How to trade as Sparta and not kill off Athens

[Kinki]

Hi all, have finally tested and resolved the 'problem' of not being able to trade when playing as Sparta due to Athens blocking off land routes to all other cities.

This solution is for those that want to trade and yet keep Athens as a valuable ally:

What you need to do is to make another city your capital (normally the first 2 cities that Epirus owns). To do that, you have to rely on Sparta being occupied by either rebels or other factions. When start, raise tax to maximum and bring all armies to overtake Epirus. Sparta will be on negative order from now on.

About 20 turns on, rebels will appear and attack Sparta and all you do is to lose on purpose. Your capital will then switch to the next city you own and you can trade now.

However take note of 2 important things, do not retake sparta. If you do, your capital will switch back to it and your efforts lost. Another thing is not to form alliance with Athens before this. This is to prevent Athens from destroying the rebel army for you. Also, it will also be useful to go to war with Macedon, so that Athens is forced to fight you. Hopefully, Athens occupy Sparta and you save alot of turns.

Lastly, kill off Macedon and then you can ally with Athens again. By default, Athens has a very positive reaction to Sparta, and even at war, their friendship is on a green level. So it is very easy to make a peace treaty with them after you changed your capital. Athens may even propose alliances/treaties, but remember to ignore these as they will destroy the rebel army.

Tried this and it worked for me, hope it can help fellow spartan players :)

[Gae Assail]

Good thinking, but changing capitals should be a button somewhere :(

[oOIYvYIOo]

why was that a problem ? you just give away bonus garrisson troops on sparta that you will never have anywhere else and you just give away a wonder .
think better and accept thing as they are made.

[Gae Assail]

Originally posted by ☠ /:. oOIYvYIOo:

why was that a problem ? you just give away bonus garrisson troops on sparta that you will never have anywhere else and you just give away a wonder .
think better and accept thing as they are made.

Because it is boring? Total war used to allow you choice. You could move your entire empire across the map and restart it for a challenge or just for the laugh. I tried that as Epirus, was going to try and establish a northern european hellenic empire, but nope its not allowed!

[LeeFu]

It is not choice..This game is totaly broken and makes ilusion of choice for ya id say ;p

[Itharus]

The Spartan AI is trading in my game, they are using the port Epirus starts with. I own Athens, not them. This is a bizarre bug. Why would it work for the AI but not the player?