Numidian Campaign: those pesky Egyptians!!

[weejonnie]

Lepcis Magna. A city on Sicily, or Croton might be more centrally located. If you own all of Greece, Athens makes an excellent capital, though your Spanish conquests won't like that too much

I believe in the "Distance-to-Capital" thread above, there is a link with an interactive map that shows you the penalties to every city on the map based on the city you choose for your capital. After awhile it just becomes intuitive as to where to place it, but it's good to know what the actual numbers are

Thanks for that - also corruption with Numidia is horrendous. (Read the profile about corruption - now going to build law and order buildings and forget about acadamies)

Addenda

Changing Capital really worked - thanks - now 10K a turn instead of 4K = more growth + recruits

Re: corruption.

Although the maximum level of corruption tapers off, it would appear that the algorithm is:

workout out level of corruption based on distance.
Subtract/ add law facilities/ traits.
If result > 60% then result = 60%

Meaning that for towns a long way away, increasing law and order may not actually (at least initially) result in any reduction in corruption.

Re: Pontus

Fortunately the AI is pretty stupid - I was stuck in Jerusalem with a few archers/ legionaries/ desert infantry and missile cavalry and 'sallied forth' - to discover that I had not one, but two stacks of enemy to handle. Including Onagers (why they never used them the turn before I don't know).

The main enemy lined itself up in front of one gate - within reach of archer fire, so after getting rid of the chariots/ onagers and using all my arrows, I basically let the natural city defences kill the enemy. The same happened with the other army - so the final score was something like 1900 troops killed (I had a platoon of archers outside the city by mistake - they routed 3 or 4 groups before being routed themselves.

Basically, until the cavalry sallied forth at the end to wipe out the remnants, my 'sallying forth, consisted of opening the gates by 'attacking' with one unit so the enemy moved (making them more vulnerable to archers), and then closing them again by retreating back to the city.

I now have 7 or 8 small groups of Pontus troops dotted around the Middle East, who don't seem to be doing anything.

Update.

Things are moving on - I now just let Pontus seige Sidon/ Jerusalem knowing I can defeat them. In the meantime I have captured Rhodes (from the Scipii) and am beseiging Helicarnassus (Pontus). Hope to grab at least another city before Pontus can bring their forces back (In which case I will squeeze them in the South by taking Damascus and Antioch). The Greek position is interesting - the Brutii have two (Athens/ Larissa) and the Scipii Corinth (big stack) and Sparta (wide open). this reduces the forces the Brutii can send against Thermon Thrace is the major Greek culture survivor (5 provinces) and has kept the Brutii from the Black Sea. In Africa Memphis is still a pain (large rebel stack), but am about to kick the Scipii from their sole bastion.

Update

Captains Log: Startdate 199BC - going West to East

The alliance with Spain has lasted 60 years. Spain is fighting Brittania. This has been a Godsend as I have not had to worry about Tingi.

Brittania has won the battle of the Barbarians and now occupies all of Britain and Transalpine Gaul (other than the province in the South east which the Julii still occupy on my sufferenace as a 'buffer state') and the town to the North of Patavium.
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The Brutii have expanded in central Europe. Germania and Dacia no longer exist. However their southernmost town is Bylazora! So presume they are really hurting finanically with no access to the mediterranean.

Greece is now entirely Numidian. As Larissa, Athens,Sparta denuded themselves of garrisons in turn, quick surgical strikes removed them. (Appolonia I starved out). Thrace is being bellicose but after Pontus seems quite manageable. With no threats in Southern Greece, I can concentrate on building armies to move northwards.

As may be surmised, the Scipii are now dead. A large garrison in Corinth moved out towards Athens leaving the city relatively undefended. A couple of onagers and that was that.

The forces accross the Mediterranean acted rather strangely - there were about 5 stacks of troops but all they seemed to want to do was to go home - instead of recapturing the town. I very kindly let them board ships - and then sank them. I still have a couple of very large rebel forces left - but my experience is that they don't beseige towns.

Moving accross the Adriatic into Turkey, Three Pontus cities have been taken and basically this has cut down the threat - I now am beseiged by weaker forces numerically.

In Egypt Memphis has now been recaptured - took a couple of blows to do it and I just let the AI sort it out. This obviously has knock-on effect for Jerusalem/ Sidon which are now easier to control.

The faction Egypt is no more - the faction leader seems to have set out with suicide in mind - anyway he arrived alone with his bodyguard chariots and 4 sets of archers dispatched him. Of the last two towns (both rebel now of course) I took one and, despite Pontus besiging the other, it was actually Parthia that took it. First time I have seen any action from that faction. If I do go to war with Parthia then it will defintely be missile-based armies I send.

