Roma - Fledgling State to Mighty Empire

[thelord]

Hey following the collapse of my 1.0 Romani save I have decided to start a 1.1 AAR. Starting in 272 BC and I plan to play all the way down to 14 AD. (Hopefully this time I can manage it!)

Here are the house rules I have when I play :

- Destroy every building in a settlement when I take it over. This makes expansion much slower and the game lasts much longer and is more challenging.
- Stick roughly to historical expansion. Not exactly to the date though as this ruins the fun of the game IMO.
- I don't micromanage my generals with a set lifestyle for them or anything.

I have also changed the minimap so the Ptolemaioi are a golden colour as I find it hard to differentiate between them and the rebels once they are built up a bit.

POST ONE - THE BEGINNING

I know everyone hates the beginning with the whole expansion into Italy thing, so I won't go into lots of details. I besieged Taras and then assaulted, which resulted in a close battle for the city,



I am not a big fan of the Camillan troops, their morale isn't the best. Some of my Principes broke in this battle when the odds were even. The Epirots phalanxes were making short work of them.



So I sent my cavalry in to take charge their flanks repeatedly.



Which turned the battle into my favour and I captured the city.



Once Taras was in my hands I changed the name to Tarentum. I plan to do this with the settlements that have a different name under the Romans when I take them.

Thanks for reading.

[Chirurgeon]

looks good. Good luck and I hope you can get a Caesar like you did last time. Destroy every building? Does that cause alot of discontent?

[QuintusSertorius]

Change names? How do you change settlement names?

[Tyrfingr]

Renaming the cities will interfer with the reforms...or am I wrong?

[Reverend Joe]

You know that means you will have to change the names in the script too, right?

Edit: sorry, third person to comment on that...

[Chaotix]

Yeah, it will interfere with reforms. You can just change the name back to the original once your reforms come around to build the new barracks. You might want to avoid changing names of cities that have hard-to-spell names or names with weird accents. Good luck with your new AAR!

[thelord]

I haven't edited any of the files, You can turn on change settlement names in the preferences file. Then click on the name in the settlement scroll. Will it still effect the reforms?

[thelord]

looks good. Good luck and I hope you can get a Caesar like you did last time. Destroy every building? Does that cause alot of discontent?

Yes, it certainly does later on when they are further away. But it is relatively simple to keep them under control with a governor.

[CaesarAugustus]

Good luck with this, I will be starting a new Romani campaign 1.1 shortly, it will be interesting to have something to compare it to.

[Horst Nordfink]

I enjoyed your last Romani AAR, good luck with this one.

[Frodge]

ooh, if you play this til the end you may just take the King of AAR's title of MAA's civil war toting makedonian riot.
No offence to any other writers of course.

[General Appo]

A bit early for that, don´t you think? I mean, he´s made 1 single chapter so far, MAA has done I think 52. But indeed, if he (or anyone for that matter) were to play an detailed AAR from 272 BC to 14 AD as any faction what so ever, I would be greatly impressed.

[hrrypttrbst]

Good luck with the AAR and the name of this AAR is funny to

[thelord]

my last AAR went to 44 BC, but unfortunately got beaten by a CTD.

POST TWO - PORRECTIO

The expansion into the Italian peninsula is going well, I had changed the name of Taras to Tarentum, but I have since changed it back incase it messes up with the reforms.



My next time in Italy is the traitors in Rhegion, they had a reasonably large amount of troops there, more than I did but I had slightly better quality troops so I managed to win and capture the city. I like the new options when taking over a city. Much better than the unrealistic exterminate option.



The capture of the two new settlements gave my economy a much needed boost so I could afford some new troops for the invasion of Segesta.



Which took place a couple of years later when I had trained another army of Camillan troops to besiege the city, the rebel army here had a unit of naked fanatics however with some competant cavalry so would pose a bigger threat. Fortunately for me however they had a lot of ligurian infantry which are pretty poor so I managed to break through them and surround the more competant troops.



By 267 BC, I have sent diplomats around to gather map information and also for trade rights and alliances. You can see the change I made to the Ptolemaioi clearly now.



