Arranging MP Game....Interested ?

[devoncop]

Turn 8

So it seems great forces are stirring.....

The Antigonid steamroller crushes the powerful trading city state of Rhodes in a single strike....

Are the Saba awakening from their desert slumbers... ?

Even indolent Bactria may finally coming off the fence....though will they jump into the arms of the Seleucids or make a leap into the unknown with Maurya and maybe even the Saka....

Now the Judeans have completed the takeover of Syria Province and their borders begin to approach the western extremities of the Seleucid Empire....

............no, I conquered Rhodes in the - other - MP game we're playing. In this one I'm besieging Athens. You're mixing up your alternate universes.

Bah......! (Now corrected !)

So no luck v Athens yet ?

[Geffalrus]

I have a large force of mercenaries laying siege and my fleet blockading the port. But the main part of the army is marching north against Macedon in support of my Epeirote allies. I may or may not try and assault the walls depending on how things proceed.

[devoncop]

I have a large force of mercenaries laying siege and my fleet blockading the port. But the main part of the army is marching north against Macedon in support of my Epeirote allies. I may or may not try and assault the walls depending on how things proceed.

Translation into every language other than that spoken in the court of Antigonus with the spin removed .....................

" the main part of my army is marching north to seize the maximum amount of territory as possible from an overstretched Macedon as possible"

[devoncop]

Tomorrow morning to mark 10 years of the game I shall post a snapshot of world events and try to analyse the roller coaster of fortunes that some nations in particular have experiences already..........

[devoncop]

In place of the usual edition of the "Papyrus Spysheet" I thought maybe a summary of where we are after 10 years of this game would be helpful for some (like me!) who often focus on their own area of the world without following all that goes on elsewhere.

Year 10

It is fair to say there have already been some dramatic developments in what are after all the very opening stages of a long campaign (for most )

First the raw figures:

LEGACY

Rank to date :

1) Antigonids : 111. (Geffalrus)

2) Sparta : 100. (AI)

3) Egypt : 95. (devoncop)

4) Seleucids : 68. (jimwinsor)

5) Carthage : 50. (Al infierno)


Remember at this stage the numbers mean little but are included for interest only.




Army Combat Strength and changes since the start of the game by Nation : (Player controlled nations only)


(These give an idea of who are the rampant warmongers ......... :knuppel2:)

Antigonids : Now 450.....Start 260. (Geffalrus)

Bactria : Now 80.......Start 47. (Gusington)

Britons : Now 30...... Start 40. (LeCrop)

Carthage : Now 200.... Start 76. (Al infierno)

Egypt : Now 170... Start 124. (devoncop)

Epirus : Now 80 ... Start 31. (Massina nz)

Iberii : Now 50 ... Start 38. (SpeedyCM)

Judea : Now 10 .... Start 6. (Yaitz)

Picts : Now 40 ..... Start 23. (Lokki)

Sabaens : Now 20 ..... Start 41. (JasonPratt)

Syracuse : Now 60 ..... Start 47. (Asty)

Rome : Now 175 ... Start 43. (Tripoli)

Seleucids : Now 450 ... Start 233. (Jimwinsor)

Maurya : Now 225 ... Start 94 (Lysymachos)

Dacia : Now 30 ....Start 20. (ReneTS)

Saka. : Now.80 ...Start.58 (Greyhunterlp)


Main Developments

The game has been proceeding at a good pace so thank you to everyone playing and unlike many MP games we have had no drop outs


The situation with the Diadochi nations could not be more varied. AI Macedonia is smashed, broken into two insignificant provinces by a ferocious assault led by an Epirus (Massina_nz) and Antigonid (Geffalrus) Alliance supported by an effective AI controlled Lysimakos with other small Greek city states also piling in.

Among the other Diadochi it has largely been a period of peaceful consolidation although Egypt has established a forward trading and naval base in Crete whist Carthage has concentrated on keeping the unruly north African tribes in order. It can be seen however that Carthage has significantly increased its army strength though for what purpose is uncertain.

The quick agreement to end the initial wars between the Antigonids and Seleucids (jimwinsor) and the Antigonids and the Egyptians has meant only the Antigonids have aggressively expanded with heavy commitments in Greece and Asia Minor. Judea (Yaitz) has moved with the agreement of the Antigonids to take Syria Province but has met a recent reverse at the hands of fierce AI independents as they await the agreed takeover of Jerusalem and Palestine, also from the Antigonid's in ten years time.

