New Gaul Short Campaign Speed Run record time

[Gaius Julius Caesar II]

Hello all,

When I read Genius Of The Restoration's Gaul and Greek campaign descriptions here last year I decided that trying to imitate them would be a good way for me to improve my own RTW skills. I was able to copy the Gaul campaign (6 turns) late last year on VH/H difficulty. Insufficient battle micro skills kept me from doing it on VH/VH.
Today I beat Genius Of The Restoration's Gaul short campaign speed run record. I completed the game in four turns on VH/VH difficulty with the help of some luck.
My apologies if someone else has already done this. I could not find anything by searching except Genius's original post.
See http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...aign-Speed-Run for his original post.

APPRECIATION:

Without the example of Genius Of The Restoration's Gaul Speed Run and Greek Cities Speed Run forum posts
I would have never thought of doing something like this.
Thank you, Genius.

BACKGROUND:

While I have been playing RTW off and on for most of a decade, usually playing as a Roman faction,
I never took the game very seriously until last summer when I started reading the various Total War forums
and watching RTW YouTube videos (most helpful to me were MrSchylock and Legend of Total War videos).
Since I first ran Genius's Gaul short campaign speed run two things have happened:
1) I decided to retry the campaign on VH/VH since my battle skills have improved.
2) TotalWarNetwork on YouTube had a contest for fifteen of its members. The goal was to take Rome while playing as Germania in the fewest number of turns. Watching the videos posted by the winner (Legend of Total War) got me thinking: if he could do what he did with Germania then it could be possible to better Genius Of The Restoration's Gaul short campaign.
I started working on the campaign Wednesday by doing a VH/E campaign and eventually got a win by defeating a Rome sally-out in the interturn between turns 4 and 5 . This encouraged to begin working on the VH/VH difficulty level and I succeeded Thursday after a number of false starts.

CAMPAIGN:

I am willing to make a more detailed writeup if there's interest for it but for now here's a very brief summary:

In general I followed Genius Of The Restoration's lead but with some modifications needed to get it done in four turns.

Turn one: movement only
Turn two: Arretium was taken
Turn three: Massilia and Ariminum (my spy opened the gates) were taken
Turn four: Scallabis, Osca, Samarobriva, Lugdunum, Segesta and Rome (my spy went two for two) were taken.

I also managed to reach a total of sixteen settlements.
It took me about 3 hours and 25 minutes across three sessions today. The sessions were recorded. It's certainly possible to do better than I did by using fewer troops, lowering Gaul casualties, or having more money at the end.

DOCUMENTATION:

Here's screen prints of the victory and final faction statistics screens.








QUESTION FOR MODERATOR

I have a YouTube channel and will post videos there but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to mention it in this forum by name.
I don't have any advertising on my videos.
May I mention the name of my channel?

[Kintoun]

congrats. not that i have even played gaul to give any feedback but yeah looks impressive. just 4 turns... wow by that time i normally had only done scratching my head and throwing around some trade agreements..

[Ngazi]

Amazing!

[Gaius Julius Caesar II]

I have uploaded the raw recordings to a new playlist on my YouTube channel. I plan to have commented and edited versions done by the end of the weekend.

Since I had to watch all the recordings to take notes for commenting and editing I decided to write up a description while I was doing that so here it is for anyone who would like to try to imitate it:

A large part of the campaign strategy was based on the need for four units in order to build a siege ram in one turn.

Turn 1.

Numantia - The cavalry unit moves east toward Osca. Everything else moves due west, heading toward Scallabis.

Narbo Martius - The three warbands in town move southwest toward Osca. Vindex moves east and buys a mercenary (might not be necesary if you can take Massilia with three units but you would have to wait until turn four to finish the ram) when he stops just north of Massilia. His three units move east as far as they can toward Massilia.

Alesia -The cavalry unit is moved north to the border just south of Samarobriva. The three warbands and druid move south toward Lugdunum. Brennus moves northeast into the next region to just south of the forest where he can buy three mercenaries on the next turn. The boat north of Condate Redonum noves east to a place northwest of Samarobriva to keep an eye on the Briton boat and the Briton armies around Samarobriva.

Italy - The diplomat moves to Arretium and gets 1799 denarii for trade and maps. The armies in Mediolanium and Patavium congregate in two groups (this is important, the Julii act differently if the Gauls cross the border) just north of the border with the Julii. The spy moves southest headed for Ariminum.

Roads were constructed in Mediolanium and Patavium. Warbands were recruited in Mediolanium and Patavium, cavalry in Alesia and Numantia and a peasant (to save denarii) in Narbo Martius.

Turn 2.

Numantia - The cavalry unit moves north east toward Osca. The army moves south across the river and then west attacking a Spanish army which retreats toward Scallabis.

Narbo Martius - The three warbands continue to move southwest toward Osca and run into Spanish troops at the border. Vindex continues east toward Segesta. His three units siege Massilia and are joined by Vindex's mercenary.

