What am I Missing?

[lordhoff]

Re: easy, all options checked except the two involving research, Ordysian Kingdom

I haven't been able to figure this one out although I suspect it has something to do with the supply rules: Seuthopolis keeps crumbling into ruins. Food is short at the beginning, fields cannot be cultivated, and it is generally several turns until trade can be established. Even with trading for stones, it takes some twenty years to rebuild the capital then, after it is repaired, it immediately collapses again. I used "tithes" to get the food up but somehow doubt that destruction worse then from being attacked and overrun is caused by that. I can't avoid this because I haven't learned (yet! ) the details to the supply system. So, I am asking anyone out there who has played this game a lot, what the heck am I doing that causes this? Note: while the city was attacked, there were units in there and generally, the city only takes damage if it is attacked after any garrisons are eliminated. I had no other warnings (other then low food) and there were no rebellions/unrest.

Edit: try 3- something is clearly wrong here. I know have 13 fields all within range of cities. My army is EXACTLY the same size as it was some 100 turns ago: 2 nomads, 1 warrior, 1 worker. My population is up from 49 to 109. I started with three fields. Every turn, LOW FOOD. What is up here? Did someones's ancestor's become slaves in that region and they have a grudge? It just seems totally broke for this kingdom. I give up. One would think that the starting force would be fully supplied but I am running out of room for new fields.

EDIT 2: well, I gave up. Played Macedonia. The ordysian Kingdom had FOUR warrior units in short order with no starving. Go figure!

[Morbio]

I've just started a game with Odryssian Kingdom on medium difficulty with all the standard settings and am now 239 BCE. The big problem that needs solving is food supply and about the 3rd year Seuthopolis took damage because of lack of food. I spent all my efforts establishing trade with Epirus (for food and stones mostly for wood, which I have in abundance), clearing some forest for fields, keeping units to a minimum to reduce demand for food and keeping the cities small. Because of the need to keep units to a minimum I had to play defensively so that I didn't lose any. It took me about 30 years to trade enough stones to repair the city and it's still in good order, I'm now in Federation with Epirus and have started to build warriors. I've just over-committed and will run out of food this turn so I expect the city will take damage again, but the good news is that I now have plenty of other resources so will be able to repair once I get food back to a good state. The bad news is that just about everyone hates me, including the Romans, who I was happily trading with until they established a Federation with Antigonid, which meant war

It's an interesting challenge and it will be interesting to see if I can win this.

[lordhoff]

Thanks. I think I see what I was doing that kept things from getting better - I should not have raised the population support slider to 3/4. Still wonder how the AI is able to build so many warriors so quickly without food shortages. There may be something else I'm still missing. I'll try them again later - I currently have two games going, Sparta and Macedonia.

[Morbio]

I managed to avoid food riots by using Tithe, so am now beginning my expansion. I have most of the original Macedonian land now and have made peace with Athens and Sparta is struggling with Ptolemy's armies. I have just accepted Ardiaie (sp?) to the Federation, so I now have control of small cities from the Bosporous to the Adriatic, plus Sicily (from the federation with Epirus). My trading is delivering about +30 resources per turn (mostly gold, stone and iron), so am in a healthy position apart from the fact I am at war with Rome (a consequence of accepting the Ardiaie federation). I still haven't built any cities of my own... I've didn't have the populace or food to build settlers for a long time and now I need to build warriors to stop Rome's advance. My plan (as always when fighting Rome) is to play defensively until I get some better units than warriors. So I will fortify units in key strategic locations (forests and cities) and let Rome attack. If any enemy units get very weak then I'll attack to destroy them to stop them getting very experienced. If I can spare any other units then I'll start to expand and develop my eastern and northern borders.

