Post Your Empires

[Scutarii]

Well, I love watching other's progress, so if you could post a picture and brief description of your campaign here for the whole community to see. If you don't have a pic just write a short bit.

Post away! I'm currently in the middle of a Thracian campaign, I'll post a pic later today or tomorrow, I look forward to hearing about your empire.

[EyebrowsMulligan]

I'll get the ball rolling on this one...Campaign is being played on M/M with AI bonuses on.



The year is 212bc and there are four large empires vying for control of the known world...



The Seleucids (me), the Romans, The Scythians and the Parthians. The political climate is as follows.



The Seleucids have weathered several storms that threatened to tear their loose-knit empire asunder in its formative years. While the bulk of the Seleucid military was engaged against the Ptolomies early on, the Pontics, Armenians and Parthians saw their chances and began a campaign to force the Seleucids out of Asia Minor and the former Persian territories. Seleucid high command was forced to hire predominantly mercenary armies and wage a campaign of terror and destruction against both the Armenians and Pontics while slowly ceding the rebellious and unproductive provinces in the East to the Parthian advance.

In tandem with the destruction of the Ptolomies, the empire's numerous mercenaries destroyed the Armenian and Pontic infrastructure while regular troops consolidated a defensive position in the East.

The weakened Easterners put up neglible opposition once the time was ripe for the conquest of Asia Minor to begin. The Galatians and then the Greek cities both attempted sneak attacks on sovereign Seleucid settlements but were in turn annihilated.

Seleucid troops were finally able to turn their attention to reclaiming the motherland from the disgusting barbarian Scythians who had recently swept through and driven away the Macedonians. It was indeed a joyous day when the tomb of Philip II at Pella was liberated!

Although the Empire is in a strong position currently the future no doubt holds many twists and turns. The Romans have a military pact with the Scythians and it is surely only a matter of time before Seleucid steel clashes with this unholy alliance while to the East we must remain ever vigilant against the Parthian hordes.

Mulligan

[Dom9127]

How come Carthage has settlements in Iran? And what .exe are you playing on? Keep the updates posted its always interesting to look at.

[Stoneface]

Here is an image of my current campaign(M/M/full AI bonuses/Alex exe). Playing as the Romans I decided not to head for wealthy Greece at the first possible moment but let the Greek factions grow a little to give them a fighting chance. So after securing southern Italy and Sicily I attacked the African and island provinces of the Carthaginians. I had build up Capua to grow fast and in Winter 262BC Marian Reforms happened. While I was recruiting new legions I finished the first and very final punic war with my old troops. Conquering the Gaulish settlements in northern Italy with my new troops was hardly sportsmanlike but if you find yourself in a fair fight your planning was obviously bad. I had some fighting with the Germans but after a few battles and provinces lost they decided to make peace. Disunited as those German tribesmen are it took them a few years till everybody agreed to that but in the end the peace held. Having a full army standing on a Danube bridge near modern day Vienna and looking at the in no uncertain manner surely helped. Anyway in southern Gaul my legions met not only independent Gaulish tribes but the expanding Iberians. The war fought there was bloody but in the end their armies were defeated and my legions moved into Iberia as conquerors. Most of Gaul and even Britannica and Hibernia were subdued and integrated into my empire. I recalled my armies to retrain and re-equip as gold weapon and armor upgrades had just become available. I also wanted to replace my onagers with new heavy onagers. At this moment both the Germans and the Macedonian. I had fought a few defensive battles against the Macedonian before and forced peace on them in the end. With all my troops in Italy for retraining and under attack by two powerful factions thing became interesting. Luckily the Macs did not garrison their their Peleponesian cities well and I invaded the there and conquered five cities in only one year. Well I got to fight some good troops agema hypapists, foot companions and kestros slingers on the one front chosen archers and axemen on the other. The Germans even took two cities from me but I have taken them back by now and took a few more and the Maks are in a pretty back shape by now. Scythia, Seleucia and Thrace are allies by now but this can quickly change. Egypt is odd with only Cyprus and Rhodos remaining. Well there always is another enemy, another war, another victory.

[Kara Kolyo]

Err i know it was discussed before, but what should i do to make the map to look lik the post above? What file needs to be changed?

[Scutarii]

How come Carthage has settlements in Iran? And what .exe are you playing on? Keep the updates posted its always interesting to look at.

He must have gifted for a buffer region in between him and Parthia. I hate fighting HA's one reason I've never played TSE. Maybe someday...

Anyway, nice empires, Stoneface, is that you in Britain? I've never bothered to go in, except once as Germania... Went in with a 1/4 stack, as Londinium only has a couple units in it, and was smoked by the ful stack outside in the trees. Gold chevrons and everything.... I hate Woad Warriors.

[Stoneface]

@KK Edit "secondary_colour" in descr_sm_factions.txt so that it matches "primary_colour" for every faction or just the one you are playing.

@scutarii Thats me in Britain. It's part of the Roman victory conditions so why not. The southernmost city is actually quit profitable. I invaded with good legion but the full stack popping out of nowhere was a nasty surprise. The battle was not that hard at least not after my four units of archer auxilia destroyed their chariots and killed a lot of their woad warriors. Also legionary usually come out ahead at throwing things at each other against woad warriors. Rest was cavalry work.