Current plans - set up armies to face Britannia - probably with desert infantry to combat the warbands. Keep the Brutii/ Thracians at arms length (possibly take Byzantium). Continue to take Pontus coastal towns and Antioch/ Damascus. (Damascus is still a town). If I hold Antioch (will be able to move forces from Sidon/ Jerusalem to buffer it) then Pontus will have lost half its major cities - it has already lost all its Mediterranean trade.

Overall - 7 cities to take. 4 are on my shopping list (Antioch/ Damascus/ Byzantium/ - and the city opposite it.) The fifth will probably be the last Julii holdout - and will starve them provided Britannia don't interfere. The last two will be as circumstances provide.

Thoughts on performance etc

1) with forces that aren't the best in the world, the best way to take cities is naval strikes and use Onagers to prevent battles with reinforcements. I haven't used onagers previously, preferring sapping, since they are slow to move - the extra turn needed for sapping is usually the extra turn (or more) to get an army with onagers to the town.

2) Numidian archers aren't the best in the world either- but they are very cheap, can be recruited virtually anywhere. Numidian Legionaires have been of limited use so far since they take two turns to recruit and aren't as useful against Roman forces as cavalry. They should be useful against Brittannia though. (No phalanxes/ archers).

3) You have to tailor your armies to meet your opponents - against the Romans (no spears) cavalry is marvellous. Against Pontus you need archers and infantry, with only a little cavalry, as they have more missile troops and spears/ phalanxes

4) The inability to construct more than ports certainly held me back - but at least you can build triremes/ quinquiremes in the places that do have shipwrights/ dockyards - don't know if this is by design or a bug in the data sheets.

Captain's log - 183BC

Spain are still allies - although it was galling losing a 10* command Spanish general in a fight with Britannia before my forces (appearing as reinforcements) could get there to support him on the battlefield.

Britannia has lost their sole port on the Mediterranean sea. Otherwise no movements - other than a few stacks being destroyed.

Carthage is no more. Palma (their last holdout) was invaded by both Spain and myself - but I attacked first. Similarly the Julii have gone the way of Nimevah and Tyre.

The Brutii have been kicked out of Bylazora and now are presumably shivering in the wastelands of central/ eastern Europe. (I have seen no post-Marius troops, presumably the conditions were never met).

Thrace is down to three territories (all inland) - well defended.

Pontus (despite Tarsus rebelling back to them) is down to one small town (I have it on my list). Scythia, Armenia and Parthia are small and the distance between the cities slows down any expansion.

Basically I am like Alexander, crying because there are no more places to conquer.

Captain's Log 162BC

Pontus is no more - I destroyed their last town.

Spain broke the Alliance - and are now history (took Corduba from Tingi and poured in from Southern Gaul) - Those Bull Warriors can be nasty - about the only thing to deal with them cheaply is to send several units of cavalry into them so their brown trousers become even browner.

Brittanica is wiped out - I sent a massive fleet round Spain/ France to take out Londinium and without the Channel trade they couldn't finance the war - then it was a case of just fighting 2-stacks V 1 stack. I don't like close battles, I prefer heavy odds in my favour.

Thrace is wiped out - I besieged their remaining Cities and wiped them out with archers when they sallied forth.

Scythia is no more - two territories were wiped out without trouble.

I chased the Brutii out of Germanica and finally took their last town of Themiskyra - that mythical place at the top. (In fact I killed the faction leader in a fight just before reaching it - so it had rebelled - with British Chariots) - it was amusing getting rid of 15 fleets of ex-Brutii ships.

Memphis rebelled (again) but my army of 2400 peasants recaptured it.

If you're paying attention (short quiz next period) you will know that I am down to Parthia and Armenia. Am just playing for fun (autoresolve). Both are down to 3 cities so the game will be over in time for Christmas.

TBH I am not garrisoning cities effectively, leaving too many crack troops in them instead of using them to spread the gospel. I have about 10 stacks of troops pouring into Parthia which, IMHO is overkill (Using Patavium as a staging post as it is a huge city with a foundry) I have one city with a huge temple of hercules (+3 experience) but as it is always close to rebelling I can't really use it.#

Captain's Log 145BC

From sunrise to sunset the world is Numidian. (Stopping recruiting really boosted income - was running at 64K a turn) - Neither Armenia, Nor Parthia offered much resistance - I just autoresolved every battle (lost a couple but I always had a few armies up the sleeve) and waited for the enemy to starve on seiges (which is why it took so long). One city rode out against me, but about 10 troops of archers wiped them off the map (they ran out of arrows).

Next Faction: Pontus - Looks as if I should head West to take the Bosphorus. That should give sufficient income to get started.