Nice going there, chap.
~E
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Nice going there, chap.
~E
I expertly stitched together my favourite general from my favourite Kart-Hadast game.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
His story is long and fraught with dangers, as you can tell. Ultimately, it has a basis in my ill-advised attempt to increase my trading empire, but not by conquering Iberia or Italia. No, I would go straight for the ultimate prize: Casse Land.
At this point my borders were modest. I had Sicily, and kept my starting Iberian colonies. I had expanded across Africa, and was watching with interest as the Yellow Death grew to encompass all of Asia. I had also snatched the islands of Kypros, Rhodos and Krete (the Koinon Hellon never really forgave me about Rhodos) Red, brown and yellow factions were all peaceful, or at least incompetent enough to not be a worry.
It was the perfect time to do something stupid and fun.
I built a huge army, and put it on a huge fleet (lots of pirates, you know) along with a sizable array of family members, both the older and experienced (the better to conquer with) and the young and promising (the better to rule with). The army was top quality; heavy infantry, heavy cavalry, Balearic slingers, plus a smattering of Numidian and Sardinian archers. You may already seen the problem.
The fleet and army assembled in Kart-Hadast, while a preliminary fleet carrying spies, diplomats and assassins went on ahead. The invasion force was 'finished' when I stopped making a profit.
And so the fleet set off to conquer a poor, barely known land. Ireland, the landing point was quickly conquered, but the Casse rallied and began sending forth huge hordes, presumably the result of being left alone for the entire game. This proved far more challenging than I had anticipated, as their high defense skill meant that their infantry was comparable to mine. Most of my ranged forces were slingers, too. Ultimately the battles had a very ugly cost in men as my heavy infantry slowly pounded down their heavy infantry, and when your closest reinforcements are in a different continent that is not a sustainable approach to war.
At this time, Abdemlqart was a fresh governor of Lepki, a completely unremarkable town. It became remarkable when the Yellow Death turned its attentions from the Seleukids to my own lands. At roughly the same time, the Lusitan and Romani noticed me and began trying to conquer Sicily and Iberia. This is all while I have a huge army and fleet completely devoted to fighting the Casse, plus reinforcements being sent up. I might call it the 'Frugal War'.
The Ptolemies proved the toughest enemy. While the Lusitan and Romani were in sensible locations and thus not too big, by this time the yellow Hellenes had essentially rebuilt the entire Achaemenid Empire, and most of it was pointed at me, specifically Lepki, specifically Abdemlqart. Over the next period he had to fight off numerous armies being sent across the desert, using minimal troops. He fought on the walls, in the city square, at river crossings and on the sand dunes. It was tough, but he managed it.
Over at the Casse, I had finally managed to accrue enough archers and other vital reinforcements and began my final push. Now the war changed completely from a desperate struggle for survival to a full-on assault. Deploying a huge mass of Sardinian, Numidian, and local archers, I would screen them with a thin line of cavalry and heavy infantry. The non-existent armour of these crazy Celts meant that they were very, very easy to kill this way. Sometimes, the entire army would be killed or routed before even reaching my lines. On less fortunate occasions there would simply be too many Celts to kill, and my archers would run out of ammunition midway through the battle, often resulting in the use of very creative tactics. Ultimately though, the Casse were defeated when the last of their family members were killed in one climactic battle, sending the rest of their cities into chaos. Although the island was not halfway conquered, the organised resistance that would push me out was gone and could be conquered at leisure by local soldiers.
The remaining Kart-Hadast soldiers (who had a lot of experience by now, for sure) were sent back by express quinquereme. After being retrained back to full health and being joined by fresh reinforcements, they were deployed to Lepki, a refreshingly close to home campaign for them. The Ptolemies had pushed their luck far enough, and I was about to take it from them.
Abdemlqart was the natural choice for leading this invasion; thanks to the local academy he was a superb governor, and he was exceptionally good at fighting. He had also been made heir to the empire and would do well to earn his share. Plus, it was somewhat poetic that after spending his whole life being menaced with no way to fight back he would now destroy the Ptolemies.
