[freeciv-data] "Lord of the Rings" official Readme (Warning: LONG!)
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This is the readme for Harlan Thompson's "Lord of the Rings" -
scenario for Civ2. I'll post it here because it offers a good foundation
on which to build a Freeciv MOD, and avoid some of the pitfalls
Harlan had to overcome (like city bribing for instance).
Thomas (CapTVK)
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LORD OF THE RINGS SCENARIO (VERSION 4, FOR FANTASTIC
WORLDS CD-ROM)
by Harlan Thompson
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring
them all and in the darkness bind them In the land of Mordor where
the Shadows lie
This scenario is based on J.R.R. Tolkien's great trilogy of the same
name (though this isn't officially associated with that or Microprose etc
etc). I hope (and I'm assuming) you've read the books before you
play this! If you haven't, go do so now! You could do worse- the
trilogy has often won praise as the best literature of the 20th century
by critics and the general public.
This is not your ordinary scenario. For one thing, it is very
complicated. For another, it is very difficult. I've had people say it the
most difficult they've ever done, but many also have said its the most
favorite they're ever done, so hang in there. The point to this is that I
would be very, very surprised if you won the first time you played this.
You may need to play it a few times, have a few false starts, to "learn
the ropes" before you have a fair chance of winning. You really need
to READ THIS FILE!!!, wordy and long and complicated though it is, or
you won't stand a chance of winning at all.
NOTE ON THE LATEST UPDATE
I was pretty happy with how the last version worked, but numerous
people e-mailed me with suggestions and told me how their games
went, which gave me some ideas on how to make even more
improvements to make this "truer" to the books. Then, the Fantastic
Worlds CD-ROM came out, allowing 8 more unit spots amongst other
things. Now I can finally add characters like Pippin, Merry and
Shelob.
More importantly, I wanted to eliminate the possibility of Gondor
bribing Mordor's units and cities (at least until Barad-dur falls), the
biggest problem I had with the last version. For those who used that
technique in the past, I think you will find it too expensive now, which
of course makes things much more difficult.
Several units have been changed. Some disappeared and some
added. Gollum and others have been radically changed in their
functions, too. More on those changes later. There have been a few
other tweaks here and there as well- in general I think the scenario
is even tougher now than before. Nazgul are even more to be feared
and Sauron can attack (though not far from Barad-dur).
INSTALLATION
This latest game update has been specifically designed to work with
the changes allowed in the Fantastic Worlds CD-ROM. In particular, I
wanted to take advantage of the eight extra unit slots. If you do not
have the Fantastic Worlds CD-ROM or as yet unreleased CD-ROMs
coming after it, this version will not work for you. Find a copy of
version 3.0 or earlier to play.
To install, make a new folder under your Scenarios folder (which is
inside your Civ2 folder). Call the folder "LordRing" or whatever you
want. Put all the files you downloaded in your new folder, and play.
Make sure that all the sound files are in a folder called "Sound" within
your folder for this scenario if you are playing with sound.
BACKGROUND
Hopefully I don't need to tell you the whole story, I will assume you
know the list of it or this file would be twice as long as it already is.
There are seven players in this version: Gondor, Mordor, Rohan,
Rhun, Harad, the Elves and Isengard. Presumably you will be Gondor
which covers all the forces of good except the Elves and Rohan, both
of which are your allies. Your chief enemy is Mordor which represents
the main force of evil plus Harad and Rhun, which are Mordor's Allies.
Finally there the are Isengarders, who represent the forces of the
wizard Saruman the White. The Isengarders are somewhat of a
wild-card- they start out in a state of cease fire with most other civs
but it is very likely before long they will attack Rohan at least. All of
the countries are Monarchies except for Mordor and Isengard which
as Fundamentalist.
This game isn't about long term development- its all out war. Mordor
has the overwhelming numbers but you have the advantage of
strategy. In particular, in trying to follow the story of the books I have
made the capture of Barad-dur (representing the throwing of the One
Ring into Mount Doom and the death of Sauron) extremely vital. In
addition to capturing all four of Mordor's wonders (The Rings of
Power (The Great Wall), The Ithil Stone (Apollo Program), the Forge
of Mt. Doom (Cure for Cancer) and The Dark Tower (The Pyramids)),
capturing the city will destroy ALL the Nazgul (or Ringwraiths), ALL
the Olog-hai and ALL the Orcs that existed at the start of the scenario,
since all of them throughout Middle Earth are homed to Barad-dur (of
course there's a slight chance some units will rehome themselves and
survive- nothing I can do about that). In addition, every turn you will
receive more money and your enemy civs less. On the other hand, if
The Ring is destroyed before you can use it on that city, you will face
horrible consequences as well (see section below on the Events.txt
file for details on that).
FRODO AND THE RING
The scenario may seem impossible to win at at first, but once Barad-
dur is taken, it becomes much easier. The question is: how to
conquer it?? Quite simple: follow the plotline of the trilogy. Barad-dur
contains Sauron, Lord of Darkness, an extremely difficult unit to kill.
