[ATW AAR] The Daughters of the Dragon: A Valkyrja AAR

[Doctor]

Nice update, I am looking forward to the rest of your annexation of the steppe. Keep the good work up.

[Subrosa Florens]

More annexation to follow. The Sarmatians are really on the ropes now.

The Dacians and the Germans are in a race to see who can take Vicus Venedae first.


They will have to bring more than that if they want this city.


After gobbling up one Warband, the rest headed for the exit.


Pantariste hit the last Warband in line, and the other two nearby chain-routed with it. Got to love that low barbarian morale combined with a ten star General.


They are smoten


To deal with the Germans, I brought Kardika the Honest out of Vicus Gepidae to reinforce Pantariste.


More food for the crows.


In the east, First Equal Makanyane has crossed the sea to attack Thatis. Her slovenly spy has opened the gates for her, so she immediately attacks.


The Sarmatians do not have much.


This pretty well sums up the battle.


No survivors.


As it is a tiny settlement, Makanyane Occupies.


In the west, more Dacians and Thracians are on the way.


Thrace is really going strong. They have pushed Macedon back to a single city - Thermon - and will soon have them eliminated.


Now about that Dacian army I saw last turn...


They sure brought a lot this time! They started on the corner tile in the strat map, and head to that corner as the battle commences.


Veleda gobbles up the lagging Dacians.


Eventually the Dacians form a battle line (the ones that made it).


Now it was time to pick them apart a unit at a time, starting with their Captain.


Heroic Victory.


Germania is now allied to the Sarmatians.


Speaking of the Sarmatians, they tried to sneak an army past Campus Sauromatae.


Alkippe the Conqueror thrashes them most soundly.


Now for those Thracians at Olbia.


I have some infantry at Olbia, including a new Spearwoman recruited from Neapolis Scythica. It was nice to see the lines meet once more.


Not to mention hit the Thracians with the hammer once they were upon the anvil.


Heroic Victory.

[General_Zavier]

Looking good. The Big Silver seems to have fallen flat this game. Which is kinda surprising because they always manage to do quite well in my games. Also, I've never seen the regular Red Amazons do so well. Usually they just take one or two territories and ally themselves to the Seleucids, and don't do anything after that.

[Subrosa Florens]

Big Silver usually does well in my games too. This time it looks like Egypt, Armenia, and Amazonia all ganged up on them from the start.

One reason Amazonia may not have been doing so well in recent versions is that I have found a error in the Campaign Script, which prevented them from getting the bonuses that the other factions receive when controlled by the AI. I just fixed that last night, so hopefully they will do better in the next version of ATW.



The Thracians have destroyed Macedon.


However, we Valkyrja are still more Advanced than they are.


The Dacians have brought a better army to Vicus Venedae. This time they have Noble Cavalry and Bastarnae Mercenaries.


This is more of a challenge.


I start on their left.


Their General comes into it, and I mob him.


He dies under a flood of Horse Archers.


One of my Horse Archers has drawn the attention of a Noble Cavalry. I withdraw my HA across the front of the rest of my force.


The Nobles rout when I order all my units to attack them.


Then I pull my women back for a rest.


The other one of those Noble Cavalry locked onto a Horse Archer. Once more I fled, allowing two other Horse Archers to shoot into the flanks of the Nobles as they pursued.


They routed just from the arrow-fire. Horse Archers do not have an especially high missile attack to start with, but once they get to multiple silver experience with a few weapon upgrades they get scary.


Now it was just a matter of picking apart their infantry one at a time.


Heroic Victory.


I now have a Large Temple of Artemis in Vicus Venedae. This means gold weapon upgrades for my Horse Archers. I am a micro-manager, so I will rotate all of my Horse Archers on the Western Front through here to get the bonus.


Vicus Gepidae seems to have a permanent 45% unrest. I tried moving Kardika out of the city and it did not change, so she is not causing it. There is either a spy within the walls, or a bug causing it.


In the east, Alkippe the Wrathful is now marching upon Campus Alanni.


Further south, First Equal Makanyane joined forces with Second Equal Okypous, and they attacked the last Sarmatian army of note outside of Ulski, this brought their King and the garrison of the city in as reinforcements.


