I really really enjoy this game and like all of the aspects of the game (I would though) have liked the landscape to be a little more different. It all looks the same atleast in the begining were I am. Will that change?

Anyways, I have about 10 cities and for a while everything worked fine, but my logistics has gone totally wrong. I'm out of food and I have tried to optimize supplylines, but I still get foodshortage. I have read the manual but I can't seem to get a solution from there. So what consumes food in a city? does an army not present in the city consume food from it's homecity?

Please advise me! :)

Tx, in advance

I really really enjoy this game and like all of the aspects of the game (I would though) have liked the landscape to be a little more different. It all looks the same atleast in the begining were I am. Will that change?

Anyways, I have about 10 cities and for a while everything worked fine, but my logistics has gone totally wrong. I'm out of food and I have tried to optimize supplylines, but I still get foodshortage. I have read the manual but I can't seem to get a solution from there. So what consumes food in a city? does an army not present in the city consume food from it's homecity?

Please advise me! :)

Tx, in advance

Mmmm... i'd say you simply have too many troops... i've never consumed all of my food... disband units you don't need (especially in your native or friendly cities as there is no risk of revolt)...

I highly doubt that you entire country is out of food. Unless you randomly decided to invade the Chalcidice penninsula first you should have more than enough food after your first Autumn.

Some possibilities:

1) Are you conntecting your farms to your cities?
2) Are you sure the problem isn't just that your food isn't moving to the front as fast as your eating it, and you do actually have ample food supplies back home?
3)Have you played 12 game years without attacking or getting any troops killed?
4) Are you just letting Athenians roam your territory indiscriminatly burning your farms?

I highly doubt that you entire country is out of food. Unless you randomly decided to invade the Chalcidice penninsula first you should have more than enough food after your first Autumn.

Some possibilities:

1) Are you conntecting your farms to your cities?
2) Are you sure the problem isn't just that your food isn't moving to the front as fast as your eating it, and you do actually have ample food supplies back home?
3)Have you played 12 game years without attacking or getting any troops killed?
4) Are you just letting Athenians roam your territory indiscriminatly burning your farms?

1) Yes, I'm connecting farms to my cities
2) I do have food supplies at some sities, but up til 6 cities in a row have run out of food, but how can I move food farther away and closer to the front?
3) No I'm constantly being attacked :)
4) No I try to defend before they get so far.

At the boarders close to the enemies, how many troops do You have to defend each town?

Just for question, will the surrounding areas look different to the starting point or will it look more or less the same?

2) I do have food supplies at some sities, but up til 6 cities in a row have run out of food, but how can I move food farther away and closer to the front?

Use slaves or workers (they don't consume food) to move food if the roads aren't moving fast enough. Though with only 10 cities I wonder if you don't have too many troops. The more Troops you have the more food eaten. Plus you can upgrade the roads to move supplies faster.

2) I do have food supplies at some sities, but up til 6 cities in a row have run out of food, but how can I move food farther away and closer to the front?

Use slaves or workers (they don't consume food) to move food if the roads aren't moving fast enough. Though with only 10 cities I wonder if you don't have too many troops. The more Troops you have the more food eaten. Plus you can upgrade the roads to move supplies faster.

True, how many troops do You have at each city where enemies are boardering?

You don't need many troops to defend your cities, at least not in each one, walls are a powerful defense and can hold long enough for reinforcements to cover a lot of road (remember, AI doesn't use ballistas). At this point, I suppose you have the "core" Macedon cities, with Pella and Edomene bordering in the east, Eordaea and Elimea to the west, and perhaps Olooson and Heraklea Lyncestis south and north. This is by far the worst situation you'll face in the entire campaign, as you have enemies on all borders and by sea, and pretty much no "safe" cities you can leave unguarded (except Almopia).

You have some options, i'd suggest this: keep 1 spearmen in each city, plus some tactically positioned groups that can defend a whole area (1 phalangite and 1 or 2 peltasts): 1 in Pella, 1 in Emathia, 1 in Heraklea and 1 in Elimea/Olooson. One of these groups, covered by city walls turrets, can fend off pretty much *any* assault you'll face at this point. Also, one such group will eat roughly 20 food/week when not deployed, a bit more than what a single farm will produce over a year.

Also, i'd suggest you head south first. There are lots of farms held by Tyrants of Pherae and their foes, the Amphytrion League, and many cities there will become friendly once conquered.

(remember, AI doesn't use ballistas)
They do eventually. I found it happening about the time of Thebes. But yes in the beginning those are great tactics. By the time you have to deal with ballistas you get food flowing nicely.

