06-01-2005 03:45									#1
	RINASCIMENTO: The Rise of the Medici Support Apolyton

Historical Background:

Florence, 1382. After the failure of the workers' rebellion, its mentor Selvestro di Medici has been exiled, and the family's fortunes are in decline. A young relation from the poor branch of the family, Giovanni di Bicci, begins his apprenticeship in his cousin's bank.

By the end of the century, Giovanni will take command of the family business and re-establish the Medici as one of the richest and most influential families in Europe. In thirty more years, his son Cosimo will emerge as the undisputed leader of Florence, having skillfully outmaneuvered the rival Albizzi family. He will patronize some of the greatest artists and architects in history, including Donatello, Botticelli, and Brunelleschi. At his death in 1464 he will be honored with the title Pater Patriae, Father of the Fatherland.

The Medici will remain the first family in Florence for three hundred years. Cosimo's grandson Lorenzo will narrowly survive an assassination attempt to become one of the city's most beloved leaders. He will continue the family tradition of patronage, sponsoring perhaps the greatest sculptor of all time, Michelangelo. Lorenzo's son Giovanni will attain the single most powerful office in Europe - the papacy.

As Vasari will later write, the Medici reign in Florence spurred the cultural rebirth of the western world, which he will dub "rinascimento" : the Renaissance.


The Game:

You are the head of the Medici clan. You begin with control of a modest banking business with clients in Rome, Venice, Florence and Milan. You must increase your family's wealth and power through trade, patronage, diplomacy and maybe an assassination or two.


Objectives:

* Control the cities of Firenze, Roma, Pisa, Lucca, and the Vatican

Strategy:

* Establish banking interests [trade routes] in major cities to increase your family's wealth
* Destroy the Albizzi clan
* Sponsor artists to build great works [wonders] in your honor
* Remember that last year's rival may be next year's ally
* Use bribery and extortion to extend your influence in the church
* As always, money talks

TRIBES:
Medici (Fiesole)
Albizzi (Firenze)
Della Rovere (Roma) [?]
Visconti/Sforza (Milano)
Aragona (Napoli)
... (Venezia)

Possibilities for seventh tribe: Rep. of Genoa; Amalgam of smaller territories such as Pisa, Siena, Lucca, Modena, Bologna; France (to invade ca. 1494)

Barbarians = Savonarola's fanatic followers?

	06-01-2005 04:04									#2
	The Map Get a bigger avatar today!

This will be my first scenario for Civ2, so any suggestions, quibbles, critiques, etc. are warmly welcomed.


The map is practically finished but I have revealed all the special terrain in the Po valley as an aid to city placement. After I get the cities placed I'll change at least half of them back to grassland.

The map represents the Italian peninsula from the Alps to Sicily; the Dalmatian coast; Corsica and Sardinia. The size is 80 x 175. (is this too large? The map has to be large enough for the Po valley to comfortably hold about ten cities, and I don't want them all crammed together. Any suggestions?) Naples, Sicily and Genoa aren't really meant to be an important part of the game, they are mainly included for trading parterships and to keep the power balances realistic. Are there ways to accomplish this without having to represent them as a tribe?

Here are some ways I'm thinking of dealing with the enormous map size:
Increase road multiplier to 5 or 6
Increase defense movement to 2
Increase horse movement to 3 or 4
Thus journey from Firenze to Venezia by horse in c. 4 turns, on foot in c. 8
Increase ship movement by 2 (3?)
Question: will these movement adjustments make pikemen unusable?

Alternatively the map could be smaller but focus tighter on the Po and Arno rivers. This would allow more emphasis on the local conflicts between the Medici and rival families, but Naples would be out of the picture entirely. It would be impossible to sail from Venice to any of the significant trade cities, so I would need to figure out how to compensate for this.

Any and all map comments are appreciated.

Attachment: italiafinale.zip
This has been downloaded 16 time(s).