This big dragon's tooth will anchor my flank rather well. I put all of my infantry to the right of it, where the trees are.


Things get going quickly on that flank, as Virgin Cavalry immediately charges one of my Horse Archers. I have them retreat directly to where Second Equal Okypous waits in ambush.


As the Virgins draw near, Okypous broke cover and charged directly into them.


In the meantime, my infantry were under heavy attack by the Sarmatians.


The left is a pure cavalry affair. My forces, led by First Equal Makanyane, are ganging up on individual Sarmatian units and destroying them.


On the right, my infantry have held against the Sarmatian storm.


Okypous charges directly into the fray as a second wave of Sarmatians comes up.


The Sarmatians have been broken on the left.


The right is a meat-grinder however. Now the Sarmatian General has joined in.


He is cut down by Okypous' women.


The first Sarmatian army is on the run. But the second is now coming on line. I pull back my pursuing cavalry and reform near the Tooth.


Here comes the King.


Okypous chalks up another Sarmatian leader.


The Sarmatians still have more coming up, and my women are worn down and tired.


Nothing to do but win. I send everything in at the Sarmatians.


They are on the run!


Heroic Victory.


With that Ulski was mine. It is not very big, so I Occupy. This city will become an important base against the Armenians, so I want to keep its population intact.


Speaking of the Armenians, I foresee war with them in the near future.


Lousy Egyptians...


The Sarmatians are broken. Their remaining two cities will soon be in Valkyrja hands.

[Subrosa Florens]

Oh yeah.


This was just a matter of time.


While I was exchanging units between Vicus Gepidae and Vicus Venedae to retrain them in each city, the Dacians decided to attack. Little did the fools realize that with the garrisons for both city's on the road between them, this meant that they could all come in as reinforcements. This will give me the largest army I have had yet in the west.


There are a lot of those Dacians, and they head for the corner as the battle opens. You can see my reinforcements coming onto the field in the background.


The Dacians do not reach the corner.


Their Warlord is cut down by a hail of Amazon arrows.


Then it was just a matter of shooting them to bits until they routed.


The Dacians are smashed.


A turn later and another Dacian army comes up.


Scratch another Dacian army.


Hmmm, this makes Pantariste an Excellent Ambusher?


It is definitely just a matter of time before Armenia attacks me.


Lousy Egyptians.


I have decided to simply blockade both remaining Sarmatian cities rather than try to take them by storm. I have sent most of my infantry west, and really do not want to slug it out in the streets with my Horse Archers. This is the garrison of Campus Aorsi. I was wondering who had their legendary artifact.


The Armenians are rolling out Cataphract Archers now. This will not make fighting them easy. I will have to get some assassins down there to start destroying their stables.


Back west, Pantariste found yet more Dacians underfoot, and rode out to chastise them.


I mentioned how scary Horse Archers can get with some experience and weapon upgrades. Well, here is is.


Scratch another Dacian army.


The Seleucids want an alliance with me. I really do not see the point, since they are on the endangered species list.


Amazonia has become a protectorate of Egypt? This is odd to see so quickly, with Amazonia still quite strong.


The unrest in Vicus Gepidae has gone up?


Wait, next turn it is down to only 15%? There are definitely one or more spies lurking within. I have put an experienced spy of my own within the walls to ferret them out.


With their city about to fall at the end of the turn, the garrison of Campus Alani has sallied forth against Alkippe the Wrathful.


They led with their infantry. I chewed up their Steppe Spearmen and spit them out, then settled into an archery duel with their Virgin Archers.


I was wondering where there cavalry were. Here they come around the corner. I move Alkippe, my Heavy Cavalry, and a few Horse Archers to meet them.


Alkippe wastes no time and charges their Virgin Cavalry, routing them. In the meantime my Horse Archers penned the Sarmatian Virgin Horse Archers and slowly destroyed them.


Then their Captain (another Virgin Cavalry) came out to play.


He too was routed.


I do not give chase. They have stone walls, and I do not want any part of their towers.


Their Captain reformed back in the square and came back out again. This time my Horse Archers finished him off.


That is enough for me.


Victory.


