Based off what I know about the history of Rome, this scenario seems pretty historical, although that means it'll be a bit unbalanaced. Sulla's got the edge because he has the power of a large number of legions. Mithridates and Marius don't. Unlike in real life it's probably the best decision for both to attack (or at least be threatening) as quickly as possible so as to avoid what really happened and each be picked off one at a time. Force Sulla to divide his forces so that he cannot concentrate the Legions against one side or another because if you get hit with a big Sulla led army that's not going to go well. In reality Marius's faction got control of Rome and Italy fairly fast but then didn't do a lot, and when Sulla came back he crushed them, though Hispania held out for a very long time (RE: The next scenario in Spain). Sulla had already defeated Mithridates first though. Which is the same issue in the second scenario, in real life Setorius, Sparticus, and Mithradates came one after another, rather than simultaneously.
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on the basis of this PBEM and two partial SP goes at this scenario, I agree it is unbalanced. But then the AGE games tend to start from realism rather than balance, so I guess what will happen over time is players will come to an understanding of the various scenarios and how to allocate sides in PBEM to give a balanced game.
If this was 1-1-1, then I think there is scope for the Marius and Mithradates players to do some sort of deal. Neither can beat Sulla on their own so some degree of (tacit) co-operation is viable - not least I can't imagine a player controlled Pontus would chuck a large portion of their army at Sicily. Though as Narwhal has noted, supply issues (which are brutal in this game) force a degree of splitting up of their army so I don't think that contingent would have been useable in Greece.
For the Populares I think:
You can't give up Spain (as we'll see my loss of Spain left me with few EPs to spend and in turn a lack of cash), so you need to find a way to contest that. Some of the issues are luck (I've seen that big revolt spawn in 3 places, some more or less dangerous). So I'd concentrate everything at Novo Carthago, strip N Africa and send those units to Spain, try to raise 2 new legions in Spain. I think that will stalemate things.
In Italy, try to concentrate quickly, not least the quicker you get Rome, the quicker you get the EP and cash benefits. If the Sulla player does what Narwhal did, it'll be a while before you can challenge their concentrated army. But if they all form a blob in one city, you can mask with an army they in turn can't beat and run around taking the rest of Italy with a few smaller forces. When your new legions have trained, go for their large stack, it'll be brutal but you may win.
I still think you'll lose, unless the Sullan forces are really unable to return to Italy in force. If you have beaten their Italian legions, you can maybe split up into 2-3 groups and be able to attack any landings, hopefully you hold all the ports.
More radical is to try to commit to Greece early on, and sort of work around the Pontic armies. Certainly worth trying.
Septembre 87 - Taking Rome back !
I found the Populares underserving of holding Rome, and took the city back !
And my troops made their triumphal entrance in Rome. Oh, boy !
Such a tremendous success reaps benefits immediately, and everyone wants to be on the winning side :
[Actually, it is a random unrelated event]
It also brings me so much Optimates prisoners that I can form a new “prisoner legion”.
The Pontic prisoners are just sold to the highest bidder !
Unfortunately, the Populares used the opportunity to attack my cities :
So, I am detaching one legion to chase them. I believe there is not too much troops around :
The situation in Greece is not so perfect, as Sulla missed almost everything he tried :
So basically, two Pontic armies evaded him, and the only thing he could get was Chalcis, which was lightly protected. Moreover, as if the Pontic armies were not enough, two Populares legions just landed. I am not worried, but Sulla’s triumphant landing in Sicily will have to be postponed.
I decide to ignore the Populares forces for now and go for more Pontics :
Finally, the only bad news are in the far East, where Silene surrenders. Lucullus and his fleets (including the one that Silene would not want to lend us) are “expelled” (they could have been captured if I had been unlucky), and their movement is thus cancelled. No big deal :
And in front of Athens, the Pontics show me that they still rule the waves :
Beginner’s Corner : Ressources
After getting in the easy stuff common to all AGEOD games, let’s get into the AJE specifics. I will deal with productions, decisions, policy…
But first, resources, because you need resources to produce or take decisions.
There are two main resources in the gain: Money and Engagement Points. There is also a “secret” resource (prisoners), and finally Victory Points and National Morale can work to an extent like resources, because you may “pay” them to receive something. I will deal with the first 3 here.
Note : I call “decision” the decisions done from the ledger, and “policies” the decisions done from the decision mode. It is not official, but I don’t want to confuse them as they are different.
Money
Money is produced by several ways :
A. Every year in march, you get money from all of your cities. To know how much, you need to use the supply filter.
B. You get money from merchant ships ; not much though ; provided they are not intercepted.
Overall, their impact is minor (10% at best of your yearly production all included)
C. You get money from decisions and events. The most common decision is “Raise more money” but really there is plenty of them, depending on your faction
D. Some "extra locations" on the map can generate more money from time to time, esp. :
- Commercial Ports :
- Markets :
E. Finally, you get money from policies :
- “Merchants” is a freebie ; you can put it anywhere between 0,1% and 90% of loyalty (90% to force the player to put it somewhere where it can lose them), and it will bring 5 money per turn.
- “Trade Post” is another freebie you can put anywhere where you have 5% of military control, provided you also have merchant there since last turn. It will bring 100 in 6 turns the conditions (either the one of the Merchants or the one of the Trade Post) are still respected and that neither “decay” (respectively 5% of 10% of chance per turn)
As they are free, the only subtlety to have when putting merchants on the map is to make sure it is somewhere where you don’t have 100% loyalty but still have some MC, so you can add a trade post the following turn ! It is a bit artificial in my opinion and does not make you think like a “Roman”, but more like in “game term” which is sad. In any case, due to the decay rule and the conditions that can change easily, their impact is limited on the game.
