Final Turn - Egyptian Imperial Campaign - RTW V1.5 No Mods
Hi everyone.
I have just finished my first campaign on vh/vh settings. The Egyptians seemed an easy faction to try on this hardest setting. Because none of my previous campaigns had much to do with the middle east I thought it would make a nice change.
Here is a picture based account of the final few battles.
EDIT: appologies. Image shack provide a great free image hosting service...except they are not reliable at keeping images. Many have since been lost by Imageshack..server failure perhaps. Sorry about that...I dont have replacements. Think theres enough pictures and words to still make sense of it all.
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First off. A flavour of the frequent rebel encounters. (Picture lost)
The governor of Susa and one unit of the Desert cavalry take out two rebel archers. Chariot runs through the two skirmishing archers. It is firing at will as it goes. Many archers are knocked down rather than killed. Cavalry comes in close behind. They kill more than the General. Egypt was all about mobility and missiles. I tend to play like this and Egypt has excellent starting units..Bowmen, Chariots and Generals that fit the bill for anyone who likes to micromanage powerful mobile missile units.
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I did use some infantry. Mainly for street fighting. (Picture lost).
That was the Thracian leader falling as he tried to defend his last city. I find heavy cavalry will jump into phalanx units. So here I was placing multiple units in the same space. Looks a right mess but was effective on this occasion.
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I play slow but expand fast. Hope that makes sense. Micromanage all aspects of the standard game taking hours over a move yet try to push on well to complete the objective.
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17years have passed. Capua has just been captured from Scipii. (Picture lost)
Those troops will receive some more reinforcements and the luxury of upgrading at the Scipii shrine for +1 weapons. Retraining depleted units will also occur ready for the march on Rome. Two of my many spies are already reporting on SPQR Rome.
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Zooming back a bit you can see the campaign position better.
I have 46 regions.
I should get Rome (+47), Salona from Gaul (+48), Carthage (+49), Lose Thapsus (-48), then two of these Sicillian cities. That big Scipii stack is the main threat ..that I know about. Hope the volcano Etna is not due to go off.
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Over turn end the Scipii forces on Sicilly did indeed attack my army beseiging Messana. I have already documented that battle on another forum. Heres the link.
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...4&postcount=86
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After that long battle the computer then thrust another at me. Gaul reinforcements arrived and attacked my forces beseiging Salona.
Hiding the infantry. Moving cavalry along a flank. Attacking with just the general. Eliminate the enemy mobile forces first is my maxim against most opponents.
Wavering Gaul cavalry. Never did close on the chariot general they were chasing. About to be charged by two Desert Cavalry units.
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Gaul General receiving the same treatment. But as he is a stronger unit he is being led to the hidden infantry.
Got him.
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There were no Gaul survivors.
It had turned out the same way as Messana. Eliminating all the forces that come out from the town I can complete the town capture during the AI end of turn phase. These type of events seem to surpress riot messages from other towns..(riots still occur just no message)
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Ok now its my turn. During a battle I wrote down a quote that caught my eye and seemed appropriate:
"To a good general luck is important"
I had my share of luck this turn. Carthage was meant to have been beseiged and equipment built. Yet I had lifted the seige in order to allow a spy in. That spy hadnt opened the gates...and then I forgot to put the seige back in place for end of turn. So no seige equipment was built. Luck came along next turn as the spy on 50+% chance did open the gates this time around.
It wasnt a big battle for Carthage. (Picture lost)
African postion is weak. (Picture lost)
There is no garrison at all in Thapsus. Last week I had a faulty mouse button which selected 'occupy' rather than 'exterminate' when Thapsus was captured. Thapsus with a big population and far from my capital meant 0% public order even on low tax. It had rioted once and I had been expecting it to rebel over turn end. I was set to test a statement I saw from another player...that having no troops in a region that rebels means very few appear in the rebel garrison. But luck came along. I kept the city despite 0% order, very high tax, no garrison.
If the campaign continued I would have used the diplomat to bribe the Carthage stack. Would use some of the growing pile of cash whilst freeing my troops to go north to Sicilly or march west.
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This is it. The march on Rome and the 50th region.
