Lone City State Campaign

[YAKOBU]

Hi everyone

I have seen it mentioned on here and other forums of whether it is possible to complete the campaign with just 1 settlement. I intend on seeing whether that is possible this weekend and would like to hear your ideas on tactics and possible faction.

I am thinking of possibly the Greek City States and using Sparta as my only settlement. I plan on having 2 armies to complete this objective, 1 to garrison and 1 to pillage. Without pillaging I think it would be impossible. Any settlement pillaged must be vacated on the same turn and left to rebel.

I will try and do a summarised write-up in this thread for every 10 years (10 turns).

Would anyone like to guess what year I will last until and we can see who hits the mark.

[Akka]

Hu, well...

Considering that to finish the game, you have to conquer 50 provinces, so no, I don't think it's possible to win with one province.
As 1 < 50.

Except if there is another ending-game condition that I've missed.

[YAKOBU]

Hi there Akka

I was under the impression that the game also ended around 14AD or some such date if 50 provinces were not taken. Can anyone confirm?



P.S. Hands off my avatar

[Magraev]

There may be a way if every other civ is destroyed? Else just surviving till the end will be a huge achievement.

Might I suggest using the city on Sicily (can't remember the name) instead. They have a better pop growth-rate, and you have to deal with the romans quickly anyway.

[SMZ]

you could still win by forcing protectorates - their settlements count towards your total...

<thinking about trying this too now - lol

[YAKOBU]

Hi Magraev

I think it would be best if I didn't choose an island as I think it may make it more difficult for the AI. If I pillaged both the settlements on Sicily and they turned rebel then I may have a quiet time of it.

[womble]

Hi there Akka

I was under the impression that the game also ended around 14AD or some such date if 50 provinces were not taken. Can anyone confirm?

Call me a wuss, but I can't conceive of the tedium of playing through so many years, even with one settlement.

[Hold Steady]

There may be a way if every other civ is destroyed? Else just surviving till the end will be a huge achievement.

Might I suggest using the city on Sicily (can't remember the name) instead. They have a better pop growth-rate, and you have to deal with the romans quickly anyway.

Syracuse?

[YAKOBU]

Womble

I have played a few campaigns to completion and know how long a normal campaign would take me, BI would probably be released by then. By trying a lone city state I still get to play a campaign but with a lot less battles and management. Also I am very curious about whether it can be done.

[Divinus Arma]

Sounds interesting. Keep us posted.

[The Stranger]

i did that like a hundred times,,,when youre smart do short campaign you only have to destroy countries then...its possible i did it as the greeks and the romans. i tried as the seleucids but failed horibbly i didnt got trough the "get only one city" fase

it pleases me that there are people that are still trying my campaign strategy..

i got a few tactics...

1 dont wage more than one war at a time
2 avoid fighting the romans as long as possible or immediatly destroy them
3 concentrate on economy rather than military in the first stage
4 dont buy expensive units and dont buy cavalry either use your members
5 dont get to much mebers when the exeed a number (i used four) send the bad/old once to a suicide mission
6 ports, farms and trade are your blood keep them running
7 choose the starting city carefully...choose a wealthy city that cant be reached easily (athens is good cuz there is only a small strooke of land in wich the enemy can pass. set up a chokepoint or fort....cities like that are very handy)
8 since you arent rich use you diplomatical resource every turn to get money
9 since you arent rich upgrading cities will come slowly for a long time youre relied upon militias, use ambushes and bridges to full advantage

thats about it, good luck

[Akka]

you could still win by forcing protectorates - their settlements count towards your total...

<thinking about trying this too now - lol

Didn't think about it. Could work, yes.

The only big problem would be to force a faction that is several sizes bigger than you to become your protectorate...

Hi there Akka

I was under the impression that the game also ended around 14AD or some such date if 50 provinces were not taken. Can anyone confirm?



P.S. Hands off my avatar

Ouch... Well, if you've the patience to go through the hundred turns... Then yes, it could be possible.

Oh, and I was here one year and a half before, so YOU're the one stealing my avatar :p

(and you don't need to greet everyone, you know ^^)

[Akka]

Hu ? 0_o

Seems that my previous post is bugged...
When I edit it, it has all the stuff, but only one line appears...
Weird...

[rs2k2]

you could also play as scythians and go on mass looting sprees with full stacks of HA and then sell the destroyed city for more cash...

[pezhetairoi]

...Carthage. Or Lemonum, if you're feeling suicidal and wish to win the war with stacks upon stacks of skirmisher warbands.

[YAKOBU]

Hello again

I'm currently thinking of either The Greek Cities or Germania. The Greek Cities have great defensive siege units with their phalanx but lack good missile troops without mercenaries. They also lack good troops for pillaging but have many built up settlements ripe for plunder close by. Germania also has a good cheap siege unit in the spear warband and also benefit from very good archers. They also have good troops for pillaging in their axeman and night raiders along with strong cavalry. Lands around them are not as rich for plunder and they are open to more potential enemies.