- “Requisition” brings you 50 money in exchange of loyalty and one EP. Good to use heavily on those regions where you will not need loyalty… or that you are going to lose anyway. Beware, though, that loyalty is lost to a “rebel” faction, which can pop rebellions out of nowhere. You will not like those.
- “Enslave and plunder” brings you 100 money in exchange of a lot of loyalty (45%) but no EP, so a revolt is the following turn is probably. For when you have little time… It also reduces the development of the region, which can go (if repeated) from “rich” to “civilized”, or “civilized” to “normal”, with supply production impact.
- “Punish” brings you 25 money, but will give you national morale as well, for little cost. Unfortunately, it decreases the development of the region even faster than “enslave” ; it can also only be used somewhere where you have troops and less than 25% of loyalty.
Each turn, in addition to any “costly” decision / policy you would take, there is an upkeep cost equal to 0,5% of the total cost of your (non-locked) troops.
I checked this on the Sertorius scenario, as Sertorius :
I don’t know what happens if you have no more money to pay for your troops, but it cannot be good so avoid it.
Engagement Points
Engagement points is close to « political influence » which, as said my teachers in Political Sciences back then before I did finance, is a resource: it disappears as you use it, but you can also invest it to receive more later.
You get EP the following way :
- Every turn, depending on the number of objective and strategic cities you get :
- Whenever you capture an objective city (by assault or surrender)
- By some events – here is an example of a random event :
- By some policies :
- Triumph or Parade is the most useful by far : it generates 2 EP (and 2 NM) at the cost of 50 victory points, in 3 turns. It needs to be played in the capital, and you need a leader there.
- Roads cost 75 money, one EP to generate a few VP and 3 P… in 24 turns. Rarely useful for this reason (especially given that if you lose MC on the region, you have to start all over again). It also increase the road level.
- Water and Transports is like Roads, except it cost more money (150) and bring more EP and more VP… after no less then 36 turns. In general, at this point, the game is either won or lost anyway. It also increases the road level.
So overall, you don’t have much control on EPs.
Prisoners
The prisoner is a resource you get only by defeating enemy armies (or having them surrender – even better as you get all of them). Here are the prisoners you took :
You can see the number of prisoners in the ledger.
There is no “decay” of prisoners (there is in other AGEOD games).
In general, prisoners can be exchanged for money, but in a few cases, there are better usage for them…
I found the Populares underserving of holding Rome, and took the city back !
And my troops made their triumphal entrance in Rome. Oh, boy !
Such a tremendous success reaps benefits immediately, and everyone wants to be on the winning side :
[Actually, it is a random unrelated event]
It also brings me so much Optimates prisoners that I can form a new “prisoner legion”.
The Pontic prisoners are just sold to the highest bidder !
Unfortunately, the Populares used the opportunity to attack my cities :
So, I am detaching one legion to chase them. I believe there is not too much troops around :
The situation in Greece is not so perfect, as Sulla missed almost everything he tried :
So basically, two Pontic armies evaded him, and the only thing he could get was Chalcis, which was lightly protected. Moreover, as if the Pontic armies were not enough, two Populares legions just landed. I am not worried, but Sulla’s triumphant landing in Sicily will have to be postponed.
I decide to ignore the Populares forces for now and go for more Pontics :
Finally, the only bad news are in the far East, where Silene surrenders. Lucullus and his fleets (including the one that Silene would not want to lend us) are “expelled” (they could have been captured if I had been unlucky), and their movement is thus cancelled. No big deal :
And in front of Athens, the Pontics show me that they still rule the waves :
Beginner’s Corner : Ressources
After getting in the easy stuff common to all AGEOD games, let’s get into the AJE specifics. I will deal with productions, decisions, policy…
But first, resources, because you need resources to produce or take decisions.
There are two main resources in the gain: Money and Engagement Points. There is also a “secret” resource (prisoners), and finally Victory Points and National Morale can work to an extent like resources, because you may “pay” them to receive something. I will deal with the first 3 here.
Note : I call “decision” the decisions done from the ledger, and “policies” the decisions done from the decision mode. It is not official, but I don’t want to confuse them as they are different.
Money
Money is produced by several ways :
A. Every year in march, you get money from all of your cities. To know how much, you need to use the supply filter.
B. You get money from merchant ships ; not much though ; provided they are not intercepted.
Overall, their impact is minor (10% at best of your yearly production all included)
C. You get money from decisions and events. The most common decision is “Raise more money” but really there is plenty of them, depending on your faction
D. Some "extra locations" on the map can generate more money from time to time, esp. :
- Commercial Ports :
- Markets :
E. Finally, you get money from policies :
- “Merchants” is a freebie ; you can put it anywhere between 0,1% and 90% of loyalty (90% to force the player to put it somewhere where it can lose them), and it will bring 5 money per turn.
- “Trade Post” is another freebie you can put anywhere where you have 5% of military control, provided you also have merchant there since last turn. It will bring 100 in 6 turns the conditions (either the one of the Merchants or the one of the Trade Post) are still respected and that neither “decay” (respectively 5% of 10% of chance per turn)
As they are free, the only subtlety to have when putting merchants on the map is to make sure it is somewhere where you don’t have 100% loyalty but still have some MC, so you can add a trade post the following turn ! It is a bit artificial in my opinion and does not make you think like a “Roman”, but more like in “game term” which is sad. In any case, due to the decay rule and the conditions that can change easily, their impact is limited on the game.
