AU 601: Chronicles of Rome under Nbarclius Caesar, Vol. III

[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 discovered both Refining and Replaceable Parts.

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 II

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


Theseus's DARs:

Theseus's DAR1

Theseus's DAR2

[nbarclay]

When Rome discovered Steam Power in AD 730, Caesar learned that he had two sources of coal within his borders. There was even a potential Iron Works site, but Rome's cities were not placed properly to take advantage of it.

On the foreign affairs front, Persia and Babylon ended up not trading techs after all, so for the time being, Babylon would have a monopoly on Nationalism. Rome made peace with Carthage, and by AD 750, Babylon was the only nation still at war with the two-city Carthaginian "empire".

After still more thought about unit mix, Caesar ordered his cities to build a mixture of knights and medieval infantry based on what it was most cost-effective to build. The initial cavalry force used to attack Greece would be more than fifty units strong, but the exact number of units that would be involved remained to be determined. If the Greeks did not figure out what was being planned and enlist Persia in a preemptive alliance, there was reason to hope that Persian cavalry would also be involved in the assault on Greece.

[Arrian]

The initial cavalry force used to attack Greece would be more than fifty units strong

Ah, the proverbial Can of Whoopass. I take it the plan is to hit T before he can manage to field riflemen?

-Arrian

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by Arrian

Ah, the proverbial Can of Whoopass.

Except we're playing under AU Mod rules, so their attack value will only be five instead of six. That's going to cut into their value a bit.

I take it the plan is to hit T before he can manage to field riflemen?

What I intend is that he not live long enough ever to get the chance to build riflemen. He's getting close enough to make me a little uncomfortable - he just got Chemistry - but that still leaves him four techs to go. And my offensive should be ready to strike within ten turns.

[nbarclay]

In AD 770, news reached Rome that Greece was once again at war with Carthage. Caesar's advisors speculated that when the Greeks saw that Rome and Carthage were at peace and that Carthage was unlikely to be destroyed in the near future, the Greeks declared war in order to cut off their flow of payments to Carthage. There was even a chance that the Greeks might have bought Chemistry from Carthage for gold per turn before declaring war, since the timing was a bit suspicious.

But if the speculations was true, it would mean that no one would ever trust Greece to make a purchase for gold per turn again. And since any Greek gold that was reaching Rome from Carthage went through Celtic hands, any financial consequences of the Greek actions would presumably be felt by the Carthaginians and the Celts, not by the Romans.

[nbarclay]

I also got bit by a multiplayer interface bug in AD 770. In SP games, you get notified when you lose a luxury, but in MP games, that notification seems to get lost. So I ended up losing my wine deal with Germany, and by the time I realized I had a problem, they were already trading to someone else. The problem isn't really a killer; mostly, I'm just having to use a scientist in most of my size 12 cities. But it still stings a little.

[vmxa1]

That bug is driving Deepo nuts and makes planning a bear.

[nbarclay]

In AD 790, the Romans learned how to harness Electricity. Caesar had hoped to (1) trade Steam Power plus gold per turn to the Babylonians for Nationalism, (2) sell Babylon Electricity in order to get the gold per turn back, and (3) trade Nationalism and/or Electricity to Persia for Military Tradition. But Hammurabi wanted far over four hundred gold per turn for Nationalism, and it seemed unlikely that he would be willing to give that much back for Electricity. So Rome decided to suspend research spending for a couple decades or so and build up gold for upgrades while waiting for another civilization to discover Nationalism. Also, Caesar ordered an additional eleven horse units upgraded to knights, leaving only five of the older-style mounted units in the Empire.

In the year 800, Hannibal made what might prove to be a disastrous mistake for him. Up until that point, Caesar had been ordering what few Babylonian troops tried to move through Roman territory in an effort to attack Carthage to leave. But Caesar wanted to move some slow-movers to Londinium to replace the knights that made up much of the city’s garrison, and Hannibal refused to agree to a Right of Passage agreement to allow the troops through the narrow band of Carthaginian territory that separated Londinium from the rest of the Empire. With about half a dozen Babylonian longbowmen and two Ancient Cavalry on Rome’s northern border, Caesar decided to sign a Right of Passage agreement with Babylon in the hope that Babylon could capture one of Carthage’s cities and open up the needed land route (as well as reducing the Carthaginian cultural pressure on Londinium).

In the larger picture, the new agreement presented both an opportunity and a danger. The opportunity was that Rome now had the Right of Passage agreements it would need to go through Germanic, Egyptian, and Babylonian territory and attack Greece from the north. The danger was that Greece might recognize that possibility and arrange a preemptive alliance against Rome, starting the war between the two nations before Rome was as ready as it wanted to be.

