The triumphant return of Adcobrovatae's Casseian empire (v1)

[Soggius Chippius]

Right, so, part 2 then.
First off, may as well begin with the most interesting thing first, so here's the world map.



So obviously, yes, there have been some sizeable changes, but bear in mind this is 17 years since the last update rather than the standard 10, so I can promise you I'm not some sort of blitzkrieg god. Not quite anyway.
At any rate, the first thing I had to sort out when I jumped back on my save game was how to put a dent in the Makedones, since they had the irritating advantage of using Byzantion as a bridge to get across the Hellespont *as well as* that other bloody crossing a bit further down the causeway. Blocking one entrance off meant the other one was open, and even using two armies after I killed off Epirus this was a difficult proposition since the Makedones were some of the most competent fighters I'd faced yet (next to the Gauls with their todger-wielding supermen) So with a dearth of any better strategy, and with my third Balkan army only now getting ready to stab some Greeks, I decided to just try and take Byzantion and weather whatever they threw at me until they had used up most of their current standing army. Turns out this was definitely the correct thing to do, as they threw fullstack after fullstack at me while I tried to juggle two armies along with the necessary reinforcements for injured units for something like 4 years until they finally ran out of steam (relative to how they were before, mind you) and I managed to snare one or two cities in Anatolia.
All this while, I had spies just keeping an eye on Baktria, and while they were certainly looking very threatening, they were still making a hamfisted attempt of holding onto their cities on the steppe. They would make impressive gains, only to have them taken away by revolts, which would end up with them in a neverending cycle of taking and losing. This of course meant the only way I was going to come into conflict with them was if I managed to border with them in Anatolia. Which I managed to do quite nicely until the units Makedon was sending at me constantly from Galatia got on my nerves and I took it from them. This was a phenomenally stupid move, as within a few turns I had half a dozen Baktrian armies right on my doorstep, and Galatia temporarily took over the Levant's role as the premier destination for all conflict and violence in the world for the next year or two. Turned out that those armies were all Baktria had nearby, so I was able to consolidate in Anatolia for a year or two, nicking the remaining provinces off the Maks and confining them to Syria and Syria Koile. Then Makedon had to be left as Baktria's reinforcements arrived, and started trying to take back Galatia (as one of the previous armies had managed to take it while my main army limped back to a town with recruitment capabilities) Eventually took Galatia back, this time for good, then forged ahead to Mazaka. It ended up being a case of using two armies, with one being the attacking army, and one stepping up to be the new main army when the first one needed to retreat for reinforcements (each battle was taking a respectable toll for once) but by the end of the slogging, I had taken everything in Anatolia, was using two armies to push into the Caucasus, and another army to mop up any leftover Makedonian resistance coming from Syria.
So what about Egypt? Well, due to the losses taken after the capture of Memphis, and the general unrest issues in the region, it was a long while before anyone could do anything. Even so, Carthage was happy to sit at the bottom of the map and do stuff all. They had garrisons, and largish ones at that in a few cities, but they simply couldn't be bothered moving them anywhere (and Phoenicia never attacked. Ever. Even up till the stage I'm at now). Unfortunately, while I was waiting for barracks to be completed (to be faced with the sad truth that the best AoR units in Egypt are the Machimoi) something just....horrible happened. Caradog died while carrying out his duties as governor of Alexandria. This meant the only decent general I now had in Egypt was Caratawc moc Meriadoc, who was due to meet Adcobrovatae as well. Which left.....Cynan. Imbecile son of Caradog. By this stage he had one or two positive traits as opposed to what he was in 166, but he was still a pillock, and still incapable of leading an army. Happily by this stage, something happened to the Client Ruler mechanism which allowed them to (about 50% of the time) go against the wishes of their benefactors, and leave the city to become generals, so another promising general (with a decent bodyguard!) ended up leading most of the remaining units (interspersed with Machimoi) down south to rout the Carthaginians from the upper Nile. The only true difficulty was capturing all the cities in a reasonable time frame as they were all so far away from each other (helped by the fact the now destitute Carthies hadn't built roads), but eventually all the cities fell rather uneventfully. The only real trick the Carthaginians pulled was sending one army comprised of a general and about 8 Nubian Spearmen straight up past all my armies straight for Alexandria. He was intercepted around Memphis, but in all honesty, based on the direction he was headed, I think he just wanted to escape back to the Levant. Oh well.
