SO CLOSE!!!! (more on that soon)
I open up the save file, and have a few things to note.
While we're not close to victory conditions, we are distinctly in the
lead over top contender Carthage, and we're WAY ahead on the 'tie-breaker'
condition of score. 50 turns done, so 80 more to go, that's 1.6 turns each.
While the score curve is constant, it's the shape of the power curve I like.
Carthage is doing far better than Rome. This highlights the need to cut Rome
a little slack so they can beat down our score-opponents. That is, of course,
unless we wipe out the Macedons so fast that we want a piece of Rome. Still,
do we want to face Legion II's or War Chariots. After Macedon I would have to
wager Egypt and/or Scythians are next, not Rome by a long shot. Looking at
foreign affairs, wow, good job keeping the dogpile on Greece
Tech? Scythians and Celts have Astronomy. Rome and Carthage both have a lot -
Philo, Monarchy, Edu, Astro, Siege Craft. Boy the latter would be nice.
Hmm, Rome will talk, and we're not allied against them, so we can end that
war now. I make peace with Rome, getting a small discount on Philosophy
to WM+25gpt+9g (yes, I chose gpt to help them out vs Carthage, and so we could
pay the latter cash for the next deal and less gpt)
Carthage can sell us Siege Craft, for dyes, most of our gold and about 17gpt. Done.
Egypt alone can take Philosophy, and we trade it for Astro, Edu, WM+1g.
We now see Carthage and Rome have Medicine (and Monarchy), Egypt has Monarchy.
Did you notice how powerful Bacchanalia is? 3 faces content in EVERY city, available
with new Philosophy, and cost of 500 shields. I look at the build queue, OMG, are
we warmongers or what?!?! Screen after screen of heavy cavs!
Not only that, but the ONLY wonder of any kind under construction anywhere is
Bacchy in Marsala. Hehe, and that's a fishing village city, Susa starts on it
and that puppy is *OURS* in 25 turns. (I micro Susa to 20spt)
We're in *desperate* need of workers to have some excellent cities become
productive, like Babylon.
[0] 100BC - I go over the city queue's carefully, and make the following swaps.
Cities with no rax are taken off mil units, and put on settlers.
Our mil units take 60, 40, 40 and 30 shields. So 8 shield cities are put on
fire cats or immortals (40), 6 shields go on Numes, to avoid waste.
Macedon cities are starved down to reduce flip risk. They also get a temple whipped.
Tarsus gets its granary whipped and food surplus to benefit from that.
These rearrangements increase our income by over 20 gpt
Ok, time to look at the front. Three HvyCavs in the open, in range of immortals.
Off we go, killing all three with Darius and a friend.
(IBT) Macedons and Celts come to peace. That's one HUGE line of Egptian units
roaming through our lands unfettered. It makes one nervous with all the undefended
cities in our midst.
A few Macedon cav head toward Byz but can't reach it.
[1] 95BC - We shell Maronea. Not too much damage, but enough. Our army kills two hops, then
an immortal kills the third and last. To capture or to raze... Not an easy call given
the proximity to Athens, but then again, I expect Athens itself to fall shortly.
In order to be able to press on with the attack, I capture. It has rax, granary and
walls, excellent. We'll start and temple-whip soon. (Speaking of capture choices,
I note the expired GL is in Sparta, Oracle in Athens)
(IBT) Two Macedon cavs redline and retreat outside Maronea. They're toast
Several ships show up outside Beirut, I move cavs nearby to counterattack if they land.
[2] 90BC - Gordium is not ultra-corrupt, it switches to courthouse and whips it.
At Thessalonica we lost a Hvy cav, but knocked out five defenders to capture it.
In the last two turns we've upgraded about 10 cats to fire cats.
(IBT) Resistance in Thessa ends. Do you know how many troops a fleet of 4-transport
Macedon galleys can bring?!?!? Thank goodness they don't know! This armada comes to
drop of **two** cav next to Beirut.
[3] 85 BC - We start by slaughtering the two puny landers, overcoming laughter to do so.
Our Nume army completes a very brief mission to pillage the only two tiles connecting
Northern Macedonian from the South. Apart from harbors they're now disconnected.
The other two attacking armies are at half strength and sit this round to heal.
We do have enough extra units, btw, to send a flanking wing of slow units at Sardis.
(IBT) Carthage and Celts ally vs Egypt. (Good, less focus of Egypt on us)
However, Scythaians and Macedon come to peace. We loose a Nume on counterattack.
A volcano goes active next to Neopolis!!
[4] 80 BC - Macedon now has a wedge driven across it, tis lovely to see.
Our Nume army whacks a redlined hop-settler pair. Thebes is a little further
back. We hit it, but can't take it this turn.
(IBT) Not a PEEP from Macedon. They're SO gassed. They sign peace with Goths,
and the two of them then ally vs... Carthage.
[5] 75 BC - Defenses in Macedon are getting thinner and thinner, and our new units
pour in every turn. Although I thought I wouldn't have the strength to do it,
I split off a few small task forces for the upcoming cities. Two Green Swords are
in the open, and they're shredded by the new fire cats.
Thebes has just two defenders and our immortal army takes 'em both, and the city!
Not only that, we catch two hops behind it, and have some units next to Athens,
and our heavy cav army knocks out two defenders!
We found Kandahar in the NE area in the gap between Bampur and Behistum.
We found Altin Tepe in another large gap between Trapezus and Borazjan.
(IBT) Nuthin'. Carthage and Scythia ally vs Egypt. Macedons and Goths ally vs Rome.
