Si Vis Pacem... A Roman, House Cornelia, AAR (This time for real.)

[Roman Heritage]

Salve, dear Fellows!
This is my first AAR and I'm no native English speaker, so, please, be nice
Anyway, my Home rules are as follows:
Difficulty H/VH
Modded Rome II - 1tpy
I'm trying to stick with historical accuracy, so I'll follow chapter objectives as much as I can, conquer some regions only in a plausible period of time, and I wont' keep generals in command for more than a turn (to recreate Consulate, Dictatorship, etc..) except in extraordinary occasions.
I use the following mods:
Dresden's Sack & Liberation a StartPos Re-Hash to improve accuracy, reskins for some factions, Major Factions Mods for Seleukid, Egypt, Macedon and Parthia, Mackles' no Barbarian Artillery Mod.
Anyway, let's start!

SI VIS PACEM... A ROMAN, HOUSE CORNELIA, AAR

Chapter I - Securing Italia (274-272 BC)
The year is 274 BC, or 479 ab Urbe Condita. With Pirrhus driven back to Epirus after his bitter defeat at Maleventum by the hands of Consul Curio Dentatus, Rome is now the uncontested leading power of the italic peninsula. To the south, cities such as Taras, Croton and Rhegium, now left without the epirote protection, have given up in front of Rome's overwhelming superiority, absorbed in the Urbe's sphere of influence. Even a people with a fierce tradition of resistance to Rome, such as the Samnite, has wiseli chosen to submit and reluctantly join into Rome's Socii system.
To the North, still lied the Etruscans, the of old governors of Rome, now with the sole dominance of their motherland, weakened, but not yet submitted, proud of their independence and determined to fight to mantain it. Even during Pirrhus' invasion of Italy, the Dodecapolis managed to resist Roman's attempts of conquest, something the Senate and the People of Rome aren't willing to forget: a free Etruria was the only between Rome and her egemony on Italia. After the departure of Pirrhus, Rome chose to send her legions against Etruria, and war broke out again.

Consul Lucius Julius Libo marched steadily with his legion, easily entering Etruria and conquering centres such as Chiusi, Perusia and Vetulonia, before heading north, towards Velathri, the main Etruscan stronghold.
Meanwhile the Etruscans, after having suffered for a while the impact of roman aggression, merged their forces, reaching a total of 6000-7000 men, led by twelve strategoi.

The two armies met in the plains surrounding Velathri, starting a fight of which not much is known. The sources emphatyze on the Romans' greater experience and equipment as the key factor in their victory, which anyway led to the siege of Velathri and its fall in the Republic's hands. After the fall of Velathri, the greater part of the Etruscan towns surrendered to Libo's advance, while part of Populonia and Arretium's nobilty crossed the Appennini to establish their last stronghold in Aemilia, in Ariminum, an old Etruscan fortress.
Rome, after spending a year in securing its control over Etruria, sent Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio, who had served under generals such as Cursor and Dentatus, in Aemilia. Gnaeus succesfully managed to reconquer Ariminum, consolidating Rome's egemony in the north east of the peninsula and acting as Rome's diplomat in the region. On the Senate behalf, in fact, Gnaeus signed agreements with near peoples such as Veneti and Dalmatians, starting trade with them and bringing order to Rome's northern frontier. Italia was now fully controlled by the Republic.

[Roman Heritage]

Chapter II - Rome and Syracuse (270-269 BC)
Meanwhile, in Magna Graecia, things were swiftly changing. The Greek colonies started to give signs of insofference to roman rule, encouraged by Hiero II, the new tyrant of Syracuse.
Hiero, in the previous years, emerged as leader of Sicily's greek cities, reforming the old Sicilian League as a mean to establish himself as the most notable of the western Greeks. Thanks to the support of Sicily's greek cities such as Acragas, Himera and Gela, he brought the League's army to a high level of efficience and rebuilt Syracuse's fleet, which was once the largest of the Greek World.
His strenght encouraged the desire for freedom that some of the colonies subject to Rome, such as Rhegium and Croton, which openly invited him to invade Italy, just as like Pirrhus did a decade ago, and help the greek colonies to regain their independence - under the promise of submitting to Syracuse's authority.
Hiero sent a declaration of war to the Senate, crossing the Strait of Messana with the League's army - roughly 7000 hoplites, 1200 light troops such as peltasts and slingers, and 800 cavalrymen, mainly tarentine mercenaries.
The Senate charged Gnaeus Cornelius of the command, sending him south with the rank of Consul. During his march towards Hiero, now at the gates of Rhegium, Gnaeus was reinforced by Neapolis and Taras' cavalry reparts, and by a part of Cosentia's garrison, reaching roughly the same numbers as his opponent's.
Hiero, after a short stop at Rhegium, started the liberation of the cities on Lucania's Gulf, but chosing to retire towards Rhegium when his explorers told him news on Gnaeus' advance.

