[TE AAR] Stories from the Front

[therussian]

Hehe, nice title eh? Basically, this is where you tell the stories of your campaign. (I wasn't sure If I should start a new one, or continue with the old one). ANyway, I am playing as SPQR, H/H and here are my stories from the front.

Many players who begin a campaign decide to attack Epirus in the south, leaving Northern Italy under barbarian domination for the period. personally, I decided against it, seeing as how the Epirotes had 2 armies, both commanded by 4-5 star generals. So I decided to unify northern italy, and drive out the Gauls. I was succesful, and after 4 years, they were repelled. Then I somehow got an alliance with them, and commited myself to souther Italy. I started building up a second army, but it turns out I didn't need it yet. Just as my ships were moving southwards to blockade Tarentum, the Epirotes army (1 of them) embarked on a ship headed for Greece. Fortunately, I was able to intercept it and sink it, destroying the army (which had the elephants)

After the naval battle, I quickly swept down from Cannae, and attack Pyrrhus. IN a huge battle (1400 each side, though I was slightly outnumbered) I was able to rout him. It was tough, because my units started to give way in the center. It was only untill I commited the Triarii, and was able to swing around with my depleted cavalry that I as able to rout their force. After the battle, I easily took Tarentum and the following turn, Croton. Now, I have a second army marching from Northern Italy into Illyria, while my Souther Italian legion is waiting for the right time to land in Greece and take Solona.

UPDATE- This just in from the Front!
Ok, I have taken Sagentum from the rebels, just to take it. I have also taken Solona in an assault, where I pulled this crazy, wicked flanking maneuver on their two familiy members, and totally owned them. Now, the only city they have left is that one.....whatever. Unfortuantely though, (or fortunately, however you look at it), the Macedonians are now the enemy. A turn after they declared war, I did this awesome maneuver via my navy, where I embarked from Solona, bypassed a large army, and took that city south of it (which had only one family member in it and a phalanx pikement unit), with only about 40 or so casualties. Now the Macedonians have besieged Solona, and I'm off to the rescue.

Update
This just in! Much has happened since news has reached Rome. The Epirotes are no longer a problem. They have retreated farther inland, to their last remianing city. The Macedonians were pressing hard against the western Balkan coast. Vibius Julius, the faction heir and 8 star general is dead. He died peacefully in his sleep. But, an unexpected ray of hope shone through the storm. A man named Gaius Marius has instituted a number of reforms to the Roman Army! It is now considered the best fighting force of the world. With this new system, a man by the name of Marcus Julius is striking hard against the southern macedonian border. Within a year, all of the Pelepnese was under Roman control. The garrison of Corinth, 500 strong resisted an army of 700 Macedonians, crushing them. Now, Marcus is marching against Athens, and his next target is Larissa

Update!
Things are looking bright for the Roman armies in Greece! WIth a newly created legion, known as Legio II Victa, which was created in Italy, the war in Greece has reached its apex. Under the command of a bright, young general (forgot his name. He's 6 stars), the legion was able to crush a Macedonian army outside of Corinth. At the same time, the First Legion under Marcus Julius took Larissa, the greatest fortified city in all the Balkans. It was extremely lightly defended, and Julius was able to take it with little casualties. With the fall of Larissa came the fall of Macedons great line of generals, which started with Phillip II of Macedon, proceeded with Alexander the Great, and ended with Arpecius (I think that was his name). On the eve of the siege, Julius said to his men that Arpecius was not to be harmed. He was captured while fighting in the town square, and was led to Julius, who spared him his life and let him live out his days peacefully in the Macedonian countryside. After a year of inactivity, the Second Legion was on the march, this time against Athens. It was able to extract itself from a sticky situation after it was cornered by 3 Macedonian armies. The following year, the Second Legion was able to reach the walls of Athens, and succesfully warded off 2 armies, who were attacking him from the east and the north.

No news as of yet. We must wait.........wait for more stories from the Front...