The most likely way to kill it is with The Ring unit. This unit
acts like a nuclear bomb- it will completely destroy all the units in
Barad-dur plus any units in the squares adjacent to it. But The Ring
has a movement range of only three spaces. At the end of each turn
it must end in a city, be used in an attack or end up in the same
square as the unit Frodo or it will be destroyed. The only way to get
The Ring close enough to Barad-dur to use it there is by having it
brought there by Frodo (the Longboat naval unit can also carry The
Ring, but obviously that cannot get all the way to Barad-dur). Once
The Ring is used to destroy Barad-dur, Frodo and/or other units
can easily walk into the empty city.
If you read the book you will know that having The Ring made Frodo
invisible but also very weak to carry such a terrible burden. So it is in
this game. Frodo is invisible in the same way submarines normally
are in Civ2- even units next to it cannot see it unless they happen to
want to walk onto that square (only Nazgul, the Witch King and
Sauron are exceptions to this). But Frodo is also weak- he cannot
attack at all and has a very weak defense. So you will need to decide
whether or not to send him and The Ring to Barad-dur by themselves
(and so be invisible) or with Sam and/or other protective units (and
thus losing the invisibility). Getting there will be no easy task. Frodo
and the Ring start far away, and Barad-dur is surrounded by a range
of mountains filled with dangerous Orcs. If Frodo or The Ring should
be destroyed, it still should be possible to win, but certainly much,
much more difficult that way (perhaps a combination of using the
Longboat, conquering Mordor cities near Barad-dur and building a
new city within Mordor will get The Ring close enough). However, if
The Ring should be captured by the enemy, Sauron's power will grow
greatly.
One unit that can help Frodo reach Barad-dur is Gollum. He is
technically an air unit, though there isn't much need to return to cities
(only needed once every 30 turns). As an air unit, Gollum is immune
to attack except by the Witch King and Sauron. He moves at the
same pace as The Ring, Sam and Frodo (3 squares a turn), so if he
can catch up with those units he would provide excellent cover for
them. On the other hand, if left alone he can be very easily bribed
(his "cost" is only 10 gold!) so be careful. As Frodo and the Ring get
close to Barad-dur, the greatest danger of all looms.Sauron normally
stays in Barad-dur and lets others do his bidding, but if he sees the
Ring within his grasp he will come out to take it. Luckily he cannot go
far: you are only vulnerable to his unbeatable attack within three
spaces from Barad-dur. This means you will have to spend your last
turn within range of Sauron if you hope to reach Barad-dur.
Mt. Doom (the fortified volcano square) is probably your best bet
because it is the only fortified square within range. However even
Gandalf or Gollum cannot protect you here because Sauron can
attack other air units.
By the way, unfortunately Frodo (and the Longboat) cannot actually
literally carry The Ring, but they must both be moved seperately each
turn and end up on the same square.If you are moving Frodo and The
Ring together, always MOVE FRODO FIRST! That way you won't
forget and find The Ring has been destroyed by accident. Also, since
Frodo and Sam are homed to Hobbiton, it is strongly advised you re-
home them to another city, such as Rivendell, since it is very plausible
that Hobbiton and the towns near it can be conquered by Mordor.
That would end your chances of using the Ring successfully. Save
your game often.
THE UNITS
In this latest version, most units now do appear in the
Civilopedia. The
exceptions are the Elf exclusive, Mordor exclusive and Catapult units.
So this
table below can help you with those, plus is a quick reference for all
the others.
The units have been drastically changed from the regular
setup. The unit setup is
pretty much set in stone and there's very little research potential.
Thus the last
column in the table below, showing who can make what unit on the
first turn since mostly
likely that will hardly change through the game. The very few units that
can be reseached
are shown in the second to last column with the tech you need to
make them for civs that
don't already have them. Here's the table:
(if you're using a word processor to look at this file, use the New
Courier font to
make the columns line up right)
NAME COST ATT DEF MOVE HP FIRE SPECIAL
RESEARCH? WHO CAN MAKE AT BEGINNING?
