Actually challenging Punic War: Thank you

[ostendadler]

Trying to post pictures but Image [img] function doesn't seem to work anymore:

The Landing Party (4th stack is too the right off screen):
https://imgur.com/a/uhgKflN

The absolutely chilling notification I got when they landed:
https://imgur.com/a/StcGdxl

The 4th stack heading back home and the 2 Thracian armies fortified:
https://imgur.com/a/08Gfaor


The aftermath CAi:
https://imgur.com/a/KVKkM3V

The aftermath BAI:
https://imgur.com/a/c1hg5JT

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

Trying to post pictures but Image [img] function doesn't seem to work anymore:

How to take and upload a pic:

1)Take a screenshot with F12.
2)Find-Upload it to your Steam account.
3)Choose the pic from your profile by clicking on it. Click it again and you will see a link. You could also right click it and choose copy the url.
4)Go to the advanced panel of your message and add the image's url by clicking the 3r after the smileys image (insert image).
5)Your should also use spoilers for helping with the site's loading times etc

[FlashHeart07]

Its the imgur links that doesnt work. Just use the BBCODE from imgur instead of the direct links.

Sendt fra min SM-G930F med Tapatalk

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

Its the imgur links that doesnt work. Just use the BBCODE from imgur instead of the direct links.

Sendt fra min SM-G930F med Tapatalk

Τhey never worked. I'm not sure which is more problematic. imgur or imageshack.

[CIaagent11]

Cool screenshots. I've never seen the AI made that many stacks. Is that something they beefed up in the new DeI version?

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

Cool screenshots. I've never seen the AI made that many stacks. Is that something they beefed up in the new DeI version?

Yes

[Lord Damian]

Any update of this epic war?

[Driesmann]

Any update of this epic war?

I had a busy week, but played a bit here and there.
I managed to push into central and western Iberia, however I'm still stuck at Tarraco, it's just too well defended. I don't dare break the deadlock because for one, my pc will melt if I try a siege that huge, and if I'd win, it would be a phyrric victory, something I prefer to avoid. They don't dare move out of their fortress either, and leave Iberia free for 2 of my legions to take.

Then, the update came and kinda screwed this campaign. Everything is still functional, but every Roman character has lost every attribute. On the campaign map, the middle third of the model is just gone, helmets are gone and it looks kinda ridiculous.
I thought, whatever I can live with this, but unfortunately this is the same in battles, where my entire legions now have invisible shields, no clothes and the middle third of the models are invisible/gone. This is a bit game breaking, as I don't fancy playing another 100+ turns with these graphical glitches.

Still, had a blast with this campaign I'll keep the save file in case a fix is proposed.

[Olmsted]

I had a busy week, but played a bit here and there.
I managed to push into central and western Iberia, however I'm still stuck at Tarraco, it's just too well defended. I don't dare break the deadlock because for one, my pc will melt if I try a siege that huge, and if I'd win, it would be a phyrric victory, something I prefer to avoid. They don't dare move out of their fortress either, and leave Iberia free for 2 of my legions to take.

Then, the update came and kinda screwed this campaign. Everything is still functional, but every Roman character has lost every attribute. On the campaign map, the middle third of the model is just gone, helmets are gone and it looks kinda ridiculous.
I thought, whatever I can live with this, but unfortunately this is the same in battles, where my entire legions now have invisible shields, no clothes and the middle third of the models are invisible/gone. This is a bit game breaking, as I don't fancy playing another 100+ turns with these graphical glitches.

Still, had a blast with this campaign I'll keep the save file in case a fix is proposed.

Sounds like you need to get parts 9 and 10 of the mod. I had the same issue, but this fixed it.

[ostendadler]

Carthage is a real foe at sea. I've got two legions stuck in Corsica without any opportunity to strike a Sardinia. Every time I make a move Carthage raids Corsica and re-takes the island from me leaving me short on supplies. They are very good at keeping control of the sea.

I haven't explored what's going in Iberia but from what I can guess they've lost control of their holdings over there. I think most of the fighting is near modern day Gibraltar where Carthage is holding at bay a few angry Iberian tribes.

On my end I've turned the tide of war and landed back in Macedonia with two legions re-capturing Appolonia and the 2nd minor settlement of Macedonia. While I was planning on taking the capital city of Macedonia away from the Thracians I had Ptolemaic egypt and its allies declare war on me (with noticeable allies such as Sparta and Athens). Leaving me with a long list of foes to clear out of Greece.

