mythmonster2
BEC NOIR! RUN!
From the minimap looks like all's quiet with Carthage and Rome. Have there been any real battles there?
The Conquests
- Thread starter choxorn
- Start date
CivRulesAll
The Void Beyond
- Joined
- May 1, 2007
- Messages
- 590
I see dead Egyptian people...
*musical DUN dun dun....*
*musical DUN dun dun....*
aukrest
History Buff
What I tend to notice in Rise of Rome is a couple things. The "barbarous" nations will never ask for peace unless the other nation approaches them. Rome is played pretty badly by the AI. Egypt almost always dies. Persia is undefeatable unless Rome amasses an enormous army of Legionary 3s or if Macedon can very quickly win Turkey and push south. Everyone backstabs everyone at one point or another in this conquest, though not as bad as Napoleonic Europe.
It's because of the Permanent Wars. AI's are always MA-happy when fighting wars normally. When fighting wars for the entire game, they'll endlessly get someone to MA against their opponent. Often, this leads to the nations not involved in the Permanent War to rapidly switch who they're allied with.
In Napoleonic Europe, it's even worse because of the Locked Alliances, leading to the minor nations in the alliance getting into ridiculous wars on occasion, which leads to such silliness as Denmark being at war with a nation that France has an MPP with, or things like that. It's also not uncommon to see France or Britain sign an MA against one of the guys they aren't permanently at war with, and then Denmark, Portugal, or Naples signs a peace treaty with that nation about two turns later.
And yes, the AI plays Rome horribly. For that matter, they play all the 4 playable nations horribly- play as Rome or Carthage, and the Macedonian/Persian war front will remain pretty much stationary the whole game, Play as Persia or Macedon, and the Rome/Carthage war front will remain stationary. The main reason they're bad at playing Rome is their crappy Settling, and lack of ability to do sea invasions. They face the same problem when playing as Carthage, though, in that case, at least they have the excuse of Rome having a better military than Carthage does.
On the other hand, all of the AI's tend to build around 20 million cities in this scenario if it goes on long enough.
mythmonster2
BEC NOIR! RUN!
Well, I have seen Persia nearly eliminate Greece once, so there is some changes on that front. Egypt usually gets killed by Persia, and the barbarian nations don't do much. But since you're taking control of the eastern war, you probably won't see much development outside your borders. Just watch your left flank when it comes to Rome.
aukrest
History Buff
It's usually a stalemate between Macedon/Persia and then Macedon grabs 2-3 cities, holds them for a couple turns and then slowly begins to get pushed back and destroyed by Persia in my games.
aukrest
History Buff
Well, in this one, Macedon is the player, so hopefully I won't have to worry as much about that.
Yes indeed
Well, I've played a bit longer. It seems the crap has hit the fan multiple times. The Scythians burned one of my cities, though I managed to get peace after that. The Romans, Celts, and Goths have all MA'd vs. me with somebody. Alex's army is dead. There's around 20 Immortals over in Turkey that already grabbed that Persian city I took a while ago and will probably grab a bunch of my stuff.
To make a long story short, I am totally screwed. Fun.
To make a long story short, I am totally screwed. Fun.
mythmonster2
BEC NOIR! RUN!
Continue! Did George Washington give up when Napoleon beat him at Pearl Harbor? (Points for guessing reference.) Not really.
MaxaTheGreat
Feel Prussian Iron!
That's what saves are for.
But Seriously, you can only hope the RNG gods can save you.
But Seriously, you can only hope the RNG gods can save you.
aukrest
History Buff
Well, I've played a bit longer. It seems the crap has hit the fan multiple times. The Scythians burned one of my cities, though I managed to get peace after that. The Romans, Celts, and Goths have all MA'd vs. me with somebody. Alex's army is dead. There's around 20 Immortals over in Turkey that already grabbed that Persian city I took a while ago and will probably grab a bunch of my stuff.
To make a long story short, I am totally screwed. Fun.
Ouch..choxorn. That sucks, but it'll be interesting to see how you can get out of the hole the AI dug for you
Well, I've beaten off some of the stack through luck, but still in retreat mode. If all else fails, I'll retreat to Byzantium, I think I can put enough Hoplites there to beat them by the time they manage to get there, if all else fails.
I seem to have gone over the 30-picture limit, so I'll split the update into 2 chapters.
I seem to have gone over the 30-picture limit, so I'll split the update into 2 chapters.
Chapter 9: Gains Reversed
Alex's army defended the workers near Iconium. It was 280 BC. The Immortals didn't dare attack an army of his size, at least not yet. He didn't think they ever would. How wrong he was. He would have never predicted the sheer number of them there actually were. Hey, how could he be expected to? It wasn't like anybody could reasonably be expected to have an army that big.
But for now, there weren't very many of them, just around 7 or 8 units near Ancyra and Iconium.
In the Black Sea in 278 BC, a Greek Galley had been exploring for a while. This Galley was now attacked by a Persian Galley. Understandable, they were near the coast of the Black Sea that the Persians occupied. And, luckily, they won, but not without damage.
Near Ancyra, a badly damaged unit of Hoplites was killed by Immortals. Alex expected that, with how close to dead they were. But the next Immortals to attack slightly-less injured hoplites failed. A bit unexpected, but Alex likes the victory.
The last group of exploring Horsemen in the North was killed by Scythian Riders that year. Well, that sucked. The Scythian Riders would now probably head towards Greece. But oh well, they couldn't be much of a threat, they weren't that strong. Right?
In better news, Alex got word that the Romans had signed a military alliance:
Alex laughed. That was great! Now his enemies were at war, and Persia was fighting 3 different neighbors. They'd certainly keep each other busy. They wouldn't all concentrate on him, would they? Right? RIGHT?
In 275, Alex realized he forgot to sell the Egyptians Iron, so he did just that:
He also sent his army to kill some Immortals that were hanging around on a Mountain. There was more than one unit on that mountain, so he got the added bonus of not having to go up on the mountain and waste time. The workers, finished with their road, were meanwhile able to retreat.
In 273, some more Scythian Riders started showing up around Nesebur, as did some more Immortals east of Iconium. But they weren't much cause for alarm, the Scythians were too easy to defeat on defense to matter much to the Hoplites, and Alex's army could defeat the Immortals easily unless a ton of them showed up.
