A Phoenicia Game

[Fresol]

Hey guys, here's a quick Phoenicia game for you. It's far from being a perfect game, but it shows a rather reliable strategy which can lead you to victory.

Phoenicia is a powerful civilization in game. They have a powerful UP(half price mercenaries with no extra maintenance from the start), a good UU(war elephants that only require Horseback Riding), and they start advanced with Alphabet.

The three historical goals for Phoenicia are:
1. New Tyre: Build a Palace and the Great Cothon in Carthage by 300 BC (Turn 121)
2. The Punic Wars: Control Italy and Iberia in 100 BC (Turn 134)
3. Traders in Purple: Have 5000 gold in 200 AD (Turn 154)



And my game setting is Regent/Normal as usual, on SVN revision 980.

 

[Fresol]

Here's an ordinary Phoenicia start. We have one flipped warrior, which we shall delete immediately. We are going for a straight game, no rush at start or things like that, except for the Palace trick. Carthage will be our capital.



Babylonia has Ninua. The Oracle hasn't been built yet, good news for us.



Greece has Byzantion.



Egypt is still on one city. Actually we can't care less about Egypt.



You can see with 2-3 flipped Hulugannis we can kill Greece right at the beginning of the game. Or if Athenai only has 1 warrior in it, we won't even need any flipped units.

But of course, we won't do that in this game. We are only going to kill Greece later.

 

[Fresol]

On turn 71, we are finally able to found our first city, Qart-Hadasht. It starts building the Great Cothon right away. The 2 workers improve the stone first since our work boat will arrive soon.



Meanwhile we found Kition on the Copper. Kition builds the Oracle.



That's the palace trick. I personally find the 5 turns of waiting to be worthwhile. But you'll need some luck on the Oracle.



Getting Agriculture through trade shouldn't be a problem, but I find it hard to get any other techs in this game.



Confucianism founded on turn 80. Sadly we will meet neither India nor China this game.

The 2 workers improve all the possible tiles near Qart-Hadasht.



Persia starts at war with us. It's going to take a while before they become willing to cease fire. We'll finish researching Horseback Riding soon.

 

[Fresol]

Buddhism on turn 90, this is quick.



Meet our archenemy, Rome.



We finish researching HBR on turn 95.



Qart-Hadasht finishes the Great Cothon at the same time. UHV goal 1 accomplished. Wow, that was easy.



We switch to Warrior Code to speed up the production of barracks and stables. Don't know whether it's really worthwhile!



We choose Currency as the free tech from the Oracle 2 turns later.



The Oracle is finished in Kition.



Finally Darius is willing to stop the meaningless war, with us paying a small amount of gold. Persia isn't even at war the Babylonia so I never get to see their large unit stacks. Plus, they can't possibly attack Kition, it's on the island.

 

[Fresol]

The pasture is destroyed by natural disaster, but our workers aren't around to rebuild it.



They are busy chopping trees near Kition.



As Qart-Hadasht and Kition both have finished barracks+stables, we switch back to Mercenaries and start hiring African war elephants and galleys.



It's interesting how African war elephants don't have to be from Africa.



Sorry Darius, it's not the time yet.



We do a bit of scouting before starting the Punic Wars. Taoism is founded on turn 111.



The Kition games have become regionally famous. Book your ticket to Kition now!



Selling Priesthood for some gold.

 

[Fresol]

Rome has really made a bad choice to have researched Monarchy.



Because they only gave it to the people that will in turn completely destroy them.

I'm bringing 6 African war elephants, 3 galleys and a trireme to the battle. The elephants attacked right from the sea, making Roma unable to hurry any legions. 2 war elephants are lost in the siege of Roma.



Rebellion on top of revolts.



Disconnecting the invisible iron is a priority. I'm still hiring more African war elephants at Qart-Hadasht.

 

[Fresol]

The Alexandrian conquest has begun! Pericles remains the Greek leader though.



Lost galleys can be replendished fast enough, so no worries.



We took the time to go across the river and then attack. In return there's fewer losses.



The Celts took Spalatum, so taking Vibo Valentia destroys the Romans.



Italy is now under Carthagian control!

 

[Fresol]

We proceed to take Spalatum.



And Spalatum falls. We raze the city in the hope to prevent a Rome respawn.



Expansion stability is terrible in this game. In hindsight, I should've kept Qart-Hadasht growing whenever possible.



