Empires of the Smoky Skies | Scenarios cgk Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

Discovering the steam engine caused the history of Earth to take a turn to an alternative route. Tracked vehicles like the Landship and Airships in the sky, all powered by steam and coal are a normal view, while ships powered by a strange green substance known as Luboric can be seen in the sea. Will you survive in the times of Steampunk? And most importantly, will you win?

Overall

The scenario doesn't resemble any others - it's not based on real events, but a variation on steampunk. Everything is powered by steam engines here - tracked vehicles, airships and ships on the sea.

Gameplay parameters: the map is SMALL, speed NORMAL, one turn last one year - you begin in 1800. The map in this scenario can be fully randomized; you have a list with available terrain. There are no free military or religious cities on the map; in fact religion is switched off completely. Strategic resources have been also changed - in place of Aluminium there's Aetherium and Uranium has been replaced with Luboric.

Each player begins with three groups of Settlers, two Workers, two Scouts and two Land Ironclads. Each group of Settlers starts a city with four citizens and a set of buildings including a Monument, Library and a couple more starting ones.

You have five fictional civilizations to choose from - each one of them reached the technology of Steam Engine. Each one also has a different bonus to a given aspect of the game and has a specific building to build, which gives more bonuses - developing a given technology gives access to it. Everyone also have all the technologies including the Industrial Age. The tree has been modified and all technologies are now connected with the power of steam.

You also receive three Spies at the start - it's worth to keep two in your own country to counter enemy Spies and send one to your enemies for information.

Players

You can choose from five fictional technocratic civilizations. Generally each one represents a different gameplay approach.

• Eruch - Tireless Guard - Most conquest-oriented party - Airships and Flying Fortresses are common later on in the game. Bonus: Airships get +2 moves. Special building: Aerodrome - (+15 EXP for each flying unit produced in the city, +10% production when building air units), replaces Airship Hangar which doesn't give production bonus.
• Dalmace - New World Order - A party favouring culture. You can't win culturally, but you can increase your advantages. Bonus: 10% less culture costs for Social Politics, Special building: Grandstand - (+4 happiness, +2 culture), replaces Stadium which doesn't boost culture.
• Orlin - Optimized Extractors - An industrial civilization which literally floods enemies with their units. Bonus: each strategic resource gives +1 production, additionally Luboric resources are doubled. Special building: Luboric Factory - (+2 Luboric, +2 production, each mined Luboric deposit gives +1 production), replaces Luboric Refinery, which gives only 2 Luboric units.
• Pulias - Border Markets - A civilization of merchants - later on in the game they commonly just buy units and buildings. Bonus: Each strategic resource gives +1 gold, additionally Aetherium resources are doubled. Special building: Aetherium Factory - (+2 Aetherium, +3 gold, each mined Aetherium deposit gives +1 gold), replaces Aetherium Plant which gives only 2 Aetherium units.
• Vedria - Inventor's Guild - A typical technocracy, focusing mainly on developing technologies, which results in a special building. Bonus: buildings in the capital produce 25% more. Special building: Toric Dynamo - (+3 gold, +50% science from the city) replaces Tesla Coil, which gives only 33% science.

Technology

The tech tree is completed all the way to the Industrial Age. The most important invention is the Steam Engine - because of it, from the start we will be able to build Railroads, Land Ironclads and ... Landships.

It's where the new steam technology tree begins - anyone who's ever played a game set in this scenery should have an idea of what technologies can be found on it. The new technologies are divided into three eras - steam, airship and future.

At start we can build three industrial age wonders: Louvre, Big Ben and The Brandenburg Gate. As you discover new technologies, you will gain access to new ones (most of the real) like The Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, as well as the Analog Machine or Perpetual Mobile.

There are as many orders of discovering the technologies as there are gameplay strategies. I described the technologies order for each party:

