AU 601: sabrewolf's DAR

[sabrewolf]

greek scientists have discovered the secret of gunpowder!

it is a black powder and looks a bit like grinded pepper (but doesn't taste like it!). when lit, it makes a big bang and expands the air around massively. when this pressure is channeled in a gun barrel, small bits of stones and nails can be catapulted over a large distance and kill anything that gets hit by it!

this gun powder requires a seldom material called saltpeter. fortunatly, we have found a source within our empire, not too far from the carthagian borders.

as soon as rome completes leonardo's workshop, we will give all our spearmen and pikemen some of these guns (we call them muskets) to defend. from our enemies!

[Mickeyj]

Great work Sabre!

[sabrewolf]

dp

[sabrewolf]

the siege of herakleia

370ad

the mighty roman army attacked and attacked and attacked herakleia! but the greeks would not give up! after each battle, the generals would ask the greeks if they wanted to surrender and they denyed. after completely killing 3 bands of veteran hoplite units, caesar decided to give alexander some more time for serious thoughts.

with only a few unexperienced hoplites and possibly some even weaker units left, herakleia is going to fall soon anyway!

[Modo44]

So you took the bait. Good for him. Not that it matters, but he bought himself a couple turns this way.

BTW: Hi everyone. I'm new here. Started lurking a month ago.

[sabrewolf]

welcome to apolyton, modo
i'm proud to be the reason for your very first post (hope you're not just a DL )

what bait? herakleia? maybe athens wasn't defended as well as herakleia... but i'm playing it safe(r)

and btw: how would you know what trap he's laid out for me? his last DAR update is 1 week old, so around 150AD...

[Modo44]

The bait (Herakleia) did take some turns to take, right? During those turns Athens was still Greek and could produce. And so were the cities farther away, allowing him to build some more units to fight you. All of them profited from the turns you used for Herakleia. A largely useless city was sacrificed for a couple more turns of safe production.

They will die, of course. But they will die later.

No, I didn't read anything about a trap in his DAR. It just looks like it was one.

[sabrewolf]

ah, i understand.

well, i will be losing at least 5 turns on herakleia:
- pillage 1, move in place
- attack 1
- attack 2, take town
- heal
- move out again

it could possibly be even more if he has more than 6 defence units in it and/or my army is too weak to risk another assault and has to withdraw.

so yes, i am losing some turns.


BUT:
a) meanwhile my other army has taken corinth and may get another one, thereby isolating athens
b) athens surely is better defended, is connected by a road network (thereby having reinforcements come in from behind)
c) athens is "behind" a river, making defence 25% stronger
and
d) every lost city increases his war wariness by 15-16 points!

by me starting the war, he got -30 WW-points. i've already taken 3 cities, each costing him 16 points --> +48
net: +18 (no effect there)
but i killed 1 curragh, 3 units in corinth, 3 units near knossos, 4 from his knossos counterattack (and one failed attack), killed another warrior and captured a settler and 3 workers. and now i killed 3 more units in herakleia.
that's makes 16 attacks, each giving him +2 points. and the 4 non-combat units he lost costs another 4 points.

that's:
-30 + 48 (cities) + 32 (units) + 4 (captures) = +54

i havn't counted the number of turns my units were in his territory and that 1 turns his were in mine...

once i capture herakleia, his WW will be up to +70 points, giving him at least 50% unhappiness...

so delay or not... herakleia isn't a complete waste (and, i can use it later on in the game )

[sabrewolf]

oh my, oh my i've discovered something!

i've just seen that herakleia IS in fact still connected to his road network!

if you look at this

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=3225753#post3225753

take a careful look at the mountain tile... the road leads up north! i didn't look enough and didn't see any road in the banana jungle, so i presumed he hadn't connected the "back door".

with 11HPs left at a defence of nearly 4 (3*(1.1+0.25)), he'll only need about 3 medinfs to put me in grave danger! i can always hope for a withdrawal, but some directions (towards athens) could be lethal.

damn, i hope i he doesn't have these units handy and ready!


speaking of available units: within the next turns he'll be able to buy the AI out of war. persia and egypt should be cheap, as they have lost so many units to his hoplites, and babylon (medinfs walking around) should be affordable too.

at least i can pump up my research, once he gets rid of my alliances

i'm also hoping for a persian war. ideally andy will get them in against me knossos may be tricky to hold, but at least i can try to generate some leaders

[sabrewolf]

380ad

!!! BREAKING NEWS !!!

ROMAN ARMY LIBERATES HERAKLEIA!

after alexander, the greek leader did not surrender the city of herakleia to the roman cavalry, caesar sent them to take it by force. only a few brave men died, but herakleia fell and the locals gifted rome 19 chests of gold for their liberation of the evil greek republic!

[sabrewolf]

edit: solved!

[sabrewolf]

the siege of thessalonica

meanwhile, on the other flank, the fully recovered 2nd army exited corinth (gifting it to our celtic friends for temporary control) and moved to the mountains south-east of thessalonica (orange line).

from there they have several options for the following years:

A) attack thessalonica from the safe mountains (dark blue line)
B) move to the mountain range north of thessalonica and pillage roads on the way (light blue line)
C) attack athens in a surprise attack (part of light blue line)

caesar hasn't yet decided on A or B and will command the troops to do whatever plan he thinks is most appropriate. currently, thessalonica is defended by rookie hoplites, so it may be worth trying to attack thessalonica.

should alexander chose to reinforce thessalonica, option B may be the better option (cutting off thessalonica from further reinforcements and then picking on them year by year or even attacking athens once every turn).

C is currently no serious option, except if B is chosen and while passing, athens should be defended by offensive units only (you never know what is going on in alexander's wierd republican mind)

[sabrewolf]

isolating greek outposts

the legions in the north of greece were ordered to destroy the roads leading to ephesus and argos and thereby cutting of the source of stallions alexander will want for his emissaries.

now only argos can create horseback riders but that city isn't very productive because it's surrounded by desert, coast mountains and floodplains.

unfortunatly, the bablonian infantry were unsuccessful in removing the greek iron source when they were attacked by greek soldiers on the hills. instead, hammurabi is sending a settler and a spearman through dangerous territory to claim some land.... nobody knows why

[sabrewolf]

scores @380ad

here is the score at 380ad.

compare it to the ones 3 turns ago... quite a momentum, uh? (35 for me, 5 for greece)

[sabrewolf]

390ad

although alexander had reinforced thessalonika with another band of hopilites, caesar saw that they were unprepared and not yet fortified. so he ordered the healthy army to engage.

and once again, rome was successful! the liberation of thessalonika came at a cost, as 6 of 19 divisions were severely wounded, but after defeating the unprepared veteran hoplites and the prepared untrained hoplites, thessalonika was finally rome's, giving caesar another 22 chests of gold to use!

this is the 5th greek city to be liberated by the roman army and our northern legionary can already spot very unhappy and greek people!