Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire

[Aion]

Now I'm in 14 AD, in the midst of the Gallic war. Time is still a problem, the conquest of Iberia took 44 years ! The Gallic war goes ahead well, however.

I should have conquered Syria earlier, because now the Parthians have absorbed it. So I will have to go to war with Parthia later to conquer those areas, and I'm really afraid of those guys

Why do the Picts have two cities in Gaul, BTW ? There was a tribe called Pictones in that area, but AFAIK they have nothing to do with the Picts. Or does it have gameplay reasons? Also, where's the point in sparing the Numidians from destruction by surrounding their capital with unpassable terrain?

 

[The Last Conformist]

I started up a new game. It started much as the last one, with swift victories over Epirus and Magna Graecia (took Syracuse and Bovianum). I suppose Carthage is gonna attack me any turn now ...

 

[The Last Conformist]

That they did, and they're tough! They didn't go into a convenient war with the Ptolemaeans this time, so when the dust settled after the first Punic war, I had lost Syracuse but captured Panormus.

The bad thing is that it seems Carthage will only get stronger if left alone. I don't really know what to do right now ...

Edit: Horribly abuse the Cisapline Gauls, it turns out.

Someone killed off the Galatians in 235 BC. Magna Graecia is trying to launch an overland offensive against Achaia. Yeah, and I've got a Numidian Quinquereme.

Edit2: More out of a desire for revenge than anything else, I attacked the Illyrians again. I've taken Aquileia, and they're doing a big counterpush as last time round. Only, this time I sent a big army. Hopefully they'll see sense after a few defeats and accept peace.

 

[pinktilapia]

@Aion

Parthia is hard to beat, but not always that hard early on. Just be sure to have strongly fortified citiesd where you can whistand the early onslaught of their cavalry, and that yourself have many fast troops that can catch up with their horse-archers (gallic cavalry auxiliaries, numids!)

The reason why there are two british cities in Gaul is to represent that Veneti tribe, which had close link with the Gallic tribe in Britania. They are also there to push you to wage war with the british tribe and thus bring you to conquer Britania. BTW, did anyone notice the Veneti tribes have a few warships?

@TLC

Just do what we do best Crush the weak and become stronger. Since you have dealt with your Gallic neighbours already, go for Illyria. Then strenghten yourself a bit (but not too long for the Punics also are building their forces), before invading Spain. I hope you will meet Hannibal, for it seems he is not always showing up... What do you mean by Numidian quinquereme??

 

[The Last Conformist]

The Numidians, apparently, built a pirate ship, which got enslaved by one of my Corvi, and so shows Numidian nationality.

I made peace with the Illyrians after repelling their counterattack on Aquileia. I feel strong enough now to challange Carthage soon again.

I have destroyed two Carthaginian "hero" units on Sicily - Xanthippus and one whose name escapes me.

Pergamon has joined the dogpile on Achaia. Remarkably, mighty Carthage has failed to launch a successful invasion.

 

[pinktilapia]

lol, yes, I kind of forgot I gave the Numids a pirate den in an attempt to control the Punic navy. Let me know if they make good sailors Hamilcar & Xanthippus are just 'conventional' elite units renamed. Hannibal on the other hand is represented by two special units, one immobile in Carthage, to represent the battle of Zama, and the other one, moving and starting from Carthago Nova by 230BC to represent his campaign in Italy. He is dreadful, at least potentially, but I doubt he will ever escape Spain...

 

[The Last Conformist]

Pergamum just conquered Achaia.

Well, I directing my attacks on Carthage on the islands currently, so Hannibal has every chance to leave Hispania ... for a warm reception on the Riviera ...

It's alot of ships the Carthaginians have. I dearly wish I could ally with a naval power, but that's evidently not to be.

Edit: With sleepwalker precision, the Carthaginians sent plenty of ships into Syracusae just before I retook the city. This should ease up the naval front a bit.

Edit: I lost my last Legio Consularis, and a big ugly horde of Carthaginians turned up in Narbonnensis, so I made peace with them again. Got Aleria, Syracusae and Lilybaeum into the bargain, leaving Agrigentum as the last Punic foothold on Sicily. I'll probably attack Magna Graecia next.

Edit3: The damnable folk of Lilybaeum flipped to Carthage. :shakehead

 

[The Last Conformist]

The Campanian Port in Neapolis went obsolete, muchly inconveniencing communication with Sicily. Apparently, I'm supposed to've replaced it with the Port of Ostia, but I don't seem to've been able to build a such.

 

[wolfman1234]

The bad thing is that it seems Carthage will only get stronger if left alone. I don't really know what to do right now ...

Easy, leave Hispania, Numidia and Carthage to them, and conquer the rest of the world. They are quite good defending and at the sea, but they cant win an offensive war agaisnt you. When you get better units, as imperial legions and so, you can kick their ass in the continent and if you get that awesome 15-movement ship, you can take Carthago with good units in few turns.

 

[pinktilapia]

The Campanian Port in Neapolis went obsolete, muchly inconveniencing communication with Sicily. Apparently, I'm supposed to've replaced it with the Port of Ostia, but I don't seem to've been able to build a such.

