The Rise of the Roman Empire (my first AAR)

[Redslayer]

Total War Rome II is my first total war game, I overlooked the series all along foolishly not realizing it had a campaign map lol. This is the result of my first ever game of total war. I'm going to attempt to put it into a bit of a story/historical breakdown format. We'll see how it goes - Also note it's around 2:30 am at this point so forgive any nonsensical misspellings lol o.o It's also really cold, and I'm trying to check back on my notes for accuracy, so I may two part this.

It begins.

Sometime in the early 200 BC's, a city by the name of Rome began to grow and expand its influence, no one could have seen the what lie ahead for this newly forming nation. Within 15 years the city had gained allies and built a small military force, but not everyone was happy with Rome's expansion, and soon war began. The first few battles went in Rome's favor, but soon it became clear that Romes navy was not up to the same standards as it's ground forces, as an attack lead against it's navy was successful. Rome, it's navy routed, began new plans to counter this invasion from the sea, and moved their main fighting force to defend the port city, south of Rome.

As the battle began, the word among the men was revenge. "This is where we will avenge our navies defeat, we cannot lose here." the men gathered, and got into their defensive positions. As the battle began, it soon became clear, that ground battles were where the Roman forces were at their best. As they quickly routed the attacking forces. Not willing to let the enemy simply escape, the men chased down and slaughtered every single enemy soldier they could catch. Blocking all escape routes, they soon cut down every last man, in an act of violence that would soon become all too common. Rome began expanding north, taking full control of Italia within a few years time.

All the while, Romes ally Syracuse, was taking control of North Africa. Rome continued to secure it's northern boarders and build up it's military strength. But soon, the tides turned in Africa, and Syracuse began to falter. Within a few short years, Syracuse had lost almost all of their North African territories and was now calling on Rome for aid. Rome agreed, and began moving troops South. By this time Carthage had already fallen to Syracuse and they were holding out there. Rome's arrival shifted the balance of power greatly in North Africa and within just 10-15 years North Africa from Carthage to Migdol had fallen to Rome. But Rome wasn't prepare for what would happen next, As the City of Dimmidi rebelled, and the city of Iol fell to Arverni invaders. Suddenly Romes forces were split. Rome sent their secondary force to retake Dimmidi from the east, while moving another Army back from the west to reinforce, but disaster struck when the western army was ambushed in a canyon along the coast.

Quickly and desisively beaten, the western force retreated, with a loss of over 70% of the force, it was no longer in any position to aid the forces at Dimmidi, and the main Army was still a good distance out. The army at Dimmidi would stand alone. Knowing this, the Averni launched a full scale attack. The first attack, while outnumbering the Romans in this battle, they were quickly and decisively routed. The Romans had no time to celebrate however, as the Averni forces quickly reinforced and attacked again. This time with much greater numbers against an already battle worn Roman force. Again the Romans held them off, but this time, the Romans suffered a good deal of losses. The siege would take a pause but reinforcements were still out of range the following year, when yet another Averni force made a move for Dimmidi, this time the Romans took heavy losses, but still clung to victory, but it still wasn't enough, as a fourth Amry from the Averni followed the attack up. This time the Romans stared into the eyes of defeat. All appeared loss as the now ragged forces of the Romans 3rd Army began to crumble. Down to just a few hundred men out of the nearly 2000 they started at, the Romans fought as if they were defending the city of Rome itself. Just when it seemed all would be lost, the enemy forces broke, and retreated. This Army would forever be known from that day onward, as the hero's of Dimmidi.


The following spring, relief finally arrived, both ground and naval reinforcements laid siege to Iol and cut off the Averni reinforcements, scattering their remaining forces. The 4th army then moved to mop up the remaining stragglers in the Area. But while all this had taken place, Syracuse had lost Carthage, meaning Rome still had an enemy at it's rear. Rome then blocked the crossing at Tingis, and started planning the assault on the Carthage as the forces of the Averni had already been largely exhausted, it seemed victory would come easy. But the Averni had other plans, and they instead went on the offensive, attacking the city of Thapsus, under Roman control. Fortunately for the Romans, their naval forces had secured the port town and were able to easily repel the attack, leaving the remaining Averni Forces weak and vulnerable. Rome took advantage of this, and quickly took control of Carthage, and crushed the remaining forces. Rome now controlled the whole of North Africa Macomades to Migdol, and began to set their eyes north into Baetica, with revenge against the Averni for the losses at Dimmidi as their driving force.


