Roma - Fledgling State to Mighty Empire

[QuintusSertorius]

Are you not concerned about the negative administrative traits you get from holding such a large treasury? Equally, is there nothing more important you could be doing development-wise with the funds?

I almost always try to spend everything every turn, provided there's something to build in my settlements. When it starts to get too hard to queue things up to soak up money, that's when I decide to recruit another provincial army.

[thelord]

Are you not concerned about the negative administrative traits you get from holding such a large treasury? Equally, is there nothing more important you could be doing development-wise with the funds?

I almost always try to spend everything every turn, provided there's something to build in my settlements. When it starts to get too hard to queue things up to soak up money, that's when I decide to recruit another provincial army.

Nope, not at all. The profits I earn are after all of the construction and recruitment are done. My governors all seem to be getting good traits as well, why would making more money bring in bad traits?

[QuintusSertorius]

Nope, not at all. The profits I earn are after all of the construction and recruitment are done. My governors all seem to be getting good traits as well, why would making more money bring in bad traits?

In vanilla there were "financial incompetence" traits triggered by having a lot of money lying around. While the triggers have been changed, they're still there in some form, if I'm remembering right. Traits like Wealthy and the financially-irregular ones and Nota Censoria and such appear long before that. They invariably give penalties to Law and cause unrest. Some others cause penalties to Management.

[Ancyrean]

Awesome AAR!

By the way, how do you build up so large a surplus as early as when you have only Italia and Sicily under control? For example, in your post #22, you sport 80k+ mnai!!

I'm guessing you may be building a lot of port and market upgrades and the money keeps adding up by the long building times of higher-tier upgrades?

How about the 500k+ plus surpluses you have later on in the game??

[GnaeusCotta]

I think it's because he destroys every building in the settlements he conquers

[thelord]

yes the destroying of buildings helps, but I also build all the port upgrades as soon as possible and also mines, which are the biggest money earner in the game.

[thelord]

POST FIFTEEN - THE THIRD PUNIC WAR

My push for the lands required for the Marian reforms continues, I declared war on Macedonia and quickly took both Pella and Demetrias before they could gather any form of resistance, and to be safe of their backlash, I have paid a large amount of money to the Getai to declare war on Macedon and keep them busy for me. Only one battle was fought to capture these two towns, one which I easily won with the high ground I had.



173 BC, the Arche Seluecia continues its obliteration of the other eastern factions with the destruction of Pahlava, I can see myself having to employ some diplomacy to limit their expansion soon before they control all the east, they are now expanding into the steppes...



I am now sending an army to North Africa to begin the third Punic war, I hope to capture Atiqa, Kart-Hadast and Adrumento for the time being. The element of surprise is important as I need to take the cities before any reinforcing armies show up.



Atiqa was captured very easily, I then quickly moved on to besiege Kart-Hadast, unfortunately before I could assault a large Carthaginian army showed up with some of the best troops they had to offer, with Bush elephants and 6 elite pikemen with around 10 heavy infantry units in reserve, this was not going to be a walkover like Atiqa.



They sent their elephants first, I had brought an army entirely of infantry because Roman cavalry is awful against Carthaginian cavalry and their infantry aswell.



The extra infantry would also come in handy against the pikemen that were being sent forward as I will need to do a lot of flanking.



The elephants were all killed by pilum before they could cause any damage, however the elite african pikemen were more worrying, as they take one hell of a beating before they are defeated. They were also performing a lot of cavalry flanking, which worked in my favour as I needed to get the cover of their flanks out of the way.



After a while the cavalry broke and I could then begin to flank the pikemen.



Eventually I managed to completely surround the pikemen, but that wasn't the end of it as they still fought on, you pretty much have to fight them to the death as they rarely break.



After another 5 minutes of fighting the pikemen were finally beaten, the enemy general escaped to Ippone unfortunately. However for the time being Kart-Hadast was in Roman hands.

[Chirurgeon]

wow 320 000 gold. thats awesome. couldnt you just bribe all the cities you want to conquer? I guess that would be pretty boring eh? Anyway your campaign is going well it would seem...but Kart-Hadastim seems to have alot of bite left in them. Were fighting Carthage at the same time!! I wish us both success

[thelord]

haha cheers, bribes are scarily expensive in EB, it costs around 600000k and upwards to bribe one stack. I would much prefer fighting however. :)

I should have another post up this evening as I am very close to getting the Marian reforms.

[Aaldaemon]

Uhoh, you have so much money you can easily sow the fields of Carthage with gold rather than salt. Spare some for some poor steppe riders? We'll pay you in blood, honest. I also need to steal those worldmap textures.

