(A bit early, but sooooo invited us to start posting our Adv50 reports and I will be busy tomorrow.)
For Adventure 50 sooooo challenged us to lead Brennus' Celts to sack Rome, which got some extra buildings to boost the Roman's start. Nothing else was required -- no need for sustainable research, long-term victory, or even survival. Just burn the Eternal City to ashes as quickly as possible.
I generally play pretty far towards the builder end of the spectrum, and am not very good with the early rush. So this should be an interesting challenge.
I assumed that we would start far enough from Rome to have no realistic chance to attack them pre-IW, so we would have to deal with praetorians. Many, many axes would be needed. My pre-game plan was to emphasize exploration early, both for good expansion sites and to find Rome as quickly as possible. Once the target was found, I would decide how much tech I would need: sooooo's screenshot of the start had ivory so teching through Construction for jumbos and catapults seemed likely unless we are much closer to Rome than I expect. But other than a couple quick cities, all effort would go towards building the assault force -- bet everything on one attack, rather than drawn-out warfare.
OK, time to open the save and see if I can actually execute on the plan...rushing (early or otherwise) is not my forte.
I sent the scout west for the visible hut, and got a map of land further west. Meh.
But this did reveal two more huts, so I continued westward. Both would provide gold, not useless but I hoped for better. The hut east of the start would later give a map of the ocean, completely useless. I expect many to do far better with huts than I did.
My exploring scout continued westward after grabbing huts, and found Rome's borders and the city of Antium in 2040 BC. Rome was located shortly after, and as expected was far enough away that I would need to tech through Construction.
I did not keep the starting options set by sooooo, switching to Mining first instead. I would follow with Wheel, Agri, and Pottery to get some commerce going on those lovely flood plains. I would need enough economy to get some research done, plus support a sizable army while it marched on Rome. AH came after that, then a push towards Mathematics and Construction. Julius and Capac reached Alphabet a couple turns before I did, but I got decent trade value from Math and Alphabet to clean up a bunch of the early stuff I missed plus IW. HBR was also picked up and stables built to boost both the jumbos and later the horse archers I planned to send after the slower-moving main force.
I settled two additional cities: Vienne to the west to grab both golds plus the wheat, Tolosa eastward for corn and flood plains. I grew Vienne to size 4 and stagated it working the golds, wheat, and one river grass cottage. Tolosa was whipped repeatedly, stacking unhappiness, while Bibracte was grown to size 10 and then stagnated working ivory, FP cottages, and lots of mines.
I probably should have expanded a bit more, as there were a couple other pretty good sites available. But I wanted to start building my assault force, and the extra cities probably would not have paid off in time for the attack. This left a ton of open land, generating a sizable number of barbs (free XP for my forces
if troublesome at times) and setting up Isabella to become very powerful down the road.
The main assault force departed my borders in 125 AD, following a road laid down by an advance force. Combined with using Isabella's roads, this enabled me to travel by road all the way to Julius' borders. I declared in 250 AD and marched my force across Roman territory, sticking to defensive terrain where I could (about half the time). Julius had finished Machinery a short time before (all my EP on Rome allowed me to monitor their tech progress) which was a concern, but Rome did not have HBR and thus no HAs or jumbos of their own. Most of the defending forces were praetorians, with some axes, chariots, and crossbows mixed in. Julius did complete Feudalism a few turns after I declared, and he spent a couple turns in anarchy to switch to Vassalage.
Once I had to move onto open ground near Rome, Julius hit my stack repeatedly with catapults, two or three each turn. But my war elephants were excellent defense, and I lost no units in the main force. My follow up horse archers were not so lucky, and Rome sent a bunch of praetorians, crossbows, and spears after them. I lost half a dozen or so, along with a couple trailing axes and gallic swordsmen, but this kept a lot of Roman forces busy behind my main stack and out of Rome. I think I came out solidly ahead on that trade.
My main force finally reached the tile 1S of Rome in 450 AD. I spent one turn bombarding the city's defenses from 50% to 34% while my catapult-pounded stack healed up with my medic spear. Should have brought more than 4 catapults.... But I was worried I was too late as it was, and I needed more elephants for stack defense. Oh well. Waiting was not helping my cause much, and a sizable Greek stack had just appeared next to me with Alex having enough on his hands. Fearing Julius bringing him into the war against me (they shared Buddhism), I decided 500 AD was do-or-die time.