After an irritatingly long period of consolidation (where the Phoenician owned Levant was used as a helpful buffer zone against the Baktrians. If they're not going to fight, may as well make some use of it) finally an army was sent north under the general mentioned previously, but also with Cynan in tow, in a last ditch attempt to get some battle experience under his belt before he faces the Baktrians at the head of his own army. The army began by besieging Petra, but then had to double back the next turn as a fullstack of the neutral Sabaeans had just crossed into Egypt unnoticed (damn them and their sand coloured banners) so the final destruction of Carthage had to wait while the Arabs were taught a lesson in respecting borders.Happily, the Saba army had one general, one unit of light infantry, and over 9000 skirmishers, so they were removed from my borders in short order (after running from my army for about a year however -_-) except for one rather unfortunate turn of events. As my general charged into the rear of the Sabaean bodyguard, he came flying off his horse and hurtled through the air to land on top of one of the Sabaen's swords. So did Cynan become the new head of the Egyptian army. ;_;
And from there, most of the Levant fell pretty quickly. Not because of Cynan of course, but due to each city having a garrison of roughly 2 units (except for one which had a whole one unit of Elite African Pikemen at around 12 men strong :O)
Apart from that, the map has been pretty quiet. Except for Gader on the Straits of Gibraltar rebelling back to the Carthaginians for a few turns, but even then, they made it their new capital so I was able to send spies in to their eastern cities to make them revolt. Oh, and a few Germanic settlements rebelled to the Eleutheroi (the Sweboz being so far gone that not even rebels will join them) but being eleutheroi rebellions, they weren't exactly difficult to put down.
There was one other faction my armies had a fair amount of trouble sorting out however, and that was the Greeks. My Greek army was ready to invade around 165 or so, and invade they did, beginning with Athens, which would be lucky if it had a half garrison at the time, but what I didn't count on at the time was the horrific fighting ability of the Greek bodyguard. There was a general in Athens, and he was reinforced by an army from Corinth with 2 bodyguards in it. I let them form up as they came on to the field far too close together, and eventually their line met my line, and I wheeled my cavalry around behind it to attack the flank. Then I looked at my unit cards and saw they'd dropped from 80 to 60 or so already where they were fighting the bodyguards. And these were Classical Hoplites. It's not like I was fielding Akontistai or anything. Obviously, the best idea at this stage would be to weaken them, so I charged directly into their rear with my horse and killed....6 of them. Out of around 53. The fight continued on like this for some time, with many of my units routing, but I did thankfully finish all the bodyguards off and rout the army. A few units made it back to Athens, and I found myself besieging it on the next turn, but my army was in tatters. I took Athens from the one or two quarter strength units that were still inside, but I made sure the next thing that was ordered was a march by my units back to a friendly city to bring my hoplites back to full strength (I ended up with around half as many units as I'd begun with even then due to routers and massive casualties however)
The rest of the conquest of Greece wasn't too difficult, as that had been their only army, but of course most of their power was consolidated on the northern shores of the Black Sea. So of course, almost directly after taking Sparta, a large Greek army made their way from Olbia across the river to Gawjam-Bastarnoz, laid siege, and took the city. Then it did the standard trick of leaving 2 units in the city while the main army stood outside. The army in Greece was sent up to take the city back, but decided to take on the invading army first, now on its way back to Olbia. My fullstack army hid in the trees by the side of the road to Olbia, and duly ambushed the middling sized Greek army. And lost. Spies later mentioned that the army had three veteran generals each with at least two gold chevrons (where they got them given their laughable lack of fighting with other powers I don't know) so perhaps it made sense that they diced their way convincingly through the army, but the unavoidable point was, the army was broken. The general was killed and most of the men were run down in their escape. The Northern Balkans were completely undefended and open to Greek conquest, and......nothing happened. They just sat in Olbia, quite happy to not go any further. I suppose they felt the point had been made. 3 or so years later, after some heavy duty recruiting and a general shipped in from Rome, another army was sent yet again to beat back the Greeks. Gawjam-Bastarnoz was retaken. However, instead of having a repeat of the previous battle (as the general was green and the makeup of the army was essentially the same, minus the inclusion of 6 slinger units), a new position was taken up on the south bank of the Dniester, and lo and behold, the clever Greeks attempted to cross. And then they went one better and sent their three generals out first across the bridge, to be peppered with sling shots and then meet a merc phalanx head on. Not to labour the point, all three generals ended up with holes through their chests, and the army routed. Yet another army was sent from Olbia, and yet again, they attempted to force their way across the river, and once again, they wished they hadn't. Finally, after a 2 year siege, Olbia fell, and Greece was left with three disconnected provinces and no hope of further expansion. Not that that stops them holding on to their provinces, as two failed invasions of Rhodes have more than proved, but their time will come eventually.
So, that pretty much brings you up to speed with what's happened since the last update, so where does it go from here? (Rejoice! Pictures! The Great Wall of Text is finally over)