You don't need many troops to defend your cities, at least not in each one, walls are a powerful defense and can hold long enough for reinforcements to cover a lot of road (remember, AI doesn't use ballistas). At this point, I suppose you have the "core" Macedon cities, with Pella and Edomene bordering in the east, Eordaea and Elimea to the west, and perhaps Olooson and Heraklea Lyncestis south and north. This is by far the worst situation you'll face in the entire campaign, as you have enemies on all borders and by sea, and pretty much no "safe" cities you can leave unguarded (except Almopia).

You have some options, i'd suggest this: keep 1 spearmen in each city, plus some tactically positioned groups that can defend a whole area (1 phalangite and 1 or 2 peltasts): 1 in Pella, 1 in Emathia, 1 in Heraklea and 1 in Elimea/Olooson. One of these groups, covered by city walls turrets, can fend off pretty much *any* assault you'll face at this point. Also, one such group will eat roughly 20 food/week when not deployed, a bit more than what a single farm will produce over a year.

Also, i'd suggest you head south first. There are lots of farms held by Tyrants of Pherae and their foes, the Amphytrion League, and many cities there will become friendly once conquered.

You are aboslutly right!, it's actually what I have at this point! I will try this and see how things will work out. Tx so very much for Your help ;)

(remember, AI doesn't use ballistas)
They do eventually. I found it happening about the time of Thebes. But yes in the beginning those are great tactics. By the time you have to deal with ballistas you get food flowing nicely.

Hm... i stopped my expansion south at the Acarnarian border, conquered the Illyria and the Danube and currently heading west to the Black Sea (sooooo many farms there...). Never seen any enemy ballistas. So i suppose there is a key event/quest that activates them somewhere in the south.

Perhaps its a difficulty thing? Playing on the hardest difficuly, I had the Thesslian League make a almost human attack with 2 hoplites and two catapults to reclaim Olsoon. I think the AI just perfers to raid most of the time and rarely makes attacks on walled cities.

Perhaps its a difficulty thing? Playing on the hardest difficuly, I had the Thesslian League make a almost human attack with 2 hoplites and two catapults to reclaim Olsoon. I think the AI just perfers to raid most of the time and rarely makes attacks on walled cities.

I've almost completed the PoM Scenario, the Ionian War screnario, and have completed the Archimedian War scenario and am in various stages of completion for some snadboxes. Playing on all difficulties, I have seen the A.I. use catapults, just not efficiently. I've seen them use them against my armies in the field much like they would use peltists.One time, playing as Sparta attacking one of the Arcadian cities, I saw the city build a catapult battery when they saw my troops coming, and then as my hopites and theirs fought outside the city I had my catapults attack their battery, which was providing ranged support. The battery then turned on its attackers and they had a catapult vs. catapult type thing, which I won since I had three catapults vs. their one. I've seen this many times on all difficulties - sometimes the A.I. will randomly build a battery of catapults and then use them like peltists. I'm guessing that, if they really sieged a city like that, it was simply one of those instances were they built catapults to be used as support, and when they got to the city and went into "siege-mode" mentally, they used them correctly.

As I said I've seen them build catapults randomly, so I think I can sum up their use like this: The A.I. knows about catapults, and understands how they work, but does not understand how to use them correctly. I'll admit that if my amry is marching with catapults and is attacked, ill use the catapults as peltists and let them fire at enemies, just like the A.I.

TL; DR: The A.I. knows catapults are there, and builds them sometimes, but they dont really get what their main purpose is - to siege cities. If the A.I. happens to attack a city and has catapults, they will use them correctly, but they still dont really get their usefullness, if they did they would build catapults whenever they attack cities, which they dont. I think the reason you see more "human" sieges on harder difficulties is because on those difficulties the A.I. produces more units in general, so theres a higher chance of a city-capturing force to have catapults with it.

@DarthBrowser have you ever had the AI retake a conquered city in Sandbox?

@DarthBrowser have you ever had the AI retake a conquered city in Sandbox?

Nope, but thats most likely beacause I'm pretty slow, I like to fortify what I capture before I move on. In the PoM scenario I lost quite a few cities because of over-expansion, by the time I tried out sandbox I had learned from my mistakes. I was playing the game yesterday and I actually lost a fort due to A.I. catapults, they had sent a hoplite and when that failed, I sent my spearman out and got 20 slaves, a few weeks later they came back with the hoplite brigade they had sent the first time half-full, and a catapult battery. Neddless to say, I lost the fort due to that. However, I still doubt the A.I. did it purposely, since I've seen them throw standerd assaults at forts and cities over and over again many times before.