CivRulesAll
The Void Beyond
- Joined
- May 1, 2007
- Messages
- 590
You look screwed. But that can change, can't it?
The Conquests
- Thread starter choxorn
- Start date
Hopefully, I can get out of this. It will require much pop-rushing, a ton of military units, and some luck. Hopefully, if I can beat this one stack of doom, they'll stop sending everything my way and start fighting those Scythian Riders. Or the Scythian Riders just conquer them, either way I win.
I'm pretty sure I've gotten out of it. I got enough Hoplites and Heavy Cavalry to retake all of my cities, and I'm advancing on Ancyra and Iconium again. I even got an MGL, so now I have a Heavy Cavalry army. I'm also at peace with Rome again. Sadly, they built Hadrian's Wall and now have Heavy Cavalry too, but oh well, I think I can deal with that.
I think what happened is that the Scythians and Egyptians started actually hurting them and they had to focus their attention elsewhere- the huge Immortal stack of doom moved East a few turns after I started playing. Also, Scythia burned a Persian city, and Egypt captured a Persian City. I'm especially impressed with Egypt, as due to not having a harbor (which raises the question of how I was able to trade with them in the first place, but whatever), I couldn't trade with them, and so they have no Iron or Horses. And they still managed to take a Persian city, probably with mostly Archers. They presumably had some War Chariots as they start off with War Chariots, and might have built a few Swordsmen during the brief time they had Iron, but wow.
tl;dr, Persia's getting their collective arses kicked, and things are looking good for me again.
I think what happened is that the Scythians and Egyptians started actually hurting them and they had to focus their attention elsewhere- the huge Immortal stack of doom moved East a few turns after I started playing. Also, Scythia burned a Persian city, and Egypt captured a Persian City. I'm especially impressed with Egypt, as due to not having a harbor (which raises the question of how I was able to trade with them in the first place, but whatever), I couldn't trade with them, and so they have no Iron or Horses. And they still managed to take a Persian city, probably with mostly Archers. They presumably had some War Chariots as they start off with War Chariots, and might have built a few Swordsmen during the brief time they had Iron, but wow.
tl;dr, Persia's getting their collective arses kicked, and things are looking good for me again.
aukrest
History Buff
If you edit the game to play Egypt, you'll see why they usually end up getting conquered. They start I believe with only one spearmen per city and an archer and two war chariots in Alexandria along with a worker and settler. Very surprising they got a Persian city: but good news!
MaxaTheGreat
Feel Prussian Iron!
After you bring Persian rugs(literally! 
) to Macedon, who will be your next target? Scythia? Egypt?
) to Macedon, who will be your next target? Scythia? Egypt?It's, according to the editor, not that bad. The get 2 Spearmen in Alexandria (one in every other city though), an archer, 2 War Chariots, and 2 Workers and Settlers. One of each in Khmun, and One of each spawns in their start location in Alexandria, just like one worker and one settler spawns in everyone's start location.
Also, everyone else only gets one Spearman per city, too, they just have a lot more cities. Well, and the Carthaginians get Numidians, the Romans get Garrisons, and the Macedonians get Hoplites, but yeah.
Chapter 11: Reconquista
There were many who wondered what exactly should be done, where the Hoplites should be. Cyzicus? Antandrus? Go back to Byzantium? It was in the end decided to stay in Cyzicus mostly, with one unit of Hoplites also in Antandrus, but retreat if Cyzicus could not be held. Whether or not it could would probably depend on where the Immortals decided to go. A galley was sent East for the purpose of transporting units between Cyzicus and Byzantium, in case that was needed.
Alex also decided to go to Egypt and sell them Iron again. He then noticed that there didn't seem to be any possible way to do that, as Egypt had no harbors. He then wondered how he was able to trade to them in the first place. However, he could do a tech trade, as they knew the new government of Monarchy, and he knew some technology that they didn't. So:
They walked away happy, although Alex lamented the uselessness of Monarchy compared to Oligarchy. True, they could pay people to finish something instead of whipping them, but the corruption of the system was too bad to make that worth it. Oh well, it could maybe in the future lead to more efficient systems of government. And hey, hey got a much better map and a slave worker. Yay slavery!
