Tale of the years, 1852-1855

[Ben Kenobi]

Okay.

Trying to play today.

[Ben Kenobi]

Alrighty.

Picking things up where we left off.

1855:

We have 1 remaining foe, the Greeks with 14 cities.

Marathon now has a railroad connected to Pergamon, and to the remainder of the Imperium.

I'll think I'll start in the East. Naples has 2 riflemen on a river, only accessable to Calvary.

5 diplomats, the citywalls were the last to fall.

Both Calvary win, Naples captured. 13 Greek cities remain.

Moving on to Troy.

Since they have 4 units in the city, I'm going to take down the citywalls. 1 Alpine and 3 Riflemen.

6th Diplomat sabotages citywalls.

4 calvary all win. Troy captured. 12 Greek cities remain.

That will be all for the Eastern Front. I need 9 squares of railroad to connect the East with the Western front.

Going to the Western front.

Inaccessible cities behind the front are Miletos, Gortyn and Heraklea. All are in the Greek pocket cut off due to difficult terrain. Thessolonika in the South also cut off due to difficult terrain.

Marathon accessible to Cannons.

Sparta, Thermopylae are accessible to Calvary.

That will leave the remainder of the Eastern Front accessible next turn to cannon once we build railroad to all the cities.

Artemesium, Sicyon, Capua, Phocaea, Syracuse will be the goals for that front next turn.

Calvary will be directed to Thermopylae and Sparta next turn.

Deploy Cannons to Marathon. 4 units, again behind citywalls. Might as well use diplomats.

9 diplomats available, 5 calvary and 10 cannon.

Switch targets to Sparta. If I run out of diplomats, I can charge Marathon with Cannons.

Walls fall in Sparta.

Calvary approach the city.

1st calvary defeated by Alpine.
2nd calvary falls to rifleman.
3rd calvary falters against rifleman.
4th calvary rocks Alpine troop.
5th calvary crushes rifleman.
6th calvary unluckily loses to rifleman. C'mon!
7th calvary drills dragoon, cannon.
8th calvary nails cannon, final rifleman.

Sparta down to size 2!

Greeks have 11 cities.
Now for Marathon. I used all my available calvary, so I will use the Diplomats here rather than on Thermopylae, which will have to wait for next turn.

7 diplomats fail to take down citywalls of Marathon.

So much for my gambit. I have 0 diplomats available on the railroad. All the others are in my isolated pockets. Troops are all vets as well. Decline to further attack marathon leaving Engineers exposed. 1

Cannons clear out roving Greek units.

Roads built to make Thermopylae, Gortyn accessible to calvary next turn.

Since I'm a couple turns away, refrain from building units from scratch. Mostly diplomats, and a few cannons and calvary bought.

1856.

Now up to 58 diplomats, so I built 25 last turn.

43 calvary, 38 cannons.

Railroad built to Rhodes pocket. 8 more diplomats no longer isolated.

Railroad built to Sicyon.
Diplomats investigate Sicyon, two riflemen.

Deploy cannons from Rhodes pocket, both lose.
Calvary storm garrison in Rhodes.
Capture city!

Ten Greek cities remain.

Railroad built to Phocaea. Investigate line West of Phocaea.
It crosses the hills.


Railroad built to Marathon. The Eastern and Western fronts converge on Marathon.

2 diplomats destroy the city walls of Marathon.


4 cannons win without a loss.
Vet calvary takes the city.
9 Greek cities remain.

Next up, Phocaea!

Capua accessable to calvary
Syracuse accessable to calvary.

Artemesium, Gortyn, Thessalonika all accessable to Calvary.

That leaves 1 city, Miletos.

Railroad built to hills.
Vet Alpine troop and 2 engineers deployed. If they still have a cannon in the garrison, we will soon know.

Investigate Phocaea. 4 riflemen.

Railroad built to Syracuse.
Investigate Syracuse. 2 riflemen.

No need for diplomats here.

1st two cannons lose.
3rd cannon crushes rifleman.
4th cannon barely loses to rifleman.
Our rifleman finishes off the garrison.

Syracuse taken!
8 more Greek cities remain.

Railroad built into Artemesium.
Investigate city.
1 Alpine, 2 riflemen.

Charge Capua.
1 musketeer.
Calvary defeats musket.
Capua captured.
7 more Greek cities.

Back to Phocaea.
4th diplomat busts walls.
All 4 cannons win.

6 more Greek cities left.

Decide to charge Artemesium.
First cannon does well against Alpine.

Cannons 2-5 wound garrison, nearly killing 2nd Rifleman.
1st Calvary wounds Alpine troop.
2nd Calvary kills Alpine troop, 3rd Rifleman.
3rd Calvary stomps 2nd Rifleman.

Artemesium captured!
5 more Greek cities.

GREEK EASTERN FRONT FINISHED!

Now for some of the more difficult city terrains.

Investigate Thermopylae.
1 Alpine, 3 riflemen.
Need to take down citywalls.

