[Replay]Roma Silva - Into the Wilderness (ahistorical)

[Matt Slow]

Rome into the Wilderness - Roma Silva (ahistorical)

What if Rome would not have expanded as a Mediterranean power and gone North first of all? This historically seems unlikely as the Mediterranean area and North Africa held the most powerful resources, with food certainly being the most crucial for Rome. And Rome certainly would not have had the knowledge, engineering and military expertise at that time. And if this would have been possible at all, it definitely would have changed history and Roman culture massively.

However, the game allows such a scenario and I was curious how this may unfold. Additionally, this creates a kind of 'sandbox' for the AI to develop stronger factions without being crumbled by Roman power right away from the start. So I was very curious to see what happens to the AI factions.

This is why I kept several saves at several stages. If you are game, you may start at different points and change your story.





Some surprising results

It's totally possible to make Rome everybody's darling in the Med - you will be flooded with requests for non-aggression pacts, defensive alliances and military alliances. Even from Carthage, yes! So plan ahead, I ruined my reputation quickly with some accidents during the Gallic wars...

You may see very unusual province buildings as Magna Graeca still isn't under Roman control. Not a single war has been fought in the Mediterranean, with the exception of Massalia. You may miss Cretan Archers and Balearic Slingers - well we have Ballistae, don't we? And I saved plenty of old Italian Slingers, I really like these units while they are cheap to maintain.

Depending on your interests, the fights in 1st and 2nd Gallic wars have been fierce and bloody. It's not that much of an easy task for late Polybian legions as it is for Caesar's legions...after the end of the Gallic wars you will find a surprisingly low numbers of experienced units. Losses went up to entire elite legions being overrun by huge Gallic hordes.

I expected fierce battles for Britannia as the Iceni had been extremely expansive, but at this point the Empire was really strong enough. Two legions and 10 cavalry units had been more than enough.

Carthage was surprisingly defensive, no major Iberian expansion in sight. Epirus finally gained control over Greece and Syracuse and now may have turned into a powerful future foe.

Wherever you start, keep in mind you may find trade agreements and best relationships all around you. My only planned expansion was Gallia, Britannia and Germania. So plan ahead and think of cancelling your diplomatic agreements early.

Looking at the timetable, the final save just is 50 years away from start, which is a surprisingly fast. Maybe very hard campaign settings could get you closer to a realistic speed based on 4 turns/year, but I haven't tried this so far.



Several stages of expansion saves

1st Gallic War 247 BC
2nd Gallic War 244 BC
3rd Gallic War 239 BC
Britannic War 230 BC
Historical Borders in Gallia, Britannia and Germania 226 BC (you could force peace immediately)
Suebian War 223 BC


Suebian War

My intention was to hand over a peaceful save. And while I still was pondering about what to do next - Suebia (especially the gold of Hercynia) or Epirus or finally Carthage via Spain - the Sueboz made a surprise attack on my first satrapy, the Iceni. At that point only the big 3 legions are fully raised, but your income is more than 40k/turn and Marian reforms are passed, so this should not develop into a serious crises. Most building queues in the new provinces are finished and public order is great across the empire.

I usually do not have recruitment centers, but the end save has three of them: Helvetia, Aquitania and Magna Germania. Also several hotspots for cavalry recruitment in Gallia and Germania. Most workshops are close to the borders so you don't have to march with ballistae.

Even at war times you may sustain huge armies at lowest possible tax rates, whenever you need to boost public order or growth. Influence in Senate is balanced and a notch too low since the last war. The faction leader runs a 'government army' at Rome as he is a superb leader (House of Julia seemed a no-brainer for this scenario).

I kept one autosave before the Suebian declaration of war, maybe you can avoid this in total if you want to try.


Imgur album link for each campaign

http://imgur.com/a/YxUWs


Save files rar

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0...mlidXlrNnJJam8

Used submods in one rar

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0...mhCNjU5dnVMTEU


Version

DEI 1.1e3 (latest as of 16 March 2016)

Settings

Campaign: Hard. Battles: Normal.

Submods

[experimental] experimental_recruitment by Flashheart07
[official]DeIReducedUpkeepCost
[official]NoPOGarrison
[official]Dresden_Sack_Liberate_Dipl_DeI

(for better convenience I have linked all submods in one .rar file, but AFAIK the save may also work without them)



Something is missing? Please holler and I will update.




Update request: some legions templates. Polybian late legions during invasion of Britannia




Maneuver legion - Elite units (those legions keep being raised in peace times)








Massive Artillery Legion (2x Ballistae) - Elite Units








Cavalry Support Legion








Post-Marian Legio I during Britannic War

[Dresden]

This is really cool thanks for posting this After awhile here I will move it to the gameplay/guides forum so it will be easier to find.

[Garbad]

Can you show us some of the legions you typically run?

P.S. A fun way I like to play is Rome: Crusader States. After I take Italy, but no more, I send out an expedition to a far off land (such as jerusalem). Once I land, I carve out a chunk of the new world as my home, then try to get by fighting new opponents and such early game. Its fun to see how mismatched rome is vs. say, desert nomads!

[Matt Slow]

This is really cool thanks for posting this After awhile here I will move it to the gameplay/guides forum so it will be easier to find.

That's really cool, many thanks. After all your masterpiece gave me the fun and motivation for doing this, so big KUDOS to all the modders and sub-modders of DEI.

Can you show us some of the legions you typically run?...

I will try to make some pictures of late Polybian (they don't differ much from early) and Marian. Usually I have three types of legions:

Quick moving legions without Ballistae 5/5/5 legionaries of Triarii, Prinicipes, Hastati each > translate to veterans/legionnaires later. On top I may add 5 missile units or 3 missiles/2 cavalry. They all should have vanguard/siege traditions including massive movement bonuses for legion traditions and general.

Ballistae legions replacing cavalry and sometimes missiles with 2-4 Ballistae and increasing legionaries. 4 Ballistae if I want to quickly punch walls at 2 points for 2 legions attacking a capital. I used this in Aquitania as the first fleet was built for invasion of Britannia.

Cavalry support legions: 10-20 units of worthy cav, mostly good auxiliary units with horse bonuses. I don't use them very often, but in certain campaigns and with increasing empire size, these support legions can become incredibly useful. Never operate on their own though.

I will add this to the OP as I can get some screens on it.



Update: added to OP. Hope it's looking ok.

[Dresden]

Moved to gameplay forums.

[Matt Slow]

Thank you, Dresden.


I will be curious to see how this may work out with the new Poeples of Rome integration? Maybe things will change a little and make cultural conversion and population management harder if going such an ahistorical path? I would welcome this.


Moving on this path

After Suebian Wars




And after first Ardiaeian War (all 'allies' are satrapies)


Expansion in Iberia was mostly peaceful and unintended, but of course welcome.


At this point Rome (including satrapies) controls 53 regions and it may be time to ponder about victory conditions. Sadly enough, I do not think there is any big opponent left having resources to match Rome at this stage while it's still quite far away from any victory condition. That's the same issue with almost any Total War campaign map - halfway through the game basically is over.



Experimental recruitment mod

This really adds flair to your legions. Here is an example of the Legio IX fighting the Eblani. And those auxiliaries really do well. I am glad I finally tried this as my motivation to use any other but cavalry and missile auxiliaries was really low as Rome.




Reckless Exploitation

Food can be a problem with this expansion route. However, reckless exploitation can help, just by stacking farming buildings in remote provinces while satrapies will handle revolts. After reaching the eastern borders of the maps I definitely knew I would not want to move legions there again. This way you will not earn a lot of taxes, but you will see a steady flow of food - and slaves...