That makes sense. Particularly the tie-in with the strategic rating of the leader, since the Roman Consuls in this game, with a couple of exceptions, aren't exactly gods among men
And of course, as is always the case, the very moment I'd posted the above after having waited patiently for month after month for a ballista to show up, one showed up as I started the game back up and continued
It's like when you take your car to the shop for that irritating noise you've been hearing for weeks and then, the moment you roll into his lot, it disappears.
I think the reason I was worried that I was Doing It Wrong™ or my install was bugged was that I'd watched a couple of let's plays to get the "feel" of the game before starting. I like to do that before starting a new game, particularly if it's one with a lot of depth and detail like this one, mainly because I don't want to be spending the first 20 hours not having a single clue what I'm supposed to do. I do love having my butt handed to me in the beginning as I learn, that's part of the fun, but I don't want to spend that learning time doing mostly nothing but trying to wrap my head around basic mechanics. Anyway, in those one or two let's plays, the ballistae, definitely plural, seemed to appear immediately every time a legion marched into a province with a city, but that may very well have been because, if I remember correctly, the leader leading them was somebody like Caesar or Marcus Antonius. Quite a bit more impressive than Barbatus or Centumalus.
Fun scenario, though, although I definitely have to crank up the difficulty a bit, because either I was extremely lucky or the AI was extremely passive. Probably the former as I've seen it pull off quite a few tricks in let's plays. It's definitely not a pushover like in some other games I've played.
Next question, completely unrelated: "Control" of victory points (as in actually getting the points and not having it say "uncontrolled" or "contested" in mouse-over). Per the manual, you can get that by getting loyalty above 51% or by leaving a military garrison. Makes sense. However, I'm not entirely clear on what, exactly, constitutes a "proper" military garrison. I tried with militia in the cities, but that didn't cut it. That's OK, since they're pretty much rabble. Legions worked, but particularly in that scenario, they're a bit too precious to leave sitting around doing nothing just to harvest a few VPs.
It's not a huge deal, since the first objective is to deny the VPs to the enemy, but I just can't seem to figure out how much is "enough" and I don't want to overkill either. Those troops can be used elsewhere, so I'd rather not leave more than I absolutely have to.
Anyway, I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll be "wasting" a lot of my time with AGEOD titles in the future. I was reluctant for the longest time because I'm a traditional "hexes and counters" kind of grog, but that was my loss. I intend to make up for that now that I've found out just how brilliant they are.
Thanks for the reply, loki!
P.S.: I was reading The Hero, The Traitor and the Barbarian as part of my "introductory training", and I knew there was just something about your username and "style" that made me think 'I know this guy!" And then it clicked. It may have been the pictures of Anna Magnani at the end
. I've been reading your WitE AARs too (because if you don't absolutely love that game, you're not a wargamer
) and loved every line of them. Just as I loved this one. Just thought you should know you had a fan