AU 601: Nbarclius Caesar DAR 1

[nbarclay]

As 1325 dawned, the barbarian warrior near the wondering settler was fortified healing from injuries. Apparently, one of the other civilizations had attacked without success. The warrior band escorting the settler attacked the barbarians, suffering serious injuries but gaining veteran status in the process. The settler unit moved on to found Pisae in 1275 BC. Another settler unit much farther to the south founded Ravenna in 1250.

Around 1300 BC, the Celts demanded the twelve gold that Rome had amassed against possible emergencies as tribute. Caesar decided to pay rather than risk an unwanted war, but he added it to his list of reasons to be irritated with the Celtic leader.

One other situation worth noting is that Egypt and the Germanic tribes were at war with each other. Son of Grog managed to make his way through no man's land, proceeding south in search of additional civilizations.

[nbarclay]

The warrior group Legend of Grog died in 1200 BC attacking the barbarian camp north of Pisae, but Pisae's city guards moved in and destroyed the camp. In 1175 BC, the Romans got bad news in the form of a Carthaginian city in the middle of what was intended to be Roman territory. Also that year, the Romans were one turn away from Philosophy and checked the research situation to determine what it might make sense to take as a free tech (assuming Rome won the race as expected). Both Egypt and the Germanic Tribes had Literature, indicating that the Greeks had probably researched that recently.

The year 1150 AD was a landmark year in two ways. First, Son of Grog reported that two Greek Hoplite units had moved into his range of vision, bringing in-game contact with Theseus's empire at last. And second, Roman researchers discovered Philosophy and, through it, Code of Laws, enabling a series of trades that finally made Rome a first-tier technological power.

First came a trade of Philosophy and seven gold to Germany for Map Making, Ceremonial Burial, and Iron Working. Then came the sale of Philosophy to Egypt for Literature, Mysticism, and 6 gold. And finally, Rome traded Philosophy to the Celts for Polytheism, Horseback Riding, and four gold.

At that point, Rome's technological lead over its Greek rivals was enormous: Iron Working, Philosophy, Code of Laws, Map Making, and Horseback Riding. Rome was ahead of the Germanic Tribes by Horseback Riding; of Egypt by Iron Working, Code of Laws, and Map Making; of the Celts by those three techs plus Literature; and of Carthage by Philosophy, Code of Laws, Literature, and Map Making. The Romans still had not met Persia or the Babylonians.

Not everything was coming up roses. Greece was way, way ahead on the power graph, indicating that they had built a relatively large military. But on the plus side, Rome had twenty-one percent of the world's population, while Greece was in second among the known civs with twelve percent. (Persia was almost certainly ahead of Greece in population, since otherwise, the variation from highest to lowest would have to be implausibly small.)

Given the new situation, the Praetorian Intelligence Agency began a new analysis of the relative strength of the world's civilizations:

GNP:

Rome: 43 million
Second: 39 million
Third: 29 million
Fourth: 28 million
Fifth: 23 million
Sixth: 21 million
Seventh: 18 million
Eighth: 16 million

Mfg. Goods:

Rome: 32 megatons
Second: 22 megatons
3rd & 4th: 21 megatons
Fifth: 19 megatons
Sixth: 17 megatons
Seventh: 16 megatons
Eighth: 15 megatons

Productivity:

Rome: 86
Second: 75
Third: 57
Fourth: 51
Fifth: 48
Sixth: 46
Seventh: 43
Eighth: 41

The big question was, was the civ in second place in GNP and Productivity Greece or Persia? On one hand, even with a probable library in Athens (size 5), Greece would have needed some pretty impressive wealth-generating capacity to get 39 million GNP out of a probable population size of 14 and a probable six or at most seven cities. (Rome's population was 24, and Greece's was about 12/21 of that, which comes to 13.714. Rome had eight cities, and the score situation indicated that Greece was behind in building cities.) But on the other hand, if Persia was second in GNP and Productivity, they would have had almost one and a half times the productivity of the closest other AIs, and Persia's score situation wasn't enough stronger than that of the other AIs to make that seem likely. It also seemed highly improbable that the high GNP figure for one of the civs was a result of a golden age, because a civ in a golden age would have been expected to have a correspondingly high Mfg. Goods figure.

In the end, the PIA's analysts could not come to a consensus. Too little was known about Persia (which the Romans had not yet even met) to get a clear picture. Caesar hoped that it was Persia that was his closest rival, but feared that it might very well be Greece.

