The First Ten Years, Part II.
Summer, 537 A.U.C. To Summer, 540 A.U.C.
For the next several turns, there isn't much I can do but recruit legions and add buildings to queues. It's very easy to get impatient, to want to take your legions and defend the Republic, especially when you see the AI taking city after city from you. But such rash decisions can have long term consequences. Just keep telling yourself: “In ten years, we will have it all back.”
Well, almost all of it. We won't get Emporiae back in ten years.
What about Dyrrhachium? Do I hold it or not? I could certainly use the army there to defend the Republic. But I could also use the income that region produces. For that reason, and for psychological reasons, I never abandon it. I always want to believe I'm going to get out from under this darkness, and in time to save Dyrrhachium. Meanwhile, I don't want to give too much of the Republic away.
So I'll hold Dyrrhachium if I can – and maybe just to say I did.
Turn 3 (Summer 537 A.U.C.):
The summer of 537 A.U.C. is the summer of Rebellion. Tone's blue stacks of Rebels appear, pushing my Romans out of two cities: Capua to the north …
… and Rhegion to the very south.
Before the AI finishes, Sextus Fabius Maximus is forced to fight for his life outside of Capua, supported by his bodyguards and two Allied cohorts against two stacks of Rebels.
Note these are Rebel units are good units, better even than the Carthaginians, with silver shields and triple chevrons …
… and with very good generals.
The result is predictable.
Sextus Maximus retreats back to Rome. Meanwhile, the news goes from bad to worse. Emporiae …
… and Crotona both have uprisings.
Emporiae I expected, but it seems I overlooked Crotona when adjusting taxes downward. In the face of this crisis, Quintus Maximus is made Dictator of the Republic …
… and I get a history lesson (enjoyable enough) on the Revolts in Italy.
More bad news. The loss of Arretium, Capua, and Rhegion, along with my recruiting of units, has produced a 20k drop in income. And with this comes the unsettling knowledge that, from here on, it only gets worse.
For now, I have to ignore it and focus on my goals. What's first? My boats. Don't forget the boats. Carthage is chasing me, trying to sink my fleet.
So I move my navy – and the army that's on it - closer to Rome.
Note this anomaly: as long as I move that navy every turn, Carthage wont sink it. They'll chase it, but they won't sink it. My point: this becomes a faster and infinitely safer way – rather than trying to march that army across the coast – to get these units to Rome. I've tried marching them twice, lost and weakened them both times in fights. Using my navy, my units arrive at Rome safe and intact.
Next, back to Rome to recruit the final units needed for my first legion. I notice Sextus brought the remains of the two allied units with him. Since I can't retrain them here, I simply disband them and pretend I'm merging the now experienced units into newer, better trained and better equipped Republican cohorts.
However, before I can do this, I'll need to toggle off the automange. If you've not played the Roman campaign before, you should note that after the Rebellion turns on automanage in all your cities. You'll need to turn it off if you don't want the AI to manage your cities for you.
Keep you eye on taxation while doing this. The rebellion changes taxation levels in a couple of cities – Rome, for example. Take a moment to toggle through your cities and make sure they're off automanage and the taxation settings are where you want them. (Unless, of course, you want the AI to manage your cities. I never use automanage since managing these details is the real reason I play RSII.)
When I'm done with that task, I return to Rome to recruit my units. But first, I add a Large Foundry to the building queue in Rome.
If I'm going to defeat Hannibal and put down the Rebellion, I need the best units I can get. As a rule of gameplay, I always try to train and equip all my armies to the fullest extent possible before sending them to fight. To do otherwise seems like a waste to me.
While in Rome, I fill the recruitment queue the remaining units necessary to finish out my first legion. Since I have a spot left, I recruit another spy.
Then it's back to building. Dyrrhachium gets Government Determination, Roman Oppidium Initial, and Wells – all of which go to making the people happy.
I repair the buildings damaged in the riots of Crotona and add Tribal Justice to the queue.