I Enslave. This time I was expecting it, so I had emptied out all of my cities of their governors. Except for the four cities along the western border, which I want to grow. So the slaves were all sent there, and to the capital of course. This is a sneaky way that you can really catapult small settlements up in size.


That put Vibantavarium up a tier.

[stormer]

I see you've finished with the Sarmatians and you are now overlord of the steppes. Which way will you go now? East or west?

[Subrosa Florens]

Well, the Sarmatians are not quite finished yet. I still have to wait out Campus Aorsi. But it is only a matter of time.

After that I plan to remain defensive against Armenia in the east, and use assassins to destroy their military machine. I will attack in the west. My target is Thrace. I will sweep through their lands and straight down to Greece. There I will have a final reckoning with that most hated of all foes. That is why I am lacking in infantry in the east. I have disbanded the mercs, and sent the regular troops west to Olbia. Even now I am slowly building a force there to attack the Thracians with.

[Subrosa Florens]

Another Thracian army threatens Olbia.


Another army crushed under the Valkyrja heel.


Pantariste meets a small German force outside of Vicus Venedae.


They have Night Raiders. That means they must have reached 4th tier somewhere.


In ATW, Night Raiders throw their axes before closing into melee. This is going to hurt.


I lost 50 Militia Axewomen in that one volley. Pantariste herself is moving to hit the Night Raiders, but there is a unit of German Axemen coming after her.


She routs the Axemen and hits the Night Raiders from behind. Only half of my Militia Axewomen are still alive.


The Germans rout as a unit of Horse Archers closes in to lend an axe.


No survivors.


Hah! I caught the spy! At least one of them. I think there is still one more in Vicus Venedae though.


The Sarmatians are about to be history. They will sally this turn.


But before that could happen another Thracian army came to Olbia.


I come out of the gates to meet them.


Their General is drawn away from their lines by a Horse Archer, allowing one of my Generals to trap him.


Bam! I bring in the Horse Archers to mob the Thracian.


He is cut down by a Horse Archer's axe.


My Spearwomen want some of the Thracians for themselves, so I send them all forward.


The Thracians are destroyed.


No place in the western front is quiet. Vibantavarium was besieged by the Dacians, obliging Veleda to ride out to thrash them.


Thrasage ensues.


Kardika the Honest has now taken charge of Vicus Venedae, and she meets a small Dacian force north of the city.


I have a new toy in the west, Amazon Archers.


I just like this picture.


No survivors.


In the east, the Sarmatians sally against Second Equal Okypous.


They come right at me, and I meet them head on (with my Sarmatian Mercenaries that is).


On the other hand, my Virgin Horse Archers withdraw before their Virgin Cavalry. Here you see one Virgin being set up for Okypous and a Sarmatian Merc to charge it from the flank.


Then it was the turn of their younger General.


Finally the Sarmatian King rode into battle. Okypous withdrew before him, while the Sarmatians to either side charged his flanks.


Okypous then turned to meet him.


The Sarmatian King was cast down into the dust!


Now my Mercenary Amazon Hoplites took up their siege tower and rolled it over to a blind spot in the walls.


They took the undefended gate, allowing Okypous into the city.


She certainly is brave.


But there is no stopping Okypous the Conqueror.


Campus Aorsi was mine.


As this will become a valuable border city, and I do not plan to advance further south in the near future, I Occupy.


With that the Sarmatians have horded to the east of Campus Aorsi. Now that I think about it, I wonder why the Scythians did not horde when I wiped them out? Maybe because I killed all of their Generals while they still had remaining cities?


In the hour of our great triumph, darkness falls. First Equal Makanyane has gone into that good night.

[Doctor]

A very interesting update, did you make the hordes deadlier in your mod or are they same? Either way hopefuly they attack the Armenians and give you some time before the Armenians attack you. Anyways keep the good work up.

[Subrosa Florens]

I did make the hordes deadlier. In the last version I found it was too easy to destroy the Gallic horde as the Gorgons. So I increased the number of units they receive, beefed up some of the horde unit's stats, and changed the mix to give them more of their heavier units.

[ReD_OcToBeR]

Very Interesting AAR, it somehow reminds me of like a Russian( my fav faction in both MTW games) Campaign dealing with the Steppes and whatnot. I remember coming across the Amazons deep up north the first time I played RTW as the Romans and thought WTF!!!..lol I like your slight humour added throughout your posts.

