Athens (first)

Unlikely Beginnings
Adventure	Athens Through the Ages
Mission Info
Parent City?	Yes
Colony?	No
Starting Year	800 BC
Starting Funds	Very Easy: 22500 Drachmas Easy: 15000 Drachmas Normal: 15000 Drachmas Hard: 15000 Drachmas Very Hard: 12000 Drachmas
Mission Navigation
Previous	Argos
Next	Athens

Athens, alternatively called Unlikely Beginnings, is a mission found in Zeus: Master of Olympus. It is the first mission of the Athens Through the Ages adventure.

Briefing

The land here is desolate and bare, but then so is most land in mountainous Greece. It's as good a place as any to establish a city, and you have your good friend Theseus to help you. He's out and about in Attica, visiting other small cities in the region and convincing them that they should place themselves under your wing. Though the city of Athens itself might not have the resources to prosper, perhaps it can grow into a mighty city once it is banded together with its neighbors. There's only one problem with claiming land in Attica. Minos, king of Knossos and master of the Minotaur, calls this land his own and won't take too kindly to someone trying to build a new city upon it.

Goals

• 12 skeins of fleece for colony
• 12 baskets of fish for colony
• 500 people in Homestead or better

Summary

Welcome to Athens! This city will become the grandest of all of Greece, but in the first mission, it has humble beginnings and it will rely very heavily on its allies and vassals for the goods it needs to survive.

Take note of the very large map space here. It is important to develop the city in an area which has access to some key resources, namely Cheese, the only food type available to be grown here, and the only natural resource offered on the map. While constructing in the North-West may seem like a useful option, it is very far from the water for important trading routes, and it is also where the Minotaur will spawn at. Therefore, the best place to develop a city is on the East side, near the small raised-area for cheese.

At this point, it is impossible to make money. You can't make anything to trade, neither do you have the ability to develop a military in any way to conquer enemies. You must keep an eye on your money situation at all times in this mission: since you have no military power at all, you must bribe away invasions from Knossos, who don't appreciate your attempts to build a city here: if you try to fight or surrender, you will just automatically fail!

The early goals may seem impossible to meet right now. At a later point in the mission, you will develop trade relations with Thermopylai: it is important to keep them happy, they're the only place you can get fleece from, and are needed to evolve the housing up to the Homestead goal. It may be wise to stockpile the fish and fleece and dispatch it, before distributing any fleece to your housing.

Don't worry about rising unemployment or the Minotaur: you will be able to sort these issues in the next mission. Just make sure to keep your money in stock and don't waste time trying to build a large city in one go, as it's not possible.