[Lusted]

Ah but see i bargain with the Gauls to get Mediolanium and Patavium for around 30000 denarii, well worth it considering it secures Northern Italy, well for the time being at least. Then this leaves me free to attack Epirus, then move on to Sicily.

[therussian]

Yes, but that severely empties your coffer. I mean, sure it will be easy to regain that money over time, but it puts a big dent in the economy, which will be needed in the war against Epirus.

Plus, the Norther Wars really helped out my general. He had only 2 stars, but now he has tons of retinues, he is a "victor", and has 6 stars.

[Hader]

Well I haven't started as the Romans, yet, but I am doing well as the Armenians. I have began building an army to take some lands from Parthia. This might come as a surprise to therussian, I told him that I was going to attack Pontus. I decided against it since many factors are working against me in the west, and my spies discovered that Parthia is very weak from Bactria, and the Seluecids are not that aggresive now. I think I am going to try taking the lands sorrounding the Caspian, then move into Pontus, hopefully.

[therussian]

News from the Front! Read it all in the first post!

[John Wayne]

Congrats with your flanking manuevers therussian! I'm starting a new RR game tonight, so I'll get back to yall on how it went either later tonight or tomarow.

[Hader]

News from the Front! Read it all in the first post!

Okay, okay, here is a quick story of a recent battle.

I am Armenia, and I have conquered many towns surronding my original starting area. I sent one of my best horse archer units to garrison a town that only had 1 infantry in it. On the way they stopped at a bridge for the night, but were attacked by rebel scum! It was my HA unit vs. 1 unit of Eastern Infantry, just as experienced as my men. I used the bridge to my advantage and was able to wipe them out without any casualties. I thought all was well, but that very same turn a half stack rebel attacked me on the same bridge. I knew I could not win, but decided to fight any ways and killas many rebels as I could to make things easier in the region in later years. They walked to the bridge, some of their archers wnet slow enough before they got in range for my men to kill about half of them. They then sent 1 unit of infantry after my HA (don't know why, they send 1 unit when they have 6). Because of this stupid move I was able to destroy that one unit, but I spent all of my arrows. But, I inflicted over 200 casualties with one HA unit so I was satisfied and retreated in an organized manner. Soon, very soon, I will send that unit back to finish what they began...

[therussian]

NIce Hader! That's awesome.

Thanks there Americ. Good luck on your campaign.

[John Wayne]

So far my campaign has been going fine. After setting up an alliance with trade rights with Epirus and Carthage, I turned my attention northward against the Gauls. I did not just want Patavium and Mediolanium, but also Massila, Narbo Martius, and whatever territories that make up modern day Switzerland. This was for two reasons: 1) to train my soldiers in preparation for the war against Epirus and 2) to gain a solid foothold against the Gauls. Right now, Patavium and Mediolanium are mine, its around early 270-ish BC for me, and I am preparing my two leigons for the Invasion of S.Gaul and S.Germania (or whatever the **** that are is called). I'm also keeping track of the kill record for my '1st Gallic War'. So far, 3,119 Gauls have died for 1,511 Romans. not as good as it should be (the Siege of Patavium was a friggen mess!). I'll be postin some screenshots tomarow of one my battles with a running commentary, critique me please.

[Lusted]

Interesting campaigns guys, ill probably be updating my AAr later.

[Hader]

Latest conquest of Armenia! Siege of Gazac!

Rebels hold the city of Gazac, and Armenia has plans to take the town and free it from its oppressors. It is 264 BC, the professional Armenian army assaults the long besieged city.

2 siege towers, 2 ladders, and 2 sap points are in the siege eqiupment arsenal for Armenia. We take the fight to the few defenders by stretching our siege equipment across half the walls span.

The assault begins. Both sap points begin digging, and all other equipment is sent forward. Enemy archers kill about 10 Hillmen as they rasie the ladders, and those archers were all slaughtered by the Hillmen after they scaled the walls. Eleswhere, the towers prepare to let down their ramps, but the other ladder unit is having trouble turning. The sap points undermine 2 wall sections at the same time. Then the towers ramps fall and the Eastern Infantry move onto the walls and take the gatehouses. Now is the time to strike.

