In any battle to conquer the world, the force with the better technology will have an advantage. In this map each of the four contenders for world dominance has a 'tech tree' which represents technological developments they can invent.

Discussion

Discuss strategy and tactics, report bugs, see what has changed in the most recent release of this map, and more in the forums:

http://www.wargear.net/forum/showthread/2387/Invention_discussion

Barbarians Scenario

In this scenario you control a tribe of pre-civilization barbarians. Before you can start earning technological advancements, you must conquer a capital city. But there are only 4 capitals and once you take one you expose your self to sudden death if you lose all your capitals. This scenario also gives 3 tech points for capital, continent & super continent (default scenario is 2 for each). This scenario includes view borders from every lab to the possession indicators.

Technological Advancements

Tech points are deposited in your flask at the beginning of each turn, and can be spent advancing the technology of your civilization. There are three ways to earn tech points.

#1) The size of your empire.

3 tech point for having your capital city.

3 tech point for having your continent.

3 tech point for having your super-continent.

#2) Computers (Science Tech #3)

3 tech points for having your 'Computers' tech.

#3) Laboratories

Laboratories are territories with a flask in them. They earn tech points for each capital city you control, and have a synergestic affect. Laboratories produce units in the flask of each continent you control.

You earn:

1 tech point for each laboratory

1 tech point for each pair of laboratory

if you have: you get:

Labs Tech

1 1

2 3

3 6

4 10

5 15

6 21

7 28

8 36

9 45

10 55

Use your tech points to explore the three branches of technology: Life, Science, and War.

Technological Advancments

War (red)

Use tech points to 'manufacture' the weapons (i.e. you attack right from the war tech points with an artillary border).

Artillery: +1 attack to all territories within continent

Missile: +1 attack to all territories within super continent

ICBM: +1 attack to all territories on map (not capitals)

Nuclear ICBM: +2 attack to all territories on map. (not capitals)

Espionage: +0 attack capitals w/artillery & -1 attack enemy tech directly (regular, non-artillery border)

Science (blue)

Radar: view territories within super continent

Flight: fortify within the super continent

Computers: +3 tech points at the beginning of each turn

Satellite: view entire map except capital cities

Advanced Flight: fortify anywhere in the entire world

Attack from Flight to capture your plane. Your plane can fortify between any territory in your super continent.

Attack from Advanced Flight to capture your jet. Your jet can fortify anywhere in the world.

Life (green)

Bonus units are placed automatically at the beginning of your turn

Sanitation: +1 in capital city

Vaccines: +3 in capital city

Nationalism: +1 in every controlled territory in continent.

Conscription: +1 in every controlled territory in Super Continent

Propaganda: +2 in every controlled territory in Super Continent

Continent Bonuses

Each continent earns units equal to the # of territories in the continent divided by two, rounded up.

Each super-continent earns units equal to the # of continents in the super continent.

Other Rules

Starting setup

3 neutrals in single territory continents

2 neutrals in a territory if the continent has 2 or less territories.

3 randoms everywhere else

6 neutrals in the capitals

2 neutrals in the territories next to capitals.

Each civilization has different advantages.

UK - Science technologies start with 2 less neutrals each

USA - War technologies start with 3 less neutrals each

Africa - 1 less neutral in capital

Asia - Life technologies start with 3 less neutrals each

Historical Context

(Thank you wikipedia)

War (red)

Artillery

The earliest battlefield use of indirect fire was probably at Paltzig in July 1759: the Russian artillery fired over the tops of trees."[13] Artillery continued to gain prominence in the 18th Century when Jean-Baptiste de Gribeauval, a French artillery engineer introduced the standardization of cannon design. He developed a 6-inch (150 mm) field howitzer whose gun barrel, carriage assembly and ammunition specifications were made uniform for all French cannons. The standardized interchangeable parts of these cannons down to the nuts, bolts and screws made their mass production and repair much easier.

