I recall you gents used to like getting campaign feedback at about turn 100. I'm not sure how relevant that still is, but hey, here's something to read. I've been enjoying 2.35 quite a lot. It's been stable as all hell, I've yet to have a bug interfere with my glorious plans, and I'm feeling like planning is rewarded and risk-taking has consequences.
Report:
Sicily was taken early and with little difficulty, largely by bullying the native stacks in traditional Punic fashion: heavy citizen hoplites, Libyan auxilliaries, and the determined sacrifice of a great many mercenary lives. A trade colony is installed in Syracuse to avoid provoking the locals too much. Since Messana is so close to Italian soil, a proper allied colony is installed to ensure a solid garrison. Watchtowers are installed everywhere to keep an eye on those bandits.
Rome is provoked by this and a war ensues. Rome's navy is pitiful and two armies are sunk before touching ground. This slows Rome down enough for Carthage to assemble a full army with reinforcements behind. This formation largely destroys two Roman field armies and sacks three cities, driving them to accept an unfavourable ceasefire (5000 mnai and trade rights). No land is exchanged in this conflict, but it turned out to be rather interesting: the defeat 'shocked' the Romans into shape, spurring them to attack Rhegion unsuccessfully, but they did eventually move north toward the Alps with success. It definitely felt like the Romans were stagnating before defeat changed their attitude, probably because it focused their troops into a coherent army to counter my army and once I was gone they still had a coherent army and no more immediate threat.
An alliance is arranged with the Ptolemies to ensure peace in the east while we focus on the west. Sicily's infrastructure is built up, long-term garrisons are arranged largely from local troops to ensure easy replacement, extra family members have been coming of age and spend a lot of time politicking. Since Carthage only really has two legitimized generals at any given time, my faction leader spends some time hunting bandits.
The authorized general, a Barcid, begins the slow process of taking Bastetania and Edetania. In both cases just once I've taken the towns an army jumps out of the woods and gives me a run for my money. As I finish taking Edetania I ally with the Arevakoi (it took some negotiating) to ensure my borders are protected. I don't have any immediate desire to expand further north; I've been focused on only taking provinces that share a culture, to help ease transitions. Taking cities isn't a huge issue but holding them is a significant concern: I'm very aware that having too many troops tied down for garrisoning one area will leave me unable to respond to basically any bad news.
Baeturia was a mistake. It had about 20% Western Mediterranean Polities so I figured it was a reasonable expansion route. Alas, the Lusitanians considered it to be part of their demesne and began a siege just the turn before I reached it. I saw their army off and took the province, but there're tough fighters in that area... They slowly ground down the mercenary hoplites I was using to form the core of my army at the time. I had difficulties reinforcing the area, operating almost exclusively from Gader and mercenary recruitment. Working on the other side of the Gates from the Baleares slowed reinforcement from there. The same general lead armies with maybe three significantly differing makeups, starting with heavy infantry and lots of skirmishers, to Celtiberian infantry and horse, and finally back to light Libyan infantry and whatever makeshift auxilliaries could be found (which certainly feels like the Carthaginian style). It was a hell of a career.
But Baeturia was a mistake. It's just far enough from Gader that any infantry reinforcements can only make it as far as Nertobriga itself, with no room for manoeuvre afterwards, granting the Lusitanian town of Turgi the advantage when it comes to attrition fighting. It was way too expensive a war, I had to really bleed the Lusitanians before they would accept a treaty, I'm very worried about the garrison either before too small to deter them, or too expensive to justify holding the town. The Arevakoi seem less aggressive, only having taken the town of Iltirta with my recent assistance, but the Lusitanians feel more expansionist. I've put an allied democracy in place to boost immediate recruitment and garrison options. I'm hoping my stabilizing presence will encourage the Arevakoi to expand and keep the Lusitanians in line for me.
I took Mauretania to link up with the Punic population there. I arrived just before the Massylians, so good timing there. We're still allied but it started to feel like a strained alliance once I got trade rights off the Ptolemies, which bumped our trust level down to Distrustful. I'm not sure exactly why but my theory is they felt their alliance with the Ptolemies helped protect them from me, and thus my making friends with them could be seen as a threat. Opaque diplomacy drives guesswork, which feels interesting. The Massylians still haven't incorporated the Garamantine tribes of Phasania but have otherwise been having success to my south, even taking out a few groups of bandits on my territory. I like our alliance. I hope it doesn't fall apart. I keep a close eye on their movements just incase.