[Subrosa Florens]

Very Interesting AAR, it somehow reminds me of like a Russian( my fav faction in both MTW games) Campaign dealing with the Steppes and whatnot. I remember coming across the Amazons deep up north the first time I played RTW as the Romans and thought WTF!!!..lol I like your slight humour added throughout your posts.

Never would have guessed you would like Russian campaigns from your screen name

Thank you. I try to keep it light and fun.

[Subrosa Florens]

Vicus Venedae remains a gladiator school.


Once more the Dacians flunk.


Another Thracian army has marched upon Olbia. They seem to have a bottomless pit of manpower.


It takes forever, but I finally get my entire army out the gates and on line against them.


This time I push my infantry forward early, so they would not miss any of the bloodshed.


Another Thracian army bites the dust.


Next turn a second, smaller army followed them. This time I rode out to meet them north of Olbia.


The result was no different.


The Sarmatian Horde is moving south through the Caucasus Mountains. *phew* Now they are Armenia's problem.


Take that you Egyptians!


In the far north-east, Alkippe the Wrathful turns her legendary ire loose upon Campus Sakae, the only remaining steppe settlement that dares to defy Valkyrja rule.


There was a ferocious archery duel at the walls.


Then it was just a matter of battering my way in and cleaning up the rest of the rebel scum.


Campus Sakae was Enslaved.


Kardika the Honest remains busy at Vicus Venedae.


Sadly the second Dacian army ran before she could engage them. I guess they are learning after all.


In the west, Xanthippe the Wrathful has spotted another Thracian army moving up west of Odessos. Rather than wait them out in Olbia again, this time she marches her women to the Dnestr river to make a stand there.


They come to meet her.


Come and get it!


A fearsome struggle ensues at the inner point of my Drakone's V - shaped formation. I like this formation at bridge defenses because it funnels the attackers into that inner point, where they will be attacked from both sides. This is really devastating with pike troops, but very effective with units that have shorter weapons as well.


The Thracian General comes up and rallies his troops at the spearpoints.


Case in point, the Thracian General is cut down from all sides.


If the slaughter my Drakones inflicted looks terrible, then look at what my archers did at the other end of the bridge.


Another Thracian army shattered.


Next turn, the Sarmatians continue to move southward through Armenian lands. So far they have made no hostile moves, and the Armenians have let them pass unmolested.


In the west Xanthippe the Wrathful follows up her success by marching south of the Dnester for the first time, laying siege to lightly defended Odessos. The invasion of Thrace has begun.


There are plenty more Thracian soldiers to the south however. She will have to move quickly at Odessos.

[Dog Fart]

Look at you picking on all of those poor helpless Thracians. Shame on you.

[Subrosa Florens]

I guess I just do not play well with others...

I have been gone a few days due to doing a format and reload of windows. In the bargain I bought a new terabyte hard drive, and now my box is a lean binary crunching machine.

I lost several turns due to an accidental deletal, but to bring things up to speed, I have moved my capital south to the newly renamed city of Neapolis Valkyrja.


I took the city of Odessos and have already destroyed one Thracian army that tried to take it back. More are on their way north.


It seems that the Sarmatians are now the Parthian's problem.


I do not see any signs of fighting just yet however.


The Dacians and Germans continue to hover around my western cities like flies.


Young Maia, the new governor of Vicus Venedae begins her duties by taking out some German trash.


The foul German necromancers loosed undead hounds upon us.


But even their sorceries could not save them from defeat.


I like the cut of this young woman's jib. I make her my Faction Heir.


Egypt is certainly Big Yellow in this game.


Two Thracian armies came up to attack Odessos. My hired thug deprives one of its General.


Then Xanthippe the Conqueror sallies against the other army.


I eventually got most of my army out of the gates and into line. It takes forever on Huge scale.


My Drakones got a piece of the Thracian Infantry.


The Thracians want no part of my women.


That tore apart their right.


Their General lost his nerve, and fled for the map edge.


The coward escapes!


But there would be no escape for the Thracian pikemen.


One more Thracian army down.


The same turn, Xanthippe marches out of the city and attacks the second Thracian army.


