plague

[MasterCommander]

how do you prevent it and how do you cure it

[Flogger]

Sewers, aqueducts, etc. Once the plague strikes, do not move anyone in or out of the city. Though if the family meber is not yet infected with the plague, get him out ASAP. If you fancy a little chemical warfare, infect a spy with the plague and send him round enemy cities.

[Revan The Great]

That's so cheap though, the spy thing. I'm fairly sure no one ever infected someone with a plague then sent him throughout enemy territory, spreading it.

The Americans did send blankets infected with Smallpox amongst the Indians. But that occured some..eh 1,800-1,900ish years after this particular setting.

[chaplain118]

well, during the medieval age, corpses infected w/ the plague would be hurled over the walls to infect the town

[Revan The Great]

This is somewhat prior to the Medieval age.

[.Socrates]

History Channel said it was the Mongols hurling bodies into towns.

[JCaesar316]

That's so cheap though, the spy thing. I'm fairly sure no one ever infected someone with a plague then sent him throughout enemy territory, spreading it.

The Americans did send blankets infected with Smallpox amongst the Indians. But that occured some..eh 1,800-1,900ish years after this particular setting.

Even "if" (maybe they did i'm not a history major) someone didnt think of it in 200bc, i dont see why you shouldn't do it.. i mean if you play as the gauls is your aim to be destroyed by the the romans ?


Historical accuracy is nice when setting out a mod/game, its not the be all end all by any means (enjoyment is i'd suggest) it is nice mind you. BUT i wouldnt try to recreate history in your gaming, Why limit yourself in that why?

Just a thought.

[Revan The Great]

You limit yourself in that way because it's just a cheapass tactic. Was anyone able to infect a whole country (We'll say Gaul, roughly the size of modern-day France) with a plague and devastate a huge population by sending one spy all throughout the country? Hell no. It's an exploit, not the genius tactic some people try and pass it off as.

[Crimson Scythe]

This is somewhat prior to the Medieval age.

Prior to our RTW in fact.:wink:

If I'm not mistaken, Alexander the Great came up with the idea by launching animal and human corpses into cities during sieges. I believe the siege of Halicarnassus was the first case.

I actually use spies for this purpose quite a bit. Especially against the Greeks. Athens, Corinth, and Sparta are usually very heavily defended cities by the time I get there, so disease softens up the garrison a bit before I go in. But I try to limit the tactic to cities with massive garrisons (e.g., huge cities with 10+ double silver chevron armoured hoplites or double gold chevron royal pikemen).

Otherwise the legions have to earn their pay. Stupid army upkeep!

[Revan The Great]

You still all seem beyond the comprehension of the fact that it is a cheapo tactic against a flawed oppenant who has no way of countering it.

I think in the end it comes down to you people play to win

I play to win on an even ground.

[Crimson Scythe]

I just realized that I was thinking of my SPQR game, not TE. I use them there because my comp can't handle city assaults by multiple stacks, which you really need as the Romans against a strong garrison.

With TE I haven't really used spies except for recon work, or to keep my generals protected. I have had the tactic used against me, however, though it may just have been a lucky coincidence for the AI.

[Crimson Scythe]

Anyone ever use diseased spies on their own cities to reduce population levels?

[Revan The Great]

never done that, at most i'll let a City revolt, take it back, then massacre. This is because I cannot make examples of revolting people as I would have been able to do if it were real life.

[JCaesar316]

I think in the end it comes down to you people play to win

I play to win on an even ground.

Ah a sense of fair play, an interesting concept when it comes to war

As for being some kinda exploit or unfair as the cpu has no means of defence against it well we couldnt be the first people to think of this tactic and it would be a simple matter for the programers to stop it if they wanted just make spies immune from plague,(god knows they had enough patches to correct it if they wanted) And i wonder how many of the plagues in human players citys have be caused by a infected cpu spy that they didnt detect, it Has to have happend .... dont think its a common thing mind you, but then all's fair in love and war.

Do it or dont do it, its personal choice but please dont try and seize some kinda moral high ground after all its only a computer game and how people play is upto them and them alone.

*gereral comment not directed solely at you revan*
If this tactic annoys someone out there i'd ask them to take a good look at themselves and question why it bothers them, after all its not hurting their gameplay or enjoyment of the game.

[Revan The Great]

Well, I think the community as a whole agrees the devs aren't that great, it's obvious many of the modders here do better jobs then them, and should be hired by Activision.

As for sending one Spy to a single city once you have the plague (as a computer does on accident once in a blue moon), that's alright I s'pose, but sending them all throughout the country and infected every single city is quite cheapass.

It most certainly isn't a "moral" highground, but it is easily qualified as cheating (exploitation) for several reasons:

1. The Computer can't/doesn't do it. Anyone who says otherwise is the most unlucky person ever.

2. The Computer doesn't know what is happening, and has no idea how to stop it from happening.

It's no different then giving yourself invisibility, or super speed, or double health in a First Person Shooter videogame, or if you do something in a fighting game to get your A.I. oppenant hung up on a wall, or not able to fight back. You're gaining a distinct and cheap advantage over the computer, and hence you certainly shouldn't brag about a "victory". I have a friend who does that, he'll go through a whole game using cheats then be like "I'm all that!"