Archers 30 3 2 1 1 1 9 no Harad, Gondor,
Rohan, Rhun
Battering Ram 80 8 1 2 1 1 3 Engineering Isengard,
Mordor
Catapult 60 8 1 1 1 1 no Gondor
Dunedain 100 6 3 3 2 1 4 no Gondor
Dwarves 120 6 4 2 3 2 * no 1 Gondor city
Elves 160 6 3 2 4 2 4 no Elves
Easterlings 50 6 1 3 2 2 no Rhun
Haradrim 50 6 2 3 2 2 no Harad
Hobbits 100 5 4 1 3 1 2,4 no 2 Gondor cities
Knights 50 5 2 2 2 1 no Gondor
Mumakil 50 0 3 1 3 1 no Harad
Olog-hai 250 10 5 1 4 2 no Mordor (limited to
events)
Orcs 20 5 2 1 2 1 2 no Mordor, Isengard
Pikemen 20 1 2 1 1 1 5 no Harad, Gondor,
Rohan, Rhun
Elf Pikemen 70 1 3 0 3 1 5,9 no Elves
Riders 40 6 3 2 2 2 no Rohan
Settlers 80 0 1 1 2 1 Settling Gondor
Spiders 100 4 4 1 3 2 no no one
Spy 50 0 0 2 1 1 1,4 Writing Gondor, Isengard
Trolls 100 8 3 1 3 2 no Mordor
Uruk Hai 80 7 3 2 2 1 no Mordor, Isengard
Wainriders 40 5 2 2 2 1 no Rhun
Wolves 100 8 1 3 2 1 no Mordor, Isengard
AIR UNITS
Dragon 500 12 6 4 6 2 4 no no one
Eagle 120 8 5 8 3 2 4,5 no 1 Gondor city
Ents 150 10 5 1 4 4 3,5 no 1 Gondor city
Nazgul 800 12 7 10 7 3 4,12 no no one
Spy Birds 50 0 1 20 1 1 4 Falconry no one yet
Rangers 100 5 2 2 2 2 4 no Gondor
The Undead 990 15 0 7 3 2 6 no no one
NAVAL UNITS HOLDS?
Dromund 40 7 3 5 2 1 3 no Harad, Mordor
Galley 60 4 2 5 2 1 2 no Elves, Gondor
Longboat 40 0 1 8 1 1 11,13 6 no Elves, Gondor
UNIQUE UNITS (only one of each, no more can be made, all Gondor
except as mentioned)
Aragorn 990 12 6 2 5 3 2,3,4,5,8,9
Boromir 100 10 4 4 3 2 5
Eomer 300 8 5 2 4 2 3,5,9 (owned by Rohan in
Edoras)
Eowyn 300 8 5 2 4 3 3,5,9 (owned by Rohan in
Edoras)
Faramir 600 9 1 3 4 2 2,4,5,7,8
Frodo 10 0 3 1 4 1 1,2,5,11,12
Gimli 800 9 6 3 3 2 3,5,*
The Grond 300 20 10 2 3 2 3,4,5 (owned by Mordor)
Legolas 800 9 6 3 4 2 3,4,5
Merry 600 8 4 1 4 2 1,2,3,4,5,9
Pippin 600 8 4 1 4 2 1,2,3,4,5
Sam 800 9 6 1 4 2 1,2,4,5
Theoden 990 9 5 1 4 2 3,4,9 (owned by Rohan)
Wormtongue 10 0 4 2 3 1 1,4,5,11 (owned by Isengard
in Isengard)
UNIQUE "AIR" UNITS
Galadriel 990 12 1 3 5 3 4 (owned by Elves in
Lorien)
The Balrog 990 15 8 3 5 3 5,10 (owned by Mordor in
Moria)
Elrond 990 10 1 3 5 2 5
Gandalf 990 12 1 15 7 4 4,5,10
Gollum 10 0 5 3 3 1 4,5,9,11,12
Gwaihir 990 10 6 10 3 3 4,5
Radagast 600 10 1 10 5 3 4
The Ring 10 99 0 3 1 1 6
Saruman 250 12 8 15 7 4 4,5 (owned by Isengard in
Isengard)
Sauron 990 30 15 5 7 5 3,4,5,10,12 (owned by Mordor in
Barad-dur)
Shelob 500 8 6 1 3 3 11,12 (owned by Mordor in
Minas Morgul)
Treebeard 990 12 6 1 5 5 3,4,5
Witch King 990 14 10 12 7 4 4,10,12 (owned by Mordor
in Minas Morgul)
Special abilities:
1: ignores zone of control
2: moves as if all terrain were roads (i.e. alpine troops)
3: ignores city walls
4: can see up to two squares away
5: plus 50% on defense vs. units with movement of two
6: destroyed after attacking
7: can make paradrops
8: can make amphibious assaults
9: double on defense vs. air units
10: can attack (other) air units
11: "invisible" like submarines
12: can see "invisible" units from one square away
13: must stay near land (like trireme)
*: due to their mining skills dwarves can perform the functions of
settlers
Most units in this scenario are exclusive to one civ only. For
instance,
only Mordor can make Orcs and only Rhun can make Easterlings.
Except for the
few units that can be researched according to the table above, there
is no way in
Hell another civ can get to make them ever. It simply wouldn't be true
to the books
any other way.
Also, you will notice the "evil" units are generally stronger than
the "good" units,
not counting heroes. Some people have said to me it should be the
other way around.
But keep in mind numbers. The forces of good were outnumbered by
over 10 to 1 everywhere,
so imagine that one evil unit would actually contain many, many more
individuals in it than
a good unit would.
