[EB AAR] Roma - Fledgling State to Mighty Empire.

[thelord]

Hey I thought I'd transfer my .org AAR over here aswell, so be prepared for one hell of a first post!

Here are the house rules I have when I play :

- Destroy every building in a settlement when I take it over. This makes expansion much slower and the game lasts much longer and is more challenging.
- Stick roughly to historical expansion. Not exactly to the date though as this ruins the fun of the game IMO.
- I don't micromanage my generals with a set lifestyle for them or anything.

I have also changed the minimap so the Ptolemaioi are a golden colour as I find it hard to differentiate between them and the rebels once they are built up a bit.

POST ONE - THE BEGINNING

I know everyone hates the beginning with the whole expansion into Italy thing, so I won't go into lots of details. I besieged Taras and then assaulted, which resulted in a close battle for the city,



I am not a big fan of the Camillan troops, their morale isn't the best. Some of my Principes broke in this battle when the odds were even. The Epirots phalanxes were making short work of them.



So I sent my cavalry in to take charge their flanks repeatedly.



Which turned the battle into my favour and I captured the city.



Once Taras was in my hands I changed the name to Tarentum. I plan to do this with the settlements that have a different name under the Romans when I take them.

Thanks for reading.

[font="Comic Sans MS"]POST TWO - PORRECTIO

The expansion into the Italian peninsula is going well, I had changed the name of Taras to Tarentum, but I have since changed it back incase it messes up with the reforms.



My next time in Italy is the traitors in Rhegion, they had a reasonably large amount of troops there, more than I did but I had slightly better quality troops so I managed to win and capture the city. I like the new options when taking over a city. Much better than the unrealistic exterminate option.



The capture of the two new settlements gave my economy a much needed boost so I could afford some new troops for the invasion of Segesta.



Which took place a couple of years later when I had trained another army of Camillan troops to besiege the city, the rebel army here had a unit of naked fanatics however with some competant cavalry so would pose a bigger threat. Fortunately for me however they had a lot of ligurian infantry which are pretty poor so I managed to break through them and surround the more competant troops.



By 267 BC, I have sent diplomats around to gather map information and also for trade rights and alliances. You can see the change I made to the Ptolemaioi clearly now.



POST THREE - THE ROAD TO WAR

263 BC, I have continued the conquest of northern Italy by besieging Bononia, at the same time the Audei are begining to expand themselves. They have besieged Patavium, which will not be good for me if they take it as I will have more of a war on my hands when I come to attack the Audei for control of Cisalpine Gaul. I assualted Bononia the following turn and took the town.



The Audei assaulted Patavium shortly afterwards, but luckily for me they had lost the battle, whilst destroying half of the rebel stack there aswell, which meant that I leapt to the chance of taking the city before they recovered.



I decided to starve the city out as I was sick of fighting seiges against the rebels. By 261 BC Patavium was mine.



I spent the next two years building up the new land I had conquered, by 259 BC I was ready to invade Sicily. No doubt Kart-Hadast will declare war on we soon. As for Mediolanium I plan to attack it after I have Sicily and Corsica and Sardinia, I would take it sooner but I don't wan't to weaken the Audei before they expand into the rest of Gaul and let the Arverni destroy them. No doubt the upcoming war with Kart-Hadast will keep me occupied until then.



cheers for reading.

POST FOUR - THE BATTLE FOR SICILIA

255 BC, My lands have expanded over 2 thirds of Sicily. With me owning Messana and Syrakousai, with the other side of the island still in Kart-Hadast's hands. The city had a reasonably small army so I decided to send the troops I had on Sicily there. Kart Hadast had-ended our alliance after I took Messana.



However half way to the city a large stack from main land Africa arrived to meet my invasion. With two generals, both called Hamalcar.



Once I loaded the battle up it was one of those annoying forest fights where you can't really keep up with what is happening very well.



With the Camillan and the Polybian armies I usually line my triarii up in guard mode infront of the principes and the hastati. This is so I can hold the enemy line and give the second line time to throw their pilum and then either flank or support the triarii. The Kart-Hadastim flanked the triarii.



The still charged the triarii though. My troops were slightly better quality but I was outnumbered so it was evenly balanced.



After a while they engaged the rest of their troops, they concentrated on sending big chunks of troops into either side of my army to avoid getting tangled in my triarii.



You can see here the amount of troops they concentrated on one area.



They sent one of their generals round my flank, which turned out to be a big mistake for them, as I managed to encircle him with my unengaged infantry and cavalry. Which resulted in the death of their main general.



This caused a good chunk of their army to flee and also for the other Hamalcar to get killed.



If they hadn't made the blunder of sending their general to a very risky position then they most probably would have one the battle with thier superior numbers as I was starting to get encircled.



The survivors retreated to Lilibeo which I besieged the following turn with a general I sent over from Messana. The numbers are equal on both sides so the siege itself should be close. I plan to assault soon before more support from Africa arrives.



POST FIVE - END OF THE FIRST PUNIC WAR

Kart-Hadast is really on the back foot now for control of Sicilia, Corsim and Sardinia. I have landed and besieged Alalia and then I assaulted Lilibeo the next turn. What I have been surprised to see is that fact that they are using navies to transport troops around. I didn't think the AI ever did that on rtw.exe

As for the siege itself I had the advantage, with a general and stronger infantry.
The armies engaged just outside the gates of the city.



They started to break after a few minutes of fighting with few casualties for me.



Around half of their army remained, they retreated to the small alleyways near the centre of the town. This turned out to work a lot better for them as they were in a small place and couldn't be flanked.



I still had much greater numbers, by this time it was nto a matter of whether or nit I would win, it was how many troops I would lose.



It turned out to be 219 in the end.