Tarentum also gets Tribal Justice. I do this because it only takes one turn and I know the Rebels won't take the city before the building is complete.
Cannae, Aleria, Caralis, and Lilybaeum also get Tribal Justice. Additionally, Aleria and Caralis both get a Shrine of Jupiter Optimus Maximus which, when built, opens up all the other small temples. I like to build these buildings early on, because the effects help to maintain order in my cities.
My money exhausted, I take a look around the Republic. It doesn't look good. To the north, Arretium and Ariminum are under siege by Hannibal's armies.
To the south, well, the Republic is in rebellion. I move my lone small stack of Romans – those kicked out of Rhegion – into the safety of Crotona and end my turn.
Turn 4 (Winter 537 A.U.C):
Turn 4 begins with Hannibal attacking …
… and taking Arretium.
To the far west, Emporiae revolts, casting Roman authority aside.
No surprises there. My economy is better than I expected, though, which is a surprise. I still have a solid 32k to sink into my building queues.
But then more I get bad news. The Rebels aren't sitting on their hands. They've sieged Cannae and Crotona.
But help is on the way, in the form of my first Roman legion, Legion 1, Quintus Fabius Maximus commanding.
There's probably as many ways to build legions as there are people playing RSII. I've begun building my legions based upon the excellent suggestions of Thoas' RSII Legion Composition and Tracking thread. All four of my first legions will have the same units:
1 General
8 Republican Cohorts
4 Triarii
4 Velite
2 Equites
1 Latin Cavalry
(See image above.) My generals are picked by personal preference and a bit of roleplaying. I always pick Quintus Maximus as my first general. He's been appointed by the Senate to solve this crisis, and that includes leading the army. His long-friend and ally, Publius Cornelius Scipio (the elder), is the best general I have and I've gone to all that trouble to bring him back from Iberia. He will be my second general. Varro, as I said in the first post, gets a chance to redeem himself, and Scipio's son, with the same name, is a political appointment (and I'm thinking of him as a future faction leader).
Legion 1 complete, I set it up in a fort directly east of Rome. Placement of this fort is important to me. I want it close enough to Rome that the Rebels from Capua won't be encouraged to attack the city. Right now, all the Rebel armies outnumber my Roman armies, and this doesn't count the armies of Hannibal. Even worse, they're better trained and equipped than my armies. If they attack, and I lose this first legion, the odds are good that I'll lose Rome. If Rebels take Rome, I've no place on the map to recruit good units. It's pretty much game over (okay, maybe not, but the fight back would be tedious to say the least).
On the other hand, if I stick the fort too far out, too close to Capua, the Rebels will just attack it and I'll have to fight my way out of the fort. Maybe I'll win, but the weakening of this legion will delay – and significantly – my ability to retaliate against Hannibal. I need this legion intact and ready to fight.
So I build the fort immediately to the east of Rome, like this:
Good news! My navy makes it to Rome with Scipio's army, which is immediately rushed into Rome for retraining.
Rome now shelters all of Scipio's army, Varro (who I brought the rest of the way to Rome during Turn 2), and Sextus Maximus, who retreated to Rome following his defeat at Capua. Yes, it's getting a bit crowded. For retraining purposes, I focus on Scipio's units and, for now, ignore Varro and Maximus.
That recruitment queue full, I immediately head my ships south, towards Messana, to pick up Scipio the Younger and his units. Remember, it's cheaper to retrain than recruit.
During the last turn, I recruited a spy; I now send him north. And this illuminates a major difference between RTW and RSII: in RSII, your spies are not perfect. In fact, they have a fairly good chance of dying.
As this one does. Immediately. Sigh.
I pour the rest of money into building queues, building mostly shrines to get more buildings in queues. This may not seem all that important, but every little bit you can do to increase income by buildings (via trade and other sources) reduces the need to add tax buildings (which I NEVER build) and prevents your governors from getting ugly traits. Akragas gets sharecrop mining and a trade resource, and I'm happy to see this city's building queue is almost full …
… as is Lilybauem's.