I'm stretched thin here. My treasury is thin despite having the highest taxation level. My armies are all engaged. 2 In Sardinia to siege Keralis (if I ever manage to do so), 2 in Sicily to prevent Carthage from landing back and finally 2 in Greece to initially subdue that Thracian invader from earlier on. If any of my northern Gaul neighbors decide to stop fighting each other or one over powers the 2 others and decides to have a go at me. Or any of the illyrian tribes holding the coast decide to turn one me i'm screwed. I have no one guarding my nothern frontier which is scary.

I normally never fight abroad before securing both Cisalpine Gaul and Sycilia but with DEi's cleverly implemented scripts I had to creep out of my comfort zone and get creative.

Once I have Keralis back I should hopefully be in a position to go after Carthage directly and cripple them by hitting them directly at the center.

I'll try and calm things down with the Athenians and Spartans but the power bar is so not in my favor with Egypt that I doubt they'll accept peace. They are so far away from me though and have so many wars that I doubt i'll see them for a while. Unless of course you guys have prioritized human enemies over AI enemies for them.

[ostendadler]

Good news everyone ! Keralis has fallen !

I must say the more time goes on in this campaign the harder it seems to get. The war with the Thracians seems to be far from over and despite my best efforts I have only taken and secured one more settlement in Macedonia. Following advice from the tutorial I have invested considerable amounts of money to court neighbors and get them invested in the war. I managed to calm down Athens and make them join the War against Thrace. Its one less state to worry about.

On the Carthage side the fall of Keralis has no doubt toned limited them to North Africa but they are still rampaging at Sea and my navy is still very much the most basic level fleet you can hire. I need to invest a lot of time and money into naval warfare before I can dream of setting foot in North Africa. That is a very interesting twist in the plot. I traditionally never even bother hiring a fleet or researching anything about it simply because it never was necessary. Here however I need to reduce the navy gap or it will come back and bite me the more the game goes on.

The BAI is acting up in such a nice way now that I've played every single battle in the campaign.

Here's the recap:

TURN 100:

Italy, Latium, Sicily, Sicily & Corsica, Narbo, Appolonia and that other minor macedonian settlement are under my control.

At war with:

Odryssean Kingdom of Thrace, Carthage and its 2 client states, Ptolemaic and Nabatea (although never faced them in battle).

[Devodians]

You're making me nervous about fighting Carthage now! I've just taken out Epirus and Macedon in my own campaign, and I was planning to go to Sicily to trigger the Punic War, but now I think I'll have to wait until I have 6 full stacks + a real navy first.

I agree, I've played about a dozen different campaigns as Rome in the last 5 years, but this update makes this a completely new experience. You can't just blitzkrieg the major powers with single stack anymore, you have to wear them down with multiple armies/wars, like Rome had to do historically.

[ostendadler]

Well I would advise you to pick your front very carefully. You will stretch yourself thin very quickly and the AI will wear you down. I'm a 120 turns in now and I've finally destroyed the Thracians. What a war that was! Alone I ended up in a deadlock and whatever gains I'd make they would retake. I patiently made friends and defeated them with the help of Rhodes and Athens. Funnily enough Rhodes is now the dominant power in the Agean sea now.

I'm playing defense against Carthagr for now because I simply am no match at sea and any invasion force of mine would get shredded before reaching the shores of North Africa.

Ptolemaic has now reached me and is undergoing a massive 7 stack + 3 fleet invasion of my Macedonian province that I just freshly unified.

I am now their only enemy and I cannot hold the line against such a foe. I spent a lot of money to get the seleukids to go to war with Egypt. That should open a much needed second front and divert some of the future armies of Egypt. For now I need to deal with the invasion and bottle neck them.

I've never achieved so little gains and never had to fight for them so hard. It Is awesome ... and terrifying. One bad move and I could lose dozens of turns worth of conquest.

Loving this.

Screens will follow

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

Pics would be nice indeed.

[ostendadler]

I need to spend time uploading pictures but whenever I am home I just want to push that campaign further because it is simply so much fun !