I am a little unsure how to start. Should I start by picking a rich faction to attack straight away to build up my cash or lie low until someone attacks me first? I can freely attack rebel settlements in the first few turns. I think I will have to disband many of the starting troops until my economy in the lone settlement builds up.

Any advice gratefully received

P.S. 2 posts to 500. That used to be a milestone but not sure if it benefits me any longer. Got used to my avatar now so probably wouldn't change it.

[Magraev]

Yep - the city on sicily was Syracuse. With one city you can't use spartans anyway (way too expensive), so you're free to choose any city you want. Sparta grows too slowly to be of use imho.

Germania seems like a tougher choice, but their elite units are very nice. Maybe a roman campaign is possible? You'd have to lose a city and generally ignore the senate, but you'll be so puny they should accept it if you just blockade a port once in a while?

Let us know how you do!

[Rodion Romanovich]

The best tactic if you want it to be easy is to allow yourself to get protectorates. If you don't, it'll be a lot more challenging. If you do allow protectorates, you can get enormous income and move around with two full stacks, which makes things quite easy. I used Sparta as city when I played city state, and despite it's slow growth it worked well. I also had a rule about holding conquered settlements for a maximum of 2 turns before having to abandon them. Getting Carthage as a protectorate made things quite easy. Eventually I got tired of not expanding when I had the chance, so I expanded my influence so I also held Corinth, and the Zeus statue wonder, which increases happiness in all provinces. My next plan was to choose some random cities far away from my homelands to have as colonies - one in Britannia, perhaps another in Chersonessus and yet another one in Cyrenaica and one on Crete. But I haven't played on that campaign in a long time, so I haven't been able to try that out.

[The Stranger]

yup protectorates are handy....
i used all the hints i gave....it really helped. dont use a landlocked city...ports are very important

[YAKOBU]

Hi everyone

I had a look at Germania's layout last night and their capital is very defensable but unfortunately not on the coast. They have one settlement that is coastal but this is very small and very open to attack. I will have to think about this as I had pretty much decided to play Germania.

[The Stranger]

i think that if you're playing germany you wont get many frontal attacks (atleast not soon) that's good, but their lands are pretty poor...

[lilljonas]

Easiest solution for a german one-city campaign: abandon Germany and cut your way down to Athens and enjoy the goat cheese, sunshine, trade income and severely pissed off neighbours. ;)

[Kekvit Irae]

Easiest solution for a german one-city campaign: abandon Germany and cut your way down to Athens and enjoy the goat cheese, sunshine, trade income and severely pissed off neighbours. ;)

Or Rome and destroy the Senate in one fell swoop

[YAKOBU]

Hello again everyone

I have chosen to go with The Greek Cities. Their starting armies comprise as follows:

5 Generals
1 Spartan Hoplite
3 Hoplites
7 Militia Hoplites
4 Peltasts
1 Archer
1 Cretan Archer
1 Rhodian Slinger
2 Peasants

There is no way I can afford to keep these going in the early stages and I plan to lose a few Generals as well as disbanding a couple of Militia Hoplites, a couple of Peltasts, the peasants and the Spartan Hoplite . I cannot justify upkeep of 460 denaris for the Spartan Hoplites.

Update coming soon.

[YAKOBU]

Hi everyone

I have tried 2 tactics with no joy so far. The first is to pillage as much as possible in the beginning. This has got me to about 20K but the army upkeep and cost of buildings soon uses these funds. The second is to cut all my armies down and just build up slowly. Lack of funds again hits me as rebel ships and other factions blockade my trade. Unfortunately Sparta is not a very lucrative province.

I feel that a Lone City State Campaign may be impossible. Most settlements could not support a defensive army and a raiding army. The raiding army would have to sack settlements very frequently to cover its costs and sometimes the distance to a settlement worth pillaging may be 2 or 3 turns. Once trade is blockaded the campaign becomes impossible. I have looked at 2 other possible settlements to start with which are Carthage and Antioch but I believe although they have good trade goods their natural enemies will soon halt this trade.

What I may try and do is start a campaign with a faction and try and hold my starting provinces only and last to the end by stopping any other faction getting 50 provinces. I think Germania would be good for this as well as a challenge and I would like to try out its troop rosta again as I normally favour Romans. The joy of Germania's troops was brought home to me in a MP game with a friend.

[The Stranger]

no it is hard but not impassible....start with athens and only keep 4 and not more members. use 1 hoplite 3 militias and 1-2 archer(s) as your army...keep macedon as an ally and also keep 2 ships. send your diplomats out to get as much trade rights and to sell maps.

[Hold Steady]

What about Carthage or Alexandria? Carthage have fine units, the good egyptians might be too expensive however..

[The Stranger]

never seen you around but you're here quite awhile *looks at postcount and understands*