Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus -- AAR

[cherryfunk]

One of the great things about Roma Surrectum are the cool new factions that dvk has included in the mod. Not only does he have the Kingdom of Epirus, which a number of recent mods have also included, but he's the first modder to my knowledge to include three Greek colonian states as fully playable factions: Syracuse, Pergamum, and my personal favorite, the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus.

The Bosporan Kingdom is a fascinating piece of history that's been mostly forgotten -- certainly the Creative Assembly seem to have entirely ignored it! This was a kingdom descended from Greek colonists based in the Crimea and along the Black Sea coast.




The Kingdom lasted for many centuries, remaining semi-independent even at the height of Rome's power, and was eventually snuffed out -- according to the Penguin Atlas of Ancient History -- by the Ostrogoths in the 4th century AD. Of the demise of the Bosporans, the Pengiun Atlas says:

In the early fourth century the eastern Ostrogothic branch rapidly expanded; this expansion became explosive under King Ermanarich who extended Ostrogothic hegemony northwards into the Baltic; he also advanced his eastern frontier across the Don, and occupied the Bosporan Kingdom, for centuries a sleepy Roman protectorate.

In fact, given that the Bosporans first appear in the Pengiun Atlas on the map for 375 BC, and don't vanish until the 363AD map, they are one of the longest-lived political entities noted in the Atlas, having lasted for over 700 years!

Wikipedia has a good page about the Bosporans, with the following overview:

The Bosporan kingdom or the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus was an ancient state, located in eastern Crimea and the Taman peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus. It is interesting as the first truly 'Hellenistic' state -- in the sense of one in which a mixed population adopted the Greek language and civilization.

The prosperity of the Bosporan Kingdom was based on the export of wheat, fish and slaves, and this commerce supported a class whose showy wealth over the centuries is still being dug out, often illegally, from numerous burial barrows or kurgans. The once thriving cities of the Bosporus have left extensive architectural and sculptural remains, while the kurgans continue to yield spectacular Greco-Sarmatian objects, the best examples of which are now preserved in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosporan_Kingdom

Another interesting tidbit from a site about the Black Sea:

It was the fish that attracted the Hellenes to the Black Sea shores, and fishery became the main industry of the early colonies: salted and smoked Black Sea fish was shipped to Greece. Later the colonists developed agriculture on fertile soils around settlements - and for a long time Black Sea colonies (later states independent from metropolises) were the main suppliers of wheat and wine for Ancient Greek states. Especially successful and important was the Bosporan Kingdom prospering on both sides of the Kerch strait.

My first extended campaign for Roma Surrectum had to be as the Bosporans -- ever since I suggested them as a possible faction to dvk, I've been dying to see what I could do as the master of the Black Sea. In this thread I'll be relating the story of my campaign and hopefully getting some of you excited to play this fantastic faction once Roma Surrectum is released in a couple of weeks.

More coming soon...

[cherryfunk]

280 BC -- THE OPENING MOVES

So here we have the sleepy little Bosporan Kingdom as the game opens in 280 BC:



A pretty neat little kingdom, all things considered. The three Crimean cities are in a good defensive position, with a narrow isthmus connecting them to the steppes to the north. A few forts will serve to protect the core of the kingdom. Tanais, however, is exposed at the mouth of the Don, and that might be a problem. We'll have to make a point of developing its defensive structures.

But the first thing to do is decide which way to expand. I have in the past tried to play essentially defensive campaigns for the opening phase of the game, and that just doesn't work well. While it's not necessary to expand like a maniac right out the gate, it always makes sense to find some good cities nearby that can be taken without too much cost in men and gold.

This being a brand new, never-seen-before faction for RTW, I have no strategies in mind from games played in the past or other AAR's I've read -- I have to make this up as I go. And I find that I'm presented with a bit of a puzzle. My central location on the northern Black Sea coast offers many possible routes of expansion, but which would be best?

I'm concerned about over-extending myself early on, and getting severely whacked, so I want to play it cautious. The powerful and expanionist Free Peoples in Roma Surrectum make the early game difficult enough -- I don't want to get ahead of myself and take a city or two that only serve to put me in a more difficult defensive position.

So let's consider the options for expansion:




The West: the Free city of Olbia looks like a tempting target sitting right there on our border. However, expansion in this direction might not be the best idea -- beyond Olbia the cities tend to be small and poor, giving us diminishing returns the further afield we go -- also, there are few natural defensive barriers out that way, so holding on to what we capture might be difficult. For that matter, running smack into Dacia in the first 10 or 15 turns is not something I want to risk.

The North: The steppes offer us even less -- a war with the nasty horse archers of Sarmatia, small and impoverished towns, and huge expanses that will be difficult to defend.

The Southeast: The Caucasus is nearby -- but so is Armenia, and the last thing on earth I want is a war with Armenia. Cataphracts -- no thanks. It's possible that war with Armenia is inevitable, given our proximity, but I'd like to postpone it for as long as possible.

So that's the immediate environment, and I'm not seeing any juicy targets so far. However, the Bosporans have a big advantage when it comes to expansion -- the Black Sea. Our central position will allow us to use the sea to launch attacks anywhere on its coast -- and later in the game, to reinforce our cities quickly from one front to another.