[CaesarVincens]

I'll have to post my Roman campaign, so we can compare it with Stoneface's.

Both he and I went in a similar direction to start (towards Carthage, not Greece), but diverged from there.

[EyebrowsMulligan]

How come Carthage has settlements in Iran? And what .exe are you playing on? Keep the updates posted its always interesting to look at.

Scutarii is correct, I gifted them to Carthage - the 'neutral zone' is my pet project. The plan is for a buffer of rebel provinces backed up by Carthaginian settlements.

I'm playing with the Alex.exe

And Scut, you are right - playing against a lot of HAs is hell.

[CaesarVincens]

playing against a lot of HAs is hell.

Tell me about it,
I have to use armies based around 10-14 Roman Archer Auxilia, backed by a couple cohorts in testudo to soak up arrows, and a couple cavalry, preferably Legionary, to take out any enemies foolhardy enough to charge me.
Fortunately, the Seleucids took out both Parthia and Bactria, so I have to fight only Scythia.

[CaesarVincens]

So here is my well advanced Roman Empire. I control all of West Africa, most of Egypt, the Levant, half of Gaul, some territories in Germania.

I started off by taking out Pyrrhus, then while consolidating Italy, Carthage thought they would get in on the action, so I took their islands, and then Carthage itself. At the same I went around the Mediterranean taking over Independent Greek colonies, Cyrene, Kydonia, Emporion, and Massila specifically.
After a while the Iberians attacked Emporion, pulling me into war with them, at the same time, I fought Gaul, ending with the death of their last family member in Vesontio, without them hording. The Indie Gauls have been my faithful allies for nearly this whole time, except when my assassins are caught.

Egypt then wanted to take Cyrene, an so began the second African campaign.
About this time Germania attacked me, and so did Scythia. The hot spot with Scythia was at Aemona, which traded hands at least twice, eventually with several armies made up of mostly archers I beat them back.
During this time I sent an expedition to Brittan preceded by a spy, I found the London was left mostly defenseless, so I sent a stack containing a mercenary elephant there, shortly after taking London, I took Isurium as well. Then I fought off the stack which was hang around London.

I also sent a stack, containing another mercenary elephant, by boat to the Black Sea, to reduce the Scythian economy. Just after I loaded up this stack, the Marian reforms came, bringing with them Archer Auxilia and Legionary Corhorts, the two main weapons with which to drive back Scythia, and using these I drove them back from Aemona to Thrace. This stack took over the Scythian held Greek colony of Tomi, and burnt it to the ground, it then went to Neapolis Scythia, where they tried to hold, but were besieged by Scythian stack after Scythia stack, even when a reinforcing stack was sent it was not enough, and they fell after two massive battles. The reinforcing stack was more successful however, taking over Chersonesus and Bosphoranum, and sacking them, they also took Tanais and Campus Iazyges. This army eventually ended up in Seleucid held Armenia.
Also using my new Legions, I conquered Egypt and took their holdings in the Levant, when the Seleucid empire decided they wanted Antioch, which the Egyptians had taken, back.
It was a little while after this that I first initiated a war, every war I had undertaken previously I had been attacked was only defending myself, however, I wished to take over Western Anatolia, a land of riches and wonders, but it was held by the Greek Cities, who had never attacked me, so I thus began my first offensive war. And once I finished off the Greeks that brings us to the present.

Here is my current situation in Thrace, I've taken Singidunum, Naissus, and Sardica from Scythia, but they still have many armies in the area, I am however bringing another archer heavy army up to deal with these.



And finally, my current finances: I am going through approximately 350 thousand Denarii a turn, Aemona is my most lucrative city bringing in about 7000 denarii a turn.


And that is my Roman Empire, ruled by Gaius, Imperator.

[Stoneface]

Nice empire Vincen. What is the military build-up situation in your campaign. In my current campaign there is only a handful of city barrack outside of Italy. I ran in a little money problem in the middle of my campaign and economic build-up took priority over the military and now I am swimming in money with an income of over 300k and only a 100k army but with another 100k surplus each turn.

[CaesarVincens]

I have the highest level barracks in Capua, and one building in Rome, Arretium, and Carthago. I also have City Barracks in several cities: Cyrene, Alexandria, Emporion, Antioch, Kydonia, and others, even one in my city in Armenia. Going for Egypt gave me a lot of cash.
I'm playing h/h with huge unit sizes, on BI with Suppanut's ethnic traits mod, and I turned AI bonuses on halfway through.

[Scutarii]

Well, I'm three days later than I said, but here goes.

Settings: M/H
Bonuses are off (reduced)
Asia Minor land bridge is on (makes Byzantium a pain in the neck)



I'm Thrace, and control Amphipolis, Byzantium and Singidunum in addition to the 3 starting settlements. The Indie Gaul behaved a little oddly this time around, sending all 3 stacks to Macedon instead of 2 there and one to me. They took Pella and repelled a couple Macedonian attempts to take it back. I'm planning on declaring war on them and taking their provinces, although that Pontic stack near Byzantium is worrying me.

