Кампания

480 BC · Thermopylae, Greece

A narrow pass, a wall of shields, and a raiding column that outnumbers you. Hold the corridor — you don't have to win the war today, only the choke.

A few thousand Greeks held the entire Persian army here for three days, because the pass was too narrow for numbers to matter. Told to surrender their weapons, Leonidas answered 'come and take them.' Warned the enemy arrows would blot out the sun, a Spartan shrugged: 'good — then we'll fight in the shade.'

Build 2 more Settlers and a Barracks — the raiders hit around turn 5–8. Hold your infantry across the central corridor: like a phalanx in the pass, in a choke numbers stop counting.

50 BC · Gaul, Rome's frontier

A balanced enemy that fights the way Rome did — with roads, supply and drilled ranks, not heroics. Out-organize it: economy and positioning are enough here.

Rome rarely won by genius on the day — it won before the day, with paved roads, standing supply lines, and legions drilled to build a fortified camp every single night. Caesar's men half-joked they conquered Gaul with the shovel as much as the sword.

The strategist balances economy and army. Reach Tier 2 before turn 10 and use the tech tree — it will do the same.

1206–1241 · the steppe rides west

A faster, better-funded raid that hits like steppe cavalry: everywhere at once, and early. Hold the line, then strike back when the charge overextends.

The Mongols built the largest land empire in history on horseback and speed — and on the feigned retreat: pretend to flee, let the enemy break ranks chasing you, then wheel around and destroy them. Masters of hit-and-run a thousand years before the phrase existed.

A better-funded rush: it arrives with more units. Hold the line for 8 turns, then counter-attack with the army you built up.

c. 1000 AD · Song dynasty China

A rich, industrializing rival in a flat-out production race — like Song China, where whoever tooled up first pulled ahead. Don't fall behind on tech.

Song China ran an economy centuries ahead of its time: printed books, the world's first paper money, and gunpowder — which they famously spent on festival fireworks long before anyone turned it into a weapon. When your rival can out-produce you, tempo is everything.

The enemy has a heavy war chest. Prioritize the Market and Tier 2 before turn 12 — whoever tiers up first controls the match.

c. 1200 BC · the walls of Troy

A fortress that waits behind its walls and stockpiles. Patience won't crack it — like Troy, it falls only to a plan. You must attack.

For ten years the Greeks couldn't take Troy by force. It fell to a trick: a giant wooden horse left as a 'gift,' soldiers hidden inside, wheeled through the city's own gates. A turtle doesn't lose to patience — it loses to a plan.

The turtle sits still. YOU have to attack — push into its territory and destroy the HQ before its army grows too large.

332 BC · the island fortress of Tyre

Reinforced walls that basic weapons can't dent. You need siege tech and a hero on the line — like Alexander, who refused to let a wall stop him.

Tyre was an island fortress everyone called impregnable. Alexander's answer: build a half-mile causeway out to it, roll siege towers across, and take it in seven months. Told the sea was in the way, he essentially turned an island into a peninsula — out of spite and engineering.

Reinforced walls: basic weapons won't cut it. Allocate attack nodes in the tech tree and put your hero on the front line.

73 AD · the rock fortress of Masada

An armored fortress on high ground — only total mastery of tech and economy takes it. This is a siege of engineering, not bravery.

Masada sat on a desert cliff, unreachable. So the Roman legions built the mountain up to it — a colossal earthen ramp, hauled stone by stone, until the wall was simply within reach. Rome didn't climb the rock; Rome moved the rock. Logistics beats any height.

A near-impenetrable bastion. The tech tree is mandatory — allocate forge + tactics, max out Settlers, and use the market to convert what you're missing.

217 BC · Rome against Hannibal

An enemy that adapts to everything you try — attrition made intelligent. Strike fast and commit, before it reads you and counters. Like fighting Fabius.

After Hannibal wrecked every army Rome sent at him, Fabius Maximus tried something radical: never give battle. Shadow the enemy, cut his supply, adapt, never take the bait — and wear him down over years. Rome mocked him as 'the Delayer.' Then it worked, and the insult became a title.

The adaptive bot changes strategy in response to yours. Be aggressive in the first 10 turns — don't give it time to adapt.

Achaemenid Persia · the King's elite

A fortress reinforced by an elite vanguard that just keeps coming — it starts with extra troops and never thins out. Hero forward, tech maxed, waste no turn.

The Persian 'Immortals' were an elite corps kept permanently at exactly ten thousand: the instant one fell, another stepped into his place — so to the enemy the unit never seemed to shrink. The most efficient HR in antiquity: every vacancy filled the same day. (Yes — the same empire you held at the pass in Phase 1.)

It starts with extra infantry. Hero up front, tech tree maxed, market for whatever's missing. Every wasted turn is a turn the enemy uses to grow.