Picts & Caledonii (Balanced, 550 BC campaign): the long time

[Vishniac]

Hello, All !

Having bought the game last month and just tried it some, I am now in my first serious campaign.
I never heard about it before but, when the email about the new ‘Persian’ DLC landed in my mailbox, I was reading stories by Robert Howard on Bran Mak Morn, King of some fantasized Picts and their struggle against Rome.
So I bought the game. So I’m playing the Picts (& Caledonii), Balanced, 550 BC Campaign.

I got the idea to write an AAR by reading the incredible one by Ezekiel and his pictish invasion of Greece. This one may end less spectacular (though I don’t know yet) but I take opportunity to explain my choices and ask some questions about mechanisms.

First milestone : Conquest of the British Islands (550 – 359 BC)

That’s where I stand now : I just conquered the last region in Britannia Inferior and so I own 4 provinces: Caledonia, Hibernia, Britannia Superior and Inferior. The progression was pretty starightforward : I start with 2 under-developped regions and it takes 40-50 years to build an army ready to annex the first barbarians around and create the Caledonian Province. From there, though the whole North of Britain was free while Silurs and Britones were fighting one another, my strategy was simple:
- with rare exceptions like landing on Hibernia or taking some opportunities during a war, I wait until a region is an objective before annexing. Thus 17 of my 27 regions are objectives (and legacy points).
- Never annex more than 2 or 3 regions at the same time ; if in war, make peace. Then wait until they are pacified. Thus, I only need 2 big armies : one with heavy infantry for plains and hills, and one with medium infantry for marsh and forests, and a little corps to impose martial law where necessary.
- don’t use brute force to annex what you can buy., so I bought a few regions from Silures and others. Picts having no manpower shortages, I put efforts to enhance my revenues of gold and metal (every region has a furnace, and blacksmiths and works when available). 200 Manpower + 200 Gold + 200 Metal is just a little more than 1 year’s gain and it’s more than enough to buy a region without pacification or revolt hassle.
- never get a building increasing decadence whatever advantage it gives : so no gladiator school, circus, pleasure house, bank, usurer… On the other hand, all caledonian ethnic regions have a thalassan temple, others getting a normal temple to convert the population.

My position now :
- 11'000 Gold (+ 252/year). It goes between 200 and 400 but I have now a bad aministrator.
- 1‘000 metal (+220/year), 1500 Manpower (+340/year)
- 4th in Legacy and my biggest fear is not to be able to stop Persia running with the game (see picture)
- it’s been more than 50 years that I could have become a level III civilization but I postpone this moment while I can. My ratio is now 1.79

For my next move, while I consolidate the Southern Britain regions to produce gold and culture, I have 3 possibilities :
- what I want now : invading the Iutii and Danemark. That would give 2.5 provinces totaling 11 regions well protected in the upper map.
- the whole province Batavia (Netherlands) is free. I can alliance with Belgae and colonize Batavia and its 4 regions quietly.
- invading or buying some waypoints between Britain and the Mediterranean then create a base (the baleares islands would be perfect, or maybe Corsica) to pre-position an army, a pirate fleet, a mighty fleet and see whether I can help Persia slowdown.

It shall probably be the 3 in this order. They said Germans are difficult to submit but I play methodically and, as you can see, with the idea to stand the test of time. No quick expansion: annex and develop!

Tell me what you think!

I just have one question: they say heavy infantry has disadvantages in broken terrain but I wanted tio invade a marsh region and the locals crushed my experienced army made of caledonian (medium) infantry with a general and a motivation speech. So I tried sending the plain army with heavy infantry and without speech and they crushed any opposition. Felt strange.

[Vishniac]

I have difficulty adding screenshots...

[Vishniac]

DEFEAT!
By year 334 BC, the game announces my defeat by legacy points:
- Persia 18248
- Egypt 8239
- Picts 4646
Strange: I thought a nation victorious before the end of the game should have 3 times as many points as the second nation. That's not the case here.
Someone to explain?

Well, whatever, I'll keep on playing and try to win the regular way.
So this updating comes sooner as I wanted and will be small.

350 BC : invasion of Cimbrica

As planned, I struck the Iutii.
He had a fleet of 12 pirate ships : I sent a fleet of 12 warships to dispose of them and clear the way. After a few naval battles, the sea was mine.
The advantage of having my mainland safe is I can concentrate on 1 powerful expeditionary force : I landed at the apex of the peninsula with 12 heavy infantries and 12 supports . After a few turns, 2 regions conquered and besieging his capitol, he accepted peace giving me his capital region and his only Cimbrica Maritima region. Now, I just have to wait until the neighboring regions become objectives before annexing some again. There are unrest from time to time but I station forces to prevent revolts.