Further East though no open warfare has broken out in an ominous sign for the Seleucids the Mauryan's(Lysimachos) and the Saka (Greyhunterlp) are now allied with the Bactrian's (Gusington) at time of this report still to make clear which way they will jump if their overlord is attacked.

To the south a small but truly ferocious most un-neighbourly battle has been taking place between JasonPratt's Sabaens and their sworn enemies the AI controlled Quatabans and latest indications are that Saba is in some serious trouble.

Way to the North East the Picts (Lokki) have been fully engaged in simply trying to establish a functioning economy and remain in their initial starting regions fighting off famine whilst the Britons of LeCrop now occupy a precarious thin strip of regions from central to southern England but like the Saba appear to have not found things completely plain sailing.

Around Italy the huge Roman(Tripoli) army build up has resulted in a formidible conquest of several Regions though as yet the unification of Italy remains incomplete and in an audacious move Syracuse(Asty) has now attempted to grab a slice of the Italian "toe".......this is unlikely to go down well in the Senate


.......the drama now continues...............

[devoncop]

The Papyrus Spysheet


Bringing you all the News..... (that is approved by the
Censor)

Turn 18

This third edition of the Spysheet covers explosive events in the East as The ferocious war between the Seleucid Empire and its enemies the Mauryans to its East and the Saka to the north.

Almost immediately the Peace Treaty beteen maurya and the Seleucids expired the Mauryans, citing terrible injusices being inflicted upon Indian citizens living in the remote and corrupt Satrapies of the Seleucid Empire swept across the border and pushed west but were met by a huge Seleucid Army prepared in anticipation. After initially holding the Seleucid host the Mauryans were pushed back but heavy casualties on both sides were reported.

Simultaneously however the Saka rode their steeds south and descended upon the Seleucid territories on their border but also significantly upon those of the Bactrian Kingdom which as a client state of the Seleucid had been subject to entreaties from the Mauryan and Saka coalition to break from the Seleucids and from the Seleucids to stay loyal. In the event the Bactrian King decided to retire to his Summer Palace with his assorted female “advisors” and camels to think about matters at his leisure. Sadly events overtook this cunning plan and the Saka hordes have swept through the Bactrian lands forcing the King back from his distractions and forced to actually assume the responsibilities of his office.

Meanwhile the Saka action and a determined Mauryan counter attack has split the Seleucid Mauryan conquests off from the rest of their holdings and an emergency levy of Mercenaries at great cost had to be raised by the Seleucids to stabilise matters.

Now however a new actor appears to be pouring fuel on the fire as the Antigonid juggernaught, after much prevarication has elected to join the conflict on the side of his Diadochi colleague. The sight of the two largest Empires now allied has caused shockwaves throughout the known world.

A Land Down Under

Whilst great Empires ebb and flow to the north the bloody fight for survival by the Sabeans far to the south has continued with last ditch defending of the capital combined with a desperate wall building exercise by the humble citizens so far seeing off multiple threats but its military are exhausted and in a last ditch effort envoys were smuggled out of the besieged city to reach out for help. In the early hours of a cold winter night Ptolemy was awoken in his Palace and a decision was made that the Saba and their famous dam must be saved. An Egyptian expeditionary force has been despatched to try and save them. It is a race against time. To assist the rescue mission Arabia joins an Alliance with the Ptolemaics and allows the relief force to resupply only for Judean troops to become involved in fighting with the Arabians many hundreds of miles from agreed Judean area of operations.

This situation is developing.


The Picts Awaken

Almost two decades of partying hard and scraping out a living in the glens has finally ended as Pictish forces move south it is to be seen if their warring cousins in England will unite to see off the threat
or be taken down together..........

Epirus in Control ?

Greece appears now firmly dominated by the Antigonid “enforcer” Epirus. The independent City States have been cowed and Macedon destroyed by Antigonid and Epirus forces. So where now. Should Rome fear ? Whilst given Antigonid moves East Epirus may feel somewhat less secure for now how long will this last and how long before all other nations in the region get “a visit” from the new boy on the block ?

[Yaitz331]

Bringing you all the News..... (that is approved by the
Censor)

Ooooh! So only what's approved by the censor gets in! Good to know...

To assist the rescue mission Arabia joins an Alliance with the Ptolemaics and allows the relief force to resupply only for Judean troops to become involved in fighting with the Arabians many hundreds of miles from agreed Judean area of operations.

They declared war on me. Go blame Arabia. I don't have any troops there. Yet.