First off, let's have a look at who's going to be consigned to the rubbish bin of history in the next year or two.

As you can no doubt see, Makedon's final stronghold is just on the verge of falling (in fact, it will this turn. I just thought I'd be all awesome and dramatic and show you the sunset of a mighty civilisation rather than saying "They died. I lol'ed"
The Ptolemies are being phenomenally irritating in that Cyprus is just strong enough to not warrant an attack, especially when Baktria is quite a bit more of a pressing issue, but they're still around, which means they're still more than capable of gaining cities via revolt. And then filling said cities with slave units whose 6 attack is more than capable of ripping apart men with near on 30 defense. Go figure I suppose. Cyprus will get its eventually.
Oh, and look at that. Carthage now only has Phoenicia left. I like how that works so much I'm actually considering just leaving them there until Baktria goes down......but then again no. Their own stupid fault for wanting Massilia I'm afraid. Also I can't have them nicking off with Carthage and Utica when the inevitable happens and I lose them to revolt when I change capitals again.

And next we have...

The Greeks. Being self-important arsehats as usual, refusing to hand over Rhodes when I've asked nicely for it twice already. Oh well, the units you see forming up down there are the third diplomatic committee I'm sending over, and I'm making damned sure it'll be far more persuasive than the last ones I sent.
Apart for that however, they still have Trapezous and the eastern city on the Crimean Peninsula, so they're a way off destruction yet.


Next, we have the Neuriji, having taken even more territories around the Baltic. Both revolted to them however, so they've yet to make any militaristic movements. The first was Sapmi, which revolted a few turns after the Baktrians decided to take it off my hands. Next was the settlement in between them whose name escapes me (Edit: Sweet Jesus, it's right there on the picture. Oh well, you're more than capable of reading it yourself, so go ahead) , again because of Baktrian cackhandedness. I suppose I'll get around to wiping them out eventually, but really they're just not posing any threat at the moment, so I guess until they descend upon Gawjam-Bastarnoz, they'll be left right alone.


Hah, bet you forgot about this lot. Well, so did I, which is why it came as a bit of a surprise when I noticed they were sending practically their entire army to Petra to try it on with me. If they're anything like the last army I faced, a few horsies should be enough to send them on their way, but you never know. That might have just been to lull me into a false sense of security.
at any rate, I'm not terribly concerned what they end up doing. If they take all of Egypt while I'm fighting back Baktria, more power to them. As soon as I reach Persia though, they'll be going the way of Cyprus and Rhodes.

And finally....

Yes! I know! They're still around! They only have one province, but they must be the only faction in the game aside from me to have never lost their home province at some stage (Except for the Saba, but I refuse to accept that as an achievement). Another interesting fact is that until about 3 years ago my faction wasn't even aware of their existance.
I'm quite looking forward to the two or three battles that will seal their fate. It's a good goal to work towards.

So with that said, I'd like to finish with some of the personalities of the Casseian Empire.

May as well start the whole thing off with the eternal embarrassment of the Casseian Empire. The man who fought against destiny to become the most complete and spectacular failure he could possibly be. Cynan the Illiterate.

