Summer, 203 B.C.
Macedon.
The Macedonian empire reigns supreme. All Roman factions except the Senate have been destroyed. Rome itself has been saved for last, after the rest of the world has been conquered. The Gauls pose a formidable threat from the west, due to many generous donations by yours truly early on, to keep them in the game against the Julii. Nothing the fiercome phalanx can't handle though. To the east, Egypt has built an empire worthy of Ra himself. The only thing seperating our borders is the Aegean sea. War is inevitable. The Numidians have held their own against all opposition to the south, and now control all of Northern Africa. Thrace sends the occasional army led by a fairly well experienced general from the North, only to be denied the joy of victory by heavily walled and garrissoned cities.
A huge project has been undertaken. Spent the better part of the last 20 years building up the supreme Macedonian army at Thessalonica. 4 archer units, 7 companion cavalry units, 8 royal pikemen, and with a stroke of luck, a military genius general, freshly come of age at 16. Transferred all major ancilliaries of nearby generals to him, forging the near perfect young general. Entire army has silver shield and sword upgrades, and at least 2 bronze experience ranking. Alexander himself would have revelled at the opportunity of controlling an army of this magnitude.
The island of Sicily is controlled solely by Carthage, whome I generously offered my alliance and gave more than a fair share donations to in order to help them against their numerous enemies. All that said though, their only remaining forces are that which occupy the three cities on the island.
That is untill of course, they foolishly started amassing troops on the southern tip of the Italian peninsula near Croton, which as you may know by now, is under my control.
With a well seasoned army, under the leadership of Apisaon the Mighty, the greatest general the world had seen till then, en route to Sicily from the north, the need for another army to punish the ambitious Carthigians arose. In comes our fine young general, Areithous. I decided the best course of action would be to bring him through Apollonia, boarding him onto a fleet and crossing the Mediterranean from the Macedonian mainland to reinforce Croton, make easy work of the Carthaginians, gain a few more stars to his already great starting position of 5, then move on to Sicily to join his glorious father in wiping out the rest of Carthage becoming the next great saviour of Macedon. Then of course many more conquests would follow, perhaps even taking on the mighty Egyptians? Only time will tell.
Ah, but what's this? All my glorious navies of Triremes and Quintremes are busy elsewhere, far from Apollonia. Take the time of bringing one over, perhaps a couple of years? Or the quick fix of building a unit of biremes at Apollonia itself? I chose the latter. Surely the quick voyage across the Mediterranean will prove to be unhazardous. After all, there are no enemy navies in site, and most have been crushed by mine anyways. And so, the precious cargo loaded up, and set sail.
Halfway through the trip, I was attacked by a measly fleet of two triremes of the Roman Senate! My ship sunk, my soon to be legendary general and army lost...
Was all hope lost? No. Was a significant portion of my resources, manpower, energy, and enthusiasm gone in an instant? Yes. Was I pissed off as hell? Most definately.
The point my friends is simply this; toast is better left unbuttered, if the butter has been left to rot.