- “Requisition” brings you 50 money in exchange of loyalty and one EP. Good to use heavily on those regions where you will not need loyalty… or that you are going to lose anyway. Beware, though, that loyalty is lost to a “rebel” faction, which can pop rebellions out of nowhere. You will not like those.
- “Enslave and plunder” brings you 100 money in exchange of a lot of loyalty (45%) but no EP, so a revolt is the following turn is probably. For when you have little time… It also reduces the development of the region, which can go (if repeated) from “rich” to “civilized”, or “civilized” to “normal”, with supply production impact.
- “Punish” brings you 25 money, but will give you national morale as well, for little cost. Unfortunately, it decreases the development of the region even faster than “enslave” ; it can also only be used somewhere where you have troops and less than 25% of loyalty.
Each turn, in addition to any “costly” decision / policy you would take, there is an upkeep cost equal to 0,5% of the total cost of your (non-locked) troops.
I checked this on the Sertorius scenario, as Sertorius :
I don’t know what happens if you have no more money to pay for your troops, but it cannot be good so avoid it.
Engagement Points
Engagement points is close to « political influence » which, as said my teachers in Political Sciences back then before I did finance, is a resource: it disappears as you use it, but you can also invest it to receive more later.
You get EP the following way :
- Every turn, depending on the number of objective and strategic cities you get :
- Whenever you capture an objective city (by assault or surrender)
- By some events – here is an example of a random event :
- By some policies :
- Triumph or Parade is the most useful by far : it generates 2 EP (and 2 NM) at the cost of 50 victory points, in 3 turns. It needs to be played in the capital, and you need a leader there.
- Roads cost 75 money, one EP to generate a few VP and 3 P… in 24 turns. Rarely useful for this reason (especially given that if you lose MC on the region, you have to start all over again). It also increase the road level.
- Water and Transports is like Roads, except it cost more money (150) and bring more EP and more VP… after no less then 36 turns. In general, at this point, the game is either won or lost anyway. It also increases the road level.
So overall, you don’t have much control on EPs.
Prisoners
The prisoner is a resource you get only by defeating enemy armies (or having them surrender – even better as you get all of them). Here are the prisoners you took :
You can see the number of prisoners in the ledger.
There is no “decay” of prisoners (there is in other AGEOD games).
In general, prisoners can be exchanged for money, but in a few cases, there are better usage for them…
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Turn 8 - Populares (Sept 87)
So Rome falls, and the evil Sulla takes revenge on the innocent population of the city.
They are sooo evil, they even kill off the high priest and then try to disguise it as a suicide
You will notice this was somehow missed out of Narwhal's 'report'
This seems to spook the local crow ... I wish the damn bird would just shut up
But at least the humans are more convinced in the likely success of my struggle
In Sicily, I decide to build up my force at Messana by gathering together as many units as I can. There is a legion in training at Capua that I will add to that force. I really need to free up the legion that is being built in Syracusa.
In central Italy, I can't challenge the evil priest-murderering, crow scarers directly. So I'll take out their other cities and wait till my new legions are trained. My logic is that most of Narwhal's army will now be trapped on Rome so as to prevent me retaking it.
And my glorious conquest of Greece gathers momentum.
In Spain, Tarraco is now threatened by the revolting hordes. If it falls I've lost Spain as that is where my last chance, a fresh legion, is being trained up.
So Rome falls, and the evil Sulla takes revenge on the innocent population of the city.
They are sooo evil, they even kill off the high priest and then try to disguise it as a suicide
You will notice this was somehow missed out of Narwhal's 'report'
This seems to spook the local crow ... I wish the damn bird would just shut up
But at least the humans are more convinced in the likely success of my struggle
In Sicily, I decide to build up my force at Messana by gathering together as many units as I can. There is a legion in training at Capua that I will add to that force. I really need to free up the legion that is being built in Syracusa.
In central Italy, I can't challenge the evil priest-murderering, crow scarers directly. So I'll take out their other cities and wait till my new legions are trained. My logic is that most of Narwhal's army will now be trapped on Rome so as to prevent me retaking it.
And my glorious conquest of Greece gathers momentum.
In Spain, Tarraco is now threatened by the revolting hordes. If it falls I've lost Spain as that is where my last chance, a fresh legion, is being trained up.
Oh dear, Greece looks like it will become a total mess.
On a side note, enjoying this game. Did a test run with the Spartacus Campaign and managed to get a minor victory as Rome (imo not bad for a first time) and a regular one by sudden death with Spartacus (I guess blitzing Rome in the first couple of turns crushed their moral), now trying the year of the 4 Emperors with the Flavians, but having problems with the Parthians always threatening to go to war and having no idea how to activate the Danube Legions, I would assume I just needed to send Vespasian to the city where they are based but he arrived 1-2 turns ago and they are still locked.
On a side note, enjoying this game. Did a test run with the Spartacus Campaign and managed to get a minor victory as Rome (imo not bad for a first time) and a regular one by sudden death with Spartacus (I guess blitzing Rome in the first couple of turns crushed their moral), now trying the year of the 4 Emperors with the Flavians, but having problems with the Parthians always threatening to go to war and having no idea how to activate the Danube Legions, I would assume I just needed to send Vespasian to the city where they are based but he arrived 1-2 turns ago and they are still locked.
