Help! ;-) I must be missing something, but I really can't work out what. Any help appreciated.

I'm new to the game, and working my way through the tutorials in Zeus. But I'm stuck on the one that introduces elite houses and Hoplites and triremes. It's the second tutorial that features an invasion by Nemea -- in fact, two invasions.

I can handle the first invasion okay, but for some reason it takes *so long* -- the Nemeans just stand in the long grass for months, shaping and reshaping their formation, and even if I take my troops right up to them they don't engage until they're good and ready -- that by the time that invasion is fought off, my city has deteriorated apparently beyond repair. Most of my businesses are abandoned for lack of workers, the houses have devolved and almost all the remaining population has been kicked out of the city for not having anywhere to live anymore with the diminished capacity of the devolved houses.

Then, as soon as the first invasion is complete, all my buildings start falling down, one after the other, every few seconds. First to go is always the granary, which takes all my food supplies, which means all the remaining houses instantly devolve to mere shacks, and there goes the rest of my population. Bizarrely -- ultra-bizarrely at this point -- I get an announcement that these are golden times and I can now build a Happiness monument because things are going so well. (Is that post-ironic, or what?!)

The trireme wharves have shut down for lack of workers, and bizarrely the (previously) fully-staffed triremes simply disappear, which means when the second Nemean invasion arrives there's nothing to even fight them. The invasion then lands and advances on the city, and I don't have a single warrior at my disposal. The standards have all simply vanished, so I can't muster even any rabble, and if I have my troops set to auto-defend, simply nothing happens. No troops, even the ones that survived the first invasion and were sent home.

Okay. So ... what am I doing wrong? I've played this tutorial over and over, sometimes on auto-defend, sometimes on manual, sometimes with fortifications, sometimes without, but the end result is always the same.

Any suggestions, please?

Or is this tutorial simply broken, and I should stop being so stubborn and skip to the next one?

Ok just defeated the second invasion, the tut seems ok.

First the one I can't help you with: mine attacked just fine once close enough. That was a little closer than expected, but whatever, worked. Making sure your troops are set to offensive tactics is the only thing I can suggest here, otherwise they wait for the enemy to attack.

City falling apart: You always need to keep an eye on unemployment/needed workers, but especially while having an army active. The moment you call the soldiers, raise wages to highest, that increases your available workers a bit. Still not enough, so look at the priorities (hit 3 twice, or the magnifier icon on the industry tab) You can't go wrong with hygiene+safety always set to high, keeps water and MO staffed if possible at all. Industy can be low usually, and especially here, no harm producing less for a bit if it keeps your city otherwise intact. In this mission you can just shut down most things for a while, you have more oil, wood, fleece, weapons than you can possibly use in the short time. Doesn't matter much if you shut them down or just set industy to low priority, the effect is the same while at war, but with priorities stuff starts again on its own once workers return, shut down things tend to get forgotten.

Adding a few more houses to the common block won't hurt, I had just passed 1000 people when the invasions started. The road facing the elite block is wastefully empty at the start. You have enough cash not to worry about anything, so place decorations until they all make it to townhouse.

The MO that serves the industry area barely makes it to the arms warehouse, add another at this end of the road. Some water problem in the common block too, despite two wells... No time to fix that mess of a block, so I just added a third well, water failure is the worst.

There is no real need for warships, send your troops to the landing spot and fight them after disembark. They bring one warship, but that just hassles your fishing boats probably, and leaves once the invasion as a whole gets called off, no need to fight it. Imho the town is almost too small to support a trireme, but remember you can send its staff home when you don't need them... ok not very useful here because you did want to use it. Wait, WHARVES? More than one? Yikes. Hope you added a lot of houses in that case.

Once the invasion is over immigration should restart, keep a close eye on worker numbers and turn wages down to normal before people get grumpy about unemployment.

You can always bribe them, but thats no fun in a fighting tutorial.

Hope it helps a bit

Just tried it through the first invasion. I got the army by giving the City Oil that increased the population Every 30-40 unemployed gives one "platoon" of rock throwers. With oil, I got three such platoons while the City was functioning. (If I build a City too fast,, I'll put a platoon in the field just to stand there and keep unemployment low until they are needed for my industry. Low unemployment equals happiness monuments. And monuments are real important especially for elite housing..)

With three platoons, I placed two about two-thirds between the City and the invaders. The third platoon, I marched within rock throwing distance. The horseman first took the bait and pursued. I moved my platoon back within rock throwing distance of the first two platoons. With three platoon throwing rocks, the horseman went down.
Repeat.
Hope this helps.

Sea invasion can be fought as the other poster mentioned.

