(0) 100 BC - Set priorities for the round. We're 4 turns from Republic. Although Imperialism looks nice, we don't even have literature yet, so it would take a lot of time to get there. Time is something we don't have. So, I plan on revolting to republic as soon as possible. That means I won't have reinforcements to send to the front for most of my turns, so I don't plan on making major military gains.
Shipping looks to be a disaster. With enemy boats everywhere, and no safe landings, we're risking too much and taking too much time moving units around. Let's see if I can accomplish something there.
Oh, and cut off Carthage's iron, if possible.
I don't do much. I wake 2 garrisons in Sicily that can go over to Africa. I also move an empty galley to cover a full one, and swap some island cities to galley. I swap some cities around- if they can build a heavy cav in less turns than a legion 2, they build cavs. If the legion would take the same amount of turns, they build legions. Most cities are doing this, but there's a few that aren't which I swap.
BT - Kill one unit, and retreat one on defense at Vesantio. A cav kills a garrison at Lilibeo. Padua citizen - citizen. Canusium garrison - garrison. Confinium garrison - garrison (it can build garrisons in 2, but needs every-turn MM). Mediolanum citizen - citizen.
(1) 95 BC - Kill wounded cav at Carthago. Attack Lilibeo. We attack with an army and win, then attack with a Legion II, win, and the city is ours. We also kill a numidian that was left out.
Our newly produced citizens will go south to make dock cities.
Nora to worker, which is the most boneheaded move I made all round.
![[pimp]](/images/smilies/pimp.gif "Pimp [pimp]")
It won't grow in time to make the worker, but I didn't realize that in time. I finally end up using some legions to connect Nora, and lose a couple of turns of production (just 1 spt) waiting for it to grow. Ugh, sorry.
At this point, I'm still attacking stuff that comes into the Nora area, because the war elephants and heavy cavs are so much higher on offense. I eventually figure out that it's almost never worth it, because even an exposed Legion II will be killed by cavs popping out from the fog when I do this. By the end of the round, I'm letting them attack, or at least move in closer, and I'm only attacking if I have a cav that can get back to safety. Once there's barracks in the cities, we won't really care too much if they attack, as long as they can't take the city on their turn.
I think we have enough units there to take Cirta, even with anarchy coming, so that's what I set out to do. At least that would take care of one of their irons.
Whip a barracks in Veii.
BT - Celtic SOD to Gergovia. I think they're after Carthage, though. They seem to be throwing everything they have after 1 elephant. Roma cav - cav. Neapolis legion 2 - leg 2. Acona cav - cav. Veii rax - garrison.
(2) 90 BC - Our southern army gets to Cirta's iron. Antium founded to our east, by the iron. Daouble-whip Carthago temple. We don't have many more whippings left, and it was at exactly 40 shields. Fire scientists, who can't help us save money or get the republic in less than 2.
BT - The Celts finally kill their elephant. Carthago temple - garrison. Canusium garrison - cav. Genua citizen - citizen. Confinuim garrison - garrison.
(3) 85 BC - Found "Ferry Dock" on the SW Mainland. Guess what that city's job is? We pillage Carthage's iron. Maybe their other one will move, you never know. We hire just enough scientists to go to 40% and still get republic in 1. It seems like a great time to broker world maps, since we're only in 1 war, and I'd like to see the world myself. So, we net some gold doing that.
BT - Carthage pops out of the fog and destroys our ivory colony. Shoot. That hadn't even been on my radar screen down there. Carthage and Scythia make peace. There's a lot of Goths moving around, but I think they're going to Macedonia or Persia. Republic comes in, and we revolt. This causes mass rioting, but I can fix it this turn, of course.
(4) 80 BC - Five more turns left of anarchy!
Our second ferry dock, Pompeii, is founded by Aleria. Egypt lacks republic. Hmm. They'll give siege engineering, literature, incense, and some change for it. All the other AI have it, so why not? The extra lux is the most helpful. I didn't build any artillery, mostly because our offense is so effective already, but at least we have options now.
