C3C PBEM : Rise of Rome - scenario-based PBEM

[akots]

Did you have fun? Should be simple enough

Not much since there is not enough time to finish it properly. But it was OK. Macedon had advanced and Persia had retreated. Macedon captured 2 cities (not much but at least something) and Persia did not capture and hold anything yet. I consider this as a victory. Not a big one but still something.

@Fandom fan: The game was somewhat unbalanced by low difficulty of the AI. And in the end I hope we can disclose all the diplomatic details which laid the foundation for the current disposition of the players.

 

[ironduck]

Sheesh, it seems I'm the only one having fun in this game

 

[akots]

Well, the task of managing that many cities and units is at least tedious.

 

[ironduck]

If it becomes boring, just put it all on auto and do whatever is fun to do.. it's not like we get a prize for doing well in the game, just your neighbours - or me for that matter - if you think that is more enjoyable

 

[akots]

That is the most annoying (at least for me) properties of the game. It is tedious and boring if played well and to gain even a little advantage, you have to struggle a lot with management. In this particular scenario, management of cities and workers has been really a challenge mostly because of the size of the map. I personally get nuts with more than 120 cities in the game and either have to use governors or MapStat. Since governors mess up everything and you end up spending even more time trying to correct what they have screwed, the only way out is use of MapStat which now has PBEM support. However, it will show a few thinigs which might be considered as spoiler info for some players like for example, number of cities of a human player, gold in his treasury, and techs available to trade but I'm not sure about the latter. So, it is a big question whether it is a good idea to use one or not. In any case, there is no way to control whether it has been used or not. At least, it does not modify the save. But for this particular PBEM, playing without MapStat was really effort-consuming.

We don't get any prizes anyhow and if Macedon was not doing well, it could have been that Carthage were dead for some time already.

 

[Random fan]

This turn the sons of the fallen military generals Acheamenes II and Cyrus II motivated by revenge and the hate to agressor, disobeyed the order of the heir to the throne Darius to stay at Sidon and enjoy peaceful life and lead the way completely healed and regrouped persian forces to retake the lost cities of Dyanakus and Herat (god I really begin to like 3 movement points of armies )

At first they liberated Dyanakus by killing one macedon heavy cavalry placed there and then made an enormous leap to Herat around the main forces of Macedons. In Herat they killed 5 regular hoplites which were left by the macedons to guard 4 fire catapults. Thanks to the wit and the courage of the young military leaders the main Macedonian troops (68 heavy cavalry) were surrounded in the old stronghold in the mountains near Dyanakus (sorry tried to take a screenie but falied ) Inspired by their heroism the main persian forces demanded from Darius to eradicate the trapped enemy as soon as possible and forced him to rise his fat ass from his throne in Sidon and to lead them to the battle.

In not so titanic but still an epic struggle persian forces stormed the black stronghold in the mountains. Macedon were defending fiercly. Among their ranks a hero rised - Hector who led his brethren heroicly in this doomed defense . It is rumored that he was the last to fall among defenders striked by three spears. Even Persians respected his courage and buried him with all honours due to the great warrioir. Persia lost 36 units of heavy cavalry in this battle while Macedon lost all 68 of theirs.

In the end the young generals who disobeyed the orders of the prince were about to be executed , but Darius changed his mind on the last second. It is rumored that this has somehow to do with the growing popularity of the generals among warriors and possible unrest in the military

P.S What can I say calculated macedonian troops outside Dyankus and noticed that Herat is guarded by regular hoplites.I saw an opening and I used it. my looses attacking barricated mountain would probably be even more higher if not for the armies that grant 3 guaranted kills each in one turn.

 

[ironduck]

akots, I agree managing a huge empire can be boring, but my point is just that if you're not having fun in the game play it a way that you do have fun with it - win or lose. If you don't like having a large empire to manage this is probably not the scenario to play, at least not if you're going for a dominance win

I'm not familiar with MapStat, but if it helps you enjoy the game more all the better.. (although you shouldn't be able to see how much gold etc. others have I think..)

And yes, I expected to have been run over by the Romans long ago after they took Sicily and pretty much anihilated my forces. Fortunately they ended up concentrating on expanding their empire rather than destroying me, so I got to be the annoying pain in their tail

turn for loulong

 

[ironduck]

Persia - armies rock!

 

[akots]

Hector? What a nonsense! Well, more reinforcements are on the way and are being rushed, so I guess the battle will continue for a few remaining turns. But fierce and bloody it is.

 

[Random fan]

Hector? What a nonsense! Well, more reinforcements are on the way and are being rushed, so I guess the battle will continue for a few remaining turns. But fierce and bloody it is.

Yeah agreed They just ripped off leaders from Greeks in this one. And Hector never was a Greek either

 

[LouLong]

Not much since there is not enough time to finish it properly.

Why didn't you start before then ? It is not like you did not know when the game would end, is it ?

And I am personally looking for some explanation on some diplomatic and mostly strategic agreements at the end for I must say there are some things I still don't really understand...

 

[akots]

Why didn't you start before then ? ...

Well, you've seen the outcome, so why should I have started earlier? This leads to nothing! Resistance is futile!!!

BTW I have watched the new movie "Alexander" today and am really pissed with my performance although the spirit of the Civ game has been better off with the current outcome than what has been anticipated in the actual history. Never mind though.

 

[ironduck]

Lots of action this turn!

Last turn we initiated an attack on the remaining Roman strongholds in Africa with a large stack of cavalry and two armies moving up into the mountains separately. Further I had sent out workers to create a road near the shore at the recently abandoned city, and the Romans were sending forces in to threaten the workers, so protection was brought in to complete the roadwork. This leads us to this turn:

Both my armies have vanished without a trace, but the other cavalry stack is still intact and moved into position to launch attacks next turn. Meanwhile the Romans brought in reinforcements at the coast in the north to settle another city in place of the one they just abandoned. A stack of pikemen were killed and the settler absorbed into Carthaginian society.

On the downside, the Romans landed a considerable force near our dye colony of Nora in the Egyptian pocket. Hopefully the Egyptians will be able to make short process of these intruders, but we found it too risky to stay.

Finally, the Romans have a fleet roaming around eastern Sicily, they will be monitored closely.

 

[ironduck]

turn for loulong

 

[LouLong]

New turn started

 

[ironduck]

Our counter attack has run into trouble as the Romans mustered a hard attack almost cutting our offensive in half. We have no idea what kind of forces the Romans are attacking with, however. Nevertheless, the Romans abandoned yet another town (lower left corner) and are now down to just two towns on our continent. We attacked Beneventum 2 with around 30 cavalry this turn (have about 20 left), but they seem to have neverending supplies of pikemen, so could not take the town.. Expecting to have lost the rest of the cavalry stack next turn

 

[ironduck]

turn for loulong

 

[Rubberjello]

Sheesh! That was pretty good luck for you. Only 30% casualties against fortified pikes on a hilltown with Fire Catapults providing defensive bombardment?
Gotta love the bloodbath of these final turns!

We Romans our cheap Pikemen! (In this scenario).

 

[ironduck]

I didn't even see the fire catapults, have turned off animated battles I think it's normal results though, remember cavalry retreat.. most of them are wounded now, they don't necessarily kill anything.

 

[Rubberjello]

Yeah. You were right. A bunch of red-lined Cavs there. *cough* *cough* I mean WERE there! They died honorably though. I have a feeling that you wouldn't have attacked that city at all if the game wasn't so close to ending.