Meanwhile, the Goths declared war on Egypt. A Military alliance is suspected, but Alex doesn't know, as he doesn't have an embassy with the Goths, and can't access the diplomacy of all the people at war with Egypt.
The building of cities on islands in the holes of were productive stuff could be done continued, and the city of Knossos was built on one of them in 270.
Due to his lapse of knowledge last turn, Alex decided to build embassies in the Celtic and Gothic capitals. He would have liked to build one in the Scythian capital, but, well, he was at war with them, he couldn't do that. So, he built embassies in the Gothic capital, Teutoburg:
And the Celtic capital, Alesia.
Alesia was the more impressive of the two, it had more buildings, more defenders, more people, and in general looked better than Teutoburg.
There were Immortals gathered on a hill near Iconium. Horsemen attacked them, hoping for a victory... and died. Sigh. Don't those guys at least know when to retreat? Alex's army finished the job, but it's now a bit damaged.
4 Units of Scythian Riders were now uncomfortably close to Nesebur. Hoplites were good defenders, but not good enough to hold off that many. Luckily, Hoplites are also good on the Offense, and Scythian Riders are bad defenders. Also, since they're stacked in a small area, the Hoplites will be able to defeat half of them, then retreat back into the city and easily be able to hold off the other half. So, they made their attacks. They took some damage, but not too much and... what? Both units of Scythian Riders retreated? Why can they always retreat, but we never retreat? That doesn't make sense.
So, the remaining two units attacked in 268. The result is one dead unit of Scythian Riders, and one dead unit of Hoplites. Okay, that's entirely to be expected, they're good on the offense, but COME ON! At least they can be reinforced, hopefully. But only more Scythian Riders are showing up. and in the South, after Alex's army easily defeated attacking Immortals, he noticed that there were quite a lot more advancing on the city. He'd noticed a fair amount appearing to the east, but it was only now he paid attention to them. Seriously, how many of these guys are there? Where the hell are they coming from?
In 265, Alex looked at the situation in Iconium.
There were 11 units of Immortals within 200 miles of the city, and another 2 slightly farther away. A general asked him what to do.
"There is only one thing we can do," said Alex. "Retreat. We cannot hold off an army of that size. We'll stay here a little bit longer to heal, and try to take out a few of them when they get here, but we must retreat from this city, or we'll all die. We'll try to hold them off at Miletus and Corinth. I hope we can, and there aren't too many more of them."
So, they stayed there a bit longer, but later, they'd have to retreat.
The Galley in the Black Sea was sunk by a Persian Galley in 263. That was a shame, but oh well, it wasn't terribly important, the entire Black Sea had been explored now.
Luckily, only one unit of Scythian Riders was able to attack Nesebur this year, and the Hoplites were able to defeat the- Did they seriously just retreat? What, do they have magic Horses of super-high retreat chance, or something?
The Scientists showed up that year too, with a discovery. "We have discovered a new field of Science! Well, sort of science, but that's not the point. We call it Philosophy! Here, meet these new Philosophers, they've been working on it for a while!
"Interesting," said Alex. "So what can you Philosophers do?"
"Well, we can just once discover new technology! We have discovered Education!"
"Two techs in one year. If only that could happen more often..."
Also, a bunch of Greek cities rioted. They complained about being too crowded, or something. Sigh. Alex would pay more for their luxuries in 260 to pacify them. It worked. Yay.
There was a fairly large gap in the North between Sardica, Maronea, and Nesebur. There really needed to be a city there. So, one was built there in 260. It was named Argos.
The hoplites originally sent to defend Argos, though, would have to instead go north to Nesebur. They would not be able to actually reach the city, but as long as it wasn't taken, they could easily go there in 5 years. The problem was, the only way to stop it from being taken would be for the Hoplites in the city to kill one of the two Scythian Rider units just outside. And they did... wait, no, it retreated. Sigh. And now they were injured to the point that they probably wouldn't be able to hold off the remaining one. Oh well, as long as no more were able to reach the city, the hoplites outside could easily retake it if it fell.
Now they would have to retreat from Iconium, though. Not even Alex's entire army could defeat this many Immortals. Before they left, they decided to have the Hoplites in the city NOT in his army attack one of the units of Immortals to try to kill them... and they failed in this task. Sigh. Well, the army fled to Corinth, there wasn't anything they could do to save the city anymore.
It hardly needs to be said that Iconium was captured by the Immortals in 258.
And then, on the front of the Scythian War, worse news. They convinced the Celts to declare war on Greece.
(This screwed me over. The Celts later MA'd the Romans against me, and I was able to make peace with Scythia one turn after this. WHY?? Every time I try to get peace with a new enemy, they MA more people against me before I'm able to make peace with them. This sucks.)
The Scythian Riders also attacked the Hoplites in Nesebur. The Hoplites fought valiantly, but ultimately lost. Luckily, the Scythians in the area had already moved, so as long as they would accept peace in 255, the Hoplites would easily be able to retake Nesebur, and Macedon could get out of the war without actually losing any cities.
Or, well, they would have, if Nesebur was still actually there. The Hoplites outside the city watched as the Scythians burned the city to the ground. They left no survivors, the few slaves still left alive after the city burned were all killed. No building remained standing in the city. Alex was both furious and scared at the same time.
Luckily, the Scythians were, finally, willing to accept peace in 255. Some of the people in Macedonia didn't want peace, they wanted the Scythians to pay for the destruction of Nesebur, but that was impossible with the current military situation. Surviving was more important than revenge. The Scythians did, however, extract a hefty fee for peace. Oh well, it was worth it.
And hey, look at the bright side. The fact that Nesebur was razed saves the Macedonians the work of recapturing it, they can just build a new city there, easily. But it won't be as good as Nesebur was, at least not for a long while.
Meanwhile, in the South, the Persians continued their advance in 253. Some Galleys brought a unit of Immortals to Cyprus, and the 10ish units of Immortals that earlier were farther west started appearing near Corinth. Hopefully, Alex's army would be able to wear them down with hit-and-run tactics and eventually wipe them all out, but they'd probably lose at least Corinth in the process, maybe more. He hopes they won't have to retreat for much longer.
