Readme - Round A Tournament Scenario:  The Olympic Wars
Last Updated 19-September-97 by Bob Heeter

Read this message carefully - it contains a lot of essential information!

*** Scenario Information:

Sides: 4
Cities: 44
Ruins: 31
Temples:  1
Starting Gold:  4200/side
Razing:  On Capture only
Neutral Cities: Active
The Ruin Map is included in text and JPEG form as usual.

Credits:  Martijn Dashorst - Olympic concept, initial layout, and more
          Barry Brook - Round A map fiendishness, ruin contents, and more
          Ivan Baird - RuinMap.jpg, Mac-Classic conversion, and more
          Patrick Domning - PC-Classic conversion
          Bob Heeter - Scenario Background and ReadMe
          G. Best, D. Pellett, R. Heeter, F. Aubert, B. Irwin, G. Hulseman, 
              and others - ideas and testing


*** Special Rules and Reminders for Round A:

1. Reminder: Round A games will last for 20 turns!

2. New Gold Rules:  
   The gold limit for Strongholds is now 2500.
   All the gold is now in strongholds; revert until you get less than 2500.
   We recommend you revert to get between 2400 and 2500.  (The odds of
   getting between 2400 and 2500 are about 10%, so this takes less reverting 
   than trying to get near 3600!)
   
3. Special Builds:  
   The center cities all build griffins!  Sack 'em for cash - or build 'em!
   Note - griffins defending neutral cities are strength 8 (6+2).  
   The neutral cities are set to "active" in the tournament.
   
4. New Rule:  Two Heroes!
   You are allowed (and expected!) to revert and get a second hero on Turn 2.
   *** If you want a second hero, it MUST come ONLY on Turn 2. ***
   The second hero can come with any ally you choose in any city you control.
   You may not replace any dead heroes until *both* heroes are dead.
   Then the regular hero-replacement rules apply.  (Note that once you lose
   a hero you cannot have more than one hero on the map.)  Ask your Moderator
   or Headquarters for details.  The starting gold has been increased to
   allow the purchase of the second hero.  You must report the cost of the
   second hero and he/she must cost at least 1000 gold.  

5. New Rule:  Limited Allies with Replacement Heroes:
   After Turn 2, all replacement heroes may only come with wizards, ghosts,
   elementals, or worms.  Archons, Demons, Dragons, and Devils are not allowed
   with replacement heroes - you can only get them from ruins or with your
   Turn 2 second hero.  Warlord, use thy allies wisely! :)

6. Holidays:  
   The U.S. Thanksgiving Weekend in late November and the
   Christmas holidays (from December 23 to January 3) will be official
   "Tournament Holidays".  Time limits will not be enforced during those
   periods, and players do not need to worry about using up vacation time
   then, although we hope the games will all continue!  We expect
   some games to finish before Christmas, and the rest in January.
   Round B will begin in early January!


*** Prizes for Round A:

   The four Warlords who write the most entertaining game history will
   each receive a prize from SSG.

   The one Warlord who writes the best individual roleplay will also
   receive a prize from SSG.

   The awarding of both prizes will be determined after the round ends
   by a team of moderators (who will exclude themselves from recieving prizes).

   Background information on the scenario is given below.  It may help you
   create the personality for your side, but you can choose to ignore it
   and do something completely different if you like!


*** The Sides:

(See further below for the complete history of the Olympic Wars.)

1. The Organizers (White):
Motto:  "We came, We saw, We organized!"

Olympic promoters in each city used to organize the games with
local funds.  They hired swarms of people to perform all the
tasks needed to keep the games going.  But as the Olympics became
larger and larger and tensions rose, the Organizers banded together
and created a police force to protect their interests.  They 
are very good at organizing strategic alliances and building the right 
things in each of their venues, and they know the value of money!
The special allies of the Organizers are flying, speedy Ghosts.


