Pictes and Caledonians (probably stopping) turn 200 (SP, balanced)
Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2019 7:26 pm
I haven't finished this game, but I wanted to post this because I think the Pictes are a nice faction to learn the game with. I have loved this game so far. But, my empire has become a bit unwieldy and basically what is left in the game is a huge war with Rome which I'm not terribly excited about. I will break this into a few posts and none of them will be very detailed. I played a few early battles in Field of Glory 2, but because the Pictes basically start with hordes of medium infantry that aren't very effective in Field of Glory 2 and I was playing battles that I was going to lose, I found this frustrating. So after about turn 10, I just played all the battles in Empires. In this first post, I will describe my starting objectives etc.
The setup: The Pictes and Caledonians are a "Remarkable Faction" located in present-day Scotland. This is about as remote of a location as possible. They start the game in Civilization level one (complete with civil wars when a leader dies). Most of their units have bonuses in hills and mountains and the early ones are better on offense than defense, but by the middle of the game when you reach civilization level 3 their units are rather unremarkable (and you are looking jealously at those Roman legions).
A screenshot of the opening position:
The plan: Being isolated, I planned to pursue a strategy of sitting out of the way and building up resources until there was a good opportunity to strike into Europe. (This is akin to the Australia strategy in Risk.) Maybe spend a couple hundred turns conquering the British Isles and building up a nice economy. However, things didn't go that way...
The early turns (1-100): I formed the province CALEDONIA around my starting position by scooping up neutral territories. And I felt pretty good about myself and ready to settle in an build up toward an eventual invasion of England etc. Now the current occupants of England were two tribes the Brigantes and Brittannae who were at war almost from the start. The Brittannae won the war by around turn 15 and I considered what would happen next. The Brittannae had twice as large a population as me and more territories and room to expand. But we currently had similar armies and resources, though I noticed he was out of manpower. I realized my position was likely to get worse in the coming turns, so I went ahead and went to war with him. We fought a tough war for about 10 turns and somewhere in there one of us had a rebellion and the Brigantes re-emerged basically between our territories. All three of us were at war with each other, so I retreated north and sued for peace while they fought with each other for the next 20 turns.
I had 5 objectives in HIBERNIA (Ireland), so I conquered that. There was a bit of tough fighting but eventually I broke the bank buying reinforcements and overwhelmed the native Hibernii. Once HIBERNIA was pacified, I brought my armies back to the main island. And I was just in time to find the Brigantes on the ropes a second time. So, I declared war on him and took his capital. I allied with the Venitii and Belgae who were the closest tribes in the European mainland (more on this much later) in hopes they would help me in some way (which they didn't). And I fought another long difficult war with the Brittannae. But, by turn 70 or so, I had won. Just in time to fight a civil war for 5 turns. And then spent 30 turns conquering neutrals in the British Isles, pacifying rebels, and trying to root out Druid Hideouts. Those druid hideouts must have caused 5 rebellions before I wiped them out. I had almost all of my objectives which eventually propelled me to civilization level 2.
A screenshot of my position at Turn 103 (I am in the top left, but notice Macedonia in the bottom right):
So, by turn 100 I have conquered the British Isles and gotten past the civil war stage and I feel like I'm right on track to follow my strategy. The nations in France and Germany are all at war with each other and just constantly fighting, getting eliminated, and re-emerging from rebellions. So, maybe I'll have a good chance to relax and build up my economy. Up next, I check the legacy scoreboard.
The setup: The Pictes and Caledonians are a "Remarkable Faction" located in present-day Scotland. This is about as remote of a location as possible. They start the game in Civilization level one (complete with civil wars when a leader dies). Most of their units have bonuses in hills and mountains and the early ones are better on offense than defense, but by the middle of the game when you reach civilization level 3 their units are rather unremarkable (and you are looking jealously at those Roman legions).
A screenshot of the opening position:
The plan: Being isolated, I planned to pursue a strategy of sitting out of the way and building up resources until there was a good opportunity to strike into Europe. (This is akin to the Australia strategy in Risk.) Maybe spend a couple hundred turns conquering the British Isles and building up a nice economy. However, things didn't go that way...
The early turns (1-100): I formed the province CALEDONIA around my starting position by scooping up neutral territories. And I felt pretty good about myself and ready to settle in an build up toward an eventual invasion of England etc. Now the current occupants of England were two tribes the Brigantes and Brittannae who were at war almost from the start. The Brittannae won the war by around turn 15 and I considered what would happen next. The Brittannae had twice as large a population as me and more territories and room to expand. But we currently had similar armies and resources, though I noticed he was out of manpower. I realized my position was likely to get worse in the coming turns, so I went ahead and went to war with him. We fought a tough war for about 10 turns and somewhere in there one of us had a rebellion and the Brigantes re-emerged basically between our territories. All three of us were at war with each other, so I retreated north and sued for peace while they fought with each other for the next 20 turns.
I had 5 objectives in HIBERNIA (Ireland), so I conquered that. There was a bit of tough fighting but eventually I broke the bank buying reinforcements and overwhelmed the native Hibernii. Once HIBERNIA was pacified, I brought my armies back to the main island. And I was just in time to find the Brigantes on the ropes a second time. So, I declared war on him and took his capital. I allied with the Venitii and Belgae who were the closest tribes in the European mainland (more on this much later) in hopes they would help me in some way (which they didn't). And I fought another long difficult war with the Brittannae. But, by turn 70 or so, I had won. Just in time to fight a civil war for 5 turns. And then spent 30 turns conquering neutrals in the British Isles, pacifying rebels, and trying to root out Druid Hideouts. Those druid hideouts must have caused 5 rebellions before I wiped them out. I had almost all of my objectives which eventually propelled me to civilization level 2.
A screenshot of my position at Turn 103 (I am in the top left, but notice Macedonia in the bottom right):
So, by turn 100 I have conquered the British Isles and gotten past the civil war stage and I feel like I'm right on track to follow my strategy. The nations in France and Germany are all at war with each other and just constantly fighting, getting eliminated, and re-emerging from rebellions. So, maybe I'll have a good chance to relax and build up my economy. Up next, I check the legacy scoreboard.