Also, the Goths got the Celts to declare war on Egypt. How totally uninteresting.
In 250, Alex suddenly remembered that Carthage and Rome had technology that he didn't, and that he had technology they didn't. So, he decided to trade. First he went to Carthage. "Hey, Hannibal, I'll trade you Philosophy and Education for Tactics and Astronomy!"
And so, it was done:
He then went to Rome. They knew Construction techniques, that his scientists had researched for 10 years, so hopefully he could get a bit of a discount. They also had a new government system, which was inferior to Oligarchy, but what the hell, it was a new tech, why not get it? However, Rome didn't seem to value Macedon's technology much, since Education, Philosophy, Tactics, and Astronomy was still worth less than Monarchy. "Come on, it's not even that good! Why the heck do you value that technology so much?"
But, they would trade Construction and some gold, so Alex merely cursed Caesar's cheapness, and left.
There were no Immortals really close to Corinth in 250, and all of the ones in the area were on Mountains where they'd be a pain to kill for anyone but Alex's Army. There was, however, a unit of Spearmen in the forest to the South. So Alex sent some Horsemen to kill them. No problem, right? Wait, no, the Horsemen died. Again, don't you people know how to retreat, or can only Scythians do that? Ah well, the next unit of Horsemen was able to defeat them with little trouble. Then Alex's army killed some of the Immortals. They're currently working on killing the smaller stacks, as there isn't much point in attacking the lone ones or the ridiculously huge ones.
Then it was 248, and the Persians' turn to move. There were some Hoplites and Horsemen to the South of Corinth that they now tried to attack. The unit of Hoplites was able to hold off one unit of Immortals, but then succumbed to a second attack. The Horsemen didn't even stand a chance, they're too weak on the defense to stand up to the amazing offense of the Immortals.
The Immortals on Cyprus now attacked Thermopylae. Predictably, they lost. Come on, Immortals, it's on a hill, do you really expect to be able to capture it?
The Romans decided to ally the Scythians against Carthage that year. Alex didn't really know why, the Scythians were way too far way to be a threat to Carthage, but whatever.
In 245, the positioning of the Immortals was excellent. There were two stacked in a desert outside of Corinth, which meant that Alex's army could kill 2 units of Immortals and still remain in the city. They did just that. Also, some Hoplites killed a unit of Immortals, although another unit of Hoplites died trying to replicate this feat.
Sadly, the Galley in Thermopylae was sunk trying to sink a Persian Galley that year. Sigh. I thought you guys were GOOD at making ships!
At this point, this was the situation near Corinth:
13 units of Immortals in the area, separated differently. One more unit of Immortals was farther north, moving towards Sardis. Oh well, this was manageable. As long as Alex's Army and enough Hoplites, Horsemen, and Catapults were in the area, they could hold the Immortals off without too many losses. They might lose Corinth, and maybe even another city or two, but that was as bad as it could get.
Right?
Alex's army defended the workers near Iconium. It was 280 BC. The Immortals didn't dare attack an army of his size, at least not yet. He didn't think they ever would. How wrong he was. He would have never predicted the sheer number of them there actually were. Hey, how could he be expected to? It wasn't like anybody could reasonably be expected to have an army that big.
But for now, there weren't very many of them, just around 7 or 8 units near Ancyra and Iconium.
In the Black Sea in 278 BC, a Greek Galley had been exploring for a while. This Galley was now attacked by a Persian Galley. Understandable, they were near the coast of the Black Sea that the Persians occupied. And, luckily, they won, but not without damage.
Near Ancyra, a badly damaged unit of Hoplites was killed by Immortals. Alex expected that, with how close to dead they were. But the next Immortals to attack slightly-less injured hoplites failed. A bit unexpected, but Alex likes the victory.
The last group of exploring Horsemen in the North was killed by Scythian Riders that year. Well, that sucked. The Scythian Riders would now probably head towards Greece. But oh well, they couldn't be much of a threat, they weren't that strong. Right?
In better news, Alex got word that the Romans had signed a military alliance:
Alex laughed. That was great! Now his enemies were at war, and Persia was fighting 3 different neighbors. They'd certainly keep each other busy. They wouldn't all concentrate on him, would they? Right? RIGHT?
In 275, Alex realized he forgot to sell the Egyptians Iron, so he did just that:
He also sent his army to kill some Immortals that were hanging around on a Mountain. There was more than one unit on that mountain, so he got the added bonus of not having to go up on the mountain and waste time. The workers, finished with their road, were meanwhile able to retreat.
In 273, some more Scythian Riders started showing up around Nesebur, as did some more Immortals east of Iconium. But they weren't much cause for alarm, the Scythians were too easy to defeat on defense to matter much to the Hoplites, and Alex's army could defeat the Immortals easily unless a ton of them showed up.
Meanwhile, the Goths declared war on Egypt. A Military alliance is suspected, but Alex doesn't know, as he doesn't have an embassy with the Goths, and can't access the diplomacy of all the people at war with Egypt.
The building of cities on islands in the holes of were productive stuff could be done continued, and the city of Knossos was built on one of them in 270.
Due to his lapse of knowledge last turn, Alex decided to build embassies in the Celtic and Gothic capitals. He would have liked to build one in the Scythian capital, but, well, he was at war with them, he couldn't do that. So, he built embassies in the Gothic capital, Teutoburg:
And the Celtic capital, Alesia.
Alesia was the more impressive of the two, it had more buildings, more defenders, more people, and in general looked better than Teutoburg.
There were Immortals gathered on a hill near Iconium. Horsemen attacked them, hoping for a victory... and died. Sigh. Don't those guys at least know when to retreat? Alex's army finished the job, but it's now a bit damaged.
4 Units of Scythian Riders were now uncomfortably close to Nesebur. Hoplites were good defenders, but not good enough to hold off that many. Luckily, Hoplites are also good on the Offense, and Scythian Riders are bad defenders. Also, since they're stacked in a small area, the Hoplites will be able to defeat half of them, then retreat back into the city and easily be able to hold off the other half. So, they made their attacks. They took some damage, but not too much and... what? Both units of Scythian Riders retreated? Why can they always retreat, but we never retreat? That doesn't make sense.
