Dawn of the Punic Sea [DoC]

The Great Lighthouse goes up, and with it, our economy.



Hannibal hires a new company of mercenaries to reinforce the garrison at Rome.
Most of them are from Africa but several are from Asia Minor as well.
Also, note Jerusalem being swallowed up by a sea of Phoenician culture.



Ain't that nice?
DoC now alerts the player if they fail a UHV condition.
Depending on your outlook on life, this may have side effects,
ranging from severe depression to more endless playthroughs.



Pompeii goes up in flames as the Phoenician coalition enters the
chariots burst through the gates.



Caesar stands outside the gates of Byzantion with his army, out for blood.
To have shamed him so much through the loss of southern Italy, Hannibal would surely pay.
He had roused up the citizenry to reinforce the ranks of his Legions.
And although the ghost march through Illyria was grueling, it was worth it,
now that he had caught the Phoenician-Greeks here with their fustanellas down.
The dictator gave the order to fire, and watched his missiles rain across the enemy walls.

Okay. So, in previous versions of DoC, post-Mandate Armies, a player playing an ancient Med. nation could circumvent Roman conquerors via DoWing them, as Mandate Armies only worked when Rome DoWed a nation as the aggressor.
However, this "exploit" seems to have been fixed. So I got a pretty nasty surprise when Rome showed up at
my gates with Legions about 7-8 turns after my declaration and I wasn't expecting it.
You've been warned.

I think whipping two axes should do, or is the AI smart enough to attack without bombarding?

Thankfully, we're able to whip some Axes in time to fend off the Roman assault.
The AI indeed bombards your cities, if it happens to perceive that it will take a little more
than just a full-on bum rush to take your city.
You can delay an assault with Walls & Castles, the latter of which isn't really that great,
but Castles are actually pretty sweet and a little underrated despite their good Trade Route and Espionage bonus.



Uhhh.... I wouldn't want to be Egypt right now.
And this, folks, is why we settled our capital off of the mainland.



Babylon has been razed by the barbarians.
And that Egyptian army is soon going to be messed up twice over sideways.
Seriously, the overhauled barbarians in the latest versions of DoC are no joke.
And we haven't seen the worst of them yet.
Also, as you can see from this shot, Rome collapses from all of Hannibal's victories over them.
Caesar flees into parts of the world unknown, swearing revenge against the immortal Phoenician.



And the desert barbarians capture Jerusalem.
I'm not really surprised.



Hannibal directs his army to annihilate the last remnants of Roman resistance.
This will be a slow, protracted war, and the fact that Caesar remains out there
in the world at large is worrisome.

so far so good. and your capital is powerful i say. no shortage of commerce or hammers. and food. even worse: all trade is overseas trade for it. it is likely what keeps your economy afloat.

Why are you building walls? The AI never naval assaults one tile islands.

My guess would be to be able to build a castle, for the traderoute (and espionage)

mayor said:

My guess would be to be able to build a castle, for the traderoute (and espionage)

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makes sense.

Mediolanum is seized and burned to the ground.
As Hannibal watches his mercenaries pillage the city,
he gazes sternly over the Italian peninsula.
He can't rest until Caesar is dead.
But no one had the slightest clue on his whereabouts.
The merchants who regularly frequented Persian and Egyptian lands
were always asking for him, but they would never get answers.
Not that Hannibal had any shortage of threats anyway.
Germanic barbarians to the north and a persistent pirate problem
always kept his motley crew occupied.



...After seeing those Barbarians, uhhh, no thank you.
Even if I kept it for The Temple of Solomon, a Jerusalem-exclusive Wonder,
that doubles shrine income, it wouldn't have been worth the hassle,
in the case of Phoenicia anyway, where I have a city just 2 diagonal tiles away.



A splinter group from the Punic Pantheon have conceived a new religion.
This religion would be dedicated to the exclusive worship of Ba'al-Hammon, the Sky-Father.
This religion would be known as Ba'alism and its center, the heart of Rome.