[Arrian]

Rome's technological lead over its Greek rivals was enormous: Iron Working, Philosophy, Code of Laws, Map Making, and Horseback Riding.

Not good for T. But this is worse:

Rome had twenty-one percent of the world's population, while Greece was in second among the known civs with twelve percent

Nearly double, and I see you're doing the classic flat-out Nathan rex, with granaries all over the place. Not that I blame you, given the geographical situation (the open land to your west/northwest) and the rules (no taking AI cities).

T's got his work cut out for him.

-Arrian

[nbarclay]

After Greece and Rome met, Caesar suggested to the Greek leader that their two nations agree to a period in which neither nation would enlist other nations to attack the other, thereby giving both nations the freedom to expand. Negotiations ensued, and the two nations agreed not to engage in alliances against each other until 250 BC. They also agreed not to bring more than one nation at a time into alliances against each other once the truce ended, thereby avoiding the danger that one nation might enlist the entire world against the other in a single blow once the truce ended.

In the meantime, almost immediately after meeting the Greeks, Rome lost much of its lead in population completing three settlers in the same turn. It also temporarily lost its lead in GNP and productivity. But the settlers paid off in 1050 BC with the founding of Hispalis, Virconium, and Lutetia in a single turn. The new cities allowed Rome to reclaim its leadership position. Later that year, Greece established an embassy with the Romans.

In 1025 BC, the Romans started their first great diplomatic maneuver against their AI neighbors. Caesar had already established an embassy with Carthage, and went on to establish one with the Celts and one with the Germanic Tribes to determine the status of the Tribes' war with Egypt. The war was still in progress, so Caesar declared war on Germany, traded Philosophy to Carthage to involve them in the war, and traded Iron Working to the Celts for their participation plus 67 gold.

The goal of the war was to try to divert Carthage, the Celts, and the Germanic Tribes from peaceful to military endeavors in the hope that the distraction would help Rome claim more territory and gain a stronger cultural position. With any luck, Germanic forces would be too busy with the Egyptians, the Celts, and eventually the Carthaginians ever to threaten Roman lands, in which case Rome could continue to expand and let its allies do the fighting and dying.

Rome's great explorer went on to contact the Babylonians in 1000 BC, leaving Persia as the only civ not yet contacted. In 950 BC, Rome fell into second place in Mfg. Goods, GNP, and Productivity, implying that one of the other civs had almost certainly entered a golden age.

[nbarclay]

In 925 BC, the Romans founded the city of Byzantium, claiming dyes as their third luxury. It would be a long time before the dyes could be connected, but at least Rome had staked its claim.

[nbarclay]

Sometime around 850 BC, Caesar's diplomats noticed that Egypt had Monarchy. The Egyptians were unwilling to trade Code of Laws for it, so the Romans started tracking the technology's progress in the hope that it would become available. In the meantime, Rome was researching Republic in case that might be needed as something to trade. That project was completed around 775 BC.

Carthage and Babylon were the next two nations to get Monarchy, but neither was willing to trade on terms Caesar could live with. Finally, in 750 BC, Roman diplomats reported that the Celts had discovered the secrets of Monarchy and were willing to make a deal. It took Code of Laws, Literature Map Making, and the entire Roman treasury of 79 gold to make the deal work, but Caesar was finally ready to give up his role as a despot and begin ruling as a monarch. The revolution started, and Caesar's domestic advisor reported that it was expected to take five turns.

At that point, Caesar had another decision to make: how best to use the six specialists he had working for him. They would have more raw value as scientists, but with Mathematics the only technology available to research, and with the possibility that Code of Laws could be traded for that, there was a serious risk that their scientific work would be wasted. So for the first turn, Caesar ordered his specialists to collect taxes But in 730 BC, when it Code of Laws had been traded around widely, Caesar changed his mind and ordered his specialists to start researching Mathematics.

In the meantime, Caesar's mechanation to get his enemies to fight each other was not going particularly well. The Celts had made peace with Germany, meaning that if Germany and Egypt had also made peace, German troops might be heading for Roman cities. With luck, they would not arrive until after Rome's alliance with Carthage expired, but Caesar was concerned about what might happen if his luck did not hold.

[nbarclay]

The plan to have Rome's neighbors damage each other in wars against each other finished collapsing in 690 BC. Caesar got word that Carthage had made peace with the Germanic Tribes and decided to make peace himself. The Germanic leader was willing to pay nine gold and one gold per turn for peace, but Caesar decided to forego the one gold per turn in favor of the flexibility of not having the peace treaty automatically renegotiate in twenty turns. Once peace was restored, the Roman embassy to the Germanic Tribes reopened and reported that the Tribes and Egypt were also at peace.

