[EB 1.2 AAR, Arverni] Land of the Verrix, and My People (258 BCE)

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Premise
This AAR will be based on the expansion of my celtic empire under Adcobrovatos, and hopefully his sons and grandchildren. It is inspired by Fixiwee and FriendlyFire's AARs, which I enjoyed very much. It will be presented by multiple sources, all contemporaneous to the action. Who will be presenting the story will unimportant in that they will probably be a throwaway character, and never spoken of again. However, do note what they have to say, as it will give hints as to their intentions. Not all narrators will be reliable, and they will vary in their goals and interests. I will try not to make their interests too narrow, however.

This AAR will be more geared towards the story, which leads me to...

House Rules
As I've said, this AAR will be geared more towards the story. That, coupled with my general impatience toward lulls in the action, means that I will make use of various cheat codes. If you have a problem with this, then I invite you to not read further.

However, I will be honest when doing so. Here is a list of rules regarding this:

• I tend to use character reset quite a bit. I also tend to add money to my treasury to keep the game moving, and to finance at least three armies. Once my finances stabilize, I tend to not use such cheats, and go with it.
• I occasionally add buildings where I feel necessary. Usually I change major military settlements temple's from Lugos to Teutatis. Occasionally, I will add a building in after finishing another, to represent the two being built together. I usually do this if it is an important project.
• If my armies are off campaigning, I tend to autowin battles with rebels that pop up, using a general. Because of this, some generals have higher experience than they should.
• Finally, and this is related to the first part, I tend to use character reset to bring my units back to a city to train, and send them back to the front over a 6 month period, usually directly into battle/seige. I rationalize this story wise and reinforcements being sent in every 6 months. Since these men are probably just being hired, not trained, in a city, it would be easy, once word is sent back, to hire the number of replacements needed to send to the front. After six months, they should have arrived.

Also, I've given myself Ankyra, because in my first Arverni game, I got it spontaneously, and it was so much fun.

Finally, for a few actual rules:
-Campaigns may not be started during winter, unless in extreme circumstances.
-Galatia will be treated as subfaction. I've built up it's barracks to allow full construction. Any cities captured by the galatians will be treated as subserviant directly to them. That is, a Type 3 government until the current King of Ankyra dies. At this point, changes may be made, but In-Character there must be consequences. Perhaps even lowering the loyalty of the current king.
-Any celtic city that comes under the control of a non-celtic overlord must be treated as transgression. That city must be reclaimed as soon as possible, unless extremely politically infeasible.
-No non-celt generals, without extreme penalties (having family members bribed away from a non-celt faction govern a Type 4, for instance). Absolutely no allied generals that aren't celtic.
-Whatever city my faction leader is in must be made the capitol, unless he has been called on campaign. He must then name two governors to manage the clan in his stead.
-All young men (family members) must attend school until 25, unless given a specific pardon by the king. Only Sharp family members may be pardoned, except in extreme circumstances. Galatians are exempt, until a suitable school is built in anatolia. Even then, only family members are required to attend.
-I reserve the right to amend or add onto the house rules as necessary.

Chapter I, Part I

From the Unsent Correspondence of Adcobrovatos to the head of the Druidic College at Camulosadae

Editors Note: The following was written by Adcobrovatos, but never sent, for it was deemed too personal, and revealing of the inner secrets. It was later preserved by Cadeyrn, secretly, and among his personal effects upon his death.

Hail, friend, and good health. I am very glad to see that you have in fact heard the poetry that I have composed. And yes, I am responsible for this new wave of written script based more on the Attic dialects. I feel that it carries a more proper tone than what you are used to, on your Island north of civilization. I will dispatch translators immediately to your college to aid our fellows in learning this new form of communication. Of course our specific dialect of Gaullish is of course more southern, with a new hint of influence from our well established barbarian servants in Roma. Did I mention that I conquered that city in particular?

Ah, well, I would like to point out that your idea of our exact boundaries completely wrong. As of today, our borders are thus:

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You've completely mistaken our Galatian kinfolk as being a separate faction, and as you can see the northern lands of the Svebos are completely different from your childish caricature.

My father, the late Aneirin, worked very hard to bring the Aedui and Svebos, the Macromanni, that Chatti, and the various Kingdoms of the Belgae under our dominion.

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And I have myself carved out the lands of the Latins for myself, as subjects, client tribe who serve myself directly.