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I've been playing the Flavians too
the key is getting NM over 110 (I think, or 115) and you start at about 80? Anyways, anything that drives up your NM is what you need and horde your EPs. With care I took out the bulk of the Jewish army by about July (so lots of battle driven NM), a few cities and judicious use of any NM breeding decision and I got both sets of the Moesian legions in play by about September.
To keep the Parthians quiet, you need 4 legions outside Palestine. What I did was to rotate units to/from Issus (where that large army starts) so I was using fresh legions in combat and still had enough to keep them quiet
By the end of 69 (where I am now) I have Titus cleaning up in N Africa, Vespesian + the Moesian legions in Dyrrachium (I'll wait to spring before risking a naval invastion of Italy). Otho seems to be losing to Vitellius.
But my interpretation of how to play the Flavians is to prioritise the gain of NM early on.
How did you unlock the Danube legions then? In the game it says you just need to send Vespasian there, which I did and nothing happened.
Its the F5 screen, there is a decision (actually 2) for those forces, the conditions are to hold Nicopolis & NM above 110. The cost to execute is 100 cash (should be easy, just sell your prisoners as slaves) & 30 EP for each (so you need to horde your EPs). But you need to do well in the East first to run up your NM so keep all the Eastern units in theatre till the Jewish revolt is crushed (they have some large armies and you can't afford a defeat - ie lost NM).
I've just won, Vespesian + 2 Eastern and 2 Danubian legions beat Vittelus in N Italy (april 70) having finished off Otho's last organised army in the Balkans. When you unlock the Moesian legions, don't take them all away, there are some rather nasty barbarian incursions on the way.
Oh my, I thought that AJE was going to be another PON-like game about building empires, diplomacy and whatnot. Good to see I was wrong! This is slaughter on the most unbridled scale!
More seriously, I am really surprised by the amount of battles and carnage. Is it because you are both playing less cautiously than in your other AAR or does the game actually encourages you to play more aggressively? I might be wrong, but for now I haven't seen a whole lot of maneuvering, more like a series of head-on attacks.
More seriously, I am really surprised by the amount of battles and carnage. Is it because you are both playing less cautiously than in your other AAR or does the game actually encourages you to play more aggressively? I might be wrong, but for now I haven't seen a whole lot of maneuvering, more like a series of head-on attacks.
Most are around 60 turns, give or take 15 turns. Most of the time, there is a clear winner after 2 - 3 years... but then the AGEOD engine allows for massive come-backs !
Sertorius of the Grand Mithridatic War is probably the "easiest" faction for management. From the "chance to win" point of view, the Optimates of Marius vs Sulla are a lot more powerful than their two opponents !
Well, I started to do as you wish, mostly because Loki and you asked (else, it would have been cohesion). Cannot be more accurate on EP, I tried to gauge exactly how it was built, but could not. I suppose I will do some heavy testing when I have the time... just not now
I believe manpower was excluded for three very good reasons :
- From my understanding of history, Rome ("Western Rome") was never really out of manpower "in total" at any point of its long history (OK, they were out of womanpower during the Sabines era). Even after Cannae and the total anniliation of its force, Rome managed to build another army in a year to send against Hannibal. By the middle of the Empire, there was a problem of WHO was the manpower (i.e. foreigners and "barbarians" compared to Roman citizen formerly), but clearly making this ingame would mean having different "manpower" by nationality, and would be very complex for not a lot of interest gamewise
- When you create several resources for only "one" purpose (i.e. building more armies - this is not PoN), after some time there is only one resource that is really important - the one you don't have. The other is just taken out of the equation. If you played ROP, Money was important for Austrian, MP for Prussia... and War Supplies had absolutely no importance whatsoever since both players were out of something else before being out of WSU. So AGEod, from the experience, decided to keep only two "main" resources : money and EP
- "Manpower" limitation is still there in an indirect way : you can only build a limited number of a given type of unit from a given origin. More information in 2 or 3 beginner's corners.
I believe AGEOD finally found a good balance on this. In WiA, NM never changed significantly, so overall it had no influence. In ROP, NM was extremely good but due to the "balance" adjustement, once you went beyond a given level inflicting more NM hits had limited values (for the Prussian player anyway) since it would get "balanced" out anyway, in exchange of VP and EP, true. In RUS, on the opposite, there was no "NM" won from "external" sources, so it was a "race" to reach 0 (which represents the RCW fairly well). In AJE, when your NM is low, you can increase it back but it is EXTREMELY costly in resources, so it is a real choice for the player between "more NM" and "more money / EP / resources".
I wish I knew what the best strategy is. I tend to believe that, to win, the Populares must cooperate even unformally with the Pontics. Sulla must choose who he wants to fight, but if he is fighting in Italy and Greece he can shift his forces from one to the other easily. For this reason, I believe the Populares must focus on controlling Spain and Alpine Italy first to get both a solid "resource base" Spain and a place to produce the numerous potential Italian legions. He must also hold Rome until Sulla land with massive troops. Once Sulla is there, though, he must avoid fights as much as possible until the Greek situation forces Sulla back to Greece.
