AU 601: Nbarclius Caesar DAR 1

[nbarclay]

I'm playing Rome against the evil Greeks and their ruler Theseus. We're playing on Emperor level under the AU Mod rules.

Please do NOT read this thread if you are playing the game unless you have both:

1) Explored the entire starting land mass.

AND

2) Entered the Middle Ages.


My other DARs:

The Chronicles of Rome under the Leadership of Nbarclius Caesar, Volume II

The Chronicles of Rome under the Leadership of Nbarclius Caesar, Volume III

The Chronicles of Rome under the Leadership of Nbarclius Caesar, Volume IV


Theseus's DARs:

Theseus's DAR1

Theseus's DAR2

[Arrian]

Nathan v. Theseus. Cool. I'll definitely be watching.

-Arrian

[nbarclay]

4000 BC: The Beginning

In the year 4000 BC, the brothers Romulus and Remus led a band of nomads to a forest along the Tiber River. Looking across the river, they saw a vast herd of cattle grazing contentedly. The area looked like a good location to build a city, so the two brothers laid the foundations for Rome. In the meantime, they sent workers across the river to begin irrigating the cattle's range.

The brothers were warned by a prophet that if they tried to rule the city themselves, hatred and bloodshed would arise between them. Rather than risk the prophecy's coming true, they handed control of their new city to their friend Nbarclius Caesar who would guide the city and the empire it would spawn. The prophet also warned of the existence of an evil tribe called the Greeks on the other side of the world, a tribe ruled by a warlord who believes that there is no greater joy in life than grinding one's enemies into dust. [Check Theseus's tag line if you don't believe me. ] So Roman policies would have to be designed to thwart the plans of the evil Greeks and their sadistic ruler.

As soon as the city's new government was established, the Senate took up two important issues. The first was what orders to give Rome's researchers, and the second was what to plan on having Rome build. Since the Roman government was despotic, the Senate could do nothing more than debate and offer suggestions. But Nbarclius Caesar was willing to tolerate debate and even open dissent as long as his orders were ultimately obeyed.

The research debate was split into two factions: the Literacy Faction and the Food Faction. The Literacy Faction advocated that a system of Writing be developed as quickly as possible in an effort to establish embassies and form alliances against the Greeks. The Food Faction, on the other hand, felt that learning how to manufacture Pottery and build granaries must be the nation's first priority. The Literacy Faction argued that knowledge of Pottery could almost certainly be obtained from other nations, but the Food Faction pointed out that serious timing problems could arise if a trade could not be arranged in a timely manner.

The debate regarding build priorities also fell into two factions: the Exploration Faction and (once again) the Food Faction. After some initial debate, two main concepts emerged. The Exploration Faction wanted to build two warriors and then a worker before starting work on a granary. The Food Faction wanted to settle for only one warrior for initial exploration.

After listening to the Senate's debates, Caesar formed a tentative plan. With no really good prebuild for a granary available (since a barracks is only 20 shields for a Militaristic civ) and with forest chops an integral part of the plan for building a granary, he decided to focus Rome's initial research on Pottery rather than risk having a granary's timing fall apart if the tech could not be obtained in time. And Rome would probably start with two warriors before building a worker and granary, although the final decision between one and two warriors could be deferred until a bit later.

[nbarclay]

Caesar's first warrior, named Grog in honor of the great hero of Gathering Storm, headed out to explore in 3750 BC with orders to head a little west and then north and west. Rome grew to size two the following turn, and with a new laborer first appearing on forest and then moving to bonus grassland, Grog's son came of age three turns later.

In 3550, Son of Grog spotted a hut near the capital and Caesar decided to embark on the First Great Gamble. Grog was ordered to head back toward the capital, and Son of Grog to open the hut. Chances were that the hut would have little value, and it might very likely even yield hostile barbarians. But the slim chance that there might be friendly settlers there seemed worth taking, because if there were, they could break the game wide open.

In the meantime, Grog had spotted Ivory to the northwest of the capital, and Son of Grog silks to the southwest. So the luxury situation looked fairly promising.

[nbarclay]

When the hut was opened a century later, all that its people had to offer were essentially useless maps. That was better than being attacked by barbarians, but the loss of six turns from Grog's explorations and a turn from Son of Grog's still stung a bit. That same year, Rome completed a second worker unit and started work on a prebuild for a granary. The new band of workers was sent "9" to chop a forest and then mine and road the underlying grassland. In the meantime, the original workers had finished irrigating and roading the cattle tile and started mining and roading the grassland with shield next to it.

