Not my first Rhodus

[Gray Fox]

I played Rhodus a lot as a beta tester, so I thought I would give it a test drive on Experienced level. As Rhodus, you start with only one region and a faction manpower shortage of -35%. So I disbanded most of the fleet and built a small land army. I then conquered Creta and Ionia ASAP. This gave me my first province. I also conquered Cephallonia. This is a good island that gave me 5 regions overall. As you may know, 10 regions are needed to gain the highest civilization level. So I just needed 5 more regions, but where? All my neighbors are so large. So I headed off to the Black Sea and conquered Phanageria using a stack of 6 regular infantry and 6 light cavalry. The frontage of the swamps and forests there allow a nation with a small army to achieve success. This province has mostly Hellenic citizens too and one of the best Horse Archers in the game. The Alani raided a lot and gave me some problems, but they lack logistical organization and quickly fell apart. By turn 75 Rhodus is a Glorious Merchant City-State League (and a mouthful to pronounce). I upgraded my army to 8 Phalanx, 8 Phanagerian Horse Archers and 4 regulars (for the siege benefit). The Antigones faction had fragmented so I took Cyprus. This gave me copper mines for the construction of the Colossus of Rhodes. Antigones then vanished, leaving several small factions in Graecia. But not for long. Aegyptus allied with Rhodus and I gobbled up my third province of Graecia. I was finally able to build a stables and added 2 Heavy Cavalry to my stack to secure the flanks. Its turn 94 and Rhodus is 3rd overall in Legacy. Macedonia looks like a good target for further expansion. Rhodus is an excellent challenge if someone would like to try. Good luck!

[Gray Fox]

Prior to issuing a declaration of war, I did the usual recon of Macedonia. I checked each of their regions and sent ships out to find their army and get a look at what I'll be up against. I discovered they were a house of cards. Most of their regions had low loyalty. They still had a very strong army though. However, when I invaded, the very next turn they fell apart. Meanwhile, Rhodus is number one in legacy and the Colossus of Rhodes has been finished. Woohoo!

[TimDee58]

I tend to not bother with game manuals, I tend to just jump right in and get on with it...... however.... I've never seen that screen shot before (the last one), what is it and how do i access it please?

(Currently 3BC Athens with a world spanning empire (well at least in the East) and on 60,000 Legacy against Romes 24000 (they are a very loyal Client, ceding me territories every few turns), and fighting every important battle with FoG2. (legacy figures are approximate). Winning 2 wars simultaneously against powerful enemies both of whom I will beat in 3 turns.... I have 1000 point armies, in smaller tactical groups, on each of 3 fronts / war zones)...

Not bad really considering I still dont understand how decadence works lol...

[Gray Fox]

I've actually never read the manual, either.

The ledger is the Icon to the left of your metal number. Click that and then click "Legacy".

Nice empire. I use the in-game battle mechanic. I fought all my battles in my England campaign on the tactical screen in Medieval Total War 2 and won 179 with no losses. That was enough tactical combat for one life-time.

How about an AAR?

Good luck!

[TimDee58]

I'll do an AAR of my next game in a running update, this current one I'm a little hazy over the early years tbh...

[Gray Fox]

Back on topic, I am allied with Rome. They suffered two civil wars that allowed me to take Sicilia from the Usurpers. The Seleucid are one giant blob covering almost a third of the map. I'm going to build up and prepare for a showdown of west meets east, but hopefully they will collapse.

[Blathergut]

I enjoyed my Rhodus playthrough. Went for Cretan archers and then those snazzy infantry in the middle of Asia Minor (Galatians??).

[Gray Fox]

I had arranged every detail for the war with the Seleucid empire. Their allies were also mine. My fleet would sweep theirs from the Aegean and my armies would crush them in Africa and Euro-Asia. With sea control, I could then marshal my forces against their main empire in Asia without an ability on their part to reciprocate. Rhodus was a glorious Tier III and they were a Tier I with two aging tokens.

After declaring war, only Judea stood by them. I annihilated a huge force of several dozen units north of the Crimea and chased their navy from the map. Then the Seleucid empire vanished as rebels took over their many regions. All that remains is to crush Judea. In about 15 turns, Rhodus will surpass the Seleucid empire's high mark in legacy.

[Gray Fox]

I am back on top.

