Is Syrakousai ever NOT wracked with plague?

[Landwalker]

As Carthage, I captured Syracuse right off the bat, laying siege to the city within the first two turns and capturing it perhaps a year and a half later. Since then, however, the city's population has (seemingly) plummeted, owing entirely to the fact that since its capture, the city has been hit by no less than four plagues--and it's only 265 BC. I don't believe the city has managed to go more than three turns without plague yet.

Has anybody had a similar experience with Syracuse, or can anybody comment on this phenomenon? I know it's in a prime area for it, but this is ridiculous.

Cheers.

Edit: I've also noticed that the Eleutheroi are far more aggressive than in any of my other campaigns. They've already captured and briefly held Lepki and Ippone (before I took them back), and now a third army is besieging Adrumento. How strange.

[antisocialmunky]

Sounds like an infected spy or something stupid like that.

[johnhughthom]

Use it to your advantage by recruiting spies in Syracuse and send them through Italy to devastate the Romans.
Personally I have always found the African Eletheroui to be aggressive, are you playing a higher campaign difficulty than usual?

[Leão magno]

Personaly I would like Eleutheroi to be that agressive in my campains but never got that much... To be on topic, I have not exerienced that plague infestation you are surviving... is the construction of healthy infrastructure helping in any way?

[Sakkura]

I haven't had any plagues in my Rome campaign, which is coming up on 240 BC soon. However, both Lilibeo and Messana have had plagues, on widely separated dates (so I doubt it was transferred by an enemy spy).
There's just something about that island...

[pezhetairoi]

I have never gotten plagues in Syrakousai ever as the Romans, primarily because I built health buildings there instead of temples at the start, and I was building aqueducts before I even built the small temple to Minerva. It's Lucarottea and Eburonum that were giving me problems with plague.

[overweightninja]

I had the same problem in Taras playing a KH campaign. The worst thing was it eventually spread to the rest of Italy, and literally everywhere else in my empire that wasn't mainland Greece (even Rhodos was plagued for a turn!).
Everywhere seems to have settled down now but Taras still flares up fairly often, and the plague is still being swapped by spies between Capua and Roma.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Actually that's pretty cool - that's what plagues are supposed to do.

Btw, it's not that odd to see Syrakousai wracked with plagues every now and then - it is a very large city after all, and RTW actually does work a bit according to Malthus' positive checks.

Also Eburonum etc. are part of the Amber route and thus are part of the "disaster hit zone" for plagues in descr_disasters.txt. (As is the case with all settlements on the Persian Royal Road or Silk Route.)

[blank]

As Carthage, I captured Syracuse right off the bat, laying siege to the city within the first two turns and capturing it perhaps a year and a half later. Since then, however, the city's population has (seemingly) plummeted, owing entirely to the fact that since its capture, the city has been hit by no less than four plagues--and it's only 265 BC. I don't believe the city has managed to go more than three turns without plague yet.

Has anybody had a similar experience with Syracuse, or can anybody comment on this phenomenon? I know it's in a prime area for it, but this is ridiculous.

Well the Black Death of medieval Europe came from Africa, with rats. So there's a good chance you brought it to Sicily from Carthaginian homeland. Or there would be the chance if the RTW aengine allowed that, which it doesn't *sigh*. So you should just check if you have a lot of squalor in the city

[iceman7291]

Well the Black Death of medieval Europe came from Africa, with rats.

Actually, you might want to go back and study your history books because the Bubonic Plague (Black Death) came from Asia, starting mainly in Mongolia. It then came through the many trade routes through the mid-east, eventually ending up in European ports.

There were other plagues that came from Africa, like the Plague of Athens that came from Ethiopia, but certainly not the Bubonic Plague.

[Landwalker]

Use it to your advantage by recruiting spies in Syracuse and send them through Italy to devastate the Romans.
Personally I have always found the African Eletheroui to be aggressive, are you playing a higher campaign difficulty than usual?

Nope, same difficulty setting as always (VH/M). They just seem especially acquisitive here in Africa...

is the construction of healthy infrastructure helping in any way?

The healthy infrastructure is built up as high as it can go at the moment (which is the sewer level), but it's been there since I captured it, so it clearly isn't having much positive effect.

