The Ancient Mediterranean Mod (TAM) - Large Map ver 2.5j

We are actually in good shape after taking a closer look at the save. Of course, there is not enough units to take over the whole map. But we can advance for a while.

Did not manage to play today though. So, Krys, if you can play Friday night, please post otherwise I will make a second attmept to play. We are one tile away from contact with Assyria and can certainly capture Rome with the help of an army. Also noticed we are building a cult site or two and we don't need this if we are going to build SoZ. There are few civ building Great Library and I'm not sure that Troy will get it. But if we will be desperate, we can try to start stealing techs even though it is extremely expensive. I'd still vote for disconnecting copper at least once since we need a much larger army than what we have especially after the Golden Age. About 100 peltasts might be able to do the job. For now, it is OK since production and trade bonus is substantial but after GA ends, our advance will be slowed down and substantially.

It might be also a good time to chose the victory condition. Caravan might be doable but only if we capture Great Library. Domination or Conquest might be difficult because AIs will be likely to win by Caravan before it. Same goes for Diplomatic. 20K cultural might be also possible but we need about 500 slaves for it. This amounts to razing about 100 size 8 cities plus buying/capturing ever spare worker the AIs are having. Well, we get an enslaving unit with iron working which might ease the pain but still looks tough. May be it is too early to tell but capturing Great Library would not hurt in any case. Let's put this as a top priority for the current moment.

Killing Rome is in our powers but we can make peace for a city or two (after capturing Rome) and then go hammer somebody else. For this we need a few embassies and alliances as well though it is optional.
 
Since we are seafaring, I say capturing and settling cities along the coasts of the entire Italian boot should be first priority. This will provide the commerce to research/steal our way back into tech parity. Once this is accomplished, we should also be strong enough to capture the GL, if necessary. Might as well take the two western Roman cities as well to consolidate our lines. I think a couple of those cities are on resources, so we may need to move them. Once we get the mountains mined/worked around our northern cities, they should be productive enough to build units without disconnecting the copper (this feel exploitish).

After securing the boot, I'd shoot for conquering Minoan and Mycanean cities with their quays and offshore platforms that go together well with our seafaring trait. With the uber-powerful port improvement one tech away, these cities should flourish. We can also target any other civ-specific wonders that would be helpful. I'd like to go for a caravan win, as the conquest options sound too tedious. We can build up enough strength to take out any civs that threaten to beat us to it.
 
Playing tonight is not an option, I have too much civ to do, also diplo ;) and I want low-pressure evenings... I can certainly find some time on Saturday though. Definitively this weekend. :)
 
Preturn check: Everything looks OK. Change Populonia from Cult site to Slave market, moving army and all fully healed peltasts to attack Rome. Reset preferences, seems that we have lost lots of worker turns due to Cancel friendly orders checked. We make contact with Assyria. Ashurbanipal has 12K gold. Traded him maps for 170g. Trade maps for about 600g profit. IBT. Iberia and Gallia hammer each other over some village in Pyrenees. Volchi starts on ToZ ready in 18 turns.

[1] We capture Rome and we now have barracks in all cities! Mantua founded in between Rome and Cumae. We lose 2 peltasts during siege of Rome and 3 peltasts attacking Roman broadsword on a hill. Can get Arretium of Ravenna from Rome for peace. Trade Monarchy to Dacia for 2 slaves (480 g worth). We need also to decide where to build Pantheon (forbidden palace). I’ve started one in Rome. But we can rush it with a leader if we even get one more. IBT. Romans advance with some longsowrds. Great Library built in Sidon. That is not that far away from coast, we can get it sooner or later. Though war with Babylon would be less pleasant than war with Troy.

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[2] One army advances to Antium, another to Arretium. We can get both cities next turn. Maps traded for some change of about 200g. We have about 2800 g in the bank.

[3] Southern army redlines but kills 3 spears in Antium. The city cannot be taken this turn. However, we captured Arretium with 3 Roman settlers and 4 workers in it! This totals to 12 slaves! Attack on Ravenna does not succeed but our discipline is good and all peltasts retreated after inflicting some damage. Trade WM to Babylon for 110g+9gpt.

