A Greece Game

[Fresol]

Hello everyone, this is already the 7th episode of our Illustrative Strategy Guides for Dawn of Civilization series. In the last episode, we achieved a virtual victory with Persia. Honestly, it was the first time ever I won a (virtual) historical victory with Persia. It kind of felt like a Mongolia game, where military actions dominated and there were few other elements involved.

After Persia, we move on to Greece, where there are also lots of actions. The three historical goals for Greece are:
1. The School of Hellas: Be the first to discover Literature, Drama and Philosophy.
2. Wonders of the Aegean: Build the Oracle, the Parthenon, the Colossus, and the Temple of Artemis by 250 BC (Turn 124).
3. Alexander's Empire: Control Egypt, Phoenicia, Babylonia and Persia in 330 BC (Turn 119).

The turn numbers indicated in the brackets are under Normal speed.

Keep in mind that we should prioritize the 3 goals in reverse order, that is, focus on military first, conquer Egypt, Babylonia, Phoenicia, Persia and even Rome at the earliest opportunity. Whenever you have enough troops, build the wonders. And then with support of a large empire and tons of wonders and great people, you can research 10 times faster than before and get the 1st goal done.

 

[Fresol]

This game was played under Regent/Normal setting under SVN revision 980.



We have a good start here, notice the 2 flipped huluganni(what's the plural form? ). IMO Greece games depend heavily on good starts, you'd want defenceless Egypt and Babylonia with some flipped huluganni. You also need some luck in the first few combats. I know some of you are strongly against S/Ls, in that case I think failing and trying another game from the beginning should do it.



We settle Korinthos as our capital and start working on a workboat. Have workers build a mine on the hill 1W and work the hill tile to accelerate the production of the workboat. Build 3 workboats in Korinthos.



We found Epidamnos 1S of the copper. Build a pagan temple, then a workboat and hoplites with or without barracks. After building the mine 1W of Korithos, have the workers chop all trees around Epidamnos, then build mines on some of the hills. Wait for the 10 city coverage expansion and improve the 2 sheep. Research Animal Husbandry first.



We meet Babylonia. It's terrific news that they only have 1 city right now. Our huluganni are already approaching their border. Basically, it's difficult for us if they have Ninua, but Kalhu or Ur or Khalpe are fine.



Egypt is also on 1 city and is like a lamb to the slaughter. Use the galley to ferry hoplites to Egypt.

 

[Fresol]

The war is on! Our hoplites invade Egyptian land and capture a worker which will be ferried back to Greece.



Meanwhile in Babylonia, our hulugani also begin their invasion. Babylonia is weakly defended.



We have the advantage in combats.



We have the best of luck, Babylonia just completed the Pyramids 1 turn before we capture the city. Our game looks really promising now.



A peek inside the city. There's also the granary, so I've decided to build a library and farm our Great People here. The Pyramids provides Great Engineer points which is just what we need. A GE(bulb Metal Casting) and 2 GSs(bulb Mathematics and Philosophy) would suffice for this game.



We've also had luck in Egypt. After killing the warriors and an archer, we take Niwt-Rst.



The Great Sphynx is inside, but there's no granary. Granary no longer boosts health, so we choose not to build it in many cases, including our core cities.



We are already in control of Egypt and Babylonia. But there is a "bug", that Shush is considered to be in Babylonia rather than Persia. It's independent right now so it doesn't count against our goal.

 

[Fresol]

Killing indie warriors for GG points.



Razing indie Khalpe.



Another indie warrior. Time to bring the hoplites to the Levant. A starting warrior in Egypt would be enough for now.



The 2 huluganni are enough to take and raze indie Shushan. It'll weaken Persia and brings us a lot of . We are lucky that there's no loss in the combats.

Babylon builds a pagan temple for , and train a warrior or two. It's not connected to our capital right now so no copper for the city.

 

[Fresol]

After Masonry, we adopt Slavery. In general, if you can finish a settler or worker the next turn, don't change civics until it gets finished, to save a turn or two. This is not the case for us right now though.



Meet Phoenicia. They also have a flipped huluganni. We wait to declare war on them after the 10 turns of forced peace.