When the invasion force was ready, it set off across the deserts of north Africa. Numerous Ptolemic armies were swatted aside, their stiff phalanxes proving no match for my combined arms tactics. During the sacking of Alexandreia the old Shophet died of age, leaving the empire to Abdemlqart. Around this time he was also lamed, proof that he was a grizzled survivor. To the south in the Upper Nile were further Ptolemic lands, threatening but not dire. To the east and north lay the huge bulk of land stretching from Asia Minor to India. Naturally, Abdemlqart chose the tougher job, leaving the subduing of the Nile to a subordinate.
As the Kart-Hadastim war machine ground across the Sinai, the campaign grew tougher. The loss of Egypt had stung them, and so now the full might of the Ptolemic Empire focused on him. In particular came a local threat: The Ioudaioi Taxeis (Jewish Spearmen) joined the battle. They guarded the flanks of the phalanxes, preventing me from encircling and destroying them. They proved incredibly resilient, able to resist slings and arrows, cavalry charges, even the raw might of my heavy infantry. Ultimately their numbers were too few, but each battle with them present was a struggle.
In addition to the Ioudaioi Taxeis, all the empire came. I had only one large army, and it could only strike in one direction without being overwhelmed. In effect, the invasion was stalled just short of Syria, being mobbed by armies marching in from all directions. To counter this I called up an invasion of all the Mediterranean coast. Using my bases in Krete, Rhodos, and Kypros I trained a large amount of cheap local Hellenic soldiers, and transported them to Ptolemic cities all along Asia Minor. At the same time I used my fleets to leap-frog the approaching armies in Syria and captured a number of key points (that is how Abdemlqart got 'Conqueror of Phoenicia", by the way). The resulting shock of being invaded along an entire sea front caused the defenders to stagger, and with their momentum lost Abdemlqart was able to wipe out the remaining resistance in Syria. Even though the Hellenic invaders were ultimately killed, their distraction allowed victory.
Then came another decision: Turn east, and conquer the greater mass of Persia, or west, to Asia Minor? Abdemlqart decided on Asia Minor, as its closely-packed, rich cities would be far less headache-inducing than the wide expanses of Asia. To prevent the Ptolemies from wiping out his land behind him, he picked a dull, uncharismatic, languorous, selfish, pessimistic, disloyal man. Either he would die, or prove himself acceptable. His job would be to take as much territory as possible, steal everything, burn the rest and minimise casualties while Abdemlqart worked.
Abdemlqart worked well. City after city fell, and even Makedon and Koinon Hellon got into the war when they saw him coming! He even found the Spear of Achilles at some point! Meanwhile in the east whatshisface was having a grand time exterminating Babylon and other such cities. Going as far north as Trapezous (he didn't think much of the Hai), Abdemlqart finished off his conquest of the subcontinent at Ankyra. He wintered there, and then I took the screenshots of his traits (rationing was due to the period spent sieging Ankyra). And then one turn later he died!
Abdemlqart the Lame -
Defender of Lepki
Conqueror of Phoenecia
Destroyer of Ptolemies
Legendary drunk and womaniser
Fighter of a thousand battles
Friend of all
Greatest Shophet
Presumably he died during a feast, outrageously drunk and covered in girls.
News form my Bactrian kingdom (still too small to be called empire).
The world as it was in 208 BC :
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
The world as it was in 198 BC :
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
The world as it is in 193 BC :
http://uppix.net/1/a/4/5ca6e1a5901d6...c57a0bfb1b.png
Hannibal's dream
It seems Carthage have done what they wished in real history. The romani recovered southern Italy between 208 and 200, but in less than two years, Qathardast did a blitzkrieg on them. They're now at war with the Lusos and are fighting for nothern Italy and southern Gaul (they took Massilia less than a year ago).