Also that year, Rome completed the process of upgrading its horsemen to knights. Caesar started contemplating the possibility of going ahead and stationing workers to reconnect Rome’s saltpeter supply and then, if the Babylonians was still the only nation with Nationalism, going ahead and trading Electricity for Military Tradition once the road was built without trying to get Nationalism in the process in order to have the attack on Greece ready a little sooner. But with luck, Nationalism would be more readily available by the time the road was finished.

[nbarclay]

In AD 810, an investigation of the diplomatic situation indicated that Military Tradition had been traded around heavily. The Celts still did not have Steam Power, so Rome traded that to the Celts for Military Tradition. With adequate gold in the bank, Caesar ordered that research into Replaceable Parts be restarted at the fastest pace possible, with an estimated completion time of sixty years.

A decade later, workers hooked up Rome's saltpeter supply and fifty-three of the nation's fifty-six knights were upgraded to cavalry, the only three left out being the three that remained part of Londinium's garrison (since that city did not have a barracks). In addition, the nation's seventeen trebuchets were upgraded to cannons. With saltpeter once again available, production priorities shifted from longbowmen and medieval infantry to musketmen.

In AD 830, fifty-four Roman cavalry units (including one newly built one) departed for Greece, planning to march around the northern perimeter. If the timing could be arranged properly, Roman cavalry would attack from the north and, at the same time, an alliance with Persia would produce a southern threat. Caesar could only hope that the Greek leader would not anticipate the threat and preempt it by declaring war and forming alliances against Rome while Rome's largest force was en route. On the other hand, even without its cavalry, Rome probably had one of the largest and most powerful militaries in the world.

[nbarclay]

From the Praetorian Intelligence Agency:

Greetings, mighty Caesar. As war with Greece approaches, the Praetorian Intelligence Agency has once again conducted an analysis of how the Roman economy compares with the economies of the world’s other nations. Keep in mind that we are in the midst of our golden age, and are therefore producing far more than we would under other circumstances. Also keep in mind that the figures for Rome are estimated because exact information regarding current labor assignments was not available when this report was compiled. Data for Carthage has been omitted as uninteresting, since they have only two cities.


GNP:

Rome: 957 Million (est.)
Second: 548 million
Third: 390 million
Fourth: 370 million
Fifth: 357 million
Sixth: 328 million
Seventh: 215 million


Mfg. Goods:

Mfg. Goods:

Rome: 404 megatons (est.)
Second: 183 megatons
Third: 134 megatons
Fourth: 108 megatons
Fifth: 105 megatons
Sixth: 99 megatons
Seventh: 86 megatons


Productivity:

Rome: 1242 (est.)
Second: 688
Third: 471
Fourth: 459
Fifth: 446
Sixth: 415
Seventh: 293

Based on the size of the Greek empire, the skill of its ruler, and the fact that the world’s productivity figures seem most consistent with the same nation’s being in second place in both GNP and Mfg. Goods, our best guess is that Greece is second in all areas. However, we do not claim complete certainty in that analysis.

If, in fact, Greece is second in GNP, that implies that they have almost certainly been engaged in a serious university building program. Our graph of world culture does not provide truly clear confirmation of that hypothesis, but it does suggest a strong likelihood since Greece’s culture share seems to be holding steady while our own rate of gain in culture is slowing dramatically.

I talked to General Hadrian before he left with the cavalry forces, and he was ecstatic at the possibility that Greece might be investing a large part of its production for economic rather than military purposes. But then he got more serious and made it clear that he does not plan to make any assumptions that might get his men killed unnecessarily if he turns out to be wrong. I feel that he has the potential to become a great leader someday, although only time will tell us for certain.

In any case, the Roman Empire is clearly still the greatest civilization in the world and can reasonably be expected to remain so even after our golden age ends. Granted, our culture leaves something to be desired, but that situation can be rectified once Greece is defeated.

Your faithful servant,

Informius Maximus

[nbarclay]

In AD 840, the Romans learned that Persia had acquired Nationalism (probably by trading Steam Power, Military Tradition, and gold per turn to Babylon). Rome responded by selling Electricity to Babylon for Nationalism plus a bit of gold per turn, selling Electricity to Persia, and selling Nationalism to Germany. Some of those deals might very well collapse when the war with Greece started, depending on who allied with whom, but they would at least provide some income in the meantime. (With all the military upgrade expenses Rome was facing once they learned the proper use of Replaceable Parts, Caesar wanted all the gold he could get.) Roman cavalry continued their march toward Greece but were slowed down a bit having to move off the road network to go around Babylonian forces headed for Carthage.