Hope you enjoyed the update, the boring Rebel sieges should be over soon.

[thelord]

POST THREE - THE ROAD TO WAR

263 BC, I have continued the conquest of northern Italy by besieging Bononia, at the same time the Audei are begining to expand themselves. They have besieged Patavium, which will not be good for me if they take it as I will have more of a war on my hands when I come to attack the Audei for control of Cisalpine Gaul. I assualted Bononia the following turn and took the town.



The Audei assaulted Patavium shortly afterwards, but luckily for me they had lost the battle, whilst destroying half of the rebel stack there aswell, which meant that I leapt to the chance of taking the city before they recovered.



I decided to starve the city out as I was sick of fighting seiges against the rebels. By 261 BC Patavium was mine.



I spent the next two years building up the new land I had conquered, by 259 BC I was ready to invade Sicily. No doubt Kart-Hadast will declare war on we soon. As for Mediolanium I plan to attack it after I have Sicily and Corsica and Sardinia, I would take it sooner but I don't wan't to weaken the Audei before they expand into the rest of Gaul and let the Arverni destroy them. No doubt the upcoming war with Kart-Hadast will keep me occupied until then.



cheers for reading.

[Siruso]

I loved your other rome AAR, and this one is already going pretty well. I like how you keep it simple and we just get to sit back and watch the natural-drama of EB unfold.

This is gonna be another exciting AAR, especially now that the preliminary conquering is almost done with.

If you get another CTD at 44bc im gonna die.
Keep up the good work!

[thelord]

I know that CTD was a real punch in the bollocks

[thelord]

POST FOUR - THE BATTLE FOR SICILIA

255 BC, My lands have expanded over 2 thirds of Sicily. With me owning Messana and Syrakousai, with the other side of the island still in Kart-Hadast's hands. The city had a reasonably small army so I decided to send the troops I had on Sicily there. Kart Hadast had-ended our alliance after I took Messana.



However half way to the city a large stack from main land Africa arrived to meet my invasion. With two generals, both called Hamalcar.



Once I loaded the battle up it was one of those annoying forest fights where you can't really keep up with what is happening very well.



With the Camillan and the Polybian armies I usually line my triarii up in guard mode infront of the principes and the hastati. This is so I can hold the enemy line and give the second line time to throw their pilum and then either flank or support the triarii. The Kart-Hadastim flanked the triarii.



The still charged the triarii though. My troops were slightly better quality but I was outnumbered so it was evenly balanced.



After a while they engaged the rest of their troops, they concentrated on sending big chunks of troops into either side of my army to avoid getting tangled in my triarii.



You can see here the amount of troops they concentrated on one area.



They sent one of their generals round my flank, which turned out to be a big mistake for them, as I managed to encircle him with my unengaged infantry and cavalry. Which resulted in the death of their main general.



This caused a good chunk of their army to flee and also for the other Hamalcar to get killed.



If they hadn't made the blunder of sending their general to a very risky position then they most probably would have one the battle with thier superior numbers as I was starting to get encircled.



The survivors retreated to Lilibeo which I besieged the following turn with a general I sent over from Messana. The numbers are equal on both sides so the siege itself should be close. I plan to assault soon before more support from Africa arrives.

[QuintusSertorius]

Wow, that's a lot of heavies in your armies.

Are you using BI's executable? I notice that there are Sardinian infantry in Lilibeo, something the BI AI often did was ship them and Balaeric infantry across.

[Reality=Chaos]

I'm really enjoying this AAR. You've set yourself a really epic task. I will be following this closely.

[thelord]

No im using rtw.exe for this one. I reinstalled the whole lot when I installed 1.1, but for some reason it still thinks bi is installed. So I cannot install it. Anybidy knwo how to sort this out?

[thelord]

POST FIVE - END OF THE FIRST PUNIC WAR

Kart-Hadast is really on the back foot now for control of Sicilia, Corsim and Sardinia. I have landed and besieged Alalia and then I assaulted Lilibeo the next turn. What I have been surprised to see is that fact that they are using navies to transport troops around. I didn't think the AI ever did that on rtw.exe

As for the siege itself I had the advantage, with a general and stronger infantry.
The armies engaged just outside the gates of the city.