But the Romani aren't dead yet, and they succeeded in recovering northern Gaul from Sweboz and Aedui's rebellion. I'm not sure they'll stay for long, but now as Carthage and the Lusos have a mutual border, they still have a chance.
Casse, Getai, Aedui and Epirote aren't doing a thing since decades. Aedui is now KH's protectorate, Casse is doing Casse, Getai are at peace with all of their neighbors and even if Epirote seems to be safe from KH and the Romani, it does nothing with its three fullstacks units.
The Koinon Hellenon are doing well. They claim for the Galatian and Anatolian lands, and don't give a rest at Pontos and Makedonia. They might begin a war with the AS, which would relieve their baktrian brothers. They're still allied with the Ptolemaioi, so no threat from them within some years.
The Ptolemiaoi are in good way to deal with their oldest adversary, the Saeban. They took one of their major cities and the map has at least four stars with heroic victory to the Ptolies around the town. Here again, there might be an opportunity for Baktria, AS is at peace with the Ptolies, but nothing is written...
The Nomadic Wars
Hayasadan and Sauromatae are stuck in an endless wars, what Hayasadan took Sauromatae took it back the next turns, so Hayasadan took it again, etc.
I was quite surprised by what happened in the north of eastern lands. Pahlava was almost left for dead, at one time they only had one poor settlement, but without conflicts with the seleucids, they crushed Saka and now I doubt Saka'll be able to do the same. To be seen how Parthians will deal the recovery from rebellion of one seleukid city.
Arche Seleukia has made peace with all their western neighbors (minus Hayasadan which is too worry on their northern war anyway). It means rough times for Baktria, the seleukos are devastating our lands and Baktra was on siege for the past decade.
But "their ride goes before their fall", and Plato Baktrios' return from India with elephants will take them for a long ride. Some elephants were left in Baktra in order to be able to recruit some of them. Plato took one of the oldest seleukos stronghold and his freshly new royal army is still on march. The three seleucid generals taken by a sneaky knife might have help Baktria in its struggle.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
On the south-western, the ex-seleukos traitor, Bagadat Margianikos, is about to take his fith city and no seleukid army seems able to match his small "spears & arrows" army (as it's retrained when a city is taken).
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Although, regarding to his treacherous flaw, a couple of diplomats never leaves him alone.
Which units do the Romans use?
You'll have quite a nice pick later in the game, which of the 'deaths' do you want to take on first? Ptolies, Carthies, Lusos?
Allow me to LOL, good sir, for history has shown on multiple occasions that the title of empire is not bound to a certain amount of area covered, but rather to megalomaniac rulers ;) Yours is truly an empire to be proud of.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zarathustra Baktrios
I concur.
~E
You're ruling over more than one non-Baktrian state. This means you've gone imperialistic (read: mad!)
That's a deal then. Imperialistic mad I am.
It took me a while to find how to use the move_character cheat with a spy, but I finally did it. They mostly use Lugoae, Gaeroas, Iaosatae, Batacorii and mercenaries, so it seems they're doomed. Carthaginian armies are full of Dorki Leebi-Feenikim Mookdamim, Aanatim Afrikanim Aloophim and Elephants...Quote:
Originally Posted by XSamatan
I'm not sure I'll go for world conquest, but I guess I will have to take on the Ptolies soon or later ; unless Carthage takes a look at eastern lands, but with the war against Lusos starting, I doubt they will.
Say what?Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaertecken
I am honoured.~D I don't cheat too and I don't recall using FD there. Baktria is indeed on of the most fun campaigns! Have you read my own campaign report? I wrote quite a bit about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zarathustra Baktrios
Good luck with the campaign anyway!
