Reading that old article I shared inspired me to action. First of all, I impulse-ordered the board game Polis. That story I will leave that story for another time. Second, I started digging through my ancients game libraries to see what I had for the Peloponnesian War. The answer is “not much” but the exercise of looking prompted a discovery.
I own the Great Battles Collectors Edition – twice over in fact. I bought the extra-thick, jewel case package when it was in the store and then the GOG version more recently. I also, as I told you about when I was trying to get a crash-free version of Caesar running, have found Ian’s Great Battles Homepage to be a prime source for patches and information. Although the site hasn’t been updated in about seventeen years, it is still up and running.
Among the patches, hints-and-tips, and other fun stuff provided there, there are several sections dedicated to scenario creation. There is a link to an editor how-to guide (which apparently did not survived the intervening decades) as well as a curated library of user-created scenarios. I have, of course, seen these over the years. However, the instructions for actually playing a download scenario always put me off.
You see, it is not just a matter of plopping scenario files into the right directory to play. Apparently non-stock scenarios have to be played by way of the scenario editor, itself not part of the original game. The instructions in getting all this to work involve contacting Ian by email for permission* to download one of the several files necessary to get the “Custom Scenario Player” to work.
As I say, I am sure I went through all this stuff before. But with the installation looking as complicated as it does, I must have given up. Not this time though.
![](https://ettubluto.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/spartathebes2.jpg?w=1024)
They key to success this time is that super-special editor file… I already have it. It was probably on my CD and it is definitely in my GOG installation. It didn’t work, mind you, but it was there. From the site, I then downloaded something called “Great Battles Scenario Player,” which is available in three pieces. I’m not sure I understand the hows and whys, but installing that piece allowed the scenario editor to launch and from there I found I could play a scenario called Last Man Standing. I don’t know if this was something that came with the original game or if I put it there myself a few years back… but there it was. It is a fantasy scenario which puts all the best generals of ancient times on the battlefield together for a grand slugfest.
Not exactly what I would look for to play but it was enough to let me know I could get the thing working.
Just to make sure, though, I downloaded another scenario. There is a set of five scenarios grouped together as “Sparta’s Conflicts” and I grabbed the first, Leuctra – 371 BC. This is a battle between Sparta and Thebes. The screenshot above shows those armies as they first engage.
So, success! Well almost.
The one problem in all of this is that all user-made scenarios, whatever era they are to take place in, use the Great Battles of Caesar iteration of the engine. At the time this game was current, this would have made sense. You would want to be using the “latest and greatest” version of the code. As I’ve complained, though, it is the Caesar version that is unstable for me on my current hardware/operating system combination.
Sure enough, I had two crashes in as many play-throughs. I have started a third game, which I haven’t finished… but it also hasn’t crashed yet. With the Caesar scenarios (the originals), some worked better than others. I explained before that, with frequent saving, I was able to make it through some. There were battles (I don’t recall the specifics) for which crashes were so frequent I gave up. My initial experience tells me these user-made scenarios will be playable with a little judiciously-applied effort.
The other mitigating factor is the way the games are scored. In Field of Glory 2, as a contrast, a battle can end very dramatically. I’ve often seen a battle line collapse suddenly so that a battle goes from winnable to disaster after a cascading chain of routes. While Great Battles uses very similar mechanics, with victory in both games based upon reaching a route threshold, my experience is that Great Battles battles see a steady progress towards victory. I think the key is that Great Battles doesn’t use the rule where a routing unit will cause morale checks on its neighbors, but there are probably other factors as well.
My point is that if Great Battles crashes in the next-to-last turn, I am able to shrug it off given that I knew that I was about to win anyway. For whatever reason, that victory screen gives me a little dopamine boost but, that aside, there is rarely anything dramatic that you’d miss out on if you lose the final turn to a game crash.
None of that, of course, addresses the Peloponnesian War. Unless I’m missing something, there are two user-made scenarios covering this conflict. That, too, I will save for a future post.
*The explanation is sensible. Ian did not want to violate anyone’s intellectual property rights but was also unable to contact anyone who was claiming the rights which used to belong to Interactive Magic. His solution was to keep track of to whom he gave copies of the executable. Later, if someone claimed ownership, he could square things up between the users he enabled and the owners. Given GOG’s takeover of what was, apparently, abandonware, I wonder if this still applies. I don’t know if there is anyone to answer website queries. It seems to me that anyone after that file could just pay GOG for the Great Battles Collection, assuming they don’t otherwise have it.