RARE UNITS
I did something very peculiar with the Eagle, Ents, Hobbits,
Nazgul, Dwarves,
and Dragon unit types. At least one unit of all these types exist at the
beginning of the game yet no one has (or is likely to get) the
technologies to make
any more of them. You may recall from the trilogy that most of the
non-human species
were in serious decline as it was the humans' destiny to dominate
Middle Earth in
the coming Fourth Age. So once the starting units of that type are
gone, that's it-
the species is basically extinct. However I have made certain
exceptions to this:
at the start of the game some cities are in the middle of producing
some of these
special units. Such a city can keep making that unit forever but if one
ever changes
the production in that city to something else, it will never be able to
make that
advanced unit again. So be careful! These cities are:
Hobbiton and Buckland making Hobbits
Eagles' Eyrie making Eagles
Iron Hills making Dwarves
Entwood making Ents
Dwarves (including the hero unit Gimli) have all the advantages
and disadvantages
of settlers in addition to being good battle units. So remember if you
build a new one
in Iron Hills the size of that city will go down one, they eat one food
per turn, and so
on. I highly recommend homing them on cities other than the Iron
Hills so that town
doesn't eventually start starving and shrinking if lots of Dwarves are
made. Strangely,
they can't fortify themselves, only make fortresses, since the
command ("f") is the same
for both.
UNIQUE UNITS
On top of that, there are even some units that are completely
unique; meaning
only one of that unit type can exist (no more can be built) and they
refer to specific
heroes or monsters. These kinds of units are all shown in the
UNIQUE UNITS and
UNIQUE AIR UNITS charts above, I only hope that you don't cheat
and restart the turn
every time one of your heroes dies. Recall that some were killed in
the trilogy too and
yet Gondor still won. Of the non-Gondor heroes, Galadriel is there to
help defend the
Elven city of Lorien and chances are you will not her much, if at all.
Eowyn and Eomer
fight for Rohan for a time, but the events.txt file may allow them to
become Gondor units
near Minas Tirith, representing the Rohan contribution in defending
that city. Theoden
appears later in the game.
Although extras of these unique units can't be made, their
shield cost still
matters in case other civs try to bribe them. Certain units feel the
temptation of
Sauron through the Ring and so are very cheap to bribe (as cheap as
I could possibly
make it). These are Frodo, Gollum and The Ring itself. Be careful
about leaving these
units alone (not stacked). Other units are much cheaper than other
similarly powerful
units to buy because of wavering loyalties (though not that cheap).
These include
Saruman and Boromir (try luring or finding Saruman going into a small
city and buying
it- you may be able to get this extremely powerful unit for a very cheap
price!).
Faramir is unusual; he has been specifically designed to harry
the enemy behind
the front lines and I hope you use him that way. He can paradrop
across the Andiun
River near Minas Tirith, attack, then get picked up by a boat to return.
Note he
defends with a strength of one only, so if he is in a town he will be one
of the last
to die in case of an attack, esp. a Nazgul attack. This also means
don't forget to pick
him up with a boat before the end of the turn or he's toast! (If you only
attack with
him once per turn he should last a long time but if you push your luck
and attack twice
a turn with him he probably will die before very long).
Several of the unique units are much more defensive than
offensive. Elrond is
there hopefully to prevent Rivendell from ever falling. He in fact can
never leave
the vicinity of Rivendell. Similarly, The Balrog is there to defend Moria
for Mordor
and Sauron defends Barad-dur though both can attack also. Be very
careful in attacking
either of these cities! Final note on the heroes units: none of them
start out as
veterans, so try to get them bloodied up a bit on easy things before
seriously risking
them (sure they were already experienced, but imagine them moving
to an even higher
level of ability).
Finally, though they all look the same, there are two kinds of
Orcs: offensive and
defensive. The defensive Orcs cannot move- they have been
permanently stationed in
strategic defensive locations, especially in the mountains. They also
have a defense of
three, not two, and are doubled vs. air units (like wizards and Eagles).
So think twice
before attacking a fortified Orc.
NOTES ON AIR UNITS
You may have noticed that I play fast and loose with the
concept of what is
an air unit and what's a ground unit. Many units that I have given air
unit abilities
are actually not flying creatures in the book. I did this because doing
so gives
the units the abilities I want and I think better match the unit. For
instance, there
are many "air" units that are like fighters in that they must return to a
city by
the end of the turn, and they have a very small movement for an air
unit, like 3.
What this means is that such a unit is more or less stuck to the city it
starts from.
It can attack enemy units that come very close to that city, but it can't
move away
from that city at will. An example of this would be Elrond, which in the
books never
leaves the vicinity of Rivendell. Another example would be the Balrog,
which never
leaves Moria. There are a number of other units like this, ground units
categorized
as "air".
Note that ground units can attack the Eagle (try to end the turn
with them over
ocean or mountain squares) and the Eagle can occupy enemy cities
(since it occupies the
old helicopter spot). Eagles also weaken a little each turn they don't
end up in a city,
just as the Helicopter does in standard civ2 games. (Keep in mind
that Gwaihir is also
considered an Eagle). Except for the Eagle, generally air units can't
be attacked by other
units. Only Gandalf, the Witch King and the Balrog can attack any
other air units. Except
for these special units, the only way ground or other air units can
attack an air unit is
if that unit is in a city and have the largest defense value there. You'll
notice that
Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel, Faramir and Radagast have a low (1)
defense value but high hit
point value to prevent them from being attacked while resting in cities.