	06-01-2005 04:29									#3
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Great idea for a scenario. I don't think it's ever been done. The map is beautiful, but you're right, it's going to be too big. The projection angle is such that you're going to have large areas of Croatia that you're going to have to fill up with barbarian cities or leave blank.

Do you know how to use MapEdit to trim a map?

	06-01-2005 04:38									#4
	TIMELINE OF EVENTS IN THE MEDICI DYNASTY Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

(Adapted from the PBS website)
I'd like to incorporate these events into the scenario in some fashion:

*1397: Giovanni di Bicci takes control of Medici bank

1400: Cosimo de'Medici attends humanist salons

*1402: Conquest by Milan narrowly avoided by death of Duke

*1406: Florence purchases the city of Pisa from Genoa; Pisa refuses to recognize Florentine rule. Florence subdues Pisa.

*1410: Baladassare Cossa elected Pope John XXIII with the financial help of the Medici (Cossa had been a pirate with a long association with the family.)

1412: Medici family made official Papal bankers

1415: Baldassare Cossa deposed from papacy

1420: Brunelleschi commissioned to erect the dome of Florence Cathedral (This was a highly contested commission. No dome of this size had been built, and no engineer had been able to solve the problem.)

1421: Giovanni di Bicci elected Gonfaloniere, head of state in Florence

*1429: Led by Albizzi, Florence declares war on Lucca

1430: Plague in Florence

1433: Disastrous war with Lucca ends in defeat for Florence.
*Cosimo de'Medici banished from Florence by the Albizzi family: a public vote banishes him for 10 years

*1434: The Albizzi family collapse after making war against Duke of Milan
Pope Eugenius IV demands Cosimo return from exile
Cosimo given rule of city

1437: Cosimo opens world's first public library at San Marco

1439: Council of Florence: leads to a temporary union of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches

*1440: Florentine victory over Milan at Battle of Anghiari.

1450: Cosimo's friend, Francesco Sforza, becomes Duke of Milan; Florence's traditional enemy is now its ally

1466: Lorenzo de'Medici foils plot against his father

1473: Medici bank beginning to lose money

*1478: Pazzi conspiracy - Lorenzo's brother Giuliano murdered in brutal Easter Sunday attack
Allies of the Pazzi, including Pope Sixtus IV declare war on Florence after Lorenzo murders Pazzi

*1480: Lorenzo strikes deal with King of Naples and returns to Florence as il Magnifico

1482: Savonarola arrives in Florence, begins preaching against the Medici

*1490's: Rioting in Florence under Savonarola's direction

1494: Charles VIII invades Italy, claiming his right to kingdom of Naples
Florence: Medici expelled, Savonarola seizes control

1497: Savonarola excommunicated; initiates the Bonfire of the Vanities

1498: Piero Soderini revives the Republic of Florence
Savonarola executed

1503: Medici cousins - Giovanni and Giulio - arrive in Rome

1508: Julius II launches Papal Wars

*1512: Sack of Prato; Florence surrenders to the Papal army

1513: Giovanni de'Medici elected Pope Leo X

1515: Leo X unveils a "jubilee sale" of Papal Indulgences

1523: Giulio de'Medici elected Pope Clement VII

*1527: Sack of Rome
Medici expelled from Florence

1530: Siege of Florence ends, Alessandro de'Medici made Duke of Florence

1537: Allessandro de'Medici murdered
Cosimo de'Medici elected Duke of Florence

*1555: Cosimo I defeats Republic of Siena

1610: Galileo discovers the moons of Jupiter, and calls them the Medici stars. He begins to study the heliocentric universe.

1611: Galileo appointed Royal Professor of Mathematics and Philosophy to the Medici Grand Dukes

1632: Galileo publishes Dialogue of the Two World Systems

*1633: Galileo summoned to Rome and forced to recant.



******

Of course I don't expect to be able to implement all of these events. I've starred the ones that seem most interesting to me.

