RBC12 - Fall of Rome SG Series Thread

[Justus II]

I'll volunteer to lead the East Roman team, as long as we wait to finish the current Vandal game. It really has a lot of appeal, both historically and because it seems to be a different kind of challenge. Rather than starting off weak compared to the AI, and gradually growing our power curve, I see the potential for the opposite. We start with the best units, tech and economy, but the barb's tech tree combined with the corruption and gradually (but inexorably) increasing war weariness could eventually grind our economy to a halt, and we could be fighting for our lives! (Look at the Huns, even under the AI, and tell me you want to face them around turn 120?)

BTW, just a couple suggested restrictions, if they are not already built into the scenario. As humans, I think we must stay in Imperialism, and should NOT research the barb tech tree. I know the Sassinids at least have that option, but it just wouldn't seem right for Byzantine Warlords to go out enslaving.

 

[T-hawk]

It's pretty impossible for the non-barb tribes to research Imperialism. The cost of the technology is set to 500; the techs in the second age each cost 20. If you can afford to spend your entire economy researching the equivalent of twenty-five technologies, go for it.

Edit: Duh, I meant Barbarism. And there is no minimum research limit in this scenario - you can't get the tech with one-beaker research.

 

[Justus II]

Originally posted by T-hawk
It's pretty impossible for the non-barb tribes to research Imperialism. The cost of the technology is set to 500; the techs in the second age each cost 20. If you can afford to spend your entire economy researching the equivalent of twenty-five technologies, go for it.

I assume you mean Barbarism? I knew it was expensive, but didn't realize it was that high. I was looking more at a min-research 40-turn attempt anyway, but it just didn't seem to fit the theme of the scenario.

 

[Caesar_Augustus]

For fun, at the start of the Sassinds game I set the science slider to 10% and checked out how long Barbarism would take to come in. I think it was 143 turns or something . At max it wasn't much different. So yeah, it was never an option for us, and won't be an option in the Rome games.

 

[Caesar_Augustus]

. . . I hope you're ready for a challenge!

Here's the F1 view for Western Rome, Demigod, after I fired all of the entertainers and adjusted the sliders so the capital wouldn't go into disorder next turn, and also so we wouldn't go bankrupt in less than 4 turns:

When I first loaded the scenario, every town had entertainers hired. All I did before I took that screenie was fire all of them and adjust the sliders. And note that even with 60% Luxuries, Carthage and Londinium will still fall into disorder next turn unless we hire entertainers for those cities. War Weariness hits HARD in this scenario!

We have a military police limit of 1, which all of our cities already have, so no extra help there.

For luxuries, we have approximately 5 million wines , but exactly 0 of anything else anywhere near our territory. However, the E. Romans do have an extra dyes to trade!! Too bad they already have wines and won't offer us the dyes for anything that we currently have.

Wow. Rome has fallen onto some pretty hard times. The only strategy I can think of right now would be to go for Monotheism --> Christianity before Military Training, since the AI Romans almost always go for Military Training and then we can swing a trade for what they research. We need to play as a team as best as possible with the East - which means we need to think like the AI and then act in a manner which best complements their actions. Another example of 'AI team play': We have contact with the Franks, 1 of the 2 AI barb civs who aren't at war with us (the other being the Visigoths). Obviously we want to sign them both into alliances ASAP - but we need to do it fast before our teammate decides to do something stupid like declare war on one of them, thus dragging us into the war and ruining an alliance chance.

Hey I just thought of something - since E. Rome starts off with more VPs (Great Lighthouse in Alexandria), we could survive the 120 turns of constant war and still LOSE to them!

Gee I can't wait to get this game going.

 

[Justus II]

Apparently the Romans invented the deficit?

Looks like a challenge, and also looks like I am ready to get the Eastern version started, whenever we are ready for a signup. Rubberjello has just lead the Vandals to victory, destroying the Celts, after we got West Rome and the Franks. For details, check out our thread here.

I would prefer to wait at least until Monday to get things started for the two new games, as I have family in town this weekend. Do we want to have signups in this thread, the RBCiv SG thread, or start new threads?

 

[Justus II]

I have had the chance to look over the Eastern Roman opening, and our financial situation is not much better than the West. One advantage, though, is there are 3!! different luxuries (Ivory, Gems, Incense) unconnected in Egypt/Sinai, so we should be able to get them connected eventually and help to alleviate the WW. Of course, that is assuming we can first afford to build/rush some workers (we start with zero) and some military to cover the colonies, as I believe barbarians would appear in Eqypt?

We start with 6 contacts (good), 5 are locked into war (bad). No contact with the "neutral" civs (Vizigoths and Franks), and we saw what West Rome has. I hope we get some more interest, but I can see this will be a real challenge to get our economy on track and get some offensive military!

 

[Rubberjello]

I would be interested in the Eastern Rome variant, please.
(Now that I am completely S.G.-less for the first time in 14 months! ...I don't like the withdrawal symptoms!)

 

[Charis]

> Now that I am completely S.G.-less for the first time in 14
> months! ...I don't like the withdrawal symptoms!)

OMG! Get that man an infusion, STAT!

RBC12J-Byzantine seems ready to start (since Vandals are done), with Justus (host), Charis, Rubberjello, Arathorn (edit)

RBC12I-Rome : Caesar (host), Corrado, akots (??)

Both are going for Demigod I believe. Both could use two more players, so any interested folks should sign on here, or we'll pickup a couple after the threads open. For #turns, we might go "5-10 at players discretion"

Hosts may fire up a thread when ready

Charis

PS@Arathorn - "on the brink of financial ruin... suits me" - you're used to following me! Welcome aboard, this should be nicely brutal

 

[Arathorn]

I'm up for Bynantium (Eastern Rome), too, if there's still a spot. Taking lots of military against unprepared barbarians, while on the brink of financial ruin sounds perfect for my ability set!

Arathorn

 

[Justus II]

I have opened the Eastern Roman thread,RBC12J - Eastern Roman Empire

@Arathorn-Welcome aboard, I will add you to the roster! Given how well you lead us into Persia over this same terrain in RBC3D, we can definitely use the help! Although "lots" of military may be a bit optimistic right now . . .

 

[Caesar_Augustus]

Western Rome

I haven't heard from Corrado or Akots, so I'm still waiting for signups. This one is going to be tough!

@Arathorn - Unprepared barbs? Maybe to the North, but watch out for the Sassanids, they start off with quite a few units and the best infrastructure in the game! You guys are going to have your hands full.