So, the remaining two units attacked in 268. The result is one dead unit of Scythian Riders, and one dead unit of Hoplites. Okay, that's entirely to be expected, they're good on the offense, but COME ON! At least they can be reinforced, hopefully. But only more Scythian Riders are showing up. and in the South, after Alex's army easily defeated attacking Immortals, he noticed that there were quite a lot more advancing on the city. He'd noticed a fair amount appearing to the east, but it was only now he paid attention to them. Seriously, how many of these guys are there? Where the hell are they coming from?
In 265, Alex looked at the situation in Iconium.
There were 11 units of Immortals within 200 miles of the city, and another 2 slightly farther away. A general asked him what to do.
"There is only one thing we can do," said Alex. "Retreat. We cannot hold off an army of that size. We'll stay here a little bit longer to heal, and try to take out a few of them when they get here, but we must retreat from this city, or we'll all die. We'll try to hold them off at Miletus and Corinth. I hope we can, and there aren't too many more of them."
So, they stayed there a bit longer, but later, they'd have to retreat.
The Galley in the Black Sea was sunk by a Persian Galley in 263. That was a shame, but oh well, it wasn't terribly important, the entire Black Sea had been explored now.
Luckily, only one unit of Scythian Riders was able to attack Nesebur this year, and the Hoplites were able to defeat the- Did they seriously just retreat? What, do they have magic Horses of super-high retreat chance, or something?
The Scientists showed up that year too, with a discovery. "We have discovered a new field of Science! Well, sort of science, but that's not the point. We call it Philosophy! Here, meet these new Philosophers, they've been working on it for a while!
"Interesting," said Alex. "So what can you Philosophers do?"
"Well, we can just once discover new technology! We have discovered Education!"
"Two techs in one year. If only that could happen more often..."
Also, a bunch of Greek cities rioted. They complained about being too crowded, or something. Sigh. Alex would pay more for their luxuries in 260 to pacify them. It worked. Yay.
There was a fairly large gap in the North between Sardica, Maronea, and Nesebur. There really needed to be a city there. So, one was built there in 260. It was named Argos.
The hoplites originally sent to defend Argos, though, would have to instead go north to Nesebur. They would not be able to actually reach the city, but as long as it wasn't taken, they could easily go there in 5 years. The problem was, the only way to stop it from being taken would be for the Hoplites in the city to kill one of the two Scythian Rider units just outside. And they did... wait, no, it retreated. Sigh. And now they were injured to the point that they probably wouldn't be able to hold off the remaining one. Oh well, as long as no more were able to reach the city, the hoplites outside could easily retake it if it fell.
Now they would have to retreat from Iconium, though. Not even Alex's entire army could defeat this many Immortals. Before they left, they decided to have the Hoplites in the city NOT in his army attack one of the units of Immortals to try to kill them... and they failed in this task. Sigh. Well, the army fled to Corinth, there wasn't anything they could do to save the city anymore.
It hardly needs to be said that Iconium was captured by the Immortals in 258.
And then, on the front of the Scythian War, worse news. They convinced the Celts to declare war on Greece.
(This screwed me over. The Celts later MA'd the Romans against me, and I was able to make peace with Scythia one turn after this. WHY?? Every time I try to get peace with a new enemy, they MA more people against me before I'm able to make peace with them. This sucks.)
The Scythian Riders also attacked the Hoplites in Nesebur. The Hoplites fought valiantly, but ultimately lost. Luckily, the Scythians in the area had already moved, so as long as they would accept peace in 255, the Hoplites would easily be able to retake Nesebur, and Macedon could get out of the war without actually losing any cities.
Or, well, they would have, if Nesebur was still actually there. The Hoplites outside the city watched as the Scythians burned the city to the ground. They left no survivors, the few slaves still left alive after the city burned were all killed. No building remained standing in the city. Alex was both furious and scared at the same time.
Luckily, the Scythians were, finally, willing to accept peace in 255. Some of the people in Macedonia didn't want peace, they wanted the Scythians to pay for the destruction of Nesebur, but that was impossible with the current military situation. Surviving was more important than revenge. The Scythians did, however, extract a hefty fee for peace. Oh well, it was worth it.
And hey, look at the bright side. The fact that Nesebur was razed saves the Macedonians the work of recapturing it, they can just build a new city there, easily. But it won't be as good as Nesebur was, at least not for a long while.
Meanwhile, in the South, the Persians continued their advance in 253. Some Galleys brought a unit of Immortals to Cyprus, and the 10ish units of Immortals that earlier were farther west started appearing near Corinth. Hopefully, Alex's army would be able to wear them down with hit-and-run tactics and eventually wipe them all out, but they'd probably lose at least Corinth in the process, maybe more. He hopes they won't have to retreat for much longer.
Also, the Goths got the Celts to declare war on Egypt. How totally uninteresting.
In 250, Alex suddenly remembered that Carthage and Rome had technology that he didn't, and that he had technology they didn't. So, he decided to trade. First he went to Carthage. "Hey, Hannibal, I'll trade you Philosophy and Education for Tactics and Astronomy!"
And so, it was done:
He then went to Rome. They knew Construction techniques, that his scientists had researched for 10 years, so hopefully he could get a bit of a discount. They also had a new government system, which was inferior to Oligarchy, but what the hell, it was a new tech, why not get it? However, Rome didn't seem to value Macedon's technology much, since Education, Philosophy, Tactics, and Astronomy was still worth less than Monarchy. "Come on, it's not even that good! Why the heck do you value that technology so much?"
But, they would trade Construction and some gold, so Alex merely cursed Caesar's cheapness, and left.
There were no Immortals really close to Corinth in 250, and all of the ones in the area were on Mountains where they'd be a pain to kill for anyone but Alex's Army. There was, however, a unit of Spearmen in the forest to the South. So Alex sent some Horsemen to kill them. No problem, right? Wait, no, the Horsemen died. Again, don't you people know how to retreat, or can only Scythians do that? Ah well, the next unit of Horsemen was able to defeat them with little trouble. Then Alex's army killed some of the Immortals. They're currently working on killing the smaller stacks, as there isn't much point in attacking the lone ones or the ridiculously huge ones.