2. The Athletes (Orange)
Motto:  "The Thrill of Victory is better than the Agony of Defeat!"

As the Olympics became more and more popular, more and more athletes
attended, and it became hard to house them all well during the Games.
To fight for their rights, they mobilized into paramilitary teams.
As the games evolved, the need to win medals became greater.  Today, if they
lose and die, they no longer have to return to their impoverished and
overcrowded home towns.  And if they win, the have wealth and glory for life!
The Athletes remain notorious for "going for the gold" at all costs,
but they also train their units very well, and they know when a situation
calls for teamwork instead of individual effort. :)
The special allies of the Athletes are flying, muscular Wizards.


3. The Reporters (Green)
Motto:  "The Pen is Mightier than the Sword"

Legions of crack correspondents used to descend upon the Olympic Isle
to get the best stories and make a name for themselves.  But with the
rise of trash journalism, not everyone wanted to have the Reporters around!
To get their stories at any cost, they have banded together into journalistic 
strike teams.  They have flush expense accounts and know how to find the
best sources - of troops and resources as well as information!  And they 
use their monopoly of the airwaves to fight their battles with diplomacy as well...
The special allies of the Athletes are super-speedy Elementals.


4. The Spectators (Blue)
Motto:  "Couch Potatoes of the world, unite!"

Although the Olympics became bigger, the population of the world grew
too.  And as the Organizers and Athletes and Reporters began clamoring
for more perks, the spectators suffered.  For a while tickets were given
away only by lottery - and those who found a way to get tickets often sold
them for millions of dollars!  Today the lottery is held to determine who
will get to fight for the Spectators' side, and those who fight and win 
are given free seats to watch all future Olympic competitions - which means 
the survivors all become millionaires for life!  Needless to say,
competition in the lottery is fierce; unfortunately, the Spectators have
not won as often as they would like, so there aren't *that* many
millionaire Spectator survivors.  The Spectators have traditionally
had love-hate relationships with each of the other sides.  They traditionally
mobilize the fiercest hordes, but often leadership is not their strong suit.
The special allies of the Athletes are swift, muscular Worms.


*** Background Information:  A Brief History of the Olympic Wars ***
=======================================================================

Like a phoenix from classical Greek history resurrecting itself 
into the modern world, the Old Olympics were begun around 1900 under 
the leadership of Pierre de Coubertin, as a modern version of the 
Ancient Olympics of classical Greece.  Aside from a few cheaters, 
interruptions for the occasional World War, and assorted boycotts, 
the Old Olympics were quite peaceful until the late 20th century.  
As the population of the world rose, and as new technology raised 
the worldwide standard of living, the Old Olympics became increasingly 
expensive, competitive, lucrative, and of course wildly popular!  

With all the attention the Olympics received, and with all the tensions 
associated with putting on such a huge event, it was no surprise that 
violence during the games increased.  First there were relatively minor 
events like the terrorist incident at the 1970 Munich olympics, the 
athlete attack instigated by Tonya Harding against skater Nancy Kerrigan, 
and then the bombing at the Centennial games in 1996 Atlanta.  As the
games went on and became more and more serious, the problems got worse.  
By the late 20th century the security of the games was often in jeopardy.
But that was only the beginning - the 21st century was even more interesting!

As the world's population continued to explode, surplus land became
ever more scarce, and it became more and more difficult to find the money 
and space to host the games.  Many nations simply gave up on hosting
the Olympics.  But China was not one of them.  After decades of trying, 
China finally landed the Summer Games in Beijing in 2048.  But with the 
Chinese countryside teeming with over 1.5 billion people, it should have come 
as no surprise that the government had to forcibly relocate some 13 million 
to make room for the Olympic stadium, the hotels for athletes and reporters, 
the offices for organizers, and the recreational facilities for the 
100-million spectators who came to watch.  With space so tight, tensions 
rose between the under-housed, high-strung athletes and the underfunded, 
disorganized Organizers.  The Reporters slept 5 to a room, and needless 
to say their coverage reflected their annoyance - which in turn annoyed 
the Spectators who just wanted the games to be fun!