In 208, the Persian Army went on the move. As expected, the 3 Immortal units and 1 Spearmen unit that were already close to Antandrus moved closer to the city, and a few random Immortals in the east moved west. The giant stack of Immortals, somewhat unexpectedly moved west towards Antandrus, mostly. Only 3 headed towards Cyzicus, a small enough attack force that it would be really easy to defeat. Antandrus was a bit screwed, though, but oh well, this at least meant they could probably hold them off at Cyzicus now when more Hoplites arrived there.
To the North, somebody destroyed Beneventum, Rome's Northeasternmost city. Alex assumes it was either the Celts or Goths, but doesn't know. He also notices, that in the past, the Romans have been burning some Celtic cities on the border between the areas the Romans called Gaul and Iberia. He doesn't know exactly when this happened, or exactly which cities were burned, and doesn't care much.
A bit later, Gaza, the only Egyptian city not in Africa, finished work on the Colossus. Alex finds that to be a not very good choice for a wonder city, as, being right on the Persian border, it could pretty easily get captured by the Persians. But hey, maybe not, it looked like most of Persia's army was in Asia Minor right now fighting him.
In 205, Alex noticed something that he liked a lot- the Romans were willing to sign a peace treaty with him. He was happy, now he could move some much needed military from the Northern cities that were there in case of Roman or Scythian attack, and move them South to fight the Persians. What was even better was that the Romans were willing to pay him a bit of money to end the war, seeing as he'd won the only actual battle in it.
On the war front, he couldn't actually do anything right now, but everyone new that what happened in the next decade or so could mean a lot.
The Battle of Antandrus began in 203 with the few Immortals that were there. And it didn't last very long. The first unit attacked the Hoplites in the city from across a river quite foolishly, and were utterly massacred. But, then the ones in the forest to the East, not attacking from across a river, attacked, and won handily. The giant group of Immortals wasn't even needed to take the city. Now Alex is worried, for they'll be able to attack Cyzicus at near full-strength now, probably with more units than it can handle. A retreat to Byzantium looks necessary.
Or at least it did, but then the Immortals already in Macedonian territory moved- East. Away from Macedon.
"Why are they doing that?" Alex wondered. "They have no reason to retreat, they're beating us badly. Why are they going away?"
But then, there was some great news: Macedonian scientist had gotten another breakthrough, in Military technology. They could now start training Cavalry with heavier armor and weapons, making them, on offense, the equivalent of a Roman Legion, and fast. They'd easily be able to eat the Persian Immortals for breakfast as long as they didn't have to fight defensively, and they had Hoplites for that.
It could also be traded: The Romans knew how to Engineer things, to plant forests and build bridges. The second one of those was something Alex wanted, due to the large number of Rivers he had to keep crossing slowing his military down. So in 200, he asked Caesar for a trade. At first, Caesar didn't think a trade could be made, but Alex convinced him that he had enough gold to make this trade worthwhile.
The Immortals continued heading East in 198. They seemed to be heading towards Ancyra, and also, another unit of them was unloaded on Cyprus. Alex wondered why there were leaving, but soon figured out. He heard that Trapezus, Persia's Easternmost major city in Asia Minor, had been taken by the Scythians and burned to the ground. The Scythians sure like burning things, don't they? But it explains why they're going East- they're more needed against the Scythians than against the Macedonians, and maybe even needed against Egypt. "Great!" said Alex. "Thank you Scythia, now we can start winning again!"
In 195, a newly trained unit of Hoplites in Thermopylae was sent to deal with the Immortals that had landed on Cyprus. At this job, they failed miserably, but the Immortals were 50% dead, meaning they would have no chance when they inevitably foolishly decided to attack the stronger Hoplites still defending the city.
Also, the settling of Aegean islands continued, with the building of the city of Ephesus on an island just north of Crete. Some questioned why the city was built on top of wheat when there was room to build it a bit to the Southeast, but then it was pointed out that building it on the wheat let it use some Wheat on the mainland near Sparta that no other city could use, and that Wheat could be irrigated.
A sizable amount of military was in Cyzicus now, and they would easily be able to hold off any advance at this point. They could probably even move forward as soon as they had a bit more and knew that the Immortals weren't actually around to fight them.
The Immortals continued heading towards the east in 193. There was no doubt about it in Alex's mind now, the Persians were getting beaten badly by the Scythians right now and needed some military units over there.
The Immortals on Cyprus, surprisingly, didn't act like idiots by attacking. Instead, they acted like idiots by moving east, heading for the border of what on the island the Macedonians actually controlled, instead of getting on a boat and going home. Sigh. Well, as soon as they left the forest, Alex would send the Hoplites in Thermopylae to deal with them.