Then it was 248, and the Persians' turn to move. There were some Hoplites and Horsemen to the South of Corinth that they now tried to attack. The unit of Hoplites was able to hold off one unit of Immortals, but then succumbed to a second attack. The Horsemen didn't even stand a chance, they're too weak on the defense to stand up to the amazing offense of the Immortals.
The Immortals on Cyprus now attacked Thermopylae. Predictably, they lost. Come on, Immortals, it's on a hill, do you really expect to be able to capture it?
The Romans decided to ally the Scythians against Carthage that year. Alex didn't really know why, the Scythians were way too far way to be a threat to Carthage, but whatever.
In 245, the positioning of the Immortals was excellent. There were two stacked in a desert outside of Corinth, which meant that Alex's army could kill 2 units of Immortals and still remain in the city. They did just that. Also, some Hoplites killed a unit of Immortals, although another unit of Hoplites died trying to replicate this feat.
Sadly, the Galley in Thermopylae was sunk trying to sink a Persian Galley that year. Sigh. I thought you guys were GOOD at making ships!
At this point, this was the situation near Corinth:
13 units of Immortals in the area, separated differently. One more unit of Immortals was farther north, moving towards Sardis. Oh well, this was manageable. As long as Alex's Army and enough Hoplites, Horsemen, and Catapults were in the area, they could hold the Immortals off without too many losses. They might lose Corinth, and maybe even another city or two, but that was as bad as it could get.
Right?
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MaxaTheGreat
Feel Prussian Iron!
Immortals, Huh?
The battle might not be at Sparta, but who cares?
The battle might not be at Sparta, but who cares?
Chapter 10: It Got Worse
Of course, however bad it gets, it can always get worse, a lesson the Macedonian Army would soon learn the hard way. It wasn't one specific thing, really, just a combination of many things that cluster-screwed Macedon.
First, a newcomer to the war. In 243 BC, the Celts managed to convince someone else to declare war on Macedonia. Who, you ask? The Romans.
It wasn't all bad, for 2 units of Immortals proceeded to commit suicide via attacking Hoplites on a hill. But then, this happened:
Production fell quite a bit, and the generation of wealth fell a lot. A few cities rioted from the money being spent on luxuries falling a little. This would hurt the war effort a bit. Oh well, at least it meant that Persia's Golden Age was over, too. Or, at least, almost over.
And, besides, the Heroic Epic, a book about some tales of heroic military feats, was completed in Athens. It would hopefully make more heroic leaders appear faster.
Now, in 240, it was again the Macedonians' turn to counter-attack the Persians, but sadly, there wasn't much at the moment that could be done to do so. There were now 15 units of Immortals near Corinth and Miletus. All that could be done would be to fortify and heal in those cities, as none could be attacked right now. Attacks on the Immortals would be done when possible.
"Where the heck are all these Immortals coming from?" asked Alex. "Every time we kill 2 units, 5 more appear. It's ridiculous."
In the north, Settlers and Hoplites had reached the ruins of Nesebur and were ready to build a city there. As most people agreed now that Nesebur was a silly name, they decided to call it "Mycenae" instead.
It was not close to being the city that Nesebur used to be, but in time, it could re-build.
The Immortals continued their advancing in 238. They didn't attack, though. Meanwhile, in the west, Alex noticed that the Celtic city of Massilia now belonged to Rome. It must have been captured in a war. "Hmph. They sign an alliance against me, then go to war immediately afterward? What the hell is up with that?"
In 235, Alex decided to deal with the Immortals that had been walking towards Sardis for a while, and sent some Horsemen to kill them. Predictably, the Immortals won. Aren't those Horsemen good for anything... wait, they retreated? Finally!
Anyway, some Hoplites proceeded to kill the offending Immortals.
Farther South, some Hoplites attacked a unit of Immortals... and died, and Alex's Army dealt with some Spearmen that were in the forest to the south of Corinth. He then went to help defend Miletus. It seemed like a good plan- no Immortals could reach Corinth this year, and there were only 3 units of Immortals able to attack Miletus. Defending Miletus was the Army, a unit of Hoplites, and some Catapults. They should easily be able to hold off an attack force that small. There was, unfortunately, 9 units of Immortals slightly further east, and a few more in the nearby areas, but they'd probably head towards undefended Corinth.
Meanwhile, the settling of islands continued, and the city Herakleia was built on an island to the west of Sparta.
Then, came the year 233. A year to be remembered in infamy forever, or at least for a while. First, the bloody Celts signed yet another MA against Macedon.
"Oh well, the Goths and Celts can't really hurt us, we can just sign peace with them later."
But then, came the attack on Miletus. "What, are they stupid? They can't break through our defenses!" said one of the Hoplites.
How horribly, horribly wrong. The first unit of Immortals attacked Alex's army. The army was at a massive advantage on account of, well, being an army. The lack of having time to be fortified was a disadvantage, though, and the first unit of Immortal was an Elite unit. Despite being weakened by Catapults a bit, it still came close to destroying Alexander's Army before they were killed. But it was now hopeless for the army- they were too badly injured to continue much longer, and the next unit of Immortals killed them all. Alex himself remains alive, somehow, and isn't leading any armies anymore, he's just sitting around in Athens.
Now the remaining unit of Hoplites was scared. Maybe that was good, and maybe that was what allowed them to win their next battle, against the third unit of Immortals to attack. Miletus remained in Macedonian hands. But there were now 10 units of Immortals outside, and 1 unit of Hoplites and some Catapults inside. The army was dead. The Hit-And-Run tactics the fast army had used could no longer work, the Hoplites were too slow.
Alex gave the order that had to be given. "Retreat from Miletus. We cannot hold it against that many Immortals. And start getting Hoplites produced in the remaining cities as fast as possible! I don't care what has to be done. Force the citizens to work quicker if that's necessary. But we need more Hoplites, and we need them now!"
And so, in 230, the order was given. They would try to hold on to what they still had. All was not lost yet, but it was looking increasingly hopeless against the incredible number of Immortals there were.
The news that Miletus had been captured in 228 was not surprising in the slightest.
For some reason, losing control of the Iron near Miletus ended the Iron deal with Egypt. "Why?" asked Alex. "We have around 4 more sources of Iron to sell them, why did losing that specific one cut off the trade?" But, for some reason it did. Who knows why.
