RFC Classical World

[Sitalkas]

Did a bactrian game too, Emperor difficulty.

I like the way they spawn near your towns in 2 different waves : one in Arachosia, and the other in N-E India a few turns later. I struggle but win the first one, but the second one is very hard. Keep it like this !

And I think that the barbarians in the 2nd century in Bactria, Margiana and Sogdiana and are not enough. The Sakas were supposed to conquer Bactria before go in India. As Bactrians, it would be a nice experience to be forced to lose some west Indu Kush cities and focus on India for gold.

By the way, I also like the second settler from the bactrian start. We can settle in Ferghana or a second town in Bactria.

[edit] I don't know if this is intended, but when Sakas (or another ennemy?) takes Baktra, we lose the game even if we have some cities left. Maybe because I lose the core ?
Idea : switch core from Margiana/Bactria to Bactria/Gandhara (Indo-Greeks) around 100BC.

in my game they spawned in India, which greatly affects your UHVs and make them a lot harder. Had they spawned in eg. Samarkand I wouldn't even mention it, but now it's a different story! After all the transition from Greco-Bactrian to Indo-Greek is what the 2nd UHV is all about!
And I think their starting units + the spawning army is too OP, as I said they exterminated the Parthians in 2 turns after spawning !!!!!!

 

[Cetrix]

Yes there are very tough ! There are 4-5 waves of horsemen and you have to be prepared for it : walls/3 archers/2 heratoi minimum in every city. You probably will lose Alexandria Ariana, Pattala and maybe another Indian city, but it's possible to take it back in 10-15 turns. And, finally, wipe them. Don't forger to work tiles around your cities and build walls in it, then troops (archers - heratoi) only (except in poor hammer cities).

A good hint : when Alexandria Margania flips to you in the 3rd turn, you get everytime a free Heavy spearman from the seleucids. This unit is very, very important : make it XP as soon as possible to specialize it into city capture. With it and some mercenaries and heratoi, you can conquer whole north of India, which is mandatory to have a huge amount of gold per turn. I've conquered north India before 140BC.

Here is a picture around 1AD. I don't know if I will be able to reach 3rd UVH.

[edit] There is a bug with Kushans, they autoflip my bactrians cities...

 

[Sitalkas]

I never get ALexandria Arachosia and Alexandria Arianna, they are so poor and they only raise your maintenance !!

And I dont know how u got that far into India, in my games Sungas have a really large army and it is impossible to go past Mathura :/

At this game I followed a new strategy, I placed all my troops on the hill on the deer near Taxila and waited for the flip! Then I re-conquered all my cities back ^_^ and now I am chasing their last cities ! damn I hate the Kushans!!!!

edit: They became my vassals

 

[srpt]

nice job that's by far the biggest Bactrian empire I've seen.

the Kushans shouldn't be flipping Taxila if it is the human player's capital. I will fix that.

also adding some more color and challenge to the Chalukyans. the Kalinkans and Pandyans respawn as the more warlike Pallavas and Kalabhras.

and I'm going to balance the attacking stacks by handicap level in the case of a human defender

what should the dynamic name for the Bactrians be when they conquer India, or part of it?

 

[Sitalkas]

Indo-Greek kingdom

 

[srpt]

can't we do better than that? what would they have called themselves?

"Empire (or Kingdom) of India" actually makes sense since India, or its Hellenic equivalent, was what the Greeks called the lands around the Indus

 

[DC123456789]

The English term is Indo-Greek kingdom- we have to keep consistent here.

 

[Sitalkas]

the best I can come up to is an expanded "Greek Kingdom of India"

 

[Cetrix]

@Sitalkas : A. Ariana is a key city, 2 luxury ressources.

My bactrian strategy :
- Settle Bactra, spread hellenism. Hire the horse archer mercenary. All troops + settler go to Samarqand. Revolution for all civics you can switch. Research Horticulture. Build archer in Baktra.
- Conquer Samarqand, you may lose a lot of troops. Try to keep at least 1 heratoi and 2 archers. Build wall, then archer in Baktra.
- Settle Osh in Ferghana, spread buddhism. Alexandria Mariaga flips to you, build wall then archer. There are always a Spearman and a Heavy Spearman. This Heavy Spearman has to XP and be protected at any cost !
- Conquer Alexandria Ariana. There are a Heavy Spearman and a Spearman in the city. Build a wall, then gold.
- Watch out every turns for mercenaries and hire them. Try to maintain the research in positive.
- Bring your troops and conquer Taxila. Build palace. Now, your Heavy Spearman should have Pillage 1 and Pillage 2. Dont lose it ! For Taxila, build improvement then sacrifice all your slaves to hurry the production of Palace, then Mint.
- Finish the conquest of India ! Be patient : soften the units in the city with your Heavy Spearman, he gets nice XP. You will get soon a General for him ! He's the backbone of your glorious odissey in India.