Killing more indie warriors.



Building pastures near Epidamnos. I initially planned to build more cities in core as the game proceeds, but in the end I built none. There's no time for extra settlers, maybe you can also take that in mind. Settlers are costly and new cities need a lot of help to grow. Weight your choice.

After Animal Husbandry, we research Aesthetics to enter Classical era. Expansion stability is horrible in Ancient era, and we are running out of the first 20 turns of stability-check-proof period. Our Great Engineer is on his way to be born in Babylon.



An indie warrior has entered Egyptian land. We upgrade our warrior to hoplite to kill it. Have a worker improve the gold after our culture covers it. Build hoplites without barracks in Diospolis Megale.



After the 3 workboats, build a pagan temple in Korinthos to allow further growth.

 

[Fresol]

Killing the indie warrior.



After finishing the library in Babylon, we hire 2 scientists for a faster GE. This pollutes the GP pool but being completely safe also means being too conservative.



Our GE is born in Babylon. We have him partially bulb Metal Casting immediately. The first GP type is critical I think. A Great Prophet (from the Sphynx) would be completely useless.



At turn 76, we invade Phoenician land. Be sure to whip down the population in Babylon and Diospolis Megale before the invasion, otherwise the DoW would cause city secession from expansion instability.



I don't know where their huluganni went, but we take Sur nonetheless. Our first GG is born in Korinthos.

We still have free wins against barbs, so Babylon is safe.



Our expansion stability is alright, thanks to the low pop in Babylon, Diospolis Megale and Tyros.



We are now in control of Phoenicia. A quick capture of Sur like we just did ensures that Phoenician navy does not harass our core cities or do any pillaging. Otherwise it's problematic.



Carthage revives as the city gets auto-founded, make peace with them then.

Break time . More posts will come later.

 

[Fresol]

Our GG leads the warrior for free upgrade to hoplite, also the 20 experience points get shared by the three units.



With our elite forces, we take Jerusalem.



We are already having problem with expansion stability. Entering the Classical era will alleviate the problem.



The gold is improved to provide happiness.



Aesthetics brings us into the Classical era.

 

[Fresol]

We can't build farm on the wheat because we don't know agriculture. Meanwhile Babylon is starving for hiring 2 scientists at 2 pop.

We are researching Metal Casting. Don't finish the research before turn 90. The spawn of the Romans will remove the tech spread penalty for MC.



Persia spawns at peace with us. I don't know whether emptying Jerusalem has helped us or not, but it's safe from the Persians.



Our expansion stability is fine now.

 

[Fresol]

We meet China. No we are not declaring war on them, that was a mismicro, my cursor was on Qin Shi Huang's face you know.



An overview of our cities. The barracks in Babylon doesn't really matter. Babylon is focusing on GSs and has abysmal output on anything else.



The Great Cothon is finished in Korinthos.



And the GS Pythagoras is born in Babylon. We have him research Mathematics for us.

We have Babylon continue to hire 2 scientists despite of what the screenshot says.



I don't think OB with Persia is a good idea. We don't want any religions right now (or ever).



A free scout from the huts? We disband it immediately.

 

[Fresol]

We meet India on turn 90. India's always Buddhist now.



The emergence of the Romans has lowered the research cost for Metal Casting. Next turn we'll finish MC.



On turn 94, we declare war on the Persians and destroy a chariot and immortal of theirs.



The Temple of Artemis is finished in Korinthos. Notice that Korinthos still doesn't have harbor or granary. We can build a harbor later, but granary is useless since we aren't doing any whipping here.



At the same time the Parthenon is finished in Epidamnos. I forgot to make use of it the whole game.



Being at war with Persia, we are finally not the worst enemy of the Carthagians. They are willing to trade us Alphabet.

We researched Priesthood before agriculture.



The siege of Parsa begins.

 

[Fresol]

City Raider III hoplites are really good at siege. We take Parsa. Meanwhile there are also battles on the open field. Some hoplites come from Diospolis Megale and others(and the spearman) are from Epidamnos(it has a barracks from the initial forest chopping).



Hangmatana is our next target, before Aspadana.



Our Hektor(hoplite) died in defence.