Rome declared war on Macedon and took Patras, but they haven't done anything else. The greeks are carving out an empire in Asia Minor and the Pontics seem to be doing quite well, taking Tarsus. Gaul is Germany's protectorate and is therefore spared from Rome's wrath (for a while). TSE is slowly falling apart from Greek and Pontic attacks in the West, while they are winning in their war with the Ptolemaics.

[Stilgar CG]

@ Scutarii (Thrace compaign)

That's an interesting scenario :hmmm:. I played on H/M (Hard on the compaign map). The Independent Gaul sent their stacks on me, whereas Macedon have taken all the Greece and was holding Pella and Amphipolis . And I had to fight the Gaul on my own.
In your compaign Macedon is taken apart by Gauls and Greek Cities (if I am not mistaken).

I also had to face Pontus armies in the Bizantium region. But those were mostly light infantry and with very little cavalry. So, you should be able to deal with those guys. Do not allow them to go deep into your territory. Get out of the city and face them near Bizantium.

If I were you, I would take Tomi a.s.a.p. (or is it Torni?), to get rid of those Indep. Greeks. Cause they will stub you you in the back, when you enter a long war with Gauls or Scythia. And then you could probably focus on Gauls and former Macedon cities in particular.

If you could take Tomi, Samizegetuza (iron), Pella, and Sardica, and avoid fighting Scythia and Germans, you will find yourself in a healthy (and relatively easily defendible) position.

Well, I am trully curious about the course of your compaign. Please, update from time to time. Good luck!

ME

P.S. Hopefully, I'll be able to post a screen or two about my compaign later today.

[Stilgar CG]

Stoneface, love your nice "little" army in gold and silver. If you exchange a unit for an extra onager, you could eat armies for breakfast and large cities for lunch (with minimum losses). Well, with that amount of cash you could dine wherever you wish . ME

[Stoneface]

I love them myself. I mean not literally more as a father would or a mother hen. I have more armies like this but these guys are the most experienced. The only trouble is I can only retrain in Italy and have to rotate my armies to retrain them. A second onager might be a good idea. Stone walled cities are trouble when garrisoned by chosen axemen or similar.

[Stilgar CG]

A few pics of my Thrace campaign (H/M, XGM 5.6.3, bi.exe; not sure about AI bonuses; I guess off).
First pic is the situation in the year 255bc. Here I am in the final phase of a short, but pretty bloody war with Scythia. I started war with some success (e.g. took Olbia), but soon realized that I cannot afford a full-scale war with Scythia. Not to mention Germania and Macedon showing signs of activity at my boarders. Anyway, I made piece with Scythia and turned my attention to Macedon and Germania. Funny enough, Scythia remained friendly after that short war; we are allies from time to time. Perhaps I gained their respect (N.B. In my previous campaign Scythia invaded around 255bc, I managed to hold them, but Germs and Macs came and got me … those were dark times, dark times …)


Second pic. Year 245bc. Immediately after making peace with Scythia, I invaded Macedonia. As you can see the Macedon’s days are almost over: I just have to take Crete, and hasta la vista, honorable foe . Germans attacked me when I was in the middle of war with macedon, but managed to hold them and then push into their territory. I am not sure I want to eliminate Germs completely. I like the idea of splitting their lands to separate myself from Gauls (which will be busy fighting Rome as well) and partly from Scythia. I am planning to take their most advanced city, which can produce those pretty nasty heavy spearmen and some armored axemen. Then, we’ll see. I guess my biggest threat remains Scythia – the sleeping giant. I am about to put into action a diabolic plan , which should hurt Scythia (no cheating, just tactics), but it is in the very early stage ...
ME

[Unknown Soldier]

You need armour on those peltasts.

Have you played without using the 'Greek' units in your armies?

[Stilgar CG]

You need armour on those peltasts.

Have you played without using the 'Greek' units in your armies?

Some armour would not hurt, indeed. That is an army recruted in a hurry at the german boarder in low level settlements. Therefore, lack of armour.

Btw, that is a typical army I used against barbarians. It worked wonders against Gauls and Germans: light cavalry soften enemy flanks, spearmen receive charge of the remaining enemy infantry, thracian peltast throw their javelins from behind spearmen, and then move to flanks and charge the enemy, whereas final light cavalry charge in the rear makes the enemy route.

Inexpensive army and good results. Such an army is easy to replenish, it requires low-level baracks that that can be found everywere. But I do not hesitate to use greek peltasts, hoplite militia, and slingers in wars against the barbarian.

Military reforms are in progress anyway. I can train Thracian Thorakitai and heavy Thracian cavalry in a couple of places for quite a while, but I just needed more money.

In Greece my armies are predominantly greek (surprise!): I took plenty of third level baracks from Macedon and built a few myself. I hope to have a few relatively quiet turns to upgrade and re-shape my armies. Also, I intend to dilute my greek armies with thracian thorakitai (wr with Rome will come one day).

ME