Soggius Chippius
10-11-2008, 04:39
Hello all. Not sure if anyone remembers me, but I posted a sort of half-AAR of my Casse campaign in that v1 progression thread that was active around the end of last year. I ended up posting up till around year 166, and then gave up because of the enormity of the task ahead (in comparison to the enormity of the task behind, which wasn't even halfway) So yes, I played a bunch of other games for a year or so, but EB kept calling to me, so about 3 weeks back I picked up where I left off. And since the v1 progression thread is basically dead (though thankfully still around somewhere) I decided I'd just pick up where I left off with a new thread entirely. If you want the full backstory, feel free to read the posts I made in this thread ( https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=93151 ) but beware of walls of text and general verbosity (updates are on pages 3, 4, 5 and 6). But worry not if you can't be bothered, as I'll give a bit of a synopsis of what happened
First though, since everyone loves map progression, here are the maps from all 6 updates.
The Great Casseian Invasion: 216
https://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee180/Supermariofulla/ResizeofCasse216.jpg
The beginning of a true "Casseian Empire": 206
https://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee180/Supermariofulla/ResizeofRomeTW2007-11-0319-29-40-87.jpg
The start of the Five Man War: 196
https://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee180/Supermariofulla/ResizeofRomeTW2007-11-0615-07-50-51.jpg
The end of the Five Man War, Liberation of Olaf and the Invasion of Carthage: 186
https://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee180/Supermariofulla/ResizeofRomeTW2007-11-1115-27-09-43.jpg
Completion of the "Libyan Funnel" and the start of the Epeirian Collapse: 176
https://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee180/Supermariofulla/ResizeofRomeTW2007-11-1900-40-37-20.jpg
The Invasion of Poeni-Egypt and Epirus' last stand: 166
https://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee180/Supermariofulla/ResizeofRomeTW2007-11-2513-38-11-73.jpg
So there you go, forgive me if the titles were slightly Casseio-centric, since it's pretty obvious they weren't the only empire there (especially near the end. That expanse of blue was scaring the hell out of me) But yes, as far as synopses go, the first 30 or so years had the Casse sitting in England, building things, and not a lot else happening across the map. Then a spy was sent to the Saka via the Po Valley, and found Rome prospering and a lot of other factions being fairly static too. Then around 208-210, the Casse came in force across the channel, cracked a few Gallic skulls, got to Massilia, and found that the Carthaginians had it. Scratching their heads at this puzzle, the fog of war was momentarily lifted to reveal to the Casse that everything up to the Po was white, and so was much of Southern Spain. The Romans on the other hand had fled to Patavium and were being besieged by yet another white army, so when a Carthaginian diplomat made his way to Gergovia and suggested the Shophet wouldn't mind an alliance, the inexperienced Casse immediately handed him their maps and gave the Carthaginians full military access to their lands.
Around 215 however, the Carthaginians decided Gergovia looked nice and decided to besiege it. They were booted back to Massilia, which less than a year later was taken by a promising young Casseian general named Adcobrovatae. So began the arduous task of removing the Carthaginians from this side of the Mediterranean. They were pushed back to Southern Italy quickly enough, but by this stage another succession of events made the Casse look back towards Gaul. The Germans had run out of autonomous regions to push around, and while they had an envoy in Casseian lands in the shape of Hadawulfaz (known affectionately as "Olaf") they were starting to look menacingly towards the Rhine and the curiously unforested fields beyond. The Lusotannan were in a similar position, having mostly wiped out the Carthaginians, who had been too busy focusing their military power on Italy to take note of the growing Iberian power.
So yes, the Casse were bright enough to have a strong army at the Lusotannan border and the Rhine crossings, but these in addition to the army that was rampaging through Italy were straining the coffers a bit given the relatively small size of the empire, so obviously what had to be done was invade both Germany and Spain at the same time. Unfortunately, just before this could happen, Taras rebelled from Carthage and opted to join the, at the time rather impressive, Kingdom of Epirus. Thus began the Five Man War, named after the five main players; the Shophet in Carthage, the Lusotannan Leader crushing resistance in Southern Iberia, the soon to be warlord of the Sweboz Olaf, the laughably foolish King of Epirus who sent army after army to their deaths in the Eastern European autonomous regions while still attempting to fight the Casse through the entrance to the Po Valley, and the newly crowned king of the Casse, Adcobrovatae.
