Every day is Caturday.
Same here. Too much on my hands to play civGood to see this is still in development, Keroro. Hopefully I'll have some time to play it in a couple of weeks!
That makes me feel pretty proud - thanks for still playing! (Smilie: copyright Stormrage). Good to hear from you.Hi Keroro! It's been a long time! Glad to see you have updated this! I bought a new copy of Civ3 just so I could play this scenario.
Ah, I missed one. I thought I had sorted out the auto-producing wonders to produce non-king units that could be upgraded - that sorts out the problem. I'll correct that for any future patch, it looks untidy as you say. Thanks for the heads-up - very useful to know.I have a few comments based on my game so far (im not too far into it, only just starting my conquest of phoenecia):
First off, I applaud your efforts to reduce the Thessalian Cavalry spamming that I used to do... its much harder now! However, when you have units with the king flag spawn, they tend to use the name of your leader, or at least in my game they do. I now have one "Emperor Alexander III" unit of Thess. Cav. Its not a huge deal, just thought id bring it to your attention.
Yes, that is good. I tried to cut down on the amount of roads available to cut the income down at the source. Tech costs are also increased a little. Let me know what GPT you're getting. The conquest of Egypt helps to greatly increase the gold in your coffers (as it should ). Also let me know how much gold you're getting when you start conquering Persia - I disabled all rush build options for them and gave them tons of starting gold, so hopefully the plunder will be substantial.Secondly, I'm having a tough time economically, which is good. I really feel the pressure to push on for new plunder! I'll see how/if this changes soon.
The diplomacy options were tweaked a bit. I'm really trying to get Sparta to revolt rather than the League though, and it's proving difficult to convince them to to so. The Hellenic civs do have the ability to sign defence pacts and military alliances now, so that would normally increase the amount of arbitrary wars. It's not unwanted - the time frame of the scenario was hardly peaceful. Now if I could only get Rome and Epirus at each other's throats.Fourth, it seems like there are a lot of arbitrary wars going on... or maybe not, I'm not sure how arbitrary they are. But I did have the Corinthian League revolt (ie the asian greeks signed an alliance) and I had the kelts, and karthago sign alliances, and i also saw some popups telling of wars further west i dont really care about. i dont know if new diplo options were added, but i felt i'd report what i've seen.
Third, I think the tech timers might be broken, or at least off. In my game, it is currently Week 49, 334 BC, but a few turns ago I got the tech for 333-332. Now this may be just nitpicking and a matter of a few turns (which isnt too bad) but I was wondering if maybe including new buildings or something allowed other nations to research these techs a little too fast. This may also just be my specific game, but I thought I'd ask.
The target should be 9 turns for each tech. That's the minimum time set in the editor, and for the player advances that should keep you on track. The timers have got a little out of kilter, which is a touch annoying. In the end, hopefully, it should all fall into place, but I know they're not quite named perfectly at the moment. Since the last version I had to change some of the timer techs from requiring the maximum research time (26 turns) to only requiring the minimum (9 turns), just to make the events and improvement obsoletions link up as intended. Once the events and improvements are working as they should I can go back and re-name some of the timer techs if required.sorry, one more comment. It would be nice to know what you think the target number of turns per tech should be for the player. thanks!
Hmm, interesting. I forgot to ask what difficulty level you're on by the way? I'm not sure exactly how much it will get you, but a few cities on wealth for a few turns might be needed.As far as my economy is going... i have to say im quite concerned. I was running -81 gpt for a while, and then when i realized just how low my coffers were I lowered my science rate back until i was only losing 18 gpt, which still was a huge percent of my reserves (about 40%). I was hoping Phoenecia would give me a little added income or reserves, but sadly every city i take actually lowers the gpt due to maintenance costs. In fact, Kyrenacia took a city on northern anatolia and I was quite happy about that because it was actually good for my economy and it added about +4gpt to my income. I think I must be moving a little to slowly, because I think I should have phoenecia taken by now (based on where my economy is), but who knows.
As for research... I was running at every 9 turns... during my somatophylax inspired golden age. otherwise i kept it around 12/13 for my economy's sake... oops. I think keeping up to 9 is gonna see me bankrupt before I even get to phoenecia, which will presumably lead to disbanding units or selling buildings, neither of which I would like to see, but the latter of which may become a necessity.