Tensions continued to rise over the years.  Seeking the international
respect accorded to an Olympic host nation, Brazil pulled out all the stops
and landed the games in 2060.  30 million were moved from Rio; despite mass 
protests by civil rights advocates and environmentalists, the games went 
ahead.  And the last of the Amazon rainforest died as the 30
million relocated peasants struggled to survive.  Learning from prior
experience in Beijing, the Organizers had hired security guards,
the Athletes had padded their rankes with paramilitary teams, the 
Reporters carried concealed weapons, and the fastest-selling souvenir sold 
to the Spectators was a bayonet-tipped umbrella!  Each side was determined 
to make its own Olympic experience pleasant and to reap the financial 
rewards of Olympic success, and the result was an armed stalemate.  
After U.N. intervention a truce was called and the actual games were 
held without much incident.  Special military-arts events were held 
to give the security guards, paramilitary "athletes", trigger-happy
reporters, and swashbuckling spectators a way to keep busy.

Over the next 20 years the Olympics continued to get bigger; by 2084
the games were attracting billions of people!  It was impossible
for any nation to properly host the games in the old style.  The
International Olympic Committee changed its name to the Organizers,
adopted strong-arm tactics to force potential host cities into submission,
and began selecting "host cities" on the basis of who had the least
resistance.  In 2084 the relatively underpopulated country of Ireland was
"chosen", and despite the protests of the natives Dublin was razed and 
rebuilt to host the Summer Olympics.  No one realized that these would be 
the last of the Old Summer Games until the fighting Irish revolted against 
what they dubbed "Olympic Colonization", and armed terrorist bands calling 
themselves the Spectators disrupted half the events.  Ever alert to
good opportunities, Microsoft-Nike (owned by Bill Gatest III) supported 
not only the Athletes but also the Spectators.  They equipped the Irish 
Spectators with official Spectator Sneakers (as well as weapons and food)
and made a killing (literally too) as the shoes become the most popular 
brand ever!

To make matters worse, the Reporters now wielded considerable power 
over the future incomes of the Athletes on whom they were reporting.
With the stakes so high, it was accepted as a fact of life that 
blood would be spilled between angry Athletes and arrogant Reporters.
After all, billions of dollars of promotional money went to the darlings
of the media, while the rest of the Athletes went home penniless and
exhausted!

The final games of the Old Olympics were held in the winter of 2086
on Mt. Everest.  By that time, global warming had taken off, and
only the highest mountains of the world had enough snowcover to host
the skiing events.  Everest, Greenland, and Antarctica competed to
host these Games, but Greenland and Antarctica were ruled out
because they were even less accessible than Everest, and only Everest
had a tourist-oriented base camp already prepared.  In the actual Games,
the Athletes finally got their revenge on the Reporters: the downhill 
ski teams got together and triggered an avalanche that buried the 
Reporters Village!  As a result, the Spectators and Organizers were 
deprived of timely coverage of the games, so they took revenge on the 
Athletes, and the whole Olympics collapsed in riots.  Those Reporters 
that were lucky enough to survive the avalanche reported body counts 
instead of medal counts.  Ted Turner III, owner of the world news
conglomerate CNN, made a huge scoop by installing a thermonuclear
generator and melting a tunnel under the avalanche so his surviving
Reporters could scoop the rest of the media.

For a few years the Olympics were suspended, and no one could figure out
what to do to get them working again.  Finally, the remnants of the
International Olympic Committee (now known as the Organizers) met 
with the leaders of the other factions.  The Athletes were represented
by Michael Jordan III, who was genetically engineered to be even more godlike 
an athlete than his grandfather - and good at baseball too.  The Reporters
marched under the banner of Ted Turner III, the undisputed leader of the 
world news media after the Everest Olympic Massacre.  The Spectators were 
led by billionaire playboy Bill Gates III, the wealthiest Spectator on 
the planet after the Microsoft-Nike conquest of the Dublin Olympics.
For once the four groups cooperated, and together they hatched a plan 
for what would become the New Olympics.  What the Organizers, Athletes, 
Reporters, and Spectators decided was this:

    * There was no room to have any more travelling Olympics; a dedicated
      facility was needed.  It had to be built on new land in the ocean.
      And why not continue to use the five-ring Olympic shape?