In 190, the military decided to get the lost Macedonian land back. 7 units of Hoplites, 2 of Heavy Cavalry, and 1 of Catapults were available for this task. They headed towards Antandrus to take the city back.
The Persian Military started acting strange in 188. Specifically, Galleys started moving West with no particular direction in mind. Where the heck where they going?
And then, very good news. Tyre, the Persian city on the Persia-Egypt border, had been captured by the Egyptians. Alex is amazed they were able to do that, with no resources. Their entire offensive military is likely mostly made of Archers. So Persia is getting beaten by Scythia, Egypt, and Macedon all at once. Alex is happy about this.
Speaking of Egypt, they and the Celts signed a peace treaty, in a war that was likely to go approximately nowhere.
In 185, the Persian Immortals were out of the forest and out of Macedonian borders, so the Hoplites in Thermopylae were sent to kill them before they had a chance to fortify and heal themselves. The Hoplites were very successful in this endeavor.
And then, the Second Battle of Antandrus began, with catapults firing rocks at the city. Persia was screwed from the beginning, they could never hold out against an army this large, as there were only 2 units of Spearmen in the city. The Hoplites weren't even needed here, the Heavy Cavalry just poured in and killed all of the Spearmen to death. The Heavy Cavalry took a beating, but remain alive.
The unused Hoplites were sent to either defend Antandrus, or go and re-take Sardis. It looks like Sardis will be back in Macedonian hands shortly, and Miletus will follow soon after that.
In 183, a few Immortals re-appeared, but there weren't very many of them anymore. Also, the Romans burned the Celtic city of Avaricum to the ground. They were getting a bit close to Alesia now. The Celts are probably getting worried.
In 180, the Second Battle of Sardis was about to begin. But before it did, Alex noticed that the Goths were willing to sign a peace treaty, and even pay a lot of gold. Alex happily agreed, as he gained nothing from fighting them, and now he was only at war with Persia, and could focus all of his efforts on crushing the Persians.
Then, the battle began. It started on a sour note, with some Hoplites attacking and dying, but then all 3 units of spearmen in the city were killed by an equal number of attacking Hoplites with little damage to them. Even better, the Macedonian catapults that the Persians had captured a while ago were in this city, and were now Macedonian once more. Now if only they knew where the workers were so they could recapture them.
They now had 3 units of catapults, and used all of these to fling rocks at the Immortals outside the city, which did... absolutely nothing. Sigh. Well, the Hoplites were easily able to kill said Immortals anyway, but still, it was annoying.
It was then that they noticed there were 5 units of Immortals to the east of Sardis. Well, this could get interesting if they decided to attack.
But, they didn't. Instead, in 178, they moved East, presumably to fight the Scythians and Egyptians.
Persia also seemed to notice that Macedon was only at war with them right now, and didn't like that, so they got the Celts to join in.
The Carthaginians also finally got busy that year. They captured Messana, the lone Roman city on the island of Sicily. Alex finds it pretty funny that they managed to do that, given how much stronger the Romans are, and how easily the Romans are crushing the Celts. Maybe the Romans are just sending all their military north instead of south, or something?
They also burned one of Egypt's western cities, Pi-Ramesses. At least, Alex thinks it was the Carthaginians that did that, since it doesn't really make sense for anyone else to have military units there.
In 175, the Macedonian military advanced towards Miletus. The Heavy Cavalry could attack immediately, so one unit of them killed some annoying Immortals outside the city, and the other attacked the city itself. This attack failed badly, with the Heavy Cavalry not really doing much to the spearmen in the city. And we thought the Cavalry were supposed to be good! Ah well, the Catapults and Hoplites could easily do the job in 5 years.
Not much happened in 173, but the various other nations were finishing great wonders. As a result, as soon as one finished, the others would all stop that one and move to something else, quickly completing it. This cascade of great wonder completion would likely not end for another 5 years. In 173, the madness started with the Roman city of Neapolis building the Temple of Artemis. Okay location, but Alex will have to laugh if the volcano near the city decides to erupt and destroy Neapolis. That would be kind of funny.
Then, Caralis, a Carthaginian city on the island of Sardinia, finished work on the Great Library. Alex wonders why the Carthaginians decided to build a wonder on an island, where it's hard to produce things, and is also so hard to defend from a possible Roman invasion.