==To be continued.==

Also holy crap, the forum logged me out and I thought I lost all this for a minute >.>

[Caillagh de Bodemloze]

Welcome to the Writers' Study, Redslayer.

That's a great start to your AAR. You cover a lot of action in just one post, but you explain what's happening very clearly, so I didn't feel confused or overloaded. I'm looking forward very much to your second post. And I'm hoping there will be more after that (possibly your second AAR? )

I hope you'll feel able to hang around here, and maybe read some of the many other fine AARs - and Creative Writing - we have in all our subforums.

Oh, and yes, the thing where the forum logs you out after random amounts of time can be - inconvenient. It bothers me less since I started typing up all my long posts using word-processing software (or at least saving everything I've typed before I try to post), but I still forget to do that now and then, and that moment of not quite knowing what you've lost is a horrible one.

[Redslayer]

Welcome to the Writers' Study, Redslayer.

That's a great start to your AAR. You cover a lot of action in just one post, but you explain what's happening very clearly, so I didn't feel confused or overloaded. I'm looking forward very much to your second post. And I'm hoping there will be more after that (possibly your second AAR? )

I hope you'll feel able to hang around here, and maybe read some of the many other fine AARs - and Creative Writing - we have in all our subforums.

Oh, and yes, the thing where the forum logs you out after random amounts of time can be - inconvenient. It bothers me less since I started typing up all my long posts using word-processing software (or at least saving everything I've typed before I try to post), but I still forget to do that now and then, and that moment of not quite knowing what you've lost is a horrible one.

Luckily I didn't lose anything, but that moment of thinking I had was horrible. Because I was going over my screen shots trying to make sure I put everything in proper order and looking at a map with all the city names because I can't remember most of the secondary ones lol. I'll be typing the rest up in wordpad to be safe.


And I already have a second game decided, I'll be starting as the Parthians. This ones going to take me a bit longer as work is starting to pick up so for example, I'm leaving thursday for 3 days. But I have really enjoyed playing this game. Going to try and finish up this later today, but I have to go get everything prepared for thursday. So it's going to be a little bit.

[Redslayer]

For the readers sake, I'm putting a few extra markers in to help keep your place.

Part 2 : The great war

2.1
After securing the cities in its newly gained terrirory, Rome, impassioned by the losses it suffered at Dimmidi, prepare itself for a long war in the west. Before they could go on the offensive, the Averni forces launched one final attack on the province of Tingis. After a brutal siege defense, with Rome coming away without too many losses, reinforcements reached the area, and they crossed the strait into Baetica, determined to take the fight too the Averni. While this was taking place, war was still raging in the north of Italia, as the Cisalpina region remained heavily contested. Rome took a defensive stance and chose to focus it's efforts in the west, hoping to break through and rejoin its armies around Massalia, their Ally city in the region.


Rome quickly met with resistance after crossing the strait, and the enemy seemed an endless horde, but they fought on. After a few years of heavy fighting, a break came. It seemed the enemy had finally been worn down. And Rome pushed north, quickly sweeping the region and taking control of Baetica, Cartaginensis, Lusitania and Tarraconensis. Leaving only the small Island of Ibossim to be a city state that would later become a Client state of Rome. But that ease would soon come to an end, as the Roman forces approached Volcae, the Averni launched a massive strike on Massalia, Rome had one of it's defense forces at the city, but the enemy outnumbered the two allies 4800-3200. The ensuing battle was brutally fought, 1000s of men died, both sides taking significant losses. And the Roman-Massalia forces were eventually overrun by the enemy. After retreating, the losses became clear, Massalia had lost almost their entire fighting force, and the Romans were reduced to an unsustainable force.