Carthage never really prosecuted a war with Epeiros. We left Greece largely to its own devices until one of the city-states sent some armies to take Rhegion. They held it for a couple of years at best, made another attempt, and failed. But they're having more success in their home area, having largely driven the Makedons out. They're currently taking Pella. They suppressed the Epeirotes for a while, but they're starting to make a comeback: they're up to three provinces after having been reduced to one, I think. I've allied with the KH since they were also allied with the Ptolemies, making us into a loose bloc with our own spheres to expand into. We don't really help each other out much, but I suspect the alliances have still had some use: declaring that we're not stepping on each others' toes, and the distant threat of allied intervention, has at least fostered some kind of stability in the area.
The Ptolemies began a siege in Kyrenaia just one turn before I could, much like the Lustanians with Nertobriga. I've chosen not to start a war with them quite yet. They seem diminished, totally pushed out of Anatolia, so I think I could win. But the long-term cost of winning, of taking a bunch of territory I'll have to spend more than a decade pacifying, of the instability it will bring, it's got my slowing down and considering if I can influence the area more indirectly. Egypt is a useful buffer state against the Seleukids.
Moving into the map in general, Egypt still owns Kilikia and Kypros but has otherwise lost their Anatolian holdings to Pergamon. Pontus is smal lat three provinces but their armies seem larger than you'd expect for that size and they stick close to their towns, perhaps a side-effect of being in the middle of everyone. The Hayastani have huge armies but have hardly expanded at all. The Pahlavans actually control Adurbadegan at the moment, an exclave from their holdings on the other side of the Caspian, where they appear to be holding their own. As are the Baktrians. As are the Saka. As are the Sauromatians. As are the Taksashila. These entities seem to mostly have conformed to what I think of as their 'traditional' demesnes and seem pretty locked in.
The Seleukids took the northern provinces of Arabia. The Sabau have moved across the Red Sea and look to take Di'amat any moment, and likely thence to Kush since the Ptolemies have made no moves farther south. The Bosporans have four provinces. The Getai seem like they've been pushed back by the Pergamene armies, who have taken the eastern coast of the Black Sea. They really seem to be doing alright, Pergamon. The Sweboz have taken at least half a dozen northern areas and I think they've stifled Boioi expansionism by proximity since there are a lot of independent towns still in that area in spite of a large concentration of Boioi armies. The Lugians have three provinces and no armies – I don't think they're having a great time. The Aedui and Arvernoi are still allied, and have about half a dozen settlements each with no immediate signs of butting up against a major power. The Pritanoi only have three provinces and don't look like they'll finish taking the British Isles for maybe a decade.
There's still a lot of unaligned regions, alliances have been relatively steady with no major stresses to test them, I've been outgrowing Rome but am starting to worry that they're becoming militarily formidable and they may have more sustainable long-term recruiting options for heavy infantry. I can already see how that's going to make the next couple of wars more and more difficult, and may require a solution beyond “lots of Numidian noble cavalry”. The Ptolemies and I haven't had any major tests to our alliance yet, but now that they've taken Kyrenaia they will bear closer watching. The Massylians only have one province available to take – Phasania – before they start thinking about where to expand next. They're allied with the Ptolemies as well, so I expect it to be a dirty, painful, long-term war if I can't find a way to manage their ambitions. The Lusitanians are unpredictable in the west. All my expansion options now either bring my up against other major powers, or they mean colonizing provinces with no Western Mediterranean Polities influence to begin with – an expensive and lengthy process that will tie down resources for years, potentially weakening me in the mid-term at a time where my neighbours will be looking around for their next meal.
Nice work! Per your text above, if I were to make a scripted submod of the campaign, I would simply make the Ptolemies and Carthaginians allied from the beginning to avoid their silly North African wars. Such a conflict does not make much sense until either one is a behemoth superpower of the Mediterranean capable of swallowing the other.