I am NOT using huge archer bombard stacks... actually, i really haven't built much of a military at all so far. its been almost exclusively city improvements. granted, I have a few hellenic outposts, so im getting a few Zenoi as I go to help secure cities. Otherwise, the available units aren't worth my effort. either A) they are too slow or B) they aren't that strong. So far my advancing army consists of the 3 generals, 5 phalanxes, hephestion, alexander, a few hetairoi, a few thessalian cav, a few agrianioi, and a few thracian cav. I find that (so far) if i use this small force wisely i can take on much larger forces, though currently My Issus is proving quite tense. I have lost 2 hetairoi, but otherwise im able to hold the line. enemy cav. is a constant threat, but i just attack with my weaker units and then transport them to tarsus so they wont die. I'm hoping that by the time i get into persia I will have some other units waiting in eastern anatolia and the levant.
Army composition: hopefully garrisons and a few peltasts at the back, the zenoi (in the early game at least) to help fill in the cities that have been recently taken - until you're able to build garrisons. Then it's pretty much as you are up front, the phalanxes and hypaspists, supported by cavalry. I do recommend taking the time to get the Thracian units to the front too, they're handy.Can you give me some hints on how you intend things to go, regarding invasion route and intended army composition? I'm just curious how your intentions differ from mine. (if needs be, feel free to PM me this info)
Here's a simple list of cities in sequence I made for myself as a guide. It's based on some back & forth discussion with Keroro while I was playing the previous version. Maybe it will be useful to others.As for recommended route - see pretty much any map of Alex's route. Across Asia Minor by way of the biggest cities, down the Levant, through Egypt quickly and then back towards Babylon then Persepolis.
Yes, keep those pezhetairoi going. They're too good to sit at the back. Good luck in the cavalry skirmishes, and I hope Darius turns up on cue to ruin your army (ruin it a bit anyway). There are more celebration wonders to come, in Tyre and Babylon if memory serves.I have made it just north of Byblos (just like last turn) but boy is this game different. First off it is now Week 26, 334 BC, as opposed to week 49, so im WAY farther ahead than last game. I decided to take the heavy slow units and pretty much trudge through the middle along the persian roads, while my lighter units, support, and cavalry snaked up and down asia minor. i basically split my forces in 2 (2 phalanxes with the central northern army and 3 in the southern). I decided to go straight to Sidon and Gordion to maximize the Knot. I think this helped... Anyway, I decided to actually take out the asian greeks instead of leaving one city so their preplaced garrisons would remain and hinder persia (made sense for movement's sake) and now im luckily encountering the persian cav way ahead of the rest of the army, so im doing my best to pick them off without losing many units, while simultaneously pushing forward with my main force. I hope to take Byblos next turn. My army is much stronger this time around, simply from hurrying garrisons (freeing other troops) and pushing the petzhetairoi forward.
Possibly the AI Governors had trouble with all the unusual options that aren't in the normal civ 3 game. As we can't touch the AI code there's no direct way to teach the AI to build appropriately or manage citizens for the best. They'll probably be useful later on to take some of the micromanagement away from you.As for my economy, its night and day. Remember how last time I was -81 GPT and had only a few turns at most till bankruptcy (and therefore turned down my tech rate)? well this time i did some things different. I usually just set the cities to automanage happiness, but i tried my hand at micromanagement, setting tax collectors wherever I could. What was the result? I currently have 2354 gold, plus 32 gpt. AND i have been able to keep my tech pace. AND i havent used my golden age yet (i did in the last game) so i have that to look forward to.
Thanks Blue. That remains a reasonable guide. Wikipedia also has a decent map (click the map for bigger) that gives you an idea of the historical journey. Of course it's just a guide, but this route should let you hit the cities that are most important in the order in which they are most vulnerable.Here's a simple list of cities in sequence I made for myself as a guide. It's based on some back & forth discussion with Keroro while I was playing the previous version. Maybe it will be useful to others.
Alexander's Goals
- Zelea - Dascylium - Sardis - Ephesus - Halicarnassus
- Side/Iconium/Gordium - Ancyra - Tyana - Tarsus
- Byblos - Sidon - Tyre - Samaria/Jerusalem - Damascus - Palmyra
- Egypt - any order you fancy
- Persia - Resaina/Thapsacus - Nisibis - Arbela - Opis - Babylonia/Callone - Orchoe - Susa - Pasargadae - Persepolis - Aspadana - Ecbatana - the rest
- Bactria - Kabul - Drapasca - Bactria - Nautaca - Samarkand
- bribe Embolima and Taxilas
- India - Indus valley towards Pattala
- Optional - Gedrosian desert via Cocala - Gouadar - Pura and finally Hormozela
- Maurya makes a good target, as does Italy. You can reclaim Macedon and Thrace