[pavelk]

Very interesting discussion. I am following this and good luck to you both!:)

[lordhoff]

I managed to avoid food riots by using Tithe, so am now beginning my expansion. I have most of the original Macedonian land now and have made peace with Athens and Sparta is struggling with Ptolemy's armies. I have just accepted Ardiaie (sp?) to the Federation, so I now have control of small cities from the Bosporous to the Adriatic, plus Sicily (from the federation with Epirus). My trading is delivering about +30 resources per turn (mostly gold, stone and iron), so am in a healthy position apart from the fact I am at war with Rome (a consequence of accepting the Ardiaie federation). I still haven't built any cities of my own... I've didn't have the populace or food to build settlers for a long time and now I need to build warriors to stop Rome's advance. My plan (as always when fighting Rome) is to play defensively until I get some better units than warriors. So I will fortify units in key strategic locations (forests and cities) and let Rome attack. If any enemy units get very weak then I'll attack to destroy them to stop them getting very experienced. If I can spare any other units then I'll start to expand and develop my eastern and northern borders.

Well, the Romans AND Ptolemy rolled all over poor Macedonia so I am again trying the Ordrysians (I think I spelled it correctly this time ). I managed to keep the food supply mostly above 1 for quite the while but then my ally attacked me and killed my only labor unit with just one new field developed. I had to build a second warrior but, alas, they started starving. My population right now is about 12, I lost one city but gained another via influence. I FINALLY convinced some others to sell me food - all I really can offer is a small amount of wood and stones so they refused. I am at peace with all my near neighbors except the Antiganids (mumble, grumble - after I kept their northern border peaceful and helped them defeat Macedon, they attacked me ). They lost several units going after me and they are still at war with the Ardiaie (I'll use your spelling - I can't even pronounce it let alone spell it), Athens, and Epirus so there is still hope.

[Morbio]

Yes, I think it is important to protect all the initial units, especially as they have special powers, that make them cheap to support and don't need supply. Having an ally attack is really unfortunate. I tended to build my initial fields around Seuthopolis, so not too close to any border. I did eventually lose my initial settler as I was creating fields near newly acquired cities in the west when Ardiaie warrors attacked. I didn't have enough warrior units to keep the cities occupied (to stop revolts) and to guard the settler More recently I managed to create my first city on the coast to the east, and a little north, of Seuthopolis. This gave me 3 grass/plains hexes to create more fields and this has helped a lot. If stopped the Roman advance by putting 1 unit the most northerly of my recently federated Ardiaie cities and camping 3 fortified warrior on top too. Now the Romans frequently attack, take damage and withdraw or occasionally lose units when cavalry are used. Every now and then I withdraw a unit, if it starts looking too weak and can't heal in situ, then I replace with a fresh unit. the good news is that my units are starting to win more battles, which makes them better, so they win more battles... it's a virtuous circle Athens has now federated with Ptolomy and so I'm fighting them too, but they are also fighting Sparta, which whilst an enemy can't reach me, so I'm getting some easy resources, I just need to keep building units to occupy the cities!

[Morbio]

Thanks. I think I see what I was doing that kept things from getting better - I should not have raised the population support slider to 3/4. Still wonder how the AI is able to build so many warriors so quickly without food shortages. There may be something else I'm still missing. I'll try them again later - I currently have two games going, Sparta and Macedonia.

BTW I didn't mention it explicitly, but the use of the population support slider increases use of about 4 key resources, one of which is food (I think the others are stones, gold and wood?), so this compounds the food shortage problem. Set this to zero on turn one until you have a stable food supply.

[lordhoff]

Yes, I did that and it has helped. I defeated the Antiganigs but the new Ardiaie/Athens federation declared war on me and stupid me, trying to keep the Roman juggernaut at bay, agreed with their demand to declare war on the German tribes and now I am being pushed back as I can't replace losses very fast without a huge risk of revolution, especially by Macedon. Epirus was defeated and replaced in the Balkans with the before mentioned federation. At least I made peace with the Ptolomies.

I have gone into hiding - sending this from a cave above the swamps - the Romans declared war on me and all is lost.