Somehow it seems like the razed city Spalatum seceded. No real harm to us. Our war elephant gets teleported back to Italy.



Iberia is also our target.



And we take Valentia.



With the first two goals achieved, we need to focus on our economy and producing Great Merchants.



Adopting Dynasticism helps Qart-Hadasht, our only core city, grow larger.



Hispalis is auto-razed upon conquest. These small cities don't have a chance to grow within the limited time we have left.

 

[ales_]

Reading and getting pleasure of it, as always.

 

[Fresol]

Hammurabi is REALLY friendly towards us. Unfortunately we don't have trade connection with them, which means no tech trades possible.



Alexander has done his job well. Wait! Aren't you Pericles?



Lots of wonders in Greek cities. All your base are belong to us! Just let me take care of this barb trireme first...



6 African war elephants are invading Greek proper. 2 more are on the way. Greece has copper in Egypt, I believe, but it won't save them.



Our Shock elephants have winning odds even against spearman. Athenai is ours!



The Statue of Zeus inside the city allows for fully workable city upon conquest.



We take Delphoi on the same turn. The Greeks are really weak in defence.



I need to manually starve some of the cities to not have our expansion stability plummet.

 

[Fresol]

Obviously Greece has Qart-Hadasht as their target. Being the only core city we have, Qart-Hadasht can't be lost! But I'm also reluctant to hire more mercenaries, as they cost .



I think I made the wrong decision here. I should've kept Qart-Hadasht growing instead of spending 2 pop on hurrying the glassmaker.



Because the Triumphal Arch provides 1 , so a GM will be born in time nonetheless. Plus, I can't possibly afford to hire 2 merchants at 6 pop anyways.



This is an army I don't want to face. We don't have horses either.



We are in a golden age because we have finished the first two UHV goals.

 

[Fresol]

Hasdrubal Barca is our great medic. The Phoenician UP is really convenient, you can hire a scout on the turn for merely 20 gold.



Our expansion stability is really terrible. More regrets on hurrying the glassmaker in Qart-Hadasht.



We are safe to acquire techs within a golden age. Or at least I think so.



Finally, hello Alexander! I'm just stalling. Shall we cease fire?



Our GM Hanno is born in Qart-Hadasht. He'll try to conduct a trade mission to Parsa.

The army of Alexander gets expelled out of our borders.

 

[Fresol]

We'll get our second Great Person from Kition. With luck we'll get a GM.



The Greeks can't have expected the Carthagians to be so deceitful. But hey! Guile is also a tactic.



Using our last free win on the barb trireme. Our trireme will take care of the barb galley.



Byzantion falls and the Greeks are gone. So long, Alexander.



Byzantion is a huge city.



What will happen to us after the golden age? We can only pray to the gods...

 

[Fresol]

Our GM Hanno reaches Jerusalem. He can't reach Parsa because of the current war with Babylonia.



Athenai finishes the Colossus as the golden age ends, so that our economy will not suffer too much.



We'll teach the Babylonians a lesson with our veteran African war elephants.



He doesn't understand the consequences yet.

 

[Fresol]

It's still not too late for you, Hammurabi.



You too, Ramesses.



What we feared has happened. The Roman cities have declared independence.



Those nasty Romans! Well, let me solve the barb trireme problem first...



The Celts are causing problems from time to time, too. Anyway the GM Hanno conducts the trade mission at Parsa for 1800.

 

[Fresol]

The Germanic barbs are swarming in. Our African war elephants will take care of them! Maybe I should hire one more, just in case.



How disappointing, our second great person is a GP. But it looks like we will have enough gold regardless. With a GM we would get 900 from a trade mission to Jerusalem.



Our veterans return home to protect their homeland.



All goals are finished.



Our cities don't look so good. I wonder what are the changes since 1.12 that has made my game much worse than before? Not dealing well with expansion instability is one of them. Other reasons include not picking starts and exploiting game mechanics I guess.



There's the stability for you.



Another victory! Hip! Hip! Hurray!



This has been a quick one. Thanks for reading!

 

[Power_of_Beer]

Ah, the good old amphibious War Elephants
Well played!

 

[citis]

Rushing in Carthage has problems. It is better to work food at first (after Cothon), let it grow and replenish production from the mines. However, this shows an other problem, the lack of time, there isn't enough to found other cities and rebuild Carthaginian empire.

Well played!

 

[Kewlipo]

This was an interesting read.

Thanks!

 

[Fresol]

Coming up next week will be an India game.