AU 601: The Chronicles of Rome under Nbarclius Caesar, Volume II

[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) Obtained knowledge of the entire map, including ocean

AND

2) Discovered Gunpowder.


My other DARs:

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

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

[nbarclay]

Rome completed its Forbidden Palace in AD 380, bringing a small but useful boost to the empire's net productivity. The biggest impact was felt in the most distant cities, where it was needed most. The images below show F11 and F1 information from the turn before the Forbidden Palace was completed and the turn it was completed.

[nbarclay]

In AD 440, Rome became the first nation in the world with knowledge of Astronomy. The Romans traded that knowledge to learn of Physics but, as usual, Persia still had something Rome didn't. This time around, it was Metallurgy. Even so, the Romans were more or less be keeping up in technology. Better, trades to Carthage and the Celts for gold per turn allowed Rome to establish a positive cashflow at 100% research for the first time in the game, creating potential for six-turn research into Physics (although Caesar was torn over how to balance research and unit upgrades).

The behavior of the Greeks was a complete puzzle to the Romans. First there was the alliance between Greece and Persia against Carthage. Then Greece brought Egypt and Germany into the alliance. And before long, Greece and Babylon were at war. (Rome gave the Babylonians Invention at that point to help them out.) The big question in the minds of the Roman people was, were the recent developments part of some diabolical Greek master plan plotting against Rome, or were they at least partly explained by some kind of coincidence?

[nbarclay]

The founding of Hippo Regius turned out not to work quite as well as the Romans had hoped. When the city's borders expanded, four tiles within its potential radius remained in Carthaginian hands, dashing the hopes of Caesar's advisors that the city would be completely immune to changing hands as a result of cultural developments. Still, Roman culture had overtaken that of Carthage, and that would presumably help at least a little.

In AD 470, the Romans decided to sign Right of Passage agreemets with Germany and Carthage. Too many German troops were along the border for telling them to leave or declare war to seem safe any longer, so it seemed prudent to let them move through the Empire in the most expeditious way possible. Word reached Rome in AD 490 that Germany and Carthage had made peace, but a decade later, the Greeks had arranged for them to go back to war.

In AD 500, Rome received news that the Greeks had captured a Babylonian city in response to Babylon's having assaulted Greece (as allowed under the rules Theseus and I adopted; he's allowed to take one more from them). But Rome had a stroke of good fortunate that provided a counterweight against that development: the residents of Leptis Minor finally gave up trying to maintain a bastion of Carthaginian culture inside Roman territory and joined the Empire. That development provided the Romans with a second iron source and a city with relatively high production.

Also in AD 500, Rome found itself rated strong militarily compared with Greece for the first time, perhaps thanks in part to the free regular musket unit that Leptis Minor provided. That gave Caesar a much higher level of confidence that his forces could fend off any combination of diplomatic and military maneuvering that his Greek rivals might try, especially with Leo's available and over a dozen warriors that had not yet been upgraded as a strategic reserve.

In AD 510, Rome completed its research into Physics. No deal for Metallurgy could be arranged, but the Romans did succeed in obtaining Banking and Music Theory from Persia. Between the tech trade with Persia and selling Persia iron for a handful of gold, Rome netted an additional 41 gold per turn.

The decision to sell Persia iron was something of a gamble, aimed at going ahead and getting Persia's golden age over with. Only time could tell whether the gamble would prove to be a wise one or a foolish one.

[nbarclay]

In AD 540, Rome finished closing off Greece's technological trade paths by arranging for all of the world's other nations to have Banking. Greece was missing Printing Press, Astronomy, Banking, Music Theory, and Feudalism and its many descendants.

That same year, Roman observers reported that Germanic forces had captured Oea from Carthage and were closing in on Sabratha. Caesar sent his one reserve settler down toward the border in case an opening might present itself to build a city in between Carthaginian cities captured by other civilizations, and ordered his city with the highest food production to build a granary in preparation for building additional settlers. With both the Germanic Tribes and Persia closing on Carthage, it was starting to look like there was a good chance that a significant amount of Carthaginian territory would soon fall into other hands.

[nbarclay]

Future Plans

As anyone who has watched me since Civ 3 came out knows, one of my favorite tactics against AIs has traditionally been to build a lot of horsemen, upgrade to cavalry, and charge. In this game, I've been deliberately avoiding trading for Chivalry in order to keep that option open against Theseus, and at this point, I've decided to take that route if nothing gets in my way. The only catch is, so far, I only have three horsemen, so I'll have to build massive numbers of them before I can launch the operation. Still, with Theseus not even having Feudalism yet, I should have plenty of time before he can accumulate a significant supply of musketmen if I don't have my hand forced by being attacked by forces I need knights or cavalry to fight off.

So my basic goals if nothing disrupts my plans or causes me to change my mind are:

1) Build gobs of horsemen.

2) Research to Steam Power so I can build railroads, and then suspend research and focus on building up wealth for upgrades.

3) If an AI doesn't beat me to it, build Smith's Trading Company with a prebuild I've had going for a while in Viroconium. (The completion time is about twenty turns.) Since I already have a Militaristic wonder (Leo's), that will trigger my GA without getting me into a war.

