Emperor Justus II returns to the throne after 80 years in exile, and finds the Eastern Empire facing many of the same problems that plagued his first reign. Between corruption and expenses, there seems no easy way to balance the budget. Add to that how unhappy his people are, and it's a struggle to keep the people in line and fed. He is pleased to see much progress has been made in strengthening the military, although we are again at "lucky 13" legions, we now have many more garrisons, and a force of horsemen and catapults. We have even formed some of those legions into an army, that has driven deep into the heart of the Sassanids. All this progress comes at a price, however, as the treasury strains to pay all our soldiers and workers. Justus dedicates himself to improving the economy, while keeping the pressure on our enemies.
424AD (0) After looking over the save, our biggest problem is finances. Even with the luxuries hooked up, so luxury tax is 0, we have several cities that need entertainers. The other big expense is unit support, we are paying 55gpt, something has to give. We are still researching Military Tradition, but we won't be able to afford to upgrade any cavalry at this rate! So I make some changes to improve our economy and specifically unit support. Constantinople and Thessalonika start Aquaducts, to get the City bonus for commerce and unit support. The real solution, though, is more small towns, and Athenae, Iconium, Cappadocia, Pergamum, and Antioch all swap to settlers. I will place them behind our lines, along the coast mostly. Each adds 1gpt, 1spt (which is another gpt on wealth), and a citizen, who can be a scientist or a taxman, and another unit support. In effect, each town can generate/save 5gpt. Do a few more MM, most are good. I also switch Nicomedia to Palace as a prebuild for Hagia Sophia (BTW, we also still need Christianity after Military Training for the wonder/GA). It can do 9spt now, but with some worker focus, I hope to get it to 15spt soon. Speaking of workers, that is another concern. Part of our unit support problem is 14 native workers. Workers generally are worth the expense, but most of ours are working tiles in corrupt cities that won't help much. I wake several and move them toward core cities, merge a couple where I can. One exception is near Singindum/Sirmium, I use two workers to start irrigating grassland. If we can get these two corrupt cities to size 7, that gives them a defensive bonus and adds to unit support.
OK, now it's time to make some deals. I sell W. Rome horses for 6gpt, and trade our WM for their TM and 27g. Our alliances with the Franks are up, so I renew, but without the Dyes, hoping to trade them to Rome. This is where I realized that something happened to our rep, Franks will not accept any per-turn deals for WM, and Rome won't either. (Although later, I was able to get Rome's WM for dyes). I trade the Vizigoths Polytheism for their WM, which had a good picture of the Sassinids and the Celts, and then Currency to ally them vs. the Vandals. Move a cat+garrision from Constantinople near vandal spear, and hit enter.
IBT: 4 more Hun raiders appear, and 3 more Sass horses, near Caesarea. Also a Vandal raider near Sing.
Ephesus-Market>Duct, Sirm-Cat>wealth.
426 (1) Cat knocks a hp off the Vandal spear, legion kills him. I move a horse to scout along the Hun Highway, 3 cats move up and get 1hp on the hun raiders. Legion joins the Army, kills 1 raider, horse kills another. Quiet on the Southern front, as I rest the raiding army to heal, and move horsemen closer to Caesarea. Sell the Franks Currency for 2 Anglo-Sax workers (50 turns are up).
IBT: Huns kill the scouting horse in the fort with another horse, the remainging raiders retreat into the fog. At Caesarea, the Sassanids lose an archer to a garrison, then a horse kills a garrison. W. Rome attacks, killing a Sassinids Archer with their legion.
Antioch-Setter>Legion, Adrianop-Legion>Legion, Caesarea riots.
428 (2) At Caesarea, cats go 2 for 2, Horse loses 2, kills sass horse. Elite horse loses 1hp killing a wounded Sass horse in the desert. Vs. the Huns, cats go 1/3, horse kills a raider, Army kills another.
IBT: Huns attack horse w/horse, I lose 2hp, they die. 3 Sass horses appear. Caesarea, 1 horse loses an hp to a cat, and then attacks and retreats, another dies vs. garrison. Franks make peace with everyone
W. Rome kills a sass horse!
Ancyra-Garrison>garrison, Athenae-Settler>Market.
430 (3) Ally the Franks again vs. Anglos and Vandals for Iron and Horses. On the Hun front, cats and a horse kill their horse, the new Legion army heads south to the Sass front. At Caesarea, a vet horse dies against a sass horse, then reg horse wins to finish him. An elite horse redlines killing a reg horse. The Army attacks Susa, killing 2 vet spear, losing 1 hp.
Heraclea is founded NW of Antioch.
IBT: 4 new raiders approach. Sass kill the W.Rome legion, 2 more horse appear.
432 (4) 2 cats, elite and vet horse kill two hun raiders. At Caesarea, cats hit 1/2, horse kills archer, Elite Legion attacks a horse, and
Theodosius appears, then runs back to Antioch to make an empty army.
Another elite legion picks off an archer.
Near Singidum, 2 cats and a horse kill a Vandal raider.
Treboziond is founded on an Island E of Athens.
Susa is hit again, the army kills 2 vet spears, horsemen rides in to kill off the last regular spearman, and Susa is razed. Unfortunately the new luxury colonies wont connect without Singara and the new capital, Ctestiphon out of the way. Gortyn is in a catch22, either disorder or starve, so I rushbuy a worker to get it back to 2 pop, and I will MM to keep it there.