In the lightly defended breach, Infantry and Horse Archers inflict massive casuaties on rebel infantry and archers.



At the other end, the General and his spearmen units burst into the city through the captured gate and wreak havoc on the helpless archers standing at the doorway. Just to the left of the gate battle the enemy general sallies forth on his cavalry and takes a Heavy Spearmen unit by surprise as they were getting ready to storm the breach. Unfortunatly, many spearmen were killed at that moment.



All hope seems lost for those poor spearmen when the Armenian General sounds a heroic charge to save his comrades! the rebel general is killed in the fighting, but despite this great relief over 60 spearmen were lost and never recovered.



The Army moves toward the plaza, where the last infantry make a final stand against the mighty Armenian Armies onslaught.


Few are killed in this fight and the plaza is taken, and all enemies vanquished. VICTORY!!!!






Like it? Very good I think.

[therussian]

Cool battle. Very nice. I see you use an abundace of EI. Is this because you can't make much HI, or because they are just left over from before?

[Hader]

By EI you mean eastern infantry right? And I don't have an overabundance of them.

[John Wayne]

Nice siege hader! Now for my turn...sorta. Not as detailed as your siege, but eh. I have reached my objective against Gaul, control of N.Italia and S.Gaul, along with a tribute of 1,000 Dn per year for tweenty years! Unfortunatly, my ally, Epirus, besieged both Cannae and Capua, Capua with their faction leader+2 other family members+elephants and Cannae with a weak half stack of militai hoplites. Fortunatly, I had a leigon resupplying in Rome and I imediatly marched them south just behind Capua, thatawy if Pyrrhus decided to force the issue of taken Capua, he would have to go against my best army. Pyrrhus decided to give up the siege at Capua (and I bribed away the army besieging Cannae) and headed back to Tarrentum. I followed with my leigon, but did not move attack, I was hopeing that Pyrrhus would attack me. And he did, and I whooped his ***!!! Less than three years later, Tarentum, Croton, and Scodra now belong to me, and I amtrying to get the last Epirote's to 'agree' to becoming protectorites!

[Hader]

Nice siege hader! Now for my turn...sorta. Not as detailed as your siege, but eh. I have reached my objective against Gaul, control of N.Italia and S.Gaul, along with a tribute of 1,000 Dn per year for tweenty years! Unfortunatly, my ally, Epirus, besieged both Cannae and Capua, Capua with their faction leader+2 other family members+elephants and Cannae with a weak half stack of militai hoplites. Fortunatly, I had a leigon resupplying in Rome and I imediatly marched them south just behind Capua, thatawy if Pyrrhus decided to force the issue of taken Capua, he would have to go against my best army. Pyrrhus decided to give up the siege at Capua (and I bribed away the army besieging Cannae) and headed back to Tarrentum. I followed with my leigon, but did not move attack, I was hopeing that Pyrrhus would attack me. And he did, and I whooped his ***!!! Less than three years later, Tarentum, Croton, and Scodra now belong to me, and I amtrying to get the last Epirote's to 'agree' to becoming protectorites!

Sounds great, although that is more campaign story than battle story. therussian chewed my ass for not giving a BATTLE story, so I thought I would say...
But great campaign nonetheless!

[John Wayne]

I'll include a battle story later...when I go against Carthage!

[Hader]

Okay, not the greatest battle, but it had some great significance as the rebels I defeated were plaguing Colchis (sp?) very badly so I thought I would post. Plus, I have no other battles to tell of, this was the latest after my earlier Siege of Gazac.

On a bridge North on the Armenian city of Kotais, a small band of rebels is devestating the land. Some of the elite Armenian Horse Archers are sent from the main body of the professional Armenian Army to wipe them out.