[Gray Fox]

Here's how I keep control of my empire.

If you cursor over the "Defensiveness" icon in the city menu, it shows how strong the default garrison is. This can be increased by certain structures like walls. I've had regions with no other units defend themselves from most raids. You should of course do this to any enemy region prior to invasion to "Know your Foe".

Light cavalry cost more than skirmishers, but cost 1 manpower less to maintain. So do you want to save up front or for the long haul? Also, I have found that a stack of 8 light Cav. can keep two regions from rioting, by moving them back and forth. They can do this better than skirmishers because they have a larger movement range. The military term for this stack is a "flying column". Also, 1 light cav. in a region can give you eyes on the surrounding enemy regions. If you see a large raiding force building up, then send an army to "Retaliate" and crush them before they can invade and overwhelm the default crew.

[Gray Fox]

I'm over 70k in legacy and way ahead of Rome who is #2. I have 5 armies each of 8 Sarmatian Cataphracts, 16 Improved Heavy Infantry and either 16 Alani or Phanagerian Horse Archers. Rome is huge, but has suffered three civil wars already. I will be ready to snatch up some roman territory should this happen again.

[Gray Fox]

I'm down to the last 30 turns. Rome is in second place far behind Rhodus, so its a fait accompli. I could just coast out. But where's the fun in that?

Rome had acquired the Achaia faction's regions in Graecia and had started to encroach on my realm. They even asked Rhodus to be their client. So I broke my alliance with Rome. I had done the usual info check. Rome was a Tier II Stable Monarchy with 4 aging tokens. They had 20 regions with 1 or more percentage of unrest. I raised a mercenary stack of 8 infantry and 10 cav every turn for 5 turns and was able to continue this. My main armies took Roman Graecia and the mercs layed siege to several other regions. My navy crushed theirs for sea control. I entered a Golden Age as Tier III and Rome fell to Tier I Old Monarchy as the number of regions with unrest rose to 38. Their main army arrived with a 2-1 General...and was annihilated. Italia is under blockade and my forces are on the march through the Balkans. I love this game!

[Gray Fox]

Victory is mine!!

[trex1983]

Thanks for sharing!
What could you say about the end game (from BCE to CE)? Do you find it interesting and that the end-game mechanics keeps you busy, or its the same-old same-old since the start.

[Gray Fox]

I went the extra mile by attacking Rome. They were my ally at the time, but I wanted the end to be challenging. Even without the showdown, you always get rebel incursions, minor wars and growing unrest. However, the last few turns you really don't need to build things that aren't going to be completed.

[Graymane]

I really wish one of you good players would do a youtube video.

P.S. That save game is no longer available.

[Gray Fox]

Yeah, I noticed that yesterday. I'll see if I can find another service or post it again.

Apologies, this is it:

https://we.tl/t-DAOjxWthHA

[Graymane]

Thanks for the file link (this is Captaincrunch from the Steam thread). Do you seriously manually manage all those provinces? I looked through your file save. I don't know if I have the energy for 500 turns!

[Gray Fox]

Yes, Captain, I manage every one of them the whole game. Anything that can be organized, can be done.

[Gray Fox]

Here are some tips I use.

You want structures in a region to be able to feed the population and maintain the infrastructure without the need to additionally employ citizens to these. Slaves can still be used, but that way all the citizens can produce culture. This is because culture in a region grows each turn so that certain milestones are reached. Every culture milestone increases the Legacy the region creates per turn, from 1 up to 5 points. Legacy total determines the winner. Also, regions in a province you control, pool food and infrastructure points, which makes it more efficient to grow smaller regions quickly. I always make it a goal to acquire control of all the provinces for the regions my Faction has.

Once your regions have positive food and infrastructure points, then I prioritize structures that produce money, manpower and metal, not in any order. You need these to produce military units. Region population produces some manpower and most manpower structures also produce health. Events come that allow you to trade one of these that you have in excess for one of the others. So just keep adding any until you get ahead. Unless you get lucky with slave markets, most slaves from battles you win will end up in your capital. Since a large population gets to build a lot of structures, I build my military structures in my capital. You need strong cavalry, melee and ranged units. If you have a province with an exceptional combat unit, then build up the chain of military structures that supports this unit in that provincial capital. For example, in Sarmatia, I build structures to produce and enhance the cataphracts. I've read that up to 3 of each military building in regions in a province contribute half of the bonus to units created in that province, but I cannot confirm this, yet.