From the 1860s artillery was forced into a series of rapid technological and operational changes, accelerating through the 1870s and thereafter. The first effective breech-loader (allowing a higher rate of fire while keeping the detachment behind the gun) was developed in 1855 by Sir William Armstrong, and accepted for British service in 1859. The first cannon to contain all 'modern' features is generally considered to be the French 75 of 1897 with its cased ammunition, effective breech-loading, modern sights, self-contained firing mechanism, and hydro-pneumatic recoil dampening.

Missile

In 1943, production of the V-2 rocket began. The V-2 had an operational range of 300 km (190 mi) and carried a 1000 kg (2204 lb) warhead, with an amatol explosive charge. Highest point of altitude of its flight trajectory is 90 km. The vehicle was only different in details from most modern rockets, with turbopumps, inertial guidance and many other features. Thousands were fired at various Allied nations, mainly England, as well as Belgium and France. While they could not be intercepted, their guidance system design and single conventional warhead meant that the V-2 was insufficiently accurate against military targets. The later versions however, were more accurate, sometimes within metres, and could be devastating.[42] 2,754 people in England were killed, and 6,523 were wounded before the launch campaign was terminated. While the V-2 did not significantly affect the course of the war, it provided a lethal demonstration of the potential for guided rockets as weapons.

ICBM

An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a long range (greater than 5,500 km or 3,500 miles). ICBMs are differentiated by having greater range and speed than other ballistic missiles. The development of the world's first practical design for an ICBM, A9/10, intended for use in bombing New York and other American cities, was undertaken in Nazi Germany by the team of Wernher von Braun under Projekt Amerika.

Nuclear ICBM

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission ("atomic") bomb test released the same amount of energy as approximately 20,000 tons of TNT. The first thermonuclear ("hydrogen") bomb test released the same amount of energy as approximately 10,000,000 tons of TNT.[1]

Only two nuclear weapons have been used in the course of warfare, both by the United States near the end of World War II. On 6 August 1945, a uranium gun-type device code-named "Little Boy" was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, on 9 August, a plutonium implosion-type device code-named "Fat Man" was exploded over Nagasaki, Japan. These two bombings resulted in the deaths of approximately 200,000 Japanese people?mostly civilians?from acute injuries sustained from the explosions.[3] The role of the bombings in Japan's surrender, and their ethical status, remain the subject of scholarly and popular debate.

Espionage

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information.

Espionage is usually part of an institutional effort by a government or corporation, and the term is most readily associated with state spying on potential or actual enemies primarily for military purposes.

Incidents of espionage are well documented throughout history. The ancient writings of Chinese and Indian military strategists such as Sun-Tzu and Chanakya contain information on deception and subversion. Chanakya's student Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the Maurya Empire in India, made use of assassinations, spies and secret agents, which are described in Chanakya's Arthasastra.

The Cold War involved intense espionage activity between the United States of America and its allies and the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China and their allies, particularly related to nuclear weapons secrets.

Science (blue)

Radar

As early as 1886, Heinrich Hertz showed that radio waves could be reflected from solid objects. In 1895 Alexander Popov, a physics instructor at the Imperial Russian Navy school in Kronstadt, developed an apparatus using a coherer tube for detecting distant lightning strikes.

In August 1917 Nikola Tesla outlined a concept for primitive radar units.[8] He stated, "[...] by their [standing electromagnetic waves] use we may produce at will, from a sending station, an electrical effect in any particular region of the globe; [with which] we may determine the relative position or course of a moving object, such as a vessel at sea, the distance traversed by the same, or its speed."

Before the Second World War, researchers in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, independently and in great secrecy, developed technologies that led to the modern version of radar. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa followed prewar Great Britain, and Hungary had similar developments during the war.

Flight

Almost as soon as they were invented, planes were drafted for military service. The first country to use planes for military purposes was Italy, whose planes made reconnaissance, bombing and shelling correction military flights during the Italian-Turkish war (September 1911 ? October 1912), in Libya. First mission (a reconnaissance) happened on 23 October 1911. First bombing of enemy columns was the 1st November 1911.[37] Then Bulgaria followed this example. Its planes attacked and reconnoitered the Ottoman positions during the First Balkan War 1912?13. The first war to see major use of planes in offensive, defensive and reconnaissance capabilities was World War I. The Allies and Central Powers both used planes extensively.

