My Syracuse AAR

**♔Jean-Luc Picard♔** · February 06, 2007, 05:24 PM

hope you dont mind, but i have decided to have an AAR of Syracuse with the newest patch on Roma Surrectum.

OK, the year is 270BC. it is 10 years after i started the game with only Catana, Messana, and Syracuse and 3000 per turn. i have expanded my rule to Agrigentum, Panormus, and Lilybaeum. after a short war with Carthage (which they started and i finished with Lilybaeum mine

) i have established trade with the Romans, Carthagenians, and Northern Free Peoples. i dont have a large military, but all my cities are about to upgrade to Minor Cities except Syracuse which is about to be a Large City. plus with my close range, i can have my greek version of a legion (11 Hoplites, 3 Petalists/Archers, and 2 Light Cavalry) there in only one turn for defence of any of my provinces. i plan on expanding to Crete because i want to tap the sea trade that is found out there. i dont plan on expanding to Carthage or Rome unless they start it and i decide to finish it. more will come in 260BC.

Skandranon Rakshae

**.Socrates** · February 06, 2007, 05:40 PM

Great! This will be fun to watch. I need to start one up meself tomorrow.

**♔Jean-Luc Picard♔** · February 06, 2007, 08:42 PM

the year is 260BC, 10 years after my last update. the greeks stood in my way at Kydonia and i paid a bribe to Knossos so as not to lose my trade routes. the spartan navy made a nuisance of it self so i decided to show it who has the real money on this earth and sent my greek "legion" on a punitive expedition through the macedonian penninsular starting with Sparta as seen above. my trade is still strong in Sicily, but the Carthegenians have been sending more and more ships along my coasts. looks like a scouting mission to me, but i dont know if the AI is that smart. in more worldly news, the germanians and the gauls are having a titanic clash on rome's northern frontier. Rome seems to be sitting there with their thumbs up their collective @$$ barely moving into macedonia. macedon has died of a failed attempt at conquest of the penninsular and the greeks are lords save my toe-hold at Sparta. the ptolemaics and carthegenians are allies while the seleucids are moving towards the ptolemaic border. tensions are high and i doubt that peace will remain between carthage and egypt. everyone in the north hates Rome which has hampered it usual expansion routes. i am too small with too many cities to attack. my treasury could double in a few turns, but i like full building ques. it will soon get interesting once i own the macedonian penninsular.

Skandranon Rakshae

**.Socrates** · February 06, 2007, 08:53 PM

Let's see some in-battle screenshots! I wanna see some carnage!

**♔Jean-Luc Picard♔** · February 07, 2007, 06:11 AM

will add them this afternoon but got to go to school first.

Skandranon Rakshae

**tone** · February 07, 2007, 08:30 AM

Nice one - looking forward to seeing more - hope school goes well. BTW, have you changed the desc_character.txt file to the one for the big map? It allows larger movement, but more crucially it allows the AI to play more intelligently and (as part of this) causes more naval invasions.

**dvk901** · February 07, 2007, 09:00 AM

Very interesting. Thank you. Syracuse is one of my favorite little factions!

**♔Jean-Luc Picard♔** · February 07, 2007, 03:55 PM

EDIT: removed picture for bandwidth's sake

since Socrates wanted carnage, here is the truly pitiful last stand at Olympia. if you look carefully, you can see the corpses of the swarmed under general's unit behind the hoplites and in front of my petalists. most of my casualties were from bad aim because i forgot to turn my petalists off. i took the gate with my mercenaries and advanced upon what should be the city's stronghold, but which was truly weak. i could have taken the city with only the mercanaries but my hoplites wanted action so i sent them in. admore the end result

.

Skandranon Rakshae

**♔Jean-Luc Picard♔** · February 07, 2007, 06:52 PM

i hope double posting is allowed in AARs. anyhow, the homeland of the greeks is in my hands, where the rest of the world belongs, and i am steadily pushing north with my elite legion with a general that until last turn wasnt even a family member. from Sparta, i moved on to Olympia. after some refitting in Olympia, i moved on to Megalopolis. at Megalopolis, i held off the complete southern greek army with the legion scelected in the screenshot. i wouldnt have made it without around 150,000 in bribes which took care of about 1/3 of their army. during the seiges, 6 in all, i sent a bribed army north from Olympia to Elis. by the time i had captured Elis i had refitted my Elite Corps (i think that will be their new name) and sent them on to the last greek stronghold in the south, Corinth. i took Corinth a quickly as possible to stop any army that decided to retreat and crushed their remaining forces at Argos. once i had Argos in hand, i reduced my all garrison sizes down to peace-time strength (3 hoplites, 2 velites, 1 light cavalry) except Corinth and took Athens as my own. you cant see it, but Athens is now the hub for all trade between myself and everyone on this side of the macedonian penninsular. they are pulling in on average 6500 per turn, about 1/5 of my annual revenue. as after-thoughts, once the greeks refused my peace attempts, i sent my Elite Corps through both Delphi and Thermon, where they are now being refitted. on the world news report, Pontus and Epirus have been decimated and are now burning husks controlled by the Seleucids and the Romans respectively. Romis has finally taken their thumbs out of their collective @$$ and have moved further onto the macedonian penninsular. germains and gaul have called both truce and alliance and gaul is recovering by taking its anger out on poor, poor iberia. the alliance between carthage and the ptolemaics has yet to be torn, but dont hold your breath for that to continue much longer. overall, i think my greek ancestors have disowned my people for their hostile takeover and i dont Apollo is very happy about the seize of Delphi (bugger you Apollo, i dont like you). i plan to expand further north until there are no more cities on the macedonian penninsular out form my control. from there, who knows? i am open to suggestions from there.