At the beginning to the war, Sicily, and the western isles were taken, and Adcobrovatae led a failed naval invasion of North Africa. At the same time, Sweboz territories were falling easily with even their strongest armies being brushed aside by the Vesontian army. The Casse made the first strike against the Lusotannan and found their new enemy to be tougher than they'd expected. The Epeirotes sent spies and numerous raiding armies against Patavium, but even the militia that had been levied to protect the city was enough to finish off anything they sent. Casseian spies were sent in retaliation, so that by the end of the war in the early 180s, revolts had weakened Epirus substantially. About halfway through the war, the fleet that had limped back to Rome from the shores of North Africa got its chance to show Carthage why it should fear its new king as Adcobrovatae landed and took Atiqua and Carthage. And then realised what a phenomenally stupid idea it was as both cities endured a steady stream of armies coming from both south and west. Even so, Adcobrovatae was more than capable of dealing with whatever Carthage sent, and not only defended Atiqua and Carthage, but managed to take and hold Adrumento as well.
In the meantime, news of their new king's position reached the army in Spain, which redoubled its efforts to remove the Lusotannan and cross the Straits. In the end, the Iberian general got an extremely lucky break when the Casse's first ever political assassination attempt miraculously worked, offing the Warlord's son. The grieving Iberian Warlord left the city he was hiding in to retrieve his son's remains when he ran into the main invading army and was sadly cut down as he fled. Without leadership, the Iberians crumbled into civil war with each territory attempting to assert its claim to overlordship, but they were quickly absorbed by the minor armies the Iberian General sent after them. The main invasion army however boarded a quickly assembled fleet and crossed the straits to take Lixus and Sala within a year, so that the North Africans were now the ones caught in a vice. This took enough pressure off the king that he was able to move south to take Lepki and start to set up what came to be called the "Libyan Funnel". If the King could establish a fort at the point where the coast was closest to the Sahara, he could force all of Carthage's Egyptian forces to fight his army on their way to take back their homeland. All he needed was his rear covered, and the Spanish army was more than happy to oblige, taking the rest of the North African coastline, and finally sending armies to subdue Garama and Tuat.
Finally, the west had been secured, and the Casse had war on only two fronts, both of which were funnels. Sadly in 184, Adcobrovatae died peacefully in his Libyan border fort, leaving the fight against the Egyptians in the very capable hands of his son Caradog. It was around this time that a small village in Gaul near Gergovia started worshiping Adcobrovatae at a hero shrine that had recently been completed for them as a government initiative.
In Northern Europe, the German campaign was over quickly, leaving one city left west of the autonomous region under Sweboz control. This was the seat of the Sweboz warlord, King Olaf, one time envoy to the Casse. He was nearing the end of his life however, so the Vesontian army thought it wise to allow him to die naturally, then 'liberate' the city in his name. So did the Sweboz and the Casse become one tribe. The Germans in the east, under the name of the Neurije Confederacy, were dealt a further blow as Suomi was taken from them, leaving them with the poor homeland of the Neurije as their only holding.
Finally, attacks from Epirus had slowed to such a degree that the Italian army was sent in to take advantage of their weakened state. They tore down the Adriatic coast taking city after city with almost no resistance, until they found themselves in Epirus itself, ready to double back along the inland route, starting with Pella.
The final decade of so far recorded history began with the invasion of Libya alongside the fall of Pella. In the Balkans, the taking of Pella enraged the Phrygo-Makedones, who waited until the invading army was far enough away on its trip north, to take back Pella, and soon after, Serdike. The Casseian army had just taken Vindobona, and had to make quick tracks back to Serdike to stop the Makedonian assault. Unfortunately, the Makedones began pouring across the Hellespont like ants, using their surprisingly well made armies to take back the Balkans and remake a kingdom similar to Epirus. Due to the multi-pronged attacks the Makedonians launched, pushing them back to the Hellespont took the better part of the decade, as well as the arrival of the Vesontian army from Germany, and by 166 the Makedones had nothing but Byzantion on the western side of the causeway. Further to this, an army had been almost completed in Northern Greece to retaliate for the threatening army movements the Greeks had been making, sending armies across the border and then retreating.
