Warning: Intense level of nerdiness follows.
So I recently got Civilization IV plus both expansions and decided to try it out. The Beyond the Sword expansion comes with a few fan made mods, one is called Rhye's and Fall of Civilization, and the purpose of the mod is a radical change of the game mechanics to create a history simulation. It takes place on a huge map of Earth and incorporates something called "Stability" to the play experience. Basically the way "Stability" works is that if your empire becomes unstable there's the possibility of parts of your empire gaining independence from you (which is really rad). But what this mod also does is accurately start you--and other empires--at the actual time in history when those empires started. Playing as the Greeks I started at 1600 BCE.
So let me tell you about my adventure playing Ionnes, lord of the Greek Empire.
It started well enough, founded Athens and began work building farms and other resources around my capital until I was able to send some settlers to found a city on the Bosphorus, which worked out really well because I gained access to a ton of fishing resources in the Black Sea.
The game continued fairly standard, my event log told me when various empires arose, and when they fell. I founded a couple other cities, but nothing too massive, I didn't want to stretch my resources too thin.
But then the Middle Ages began. In the 13th century the Plague (yes, the mod adds the Plague, grrr) began to spread from Western Europe into my cities in the Balkans, which also coincided with several cities in the eastern portion of my empire wanting to cede to form Turkey. Well naturally I told these separatists to go fuck themselves, and their fight for independence was sufficiently squashed. Eventually my cities infected with Plague healed and I continued to advance upwards technologically.
Then just a couple hundred years later Russia, who I swore was my friend, decided to declare war on me for fun. Thus began the great Graeco-Russian War of 1550, and everything went downhill from there. They took over several cities on the northern edge of the Black Sea (poor, poor Tryas), only to discover that Germany was at war with Russia at the same time and thus those cities became part of Germany's ever-expanding empire (double grr). After almost a century of fighting with the Russians my empire was split in half, Turkish independents finally succeeded in gaining their independence from me, and I simply was in no shape to try and stop them, so it was resolved peacefully.
Oh, but wait, there's more, suddenly all my buddies, save for the Vikings (I love you my Viking friends) realized I was becoming powerless, and most of all Spain who I thought was my ally starts demanding money and technology as tribute so they don't join the let's-kill-the-Greeks party (thanks Spain, asshole). And then, as though the gods in all their fury felt it wasn't enough, the Plague returned, immediately followed by all my remaining cities (except my capital) becoming independent or joining my neighbors. THEN, finally, Russia and I signed a truce...bastards.
The year was 1704, Athens was all alone, its people dying from Plague. This was all that was left of my mighty Greek empire when after hours of geekish fun I finally decided to turn the game off.
Isn't history fun?
So I recently got Civilization IV plus both expansions and decided to try it out. The Beyond the Sword expansion comes with a few fan made mods, one is called Rhye's and Fall of Civilization, and the purpose of the mod is a radical change of the game mechanics to create a history simulation. It takes place on a huge map of Earth and incorporates something called "Stability" to the play experience. Basically the way "Stability" works is that if your empire becomes unstable there's the possibility of parts of your empire gaining independence from you (which is really rad). But what this mod also does is accurately start you--and other empires--at the actual time in history when those empires started. Playing as the Greeks I started at 1600 BCE.
So let me tell you about my adventure playing Ionnes, lord of the Greek Empire.
It started well enough, founded Athens and began work building farms and other resources around my capital until I was able to send some settlers to found a city on the Bosphorus, which worked out really well because I gained access to a ton of fishing resources in the Black Sea.
The game continued fairly standard, my event log told me when various empires arose, and when they fell. I founded a couple other cities, but nothing too massive, I didn't want to stretch my resources too thin.
But then the Middle Ages began. In the 13th century the Plague (yes, the mod adds the Plague, grrr) began to spread from Western Europe into my cities in the Balkans, which also coincided with several cities in the eastern portion of my empire wanting to cede to form Turkey. Well naturally I told these separatists to go fuck themselves, and their fight for independence was sufficiently squashed. Eventually my cities infected with Plague healed and I continued to advance upwards technologically.
Then just a couple hundred years later Russia, who I swore was my friend, decided to declare war on me for fun. Thus began the great Graeco-Russian War of 1550, and everything went downhill from there. They took over several cities on the northern edge of the Black Sea (poor, poor Tryas), only to discover that Germany was at war with Russia at the same time and thus those cities became part of Germany's ever-expanding empire (double grr). After almost a century of fighting with the Russians my empire was split in half, Turkish independents finally succeeded in gaining their independence from me, and I simply was in no shape to try and stop them, so it was resolved peacefully.
Oh, but wait, there's more, suddenly all my buddies, save for the Vikings (I love you my Viking friends) realized I was becoming powerless, and most of all Spain who I thought was my ally starts demanding money and technology as tribute so they don't join the let's-kill-the-Greeks party (thanks Spain, asshole). And then, as though the gods in all their fury felt it wasn't enough, the Plague returned, immediately followed by all my remaining cities (except my capital) becoming independent or joining my neighbors. THEN, finally, Russia and I signed a truce...bastards.
The year was 1704, Athens was all alone, its people dying from Plague. This was all that was left of my mighty Greek empire when after hours of geekish fun I finally decided to turn the game off.
Isn't history fun?
priest_:
Dude, I enjoyed reading that. You should do that more.
leib_:
i'll read this later <3