[4] Not much progress on the war front, we certainly need more troops to deal with Rome and those which we have are too few to swiftly eliminate Rome. Alas, the war has been started too early to be completely victorious. But I consider this game a bit relaxed (it is not GOTM after all and we are not competing with other humans here) and just hope we can win even in this situation. With barracks and granaries in all cities it should be possible to grow and get powerful imho. IBT: Romans do nothing, probably rushing spears to cover the losses.

[5] I casually begin to partially cash-rush units and improvements. Mapmaking is due in 2 turns and we are supposed to get at least 2K gold with it by map trading. Arpinium is almost captured, two chariots retreated from longsword. Sothern army retreated to heal in Rome and 6 units advanced to battle for the hill of Antium. IBT. Iberia and Gallia still battle in Aquitania. Nobody wins, nobody wins there. We lose Cumae to amphibious Roman archer sailing around in a curragh.

[6] Cumae recaptured but our heroic archer died in the process and two chariots and a peltast retreat from a spear there. The battle for Arpinum yields our third leader, Lars Tolumnius. The city is captured together with a settler and worker for total of 4 slaves. Roma urgently switched to peltast and Lars runs there to rush the small wonder. At least we get a part of Golden Age with lower corruption. The battle of Antium proceeds as planned and we capture the city. Rome has only Neapolis and Ravenna left. They also have no techs or other things of interest to us. This means they have to go. Weaklings they are indeed. But still there are a few fierce battles ahead.

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Troy got Mapmaking and we traded their WM around for a net profit of about 400g. We are second in population, other stats are messed up because of Golden Age.

IBT. We discover Mapmaking, research to Seafaring at zero.

[7] We can try to snatch the Lighthouse but it is risky and there are no other wonders for backup. Lars rushes Pantheon in Rome. Gold before WM trading: 3835. After: 10251g plus some change in per turn deals of about 50 or 60. Assyria still has 12K but we are getting close. That has been a little bit more than expected, around 6.5 thousand. Now we need to spend it for good. Mostly probably rushing settlers and units as well as some critical improvements. It has been a long turn (even with MapStat) and I will stop now and continue after some sleep. Here is the gorgeous minimap and Sidon with Great Library. We need to capture Tyre first by amphibious attack and then advance there over land. Can capture a few Minoan cities on the way.

TAMSG-142.JPG
 
Good show, akots! :thumbsup:

I'd like to take advantage of our free granaries to get our cities optimally placed before the next push for war (eliminating the Roman scourge first, of course). How about some dotmaps? My suggestions follow.
 
Romedot.JPG


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Arpenium is on wheat, so needs moved. Cumae needs moved to get access to fresh water and allow growth.We can bleed workers off of larger cities (or rush settlers) before moving them. Granaires allow them to grow back quickly.

What does a safe steal on lit look like? This opens up later techs for trade. Is seafaring available for trade?
 
Actually, we don't have to move anything anywhere, we can just buy whatever improvements we need and we have enough food bonuses apart from being agricultural. Moving cities is a desperate undertaking when we need more productivity and are far behind. We are not far behind and need to take full advantage of the Golden Age. I don't see much benefit from it since it is tedious task and cities have lots of improvements and we are not playing a milked game. We have more pressing things to do which is building military and navy.

We neither need to steal nor need to research. The first level techs we will be able to get from the Great Library hence all effort should go into Tyre-Sidon operation and further military expansion.
 
>Actually, we don't have to move anything anywhere, we can just buy whatever >improvements we need and we have enough food bonuses apart from being >agricultural.

This doesn't make sense - more food bonuses=more mines=more production.

>Moving cities is a desperate undertaking when we need more productivity and are far >behind. We are not far behind and need to take full advantage of the Golden Age. I >don't see much benefit from it since it is tedious task and cities have lots of >improvements and we are not playing a milked game.