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Additionally, it was Cadeyrn doe Lugos, now known as Cadeyrn oi Neamha, a young man who I have adopted as my son and taught within my very own college, who has aided our Epirote allies in establishing a buffer with the dacians, and expanding our realms, establishing the natives as tribes of nobel relations, and even at this moment lays siege to further holdings.

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And finally, in Galatia, the tribes of the Volcae, who in a time of desperation called out across the seas to us to liberate them from the seleukids, even now expand our lands into Phygia and the rest of Anatolia.

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So be more respectful of our hard earned empire, before you start throwing around erroneous maps, as if they were simply your shield, as you run away from battle.

However, you are lucky that I am a just ruler, and your tribe is aligned with my clan. Our clan picks our allies very carefully, knowing that some nations shift allegiance as the winds shift the sands of the beach.

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I suppose I should enlighten you, my fellow scholars, about our magnificent and large royal family.

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As you can see, I have but one natural son, Celtilicos oi Lugos, and two daughters (incidentally one of marrying age, should you know someone of worthy status). Although I have adopted a young man, Cadeyrn, as I have mentioned. This was just after the death of my second son (he died at birth) that I conquered Roma. During this battle, the lad's father died in my service. I had known the young man for some time, as I had personally taught the children of my noble bodyguard. His father, who had him late in life and did not have any living family but for his wife, was a good man, who was struck down by a javelin. After sending word back to my capitol, I informed him of his loss, and formally offered to adopt him into my family. Although he is like a son to me, I would not pass on my kingdom to him. I feel that after the death of his father, something broke inside of him. He became prone to a form of battle sickness. While bravery is no sin, while in personal combat training he insisted on fighting with real weapons. He is responsible for many deaths among my officer's sons, since he cannot restrain his battle lust. Before even his first campaign, he has the epithet "Oi Neamha" attached to him. I fear that if I were to trust him to run my kingdom, he would bring war with the world.

He is loyal, though, and nearly as pedantic as I. I've sent him off to command my armies in the east, creating a buffer against the Boii, and consolidating our new border with them. I wouldn't dare send my own sons to raid Greece. Brennus failed once, and paid his life for it, but most of all I fear that Cadeyrn, like me, will be blinded by the fineries of the Hellenic world, and seek, as I did, wealth and slaves on a mass scale. I admit I was not able to stay my blade, and the faces of the dead haunt me at night, keeping me from sleep.

My father left me in charge, as I am the eldest, however, I feel that my brother Amminos is more of a governor. He is also our second best general, after myself. I have named him my successor until Celtilicos comes of age. He is a good and honest man. My other brother, Belenos, however, would very much like to see my reign end. I am not sure if Belenos was disloyal to me when our father died. You see, his is a member of the Osi. I am honestly not sure if he is a blood relative. He was adopted, a son of one of my father's favored generals. However, that general met a disconcerting end shortly after Belenos was born. I am too young to remember, but there were apparently rumors of his mother, and her supposed lovers. Shortly after his birth, his father was sent on an expedition to the the northern lands, far north of even the Svebos, and never seen again. He was not seen again.

I do know, however, that he is no longer a man I can trust. During our war with the Aedui, our father died of natural causes, shortly after a heroic victory in which he routed the remaining army. My people call it the Last Battle of Aneirin, or the Battle of Insubria.

---

From Aneirin's Diary, The Battle of Insubria

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Featured: A recreation of the Order of Battle. Aneirin's army is represented at the top, the Aeduic army below. Note, the Aedui had two generals, present, while Aneirin's bodyguard was larger than average, numbering 50 noble companions. It is also important to note that this reconstruction is not exact, and has at least one notable mistake:the Aeduic spearmen and slingers were equipped with high quality gear, and had more that the bare minimum of experience.

During the late afternoon, as the snow fell, my army was attacked. As I had had the foresight to position myself on the bridge across the Po River, as I often do, the enemy has fell into yet another costly battle over a river crossing. I fell that my name should be Aneirin, Bringer of Death on the Crossing. How many times have I humiliated these overly smug imbeciles by coaxing them into attacking my well positioned army over a river? How many villages have I poisoned after dumping the dead into a river?

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Yet again, as soon as the enemy commits to the battle, I send my men forth to create a death trap for my foolish foes.