After nearly a decade of proving himself by holding the Libyan funnel his father had created, Caradog marched forward into Libya and got the invasion started by capturing Augila. He followed this by marching on Kyrene, taking it, and then realising the Carthaginians were far from exhausted as his spies brought word of two large armies heading across the desert to both Kyrene and Augila. Augila was disturbingly undergarrisoned, but luckily the Iberian army had made it onto the scene, and the army bearing down on Augila was forced back after the Iberians under Caratawc moc Meriadoc won a Heroic Victory at a river crossing. Both armies pushed forward over the decade, each minor battle taking its toll on their numbers till finally they made it to Alexandria, and took the city under the shadow of the Pharos. Caradog continued south with his battered army to take the last city that was needed to secure the lower Nile, Memphis. Upon entering the province, he heard of the oversupply of mercenary forces in the area, and decided that buying an extra unit of cavalry would be the wisest option, leaving the rest till he needed them later as garrisons. Unfortunately, the Carthaginian general, Gisgo, used his initiative to be the last true threat the Carthaginians would pose to the Casse, by buying every last one of the mercenaries and attempting to break off the siege. The battle took place amongst the Pyramids, and Gisgo nearly won several times, but Caradog prevailed in the end, winning a decisive victory that broke the Carthaginians' backbone.
https://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee180/Supermariofulla/ResizeofRomeTW2007-11-2422-27-15-90.jpg
https://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee180/Supermariofulla/ResizeofRomeTW2007-11-2422-29-07-54.jpg
So the basic picture in 166BC was that of Casse supremacy in both the Balkans and Egypt. The final note for this synopsis is the fate of Adcobrovatae. The hero shrine the small Gallic village had dedicated to the dead king became a phenomenon which spread to many parts of the empire, mostly western Europe and other parts of the empire he hadn't personally subdued, but even certain places in North Africa took up the worship, with various sects suggesting the king was in fact divine due to his birthplace being the fens of Cornovae and their connection to the Celtic otherworld.
So yes, that ended up being a bit more than a synopsis, so I'll cut it short here and post everything that's happened since then in a second post. What will happen between 166 and 149? Stick around and find out.
First though, since everyone loves map progression, here are the maps from all 6 updates.
The Great Casseian Invasion: 216
https://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee180/Supermariofulla/ResizeofCasse216.jpg
The beginning of a true "Casseian Empire": 206
https://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee180/Supermariofulla/ResizeofRomeTW2007-11-0319-29-40-87.jpg
The start of the Five Man War: 196
https://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee180/Supermariofulla/ResizeofRomeTW2007-11-0615-07-50-51.jpg
The end of the Five Man War, Liberation of Olaf and the Invasion of Carthage: 186
https://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee180/Supermariofulla/ResizeofRomeTW2007-11-1115-27-09-43.jpg
Completion of the "Libyan Funnel" and the start of the Epeirian Collapse: 176
https://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee180/Supermariofulla/ResizeofRomeTW2007-11-1900-40-37-20.jpg
The Invasion of Poeni-Egypt and Epirus' last stand: 166
https://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee180/Supermariofulla/ResizeofRomeTW2007-11-2513-38-11-73.jpg
So there you go, forgive me if the titles were slightly Casseio-centric, since it's pretty obvious they weren't the only empire there (especially near the end. That expanse of blue was scaring the hell out of me) But yes, as far as synopses go, the first 30 or so years had the Casse sitting in England, building things, and not a lot else happening across the map. Then a spy was sent to the Saka via the Po Valley, and found Rome prospering and a lot of other factions being fairly static too. Then around 208-210, the Casse came in force across the channel, cracked a few Gallic skulls, got to Massilia, and found that the Carthaginians had it. Scratching their heads at this puzzle, the fog of war was momentarily lifted to reveal to the Casse that everything up to the Po was white, and so was much of Southern Spain. The Romans on the other hand had fled to Patavium and were being besieged by yet another white army, so when a Carthaginian diplomat made his way to Gergovia and suggested the Shophet wouldn't mind an alliance, the inexperienced Casse immediately handed him their maps and gave the Carthaginians full military access to their lands.