Once more, the thin blue line reigns supreme.


No survivors.


The best way to defeat Cataphract Archers is to not let your enemy build them in the first place.


Back in the west, Kardika the Honest and Second Equal Klito have taken some troops from Vicus Venedae south and meet a small Dacian force outside of Vibantavarium.


Unfortunately the Dacian General would escape.


The same turn, Veleda marched from Vibantavarium to intercept another Dacian army.


Scratch another Dacian army.


In the north, Maia settles into her new position as governor by sallying against the latest Dacian siege.


She thrashes them most handily.


Then she rides out to deal with the rest of them.


Flawless victory.


Leaving behind some archers and axewomen to guard Vicus Venedae, Maia takes her Horse Archers south to clean out the last of the Dacian flies east of the Carpathians.


Amazon axes are made for felling men, not trees.


No survivors.


She continues on to run down that Dacian General who had escaped from Kardika the Honest.


No Dacian would escape this winter's day.


Here is where things stand in the west. Kardika the Honest and Second Equal Klito have continued moving south, and have rendezvoused with the Horse Archers from Vibantavarium at the pass to Porrolissum. They are reinforced with a single Drakon unit from Odessos. Their target is the Dacian capital. Taking it will secure the flank of the great sweep south into Greece. Veleda has gone back to garrison Vibantavarium in case any Dacians slip through, but Maia should have cleaned them all out from the passes. Further south, Xanthippe the Conqueror has marched to the bridge of the Danube, where she awaits the pleasure of the 3 Thracian stacks outside of Tylis. Odessos is now occupied by an army of Peasants I collected from the Crimea and shipped over last turn.

[ReD_OcToBeR]

"The best way to defeat Cataphract Archers is to not let your enemy build them in the first place."

LMFAO....

great update..

[Subrosa Florens]

"The best way to defeat Cataphract Archers is to not let your enemy build them in the first place."

LMFAO....

great update..

I learned that in my Defensive Scythian AAR. The Armenians were pounding me senseless with those iron monstrosities, until I learned to stop them from recruiting them in the first place.


Time for some river fun. Bloodbath On The Danube I begins when a Thracian army attacks Xanthippe the Conqueror.


They have plenty of regular Bastarnae, the top of the Thracian food-chain.


Standard bridge defense. Step into my parlour...


My line infantry usually do not get as much experience as they have been in this campaign. One of my Drakones has two silver. I think it is because there are so few of them overall.


Here comes the Thracian General.


There goes the Thracian General.


Once the Thracians broke it was like a flood turned loose in reverse.


Heroic Victory.


Next turn there are still two full stacks and change of Thracians left.


In the north, Kardika and Kilto have laid siege to Porrolissum.


While the south it is Bloodbath On The Danube II.


Bring it on!


The Thracians must walk through their dead to reach my end of the river.


Once again their General goes down under a wall of Amazon spears.


Finally they chain routed. I send all of my cavalry across after them.


I am reminded of a Samuel Jackson line "Run *** The Exterminators Are Here!"


Heroic Victory again.


Xanthippe has over 1400 kills alone!!! I think this may be a record for a single unit in one of my campaigns.


In the east, the Sarmatians have finally done something, laying siege to Seleucia.


I just finished building a Catapult Range in Odessos. This means I can now recruit these beauties. Not to mention finally retrain the one I started with.


Xanthippe waits at the bridge, but sends across a slinker to deal with the governor of Tylis.

[General_Zavier]

I just finished building a Catapult Range in Odessos. This means I can now recruit these beauties. Not to mention finally retrain the one I started with.

Damn. Those girls look scary. Reminds me of my Welsh Longbowmen in my EOD campaign.

What's the missile attack on those ones with gold experience?

Looks good, good luck heading into Greece. You know, another way to beat those Cataphract Archers would be to "forcefully annex" Armenia.

[Doctor]

Nice update, by the way I read your Amazonia and Gorgon AAR's on Heaven Games Forum and they are extremely well done.

[General_Zavier]

Nice update, by the way I read your Amazonia and Gorgon AAR's on Heaven Games Forum and they are extremely well done.

You think those are well done?

Check out her Scythian Defensive AAR. Its my favorite