Rome knowing things were looking desperate, and that the bulk of their forces were in the west, leaving Rome dangerously lightly defended after the loss, rushed it's troops north to meet the enemy, but before they could reach Massalia, the city fell. The fighting became increasingly brutal with every passing year, as the Romans marched north they reached the settlement of Tolosa and the force of 6000 Romans came head to head with the Averni in what would become one of the Largest battles the North would ever see. Rome brought it's remaining Roman defense force in for the battle which led to enemy to be greatly out numbered, the battles waged for years until finally, the Romans had managed to take Massalia and all of Provincia and began pushing north into Aquitania and Celtica to secure their northern border. The war raged on for a few more years until finally, the Averni had been defeated. Leaving all of the east coast under Roman control.

2.2
Rome then turned it's attention back towards Africa, where it's ally Syracuse was once again beginning to struggle and lose ground. By this point they'd been pushed out of Aegyptus and now the Romans southern flank was exposed. So after securing the last of the northern territories, Rome moved the brunt of it's military might southward. Planning to re-secure Aegyptus and restore peace, Roman Forces arrived in mass just a few years later and began to push east. Their enemy, the remnants of the original Carthaginians didn't put up much of a fight against the now far greater Roman forces. But just as the last Carthaginians fell, and it looked like peace would finally come, a new enemy arose. Shortly after the fall of Alexandria, the Seleucids and their ally the Cimmeria declared war on Rome and made a move on the African continent. This war quickly because much more violent then the war in the west. Rome pushed up to Syria, and took the control of the region, but the Seleucids weren't finished, they launched a counter attack on the city of Dura, where one of Romes attack forces was stationed. Rome prepared to defend, but as the battle began, the Romans knew they were in trouble.


The numbers were greatly in favor of the Seleucids, a force of 5000 men came down on the Roman force of just 2000 and laid siege to the small desert town. The Romans in Dura, knowing they were staring death in the eyes, formed up their defenses and fought to take as many Seleucids to the afterlife with them. They focused their defense in the town center, boxing off the square to try and narrow the enemy attack routes and the battle began. The Romans fought long and hard, and were holding out for an impressive amount of time, but eventually the sheer numbers began to be too much, the main line was holding, but the southern line began to waver... The general, knowing he couldn't weaen the front line, joined the fight himself on the southern line. But it was too little too late, as the rear line fell, the Romans defending the other two streets were suddenly attacked from both sides, and were slaughtered. At the end of the day, the Romans had managed to kill 3800 of the Seleucids 5000 man force, ending the battle in a loss of Dura, but a massive blow to the attack force of the Seleucids. But it wasn't without it's costs, Rome, with it's forces split between defending the Northern territories, and it's offensive in the south, was now down an Army, and was on the back foot in Syria. The tide of the war rest on a knifes edge, the remaining Roman Forces would need to hold off an unrelenting force until reinforcements could be gathered.


Fortunately, they weren't far off, as the arrival of its two large naval forces in Alexandria allowed Rome to hold the city without having to hold back an attack force. And a newly formed Army from Libya was already in Route. Thanks to the damages dealt by the men at Dura, the Seleucids were very quickly put back on defense, and rome pushed back hard and fast. It wasn't long before Rome gained the upper hand again, and routed the Seleucids and pushed their ally out of the region. Rome slowly worked it's way northward, conquering Mesopotamia, the province of Asia, Armenia, Caucasia, Cilicia, Galatia et Cappadocia and Bithynia et Pontus before pushing eastward. Before pushing east Rome knew it had to make peace with the Seleucids, or moving it's main force out of the area would be impossible, so with an offer of gold, and a chance to save themselves, Rome bribed the Seleucids into peace. And then stormed Macedonia. The brutal war continued for many years, tens of thousands of men died. But after more than 200 years of war, Rome was finally on the verge of victory. As the gap between east and west closed, Rome was able to begin a two pronged attack, and cut off the Greek peninsula from any enemy reinforcements before slowly grinding the remaining forces into the ground.

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Part 3 : Roma Invicta

3.1
By 6 AD, Rome had waged war across 3 continents, and built an empire that would make their gods proud. They moved their Armies into defensive positions and prepared to defend any against any attackers. Meanwhile, back in Rome, the emperor had a new plan, why fight the wars yourself, when you have client states that can do it for you? Rome began funding it's client states war efforts in hopes that their wars would disrupt any growing threat, leaving Rome to enjoy the rewards of 100s of years of fighting. From 6-11 AD only a single skirmish was fought by Roman soldiers, then came a long era of peace for Rome. During this time the empire prospered, in 35 AD the Colosseum was built in honor of the peace Rome had found. Many tribes in the north had been wiped out by Romes client states and allies, some joined Rome to prevent their own destruction. Others faded from the pages of history.