In other news, more Immortals were taken to Cyprus to meet their doom in 5 years, and work was finished on the Great Lighthouse of Carthage.
In 225, the army decided to get rid of one of the smaller groups of Immortals that was currently near Corinth. It contained 3 units of Immortals. Hoplites, Swordsmen, and Horsemen were dispatched to kill them. At the end of the Battle of That Hill Southwest of Corinth, The Immortals were all dead, but so were two units of Hoplites and one unit of Swordsmen. One unit each of Horsemen, Swordsmen, and Hoplites are now in the area, probably soon to be killed by attacking Immortals. Zeus damn it.
In the North of Macedon was the city of Sardica, home to some Iron and Gold mines. For a while, one of the (in)famous Roman Legions had been advancing on it, along with some Garrisons. Alex wondered why they were being attacked by an old Legion, not one of the newer, better ones that had been upgraded with the technology of Tactics, and why a City Garrison was in an offensive force, but oh well. Hoplites had been sent to defend the mines from being destroyed by the Legion, and the city of Sardica itself. Some Horsemen decided to attack the Legion to weaken it, which was quickly deemed to be suicide, and they retreated. Even the first-generation Legion was still as strong as a Persian Immortal on offense, and a Macedonian Hoplite on defense.
Luckily, when the Legion attacked the Hoplites defending the Gold mine in 223, the Hoplites emerged victorious. Those Legions weren't so tough. The Garrison, being a weakling on offense, decided to move west.
Near Corinth, the survivors of the Battle of That Hill Southwest of Corinth were predictably all killed by Immortals, without even taking any of the Immortals down with them. Sigh. Now the Immortal Army of Doom advanced on Sardis, and both Sardis and Corinth were screwed.
The Umpteenth Battle of Thermopylae was then fought, and, predictably, the Immortals all died, although this was a more narrow defeat. Alex decided to build more Hoplites in the city as insurance to prevent it from being taken, especially if they decided to send more Immortals to capture it.
In 220, As Corinth and Sardis were undoubtedly screwed (Corinth didn't even have anyone around to defend it) the army decided it sadly had to retreat even farther, to Antandrus and Cyzicus. They also made sure to cover a large group of workers that was outside Sardis in case the Persians could reach them, but made the grave mistake of doing so with only one Hoplite. They thought that Antandrus was more at risk, a mistake that would cost them dearly. It was just as well, they probably had enough Immortals to kill more than 2 units of Hoplites anyway, so did it even matter?
Also, Alex realized that he had an embassy with everyone, except Scythia, and decided to build an embassy in the Scythian capital, Ulsky:
It looked slightly more pathetic than Teutoburg and Alesia.
The Immortals continued their crushing advancement in 218, walking into Corinth and Sardis. Corinth, being too small to survive a battle even when there was no defenders, was burned to the ground.
Then the Immortals captured Sardis, totally unopposed as they marched into the city.
Then the Immortals attacked the worker stack. That was unexpected, it was thought that they would head towards Antandrus. Oh well, better to lose workers than a cit- oh, there are 7 of them. Well, that sucks.
The Battle of Antandrus Forest started. The Hoplites proved to be an incredibly fierce opponent, fighting hard and defiantly to the end. It took 4 units of Immortals to finally kill all of them, and that 4th unit took a pounding, but ultimately, they died, and the workers were captured. At least the Persians weren't bastards like the Scythians who killed unarmed workers for the lulz.
Also, the Egyptian City of Alexandria Completed The Oracle.
In 215, it was revealed that the Immortals who killed the tough unit of Hoplites were also a very tough unit, as it took 2 units of Hoplites to kill them despite them being all but dead, and the Hoplites that did so ended up all but dead. Maybe it was something about the forest giving super-defense bonuses, or something? Also, to the north, it again took two units of Hoplites to take down one unit of Immortals, but at least this time they were on a Hill, so the loss was more reasonable.
Near Sparta, there was a Persian Galley. A Macedonian Galley in Sparta decided to attack it. "Macedonian Galley in Sparta" is now "Macedonian Galley on the Mediterranean Sea Floor".
The Macedonian Army also decided to get rid of the annoying Garrison near Sardica before it could destroy a gold mine. A unit of Horsemen attacked them, and died. The second unit, luckily, was victorious. The Roman threat has been dealt with, at least until they inevitably decide to attack again.
But, it was noticed, the Celts were now finally willing to talk peace. Not that the Macedonians and Celts had really fought much, but they had been at war. They requested a small tribute, which Alex was willing to pay for them to not MA more people against him. It ended up becoming a trade of World Maps along with the Peace Treaty.
After that was news of yet another pointless military alliance. The Celts convinced the Goths to declare war on Scythia. Alex didn't even know the Celts and Scythians were at war, or if he did, had forgotten.
Then the Immortals began their attacks. The first was an attack on the badly injured Hoplites in Antandrus Forest. They failed to replicate the amazing defensive feats of the previous occupiers of the forest, and quickly died. Then the Immortals attacked the Hoplites that were defending Catapults to the South of Antandrus. It took two Immortal units to do this, but the Hoplites were killed, and the Catapults captured by Persia. Luckily, the Persians were too stupid to know how to use the Catapults correctly, but it still sucked to not have them.
Also, some Immortals attacked Hoplites on a hill, and the Immortals died. Don't the Immortals ever learn?
Then, in a rare moment, the other nations started signing peace treaties, and ending wars. The Persians and Scythians signed such a peace treaty. Alex was disappointed, he needed the Scythians at war with Persia as a distraction, and so they wouldn't be at war with him. The Egyptians, at war with almost everyone, signed peace treaties with the Goths and Scythians. They were now only at war with the Celts, Persians, and Carthaginians. Much better odds for the Egyptians.
In 210, Alex couldn't do much. The Immortals weren't positioned in a way that allowed them to be attacked, and the catapults and workers were too far away to reclaim. He just got defenders to Antandrus and Cyzicus and You stupid Hoplite! Why did you go there! I didn't say to go there! Oh, wait, I did. Stupid misclick!
Anyway, he also decided to go make sure the Scythians would remain at war with Persia.
Now, looking at the war front, he strategized.
