Rise of Rome revisited...

[Toasty]

Bah, I perfer line, it sounds more military-like .

And I'll play when I'm darn ready too, I'm getting impatient here!

I just now noticed Russia is killing Germany. Looks like we're gonna have a 3-power set up (us, Iroquois, and Russia). Cool!

 

[Golden Bear]

OK, i'm downloading and playing you impatient sods . It'll probably not be many turns at this stage so expect an update soon.

 

[Golden Bear]

OK here it is. I didn't play a full 20 turns. I think progress was made, since I discovered a weak point in their defences and exploited it. Here's a summary with the main points.

1. Discovered we had 3 ironclads in the west ocean achieving little, so sent them to bombard Richmond. The more I thought about this, the better it seemed. Though small, it could become an excellent staging post for naval invasions of the English mainland, bypassing their tons of cavalry near Hadrians wall and splitting their forces. And so it proved. I shipped some infantry, 1 cavalry and artillery over via a galleon, and combined with the ironclads it fell with ease. Temple rush built to ensure no unhappiness.

2. Heraklia on the mainland was only a size 1 city, and it looked vulnerable. So it became the next leg in my naval invasion . The ironclads softened it up, and another small force landed and took it with ease (musketmen were no match for our infantry ). We now have a foothold into the heart of their territory .

Some Points:

* The infantry for the naval invasion was taken from the line around the area of Manchester. The bloody AI realised this and attacked, and even broke it at one point. No matter, they were soon dispersed, and more men have been rushed to the front to begin to plug the hole. If they try it again they aint going anywhere.
* Temples were rush built in both Richmond and Heraklia, so our treasury is running a bit low (bout 500). We're running an ok profit so it doesn't really matter that much.
* Civil disorder is becoming a real pain in the ass, with everyone and the grandmother wanting to give peace a chance. I contemplated going for communism but left the choice up to the next player.
* Iroquois declared war on Russia, and we got drawn in coz of our MPP. Little has happened so far.
* No more saltpeter from Iroquois. It means no more cavalry, but I figure we should hold out with infantry until tanks and then who needs cavalry .
* I think the Manchester area is the AI's pet. All their forces are going for that spot on our west flank, so make sure any reinforcements head that direction.
* In general, they suffered heavy losses in my turns. Use the ironclads in the west to bombard more cities with a view to perhaps creating more civil disorder for England, and also keep up the pressure on Glouceser in the east. I don't think they have any navy at all so this is definitely their weak point.

That's just about the lot.
Bear.

 

[donsig]

How are we going to combat war weariness? This will be a long war...

The western ironclads had first bombarded the coast north of Manchester to slow the English cavalry down (beginning of the war). After that they bombed the little island city but then the English ship appeared off our coast when I was forming the line and our cities were empty (except for Hadrian). I sent the ironclads chasing the English navy since our line is useless if they land behind it!

joespaniel is up and Ohwell is on dech!

 

[Golden Bear]

Originally posted by donsig
After that they bombed the little island city but then the English ship appeared off our coast when I was forming the line and our cities were empty (except for Hadrian). I sent the ironclads chasing the English navy since our line is useless if they land behind it!

Yeah, i'm not sure whether there was anything in that galleon, since the ironclads were chasing after it, and the next turn, it came around and stopped right next to one of the ironclads !!! Was an easy kill, before I circled round nd went after Richmond .

 

[Toasty]

We have such a huge profit margin I think we can up the luxuries a bit to combat the war weariness...we're making around, what, 200 a turn?

 

[joespaniel]

Sounds good, GBear. I will try to strengthen our toe-hold and push towards the heart of England. London and Nottingham should be taken and held at all costs! That will give us the Pyramids, Sistine Chapel and Adam Smith's! Woo-hoo!

I will not raze any cities, as we have decided to conquer the entire continent. But size 1 city "accidents" do happen.

I wanted to pass on one lesson learned:

Communism sucks!

It is a terrible government, unless you have researched all the tech you want, and just want to build units and/or spaceships. Then its pretty cool.

I strongly recommend Monarchy until then. It allows the core cities (the ones near the capitols) to continue to produce well, while the outlying ones have all the corruption.

In communism, ALL cities have corruption! It sucks!!! Science grinds to a halt. Shared corruption causes the loss of 33% of the economy. Thats way to much, as compared to a Monarchy losing 15-25%.

Once we have all the techs, and only then, I vote for communism.