The Armenians cross the bridge unchallenged, but soon come under arrow fire from rebel archers. The commander decides to split his forces to lessen casualties from archers. BAll of the Horse Archer units fire their missiles at the rebel archers first to get them to rout and save more Armenians.




The rebel archers rout after being nearly wiped out by the deadly mobile Armenian Horse Archers. The rebel general and his bodyguard of eastern infantry chase the Horse Archers around but cannot catch them.





Soon they all break and rout and every last one of them is killed.





The battles ends in a small but large victory for Armenia. Since the rebel threat is now removed, the peaceful town of Kotais can make 300 more denarii for Armenia.

[mastahyee]

Ah, my turn!

So I started a Greek campaign. (no screens yet but I guess I'll take some later)

The first order or business was the build an army. Although there is a generous gift of Spartan Hoplites in Sparta, the rest of the fledgling Greek states barely have anything you can call an army. I set about fixing the situation. First, the city of Athens was reinforced with extra militia hoplites recruited from Attica. The goal was to build a defense against the Macedonians at Calchis and Corinth, and the inevitable invasion from Larissa. A small force of Peltasts was also added to the garrison to try and weed out some of the attackers from the walls. Also, Athens was given the funds to try and alleviate the eventual debt that I knew would occur due to the massive military buildup.

The people of Rhodos were commissioned to create a mighty navy to fend of the Macedonian attacks by sea. A fleet of biremes was constructed, around 13 in all, designated to protect the ports from raids by sea and blockades from Miletos.

In the south, the Lakedaemons were busy cranking out hoplites. The addition of a City Barracks provided me with the capability to build the fearsome Armored Hoplite to crush the Macedonian foe. In all, 6 units of Hoplites and 2 units of Armored Hoplites from Sparta became the basis of the Greek army.

With this force, the Strategos Eumaeus took the city of Corinth. Spartans and Armored Hoplites stormed the walls from the siege towers, easily overwhelming the Macedonian Peltasts, Levy Pikemen, and Militia Hoplites. They captured the gateway, allowing the Hoplite regulars to filter into the city. Two brave units overcame the Macedonian general and his desperate defenders holding the plaza. When they were all dead, Corinth was shown the way of chain and ball as its inhabitants were sold into slavery.

Meanwhile, my diplomat secured trade rights and an alliance with Epirus. Their war against Macedon, as I had hoped, would divert the Macedonians' attention long enough for me to deliver a killing blow to the entire nation.

Eumaeus led his battle-hardened army to Thermon, the newest Macedonian conquest. However, spy information had led him to percieve that Larissa was lightly defended, with its defenders being thrown into the battle of Thermon. Eumaeus swung his army north, hoping to take Larissa under the Macedonians' noses. However, reinforcements marching down from Pella and the town's garrison soon launched a sortie at Eumaeus' army. However, the Armored and Spartan Hoplites carried the day again, charging valiantly into the breaches in the Greek formation and routing the Macedonian cavalry that threatened to cut the line in two. They broke, and they took the rest of their army with them. Eumaeus, having overwhelmed both the defenders of Larissa and their reinforcements, had the town enslaved for the glory of Greece.

By now, the Greeks were bankrupt. Having resorted to deficit spending, I took Eumaeus' army and pressed north again, hoping to take Pella lightly defended as well. This was not the case. Pella was defended more heavily than I expected, hosting scores of Phalanx Pikemen to compliment the militia hoplites. However, they were no match again for the Spartans and the Armored Hoplites, although they caused grievous casualties to both units. Still, the elite hoplite units got the gates open again, and the Hoplites swarmed through again, taking the square quickly. With the taking of Pella, the Greeks began to turn around their economic fortune. Also, they would soon have mastery of the Greek peninsula...