[thelord]

check back a few posts I explained how to somewhere.

[Lysimachos]

haha cheers, bribes are scarily expensive in EB, it costs around 600000k and upwards to bribe one stack. I would much prefer fighting however. :)

I should have another post up this evening as I am very close to getting the Marian reforms.

Doesn't so much cash increase the chance for bad traits? When i'm earning much money i usually queue expensive buildings and train more troops to avoid piling up of cash.

[thelord]

it has things like nota censoria but they dont bother me to be honest. There are much greater benefits from having lots of cash to rely on in a crisis.

[Aaldaemon]

check back a few posts I explained how to somewhere.

Yah, I saw... textures textures on the wall, which textures are the most beautiful of them all? :)

[thelord]

POST SIXTEEN - MASS EXPANSION & REFORMS

This post covers over 20 years where a lot happens, so therefore to go into complete detail would take a good 100 pictures.

166 BC, the Republic is about to embark on a period of mass expansion of its borders into several different factions territory. Following the capture of Kart-Hadast and Atiqa, I took Adrumento shortly afterwards in 170 BC, I then kept the troops there only to defend from the inevitable backlash. Elsewhere I began the invasion of southern Greece, the KH had little power there, and Korinthos was only a large town, which I found odd. As it was over 400 turns into the campaign. I sent 4 generals with the army to become the governors of the new provinces once the conquest was won. The KH is scattered all over the place and the small portion of Greece they owned would be no match for Roma.



Predictably, they gathered a rabble together with a backbone of 5 KH generals.



This battle featured almost all of the KH troops in Greece, if I won I had pretty much captured the three provinces. However they put up a tougher fight than I expected. Mostly thanks to their generals bodyguards, who were their only good troops on the battlefield.



But the might of Roma's armies defeated them as they had the Macedonians and Epirots before them. Athens was in Roman hands, I planned to besiege the other two the next year as the war season was over.



In 164BC, the March of Time event occured, I've now started to notice some new units for the eastern factions, including the Macedonian reformed phalanx.



164BC was also the year that Corinth fell before the Roman armies. You can see here that I turned off the fog of war for a turn to see how the AS was doing, they kept refusing map information. When the time comes for me to fight them it is going to be very tough.



In 163BC I launched a new war against Lusotana, I say war but it was more of a conquest as they had around 2 units left so there was no romantic last stand for them. By 162BC they were destroyed and all of the Iberian peninsula was in Roman hands.



Elsewhere Sparte had fallen, as had Lepki in Africa. I had also taken Serdike in Macedonia, however I could not hold it for long as it was retaken several turns later. In Africa the Carthaginians were launching constant attacks on their former capital, including one memorable battle in which 36 elephants caused havoc and very nearly defeated my army.



Ippone on the north African coast was taken in 155BC, and Chalkis and Krete fell several years later. I spent the next few years attempting to secure my potential reformers traits that were required. Finally in 149 BC, one of them was elected Consul, the last trait required. However somehow there were 3 Consuls elected!



The following turn the Marian reforms kicked in. By this time I was absolutely loaded, with just under 900000 mnai in the treasury. I needed all of this to begin the mass construction of Marian barracks across every province of the republic. What was more, I planned to slow down the expansion of the last 2 decades a lot, I have no plans to invade any new territory for a few years. For now I plan to build up a new defensive system, with a legion assigned to a certain area of land, eg a Western Iberian legion, this is for the defense of the region only. For invading armies I plan to recruit another legion so as not to leave my lands undefended.

[GnaeusCotta]

I once had 4 consuls so 3 isn't that much

[QuintusSertorius]

I'd call the censors in right away, that's some gross electoral irregularity to get three consuls elected.

[thelord]

I'm going to take a short break from EB as I have been playing it way to much lately and am now experiencing the effects of that, lack of interest etc. I should begin playing regularly again in about a week or so.

[General Appo]

Great work. Just so you know, the Devotio Iberica was in 1.0 too, I got it at least 3 times.

[hrrypttrbst]

I'm going to take a short break from EB as I have been playing it way to much lately and am now experiencing the effects of that, lack of interest etc. I should begin playing regularly again in about a week or so.

I had it to and I have taken a break but it realy is going to an end, I'm already a week thinking on playing EB and this time harder then ever.

[thelord]

I apologise for being away for so long, I've had exams and other real life things to devote my time to, but now, as promised I am going to continue my Romani save and should begin posting updates in the next few days.

[Chaotix]

Awesome! I love this AAR, so glad you're continuing it. Can't wait to see the Gallic and Seleucid wars!

