Hello everyone.
It's been a month since we last streamed and it is high time for us to return to the battlefield to meet our enemies. Join me this Wednesday for the eight developer stream of the Age of Alexander campaign as Hellas.
The last episode was really tense and full of events so let's do a quick recap.
We started the last stream with an ambitious plan for a quick military campaign into the heart of Persia, but this was turned upside down on the first turn of the offensive. It all started with the loss of two of our biremes that were returning home from the "conquer the stone quarry" operation. It was not worth the risk after all. A massive Persian attack not only destroyed the ships but also a very experienced unit of hoplites that went down with them.
At the same time the Persians launched a counterattack on land as well. A number of experienced and fresh units penetrated the region we controlled in Anatolia causing significant losses to our garrison units. It not only stopped our advance but made us consider leaving the border towns completely. Eventually thanks to some of the tactical decisions and a well-handled defense we were able to hold the line there. Truth be said though, luck was on our side during two very strong assaults on our hoplite unit. The casualties and exhaustion of our units made any further advance impossible for now.
The only achievement of the last episode was the conquest of Xanthos, a small city near the border in southern Anatolia. Now, we have to concentrate on the consolidation of our conquests and get our units back in shape; only after that can we proceed with our attack on Persia.
Fighting however was not taking place only in Anatolia. The Persians cleverly disembarked on the coast of Sicily and in southern Italy. Both regions had poor defenses as we did not expect enemy attacks there. In Italy, the Persian armies besieged Rhegion, causing a significant drop in the morale of local citizens. Luckily, we were able to replenish storehouses the very next turn when our navy created a supply bridge. The only way to stop the enemy advance was the destruction of their supply vessels. Our action bore fruit as we eventually succeeded in taking back the Sicilian territories and forced one of the attacking Persian units to build a town called Sybaris in order to keep their units supplied. We can say that this was an utter military failure for the Persians.
Our military command also had to deal with the unexpected appearance of Kardakes units on the battlefield, a third tier of Persian military units. We have seen only one of these super strong units so far, but the presence of other heavy infantry units could considerably change the balance of power in the region.
On the bright side, we have finally cleared up the Aegean Sea and except for a couple of Spartan "boats" it should now be quite safe for our ships.
Economically, we kept up good progress, making our blacksmiths even more efficient by building specialized improvements. We have also progressed with building paved roads which increases the overall resource production. Apart from that, we built a Philosophy school in Miletos in Anatolia, which should appease the local citizenry.
An interesting proposal was made by the Roman Republic, offering us a federation! We accepted and took central and northern Italy under our wings. The Roman army consisted of a number of army units, but most of them were second-rate types and the better ones were damaged, so a considerable amount of time and resources will be required to get the Roman military back in shape. Technologically, the Romans were less developed, so they could only benefit from the union with us.
We built several temples in their land, repositioned some of the blacksmiths to better locations and started building paved roads.
Last but not least, we moved the regional capital in Italy from Sipontum to Rome. Rome is not only bigger but has a better position, making it a better candidate for a regional capital. Plus, it should appease some of the Romans, who were not entirely happy about the newly created federation.
In the next episode, we hope to come back to our plans to advance into the Persian heartland.
Due to our federation agreement with the Romans, we entered into war with the Spartans. They control Crete and other small islands in the Aegean Sea and we will try to make a final and decisive move against them.
In Italy, we will accelerate our economic reforms and once the Roman army is ready for action, we should subjugate the wild tribes around the Alps.
As always, Pavel will be happy to answer your questions during the stream so please join in Wednesday 16th on our Twitch channel.
See you there!
Yours,
Kube Games team.
P.S. Here is the last episode in case you missed it.