquest" target Rhodes, which grows at a good rate though it does not produce buildings fast but is a great trade-producer until its Colossus is obsoleted. Distant Hecatompylos to the east is a longer-term prospect, which grows little until irrigation arrives from a lake.


[edit] Others

[edit] Romans under Scipio

    • Civilized Expansionist
    • Power: inadequate; Reputation: honorable
    • little upstart nation confined - at present - to the main part of the Italian peninsula
    • capital Rome, which has the fully functional Great Wall wonder
    • five other cities extending from Pisae in the north-west to Heraclea in the "instep" of the "boot" of Italy
      • Rome[6] (has Great Wall, palace, barracks, granary, temple, marketplace, city walls, and eight units) (OBJECTIVEx2)
      • Neapolis[5] has granary, temple, marketplace, and six units
      • Heraclea[3] has granary, marketplace, courthouse, and two units
      • Sena[3] has granary, temple, and three units
      • Pisae[4] has granary, temple, marketplace, courthouse, and five units (OBJECTIVE)
      • Tarracina[3] has marketplace and four units
    • researching Engineering, having 20 other advances (being first to discover Bridge Building and Iron Working)
    • their colour is white, and their new cities mostly have Latin names
  • Hints: while still at war with the Independent Greeks and Allies, buy Massilia with a marine-landing diplomat and buy or capture/destroy Taras ASAP; build on the 3-special hill in the "toe" of Italy; build on the cape east of Rome for a whale and fish; try to beat the Celts to build north-east of Pisae just past the silk so as to use coal; build on the north tip of Sardinia for whale and two fish then on the north tip of Corsica. Target Milan if Celts make war.


[edit] Carthaginians under Hannibal

    • Aggressive
    • the people who brought elephants to western Europe for warfare and crossed the Alps with them
    • capital Carthage in Tunisia, with two other cities nearby; western city Gades (later named Cadiz) in southern Spain; cities in southern Sardinia and western Sicily
    • researching Engineering, having 23 other advances (being first to discover Polytheism, Seafaring, and Trade)
    • their colour is green, and their new cities may have Zulu names
    • Hints: build on the oasis/whale cape south-east of Leptis then on south-east Malta and the northern tip of Sardinia.

[edit] Celts under Vercingetorix

    • Aggressive Militaristic Expansionist
    • capital La Tene, somewhere near the 2nd millennium's Liechtenstein, and have somehow captured Sparta and less surprisingly Galatia along with Numantia in northern Spain
    • merely 13 advances, not including Mathematics or Astronomy.
    • their colour is purple, and their new cities may have names of varied origin with a Mongol emphasis