The Daughters of the Dragon: A Valkyrja AAR (ATW)

[SubRosa]

The Greeks wish to trade with us? I wish to have their heads on a platter. Well, time enough for that later. We will sell them Amazon trinkets for now.


This is what I have been dreading ever since I took Vicus Gepidae, and the reason I have made sure I have had a General there at all times since. Germania has attacked.


Kardika, a new member of our august gathering of Amazon heroes, rides north from her post at Vicus Venedae as far as she can go, then hires a mercenary band of Barbarian Cavalry. She sends the mercenaries on to Vicus Gepidae to assist Pantariste there.


Pantariste then sallies, bringing the Barb Cavalry mercs in as reinforcements.


The Germans were on the corner tile of the city on the strat map, so they head for that corner as the battle starts. Pantariste finds an opening in their column and charges.


Scratch those Screechers.


Her Skirmishers come out of the city and proceed to give this lagging German Spearwarband volley after volley of javelins.


The Germans are setting up a line in the corner of the map. I want to get at their Barb Archers and Barb Cavalry, so I sweep around their line with my horse. In the background all of my infantry is converging on that lagging Spearwarband above.


Charge!


There goes the German Captain. Their archers followed soon after.


Mopping up. The Spearwarbands are in phalanx, and thusly are too slow to do anything but watch me butcher their comrades.


My infantry is finally catching up to that Spearwarband.


Uh oh, they turned and lowered their spears, this will get ugly fast.


My infantry routs before I can order them to retreat.


Okay, time to rest a bit.


Pantariste tries to lure the German Axemen out of formation to pursue her. They do not go for it.


So she rides over to the spearmen and give them a few volleys of javelins. Alas, that does not budge them either.


Finally she simply charges into the Axemen on the flank, routing them instantly (they were exhausted, which helps a lot).


Ooops, here comes another Axe unit. Pantariste stops before she blunders into it.


The Axemen charge her, and follow her back to the walls of the city. Right in front of a tower.


They changed their mind about attacking her when she saw the rest of my army.


Too late, there is no escape for these Germans.


After another rest break, another Spearwarband is lured out of formation.


Again, they get close and change their minds.


Too late for them as well...


While my cavalry was across the field chasing down routers, my infantry dispatched another Spearwarband on their own after surrounding it.


It is round four or five by now, and only three Spearwarbands are left. I pick them apart. This one on the flank looks like a good target.


I hit it with everything from both sides and they insta-rout.


I let the momentum carry my army into the second Spearwarband next to it.


Chain rout.


Only one left. You can guess what happened next.


Heroic Victory.


It was a slaughter. Over one thousand kills for Pantariste alone. Pretty good for her first battle.


I just love when the AI does this.


In the east, Xanthippe raises the siege of Androphagia by attacking the Scythians blockading it.


The garrison of the city enters the battle right on the Scythian flank.


It was your basic plains battle. Here goes the Scythian General.


Their handlers all dead, these Wardogs are now ghostly apparitions.


Victory.


Even further east, Okypous sallies against the Sarmatians besieging Campus Roxolani.


It is not a battle, but a slaughter.

[SubRosa]

Finally, Makanyane has her chance to take the war to our enemies. She assaults Vibantavarium.


She attacks from two walls.


Polemusa's force enters the city first.


But Makanyane's follows soon after.


The Scythian General saw a chance and attacked one of Polemusa's Warbands that was far out ahead of the rest of her force.


They held long enough for Polemusa and the rest of her women to come up.


Scratch one barbarian warlord.


Then it was on to the town square.


No survivors.


Makanyane shows no mercy to the vile Scythians. They are put to the sword.


After withstanding attacks on all the frontiers, Valkyrja lands are once again clear of invaders. Next stop, Olbia.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Can i has full map plz?
Kthnxbai

[SubRosa]

The Scythians and Sarmatians are still testing my borders. However, where previously I was rushing reinforcements from one endangered city to another in a desperate race to hold back the barbarian tidal wave, now I am using my cities as strong points to dominate the terrain. When an enemy force appears over the horizon I ride out and destroy them before they can get far, let alone lay siege to anything. It also helps that there are much fewer Scythians and Sarmatians than before. Here is one such example near Campus Roxolani.


An easy victory for Okypous. I have made her my Faction Heir rather than Alkippe, as she was the one leading all of the battles anyway.


I saw a lone Scythian unit wandering north of Vibantavarium and sent Polemusa out to deal with it. It shows as having only 49 soldiers, but a closer look shows it has 193. It is a dog unit. The first is the human handlers, the second is the animals (or animals + handlers?).


Flawless victory.


A lone Horse Archer rode out to intercept a small Scythian force not too far away but could not reach it. The Scythians obliged me by attacking my Horse Archer on their turn.


The Scythians are annihilated for a Heroic Victory.


Far in the east, the garrison of Gelonos spotted a small Sarmatian force that had crossed over to our side of the border. They rode out to chastise them.


This is an example of a very successful horse archer tactic I call the Scythian Horse Ride. Basically you get an enemy cavalry unit to attack one of your own. A General makes the best bait, but as in this case, a simple Horse Archer will do as well. Your bait unit flees from the pursuer. Then you slide one or more Horse Archers in behind the pursuer and follow them. Your bait unit leads the enemy across the map, and you shoot them in the back with the second unit the entire way until they rout. If you have a General acting as bait, you can just wait until they are whittled down a bit and then turn and destroy them in melee. This is especially effective in destroying enemy Generals, but you better have a General of your own acting as bait.