In my opinion
this actually helps them survive more than if they had high defense
numbers, because they
can be safe from Nazgul attacks while they rest up in a city- they
generally will be the
last unit in a city that is attacked. On the other hand, be very careful
with this kind
of unit outside of a city if you think the Witch King might be near!
(keep a strong unit
stacked underneath, attack from fortifications or a mountain square,
etc..).
Nazgul must return to a city within two turns; wizards
(Saruman, Gandalf and
Radagast) and the Witch King can stay out till the third turn. Most
other air units
(excepting Eagles again) must finish every turn inside a city. The
Undead and The Ring
are technically air units- they must also end every turn in a city or in
the same square
as Frodo or a Longboat.
There's something unusual about Nazgul, Gandalf, and the
Witch King. All of
these units have second lives. For the Nazgul, the first time each
Nazgul is killed
it is reborn automatically in far Eastern Mordor except this time its
picture looks
different: now it is on a Winged Beast similar to the one the Witch
King is always
pictured as riding. If this second incarnation of the Nazgul is killed,
that's it,
it is dead forever. The same holds true for the Witch King (except that
the picture
of the Witch King doesn't change when it comes back to life). This is
to represent the
times in the books when the Nazgul were defeated yet still came back
(such as in the
river crossing near Rivendell). It seems, as in the double defeat of the
Witch King,
they need to be killed twice to die. All Nazgul, even the reborn
versions, are homed
to Barad-dur, so if you conquer that city they all are guaranteed to die
forever at
that moment regardless of second life chances. In a similar vein, the
first time only
that Gondor's Gandalf is killed, he will be reborn. Recall this
happened to Gandalf
in the books.
ENTS
I made Ents technically air units, as strange as that may seem.
This was done for
several reasons. Mainly, I was unhappy to see them running off down
to protect Minas
Tirith when in the spirit of the books they wouldn't go that far from
Entwood. Now, they
move extremely slowly (roads, rivers and boats can't help them), but
given enough turns
they can attack Isengard and other cities nearby. Being air units also
makes them nearly
invulnerable to counterattack, which is only fitting since even
Saruman seemed helpless
against them. Be very careful with your Ents so that they don't "run
out of fuel" by going
too far from a town. Also, Ents by themselves may not be strong
enough to take Isengard,
and none of the units can actually occupy it if it is emptied, so you will
need other units
in the area to do that.
RANGERS
Rangers are now air units, and what used to be Rangers in the
previous versions are
now called Dunedain. The Rangers are to protect The Shire from
attack, esp. from the
north. To help in that end, there are two Airbases there, which should
be seen as
hidden strongholds used by the Rangers. Since the Rangers are air
units, they cannot
be attacked unless in a city or in an airbase square (hopefully you can
have a less
valuable unit like an Archer "cover" the Ranger while it is back at
base). Use them while
outside cities or airbases to deflect Nazgul attacks on the Shire and
kill units. The
Nazgul will often want to attack the Ranger unit but will be unable to,
and then its turn
will be over. There are only two Ranger units, but if one is killed, a
new one is always
born in Sarn Ford to take its place. Chances are the Rangers will not
be able to leave the
vicinity of The Shire since their movement range does not make it to
Rivendell.
SPECIFIC UNITS
Not that this is really vital for you to know but in figuring out
where to
place units I tried to match certain units with characters in the trilogy. I
couldn't
make unique units for all the characters in the books, obviously, so
here are how
the less vital characters are represented in the scenario. Often these
have veteran
and/or no home city status to symbolize their specialness.
CHARACTER UNIT TYPE STARTING LOCATION
GONDOR
Glorfindel Elves (V) Rivendell
Butterbur Hobbits Bree
Grimbeorn Dunedain (V) The Carrock
King Brand Dunedain (V) Dale
Thorin III Dwarves Dale
Dain II Ironfoot Dwarves (V) Iron Hills
MORDOR
Ringwraiths Nazgul Barad-dur
near Bree
near Rivendell
Moria
Moria
near Trollshaws
Fornost
near Hobbiton
Dragon Withered Heath
Dragon Gundabad
Dragon Carn Dum
Dragon Dol Guldur
THE ELVES
Celeborn Elves (V) Lorien
Cirdan Elves (V) Grey Havens
Thranduil Elves (V) Thranduil
ROHAN
Theodred Dunedain (V) Helm's Deep
EVENTS.TXT FILE ACTIONS
With the events.txt file, Mordor and Gondor are completely
unable to
communicate, which should keep them in a permanent state of war,
regardless of the
Ring of Power (Great Wall) wonder Mordor has. The same holds true
of the Elves and
Mordor but not Rohan and Mordor. Gondor is also permanently at
war with Harad and
Rhun.