Two things :
- Sulla has a massively superior army, so I can really curbstomb the AI when it does not concentrate its troops (sometimes it does, and sometimes, less so)
- In a 3 player games where you are the "middle-guy", you want to get rid of your "first" opponent as soon as possible, lest the other guy has enough to build momentum. For this reason, I basically jump on the Pontics I can beat at the first opportunity. A Caesar vs Pompeius game would be very, very different.
No update today, I am afraid. Tomorrow, maybe ?
Ah ok, I thought an event would immediately fire to unlock them once Vespecian arrived. That said I finished with a minor victory due to arriving at the end of the game having most victory points, I just don't get the pacing of this , at that time I sill hadn't enough morale to unlock the Moesian Legions and I still hadn't crushed the Judeans who had their last stronghold in Petra and yet I was trying to play as quickly as I could. I assume I am missing some mechanics like ordering the persue of armies or stacking several orders (engage that army->attack that city->then go to x place)
I think with the 30 day turns you do need to be prepared to order multiple stages or you can run out of time. I had one group of legions ordered to lift a siege of Damascus (battle) and then retake Palmyra and Dora Europus and move back to Palmyra in the same turn (so all out assault orders so as to take the level 1 forts on the move).
At the start I brought the Alexandrian legions in to Gaza, left one legion on the coast and took the other 2/3 hunting the Jewish army. Once I had cleared them from around Jerusalem I settled down to a siege and put the Alexandrian legions onto Masada. The AI co-operated by counter attacking and by about May the original army was wiped out (= NM) and the fresh revolt was dealt with as above (=NM). I then broke the main forces down into single legion stacks, some held key coastal cities and others spread out sieging (you want a legion in each siege stack both for their own advantage and the siege engines they build).
Then sent Vespesian + 2 legions to Salonika, joined up with a number of odd bits and pieces I had been building there. He arrived in October so just before the bad storms.
Dealing with the revolt plus playing all the NM+ decisions and options, should net you the Moesian legions by about the same time.
Going back to Narwhal's comments, I think that makes the Flavians one of the 'easier' factions, but I'm going to have a go with the Vittelans next (I think Otho is pretty much doomed)
From my experiences with the Populares, around 3 legions are enough to quell the rebellion eventually (but it takes a lot of time, I think I've quelled the rebellion only 2 or 3 turns before the end of the game). I've immediately recruited a 2nd Hispanian legion at the start of the game and later sent one Italian legion there as well. So you actually don't need to commit very large forces to Spain.
Italy is another topic. It's easy to win as the Populares against the AI, but I believe it's very very difficult against a human player. The alae and slave legions are way too weak to be of any real use, and your pool of legions is rather limited.
Africa is an easy theatre as well. Just built your 2 legions there and you can dominate this theatre without much problems, but it again takes time to crush all Numidian forces (at least against the AI, was similar to the Spanish situation).
Interesting AAR by the way! Keep it up!
October 87 – A short respite
October 87 saw little events in Italy, with only a little skirmish as my troops break the siege of Ancona (not worth of a battle report).
My army of “prisoners” popped in the middle of nowhere in the South (beta problem – should be solved by now but did not check), so I am going to merge my legion with it :
In Greece, the Populares embark again, and my moves go unopposed. Not much to say :
There was a battle South of Athens but the image won’t upload and I cannot be bothered to search the save in the dustbin, so let’s say I killed 5 000 Greeks for 1 000 Romans, and they evacuated promptly.
I am now going to try to sink the Populares fleet. Even if I lose ships myself, I want to send the Populares legions to the bottom :
Finally, Lucullus’s silver tongue is useful yet again :
Next target : Sidon.
Beginner’s corner : Victory Points
A really short beginner’s corner on Victory Points (VP).
The main usage of VP is to decide who wins if all the objective cities are not held at the end of the game.
They can be found at 2 places : at the top of the screen, with a detail of the turn variation.
You can also find them in the ledger :
VP can be earned by 4 ways :
- Holding strategic or objective cities cities bring you Victory Points (as well as Engagement Points, as you might remember).
To view the strategic cities, use the strategic filter :
Strategic towns are common to all players and generate EP
Objective towns are not common to all player (a city is “Pontus Objective Town” for instance) and usually bring more VPs.
I never manage to understand how to know how much VPs a specific province brings you.
- Destroy enemy forces, either in surrender and in battle.
In surrender, you have a message like this one :
In battle, you will not have a message, unfortunately.
- Take policies, but at an atrocious costs :
o Reforms allow to exchange 2 EP to have 5 VP, loyaly and some development levels after 9 turns
o Roads and Water & Transport… well, see the previous beginner’s corner, and just avoid them (3 VP in 24 turns, or 10 VP in 36 turns + a steep denarii cost in both cases)
o Public Work allows to exchange 1 EP for 2 VP after 6 turns.
o Urbae allows to exchange 3 EP to have 5 VP and some more development levels after 6 turns
Beginner’s corner : National Morale
The last “resource” we got to see is National Morale, i.e. how willing are your troops to fight.
The National Morale can change due to the following reasons :
- Each military victory can generate NM. The opposing side loses the same number of NM. The “number” of NM won / lost depends on the compared number of element destroyed ; basically if no element were destroyed there will most probably be no NM change.
For instance :
- As above, surrenders will give you NM. The side which surrendered will lose the same amount :
- National Morale can be generated by decisions ; here are the most typical for the Roman factions :
There are different conditions to trigger these decisions, which generate over time (once a year I believe). Here is a small chart :
As you can see, Bread and Games ; but Games are cheaper.
o Triumph and Parade is the best, but you need to have your leader in the capital, instead of leading forces. It generates 2 NM (and 2 EP) at the cost of 50 EP
o Punish generates 1 NM and 25 money at the cost of VP and loyalty. Only usable on the territories your conquered (where you have low loyalty).