252 BC, I have conquered the rest of the Kart-Hadasts territory in Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. This made them come to me begging for peace, again something I have rarely seen before, the AI usually holds a serious grudge to the grave.



The next year in 251 BC, I have decided it is time to build up an army capable of taking Mediolanium from the Audei and to defend it from their inevitable backlash.




POST SIX - THE GAME GETS GOING

With all of the nearby rebel towns taken, the game was starting to liven up. I decided it was time to take Mediolanium around 250 BC, the Audei took most of their troops off to Gaul to fight their constant wars with the Arverni, leaving the city in the hands of around 600 men. A situation which I leapt upon. They sallied forth with a small reinforcing army, leading to a relatively easy battle.



Manius Cornelius Blasio was my faction heir so I wanted to give him some valuable fighting experience as it helps for the senatorial traits.



Once I had the settlement, I decided to play down the years till the Polybian reforms and not to start any more wars until then.



Unfortunately for me however I didn't have a choice when the green giant that is Epiros kept invading Patavium, it appears they have most of Greece and Illyria by now and are sending progressively tougher armies my way.

I have managed to marry one of my generals daughters to Caius Junius Brutus, hopefully this will remain a line in my family for the rest of the game as it will be cool to have a Marcus Junius Brutus later on.

The reforms may be in but I slowly need to upgrade all of my barracks before I can train the new units all over Italy. At the moment only 1 or 2 towns can train them.



This will be the last battle in which the Camillan troops fight on their own, slowly the Polybian troops will take over with the Camillans becoming less and less common. The positioning of the Epirot army here is either an AI masterstroke (as if!) or a good luck. The fact that they had the trees behind them meant that I couldn't use my cavalry to full effect as the trees would mess up their charge and be less powerful, so I kept my cavalry in reserve to guard my own flank.



thankfully the men of Camillus did me proud, they held their ground mostly and won a very close battle, it looked as if I had lost at one point when a good amount of my army broke. But the braver ones fought out what turned out to be the toughest battle of this save so far.

[thelord]

POST SEVEN - EPIROT WAR 242-234 BC

The Epirots were really starting to get on my nerves, sending a stack every other turn to Patavium and they had also started blockading my ports in Italy, which was beginning to do my economy a lot of damage as I was training armies and fleets round the clock to hold off their continuos invasions.

When the war began I mostly had Camillan units, with the Polybians just starting to come through. As it progressed however my barracks were upgraded one by one which led to a newly recruited Polybian army being trained the central Italian cities. Led by two young generals from Rome, I planned to sail across to the Epirots capital at Ambrakia and sack as many settlements as possible, to weaken them and hopefully stop them from attacking me.

Fortunately central Greece was lightly defended with the bulk of the enemy troops up north fighting either me or the Getai, if the other greek states had any sense they would invade but they seem to be busy enough fighting Pontos and Arche Seleucia in the East. I managed to sack 3 settlements in Central Greece then abandoned them to whoever they woudl rebel too, which mostly turned out to be the Koinon Hellenon.

I decided that I would take two towns and keep them aswell in Illyria, Segestica and Dalminion. All of my raiding had caused the Epirots to send what seemed like every army they possessed towards me however, resulting in several large battles for control of Illyria.



Many of the enemy units were either Levies or Mercenaries which both gave me an advantage and also showed that Epirus was struggling in the war.



This war was important as I did not want a huge superpower next door to me and I especially didn't want half of the other Hellenic factions wiped out. (by someone other than me:laugh4: )



This was one of those battles which is very difficult to keep things in order and is generally much easier to just charge your units in all over the place. The number of phalanxes incoming was slightly unsettling however. Fortunately I had a lot of cavalry to counter them.



Which is why I deliberately kept my cavalry out of combat until they arrived. Once engaged they made the difference for me, without them I most likely would have lost.



At the end of the battle the number of dead was over 2000.



This battle was decisive in the Epirot war.



Soon after that battle in 234 BC, I recieved a plea for a ceasefire from Epirus. Bringing the war that had lasted 8 years to an end. I had clearly dealt them a heavy blow as they lost several cities to Rome, the Koinon Hellenon and Macedon, as well as their capital being sacked along with several other major cities.



I was now free to begin my invasion if the Balearic Isles and western Iberia, I had sent an expedition a few years ago but it was unfortunately sunk by pirates. Killing a 18 year old family member in the process.

POST EIGHT - THE BALEARIC ISLES

Seems as its been a while since my last post and this is a new campaign game, I thought I would update everyone on the situation in this new game. I have made it as accurate to my previous game as possible without cheating and I control exactly the same land at the same year as before. Which is All of Italy, Cisalpine Gaul, Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily and Ilyyria.

In Gaul the Audei seem to have the upper hand at the moment as they are taking the rebel settlements whilst the Arverni seem content to do nothing. In the east the AS seems to be doing remarkably good for a change, they have most the coast of the holy land and also took Salamis, they have the Ptolemaioi pretty much boxed up in Egypt, further east and the Pahlava are expanding well into AS territory however and Baktria and Saka Rauka are expanding. Most of the other factions are just slowly expanding into rebel territories before they will start fighting each other (or me)

It is 232 BC, I have decided it is time to begin my expansion further ashore, in particular on the east of Iberia, hopefully before the Karthadastim take it. Before I do that however I need a base to retreat too if things go badly and also one to supply it with quicker reinforcements than it would take to ship Italian troops across. The Balearic Isles are a perfect choice for this purpose so I trained a tough stack in Italy and sent them across the Ocean to take the town, which I doubted would be very heavily defended.



Upon arriving on the Island in the winter on 232 BC, I discovered that I was right and only one unit was guarding the town, there was however two Karthadastim fleets nearby so I had to sink them in order to prevent reinforcements from Iberia or Africa, luckily I had trained the best ships available to me in Capua.