Eumaeus' army now was directed against the main force of Macedonians at Thermon. Their army had foolishly fortified itself there, and now, hemmed in from the west from my allies, the Epirotes, blocked in the north and south by mountain and sea, and facing my army marching in from the east, there was no hope for them. Their army was massive; it comprised of a full stack of Levy and Phalanx Pikemen and Militia Hoplites as well as six wings of Lancers, Greek Cavalry, and Macedonian Cavalry. Interestingly enough, the remainder of Macedon's royalty was also at Thermon. Their king, Aloeus, was hemmed up with his son at Thermon. All men counted, the force substantially outnumbered the Greek army advancing on it, which numbered maybe 3/4 of that number. Eumaeus and I knew, however, that to wipe out the Macedonians at Thermon would mean to destroy them. Eumaeus' army set siege to the city, baiting the nearby reinforcement army to attack him. It worked. The city's defenders as well as the reinforcements attacked the Greeks. In a heated attack, the Macedonians hurled themselves against the Greek hoplites. However, units of Greeks broke away from the main line and flanked the Macedonian line, causing a massive rout. During the collapse of the Macedonian battle line, their cavalry swept in, hoping to chew up the 2 units of Cretan archers which had pincushioned their fellows just a little while before. Eumaeus saw their move, and countered it. Unfortunately, at the moment of victory, the enemy's cavalry overwhelmed his bodyguard. Eumaeus, victor of the plains of Larissa and Pella, was promptly hacked to pieces. Soon after, the Greeks were avenged when the King of Macedon, Aloeus, was pierced by the spears of the Greek hoplites. His son attempted to flee the field, but the Peltasts made contact with his horsemen, holding them just long enough for the Greek hoplites to catch up and kill him. The Macedonians were then utterly broken and fleeing from the field. With that defeat, the nation of Macedon disintegrated entirely, leaving just rebel city states. The addition of Thermon also gave the Greeks the economic power to retrain their battered army, something that hadn't even been plausible for a few years now due to the effects of the military buildup. However, the cost of a great Greek strategos was devastating to the family of ruling Greeks, as Eumaeus left his wife and son Eugenius, the governor of Pella, behind.

Soon after the battle of Thermon, Eutychus, a newly married member of the family, arrived to take command of Eumaeus' army. He left a light garrison at Thermon and turned east to deal with the rebel cities of Miletos and Calchis. The rebels of Calchis offered almost pathetic resistance, and were easily swept away by a re-armed and retrained Greek army. Eutychus then took to ship and sailed to Miletos, where he is due to take it by siege.

Unfortunately, the Epirotes, seeing no need to fight Macedon anymore and having signed a ceasefire with Rome, soon turned on the Greeks. Two Epirote armies marched into Greek territories, spouting lies about Greek transgression in their territories. One army laid siege to Pella, a moderately defended city, and another to Thermon. They must be crushed. It will be up to Strategos Eugenius to hold Pella long enough for the quickly assembled Armored Hoplites to reinforce him from the south...

...And eventually, one day, Greek eyes will turn towards Illyria and the lands of Epirus, and past that, maybe even the lost colonies like Tarentum and Syracuse themselves...

And that's where I must leave my tale for now as I have no more to write

[Chicano]

OKi guys , i'm gonna tell u some of history on the campaign and some other stuff about 4.0


1st. THe Epirots

Oh yeah !!! i saw them, i read about them and what the hell i decided to play as them in campaing coz doh , tha's why i installed 4.0. Oke so here we go , 1st turns i "traded right" everybody i could , then i took the army and bang on the romans , of course those elephats r good @ ramin the gates so it was easy conquering the romas city; in aprox 5,6 turns i've exterminated the romans ; meanwhile in the greek part of my "empire" the greeks were kickin' everybody so ... i allied with them , they extremnated the macedonians and the thracians , me ... i was kickin' carthagians buts , coz i'm greeeeeeedy and i want a lot of sea trade , and i took cathago and whole sicilly ... weeellll unfortunatlly the greeks backstabed me and attacked me ... smart as i am my next move was to land some armies in the back of greece , in corinth and athens , done deal the next few turns i was ruling the greece , ya well the :wub: part was that , i was upset by the gauls tresspasing over my territories and i started the waar ... biiiiiig mistake , and i'm gettin to my point ... epirots units ... welll they suck supreme ... yeah u've heard me , except the elephants coz they're elephants ... 40 clan warriors killed aprox 300 of my militia hoplites ... the greeks where buggin me , the carthage was buggin me also ...so i got bored and dropped the campaign ....

