RTW short story: Carthage

[Maltz]

Greetings, my dear friends of the ORG.

I just made a very short story about Carthage, hope you like it. Here you go:

Setting: Very hard/Very hard, Large unit size (80), No restriction camera (for screenshot purpose), no save/load.

***

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_01.jpg

(1) Ah... Carthage. Hannibal might know he never really had a chance against the Romans, but he tried hard anyways. Right, this is the attitude we will apply to Carthage almost 50 years earlier, when the Romans are still weak.

The old Hanno, the clan leader considers retiring. All he does is having fun with African elephants in the forest of Sicily. People say that Hanno must hold Sicily at all cost. Hum... we will give him another, his last assignment.

Hanno's oldest son, Hasdrubal, is the governer of Carthage. We won't let him waste his life there. He ain't got many years left either. We will ship him to Sicily, and get some other good admin. to take care of the ever-growing Carthage.

And, Corduba - this time we won't give it up. We will give the Corduba governer - youngest son of Hanno - Theophanes a try.

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_02.jpg

(2) So here we go. Hanno hired all local mercenaries he could find, took the ship, and was on his way to Croton. Let's give the Brutii some nasty surprise!

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_03.jpg

(3) On the other hand, Theophanes is on his way to the unknown territory of Gaul. Is this green young lad going to get ambushed and sliced to pieces? We shall see...

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_04.jpg

(4) Turn 2 comes, winter 270BC. With elephants Hanno was able to assault Croton head-on. The Brutii has sent most of its starting army to the other side of the strait - to capture some crappy rebel town. There were only 3 units guarding Croton!

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_05.jpg

(5) Croton has fallen to the Carthagians - the news will soon spread across all Roman towns. We must act before a large-enough resistance is gathered. There is no time to train extra garrison. Hanno thus made the decision:

Extermination! Har Har Har...

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_06.jpg

(6) Soon Hanno received the price of evil. His wife was exterminated, too - by the finger of the just God of law & order, Baal! Now Hanno's expected lifespan is reduced by 4.53 years.

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_07.jpg

(7) You can guess what happens next. All bloody tyrants has a fragile heart: release of anguish & anger! Hanno made Tarentum followed the fate of Croton! Can you feel this hard momentum?

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_08.jpg

(8) Poor Brutii never had a chance. They've only acted twice in this campaign.

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_09.jpg

(9) Behold: the never-resting Hanno is marching towards Rome! Is he really insane at this point? Well some more reinforcement are on their way from Carthage. Hanno also plans to take the Scipii town of Capua before the final showdown against the almighty Senate. Hanno can't get there yet, so let's head back to Sicily, turn 4.

The Scipii on Sicily has noticed the landing of fresh Carthagian force from Africa in the previous year, led by the Carthagian heir Hasdrubal, approaching Messana. Hasdrubal attracted the local's attention by building a huge watch tower. To watch, or to be watched?

The Scipii promptly erected a strong fort, garrisoned by a good number of men, just at the border, facing the watch tower, blocking its view of Messana.

Good move? Neh. Everything happened according to Hasdrubal's plan. The great Carthagian fleet soon arrived, carrying 400+ soldiers to appear on the other side of Messana, seeing it all, making rams! Now the Scipii are screwed!

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_10.jpg

(10) Guess who else is screwed? The Gauls left an almost defenseless Numantia! Theophanes, the yongest son of Hanno, will certainly appreciate this gift. Are you sure this is very hard/very hard?

(Note: In my last Carthage campaign playing the same setting, the Gauls actually attacked Corduba first. I was expecting them to fight on the field; didn't think it is this easy.)

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_11.jpg

(11) Turn 5, both Scipii towns fell. May their leaders rest in peace; their blue flag heng twice as long as the Brutii's already.

Hanno didn't meet a lot of resistance in Capua - about 4 units of Hastati + 2 generals defending the town. Scipii made another useless fort southeast of Capua, probably trying to defend Carthagians crossing the mountain from Croton.