So let's look towards the south and see if there are any better targets:




The Kingdom of Pontus lies just across the sea, with Sinope sticking out like a sore thumb. We could certainly capture Sinope quickly, and with luck Amasia might fall in another turn or two. However, I prefer to begin my expansion by capturing Free cities -- getting caught in a war with another faction right at the start can be tricky, because you just don't know what's going to happen on your other fronts. If I start pouring resources into an assault on Pontus, and then the Sarmatians attack my homeland, what then?

There must be a better option...




Aha! Now we're cooking with Greek Fire! Byzantium and Nicomedia, two Free Cities with fairly small garrisons, within striking distance of our armies, and with one big advantage: they're RICH. Better yet, they're on separate land masses, so if I lose one to a counterattack, I'll still have the other as a base of operations. And as another bonus, they control access to the Black Sea -- and I've already decided that control of the Sea is going to be a key to playing this faction successfully. Owning these cities will help ensure that no enemy navies slip into our waters and cause us trouble.

This definitely looks like the opportunity we've been searching for.

So our objectives for the first few turns have become clear:

-- Build up our economy as much as possible.

-- Set up a defensive perimeter of forts and watchtowers along our northern border.

-- Send out diplomats and try to secure alliances with our neighbors, especially the Sarmatians, who could cause us some serious trouble if they wanted.

-- Prepare an expeditionary force and capture Byzantium and Nicomedia.

Once these are achieved, we can take stock and determine our following moves.

[cherryfunk]

280-270 BC -- INITIAL EXPANSION

Our first few turns are peaceful -- we start constructing some economic buildings in all our cities, pump out some troops for our upcoming expedition to the south, and send a Prince on a tower-and-fort-building mission along our northern border.

Our diplomats are quickly dispatched and score us our first major victory -- an alliance with the Sarmatians! This is a huge load off my mind, since a Sarmatian assault on Tanais would put my entire kingdom in jepoardy and force me to put my expansion plans on hold. So now I can safely proceed with an invasion of Byzantium without worrying about my northern flank, which is secure.

Well... theoretically it means my northern flank is secure. And in most RTW mods, it would be.

But not in Roma Surrectum. Not with those pesky Free Peoples, who don't understand that they're supposed to sit and quietly wait to be conquered by us 'real' factions.

In the year 275 -- after 5 years of building up my forces -- I'm ready to launch my expeditionary force across the sea. But JUST as my army is about to embark for Byzantium, I get a special surprise of the Roma Surrectum variety:



The Free City of Olbia apparently wants a piece of me. At least the mini-Maginot line of forts that I built is serving its purpose -- there will be no sneak attacks upon my cities on my watch! Note that these forts are garrisoned with only one cheap unit each -- they're just meant to trip up an invader, not to hold out for any length of time. But since he'll have to overcome 3 forts before he can threaten Simferopoi, I have a few turns to build up a defensive force.

So I take a few units from my expeditionary force to create the core of a new field army, and send the rest on their long-awaited journey to Byzantium. A bit of a risk, splitting my forces when I have so few, but risk is part of building a world empire, after all.

The invasion goes smoothly, and in short order the expeditionary force has conquered Byzatium, crossed over the strait and besieged Nicomedia:



In this case the Free People's aggressive nature has helped me -- they have most of their forces away from Nicomedia, carrying out an invasion of Pergamum's territory. My spies manage to open the city gates, and I take the city by force before Nicomedia's field army can lift the siege.

Up north, on the home front, I've assembled a second field army and attack the invading Olbians:



You can see what an early Bosporan army is comprised of: phalanxes,spearmen, falxmen, and missile cavalry. An interesting mix that turns out to be a lot of fun to play.

The Olbians put up a good fight -- surprisingly good for a 'slave' army -- though in the end they're overcome by the powerful Bosporan phalanx:



So our northern border is secure once more, while in the south Byzantium and Nicomedia are, at least for the moment, safely part of the growing Bosporan Kingdom. They're also adding quite a bit to our income -- the objective of taking wealthy cities is paying off handsomely.

Our opening moves have gone well. And for the icing on the cake, we've managed to secure alliances with seven other factions, including our neighbors Pergamum, Sarmatia, Macedon and Pontus:



All in all, the Bosporans are in a strong position after 10 years -- a vibrant economy is bringing in plenty of money, good alliances have secured the borders, a field army stands ready to protect the homeland, we have naval supremacy in the local waters, and there are a number of directions for further expansion. Of course, it's only a matter of time before we start knocking heads with another faction...

[Jimexander the Mighty]

Very good AAR! Id like to see how things turn out.

[Tyr]

Very good AAR! Id like to see how things turn out.

This is an old ARR, and will not get completed.The ARR was on an old build of Roma Surrectum and many things have changed and improved since then, so the ARR presents an inaccurate view of the mod, so much so that I would close this if I could. On top of that Cherryfunk seems to be no longer active, and has gave no resons as to why.

The main reason for this AAR, as well as my Syracusan one, was to attract attention to the mod by advertising some of the unique new factions to Roma Surrectum. That done, and the fact they are, as I said, on an old build removed their raison d'etre, hence no updates and the de-stickying.

[Jimexander the Mighty]

OK thanks

[boerekovic]

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