The events.txt file determines some of the things that can
happen to The Ring
unit. This unit does not actually get carried by Frodo the way missiles
are carried
by submarines- you have to be sure they end up in the same space at
the end of every
turn or The Ring will be lost forever. If however The Ring is destroyed
in battle by
Mordor, that's even worse. That represents its recapture by Sauron.
The events.txt
file will then create new Nazgul and many extra units will come
pouring out of Barad-dur
each turn representing Sauron's increased power. If Isengard kills
The Ring unit,
Isengard will get some more limited benefits.
On the plus side, if Barad-dur is captured, the events.txt file will
create an Eagle unit near Barad-dur (to help Frodo and/or
companions get away) and
Gondor will receive a large amount of money (in addition to all the
other benefits
mentioned elsewhere).
A certain number of turns into the game the Dead Men of
Dunharrow will rise
up to fulfill their oath as described in Lord of the Rings. They are
represented
by a number of Undead units. Undead units are technically
considered air units
(imagine them floating just above the ground) and must end every turn
in a city or
in the same square as Frodo.
Meanwhile, most every turn, the enemy forces are being added
to by units created
via the events file. This includes new Olog-Hai being made in Barad-
dur. Most of these
will cease to be created once Barad-dur is conquered.
If and when Eomer and/or Eowyn die fighting as Rohan units,
they will be reborn
as Gondor units, representing the contribution of Rohan in saving
Minas Tirith.
WONDERS:
Since Middle Earth is a wonderful place, there are many. To
keep to the
flavor of Middle Earth I renamed all the wonders. I had to take some
artistic
liberties here- sorry. I also destroyed three wonders, Leonardo's
Workshop, the
Great Library and the Statue of Liberty since they aren't appropriate
for this game.
There is only one unbuilt wonder that stands a realistic chance of
being built during
this scenario- the White Tree. The prerequisite for it will be given to
Gondor once
Barad-dur has been conquered.
NEW NAME OLD NAME CITY
Ancient Archives SETI Program Minas Tirith
The Citadel King Richard's Crusade Minas Tirith
Colossus Colossus Umbar
Dark Tower Pyramids Barad-dur
Eye of Sauron Great Wall Barad-dur
Feast Hall of Meduseld Shakespeare's Theatre Edoras
Forge of Mt. Doom Cure for Cancer Barad-dur
Galadriel's Mirror Women's Sufferage Lorien (obsolete)
Great Gate Oracle Minas Tirith
Havens of Cirdan Magellan's Expedition Grey Havens
Ithil Stone Apollo Program Barad-dur
Mithril Mines Darwin's Voyage Moria (obsolete)
Nenya Ring Hanging Gardens Lorien
Palantir of Minas Anor Copernicus's Observatory Minas Tirith
Pillar of Ar-Pharazon Lighthouse Umbar
Saruman's Wand Sun Tsu's War Academy Isengard
Seventh Palantir Marco Polo's Embassy Isengard
Shrine to Sauron J.S. Bach's Cathedral Rhun
Tower of Orthanc Eiffel Tower Isengard
Vilya Ring Adam Smith's Trading Company Rivendell
White Council Isaac Newton's College Isengard
White Towers Hoover Dam White Hills
White Tree Michaelangelo's Chapel not yet built
Amon Hen and Amon Lhaw Leonardo's Workshop
destroyed
The Argonath Statue of Liberty destroyed
Dome of Stars Great Library destroyed
CITY IMPROVEMENTS
- Every Mordor city has a Courthouse city improvement for no other
reason than to
make the buying of cities with spies more expensive. The name and
picture has
been changed from Courthouse to Prison since that seems more like
something Mordor
would have.
- Seven cities in the world have Forges. Forges are factories
renamed, yet no civ
has anything close to the industrialization advance (meaning no more
can be built).
The cities with forges are: Barad-dur, Minas Morgul, Moria, Dol
Guldur, Lorien,
Grey Havens and Isengard. The White Towers wonder (formerly
Hoover Dam) of course
increases these cities' productivity by another 50% for the civ that
owns it.
- Another improvement that cannot be built ever is the Wizard's
Refuge. There is
only one, in Rivendell. Any air unit spending the entire turn here will
be completely
healed.
- I decided it didn't make sense to have the good and evil civs share
the same
happiness improvements since they don't share the same religious
beliefs. The evil
civs now are the only ones who can make Sacrificial Altars
(Colosseums renamed) as
their worship of Sauron. The good civs make Temples and Valar
Shrines (Cathedrals
renamed).
- As further evidence of their evilness, the evil civs are the only ones
with the
Slave Quarry improvement (Stock Exchange renamed), which has the
same function as
the Marketplace for them.
- Both Gondor and Harad have the ability to make Shipyards (Port
Facility renamed)
and Coastal Fortress from the beginning of the game.