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_12.jpg

(12) Poor Gauls, running to receive the pointy knife, yelling to swallow the mighty stone, turning to hug the dirty Gaia.

By the way, who is that remaining guy?

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_13.jpg

(13) After 5 turns, Carthagians has gained 5 towns and will soon march towards Rome! What will be their destiny?

I don't know, because my game crashes right here! When I pressed "end turn", the game soon crashed to desktop after the other factions finish their rotation. This is not the first time it happens to me, and everytime I had to reload the closest save to replay from there. Unfortuantely, this time my closest save was the "beginning" of the campaign. :dizzy2:

If you could kindly help me to get to the next turn, I will be very happy to continue the story. I am fine with email attachment/MSN messenger/ICQ/FTP.

Here is my save file:
my save file (826kb) (http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/cart_story_02.sav )

Thank you for reading, anyways. Any opinion is welcome. ~:)

p.s. Still thanks the ORG for hosting my STW stories and updated the links!
http://www.totalwar.org/hosted/maltz/

[Tamur]

Wow, very nicely done! I love all the pictures, and the comments on them are hilarious. Keep it coming! Those poor Brutii...

[Maltz]

Ok problem solved!

The crash always happen just before my move, so I was thinking maybe some city had a strange riot or new building, new unit, etc. I tried various changes but none worked.

Then I thought it might be other clan's problem. Before my move it was the rebel's move. Oh yeah! There is a rebel fort left by the Scipii. There is no garrison in there - guess the former Scipii decided to go home. Shall I occupy it then?

Unfortunately, none of my men had enough move to take it.

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_14.jpg

Now I've got it bypassed. Thank you for your attention, still. Yeah, I used a cheat - but I honestly deleted the oliphaunt unit right after this purpose. I hope CA will address this problem in the next patch as well. ~;)

[barocca]

LoL

i just made Carthage allied with Julii and Senate and neutral with Slave faction and that stopped your fleet getting shot to pieces and allowed the turn to proceed - did not check if the fort vanished of it's own accord or not.

here's the zip anyway
Maltz zip file for Cart Story 2 (http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Rtw_Uploads/RTWupload/Z_cart_story_02_Y.zip)


EDIT
(and here's the console command just in case it's not listed anywhere)
diplomatic_stance faction_a faction_b allied/neutral/war
use lower case always - and for rebels use slaves

so in use it would be
diplomatic_stance carthage slaves neutral

[Maltz]

Thank you, Barroca.

When I used oliphaunts to occupy the rebel fort, my navy was still shot to pieces but my turn could proceed. Well, now Hanno is without his reinforcement!

Better use some brain... :dizzy2:

[Ldvs]

Quite an impressive strike. Your blitz strategies will soon compete with Katank's. ~;)

[Basileus]

Nice story and preety well done man, having the elephant unit helps alot heh

[Jace11]

Hi, nice mission, I just thought you would like to know why it crashes. There is a known issue with forts. If an army finishes a turn with another planned move for the next turn that ends in attacking a fort, the game will crash. This is on other forums. I tried your save game, and stopped the army which will attack the rebel fort next turn, from making the attack. The end-turn then proceeds normally.

Nice save-game also. Got your reinforcements through too!

[R'as al Ghul]

This is excellent.
Report, starting-guide etc. all-in-one.
The cream topping is the capua/messana split-screen. :frog:

R'as

[SwordsMaster]

Nicely done m8. :bow:

[*Ringo*]

Excellent stuff, talk about quick out the blocks! ~;)

Have to say tho, that split picture would look loads better without the green pointy arrows telling you which way your units are facing! I turned that off straight away! I can tell which way my units face by looking at them... a totally useless feature in my opinion!

When is part II btw?

*Ringo*

[Maltz]

Dear friends:

Welcome back to the short Carthagian story.

We paused right before clan leader Hanno's final showdown with the Senate army, with some nuisance regarding rebel fort crashes the game to desktop. Thank you all for your precious time, providing various solutions and save game files. Let's pick it up right here.

