Hellenistic Age Scenario Succession Game

[Scouse Gits]

Sorry Andy -- a trick I found quite successful when playing OCC was to apply to all peaceful and allied Civs for tribute or gifts every other turn - alternating with requests for maps which the AI seems to take as a very peaceful gesture -- in this game although they will have nothing to do with map exchanges - I suspect the Map Making slot is actually unused - they can be persuaded to be quite generous on the gifting turns - that lot cost me two techs (requested by the Egyptians to retain the alliance - which they finally repealed anyway) and I think was well worth it - I would say that conservatively I extracted about 8,000g from them in my 15 turns ...

SG[1]

[Scouse Gits]

The Great Siege of Tarsos

It was in the dawn of 180BC that brave Macedonian Phalanxes descended from the mountains of Asia Minor to the plains of Syria and siezed the vital fortification to the North West of the proud Syrian city of Tarsos, the Western bastion of the greatest Empire the world had ever seen ...

[Scouse Gits]

The Great Siege of Tarsos #2

Within two years the mighty Syrian war machine had been mobilised to repel this incursion, but the Macedonian forces stiffened by a Phalanx II from the military city of Sparta were ready for the onslaught.

The fortress held for three years, whilst wave after wave of Syrians broke against our defences and were routed by our great General and his Battering Rams. Only the Barrack facility at Mazaca was able to keep our troops in the field for each year our losses mounted as the assaults became more deadly.
Finally, the tide turned for in 175 our first Phalanx III arrived, fitingly again it was a Spartan levy that reached the front just in time to turn away another fearsome assault by the now desperate Syrians ...

[Scouse Gits]

The Great Siege of Tarsos #3

With our fortification secure it was the turn of the Shadows - skilled infiltrators posing as Noblewomen, Courtesans and Ladies of the Night - to do their worst upon the evil Syrian.

Their losses were expected to be high for the Syrian was wary and their target was none other than the great wall of the city itself, but finally we were ready - all our units were in place - the clock was ticking ...
They say no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. Just as our forces were about to advance the Syrian concluded a marine landing, reinforced the garrison and seemed to have limitless troops advancing from his hinterland. Even more threatening, the marine landing was supported by a pair of Quinqueremes, the mightiest sea borne engine of destruction ever seen in the Great Sea.

Our General hesitated, but his Haruspex, a descendant of Gitus Scousae the great Macedonian commander of earlier years urged him forward - the assault must go ahead! The Shadows were dispatched.
The first failed and a Syrian commander waved her head from the battlements in defiance. But his laughter was short lived, for even as he flourished his bloody trophy - the walls fell!
"Forward, my children!", cried the Haruspex and the prevaricating General washed clean his honour by being the first to perish on the unyielding spears of the defending Phalanxes. His sacrifice was not in vain - this opened a gap in the defences and our forces were triumphant. No fewer than five Syrian units were garrisoning the city, but it suffered no population loss before a Schythian horse plunged through the fallen gates and claimed the city for Macedonia!
Our troops had done well, but had not yet done enough, the might of Syria had to delayed or else the unwalled city garrisoned only by Cavalry would itself fall with ease. The Syrian supply line had to be cut. An amphibious landing from Crete was able to sieze the vital fortress on the Tarsos - Antioch road. We were secure from land attack. Could we now survive the Quinqueremes?

[La Fayette]

People running along the main avenues of downtown Pella:
'What happened to King sgiII the Great, who gave us Tarsos and many years of glory ? Our new leader bears the name of a department store! Can we trust him?'
La Fayette replied:
'The equal of king sgiII the Great I certainly cannot be, but I shall try to be as fair as Jospin, as tricky as Chirac, as ruthless as Le Pen and bring you as far as I can on the glorious highway of welfare and warfare'.

[Julius Brenzaida]

LaFayette, you would make a better president than any of them, for sure
Scouse Gits, great, great story

[Andemagne]

yesterday when I played my own game of this scenario and
a weird thing happened. two of my galleys sunk when they
were on one tile island(malta in this case).
have anybody else encountered anything similar?

and: Great Story SG!

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

If the galley is anything like a trireme in regular Civ2, it will have a chance of sinking whenever it has ocean squares on all 8 sides of it. This would include a 1 square island. That's computers for you!

I managed to avoid the problem by never putting my triremes inside the 1 square island city - maybe that will work for you too.

Also, let me add my kudos to your story, SG's. Very good use of screenshots to make the battle come to life. If my turn comes around again on the 'Invasion', I'm definitely going to try that.

STYOM

[La Fayette]

164BC to 147BC

After the heroic battle of Tarsos, victoriously fought by King sgiII and brilliantly told by his scribe, the opinion of General La Fayette is that the Syrians need to be punished.

Several decisions are taken:
1) Build engineers (we have only two of them, and we need a top level transportation system);
2) Use our slaves as baits north of Appolonia, in order to bribe some of those wonderful Scythian horsemen (the game spells Schithians but I suppose it should be Scythians, since we spell 'Scythes' in french);
3) Use our battering rams as mini-howitzers on the highway and consider them as consumption goods (don't care about losses since they are so cheap).
4) Explore the western part of the map with celt warriors (who are some kind of cheap alpine troops).

Results obtained:
16 proud Syrian cities turn Macedonian, in following order:
Trapezus, Tigranocerta, Arbela, Samarra, Seleucia, Kabir, Babylon, Susa, Lagash, Nisibis, Samawan, Bandar, Antiochia (1000 gold in plunder ), Edessa, Dura Europos, Damascos.
This means that the Syrian civ who used to be #1 on the powergraph is now as weak as a chicken.
I stop in 147, in order to give to the next leader (Andemagne?) the pleasure to take Jerusalem and some other fine remnants of the previously strong Syrian Empire.

Details
1) Tribute
Egypt preferred war as soon as 164BC, but Rome and Carthage went on contributing to our wealth for a total of 3150 gold in 18 years .
2) Casualties
We lost 34 battering rams + 25 other units, destroying 165 Syrian units (could have been much better if I had decided to take care, but I just went on as a ruthless conqueror ).
3) Egyptian fear
We meet Egyptian troops south of Damascos in 147. They seem to remember that they used to pay tribute and give us 900 gold for a cease fire .

[La Fayette]

Here is the save

[Andemagne]

ok, I'll play next.

thanks for the tip STYOM

[Scouse Gits]

Great turn La Fayette - the Empire prospers ...

[Andemagne]

sorry, I did not after all have time to play yesterday,
and today is may day eve, biggest partying day of
the year here where I live, tomorrow is the infamous
day after and I have logics exam on friday, so could
somebody take this turn. please.

[La Fayette]

Why not a new player, among those who read this thread?
Come on guys! Don't be shamefaced!

[Scouse Gits]

Excellent idea

Come on you lurkers ...

SG[1]