This is exactly backwards. When you are desperate you cannot afford to optimize city placement. We've got a long way to go (hence my preference for locating cities optimally for the long haul), but we are already far from desperate. It's no more tedious than producing the workers and settlers in the cities we need to move (workers and settlers we already need, and thus would o/w need to produce in our more productive core, reducing core production significantly - this is where we'll get our military), then producing one final settler and resettling one tile over. They will recover pop fast with the food bonuses and free granaries. These cities are unlikely to have any significant improvements in them at this point. Rome hasn't had anything useful to build!

I'm only talking about moving three cities, for heaven's sakes. Cumae definitely needs to move to grow over 4. Moving Arpinum lets it work several mined hills, getting food from the wheat it sits upon and the fish. Moving Ravenna is lower priority.
 
Since the GL never obsoletes, the capture the GL strategy feels exploitish. I'd rather win by smart play.

If we're hopelessly behind in tech, we can capture Sidon to catch up, but if holding the GL is our long-term research strategy, that will require a military commitment far from home that could be better used establishing a productive empire closer to home.
 
SAVE

Continuing from previous long, still turn 7 left to move units around. IBT. Pantheon in Roma complete. We lost timber and furs from Kolchis. Not that we need both.

TAMSG-142-panth.JPG


[8] Ravenna falls together with 2 settlers and 2 workers in it. We have many slaves indeed. Neapolis also falls, but Rome is not eliminated. They should have a wondering settler somewhere on land or in a boat. Actually, we have our own timber between Neapolis and Antium, just need to claim the tile.

There are few expansion possibilities. We can advance on Mycenae and probably will be able to capture all their cities except Tiryns which is the only one not coastal. Also, we can build a road to cross alps and found a city in Switzerland south-east of Gallia. From there, we should be able to push north and NE-NW towards Alesia, Lutetia, and Saxones. Third, we can advance towards Aquitania Since Iberia and Gallia are at war. Fourth, Minoan cities are all coastal and we can certainly hammer on them and probably capture all cities. We need may be 10-15 turns to prepare for these campaigns and I’m starting the preparations by building merchant ships and peltasts by part-rushing when needed. There are also a few productive tiles to claim in southern Italy and we can rush a few settlers after the Golden Age ends. And of course, hunting for Roman settler is a top priority. As well as claiming timber and settling a few city sites.

OK, after extensive search, Roman settler has been located hiding underneath a warrior and enslaved by our heroic war chariot. Rome is then eliminated.

TAMSG-143.JPG


In terms of culture, we will be more or less safe from flipping while capturing cities from Phoenicia, Minoans, and probably Troy as well as Germanic tribes. And we can only hope to hold for one turn the cities from cultural monsters including Babylon and Lydia. Mycenae, Gallia, Dacia, and Macedon will certainly have a few flips but we can advance there as well.

[9] Buildup continues. Traded WM around for another 500g or so in gpt as well as timber even though we will have our own soon. All Assyrian gold ended up in Huns’ pockets somehow. Must be a really expensive tech trading there. I’m loading a few peltats into merchant ships to take over Mycenae. The obvious targets are Athenae, Mycenae, Denrda, Pylos, and Thebai. We cannot hope to hold the cities for long though but we can always try. Also they have Menelaion very far to the north and Tiryns is not coastal.

[10] More units finished. There are 3 merchant ships (one with army and two other with 4 peltasts each) ready to attack Mycenan cities of Pylos and Athenae and may be Mycenae itself if RNG permits. There is also ship due next turn in Arpinum, just need to be loaded with peltasts and can attack Orchomenos as well. Workers/slaves north of Populonia are building road through Alps to bring settler on the other side. There is also settler on the hill east of Neapolis to build a city there.

Indeed, a few cities can be moved but lets wait until our Golden Age is over. Also, we will probably get Architecture once we capture the Great Library and can then rush aqueducts which will be actually cheaper than moving cities. We have almost 11K gold in the bank and can rush/part-rush what we want and wherever we want for a rather long time. If we need local culture, we can always sac one or to slaves instead of building temples.