I've finally put in place my invasion of the Carthage heart land but had quite a last minute twist. I had shipped 2 full stacks aboard 2 full stacked navies with a 3rd fully stacked navy as cover to cross the Mediterranean from Sicily to Carthage itself. I was half way through (take 2 turns to cross) when I saw that Carthage rushed 3 naval stacks towards Sicily to either pick the now undefended island or worse intercept me and wreck havoc on my landing force. On the next turn I had to turn back land back my armies back into Sicily and intercept the Carthage fleet off the coast of Sardinia.

This Ecnomus style naval battle turned into an absolute bloodbath and while I stepped out victorious with 95% of the Carthage fleet being fish food I had lost nearly 80% of my fleet as well delaying the invasion of Carthage by 10 turns at least. While I was reforming my navy the situation in Greece escalated too.

Egypt landed in Epirus with 2 stacks and parked 3 fleets in Aegean sea while a first army landed in Knossos and destroyed my long term allied from Crete. The remaining 4 armies of Egypt turned back probably to fight back the Seleukids which are now my partner in this Eastern war. I am too far to know what is going on but that has no doubt brought relief to my Greek front. Rhodes is now a massive power holding much of the Turkish aeagean sea front and most of Thrace.

Egypt ended up taking Epirus from me but after cleverly paying the Scordisci to the north to join the war against Egypt as I had second front opening in Greece. Indeed I had convinced Athens to join me (with much cash spent in the process) but failed to convince Sparta who remained faithful to Egypt. One of the Two greek legions of mine ended up holding up the line against 2 full Spartan stacks. Thankfully since I was in fortified stance I managed to win the battle (by 60 minute timeout). They left my legion at 1/3rd of its strength (those damn spartans sure do hurt). I couldn't re-take Epirus nor could I risk my second stack with such a large Egyptian fleet camping off the coast of the main Macedonian city.

The situation escalated further when Rhodes allied itself to Egypt and cancelled my old non aggression pact. Thankfully we are not at war with each other but our diplomatic terms have declined further since I am now a trading partner and allie of the Scordisci. Those legends rather than take the city of Epirus decided that bringing back the defunct Epirus faction was more fun.

So that's where I'm standing now.

I'm about to siege Carthage and have to "blitzkrieg" a couple of minor factions in Greece to keep things under control.

[ostendadler]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

When Egypt lands to take your cities they go big !

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The shores of Carthage a 140 turns in ... The latest it ever took me

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Only the dead Thracians have seen the end of the war

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Carthage is mobilizing to counter my landing and conquest of their capital ...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

A Zama 2.0 in the making. Notice how the AI is mustering more armies south to encircle me. This will be the battle that keeps Carthage in game or that will brake their backs !

[ostendadler]

As you can see a 144 turns in I am very far from mopping the floor with anyone. Any bad move on my behalf or if I leave any relation go sour with one of my powerful neighbors and I could get stuck decades trying to stabilize a front. I have been at war with Carthage since the mid 60's and the tombstone of the Odrysean Kingdom barely has any moth on it. Wars are long, bloody and the Ai will court your neighbors. I really feel like i'm fighting another giant empire and not some giant pinata which can be turned to dust in two or three battles.

It is such a breath of fresh air to play this mod. It really is. I'll keep you updated tomorrow on the current situation in my campaign. Stay tuned.

[Jake Armitage]

I'll be

[TheLonelyEmperor]

Really loving this thread! To me one of the most interesting things about total war games in general is the story that comes with every single campaign. Slap on a incredible mod like DEI and all of a sudden you make your story feel that much more authentic.

I didn't want to spam and start another thread so I thought I'd do a short summary post in here about my current (first) Punic War as Rome against Carthage. My "Punic War" has begun in a very different way to your own and thought it'd be cool to provide a alternate way of the war playing out and what I did (And plan to do) differently which has given a very different story overall to the OPs own.

(Keep in mind this is using the "Alternate Economy" sub-mod by KAM2150 which imo makes the mod even better and more challenging!)