In Cyzicus and Antandrus, there were, in total, 5 units of Hoplites. There were 10 of Immortals in one area, and 4 more not in the giant stack of them. A retreat all the way to Byzantium might eventually be necessary, sadly, but he hopes he can hold onto these cities a little bit longer. What he does will all depend on what the Immortals now decide to do. Even if he has to retreat, he thinks he can hold them off at Byzantium- he can get a large number of Hoplites there if he needs to, plus some more. He also is told his scientists are about to discover a big military technology.
Things are looking very, very bad right now, but not impossible. It's still possible to defeat the Persian onslaught, with just a little bit of luck in the right places. Hopefully after this attack is defeated, the Egyptians and Scythians will be able to keep them occupied while Macedon reclaims its losses. The 3 might even be able to take quite a bit of land out of Persia.
Provided nothing else unexpected happens...
Of course, however bad it gets, it can always get worse, a lesson the Macedonian Army would soon learn the hard way. It wasn't one specific thing, really, just a combination of many things that cluster-screwed Macedon.
First, a newcomer to the war. In 243 BC, the Celts managed to convince someone else to declare war on Macedonia. Who, you ask? The Romans.
It wasn't all bad, for 2 units of Immortals proceeded to commit suicide via attacking Hoplites on a hill. But then, this happened:
Production fell quite a bit, and the generation of wealth fell a lot. A few cities rioted from the money being spent on luxuries falling a little. This would hurt the war effort a bit. Oh well, at least it meant that Persia's Golden Age was over, too. Or, at least, almost over.
And, besides, the Heroic Epic, a book about some tales of heroic military feats, was completed in Athens. It would hopefully make more heroic leaders appear faster.
Now, in 240, it was again the Macedonians' turn to counter-attack the Persians, but sadly, there wasn't much at the moment that could be done to do so. There were now 15 units of Immortals near Corinth and Miletus. All that could be done would be to fortify and heal in those cities, as none could be attacked right now. Attacks on the Immortals would be done when possible.
"Where the heck are all these Immortals coming from?" asked Alex. "Every time we kill 2 units, 5 more appear. It's ridiculous."
In the north, Settlers and Hoplites had reached the ruins of Nesebur and were ready to build a city there. As most people agreed now that Nesebur was a silly name, they decided to call it "Mycenae" instead.
It was not close to being the city that Nesebur used to be, but in time, it could re-build.
The Immortals continued their advancing in 238. They didn't attack, though. Meanwhile, in the west, Alex noticed that the Celtic city of Massilia now belonged to Rome. It must have been captured in a war. "Hmph. They sign an alliance against me, then go to war immediately afterward? What the hell is up with that?"
In 235, Alex decided to deal with the Immortals that had been walking towards Sardis for a while, and sent some Horsemen to kill them. Predictably, the Immortals won. Aren't those Horsemen good for anything... wait, they retreated? Finally!
Anyway, some Hoplites proceeded to kill the offending Immortals.
Farther South, some Hoplites attacked a unit of Immortals... and died, and Alex's Army dealt with some Spearmen that were in the forest to the south of Corinth. He then went to help defend Miletus. It seemed like a good plan- no Immortals could reach Corinth this year, and there were only 3 units of Immortals able to attack Miletus. Defending Miletus was the Army, a unit of Hoplites, and some Catapults. They should easily be able to hold off an attack force that small. There was, unfortunately, 9 units of Immortals slightly further east, and a few more in the nearby areas, but they'd probably head towards undefended Corinth.
Meanwhile, the settling of islands continued, and the city Herakleia was built on an island to the west of Sparta.
Then, came the year 233. A year to be remembered in infamy forever, or at least for a while. First, the bloody Celts signed yet another MA against Macedon.
"Oh well, the Goths and Celts can't really hurt us, we can just sign peace with them later."
But then, came the attack on Miletus. "What, are they stupid? They can't break through our defenses!" said one of the Hoplites.
How horribly, horribly wrong. The first unit of Immortals attacked Alex's army. The army was at a massive advantage on account of, well, being an army. The lack of having time to be fortified was a disadvantage, though, and the first unit of Immortal was an Elite unit. Despite being weakened by Catapults a bit, it still came close to destroying Alexander's Army before they were killed. But it was now hopeless for the army- they were too badly injured to continue much longer, and the next unit of Immortals killed them all. Alex himself remains alive, somehow, and isn't leading any armies anymore, he's just sitting around in Athens.
Now the remaining unit of Hoplites was scared. Maybe that was good, and maybe that was what allowed them to win their next battle, against the third unit of Immortals to attack. Miletus remained in Macedonian hands. But there were now 10 units of Immortals outside, and 1 unit of Hoplites and some Catapults inside. The army was dead. The Hit-And-Run tactics the fast army had used could no longer work, the Hoplites were too slow.
Alex gave the order that had to be given. "Retreat from Miletus. We cannot hold it against that many Immortals. And start getting Hoplites produced in the remaining cities as fast as possible! I don't care what has to be done. Force the citizens to work quicker if that's necessary. But we need more Hoplites, and we need them now!"
And so, in 230, the order was given. They would try to hold on to what they still had. All was not lost yet, but it was looking increasingly hopeless against the incredible number of Immortals there were.
The news that Miletus had been captured in 228 was not surprising in the slightest.
For some reason, losing control of the Iron near Miletus ended the Iron deal with Egypt. "Why?" asked Alex. "We have around 4 more sources of Iron to sell them, why did losing that specific one cut off the trade?" But, for some reason it did. Who knows why.
In other news, more Immortals were taken to Cyprus to meet their doom in 5 years, and work was finished on the Great Lighthouse of Carthage.
In 225, the army decided to get rid of one of the smaller groups of Immortals that was currently near Corinth. It contained 3 units of Immortals. Hoplites, Swordsmen, and Horsemen were dispatched to kill them. At the end of the Battle of That Hill Southwest of Corinth, The Immortals were all dead, but so were two units of Hoplites and one unit of Swordsmen. One unit each of Horsemen, Swordsmen, and Hoplites are now in the area, probably soon to be killed by attacking Immortals. Zeus damn it.
