May 87 - Losing the first Rome second
Well, more bad news for the Optimates. After a vicious Populares attack, I lost the first Rome as well :
The consequences are tremendous :
Now the Populares mob runs rampant in the Eternal City.
In the heel of Italy, I am also going to lose one city to starvation :
In Greece, the situation is not so much better. A skirmish between my force and a lone Greek unit allows me to have the composition of the Greek force in Athenae :
Almost twice as much Greeks as I have Romans, assault is out – I will have to siege Athenae, except of course I have no way to blockade the port.
Note that the AI can be surprising. In my first game in singleplayer, the AI had decided to abandon Athenae and try to regroup this force with the rest of the Pontic forces, hence my initial project to take Athenae in 3 – 4 turns. This new AI strategy makes my timetable unrealistic.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Pontic forces are getting closer :
The only good news come from Lucullus :
This brings me one unit of ships. Next destination : Selinus.
Finally, the fall of Rome had disastrous impact for my national morale and my treasury, and I am trying to answer to this problem
Beginner’s corner – Sieges, or how to take structures
Sometimes, your target is hidden behind high walls. There are several ways to take them.
- Assault
Assault is the fastest method, but also the messiest. The defenders will have a bonus of defense, and will fight with despair as they have no way out. Hence, it is to avoid if you don’t have numerical absolute superiority.You can give the order to your troops to assault the enemy structure, but there are conditions :
- It there is no fort, or a fort level 1 only, the structure can be assaulted at any time (except by cavalry)
- If there is a fort level 2 or more, then
o Either the leader of the stack has the assaulter trait, or
o The fort has as many levels of breach as its level (2 for a level 2 fort,…)
But how do you make these breaches ? Well, that’s the second way to take a city : siege.
- Sieges
A siege has two objectives :
A. Starve the city,
B. Prepare for assault or even force the opponent to surrender
A. When you are sieging a city, the city does not receive supplies (except from its port if it is not blockaded). To see if the city is receiving supply, hover the mouse on it. For instance, this city does not receive any :
Generally speaking, if a player has less than 10% military control in an area, his structures will not receive any supply.
B. In addition to starving the defenders, having a city under siege allows for a “siege roll” at the start of every turn.
OK. I lied, it is actually two rolls (12-faces dices), one for the attacker, one for the defender. The difference between those two rolls is then modified :
o By leader traits, if any (for attack or for defense),
o By the power of the artillery available for either side,
o By the level of the fort minus the number of breaches.
o By a massive additional malus if the structure is breached, the defender is out of supply and is weaker than the attacker.
The final result is the Siege Roll Value (SRV). Depending on the SRV (from worse to best), the following events can occur :
- The defenders close a breach
- The defenders receive hits
- The fort receives a breach – provided that the attacker has some artillery in his stacks
In addition, if the SRV is above the defending units average discipline, the defenders will directly surrender, except if they have not empty supply wagons (fixed or not – magazine units are enough), in which case they only have 10% of chance to surrender.
- Blockade
You can siege without blockading, but if you want to starve your opponent efficiently, you have to blockade his port (if any). For this, you only need to drop enough combat ships in front of his port.
- A last note about siege weapons
AJE is unlike any previous AGEOD game in that your armies do not typically bring artillery with them. Yet, you need them to do breaches, so they are extremely strategic. There are two “models” :
- Roman legions can build siege machines whenever they finish their turn on an enemy structure (up to one per legion at any time). Those machines will be destroyed when the legions move out.
Here is a Roman legion that just built its ballistae :
- Everyone else has to carry their siege machines the difficult way – from their home province. They slow their stacks, cannot go everywhere, and are generally a pain. Moving them by ships (the AI does it) can save a lot of time !
End of beginner’s corner
Well, more bad news for the Optimates. After a vicious Populares attack, I lost the first Rome as well :
The consequences are tremendous :
Now the Populares mob runs rampant in the Eternal City.
In the heel of Italy, I am also going to lose one city to starvation :
In Greece, the situation is not so much better. A skirmish between my force and a lone Greek unit allows me to have the composition of the Greek force in Athenae :
Almost twice as much Greeks as I have Romans, assault is out – I will have to siege Athenae, except of course I have no way to blockade the port.
Note that the AI can be surprising. In my first game in singleplayer, the AI had decided to abandon Athenae and try to regroup this force with the rest of the Pontic forces, hence my initial project to take Athenae in 3 – 4 turns. This new AI strategy makes my timetable unrealistic.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Pontic forces are getting closer :
The only good news come from Lucullus :
This brings me one unit of ships. Next destination : Selinus.
Finally, the fall of Rome had disastrous impact for my national morale and my treasury, and I am trying to answer to this problem
Beginner’s corner – Sieges, or how to take structures
Sometimes, your target is hidden behind high walls. There are several ways to take them.
- Assault
Assault is the fastest method, but also the messiest. The defenders will have a bonus of defense, and will fight with despair as they have no way out. Hence, it is to avoid if you don’t have numerical absolute superiority.You can give the order to your troops to assault the enemy structure, but there are conditions :
- It there is no fort, or a fort level 1 only, the structure can be assaulted at any time (except by cavalry)
- If there is a fort level 2 or more, then
o Either the leader of the stack has the assaulter trait, or
o The fort has as many levels of breach as its level (2 for a level 2 fort,…)
But how do you make these breaches ? Well, that’s the second way to take a city : siege.
- Sieges
A siege has two objectives :
A. Starve the city,
B. Prepare for assault or even force the opponent to surrender
A. When you are sieging a city, the city does not receive supplies (except from its port if it is not blockaded). To see if the city is receiving supply, hover the mouse on it. For instance, this city does not receive any :
Generally speaking, if a player has less than 10% military control in an area, his structures will not receive any supply.
B. In addition to starving the defenders, having a city under siege allows for a “siege roll” at the start of every turn.
OK. I lied, it is actually two rolls (12-faces dices), one for the attacker, one for the defender. The difference between those two rolls is then modified :
o By leader traits, if any (for attack or for defense),
o By the power of the artillery available for either side,
o By the level of the fort minus the number of breaches.
o By a massive additional malus if the structure is breached, the defender is out of supply and is weaker than the attacker.
The final result is the Siege Roll Value (SRV). Depending on the SRV (from worse to best), the following events can occur :
- The defenders close a breach
- The defenders receive hits
- The fort receives a breach – provided that the attacker has some artillery in his stacks
In addition, if the SRV is above the defending units average discipline, the defenders will directly surrender, except if they have not empty supply wagons (fixed or not – magazine units are enough), in which case they only have 10% of chance to surrender.
- Blockade
You can siege without blockading, but if you want to starve your opponent efficiently, you have to blockade his port (if any). For this, you only need to drop enough combat ships in front of his port.
- A last note about siege weapons
AJE is unlike any previous AGEOD game in that your armies do not typically bring artillery with them. Yet, you need them to do breaches, so they are extremely strategic. There are two “models” :
- Roman legions can build siege machines whenever they finish their turn on an enemy structure (up to one per legion at any time). Those machines will be destroyed when the legions move out.
Here is a Roman legion that just built its ballistae :
- Everyone else has to carry their siege machines the difficult way – from their home province. They slow their stacks, cannot go everywhere, and are generally a pain. Moving them by ships (the AI does it) can save a lot of time !
End of beginner’s corner