- Both Gondor and the Elves have two palaces, the second palace in
Rivendell and
Lorien respectively. This cuts down on corruption in their far-flung
countries.
- Mordor also has many palaces. This is to make the buying units and
cities more
expensive. The main one is in Barad-dur of course but there is also
one in
Gundabad, considered in the books the capital of the Misty Mountain
forces. There
is another one in Dul Guldur, the residence of Sauron for many
centuries. Moria
also has a palace.
OTHER CHANGES AND NOTES (many of these may seem arbitrary,
but really I have logical
reasons for them!):
- Forms of governments can't be changed ever.
- Two times as much food is required to increase population and
settlers are much
harder to make since this is only a ten year period we're dealing with.
Only Gondor has
the ability to make Settlers at the beginning of the game. Settlers also
eat more
food than usual.
- Scientific advances are five times harder to accomplish. This is after
all only a
ten year period. There really isn't that much worth researching in the
first place,
so I'd recommend minimize the spending on science. However, don't
necessarily give up
on science altogether and sell your libraries. At the beginning of the
game Gondor is
starting to research Engineering, which will allow the building of very
useful Battering
Rams when Gondor takes the offensive.
- Spies cannot steal technologies (Wormtongue, having abilities of the
Spy unit in Civ2,
not a diplomat, can, but with low probability of success). This is to
prevent certain
technologies from being traded and to encourage Gondor to focus at
least a little
attention on science.
- Gaining technology from conquest is also forbidden.
- It is now impossible to research Steam Engine, so Industrialization
and all the
other technologies beyond it are impossible to reach as well.
Isengard however can make
Forges, which function like Factories.
- None of the wonders are in danger of become obsolete.
- Many of the special terrain squares have been tweaked with to be
even more productive.
For instance, iron and wine are boosted with the aim to make enough
food for Mordor
cities in deserts.
- The special resource square Buffalo is now called Horse.
- Mt. Doom is its own special type of terrain.
- Pollution doesn't matter.
- There are no goody boxes anywhere.
- There is no trading or trading units (Caravan types) in this scenario
whatsoever. You
should be building military units instead.
- The civs have new colors and flags for the most part. In a few cases
I made these
up (i.e. Rhun) but mostly they are based on Tolkien's descriptions.
- Many cities have been strategically built on hills or even mountains.
So if you
aren't sure what terrain the city occupies, it would be wise to check
"hidden terrain"
before attacking.
- In general it isn't wise to give away technologies to any other civ,
even your allies.
The tech setup has been very carefully devised and giving away techs
could ruin that.
For instance, if you give Writing to the Elves, they often will make
Spies and use
them against you, breaking up the alliance.
- If you have an injured unit and walk into one of your allies' units (as if
you were
attacking that ally), instead of attacking it the injured unit will become
healed (maybe
not the first turn, but eventually this will happen). In the real book
Frodo and the
other ring bearers made good use of their allies' city Lorien to recover
and lick their
wounds.
- When you capture every known city of any civ, you would expect a
message that the
civ has been completely destroyed. That won't happen in this game
though, due to a
bug mentioned below.
OBJECTIVES:
There are 137 total objectives in the game (cities plus
wonders). Every city
that exists at the beginning of the game is worth at least one objective.
Wonders do
not count as objectives do to a bug that results when this is chosen.
Important
cities are worth 3. All cities worth 3 objectives are listed below. To
reach a decisive
victory one needs to capture 118 objectives, a number equal to all the
objectives of Mordor,
Isengard, Gondor, Harad and Rhun combined. For a marginal victory
one needs 91 objectives
(all of Mordor, Isengard and Gondor). A marginal defeat is less than
43 objectives (the
number of objectives Gondor starts out with), and 34 or less
objectives is considered a
decisive defeat. There is no need to attack and conquer the cities of
your allies, the
Elves and Rohan.
THE ELVES:
Grey Havens
Lorien
GONDOR:
Minas Tirith
Rivendell
Dale
Dol Amroth
Esgaroth
Hobbiton
Pelargir
HARAD:
Umbar
Khand
ISENGARDERS:
Isengard
MORDOR:
Barad-dur
Daedeloth
Dol Guldur
Gundabad
Minas Morgul
Morannon
Moria
Narchost
Nurn
Osgiliath
ROHAN:
Edoras
RHUN:
Rhun
BUGS AND PROBLEMS:
Whichever civ has The Ring unit, other civs will think that civ
has nuclear
weapons in negotiations and may give messages mentioning them (of
the "Our words
are backed with NUCLEAR WEAPONS!" variety) but of course it
doesn't mean the
same thing so ignore those. If you use the Game.txt file included,
these messages are
eliminated.
Mordor and Harad sometimes go with each other, especially if
Pelargir falls.
Not much I can do about this, but hey there was alot of in-fighting
within Mordor's side
in fact.
I also originally selected "Restart Eliminated Players" and don't
know how to
change it- any ideas? This causes alot of troubles with the Events.txt
and can cause
the game to crash if any civ is totally wiped out, so I resorted to drastic
measures.