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From far away lands, and among the rebels who I occasionally put down in my lands, I note that many commanders and kings favor the archer as a technological advancement over the slinger. Indeed, even the barbaric Sweboz, who I detested so much that I lead a preemptive strike against, surprisingly didn't have a single slinger to face against me. At these fools, I laugh. The Iaosatae, my humble shepherds, are not as rich, or as skilled when I recruit them, but against any armored foe, they are superior. Indeed, no ranged weapon, now or in 2,262 years (exactly) will be so deadly as the sling. Even in the future, as more an more men become wealthy enough to practice with the bow, we shall never use it.

For the sling has one advantage: While the bowman may be marginally more effective versus my slingers, or against naked men, most men carry armor of some sort. How many foolish generals have seen their more heavily armored bodyguards devastated by a hail of clay bullets? Even the king of the Sweboz himself died by one. Sucellos may have created men, but the sling makes them equal. And anyone who says anything else is a fool (or a plagiarist from the future).

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I watched as the enemy (Who was foolish enough to bring only one unit of slingers, to my standard of four), was cut down by the clay death. Their wild savage men stained the snow the color of victory. Indeed, by the time they charged, angered and goaded into moving before their allies, they wildmen where but a handful. The merciful javelins cut them down further, until one brave man was left, flailing not more than a few paces from my front line. He survived the battle, and I had him sacrificed to Teutatis.

Running after their foolish companions, the others were no less effected by the rain of javelins and clay bullets.

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So eager were they to stop our hail of the gods, that they failed to even throw their own javelins. This proved to our advantage as it weighed them down. My men were impetuous: They wanted to engage the enemy in battle before the time was right. I alone kept them in their formation.

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I kept them from moving forward, until the time was right. I knew that yet again, the enemy would allow himself to be encircled. With men on all sides, a full load of javelins to soften them up, and the constant rain from my slingers, they could do nothing but route. The last component, the final straw that breaks the horse's back would be the death of their king. As the main force, with their king accompanying them, no less, committed to crossing, I allowed my men to move forward, to join in combat.

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The fighting was brutal, but for the enemy alone. One can hardly imagine how the bridge did not collapse under their weight. Many enemies died by their own hand. They were so packed together that while they raised their swords, the gutted their comrades.

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We would carry the day. The enemy king did not die, but something better: He fled. A brave dead king inspires fanatics and worship; a coward inspires defeat. This lead his men, one by one, to flee, until his slingers were the only brave men left. But in the hour of our greatest triumph, our plan ran afoul: Unlike in previous battles, which had been on river crossings, the bridge proved to narrow. My cavalry could not pass the infantry fast enough to catch the fleeing enemy. And to add the final insult, they were more interested in looting the already dead than running down the living. I later punished them by taking the loot for myself, and impressed upon them the notion that the dead can't walk away with their belongings, and had they done as I commanded, I would have taken my tithe, we could have given the gods their due, and still have enough left over for themselves. As it stands, we lost 1,340 good men of our 14,000, and the enemy lost about 9,000 of their 13,000, but a full 4,000 escaped, including the enemy Vergobret and his young family member. Even now as I write about it, I am infuriated. Not all in my many decades-

(Editor's Note: The text ends here, as Aneirin died before finishing. His noblemen carried the body home to be interned in Gergovia, where a Hero Cult has arisen around him.)

To Be Continued

That's quite a blitz you've done there! The most exciting parts of this campaign are already over, with the Aedui, Rome and the Sweboz all gone.

Well, of course I am the impatient type, and I use the character_reset cheat quite a bit. I actually find Rome and the Sweboz to be boring: The Sweboz have poor provinces, and Rome always attacks me about when I finish off the Aedui, so I usually knock them off early. I do agree that the Aedui are fun to fight, especially in the beginning when you have no money, no reinforcements, and an angry enemy, but in this particular game I beat them at river crossings, where they attacked, so it wasn't anything special.

I actually find the later parts of the Arverni game, consolidating power in modern france and italy, moving into Iberia, scraping out an empire in Anatolia, and moving galatians to attack Greece, and (finally) going across the ocean into North Africa to take on Carthage to be the most fun (or at least my most anticipated moments. I never got to go to Iberia or N. Africa). Unfortunately I realized too late that starting an AAR is easy, continuing it was hard. The day after I just wanted to play as the arverni, but realized I couldn't now that I've started to develop a story. So I started up a campaign as Qarthadast, and saved over my arverni game on accident. I think some day I will retry an AAR, but after I've started replaying campaigns over. The issue here is that I blitzed to get where I was in my first playthrough (which was in about 240-230BC), and afterwards, I didn't want to break from the campaign long enough to write the posts!