Scenario Review Scenario Title: Australian Civil War 1999 Author: Dracon Reviewer: Cam Hills   Fictional scenario. Australian factions and Pacific neighbours clash in a modern yet uncivilised society. Download acw1999.zip from Platehead's site. Note: There is a newer version of this scenario - see Version 2.0 Reviews

Overall Rating 14/30 SYNOPSIS: Australia splits into four regional, political, and racial factions stemming from the rise of the ironically named 'One Nation Party', and involve their Pacific neighbours. PRELUDE: It would be difficult to assess this scenario without first making note of the extreme nature of the game in terms of coarseness and profanity. ACW1999 was 'inspired' by the scenario US Civil War 2001 (author; 'Nero'), which likewise demonstrates a backlash against 'political correctness'. For the purpose of this critique, the reviewer will err on the side of light-hearted liberalism, however many could understandably condemn this game for its unhealthy premise. GENERAL: From a scenario construction perspective, this rates as 'regulation', the lack of refinement from both a contextual as well as technical perspective will be a turn-off for many. A number of small changes and improvements would lift the overall standard considerably, however some work is needed to make it a high-quality production.

Playability Rating 4.5/10 GAME COMMENCEMENT: How involved you get is much determined by the starting tribe. Two are recommended - New Zealand and the Nation of Mabo, but each have their problems, and there seems ample opportunity to play the Western Australians and One Nation; the former being discouraged by the scenario notes, the latter not noted as 'recommended' or otherwise. Changing government form (by revolution) is not an option, and this presents difficulties (refer. next para.). Also, the starting city improvements often are questionable (for instance large coastal cities without harbors, airports, port facilities, etc.). Mabo is in Fundamentalism, however their cities contain numerous 'happy' city improvements. These contribute to 'tithes', but significantly the player is better selling the bulk of these from the outset. New Zealand, the other recommended starting tribe, is remote from the action, and unable to get into the game until either a city with an airport is founded / seized on the Australian main continent, or a huge navy is formed. It starts in Democracy without much in the way of 'happy' city improvements, making an off-shore offensive an arduous proposition. FAULTS (TECHNICAL): Many of the units have very poor placement of the tribe shield (concealed). The Helicopter unit's propeller covers its 'health bar' / 'fuel gauge' (concealed). No cities.txt file (all newly founded cities are nameless). No pedia.txt file (players using the 'Fantastic Worlds' version do not have a reference beyond the standard Civlopedia). FAULTS (GAMEPLAY): Several Wonders can be built, however already their effects are obsolete. While building an obsolete Wonder of the World (WoW) will enhance the final score, or allow a player to switch to an active WoW when it becomes available, from a 'good design' perspective there seems little merit in making these archaic WoWs available in the first instance. An outdated WoW may distract the A.I.'s tribes from other building opportunities. The Nation of Mabo receives an unstoppably potent unit (Rainbow Serpent) if its capital is taken. Despite losing its capital (presumably as a result of poor play), the tribe is then extended the opportunity to become virtually unconquerable. The 'Rednecks' unit and 'Mobile Infantry' unit require the same number of shields, despite the latter clearly being the better unit (although it does not ignore zones of control). 'Rednecks' (Partisans) rise to recapture any city taken from the black-raced Nation of Mabo. Another unit should have been used in the Partisans' slot to better suit the theme. BALANCE: Generally the tribes are fairly well balanced. The bulk of the Wonders are placed in the Coalition's cities of Sydney and Canberra, which give that tribe a disproportionate start. Ultimately the game becomes 'you vs. the Coalition', although the Rainbow Serpent (Mabo) unit can have the ultimate 'final say' if it comes into the game. A need to commence on the Australian mainland continent in order to engage in effective war make the three Pacific nations less appealing prospects, (including the recommended-for-play New Zealanders). There are a good number of starting cities (varied by tribe, but generally less than a dozen), although the New Zealanders could have more assistance, such as a 'none' Carrier with some 'none' U.N. peacekeeping forces and a 'none' settler. Less stringent forms of government, or the option to change government may allow players to more effectively implement their strategies. Arguably a more even distribution of WoWs would have assisted in the game's stability, particularly at the tougher levels. MAP: The map was well set out. A purist could be critical of city placement being occasionally inexact from the real Australian map. The terrain1.gif file was included to accommodate for new special resources.

Level of General Care 5 / 10 README.TXT: A 'read me' file is included but by no means comprehensive enough. Given that the pedia.txt file was not covered in the zipped package, the 'read me' should receive more attention. It essentially warns the potential player of the anti-social nature of some aspects of the scenario, and very briefly outlines the tribes. There is no credit for 'borrowed' graphics, discussion of new units, WoWs, terrain, difficulty level, possible strategic approaches, etc. TECHNOLOGY: The Technology Tree largely replicates the standard game's Modern Era advances, and includes special technologies to accommodate differing tribes' units, plus a few new extras. HISTORICAL ACCURACY: The scenario is fictional, and draws references to Australasian current politics. Anyone not familiar with the setting should not interpret any of it to be in any way remotely representative of the actual state-of-affairs. It is unclear why Kim Beazley (a Western Australian and Federal Leader of the Opposition) was not made to lead the Western Australians, given his political opponent (John Howard) leads the Coalition in the game. Surprisingly, the much out-of-favour One Nation Party enjoys fairly favourable status amongst the competition, while the Western Australians do not. OTHER DETAILS: Some standard files were missing (pedia.txt, cities.txt) which would have been of considerable assistance. A short events.txt file is included, however not used to its full capacity, with plenty of opportunities to include a few tricks with technologies, text boxes to reinforce the theme, or further antagonism to break any peace-locks which may occur. It does not support or account for the game's stated objective; "To conquer the world if One Nation Party (protagonists), otherwise, to prevent it" - if One Nation is destroyed, nothing too extraordinary happens. Also, the 'createunit' geography placements are puzzling, where only one spot is provided for placement of the respective units, thereby greatly lifting the possibility that the unit can not be placed and therefore not offered at all. The city improvements and construction activities provided at the start of the game could have been more effectively handled. An example of this is the Mabo city of Coober Pedy, which is both undeveloped and at the forefront of battle, yet in the process of building the SETI program. Some of the standard text boxes have been severely amended to augment the anti-wholesome feel, and occasionally this may be the cause for some confusion, particularly in negotiations where it may be unclear what options mean what effect. Sound files were added for the opening credit and some units. Some of these were 'borrowed' from another scenario, but at least one is new. The opening text window carries a unit graphic from the protagonist's army, even though it was not developed using 'Fantastic Worlds' (good trick).