But regardless of that, it would start getting some book donations, that would teach the Carthaginians how to Engineer things soon. So, in 170, since they were going to get it for free anyway, Alex decided, "Why not trade it to them?" And he got quite a good deal, he was able to use it to get Carthage to declare war on Persia, and get some gold. Alex liked this, very much.
Speaking of the war, the Second Battle of Miletus continued. Catapults bombarded the city, much more successfully this time. There were 4 units of Spearmen in the city, though, and only 4 attacking Hoplite and Heavy Cavalry units, so they'd all have to win, and that would be hard when most of them were Hoplites. Luckily, they were under the command of a brilliant commander named Pyrrhus, who led all of the Hoplites and Heavy Cavalry to victory against the Spearmen defending Miletus, taking it back for Macedon. His talents were noticed, and he was promoted to General to lead a new Army, which would be made up of some more Heavy Cavalry units soon to arrive there.
Things were looking very good for the Macedonians right now. The Persians were losing, the former Macedonian cities had all been recaptured, they had their catapults back, the army was getting bigger, they had a new Army to replace the old one- all in all, things were looking good. The loss of those 3 cities was still a massive setback, especially with all the whipping of citizens that had been done by both the Macedonians and Persians. Miletus and Sardis, once two of the most productive cities in the Empire, had been reduced to small towns. It would take a while to build them back up to their former glory.
Some Hoplites from Byzantium and Cyzicus also started moving towards Ancyra, and maybe would be able to take it as long as no Immortals showed up to stop them.
The Persians didn't noticeably do much in 168, although their Galleys continued moving west. They seemed to be heading towards Italy. What the hell are they doing? True, the Romans and Persians are at war, but it's not like they can really fight much with how far away they are from each other.
The wonder cascade finished that year, with two final wonders being built. The Persians built a really long Wall in Babylon, so long that it would provide more walls for other cities. Great.
The Carthaginians also built a tomb for a guy named Mausollos on Aleria, their city on the island of Corsica. It's named a "Mausoleum" after him. Alex, again, questions the wisdom of building cities on vulnerable, unproductive islands, but hey, he's not the Carthaginians.
165 was rather uneventful, for once. The Hoplites and Cavalry amassed and healed, without really going anywhere. The ones near Ancyra continued advancing, but that was pretty much it.
And the Ancyran attack force was counter-attacked in 163. Sadly, the counter was pretty successful, due to the fact that the Persians now had Heavy Cavalry, too. Sigh, they'll be difficult to deal with, but hopefully not impossible. And hey, even with Heavy Cavalry, they didn't do much to the Hoplites- The Cavalry didn't even kill any Hoplites, they all died. The Immortals managed to kill a unit of Hoplites, but one of them died, too, so it was a fair trade there, and more than fair when the 2 dead Cavalry units are factored in.
The Scythians asked the Macedonians to declare war on the Goths that year, to which Alex replied, "No, I gain nothing from that, and I just signed a peace treaty with them!"
And he could see why the Scythians wanted the alliance- the Scythian city of Noin Ula, their Westernmost city by some Silks on the Danube River, was razed, presumably by the Goths or Celts. Alex actually likes this development, as it means he can grab those Silks. He wanted to do that earlier, but the war with the Scythians prevented that. Sucks to be you, Scythia!
The Heavy Cavalry that were going to fill Pyrrhus's Army reached Miletus from a Galley in 160, and wasted no time in filling said army. It would be a pretty powerful and fast army. They proceeded to advance towards Iconium, along with a bunch of Hoplites and Catapults. They saw something they liked when they reached a road outside the city- some of the earlier captured Greek workers. The Army thanked Persia for this gift, and freed the workers. They are to be sent back West to work on... something, they aren't quite sure yet.
Farther North, the Hoplites near Ancyra killed two units of Immortals. The third unit of Hoplites in the area, being injured by the earlier battle with the Heavy Cavalry, ran west to heal. They probably can't actually take Ancyra now, but they can sure try, and they can sure annoy the Persians, at least.
Now things are really looking up again. The Macedonian Army is doing well, and... well, actually, it's about exactly where it was 150 years ago, but that's better than it was before, and they probably aren't going to get pushed back again unless the Persians start pulling more Immortals out of their ass. But, with them also pre-occupied fighting Scythia and Egypt as well as Macedon, they hopefully won't be able to do that again.
