Roman strategy thread

[Modo44]

No, Emperor, you are trying to twist my words again. How not very nice of you.

I was in favor of not signing a peace treaty with Celts, but once it's in place, we can't just undo it. Going right back to war doesn't make much sense. Especially if you consider the lives of the new Roman Citizens, which a renewed war would put into jeopardy. Were it not for those lives then yes, I would try to convince tehe Senate that we should keep attacking the Celts.

[Paddy]

Originally posted by ormuzd
I think we should concentrate on the cripping of Carthage. Once we complete the task we should try to make peace and get rest of the islands or conquer them and make peace.
After this we can turn our attention north and destroy the Celts. So, I think we should not declare war immidiately but wait until we have the power to destroy the Celts.

Well said Senator Ormuzd

We are lucky to have your years of wisdom and experience here in the Senate of Rome

[Aqualung71]

Originally posted by Modo44
No, Emperor, you are trying to twist my words again. How not very nice of you.

Me? Twist? How could you think such a thing?

I was in favor of not signing a peace treaty with Celts, but once it's in place, we can't just undo it. Going right back to war doesn't make much sense. Especially if you consider the lives of the new Roman Citizens, which a renewed war would put into jeopardy. Were it not for those lives then yes, I would try to convince tehe Senate that we should keep attacking the Celts.

It seems then that you are the only member of the Senate who still believes we should not have disengaged our troops from the precarious position in which they were placed during your reign - that being, inside Celtic territory in woefully inadequate numbers. Then again, I am not surprised, since clearly you need to dig your heels in on this issue in order to not lose face.

[Addled Platypus]

I concour with Senator Ormuzd

I think we should concentrate on the cripping of Carthage

[Daddy-O]

Emperor Aqualung:
I disagree with your point about honor. I do believe that the honor of Rome is important. But, I agree that peace with the Celts is important at this time. We should concentrate on the sacking of Carthage. Peace with the heathen of the north gives us this opportunity.

[McMeadows]

It would be very inefficient to move the troops back into Celtic territory after Aquq has taken them out and sent reinforcements to the south.
For the might of Rome, best seems to be sacking Carthage at the moment. Are there enough troops available to put pressure on the Carthagean settlement in Spain?

[Modo44]

Originally posted by McMeadows
Are there enough troops available to put pressure on the Carthagean settlement in Spain?

That depends on how important we consider reinforcing the north-eastern border, which is currently undefended.

[Paddy]

Emperor Conius

will we be reinforcing our new towns in anyway soon ?

[conmcb25]

No need to really there is a nice group of Legionaires around Massila.

If anythign they could be redeployed to take Corsica, if I had some Galleys

Rome doesn't start out with many I think only three, so some extra galleys for Amphib OPs will be nice.

[Modo44]

Four it was, IIRC. But one could have been lost, attacking or defending against some Carthaginians.

Yes, it would be nice to have more Galleys. But then again, it would be even nicer to have Legions to put on Galleys.

[Paddy]

a vicious set of choices that

[joncnunn]

We need many more Legions than Galleys. The following civs are very easy to reach without Galleys:

1. Celts (except British Isle)
2. Gauls
3. Macedonias
4. Portion of Carthages in Spain.

The following places only need 1 Galley : Sardina, Corsica, British Isles

The following places need 2 or 3 Galleys: Sacking Carthage. For capturing North Africa, I propose that we reuse the same 2 - 3 Galleys by having them come back for more Legions.

[Modo44]

I agree. For now it will be enough to build one Galley, in case the Carthaginians get lucky. The Galleys will be exposed when they unload their cargo near Carthago.

[Modo44]

Post - turn comments to Emperor Conius and some ideas on how to proceed. I'm attaching a map of Rome, so we can share ideas easier.


Domestic affairs

I see Citizens moving, and being prepared to move out.

I see Workers scrambled to make Mines near Neapolis. I guess that's what shaved the turn off Hadrian's Wall? A cunning thing to do, Emperor.

I urge the new Emperor to keep in mind more efficient ways of planning Worker actions. Now that the wonders are done, we don't need blitz-improving anymore. We want to first Chop forest and build a Road with one Worker per tile, only then follow with groups to finish the improvements. Please keep that in mind and land improvements will be done in no time.

Consider investigating the following cities, to find out if we have a chance of getting the Great Library:

• Alexandria
• Athens
• Carthago Novo

Roma can build it in 6 turns by forfeiting the training of a Legion, which would be worth it.

Consider building the Forbidden Palace in Neapolis, after it finishes the Legion (see below). Or, prepare to rush it in one of our cities in northern Italy.

Consider building Aqueducts, while we are still in our golden Age, to get them up fast. Ancona and Canusium seem best suited to grow bigger. After the training of Legions is finished, they could start Aqueducts next. Of course, leave other cities without Aqueducts, with Citizen production in mind.