Skandranon Rakshae

**.Socrates** · February 07, 2007, 07:39 PM

I think you should make a side army to take and secure Rhodes. This will greatly increase income (especially in the Greek Peninsula) and make you have a greater chance of taking over the rest of the Peninsula.
Also, be wary of Rome. Don't let them get TOO powerful.

My two cents.

**♔Jean-Luc Picard♔** · February 07, 2007, 09:18 PM

mega ugh... i am at war on 3 fronts. i will give you a pic when it gets to 240BC but for now text will do. in short, rome got too powerful

. i ignored them and they blockaded a port of mine. i sunk their ship and took 2 of their cities. i have had about 10 stacks come after the Elite Corps who are refitting over and over again in Apollonia, the 2nd city i took from them. right now i have taken Tarentum, Croton, Apollonia and a city that is unique to this map which i dont know the name of. i have a militia hoplite version of the elite corps sweeping up the italian penninsular. so far so good. looks like all their men are north of my new penninsular, which is totally mine now. i will fill in in more detail in 240BC.

Skandranon Rakshae

**♔Jean-Luc Picard♔** · February 08, 2007, 03:16 PM

alright. my expansion has taken on thre fronts. i am fighting the greeks and romans on my northern macedinian front in 2 places. i am also slogging ym way up the italian penninsular. the gods of macedon seem to be getting back at me for killing their people by placing a plague in the last three greek cities i have taken, slowing my advance to a crawl. i am on the verge of calling the advance off entirely. i have a mimic of the Elite Corps (scelected above) slogging its way up the italian penninsular. i plan on trying to arrange an alliance with pergamum to cement my trade in that area. the dacae (i think) died recently, killed by the roman legions. my Elite Corps will soon make it's move around to northern italy. cant tell you much in worldly news because i seem to be the center of attention at the moment. i plan to take the italian penninsular and to eradicate the greeks form the face of the earth. the italians have onl sent one legion to try to fend me off, but i think my next step will be Rome itself. i am the wealthiest nation in the world several times over. rome and greece are pissing their treasuries away trying to fend me off. once i have their corpses for fertilizer, i may move on to carthage or egypt. if you want any nation in particular dead notify me and i'll see what i can do

.

Skandranon Rakshae

**dvk901** · February 08, 2007, 03:22 PM

Are you playing with Patch8 installed? Just wondering.

**.Socrates** · February 08, 2007, 03:33 PM

doing a good job so far.

**♔Jean-Luc Picard♔** · February 08, 2007, 04:50 PM

i am playing with patch 8 installed. the astronomical money is all my doing. when i go and take a city the first buildings i make are trader, farms, and ports. then i move on to roads and happy places and finally the military buildings. plus Pergamum is the second largest nation and i have about 15 major ports right next to them with nothing under a shipyard level. i am making most of my revenue in that area because of all the sea trade has cities pulling in 5 6 and 7 thousand per turn. i can do this with syracuse far more effectively because i control 3 of the 7 special port cities (Syracuse, Athens, and Thessalonica) i pull in more revenue in one turn than most nations have in their treasury over the whole campaign. next screenshot will show my world money status vs the world.

Skandranon Rakshae

PS i always end up like this with little work but the building of ports.

to syracuse and sea superiority!

**♔Jean-Luc Picard♔** · February 08, 2007, 09:28 PM

alas, my Elite Corps has finally been beaten back. their general will soon die of old age (67) and they shall be leaderless. i lost a siege of a greek city when their new allies Pergamum came up and hit me with two full stacks plus the two greek stacks. i ogt away with heavy losses while three of those stacks no longer exist. i brought up a brand new legion and kicked the last stack in the balls while it was down. i actually managed to kill most of their men before i went down. after a brief retrain and refit, i will be back on the road with the Elite Corps. as soon as i'm back up from this loss i plan to decimate Pergamum in the largest military strike in history. i am planning to kick them in the balls again and again by taking city after city with the stacks now being trained at my coastal cities. i am pissed because the Elite Corps was my favorite and oh how they will pay

... in other news i have finally pushes the romans out of Roma and the rest of the penninsular. i accidentally sank a ptolemaic war boat so i am increasing my southern garrisons to war-time strength. i will soon decimate the greeks and will move on to Pergamum. i am slowly pushing Rome into a corner between myself and a wall of germanian berzerkers. their remaining settlements have been cut in half by my control of Salona.

all my revenue is produced by myself with a small amount coming from Carthage. i forgot to put scroll up but i have a treasury that fulxuates between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 denarii. my annual income is about 120,000 denarii per turn. i am so rich its rediculous. i couldnt spend all my money unless i consiously tried

.

the world has narrowed itself down to the following factions:
Syracuse (me soon to elevate to divine status

)
Rome (minor annoyance)
Greek Cities (minor annoyance)
Gaul (coulda' been a contenda')
Germania (coulda' been a contenda')
Carthage (carthage who?)
Ptolemaic Empire (another contenda')
Pergamum (arch rival/supreme @$$#013/backstabber)
Scythia (might as well not exist)
Pontus (ditto scythia)
Free People (fallen lords of the world)
there might be others but they are so small they are of no consequence

i think i will have this won by 150BC if i dont lose between then and now and i would like to give a shout out to Socrates, "Take That Seleucid Scum Off the Map!" and good luck on you AAR. also thank you dvk and everyone who contributed to the making of this mod. i havent had this much fun in RTW since i first got it.

Skandranon Rakshae