There were many who wondered what exactly should be done, where the Hoplites should be. Cyzicus? Antandrus? Go back to Byzantium? It was in the end decided to stay in Cyzicus mostly, with one unit of Hoplites also in Antandrus, but retreat if Cyzicus could not be held. Whether or not it could would probably depend on where the Immortals decided to go. A galley was sent East for the purpose of transporting units between Cyzicus and Byzantium, in case that was needed.
Alex also decided to go to Egypt and sell them Iron again. He then noticed that there didn't seem to be any possible way to do that, as Egypt had no harbors. He then wondered how he was able to trade to them in the first place. However, he could do a tech trade, as they knew the new government of Monarchy, and he knew some technology that they didn't. So:
They walked away happy, although Alex lamented the uselessness of Monarchy compared to Oligarchy. True, they could pay people to finish something instead of whipping them, but the corruption of the system was too bad to make that worth it. Oh well, it could maybe in the future lead to more efficient systems of government. And hey, hey got a much better map and a slave worker. Yay slavery!
In 208, the Persian Army went on the move. As expected, the 3 Immortal units and 1 Spearmen unit that were already close to Antandrus moved closer to the city, and a few random Immortals in the east moved west. The giant stack of Immortals, somewhat unexpectedly moved west towards Antandrus, mostly. Only 3 headed towards Cyzicus, a small enough attack force that it would be really easy to defeat. Antandrus was a bit screwed, though, but oh well, this at least meant they could probably hold them off at Cyzicus now when more Hoplites arrived there.
To the North, somebody destroyed Beneventum, Rome's Northeasternmost city. Alex assumes it was either the Celts or Goths, but doesn't know. He also notices, that in the past, the Romans have been burning some Celtic cities on the border between the areas the Romans called Gaul and Iberia. He doesn't know exactly when this happened, or exactly which cities were burned, and doesn't care much.
A bit later, Gaza, the only Egyptian city not in Africa, finished work on the Colossus. Alex finds that to be a not very good choice for a wonder city, as, being right on the Persian border, it could pretty easily get captured by the Persians. But hey, maybe not, it looked like most of Persia's army was in Asia Minor right now fighting him.
In 205, Alex noticed something that he liked a lot- the Romans were willing to sign a peace treaty with him. He was happy, now he could move some much needed military from the Northern cities that were there in case of Roman or Scythian attack, and move them South to fight the Persians. What was even better was that the Romans were willing to pay him a bit of money to end the war, seeing as he'd won the only actual battle in it.
On the war front, he couldn't actually do anything right now, but everyone new that what happened in the next decade or so could mean a lot.
The Battle of Antandrus began in 203 with the few Immortals that were there. And it didn't last very long. The first unit attacked the Hoplites in the city from across a river quite foolishly, and were utterly massacred. But, then the ones in the forest to the East, not attacking from across a river, attacked, and won handily. The giant group of Immortals wasn't even needed to take the city. Now Alex is worried, for they'll be able to attack Cyzicus at near full-strength now, probably with more units than it can handle. A retreat to Byzantium looks necessary.
Or at least it did, but then the Immortals already in Macedonian territory moved- East. Away from Macedon.
"Why are they doing that?" Alex wondered. "They have no reason to retreat, they're beating us badly. Why are they going away?"
But then, there was some great news: Macedonian scientist had gotten another breakthrough, in Military technology. They could now start training Cavalry with heavier armor and weapons, making them, on offense, the equivalent of a Roman Legion, and fast. They'd easily be able to eat the Persian Immortals for breakfast as long as they didn't have to fight defensively, and they had Hoplites for that.
It could also be traded: The Romans knew how to Engineer things, to plant forests and build bridges. The second one of those was something Alex wanted, due to the large number of Rivers he had to keep crossing slowing his military down. So in 200, he asked Caesar for a trade. At first, Caesar didn't think a trade could be made, but Alex convinced him that he had enough gold to make this trade worthwhile.
The Immortals continued heading East in 198. They seemed to be heading towards Ancyra, and also, another unit of them was unloaded on Cyprus. Alex wondered why there were leaving, but soon figured out. He heard that Trapezus, Persia's Easternmost major city in Asia Minor, had been taken by the Scythians and burned to the ground. The Scythians sure like burning things, don't they? But it explains why they're going East- they're more needed against the Scythians than against the Macedonians, and maybe even needed against Egypt. "Great!" said Alex. "Thank you Scythia, now we can start winning again!"