	06-01-2005 04:56									#5
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quote: Originally posted by techumseh Great idea for a scenario. I don't think it's ever been done. The map is beautiful, but you're right, it's going to be too big. The projection angle is such that you're going to have large areas of Croatia that you're going to have to fill up with barbarian cities or leave blank. Do you know how to use MapEdit to trim a map?

Yes, I couldn't have made the map without MapEdit (yay Mercator!). Are you suggesting I trim the eastern edge off? If I do that, I'll cut off Venice's access to Rome, Pisa, Palermo etc. Do you think this is something that wouldn't really affect the gameplay anyway?

What is a good map size for a scenario of this kind?

I'm ignorant about map projections. I used the Online Map Creator with a Mercator projection and copied this into MapEdit. Is there something else I should try? I don't mind making a new map from scratch if it means a better scenario.

	06-01-2005 05:22									#6
	ToT or MGE? Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

Which version of Civ2 should I use? I am leaning toward ToT so that I can use flags and the CityProduction event trigger.

Also, I know nothing about military history, so one area in which I could really use help is in defining the units. I thought it might be interesting to use some of Leonardo's inventions. I know he had a design for the Duke of Milan that was something like a tank.

	06-01-2005 06:04									#7
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Why ToT of course! And don't listen to anyone else.

I've often had to abandon or restart scenarios 'cause I made the map too big. You don't want big spaces between your cities. In fertile terrain, they should be about 4 or 5 squares apart, more for hills and forest of course. So start by deciding the area you want and the cities in it. Do a rough calculation before starting.

It's such a nice map, I don't want to suggest that you make a new one, but you might want to trim parts which are unneeded in the scenario. The larger the map, the more work and the harder it is to get the AI to perform properly.

It sounds like another major objective of the Medici would to be crowned Pope. You could use ToT events to trigger this only when a number of objectives had been reached.

	06-01-2005 06:10									#8
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sounds very cool,
i'm glad i own both mge and tot (although tot still won't launch on my machine but i think i know how to fix it now )

	06-01-2005 08:12									#9
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Cool idea! As for map trimming I would reduce the map 6 or 7 tiles from the top and maybe 3 from the East, just to lop off some unused land.

Then again, if you use ToT you can create impassable terrain on the coast of Croatia effectively making that part of the map out of bounds.

	06-01-2005 08:41									#10
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quote: Originally posted by Harry Tuttle Cool idea! As for map trimming I would reduce the map 6 or 7 tiles from the top and maybe 3 from the East, just to lop off some unused land. Then again, if you use ToT you can create impassable terrain on the coast of Croatia effectively making that part of the map out of bounds.

you could create impassible terrain around all areas that you want the player to stay out of,

	06-01-2005 08:54									#11
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Here's an attempt to reduce the extra map area to what I'm guessing you need. It goes from Milan to Naples N/S and I trimmed as much off the east side as I could without taking any of Italy itself.

ps. I changed the suffix to .sav so I could upload it here without zipping it. It's really a .mp file - just rename it.

Attachment: italiasemifinale.sav
This has been downloaded 3 time(s).

Last edited by techumseh on 06-01-2005 at 21:29

	06-01-2005 12:35									#12
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Now this scen idea is at the same time original and very interesting!

About the map size (and I warn, I'm biased as I don't like big maps ), I might have a suggestion (but I didn't look at your map yet...).

From what I read, you need the southern part of it:
1) so that Napoli is on the map and provide a potential trade partner
2) so that Venezia can sail round the heel of the boot

If I read you correctly, Napoli doesn't play a vital role in your scen, so you might accept to live without this city...

And to provide a "sea access" to the Venetian: why not stop the map a bit below Roma and provide a kind of east-west "canal" at the bottom of the map? I know it wouldn't be historically and geographically accurate, but that would maybe make up for Venezia "remote" position on the map??

Anyway, I look forward to your scen

	06-01-2005 15:38									#13
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I love this period of History!