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_15.jpg

So, Hanno was expecting some fresh reinforcement from Carthage: about 4-5 units of cavalry, which will certainly help a lot in field battles against the infantry-heavy Romans.

On the other hand, Hanno's oldest son, Hasdrubal is doing well in Sicily, while his 3rd son (the youngest adult, there is one teen maturing soon), Theophanes, occupied the Gaul's settlement when the hairy men were not careful.

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_16.jpg

It was a rainy morning of summer 268BC. Black smoke rose from the still-burning Capua, the formerly Scipii capital. A messenger bearing the ocean-blue hooked moon symbol rushed in the governer's house, with shore sands mixed with mud sticking on his sandals.

"We intercepted something from SQPR, the intersection of axes - the origin of evil, my lord."

"We shall see..." Hanno opened the evenlope with his right index finger.

"Hum... Argh~~~"

Bad news came - the Carthagian reinforcement fleet has been sighted by the Roman Senate. The Senate navy is now on their way to intercept them.

"Shi---ot~ Our fleet is no match of the Senate navy." Hanno sighed.

"Of course, my lord. They will probably retreat all the way back to Africa! What should we do?"

"The Senate army outnumbers us, definitely. They will probably march towards Capua, blocking our path to Rome, even sieging us."

Droplets of sweat emerge from Hanno's wrinkled forehead.

"The shore is filled with Roman's fleet, Senate, Julii, and the past Brutii & Scipii, too. There is no gaurantee that we can sneak through by the small fleet we have in the port. Besides, our elephants are useless against the huge reinforced gate of Rome. We cannot directly assault Rome as in the case of Croton, Tarentum and Capua."

"So... my lord?"

"Argh... How can we block Senate army's next move, and take control of the situation? hum... Oh! I have an ideeea."

Hanoo plays with his white beard. Ho-ho-ho.

One month later, the Roman Senate house is shocked by what they see on the stone wall. Despite heavily outnumbered, evil Hanno of Carthage marched towards Rome with all his cavalry, and built a fort right in between Rome and the Senate's army! How bold is that!

***

The purpose that Hanno built a fort just outside of Rome, was to attack the Senate army with some articifial obsticles. Hanno doesn't have a lot of cavalry in his army yet, so open field is not necessarily good for him.

(1) A fort blocks a significant portion of the battlefield, limiting the numerical advantage of the large Senate army. There is only a certain portion of it can engage within a short period of time.

(2) There is some place to retreat. Even if Hanno loses the field, he won't lose it all. Whenever he thinks the situation worsens he can order a big retreat back into the fort, wait for the sun goes down, and hope for some reinforcement to appear soon.

(3) If the Senate army advances, slingers in the fort + the watch towers will
shoot down some extra men.

Note: However, if the Senate starts to siege and try to starve out the fort, there is only 3 turns before it falls. 3 turns is too little time for the reinforcement to arrive. There might be some hard sally battles ahead.

(4) Past experiences showed that if one at-war enemy army/building is directly sitting beside you, you can't really move away except to attack/siege it. If this is true then the Senate army is "locked". No matter they siege the fort or not, they can't move. This can be very good, because even if Hanno is trapped in the fort for 3 turns, the Capua army can swiftly siege Rome and take it.

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_17.jpg

[Turn 6] What a relief, there is no siege on Hanno's fort. At the same time, the spy sent back his bi-seasonal report from Rome.

Tomorrow night, November 12th, the Romans will all go out celebrating Jupitar's birthday! Rome will be only garrisoned by 1 unit of hastati!!

Wow! Hanno can't really miss that chance. He shall try a siege this turn. If the Senate army can't get back in time, Rome will fall to the hand of Carthage! Even if the Senate army does lift the siege, Hanoo can retreat back into the fort, buying one extra turn for more reinforcement from both Sicily & Carthage.

Hum... Good! The spy already opened the gate! Wa har har har...

Hanno grabbed his entire army from the fort - only leaving the elephants to guard the fort... without a good reason, just a random pick. Anyways, the Carthagian army advances!