They started to break after a few minutes of fighting with few casualties for me.



Around half of their army remained, they retreated to the small alleyways near the centre of the town. This turned out to work a lot better for them as they were in a small place and couldn't be flanked.



I still had much greater numbers, by this time it was nto a matter of whether or nit I would win, it was how many troops I would lose.



It turned out to be 219 in the end.



252 BC, I have conquered the rest of the Kart-Hadasts territory in Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. This made them come to me begging for peace, again something I have rarely seen before, the AI usually holds a serious grudge to the grave.



The next year in 251 BC, I have decided it is time to build up an army capable of taking Mediolanium from the Audei and to defend it from their inevitable backlash.

[Ibrahim]

neice begining..I like it. But why not use the skirmishers and accensi the romani have? I mean, they aren't the world's best, but they are actually very usseful in sieges. maybe that's why losses are high.

[QuintusSertorius]

Get some Accensi with upgraded weapons and a little experience, and they become quite dangerous. Especially useful in sieges in thinning out their skirmishers and even heavies before you create a breach. Or better yet get some Gallic or Balaeric slingers.

[thelord]

hmm true, but I am not a big fan of missile troops and skirmishers. Especially horse archers. I much prefer to fight with lots of infantry and spearmen. It suits my style of play much better.

[CaesarAugustus]

No im using rtw.exe for this one. I reinstalled the whole lot when I installed 1.1, but for some reason it still thinks bi is installed. So I cannot install it. Anybidy knwo how to sort this out?

Perhaps this would help.

[QuintusSertorius]

hmm true, but I am not a big fan of missile troops and skirmishers. Especially horse archers. I much prefer to fight with lots of infantry and spearmen. It suits my style of play much better.

I likes my infantry too (have never used horse archers), but lights are every bit as necessary as line/heavies. Plus they're great for chasing down routers. I often have my skirmishers empty their stores, then hide behind the main line where they can turn flanker or chaser, depending on how the battle is going.

[thelord]

POST SIX - THE GAME GETS GOING

With all of the nearby rebel towns taken, the game was starting to liven up. I decided it was time to take Mediolanium around 250 BC, the Audei took most of their troops off to Gaul to fight their constant wars with the Arverni, leaving the city in the hands of around 600 men. A situation which I leapt upon. They sallied forth with a small reinforcing army, leading to a relatively easy battle.



Manius Cornelius Blasio was my faction heir so I wanted to give him some valuable fighting experience as it helps for the senatorial traits.



Once I had the settlement, I decided to play down the years till the Polybian reforms and not to start any more wars until then.



Unfortunately for me however I didn't have a choice when the green giant that is Epiros kept invading Patavium, it appears they have most of Greece and Illyria by now and are sending progressively tougher armies my way.

I have managed to marry one of my generals daughters to Caius Junius Brutus, hopefully this will remain a line in my family for the rest of the game as it will be cool to have a Marcus Junius Brutus later on.

The reforms may be in but I slowly need to upgrade all of my barracks before I can train the new units all over Italy. At the moment only 1 or 2 towns can train them.



This will be the last battle in which the Camillan troops fight on their own, slowly the Polybian troops will take over with the Camillans becoming less and less common. The positioning of the Epirot army here is either an AI masterstroke (as if!) or a good luck. The fact that they had the trees behind them meant that I couldn't use my cavalry to full effect as the trees would mess up their charge and be less powerful, so I kept my cavalry in reserve to guard my own flank.



thankfully the men of Camillus did me proud, they held their ground mostly and won a very close battle, it looked as if I had lost at one point when a good amount of my army broke. But the braver ones fought out what turned out to be the toughest battle of this save so far.

[Chirurgeon]

nice update Lord. You look like you have your hands full with Epirus. Ive never seen them do much more than take the Dalmation coast.

[QuintusSertorius]

Bloody hell, look at Epeiros!