By 123 BC, the Koinon Hellenon has done much more than merely survive the trials and tribulations of Macedonian and Epirote aggression, powers of the lower Balkans extinguished not long after the start of our era (272 BC). If anything, our once humble but now illustrious league of city-states has grown in strength and accumulated powers so great that we now rival the gods themselves lounging about on the snowy mountaintops of Olympus. In Greece, Magna Graecia (Italy/Sicily), Ionia (western Turkey), Taurica (Crimea), Massalia (Marseille, France) and Emporion (Empuries, Spain) we have preserved our cherished liberty, but we have expanded far beyond the traditional centers of Hellenic pride and poleis of old. From the Persian Gulf to the great western ocean of the Atlantic where the Pillars of Hercules stand tall, we have also secured our fortunes, replaced barbarism with Hellenism, and crushed our foes.
The illegitimate Diadochi powers founded in the wake of Alexander's untimely death have been vanquished and no longer pose a threat to the unified Greeks. We have long since embraced the federalized koina system, minting universal coinage currency, establishing widely accepted governmental standards for weights and measurements (like the Qin & Han Chinese to the far east), and have made the Mesogeios (Mediterranean) into our personal pond for leisure, uninterrupted trade and olive tree cultivation. Our middle sea has seen nearly an entire century of peace until the Aedui Celts decided to dislodge neutral Sweboz and even allied Lougiones as Germanic raiders invading our lands to the south. We have been currently betrayed by the wandering Lougiones and are currently fighting our former allies in and around Massalia (they'll be defeated soon enough).
The Taksashila of the Indus, upstart offshoots of who we consider the more legitimate Maurya in South Asia, once attempted to create a giant empire in the east at the expense of fallen Seleucids and Hayasdan, while nearly destroying our ally of Baktria, but we have rallied to the defense of our allies in the east. The Bactrians are now a great power under our watchful guidance, as we expand our control and friendships to include such loyal clients as the Getai of Europe, the Nabati of Arabia and East Africa, the Massylian Numidians of the lower Maghreb. The Romans and Carthaginians were hard nuts to crack, but even they have joined our ranks, as have the various Iberians and even the southern Gauls. We have prevailed in the Red Sea where our navy smashes the Sabaeans and our armies composed of every ethnic group from Scythians to Thracians and Persians to Nubians guard the essential passes to limit their expansionism.
Side note: this is a rather modified campaign and it might take most players longer to achieve this kind of expansion, since I face all the standard financial and rebel spawn problems of any other player, but with the (export_descr_building scripted) crucial bonuses that I've granted Koinon Hellenon with their ability to recruit the following additional units:
*not just Thorakitai but also elite Thorakitai Epilektoi as far as Massalia and Emporion in the west and Antioch and Babylonia in the east
*Hypaspistai and even Hyperaspistai beyond the Thorakitai reforms
*Sparing use of Agema Phalangitai but widespread use of regular Phalangitai (so not just Deuteroi Phalangitai, Mercenary Phalangitai, Machimoi Phalangitai, Chaldian and Pantodapoi Phalangitai)
*Makedones Peltastai up until the Thorakitai reforms
*heavy Kataphractoi throughout Anatolia, the Levant and Egypt after Thorakitai reforms (not just in Damaskos and Edessa)
*Galatian Celtic infantry and cavalry throughout Anatolia and not just Ankyra (even with "Galatian colonist" swordsmen used by other Hellenic powers)
*Thureopherontes Toxotai and Hippotoxotai throughout Anatolia, the Balkans, and the Pontic Steppe (not just in Crimea)
*Bosporan-style Hippotoxotai in and around the Black Sea to mirror Thureopherontes Hippotoxotai recruitment
*and even Epirote Molosson Agema and Macedonian Hetairoi cavalry to complement the Thessalikoi cavalry recruited in Greece
If anyone is interested in my modded KH campaign recruitment, feel free to DM me about it and I'll see what I can do (with some adjustments if you like).
Only 25 years? 100 turns are a rookie number in EB2.
But seriously i found in the latest patch Carthage Ptoleamic problem no longer that much of an issue since Ptoleamic would more likely attack Syracuse before Libya although Cyrenaican rebel has a weird fixation to attack Libya after several years.
Turn 100 Report - Carthage
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