We need more Courthouses, we need the Forbidden Palace, we need a better government form. Corruption is crippling many cities.

There are still spots for cities left in Italy:

• Croton 22
• Croton 69
• Padua 22

Military operations

I see many Legions finishing training soon. I almost feel sorry for Carthage.

I see Legions already on the way to defend our north-eastern possessions.

Consider switching 2-3 cities to Heavy Cavalry, and stationing the units near Padua-Aquilea for fast response 1 turn to get close to anywhere in north Italy, 2 turns to kill any threat). This point has been discussed previously.

Consider using Trajan (currently in Mediolanum) to make an Army of Veteran Legions III. There is action near Massilia, which would allow us to get an army victory, to start the Heroic Epic. This is vital for our conquests. Combined with our Militaristic trait this will make our new units Elites in no time.

Consider sending a Legion to our city in the Celtic teritory - there might be Carthaginians going for it as we speak. A Spearman is probably not enough to deal with a real attack.

If another Army is made, consider sending it south along with Legions and Garrisons, to conquer southern Spain. Go along the road to meet and kill any Carthaginians trying to get to Massilia. This is only possible, if we have enough Legions to leave 2 near Massilia, in case some enemy Swordsmen sneak around our forces.

I see there might be Carthaginians landing on Sicily soon, so make sure those are dead Carthaginians, when they do.

It is possible to land near Carthago without the possibility of being sunk under way, by unloading units on the Cattle tile. Risky? Not with the Army. Consider this, when planning the invasion.

[EDIT:
I almost forgot the most obvious point: upgrade all Legions ASAP
]


Foreign affairs

The Macedonians are Cautious towards us, while the Persians and the Egyptians are polite. And they have lots of Hoplites. Sice we didn't invite them to our war with Carthage, we have to be prepared to repel a very big stack, and to get Persia to war with them at any given moment now. I'm almost certain that they will come and demand something soon (Stupid AI doesn't know any other way...).

The Celts have Iron Working.

We can sell Iron to the Egyptians, once they have something to trade for it.

[conmcb25]

I posted this at the Senate Floor Thread and probably should have posted it here.

I did this BEFORE I read Modo's post which is excellent BTW

Anyway here is the post so we have all the strategy in one spot. We should probably do this instead of posting at the Senate like I did and use the Senate for political banter

Originally posted by conmcb25

Originally posted by thecar
i've look at the save game of CONIUS and i see nothing at looks close to the save of Aqualung71 what happened
it looks like we have lost ground instead of our lead
does anyone know why?

Im not sure what you mean by this.

We didn't lose any ground we gained by building two cities and completing the two wonders that will help our expansion boom.

At this point in time our military unit production is having a hard time keeping up with our citizen production. And thats no ones fault its a common occurance at this point in the game.

And in order to do a knock out blow of carthago we need more galleys. I built one during my reign and several more are in cue. Why do you ask? Because in order to land next to Carthago we need to move across four sea tiles, with three movement ships. I tried leaving the galleys forted outside of Massila and a galley from Carthago came over and damaged one of our only three galleys. I wasn't about to lose an army to a galley battle so if we are going to hit Carthago we are going to need some "sacrificial" galleys in the stack. I saw upwards of 6 to 8 galleys moving in and out of carthago heading north or coming back south from the islands (Sardinia and Corsica). So IMHO if we are going to take out Carthago we are going to need MORE GALLEYS.

We have one more Citizen heading north, and several Garrisons about to be built to protect what we have already built. We NEED to reach some sort of equilibrium in building garrisons as well as Citizens. Then place cities in blocking locations to slow the settlement of the Celts and Goths, and then settle the heck out of the northern Balkans. All while we are pumping out galleys and Legoinaires in the south. We also need to upgrade all the legionaires this turn since we have Republic now.

Big decisions right now for Mc Meadows are:

1. What to do with the Great Leader?

2. How many galleys do we build?

3. Should we still go the carthago first strategy knowing there are AT LEAST 6 to 8 galleys between Carthago and the islands of Corsica and Sardinia?

4. Do we try one more wonder? Or get into military production mode? (Right now our two wonder cities Neapolis and Roma are building galleys and legionaires respectively)

Thats all I can think of right now.

IMHO we need to go Garrison and Citizen production up north, use those southeran Alps cities for unit production and a couple of those cities just to the south of the Alps for Citizens. Rotate back and forth to regain or control population. In the south go for Legionaries and Galleys to finish off what we need to do to cathage.

And consider grabbing the luxuries in Gaul and eastern Balkans that will get us baccanalia. At Diety we may need and probably will need the happiness boost.