[Lysimachos]

The Papyrus Spysheet


Almost immediately the Peace Treaty beteen maurya and the Seleucids expired the Mauryans, citing terrible injusices being inflicted upon Indian citizens living in the remote and corrupt Satrapies of the Seleucid Empire swept across the border and pushed west but were met by a huge Seleucid Army prepared in anticipation. After initially holding the Seleucid host the Mauryans were pushed back but heavy casualties on both sides were reported.

To say the truth it was the Seleucids that attacked the Mauryans at the expiration of the peace treaty, demonstrating their evil nature which Chandragupta has so long envisaged, in vain warning the other rulers of the threat posed by the "Big Whale" ...

[devoncop]

The Papyrus Spysheet


Almost immediately the Peace Treaty between Maurya and the Seleucids expired the Mauryans, citing terrible injusices being inflicted upon Indian citizens living in the remote and corrupt Satrapies of the Seleucid Empire swept across the border and pushed west but were met by a huge Seleucid Army prepared in anticipation. After initially holding the Seleucid host the Mauryans were pushed back but heavy casualties on both sides were reported.

To say the truth it was the Seleucids that attacked the Mauryans at the expiration of the peace treaty, demonstrating their evil nature which Chandragupta has so long envisaged, in vain warning the other rulers of the threat posed by the "Big Whale" ...

Suitably edited.....

The journalist responsible has been found in the Nile with rocks tied to his ankles.

Cause of death given as "Gross Incompetence"......

[loki100]

..
The Picts Awaken

Almost two decades of partying hard and scraping out a living in the glens has finally ended as Pictish forces move south it is to be seen if their warring cousins in England will unite to see off the threat
or be taken down together..........

...

merely a few revellers who found Edinburgh too busy in August, all have returned to the Highlands now

[devoncop]

[quote I don't have any troops there. Yet.
[/quote]

This would be entirely convincing if Judean pickets were not visible from frontier Arabian provinces.

Our independent embedded reporter confirms these sightings.

[jimwinsor]

The Papyrus Spysheet

Meanwhile the Saka action and a determined Mauryan counter attack has split the Seleucid Mauryan conquests off from the rest of their holdings and an emergency levy of Mercenaries at great cost had to be raised by the Seleucids to stabilise matters.

Oh, PNN (Ptolemy News Network)!

Determined Mauryan counter attack = me letting the remnants of the pulverized Indian army move unopposed into the barren wastelands of Arachosia, because I don't want to be distracted from doing things like this:

Capture.JPG (90.71 KiB) Viewed 2183 times

Yes, we are doing sooo horribly in this war!

Anyways, congratulations to the loyal citizens of Lower Indus, their application to become the newest Province of the Seleucid Empire has been approved! I can't wait to see the new Provincial unit they will be providing for me ...

One last comment ... you would have had no way of knowing this, but the Mercenaries I hired were not "at great cost," I actually only ended up paying about 250 of the 1000 Money sticker price, due to ... well, lets just say a bit of financial acumen and knowledge of how the game handles certain spending decisions ...

[devoncop]

The Papyrus Spysheet

Meanwhile the Saka action and a determined Mauryan counter attack has split the Seleucid Mauryan conquests off from the rest of their holdings and an emergency levy of Mercenaries at great cost had to be raised by the Seleucids to stabilise matters.

Oh, PNN (Ptolemy News Network)!

Determined Mauryan counter attack = me letting the remnants of the pulverized Indian army move unopposed into the barren wastelands of Arachosia, because I don't want to be distracted from doing things like this:


Capture.JPG


Yes, we are doing sooo horribly in this war!

Anyways, congratulations to the loyal citizens of Lower Indus, their application to become the newest Province of the Seleucid Empire has been approved! I can't wait to see the new Provincial unit they will be providing for me ...

One last comment ... you would have had no way of knowing this, but the Mercenaries I hired were not "at great cost," I actually only ended up paying about 250 of the 1000 Money sticker price, due to ... well, lets just say a bit of financial acumen and knowledge of how the game handles certain spending decisions ...

"PNN"

As for the financial acumen bit....how on earth does that work ?

[jimwinsor]

"PNN"

As for the financial acumen bit....how on earth does that work ?

Let's take a hypothetical example: Your country has 250 Money, and the Mercenaries Decision comes up, allowing you to click the box and spend 1000 Money for mercs.

And then lets say you click the box. What happens is, next turn a bunch of mercs show up at your capital, and your treasury goes to -750 (plus or minus your income/loss for the turn, of course).