Note. Horseman are often the toughest to deal with because of their speed. You need to keep them from the Palace and City structures. Make sure you have enough in the field to keep them engaged or you'll have them in your City.

Hey flickas,
Thanks for all that info! ;-)

To try to boil it down a bit (because I'm a little banboozled) -- bottom line for me, is to ask why I don't have any soldiers for the second invasion,

Very few of my troops get killed in the first invasion, and the survivors all get sent home. So why do I not have any standards any more by the time the second invasion arrives, and no troops?

I don't always hav multiple triremes. It's one of the things I've tried to see if I can work out how to survive the second invasion.

The big problem seems to be population. No matter what I do, the houses degrade, and then most of the population is forced to leave the city. Then engineering stations become unmanned, and all the buildings start falling down. How do I stop that?

I had no idea I could set priority for aspects of the city. How do I do that? (I know I can in Pharaoh, but is that feature in Zeus? I haven't seen it.)

What do the houses look like (What level?)

Why no soldiers? You said your city collapsed, no water equals rubbish houses with barely any people, no more food storage doesnt help. Rabble are a percentage of your normal workers, you get more the more people you have.

The flags themselves missing can be two things... they are still in the last battlefield, despite soldiers sent home. Or they're back at the palace? But if your pop dropped so much you're not supposed to have that many squads anymore, they vanish indeed. No people and no soldiers is the same problem then.

The houses don't have to degrade... ok a few at the very start because I was too slow with the 3rd water supply. Keep the essential services staffed, don't let things collapse. Hit 3 twice for the priorities screen, or find the tiny magnifier on the industry tab. Hyg/Safety is the one that staffs the MO.

You don't have to call all the rabble squads if you're worried about lack of workers, two or so should be enough (if they fight instead of idling)

One other thing, I saw no mention of hopite troops, did you build an arms vendor for the elite block? They're slow, but fight better, and don't contribute to your understaffing problem.

They drop from tenements and apartments to the lowest level ... shack, I think?

So my city drops down to about 100 people. And then the granary collapses, the food stops, and there's a steady stream of emigrants from the city. I haven't found any way to arrest it.

I know these are basic questions but it feels like the City accidently got cut off from something essential.
All Vendors are selling?
Do they have water ? (I hate the block myself and added a water carrier asap.)? If not put distribution on the highest priority on the employment page.)

WATER! Try the third water supply, that was all I changed about services in that block to keep it completely steady at townhouse (plus some deco to get them there)

Thanks folks, I'll go and give the water thing a try.

(Please feel free to ask me basic things -- believe me, I'm operating at a pretty basic level! ;-) )

I did add another water carrier, because I noticed that for some odd reason the water carriers won't walk past the palace -- they behave as if it's a road block, and turn back the other way the instant they reach it. But maybe I haven't remembered to boost the water every time I've played it.

Any suggestions for making the Nemeans get a wriggle on once they turn up? They take months and months to move out of the grasslands and get down to fighting, which is taking its toll on my industries to have my warriors just standing around. How can i speed them up?

Water Carriers can only walk a specific distance. Some where around 20- 24 "steps" if I remember correctly. The water carriers are turning back because they have reached their maximum distance from their well and they need to turn around as the shortest distance back to the well. Water carriers I think have the shortest walking distance of the all block workers.

The invaders don't move even when they are getting hit with rocks?

Edit for spelling

Huh? No water carrier ever walks past the palace, there are indeed several road blocks in the way, and its way too far. But elite houses have their own supply, they do not need water carrier access. Only worry about the common folks. (Unless you placed common housing where the elites should go, in that case there needs to be one of course, or probably two as you discovered, the road is too long)
Can't you fight them right there where they appear? Takes a bit until they move, but they are quite attackable during that time.

Only your common housing needs water, nothing else does including elite housing and the palace. I havent played the tutorial for a zillion years so I cant offer specifics, but the easiest way to win battles is to buy them off when they first arrive. One thing I do recall about the tutorial, it wants you ti win... So they are standing around milling about for months, no reason you cant pummel them. Very likely this is a mechanic of the tutorial to give you just such an opportunity. The simple reason your city dies during combat is you call all of your troops out at once. You dont need to do this. Use a single peasant unit to knock them down for as long as they are idle. Save your elite troops for when they begin to move (although your elites wont impact your economy).

As for general city management, that will be something you learn over time. Make sure you are laying out your common housing in blocks, so that you can be certain one water carrier will cover the entire street for example. Build off each agora good to manage the growth and what you can actually supply. There is no point giving people oil if you cant keep up a steady supply, etc. And be aware it scales from one good to the next. You have to give food before fleece, fleece before oil, etc. You might be able to provide oil to people in shacks but they wont use it unless they have everything prior.