Around 215 however, the Carthaginians decided Gergovia looked nice and decided to besiege it. They were booted back to Massilia, which less than a year later was taken by a promising young Casseian general named Adcobrovatae. So began the arduous task of removing the Carthaginians from this side of the Mediterranean. They were pushed back to Southern Italy quickly enough, but by this stage another succession of events made the Casse look back towards Gaul. The Germans had run out of autonomous regions to push around, and while they had an envoy in Casseian lands in the shape of Hadawulfaz (known affectionately as "Olaf") they were starting to look menacingly towards the Rhine and the curiously unforested fields beyond. The Lusotannan were in a similar position, having mostly wiped out the Carthaginians, who had been too busy focusing their military power on Italy to take note of the growing Iberian power.
So yes, the Casse were bright enough to have a strong army at the Lusotannan border and the Rhine crossings, but these in addition to the army that was rampaging through Italy were straining the coffers a bit given the relatively small size of the empire, so obviously what had to be done was invade both Germany and Spain at the same time. Unfortunately, just before this could happen, Taras rebelled from Carthage and opted to join the, at the time rather impressive, Kingdom of Epirus. Thus began the Five Man War, named after the five main players; the Shophet in Carthage, the Lusotannan Leader crushing resistance in Southern Iberia, the soon to be warlord of the Sweboz Olaf, the laughably foolish King of Epirus who sent army after army to their deaths in the Eastern European autonomous regions while still attempting to fight the Casse through the entrance to the Po Valley, and the newly crowned king of the Casse, Adcobrovatae.
At the beginning to the war, Sicily, and the western isles were taken, and Adcobrovatae led a failed naval invasion of North Africa. At the same time, Sweboz territories were falling easily with even their strongest armies being brushed aside by the Vesontian army. The Casse made the first strike against the Lusotannan and found their new enemy to be tougher than they'd expected. The Epeirotes sent spies and numerous raiding armies against Patavium, but even the militia that had been levied to protect the city was enough to finish off anything they sent. Casseian spies were sent in retaliation, so that by the end of the war in the early 180s, revolts had weakened Epirus substantially. About halfway through the war, the fleet that had limped back to Rome from the shores of North Africa got its chance to show Carthage why it should fear its new king as Adcobrovatae landed and took Atiqua and Carthage. And then realised what a phenomenally stupid idea it was as both cities endured a steady stream of armies coming from both south and west. Even so, Adcobrovatae was more than capable of dealing with whatever Carthage sent, and not only defended Atiqua and Carthage, but managed to take and hold Adrumento as well.
In the meantime, news of their new king's position reached the army in Spain, which redoubled its efforts to remove the Lusotannan and cross the Straits. In the end, the Iberian general got an extremely lucky break when the Casse's first ever political assassination attempt miraculously worked, offing the Warlord's son. The grieving Iberian Warlord left the city he was hiding in to retrieve his son's remains when he ran into the main invading army and was sadly cut down as he fled. Without leadership, the Iberians crumbled into civil war with each territory attempting to assert its claim to overlordship, but they were quickly absorbed by the minor armies the Iberian General sent after them. The main invasion army however boarded a quickly assembled fleet and crossed the straits to take Lixus and Sala within a year, so that the North Africans were now the ones caught in a vice. This took enough pressure off the king that he was able to move south to take Lepki and start to set up what came to be called the "Libyan Funnel". If the King could establish a fort at the point where the coast was closest to the Sahara, he could force all of Carthage's Egyptian forces to fight his army on their way to take back their homeland. All he needed was his rear covered, and the Spanish army was more than happy to oblige, taking the rest of the North African coastline, and finally sending armies to subdue Garama and Tuat.