The following turn I took the Isles. I now plan to spend several years building it up to a level upon which it can supply both ships and troops for my invasion of Arse.




POST NINE - FIRST MACEDONIAN WAR

After my blitzing of the Epirots the Macedonians took most of central Greece pushing them to the north. Unfortunately for me however their expansion didn't end there, they decided to was time to invade Dalminion (wow that was familiar:laugh4: ) Also the first faction was destroyed this turn, the Seleucid's are an eastern superpower and have wiped out Pontos, I don't mind as I would like to fight the AS in the future as I never have before.



You can just see Macedon's invasion in this picture, fortunately the forts I built held out long enough for me to ship some troops out from Italy to meet the invasion. Once they arrived however the Macedonians decided to withdraw most of their troops to Epidamnos, I did manage to besiege a small force in one of my forts which they captured.



Once I had taken the fort back I sent the stack down to Epidamnos to besiege it and hopefully sack it to teach them a lesson.



However before I could assault a reinforcing army attacked me, the winner of this battle would get the city.



The two armies attempted to attack me on both flanks at the same time, I had a good amount of cavalry, spearmen and infantry, which was bound to give me an advantage.



I like the look of the Hyspaspists, their shield design ion particular looks brilliant, they have my principes a tough fight aswell.



A good portion of one of the armies was of local levies, which are no match for trained Roman principes.



After a long battle which involved chasing a lot of skirmishers I managed to win.



This victory gave me control of Epidamnos, which I sacked straight away, enslaving the population and destroying every building. Another Macedonian stack was sent at me as I withdrawed to Illyria, which I again defeated. The Greek States will never defeat me in battle when they only send local troops and light phalanxes with only 1 or 2 competant units.



By 226 BC I sent a diplomat to Macedon and secured a ceasefire, ending the 5 year long war, there was no clear winner really as no permanent gain in territory occurred for either side and both sides lost considerable amounts of cash and troops.

In the East the AS seems to be getting stronger and stronger, as they have no wiped out the Hayasdan as well! I think I will have to send a diplomat out there to find out exactly what is going on.



POST TEN - ARSE & THE BEGINNING OF THE SECOND PUNIC WAR

221 BC, Arse is still controlled by rebels, so I decided that I should expand there sooner rather than later, as it would not start any wars and I could build up on the peninsula before I had to fight any major wars over there. Also I sent a diplomat to the AS to see how much land they controlled, and they are absolutely huge! I'm actually quite glad at this as I am sick of fighting the Ptolemaioi.



Once I had taken the city I decided to build it up for a while before starting any trouble with the Lusotanians and Carthaginians. However my arrival on the Iberian Peninsula aroused a lot of suspision amongst them and they sent an army each several years after I took they city. Luckily I had sent 2 legions over for the invasion with a 3rd on the way.



Thankfully it didn't come to having to defend Arse from the other occupants of Iberia, they seemed to be heading for Emporion to the north. However since my arrival Kart-Hadast kept making demands of money and territory of me with threats of war. I kept deciding to call their bluffs and they didn't act on their threats, however I was sending more troops over to begin the second punic war and take Mastia.



Once my latest legion arrived in the region, under the command of a young aristocrat from Roma, I decided to declare war of Kart-Hadast. They had two very large armies in the area so things were reasonably balanced.



It was the classic scenario of numbers vs skilled troops. The fact that the first army charged without waiting for the 2000 odd troops behind them was idiotic though.



If my army has some triarii in it then I place them infront of 2 lines of infantry units, I put them in guard mode which makes them extremely tough, almost like a phalanx.



As the battle goes on however, I have to engage the supporting infantry to defend the flanks or to attack the enemies rear.



After a while the 1st army pulled back to join the second one, so I advanced forward to face the remainder of the Carthaginian force.



They were split up all over the place and the rest of the battle was merely mopping up the remainder of the enemy force, I lost just over 600 troops in the battle, compared to 2000 for Kart-Hadast. A Crushing defeat which earned me a famous battle site on the map and also the opportunity to march south to Mastia.



POST ELEVEN - BATTLE FOR MASTIA

Shortly after the outbreak of the second punic war in Iberia, I sent a stack with a promising 19 year old general in charge south to begin to apply pressure of the Karthadastim by Mastia, which the AI has for some reason made their capital, even though it is towards the edge of the area they control and not in the middle like it usually is. Anyway they had another stack inside the city with some capable troops in, I am particularly impressed with the Iberian Heavy infantry who managed to chop a big chunk out of some principes in a previous battle. I hope to inflict as much damage on them before/in case the elite phalanxes turn up.

My army came into contact with Bisaltes, the Carthaginian faction leader. Alongside his army of over 1500 men. My army had just under 1400 so again things were balanced. Bisaltes also had 8 command stars compared to my junior generals 1. However mine had a perfect record so far. With one battle fought and one heroic victory. His name is Publius Sergius Paulus.



The battle was generally one of those that I really enjoy, with little or no skirmishers or horse archers, it was basically one huge infantry clash of around 3000 soldiers with several cavalry units supporting. The Carthaginians had the advantage here however with two family members with around 100 of their extremely tough bodyguards.



The reinforcing Carthaginian general died fairly early on in the battle, however Bisaltes was proving much stronger and more reluctant to perform the suicidal attack on the front of my entire army that the AI so loves to perform and effectively lose the battle for itself.



You can see here how long the infantry had been engaged with the amount of fallen soldiers on the ground beneath the still fighting troops. The Carthaginian troops here are the Iberian Heavy infantry as well which also helps explain why they held for so long, eventually however they broke when there was too few surviving to pose much of a threat. Bisaltes himself escaped sadly, having withdrawn to Mastia. Which I was now able to besiege following this victory.



