Hi all, I've been working on a Medieval 2 AAR called The Legend of Thomas: King of the Danes and progress on that one has been coming along nicely but slowly. I decided in the meantime that I wanted to do a nice short one based on Total Attila in the interim. This is going to be about the lead up to and description of one battle that I fought as the Visigoths. In it I was conquering one of the small Roman kingdoms that emerge, e.g. like Gaul or Britain, once the Roman Empire starts falling. This one in particular was called Septimania and it was in Southern Gaul, during the campaign I decided to settle in that province and take advantage of the rich trading ports to spend some time building up a small trade-based kingdom in peace while I planned my next moves. I controlled all of the province except for the city of Vienna, which was owned by Septimania and I decided to quickly march up my armies and conquer it, which took one turn. I thought it would be really interesting to do it from the perspective of one of the many small factions that ends up getting conquered and I wanted to write a story from the perspectives of one of the AI enemies, and the dread an actual person would feel when coming up against seemingly impossible odds. The series turned out way longer than I thought it would, so I'm going to release it in small parts over the next few days. So anyway, here's the fall of Vienna.
Lord Byron: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
There is the moral of all human tales;
'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past.
First freedom and then Glory – when that fails,
Wealth, vice, corruption – barbarism at last.
And History, with all her volumes vast,
Hath but one page...
Chapter 1: Prologue
King Alaric watched as Rome burned. The Empire was in chaos. Beset by invasion and rebellion, the heartland had fallen to the ravenous hordes. Retreating to Hispania and Africa, the disemboweled Empire limped on. After a great fire, new life grows in the forest and in the same way, new kingdoms emerged in the ashes of Gaul and Italia. His hordes engorged on the riches of Rome, the King of the Visigoths turned his eyes towards the province of Septimania, on the southern coast of Gaul. On the shores of the Mediterranean, trade from lands near and far flowed through the ports and King Alaric dreamed of a home where his people could live in peace. No more would they wander like packs of hungry wolves. With war drums beating the Goths marched into Septimania and seized the ports from the Roman legions. Now with a kingdom to call his own, he gazed north at the city of Vienna, home to a small kingdom that had rebelled against Rome. Though they had no quarrel, this city was all that stood between him and total conquest of the region. He gathered his armies and prepared to march.
The forests were alive with rivers of men. More than three thousand barbarians, all armed for war were marching on the city of Vienna. At his study, Flavius Merenda could barely believe the reports. These Goths, who just two seasons before had pleaded with his king to join the war against the remnants of Rome, were now going to betray them. Septimania, which had been independent for less than a decade, was now threatened with destruction. Flavius had always thought it would be at the hands of the legions that he’d once served, eager to wreak vengeance for their insolence. Luckily for the new kingdom, the Empire had been ravaged by barbarian invaders and civil war. Rome was now occupied by barbarians and the capital of Ravenna had been sacked at least three times. The Imperial court had moved to Hispania and the Sixth Legion, one of the few full strength legions in the area was campaigning against the Jutes to the north. It shouldn’t have surprised him. The devil-worshippers under King Alaric had unleashed havoc on the Christian nations and had even seized the city of Narbo from the Geats. A new barbarian Kingdom was forming in the south of Gaul and Vienna was the last remaining city needed to give the Goths full control. Wandering out of his study to a balcony, Flavius gazed down at the city, with its people wandering about oblivious to the danger lying ahead. The horde was coming.