Syracuse

[SteveD64]

According to the rules, Syracuse cannot deploy troops outside of Sicily and yet when the island changed hands back to the Romans towards the end of my game Syracusan troops were everywhere (Africa and Italy). Is this correct?

[mercenarius]

Well, you may not take Syracusan troops out of Sicily but I let the AI take Syracusan land units out of Sicily. I don't know if this is a bug or a feature. I haven't decided if I want to change this or not.

Were these Syracusan troops moved by Roman leaders? What I mean is, those units didn't just "appear" but were moved normally? If they were, then that is OK. At least for right now.

Sorry for the confusion. Historically speaking, some auxiliaries supplied by Hiero of Syracuse did fight with the Romans in Italy.

[SteveD64]

Yes, they were moved by Roman leaders as far as I know. Maybe have an optional "no SYR troops out of Sicily" rule if the player thinks Rome will swamp him with troops.

[julianbarker]

Just had some strange Syracuse behaviour. Played turn one at normal level and at the end of my turn Hero died and Syracuse joined Carthage. In the Roman turn their fleet sank the Syracuse fleet so they were definitely fighting Rome.

At the beginning of turn two I saved the game. When I reloaded that game tonight to carry on playing Syracuse started turn two allied with Rome!

I can't see anyway of telling if there was a card play missed. I don't remember seeing any message to say Syracuse was changing sides again.

[mercenarius]

I haven't seen behavior like this. If there was Roman card play you should have seen it. It's possible that you have found a bug.

Can you post the saved game? You'll need to put it into a .zip archive.

[mercenarius]

First, thanks for sending me the saved game. I didn't see anything unusual or unexpected, but it often helps in figuring things out.

Here is what I think happened:

1) Hiero Died in the middle of turn 1. Syracuse remained an ally of ROME.

2) The Romans moved a fleet into the Ionian Sea and combined that fleet with the Syracusan fleet at sea. Which is what the AI often does on Turn 1.

3) The "Combine Fleets" sound is sometimes a little confusing. It sounds like a battle sound but isn't.

So when you loaded the saved game Syracuse was allied with Rome at the beginning of Turn 2 - because it didn't switch.

Does this sound plausible to you? Do you specifically remember fighting a naval battle on turn 1? On the battle board? If you didn't go to the battle board then there wasn't a battle.

Anyway, I think that the sound caused some confusion and that is all that happened. Note that when Hiero dies the dialog that announces this fact is mostly the same if Syracuse changes sides or doesn't. Only the text of the details is different. It's easy to dismiss that dialog without reading it too closely.

[julianbarker]

I think you are right.