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_18.jpg

The infantry soon rushed in the gate to take the gate house. "AHHH~~~" Hanno apparently didn't tell these Samnite mercenaries & Iberian infantry about the burning oil. (Iberian infantry was sent along for morale support and share some targets of arrow-tower, just to play safe).

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_19.jpg

The huge square in front of the governer's palace looked lonely with just one unit of hastati. Knowing their doom approaches, denial was their last psychological resort. They looked at the wrong direction!

SQPR eliminated! :dizzy2: Rome was soon made the new capital of the Carthage empire with a simple occupation. Hopefully by enslavement we can soon reach the 12,000 mark, and replace the government house with the Carthage's own kind.

The Senate army is still outside Rome, though. Since they are rather non-aggresive, Hanno decides to ingore them for now, and go for the last bit of his Roman conquest. House of Julii!

The next season his real-youngest son matured into adulthood. He is very good at military. So officially Hanno is retired in Rome, transferring all his retinues to his young son. Here you go, boy. Don't lose face in front of the Julii!

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_20.jpg

In the meantime, Hasdrubal has sieged Syracuse and gained a crushing victory. Sicily is united under the white flag, too!

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_21.jpg

Ops, some worries come from Spain. Let the diplomat deal with them. ~D

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_22.jpg

The Julii is also no match facing the Carthagian army. 2 cities fell one after one. The Romans are officially gone! Yeah!

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/carthage_23.jpg

I guess this is a good place to end the short story - or it might become a very long one. The rest should be quite easy for the Carthagians; they already have 20k gross income per turn. It is a pity that there weren't any worth-mentioning field battle (only fighting the rebles, not fun). For those of you who think Carthage is hard, perhaps you can try my approach. ~:)

Here is the updated save game file, just in case you want to continue playing.

Game save (943Kb) (http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~dlee/others/rtw/carthage/cart_story_03.sav)

Thank you for reading. maltz

[HopAlongBunny]

Absolutely incredible!

A great little story and a campaign for the history books ~:cheers:

[troymclure]

nice story and very well done screenshots. Good read thank you very mcuh. :)

[Jambo]

Super stuff Maltz, nicely worded and presented. 5 stars. :D

[Maltz]

Thank you all. Throughout the making of the story I encountered some difficulties:

(1) Not all screen captures ("Print Screen") worked. I had quite a few shots during sieges, discussing about tactics. None of them showed up in my folder. I doubt during intense battles the resources were pretty much occupied so I couldn't make a screenshot? Or I just pressed the wrong bottoms because I was too nervous. I don't know. ~D

(2) All this would be solved if campaign battles can be replayed. Then I would be able to put the camera in various interesting angles. I don't see any legitimate reason to restrict battle replays to custom battles, which usually involves more units & body count than SP campaign battles ~;)

[Mikeus Caesar]

That is so cool!!! Why not just throw the short story thing out the window, and turn this into a huge story? It is so cool, and i'd like to see what commentary you would give on a carthaginian campaign that spans across europe!!!

[Maltz]

Hey Mikeus: It would be my pleasure make more & better stories out of RTW - it is the epic, realistic battle scenes that makes TW series great - plus we have all the cool graphics now.

I was thinking perhaps I could restart as another faction, so there are more "uncertainty" in the campaign, lifting the suspense a bit. Perhaps Numidia would be a good choice as most players think it is the hardest. Or how about the Senate? There will be endless nasty jokes playing as the Senate. Or, is there some clan anybody would kindly suggest? I picked Carthage because I think it has the most potential among the playable factions, while many players find it frutrating, unecessarily.

Somehow I also want to "lose" a battle or two, or as a whole, to make a story more read-able. But I am impatient & weak at self-control, so I can't bear with the frustration of self-handicaping, nor resist the satisfaction of bribing AI before they do the same to me. Har har har ~;)

[Jango Fett]

10/10

[Mikeus Caesar]

The julii would be a good choice. After all, documenting their campaigns against the barbarian scum would be great!!!