In 3350, the Romans cut science back to ten percent for the final turn of research into Pottery. Grog, continuing his scouting, spotted a hut to the northwest.

With a hut only two turns away, Caesar decided that once his Pottery research was completed, he would shift research to Ceremonial Burual for a turn with a zero research rate. That would improve the chances of getting a more valuable tech if one was popped from the hut, and with a granary planned, a gold stockpile could be depleted in future research. With a river by the starting position, a settler pump, and two nearby luxuries, it seemed sensible to push a rapid research pace instead of trying to do 50-turn research.

Unfortunately, the hut turned out to have barbarians in it. Witht the hut popped, Caesar ordered his scholars to start developing a system of writing as quickly as they could.

Rome grew to size three in 3200 BC, presenting Caesar with an interesting micromanagement decision. If Rome continued growing at its maximum rate, it would finish a granary a turn after growing to size four. Or it could complete the granary in five turns instead of six by working a forest tile all five turns, which would delay the city's growth to size four by two turns but have the granary ready when the city grew. On close examination, the decision was an easy one: the city would end up in the same place on its growth curve either way, but would be a turn ahead on production if it focused on production instead of growth.

There was, however, a very dangerous wild card involved. One of the barbarians was in a position to beat Son of Grog to Rome if he chose to do so, with results that would be nothing less than disastrous for Rome's plans. Caesar prayed to the High Firaxians that the warrior would either be killed attacking Son of Grog or fortify rather than moving on to attack Rome. Fortunately, Caesar's prayers were answered, and while Son of Grog was seriously wounded, he saved Rome from its hour of peril.

(Son of Grog is the warrior on the mountain.)

[nbarclay]

The Romans suffered a significant setback in 3000 BC when Grog was killed by a barbarian warrior in spite of being located on a mountain at the time. All of the city mourned the great loss.

But sorrow gave way to joy a mere fifty years later as the Eternal City's massive new granary was completed. Caesar ordered that an impending forest chop be used to build a settler in three turns, although the settler would need to wait two additional turns for a warrior escort before it could safely leave the city.

In 2850, the Romans finally made contact with another civilization: Carthage. Unfortunately, Carthage already had all of the technologies that Rome did, which left no useful trading possibilities. Rome's first settler was completed in 2800, and its escorting warrior in 2710. At long last, the Roman nation was on its way to found its second city.

In 2510 BC, while the settler and escorting warrior were on their way to their planned city site, Son of Grog encountered the Celts. Rome traded its knowledge of Alphebet for the Celtic knowledge of Bronze Working and ten gold.

The Roman nation finally founded Veii, its second city, in 2470 BC. I realized after I sent the 2510 turn that I'd probably made a mistake: I probably should have founded Veii a tile closer to Rome. Building the city on desert instead of plains will save a food in the long term, but building the city a turn later, with an extra tile of distance corruption, probably wasn't a good trade.

[nbarclay]

With a settler pump going, the Roman Empire started expanding more quickly. Antium was founded in 2310, and by 2070 BC, another settler was two turns away from building the Empire's fourth city. Veii had built a worker a few turns before as its first project before starting a granary, and with a newly completed worker in Rome, the Empire was up to a total of four workers. Caesar ordered one more worker completed in his capital before resuming warrior and settler construction because tile improvements were starting to lag behind.

The Empire's growth was looking respectable, but the exploration situation was a bit ugly. The two warriors that had explored the farthest were both sidetracked in the North, while the westernmost land identified thus far was in the South. Worse, the warrior that Caesar had wanted to send to resume exploration in the South was distracted trying to bait barbarians from a camp near Veii. So while the Germans had recently become the third civilization known to the Romans, the prospects for finding the remaining four civilizations in the near future were not nearly as promising as would have been desired.

[I stopped the DAR for the moment at this point beceause that's where a marathon rapid-fire session with Theseus ended.]

[nbarclay]

In 2030 BC, a band of warriors styling themselves the Legacy of Grog came down off the mountain they'd fortified on and dared the two barbarian bands on the adjcacent mountain to attack. The barbarians accepted the dare... and died, promoting Legacy of Grog from regular to elite in the process.

Rome's fourth city, Cumae, was founded on schedule in 1990 BC. In the meantime, Veii was having to use its second population point as a scientist for a couple turns because the city's designated military police unit was busy elsewhere. Roman researchers discovered Writing in 1910 BC and started research into Philosophy, largely for its high trade value in the AU Mod.