[thelord]

POST SEVENTEEN - EXPANSION INTO REMAINING GREEK TERRITORY

144 BC, I have spent most of my vast treasury sums on the construction on Marian barracks and also in the recruitment on a 10 legions, spread out across my lands to keep the peace and defend against invasions, new legions will be trained when I invade a new territory so my forces don't become stretched.

I have also began to take the remaining lands held by KH and Macedon. Which began with the invasion on Rhodes in 144 BC. The island was defended by a large number of troops but they were all levies and posed little threat to my reformed cohorts.



The majority of the defenders were killed in the first battle, the survivors were trapped in the city and all enslaved once the island fell under Roman control.



I turned off the fog of war to see how the AS was getting on, and they are completely out of control! They are wiping out every faction they border, they've already destroyed Pontos, Hayasdan & Pahlava single handedly, and now they are invading the Sauromatae and are also invading Egypt, Baktria are also limited to just one remaining province.



I decided I had to do something about the AS, otherwise they would end up wiping out every other faction and I would have only them to fight for the next 160 odd years, so I decided to use some brutal force diplomacy, I know it is cheating, but it needed to be done, and I am gaining nothing from what I am doing, as all of the land is either going to Baktria or the Ptolemaioi. Make no mistake, they still have the greatest military in the game and are vastly stronger than I am, I just want to stop them from ruining the game.

Back in Greece, a new legion from Rome has arrived on the eastern border of the Republic's lands, with the orders to declare war on Macedon and push forward to Byzantion. The Macedonians were no longer the pushovers they once were however, as they were finally training strong armies to defend themselves against me.



This was probably the largest battles I've had in this campaign, and also one of the most evenly contested, the Macedonians had a very competant army, with around 14 Phalanxes, including Agemas and reformed pikemen, and also some hoplites to help prevent me from flanking the phalanxes.



After I had used my legionnaires pilum, it was time to engage the first line of my infantry, the only cavalry I had was my generals bodyguard, which is partially why I need to take Byzantion, after the reforms I can no longer train cavalry in Italy, so I need new places to train them and Byzantion can train Thracian Auxiliary cavalry.



The enemy supporting troops made it difficult for me to flank the phalanxes, so I had to slowly try and lure them into combat with my engaged first line, but I was having little success.



I sent my Antesegari to nibble at the Macedonian flanks, they are amongst the best supporting infantry in the game that I have encountered, and they did their job well, routing a unit of hoplites and giving me a bit of breathing space on the right flank.



Here's a picture of them in action, they have a scarily high defense which makes them last longer than a legionary cohort in most situations.



My front line was taking heavy casualties, so I decided to flank with a few of my reserve cohorts and take on the hoplites guarding the Macedonian rear.



The battle was completely level, with 26% casualties on each side. I personally really enjoy these close battles.



Eventually the Macedonians made a fatal error, they engaged the remainder of their hoplites, which combined with my victory on the right flank, allowed me to manoeuvre several cohorts around their army and charge their rear, surrounding them, the battle was far from won however as Agema hardly ever break.



I avoided engaging my young general, as he would have been speared on a pike almost immediately.



Eventually the final resistance was with several phalanxes boxed together, completely surrounded, including the Macedonian general.



Eventually they routed once the enemy general was killed. Leaving a huge field of corpses.



Victory was secured, but casualties were very high for the Romans, afterwards I had to move some mercenaries from Athens north to reinforce the army as it moved further East towards the Macedonian capital Tylis.

[||Lz3||]

two things....


1- you're alive!!! glad to hear from you again!! your AAR is very entretaining! in fact you were one of the responsible for me doing a romani campaign


2... OUCH!!! that was a close battle


cheers for your return "comrade"

[Cadwalader]

I've been enjoying reading this. I love seeing battles with so many units as the one against Makedonia in the previous update, as I can't have them myself, sadly. A great deal of thanks to you. Represented by balloon:

[Constantius I]

Good AAR!


I spend 1/3 of my budget on diplomacy and constantly have several factions gang up on the strongest faction in the game to not let whats happening in your game occur!

[Tiberius Aurelius Cotta]

I LOVE this AAR, and it's so epic... makes me want to make an AAR out of my haf-done Romani campaign :D

keep up the great work - this is really excellent.

[Chirurgeon]

The best Roman AAR out there right now. I love how long it is. Awesome battle there against Macedonia. Keep up the good work!

[||Lz3||]

I hope he continues his AAR , as you can see the last update was 3 weeks ago ...

[thelord]

I'm going to try putting a bit more time into EB soon, I know I keep disapearing which must be really annoying for fans of this AAR, but I just havn't been able to get into EB lately.