    * Some method was needed to diffuse the annual tensions that arose
      between each of the four factions at the other major international
      sporting events.

    * Audiences had been higher for the violent Olympics than the older,
      peaceful games, and there weren't many wars anymore, so why not
      turn the Olympic competitions into Olympic Wars?

    * To make each Olympics new and exciting, why not revise the map
      and change the theme each time?

As a result, the Old Olympics (as we now know them) were discontinued,
and the New Olympics - the Olympic Wars - began!  Bill Gates III bought
up some islands in the Pacific and the Athletes and Spectators mobilized
the labor gangs that built the new "Olympic Stadium" - a tremendous
island facility nearly 200 miles in diameter.  The foresightful Bill hired
scientists to determine the change in weather patterns due to the
new landmass, discovered that the "Olympic Stadium" would permanently
eliminate the El Nino ocean current, and made a $2-trillion killing 
on South American crop futures.  Instead of giving donations to major
universities like MIT and Stanford, he endowed the General Advanced
Technology Educational School, GATES.  The IOC hired the Walt Disney Co. 
to provide staffing and run the Olympic facilities, in order to keep the
Olympic image as clean and family-oriented as possible.  Ted Turner III 
got exclusive TV rights.  The Athletes used their share of the advertising 
revenues to build new training facilities worldwide (including a refrigerated 
mountain for the Jamaican Bobsled Team).  And the Spectators gained 
exclusive control over the Olympic Island Customs Office, set up lucrative 
duty-free stores, and finally got revenge on Disney by charging the 
Walt Disney Olympic World staff the same outrageous prices that 
the Spectators had been forced to pay at the other Disney sites
as tourists!

And so it was that the first New Olympics were held with great fanfare
in 2096 and 2098.  Of course, in addition to the pageantry, there was
much bloodshed and tremendous financial success!  The losers received
a glorious death, and the winners received eternal fame, prizes, and lifelong
wealth.  

In 2096 the theme was World War I, and hundreds of thousands of bodies 
died in the blood-soaked trenches.  (The world population still rose
by 50 million that year.)  Nearby sea life flourished from the nourishing 
runoff, and the Spectators made a killing selling the reddish blood-soaked 
earth to the bereaved families of the slain competitors.  The Reporters 
were miffed at their defeat and went on strike, and only via guerrilla 
journalism on the 'net did the world learn that it was in fact the 
Athletes who won the war!

In 2098 the theme was the French Revolution, and guillotines were all 
the rage.  Needless to say, the Organizers were all beheaded, the 
proletarian Spectators won the field and let themselves eat cake, and 
the surviving Reporters made fortunes writing 18th-century-style 
historical fiction based on their adventures.  

Now it is 2100, and this year the theme is Medieval Fantasy.
The map has been filled with castles, and the dress rehearsal is nearly
complete.  As the various teams prepare their final strategies,
the staging for the war, the map itself, is being prepared for another
New Olympics!  Organizers are donning their robes as kings, princes,
and dukes.  Athletes are buying up armor, swords, and bows to fight as
knights.  The Reporters are taking to the fields as bards and scribes
and wizards - beware the magic of their words!  Rumor has it that the
paparazzi within the Reporters' tribe are turning into Orcish Mobs.
The Spectators are cunningly disguising themselves as tradesfolk and
serfs, but beware their butcher's knives and farmer's pitchforks!

Will the Organizers or Reporters finally get a much-needed victory?
Will the Athletes pull out another win?
Or will the Spectators storm the field again?

Only one thing is certain - The War Begins October 1!