Important :
- It is mandatory to capture the holy cities in India, nice gold boost. Bring the archers you built to defend it. You'll get a GP to launch a Golden Age later.
- Don't forget to have a heratoi + 1-2 archers in each Ferghana, Bactria, Margiana, Arachosia and Sogdiana city to kill the horse barbarians. Defend these city better around 100BC, before the saka spawn. You'll need 4 archers, 2 heratoi at least in every city (with walls) in N-W India to defend.
- Technology : Horticulture + Siege engine + Markmanship. That's all you need ; your are a warmonger civ, which switch to a defensive civ later. Trade all technologies you can but NEVER give military tech to close civs.
- Protect your 2 workers. Use slaves to help them build improvement, then sacrifice them to hurry production.

Good luck By the way, I failed the 3rd UVH because I didn't save enough gold, but it's doable. You can't hold the Kushans except if you have Marksmen... but it's hard. Really hard.

@srpt : I had lot of fun. I feel like Menander when I conquer India ! Strabo said of him that he "conquered more tribes than Alexander the Great."
But in my opinion there is a problem in the mod : conquer foreign core doesn't hurt your stability enough.
About the dynamic names, we can't guess how they called themselves. Probably it was "Kingdom of Demetrius", "Kingdom of Menander"... and "greeks" for their people ? I agree Sitalkas with "Indo-greek kingdom", but need Gandhara as core imo when the capital is in Taxila (and maybe lose Margiana/Bactria as core).

 

[Sitalkas]

I actually managed to throw the Kushans away but I was nowhere near the 3rd UHV, its not in my play style to stay technologically back to have lots of gold :/

so I guess someone should really place all his units in two cities and let the others fall, and with some strategic moves he ll claim some cities back

 

[DC123456789]

Ecbatana should be Hebrew Ahmeta.

 

[srpt]

did you conquer it as Judea?

 

[Cetrix]

Another few games with Bactrians.
Perhaps Taxila should be nerfed as independants. Wall + lot of spearmen (5 on the screenshot) = reload the game, impossible to conquer. Or way too late.
It happens 2 games on 3.
If nerfed, Sungas can conquer it and it's good, as AI or human Bactria.
Maybe give a cataput to Bactrians and delete one spearman to balance ? I don't know.
Regardless this, Bactria is OK to me.

 

[DC123456789]

did you conquer it as Judea?

No, I just came across it and decided to post it here. I'm also presently working on the city name map for Egypt and Nubia.

Also, perhaps the default (non-empire) name for the Qin should be State of Qin, transitioning to Qin Empire as they conquer more cities?

 

[Tigranes]

What is the latest revision? Something weird happened to my SVN folder, something that never happened before.

Basically my SVN green check sign just disappeared from previously functional SVN folder. Now that folder behaves like a regular folder, and does not accept any Update command. But pathway is still valid and points to assembla.

 

[Cetrix]

Emperor difficulty. I did the reveal cheat code last turn to see the world. So close... 11795/12000 gold for last UVH. Impossible to trade gold for technologies, it was already done.

Had a good start with an early 3x Horse archers mercenaries, to seize India fast. But Sakas conquered A. Margiana ~60BC, so my empire had turmoil and all my eastern territories were lost.

And by the way, in 52AD the 3rd UVH was still "not yet".
This is annoying if we lose Baktra + A. Margiana to have an instant defeat. I guess this is as intended (losing core). Cf. my idea to add Gandhara as core when Taxila is set as the capital, but no big deal.

 

[srpt]

What is the latest revision? Something weird happened to my SVN folder, something that never happened before.

Basically my SVN green check sign just disappeared from previously functional SVN folder. Now that folder behaves like a regular folder, and does not accept any Update command. But pathway is still valid and points to assembla.

everything seems normal on my end. I don't think I changed anything. its at rev 62 now.

 

[DC123456789]

Emperor difficulty. I did the reveal cheat code last turn to see the world. So close... 11795/12000 gold for last UVH. Impossible to trade gold for technologies, it was already done.

If you have high relations (pleased or friendly) asking for gold ("Could you spare this for a good friend?) actually works. Not sure about emperor, though.

 

[Tigranes]

Gokturk UP works now, but very weirdly. Basically one time you might get horses one time you might not. Same Steppe, same base terrain. Perhaps it has to do with the distance to the neighboring city? 2 Horses cannot spawn too close to each other?

Also when the city map for Gokturks will be complete?

 

[DC123456789]

Also when the city map for Gokturks will be complete?

Probably not in a while, but it's a lot easier if there are maps.

Also, finished city name map for Egypt and Nubia. You might want to consider adding a Nubian city name map language for all the Nubian names (there are a lot of renames now), or adding them and Nubia to the Independent name map (I would personally prefer a new language, in case we come across Nubian names for Egypt or whatnot).