Duel of the Gods - Version 3.0 - Author's Edition - 14-Feb-97 - Bob Heeter

** Readme:  Scenario Information and Historical Background **

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

This scenario was designed for four-player human PBEM games,
particularly the World Championship Tournament.  The Tournament
army set is very fast and the map is almost completely 
symmetric, so balance should be good, making for a very 
interesting and relatively quick game, even with the full-size
50-city map.  The AI does not cope very well with the army
set or scenario setup, so I do *not* recommend this
scenario for play against the computer.  I specifically
configured the scenario for games with 2 heroes per side
(with the second hero arriving only on Turn 2)
and with any razing or quest option.
I recommend using the enclosed gamefiles in which the ruin
contents have been edited for balance and to match the
ruin descriptions.  Enjoy!  


-- Background:  The Duel of the Ancient Gods --

It is the late 22nd century, and humanity has mastered the Earth.
Energy and biotechnology, harnessed worldwide, 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 the ancient gods became hedonistic vacation spas, 
while humanity neglects even advanced technology, growing soft
with general contentment - though the usual political scandals and
petty jealousies simmer as always beneath the calm surface
of society.  Indeed, the ancient laws of morality have nearly 
been forgotten, along with the ancient religions and their gods,
and humanity is content merely to exist in peaceful bliss,
having conquered curiosity, closed Pandora's box, and
recreated the Garden of Eden on its own.

But the ancient gods are not dead, they have merely been
sleeping, and if Man was created in God's image, then 
of course the Gods are all too human in their nature.
The ancient gods awaken from several millenia of slumber -
for even the gods must rest sometime - and they see that 
Man has matched them and forgotten them!  What is this?  
Where are the temples, the churches, the sacrifices and 
monuments and pyramids?  Man may have matched their 
talents, but humanity has never seen their jealous wrath 
so violently inflamed!  If humanity no longer needs the 
mercy of the Gods, then it must be taught to fear their wrath!

Yahweh, ancient god of the Hebrews, and once also revered as 
"God" by the Christians and "Allah" by the Moslems, awakens
in the northwest, incarnate and in a terrible rage, his angry
breath blowing forth in a plague of locusts and monsoon floods.  
Zeus, king of the Greek and Roman pantheon, emerges in a flash 
of lightning and thunder upon Mount Olympus in the northeast.  
And Ra, the mighty Sun God of the Egyptians, billows forth 
from the Great Pyramid in the southeast!

Concealed in their mountain retreats from the blissfully 
ignorant eyes of the humans, the Gods consider the situation.
Humanity must be punished, Armageddon must come, but how?
The ancient gods are indeed a vain lot, and even after thousands
of years they still cannot agree which of them is the strongest 
and who deserves to be glorified most!  Yahweh declares that 
he is the mightiest and sets forth to prove it, but Zeus 
scatters lightning at his feet and Ra merely chuckles as 
Yahweh hot-foots it back to his castle.  Ra then suggests 
that since the humans must be punished, but the gods cannot 
agree how or by whom, then there should be a contest, an 
epic struggle, indeed a mythic duel of nightmare and terror:  
in the end, only one god will rule, and humanity will kneel 
before that god in submissive terror forevermore!

The Duel of the Ancient Gods is thus decided upon.  The battleground
is all the new Earth, and the gods recall their favorite and
most terrifying mythic powers as they plot their duel.  From ghosts 
of military geniuses to vicious, hideous creatures of nightmare, the
gods summon forth their mighty armies and lead them into battle.
The gods even begin to enslave those gibbering souls who once were
immoral and impertinently atheistic humans, but happened to live
too close to the deities' strongholds, and who now submit to the
will of the gods in abject terror for their very souls.  Thus 
the gods harness their human subjects with the yoke of war, that 
they may power the engines of war and produce even more of the 
great creatures of myth and legend with which the Gods will 
do battle...

And yet, the gods in their wounded pride remain blindly arrogant!
Though most of the humans cower in their cities when the gods
first burst from their mountain retreats, a small number resist.
Even in the age of blissful contentment there are those who 
remember the lore of the ancient technologies and consider 
spiritual and personal freedom worth the price of their lives, and 
one by one they sneak to the ancient research labs of the southwest,
where they harness nearly-forgotten human powers that the Gods in 
their slumber never noticed, and convert the technologies which 
redefined their world into weapons to defend it.  

The humans, too, can create creatures of myth and legend.  
The humans, too, can Duel with the Ancient Gods.

The earth is now a stadium for the most intense contest of all
eternity!  Will Yahweh, Zeus, or Ra be the one to punish their impudent
children, or will the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve prove that
the creators are no longer the masters of the world?  The world is
indeed a stadium, but with one minor difference - all the spectators 
are trapped on the field of battle, and the price of defeat is death
and everlasting damnation!  This is not a war about bravery or 
chivalry, it is about treacherous survival and the everlasting 
glory which only the survivors will ever remember!  Yes indeed, a 
mighty battle is brewing...


-- 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-hero
limit, and as this should be a duel of "gods", 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, and then Patrick Domning
and Ivan Baird ported the Deluxe files back to the Mac 
and PC-Classic versions that are now available.  Whew!


-- Caveats --
Warlords' behavior may be slightly weird when you first 
start a game.  Save the game and then open the saved-game 
and life should get better.  I don't think there are any
outright bugs left in the scenario.



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