Art and Originality 4.5/10 COMMENTS: Much of the artwork was 'borrowed' from other scenarios or uses the standard game's, but possibly one of the icon's and some units may be new. The terrain1.gif file was copied directly from the US Civil War 2001 scenario. There is some scope to be a little more creative here. COVERED SHIELDS: Poor placement of unit shields is a problem for many of the units not taken from the standard game or MPS scenarios.

NOTES FOR THE DESIGNER: This scenario could have scored better (already a fairly generous 14) if it had made a little more effort in some areas - many of these improvements need only have taken a few moments to implement. With one of the objectives of the Scenario League being to improve the quality of Civilization II scenarios, sketched for this particular game are; Twenty Proposed Amendments to Improve the Scenario (Without Curbing the Caustic Tone) Instant improvements (requires minutes to modify) 1. Include pedia.txt in the zipped package. 2. Fix shield placement on customised units so the shield is not obscured. 3. Adjust potent units' statistics downwards (dramatically) to improve balance, such as; Rainbow Serpent, F22 Raptor, SR-71. 4. Remove antiquated yet not-constructed Wonders, or alternately amend Wonders so that they are active when built. 5. Resolve the lack of shield-building discrepancy between the 'Redneck' and 'Mobile Infantry' units. 6. Change the Partisans slot so you don't have 'Aboriginal 'Rednecks" created. 7. Accommodate for the demise of 'One Nation' in events.txt as per the stated objective of the game. 8. Create more location options to place units created by events, so that if the first nominated location is unavailable (e.g. occupied by an enemy unit), the event will proceed onto the next possible place. Medium-level improvements (will involve some effort) 9. Allow government switching to some more moderate forms - remove unwanted options from the technology tree and rewrite the prerequisite advances accordingly. Give the desired forms of government to the respective tribes - at very least allow New Zealand to become a Republic. 10. Provide the non-Australian tribes with decent naval fleets so they may participate earlier in the game - particularly the New Zealanders. These should have 'none' for home-cities due to happiness difficulties for units away from home or the sheer existence of some modern units (contingent on government-type). 11. Review the starting level of funds for each tribe. 12. Review all cities' improvements and building schedule. All medium to large coastal cities should at very least have a harbor. 13. Create a list of city names for each tribe, so when new townships are founded, they have a name. 14. Rewrite the 'read me' file to include at very least; credit for 'borrowed' graphics, discussion of new units, WoWs - their effect and historical significance if appropriate, the new special resource terrains, recommended difficulty level(s), possible strategic approaches for each tribe, etc. Larger improvements (involving significant effort to accommodate) 15. Rearrangement of the technology tree to provide it with more diversity. The tree used in the 'Mammoth' scenario in the 'Best on Net 2' section of the FW CD-ROM (author; Jeff Head) is full of superb futuristic technology ideas. 16. Massive extension of the 'events.txt' file to give the scenario a better story-line, create shorter-term objectives, throw in the occasional barbarian unit ('Asian Immigrants', 'National Socialists'?), have some longer term antagonism between tribes other than the 'One Nation' vs. 'Nation of Mabo' clash. Explain why some nations are at war at all at the game's commencement. 17. More artwork needed; for new units (or freshen up existing units), terrain (e.g. kangaroos or sheep as special resources - OK that's a bit tame, but something new?), and icons to better suit the setting - e.g. the Australian National University should not be depicted as an apple. New city designs, flags and tribe colours, an opening graphic, and other graphical enhancements would not go astray. 'Back to the Drawing Board' improvements 18. Spread the Wonders of the World around more evenly, extending happy WoWs amongst the seven tribes, so each may be played under Deity. Perhaps some of these may become obsolete upon certain events (as per Harlan Thompson's "Mongols" V.3.1). 19. Create a range of 'special significance' new terrain forms or zero-move units, such as Uluru (formerly Ayers Rock) or Kakadu, and provide them with either particularly advantageous statistics (if terrain) or value (if units - as per "Jules Verne" scenario). The city of 'Alice Springs' has a mountain in its city radius, however this particular landform extends the opportunity to do something more interesting given its 'spiritual significance' to Australian aboriginals (represented by the 'Nation of Mabo'). 20. Reverse the effect of the 'Lajamanu' event, where the Nation of Mabo lose the Rainbow Serpent. To illustrate, give the city of 'Darwin' Leonardo's Workshop plus a zero-move strong defensive unit…if Lajamanu is taken, then have Leonardo downgrade both the defensive unit and the Rainbow Serpent to more standard units through a 'givetechnology' event making those units obsolete. If an additional unit is required for the Nation of Mabo, the 'barbarian leader' from the 'Fantastic Worlds' (FW) Samurai scenario could be an option as the basis for such a unit (he may benefit from trousers rather than loincloth alone!), if not that graphic outright.

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