Naturally one might think being -750 in debt would be a bad thing. However, in reality it's not all that bad, because what happens on the following turn is this:

1) Your troops are informed that their paychecks will be ... slightly delayed. This makes them unhappy, and they lose 1 effectiveness each.
2) Your country basically declares bankruptcy. Meaning, that -750 or so balance gets reset to zero. Yep, zero! Plus or minus your income for the turn, of course. Which means if your income was positive, you'll now officially be in the black.

I'm guessing many people are aware of 1, not so many aware of 2.

The practical effect of this is, deficit spending on Decisions is usually a VERY good idea, provided you feel militarily secure enough to suffer the troop effectiveness loss for a turn. Also note this will only work with Decisions (the game wont let you directly buy troops and ships without real money). And many Decisions are gated behind treasury balance minimums, reducing the potential for abuse. The Mercenaries Decision happens to have no minimum balance requirement.

[devoncop]

"PNN"

As for the financial acumen bit....how on earth does that work ?

Let's take a hypothetical example: Your country has 250 Money, and the Mercenaries Decision comes up, allowing you to click the box and spend 1000 Money for mercs.

And then lets say you click the box. What happens is, next turn a bunch of mercs show up at your capital, and your treasury goes to -750 (plus or minus your income/loss for the turn, of course).

Naturally one might think being -750 in debt would be a bad thing. However, in reality it's not all that bad, because what happens on the following turn is this:

1) Your troops are informed that their paychecks will be ... slightly delayed. This makes them unhappy, and they lose 1 effectiveness each.
2) Your country basically declares bankruptcy. Meaning, that -750 or so balance gets reset to zero. Yep, zero! Plus or minus your income for the turn, of course. Which means if your income was positive, you'll now officially be in the black.

I'm guessing many people are aware of 1, not so many aware of 2.

The practical effect of this is, deficit spending on Decisions is usually a VERY good idea, provided you feel militarily secure enough to suffer the troop effectiveness loss for a turn. Also note this will only work with Decisions (the game wont let you directly buy troops and ships without real money). And many Decisions are gated behind treasury balance minimums, reducing the potential for abuse. The Mercenaries Decision happens to have no minimum balance requirement.

That is really interesting. Thanks.

Of course the ongoing costs of these mercenaries would still need to be affordable but as you imply, any reasonably viable economy should bear that comfortably.

[Yaitz331]

This would be entirely convincing if Judean pickets were not visible from frontier Arabian provinces.

Our independent embedded reporter confirms these sightings.

Yes, we have forces currently assembling on the border. We do not yet have a full army on the border, nor do we have any troops whatsoever in Arabian territory.

[loki100]

"PNN"

As for the financial acumen bit....how on earth does that work ?

Let's take a hypothetical example: Your country has 250 Money, and the Mercenaries Decision comes up, allowing you to click the box and spend 1000 Money for mercs.

And then lets say you click the box. What happens is, next turn a bunch of mercs show up at your capital, and your treasury goes to -750 (plus or minus your income/loss for the turn, of course).

Naturally one might think being -750 in debt would be a bad thing. However, in reality it's not all that bad, because what happens on the following turn is this:

1) Your troops are informed that their paychecks will be ... slightly delayed. This makes them unhappy, and they lose 1 effectiveness each.
2) Your country basically declares bankruptcy. Meaning, that -750 or so balance gets reset to zero. Yep, zero! Plus or minus your income for the turn, of course. Which means if your income was positive, you'll now officially be in the black.

I'm guessing many people are aware of 1, not so many aware of 2.

The practical effect of this is, deficit spending on Decisions is usually a VERY good idea, provided you feel militarily secure enough to suffer the troop effectiveness loss for a turn. Also note this will only work with Decisions (the game wont let you directly buy troops and ships without real money). And many Decisions are gated behind treasury balance minimums, reducing the potential for abuse. The Mercenaries Decision happens to have no minimum balance requirement.

That is really interesting. Thanks.

Of course the ongoing costs of these mercenaries would still need to be affordable but as you imply, any reasonably viable economy should bear that comfortably.

And I think is best seen as an exploit due to be closed in 1.04?

[Geffalrus]

Interesting trick. Fortunately, the Antigonids are wealthy enough and powerful enough to need neither.

[devoncop]

Interesting trick. Fortunately, the Antigonids are wealthy enough and powerful enough to need neither.

...........for now

[jimwinsor]

Just like late Rome, there is now an Eastern and Western Antigonid Empire:

Capture.JPG (207.83 KiB) Viewed 2083 times