STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE "AFTER THE APOCALYPSE"

Introduction

The Conflicts in Civilizations add-on package 'opened the door' in 1997 to many exciting possibilities of scenario play and design for Civ2. The 'After the Apocalypse' scenario featured a heap of the 'then' new elements consolidated in an imaginative set up in the form of; warring 'mutants' all over the place and out of control global pollution.

Game Commencement

The start of the game begins in an oppressive environment; the human tribes have small villages, few units, at best a modest bank balance, pollution problems, and only a handful of technologies. Furthermore, foreign reports indicate that the non-human (mutant) tribes are chasing Industrial Age Wonders of the World — certainly enough factors to make the novice player pretty nervous!

There are however two saving graces for the human tribes:

Firstly, the villages have an excess of city improvements for their needs. City Walls, Libraries (in two tribes' cases), and even Barracks can be sold off in the first few turns with little to worry about. This not only provides instant funds, but the cash flow starts to take on a far less daunting complexion.

Secondly, each human tribe have a diplomat or two. Having sold off a few city improvements, they can go 'a wandering' and would do well to bribe either some of the barbarians deftly spread around the globe, or one of the Saurian's Quetzalcoatlus 'bomber-type' units.

Early technologies

In a nutshell, the challenges the player confronts in the first stage of the scenario are starvation problems caused by global warming, expansion problems in broadening the geographic influence of the empire, and economic difficulties that impact in a few different ways.

In order to confront these dilemmas the player must chase as a priority technologies that will turn around the low production of cities (particularly of food), and extend opportunities to grow.

Most human starting cities are seaside ones, and the Harbor city improvement will circumvent population decreases caused by ongoing global warming and convert a struggling, problematic village into a contributing entity of your empire. Consequently, Seafaring is one 'milestone' advance that should be sought out.

The other difficulty is financial hardship. As earlier noted, the diplomat is an important unit in this game (arguably the most important). Its ability to bribe units with offensive capability let alone enemy cities is contingent upon having hundreds (if not thousands) of gold in the coffers. 'Trade' is the key to addressing the problem of a floundering financial predicament. Establishing decent trade routes with your caravans for both the bonuses and the ongoing income will provide the fuel for your diplomats to 'build through bribery'.

Technology Development

Other technologies of significance are those that lead to any Wonders that the player may seek.

Consider the paths for;

• Units (particularly Metallurgy for artillery, and Espionage for spies),
• Government forms (Fundamentalism is a good option for this scenario — bags of money, no happiness worries, reduced corruption and waste, and great unit support), and
• City improvements (Refrigeration for the Supermarket is another plus, and may be obtained from the mutant tribes).

Wonders

Many of the Wonders of the World will be unavailable for the player to build due to the poor technological start that the human tribes get. This still leaves the option for Wonders to be taken off the enemy — and this should not be disregarded lightly, particularly if Democracy or even an extended stay in The Republic is part of the plan where 'happy Wonders' are worth a premium.

Due to the diverse set up of the human tribes and the mutant tribes, The Great Library can make an easy avenue to getting up to speed on the mutants' Renaissance and Industrial Age advances. The 'downside' of this Wonder can be felt here though, and can delay the pursuit of getting to the advances that the player is keenly seeking (as the more advances you possess, the slower the rate of technological growth).

The Pyramids is one of the Wonders that can significantly help in this scenario. With the notable number of cities that suffer from the effect of pollution and global warming, the Pyramids can assist in offsetting some of this pain. Likewise, the need for Granaries is alleviated, so these may be sold with a clear conscience.

The Enemy

Despite what on first view is a pretty intimidating foe, the mutant tribes are really less ferocious than the player may first expect. While most have a few decent naval units, and the Saurians (light blue tribe) have three bombers (that can kill off units even if they can't take cities) beyond these, their early-game firepower is much less impressive. All of the human tribes begin with an approximately equivalent starting position.

Each player will take a different approach, however establishing an alliance with at least one of the mutant tribes so you can access tributes while making an enemy of at least one other could be considered a workable tactic. The Saurians do have the three Quetzalcoatlus units and their cities are not concentrated in Eurasia — so they could arguably make a good potential early ally, in that they may otherwise lay some serious damage to your units yet not present themselves as a good target for expansion. On the other hand, the Mutants (white tribe) and the Kritters (orange tribe) are less powerful initially and much closer to home (note however that the Kritters' principle domain is not readily accessible to one human tribe; 'the New Beetles').

The human tribes are not bound by alliances, and may present themselves as no more affable than some of the 'mutant' tribes.

The Bottom Line

This scenario is well set up for diplomats and spies. Despite a relatively isolated and difficult start, key technologies and expansion on the Eurasian continent should provide ample footing to make a convincing claim on the game and head towards victory.

ENDING SCREENSHOTS

   Cameron Hills won the April 2000 General of the Month Award.