Round B Scenario - Final Edition - 19-Feb-97 - Bob Heeter

** Readme:  Scenario Information and Historical Background **

-- Information --
[ 4 players - 50 cities - 36 ruins and 4 temples - tournament armies ]


-- Background --

It is the late 22nd century, and humanity has mastered the Earth.
The nations of the world fight no longer.  Instead, they long
ago united to save the environment, eliminate war, and conquer hunger.
They succeeded.  The United Nations government rules the world.
Energy and biotechnology, harnessed worldwide, have converted 
the oceans and lands into a docile, terraformed womb.  Order, 
pattern, structure, and harmony now permeate the very atmosphere.
Civilization's retreat from the militant technologies of the 20th 
century into pastoral bliss and tranquility is now complete.  
Temples to long-forgotten gods are now hedonistic vacation spas, 
while humanity neglects even advanced technology, and everyone
grows soft with general contentment.  Indeed, the ancient laws of 
morality have nearly been forgotten, along with famous codes of
philosophy and all the historic religions.  No one speaks of 
gods, deities, or supernatural beings - only of lost mythologies.
Having conquered curiosity, closed Pandora's box, and recreated the 
Garden of Eden on their own, people now ask themselves: 
Who needs God?  Who needs religion?  Outer space remains the final 
frontier, but it is an expensive proposition, and why bother -   
the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence lasted a century and 
found nothing.  There's no life except that on Earth, and Earth
is a pretty great place to be!  The Earth has become a tranquil 
Garden of Eden, the night lights drown out the stars, and no one 
can even see space anyway!  The moon, it seems, is now only for 
lovers' evening strolls...  Ratings for Star Trek spinoffs have 
plummeted, and soap operas and sitcoms now rule the TV networks.

Could this be the End of History?  

Not a Chance!

In the four corners of the world, far from the sclerotic 
blissful decadence of the capitals, there are always those 
who are unhappy with the grand regime.  So long as the UN
was making progress and conquering the world's problems, 
they could not gain supporters.  But now, with the world
in a state of tranquility, the central government has grown
weak, and the forces of history are once again on the side 
of those who seek change.  New leaders, new philosophies, 
and new religions have continually evolved in the distant 
corners of the world, and like the long-forgotten Asian influenza 
viruses, sooner or later they were bound to mutate into virulent 
and infectious forms!  

And so it happens that in the Northwest, the first group 
takes up its White uniforms and challenges the pacifistic 
forces of the UN.  Then the others see that the UN
no longer stands a chance, and they rise up as well!  Yellow forces
emerge in the northeast, a Red-clad force marches out of the 
southeast, and the southwest chooses Blue.
Is this new work by old gods?  The work of new gods?  Or simply
the work of sinful humanity, once more attempting to exile himself 
from paradise into a world of strife and destruction?
No one knows - the few scholars contemplating the issue soon find 
themselves faced with more practical matters, such as struggling 
for survival!

Each side quickly makes use of biotechnology to raise up fantastic
creatures of legend, breeding whole armies of armies of 
warriors to evangelize, proselytize, immobilize, and, if necessary,
demobilize all who stand before them!  Cities are renamed and
manifestos broadcast throughout the land, as each side gathers
recruits and humanity once more feels the excitement of the 
struggle for global dominance!  Which of these new forces
will rule the world?  No one knows, but it's clear that history
is far from dead - it lives on as long as there are those
seeking to write the next page!

Warlords - will you become the winner who writes the next chapter 
in this history?  Or will you have it written on your tombstone 
by those who vanquished you?


-- Strategic Design Notes --

We have done everything we could to keep the map symmetric, so that 
no side will have any advantage (other than turn order and, in 
non-tournament games, the random occurrence of items in the ruins).  
Within the official starting game file we symmetrically arranged 
even the items and allies.  The ruin descriptions specify what is 
supposed to be found in each ruin, and if someone would like to 
edit the ruin information  to create a different incarnation of 
the game I'll be happy to explain how (but it's complicated and 
requires use of a hex editor.)  

The map was designed to have about 10 cities per side, with
high-income cities in the "rear area" and lower income cities
on the vulnerable front lines.  10 cities are "up for grabs",
including the six very wealthy cities in the center.  
The spider-building cities in the center area are there to keep
the ghosts and elementals of the White and Yellow players from
overrunning the middle before the later players have a chance.
(The intent is to play with the spider cities as "enemy" cities
so that even a blessed elemental cannot take them without help.
The spider production *must* be pillaged when the city is taken;
we have not spent time making sure all the spiders that are 
produced there have the standard abilities.)

You'll find that the map is easier to navigate north-south than east-west;
thus the map is effectively more square (less elongated) 
than it looks.  But it's still a bit faster to cross horizontally
than to cross vertically - except for navies.  The center of the map 
is of immense strategic importance, with its concentration of 6 cities 
(2 of which have very high income) and easy access to control all 
four temples.  But, especially with razing off, the center is also 
very difficult to control, since it borders all three of the 
other players...

The rest of the map is either "allocated" to a given side with 
internal road links, or else "no man's land" - a battlezone between sides.  
The temples were deliberately placed in "no mans land" near the strategic
central "core", so that they will be frequently fought over!
To balance the value of the core a bit, additional ruins were
scattered around the edges, containing the most valuable items,
allies, and additional gold needed for long-term survival.  
The ruins placed near each capital city should provide a good supply 
of items and allies for your initial expansion, while ruins further 
away will help replenish your gold and augment your forces when you
need it most - right before rushing into battle with the enemy! 

In order to prevent players from gaining a decisive advantage
by rushing to the border lands, though, the ruins that lie right
on the borders contain only gold, which has its value but does not confer
immediate tactical advantages in the way that items or allies would.

The scenario was designed for tournament play with a 2 or 3 hero
limit, and as this should be a mighty duel, there are several 
flight and command items to make those heroes mighty indeed.  
Heroes should be able to visit multiple temples and gain many 
levels from all the ruins, so we chose not to include any battle 
items - heroes will have plenty of strength on their own.  
Speed items proved too unbalancing in playtesting, and gold 
items seemed unnecessary.


-- Credits --
I used WarCorrespondent and WarCartographer by Matt Hills,
plus a bit of RedEdit and a program called War2Editor, 
to create this scenario for the Mac-Classic version of 
Warlords.  I then used ResEdit to create the Mac-Deluxe
version of the scenario.  Then I used ResEdit to make
a .SCZ library file for use with the PC-Deluxe version.
Barry Brook fixed some bugs and made some improvements
in the .SCZ Deluxe version, including a large number of 
customizations for the tournament.  Then Patrick Domning
and Ivan Baird ported the Deluxe files back to the Mac 
and PC-Classic versions that are now available.  Whew!


Send feedback to Bob Heeter, rfheeter@phoenix.princeton.edu, and enjoy!