Consolidation: I have almost finished construction of Pythia and Temple of Zeus. That should boost my legacy (now +58/year). CDR ratio is at 1.69 and I keep sailing as a Glorious Tribal Chiefdom!

Global (for the time) strategy: finally, I found the perfect stronghold in the Mediterranean; Southern Sardinia is a Carthaginean developped region with a major harbour. Using just 2 years worth of metal and manpower, I bought it. Next moves would be to annex 2 regions and have then this small province militarized. Being now allied with Carthage, I could send armies and mercenaries to submit their enemies into client-states. We'll see.

[Gray Fox]

You can add three screenshots for each post. I use .jpg, but .png should be fine.

Why are you postponing Tier III?

Do you have it set to only twice instead of three times? It's in Options.

[Vishniac]

You can add three screenshots for each post. I use .jpg, but .png should be fine.

It let me upload 1 out of 3 for my first post and after that I can't anymore.

Do you have it set to only twice instead of three times? It's in Options.

No. Whatever, this victory condition is only a formal thing. As long as it doesn't prevent us to play longer, it's ok for me.

Why are you postponing Tier III?

Well, the manual is full of warnings about how decadence will get you, you can't fend it off forever and so on...
Since a major cause of decadence seems to be the ageing of government, better to remain in each form as long as bearable until it's time to put the counter to zero and go right to golden age. Of course, I may miss some decisions and advantages but it's my first real game: if I see that it wasn't so an early threat, I'll adjust in my next campaigns.

[poesel71]

Don't bother with the barbarian regions like Batavia or Denmark. They take forever to develop and only drag you down. Getting Sardinia was a clever move.
Try to get provinces with high culture or decadence will kill you.
That being said: you have gold and silver mines in Wales. Build the bank and all the commercial stuff that needs gold. You can offset the decadence with the perceptor house and the money will make you very rich.

[Vishniac]

Don't bother with the barbarian regions like Batavia or Denmark. They take forever to develop and only drag you down. Getting Sardinia was a clever move.
Try to get provinces with high culture or decadence will kill you.

I try to roleplay some in this first campaign so, just as the saxons and the Vikings later raided and invaded the British Isles, it felt natural as the ruler of Britannia to go invade Cimbrica. And I must say, except for the Iutii that I just crushed, the whole baltic area is devoid of organized nations ; it’s hard to resist. It shall take time but without enemies I’ll concentrate these regions on commerce and culture. We’ll see if it’s worth the effort in 50-100 years (after all, I intitulated this AAR „the long time“).
Otherwise it’s also to discuss some mechanisms of the game.
I.e. I find difficult to follow the changes in money gains. It can go from -20 to + 400 in 1 turn. It has probably to do with some decisions I took (sell slaves, sell metal, perhaps being averaged on x turns) but that’s not clear

STATE OF THE UNION
- Persia seems too big to fail : all of Asia minor, all the Balkan up to Hungary, all the transcaucasus up to the Don river. They absorbed a fairly big Athena which was already their client-state. The only possible counter-power would be Sparta so I allianced with them but strategy remains to be defined.
In 290 BC, Persia pass the x3 Legacy of Egypt so they may be considered the official winner.
I gain +61 Legacy/year vs +239 for Persia. This behemoth seems unstoppable and they still are in CDR Tier I so no collapse in sight; they even have now 2 regions in Southern Italy.
- I almost own all Cimbrica Firma (took 2 regions from Iutii, 1 independent and formed the province). I can quietly develop and annex around. Unfortunately, the game prefer to assign me objectives in the territory of Carthage’s enemies which are mine too.
I alos formed the province of Cimbrica Maritima and assimilation progress fairly fast.
- I own all 3 regions of the province of Sardinia Corsica. Will made it into some arsenal and recruiting center for Mediterranean expeditions.
- I submitted Saguntum (5 regions in Spain) to become my client-state).
- I am now allied with Sparta too. I gave them 2 regions of Sicilia that I took from Syracuse in the hope of bolstering them. I’m waiting for them to digest the Egyptian provinces they are conquering.
- OK, I moved to Civilization Level III, from Glorious Tribal Chiefdom to Young Tribal Confederation. Let’s see how the changes translate :
Gold : 10142 (+149) - - > (+58)
Administrative burden: -1073 - - > -1622 (? Shouldn’t it decrease ?)
Citizen taxation: +451 - - > +903
Manpower : 1916 (+430) - - > (+457)
Metal : 1422 (+274) - - > (+274)
Legacy : +83/year - - > (+60) (Very bad surprise!)
CDR: 1025/534 = 1.91 - - > 955/137 = 6.97 (The only good thing it seems but what good it is? )
And I am now at :
Manpower : +457
Metal : +274

In a Pictscampaign, having acess to Pictish Warbands (provinical unit) and Scots Heavy Infantry seems like a major advantage in the Mediterranean area as they are both heavy infantry (deadly in open) and mountaineer (bonus in mountains and hills). The Mediterranean area being less forested and more plain and hills, my experienced expeditionary force can crush any opposition (I just need some regulars as 2nd echelon to siege the fortresses)

Ok, let’s play on ! I'll keep you informed.