All civs except Gondor has an extra city located deep in the ocean,
completely in-
accessible. There is no way any unit can reach or leave these towns,
they have no
production, can't grow and they don't count as objectives. They
simply exist to prevent
this bug, so please ignore them.
A FEW WORDS ON STRATEGY:
Yes, this is a very difficult scenario. You will be flooded with
enemy units
attacking you everywhere (including Harad boats attacking your
coastal cities). People
have sometimes suggested to me that it is not winnable, but it is very
winnable- it just
might take you a few tries (and some luck) to figure out how to do it.
In the trilogy
the forces of good had only a longshot chance of winning and I want
to retain that
feeling of having victory be very hard earned. The key, in my opinion,
is to maintain an
"offensive defense"- hopefully killing most enemy units just outside
your cities.
Eventually the large amount of units and money Mordor starts out with
will run down.
Getting The Ring to Barad-dur safely and as fast as possible is the
most important thing
to do by far. Once Barad-dur is conquered you will most likely be able
to go on the
offensive everywhere, so hang in there until then.
Perhaps the most tricky thing is how to survive in the South
(near Minas Tirith
and Pelargir) until the Ring destroys Barad-dur. This is what I do.
Move as many
valuable units down to that area as fast as you can (esp. Gandalf and
Aragorn). If
you can't stop the attacks near Minas Tirith, remember a square with
a wizard on it
cannot be attacked (unless by the Witch King), so wizards can plug up
holes in your
defensive line. Meanwhile, churn out defensive units (Pikemen and
Archers) in that area
as fast as you can. Spend money to speed that process up. If you
can destroy the
fortifications on the squares Mordor or Harad is attacking from, you
may want to go on a
limited offensive and kill lots of troops that end up in those squares.
But cleaning out
one of those squares won't be easy- there are lots of tough defensive
units on each one.
Keep Faramir alive as long as you can by not over-using him, and use
him wisely. Finally,
remember that if you manage to kill lots of Nazgul up north early on,
those Nazgul will be
reborn down south and make life more difficult for you there.
If you still find the game too difficult, remember you can always
try playing at
first on an easier level than the default Emperor level. Civ geniuses
try it on Diety!
FINAL NOTES:
I'd like to think my map is pretty accurate, based on Tolkien's
own map and
books plus The Atlas of Middle Earth by Fonstad and The Complete
Guide to Middle
Earth by Foster. Still, I had to make up names of cities and guess at
terrain willy
nilly for many places only vaguely referred to by Tolkien yet still
important (for
instance Harad and Rhun). Sorry for the artistic liberties.
Any comments, suggestions or improvements are very
welcome. You can
e-mail me at harlant@xxxxxxxxxx. The unauthorized selling,
distributing or otherwise
profiting from this scenario is prohibited. Free distribution on the
internet is
encouraged.
If you enjoyed this scenario, I've made some others as well you
might want to try
out. Like this one I tried to make them as good and accurate as
possible. They are
available at the Glyph web site (www.glyphweb.com\civ2.html), among
other places.
THANKS:
This was the first scenario I made, so I had quite alot of help
and advice from
others in making it. I got inspired to make this scenario after seeing
Curro Domingo's
Civ2 map of Middle Earth which I used as my base map, edited a
little. Thanks. And I
wouldn't have tried making a scenario without Patrick Williams' FAQ
on making scenarios.
I made most of the graphics myself, but usually not from scratch. I
stole heavily from
Mike McCart's ModHeaven web site (now sadly defunct) and othe web
sites for graphics
ideas. The Title.gif file is a painting called "Pursuit in Rohan" and was
done by Ted
Nasmith. I got it from the Halls of Tolkien web site by Scott Powers
(http://shire.ncsa.
uiuc.edu/Tolkien/TolkienWorld.html), THE place to go for Tolkien
images in my opinion.
The JRR Tolkien Information Page
(http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/u/relipper/tolkien/
rootpage.html) was also useful. Finally, many others including Mike
Forster, Curro
Domingo, Matthew DesOrmeaux, John Casler, Paul Cullivan, and Ian
Adkins have been very
helpful with suggestions, contributions and playtesting. Thank you all!
Needless to say I couldn't have done it without the great Lord
of the Rings trilogy
in the first place, but also other Tolkien related books. The Atlas of
Middle Earth by
Karen Wynn Fonstad was invaluable, as was A Guide to Middle Earth
by Robert Foster and
The Tolkien Bestiary.
Thanks to Jason Atkinson for some graphics changes in the
latest version. Most
of the changes in the old units (and some in the new) are due to him.
He also helped
with a number of other changes, mostly graphic but also with unit
powers. The terrain used
in this new version is influenced by the terrain file created by
CHRGU@xxxxxxxxxxx (sorry
my download didn't have a name attached to it). The new Orc, Uruk-
Hai and Faramir units
were created by Jamie Grant.
Now, stop reading already and go and have some fun!
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