[nbarclay]

In 1870, I discovered that I'd blown it big time not trading Writing as soon as I discovered it. Germany and Carthage suddenly had the tech, apparently having just bought it from someone else, leaving the backward Celts as the only civ I could trade it to. I got Masonry and forty-someodd gold, where if I'd traded the turn before, I could have gotten at least three techs and a much larger amount of gold. (The reason I waited was that Carthage had Iron Working, and I'd hoped Germany or the Celts would get it too so I could trade Writing for it.)

[nbarclay]

After Rome completed its second scheduled worker, it built a warrior, then a barracks, and then a settler. Antium's laborers were hard at work as well, finally finishing the Empire's second granary. A worker connected the ivory supply, giving the Romans their first luxury. And in 1625, the Roman Empire built the city of Neapolis, adding a second luxury to its trade network.

With the new city complete, Caesar ordered his Praetorian Intelligence Agency (PIA) to investigate how Rome's status compared with that of the world's other nations. Here's what the PIA discovered (and keep in mind that Rome is a turn ahead of everyone else at this point):

GNP:

1st & Rome: 26 million
Third: 24 million
Fourth: 19 million
5th & 6th 17 million
Seventh: 12 million
Eighth: 11 million


Mfg. Goods:

Rome: 19 megatons
Second: 15 megatons
Third: 14 megatons
4th & 5th: 13 megatons:
Sixth : 12 megatons
7th & 8th: 10 megatons


Productivity:

Rome: 54
Second: 53
Third: 44
Fourth: 37
5th & 6th: 36
Seventh: 32
Eighth: 31

The big question is, where does Greece fit into all this? Are they the civ that's essentially dead even with me, or is it someone else (most likely Persia, since they're the AI with the highest score) that's essentially dead even?

In other statistics, Rome is now first in population (with one fifth of the world's total population according to F8), third in land area and second in annual income.

In other news, the warriors that had explored up the northeast coast stumbled into two barbarian horse units and a barbarian warrior unit while heading back down south. Since odds against horsemen are better attacking than defending, they attacked the first horse unit, killing it with out getting injured and winning a promotion to veteran in the process. The Legend of Grog (as the warriors call themselves) may not survive, but at the very least, they'll go down fighting.

[Arrian]

The Romans suffered a significant setback in 3000 BC when Grog was killed by a barbarian warrior in spite of being located on a mountain at the time.

That's the second time Grog has gotten killed while sitting peacefully on a mountain. Poor guy.



-Arrian

[Catt]

Originally posted by Arrian


That's the second time Grog has gotten killed while sitting peacefully on a mountain. Poor guy.



-Arrian

The poor guy keeps getting killed because his commanders refuse to furnish him the tank he has repeatedly requested.

Catt

[nbarclay]

Hey, I was trying as fast as I could! Is it my fault I can't research about five thousand years' or more worth of technology in less than one thousand? (Maybe next game I'll assign Grog to my science staff instead of having him serve as a warrior.)

[nbarclay]

The Legand of Grog warrior company survived its close encounter with a barbarian horse unit - barely. The barb warrior didn't attack, so Legend of Grog withdrew to heal before heading back south.

Son of Grog decided to intrude through the northernmost part of German territory where only two tiles would be required to get through. The first turn, the Germans asked him to leave but did not demand that he leave or declare war. The second, the Germans did threaten hostilities, but that got Son of Grog through to the other side. Egyptian territory proved to be nearby.

In the meantime, the city of Pompeii was founded in 1550 BC, filling in a low-corruption spot near the capital. Veii completed its granary, the empire's third, in 1475 BC and was preparing to become a worker pump able to build workers in three turns part of the time and two part of the time. (Growth was high enough for a two-turn pump, but getting adequate production for a steady two-turn pace at the same time would have been impossible.)

Egypt made contact at the very beginning of 1450 BC, offering to trade Ceremonial Burial for Writing. Caesar made a counter-offer obtaining The Wheel and two of Egypt's 13 gold.

Cumae completed the Roman Empire's fourth granary in the year 1425. A quarter century later, the mighty Roman Empire finally caught up with the Greeks in score. Antium completed Rome's second barracks, and Cumae was working on its third.

The first settler unit from Antium, escorted by a regular warrior unit, was heading up the coast toward the middle of the eastern subcontinent. Caesar's theory was that maybe, if he got lucky, a luxury would be identified in the area. In 1350 AD, the warrior/settler combination encountered a barbarian warrior unit intent on making life interesting.

[And that's where Theseus and I left off for the night.]

[nbarclay]

Regarding plans for the future, I'm thinking I'll probably try to settle as much in the middle of the subcontinent as I can and then do a palace jump to around the middle of the empire, wherever that ends up being. Of course if I ever actually meet Theseus, I may have to re-think things a bit.