• Playing as Eruch, you should focus on getting Airships before anyone else does - later on you can just destroy them. The first thing to develop should be the Propulsion giving access to the first flying unit - Flyer. Afterwards in any order you like (if available): Economic Imperialism, Explosives, Expeditions and Landships. Afterwards enter the Airship Age by inventing the Airship which will give you a military advantage, thanks to the modern army and civilization bonuses. It's good to push forward and invent the Sky Fortress - for them you will need the Hellish Ignition, Uranography and Land Leviathan. Of course don't forget about production - here the Analog Computation and the building it provides - Difference Engine - will come in handy. Additionally on your way you should build a Patent office. With that, you have all the important things invented: Land-Leviathan, Sky Fortress, Flyers which operates from it, as well as Battleships and Submarines.
• Playing as Orlin or Pulias your big advantage will be developing production. The first technology should be Analog Computation and the Difference Engine. Afterwards reaching the Patent office - develop Propulsion and Explosives followed by Landship. Further gameplay depends on how you want to dominate your enemies - technologically or militarily. For military look above, for technology below.
• Playing as Vedria, which focuses on technology, you have a wide spectrum of choices to play with. The basic thing is developing Analog Computation, placing a Difference Engine in all cities and an Analytical Engine in the capital. It will give you a big boost to science and production. Of course don't forget about the other aspects - building Libraries and Universities should also interest you. The next step should be developing your special building, the Toric Dynamo, for which you need: Economic Imperialism, Propulsion, Explosives, Vertical Integration, Expeditions (gives a nice building: the Trade Academy giving science and culture), Submarines, Noblesse Oblige and Airships. That will give you the chance to develop Galvanometrics and afterwards Toric Dynamo (or Tesla Coil if you're playing as someone else). With these buildings, you will be light years away from others with technology.
• Dalmace doesn't have a specific way of discovering technologies. You can use any of the above ones - additionally you can focus on culture in cities and place proper buildings, but that won't give you a large advantage either way.

Social Policies

You have five trees to choose from. Each is available to anyone from the very beginning. You can connect points from given trees. Each represents a given aspect of a country - production, army, commerce etc. At the beginning, right after building the first city it is worth to allocate policies - you have Culture for three points.

• Labour tree - Shoulder to shoulder: +10% production when building a wonder, population of new cities is 1 larger, Aristocracy: +15% production when building a wonder, +1 to happiness for every 10 citizens, Securalism: +2 do science for each specialist, Democracy: the population of specialists generates half unhappiness, Educated elite: allied City-State will occasionally grant you with Great people.
• Culture tree - Mandate of Heaven: half of happiness is added to culture, Reformation: Culture grows 33% in cities with a wonder, additionally start a Golden Age, Legalism: provides a free culture building in your first 4 cities, Representation: Each next city increases the cost of new policies by 33% less, additionally starts a Golden Age. After accepting Reformation and Representation you can add Religious Tolerance, which will lower the cost of further policies by 10%.
• Industry tree - Socialism: building maintenance cost reduced by 15%, Communism: +2 production in each city, +1 production for each mine and quarry, Republic: +1 production in each city, +5% production when constructing buildings, Planned Economy: Factories increase the science in cities by 25%, +50% production when constructing Factories, Fascism: The amount of Strategic resources doubles, Great Generals have +2 moves.
• Commerce tree - Trade union: Cost of road and railroad maintenance reduced by 33% Harbours and Seaports give additionally +1 gold, Free Speech: free maintenance for 8 units, Meritocracy: +1 happiness in each city with a trade route to the capital, lower unhappiness in unoccupied cities, Mercantilism: prices of units and buildings lowered by 25%, +1 science for each bank, market, mint and stock market, Protectionism: +2 happiness for each exclusive good.
• Military tree - Discipline: +15% combat strength for military units with another military unit in an adjacent space. Military Tradition: units gain 50% more experience, Nationalism: +15% attack when fighting on an allied space, Discipline and Military Tradition lead to Professional Army: upgrading units costs 33% less and +1 happiness for each defensive building, Military Tradition and Nationalism lead to Militarism: cost of buying units reduced by 33%.

Overall the policies are grouped so that each civilization can focus on one of them. The Vedria however doesn't have its own tree, while bonuses to production are always welcomed.

Victory

Basically you can win in two ways - by wiping out all the opponents or diplomatically, by becoming the leader of the League of Empires. The latter one is easy - you just have to hold three titles (form the below ones) for five turns:

• Defender of Progress - the leader is whoever has the most modern army. Only the best models count - whenever someone manages to build a better, older ones stop counting. Easy to achieve with well developed technology.
• Grand Philanthropist - the leader is whoever has the most world and national wonders. That's why you should start building wonder form the very beginning, and in case someone beats you, you can always conquer his city...
• Captain of Industry - the leader is whoever has the most industrialized city. The task is childishly easy - if the city is placed around hills, has a Factory and other improvements, it should gather over 100 production points without any problems.
• Lord of Refinement - the leader is whoever has the most social policies. Generally it's worth to try it only when playing as Dalmace because of their bonus - otherwise you won't succeed in other fields.
• Master of Wealth - the leader is whoever earned the most gold from the start of the game. The amount shown here is the sum of all INCOMES from the very start of the scenario.

Whenever you get three titles (it's rather easy), your neighbours will start being problematic almost instantly. They will stop trusting you and start condemning and will try to take your place in at least one title. You have to survive five turns of their attempts to win the scenario.