[Crimson Scythe]

As for sending one Spy to a single city once you have the plague (as a computer does on accident once in a blue moon), that's alright I s'pose, but sending them all throughout the country and infected every single city is quite cheapass.

I agree. I try to limit my use of diseased spies to one or two cities at most, and usually ones that I would have a lot of trouble taking. I figure that I don't do it often so I might as well make the most of when I do. More than that would be an exploit.

[JCaesar316]

Well my 1st posted on this thread because the arguement about "Historical accuracy" to justify it (or not) and whether it would have happend in 200bc seemed kinda mute, i wouldnt play a campaign with that mind, set as i said if you play as the gauls you wouldnt aim to be destroyed by the romans just because thats what happend back in the day. So clearly historical accuracy isnt all that important to how you play the game.

I'd have to agree that while i dont see anything wrong with this tactic if used on one targeted city where for what ever reason you want to reduce the garrison (be that for PC performance reasons or any other reason) if you spreading plague across the whole map it would however have a negative effect on the game but then i wouldnt criticize anyone if thats how they wanted to play the game. If thats how you enjoy playing the game its fine by me.

I myself have used this tactic both to reduce/hinder a concentration of the enemys forces and as a way to control my own population growth (mostly in egypt with a distant capital as those citys always tend to grow quickly) but by no means do i make a habit of it (infact cant remeber the last time i did it as ive now come to grips with the game) neither do i spread plague right across the map but as ive said thats my own personal choice.

My 2nd post was purely because how someone else plays the game is up to them and seeing how it duznt effect me or anyone else i could see why anyone would have a problem with it.

I also dont think its a war winning weapon or even close to being the same as being invisable in a FPS, at best this tactic (on one target city) might buy you a lil' time, delaying an attack or help reduce caualtys in an assault. If its an exploit its a pritty crappy one !

Anyway ive said my piece so i'll shut up now

[Galactus[-X-]]

In RTR 5.4.1 I had a 100 year+ war me (Romans) vs Macedonia. I conquered France,Spain and Britian before I turned my eyes East. It raged from the forest of Germany to the City of Sparta turn after turn. One battle with the computer was 6 stacks with 12000 men at one point(4000 of me vs 8000 computer). Macedonia controlled as far down as Africa by the time I faced them. I had to use every trick in the book to win infected spy's, bridge warfare, assissans, creating units compose of catapults and shipping them to seige and burn down enemy cities. Without the marian reforms every battle was tough! finally I got the marian reforms and drove Macedonia deep into Asia minor.

I wish I had taken a screenshot, lwhen I lifted the fog of War I was stunned at the sheeer size of the Macedonia empire. 1/3 of the map was roman red and another 1/3 was Black.

[JCaesar316]

ok maybe i was wrong, seem plague spread by CPU spies isnt that uncommon, i didnt have to wait to long to see it happen for myself.
source of the gaul plague.

<- caught the spy in the act !

This spy went on to infect avaricum and burdigala in the next few turns, although i didnt detect him i did find it a bit suspect in the next 3-4 turns those citys caught the plague without me moving any troops or infected charicters.

[JCaesar316]

Ok its funny how you never notice something untill your looking for it, but this is out of control. So much for it being unfair on the computer factions or it being VERY uncommon for them to spread plague with spies, FIVE plus years on and the plague still getting bounced back and forth between Lemonum and Avaricum.



The post back you'll see the first time one of my citys was infected (no plague in lemonum, detect a spy and BANG plague) and i traced it back to Cenabum so i know thats where the plague started and it was carried to Lemonum by a spy. Its now being carried back and forth between my own citys (or reinfecting them) by galic spys.

The gauls keep sending spies to these two citys and the spies picks up the plague at one of them and either transports it to another one of my citys or reinfects the same city when the plague burns out there, Sometimes the spy dies from the plague but as the gauls have more than one spy working in this area at any one time, it keeps happening (over and over again). As i say this has been going on for more then 5 years now and a few times both the citys have been clean of plague but at the end of turn one of their infected spys just starts the whole thing over again.

Gergovia and Burdigala have both been infected in this way but Lemonun and Avaricum seem to be the citys worst hit and the ones that keep the plague going. So much so i'm now trying to use teams of assasins to kill off the infected gaul spys and end this cycle.

Anyone having problems with plague that goes longer then normal (or returns) or hits more than one city in the region might want to look around enemy citys for signs of plague. Even if you havent detected a spy as sometimes you wont this might be the cause. I just got lucky and detected thier spy on the same turn my city was infected by plague and i dont think it was a coincidence directly to the north cenabum had plague which by the reduction in their units seems to have been happening for a turn or more.