Short but unusual Roman AAR
I stopped taking notes as I noticed that I had no success with the screenshots :-(
However, the course of the campaign is quite unusual, so I shall outline it briefly and from memory.
Setting VH/H
Rome went for Epeiros getting peace and trade with everybody else and alliances with AS, Macedonia, Getai, Suebi and Lusotania. The Senate decreed that those pesky wannabee Graeculi needed to be taught Roman supremacy as they refused peace (and Scipio got Vanguisher of Epirotes in his first battle against them and wanted a Triumph). The two original Epirotes provinces fell in epic battles pitting a Roman Consular army against 4 full-stack Epirote ones led by excellent generals. Scipio then sent his army home to rebuild in Rome, leaving only a half-stack in a fortress guarding against Pella that was also Epirote.
Then Macedonia got ambitious, sitting on all Hellas they looked for new land and instead of taking their homeland from Epeiros they decided to go for their ally (me) and sent 15 units to lay siege to Epeiros. Unpertubed, Scipio led his locally recruited troops to relieve the siege. And when the macedonians sent two more full stacks, the Consular army arrived back rested and rebuilt, and ready for some action. This they got, under Scipio they never stopped before having eradicated Macedonia. Meanwhile a small reinforcement army had stranded on Crete and took it, with a totally passive KH army looking on. Diplomats tried to give KH Crete several times, including with monetary gifts, but no. The Graeculi preferred to sit on Rhodes only, and in anticipation of hostile action from them, the army stayed on Crete. True enough the Graeculi attacked and got wiped, and so did Rhodes. I try not to blitz, but I also take unkindly to such.
As Rome now sat on 3 provinces more than historically at this time (around 240 BC), I decided to sit around for a while and send Scipio to Rome to finally enjoy his Triumph and Consulship. Other generals took over, took Pella in the face of renewed Epeirote aggression, sacked it, destroyed all buildings and withdrew- expecting the newly spawned Epeirote stacks to retake it. No, they passed it and went for the depleted and exhausted Consular Army, and got wiped. Then Pontos took Byzantium, the city north of it and Pella- now in the hands of rebels... Stupid AI.
While all this had been going on the usual Suebi conquest of the north happened, but what was unusual was that AS and Carthage had become true powerhouses. Especially AS. Carthage had taken most of Africa, four provinces in Iberia and divided most of Aegyptos with AS. The Yellow Death had failed this time. AS had taken all of Asia Minor and now wiped Pontos from its remaining European provinces. The Romans were still larger than historical (though taking just one northern Eluitheroi province), so the Senate decreed that a horde of assassins and spies would be used to weaken the Gauls, the Chartaginians and the Seleukids. So passed another two decades, a brief Chartaginian siege of Messana provided an excuse for Roman intervention, but not wanting to blitz Res Pubica Romana kept quiet and cursed the fact that the intense fighting in Greece could not trigger Polybian reforms. meanwhile AS and Carthage were going at it in Egypt and Carthage started an offensive in Iberia that threatened the Lusotanians. Rome's faithful ally. Rome had to act and quickly broke the alliance and a few years later declared.
222 BC Roman armies sailed for Spain, Sardinia, Lilibeo, thus reverseng the white tide. Lusotania and Rome divided the Carthaginian holdings in Iberia and the Carthaginian holdings close to Rome fell to Roman might and the Polybian reforms finally happened.
Rome then shook hands with their Lusotanian friends, leaving them to take out the Eluitheroi and Averni encroaching on them, and sent their main consular armies to Africa to do some damage to the Carthaginian juggernaut. The Lusotanians as well as AS then promptly betrayed the good and virtuous Romans and their good faith. Lusotania taking one province in Iberia before one of the Consular Armies in Africa could return, and AS loosing Halicarnassos as well as six full stacks in Pella and surroundings in field battles with local Roman forces (Illyrioi vs elite phalanx :-s many a heroic victory was won). As it is now it is basically a battle of attrition vs both superpowers (AS and carthage are 275 and 210% Rome's size/power respectively despite the Roman conquests), while I expect the Consular army just landed in Iberia to vanguish the Lusotanian traitors. The one in Africa will take one or two provinces only in the face of massive Carthaginian armies streaming towards them, and the exhausted eastern armies to hold firm, while seaborne invasions grab the occasional provinces from AS until I can land a proper Consular Army and have Polybian Legions teach those damn Diadochii a lesson in humility towards Rome. Prepare for Roman supremacy, there will be no artificial stops until those enemies are crushed!!!
Unusual points.
1. The Yellow Death is virtually nonexistant, instead the white and grey/silver deaths has become much more powerful than I ever saw Ptolomoi.
2. Stupid AI makes a habit of breaking alliances and/or betraying me. No ally ever came to my aid even when conditions for it was met, and most of them betrayed me.
Anyone seen that before? Especially 1.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Macilrille
Keep going! Show those Greek dogs who their real masters are!
Bookmarks