In the meantime, I will try to hold onto the Republic until we have tanks. I was thinking along the same lines as Toasty (the impatient), and raising the Lux rate a point. We'll see.

I'll try to get us back above 1000 gold to draw interest. And hey, it was an emergency, so we excuse you, this time, GBear.

 

[joespaniel]

Originally posted by Toasty
Bah, I perfer line, it sounds more military-like .

Whatever.

And I'll play when I'm darn ready too, I'm getting impatient here!

I'd expect that from someone who lives in Detroit.

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

I say we release a task force of at lease 20 infantry to take and hold london. After that, the english should want peace and if they don't we'll take some more cities until they want it. We should no longer have MPP with Hiyawatha so we can avoid wars for a few turns. When engish sue for peace, we should demand a hefty amount of reparations per turn s we can turn up some more luxories for the duration of our other wars.

Just my $0.02

 

[joespaniel]

Hmm, OK, but I thought we were just going to take over the whole continent...

Do we still want to do that?

 

[Ohwell]

Actually, I am pretty sure our plan goes as follows:

Capture the English wonder cities
Cripple the England.

Our plan was to cripple them enough so we would be the number one civilization, so we could win a space race game, or a histograph win. But conquering the English would work for that too .

But I am in favor of letting the English survive, but only under our complete and utter surveilance. In otherwords, we should only let the survive because we want them to, not because we have to.

 

[joespaniel]

Actually, I think Ohwell's idea is the best one so far.

If we just take London and Nottingham for the wonders, and leave them the rest, we dont have to improve 20+ newly captured cities. They wont produce much with so much corruption anyway, theyre too far away from our Palaces.

Culture flipping of such conquests is likely, so adding some Roman population to them would help. Razing nearby cities for breathing space wouldnt hurt either.

I doubt they could ever recover enough to come after us again after losing so much. We would get so far ahead in tech, and wealth, that they would kiss our @$$ for the rest of the game.

Or perish! Mwah-hah-hah!

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

I agree Ohwell. It sounds a lot like what I was saying but take nottingham as well. lol joe.

p.s. joe, where'd you get that smiley from? its not on my list here.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

If we take London (or other English big cities), it'll be very likely it'll flip back to the English, peace or no peace. Cos it has a lot of cultural points for the English I expect. We won't be able to keep our conquests if we let England live.

IMHO, we shld take all of England. Then the English cities will have nowhere to flip to.

 

[Ohwell]

Well really what I meant was we should take over, say, roughly, 3/5 of England, including the cities surroinding London and Nottingham. I think everyone misenterpreted me on that.

I will restate it-

-Take London, Nottingham, and all surrounding cities.
- Take all cities inbetween them.
- Leave the west part alone, and make peace.

- Culture fliiping will not be a problem if we capture all the cities surrounding London and Nottinghah.



Ah what the heck, lets conquer all of England, it will be fun.

I still like my idea though

 

[donsig]

I think that if we want the English cities with the wonders we will have to get rid of England all together. As long as Elizabeth lives there will be a chance of London (or whatever) flipping back to her. This could happen even if the nearest English city is far away...

Hadrian's Wall/Line was meant to keep English cavalry from raiding into our territory. Once England runs low on cavalry we no longer have to maintain that line but can use the infantry in more productive ways.

BTW, remember we are at war with Germany as well, so making peace with England will not get us out of the war weariness rut.

 

[joespaniel]

Relax, I knew what you meant Ohwell.

And Im in the process of doing it! Ive never fought a war with mostly infantry before, but what the hell, its working! Were winning!

I loaded up the game and studied it before ending the turn, and noticed 8 cavalry sitting in front of our infantry. I unfortified our infantry and smashed them all to one hit point for the loss of one infantry. I changed some production in a couple of cities, and ended the turn.

1781 - English attack on our defensive line is meek, two infantry lost for five dead cavalry, and several retreated away damaged.
Our counter-attack kills four more cavalry and we attack across the entitre line, pushing north into England.

Hiawatha notifies us our MPP is over. We offer iron and incense for saltpeter and furs, he accepts! Our happiness problems seem better now, and we can build cavalry! Hiawatha is not trustworthy, but for now well take what we can get.

1782 - English attack Hieracanpolis and we barely hang on! Our ironclads bombard Dover, destroying the coastal fortress, barracks and some citizens.

The infantry is killing the damaged cavalry inside Glouchester and Exeter, theres alot of them trying to heal inside those two cities. Were, actually.

