The Fabled Land, custom world occasional AAR

[gwgardner]

This AAR will generally report on major events, in a custom world setting. Custom maps are just one of the many features of Aggressors that I think will have me returning back to play it for years to come. Playing Legendary difficulty, I'm not at all sure how long my country will last before the AI clobbers me, but who knows ....

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I'm also using the slow research and food mod done by Eddieballgame. I subscribed to that on Steam (check the workshop for the description of it) and selected it in the setup.

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[gwgardner]

I want a huge world, few players, starting from nothing. I like the early buildup of a civilization before encountering possible enemies and having to go to war. I'm not giving myself any advantages EXCEPT making sure that the playing field is even at start. All the factions will start with the same govt (despotic) and no advantages in resources.

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[gwgardner]

The way I understand it, the research and food mod does this:

1) costs less citizens to build settlers and nomads;
2) the turn by turn spoilage/wastage of unused food is lessened;
3) doubles the research times.

I stand to be corrected if needed.

[gwgardner]

I start off with one nomad, a fertile land with good resources, next to the coast, or a lake. Some jungles and forests, but also some good agricultural possibilities.

[gwgardner]

The horde of wanderers will wander no more. Men, women and children, with all their carts and baggage have settled down by a lake.

[gwgardner]

I'll have to keep a close watch on food and wood resources, at the current birthrate.

Time to develope this first city, then send out explorers and settlers.

[eddieballgame]

The way I understand it, the research and food mod does this:

1) costs less citizens to build settlers and nomads;
2) the turn by turn spoilage/wastage of unused food is lessened;
3) doubles the research times.

I stand to be corrected if needed.

Plus...costs 2 food to produce a Nomad & 4 food to produce a Settler.

[gwgardner]

[player's note: The Legendary difficulty defeated me repeatedly, early game, in conjunction with the food mod I'm using. Same map, so now I've gone to Hard difficulty and am proceeding well. Legendary has very restrictive resource production comparatively.]

558

The continent turned out to be a fairly large island. Not what I had hoped. Lots of scrub and some desert too, but the Valensiyans are making the most of it, and now crossing over to another land to the north.

For the last 10 years Spartan raiding parties have been harassing the southeast coast. Sparta is still an undiscovered land, so it's been a completely defensive fight so far. Their raids are all cavalry probes so far, so have been merely harassing.

[gwgardner]

Life is not good in the Fabled Land! At least for my country.

A perrenial lack of coal and iron has stymied progress in the absence of trade. Trouble is, the countries I've discovered, other than Sparta, will not trade with me. Probably a side-effect of going Legendary difficulty at the start. I'm guessing that although I went to HARD, by modding the save file, that the AI players are still at a higher level - that's just a guess.

Secondarily, my research is slow, due to the research and food mod, so I haven't gotten the advances needed to economize on blacksmithing, city economics, ets.

I was about to call it a loss, when I thought - what if I try one last thing: I have lots of gold, and a bit of influence, so if I could take over another country's city, it just might be near a coal or iron mine, and maybe I could snatch that.

Due to the lack of resources, an earthquake and a plage that have occured over the last 200 years, my people are surprisingly happy, but getting less so, and constantly demanding a change of government. One city completely rebelled and the people migrated away due to the chronic loss of iron and coal.

So its 217 turns in, and here's the map of my country:

[gwgardner]

The tactic worked, as far as taking Epiran cities. But I didn't get the nearby mines. However, the Epirans did open up their trade. Their attitude abruptly changes, though, so trouble is brewing.

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[gwgardner]

Unfortunately, Epirus decided not to just sit there and take it. I only had time and resources to build nomads in the newly converted cities, and Epiran cavalry and a phalanx unit have hit hard, taking back two of the cities.

I have changed the specialization of the remaining two cities to build melee forces, but now have insufficient iron to build any.

Sparta is giving me as much as they can through trade, but they're at war with Epirus too.

[gwgardner]

A year later, and Epirus has driven one more nail in my coffin. The four cities that were briefly Valensiyan, have seen the light (aided by Epiran soldiers) and reverted to Epiran control. To make matters worse, it all happened so quick and the Epirans have looted Valensiyan resource stores even more.

