The campaigns that got away

[Alwyn]

Have you had a campaign which ended in disaster or took an unexpected turn?

Reecently, I enjoyed my first Rome II campaign as Nabatea. It went pretty well at first. At the start of the campaign, Nabatea was very close to the front line of the Egypt - Seleucid war. I allied with Egypt and remained a loyal ally through several wars. Nabatea had a growing empire in the south eastern quadrant of the campaign map, trading with the Arabian states along the Indian Ocean coast. When Nabatea acquired a Black Sea port, the growing empire was enriched by Mediterranean Sea trade. A Nabatean army and fleet remained at the Black Sea port at all times, because I thought that protecting the vulnerable port was the crucial thing. I was wrong.

Suddenly, Egypt declared war on another of my allies. (Looking back, I shouldn't have been surprised - my other ally was Baktria, and of course Egypt and Baktria are rival successor states, so I should have anticipated this). Egypt's opening moves in their surprise attack on Nabatea were rapid and decisive. They ignored Nabatea's well-guarded port, and attacked several regions around my capital instead, severing the link to Mediterranean Sea trade and devastating Nabatea's economy.

Obviously, I needed to protect my whole trade route, not just the trade port that my economy relied on - and to anticipate the outbreak of war between my allies.

Have you had campaigns which got away - what happened and what did you lean?

[LuckyPistol]

Wow the AI actually made a strategic occupancy of your settlements?

My campaign that got away was my first go at Aurelian's Rome. Got unlucky with the AI making alliances with each other and suddenly I found myself at war with the entire world before I could even get my economy going. Never had all the AI factions go at me like that since Shogun 2.

[Welsh Dragon]

Great question!

Well, I recently accidentally managed to create the Cimmerian campaign from hell!

(For reference: Rome 2 Grand Campaign, Hard/Hard, A More Aggressive AI, More AI Armies 2, and Athanasios' Ultimate Fixes mods.)

Started out pretty typically, building up my army a little and go and grab the settlement of Siracena to my east. Quickly find myself at war with the Roxolani horse nomads, which usually isn't too much of an issue since I learned to build armies to counter horse archer stacks (slingers to kill the horses, Hoplites to hold off any charges and absorb damage,) in addition to the starting war with Pontus, which usually isn't too much of a problem as they're on the other side of the Black Sea.

So it was about Turn 40, my economy could barely support the military I already had (1 full stack army, 1 partial stack, and a tiny navy.) I was faced with Roxolani forces to my east, and up to 3 Pontus navies and armies crossing the Black Sea to my south. If I sent my armies east to take on the Roxolani then Pontus would invade from the south, and if I kept them at home to defend against Pontus, Roxolani would lay waste to my settlements in the east. I was looking for a challenge (hence the mods,) but instead I seem to have created a perpetual stalemate that nobody could win, least of all me.

I eventually took out the Roxolani, but lost most of my land to Pontus in the process who had crossed the Black Sea and were rampaging around the Steppes. Tried migrating to Baktria, but that area had been taken over by a strong Parthia. So I headed west and just kept going. But I couldn't find anywhere safe to colonise because of other people's wars, so my expedition eventually reached Ireland. But even there it proved to be difficult as much of Britannia had united under the Iceni...

About that point I decided I really wasn't feeling up to a campaign like this, so decided to call it a day.

Was interesting seeing what the AI had managed though. Colchis lost their homeland, but established a decent empire across historically Parthian and Seleucid lands. Seleucids themselves established one across much of the Middle East, focused on Syria, Nabataea and Mesopotania provinces. While Saba had left Arabia behind to take Persis province and a lot of stuff east of that.

As for what I learned? Well, if you're going to migrate go early, before factions have had the chance to create major power blocks who don't appreciate you turning up on their door to ask "please sir, can I have some land!"

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.