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our_man
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Glasgow, Scotland
Oct 2000
time: 05:30
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A suggestion of Elok's in his historical notions thread convinced me to blow the dust off a Northern Ireland scenario I had abandoned in the belief that maybe there would be an audience out there for one more Irish scenario. 
First of all, the history of the North is a very sensitive subject ; since the start of 'The Troubles' at least 3,000 people, mostly civilians, have lost their lives. Sadly people are still dying for no good reason there to this day. 
I decided early on that a scenario about the senseless ***-for-tat revenge between the various paramilitary groups would not be appropriate, and wouldn't be much fun anyway. So I tried to consider other angles from which to create a scenario based around the troubles, and eventually wandered into 'what if' territory.
Relations between the British and Irish governments were at an all time low in the early '70's, following Britain's ill-timed military intervention in the North. They went in to try and stop the fighting, but through a series of bad (and sometimes callous) judgements against the catholic population, only ended up exacerbating the tensions e.g. Bloody Sunday, Internment. It also enraged the population of the Republic; in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday the British Embassy in Dublin was burnt to the ground by a mob intent on revenge. What if, instead of simply applying what little political pressure Ireland had on Britain, then Taoiseach Jack Lynch decided to respond by ordering Irish soldiers into the North to do the job that British soldiers should have been doing; protecting nationalists from loyalist mobs?
Despite the fact that the IRA were outlawed in the Republic, there were no doubt pro-IRA members in the Lynch government. For example in May 1970, two Cabinet Ministers, Neil Blaney and Charles Haughey, were dismissed by the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, for allegedly using Government money to import arms for the Irish Republican Army. In this scenario their influence, together with the public outcry against British action in the North, is enough to tip Lynch's hand into invading...
Well, what do you think? Plausible? 
I have the map and terrain done. My first BIG thankyou is to Mercator for designing MapEdit - the reason I decided to make this scenario is due to this fantastic utility. I was way too lazy to bother to do out a map of Northern Ireland, so I used MapEdit on my map of Ireland to cut out the south of the country. Hours of work saved.  
I'd like to post some screenshots of what I've done so far, but I don't know how to capture in-game images from Civ2 so that they can be posted. If someone wiser than me knows how, please tell me.
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fairline
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of the wing
Sep 2002
time: 05:30
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It's a tricky subject, as you say, Our_Man, but given the right treatment could be an interesting one. I think Paul Hanson has a point when he suggests that the Irish Army wouldn't stand a chance against the full weight of the British military, so perhaps a scenario which reflected reality, mindless provos, 'loyalists' and all, would be more believable.
If the 'Troubles' is too sensitive a subject, how about a treatment of the Easter Rising and subsequent independence and civil war?
BTW, when you do the screen-dump, remeber to cntrl-x before-hand to normalise the civ screen.
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Panda
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Europe
Jan 1970
time: 05:30
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our_man: while I would hate to dissuade anyone, I would suggest peeking at http://sleague.apolyton.net/Reviews/ds_nire.shtml and taking note of those criticisms. It seemed to me that if paramilitary activity became too out of control then London would simply strengthen the armies presence, given the very strong political will on this issue. Perhaps another, non-military angle should be investigated?
However, it is also evident that the a scenario of the troubles is missing a magnum opus, as we've only had simple scenarios trying to depict a complex situation of poltical, economic, and military importance. If you want to move away from civ's classic 4X structure you could somehow depict the importance of external resources on an insurgent conflict, in particular the funding (from America, Libya, and heroin) and weapons going to PIRA.
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our_man
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Glasgow, Scotland
Oct 2000
time: 05:30
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Panda, I've taken note of what you've said; I even considered these very points myself when setting out to make this scenario. I do not want to make a scenario on the paramilitary groups because I do not believe it could not be realistically done within the confines of the Civilization II engine. Well, not exactly; almost anything can be done with Civ2 if you use your imagination, that's what makes the game so good in the first place!
I think what you're suggesting is interesting, but I cannot see any particular way to go about implementing it. The IRA was never very large, in comparison with either the Palestinian or Colombian terrorist groups. It just punched way above what its weight would suggest. As such a small group would never be able to control cities in the classical Civ2 sense, an entirely new scoring system would need to be devised to represent this.
My intention at the moment is still to make a scenario about a war between the ROI and Britain for control of the province. It will be more or less a straightforward military campaign (i.e. nothing that hasn't been done a thousand times before) set over a period of 2-3 weeks, but I hope to make it fun nonetheless.
This isn't set in stone however, so if I hear enough suggestions/criticisms about my approach I might reconsider.
To other matters: one of the reasons I stopped working on this in the first place is that I realized while knowing a great deal of the political situation at the time, I knew very little about the military aspect.
If any of the resident military history buffs could provide me with details about the strength of the British forces in the North and the Irish army at the time, I would greatly appreciate it.
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19-08-2003 23:06
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