Sponsor: T-hawk
Opening Date: Monday, June 2
Duration: Three Weeks
Map Generation: Edited

Civ: Arabia
World Size: Small
Map: Continents, 20% land
Climate: Arid, Warm
Barbarians: Roaming
Difficulty: Monarch
Victory: Space
Opponents: Ottomans, Egypt, Rome, England, France

Scenario Concept: Five-City Challenge, building all five cities as well as you can. All of the Five Pillars of your Arabian civilization are equally important. None must fall behind the others. The main scoring factor is the cultural value of the LOWEST of your five cities.

Variant Rules: Your civilization may never possess more than five cities at the end of a turn. You may temporarily acquire a sixth city (via conquest, flip, propaganda, cession, etc), as long as you get down to five before ending your turn. You may not temporarily acquire a seventh city (and thus cannot build the Forbidden Palace.)

Scoring: The main scoring factor is the cultural value of your fifth-highest cultured city in 1802 AD, or at game end if that comes earlier. (You must have all five cities to receive these points.)

Historically, 1802 AD was the end of the ancient Arabian lines of government, when the Wahhabi sect conquered Mecca, throwing the region into disarray until later reunification under the Saudis. The cultural achievements of your Arabia will be judged at this date. (But instead of being conquered, your Arabia will hopefully go on to space.)

If your game ends before 1802 AD, use the cultural status as of the end date, plus a baseline value of 20/turn for each turn before 1802. Most wins probably won't occur so soon, given 20% land, a dry climate, and the variant restrictions, but this is here to compensate for anyone that does win early. The other victory types are disabled to allow maximum time for culture building before the day of reckoning.

Bonus score:
500 points: Victory
100 points: Each of the five slots in the F11 Top Five Cities list occupied by one of your cities at game's end
200 points: Extra bonus for possessing all five Top Cities
100 points: Each of the four Ages in which you commit no dastardly acts
100 points: Extra bonus for playing the entire game Honorably. Note that acquiring a sixth city and then abandoning it would be dastardly. Giving it away to another civilization would not be dishonorable.

Strategy: For a Five-City Challenge, careful management of your limited economy and resources is key. You'll have only one core, with no Forbidden Palace. Even on Monarch difficulty, you'll have to trade well to keep up and acquire the technologies and resources for the spaceship launch. Remember that colonies are unrestricted and can be a powerful tool to acquire extra trading leverage. You'll want to carefully select your city locations, of course, and build a strong ancient culture base in each. How to pursue the scoring options is up to you.

Good luck!

Closing Day: Monday, June 23. Reports due on June 23 or 24.

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