But in the east, Romes long time ally Syracuse was once again losing ground. With their home Cities of Garama and Augila well inside Roman territory they were in no way in danger of being conquered, but Rome saw a now solidifying eastern enemy, lead by none other than the Seleucids, who had now turned Media and Persia into Satrapies, as a threat to their security. As war seemed to be looming, Rome began to move troops south in preparation. Around 50 AD, a tribe in the north declared war on Rome and it's allies, dragging in most of the Seleucids allies as well, the emperor so no use in waiting for the inevitable and declared war on the seleucids in return for Syracuse to become a client state of Rome. But in a strange twist, the Seleucids immediately sued for peace and agreed to also become a client state, while Rome knew this would not make the Syracuse happy, it was a difficult offer to pass up, without any blood shed they could end the war, so Rome accepted and gave Syracuse a ship packed with gold to stem the outrage. Peace continued, as the enemy in the norther was quickly crushed by ally tribes.


But it wasn't long before Rome found that it had made a mistake, the Seleucids, as devious as ever, had begun sabotaging Roman Cities and troops in Mesopotamia. Rome sent it's own spies to do the same to Syracuse cities in Parthia and Carmania, but after an attempted assassination of a Roman general, the emporer had had enough of Syracuse, and declared war. This time, with the northern Barbarians all on Romes side, and Syracuse coming in from the south, Rome would once and for all destroy it's enemies. Cimmeria joined the Seleucids in the war against Rome and thus began the second era of war. Rome, this time not wanting to expand it's territory, instead chose to fight the enemy armies on the fields and valleys and then support their allies in taking the cities. Rome made a few quick strikes, razing two cities to keep Media busy while Roman allies made their way to the fight, and sent troops north to support the tribes of the north in their fight against Cimmeria. The north fell quickly, the barbarian tribes had been raiding Cimmeria for nearly half a century, and with the Roman troops now at their backs, they rolled across Cimmeria like a plague.

3.2
In the east, Rome fell back after razing the cities, which Media quickly reclaimed the remains of, and Syracuse arrived to the fight with fresh troops. But while moving south one Roman army was caught out, just outside of reinforcement range, Syracuse, backed by a force of Persian reinforcements attacked the Roman army in what would become the largest battle of the war. 4728 men on the Syracuse and Persian side vs 2246 Roman soldiers. This was the 1st Army of Rome, a force that had been around since the begging of the empire. If they fell here, it would be a crushing blow to Roman moral.


They fought at a river crossing, so the Romans used the choke points to their advantage to try and cut down as many as they could. Remembering back to the time of Dimmidi, and Dura, the Romans prepared to fight against impossible odds, and inflict as much damage as they could. They set up their ballistas to cover both choke points and moved to block the crossing. The enemy came in force with elephants and archers pounding away at the Roman force, in one of the most bloody battles in almost a century, it appeared this would be the final day for the Roman's 1st Army, the "Slayers of Italia" fought tooth and nail slowly dwindling down, several of the Roman soldiers were routed, the ballistas ran out of ammo and the archers moved into close combat along side the legionaries. The general joined the fray and fought right beside his men, ready to die in battle.


But it was not to be, suddenly, one of the Roman spearmen groups and a group of archers had managed to push across the bridge after finishing the last of the attackers their and attacked the enemy from the rear. Their moral quickly dropped, and they began to turn and run. The Romans cut down as many as they could and the battle ended with over 1300 romans lost. But they had manged to kill and capture 2800+ enemy soldiers. The remaining 907 Romans instantly became hero's, and were called back to the capital. The enemies losses had effectively ended their ability to put up a fight, and the cities fell to Roman allies one after another until their were none left.