Edit: cool, screenshotting was just a size prolem.
So below you can see the size of Persia. Orenage-red is Sparta currently expanding at the expense of Egypt. Sarmatia could be an ally. Otherwise, no power has emerged.

[poesel71]

You should rather be friends with Persia than with her enemies. The AI is not clever enough to join forces against the leader. Unless Sparta has a bigger military than Persia it won't attack.
But if you are friends with Persia you can buy regions and provinces from them. If you take the right ones you will hem in its expansion or direct it towards lesser regions.

Your drop in legacy came from switching from glorious to non-glorious. Glorious get +35% (IIRC) legacy. As a glorious tier III you will also get an additional +25 for your government.
The jump in the CDR comes from the loss of government age (from Glorious Tribal Chiefdom to Young Tribal Confederation) or maybe young doesn't get any decadence for age. Don't stay in this too long - if you accumulate too much age it will hit you hard when getting glorious again.

Spain is a good place to own. It has lots of resources of all kinds of metal. Takes a while to develop though.

[Vishniac]

You should rather be friends with Persia than with her enemies. The AI is not clever enough to join forces against the leader. Unless Sparta has a bigger military than Persia it won't attack.
But if you are friends with Persia you can buy regions and provinces from them. If you take the right ones you will hem in its expansion or direct it towards lesser regions.

I could have gone that road but frankly I watched too many times "300" and "Alexander" to befriend Persia.
And so it shall be the usual British strategy of building and leading a coalition, and choosing my battles carefully, and we're gonna take down Persia!

Here are the last developments to follow it:
274 BC - Cooperation Treaty with Sarmatia
272 BC - Without really knowing the effect, I changed the nation qualifier to Merchant. Fine effect : I jumped from +900 to + 1200 money
272 BC - Conquered the last region of Cimbrica Maritima
270 BC - Become a Glorious (merchant) Tribal Confederation
268 BC - Cooperation Treaty with Illyria / Conquered from Iutii the last region of Cimbrica Firma
266 BC -Broke the alliance with Carthage : too many unnecessary wars.
254 BC – Formed the province of Scandinavia Occidentalis
252 BC – Ok, we entered the golden age.
242 BC – Rome finally annexed the remaining Etrusci regions. I think they are on their way to become a great power.
238 BC – Cooperation Treaty with Rome
234 BC – War against the Gothones. By landing at the edge oft he known world, the far east of Baltics, I intend to annex Prusia, then colonize Polonia Meridionalis and make a junction with Sarmatia to launch a joint land campaign against Persia.
226 BC – Dragged into a war against Sardes by my alliance with Sparta, I conquered 3 provinces in Africa that I exchanged with Sparta for their Egyptian culture-rich province (the one with the Sphynx & the Pyramids). A mutual beneficial trade: Sparta can create her province in Africa and I am now a neighbor of Persia in the desert.
219 BC – Alliance with Merou / The Province of Prusia is created.
216 BC – Cooperation Treaty with Egypt

A few tens of years and I'll launch the attack with Merou, Egypt, Sparta and Sarmatia, spearheaded by 3 axis of attack by my armies in Eastern Europa, Southern Italy and North Africa. I won't keep all those conquered provinces, shall give them to my allied, then repeat again and again until Persia is no more. The goal: surpassing them in Legacy by 190 AD.
Here a view of my Baltic expansion:

Baltic Expansion 215 BC.png (683.7 KiB) Viewed 3558 times

And the State of the Union (during a golden age but it's now my normal state most of the time):
- Money +1366/year
- Manpower +1047/year
- Metal +411/year
- Legacy: 16361 (+139/year) with Persia at 47448 (+332/year).
- CDR: 3.61
- I was almost at Military Expertise 4 then it fall to now 2.81 (though I build many walls and other armorer and such). Too much expansion?

That's it.
Next update probably just before launching the massive allied offensive.

[Gray Fox]

Here's a thread I did on the National Modifier choices.

viewtopic.php?f=534&t=98058

[Vishniac]

Thanks!
That shed some light on this decision making.