Alesia -The new cavalry unit joins the one on the border just south of Samarobriva. The warbands and druid continue to move south toward Lugdunum. Brennus buys the three mercenaries and moves northwest with them to the border to a point next to the cavalry. The boat follows the Briton boat to the mouth of the Thames and takes up a position just east of it.

Italy - The diplomat moves to Rome where he fails to get anything from SPQR for trade rights. The spy enters Ariminum. The Gaul armies move south adjacent to Arretium and attack the Julii army standing at the southwest corner of the city. The Julii are joined by the city garrison and the Gauls crush both armies and march unopposed into Arretium and exterminate the city (the Gauls needed the money). The warbands in Mediolanium and Patavium move south and are aimed at Ariminum.

Warbands were recruited in Mediolanium and Patavium, cavalry in Alesia and Numantia , swordmen in Arretium. The depleted warbands in Arretium were retrained. The shrine to Baccus in Arretium was destroyed and a shrine to Esus constructed (full campaign game oriented move).

During the interturn the Julii send out half their forces from Arminum to attack some rebels south of the city.

Turn 3.

Italy - The Gaul armies move to Arretium and attack the city finding that the spy has opened the gates. The Gauls leave the three depleted cavalry units outside to rest up for the coming battle with SPQR and attack with the generals and infantry which defeat the weakened defenders (two generals and a town watch) and enslave the city. The Julii are no more. Vindex continues east to a point northwest of Segesta where he is joined by the warband from Mediolanium. The spy moves into Rome. Most of the army in Arretium moves two squares toward Rome leaving only two depleted units behind.

Narbo Martius - The Spanish army at the border has disappeared so the three warbands besiege Osca and are joined by the cavalry unit from Numantia. Vindex's three units and mercenary take and occupy Massilia .

Numantia - Mercenary slingers are hired. The Gaul army attacks two units which have come out from Scallabis. They retreat and the army advances, hires the Spanish mercenary unit, and attacks the Spanish army from turn 2. It is joined by the two units which were now west of it and the combined force is totally destroyed. The Gaul army then advances to and besieges Scallabis which is defended only by a general and a skirmisher.

Alesia -The warbands and druid besiege Lugdunum. Brennus and company besiege Samarobriva. The Briton ship loads up an army and the Gaul ship moves in to block it from moving.

The shrine to Baccus in Ariminum was destroyed for the money. Peasants were recruited in Mediolanium and Arretium. The depleted warbands in Arretium and and one left in Ariminum were retrained. The Gauls are broke.

Turn 4.

Alesia -The Briton army west of Samarobriva attacks Brennus and the garrison sallies out to help. Brennus' army defeats them but some survivors escape into the city. Brennus' army attacks and defeats them, and occupies Samarobriva. The Briton ship and the Gaul ship continue to eyball each other. The warbands and druid attack Lugdunum, win, and occupy the town.

Narbo Martius - The Spanish army reappears at Osca and is joined by the Osca garrrison (a general) in an attack on the Gaul besiegers. The Gauls are victorious and walk in and occupy Osca.

Numantia - The Gaul army attacks Scallabis and takes and occupies it.

Italy - Vindex and the warband unit attack Segesta, win, and occupy the town. The Gaul army moves to Rome and attacks the city finding that once more the spy has opened the gates. The SPQR has been caught napping and Rome is defended by only a general, two principes and an hastati unit. While three warbands are burned up defeating one principes standing on the walls, the smarter cavalry lure the SPQR general away from the town square and ambush and kill him. The two Gaul generals then take turns leading the remaining SPQR infrantry around the town square until they are exhausted. The Gauls then swarm in with everything they have and put the Romans out of their misery. Rome is captured and enslaved. SPQR is no more and the game is won.

[Gaius Julius Caesar II]

I have added the videos to my YouTube site for anyone who's interested.
Three showing the unedited and uncommented run and three edited down to about two hours with comments.
Here's the link to the first edited video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyIC-f7t4nU

[Genius of the Restoration]

Very impressive! I'm glad to hear my campaigns are still providing information and a little bit of inspiration! Great attention to detail on the campaign screen.

How did you improve your battle micro?

[Gaius Julius Caesar II]

Very impressive! I'm glad to hear my campaigns are still providing information and a little bit of inspiration! Great attention to detail on the campaign screen.

How did you improve your battle micro?

Thanks for the kind words.

Mostly I improved through practice using the techniques I saw in the videos I mentioned. I used to always get my generals killed in combat but with some work I have learned how to use them and keep them alive for the next battle. I fought a battle in a VH/E practice campaign this morning with one Greek general versus a Thracian army of a general and about 10 units. The general destroyed the Thracians. This would not have happened even six months ago. I would have been afraid to try. Now I use generals very aggressively although I'm not nearly up to the LegendOfTotalWar level.

[Gaius Julius Caesar II]

Sorry, I should have mentioned that the general was my faction leader with a strength of 50. It make a difference.
Anyway, back to the campaign.