Julius had 7 units in Rome: 1 praetorian, 1 crossbow, 1 longbow (upgraded from an archer the turn before I reached the city...not quite fast enough), 2 axes, and 2 catapults. I had 2 war elephants (both wounded down to 2-ish health from catapult strikes), 2 gallic swordsmen, 5 horse archers, 1 spear (my medic), 4 catapults, 2 chariots, and 10 axes. Should be enough...I hope.
I promoted the catapults for more collateral and sent them in...all four died but seriously damaged most of the defenders. The longbow and praetorian only took about 1 point of damage each, though. Hoped for more than that. With the crossbow and shock-promoted praetorian giving horrible odds for my gallics and axes, I sent in my horse archers. Got some damage on the xbow, but 3 HAs in a row died to the praetorian without dealing any damage at all. 
Finally hammered it down with the gallics, then axes started going in...losing to catapults of all things, grrrr.
But the earlier suicide cats had done their job on the minor defenders, and they started dying to my axes one by one. Finally only the longbow was left, and I still had 4 axes and my medic spear. Plus the weak elephants if it came to that. And one chariot, which I sent in for the final kill.
![[Image: T135rometaken0000.jpg]](http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa104/haphazard1/Old%20Games/T135rometaken0000.jpg)
Even with his capital burned, Julius had over twice my score.
Not much chance of long term victory, but fortunately that was not necessary.
Lots of things could have been done better.... I should have built a few more workers and chopped more earlier, getting my assault force on its way sooner. Might have avoided Roman LBs that way, although the crossbows would have been an issue unless I got moving significantly sooner. I probably should have expanded to maybe 5 cities, instead of 3, and whipped much harder for troops from the additional cities. There was a fish site, plus the rice site (which also had iron I think). I feel confident that if there is decent turnout that someone will beat this finish by 1000 years if not more.
I am still not much for the military rush (and this was so slow it really can't be called that anyway). But Rome was burned in 500 AD, so the goal was achieved.
Thanks for the challenge, sooooo! An RB Adventure for Christmas was very much appreciated.
For Adventure 50 sooooo challenged us to lead Brennus' Celts to sack Rome, which got some extra buildings to boost the Roman's start. Nothing else was required -- no need for sustainable research, long-term victory, or even survival. Just burn the Eternal City to ashes as quickly as possible.
I generally play pretty far towards the builder end of the spectrum, and am not very good with the early rush. So this should be an interesting challenge.
I assumed that we would start far enough from Rome to have no realistic chance to attack them pre-IW, so we would have to deal with praetorians. Many, many axes would be needed. My pre-game plan was to emphasize exploration early, both for good expansion sites and to find Rome as quickly as possible. Once the target was found, I would decide how much tech I would need: sooooo's screenshot of the start had ivory so teching through Construction for jumbos and catapults seemed likely unless we are much closer to Rome than I expect. But other than a couple quick cities, all effort would go towards building the assault force -- bet everything on one attack, rather than drawn-out warfare.
OK, time to open the save and see if I can actually execute on the plan...rushing (early or otherwise) is not my forte.
I sent the scout west for the visible hut, and got a map of land further west. Meh.
But this did reveal two more huts, so I continued westward. Both would provide gold, not useless but I hoped for better. The hut east of the start would later give a map of the ocean, completely useless. I expect many to do far better with huts than I did.My exploring scout continued westward after grabbing huts, and found Rome's borders and the city of Antium in 2040 BC. Rome was located shortly after, and as expected was far enough away that I would need to tech through Construction.
I did not keep the starting options set by sooooo, switching to Mining first instead. I would follow with Wheel, Agri, and Pottery to get some commerce going on those lovely flood plains. I would need enough economy to get some research done, plus support a sizable army while it marched on Rome. AH came after that, then a push towards Mathematics and Construction. Julius and Capac reached Alphabet a couple turns before I did, but I got decent trade value from Math and Alphabet to clean up a bunch of the early stuff I missed plus IW. HBR was also picked up and stables built to boost both the jumbos and later the horse archers I planned to send after the slower-moving main force.