We settle Utica. It has a little overlap with Byzantion (1 workable tile), but for the most part, it's okay.



Yes! We want Iron Working!

Tomorrow's Dawn said:

Yes! We want Iron Working!

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Good update...but why in the world did you trade for iron working when you were only two turns away from researching it?

Moshe Dayan said:

Good update...but why in the world did you trade for iron working when you were only two turns away from researching it?

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thats two turns he can spend researching some other tech.

^It does not matter in the long run since you can expect most of the antiquated civs to die.
It is practically a guarantee with all ancient civs except for Tamils and China.
Plus, I get the relations boost.



Ankyra wants to join the Phoenician Empire,
but like in the case of Jerusalem, we aren't exactly stupid.
I'll be happy to pick up that free Archer though.



Despite his predisposition towards the perfection of the human form for both himself and his soldiers,
Hannibal held a great appreciation for learning, the humanities and the sciences.
Thus, he ordered the completion of The Great Library in Kition.



There is now a tab in your Economy Manager called "Stability".
This page will show you all the hidden factors that go into calculating
your stability, so you won't be confused about why you're dropping.
Phoenicia, as I found out, gets a huge arbitrary dip because of "Historicity".
Later in the game, I got a -12 Stability alone from defying the "Historicity" rating.



We trade with Cyrus again.



Ramesses II seeks the protection of Hannibal.
Although Hannibal had no designs in Egypt, the offer was too good to pass up.
Thus, Phoenicia and Egypt became joined at the hip.

Interesting story. I dont have civ iv so I can't play RFC, but atleast I can read these thrilling stories until Rhye makes a version for civ v. Anyway can't wait to see where this story goes.

Moar tech trades.
Ramesses proved to be a good friend to Hannibal,
consistently providing him with his peoples' know-how
in exchange for the Phoenicians' goods.
Ramesses himself reigned with a stable and fair hand,
aided by the protection of the Phoenicians.
In his private life, he married a Greek noblewoman
and often retired to his summer home in Niwt-Rst.
One day though, Ramesses made a private visit to Kition to meet with Hannibal over a drink.



"I've known you for a long time, Hannibal, ever since you first took reign of Phoenicia."
"What brought this on, Ramesses?"
"I have a confession to make." the pharaoh paused for dramatic effect. "I hear the Firaxis calling me, old friend."
"The Firaxis?"
"It's the force that developed this world.
You'll start to feel it after a certain amount of time. It pulls on you, and tells you that it's time to go.
It's inevitable. It's the fate of all Immortals."
"Time to go? You mean... die?"
"Not die. I know it's not death. But we just go away. Where to, I don't know. But it'll happen to me soon."
"What will happen to Egypt then?" Hannibal queried.
"My daughter will take over the reins when I'm gone. She too, has inherited the Immortal spark."



True to his word, Ramesses disappeared mysteriously without a trace
as Hannibal was overseeing the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Roma.
He mourned the loss of his friend but found a strange solace in that he knew Ramesses was not dead.
The Firaxis made him ponder though. What was it?



Hannibal could not believe his eyes when he first laid sight of her.
This was Ramesses' daughter, Cleopatra.
As he was spirited away by the Firaxis, it was only because of his young Immortal daughter that the peace in Egypt had been kept.
Like Egypt, and her father before her, Cleopatra was steadfastly loyal to Hannibal,
and he soon became taken with her as she seized his heart with her intelligence, talent and beauty.
As the years went by, Hannibal proposed to Cleopatra to become his bride,
and as she consented, he felt as if he were the happiest man in the world.
The other leader of the known world, Cyrus, was in attendance at the wedding to congratulate the new couple as well as to affirm the lasting peace in the known world.

And it appeared that the world would forever stay in a state of serene calm,
like the warm, life-giving waters of the Mediterranean Sea.





In recent years, a new religion emerged from the Phoenician sea.
The adherents of this religion chiefly worshipped Tanit, the Phoenician lunar goddess.
While the Phoenician interior was relatively harmonious as the two religions complemented each other,
the two opposite religions would set up the stage for future conflicts between other nations to come.