The Seleucid's, not willing to give up managed to take 2 cities in Arabia Felix but were quickly countered by Roman allied forces and pushed out to sea. The Roman navy perused the last survivors and sunk every last man to the bottom of the sea. In 119 BC, the reign of the Seleucids was finally over. After crushing a rebellion in Aethiopia, where two of one of Romes client states Satrapies turned on them, and finishing off a tribe in the north that tried to take advantage of most of the troops being out to war, the war was finally over. Rome had won, and peace reigned for many years to come.


http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/?id=853815437

[Redslayer]

Link appears broken, can't find a way to edit the post lol.

here.

[Caillagh de Bodemloze]

OK, first things first - your link is (obviously) a working link, so I'm guessing it's not a link to the right place. If it was meant to be a link to your map (I find maps very helpful, by the way, so thank you!) then you've sorted the problem out already, so ignore me. If it was meant to be a link to something else, feel free to PM me, and I'll edit your post to put the right link in.

You'll be able to edit your own posts once you've made 25 posts (and been a member at least a week). I believe you will also be able to vote in polls (including the Writers' Study Yearly Awards, for which voting will start soon) and edit your signature at that point. When I was new, I found that posting on other people's writing was a really good way to build up posts. It also turned out to be an excellent way to encourage people to read my AAR and post on it - so it worked out very well all round...

Right - off to actually read part 2 now...

...back, having read parts 2 and 3.

Parts 2 and 3 are cool! I especially liked the battle of Dura (had me on the edge of my seat, and I was glad that the Romans were able to gain a longer-term advantage even from defeat) and the big battle at the river-crossing at the end. The way you had the Romans remembering the earlier battle at Dura as an example for them was very nicely done!

(I'd give you more rep, but I have to give rep to some other people first...)

Hope the trip goes well. I'll look forward to seeing you back here afterwards. (And to the AAR from your Parthian campaign, of course. )

[Redslayer]

Yeah it was meant to be the map, but it didn't cooperate lol. I'm not sure why, but I'll just use the other way from now on. Also, ok that makes sense. I got a lot to catch up on on these forums lol.


Glad you enjoyed it My next one I think I'll write down as it's happening, so I can get things in better detail near the beginning. I didn't know about this forum until someone on the steam forums for Rome II sent me this way. So I had to go off memory and what I'd shared there as a reminder. It's going to take me awhile longer to do the next play through. But it'll also be more fluid, because my goal with my Roman play through was to end with the empire in as close to the real life height of the empire as possible within the game, without betraying allies lol.

[Caillagh de Bodemloze]

Aha! Our spies are everywhere, even on the Steam forums!

No... not really.

But I'm glad whoever-it-was sent you in this direction. And I'm glad you worked out how to get the map to show. (In my experience, an image-hosting site is definitely your best bet, so yes, stick to that. )

Writing as I go along certainly works better for me. Having said that, everybody's different. Try it and see what works for you.

And I know what you mean about having a lot to catch up with - this place is enormous! If you need any help finding anything, give us a shout - someone will probably know where it is, even if I don't.

[Alwyn]

Welcome to the Writers' Study, Redslayer! This looks like a very enjoyable campaign, the heroic Roman defence of Dura sounds like a particular highlight and a turning-point in your war with the Seleucids. It sounds as if Rome's struggling ally, Syracuse, and your devious client state, the Seleucids, helped to keep the campaign challenging and unpredictable. (When playing a Total War campaign, I tend to avoid alliances unless I need them for survival. But, when I will write an AAR based on a campaign, I sometimes find that alliances and other diplomatic entanglements can add twists to the story. I wonder if you find that writing an AAR affects how you play a campaign.) I agree with Caillagh's comments and look forward to your Parthian AAR, or an AAR with any faction.

Meanwhile, the Writers' Study are currently running three competitions, everyone is invited to vote for your favourite writing (you need 25 posts to be able to vote):-

Writers' Study Yearly Awards 2016

Monthly Creative Writing Competition XIV

Tale of the Week 256

[Redslayer]

I've had surprisingly little time to do anything lol, and I'm about to be gone for a week. I'm going to attempt to do some reading on the road though. I finally started my Parthian playthrough and I'm going to leave and forget what I was doing lol

[Caillagh de Bodemloze]

AARs are surprisingly time-consuming. Don't worry, we'll be here when you get back.

(And if you find you've forgotten some of what you were doing, you can always do what I do and make it up. )