Once a region population exceeds 25, unrest becomes a growing problem. Some regions always tend to unrest. You can either stop population growth by limiting food production, or build structures to increase order, or simply station a force of 8 cheap light cavalry in the region. I had a stack of cavalry in a region with 2-3% unrest for 100 turns and no rebellion. If you choose to limit food production, remember that your military units need food when stationed there. Your faction needs at least ten regions to rise to tier III. Additionally, some structures are required before certain military units can be produced. If you cursor over a unit in the build que menu that you cannot yet build, the text describes what you need. I often have to hire mercenary cavalry at the start, until I can produce my own.

If you use the in-game battle mechanic, then you need to pay attention to frontage. Before you attack, click the target region to view its menu. On the top left corner are four icons that you can cursor over to see the region defensiveness and terrain frontage as well as loyalty and decadence. Defensiveness lists how many defenders the region garrison has. Frontage is the number of tiles an army gets to fill in battle there. In addition, a number of flanking tiles were added that only cavalry can use. Rough terrain may have a small frontage of 8 tiles or less and open terrain may stretch out to 16 tiles in the desert. With this in mind, I form an army of 8 of my best infantry, 8 of my best ranged units for support and four heavy cavalry types for flanking. One of these stacks is perfect for rough terrain regions and I can simply combine two for open terrain battles.

Know your foe. Check as much intel on your potential enemy as you can. Switch the ledger to list that faction and review the data. Use light warships to prowl their coast and find out what their army stacks look like. Win the battle first and then fight it. Good luck!

More great tips from Graymane:

To be fair, most of the Youtube let's plays are not that great for learning and are done by people who haven't played the game or don't understand it. That is just a fact. They are still enjoyable and you'll learn some things, but there isn't really a good, all in one guide I've seen out there. You'll see major youtubers not creating provinces or doing a reshuffle when they could have built a really rare building. Makes me want to punch the monitor at times I could be missing it though, so apologies if that is the case.

This game doesn't have a good guide or let's play. You have to get your info from experience. There are also some good players out there who will answer questions here and on the Slitherine site.

For information, Grognerd's guide in the Guide section here is really good. It explains trade goods and buildings for you.

Here are some higher level tips that are more strategic in nature to help you.

1. This game is not like other games in this genre. If you just expand, expand, expand you will at first be successful and then you're empire will most likely fall apart.
2. Learn how aging and government tiers work in the game. Learn how to get to civ level 3. While you are young and stable, the game is easier. Glorious, old, and decadent can lead to issues won't be able to deal with if you don't understand the game. Basically, decadence will kill you as your empire gets older by dropping you down the aging tiers and giving you bad tokens.
3. Fixing loyalty usually means taking on even more decadence.
4. Adding regions means adding decadence and having loyalty problems.
5. Only add regions if you plan on getting provinces (it halves your decadence gain that way).
6. You need at least 10 regions to get all the benefits of the game. So plan on at least maybe 3 provinces total.
7. Grow up in tiers (Try to get to young T3) early before you expand. You will have less loyalty and decadence problems that way.
8. The more pop you add, the more loyalty problems you have. This includes slaves. You need to understand how the slave mechanism works and plan for it using decisions and slave markets.
9. Understand trade. Basically what you want to do is have internal trade. You will make loads of money that way. Put a producing building in one province and a demanding one not far away. I.e., a Salt Mine in one and a Salthouse in another. The salt mine province will make all its money (4) and the Salthouse will only pay 1/2 (2). So you are making 2 per transaction.
10. Until you really understand the game, have more or less balanced regions (eventually you will want to specialize each region inside of province, but that only matters when you understand all the building choices). Try to build 3 of each color building in each region until you know what you are doing. Take full advantage of 0 slot buildings (Clear Water and the like). Make sure you build military structures (the red ones) like walls. This will keep your military knowledge high enough to keep getting good generals. Try to get at least one religious building in each region for decision impacts.
11. Stick with the in-game battle system and learn it. You want a mix of heavy infantry, medium infantry and support troops (cav and skirmishers). I go basically 1-to-1 skirmishers to infantry and have 4 cav or so for the wings. Click on regions before you attack to see the frontage and troops that will defend.