How a man directly related to Adcobrovatae and Caradog could be so poor a human being is difficult to come to terms with. More perplexing is the fact that he was the child Caradog chose to succeed him. Don't go thinking Cynan is Caradog's only son. Oh no, Caradog had 3 boys, one of whom has lived most of his life in Memphis, and is currently Governor. And quite a good one at that. Adcobrovatae's line extends even further, with 7 living decendants. The truly perplexing thing however, is that Cynan was Caradog's chosen. He went everywhere with him. fought on campaigns alongside him. And yet, he picked up none of his father's traits. He still has trouble with simple concepts, as his picture shows. His only truly good point is his gregarious nature, a happy change from his rebellious youth, but it doesn't go far to redeem him. Currently he is sidelined from leading his army, being made temporary governor of Bostra, while the empire holds its breath in anticipation of what sort of man his 9 year old son Brennos ends up being. We can only pray his innumerable faults and his wife's sickly ignorance are somehow overcome to bring forth a new hero.
Last interesting point on Cynan is, despite his not being Faction Leader, due to the social changes within the empire, he is considered close to royalty, being both the son and grandson of legendary heroes. Thus, despite an almost unanimous dislike of him, he does pull quite a bit of weight. Which leads to his newest 'decree', based on the mutterings of a number of Cornovian druids intent on enshrining Adcobrovatae even further than the 2 decade old hero worship has. It has been suggested that Adcobrovatae was in fact an incarnation of Llew, come from the Otherworld when Britain most needed him, evidenced by Adcobrovatae's meteoric rise due to campaigns against the Carthaginians. Thus, Cynan, not bereft of family spirit, has ordered this to be accepted as the new religious truth, and ordered the worship of any deity other than Llew within the borders of the empire to be strictly forbidden. Old temples have been pulled down and replaced with new groves in Llew's honour, in direct contrast with both Adcobrovatae and Caradog's tolerance of foreign religions. Even the temple fortress honouring Dagda in Camulosadae has been pulled down under this decree, which hasn't gone far to endear Cynan to the people of Britain. People he has, of course, never met in his life.
Still... the Cornovians are right pleased.


And here is the General who has replaced Cynan, shipped in urgently from Carthage itself so that someone with more than half a brain ends up leading Casse's warriors in the east. He may not be the most exciting person on the face of the planet, but at the very least he knows what he's doing, and he does it well. A solid commander, and while history may forget him, he will be a vital part of it nonetheless.


And here is the general currently laying siege to the Makedones. A one time client ruler who dispensed with his title in favour of leading men against the Baktrians. A man who would in other times be completely ignored due to his lack of any real discernible qualities, but who currently has the respect of many due to his earnestness and desire to achieve despite his many disadvantages, in direct comparison with Cynan whose steadfast refusal to make positive use of his many advantages has lost him the respect of the great majority of his underlings.
Rianoros also has the added bonus of leading cavalry into battle, allowing him to enter the fray, and giving him a reputation as something of a fighter, unlike almost all Casse nobility who prefer to direct their men from behind the battle line on chariot.


The final two men are the rising heroes of the Casse push east. Bel moc Orromoros, nicknamed Belli Mawr, after the Celtic War God, is the general in charge of the push into the Caucasus against the Baktrians. His ability to command men is almost unmatched by any contemporaries, and his men are some of the most battle-hardened in the known world. It is after all the evolution of the Vesontian army, sent across the Rhine decades ago to deal with the Sweboz. Men are constantly replaced due to casualties inflicted by the Baktrians to the extent that it is doubtful any man within the army has a memory of the initial crossing, but the history and cameraderie act like a standard. A standard that can never be taken away beyond obliterating every man in the army, and so far, nobody has come close.

Finally

Cataradoc moc Meriadoc. The son of Caratawc moc Meriadoc moc Iberia. The empire's greatest living general. He might have stiff competition from Bel moc Orromoros, but he has fought quite a few more battles than his rival, being the chief general in the battles against both Makedon and Baktria, known as far greater enemies of the Casse than Epirus, which fell before Bel's spear. He might not be quite an equal to Caradog, and certainly not to Adcobrovatae the Great, but Caratadoc the Mighty is a hero in a time when very few abound.

Anyway, I think that's enough for now. Let me know what you think. I should be posting another one in a week or two about what happens between now and 140. Laters all.