IBT: Hun raider kills my elite horse, Sass archer dies vs horse, horse attacks garrison of Caesarea, and dies, promoting the garrison. Celts and Franks go to war again.
Pergamum-Settler>Temple, Gortyn riots but produces worker and is OK.
434 (5) At Caesarea, the clouds are starting to lift. Horse kills his horse, legion kills archer, and the 2nd Legion army heads to Singara.
IBT: 2 Hun raiders appear, the remaining Vandal raider heads to fight the Vizigoths. Paphos-Gar>Wealth.
436 (6) W. Rome finally gives up their WM for WM+Dyes. A new army with 2 legions is formed near the Huns with Theodosius' Legion on the way, and kills a hun raider. Rest of troops heal up, position.
IBT: Sass make strange moves, horses going around and leaving threatened towns. I have started using some captured workers to scout a bit, hoping to increase my map value as they head home. Rome starts Justinian...JUSTINIAN! That means they have Military Training, and we are just 1 turn away
438 (7) No sense wasting more research scientists, I am able to trade Monotheism for Miltary Training, the Roman WM, and a worker. Time for Max Tax to pay for upgrades, I switch all but 1 scientist to taxmen, getting income over 50gpt. We do still need to research Christianity, but I am taking a research pause till we get enough cash. Vs. the Huns, cats and the army kill both raiders. At Singara, the Northern Army kills 2 vet spears without a sweat, but there's still a regular left. The southern army kills an archer and maneuvers near Ctesiphon.
IBT: Wow, Zone of Controls really kicked in, hitting 4 units. Constantinple-Aqueduct>Heavy Cav, Thessalonika-Aquaduct>Heavy Cav. Ancyra-Garrisoin>Legion, Nicea-Temple>Garrison.
440 (8) Upgrade our first Heavy Cav. move an army in position to load. North Legion Army attacks Singarra again, kills a vet and regular spear, but there's still one left. Elite legion picks off a horse on the road S. South Legion army continues to march near Ctesiphon. The third, or Hun, Legion ARmy kills 2 horses, losing 1hp.
IBT: Sass have a few moves, more Huns come into view, only about 2/turn.
442 (9) Another vet spear at Singarra, although not fortified yet, so I attack, but the army loses 5hp, and I pull back. I also use my free pillage to take out his only known horse at the capital.
Chalcedon is founded on the coast. Again, the cats and army take care of this turn's 2 Hun raiders.
IBT: Not as much, a Sass archer and Hun Horse come into view.
Thess riots (I missed growth with the duct complete), Misibis-Garrision>Garrison, Iconium-Settler>Temple.
444 (10) The army near the Huns kills a raider. I did most moves, a few troops are healing. I have already done the map trading for this turn, but not the happiness double check yet. I have been able to upgrade one HC each turn, with map sales. The HC Army (w/2 cav) is near Singarra also, another HC is in Antioch. We have 3 horses left, a vet in Thessalonika, an elite healing near Antioch, and another elite healing in the far SE, near the silk and spices colonies. There are some workers there also, to use for the colonies, or whatever, I have been using them to scout a bit before they move back. Singarra and Ctesiphon both have culture blocking the road.
Here is the situation around Singarra, we have two Legion armies nearby (the second is under the elite legion, healing) and a 2-horse HCav army, with a 3rd HCav enroute.
Our economy is still set to all taxmen, but as soon as we are done upgrading horses (2-3 left) we need to switch over to research. The Pre-build in Nicomedia is cruising along, at 14spt the Hagia Sophia will be done in 19 more turns, triggering our Golden Age, but we need Christianity first. (This doubles churches, which we don't have any yet, but also takes one unhappy away in all cities). We should be able to research it in 12-15 turns once we switch all our taxmen to scientists, and run 20% research or so, just get it done a turn or two ahead of Nicomedia hitting 400.
Our VP total is 21,945, as of turn 60. That's a gain of 4000 since the start of my turns, or an average of 400/turn. At this rate, we will be done in 30-35 turns. The Golden Age should hit about halfway there, and let us go out in a blaze of glory, putting the
down on our enemies. Actually, the Sassanids are still down 5 cities, we should get these 2 easy, and pick off one more and they are gone. The Huns have been a steady stream, 2-3 units per turn, but all raiders or horses. Vandals haven't been a threat. However, we know their SoDs are out there somewhere, so I still think the GA would be a good boost when we need it most. We also still have one empty army, which we could send to Europe, or hold until we start producing some HCav.
Here is
The Save, 444AD
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But Military Training now takes us 16 turns.
Alexandria: settler->garrison. 
I miscounted somewhere and it is 424 AD already 
Great to see the progress against the Sassinids, and our continued killing of everything the Huns send against us. I agree with a Legion army near Cappadocia, vs. the Huns, and then be prepared for an HCav army in time to finish off the Sassinids. Actually, an army in Europe sounds like a good idea, and would need to be ferried over before we fill it. Also, the wonder would be great, a GA in time to face the full brunt of the barbarian hordes (i.e. warlords) would be most helpful! I haven't seen any mention of it, though, so I assume there wasn't a prebuild, I'll have to see how long it would take. Anyway, I should be able to play later tonight, so I'll check in after looking at the save if anyone has other suggestions.
