Spartan: Been a Long Run!

[lordhoff]

Been playing Spartan for many months now - time to try some of my other back-logged games. There is a lot of game in Spartan - so many possibilities and strategies. A lot of history too - one question for the developers if they should happen upon this - what sources did you use for the individual city states? At least on an I-net search, I found very little. One thing that did come up was the repeated assertion that the Phrygians were a close relation to the Bithynian Thracians but in the game, they are "eastern".

Some things that seem to be true:

- Sending the initial diplomats sets the AI on a particular path
- Sending diplomats without doing anything else generally means bettering relations
- If you are weak and victory requires building something that takes a long time and if you are in a Persian or Roman zone, you better spend whatever it takes to get them friendly
- The AI cheats by super spawning armies, not paying for standing armies (I'd sure like to have eight or nine five-spot field armies standing around), and building advanced armies without taking the time to build the buildings (I checked this by razing all buildings before cities fell then watched as "warriors, etc" were immediately built there).
- The AI does not know your strengths unless they have a diplomat with you.
- The first play through is more challenging then a second try if you are defeated and try again.
- The AI will eventually fall asleep - after initial expansion, at some point depending on city state, it will simply stop and will hardly fight back if attacked.

Well, onwards. Now the decision - Chariots, Invasions, or something else.
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