Before I could assault the city however, a last ditch attempt to force me to withdraw to Arse was launched. It was a pretty feeble attempt which merely enabled me to capture the city quicker as Bisaltes was captured and executed in this battle, and the final resistance in Mastia was destroyed.



In a few years time I plan to attempt to take Gader and force the Karthadastim off of the Iberian Peninsula. In the meantime however I need to build up my latest conquests so that they can supply me with local levies in order to bolster my fastly depleting ranks.



POST TWELVE - SECOND MACEDONIAN WAR

203 BC, the republic is growing more and more powerful with the recent conquest of the eastern coast of Iberia, I did plan to take Gader as soon as possible however the Lusotanians beat me too it and took it first. I do not plan to start a war with them just yet, otherwise I will be drawn into two different wars on two fronts, as the Macedonians had just declared war on me again.

The have been expanding at a alarming rate recently, which was surprising as Epiros was the toughest faction in Greece until recently, however they never really recovered from my sacking of several of their major cities which opened the door for the Macedonians. They didn't seem content with kicking Epiros out of Greece however as they pursued them alongside the coast of the black sea and eventually destroyed them.



Their destruction of Epiros didn't seem to satisfy their lust for conquest however as they began a mass invasion of Dalminion straight away. The first Macedonian war was ended rather quickly as they were much weaker, but now they are much stronger and something told me that this would not be a war that would be ended quickly.



Dalminion was overun, there was no chance I could win the battles their as I was vastly outnumbered, so I decided to land an army from Italy next to Epidamnos and besiege it in the hope that it would draw away the armies in Dalminion. It worked, but my army now had to face off against 2000 Macedonian troops.



Unfortunately for Macedon however, it was another pathetic army of levies and it was easily beaten.



Following that victory however, Macedon began to throw its full strength at me, with large stacks pouring into my lands, I had besieged Epidamnos the previous turn but before I could assault, a reinforcing army turned up to challenge me. This army possessed better quality troops, but I had the numerical advantage, so I managed to rout the enemy army and capture the city.



But still that was not the end of it, by 202 BC, 6 land battles had been fought over Epidamnos, which left me in command of the city, but Macedon would not relent in sending its stacks of progressively stronger troops, coupled with the fact that I was fast running out of troops meant that I was beginning to feel the strain.



I was forced to keep up constant recruitment in every Italian city south of Bononia to supply me with enough troops to continue to batter back the invading Macedonians. I was finally seeing some close battles which are so much more fun than the routs I had previously been experiencing. Some of the battles were large 4000 men clashed, while others were smaller skirmishers when reinforcements arrived on the coast and were challenged before they could join up with the bulk of my forces.



I was still having success in the war, though I did lose Dalminion for a period of a year at one point.



By 201 BC, they showed no signs of giving in and I was still being besieged every other turn by a fresh stack, it became clear that I would have to counter attack Macedon to get anywhere in this war.



Epidamnos was besieged several times, but this was the first time that it had ended up with Macedon assaulting, as my reinforcements usually forced them back, however I had ran out of troops to send over for the time being and had to depend on the army I already in the city to defend it. You can see here the amount of pila that my infantry threw into the gateway as they poured in.



Perhaps they would have been better off splitting their force up and attacking me from different angles, but they chose to concentrate all their force at one gateway, which ended up with a very long battle which ended up with a bloodbath at the gateway. It is nearly impossible to win a siege against a large amount of defenders this way, and that was proved again today.



With their constant invasions that were repeatedly beaten back, Macedon had fallen into the trap of over extending themselves, they had used up most of their troops in attacking me. Before they could retrain their armies and try again I had to move south and try and take Ambrakia, the former capital of Epiros.



The city was defended by a small but elite force of Macedonian homeland troops, who put up a very good fight in what turned out to be a hard fought battle for the city, but it was not enough and Roma was victorious once again.



This added Ambrakia to the lands I now controlled, Patavium had revolted several turns previously but I took it back relatively easily.



As a result of the defence of western Greece, my general who had won many battles against Macedon, was awarded a triumph, becoming the 3rd general of this campaign to receive one and also the youngest, at only 19 (previous victors were the general who led the first punic war and the conqueror of eastern Iberia) so I sent him back to Roma to celebrate. I plan to leave him there for a while and gain some management experience. His replacement in Greece is a young 16 year old with a lot of potential, he may well be my future reformer if things go well, he certainly has some of the required traits already.
He fought his first battle against Macedon near Thermon on a very hilly battlefield with eagles flying above the armies whilst they clashed.

[thelord]

POST THIRTEEN - IBERIAN EXPANSION

191 BC. Following the second punic war I have decided it is time to begin my mass expansion into Iberia, the Lusotani have began invading Southern Gaul with some success which shows that they are increasing in strength, it also means that the bulk of their forces are in Gaul so the time was right for me to strike their cities in southern Iberia.



The Second Macedonian war cost me nearly 500000 mnai and it pushed my troops to breaking point with the sheer amount of troops coming in. So I had to sue for peace whilst I fight in Iberia, which would be otherwise impossible. It however forced me to pay regular tribute to Macedon of 5000 mnai per turn so they do not start attacking me again.



Once I had begun the war, I managed to take the southern city of Baikor before Lusotana could start recalling their troops in Gaul to deal with my invasion. Unfortunately they soon starting coming south and by 188 BC it was clear that I had one hell of a fight on my hands.



I had two very young but talented generals in Iberia, the rest of my family members there are governors. So I split my forces into two sections, in the south my potential reformer would lead his army to besiege and take Iberian cities, whilst in the North my other army also led by a potential reformer would have to defend the land from the mass of enemy troops moving south to try and defend from my sieges and also to stop any armies trying to invade land that was already mine.



There were many land battles between the two armies, both victories and defeats. I had to move newly recruited local levies to the depleted armies quite often as the Italian troops were whittled down, but often they were ambushed before they could join the main forces and defeated.

In 187 BC, I besieged the Iberian capital Sucum-Murgi, and assaulted the turn afterwards with 3 sap points constructed.



I employed a tactic I often use in assaulted stone-walled cities, which involves using 3 sap points, I prefer sap points to ladders, towers or rams because ladders and towers often receive huge casualties against strong defenders and if the ram breachers the gates the boiling oil causes huge damage.



Once the 3 sap points have been used, I use around half of my infantry to attack each of the 3 points, I don't engage all of them as it would tire the entire army out and also the towers and defenders missiles would cause more damage.



The theory is that the defenders have to stretch their defences and also if at one of the points the defenders rout, my surviving troops can then go and flank the enemy at the other sap points.



The Lusotani possess some very tough infantry, that in some cases is superior to the Polybian roman troops, at one of the sap points this was shown with my troops taking much more casualties.



Fortunately at one of the sap points the defenders were less able, which caused them to rout and I could then begin to flank.



This contrasted with one of the other sap points, where my troops were clearly beaten and fled.



Once they got wind of my flanking troops they had to engage the remainder of their own troops.



Once the walls and surrounding area has been cleared, it means that I can send forward the second half of my infantry to assault the centre of the settlement.



Once the fight for the centre begins, I move my cavalry around the defenders and then charge their flanks.



The city was finally mine after a long battle, there was a large amount of Roman casualties, which unfortunately is unavoidable in a siege against tough defenders.



By 186 BC, the war was still going on more than ever, all of Lusotani's strength was now focused upon me, I desperately need to ship some more Italian troops out to Iberia before I am overun by the Lusotani. In the meantime I have to rely on mercenaries and local levies to uphold my war effort. I have besieged the former Carthaginian city Gader in the hope of keeping the enemy stacks away from my cities.



POST FOURTEEN - BREAKTHROUGH

186 BC, Iberia has been in a state of constant war for 5 years now, with thousands dead on both sides. Including one of my 3 potential Marian reformers. The other two main generals were continuing the same strategy before, in the North defend, and in the south attack. Tiberius Papirus Paetus is Roma's most talented general, having commanded in around 15 battles to date. He's not far off 'seeing the elephant' and has just started being elected to the lower senatorial offices, so I can see it very likely that he will be my Marius. I know its 70 odd years before the reforms really happened but I love the Marian troops so the sooner the better I reckon.

The Lusotani were beginning to feel the strain of their war with me, and the financial consequences with the amount of troops they have trained recently, they appear to be bankrupt as they are not training any troops whatsoever now and are having to rely on their rapidly depleting armies. They have 5 towns remaining in Iberia and the former Carthaginian colony of Gader was under threat, being cut off from the rest of their lands after the capture of Sucum-Murgi. The defenders were utterly slaughtered in a large battle just outside the city, in which I deployed Cannae style tactics to defeat the enemy and capture the city.



This victory earned another famous battle marker and also gained my general a trait which I have never seen or earned before. It must be a 1.1 addition.



The war was not a straight road to victory however, as the Lusotana retook Sucum-Murgi in winter 186 BC, however I had the troops nearby that it would take to retake the city. Nevertheless it severely slowed down my plans as I was halfway through launching an invasion on their capital, Oxtraca.



I retook Sucum-Murgi in 185 BC, from then on it became clear that I had won the war, Lusotana simply lacked the funds and troops to defend itself from me anymore, as I had shipped out another 40 cohorts (a cohort in this is 1 unit of troops) from Italy. Lusotana was overrun. I planned to use my two armies to besiege both Oxtraca and Velika at the same time. However several desperate attacks were launched on my northern army with the few remaining enemy troops.



These were easily put down however and only really slowed me down by a season or two.



This particular victory gave me control of Numantia.



With the fall of Numantia in 184 BC I set my plan to attack two cities at once into action.



More desperate attacks were launched, but they were becoming weaker and weaker each time.



By 183 BC, both Oxtraca and Velika had fallen, which had boxed the Lusotana into the north western corner of Iberia, I had utterly crushed them in the war, but it was not an easy victory, I had lost over 50 cohorts in the war and a young general over a total of around 25 land battles, not to mention all the money it cost for all the troops used. Also the Lusotana infantry posed the biggest threat to my armies in this entire campaign, outranking anything the Hellenic powers had thrown at me previously.

After winning the war I made the Lusotana a vassal of Roma, it seems that they would prefer it to utter destruction, and I am happy to let them have their 2 remaining cities for now.



I plan to now spend around 10 years building up my treasury and preparing for another war, the conquest of Macedonia and southern Greece. I am still 14 territories away from meeting the requirements of the reforms, (it says 33 here but in fact I have 31, the other 2 are my vassals) so Greece is my next target for expansion and then after that it will be time for the third punic war and the invasion of Africa.



POST FIFTEEN - THE THIRD PUNIC WAR

My push for the lands required for the Marian reforms continues, I declared war on Macedonia and quickly took both Pella and Demetrias before they could gather any form of resistance, and to be safe of their backlash, I have paid a large amount of money to the Getai to declare war on Macedon and keep them busy for me. Only one battle was fought to capture these two towns, one which I easily won with the high ground I had.



173 BC, the Arche Seluecia continues its obliteration of the other eastern factions with the destruction of Pahlava, I can see myself having to employ some diplomacy to limit their expansion soon before they control all the east, they are now expanding into the steppes...



I am now sending an army to North Africa to begin the third Punic war, I hope to capture Atiqa, Kart-Hadast and Adrumento for the time being. The element of surprise is important as I need to take the cities before any reinforcing armies show up.



Atiqa was captured very easily, I then quickly moved on to besiege Kart-Hadast, unfortunately before I could assault a large Carthaginian army showed up with some of the best troops they had to offer, with Bush elephants and 6 elite pikemen with around 10 heavy infantry units in reserve, this was not going to be a walkover like Atiqa.



They sent their elephants first, I had brought an army entirely of infantry because Roman cavalry is awful against Carthaginian cavalry and their infantry aswell.



The extra infantry would also come in handy against the pikemen that were being sent forward as I will need to do a lot of flanking.



The elephants were all killed by pilum before they could cause any damage, however the elite african pikemen were more worrying, as they take one hell of a beating before they are defeated. They were also performing a lot of cavalry flanking, which worked in my favour as I needed to get the cover of their flanks out of the way.



After a while the cavalry broke and I could then begin to flank the pikemen.



Eventually I managed to completely surround the pikemen, but that wasn't the end of it as they still fought on, you pretty much have to fight them to the death as they rarely break.



After another 5 minutes of fighting the pikemen were finally beaten, the enemy general escaped to Ippone unfortunately. However for the time being Kart-Hadast was in Roman hands.



POST SIXTEEN - MASS EXPANSION & REFORMS

This post covers over 20 years where a lot happens, so therefore to go into complete detail would take a good 100 pictures.

166 BC, the Republic is about to embark on a period of mass expansion of its borders into several different factions territory. Following the capture of Kart-Hadast and Atiqa, I took Adrumento shortly afterwards in 170 BC, I then kept the troops there only to defend from the inevitable backlash. Elsewhere I began the invasion of southern Greece, the KH had little power there, and Korinthos was only a large town, which I found odd. As it was over 400 turns into the campaign. I sent 4 generals with the army to become the governors of the new provinces once the conquest was won. The KH is scattered all over the place and the small portion of Greece they owned would be no match for Roma.



Predictably, they gathered a rabble together with a backbone of 5 KH generals.



This battle featured almost all of the KH troops in Greece, if I won I had pretty much captured the three provinces. However they put up a tougher fight than I expected. Mostly thanks to their generals bodyguards, who were their only good troops on the battlefield.



But the might of Roma's armies defeated them as they had the Macedonians and Epirots before them. Athens was in Roman hands, I planned to besiege the other two the next year as the war season was over.



In 164BC, the March of Time event occured, I've now started to notice some new units for the eastern factions, including the Macedonian reformed phalanx.



164BC was also the year that Corinth fell before the Roman armies. You can see here that I turned off the fog of war for a turn to see how the AS was doing, they kept refusing map information. When the time comes for me to fight them it is going to be very tough.



In 163BC I launched a new war against Lusotana, I say war but it was more of a conquest as they had around 2 units left so there was no romantic last stand for them. By 162BC they were destroyed and all of the Iberian peninsula was in Roman hands.



Elsewhere Sparte had fallen, as had Lepki in Africa. I had also taken Serdike in Macedonia, however I could not hold it for long as it was retaken several turns later. In Africa the Carthaginians were launching constant attacks on their former capital, including one memorable battle in which 36 elephants caused havoc and very nearly defeated my army.



Ippone on the north African coast was taken in 155BC, and Chalkis and Krete fell several years later. I spent the next few years attempting to secure my potential reformers traits that were required. Finally in 149 BC, one of them was elected Consul, the last trait required. However somehow there were 3 Consuls elected!



The following turn the Marian reforms kicked in. By this time I was absolutely loaded, with just under 900000 mnai in the treasury. I needed all of this to begin the mass construction of Marian barracks across every province of the republic. What was more, I planned to slow down the expansion of the last 2 decades a lot, I have no plans to invade any new territory for a few years. For now I plan to build up a new defensive system, with a legion assigned to a certain area of land, eg a Western Iberian legion, this is for the defense of the region only. For invading armies I plan to recruit another legion so as not to leave my lands undefended.



POST SEVENTEEN - EXPANSION INTO REMAINING GREEK TERRITORY

144 BC, I have spent most of my vast treasury sums on the construction on Marian barracks and also in the recruitment on a 10 legions, spread out across my lands to keep the peace and defend against invasions, new legions will be trained when I invade a new territory so my forces don't become stretched.

I have also began to take the remaining lands held by KH and Macedon. Which began with the invasion on Rhodes in 144 BC. The island was defended by a large number of troops but they were all levies and posed little threat to my reformed cohorts.



The majority of the defenders were killed in the first battle, the survivors were trapped in the city and all enslaved once the island fell under Roman control.



I turned off the fog of war to see how the AS was getting on, and they are completely out of control! They are wiping out every faction they border, they've already destroyed Pontos, Hayasdan & Pahlava single handedly, and now they are invading the Sauromatae and are also invading Egypt, Baktria are also limited to just one remaining province.



I decided I had to do something about the AS, otherwise they would end up wiping out every other faction and I would have only them to fight for the next 160 odd years, so I decided to use some brutal force diplomacy, I know it is cheating, but it needed to be done, and I am gaining nothing from what I am doing, as all of the land is either going to Baktria or the Ptolemaioi. Make no mistake, they still have the greatest military in the game and are vastly stronger than I am, I just want to stop them from ruining the game.

Back in Greece, a new legion from Rome has arrived on the eastern border of the Republic's lands, with the orders to declare war on Macedon and push forward to Byzantion. The Macedonians were no longer the pushovers they once were however, as they were finally training strong armies to defend themselves against me.



This was probably the largest battles I've had in this campaign, and also one of the most evenly contested, the Macedonians had a very competant army, with around 14 Phalanxes, including Agemas and reformed pikemen, and also some hoplites to help prevent me from flanking the phalanxes.



After I had used my legionnaires pilum, it was time to engage the first line of my infantry, the only cavalry I had was my generals bodyguard, which is partially why I need to take Byzantion, after the reforms I can no longer train cavalry in Italy, so I need new places to train them and Byzantion can train Thracian Auxiliary cavalry.



The enemy supporting troops made it difficult for me to flank the phalanxes, so I had to slowly try and lure them into combat with my engaged first line, but I was having little success.



I sent my Antesegari to nibble at the Macedonian flanks, they are amongst the best supporting infantry in the game that I have encountered, and they did their job well, routing a unit of hoplites and giving me a bit of breathing space on the right flank.



Here's a picture of them in action, they have a scarily high defense which makes them last longer than a legionary cohort in most situations.



My front line was taking heavy casualties, so I decided to flank with a few of my reserve cohorts and take on the hoplites guarding the Macedonian rear.



The battle was completely level, with 26% casualties on each side. I personally really enjoy these close battles.



Eventually the Macedonians made a fatal error, they engaged the remainder of their hoplites, which combined with my victory on the right flank, allowed me to manoeuvre several cohorts around their army and charge their rear, surrounding them, the battle was far from won however as Agema hardly ever break.



I avoided engaging my young general, as he would have been speared on a pike almost immediately.



Eventually the final resistance was with several phalanxes boxed together, completely surrounded, including the Macedonian general.



Eventually they routed once the enemy general was killed. Leaving a huge field of corpses.



Victory was secured, but casualties were very high for the Romans, afterwards I had to move some mercenaries from Athens north to reinforce the army as it moved further East towards the Macedonian capital Tylis.



POST EIGHTEEN - EXPANSION & REBELLION

140 BC, I am currently in the process of defeating the Macedonian forces still lurkign around Pella and other areas they recently controlled, it is also time for me to begin to take the last of their territory on the Aegean, this will remove the last of my buffer states blocking the Republic from the mighty Arche Seleucia, so no doubt once this latest conquest is complete there will be a long run of Seleucid wars. I sent a legion to Byzantion to take it and effectively chop the remains of Macedon in half.



Of course they threw a half hearted attempt to force me to retreat, but it was highly unlikely that a Marian legion would lose to such levies.



The city proved quite problematic in subjucating however, with several riots occuring before I could install a Romanised government.



I have recently installed konny's allied legion mod which allows me to number my legions. Using this I have numbered my 6 defensive legions across the republics lands to defend the borders, extra legions trained for invasions will be given their own number. Currently the 6 legions have been stationed in :

Legio I : Cisalpine Gaul
Legio II : North Africa
Legio III : North Iberia
Legio IV : The Balkans
Legio V : Greece
Legio VI : Macedonia



137 BC, I have trained a new legion, Legio VII, in Italy to be sent to take Serdike and Tylis, both Macedonian possesions. This legion is under the command of Decimus Papirius Turdus, the son of my reformer. I hope to train him up for a few years against Macedon for when the inevitable war with AS begins as I will no doubt have need of experienced generals when the 3 full stacks a turn start pouring into my lands.



I have also edited the Ptolemaioi to have a more golden colour on the mini map.

In 136 BC, Oxtraca revolted against me, I have always had problems with this city for some reason. They revolted and spawned a large amount of Persian archers for some reason, despite the fact that they couldn't be much further away from Persia.



The city was easily recaptured and Enslaved however, which quickly brought order back to Iberia and showed any other rebels what happens to those who defy Roman rule.



Back in Macedonia, the 7th Legion took Serdike in 136 BC with very little military resistance from Macedon. Tylis appears to be more capable at defending itself when the 7th legion arrives at its gates however.



The 7th was attacked before it could arrive there however with the garrison from Tylis, a reasonably strong army with reformed phlanxes and hoplites aplenty.



I used some standard tactics here, to have 2 lines of cohorts, with the first in guard mode to hold the enemy and the second to flank.



After a relatively long battle, the Republic was victorious once again, with roughly 3 Macedonians dead for every Roman.

This victory clears the road for the legion to advance towards Tylis. Once fallen I will set it about taking Mytilene.





POST NINETEEN - ARRIVAL IN ASIA MINOR

Macedon is proving to be quite a pain to defeat, their land is split into 3 seperate chunks and they only have around 6 cities left, but still they keep on recruiting armies, if it was the other way round I would have been bankrupt long ago. In 135 BC, I besieged Tylis, it was defended by a small but elite band of troops, they were outnumbered 3 to 1 but still took a good chunk out of my legion.



Macedon still had a good 4 full stacks left nearby, one of which was heading to retake Tylis, so I was forced to attack before they could besiege it. I have installed the Darth AI Formations mod, and this was the first battle I had with it in, and wow, it made a huge difference! The phalanxes actually kept a straight line, and covered each other when I tryed to flank, using their infantry to guard the rear. So finally I was facing some challenging battles. Luckily in this case I had a superior general, a 19 year old with 4 command stars.



What followed was a VERY tough battle, most probably the hardest I've played against Macedon, around half of my army was routed at one stage and I had to perform some very risky manouvres with my general. Casualties were high on both sides, and the Legio VII is in need of reinforcements from Greece.



Miraculously around half of my casualties survived, I think my general must have some traits/retinue that increase recovery chances.



There was still riots in southern Iberia, so I had to train an 8th legion to raise the public order there, in Italy a 9th and 10th Legio were created for my planned invasion of Macedon's holdings in Asia Minor and also for the inevitable AS wars which are bound to begin as soon as I border them. In 132 BC, I landed 3 legions in Asia Minor (VII, IX & X). I am apprehensive about facing the AS, as they are overunning the Ptolemaioi, Sauromatae and Baktria at the same time, whilst holding most of the eastern land.



The first of the Asia Minor battles was at Nikaia, where a large Macedonian stack was situated, I was expecting another tough battle against a hard line of reformed phalanxes...



What I met however was a pathetic rabble of nothing but 1800 levy hoplites and Akontistai, which rout after around 5 seconds of combat with a Marian Legionary Cohort. Even more easily as I had a 1 talent stone projector in the army, which cost a whopping 30,000 mnai to recruit.



What followed could not even be described as a battle, basically they broke just after they engaged, the Pilum killed about half of them and the rest were killed by the generals bodyguard.



Mytilene was only defended by 2 units of toxitai, so was captured by the 10th easily, the remaining Macedonian troops are in Pergamon, which I will probably starve out as I need to keep up the numbers in the legions for when I face the AS. As for the remaining Macedonian's in the north, I am happy to leave them there as long as they don't cause me any trouble, the Getae will most probably finish the job soon anyway.




POST TWENTY - START OF THE SELUECID WAR

Macedon still held Pegamon, but with only 2 or 3 units, so it was easily taken by my 5000 strong army. They still hold a few settlements to the north but I doubt they will be much of a problem in the future as the Getai will keep them busy for the time being. As for my 21 year old general, he has been awarded a triumph and is returning with the 7th legion to Rome for a few years. Once the legion is retrained I will send it back under a new general.



What I didn't predict, was the AS attacking me literally the turn after I took Pergamon and our borders touched, they had besieged it with a reasonably strong force, so rather than fight them there I decided to draw them back to Ipsos by besieging it with the garrison from Nikaia under the command of the Proconsul Aulus Cornelius Blasio.



As soon as I hit the end turn button the AS started to throw their armies at me.



They had the high ground, but had 1 big weakness, which was their lack of leadership. This could be exploited with my artillery, which saps enemy morale quite effectively.



For once the AI had sent a strong army, with Elite Phalanxes and Galatian Spearmen prominent in their ranks, with a few medium phalanxes in support. They also only sent half of their phalanxes forward, so that it would make it difficult for me to flank them and not get pinned down by their second line.



Eventually the majority of their second line engaged, giving me more room to flank the phalanxes, I had to be quick in finishing the first army off before the reinforcements arrived, which would probably finish my army off if they were still engaged with the first.



Eventually a few of the weaker enemy units fled, leaving just the Elite Phalanxes left, who of course never flee. It did mean I could totally surround them and slowly finish them off though.



It became clear that I wasn't going to be able to finish them off quick enough however as the second army arrived. So I had to use to 2 unengaged cohorts to hold them off until the bulk of the legion could help.



Eventually a victory was won, with around a third of the legion dying however, so reinforcements will have to be on the way, including some of the newly available Thracian Auxiliary cavalry being trained in Byzantion.



Before the end of the turn the small army besieging Pergamon arrived to attack me aswell, it was defeated, but again with heavy casualties, leaving around 500 men left to defend Ipsos, the situation was made even harder when a AS army besieged the settlement the following year in 130 BC with over 2000 men. Clearly this is what I am up against fighting the AS

POST TWENTY ONE - 129BC

1 year into the Seleucid war, and I was on the back foot already, with army after army of enemy troops pouring into Asia Minor, and with increasingly depleted armies to fight them back. Every city in Greece and Macedonia was constantly training cohorts to replenish the 3 legions stationed on the frontline. In spring of 129BC, the republic suffered its first defeat in the war. I had sent an army to besiege Halicarnassus, but of course an AS stack arrived before I could assault the town. The defeat was made all the more crushing, with the loss of the 7th legions golden eagle. Though luckily my general managed to escape to the fleet nearby with the survivors.



The remainder of the 7th were sent back to Italy for retraining. I also had to give up ideas of invading by sea. So I tried marching towards their cities by land instead and facing their stacks one at a time, instead of all at once. Just west of Sardis, a smaller AS army was defeated, and cleared the path to the huge city.



Of course they desperately threw a few small armies to force me back.



Eventually after battling through several armies, they emptied the city completely to try and batter me back again, though fortunately I won this time and captured Sardis.



The AS had completely overstretched itself in their attempt to force me out of Asia Minor. Which has left their cities relatively undefended for my counter attack. The reinforcements from Greece have besieged Halicarnasus and I also have an army on its way to Ankrya. I could use the Galatian troops in this war.

[larry_lalonde]

Excellent! Quite enjoyable.

[Turkeys!]

Good AAR and a damn big first post!

[Psychonaut]

good job its very interesting

[thelord]

POST TWENTY TWO - AMBITION & CEASEFIRE

125 BC, Rome has successfully managed to push the Arche Seleucia back slightly, though considering their vast empire it is nothing more than a dent. I had taken 5 cities from them and fought a total of 23 battles, with 17 victories and 5 defeats. Along with 3 triumphs and around 10000 troop casualties for the Republic altogether. In order to prevent myself from falling into the trap of expanding to quickly, I decided it was time to begin to arrange a peace deal. I needed to build up the new territory and also to stabilish the area. Of course the AI doesn't usually accept a ceasefire very well, so I had to construct a long line of forts blocking access into the land, though fortunately there were a lot of rivers and mountain passes I could use to block things.



The peace was secured, I had to pay 50000 mnai in reparations however in order to get them to accept it. Once it was sealed I shipped a governor out for the cities in order to keep the peace and make money from the new regions. Elsewhere, the AS has taken a large chunk of Egypt, The Arverni were reduced to one town, though have begun a reclamation and now have 3. The civil war in Dacia between Macedon and the Getai is still ongoing.

Back in Italy, I noticed a general had recieved the trait 'high ambitions' which, unless I am much mistaken is the Augustan reforms trait, if I make him faction leader the reforms will take place I believe. So I've made him faction heir, he can 'seize' power in Rome when my current faction leader dies, which won't be very long as he is 62. I know it is very early to get the reforms, nearly a century early in fact, but it is so hard to get the reforms (I never managed it in my last game) that if I have the character required already, I may aswell take them now. Rather than struggling later on.