- Some units cost national morale to produce, more specifically the Legions (2NM / unit).
So what is National Morale for ?
After some checking, National Morale has no impact on resource production, but increase the speed of production of your troops. See the next Beginner's Corner for an example. The impact is I believe fairly minor.
National Morale has 2 main role in AJE :
- Quite often, you need a minimum National Morale level to trigger some decision. Not in this scenario, though.
- National Morale increases (or decreases if you are low) the maximum cohesion and the cohesion recovery rate of ALL your units, by 5% every 10 NM in either direction.
For instance, an Italian Roman cohort with no experience has 85 in cohesion (non-Italian Roman cohorts have slightly less).
Here is the NM of a cohort at the beginning of the game :
90 NM at the beginning, so a cohesion for cohorts of 85 base cohesion * (1-0,05%) = 80.
Here is the NM in our game, where we are :
59 NM now, so a cohesion for cohorts of 85 * (1-20%) = 68.
October 87 saw little events in Italy, with only a little skirmish as my troops break the siege of Ancona (not worth of a battle report).
My army of “prisoners” popped in the middle of nowhere in the South (beta problem – should be solved by now but did not check), so I am going to merge my legion with it :
In Greece, the Populares embark again, and my moves go unopposed. Not much to say :
There was a battle South of Athens but the image won’t upload and I cannot be bothered to search the save in the dustbin, so let’s say I killed 5 000 Greeks for 1 000 Romans, and they evacuated promptly.
I am now going to try to sink the Populares fleet. Even if I lose ships myself, I want to send the Populares legions to the bottom :
Finally, Lucullus’s silver tongue is useful yet again :
Next target : Sidon.
Beginner’s corner : Victory Points
A really short beginner’s corner on Victory Points (VP).
The main usage of VP is to decide who wins if all the objective cities are not held at the end of the game.
They can be found at 2 places : at the top of the screen, with a detail of the turn variation.
You can also find them in the ledger :
VP can be earned by 4 ways :
- Holding strategic or objective cities cities bring you Victory Points (as well as Engagement Points, as you might remember).
To view the strategic cities, use the strategic filter :
Strategic towns are common to all players and generate EP
Objective towns are not common to all player (a city is “Pontus Objective Town” for instance) and usually bring more VPs.
I never manage to understand how to know how much VPs a specific province brings you.
- Destroy enemy forces, either in surrender and in battle.
In surrender, you have a message like this one :
In battle, you will not have a message, unfortunately.
- Take policies, but at an atrocious costs :
o Reforms allow to exchange 2 EP to have 5 VP, loyaly and some development levels after 9 turns
o Roads and Water & Transport… well, see the previous beginner’s corner, and just avoid them (3 VP in 24 turns, or 10 VP in 36 turns + a steep denarii cost in both cases)
o Public Work allows to exchange 1 EP for 2 VP after 6 turns.
o Urbae allows to exchange 3 EP to have 5 VP and some more development levels after 6 turns
Beginner’s corner : National Morale
The last “resource” we got to see is National Morale, i.e. how willing are your troops to fight.
The National Morale can change due to the following reasons :
- Each military victory can generate NM. The opposing side loses the same number of NM. The “number” of NM won / lost depends on the compared number of element destroyed ; basically if no element were destroyed there will most probably be no NM change.
For instance :
- As above, surrenders will give you NM. The side which surrendered will lose the same amount :
- National Morale can be generated by decisions ; here are the most typical for the Roman factions :
There are different conditions to trigger these decisions, which generate over time (once a year I believe). Here is a small chart :
As you can see, Bread and Games ; but Games are cheaper.
o Triumph and Parade is the best, but you need to have your leader in the capital, instead of leading forces. It generates 2 NM (and 2 EP) at the cost of 50 EP
o Punish generates 1 NM and 25 money at the cost of VP and loyalty. Only usable on the territories your conquered (where you have low loyalty).
- Some units cost national morale to produce, more specifically the Legions (2NM / unit).
So what is National Morale for ?
After some checking, National Morale has no impact on resource production, but increase the speed of production of your troops. See the next Beginner's Corner for an example. The impact is I believe fairly minor.
National Morale has 2 main role in AJE :
- Quite often, you need a minimum National Morale level to trigger some decision. Not in this scenario, though.
- National Morale increases (or decreases if you are low) the maximum cohesion and the cohesion recovery rate of ALL your units, by 5% every 10 NM in either direction.
For instance, an Italian Roman cohort with no experience has 85 in cohesion (non-Italian Roman cohorts have slightly less).
Here is the NM of a cohort at the beginning of the game :
90 NM at the beginning, so a cohesion for cohorts of 85 base cohesion * (1-0,05%) = 80.
Here is the NM in our game, where we are :
59 NM now, so a cohesion for cohorts of 85 * (1-20%) = 68.
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Remember in this scenario the Optimates will lose Rome on the second turn costing them 25 morale, pushing them to about 65 or less because of the loss of Byzantium, etc.
At 60 morale you will lose battles that you would not lose at 100 morale.
The Optimates are not as overpowered as many think.
Mike
At 60 morale you will lose battles that you would not lose at 100 morale.
