(0) 150 AD - First step, go around and micromanage cities, emphasizing food. I rush projects in cities that look like good prospects for growth. That's an infirmary in Ancona, aqueduct in Icosium and Confinuim, market in Carthago and Marsala, and a colosseum in Messana. I go around and change the build orders. Anything that wouldn't be done in 30 turns, unless I think we can realistically rush it, is changed. In general, Spain (and any 1spt city) builds garrisons, except for a few cities that build citizens (we can settle those little islands easily). The core is swapped from legionaries to heavy cavalry, so that they have some chance of arriving on the front. I'm not too worried about temples on the front, since we're interested in growth more than land area. In general, we wouldn't be able to rush a temple and an aqueduct in border cities anyway, so we might as well get a garrison or two out of them.
Next, I check on shipping. Our galley in Massila is sent SW to pick up island citizens. I send a few of our island galleys south, but do leave a route with two galleys at Pisae/Pompeii, and a single galley to run between Olbia/Aleria. Sicily looks like our best route to Africa and Egypt. With our current boats, we can send four units (or one full army) per turn to Sicily. It's six turns round trip between Syracuse and the dropoff point just east of Leptis Magna, so we'll want six galleys on the Syracuse route to maintain that 4 units/turn rate of shipping. I set Croton to build us galleys for Syracuse. I also set up a small ferry in the west- via Lauriacum and Tingis.
I check with our foreign advisor, who suggests that we trade luxuries wth Egypt. He is fired, and beheaded. I momentarily forget that galleys can carry 4 units in this scenario, and since I want to make a heavy cav army with the leader, I send the leader back corewards without putting any units in him. Actually, I also forgot to make an army out of him, because "leader" had become so synonimous with "army" in my mind. I catch both oversights before he gets on the boat, though, and I do take the time to promote vets while the leader is around.
BT - Carthago market - colosseum. Marsala market - colosseum. Anconium infirmary - cav. Icosium 'duct - garrison. Croton galley - galley. Messana colosseum - infirmary. Aquilea market - colosseum. Confinium 'duct - cav. Also misc units built, but I won't list all of those.
(1) 155 AD - I really take note of the huge number of Celtic galleys off our central coast. They are currently in an area that has *zero* military units! Even if they unload a bunch of regular archers, they coult potentially wipe out several cities before help arrives. I send cavs west out of Hippo Regius, and legions forth out of Agrippina. They can help defend the zone until there's at least something guarding the coastal cities.
There's a gallic and an archer at Avaricum. I bombard them, and kill with our army. That means the army is not available to march on Hallstadt this turn, but a lot of units look like they'd benefit from a turn of healing anyway. There's quite a few units on our backlines that look like they could be moved north towards the battle, so I send them north. I'm guessing they were fortified into cities when those cities were on the front lines, so I'm just trying to keep up with where the actual front is.
(2) 160 AD - Several units move towards us out of the Celtic capitol. We kill four. Two new cities are founded - Cumae (in the gap in western Europe_ and Caesaraugusta (western Africa). I rush an aqueduct at Pompeii, colosseum at Olbia, and a galley at Tingis. There's pollution in our core, but no workers for miles. I'll see if I can get some back that way.
BT - Padua harbor - cav. Olbia colosseum - infirmary. Tingis galley - garrison. Pompeii 'duct - galley. Saldae rax - spear.
(3) 165 AD - I make an army with the leader, and park him in the southern core where he can pick up incoming cavs without accidentally loading other units. I capture the Celtic capitol, defeating many spears. The Celtic capitol moves to England, which will be good for us. We're at 18/33, and Persia is at 20/39. We march on Nemetocenna with a few legions and many cats.
BT - The Persians destroy the Goths. Instantly, their stream of horses starts heading back the other direction past Palmyra. Numidians start moving towards their new cities. Persia and Egypt make peace. Confinium harbor - cav. Hippo citizen - garrison.
(4) 170 AD - Take Nemetocenna, which only had two spears. Found New Aquileia by Palmyra (where the Persians are moving all their units). We're now at 18/34 vs. the Persians' 20/40. We capture Agedincum and some workers, and we go to 19/34. I rush a temple at ferry dock, and infirmary at Messana.
BT - Messana infirmary - garrison. Ferry Dock temple - aqueduct.
(5) 175 AD - Pick off some Celtic archers. March on New Alesia. I rush a citizen to fill the Celtic lands. I found New Genua by the goody hut, pop it with a cav, and there's angry warriors. Luckily I had shielded everything with the cavs, so the barbs can't hurt us. Two galleys depart Syracuse for Egypt, hooray! Rush a colosseum in Marsala.