A decade later, as the century reached its midpoint, millennia of uneasy peace between Rome and Greece ended with a Greek declaration of war. Oddly, the Greeks neither attacked nor arranged an alliance against Rome. So the Romans got a happiness boost with no immediate cost of any kind.

Better, the Greek declaration of war played into Rome’s military plans perfectly. Caesar had already decided to arrange for Persia to attack Greece before his own cavalry struck in the hope of maneuvering the Greek forces out of position. However, that plan carried a risk of giving the Greeks a good chance to guess that Roman forces were on their way to attack. With the Greeks having just declared war, Caesar could hope that the Greeks would interpret the attack by Persia as purely a response to Greek maneuvering and not even guess that Roman cavalry were already in eastern Egypt on their way to Greece.

In considering why Greece might have declared war, Caesar’s advisors were able to come up with three possibilities. The first was that Greece might have intended to form an alliance against Rome but found themselves unable to reach a suitable agreement. A second, more intriguing possibility, since Greece had just discovered Metallurgy, was that the Greeks might have been hoping Rome would enlist allies and intended to use Rome’s attack as an excuse to capture territory from those allies. If so, that could play into Rome’s hands by helping to move Greek troops out of position as Roman cavalry got ready to strike. And the third possibility was that Greece was just playing some kind of mind game trying to divert Rome’s attention away from peaceful building. Caesar himself was leaning toward the second possibility as the most likely, with the first and third progressively less likely.

[Remember that under the rules Theseus and I adopted, if one of us enlists an AI in an alliance against the other, the victim of the alliance is allowed to capture up to two cities.]

[nbarclay]

In AD 860, Rome bought Germany into its alliance against Greece with a luxury. Egypt followed in the year 870, agreeing to the alliance plus some gold and gold per turn in exchange for Rome's only saltpeter supply. (After all, Rome discovered Replaceable Parts that year, and with infantry, guerillas, and artillery available to build, saltpeter was no longer regarded as especially important.)

The fifty-four cavalry of Rome's First Strike Force moved into position two tiles away from the Greek cities of Nippur and Phocaea, just out of Greece's line of sight. In the meantime, Rome's three exploring galleons showed up off Greece's western coast in order to give the Greek generals an additional something to think about. Caesar and his advisors guessed that the Greek leaders would probably figure out that the move was a feint, but the possibility of an amphibious landing would be difficult to ignore entirely. The biggest danger was that the feint might cause the Greek generals to prepare more thoroughly for a real attack elsewhere than they would otherwise, and that they would focus at least part of their preparations in the correct direction.

[vmxa1]

Nathan you have done a masterful job in all facets. I can't root for either of you guys and can't help a bit of sympathy for T.

Well done, so far.

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Nathan you have done a masterful job in all facets. I can't root for either of you guys and can't help a bit of sympathy for T.

Well done, so far.

Thanks. I sympathize a bit myself, especially in regard to how his early war with Persia disrupted his REX and forced him to use his GA under sub-optimal conditions.

[nbarclay]

News From the Front:

Greetings, Mighty Caesar,

Your valiant cavalry forces have succeeded in capturing the Greek cities of Phocaea, Artemisium, Pergamon, and Mycenae, killing numerous Greek units and capturing seven bands of Greek workers and two of previously enslaved Babylonians in the process. As per your orders, we abandoned Phocaea after our forces finished marching through and bypassed Nippur, leaving it for our new Babylonian allies or perhaps one of our other allies to capture if they can. We killed the hoplites within what are now our borders, but left three hoplites located adjacent to our new territory alone since they pose no real threat in their current locations.

We took some risk in capturing workers in locations that left our cavalry open to counterattack, but with seven bands of workers in striking distance, the risk seemed worthwhile. Against less intelligent foes, we might have waited for an opportunity to capture the workers inside cities later on, but we had no guarantee that the Greek leader would not disband his workers rather than risk their being captured. That was especially true of the three bands of workers within the borders of Pergamon.

Our three musket units and regular legionary that have been sailing across the Central Sea landed just outside where the Persian city of Hamadan used to be, but the Greeks have just destroyed that city. We are seriously considering an attack on Marathon in the hope of striking at the Greek units that participated in that battle before they can heal, and would appreciate your advice as to whether those units or the Greek capital should be regarded as a higher priority target. With ten of our fifty-four cavalry units dead and a majority of the remainder injured, we will not be able to strike everywhere we would like to at once in the next phase of our offensive.

A detailed report on the battles will follow.

Your faithful servant,

Hadrian
General of the First Strike Force

[Edit: One note about the screenshot: four of the units at Pergamon 3 are workers captured at Pergamon 3-2 and Pergamon 3-3. The three units each at Pergamon 3-2 and Pergamon 3-3 are all cavalry.]