The Optimates are not as overpowered as many think.
Mike
Great as always Narwhal and loki!
Really impressive what you two can do not only on your own, but also together!
Really impressive what you two can do not only on your own, but also together!
They can gain bout 10 morale on the first turn back by butchering the pontus forces in Greece and capuring Thebes/Athens (depending on where the pontus force moves).
Despite this, NM is in fact quite easy to recover by decision and, more significantly, by battle. Sulla, with some easy early victories against the Pontics in Greece will morph into a 6-7-7 slaughter machine, and become pretty much unstoppable. In a recent game I found that, with a few exceptions to recover cohesion, I NEVER needed to rest Sulla to recover casualties, and he smashed everything I threw him at. This includes a Pontic Horde of about 110,000 which suffered about 20,000 casualties for about 4000 of 33,000 Romans in Nicomedia once he effortlessly cleaned Greece up. That's equivalent to more NM that you need to recover. And let's be honest about the Populares forces in Italy, those social legions are godawful pushovers. Defeating them and recovering Rome are not all too difficult, unless the Populares abandon Hispania entirely.
I get the impression that, for the Populares, the game is definitively over whenever Sulla finishes in the east and moves west, though against the AI I managed to use the forces present in Italia, plus additional constructed legions, to eliminate the Populares presence in Italia and Sicilia before Sulla could move west. I quickly lost as the Populares in an earlier campaign.
Loki100 is off climbing some mountains in some place in Scotland. Sorry, I cannot be more accurate. I also like to imagine he is having some sauna in the evening with exotic ladies, but don't quote me on that.
In any case, he was kind enough to send me the AAR so I could post it.
So, without further a-do [the title is mine]
October 87 - the (Beta) bug that the Optimates preyed upon
Well my hope that I was going to be able to hold Tarraco for any length of time was dashed when it all surrendered.
All I can now do with Spain is to use it as a base for requisitions and related decisions.
Back in Italy, my attempt to capture Narwhal’s port at Ariminum fails but at least I set up a siege.
However, my only hope now is to secure north and central Italy as a safe place to build up a fresh army.
However, my attempt to siege Ancona is driven off.
Just to make it clear how important it is that I win, the evil Sullans sell people into slavery.
And retake Brundisium due to a bug.
In view of this, I abandon my attempt to take Dyrrachium and decide to go for the easier targets of a number of level 1 forts around Corcyra. Ideally, I’d like to build up a small enclave which will give me some manoeuvre space.
In any case, he was kind enough to send me the AAR so I could post it.
So, without further a-do [the title is mine]
October 87 - the (Beta) bug that the Optimates preyed upon
Well my hope that I was going to be able to hold Tarraco for any length of time was dashed when it all surrendered.
All I can now do with Spain is to use it as a base for requisitions and related decisions.
Back in Italy, my attempt to capture Narwhal’s port at Ariminum fails but at least I set up a siege.
However, my only hope now is to secure north and central Italy as a safe place to build up a fresh army.
However, my attempt to siege Ancona is driven off.
Just to make it clear how important it is that I win, the evil Sullans sell people into slavery.
And retake Brundisium due to a bug.
In view of this, I abandon my attempt to take Dyrrachium and decide to go for the easier targets of a number of level 1 forts around Corcyra. Ideally, I’d like to build up a small enclave which will give me some manoeuvre space.
November 87 – Frustrations in Greece
November 87 was a fairly frustrating month, with the Pontics evading battles by I don’t know which miracles.
The Archaleos force was invisible last turn because the Romans have abysmal scouting abilities. It actually fled East and not West last turn. That other Greek force evaded combat, but I have no idea how.
Meanwhile, as you can see, the Populares have landed in one of my islands ; and my fleet, instead of intercepting them, went right into the port. Sad.
Oh well, I am going to vent my rage out the Legionary way :
In Italy, not much happens, but I am going to detach a legion to “test” Cinna’s force up North :
Finally, Lucullus cannot convince the Phoenicians :
Next (and last) target : the Ptolemeics !
Beginner’s corner : Building troops
There are two different type of troops you can build :
- New units
- Replacements
New units
There are 3 ways to obtain new units :
- Events that give you new units, no much you can do to change this,
- By using “reinforcement decisions” in the ledger.
The game uses “decision” to create troops that are not native from a region you own – “mercenaries” so to say : Iberian archers in this case, but also Gallic soldiers or Germanic cavalry for Rome, for instance. In general, the cost in EP is very high compared to the troops you recruit, but it can still be worth it.
- By building troops by going in the “recruitment mode” :
Here is the recruitment mode. If you click on a unit, you will see the cost in the tooltip, and in green where you can build it. There are declinations of the same unit, this is due to the fact that there is a limit of the number of unit of a given type and a given region you can have.
For instance, in this scenario, the Populares can have 7 additional Italian Legions, 1 additional African Legion, 1 additional Sicilian Legion and 2 additional African Legions. If any of these legions (or the ones “already” built at the beginning of the game) are wiped out, a new one can be built to replace it.
Also note that units with the same name but different origins are not always the same – for instance Italian Legions are better than any other non-Italian legions (not a huge difference, but significant nonetheless). The differences between non-Roman troops from different areas is much more significant.
Once you have made your choice, just drag and drop :
You will see on the tooltip that there is delay before the unit is built.
The delay you see is indicative. For instance, if I pass one turn :
It could have gone both ways, and it can be significant as in this case.