I note that some of the Persian numidians have moved away from the main stream, and are headed NW through our lands. I'm pretty sure that they're headed for New Decetia. One note- it looks like they have giant stacks of defenders in every single city, yikes.
BT - Marsala colosseum - infirmary. Tarentum colosseum - harbor. Canusium temple - cav. Viroconium rax - garrison. Jerusalem rax - garrison.
(6) 180 AD - We found New Confinium on one of those little islands. We start a warrior. Capture New Alesia. We found New Segusio in our east, and New Medialanum in Africa. Rush two more citizens to fill those islands. We stay at 19/34, but Persia goes to 20/39. Rush an aqueduct at Ferry Dock.
BT - Ferry Dock 'duct - garrison. Hippo citizen - garrison. Nico citizen - garrison.
(7) 185 AD - Capture Gloskowie. Found New Beneventum by the island wines. We go to 20/34. Rush several citizens. We have gathered a bunch of units by Egypt, and I position the stack just outside of the Egyptian borders to attack next turn.
BT - Tarentum harbor - cav.
(8) 190 AD - Found New Luna in a Celtic gap, and New Arminium past Silk City. Declare war on Egypt. We capture two workers that were actually in our borders, and then Mendes. Rush an infirmary in Marsala.
BT - Marsala infirmary - temple. Carmona citizen - garrison. Croton galley - galley.
(9) 195 AD - Capture Matisco and New Novioudumum, the last two Celtic cites on the mainland. We're still at 20/34. Build New Veii. Capture Oryx (Egyptian), and we're at 21/34. There's an Egyptian galley south of Syracuse. We sink it with an empty galley of ours, but lose one galley in the process. Still, if it was full, it was worth it. I lose one cav attacking misc. units in Egypt.
I hope this wasn't
, but I make a peace treaty with the Celts for some cities (meaning, a binding peace treaty). We just don't have the infrastructure to take it to their islands anyway. I accept New Nemetocenna, New Agedincum, and New Atuatuca and 50 gold for peace, for a total of 7 pop ponts. Unfortunately, New Atuatuca looks like it's been whipped, and is very unhappy. That takes us to 21/35. Atuatuca needs a spear rushed this turn for MP, but the others can wait a turn. Atua will starve, and I can't prevent it.
BT - We get a "20 turns left" popup, and there's a counter on the screen.
(10) 200 AD - Build New Antium in the Celtic gaps. Attack Thebes with a lone cav, win, but there's a spear left. I'd attacked on the off chance that the new city had only one defender. Capture Kahun. We unload an island settler. We attack an Egyptian sword, and pop a leader. I send the leader to Oryx, for the next leader to use. We attack a Numidian in the open, and lose a cav.
Our stats at the end of my turn are 21% land, 35% pop. Persia is at 20% land, and 39% pop.
I'm trying to build a road to Oryx with the captured workers, because Oryx is a straight road towards the Egyptian core. However, there's a lot of pop in dyes city and around the coast, although it's a longer march. I don't know what would be better, but we should be able to go either direction (and maybe both) from this position.
As far as the other workers go, I've mostly been building roads to facilitate movement. At some point (maybe when we get to about 10 turns left), we probably want to go for a mass worker merge. Who knows, maybe we have 15% of the world's population in workers.
. If I recall correctly, the game's measuring straight pop points, regardless of the city's size. So, we don't really need to worry about what size cities we merge them into, although they probably should be merged into cities that could sustain the population.
We can also still gain population by founding cities. Any city that could grow to size two by the end would be a net gain for us, especially if the citizens are built in non-growing cities that can regrow after the citizen. It won't be long before the cities won't be able to grow by the end, and I guess at that point we just need to make sure that all the citizens settle down somewhere.
The galley exposed by Ferry Dock is headed for Syracuse. Remember to keep a boat in Ferry Dock and Messana every turn. The Syracuse north/south route should be pretty obvious. We just lost a galley, so I think we need at least one or two more. Remember there's also a route in Lauiacum and Tingis if that would be helpful. There's some fortified units healing in the former Celtic lands. They can be woken and sent south.
I'm sure there's a bunch of other little tidbits that I should mention, but I can't remember anything. I guess the important thing is that the next leaders are willing to take their time and focus, even if it means we need to veto everything I did here (ack, I do hope not). I'm not going to worry about 24/48, especially this week, but do drop a note if you're up and can't play or will need a few extra days.
Charis has requested that none of the RBC3 games use the beta patch. That seems like it makes sense, considering how close to the end we are. We might as well complete all the RBC3 games in the same version.
Good luck, everyone! I'll be rooting for you!
-Griselda
The Save
Griselda - Done
6thGenTexan - UP
Belisar - on deck
Speaker
T_McC