On 16th August of 270 BC, the two armies clashed close to Rhegium, on a hilly terrain which penalised Hiero's phalanxes, and highlighted the greater flexibility of Rome's maniples. Gnaeus, in fact, used this in his favour attacking the left greek wing relatively separated by the rest of his army, while the two cavalries clashed on both flanks. On the right wing of Hiero's army, meanwhile, the more open and flatter terrain favoured the hoplites' charge, giving start to a fierce fight. The rout of the greek left wing and the victory of Rome's cavalry on both flanks determined the encirclement of Hiero's army, thus provoking the Greek's defeat.

Hiero died trying to escape Gnaeus' encirclement, and his army sustained heavy losses between dead and captives. Gnaeus, lightly wounded during the fight, chased the remains of the Greek army, led by Hiero's lieutenant Ireneus, 'til it crossed again the Strait, and spent the rest of his consulate securing Rome's positions in Rhegium and Croton.

In Sicily Ireneus gained the citizen's assembly support and was elected as the new tyrant. There he rebuilt the bulk of the League's forces by coscription and hiring beotian, epirote and peloponnesiac mercenaries.
The Senate didn't remain idle, too. Knowing that the only way to prevent a new invasion of Magna Graecia was to bring the war directly into Sicily, the Senators, thanks to the contribution of greek cities such as Neapolis, strenghtened Rome's war fleet, the Classis I Misenensis, and planned a roman invasion of Sicily.
In the spring of 268, on the re-opening of the bellic season, the Senate elected Lucius Papirius Cursor as dictator, giving him full control on the invasion forces. On his side, the Senate put Decimus Iunius Brutus, admiral of Classis I Misenensis, which had to soften Syracuse's naval superiority.
Cursor desembarked easily at Messana, heading south towards Syracuse, sacking the minor city of Sirako, followeb by sea by Decimus Brutus. Ireneus decided to wait the enemy behind Syracuse's walls and asked his allies for reinforcements, preparing to sustain a siege.
With Decimus' support, Cursor was able to lay siege to Syracuse in March. Ireneus, who could use his larger fleet as a treath on the Roman's exposed flank, managed to resist a month, waiting for the League's reinforcements, which came in June, led by Abreas of Acragas.
Abreas' arrival gave birth to the key event of the siege. Ireneus, willing to support Abreas'attack of the roman camp, ordered his admiral, Anfitrion, to harass the enemy flank with the desembark of his crews on the shore. Unfortunately, Lucius Cursor's sentinels noticed the enemy fleet's movements, and Lucius was able to lead his cavalry on the shore and repell Anfitrion's attack.

In the meanwhile, Decimus Iunius Brutus approached Anfittrion and the remaining of his ships on the sea, giving birth to a fierce naval battle, which the Romans won thanks to their local advantage. Anfitrion, in fact, had lost half of his ships and crews in the attempt to sustain Abreas' attack, thus losing his number superiority, and, after a fierce fight, his fleet and his life.

While the two fleets collided, Lucius Cursor sent part of his infantrymen to stand against Abreas' hoplites' advance. After having annihilated Anfitrion's desembarked crews, Cursor swiftly moved his cavalry towards Abreas' forces, hitting them in the back and causing their rout. Decimus' contemporaneous victory on the sea encouraged the dictator Cursor, who decided to lead a final assault on Syracuse. Thanks to Decimus' conquest of the greek port, the Romans, after having conquered the enemy's walls, were able to force Ireneus to retreat to the agorà, where he and his most loyal supporters found death in the meleè.