Well, this has been reported many times. I am just lazy to "fix" it. The Portus Ostiae is a Roman wonder that require two Portus Naves, which can be built anytime from 275BC over. The tricky part (not willingly so, really) is that it belongs to a naval tech in era 1, which everybody owns at start. Most players have no idea it can be built until too late. Make sure you read the whole pedia! Yes, I know it is a lot of pages

 

[pinktilapia]

Well, I am leaving for some holidays in the North, I'll try to cool down a bit in the hills. Happy New Year everyone!

 

[wolfman1234]

Same to you, man.

 

[The Last Conformist]

From the department for the bizarre: Pergamum just declared war on Carthage, invaded Sicily, and tool Lilybaeum. I'm not in a position to directly benefit, since I'm busy fighting the Illyrians again, but anything that weakens Carthage is good.


165 BC, and Sicily is finally wholly in Roman hands. I took the opportunity to attack the Carthaginians after the Ptolemaeans attacked them, busying the Punic fleet.

Edit: With the second Carthaginian invasion of nothern Italy in five years, I'm forced to sue for peace. However, I retain all of Sicily plus Carales, and I get back Genua in the peace treaty. It's proving very hard to keep up in research ...

Edit2: Seleucids destroyed by Persia.

Edit3: The third Punic war turned into an interesting contest of a whale against an elephant. The Carthaginian fleet was unstoppable, but on land Carthage suffered defeat after defeat, first in Rhaetia (where they had alot of troops left from a campaign against Germania), and then on Sardinia (whereto I was able to harbour-hop reinforcements from Sicily), while their repeated invasions of Sicily failed abysmally. However, the Iberians would not let me cross their land to invade Punic Spain, and a naval invasion was of course impossible, so despite their defeats the Carthaginians emerged from the war with their empire mostly intact.

I'm now invading Iberia and Magna Graecia to make sure a fourth war will not be a repeat.

Edit4: Having conquered the Mediterranean coast as far west as Saguntum (obliterating the Western Greeks in the process), I now have a land border with Carthaginian Hispania. That'll have to do for tonight.

 

[König Markus]

First, I want to say that RFRE is an awesome mod!! Great, great job!

It is my third (normal) game. Level Consul.
So it is 237 AD. Researching for Siege Engineering. 7 turns to go for it.
I have war with Gaul Celts and conquer Greece.
The Germanics, the rest of the Gaul Celts and the Britannics became strongerer and strongerer. And me? I didn't even have the important Antonines' Golden Age. I should have had Severan Dynasty.

I stopped the game here right now. I gave up.
Maybe I wasn't fast enough in the mid of the game.

I will now start a fourth game.

Most of the game is really great.
But I have some suggestions:
- The minimum research of Education, Drama Theory, Commerce, Grand Architecture should be reduced to 4 turns.
- Reduce war weariness. Therefore the Forum should be available with the Age of Augustus.
- The Legio should have one higher defensive point, because AI hasn't to finance research and especially legios are extremely expensive (unit costs, population costs, shield costs).
- There should be a wonder representing Constantine's finance reform and I miss the Constantinople's Hippodrome.
- Hagia Sofia with minarets? Oh dear! Please a better pedia picture (without minarets).
- And maybe other pedia picture's for the "barbarians' " Great Wonders.


And has anybody an internet page with tips for this mod?

 

[The Last Conformist]

Damn. I got defeated in Hispania in yet another Punic war, then the Aetolians(!) declared war an burnt Apollonia to the ground, then the Germanics declared war, and my first counterattack caused the Goths to be drawn in via a MPP!

Maybe I'll restart from a save and see if I can avoid the whole debacle, but I can't take it anymore right now. War weariness makes it very hard to recover from defeats.

 

[Aion]

@König Markus: Welcome to CivFanatics !

I see Carthage is still around in 237 AD No very historic approach

 

[The Last Conformist]

Incidentally, I've noticed some rather odd Latin in the scenario. Would it be appreciated if such were pointed out with suggestions for corrections?

 

[Ciceronian]

I looked through the units and corrected them over half a year ago, and I was planning to get back to the rest of it later, but never got round to it. So before some else spends ages revising the grammar and suchlike with the internet, I'll do it, I should be able to do it more quickly since I study the stuff at uni.

 

[König Markus]

@König Markus: Welcome to CivFanatics !

I see Carthage is still around in 237 AD No very historic approach

Thanks, it was my first post. But I'm CivFanatics member for over a year.

Yes, Carthage wasn't conquered yet, because the rest of Carthage wasn't a danger.
But this time I will try to conquer Carthage completely.

 

[The Last Conformist]

I, contrarily to my usual practice, did reload, and eliminated Aetolia before the 4th Punic war broke out. The later war began with a massive attack against Saguntum (closer to a hundred units, about half Milites Alarii Celtici, the rest Libyans, various horsemen, and mercenary presidia). It was a close call, but I finally repelled them, and conquering Carthaginian Hispania was then relatively easy. It took a landing on Mallorca to convince ol' Hanny that the battle was lost.

I'm now beating up Numidia to get a foothold in Africa for the fifth war.