Also note that in making this Beginner’s Corner I discovered that NM accelerates or slows down the production speed. I am going to correct my previous beginner’s corner ASAP.
Replacements
Replacements (or replacement chits) are independant « elements » kept in reserve that can allow to replenish the Strength of existing elements or actually put back a full element to an unit that would have lost one.
The available replacements are in the ledger :
What interests us is the bottom right quarter. Here, you can see the different nationality in your forces, and for each nationality a list of symbol which represents the different type of “elements” this nationality has in your force.
In our example, the Socii (Italian cities) forces have heavy infantry, light infantry, militia / garrison, cavalry and HQ elements. Note that heavy infantry include both Legionary cohorts and auxiliaries. It has a low level of detail.
The number above is how many strength points are lacking, and the number at the bottom is how many “elements” are available. Note that the two numbers does not have to match. I believe a good rule is 1 element for 10 strength points lacking, but I am not sure (I will update if I ever am).
The second number in parenthesis is how much you want to produce this turn. The production is immediate (they will be used between the turn you produce them and next turn, if possible).
So how to build some elements ?
- The easiest way is to directly produce them by clicking on it :
- The second way is to wait for random events :
Not much you can do again.
- The third way is to have “special places” : caserns, commercial ports, … :
These effects always happen at a precise date. For instance, Commercial ports (transport ships) give their money and chits in April, Naval base (warships) in May and December...
.
As a final note, for the nationality of replacements, all the Roman factions use the “ROM” nationality, except their HQ for some reason, which uses their “faction” nationality (i.e. “Populares”, “Optimates”, “Otho”, …). This does not change anything – if you want to reinforce the HQ in your legion, just build “Populares” (for instance) HQ.
November 87 was a fairly frustrating month, with the Pontics evading battles by I don’t know which miracles.
The Archaleos force was invisible last turn because the Romans have abysmal scouting abilities. It actually fled East and not West last turn. That other Greek force evaded combat, but I have no idea how.
Meanwhile, as you can see, the Populares have landed in one of my islands ; and my fleet, instead of intercepting them, went right into the port. Sad.
Oh well, I am going to vent my rage out the Legionary way :
In Italy, not much happens, but I am going to detach a legion to “test” Cinna’s force up North :
Finally, Lucullus cannot convince the Phoenicians :
Next (and last) target : the Ptolemeics !
Beginner’s corner : Building troops
There are two different type of troops you can build :
- New units
- Replacements
New units
There are 3 ways to obtain new units :
- Events that give you new units, no much you can do to change this,
- By using “reinforcement decisions” in the ledger.
The game uses “decision” to create troops that are not native from a region you own – “mercenaries” so to say : Iberian archers in this case, but also Gallic soldiers or Germanic cavalry for Rome, for instance. In general, the cost in EP is very high compared to the troops you recruit, but it can still be worth it.
- By building troops by going in the “recruitment mode” :
Here is the recruitment mode. If you click on a unit, you will see the cost in the tooltip, and in green where you can build it. There are declinations of the same unit, this is due to the fact that there is a limit of the number of unit of a given type and a given region you can have.
For instance, in this scenario, the Populares can have 7 additional Italian Legions, 1 additional African Legion, 1 additional Sicilian Legion and 2 additional African Legions. If any of these legions (or the ones “already” built at the beginning of the game) are wiped out, a new one can be built to replace it.
Also note that units with the same name but different origins are not always the same – for instance Italian Legions are better than any other non-Italian legions (not a huge difference, but significant nonetheless). The differences between non-Roman troops from different areas is much more significant.
Once you have made your choice, just drag and drop :
You will see on the tooltip that there is delay before the unit is built.
The delay you see is indicative. For instance, if I pass one turn :
It could have gone both ways, and it can be significant as in this case.
Also note that in making this Beginner’s Corner I discovered that NM accelerates or slows down the production speed. I am going to correct my previous beginner’s corner ASAP.
Replacements
Replacements (or replacement chits) are independant « elements » kept in reserve that can allow to replenish the Strength of existing elements or actually put back a full element to an unit that would have lost one.
The available replacements are in the ledger :
What interests us is the bottom right quarter. Here, you can see the different nationality in your forces, and for each nationality a list of symbol which represents the different type of “elements” this nationality has in your force.
In our example, the Socii (Italian cities) forces have heavy infantry, light infantry, militia / garrison, cavalry and HQ elements. Note that heavy infantry include both Legionary cohorts and auxiliaries. It has a low level of detail.
The number above is how many strength points are lacking, and the number at the bottom is how many “elements” are available. Note that the two numbers does not have to match. I believe a good rule is 1 element for 10 strength points lacking, but I am not sure (I will update if I ever am).
The second number in parenthesis is how much you want to produce this turn. The production is immediate (they will be used between the turn you produce them and next turn, if possible).
So how to build some elements ?
- The easiest way is to directly produce them by clicking on it :
- The second way is to wait for random events :
Not much you can do again.
- The third way is to have “special places” : caserns, commercial ports, … :
These effects always happen at a precise date. For instance, Commercial ports (transport ships) give their money and chits in April, Naval base (warships) in May and December...
.
As a final note, for the nationality of replacements, all the Roman factions use the “ROM” nationality, except their HQ for some reason, which uses their “faction” nationality (i.e. “Populares”, “Optimates”, “Otho”, …). This does not change anything – if you want to reinforce the HQ in your legion, just build “Populares” (for instance) HQ.
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