[Solomwi]

To take you back a bit, for my own edification, I've got a question about the placement of Veii. Why not found 8 of the current location? In the short run, you still have one floodplain and one floodplain+wheat, plus it allows for one turn sooner founding, in the intermediate run you gain the river growth benefit, and in the long run you give up desert and plains for mountains, but not enough to keep you from size 12, with two irrigated desert tiles.

The first thing that comes to mind is having the extra plain/forest for a quick settler pump, but is there something else I'm missing?

[nbarclay]

The reason I didn't build Veii along the river was that there were so many mountains around. By leaving an additional flood plains tile vacant, I set myself up to be able to work an extra mountain tile during the pre-railroad period.

[Solomwi]

I take that back, you could only get to size 10 from Veii-8 (either that or my math is off this time ), but with 3 "food free" workers for mountains. I'm still not sure the lure of the river wouldn't have been too much for me, but I can see your logic. Thanks.

[nbarclay]

Once the period of anarchy ended, Rome rejected a Greek offer to sell Rome Mathematics and researched the technology themselves. Fortunately, the Greek leader had been in no hurry to sell the technology, so Caesar undercut the Greek plans by selling it himself. Caesar then negotiated an arrangement through which Rome would research Construction and trade it to Greece for Currency plus a bit of gold to make up the difference in values. That deal was completed in 350 BC, making Greece and Rome the first two nations to reach the medieval era. According to the Praetorian Intelligence Agency, it appeared that Greece had received Engineering as its free medieval technology.

The Roman Empire continued to expand with the founding of Syracuse in 690 BC, Caesaraugusta in 550 BC, Palmyra in 470 BC, and Jerusaolem in 410 BC. The Celts were growing more quickly than Rome in land area thanks to their cheap temples and more widely spaced cities, but the Romans were far ahead in number of cities.

In 370 BC, the Romans received reports that Greece had finally entered a period of anarchy. Greece was far behind Rome in population, but the number of libraries it had apparently built (probably including some rush builds taking advantage of Greece's longer period in Despotism) was downright frightening.

[nbarclay]

In the e-mails we exchanged along with our turns, I asked Theseus why he waited so long to change governments and he told me that he'd had to wait for a despotic GA to end. I asked if that meant he'd been attacked by one of the AIs, and he told me he'd been attacked by Persia. That helps explain how Greece was able to run a military that's strong relative to mine, build a bunch of cultural improvements, and stay probably somewhat close in civilization size in spite of having a much smaller population.

I passed Persia in score in 310 BC.

[Arrian]

And your GA is yet to come.

Have you built your FP yet?

-Arrian

[nbarclay]

Haven't even started it unless I'd switch Viroconium to it. (Actually, I'm more likely to switch that to Statue of Zeus if I switch it to something, but part of me thinks I need to build a barracks there and crank out some military units. All I have right now - as of 310 BC - is a bunch of warriors and a handful of legionaries upgraded from warriors.)

[nbarclay]

For several millennia, Caesar had two long-range plans. One was to build a city on the hill 4-4 from Rome. The other was to move the capital to a location toward the middle of the continent, which would require disbanding and rebuilding Rome.

As territory available to expand into started to become scarce, the Roman Emperor finally started putting those plans into action. Caesarea was founded in 330 BC, taking over the cattle tile to speed its growth, while Rome started building down in size.

In 290 BC, Caesar upgraded a fifth warrior unit to a legionary, bringing his military up to average compared with the Greeks for the first time. On seeing that Greece was not particularly better prepared than Rome for active hostilities, Caesar proposed an extension of the two nations' diplomatic truce. The Greek leader agreed to extend the truce until 10 BC.

The Roman Empire built another city, Tarentum, in 250 BC. Caesar also ordered the completion of the courthouse in Brundisium expedited at a cost of about sixty gold in order to speed up the project of surrounding the Carthaginian city of Leptis Minor with Roman culture. Viroconium completed work on a courthouse and started building the Statue of Zeus, with the Great Wall and a Forbidden Palace as possible fallback positions. Additional courthouse rushes were planned for Syracuse and Byzantium once preliminary chops were completed and enough gold was available.

Also in 250 BC, the Romans got word that Greece had emerged from anarchy and a monarch had taken control of the reins of government. Caesar ordered the Praetorian Intelligence Agency to conduct an analysis of Greece's economic strength, as best it could be determined from available information, but the report would take a while to complete.