~Fluvius
I got a couple of different campaigns going on right now, and this is from my current romani campaign. What is different from other campaigns is that I actually managed to keep interest in the game after 200BC (usually the interest vanishes around the 220s). It's now 188BC and I'm aiming for my first Marians:
http://img.ihack.se/images/1613018704686.gif
A couple of factions has died out - Baktria, AS, Arverni, Epeirus, Hayasdan, and the Carthies has been re-modelled into Numidia after my conquest of Carthage. The parthians and ptolies joined forces and sandwiched the AS. Pontus used to be a huge empire covering the entire Asia Mikra, but foolishly decided to attack ptoley-Tarsos and now...well, killed by the parthians and the greeks who just recently decided to rebel en masse.
Easier way for the future: hit F1, then click the ? at the top right of the help window, then do as the advisor says (click show-me-how, then click x to close him). Now you have perfect-spy, which means that any army you can see, you can see perfectly. So all you need to do is toggle_fow, and then click any army on the map for full details. Go through the whole sequence again to turn perfect-spy off.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zarathustra Baktrios
talking about rolling in p****, and totally hammered. you can't fault him for being a boring character. :clown:Quote:
Originally Posted by Shade
PONTUS CAMPAIGN
243 BC
King Mithadates is still on the throne, after taking most of the Black Sea coast, in 250 BC the Armenians betrayed me and i bumm rushed them and gained some powerfull Kinsmen, some years earlier i kicked out the Seleukids of Anatolia,
the Economy is booming and im laying the last pieces on the regional MIC in Phrygia to get the Medium Phalanx,
the Arveni owns Galatia and have stayed a loyal Allied for quite some time now.
im not sure what to do now, sugestions?
The army you can see there is my Royal Helleno-Trachioi Army
https://img545.imageshack.us/img545/7870/pontus.jpg
Im curreently only at war with the Hai...
It's not a good week to be at war with the Hai!
What do you plan on conquering next?
Well as I see it you have to judge your own strength... if you are strong enough already you can take on your former "masters" and start picking mikra asia from the Seleukids or you could expand east and get some more money from the greek regions before doing that ;)
https://i285.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1303283868
As you can see here I'm Baktria(or as I like to call it, Basileon ton Baktria, aka the Badass Imperium).
Initially my plan was to take it slow. I would only attack the notinfestedwithelephants settlements around me, snatching a rebelling Seleucid or Saka(who are pretty much glorified rebels) settlement or two using my spies, then grow in Power until I have enough to take India, then turtle again and take over the world. Sadly, and obviously, the suicidal, antagonistic, cheating, warmongering, idiotic, badly designed, and generally unpleasant diplomatic AI claimed yet another victim:Seleukia. They sent endless waves of soldiers at my while everyone else wrecked them. I intelligently stole.a few provinces from them, then FD'd them into passiveness while using character_reset and building forts around all the rivers and strips of land to prevent their armies from herpaderping right into Baktra and jabbing a sword into it's walls. Now obviously I had to FD every other turn or so, but even with that I decided to return my attention to capturing those rebel settlements...but eventually I snapped and took more settlements from the Arche, then FD'd, then took over India and built up...again. Then of course they attacked again, now with a significantly weaker army...so I beat them back to susa and Ekbatana and called it quits there. I kept FDing until I had enough money to sustain three armies comprised of:
Cavalry:1 Super-cat general, 1 armored Elephant, 2 Cataphracts, 2 Baktrian cavalry, 2 Baktrian Horse Archers.
Infantry: 2 Baktrian Agema or 2 Pheraspidai, 7 Thorakitai(Yeah I'm a rebel and used them as line infantry instead of phalanxes.
Missiles: 3 Subeshi Archers(I'd use Indians but I couldn't at that point, though Subeshi archers are pretty damn good.
So with these armies I obliterated the Seleucids, pushing them out of Persia and Armenia. By this point the Pontos had taken everything except Kabalaka(Hai) and Phraaspa(Seleucids) I took Phraaspa, and due to my Alliance with the Hai I attacked Pontos and tried to liberate the cities back to Hayastan. Unfortunately their FM and FH both died somehow and I did it in vain, so I opted to exterminate and pillage the cities then leave, setting up border forts around Phraaspa and Susa to keep the Seleucids out. I had ventured into Babylonia and wanted to take those cities, but then I noticed that if I did that I'd border the Ptolemies, and being smart I opted to avoid that ass fest and retreated back to Persia.