Computers

The bipolar transistor was invented in 1947. From 1955 onwards transistors replaced vacuum tubes in computer designs. The explosion in the use of computers began with "third-generation" computers, making use of Jack St. Clair Kilby's and Robert Noyce's independent invention of the integrated circuit (or microchip), which led to the invention of the microprocessor. While the subject of exactly which device was the first microprocessor is contentious, partly due to lack of agreement on the exact definition of the term "microprocessor", it is largely undisputed that the first single-chip microprocessor was the Intel 4004, released by Intel Corporation in 1971.

Satellite

A spy satellite (officially referred to as a reconnaissance satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications.

These are essentially space telescopes that are pointed toward the Earth instead of toward the stars. The first generation type (i.e. Corona and Zenit) took photographs, then ejected canisters of photographic film, which would descend to earth.

Advanced Flight

A jet aircraft is an aircraft (nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft) propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft generally fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes ? as high as 10,000?15,000 metres (33,000?49,000 ft). At these altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency over long distances. The engines in propeller-powered aircraft achieve their maximum efficiency at much lower altitudes. Some jet aircraft can move faster than sound.

Life (green)

Sanitation

The germ theory of disease, also called the pathogenic theory of medicine, is a theory that proposes that microorganisms are the cause of many diseases. Although highly controversial when first proposed, germ theory was validated in the late 19th century and is now a cornerstone of modern medicine and clinical microbiology, leading to such important innovations as antibiotics and hygienic practices.

The technique of purification of drinking water by use of compressed liquefied chlorine gas was developed in 1910 by a U.S. Army Major.

Vaccines

Sometime during the 1770s Edward Jenner heard a milkmaid boast that she would never have the often-fatal or disfiguring disease smallpox, because she had already had cowpox, which has a very mild effect in humans. In 1796, Jenner took pus from the hand of a milkmaid with cowpox, inoculated an 8-year-old boy with it, and six weeks later variolated the boy's arm with smallpox, afterwards observing that the boy did not catch smallpox.

The twentieth century saw the introduction of several successful vaccines, including those against diphtheria, measles, mumps, and rubella. Major achievements included the development of the polio vaccine in the 1950s and the eradication of smallpox during the 1960s and 1970s.

Nationalism

Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity

The term nationalism was coined by Johann Gottfried Herder (nationalismus) during the late 1770s.[19] Precisely where and when nationalism emerged is difficult to determine, but its development is closely related to that of the modern state and the push for popular sovereignty that surfaced with the French Revolution and the American Revolution in the late 18th century and culminated with the ethnic/national revolutions of Europe, for instance the Greek War of Independence.[16] Since that time, nationalism has become one of the most significant political and social forces in history, perhaps most notably as a major influence or postulate of World War I and especially World War II. Fascism is a form of authoritarian nationalism which stresses absolute loyalty and obedience to the state, whose purpose is to serve the interests of its nation alone.

Conscription

Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. The modern system of near-universal national conscription for young men dates to the French Revolution in the 1790s, where it became the basis of a very large and powerful military.

It is estimated by the British military that in a professional military, one company deployed for active duty in peacekeeping corresponds to three inactive companies at home. Salaries for each are paid from the military budget. In contrast, volunteers from a trained reserve are in their civilian jobs when they are not deployed.

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group.

As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda, in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda is often biased, with facts selectively presented (thus possibly lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political, or other type of agenda. Propaganda can be used as a form of political warfare.

While the term propaganda has acquired a strongly negative connotation by association with its most manipulative and jingoistic examples, propaganda in its original sense was neutral, and could refer to uses that were generally benign or innocuous, such as public health recommendations, signs encouraging citizens to participate in a census or election, or messages encouraging persons to report crimes to the police, among others.

Acknowledgements

I'd like to thank Alpha, CK66, Cona Chris & Livia for their help in debugging and playtesting.