Next War (Civ4)

Next War is one of the scenarios/mods bundled with the Beyond the Sword expansion pack. It can be played in two ways. You may play the preset scenario, or you may play the mod. The mod essentially allows you to play a standard Civilization IV game where you can advance to Next War technology levels. It was designed by Paul Murphy.

Lore

Next War: The Story Thus Far...

Following the collapse of the much hated One World Government in the late 2030's and the ensuing political, military and economic chaos, four new power blocs have come to dominate the globe. America, Inc. controls all of the traditionally English-speaking areas of the world, as well as a large chunk of Old Mexico. Europa dominates the northern portion of the Eurasian continent, while the Pan-Asiatic People's Cooperative has gobbled up Asia, Indo-China, and Indonesia and what was the Philippines. The southern hemisphere (except old Australia and New Zealand) is controlled by the Southern Empire.

Population growth and rapidly-diminishing resources increasingly spark border tension between the Powers, and many feel that worldwide conflict is inevitable. And while during its brief existence the One World Government did manage to destroy much of the world's nuclear stockpiles, there's rumor that some of the Powers are rapidly rebuilding their arsenals while researching technologies that may allow the creation of even more deadly weaponry. When the conflict comes, it's likely to be terrible indeed.

Civilizations

Civilization	Leader	Unique unit
The Great Southern Empire	The Lady (Really Hatshepsut)	War Chariot (obsoleted in scenario)
America Inc.	Mr. Big (Really George Washington)	Navy SEAL
Pan-Asiatic People's Cooperative	The Glorious Leader (Really Qin Shi Huang)	Cho-Ko-Nu (obsoleted in scenario)
Europa	His Excellency (Really Alexander)	Phalanx (obsoleted in scenario)

Technologies

Next War adds on a slew of techs to the end of the game. These include:

• Aquaculture (improves the production output of Fishing Boats)
• Hydroponics (allows the construction of arcologies over cities, increasing health and reducing damage from air units)
• Shielding (allows the construction of improved arcologies over cities, increasing health further and reducing damage from air units and nukes. Also allows the training of Assault Mechs, big, powerful robots)
• Advanced Shielding (Allows arcologies to be upgraded further. Reduces nuke damage by 75%)
• Cold Fusion (Allows the training of super-tanks known as "Dreadnoughts." You are only allowed two at one time though)
• Biological Warfare (allows the construction of Biological Warfare missiles, Biological Warfare labs and allows units to be upgraded with Anti-Biological Warfare, which reduces the damage from Bio Warfare missiles)
• Cloning (allows the training of Clones and Cloning labs. Clones are improved workers that work faster, especially at cleaning Fallout. They require a Cloning lab in a city to be trained)
• Bionics (allows the construction of Mind Control Centres and Automatons. Mind Control Centres eliminates any unhappiness from a city at the cost of productivity. Automatons are rather weak robots, but have a very short training time, useful if you need to crank out an army really fast)
• Cybernetics (Allows the training of Cyborgs. Cyborgs are improved Automatons that are almost as powerful as a Mechanized Infantry. They train faster than Mechanized Infantry, but slower than Automatons. Also allows the Nanoids upgrade to Dreadnoughts, Cyborgs, Automatons and Assault Mechs, which improves their healing rate)
• Astrogation (only included in a patch) (Allows the making of the Mission to Mars team project. Basically, it's just a Next War variation of the Apollo Program. Space Race victory must be enabled, so it cannot be created in the scenario, only the mod)

Buildings

• Mind-Control Center
• Cloning factory
• Biological Warfare Lab
• Arcology
• Arcology Shielding
• Deflector Shielding

Units

New Units in the "Next War" mod are all futuristic units, including Clone workers, and vast clone armies composed of Automatons and Cyborgs. However, it also presents units even more powerful than the Modern Armor (a.k.a. most powerful unit in the base game, with a strength of 40). One of them is the Assault Mech, with a strength of 60, and the ability to attack units from range and starts with the Blitz and Morale promotions. The second unit is the Dreadnought tank, a massive, multi-turreted tank, built to destroy. It comes with a whopping strength of 70, can bombard city defenses and starts with the Blitz promotion.

Wonders

There are two new Wonders: the New League of Nations (a World Wonder that functions exactly the same as the United Nations in the base game) and the Centres of Disease Control (a National Wonder that increases health in all cities and the healing rate of units within the city).

Scenario-Next War

Official Description

Engage in a near-future battle for world dominance. Massive war machines, clone armies, domed cities and a vast nuclear arsenal are your tools of negotiation. Battle on land, sea and air, and should the world crumble in the resulting chaos, make sure you own the largest crumb!

UNofficial Description

In this scenario, you choose one of four superpower blocs as follows:

• The Great Southern Empire: Controls the current Third World: Africa, the Middle East, India, and Latin America.
• Pan-Asiatic People's Cooperative: Controls East Asia, including far East Russia.
• Europa: Controls mainland Europe, most of Russia, Turkey, and Algeria.
• America Inc.: Controls all the "traditionally English-speaking parts of the world" (i.e. America, Canada, Great Britain, and Australia) and a chunk of old Mexico.

The Cultural and Space Race victories are not available. This leaves the Conquest, Domination, Diplomatic, and if all else failed, the Time victories to win.

Also in Next War, there is a unique way to lose. By launching 20 nukes and detonating them (Excluding the ones shot down by SDI) a dialogue pops up saying that the prolonged nuclear activity has caused extreme strain on the Earth's core, and the planet has cracked like an egg. Everybody loses! You will also get a warning about it after about 7 nukes have been launched. There are two strange things about this:

1. The game labels the Barbarians as the winners by Domination victory.
2. You can still play on after the world cracks, with no ill effects.

Beware! This loss doesn't just include your nukes. Everyone's nukes count. So say you were playing Europa and you only launched 7 nukes before stopping at the warning, then The Great Southern Empire launched 6, America Inc. launched 3 and Asia launched 4, then you would still lose! For this reason, it's best if you build the New League of Nations as soon as humanly possible and ban nukes the first chance you got.

Notes

• The technology quote for Cybernetics is the main catchphrase of the Borg from Star Trek.
• The assault mechs bear resemblance to similar giant robots in manga and anime.
• The names of the countries and the leaders, the fact that multiple superpowers are in a massive war with each other, and the presence of mind control facilities seem to indicate that Next War as a whole is a reference to the book 1984, just with four superpowers instead of three.
• Ghost in the Shell may also be getting a nod or two here.
• Finally, the Cloning factories may be a reference to the Star Wars films.