Every remaining Greek city will require me to take down the walls.

5th diplomat smashes the walls.

1st calvary loses to Alpine.
2nd and 3rd calvary crush riflemen.
Alpine troop skies over the hills to beat down last Alpine troop.
Dragoons capture Thessolonika.

4 more Greek cities:

Thermopylae, Heraclea, Gortyn and Miletos.

Only three of these are accessible this turn.

Build road to Thermopylae. Now I only lose 1/3 of a move to reach the city.

Investigate Thermopylae. 3 riflemen, on a river.
8 diplomats finally take down the walls.

1st calvary does horrible.
2nd calvary almost wins
3rd calvary just loses.
4th calvary loses to the awesome 1st rifleman.
5th calvary smites the awesome rifleman.
1st rifleman promoted.
2nd rifleman promoted.

Thermopylae finally captured.

3 Greek cities.

Investigate Heraclea.

36 production!
3 riflemen.

Investigate Gortyn.
1 alpine, 2 riflemen.
Only 5 improvements.

I'm going to hold here for this turn.

It looks like it is going to take 8 calvary to take Gortyn, and 6 to take Heraclea.

Estimate 5-6 to take Miletos, because the city is not on a river.

To be safe, I will need to produce 20 calvary to supplement my available units and to capture all 3 cities.

Worst case for diplomats, 13 in Heraclea, and 5 in Gortyn.

Probably 10 for Miletos, so I will need close to 30 diplomats.

Numbers are 33 calvary, 25 cannons and 26 diplomats.

Deployments to Miletos completed. I have 2 vet Alpine troops, 1 on the mountain, and another on the hill. I have 3 engineers under each group, so they will need to destroy both groups to prevent a road from going into Miletos next turn, followed by a horde of calvary and diplomats.

I will leave this city for last, after I defeat Gortyn and Heraclea.

Rushing every city, plus a few extra brings me down from 9.5K to 2K. I expect 30 fresh calvary next turn.

[Ben Kenobi]

1857:

THE FINAL YEAR.

State of the Army.

25 Cannons.
63 Calvary
92 Diplomats.

Barbs slay wandering diplomat.

Road built into Miletos.

2 Alpine Troops, 2 riflemen.

5th diplomat smashes the Walls of Gortyn.

Now for Heraclea.

9th Diplomat destroys walls!

1 more left.

8th diplomat toasts the walls of Miletos.

Time for the Calvary.

Selecting Gortyn, with 1 Alpine troop and 2 riflemen on a river.

1st Calvary loses.
2nd Calvary loses.
3rd Calvary badly beaten by riflemen.
4th Calvary bashes alpine troop.
5th Calvary loses to the king of rifles. C'mon!
6th Calvary erases rifleman.
Rifleman spanks last unit with one hp remaining.

IMPERIUM CAPTURE GORTYN!


Now, for Heraklea.

3 riflemen, all on a river. This is the second most difficult of the remaining garrisons.

1st Calvary loses.
2nd Calvary loses badly.
3rd Calvary smashes rifleman.
4th Calvary loses badly to the same rifleman. 2 vet calvary, not behind a city wall, and he's still in the yellow.
5th Calvary rolls rifleman.
Rifleman skewers last rifle in Heraklea.

IMPERIUM CAPTURE HERAKLEA.



We capture MAGELLAN'S EXPEDITION.



We now own every wonder in the game.

Now, for the last city. Miletos.

2 Alpines, 2 riflemen, not on a river.

1st Calvary loses to 1st Alpine
2nd Calvary storms 1st Rifleman.

Looks like that other Alpine is not vet.
3rd Calvary crushes 2nd Rifleman
4th Calvary drills 2nd Alpine. With 2/3 polishes off 1st Alpine.
5th Calvary, our mighty men from Bear's Cave march on the final stronghold of the once Glorious Greeks.

[Ben Kenobi]

Screen shot.

[Ben Kenobi]

Da Save.

I'll have other shots as well, but I'm going to eat.

[MrWhereItsAt]

YYYYAAAAAYYY!!! They were doomed!

[rjmatsleepers]

Well done Kenobi San - and all the ministers - and all previous leaders and ministers.

Well it's make your mind up time as far as the next democracy game is concerned.

RJM at Sleeper's

[duke o' york]

Nice work Ben.
I have to admit having a dumb grin on my face when you said that we had 63 cavalry and 92 dips to polish off three cities.
And surprise - we won!
I call that we dedicate this victory to the memory of SG(2).

But special thanks to Ben's girlfriend too.

[MrWhereItsAt]

Originally posted by duke o' york

I call that we dedicate this victory to the memory of SG(2).

I may have had only the briefest of contact with SG(2), but, hear hear!

[Ben Kenobi]

Indeed.

It's just a shame we did not have a naval battle.

I'm not sure Denise would appreciate the dedication. She's not a gamer. However, I do appreciate the thought.