GAME : ROME TOTAL WAR - XGM ( EXTENDED GREEK MOD )
MY EMPIRE
background story : I started out with the mighty Greeks. My strategy at start was to wipe out Macedonia, become allied with Thrace and make a naval invasion to Rome and conquer Italy.
I was already a few turns ahead before I started to make this AAR. To get you an idea of what I've conquered, here is a screenshot of the
map and the cities you start out with:
And now here's a screenshot from the map...and the provinces I conquered so far :
and here's a close-up screenshot of my Greek Kingdom at the map:
MY CAMPAIGN : When I started out with the game, I took almost every land of Macedonia. Except their island Kydonia which was their only city left. Then they asked for a Ceasefire treaty which I accepted. It was convenient since I wanted to re-build my armies and start the invasion on Rome. And with Macedonia only left on an island, i thought it would be wiser by crushing them later and let them be.
So my new borderlands lie against the lands of Thrace. Becoming allies with Thrace didnt work out. They rejected me every time. Then they started to attack me. So my plan to invade Rome had to wait. A big war broke out between me and the Thracians with big losses on their side. In between, backstabbing Macedonian forces attacked my island Rhodes on the south ( it's weird, Naval_invasion by AI is turned off in my game but they could still land troops on my island ). I immediatly send out reinforcements to crush their army. To get revenge, I sailed out with that same army to conquer their last remaining capital city. Macedonia was gone, defeated, annihilated.
The war with Thrace still lasted for lots of turns. The city of Pella was attacked most of the time. They sended full-stacked armies ( mostly light infantry units ). But I had the finest Greek army in Pella. They couldnt beat me....I made lots of Heroic victories there....lol....too bad there aint no battlemarks on the map of it because I was fighting from without my city. In meanwhile, I assembled 2 other armies at the southern Greek Cities. I was able to conquer Byzantium and Seutopolis. Thrace was broken, their armies constantly defeated and they were losing their primary big cities. Thrace began to fall. I marched on to their other cities.
Screenshot #1 of conquered Thracian lands :
After I took SEUTOPOLIS and BYZANTIUM I took the cities BURIDAVA and TOMI which now act as my new bordercities. The Faction Scythhia lies just above....but they are my allies. As you can see, I built two watchtowers there just in case they try to pull something crazy. Thay way, I can see them coming from far.
Screenshot #2 : More conquered Thracian lands
At the moment I'm attacking the city SINGIDINUM. Probably their last big city since the rest of their lands has only little towns. No development at all. Probably because they spended all of their money in their weak but yet full-stacked armies. Fools...
SALONE is mine, but its my weakest point. I am building food and other buildings which helps to get more population as quick as possible. City is also on low-tax. I have quite a great army as garrison. But they are unable to re-train. I usually swap them out for new forces so they can retrain at my bigger cities. But SALONA is constantly under attack of ROMAN FORCES. I'm not talking about simple canonfodder units....no, they sended Legionaries.That kinda pissed me off. So I was assembling two new armies at my older Greek cities. This time, I had the time to prepare for a naval invasion. Thrace is nearly out of the picture and Scytthia is my ally. So my new army under command of 2 spartan elite units were about to attack the southern part of Italy. Main grounds of Rome.
I already sent 3 spies to check their cities and defence. What a surprise, all their southern cities only garrisoned 1 or 2 units. I checked diplomacy, and it said that ROME was in war with GAUL. They must have send all their big armies to the north to fight GAUL and my poor city of SALONA. ROME wanted to take over Europe and beyond.
Screenshot of the invasion :
The first army landed next to Croton.
My second army landed next to Cannea.
A third army with some units of Deurophys ( or whatever ya spell it....its those cheap City Militia dudes ....perfect to maintain in cities and cheap costs ) shipped near Tarentum.
My first army took Croton and Tarentum within a blink of an eye. Two cities were secure. Some units of Deurophys placed themselves in the city to keep it secure and keep law 'n order on good level.
My second army conquered Capua and ROMA. In 2 turns, I conquered 4 big important cities of ROME.
They suffered a lot, I could tell by the Faction Ranking charts :
YELLOW = GREEKS
BLUE = THRACE
RED = ROME
Overal Ranking
Military Ranking:
Territorial Ranking:
So far so good. As you can see on the screenshots of the battlemap....Rome is sending back their forces from middle-europe to take back their homelands. Not without hard 'n crushing battles :wink:.
Conclusion : My starting goal to get peace and be an ally with Thrace failed. But looking back, I think this is much better. I have good bordercities and Thrace is about to fall. I feel pretty secure on their lands now. My only problem are the ROMANS. But I already expected that. And I prepared for that aswell. The naval invasion worked out greatly....even better I hoped for.
I will soon post more