In 195, a newly trained unit of Hoplites in Thermopylae was sent to deal with the Immortals that had landed on Cyprus. At this job, they failed miserably, but the Immortals were 50% dead, meaning they would have no chance when they inevitably foolishly decided to attack the stronger Hoplites still defending the city.
Also, the settling of Aegean islands continued, with the building of the city of Ephesus on an island just north of Crete. Some questioned why the city was built on top of wheat when there was room to build it a bit to the Southeast, but then it was pointed out that building it on the wheat let it use some Wheat on the mainland near Sparta that no other city could use, and that Wheat could be irrigated.
A sizable amount of military was in Cyzicus now, and they would easily be able to hold off any advance at this point. They could probably even move forward as soon as they had a bit more and knew that the Immortals weren't actually around to fight them.
The Immortals continued heading towards the east in 193. There was no doubt about it in Alex's mind now, the Persians were getting beaten badly by the Scythians right now and needed some military units over there.
The Immortals on Cyprus, surprisingly, didn't act like idiots by attacking. Instead, they acted like idiots by moving east, heading for the border of what on the island the Macedonians actually controlled, instead of getting on a boat and going home. Sigh. Well, as soon as they left the forest, Alex would send the Hoplites in Thermopylae to deal with them.
In 190, the military decided to get the lost Macedonian land back. 7 units of Hoplites, 2 of Heavy Cavalry, and 1 of Catapults were available for this task. They headed towards Antandrus to take the city back.
The Persian Military started acting strange in 188. Specifically, Galleys started moving West with no particular direction in mind. Where the heck where they going?
And then, very good news. Tyre, the Persian city on the Persia-Egypt border, had been captured by the Egyptians. Alex is amazed they were able to do that, with no resources. Their entire offensive military is likely mostly made of Archers. So Persia is getting beaten by Scythia, Egypt, and Macedon all at once. Alex is happy about this.
Speaking of Egypt, they and the Celts signed a peace treaty, in a war that was likely to go approximately nowhere.
In 185, the Persian Immortals were out of the forest and out of Macedonian borders, so the Hoplites in Thermopylae were sent to kill them before they had a chance to fortify and heal themselves. The Hoplites were very successful in this endeavor.
And then, the Second Battle of Antandrus began, with catapults firing rocks at the city. Persia was screwed from the beginning, they could never hold out against an army this large, as there were only 2 units of Spearmen in the city. The Hoplites weren't even needed here, the Heavy Cavalry just poured in and killed all of the Spearmen to death. The Heavy Cavalry took a beating, but remain alive.
The unused Hoplites were sent to either defend Antandrus, or go and re-take Sardis. It looks like Sardis will be back in Macedonian hands shortly, and Miletus will follow soon after that.
In 183, a few Immortals re-appeared, but there weren't very many of them anymore. Also, the Romans burned the Celtic city of Avaricum to the ground. They were getting a bit close to Alesia now. The Celts are probably getting worried.
In 180, the Second Battle of Sardis was about to begin. But before it did, Alex noticed that the Goths were willing to sign a peace treaty, and even pay a lot of gold. Alex happily agreed, as he gained nothing from fighting them, and now he was only at war with Persia, and could focus all of his efforts on crushing the Persians.
Then, the battle began. It started on a sour note, with some Hoplites attacking and dying, but then all 3 units of spearmen in the city were killed by an equal number of attacking Hoplites with little damage to them. Even better, the Macedonian catapults that the Persians had captured a while ago were in this city, and were now Macedonian once more. Now if only they knew where the workers were so they could recapture them.
They now had 3 units of catapults, and used all of these to fling rocks at the Immortals outside the city, which did... absolutely nothing. Sigh. Well, the Hoplites were easily able to kill said Immortals anyway, but still, it was annoying.
It was then that they noticed there were 5 units of Immortals to the east of Sardis. Well, this could get interesting if they decided to attack.
But, they didn't. Instead, in 178, they moved East, presumably to fight the Scythians and Egyptians.
Persia also seemed to notice that Macedon was only at war with them right now, and didn't like that, so they got the Celts to join in.
The Carthaginians also finally got busy that year. They captured Messana, the lone Roman city on the island of Sicily. Alex finds it pretty funny that they managed to do that, given how much stronger the Romans are, and how easily the Romans are crushing the Celts. Maybe the Romans are just sending all their military north instead of south, or something?