1784 - Rome discovers refining. We start working on steel, which will take 8 turns. The T/S/L rate is 3/5/2 and cant be changed for now, untill we make more money or end the war.

English cavalry blasted aside an infantry unit and poured into our rear. Several infantry healing behind the line stop them, and an elite unit spawns a great leader, Maximus!

An infantry army is created and boards a galleon for the attack on London. Lots of artillery is ordered, and will sail over soon.

Our troops take Glouchester and capture 1 worker and a catapult. Weve killed 20+ cavalry, several riflemen and spearmen for the loss of 6 infantry and 2 artillery so far.

Ironclads pummel Dover some more, taking out the temple and more civilians.

1786 - Rebellion in Heiracanpolis! Infantry unit outside re-takes city and it is destroyed during the battle. We must take Dover to gain another port!

Our troops capture Exeter and capture 4 workers! Many more English cavalry killed, their counter-attacks are getting weaker. The workers are building rail right behind the line as it advances, helping bring up new units and retreat damaged ones.

1 Ironclad sailed around to Rome, to guard against any amphib assault from other continent. Just in case...

More to come!

 

[joespaniel]

I forgot to mention the Hoover Dam was begun in Rome, and the Intelligence Agency in Veii, both in 1782.

1788 - 2 English ironclads spotted off our east coast, each escorting a troop ship! English cavalry launches a lame attack at Exeter and we spank them hard. Sink an ironclad off dover, no Roman losses.

1790 - Roman artillery pounding Abydos into match sticks, more English cavalry wasted at Exeter. I switched production in Mycanea to ironclad, hopefully to catch the English ships as they pass. One English ironclad caught and sunk off Glouchester and accompanying caravel runs away.

1792 - Abydos razed, and new forward defense line is begun. This one is shorter than the previous one, and has better interlocking fields of fire for the artillery.

Naval battle off Mycanea, we lose an ironclad, but the English abandon a galleon, and we sink it. Chasing last English convoy towards Iroquois.

Man o War shows up off Dover and we feel obliged to sink it. Dover is a rubble heap from our artillery bombardments.

Improved the areas around Corinth and Pharsalos alot. New mines and rail.

1794 - University of Leeds hit by Roman naval artillery, students forced to hold class in craters.

1796 - Dover is razed! Our troops head for London.
I have to agree with Knight-Dragon that holding London will be impossible, even if we could capture it. Instead I am sending 5 artillery and infantry escort to pound it into the stone age. Nottingham after that. If we cant have the wonders, neither will they!

Man o War sunk off Canterbury, they just dont learn!

Veii switches to Military Academy, Corinth starts Heroic Epic. Our army won its first battle razing Dover!

1798 - ENGLISH INFANTRY NEAR GLOUCHESTER! Damn! Well, they caught up a little... Our cavalry mopped it up after the artillery used it for target practice.

Man o War sinks one of our ironclads, we sink it to express our displeasure.

1800 - Hiawatha lets us know our silk/dye agreement has run out, but we renew it and tack on a 10 gold/turn+world map for Roman wine. I wanted to see whats going on over there anyway.

Rome discovers steel! We work on combustion, 9 turns till mass production. Were getting there!

English caravel sunk off the Iroquois city of Dijon. We also finally catch up and sink the last English ironclad off Glouchester, but another is spotted north.

Ironclad sunk off Canterbury, Man o War sighted. We have a stack of 3 ironclads in the western sea, and are determined not to let a single Englishman land in Roman territory!

Veii building Spy Agency again, this time for real. We can build armies now though, if we so chose.

Strategy: Level London and Nottingham, then make peace. They should be so weak after that, they will be our pet civ for the rest of the game.

Once we have peace with everybody, we can go all out for tech. We'll build a spaceship or at least nuke everybody before this is over.

Im going to play a couple turns tomorow and hand it over to Toasty. Good night!

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Where's their rubber? Maybe we can cut off their rubber resources like in the German game.

 

[joespaniel]

Originally posted by Knight-Dragon
Where's their rubber? Maybe we can cut off their rubber resources like in the German game.

That would be bad for population control , theyve already got the Pyramids, you know.



Seriously, Im going to cut off their supply of Capitol cities and Great Wonders first. I'll look into a resource strategy too. Right now, we have our hands full fighting back their cavalry onslaught.

I got some trade embargos signed against England, I forgot to post that earlier.