How do you get that much happiness in Roma?

strijder20 said:

How do you get that much happiness in Roma?

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strijder! You've been in love with City States for so long, that you forgot the basics!
Hereditary Rule is my solution for happiness (And quite possibly the best diplo civic as most leaders like fellow monarchs).
I kept about 5-6 units in Roma to placate to population.



A war with Ethiopia had been underway for some time.
Hannibal had no doubt that his capable wife could help defend the Empire's border against the Ethiopians.
The Egyptians were a proud and ancient peoples, the oldest known to mankind.
And Hannibal was confident that they would never fall.

But then the shock came.



Hannibal was barely rousing when his personal guards awoke him.
"What's going on?" he shouted, alarmed at the sudden disturbance.
"You must board the flagship at once, my lord!" the guard implored.
"Caesar has returned! He's raised a new army from the southeast from the desert tribes!"
"What?! Ring the sirens. We're evacuating every civilian!"
"But we don't have enough Galleys in the fle-"
"Do as I command!" the Immortal leader barked.
The guard snapped into action. "Yes, sir!"

Kition was evacuated of all personnel and as many civilians as possible under the cover of night, evading Caesar's Arab patrols.
The city was manned by a skeleton crew, putting up the pretense of full alert and combat readiness, deterring the Arab sailors.



In Asia, Saladin, a new Immortal under the tutelage of Caesar expanded rapidly like no empire had ever before.
They refounded old Babylon from the ashes of the old site, drawing thousands upon thousands of people seemingly overnight.
In Egypt, they had overrun every city and town except for the capital, leaving Cleopatra cut off from Phoenician aid and surrounded on all sides.
Hannibal desperately tried to slip communications through but to no avail, the Arab chokehold was too strong.



In Roma, fellow citizens prayed in earnest to Tanit to bring the dire times to an end
and restore peace to the lives of their eastern brethren in Kition and Niwt-Rst.



But it would seem as if those prayers had gone unheard.
Niwt-Rst was overrun by mounted warriors, mowing through the scant mixed-garrison of Egyptian, Greek, Phoenician and assorted mercenary troops.
Cleopatra herself perished in the flames as she attempted to help the citizenry escape through a secret Nile passage.
Hannibal, although far, far away in Roma, could feel his heart break that night.
There was no need for letters or correspondence.
His Immortal spark intuitively sensed it upon the moment of her death.

This would not be the end of the Time of Troubles.

If you had founded your capital on Crete would that have also flipped?

ace99 said:

If you had founded your capital on Crete would that have also flipped?

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Yes. The Arabs flip Crete. So there are no two ways around it.
If you want to play long as Phoenicia,
you must prepare to survive at least 3 flips.

crude...

Subscribing.

Phoenicia falling.



Africa and Asia, crawling with hostile Arab troops.
The Arabs revolutionized warfare in the region with their shockingly fast and powerful Camel Archers.
Hannibal, though still reeling from the loss of his wife, would study their usage of cavalry, in hopes of raising his own, to good effect.



Cyrus, who was able to meet Hannibal, pledged to join his nation with the Phoenicians,
as they too, were under the terror of Caesar and Saladin, forced to fight unshielded over open ground.
He offered his condolences for the loss of Cleopatra and vowed to help Hannibal seek revenge.



To that end, Cyrus helped Hannibal's smiths develop new, heavier armor.
As the Persians had to fight the Arabs head-on, Cyrus was of the opinion
that instead of matching them in cavalry, that it was more important that the troops stand their ground.
In a few years, Phoenician infantrymen would soon adopt heavier armor and wield larger horse-cutting blades thanks to Cyrus' assistance.



In Roma, a memorial was built for those lost in Egypt to the invasion.
It was the Spiral Minaret, a giant towering graveyard that spiraled towards
the heavens, almost as if the earth was delivering its dead up to Tanit
to caress in her crescent embrace.