In the North of Macedon was the city of Sardica, home to some Iron and Gold mines. For a while, one of the (in)famous Roman Legions had been advancing on it, along with some Garrisons. Alex wondered why they were being attacked by an old Legion, not one of the newer, better ones that had been upgraded with the technology of Tactics, and why a City Garrison was in an offensive force, but oh well. Hoplites had been sent to defend the mines from being destroyed by the Legion, and the city of Sardica itself. Some Horsemen decided to attack the Legion to weaken it, which was quickly deemed to be suicide, and they retreated. Even the first-generation Legion was still as strong as a Persian Immortal on offense, and a Macedonian Hoplite on defense.
Luckily, when the Legion attacked the Hoplites defending the Gold mine in 223, the Hoplites emerged victorious. Those Legions weren't so tough. The Garrison, being a weakling on offense, decided to move west.
Near Corinth, the survivors of the Battle of That Hill Southwest of Corinth were predictably all killed by Immortals, without even taking any of the Immortals down with them. Sigh. Now the Immortal Army of Doom advanced on Sardis, and both Sardis and Corinth were screwed.
The Umpteenth Battle of Thermopylae was then fought, and, predictably, the Immortals all died, although this was a more narrow defeat. Alex decided to build more Hoplites in the city as insurance to prevent it from being taken, especially if they decided to send more Immortals to capture it.
In 220, As Corinth and Sardis were undoubtedly screwed (Corinth didn't even have anyone around to defend it) the army decided it sadly had to retreat even farther, to Antandrus and Cyzicus. They also made sure to cover a large group of workers that was outside Sardis in case the Persians could reach them, but made the grave mistake of doing so with only one Hoplite. They thought that Antandrus was more at risk, a mistake that would cost them dearly. It was just as well, they probably had enough Immortals to kill more than 2 units of Hoplites anyway, so did it even matter?
Also, Alex realized that he had an embassy with everyone, except Scythia, and decided to build an embassy in the Scythian capital, Ulsky:
It looked slightly more pathetic than Teutoburg and Alesia.
The Immortals continued their crushing advancement in 218, walking into Corinth and Sardis. Corinth, being too small to survive a battle even when there was no defenders, was burned to the ground.
Then the Immortals captured Sardis, totally unopposed as they marched into the city.
Then the Immortals attacked the worker stack. That was unexpected, it was thought that they would head towards Antandrus. Oh well, better to lose workers than a cit- oh, there are 7 of them. Well, that sucks.
The Battle of Antandrus Forest started. The Hoplites proved to be an incredibly fierce opponent, fighting hard and defiantly to the end. It took 4 units of Immortals to finally kill all of them, and that 4th unit took a pounding, but ultimately, they died, and the workers were captured. At least the Persians weren't bastards like the Scythians who killed unarmed workers for the lulz.
Also, the Egyptian City of Alexandria Completed The Oracle.
In 215, it was revealed that the Immortals who killed the tough unit of Hoplites were also a very tough unit, as it took 2 units of Hoplites to kill them despite them being all but dead, and the Hoplites that did so ended up all but dead. Maybe it was something about the forest giving super-defense bonuses, or something? Also, to the north, it again took two units of Hoplites to take down one unit of Immortals, but at least this time they were on a Hill, so the loss was more reasonable.
Near Sparta, there was a Persian Galley. A Macedonian Galley in Sparta decided to attack it. "Macedonian Galley in Sparta" is now "Macedonian Galley on the Mediterranean Sea Floor".
The Macedonian Army also decided to get rid of the annoying Garrison near Sardica before it could destroy a gold mine. A unit of Horsemen attacked them, and died. The second unit, luckily, was victorious. The Roman threat has been dealt with, at least until they inevitably decide to attack again.
But, it was noticed, the Celts were now finally willing to talk peace. Not that the Macedonians and Celts had really fought much, but they had been at war. They requested a small tribute, which Alex was willing to pay for them to not MA more people against him. It ended up becoming a trade of World Maps along with the Peace Treaty.
After that was news of yet another pointless military alliance. The Celts convinced the Goths to declare war on Scythia. Alex didn't even know the Celts and Scythians were at war, or if he did, had forgotten.
Then the Immortals began their attacks. The first was an attack on the badly injured Hoplites in Antandrus Forest. They failed to replicate the amazing defensive feats of the previous occupiers of the forest, and quickly died. Then the Immortals attacked the Hoplites that were defending Catapults to the South of Antandrus. It took two Immortal units to do this, but the Hoplites were killed, and the Catapults captured by Persia. Luckily, the Persians were too stupid to know how to use the Catapults correctly, but it still sucked to not have them.
Also, some Immortals attacked Hoplites on a hill, and the Immortals died. Don't the Immortals ever learn?
Then, in a rare moment, the other nations started signing peace treaties, and ending wars. The Persians and Scythians signed such a peace treaty. Alex was disappointed, he needed the Scythians at war with Persia as a distraction, and so they wouldn't be at war with him. The Egyptians, at war with almost everyone, signed peace treaties with the Goths and Scythians. They were now only at war with the Celts, Persians, and Carthaginians. Much better odds for the Egyptians.
In 210, Alex couldn't do much. The Immortals weren't positioned in a way that allowed them to be attacked, and the catapults and workers were too far away to reclaim. He just got defenders to Antandrus and Cyzicus and You stupid Hoplite! Why did you go there! I didn't say to go there! Oh, wait, I did. Stupid misclick!
Anyway, he also decided to go make sure the Scythians would remain at war with Persia.
Now, looking at the war front, he strategized.
In Cyzicus and Antandrus, there were, in total, 5 units of Hoplites. There were 10 of Immortals in one area, and 4 more not in the giant stack of them. A retreat all the way to Byzantium might eventually be necessary, sadly, but he hopes he can hold onto these cities a little bit longer. What he does will all depend on what the Immortals now decide to do. Even if he has to retreat, he thinks he can hold them off at Byzantium- he can get a large number of Hoplites there if he needs to, plus some more. He also is told his scientists are about to discover a big military technology.
Things are looking very, very bad right now, but not impossible. It's still possible to defeat the Persian onslaught, with just a little bit of luck in the right places. Hopefully after this attack is defeated, the Egyptians and Scythians will be able to keep them occupied while Macedon reclaims its losses. The 3 might even be able to take quite a bit of land out of Persia.
Provided nothing else unexpected happens...
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