I settled two additional cities: Vienne to the west to grab both golds plus the wheat, Tolosa eastward for corn and flood plains. I grew Vienne to size 4 and stagated it working the golds, wheat, and one river grass cottage. Tolosa was whipped repeatedly, stacking unhappiness, while Bibracte was grown to size 10 and then stagnated working ivory, FP cottages, and lots of mines.
I probably should have expanded a bit more, as there were a couple other pretty good sites available. But I wanted to start building my assault force, and the extra cities probably would not have paid off in time for the attack. This left a ton of open land, generating a sizable number of barbs (free XP for my forces
if troublesome at times) and setting up Isabella to become very powerful down the road.The main assault force departed my borders in 125 AD, following a road laid down by an advance force. Combined with using Isabella's roads, this enabled me to travel by road all the way to Julius' borders. I declared in 250 AD and marched my force across Roman territory, sticking to defensive terrain where I could (about half the time). Julius had finished Machinery a short time before (all my EP on Rome allowed me to monitor their tech progress) which was a concern, but Rome did not have HBR and thus no HAs or jumbos of their own. Most of the defending forces were praetorians, with some axes, chariots, and crossbows mixed in. Julius did complete Feudalism a few turns after I declared, and he spent a couple turns in anarchy to switch to Vassalage.
Once I had to move onto open ground near Rome, Julius hit my stack repeatedly with catapults, two or three each turn. But my war elephants were excellent defense, and I lost no units in the main force. My follow up horse archers were not so lucky, and Rome sent a bunch of praetorians, crossbows, and spears after them. I lost half a dozen or so, along with a couple trailing axes and gallic swordsmen, but this kept a lot of Roman forces busy behind my main stack and out of Rome. I think I came out solidly ahead on that trade.
My main force finally reached the tile 1S of Rome in 450 AD. I spent one turn bombarding the city's defenses from 50% to 34% while my catapult-pounded stack healed up with my medic spear. Should have brought more than 4 catapults....
But I was worried I was too late as it was, and I needed more elephants for stack defense. Oh well. Waiting was not helping my cause much, and a sizable Greek stack had just appeared next to me with Alex having enough on his hands. Fearing Julius bringing him into the war against me (they shared Buddhism), I decided 500 AD was do-or-die time.Julius had 7 units in Rome: 1 praetorian, 1 crossbow, 1 longbow (upgraded from an archer the turn before I reached the city...not quite fast enough), 2 axes, and 2 catapults. I had 2 war elephants (both wounded down to 2-ish health from catapult strikes), 2 gallic swordsmen, 5 horse archers, 1 spear (my medic), 4 catapults, 2 chariots, and 10 axes. Should be enough...I hope.
I promoted the catapults for more collateral and sent them in...all four died but seriously damaged most of the defenders. The longbow and praetorian only took about 1 point of damage each, though.
Hoped for more than that. With the crossbow and shock-promoted praetorian giving horrible odds for my gallics and axes, I sent in my horse archers. Got some damage on the xbow, but 3 HAs in a row died to the praetorian without dealing any damage at all. Finally hammered it down with the gallics, then axes started going in...losing to catapults of all things, grrrr. But the earlier suicide cats had done their job on the minor defenders, and they started dying to my axes one by one. Finally only the longbow was left, and I still had 4 axes and my medic spear. Plus the weak elephants if it came to that. And one chariot, which I sent in for the final kill.
Even with his capital burned, Julius had over twice my score.
Not much chance of long term victory, but fortunately that was not necessary.Lots of things could have been done better.... I should have built a few more workers and chopped more earlier, getting my assault force on its way sooner. Might have avoided Roman LBs that way, although the crossbows would have been an issue unless I got moving significantly sooner. I probably should have expanded to maybe 5 cities, instead of 3, and whipped much harder for troops from the additional cities. There was a fish site, plus the rice site (which also had iron I think). I feel confident that if there is decent turnout that someone will beat this finish by 1000 years if not more.
I am still not much for the military rush (and this was so slow it really can't be called that anyway
). But Rome was burned in 500 AD, so the goal was achieved.Thanks for the challenge, sooooo! An RB Adventure for Christmas was very much appreciated.
