Q & A WITH McMONKEY
I. When you say you conquered the last Carthaginian city, does this include the ones in Spain?
I think that if the Carthaginians still held Iberia then the Second Punic War events would still be valid. In the updated version Carthage should, hopefully be a lot harder to capture at such an early date. From my own play test I can confidently say that I would be unable to take out all of the Carthaginian cities this early, I'm not even close!
In my opinion there is not a problem, especially when the updated scenario is considered, but I'm willing to listen.
Puhleeze Drew, I'd like to continue to think that I'm not a complete noob at this game. Here's what happened to the Carthaginian Empire during the last 18 years of its existence.
Around Turn 9, with all homeland cities captured as far north as Clusium, the Romans went into a defensive shell in Italia. History has repeatedly shown that offensive fighting on multiple fronts is not the best of strategies. Consequently, all newly formed units were assigned to the Carthaginian campaign.
You might be surprised how fast the Romans can move if they have enough transports to transport assault units and to continuously freight in fresh replacement units from Rome and Carthage. With this approach, spearheads don't have to wait for damaged units to heal before resuming their advance because replacement units are always available to continue the campaign.
The following shows how rapidly and relentlessly the Romans advanced. The numbers in brackets are the number of slaves captured after the city was taken.
TURN 13 257 BC
CARTHAGE (3) UTICA (4) HADRUMETUM (4) CAPTURED
TURN 14 255 BC
THAENAE (2) HIPPO REGIUS (2) CIRTA (2) MELITE (0) CAPTURED
TURN 15 253 BC
ALERIA (2) SALDAE (2) CAPTURED
TURN 16 251 BC
CARALIS (5) JOL (6) LEPTIS MAGNA (6) CAPTURED
TURN 17 249 BC
CARTHAGO NOVA (4) CAPTURED
TURN 18 247 BC
BALEARES (3) RUSSADDIR (3) MASSILY (0) CAPTURED
TURN 19 245 BC
VOLUBILIS (0) TINGIS (3) MALACA (2) GADES (0) CAPTURED
TURN 20 243 BC
HISPALIS (5) CORDUBA (4) CAPTURED
TURN 21 241 BC
LILYBAEUM (0) PANORMUS (0) CAPTURED
The campaign was over 90% amphibious. Only a few cavalry and other units actually moved along the coastal road, west or south from Carthage.
II. My current play-test shows to me that the reduced number of Merchants forces the player to rely on Slaves from conquest for expansion. I have got up to 221 BC and there has not been a dull turn yet. I think the fact that there were so many Merchants in the version you play-tested is a contributing factor in your rapid victory over Carthage. (Sorry to contradict you. That was pure skill.
)
Reducing the number has made the scenario much more challenging!
Before seeing the consequences of the Romans destroying the Carthaginian civ, I must admit that I was wondering about what you were talking about. Now I understand. You could either decrease the number of Merchants or deactivate the Caralis and/or Lilybaeum events. I'm going to undo the Lilybaeum event which doubles payouts. Rather than mucking around with RANDOMTURN, why not eliminate the source of the problem? As a player, I think that regular spawning with smaller payouts is much fairer than randomized spawning with larger payouts.
Here's my analysis of Roman income and expenditures so far in the scen.
Roman income has come from the following sources:
(Taxes – Costs) ~ -150
94 Slaves captured @50 gold = 4700
Merchants ~ 16,000
City Capture ~ 6,200
Sale of improvements = 2,150
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Total ~ 29,000 gold
Approximate expenditures have been
RB 52 Transports ~ 10,000
RB 16 Workshops ~ 8,000
RB 15 Law Courts ~ 2,400
RB 23 New Legions ~ 3,700
RB Miscellaneous Improvements ~ 2,000
-----------------------------------------------
Total ~ 26,000 gold
The totals are close enough so that the numbers are probably in the right ballpark.
The key units, New Legions, were built by disbanding either 4 or 5 Slaves. Disbanding 5 Slaves RB'd a New Legion while, with only 4 Slaves, 105 or 210 gold were needed for the RB. Of course, the Romans need the Law Courts to combat the terrible corruption. The Later Republic tech will help but the final solution, Imperium, is still ~30 turns down the road. Similarly, the Workshops were the only way to provide support shields for a very large military which numbered 400+ units by 241 BC.
It was my intention to create an empire builder scenario which would be guided along historical lines by the events. I didn't want to make a scenario where the Romans just go into overdrive and conquer the map in a fraction of time it too historically!
III. I disagree about Envoys. I find the knowledge they buy very valuable indeed when planning to assault a key city. I would not use them in every attack, hence their high cost, but when it is vital to know what you are up against 50 shields is a price worth paying!
OK. Let's agree to disagree.
IV. Glad you found the overstrike!
Me too.
V. Checking for city walls is vital if you want to gain a decisive victory! Using CivCity is pretty quick and easy. Save, launch CivCity, find the city in question, tick City Walls, save city and then reload the game and continue playing.
I have not seen any cities come close to destruction in my play-test. Which two AI Ptolemid cities were size 1? I just checked my 221 BC save and all the Ptolemid cities are a healthy size. In the versions I have been playing the AI nations don't fight one another, unless instructed to via events. Is this the same in the version you are playing?
I guess I could add a couple of Germanic heartland cities as objectives to give the player a little leeway!
Every little bit helps.
pugnacious giants. Chance encounters confirmed their worst fears – their chances of defeating one of these monsters are somewhat less than a snowball has in hell. A few judicious bribes and some good undercover work by Roman Envoys shows that there are 160+ of these monster meandering around in the northern forests – and 30+ more in training. Maybe the soothsayer has it right when she says "Adolf Hitler will be born two thousand years too late. With these blonde Aryan supermen, even he could conquer the world. 
"
