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SMAN's The Ancient World at War

Global Conflict from the Dawn of Civilization to the Enlightenment


The Ancient World at War (AWAW) is a comprehensive modification to Civ V (BNW) that adds a much deeper playing experience to the first half of the game. Using Earth’s example, the first half of the game depicts a part of history that should offer a wide variety of play. Civilizations hadn’t yet merged their societies together as they have in the second half of the game – where everyone’s cities and armies, etc., have all started to look alike. Unfortunately, basic Civ5 doesn’t quite strike the depths of these possibilities. AWAW seeks to change this by greatly expanding the gaming possibilities of the early part of the game.

The goal is to provide a significant expansion to existing game systems, but not to completely re-work the way the game normally plays. AWAW is not a “replacement game.” It is trying very hard NOT to be. The goal is to expand the gaming experience “vertically not horizontally” – meaning, it expands content by adding more to the types of things that are already in the game (Technologies, Units, Buildings, Wonders, Resources, Improvements, Religions), but not add new things or drastically change the way any of these existing systems behave.


AWAW is fully compatible with my other mod that covers the second half of the game: SMAN's The World at War.



New Features: As the mod seeks to greatly expand playability to the second half of the game, several new items have been made, designed to greatly expand playability in the second half of the game:

- New mid-game Era (The Enlightenment) has been added
- New Technologies (62 total) to improve complexity and variety to the late game
- New Units (69 total) to increase variety of playing styles
- New Buildings (83)
- New Wonders (19 total: 17 World and 2 National)
- New Resources (23 total: 14 map-based, 9 created by buildings)
- New Improvements (14)
- New Religions (15) – focusing on belief systems in place at the dawn of history
- New Unit naming feature – to increase player immersion in the game (coming soon)
- Strategic Resource amounts on the map are more variable, sometimes creating large amounts in a small portion of the map
- AI will upgrade its units more often
- AI and puppeted cities to produce buildings more often


If you're having trouble learning all the new content from the pictures above, please go to the Collaboration Site at the link below. Detailed information about AWAW is posted there for easier reference!



Companion Mods: There are several other mods designed specifically to work with the World at War, but they are optional - not required to play this mod. NOTE: none of these mods have been published yet, but the first three will be released soon:

1. "The Black Swan" – this mod adds an “events” system to the game. These events are varied, some good, some bad, some catastrophic. There are 31 events that range from plagues, tsunamis, flood, volcanos, bountiful harvests, Jubilees, etc.

2. "Soldiers of Fortune" – Adds Mercenary units to the game, 3 per Era (Ancient – Enlightenment). They are “purchased” using the City View UI. Contract lengths are dependent on game speed, with Mercenaries hired during Quick games lasting 15 turns, but on Marathon 80.

3. "On Human Bondage" – Adds the “Chain Gang” unit to the game. These units are similar to Workers, but at a slower work rate. They can’t be trained in cities, but they spawn when enemy cities are conquered or melee units defeated. They can revolt and become Barbarian units, especially if your empire is unhappy or there aren’t any combat units nearby.

4. "Unique Units" - Provides units for different civs, to provide a more accurate, historical look to their early units.

5. "End at .... Era Mods" - Five mods that all you to end an Ancient World at War game in that specific Era.



Scenarios: There are several scenarios planned (but not completed), covering a specific historical war in the time-frame of the first half of the game.
- The First, Second, and Third Punic Wars
- The Persian Invasions of Greece
- Caesar in Gaul
- Caesar in Britain
- Caesar's Civil War
- Last war of the Roman Republic
- The Roman Conquest of Britain
- The Conquest of Germania
- The Conquest of the Holy Lands
- The Crusades



Military Unit Evolution: The mod uses the same "Early > Main > Late" stages for units, as the World at War mod. See the slide labeled "AWAW Units - How They are Categorized" for more information.



Recommended Mods: “Quick Turns” by Krzyzyk, as the AI tends to produce large numbers of units.


Collaboration Site: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/smans-the-ancient-world-at-war-awaw.664974/


Direct Download Link: TBD



Notes:

- Requires Brave New World!

- Mod is in BETA status. In testing it has been pretty stable, but continue to expect changes in the future. One of the biggest issues will probably be 'balance...' After a few weeks of everyone playing/reporting issues, I do expect a major update, which will become V1.0, or the “baseline” version. If you’d like to help me improve the mod, please report bugs and suggestions here: LINK

- This mod makes plenty of changes to the game. If you're having any issues, please clear game cache then try the mod again. Instructions: https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/2422701461/4164113537233794675/

- This mod borrows heavily from my “World at War” family of mods. AWAW is compatible with the main WAW mod!

- Also, due to the wide range of changes, compatibility with other popular mods (VP, EUI, etc.) will be a problem. This decision was intention early on. In order to provide a unified, cohesive gaming experience, design priority was given to the elements within this mod. If that breaks compatibility, it was done to ensure at least this mod worked as designed.

- So, please don't ask me if this mod is compatible with mod 'X'! Try it yourself first, then let me know how it worked for you. Thanks.



Acknowledgements: Many, many previous modders deserve credit for the art, models, etc., appearing in this mod. The usual suspects, Horem, JFD, Bouncymischa, Snafusmith, Ekmek, Wolfdog, Nomad or What, Civitar, bernie14, Nutty, danrell, Lord Tirian, etc. – all contributed greatly to this mod.

Further thanks to Pouakai's (Enlightenment Era), Tomatekh & Emperor of Awesomeness (Religions).

Also, special thanks to my collaborators at Civfanatics on structuring AWAW: YINGCHENG, arievillo, askmarcoanything, MariusMagnus, DauntlessGuy, and Natan35.

And I would be completely in remiss if I didn't thank LeeS and whoward69 on Civfanatics for the extensive support provided on database adjustments and Lua scripting.

I will continue to add contributors to this list as I find them. If I've missed anyone, please let me know and I'll add them to this list.