They also burned one of Egypt's western cities, Pi-Ramesses. At least, Alex thinks it was the Carthaginians that did that, since it doesn't really make sense for anyone else to have military units there.
In 175, the Macedonian military advanced towards Miletus. The Heavy Cavalry could attack immediately, so one unit of them killed some annoying Immortals outside the city, and the other attacked the city itself. This attack failed badly, with the Heavy Cavalry not really doing much to the spearmen in the city. And we thought the Cavalry were supposed to be good! Ah well, the Catapults and Hoplites could easily do the job in 5 years.
Not much happened in 173, but the various other nations were finishing great wonders. As a result, as soon as one finished, the others would all stop that one and move to something else, quickly completing it. This cascade of great wonder completion would likely not end for another 5 years. In 173, the madness started with the Roman city of Neapolis building the Temple of Artemis. Okay location, but Alex will have to laugh if the volcano near the city decides to erupt and destroy Neapolis. That would be kind of funny.
Then, Caralis, a Carthaginian city on the island of Sardinia, finished work on the Great Library. Alex wonders why the Carthaginians decided to build a wonder on an island, where it's hard to produce things, and is also so hard to defend from a possible Roman invasion.
But regardless of that, it would start getting some book donations, that would teach the Carthaginians how to Engineer things soon. So, in 170, since they were going to get it for free anyway, Alex decided, "Why not trade it to them?" And he got quite a good deal, he was able to use it to get Carthage to declare war on Persia, and get some gold. Alex liked this, very much.
Speaking of the war, the Second Battle of Miletus continued. Catapults bombarded the city, much more successfully this time. There were 4 units of Spearmen in the city, though, and only 4 attacking Hoplite and Heavy Cavalry units, so they'd all have to win, and that would be hard when most of them were Hoplites. Luckily, they were under the command of a brilliant commander named Pyrrhus, who led all of the Hoplites and Heavy Cavalry to victory against the Spearmen defending Miletus, taking it back for Macedon. His talents were noticed, and he was promoted to General to lead a new Army, which would be made up of some more Heavy Cavalry units soon to arrive there.
Things were looking very good for the Macedonians right now. The Persians were losing, the former Macedonian cities had all been recaptured, they had their catapults back, the army was getting bigger, they had a new Army to replace the old one- all in all, things were looking good. The loss of those 3 cities was still a massive setback, especially with all the whipping of citizens that had been done by both the Macedonians and Persians. Miletus and Sardis, once two of the most productive cities in the Empire, had been reduced to small towns. It would take a while to build them back up to their former glory.
Some Hoplites from Byzantium and Cyzicus also started moving towards Ancyra, and maybe would be able to take it as long as no Immortals showed up to stop them.
The Persians didn't noticeably do much in 168, although their Galleys continued moving west. They seemed to be heading towards Italy. What the hell are they doing? True, the Romans and Persians are at war, but it's not like they can really fight much with how far away they are from each other.
The wonder cascade finished that year, with two final wonders being built. The Persians built a really long Wall in Babylon, so long that it would provide more walls for other cities. Great.
The Carthaginians also built a tomb for a guy named Mausollos on Aleria, their city on the island of Corsica. It's named a "Mausoleum" after him. Alex, again, questions the wisdom of building cities on vulnerable, unproductive islands, but hey, he's not the Carthaginians.
165 was rather uneventful, for once. The Hoplites and Cavalry amassed and healed, without really going anywhere. The ones near Ancyra continued advancing, but that was pretty much it.
And the Ancyran attack force was counter-attacked in 163. Sadly, the counter was pretty successful, due to the fact that the Persians now had Heavy Cavalry, too. Sigh, they'll be difficult to deal with, but hopefully not impossible. And hey, even with Heavy Cavalry, they didn't do much to the Hoplites- The Cavalry didn't even kill any Hoplites, they all died. The Immortals managed to kill a unit of Hoplites, but one of them died, too, so it was a fair trade there, and more than fair when the 2 dead Cavalry units are factored in.
The Scythians asked the Macedonians to declare war on the Goths that year, to which Alex replied, "No, I gain nothing from that, and I just signed a peace treaty with them!"
And he could see why the Scythians wanted the alliance- the Scythian city of Noin Ula, their Westernmost city by some Silks on the Danube River, was razed, presumably by the Goths or Celts. Alex actually likes this development, as it means he can grab those Silks. He wanted to do that earlier, but the war with the Scythians prevented that. Sucks to be you, Scythia!
