Roma - Fledgling State to Mighty Empire

[Chirurgeon]

I'm going to try putting a bit more time into EB soon, I know I keep disapearing which must be really annoying for fans of this AAR, but I just havn't been able to get into EB lately.

no worries. I know the feeling. I took a bit of a break myself :)

[thelord]

POST EIGHTEEN - EXPANSION & REBELLION

140 BC, I am currently in the process of defeating the Macedonian forces still lurkign around Pella and other areas they recently controlled, it is also time for me to begin to take the last of their territory on the Aegean, this will remove the last of my buffer states blocking the Republic from the mighty Arche Seleucia, so no doubt once this latest conquest is complete there will be a long run of Seleucid wars. I sent a legion to Byzantion to take it and effectively chop the remains of Macedon in half.



Of course they threw a half hearted attempt to force me to retreat, but it was highly unlikely that a Marian legion would lose to such levies.



The city proved quite problematic in subjucating however, with several riots occuring before I could install a Romanised government.



I have recently installed konny's allied legion mod which allows me to number my legions. Using this I have numbered my 6 defensive legions across the republics lands to defend the borders, extra legions trained for invasions will be given their own number. Currently the 6 legions have been stationed in :

Legio I : Cisalpine Gaul
Legio II : North Africa
Legio III : North Iberia
Legio IV : The Balkans
Legio V : Greece
Legio VI : Macedonia



137 BC, I have trained a new legion, Legio VII, in Italy to be sent to take Serdike and Tylis, both Macedonian possesions. This legion is under the command of Decimus Papirius Turdus, the son of my reformer. I hope to train him up for a few years against Macedon for when the inevitable war with AS begins as I will no doubt have need of experienced generals when the 3 full stacks a turn start pouring into my lands.



I have also edited the Ptolemaioi to have a more golden colour on the mini map.

In 136 BC, Oxtraca revolted against me, I have always had problems with this city for some reason. They revolted and spawned a large amount of Persian archers for some reason, despite the fact that they couldn't be much further away from Persia.



The city was easily recaptured and Enslaved however, which quickly brought order back to Iberia and showed any other rebels what happens to those who defy Roman rule.



Back in Macedonia, the 7th Legion took Serdike in 136 BC with very little military resistance from Macedon. Tylis appears to be more capable at defending itself when the 7th legion arrives at its gates however.



The 7th was attacked before it could arrive there however with the garrison from Tylis, a reasonably strong army with reformed phlanxes and hoplites aplenty.



I used some standard tactics here, to have 2 lines of cohorts, with the first in guard mode to hold the enemy and the second to flank.



After a relatively long battle, the Republic was victorious once again, with roughly 3 Macedonians dead for every Roman.

This victory clears the road for the legion to advance towards Tylis. Once fallen I will set it about taking Mytilene.

[Chaotix]

Woot! Thelord is back! Great chapter.

A couple of things:

- in that first battle, the battlefield was a purplish color. If I recall correctly, I think purple/pink battlefields have something to do with your graphics card overheating or something along those lines, so be careful.

- how did you get your unit cards to say "Legio IV" and "Legio VII" and so on?

[thelord]

Theres a mod called ''Allied Legion Mod'' which does it, they can only be trained in Roma though.

Also I think that the purple thing is just the time of day for the battle, will keep my fingers crossed that my comp doesnt blow up though.

[thelord]

I've just installed the Darth formation mod and Marcus Camillus player formation mod and it makes a HUGE difference.

[thelord]

POST NINETEEN - ARRIVAL IN ASIA MINOR

Macedon is proving to be quite a pain to defeat, their land is split into 3 seperate chunks and they only have around 6 cities left, but still they keep on recruiting armies, if it was the other way round I would have been bankrupt long ago. In 135 BC, I besieged Tylis, it was defended by a small but elite band of troops, they were outnumbered 3 to 1 but still took a good chunk out of my legion.



Macedon still had a good 4 full stacks left nearby, one of which was heading to retake Tylis, so I was forced to attack before they could besiege it. I have installed the Darth AI Formations mod, and this was the first battle I had with it in, and wow, it made a huge difference! The phalanxes actually kept a straight line, and covered each other when I tryed to flank, using their infantry to guard the rear. So finally I was facing some challenging battles. Luckily in this case I had a superior general, a 19 year old with 4 command stars.



What followed was a VERY tough battle, most probably the hardest I've played against Macedon, around half of my army was routed at one stage and I had to perform some very risky manouvres with my general. Casualties were high on both sides, and the Legio VII is in need of reinforcements from Greece.



Miraculously around half of my casualties survived, I think my general must have some traits/retinue that increase recovery chances.