 

[Fresol]

Finally with Agriculture we can build farms and the Hanging Gardens. But remember the tech trade screenshot with Carthage? They are already building it.



Hangmatana is captured and razed. Thinking back maybe I shouldn't have done that. The difference is minor so I guess it's OK both ways.



Our stabilty is fine. Fine, what a weak word.



We choose Currency as the free tech from the Oracle. It's funny how you get to choose the tech before receiving the message that the Oracle has been built.



The Oracle is finished in Epidamnos.

 

[Fresol]

We take the city of Aspadana and drive Persia out of its core. They are still alive though! I think it's because of the 20-turn protection from instability mechanics.



We make peace with them. Without Monarchy we can't vassalize them. Even if we do vassalize them, they'd collapse later.



Checking our historical goals.



And the wonders. Where are you, China? There's not a single wonder from them.



The Colossus is finished in Korinthos.



Barb medjays. They started appearing a while ago, but the first pair wandered off into the deserts. We still have the free wins. Diospolis Megale has barracks inside and has been training catapults for a while. Tyros is also producing troops.



Strange cultural border, bug?



The Statue of Zeus is finished in Epidamnos. We have ivory in Persia.

 

[Fresol]

Looks like China is experiencing a moderate foreign crisis. It happens a lot.



The GS Sokrates is born in Babylon, let him stay there for the moment. Babylon can finally grow now.



The Ishtar Gate is finished in Jerusalem. Religions are starting to rampage the land.



An overview of the cities.



And checking our stability.

 

[Fresol]

I planned to research Literature first and use the Great Library too boost our research. But it doesn't go as planned.



A religious victory was closer to us than I thought.



The Great Lighthouse is finished in Epidamnos. Meanwhile we are almost ready to invade Rome.



More barb medjays need to be taken care of. They are really strong with 4 strength and 2 first strikes.



The Great Merchant Kroisos is born in Korinthos. Is there a connection between the two names? His trade mission will provide the we need to research Drama and Philosophy. As I said, I have the best of luck this game.

 

[Fresol]

There's a S/L at this turn, because I mismicroed with shift while trying to see if a trade mission to Rome would provide the same amount of gold as Pompeii, the GM ended wasting all his movement points. Not wanting to waste any turn for a fast victory, I reloaded the game and got 900 from the trade mission.



At the same turn, we take the city of Pompeii from the Romans.

Epidamnos' clam and sheep was taken by the Romans shortly after their spawn. But with the tons of wonders inside, we have culturally taken the tiles back, which is convenient for the final attack.



Disconnecting the iron is our top priority.



You can see facing City Raider III hoplites, the unpromoted Legion is weaker than the City Garrison I archer.



We take Roma. The next target is Mediolanum.



We have learned Drama. We have researched Meditation before, so we can research Philosophy next.

 

[Fresol]

Remember Sokrates? He's been waiting this moment for centuries.



At the same turn we take Mediolanum and expel the Romans into oblivion.



Golden Age with victory! This is the earliest winning time possible under Normal speed.



Technically the Great Library is finished AFTER the victory, so, yeah...

The Persians are doing fine without their core though.

I personally like this game much better than the Persia one. What about you, my dear readers?

 

[ales_]

That was quick. Good game. What's next?

 

[Fresol]

I'll take a break from the game this week, have some work to do.

 

[citis]

This appeared in just a night! Wow!

You are extremely lucky to say the lest. In my games I'm able to conquer early egypt or Babylon, not both.

IMO Greece games depend heavily on good starts, you'd want defenceless Egypt and Babylonia with some flipped huluganni. You also need some luck in the first few combats. I know some of you are strongly against S/Ls, in that case I think failing and trying another game from the beginning should do it.

A strategy that requires maybe less S/Ls is settling Cyprus. Cyrpus has enormous and early production. You have to counter phoenicians, but AI send its most troops out of the city, thus you can counter it in a couple of turns. After that you can train army in an excelent rate to conquer Babylon and Persia.

What I don't like in Greece games is early conquest, although I follow the same strategy. It isn't historical. I would like to see less strict deadlines, like 30BC for conquests.