Now, being ROME total war, that didn't last and before long a thin strip of gold was near my western borders and 5 full stack armies were waving their spears and yellow flags at my forts.
At this point I was getting tired of war and my armies were back in Baktra being retrained and replenished and my border cities were being defended by levies. So ...I gave up and just FD'd indefinitely every single turn. That's where I end for now and I'll probably keep FDing unto the 100's BC.
Oddities:After around the 250's the Saka stopped attacking me. The Parthians, despite never honoring my alliances, never ever attacked me even when Margiane and Aria were barely defended.
Note:I am using Jirsys' mod which includes a character speed boost, thus explaining why despite my turtling provinces were taken fairly quickly. Baktra is becoming a huge city in 8 turns and is governed by my faction leader who has probably the best governing traits I've ever seen. His oldest son is a complete idiot so his second oldest is the heir. Thankfully his son is also amazing, so I can see this becoming an unbroken line of badass bookworms with only a few weeds to pull here and there. Baktra has the highest level Academy I can make so far and my young FM's stay there until they're 20. The best warriors will go to govern the western cities while the best governors just..well go everywhere. Baktria, Kophen, and the three cities in India are my major money makers, particularly Pattala due to my heir being the governor. Militarily I have a few Persian-only armies defending the more rebel prone settlements, a traditional phalanx based army in Ekbatana, and a large army of heavy horse archers being trained to take down Parthia and the Saka without failing horribly.
Settlements Lost:Sulek to Saka early on, that was a bad idea anyway and it stretched me out way too much so I abandoned it. Kabalaka to Pontos once, then taken back, then sold to Sauromatae. Armavir and Kotais sold back to Pontos. Takshahila to huge ass rebel stack with 3 elephants that came out of nowhere(that was embarrassing), came 3 turns after I had taken Pattala so you can't blame me.
i have allready started pushing the Sauromatae away from the coast and finnished the Hai, and im thinking Mesopotamia now... and then Phonecia...Quote:
Originally Posted by vartan
Nice Baktrian empire you got there :2thumbsup:
Nice Pontic Empire. I'm especially impressed with having only one enemy with so many border provinces. At best I can keep one or two of my neighbors from attacking with some small payments and large garrisons...
Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Blacksmith
Ive figured out diplomacy :D i feel god like :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Zim
Ceasefire
Traderights
7000 mnai
Map infomation
and BING ceasefire with even the Arche Seleukia :D
How long does the ceasefire last generally? I've got a game started where I'd like to have a few turn's peace with the Seleucids without having to send armies sacking and razing across their entire Empire every 5 years or so like I've had to in the past...
Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Blacksmith
Ive had it lasting for up to 30 turns... because i was allied with MakedoniaQuote:
Originally Posted by Zim
No luck so far. They appear to hate me too much, even now that we no longer border. I have managed to stay at peace with all other neighbors, surprisingly (as Ptolemy).
Here's a Sweboz campaign I have going, now at 238. The great uniter Heruwulfaz spent his life fulfilling bringing the different tribes into a loose military alliance, but all is not well. Still leading armies after his 62nd winter, Heruwulfaz, as well as one of his younger sons, disappeared in Celtic territory while trying to expand to the south. His nephew Harkilaz has succeeded him as Druxtenoz, but is widely regarded as a sot matched in his appetite for beer (and much worse the "wine" of the soft peoples to the south) only by his appetite for blood. It remains to be seen if he can hold the fledgling alliance together, especially in the face of coming war as the powerful Aedui and Roman factions fight eachother for regional dominance. All eyes are upon him to see if he can avenge his uncle's death, his first test as leader.
https://img684.imageshack.us/img684/4021/sweboz238.jpg
https://img714.imageshack.us/img714/9607/99568620.jpg
herm zim bier comes from bebere wich was taken to the rest of europe by the romans it was an egyptian invention (brewed soup) so technically altough today bier is considered a more northern europe cultural trait during those days particulary in 272 i doubt the germans had acess to bier wine maybe bier only later on in the game probably
Wikipedia is not excatly the best source but..
