AU 601: sabrewolf's DAR

[sabrewolf]

1830bc:

another good year: i popped iron working from a hut (see screenie)! too bad i've got a tech lead anyway, otherwise i'd frely trade this around. andydog researched it first (quite a long time ago): i know this, because he offered it to me when our warriors met. for a long time he hadn't traded it around. last i checked was about 2 turns ago. now the germaniacs have it too

my curragh has spotted egyptian borders (contact next turn)

i built 2 embassies: with persia and carthago this will come in handy if i need either of them to fight each other. carthage it self is building a settler, persepolis is about a tenth way to the pyramids. imho this is a killer for them because building a wonder so early on (only 3 other cities) is'nt that bright.

worker pump city is in place to get found next turn. after that my priorities are to grab the second iron, set a border to carthage, grab some river lands and later productive centres.

[sabrewolf]

1750bc

so, now my 2 spearmen and 1 archer are finished and will be heading cathage-wards. when i opened the embassy, i saw their capitalbuilding a settler, so with a bit of luck i can catch that one before he founds a city

a warrior of mine has attacked another barb hut and got promoted to elite... without a scratch! i'm getting to like militaristic

[sabrewolf]

1650bc

2 spearmen, 1 archer and an elite warrior are now about 5 tiles away from the carthagian border. ready for some serious pillaging and settler bopping.

i intend getting the persians to fight carthage to, so i'll have more space towards east.

spices have been hooked up, so my lux slider is down to 0 for the moment (only 1 extra gold)

[sabrewolf]

1625bc

oh no... carthagian settler/spearman pair right near my territory. i've got a unit nearby, but as their guys are on the mountain, they are too risky to attack... but it doesn't matter, as they can't found a city up there. blocking the way so they either have to go on another mountain tile or backtrack... that gives me at least 1 extra turn

surprising fact: carthage hasn't met a single civ except mine! despite being born right beside the perians (who btw only know the 2 human players). i meanwhile have met the last civ: babylon. none have a tech to trade, but persia just got writing...

[Mountain Sage]

Originally posted by sabrewolf
good to know that somebody is reading this

Hey!
Not being able to play does not mean that I don't follow your...adventures.

[sabrewolf]

i guess it's mutual: i read your sid-games-DAR
but... the difference is that i'm playing monarch level, not sid

why can't you play PBEMs?

[sabrewolf]

1600BC - the end of the 2400 year peace

the world has lived in peace for the last 2400 years. only a few barbarians have kept the leaders of the world from not building more troops!

in the year 1600bc the probably greatest war of all times has started!

it all began with the carthagians provoking the uprising roman empire by sending their settlers too near for caesar's taste. the code of honour of the roman people, NEVER to attack cities which havn't been founded by their own settlers, caesar ordered a bunch of spearmen in the vicinity, to engage and attack the risk to the roman borders:

[sabrewolf]

knowingly taking a big risk of losing a defensive unit in an attack, let the gods help the great spearman to win the battle... but not without cost: the unit was reduced to just a few people and it will take decades until this group of fine men will be ready to take on more carthagian forces

[sabrewolf]

but caesar's risk was worth it: the carthagian settlers were captured and will from now on work as slave labour for the rest of their - and their heir's lives!

[sabrewolf]

the roman gods were proud of their children and decided to help yet more!

mars, the god of war sent apollo, the messenger to hide a scroll of wisdom in an abandonned village between the roman and the germanic empire.
that very year, the battle-injury-recovered warrior entered that village and delivered the scroll to his master - primus maximus caesar!
roman inventors understood the god's message and started carving saddles from wood and cut leather strips to control and steer the beautiful horses for riding on them!

[sabrewolf]

war against greece

feeling confident that the gods are on his side, caesar declared war against greece. knowing that the greek hoplites are virtually unbeatable for the next several thousand years, the great emperor still thought a war could make sence... even if it just makes the greek expansion slower!

and as this world was created by the titans and was made for the strong to prevail, caesar decided to bring other nations into the battle against alexander of macedonia.

first, he contacted the backward civilisation of the persians. they had the most cities of all nations worldwide, but were behind in technology. so they were easy to bring in to the war: caesar taught the persians how to melt and form iron to swords!

(historical note: the persians will be famous for the most powerful adoption of this art with their vicious and equaly destructive immortals)

[sabrewolf]

knowing that alexander wouldn't leave the rest out of the race, caesar turned to bismarck, the leader of the germanic tribes. they have powerful horsemen which could seriously hurt the roman expansion and being quite near to the roman empire, caesar didn't want to face bismarck on the battlefield.

so he threw in nearly everything he had into this alliance: the art of writing and lots of gold:

[sabrewolf]

caesar also wanted to get the egyptian hordes to join in forces, but as he had laid cleopatra several times already, she was pissed off and didn't want to join in the world war against greece, so caesar turned to hammurabi of the babylonians and asked him for assistance.

babylon also had no idea of the art of writing and were happy to help rome in the battle and gave some gold towards in addition:

[sabrewolf]

the world at war against greece

caesar wasn't prepared to pay anything more for the war against greece. had he not attacked carthage the same year, he could have turned everyone against alexander and cut him off any hope of trading for the next couple of centuries.
but with carthage hating rome, he'd have at least one trading partner.

it any case: rome can only win:
- if persia or the germanics buys carthage and/or egypt into fighting the world war against greece, alexander will be completely lost
- if greece (playing his turn right after me) gets egypt in against me, rome will profit from the war happiness boost.

the only disadvantage of the whole war: greece's people are supporting alexander in any decision he does. having 4 civilizations declare war against their people, the hellians have moved together and think less about being unhappy!

here's what the world looked like 1600bc from alexander's point of view with only 3 civs (of which 2 he hasn't met yet) of the world against him:

[sabrewolf]

internal affairs

after all this talk about wars, alliances and tech trades, let's not forget that an empire is mainly built from the core.

rome has been acting as a 7-turn-settler/spearman pump. switching between forests, hills and grassland, micromanaging mainly for food, then commerce, rome has a slow, but steady pace.

the cycle looks as following:
0) start with rome at size 5, granary food only
1) +3 food, +7 shields
2) +3 food, +7 shields
3) +4 food, +6 shields --> spearman completes, rome grows to size 6
4) +3 food, +8 shields
5) +3 food, +8 shields
6) +3 food, +8 shields
7) +3 food, +8 shields --> settler completes, rome "grows" back to size 5

as soon as the hills are mined and the forrest is roaded, i will consider shifting in barracks (40s) at the cost of growth and a spearman. maybe i'll chop down the last forest to help the cause... (2 first forest tiles were used for the early granary)

other cities are a lot slower. veii has no food bonus, antium doesn't even have a single 2-food-tile (what was i thinking???) and cumae has just produced a worker for irrigating the floodplains and then roading the iron for legionaries (going to be used as pillaging monsters as soon as i'm out of despotism)