4) Wait until I have at least seventy horsemen available and enough funds to upgrade them by the time the war is scheduled to start, and then get Military Tradition. The idea is to hit Theseus with at least fifty cavalry while keeping twenty in reserve for homeland defense. (I won't necessarily insist on having all the future homeland defense cavalry upgraded before the attack begins.)

5) Enlist allies and hit Theseus as hard as I can as quickly as I can. (Note that Theseus and I have an agreement through which we can only add one civ at a time to alliances against each other when our current peace ends, so we'll probably initially end up with some AIs on each side).

[nbarclay]

In AD 570, two important things happened. First, Rome was able to research Magnetism, trade it to Persia for Navigation and a little gold and gpt, and then trade Physics and Navigation to Egypt for Metallurgy. For the first time since the medieval era started, no other nation had a technology that Rome wanted but did not have. Granted, Rome was still missing Chivalry, but the Romans could trade for that any time they needed or wanted to.

And second, Rome gained maps of the entire land mass, learning for the first time what the Greek homeland was like. The Greeks actually had almost as many cities as the Romans did, but only four of them were larger than size 6. Mostly, Greece was a nation of small towns packed closely together, which helped explain why Rome continued to have more than one and a half times Greece's population.

Unfortunately, in the meantime, Greece learned the secrets of Banking. That meant that depending on who researched what, the Greeks might get a chance to suddenly catch up a lot in technology after all. Rome would research Magnetism next, but Caesar was seriously considering going back to pick up Economics before going on to Steam Power if none of the world's other nations got Economics first.

[nbarclay]

Rome entered the industrial era in AD 620. Caesar really wanted to go ahead and research Steam Power, but with Greece having obtained Banking a while earlier, it seemed prudent to go ahead and research Economics in case Greece might try to get it first and leverage it for tech trades.

[I'm absolutely amazed at how quickly the tech pace has gone. With gpt from AIs, a couple imported luxuries, and military police letting me keep up a 100% research rate, I've been able to research the top half of the tree fairly quickly, while Persia has moved quickly along the bottom half and to pick up some optional techs. And remember, I still haven't triggered my GA yet.]

[nbarclay]

Theseus's strange alliance against Carthage continued, with Persia capturing Leptis Magna. A band of Roman settlers had been waiting for that event and immediately built the city of Nicopolis. With a rushed temple, Rome was able to seize control of the two ivory supplies previously controlled by Leptis Magna. The new city also increased the cultural squeeze on Sabratha, which Germany had captured previously.

In AD 660, Rome got reports that Celtic troops had captured Theveste, Carthage's easternmost city. Both Celtic and German troops had been prepared to assult the city, and in fact the city had been showing a Numidian Mercenary with only two hit points left, so the only real question had been whether the city would end up in Celtic or German hands.

With Carthage probably about to fall (and its sources of culture reduced even if it somehow survived), the Romans decided to take steps to seize control of Carthage's gem supply. A Right of Passage agreement was scheduled to expire soon, so Rome positioned a settler escorted by two legions adjacent to the gem mountains southeast of Carthage. Building a city there would be an act of war, but with Theseus having the entire world lined up against carthage, it seemed doubtful that Carthage could do much to express its annoyance.

[nbarclay]

The next turn, Persia captured Hippo from Carthage. Rome canceled its Right of Passage agreement with Carthage and founded the city of Londinium in what Carthage regarded as an act of war. That move cut off Rome's gem supply until a harbor could be rushed (one turn, short rushing a worker). But with a Persian spearman approaching the gem mountains, the gem supply might not have lasted much longer in any case. The war also cut off close to thirty gold per turn from deals that would have expired at varying times ranging from four to nine turns.

In other news, Rome was able to trade Economics to the Celts for Democracy and sell Economics to Persia for just over sixty gpt and a little gold up front.

[nbarclay]

I'm not sure how Theseus did it, but when I joined the war against Carthage, Theseus suddenly got all the way through Gunpwder on the bottom of the tech tree and got Astronomy and Economics on the top. Whatever he did, it involved terminating his alliances and making peace with Carthage, so I'm hoping he threw away his reputation in whatever it is he did. He also went to war with Babylon or they went to war with him; I'm not sure which.

[vmxa1]

One thing that for me would help is if the color disc was used. Sometimes it is hard to tell what civ a given unit belongs to without it.

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by vmxa1
One thing that for me would help is if the color disc was used. Sometimes it is hard to tell what civ a given unit belongs to without it.

I'll try to keep that in mind for any future screenshots where there might be doubt.

[nbarclay]

A possible answer to the riddle of Greece's sudden jump in technology came in AD 700 when the Celts made peace with Carthage - and suddenly had 133 gpt to trade. According to Caesar's analysts, it was beginning to appear as if the Greeks had arranged for a deal to pay Carthage a huge amount of gold per turn for some of its technologies in the hope that (1) Carthage would not live long enough to collect most of the gold and (2) since Rome was at war with Carthage, Rome would not be able to get the gold from them.

However, if that was the Greek leader's plan, it quickly started to unravel. Rome was able to get a considerable amount of gold per turn through the Celts, and with the Celts having made peace with Carthage and then Persia making peace the following turn, it was starting to look as if Carthage might not be destroyed in the near future after all.

[nbarclay]

The year everything changed.