(5) 75 BC - Flames are doused throughout the land, and there is much rejoicing.
(6) 70 BC - Found Ravenna out west. Kill some heavy cavs by Lilibea. Wines to Scythia for 170 gold.
BT - Scythia must not have wanted that gold. They ally with Carthage against us. So, we have their money, and I don't see a Scythian unit the whole time. Scythia declares on the Celts too, just for fun. Persia and Carthage ally vs. Goth.
Ack, Carthage lands seven heavy cav by Olbia. It could be worse, though, because those 7 cavs get off of 11 boats somehow.
(7) 65 BC - We are in trouble, and all because of lack of roads. There's plenty of units on the island with Olbia, but there's no direct road between the two cities. While I can send cavs from Caralis to kill 3, that leaves 4 attackers who will be able to attack a 2-garrison city this turn. My legions can't get into the city this turn! I send two legions, who can be there next turn, and hope for the best.
In good news, though, we capture Cirta this turn.
BT - We survive 2 cav attacks at Oblia, but the third one takes the city. Scythia and Persia ally vs. Goth. Celts and Macedonia peace. Caralis riots, since it's no longer connected with Cirta's harbor. The road to Nora was also just completed, so I use the opportunity to scroll ahead and at least let the city grow (during anarchy, it's needed a specialist while it wasn't connected).
(8) 60 BC Recapture Olbia. They magically have a spear in there already, but other than that it's just wounded cavs. Pick off some units at Lilibeo. I'm holding off on offensives waiting for anarchy to be over, but we can take out a lot of units this way.
BT - Choose republic, finally.
(9) 55 BC - Get cities into decent working order. We don't even need to run a lux tax in republic, which is nice. Pisae, Roma, and Neapolis can work on Legion III's. The others get less shields, so should probably do cavs. Garrisons in the outlying areas, of course. We pick off some Carthaginian units, and rush a few galleys and temples.
BT - Syracuse galley - garrison. Caralis galley - garrison. Aleria market - garrison. Tarentum cav - cav. Messana galley - garrison. Burdigala temple - walls. Nora worker (finally!) - rax. Vesantio walls - rax. Segusio temple - garrison. Silk City rax - temple.
(10) 50 BC - Carthage had landed one cav at Caralis, which was easy enough to kill.
We have 596 gold in the bank, and are making 85 per turn. The next leader might consider a Legion III upgrade. Also, barracks in places like Nora and Cirta would be most helpful. We could pick off a lot more units if we could heal faster there, and we are taking some damage from letting them attack.
There's a lot of wide open space, especially to our west, that could be settled fairly easily. That's one reason that I'm building so many garrisons. The Celts are marching all their units back and forth over there, so I don't want to skimp on defenses as we expand southwards. Another priority may be to help secure the islands a bit more.
Shipping. We still don't have quite enough boats to implement my plan, but hopefully I can describe it. The northern islands are accessible via the Pisae/Pompeii route. There's a galley in Pisae, once we get one in Pompeii too we can have one-turn shipping in and out. Aleria and Olbia form the shipping route for the next island south. We want flexibility on our islands depending on where they land, and if we have good shipping that will help. There's two galleys on the way to Aleria and Olbia.
There's not any point in running a shipping route south from Caralis, but we could go west from there if someone wants to settle those islands. I don't know if it would save much time, but it would gain those island tiles for Roma.
Sicily is accessible with a route between Messana and Ferry Dock. There's already a galley in place there. Marsalo and Carthago is our only 4-tile shipping lane. So, ideally it would need four galleys to ship 3 units safely, because they would need to be left out one turn. Right now, there's two galleys, and one more on the way. Once the four are in place, we can ship units to Africa every single turn, and spend only one turn in the water.
If you want to spend the time to MM Confinium every turn, it can average over 10 spt and build a garrison every 2.
That's about it. The next time it comes to me, we'll be 100 turns in! If it comes back to me, of course, but it's looking like we'll need all the time we can get.
50 BC
Griselda - just played
6thGenTexan - UP NOW
Belisar - on deck
Speaker - below deck
T_McC -