There are a few Minoan units inside our borders going somewhere. I was just asking them out politely from time to time and they withdraw.

All battle plans are summarized below. There is also a curragh sailing towards Picts and another is coming home for upgrading.

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Certainly, I must agree that capturing Great Library in this scenario seems exploitive a bit. However, building libraries and other kind of stuff is not a good option IMO as well. That is just too tedious for my style. We might be better off going for Domination win then which is expected to come around turn 250 or so, may be slightly earlier or later if we build only military units. We need about 300 peltasts to succeed on this route though and most of them will be partially cash-rushed. However, we can capture Great Library for a single turn, catch up in techs and then abandon Sidon just to avoid temptation of capturing it once again for the city will most certainly flip. Or recapture it after it flips and then raze it. Otherwise, caravan win will take a huge time and even though I have little doubt we can get it, it will not be a really good game.

Let's hammer on Mycenae, Phenicia and Minoans first by building more peltasts and merchant ships and then make further plans since there are also options to advance north and west. Whoever plays next can decide on whether to move the cities now or wait, it is not important imho and can be done although the impact is very small.

It seems that cultural victory by sacrifice is still an option. We have many slaves indeed and their numbers are supposed to steadily increase while in the conquest phase. 500 slaves is a lot but not that impossible.

The roster:

1. akots - just played, Rome is history
2. Stapel - skip for a week
3. Winterfell - getting ready
4. grs - skip indefinitely
5. Bezhukov
6. Krys - UP It is Sunday man, just like you requested.
 
Otherwise, caravan win will take a huge time and even though I have little doubt we can get it, it will not be a really good game.

lurker's comment: What is a caravan win?
 
LKendter said:
lurker's comment: What is a caravan win?
It's like a Space Race, I think, but isn't it called the Silk Road victory? :confused:
 
There are a number of caravan houses (ten) to be built to create the silk road. It is essentially similar to Spaceship win but the required techs span over two ages: Iron Age and the following one. The caravan houses bring some culture and are rather expensive to build and are considered small wonders.
 
Bezhukov said:
... I'd rather win by smart play. ...

:lol: There is nothing smart in winning against the AI in civ3. It is all known and there is no secret for me there. To demostrate smart play, you need to face a human opponent.

I thought this mod would offer a few other alternative strategies. So, let's try something different. Fast Domination rush seems honorable but tedious. Caravan doable but even more tedious. Conquest obsolete since we will be able to get cultural sacrifice win long before it. My bet is that cultural sacrifice will be the fastest route to vicotory.

The point is that at present we have enough cash to rush about 200 peltasts/chariots/merchant ships and support them without doing anything else for the next 30 turns with may be occasional settlers from overpopulated cities. Not that it guarantees the win but the game looks decided at this point unless screwed big.
 
Great work, akots, and thanks for the detailed report. Agreed that moving cities is not highest priority, especially in GA. I would like to get Arpinum off the wheat, but no big deal. I'd like to try to take advantage of our seafaring trait to build/capture lots of coastal cities (especially capturing them from Mycenae with the offshore platforms and Minos with the xtra harbors, need to conquer entire civ to prevent flips) and use the extra commerce to get science to a reasonable level to explore the late game techs, but that's because I'm a builder at heart and have never played this mod all the way through.

Not sure why a Silk Road victory would be tedious (long IT's?) if we concentrate on getting our empire developed more than unnecessary wars. With the amount of cash we have on hand, I'm not convinced a GL capture is necessary (we could steal lit then broker), but it would of course make things easier.
 
Guys, I know some won't like it, but I must come to this conclusion : I can't find the time or the will to play some turns in this game, and I think it has to do with my liking of SGs. I also have the same problem with solo games... My brain is on PBEM fix now. :crazyeye: So I think I'll drop off of this roster, but I'll still come back to see the progression. Sorry for not finding it out earlier. After all it's just a game. But I also want to reorganize myself in RL, and that's more important, I'm sure you guys can understand that. That way I hope there will be less delays in this game too. :)
 
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