Gustavia’s Gazette: Atlantis Reborn

Well, this is one exciting Adventure.

It is kinda like a card game, you never know what cards you will be dealt and someone keeps raising the stakes.

Cleitos-1st episode

Hard times have fallen on Atlantis. Food and goods are difficult to come by and its people struggle to survive. And so will you, my friend.

You are to found a great city called Cleitos. It is a huge map with the sea open to the north, a small island that can be bridged, a delta of islands and swamps, and a river that splits the land masses. The river offers no outlet to the sea. On the south side are some elevated areas, a black marble quarry and an orchard.

I began my city on the northern side and took advantage of the cove and areas to build trading docks and some urchin gatherers. Choose carefully, there arent enough places. You only have 4000 drachmae on Hero level to start with, it will not go very far. You Atlantean friends might help, but dont rely on them too much – they have problems of their own.

You can produce urchins and oranges, so you shouldnt be hungry. Other goods Cleitos can produce are wood and black marble, but no one wants those goods. You will have to buy, beg, borrow or steal fleece and oil. You could produce sculpture or armor, but bronze is explensive. Ahh.. wineries. Now, where to get some cheap grapes? I started with producing wine, surely someone will want it sooner or later and decided to worry about the oil later. Wouldnt hurt to set one woodcutter to work, they produce a lot and surely you will need it for the frigates if you can figure out how to get the armor.

The first round of tributes come too quick, but be prepared for the next year. Perhaps Memphis would give you some wheat to get a decent population going. Try to import just enough bronze to make the required 9 armor for the 3 frigates. Dont forget you will have to have a palace to commission the ships, and even if you send the workers home, it still takes 100 ill-clad workers to build the ships. I think I bought fleece at 2 units a time, it is so expensive.

Mestonia begins relations with the world and will buy the wine. So will Carthage, which I had overlooked. Dock space is so limited, I put my wine and future oil industry (hoping I could have one) together and hoped for the best.

After a few years, you should have the frigates and be able to stay alive financially. Gades shows up and will buy the black marble across the river. They will also buy wine, but it is hard to make much off only 12 bunches of grapes a year. Dont neglect your food, plant oranges when you get a chance.

Folks in Residences are required to complete this. They dont have to have armor or wine, but plenty of Science. Remember, this is to be a grand city, so plan ahead for a big Elite area. Later you will need horses and chariots and you dont want to be doing urban renewal later on. Place your science buildings before you place the Elites, they wont move in without them. You might be able to beg a bit of oil, but be sure you can buy the next go-round. Nothing worse than devolving houses.

I didnt build any of the monuments, and no scary monsters came out of the swamps.

My, my. We can press oil now, how nice. Of course, now that we can, the price has fallen. And we can make chariots and do horses for our newly built Elite neighborhood.

Cleitos-2nd Episode

Atlantis is able to trade and will buy oil if we can find the olives. Syracuse sells olives, and Memphis decides it will too. Get busy with some income producing industries. You can use your frigates to regulate employment, if you dont want to use them to raid or attack Carthage early and get it over with.

Fleece gets hard to come by. Finally Lixus will sell you some, hope you didnt run out. And best news, they will also buy your oil. Saqqara announces it will sell bronze, too, if you can afford it. If so, make some armor and start distributing it to the Elites. The armor vendor always looks busy, but he takes forever to get around to all the houses.

There is a little pyramid to build. It needs white marble, black marble and this new stuff, orchalic, which you have to get from Atlantis. They might give you some. I asked and paid them back with wood, which they werent thrilled about, but it worked. Dont run the road over that little pad at the pyramid, just run the road in front of it. Seems to work better that way.

When you have the housing goals, and a few supplies stocked up, start hitting Carthage. Shouldnt take too long. If you rely on a vassal or ally to help, they will stay mad a lot longer than in Zeus. Takes two or three gifts to get them back on your side.