My influence capability is lost. It seems that my last hope for a revival is to get some trade going with one of the other powers besides Sparta.

My birthrate slider is at zero.

[gwgardner]

This is more a test than an AAR now, as I play more turns to check out the dynamics of the Aggressors system, vis-a-vis resource scarcity, trade, diplomacy, burdens on the resources.

Another 100 turns, in which I have survived through trade, as a few more of the other factions have become visible. If any of my trade partners renege I'm in trouble again. What is apparent is that with the setup options I chose, all the factions are struggling to get coal, iron, and stones, or a couple of each anyway. They're all begging for food and wood, both of which I have in abundance. I also have plenty of gold as I found four gold mines on my second island.

When I squandered my influence to take the Epiran cities (see above) if only I had prepared first, to send in a couple of warriors immediately, I could perhaps have held on to that.

Right now I'm begging for a partner, a federation ideally. With the setup options I chose, no faction is interested. If nothing changes in the current dynamics over the next 100 years or so, I'll call it the end. However, if just one opening appears - a federation, or I can save enough resources for a couple of boats, and a small invasion force, I'll try the influence gambit again.

The setup options in this game, in all their variety, make replayability skyrocket. If in this current game of mine, one option, or one tweak to the research and food mod, and it would all be so different.

Oh yeah, I've built philosophy academies in all my cities, so if I can push ahead of the other factions that way, it's another possible way out of this morass.

[gwgardner]

340 years into the history of the Fabled Land, and the Valensiyans have been holding their own, using trade to stay afloat, just barely, and fighting off primarily the Aduaeins. No other country will yet ally with me, beyond Brother-In-Arms. But now I am researching economical cities, and think that will finally set me towards being able to build an invasion force.

[gwgardner]

A hundred years of diplomacy with the Ardueai has finally accomplished a federation. We had good trade for many years, good relations, but they stubbornly refused to listen to my entreaties. Finally, with Bospran attacking from the south into Ardueain territory, we succeeded.

Almost 400 turns in, we now have the capability to improve all our cities, reducing resource usage, and with Ardueai's mines now under control, perhaps we can finally go positive in resource production.

It's been an epic, slow struggle, EXACTLY what I always tried to achieve with CIV, but the AI in CIV was just not good enough to ever give a real competition. In this game, after 400 turns, I'm just really beginning to advance. 65% of the world hasn't even been explored yet. Bospran looks to have a large navy. The struggle goes on.

[gwgardner]

Year 307

A year after the Ardueai federated with Valensiya, the Ptolemies have seen the wisdom of such an alliance against the Bosprans, and done the same.

Still, we have only 3 iron mines and 4 coal mines. Trade is limited. Ability to build is limited. So it's going to be a time of consilidation and defense, rather than offense.

[gwgardner]

I played to 293, after getting the federations with two other factions, but was just hammered through all those 10 or so years by the Arduei. My resource picture never really improved, because all my possible trading partners were also getting hammered.

Finally I clicked alt-a, to look at the map, and:

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So this is what happens when it takes your country 400 years to just survive, to the point where you THINK you have a chance to advance ... uh, no - seems Arduei was not idle through all those years, and took over ALL the rest of the world.

So I concede defeat to the AI. Again.

Well, it was all about testing the food and research mod, and choosing to play on Legendary. Which I soon changed to Hard. Those two big factors combined were too much for me. If I use the mod again, I will play on Medium, or even Easy.

Now don't think I'm disappointed. This great game is a constant challenge. This time it was a marathon of survival, testing my abilities to find one way or another to go on ONE MORE TURN. I'm off to try it again, with different settings.

[eddieballgame]

Impressive that your patience sustained you this long. You, certainly, put the mod to the test.

[devoncop]

What a great AAR.

This has inspired me to maybe repurchase Aggressors soon after buying on release but I refunded due to not being able to get my head around the UI and the intricacies of the multiple mechanics.

The AI seems more than competent and the replayability infinite.

Reviews are overwhelmingly positive and the engagement of the developer is unparalleled in my experience.

Sometimes in life we screw up. It seems in not giving this more of a chance I have screwed up (again)

Thanks again for the AAR.