Cheers.

Edit: On a different note, even though I own Syracuse, apparently I have to keep a spy in the city in order to be able to see the "quick-info". Compare, for example, Lilibeo to Syracuse (whose name doesn't even appear):


You'll note that the HUD at the bottom of the screen shows Syracuse's garrison, so it isn't like the city is empty...

Cheers.

[Leão magno]

Well that is too much! Syracuse just don't wanto to cooperate with you!! they are resisting and letting illness get inside your city and are even trying to make it dificult for you to know what is happening!!!! Kill them all! devastate the city !!!! :) :) :) :)

Now seriously, I have not yet taken Syracuse in my campaing I shall do this tonight and test it too!

As for now, plagues are not plaguing me anywhere, they exist, they appear but they do not trouble my empire that much and it is stretching from Iberia to Kyrene includins Arse, to Massalia coast line and the southern Italy (Rhegion)

[blank]

Actually, you might want to go back and study your history books because the Bubonic Plague (Black Death) came from Asia, starting mainly in Mongolia. It then came through the many trade routes through the mid-east, eventually ending up in European ports.

no...

To be clear about this nobody knows for sure where exactly the plague originated, but from what i've heard, it originated in Africa (more specifically, first in the Gobi desert area), and then spread into Middle East. If you want sources, you can for example see the work of Dr. E. L. Knox of Boise State University

[Sakkura]

Actually, you might want to go back and study your history books because the Bubonic Plague (Black Death) came from Asia, starting mainly in Mongolia. It then came through the many trade routes through the mid-east, eventually ending up in European ports.

There were other plagues that came from Africa, like the Plague of Athens that came from Ethiopia, but certainly not the Bubonic Plague.

Actually, nobody knows, and there are convincing theories that rats were not even involved in spreading the plague at all.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Nope, same difficulty setting as always (VH/M). They just seem especially acquisitive here in Africa...


The healthy infrastructure is built up as high as it can go at the moment (which is the sewer level), but it's been there since I captured it, so it clearly isn't having much positive effect.

Cheers.

Edit: On a different note, even though I own Syracuse, apparently I have to keep a spy in the city in order to be able to see the "quick-info". Compare, for example, Lilibeo to Syracuse (whose name doesn't even appear):


You'll note that the HUD at the bottom of the screen shows Syracuse's garrison, so it isn't like the city is empty...

Cheers.

Yeah sometimes RTW acts weird like that. Next turn, or even upon save/quit/reload it will be back to normal. You can still access the city details etc. etc. through the lists of agents/settlements/military forces; or through 'scrolling' from settlement to settlement in GUI.

[Landwalker]

Yeah sometimes RTW acts weird like that. Next turn, or even upon save/quit/reload it will be back to normal. You can still access the city details etc. etc. through the lists of agents/settlements/military forces; or through 'scrolling' from settlement to settlement in GUI.

Actually, it's persisted through many turns, and even through a save/quit/reload. Damn Syracusai... they'll get their comeuppance... Probably when they get struck by plague next turn for the fifth time running.

Cheers.

[Long lost Caesar]

i dont have the same plague problem, but on some turns syrakousai doesnt have an army banner or details of the city when i look at it. everything works...its just confusing!
and as for the black death, i had the impression it came first from the east and then to greece, constantinople to be precise. im pretty sure that from there it spread like wildfire, and in history i read a source saying that the english 'drove the milanese from their homes, blaming them for the disease.' how it actually happened we wont know, but we definitely know that PEOPLE helped spread it. immensely.

[TWFanatic]

no...

To be clear about this nobody knows for sure where exactly the plague originated, but from what i've heard, it originated in Africa (more specifically, first in the Gobi desert area), and then spread into Middle East. If you want sources, you can for example see the work of Dr. E. L. Knox of Boise State University

The Gobi Desert is in Asia...

[blank]

The Gobi Desert is in Asia...

Then the articles don't make much sense

[Sakkura]

Then the articles don't make much sense

It makes perfect sense in his online description of the plague:
http://www.boisestate.edu/courses/la...raphy/06.shtml

[Elminster12]

Ankyra is my plague magnet, but, luckily, none have spread beyond Ankyra. Still, it's hurting the city's development badly.