Lucius Cursor, after Ireneus' death and the surrendering of his remaining forces, started a methodic sack of the city, and, after a visit from the Senate's embassy, settled Apollodorus, a filo-roman noble, as Syracuse's new tyrant and client of Rome: the Sicilian League's command passed in Rome's hands.
The Sack of Syracuse was the first occasion, to Rome, to establish her dominion outside of the italic peninsula, gaining the leadership on the entire Magna Graecia and putting an end to the western Greeks' autonomy. Rome's indirect control over Sicily put her in contact, and competition, with the other great power of Western Mediterraneum, Carthage. Roman Imperialism had begun.

[McScottish]

Some of the pics arent working, but very good start! +rep.

[Roman Heritage]

Thanks, mate!
I've tried to find the way to upload pics - could you tell me which ones you CAN see?
Btw, thank you for your opinion. Although I think people prefer a more "fictional" way to write AAr's (characters, plot, and stuff) I'm trying to write it...well, kind of a history book.
Any tip or suggestion (in editing or whatever) is really welcome!

[Lugotorix]

Thanks, mate!
I've tried to find the way to upload pics - could you tell me which ones you CAN see?
Btw, thank you for your opinion. Although I think people prefer a more "fictional" way to write AAr's (characters, plot, and stuff) I'm trying to write it...well, kind of a history book.
Any tip or suggestion (in editing or whatever) is really welcome!

You may want to look into Hannibal at the Gates. It's a lot of fun. This AAR really gives me the same feeling as the zoomed in map because of the place names, although that's the only time outside of the tutorial I've played through as Rome. Your starting family is the Cornelia in the campaign scenario well. I'd like to see where this goes.

[Roman Heritage]

You may want to look into Hannibal at the Gates. It's a lot of fun. This AAR really gives me the same feeling as the zoomed in map because of the place names, although that's the only time outside of the tutorial I've played through as Rome. Your starting family is the Cornelia in the campaign scenario well. I'd like to see where this goes.

Thank you really much, Lugotorix! I must say that I really appreciate your comments, expecially since you're kind of an AAR God, you've wrote a bunch of them
Well, the fact I live in Italy actually helps me with place names and stuff...something good, since I'm trying to give this AAr a more detailed view on conflicts.
As for the direction I'm going towards, well, right now I'm fighting my way against Carthage in Sicily, where they have 2 full stacks...probably a lot of interesting stuff coming out in a few days As for HatG, that's a solid choice for an AAR, but I'd like to bring Rome ad astra, up to the stars, in the Grand Campaign, before any other project

[Lugotorix]

Thank you really much, Lugotorix! I must say that I really appreciate your comments, expecially since you're kind of an AAR God, you've wrote a bunch of them
Well, the fact I live in Italy actually helps me with place names and stuff...something good, since I'm trying to give this AAr a more detailed view on conflicts.
As for the direction I'm going towards, well, right now I'm fighting my way against Carthage in Sicily, where they have 2 full stacks...probably a lot of interesting stuff coming out in a few days As for HatG, that's a solid choice for an AAR, but I'd like to bring Rome ad astra, up to the stars, in the Grand Campaign, before any other project

As someone whose ancestors were also from Naples, it's kind of like walking in the footsteps of giants when you actually see Latium, Etruria, Magna Graecia, and Sicily in their full glory on the map. Yep, most people go for campaign completion with Rome first. I chose Pontus for some reason.

[Roman Heritage]

Some news, guys

I'm sorry to say that this AAR is closed. The cause lies in the fact that suddenly I found myself fantasyzing about a Successor State campaign, and I'm one of those players that just can't play a lot of time every day, and therefore I won't be able to play two or more campaigns in the same time. Therefore, I'm momentaneously abandoning my Roman Cornelia campaign, but, who knows, maybe I'll give it and this AAR another chance, sooner or later
I feel a bit sorry for it all but...well, games are made for fun, aren't them?
Who knows, maybe I'll write other AAR's, or not. But this, as my first one, has been a quitely rewarding experience
Anyway, thanks for the attention and have a good day,
Roman Heritage

Edit: when I tried to recover my Roman Campaign, its files had been someway corrupted. Maybe an hotfix might have done this, or who knows what. So...that's really closed, now. Sorry