Finally, the west had been secured, and the Casse had war on only two fronts, both of which were funnels. Sadly in 184, Adcobrovatae died peacefully in his Libyan border fort, leaving the fight against the Egyptians in the very capable hands of his son Caradog. It was around this time that a small village in Gaul near Gergovia started worshiping Adcobrovatae at a hero shrine that had recently been completed for them as a government initiative.
In Northern Europe, the German campaign was over quickly, leaving one city left west of the autonomous region under Sweboz control. This was the seat of the Sweboz warlord, King Olaf, one time envoy to the Casse. He was nearing the end of his life however, so the Vesontian army thought it wise to allow him to die naturally, then 'liberate' the city in his name. So did the Sweboz and the Casse become one tribe. The Germans in the east, under the name of the Neurije Confederacy, were dealt a further blow as Suomi was taken from them, leaving them with the poor homeland of the Neurije as their only holding.
Finally, attacks from Epirus had slowed to such a degree that the Italian army was sent in to take advantage of their weakened state. They tore down the Adriatic coast taking city after city with almost no resistance, until they found themselves in Epirus itself, ready to double back along the inland route, starting with Pella.
The final decade of so far recorded history began with the invasion of Libya alongside the fall of Pella. In the Balkans, the taking of Pella enraged the Phrygo-Makedones, who waited until the invading army was far enough away on its trip north, to take back Pella, and soon after, Serdike. The Casseian army had just taken Vindobona, and had to make quick tracks back to Serdike to stop the Makedonian assault. Unfortunately, the Makedones began pouring across the Hellespont like ants, using their surprisingly well made armies to take back the Balkans and remake a kingdom similar to Epirus. Due to the multi-pronged attacks the Makedonians launched, pushing them back to the Hellespont took the better part of the decade, as well as the arrival of the Vesontian army from Germany, and by 166 the Makedones had nothing but Byzantion on the western side of the causeway. Further to this, an army had been almost completed in Northern Greece to retaliate for the threatening army movements the Greeks had been making, sending armies across the border and then retreating.
After nearly a decade of proving himself by holding the Libyan funnel his father had created, Caradog marched forward into Libya and got the invasion started by capturing Augila. He followed this by marching on Kyrene, taking it, and then realising the Carthaginians were far from exhausted as his spies brought word of two large armies heading across the desert to both Kyrene and Augila. Augila was disturbingly undergarrisoned, but luckily the Iberian army had made it onto the scene, and the army bearing down on Augila was forced back after the Iberians under Caratawc moc Meriadoc won a Heroic Victory at a river crossing. Both armies pushed forward over the decade, each minor battle taking its toll on their numbers till finally they made it to Alexandria, and took the city under the shadow of the Pharos. Caradog continued south with his battered army to take the last city that was needed to secure the lower Nile, Memphis. Upon entering the province, he heard of the oversupply of mercenary forces in the area, and decided that buying an extra unit of cavalry would be the wisest option, leaving the rest till he needed them later as garrisons. Unfortunately, the Carthaginian general, Gisgo, used his initiative to be the last true threat the Carthaginians would pose to the Casse, by buying every last one of the mercenaries and attempting to break off the siege. The battle took place amongst the Pyramids, and Gisgo nearly won several times, but Caradog prevailed in the end, winning a decisive victory that broke the Carthaginians' backbone.
https://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee180/Supermariofulla/ResizeofRomeTW2007-11-2422-27-15-90.jpg
https://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee180/Supermariofulla/ResizeofRomeTW2007-11-2422-29-07-54.jpg
So the basic picture in 166BC was that of Casse supremacy in both the Balkans and Egypt. The final note for this synopsis is the fate of Adcobrovatae. The hero shrine the small Gallic village had dedicated to the dead king became a phenomenon which spread to many parts of the empire, mostly western Europe and other parts of the empire he hadn't personally subdued, but even certain places in North Africa took up the worship, with various sects suggesting the king was in fact divine due to his birthplace being the fens of Cornovae and their connection to the Celtic otherworld.
So yes, that ended up being a bit more than a synopsis, so I'll cut it short here and post everything that's happened since then in a second post. What will happen between 166 and 149? Stick around and find out.