There was still riots in southern Iberia, so I had to train an 8th legion to raise the public order there, in Italy a 9th and 10th Legio were created for my planned invasion of Macedon's holdings in Asia Minor and also for the inevitable AS wars which are bound to begin as soon as I border them. In 132 BC, I landed 3 legions in Asia Minor (VII, IX & X). I am apprehensive about facing the AS, as they are overunning the Ptolemaioi, Sauromatae and Baktria at the same time, whilst holding most of the eastern land.



The first of the Asia Minor battles was at Nikaia, where a large Macedonian stack was situated, I was expecting another tough battle against a hard line of reformed phalanxes...



What I met however was a pathetic rabble of nothing but 1800 levy hoplites and Akontistai, which rout after around 5 seconds of combat with a Marian Legionary Cohort. Even more easily as I had a 1 talent stone projector in the army, which cost a whopping 30,000 mnai to recruit.



What followed could not even be described as a battle, basically they broke just after they engaged, the Pilum killed about half of them and the rest were killed by the generals bodyguard.



Mytilene was only defended by 2 units of toxitai, so was captured by the 10th easily, the remaining Macedonian troops are in Pergamon, which I will probably starve out as I need to keep up the numbers in the legions for when I face the AS. As for the remaining Macedonian's in the north, I am happy to leave them there as long as they don't cause me any trouble, the Getae will most probably finish the job soon anyway.

[Cadwalader]

Thanks for the update. Well done, but you showed the battle results screenshot with your close call with the Maks twice.

[thelord]

ah, whoops, I must have missed a picture out then.

will edit it now.

[thelord]

I'm going on holiday for a week so I'm afraid there won't be any updates in the next week.

[satalexton]

oh God....look at that grey-death D=

good luck mate, you'll need it...

[Tiberius Aurelius Cotta]

my fave unfinished AAR is back! nice, mate... keep it up :).

i wonder what will happen when you face off against the AS

[thelord]

Probably about 3 battles a turn.

As you can see I'm back from holiday and as the weather here is as shit as usual, I will most probably be playing lots of EB.

[We shall fwee...Wodewick]

Probably about 3 battles a turn.

As you can see I'm back from holiday and as the weather here is as shit as usual, I will most probably be playing lots of EB.

No place better than England! Also did you say earlier you were doing A-levels?

[thelord]

I think I did at some point, why?

[We shall fwee...Wodewick]

Nice to know that someone else on here is panicing about results tomorrow.

(I assume your panicing. Thats the reason I can't sleep and am up writing this message)

[thelord]

ahhh, haha yeh im a little nervous, will no doubt be bricking it tomorow.

[thelord]

Bad news guys, I've hit a CTD, though I should hopefully be able to wriggle around it.

[Thomt9]

thelord, what two difficulty settings are you playing the game with?

[thelord]

H/M.

Update about CTD : I've managed to get round it!! Though unfortunately I had to re-install the game, so lost those textures I put in. I could get them again but it would mean installing RS and everything which I don't particularly want to do.

Update about game : The war with Arche Seleucia has begun! I have enough pictures for a new update so should have time to formulate them into a post in the next day or so.

p.s sorry bout the off topic posts here recently, it should be back to normal soon.

[||Lz3||]

me has solution my lord !! * in an igor voice*

you can get the RS textures without having to install RS itself just clic on the first link in my signature and look for "RS textures" , just download and apply

[thelord]

Ah, thanks a lot! got it sorted now.

POST TWENTY - START OF THE SELUECID WAR

Macedon still held Pegamon, but with only 2 or 3 units, so it was easily taken by my 5000 strong army. They still hold a few settlements to the north but I doubt they will be much of a problem in the future as the Getai will keep them busy for the time being. As for my 21 year old general, he has been awarded a triumph and is returning with the 7th legion to Rome for a few years. Once the legion is retrained I will send it back under a new general.



What I didn't predict, was the AS attacking me literally the turn after I took Pergamon and our borders touched, they had besieged it with a reasonably strong force, so rather than fight them there I decided to draw them back to Ipsos by besieging it with the garrison from Nikaia under the command of the Proconsul Aulus Cornelius Blasio.



As soon as I hit the end turn button the AS started to throw their armies at me.



They had the high ground, but had 1 big weakness, which was their lack of leadership. This could be exploited with my artillery, which saps enemy morale quite effectively.



For once the AI had sent a strong army, with Elite Phalanxes and Galatian Spearmen prominent in their ranks, with a few medium phalanxes in support. They also only sent half of their phalanxes forward, so that it would make it difficult for me to flank them and not get pinned down by their second line.



Eventually the majority of their second line engaged, giving me more room to flank the phalanxes, I had to be quick in finishing the first army off before the reinforcements arrived, which would probably finish my army off if they were still engaged with the first.



Eventually a few of the weaker enemy units fled, leaving just the Elite Phalanxes left, who of course never flee. It did mean I could totally surround them and slowly finish them off though.



It became clear that I wasn't going to be able to finish them off quick enough however as the second army arrived. So I had to use to 2 unengaged cohorts to hold them off until the bulk of the legion could help.



Eventually a victory was won, with around a third of the legion dying however, so reinforcements will have to be on the way, including some of the newly available Thracian Auxiliary cavalry being trained in Byzantion.



Before the end of the turn the small army besieging Pergamon arrived to attack me aswell, it was defeated, but again with heavy casualties, leaving around 500 men left to defend Ipsos, the situation was made even harder when a AS army besieged the settlement the following year in 130 BC with over 2000 men. Clearly this is what I am up against fighting the AS

[thelord]

POST TWENTY ONE - 129BC

1 year into the Seleucid war, and I was on the back foot already, with army after army of enemy troops pouring into Asia Minor, and with increasingly depleted armies to fight them back. Every city in Greece and Macedonia was constantly training cohorts to replenish the 3 legions stationed on the frontline. In spring of 129BC, the republic suffered its first defeat in the war. I had sent an army to besiege Halicarnassus, but of course an AS stack arrived before I could assault the town. The defeat was made all the more crushing, with the loss of the 7th legions golden eagle. Though luckily my general managed to escape to the fleet nearby with the survivors.



The remainder of the 7th were sent back to Italy for retraining. I also had to give up ideas of invading by sea. So I tried marching towards their cities by land instead and facing their stacks one at a time, instead of all at once. Just west of Sardis, a smaller AS army was defeated, and cleared the path to the huge city.



Of course they desperately threw a few small armies to force me back.



Eventually after battling through several armies, they emptied the city completely to try and batter me back again, though fortunately I won this time and captured Sardis.



The AS had completely overstretched itself in their attempt to force me out of Asia Minor. Which has left their cities relatively undefended for my counter attack. The reinforcements from Greece have besieged Halicarnasus and I also have an army on its way to Ankrya. I could use the Galatian troops in this war.

[thelord]

I've entered the AAR competition of the month over at the .net forums. So vote for this AAR if you like!

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=182706

[Chirurgeon]

woot! Great update. So the great war between East and West has begun. I wish you the best. Good luck in the competition!

[strategos roma]

Can anyone teach me how to download photos?

[DeathEmperor]

Can anyone teach me how to download photos?

You mean upload photos for your posts? First you need to sign up at one of those image and video hosting sites such as Photobucket or Imageshack. Once you've signed up and your account is activated you can upload your photos and then copy the image [img] code from the site and paste it in your posts. You can also choose to resize the images when you're uploading them (such as reducing a screenshot from 1024 x 768 resolution to an 800 x 600 one) and get different types of codes for when you post them (such as a direct image like most AARs use or thumbnail which is recommended if it's a big image).

I hope I did well in explaining the basics. If not I'm sure one of the many experienced AAR writers here will do a better job if you ask them.


Sorry for hijacking your AAR for a bit thelord. Awesome update and good luck in the competition!

[thelord]

POST TWENTY TWO - AMBITION & CEASEFIRE

125 BC, Rome has successfully managed to push the Arche Seleucia back slightly, though considering their vast empire it is nothing more than a dent. I had taken 5 cities from them and fought a total of 23 battles, with 17 victories and 5 defeats. Along with 3 triumphs and around 10000 troop casualties for the Republic altogether. In order to prevent myself from falling into the trap of expanding to quickly, I decided it was time to begin to arrange a peace deal. I needed to build up the new territory and also to stabilish the area. Of course the AI doesn't usually accept a ceasefire very well, so I had to construct a long line of forts blocking access into the land, though fortunately there were a lot of rivers and mountain passes I could use to block things.



The peace was secured, I had to pay 50000 mnai in reparations however in order to get them to accept it. Once it was sealed I shipped a governor out for the cities in order to keep the peace and make money from the new regions. Elsewhere, the AS has taken a large chunk of Egypt, The Arverni were reduced to one town, though have begun a reclamation and now have 3. The civil war in Dacia between Macedon and the Getai is still ongoing.

Back in Italy, I noticed a general had recieved the trait 'high ambitions' which, unless I am much mistaken is the Augustan reforms trait, if I make him faction leader the reforms will take place I believe. So I've made him faction heir, he can 'seize' power in Rome when my current faction leader dies, which won't be very long as he is 62. I know it is very early to get the reforms, nearly a century early in fact, but it is so hard to get the reforms (I never managed it in my last game) that if I have the character required already, I may aswell take them now. Rather than struggling later on.

[hrrypttrbst]

So early ingame? then you would almost have a indestructible empire exept if it goes wrong with economics but i don't think so

[thelord]

not really, the Augustan legionaires have exactly the same stats so it will be the same difficulty.

[NickTheGreek]

Thats awesome thelord, i don't think i've ever seen anyone get the imperial reforms without cheating or modding. Extra spice to a brilliant AAR.