Game Mods

I have done some experiments in creating limited, targeted scenarios for Civilization IV for teaching in my intro to Roman culture class, with varying degrees of success. One scenario revolves around the Year of the Four Emperor (the link is to the case study); the scenario itself was originally posted at Civfanatics.com. The other concerns the Rise of Rome during the Monarchy and the early Republic. I developed both of these to combat some fallacious reasoning by my students (’of course Rome won the early wars because it later was an Empire’). Civ IV does not of course aim to be historically accurate – one of the more entertaining ‘blips’ in the Year of the Four Emperors scenario is when the student plays as anybody other than Vespasian – and the computer AI has Vespasian convert to Judaism. These ‘blips’ make for excellent teachable moments…

I intend, as time and energy allow, to post more scenarios for Civ. I’m also playing Caesar IV right now. This game allows for scenario building too, although the game’s packaged ‘missions’ could easily be incorporated into a class as-is.

A screen shot from ‘The Year of the Four Emperors’.

By the way, there’s a bit of a difference between a ‘mod’ and a plain-old scenario. A ‘mod’ actually changes the rules of how the game is played, while a scenario just rearranges the pieces on the board a bit. If you like your Civ playing to have an ancient Mediterranean feel, why not check out The Ancient Mediterranean Mod?

I’ve also posted a brief discussion with links to tools and utilities for scenario creation here. Happy modding!

Caesar IV Scenarios

Forum Novum – a market centre in the Sabine Hills

I worked there on excavation once, and I’ve always been fascinated by the place. It’s located up in the Sabine Hills, north of Rome. More about Forum Novum here, and a google map centred on the ancient site here.

I want to use Caesar IV as a simulation to explore Roman economics. The idea is, I’ll get my students to play this scenario, and in playing it, it highlight/contrast game mechanics with the current understanding of how the Roman economy works (if you think modern economic thought is dry, you ain’t seen nuthin’ till you’ve read the ancient version… gaming economics ought to be way more fun for my students!)

The snapshot below shows one of my trial runs of the scenario, trying to play from the start with buildings that are known archaeologically to have existed: an amphitheatre, a forum, a basilica, a temple complex, a largish villa, and a water pool at the end of an aqueduct arriving from the mountains. Notice the lack of houses – it seems that, in real life, the people of Forum Novum lived up in the hills and only came down on market days.

The task for the student is to try to make a faithful recreation of Forum Novum work in the game – and so highlight the contrasts between the game’s economics and actual Roman economics… or to reject that entirely and make a town that works from the game’s point of view – and so highlighting the same contrasts, which ultimately will help the student’s grasp of Roman economic history.