Chapter XIX: Crisis of the third Century
Year: 193 AD
One turn until discovery of Severan Dynasty is left. Although the real crisis is yet to come, my cash flow will go down considerably: This tech allows me to build the Legio Mercennaria, a Legion that doesn't cost upkeep. You should build as many of them as you can, because soon you won't be able any longer to build a comparably strong unit without upkeep cost. Training a lot of legions of course means that the population of the empire will go down (which in turn lowers my income).
In comparison to the Legio Imperatoria has the Legio Mercennaria two less hitpoints, a lower offensive and a higher defensive value. This represents the change of the infantry's role in battle, as offensive actions were more and more carried out by cavalry.
Legions from now on do not enslave Servi any longer, but Foederati, who can be upgraded to Miles Alarius Germanicus or Eques Alarius Germanicus once Diocletian's Reform is discovered.
Another important issue of this tech is the Constitutio Antoniana. This great wonder will create a Municipium in every city of the empire and thus making it possible to grant full citizenship in short time. The Constitutio Antoniana can only be constructed in a civil war, but in comparison to the Lex Agraria it becomes obsolete after a long time has past, in 475 AD. This means that you can use its effect in (probably) every civil war still to come in your game.
This in turn means that you don't have to start a civil war now, but can wait until you have to do for a change of gouvernment. This is, of course, an exploit and i'm really ashamed - especially because i have avoided several other ones - , but *cough* i'll use it anyways *cough*
Year: 195 AD
Year: 199 AD
The Thermae Caracallae make two people in Roma happy, add culture and reduce the risk of slave unrest at a maintenance cost of 10.
The Thermae Caracallae need eight existing Thermae in order to be build. To have eight Thermae should not be a great problem at this point of the game, although you have to be careful where you build one, as they are expensive and cannot be destroyed. This can be especially a problem after the crisis of the third century is discovered and overused land reduces the amount of food that can be grown in the western half of the empire.
Eight cities that are a safe bet to pay off are Roma, Mediolanum, Massilia, Carthago, Utica, Alexandria, Pergamum and Byzantium, partly depending on how you distribute the tiles.
Year: 219 AD
The Crisis of the Third Century is at hand and will put the stability of the empire under a test. Discovery of the tech makes the resource "overused land" available, which reduces the value of a large amount of tiles especially in the western half of the empire. In addition i will have to build the great wonder of the same name as the tech, which will make a lot of citizens unhappy throughout the empire. Luckily i'm not at war and won't suffer from war weariness in addition.
Some years in the future i will discover the 175 AD - 225 AD tech. This renders the Forum, Emporium, Latifundia and the Praetor wonder obsolete. All together i will lose a lot of money in the attempt to maintain order.
This is how i will proceed to reduce the negative effects of the crisis to a minimum:
In this turn (219 AD) i will start a prebuild for the Crisis-wonder in Roma. Once i discover the tech i'll change to the wonder, which needs 100 shields. With my 44 shields that i produce in Roma at the moment the wonder takes three turns and will be completed in 225 AD.
Once completed, i change construction to Cohortes Imperatoriae, which needs 400 shields and thus is an ideal prebuild for Opus Imperator-Soldati, a wonder that will be discovered with the tech Soldier-Emperors and helps against the effects of the crisis.
Once i achieved discovery of Soldier-Emperors in 12 turns, i change to F1 screen after choosing the next tech and change construction in Roma to Opus Imperator-Soldati, that will be completed in the same turn, 245 AD, thus reducing the unhappyness problems to a minimum.
Year: 221 AD
The first stage of the crisis:
Affected by Overused land are Hispania (with exception of the eastern coast), Gallia, Britannia, Mauretania, southern Italia and Sicilia (around Panormus).
Of course there is no overused land where other resources are and not on hills and mountains.
Year: 223 AD
The Sassanids have declared war on the Armenians. Sadly there is not much that i can do for them, right now.
Year: 225 AD
The second stage of the crisis (Well, in fact i had expected more of an effect):
The Persians have taken Nisibis from the Armenians. They seem to be well recovered. I should have left more troops in Mesopotamia, so that i could help the Armenians, but i didn't thought it would be necessary at the time. Ah, well. Mistakes are to learn from. Hopefully won't the Persians become to strong.
I decide to bribe Amida from the Armenians. I may give it back later, if they survive, but for now it should prevent the Persians from taking it, slowing down their advance without getting me involved in the hostilities.
Year: 229 AD
This wonder spawns the sassanid siege engineers, highly dangerous units (as if the clibanarii were not enough...).
In the meantime i got the 225 AD advance, so several of my income generating buildings are obsolete. This is how my economy now looks in the third stage of the crisis:
You can see that "from cities" has decreased from 5327 in 193 AD to 3479 in 229 AD. This hurts, but won't get me broke.
Year: 231 AD
The Castra Roxolani spawns Roxolani, who are a hidden nationality unit with very high offense. They will raid Dacia and make holding it increasingly difficult.
It is almost impossible to defeat this unit by defending, so i advice to give them something cheap to destroy before striking back.
In this same turn i have made acquaintance with the Praedator Pictus, a fast and dangerous hidden nationality unit with a massive hitpoint bonus. This reminds me of sending some more troops and artillery to Britannia.
Year: 239 AD
The Persian advance from south has stopped after i bribed Amida and they lead their troops around to attack from east. I'm now trying to help by blocking and opening passes.
In the persian stacks which are in sight are 16 Clibanarii (14(6).5.3).
Year: 245 AD
I go to the internal advisor, enter Roma and change my prebuild cohortes imperatoriae, just like i have explained before:
The Opus Imperator-Soldati doubles the defense of all cities in the empire, spawns a Legio Mercennaria every 8 turns and makes seven citizens happy throughout the empire, thus partly negating the unhappyness from the crisis.
I'm still losing money, but the situation has improved vastly.
The Soldier-Emperor tech also renders the Limes wonders obsolete which thus stop spawning Munitores. This is no big problem for me, as i have a bunch of these guys and the Limes is practically complete.
Maybe this is time to write a bit about how it looks like. The fortresses form a closed line along rivers, where possible. Roads are in front of the limes (so that my fast units don't lose several movement points when i'm attacking over the river) and behind the Limes, in order to allow fast repositioning of infantry and artillery and to speed up the hunt for units that have managed to get behind the line of defence.
Year: 247 AD
A large chunk of the sassanid army is far from any action now (as long as they don't attack me, too) and the Armenians even managed to take back Nisibis for one turn, so i hope this war will not endanger the balance in the east. I've brought some additional troops over, so maybe i can allow myself to get involved some day.
The Persians just have too many of those clibanarii!
And now another overview, although not much has changed:
