I was playing as the Bruttii, I was a newb at the time and my only strategy i knew at the time was from playing the R:TW Demo (not much of a Strategy demo though). I spent probably 15 years in the game building up a large military (i knew nothing at the time of population=24,000 = Marian Reform.. which made game better fer me) and in the year 155 BC, i launched 3 massive expeditions. The first one would go to Good Ole Carthage, which had resisted the Scipii so far, and had many success against them, the second expedtion, lead by Amulius Brutus, would go into greece, and the Third under Aulus Brutus, would head towards cisalpinegaul and regular gaul. At the time i had no idea what i was doing may confuse computer AI for romans (where do we expand, sigh). After i landed in africa, disaster struck. I had just made an alliance with Numida, when i saw a very large army approaching under the command of "Bisaltes The Cruel". Me being a newb at the time, decided that the Roman Legions couldnt be defeated. At a great battle Bisaltes Elephants, spearmen and Infantry outfought and out-strategy'ed me. I escaped, with around 20% of my army, ouch.
My campaign in greece however, was sucessful wit the capture of Thermon and the utter Annihilation of 2 macedonian and greek Armies (very large). But i had taken casulties, and after setting up a couple of lightly defended forts, i retreated to thermon for the time being.
It was in cisalpine gaul though, where i found sweet victory at last! Aulus brutus commanded what i like to call the Battle of Mediolanium. I was attacked outside of the city by 2,000 gaul's. I had at most 1,200 men. After much manouvering i ending up flanking the gauls on all sides, killing 1,800 gauls and losing about 100 men, my velites hadnt run away in time. to speed things up, after 5 years aulus had taken total control of northern Italy (no more gauls came in, but he had all the cities by 2 1/2 years) Amulius had died in a catastrophic defeat at the hands of a Macedonian army. Luckily his powerful, thoug h severely weakened army was able to become Garrisons to Larissa, Thermon and Athens, i called thermon my Capital of Greece. In Africa things looked deadlocked, My old general had died, just to have a man called "Kaeso the Honest" become man of the hour(i dont remember his old name, just remember it afterwards). Kaeso become an amazing general, suffered some defeats but altogether had about 7 stars. He eventually took carthage, quite a feat considering 70% of his army was mercenaries. Bisaltes though, had become a 8 star general,i could never beat him, all his elephants and Numidians, along with silver chevron troops was too hard fer me at the time. Disaster struck again, one year after these events, Aulus Brutus was killed in a seemigly bloodless battle, 80 gauls killed, 10 romans. he was struck by a Stray arrow (Arrgh). As you can guess, the Brutii family was losing the family name by all these deaths.
The next 10 years were of little action, Greeks and macedonians slowly pushing back the roman Forces,(i couldnt get re-inforcements quick enough). Africa became a place of power, as i took Thapsus. Bisaltes aged 45 took his veteran army and placed it between my two african cities, and made a fort. Carthage was left with its spanish Colonies and to fight the Julii in Spain. Finally around 249 B.C (yes i know some datews might not fit, give or take a year) a miracle happened, the "northern Campaign" as i will now call it, had a new General, a man of the hour called "Quintus Coccienaus".
I decided to first move against massilia with his newly reinforced army. At a heroic Victory i was able to claim Massilia and defeat over 4,000 gauls, losing only around 400 romans, 300 of which were mercenaries ( i used the same tactic hannibal used at cannae). I was surprised when the gaulish "king" sent an envoy for peace, it seemed like massilia had taught him a lesson, i refused for i knew that i had the upper hand now. Greece was also a victory for the last member of the Bruttii family, hehe the only remaining man in the empire with Brutus as a last name, for i took back Athens, Larissa, and launched a semi successful campaign into macedonia (took no cities but gave them a couple of well earned defeats). So for awhile everything seemed good, Kaeso the Honest in the South, and Quintus The mighty as he was now called, in the north. Old Bisaltes was in his final years though, he was 75 and his war aganst rome had cost both sides thousands, and had not let me develope Africa as i wanted. I decided to crush Bisaltes once and for all. Gathering all my garrisons i moved towards him. i had at the most 3,200 men. He had around 1,700. I was destroyed in this battle, his elephants ripped my lines apart, half the army was pierced by numidians before the enemy infantry came, i lost around 3,000 men on that fateful day, bisaltes, maybe around 400. I think it is funny that right after this astounding victory, he died of old age, and the numidians invaded and took control of all of africa.
Well now there were only two places to expand into, i had no love fore fighting in the desert again. Probably my greatest victory came when Quintus the mighty, 8 star General, Fought a battle outside lugdunum. I roughtly estimate there were 6,000 gauls and i had 2,200 men. Before i entered this battle i knew i was literally fighting the whole Gallic empire in that battle. I used common Maniple tactics, three lines to fight the enemy, except i made one move to counter the enemies overwhelming numbers. I placed half my archers and all my cavalry on top of 2 very high hills on the flnks of the enemies. When the Gauls Attacked an were getting bogged down fighting my veteran legions, i ordered my rchers to fire 1 volley then i sent my cavlary on an attack on the sides. The battle ended with nearly 700 romans dead, and possibly all the barbarian horde. The next 20 years or soo saw a couple major improvements. Quintus became my faction leader, i secure all of greece from Larissa down to sparta and Quintus took all of Gaul and most of Brittannia. Many people ask why the **** did it take 20 years?!?!??! the answer is i built up very able defenses and i improved the territories before the main army left. im going to skip ahead in time, it is now the year 200 B.c, and Quintus has only 1 son to inherit the Title and he is 50 years old.
I managed to take half of Germania, but it was a guerilla war so i will not explain it that much. Finally in the year 180 He died of old age, at age 70. his son, Gaius was the new Faction leader, and his other son titus was the faction heir until Gaius had a son, Gaius was the elder of the two brothers. They both distinguished themselves as able commanders, though brittania revolted and we lost it, became a slave province, and the german frontier was about to collapse. in 176 the Civil war happened, this is were things get crappy. I had a bug in the game where once the marian reforms happened (190 b.c) i could only build auxilia style units, that was all!!!! (and yes i had the necessary upgrades) As anybody can guess, once i was using auxilia as a "infantry of the line" i lost most of the empire very quickly. Titus died fighting, he lead an army against the scipii and SPQR and lost terribly. some of my large stone wall/epic stone wall cities withstood most attacks so it didnt matter. I fled to Asia minor with all my remaining hastati, Principes, and Triarri etc, and all my best goveners, knowing all was lost. Once gaius was in asia minor he most of Pontus & armenia some seleucid provinces, some Ptolemy positions in the Levant, with one army! and large groups of mercenaries which are better than auxilia. so i eneded becoming a Roman/Eastern empire, a couple of years after i built up this new empire, the game crashed and i could never load it again.
Your Best General
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Originally Posted by Red Baron