Quote:
Beer was spread through Europe by Germanic and Celtic tribes as far back as 3000 BC,[21] and it was mainly brewed on a domestic scale.[22] The product that the early Europeans drank might not be recognised as beer by most people today. Alongside the basic starch source, the early European beers might contain fruits, honey, numerous types of plants, spices and other substances such as narcotic herbs.[23]
The Egyptians did drink something like beer, although I've never heard anybody claim they invented it. The drink has been around for thousands of years before the EB period, with forms invented independently in places as far apart as Central and North America to Japan, as well as all over Europe. And it's been associated with northern Europe by Romans and other Mediterranean types (despite them having their own forms of the drink) for over two thousands years, not just today. Just ask Pliny the Elder (writing in the 70s B.C.).
At any rate, Harkilaz has become a "Paralytic" drunk on something. Beer, wine (from grapes or other fruit or honey), fermented cider. Whatever his poison it's made him quite worthless as a general.
beer to be beer as to have lucullus wich gaves it it bitter taste but helps the fermentation process ofc everyone had their "soups" and many could/would be stored for later and it would fermentate thus the reason why "beer´s" had fruits and honey and anything that could be added to soup hell in my country we even add meat and fish and all that is atable and some things that are not suposed to be eatable to soup like pork or chicken hooves (it´s suposed to give taste to the soup or even worse a special rock wich ofc added to the rock soup folk tales)
but beer as we consider it today grain soup fermentated in special caskets with lucullus (and ofc a more modern touch the bubbles) was invented in egypt and taken to the rest of europe by the roman legions since it was cheaper then wine and therefore was the drink of choice by the poor since it had alchool (fun factor) but also feed the starving (usefull factor)
i´m not saying there was no alchoolic drinks everywhere i mean even today in prisons they make booze with their spare apples just stating that acussing beer for people´s alchoolic problems is too 20th century
One of the earliest known pieces of writing in history is a recipe for beer from Sumeria.
I have a book that mentions a little about the type of beverages made in ancient Germany. The author talks about beer made from barley and from wheat. I think he's probably lumping together any fermented grain beverage together. That does bring to mind the question of what one would call those drinks. Ancient wine is extremely different from what we think of today but we still use the same word for it.
It's called "pruno" here. We actually found some at work a while back. I almost couldn't believe someone planned on drinking it, it was so disgusting.Quote:
Originally Posted by moonburn
Info for Walle
https://i594.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1294420124
On the minimap of this epic picture of the historical Antiochos III Megas (bloodline wise, second son of Seleukos II Kallinikos), you can see the most accurate situation of the Romani before the war. Although trashing the Celtic, Lusotannan and Germanic nations (all Germanic nations? No not all, one small town.....) they easily had Epeiros' remnants take over the south and middle of the Italian peninsula. This is around the moment I destroyed Epeiros and found myself at war with the Marian republic, who didn't even hold Rome.
Fighting Marians is a mixed experience, on one side you get exciting battles against hardy legionaires, the other side features STREAMS of vigiles fullstacks. They will rout on contact with contacts and every encounter is a repetitive charge and pursue.
At the moment the Romani are bleeding bad, I am slaughtering them with two Uberelite fullstacks (1 in northern Italy, one in Pannonia and the Alps), another army (retrained from the Qarthadast campaign) just arrived at Mastia. A final fullstack will take a northern route after being retrained. And yes, the Germanic village is STILL holding out.~D
Edit: You are aware of the fact that the AI reform conditions differ a lot from the players')?
~Fluvius