The Heavy Cavalry that were going to fill Pyrrhus's Army reached Miletus from a Galley in 160, and wasted no time in filling said army. It would be a pretty powerful and fast army. They proceeded to advance towards Iconium, along with a bunch of Hoplites and Catapults. They saw something they liked when they reached a road outside the city- some of the earlier captured Greek workers. The Army thanked Persia for this gift, and freed the workers. They are to be sent back West to work on... something, they aren't quite sure yet.
Farther North, the Hoplites near Ancyra killed two units of Immortals. The third unit of Hoplites in the area, being injured by the earlier battle with the Heavy Cavalry, ran west to heal. They probably can't actually take Ancyra now, but they can sure try, and they can sure annoy the Persians, at least.
Now things are really looking up again. The Macedonian Army is doing well, and... well, actually, it's about exactly where it was 150 years ago, but that's better than it was before, and they probably aren't going to get pushed back again unless the Persians start pulling more Immortals out of their ass. But, with them also pre-occupied fighting Scythia and Egypt as well as Macedon, they hopefully won't be able to do that again.
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mythmonster2
BEC NOIR! RUN!
Good, good. How are you planning on winning this? Domination looks a while off, and the end date is approaching.
mythmonster2
BEC NOIR! RUN!
Is it? Memory's getting foggy then, I thought it ended at 0.
aukrest
History Buff
Oh, well that's what you get if you just say stuff by memory
.Also: how the heck did Carthage get two wonders from Sardinia and Corsica? Those cities aren't that productive...
It ends at around 300 AD.
I don't know how Carthage managed to build wonders in those cities, either. They are, admittedly, close enough to Carthage to not be terribly corrupt, but still aren't productive. Probably they just started building wonders there a while ago and cascaded there, or something.
Do you plan to ride your current winning streak all the way into Persia proper? Or do you just want to beat them back far enough to end the threat and declare peace? I've only played this scenario once, but I'd think that if you get Persia far down enough by points, your real concern ought to be with getting Rome and Carthage to go all out against each other and then take sides with whichever side is losing.
MaxaTheGreat
Feel Prussian Iron!
Macedon and Persia are in a locked war, so he can't make peace.
Also, my proposed Macedonian conquest:
Also, my proposed Macedonian conquest:
aukrest
History Buff
The problem with Persia in this scenario is that it makes a buttload of productive cities in Mesopotamia which with they just spam heavy cavalry and Immortals. Maxa's plan would work but you'd need to devote resources to defense.
Yeah, that's the problem, Mesopotamia makes a lot of food, allowing Persia to spam Settlers and build cities faster than anyone else. Even the Romans can't expand that fast. I'm sure you've already noticed on the minimap in my pics that Persia has a lot more cities in Mesopotamia than they did at the beginning of the game. Luckily, they're all still small, but they'll get bigger.
It will be tough to beat them, but as long as I can keep the Egyptians and Scythians at war with them, they'll have to split their attention and I can hopefully beat them back.
It will be tough to beat them, but as long as I can keep the Egyptians and Scythians at war with them, they'll have to split their attention and I can hopefully beat them back.
templar_x
usually walks his talks
re your earlier trade with Egypt, you are able to trade through the harbours of friendly nations if your capital is connected to them. e.g., you may have traded through a Roman harbour.
templar_x
templar_x
I have harbors, I don't need to trade through Roman harbors to get to Egypt. I could trade through Carthaginian harbors, yes, but Carthage is at war with Egypt. What doesn't make sense is how I was able to trade with Egypt when they didn't have any harbors, and I couldn't possibly have a land route there with Persia blocking the way.
Come to think of it, as soon as Carthage and Persia were both at war with them, I shouldn't have even had a SEA route to Egypt until I researched Astronomy, so I don't know how the heck I was ever trading with them.
Come to think of it, as soon as Carthage and Persia were both at war with them, I shouldn't have even had a SEA route to Egypt until I researched Astronomy, so I don't know how the heck I was ever trading with them.
CELTICEMPIRE
Zulu Conqueror
wow, I thought you were going to lose this, you got lucky
when im in a locked alliance against someone i usually try to eliminate the before gettig into other wars
(but im no expert at this scenario)
when im in a locked alliance against someone i usually try to eliminate the before gettig into other wars
(but im no expert at this scenario)
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