2nd. THe ROmans

well as the romans i've decided to aproach the game from a diff point ... i allied with everybody i could , even with gauls and the epirots , and most important with carthage . Then build , train , build ,train , fightin' rebels , i bribed the epirots cityes from italy so italy was mine now , next i was creatin panic in the carthage parts with a whole army of spyes . I managed with corruption to get my hands on lilybaeum , and the 2 towns from corsica , so i was havin' the islands to ... oki ... so i've saied it's time to kick some gauls ass ... Duno the year was about 240 , i fought some battles took massilia , vienna , and segestica , and some towns in norther italy . Everythin' was cool , i was kickin' gauls butts , i had money , aa loooot (about 60.000 from trades per turn) , and then the nuke came ... the iberians ... those mo fo's wanted to take galia to , and we fought , and fought , years , years and years ... The year is 230 , i own greece , epirots hacked , greeks hacked , macedons hacked , i was makin legios and legios of men , but the iberians kicked my ass all over gallia , from all the gallian i've once owned no i was only ruleing masillia . I droped about 4 full armies (cohorts, onagers ,archers , legio cavs ) in iberia ... they hacked it all those mo fo bullie warriors killed everythiiiing , it's like they have a special evil satisfaction killin my legionaries ... anyway i started war with the germans ... couple of turns later i got bored again ... neeeeeext


3rd. The NuMIdians

THis is short ... Desert Infantry ... they kill every thing it moves , exp egyptians .... good infantry ... i kicked everybody ass


4th. The Pontus

ALso short ... fight in the begining with rebels , allied with everybody near me , trade a loooooot , so i eventully made a loot of money then i started bribin' the armenians , they're cheap and about the same culture . After eliminating the armenians , i've started the was with the selucids, and as i saw that they have a very interesting policy , i sieged a city , i counquered it , the sieged another one and ceasfire with them , and so on and oooon till they were port_cityless and actually declared war and killed them all ...


5th. The Egypt

I allied with : carthage,selucids,pontus,armenia,scitya,and trade righted everybody ... i've only builded economical buildings , and minor armies .So now i got about half the north africa , i've bribed tingi and expand ... i got half of arabia , and now i'm finally building the baracks and archery range and stables ; the fun part is that now when i building its done , i start on the upgrade coz i got alexandria, memphis , thebes, sidon , the hehehrehr city (that was supposed to be jerusalim),heeeoouuuuuuge cityes ... yeah things r going pretty well ...


END ...




.....woooopss...i think i've missplaced this...pls someone move this , or delete it if so...10x

[John Wayne]

My campaign as Rome is goin VERY well, minus one or two..problems. I have destroyed the Epirotes, Greeks and Macedonians. All three fell in quick succesion (first Epirus,then Greece, then Macedon.) Unfortunatly, my one time allies Iberia and Carthage declared war on me as soon as I was done with the Maks. Even worse, all of my leigons were in the Balkans, so there was nothing to stop the Iberians from taking over 4/5 provinces in S.Gaul before I got an army up by Massila. That was about five years ago. I have taken over Sicily, the Balleris, and Sardinia/Corsica. I have one army defending Massila from a bridge, and my three remaining armies are invading Carthaginian controlled N. Africa. My plan is to destroy the main Carthaginian powerbase before takeing over all of the Iberian Penninsula. Also, the Gauls have started getting active again, so I need to keep watch on my Northern Front. Question to Lusted, when the **** do the Marian reforms happen? I have two cities at the the top most bracket, for nearly three years, and am still waiting for the Marian. Are the reforms set to a specific date or what?