I am eager to see how this scenario develops!

	08-01-2005 20:37									#14
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quote: Originally posted by techumseh Here's an attempt to reduce the extra map area to what I'm guessing you need. It goes from Milan to Naples N/S and I trimmed as much off the east side as I could without taking any of Italy itself.

Thanks, techumseh, this will work great!

I think I may still need to fiddle with movement points. I didn't realize just how large the map was till I started placing cities.

If I give a horse movement of 3, does the game no longer consider it "mounted" -- i.e. pikemen doesn't get its defense bonus?

	08-01-2005 21:05									#15
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Thanks everyone for all your kind words.

quote: Originally posted by Cyrion About the map size (and I warn, I'm biased as I don't like big maps ), I might have a suggestion (but I didn't look at your map yet...). ... And to provide a "sea access" to the Venetian: why not stop the map a bit below Roma and provide a kind of east-west "canal" at the bottom of the map? I know it wouldn't be historically and geographically accurate, but that would maybe make up for Venezia "remote" position on the map?? Anyway, I look forward to your scen

techumseh's edit is 60x110; I could probably dispense with Sardinia and get it down to 60x100.

Actually the canal idea isn't implausible at all. Around 1500 Leonardo and Machiavelli actually teamed up and tried to build a canal system with the goal of making Florence into a strong naval power. They succeeded in diverting the Arno away from Pisa, but a drought prevented further development of their plans. (The entire scheme is narrated in the book "Fortune is a River", I may have some details wrong.)

My big question is, would the AI actually use the canal?

	08-01-2005 23:11									#16
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@valmont: great scenario idea (I'm italian )
... indeed, I'd like to play it in MGE...
Maybe a future version...
Have a good work!

	09-01-2005 10:19									#17
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quote: Originally posted by Gagliaudo ... indeed, I'd like to play it in MGE...

Heh, I'd rather play it in MGE too! I hate those ugly gray colors in ToT.

I really want to use flags (for the crowning of Pope Leone, among other things) and cityproduction trigger (this is not available in MGE is it?). I can't think of any other way to reward the player for building things like Brunelleschi's Dome. If I can come up with reasonable alternatives for these events, I could make an MGE version, since the map, rules and units should be the same.

	09-01-2005 11:02									#18
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quote: Originally posted by valmont Thanks, techumseh, this will work great! I think I may still need to fiddle with movement points. I didn't realize just how large the map was till I started placing cities. If I give a horse movement of 3, does the game no longer consider it "mounted" -- i.e. pikemen doesn't get its defense bonus?

Glad to help. Yes, the pikeman defense bonus only works if the movement of the cavalry unit is 2 AND the HP (and FP?) is 1. In the vanilla game, pikemen get the bonus against Horsemen, Chariots, Knights and Crusaders, but not Dragoons or Cavalry.

quote: I hate those ugly gray colors in ToT.

This is a scenario, right? You can change any colors you want.

	10-01-2005 04:48									#19
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quote: Originally posted by techumseh This is a scenario, right? You can change any colors you want.

No matter what I try, the shields for all civs are much, much darker than the tribe's actual colors. Orange flag = brown shield, Yellow flag = green shield, white flag = gray shield. (WHY did they do this in the first place?) I've searched up and down all over this forum for the solution, but haven't found it.

	10-01-2005 05:05									#20
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Yes, there is a screen on the color indicator for units. You can't get rid of it, unless you use Mercator's tool to eliminate the health bar altogether.

	10-01-2005 08:36									#21
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quote: Originally posted by techumseh Yes, there is a screen on the color indicator for units. You can't get rid of it, unless you use Mercator's tool to eliminate the health bar altogether.

His tools work like a charm. Although the unit-key is more or less fixed in position, you can simply not use a civ-specific color in it. Then, anywhere in the unit icon, you can place your unadulterated civ-color.

[Edit: the pink spot is the Allied Civ's color, but the color can be anywhere, even part of the unit itself]