Beginning Stage

(Turn 50ish) - Most of the Italian peninsula is under my control. Italy itself was taken probably within the first 6-8 turns as I prioritized blitzing the two enemies Rome starts off at war with. I spent the rest of my turns doing nothing but establishing trade with the entire eastern Mediterranean and buying non aggression pacts with my northern barbarian neighbors. Eventually resulting in all of my northern neighbors becoming decent friends with me, Liguria even became a defensive ally that I use as a buffer in northern Italy. During this time I also scouted out Iberia as a potential area for expansion ignoring Gaul altogether however Carthage has zero territory on the mainland there. Hence instead I simply establish relations with the many Iberian tribes that have risen up against Carthage dominion. I begin to plan a direct invasion of Africa (While balancing relations with the Celts and Illyrians on my borders rather well, probably a lucky campaign so far as I get unanimous friendships with all of the factions that pose a threat in the North/East)

(Turn 55) - War with Syracuse begins! They already hated me after actually being at war for a few turns earlier in the campaign so they weren't exactly unprepared. Regardless after drawing out a large Syracuse army and garrison from Syracuse itself I win decisively and take the capital of Sicily. I wasn't sure if it would trigger the war with Carthage but I felt like my army and economy had been developed to a point where I was okay with going to war with them. Surprise surprise I'm at war with Carthage next turn

(Turn 65) - I liberate the last city under control by Syracuse itself and gain a ally on the south west side of the island. Syracuse had a ally on the north west side of the island that continued its war against me for only a few turns until I got a easy peace deal. Even growing to the point of making them a ally against Carthage. Sicily is totally under Roman influence despite Carthage having two decent fleets circling the island and it's expeditionary force on the north eastern point.

Punic War Really Begins

(Turn 67) - With Sicily entirely under my control with my main army (With this sub-mod in particular its hard to afford multiple armies) I was thinking about how I could actually beat Carthage itself. I had spotted at least four half strength navies patrolling the African coast line and only a stack and a half of its army heading west to fight the Iberians. Being restricted to two spies I had to gamble a fair bit on where its armies were and where I could hit without being overrun by pure numbers. My army outclassed them on the battlefield however their navy was vastly superior to my own and probably always would be. I had to find a way to connect Italy to Carthage via land.
The obvious route was Iberia however that would be an incredibly long slog and would force me to devote resources away from the already tense situation in Sicily. So I went half way. I prepared a second light army of light infantry and Hastati in Rome and began the incredibly risky move of invading Corsica & Sardinia without a fleet. Despite my army taking serious attrition and the incredibly intense moment of pressing that "end turn" to see if my transports would get destroyed the army landed uncontested. With little opposition I chose to liberate the northern island while occupying Karalis myself.

(Turn 71) This is where the campaign is right now. Carthage has control of the Balearic islands but that is the only region outside of Africa. In the midst of the chaos of Carthaginian fleets scrambling to chase my own inferior navy and aid Karalis (Unsuccessfully btw) I have FINALLY managed to land my primary legion on the African coast. Within 3 turns of building siege equipment I stormed the city of Carthage itself. The local fleet had fled the siege and left the garrison to be slaughtered. I lost just over two hundred men, most of whom were auxiliaries. Their entire garrison was slaughtered and the city was looted, now Carthage itself has become my beach head into Africa.

Carthaginian local allies have armies very close to the capital, the war is still hanging on a knife edge as I have no control of the ocean, Carthaginian fleets are prowling along the shores of Africa and Sicily and I'll probably have many more battles to get close to ending the war. My next step is to take the ports of Carthage and liberate what allies I can to help me tear Carthage apart. After all the dust has settled I'll find ways to betray who I need to and take what land I really want for my own.

As you can see this is really different to how the OPs war went. Imo all of the stories in this thread are exciting to read, while it seems as though mine has been pretty smooth it feels anything but. Like I said several fleets running free will probably come back to haunt me but for now it seems as if most of the fighting will be contained in Africa and along the coast.
I thought about leaving Carthage to the late game like the OP but I feel like eventually somebody will control the east (And probably Germania too) and figured that would be my primary late game nemesis.


Anyway sorry if I hijacked this thread a little, just thought It'd be cool to share my Punic War story too I won't post anymore but would honestly love to see more stories from other players who have great experiences themselves.

Keep up the updates all! Loving it!

[myarta]

Really good updates, and thanks. I'm wondering what you are referring to with lots of cash spent for diplomatic events.

I tried e.g. an Arverni campaign and I kept using gifts to get relations up to 200-300 but still no one wanted to confederate, but perhaps that is specific to confederations?

When you are paying "lots of cash" are you saying like one turn you say 'Hey Ptolemaioi, go to war with Seleukeia, here's 75,000?' Or are you gifting like 10k per turn for several turns to 'prime' it, then asking for war with a smaller final bribe...I mean gift?