I add one more building, which reduces my treasury to 86 gold, then end the turn.
Turn 5 (Summer 538 A.U.C.):
Immediately upon ending my turn, Carthage attacks Arminum.
My army is a token army; easily defeated. Lucius Aemilius Paullius is dead.
I get a message of a captured Macedonian messenger (surprise, surprise), of Lex Oppia, and I review my financials: still not bad at 28k, although I am slowly losing money.
As I move my ships southwards, towards Messana, avoiding a Greek navy, I see that both Cannae and Crotona are still under siege.
I move my navy as close to Messana as I can, then pull Scipio's army out of the city, leaving just Salintor as governor.
This requires an adjustment in taxes to keep the peace. In return for taking the legion from them, I fill Messana's building queue (after first recruiting units for the elder Scipio's legion). It is now filled with a balance of government, economic, and religious buildings.
Lilybauem's building queue is also full. I use my income to add buildings to as many queues as possible, including Rome.
Then I bring my spy southward to see take a look at Capua, then end my turn.
Turn 6 (Winter, 538 A.U.C.):
Immediately, the Boii approach and offer trade rights. I accept and swap trade map information, as well. Following the Boii, the Averni and Cimbri offer peace. I snap up trade rights and map information from them, too.
Then Cannae is attacked …
… and taken.
Croton is also attacked …
… and taken. Gnaeus Servilius Geminus is also dead.
The only good news is a really good husband for Fadia, with a balance of influence, command and management skills.
Obviously, with the fall of Cannae and Crotona, my income has dropped dramatically.
After loading the younger Scipio's units onto my navy, I ship them back to within sight of Rome.
In Rome, I finish recruiting the elder Scipio's legion. Since I have some room left, I recruit another navy. My initial navies are made up of two trimenes and two bimenes – a group strong enough to defeat most of the navies I'll encounter at this stage in the game and which can easily be recruited in one turn. I'm particularly concerned about that Greek navy staring my navy down.
I pour the rest of my money – which isn't much - into Rome's building queue and end my turn.
Turns 7-9 (Summer 539 A.U.C. To Summer 540 A.U.C.):
From now on, it's a matter of doing what I can with the money have. In the summer of 539 A.U.C., a Carthaginian navy appears to try and block my small navy's entrance into Rome (with the younger Scipio and his army on board). I disembark the army and bring it towards Rome, then attack with both of my navies …
… getting a clear victory, and my first victory of any kind over Carthage.
Now that I have two full legions, I move Legion 1 (Maximus) to immediately west of Rome, blocking the bridge.
Legion 2 (commanded by the elder Scipio) replaces Legion 1 in the fort east of Rome.
I move Scipio's (the younger) units into Rome to be retrained and handed over to Varro. This is cheaper and easier on my economy than trying to recruit new units. My three family members: the younger Scipio, Gnaeus Calatinus (acquired recently by marriage), and Sextus Maximus move to another fort south of Rome.
For the next two turns, I finish recruiting Varro's legion, or Legion 3. This is my first "silver shield" legion, or the first legion that will get the advantage of the Large Foundry. However, recruitment is now a problem as the increases in military costs combined with the loss of territories has reduced my income to the point that I can no longer recruit units easily
This is where all the money (buildings) I put in building queues come into use. By removing buildings from queues, I free up enough money to finish recruiting my third legion. Of course, I'm not doing any building during this time.
By the summer of 540 A.U.C., Gaius Varro's legion is one turn from being complete – but to accomplish this, I continue to remove buildings from queues and my treasury is reduced to 18 gold.
At the beginning of Turn 10 (Winter 540 A.U.C.), I will have three full, intact legions. I've drained about as much money from my economy as I can hope to get. The time has come to drive Hannibal out of Italy.
The First Ten Years is continued in Part III – The War With Hannibal