[6] 70 BC - Heavy can and the HCav army take Athens! We keep it, to capture the
Oracle. (There's something good in C3C for capturing a capital, no? Increased flip
chance?)
We found Bunyan and Charsadda in the middle of nowhere, in the desert near Egypt.
The latter is ON incense. We also found Ura Tyube in the central gap between
Zela and Iconium. (Yah, I made a fair amount of settlers in addition to fighting)
Rome and Carthage have Monotheism, btw.
(IBT) Carthage and Scythia ally vs Egypt. (Didn't they do this last turn??)
A hoplite runs out of a city about to be sacked to attack an immortal fortified
in the mountain. It loses as we chuckle.
[7] 65 BC - We're in striking range of about FOUR Macedonian cities this turn,
albeit smaller groups. Let's see what we can do...
Group A - Six slow units converge on Sardica, but we only need two immortals to
kill the two hoplites, and the city is ours.
Group B - Thermopylae starts with a Hvy Cav losing, but our HvyCav army wins two
and... that's it? The city is ours!!
Group C - Argos starts with an elite immortal losing, but the Immo army wins two
and... that's it, the city is ours!!
Group D - Ambracia is shelled with Fire Cats. Just two again. can't take it with
just immortals, so the Nume army finishes off the last one, and it's ours.
Not bad for a day's work!! (Lots of resistors though, insufficient quelling forces)
(IBT) Hoplite loses to HvyCav on a hill.
[8] 60 BC - Resistance over in Sardicia (our big stack of lil guys), and a few quellings.
A temple is whipped there.
Sardis is founded in the desert just east of our capital.
New Perseopolis is founded just NE of Byzantium, between two old ruins sites.
Stacks head toward Dyrrhachium and Pharsalos. Armies rest in cities near Sparta.
(IBT) Macedon and Egypt sign a peace treaty. Ship sets sail from Sparta. If it's
a lone settler I'm gonna scream. No Macedonian attacks. Resistance ends in Argos.
Over eighteen Carthage galleys stream past the Greek short, heading back South.
[9] 55 BC - Courthouse whipped in Zohak, as it has potential.
New Susa is founded past Gordium, near Assyut of Egypt.
Dyrrhachium falls to two immortals and a cav.
(IBT) Athens resistance ends. Outside Pharsalos a hoplite attacks into the
darkness. Thebes resistence ends, but that throws it into civil unrest for the turn.
[10] 50BC -
The battle for Sparta! Bombardment fails, but our immortal army does not, killing
top two hoplites (he'll need to rest now though) Our cav army also knocks out two,
and also gets hurt, but there's still another defender.
Note, I've been irrigating a long path down from about 11 squares north of
Perseopolis down to our capital. Finish the task and plz... get it to size 12!
At Pharsalos we have three elite immortals to go first. The first one dies,
second wins, and third... spawns a MGL, Xerxes! [dance]
We immediately fill him up with three Heavy cavs (vets, a few pts dmg) at
Dyrrh.
- Gem luxury (last available luxury) will be only in 3 turns. (East of Miletus).
To next leader...
- There's one settler outside of Merv that is on short goto to the ruin site
where a Nume is already in place to defend his new city. Actually, there are
*five* unmoved settlers and two workers this turn.
- Whip the temples in Macedonian as soon as their out of resistance.
-The mighty Baccanalia is due in 15 in Susa, and barring a SGL rush we'll get it.
- If I forgot this turn, please whip Bampur temple and Behisthn
- I've not kept close tabs on cash, but we now have over 3700g in the bank.
We're on top with score, power, and victory pts, with 13% area and 27% population.
*EDIT- On the turn you hope to attack and take Sparta, I would go to all our current allies vs Macedon and cancel the alliance, just so the civ dying doesn't hurt our rep for 'breaking' the alliance.
*NOTE* When we capture Sparta, we'll get the Great Library. It *WILL* be active
for one turn, as it gets its beneficial actions THEN checks if it's obsolte.
So we will get Monarchy and Medicine when Sparta falls
Medicine should help us raise our population.
Here's our empire... one turn short of eliminating the Macedonians!! (Actually, probably four turns, as the only sane
move is to send our two armies right two steps to the city to heal, then come back and capture Sparta. But the other city should fall next turn)
Rubberjello <-- Up
hotrod0823 <-- On deck
RBC3b-Persians-50BC Save File <-- EDIT, was wrong file earlier
Good luck,
Charis
PS to Hotrod - you have no idea how many Egyptian units are *STREAMING* through our lands. Greece will be gone in a handful of turns, probably once the armies heal and capture Sparta. At this point, what I would probably do is line up as best I could a large number of heavy cav along the roads near where Egypt
is running through. Be sure no deals/treaties ongoing, declare war, and decimate their army just hitting what's in our territories.
With that done, probably at a 5:1 loss ratio, we can bring our armies to bear and swallow their cities.
PPS - EDIT - I think the gems are online (gormdragan was looking at my improperly old link for save file??)
Our military is 'strong' compared to all barbarians and the Macedonians, but we're "weak" compared to Rome and Carthage. We have about 15 *under* our allowed military (sort of by choice, as I went very settler heavy, but we could definitely use a lot more Heavy cav for the next phase) Egypt is in Anarchy, and Rome and Carthage are in Republic. At 13% area and 27% pop we have a long way to go to 20% land and 50% pop. That means we need to control a whopping 50% more area, and double our *relative* population. Peaceful settling and swallowing Egypt should get us most of the way there, but perhaps not all the way.
Naahhhh!
Sooo... many games
Do look over previous turn notes carefully 