Forces were retrained and equiped at the shrine of Capua. Line up is a bit of a mess but I will organise the units better as they march. SPQR has sent an army to guard the approach to Rome. So be it.
Units now organised by type and in order of experience.
A purple hue colours this battle and a rare sight of a moon in the sky. (Pictures lost) "Act with courage O noble soldiers and victory will be ours". Not on your nelly. Instead the whole army hides in a forest except the general who faces the mighty SPQR army alone.
1 Egyptian Chariot General V's A mighty army. First off. The 4 Roman Generals. No contest.
Taking on one at a time the story is the same. A long string of scythed down Roamns who chased after the rear end of these scythed General chariots.
With the SPQR cavalry gone and the infantry tired its now time to 'act with courage'. Chariots come out of hiding. This causes the SPQR army to split up as they face off the the now visible chariots. Opportunity presents itself to both chariots and archers. Plenty of shots into backs of running Romans and cavalry charges into exhausted velites.(multiple images lost)
Archers then concentrate on the Triarii. Mix of fire and normal arrows for anti morale and killing purposes. (images lost) Cavalry and chariots keep well away from Triarii who are the last units standing in my Roman enemies. Unit morale is lowered as you wipe out all the other type so eventually even Triarii morale is broken. Didnt even move the infantry. Mobile and missile forces do it as usual. (multiple images lost)
A famous battle marker for that one.(and a kick in the arse to Imageshack for loosing such victory pictures)
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And for Rome itself.
The 6th spy to enter Rome had an 81% chance of entry and gaining knowledge. He made it and gained a trait increase. The 6 spies together had a 103% chance of opening the gates. They did open the gates.
I wasnt sure if the infantry could make it to Rome this turn. So the victorious army was split before it marched on Rome. The general and cavalry go first, hiring a new mercenary unit along the way. As it turned out the infantry component of the army could make it also. (picture lost)
Easy pickings. Two weak generals who fled the last battle, 2 velites and the faction leader.
A typical seiege assault deployment. (image lost) I have four gates to choose from. Keep main army at expected gate. AI will deploy facing your main army. One lone fast infantry unit near the other gate. Ii will run through. It will capture wall and start the wall tower fire on the defenders. My general will rush to the infantry units position to help bolster morale losses caused by the gate fire.
Nearly done. A couple of tactics going on here.
-Cretan archers have long range. Their shots can just reach Romes plaza when positioned on the high city wall nearest the plaza
-My chariots are committed to lure the powerful SPQR faction leader into a trap in the side streets just off the plaza. Without any benefits from fighting in the plaza the SPQR leader was soon dead.
Well done handsome Egyptian troops.
Looks headless as he takes the victory bow. Pity the movie doesnt have a more Egyptian feel to it.
Territory graph showing the campaign progress.
Family tree. Original 10* faction leader was killed when he stood still and a militia hoplite unit marched into it. Current leader garrisons a city often a problem due to unrest. But not when the governor has this much influence.
Egyptian war machine is impressive. These troops never saw battle.
There were similar scenes in North Africa.
All quiet on the Northern front with Sythia. Spies are first line of defense. Knowledge is important. Weakly held forts in the two passes is second line of defense. Third line of defense are the governors and their troops positioned in the Armenian cities.
Money. Lots of it. I concentrate on high tax rates and buildings that generate cash. Trade is important. The roads in this area were full of trade carts. The huge population of the nile cities means lots of trade income. The short sea routes (distance between ports) increases income further. The trade icon density on the roads that connect the ports to the cities is thus very high despite the long road.
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And from my spreadsheet some stats.
Battles:
End of turn Finances:
And so ended my third Imperial campaign. Hope you found something in there of interest and of use in your own play. Cheers.
Ive now played Julii, Brutii and Egypt. Between those three campaigns I have now captured every region on the map and fought every faction the vanilla game has to offer. Gaul, Numidia or Greece next campaign.
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but i've only done 1 and a bit games so far. 
and i still haven't destroyed that Rebel army i asked you about, but its end is near, i'll post it on that thread for you when it happans. 
Originally Posted by Severous
my favourite faction The Greek city,but The greek city destroyed by Severous
very nice campaign..!!!