Second Heroic Victory in a row.


In the west, Tereis goes to deal with a Rebel General who has been waylaying merchants on the road from Careotae to Vicus Gepidae for years. I have only now had stable enough borders to send a General after him.


Third Heroic Victory in a row.


Polemusa has joined forces with that lone Horse Archer of mine from before, and they took on another small Scythian army, this one led by a General.


Only a Clear Victory this time, so my string of Heroics is broken. But I killed the General, and that is most important.


Here you go Olaf, a look at the world with Fog of War off. The Gorgons have settled in North Africa, after driving Carthage from its shores. Numidia actually looks very strong. The Romans are doing nothing, as are the Iberians and Gauls. The Britons are fighting the Germans around Batavodorum. Big Yellow, Amazonia, and Armenia are all tearing pieces out of the Seleucids (funny, in my Gorgon campaign The Seleucids absolutely dominated the Near East).


Here is another example of what I was talking about in the beginning of the post. A small Scythian force has crossed the border east of Androphagia. Xanthippe immediately rode out to attack them before they could penetrate far into Valkyrja lands.


She leaves no survivors.


In the east, Alkippe was building watchtowers south of Campus Roxolani when she saw that Tanais is tantalizingly open.


The reason for the lack of defenders is further west. Makanyane is one turn away from laying siege to Olbia. The Scythians seem to have shifted their armies from the east toward her. They have two half stacks of horse archers on the road between Olbia and Tanais, as well as the garrison of Olbia itself. But all are low-tier troops. They have long since used up all of the elite troops they started the game with.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

WTF??? Gorgons no take Triton?

Well at least we have now seen that the Seleucids have a fighting chance to win the ME.

[SubRosa]

I have tried and tried to get the Gorgons to attack Triton, but the AI just does not want to do it. I have even scripted Gorgons armies to appear right next to Triton at the start of the game. They just stand around for a dozen turns and then wander off. I tried moving Triton to see if it would make a difference, and it still changed nothing. It is like the old saying, you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.

[SubRosa]

Well it is about time!


A Scythian army blocks the road to Olbia.


I set out my archers ahead of my infantry, this way they can engage the Scythians as soon as possible. I am not worried about a charge on my archers, as the Scythians are all horse archers. Still, I move my infantry forward through the archers as soon as possible to reduce the amount of time they are vulnerable.


Here is a little trick to hunting horse archers when you do not have them yourself. Use one unit to push the archer in one direction, and send a cavalry unit around behind them at the same time. They end up trapped between your two units.


No getting out of this.


The rest of the battle went no different. Makanyane brushes the Scythians aside.


She continues to Olbia and lays siege to the city. Mindful of the Scythian armies in striking distance to the north, she is careful to position herself on the western side of the city. This way if the other Scythians reinforce they will not be coming in on her flank or rear.


In the east, a Sarmatian force has turned up to defend the approach to Tanais (or more likely they were just on their way to Campus Roxolani). In any case, Alkippe attacks it.


Nomad scum cannot stand against the might of the Valkyrja.


Afterward Alkippe leaves the army and heads back north to Campus Roxolani. A large Sarmatian force has been spotted east of the city, and she will be needed to defend it. Okypous takes the rest of the force south and builds a fort near Tanais, thinking that the Scythians in the open near the city might attack her. In the meanwhile Xanthippe moves east to join her. Now that Olbia has fallen, she is no longer needed to defend Androphagia.


Over the AI's turn, Makanyane is attacked outside of Olbia, bringing the garrison of the city into the battle as reinforcements. If I can destroy the Scythians the city will be mine without a siege.


The goddesses have blessed me with this lovely hill to stand upon. For an archery faction like mine, height is a devastating advantage.


As the first army comes up the hill, I swing my infantry to the right to face them head on. In the no-woman's land between the armies, Makanyane cleans up the lead elements of the Scythians.


It took a while for them to get up the hill, but the first army is finally engaging.


It starts with a clash of infantry.


A unit of their Steppe Spearmen was able to get around my left. They were met by Makanyane and her Sarmatian Mercs.


She continued through the routing spearmen and charged down upon the Scythian General.


He was cut down by the Sarmatians.


Back in the center, the infantry were slugging it out breast to breast.


My women prevailed, and the Scythian right dissolved.


Who let these things out?


Olbia's garrison was now coming into action, especially on my right.


The Scythians have gotten around my flank. Especially disturbing are the Barbarian Cavalry, who have a clear shot at my Mercenary Amazon Archers. I have my Warband on the flank pull out of line and charge them.


Spears vs. horses = dead horses.


The rest of the garrison was cleaned up shortly thereafter. Heroic Victory.


The men of Olbia begin their new lives as Amazon slaves.


I also receive a famous battle marker.


Here is a turn of luck. A new daughter came of age in Olbia immediately afterward.


Back in the east Okypous and Xanthippe have a Scythian sandwich of that army that was in the field near Tanais.


Scratch another Scythian army.


Hmmm, the Dacians are becoming restless. They will be attacking soon. I move to reinforce Vicus Venedae.


My Diplomat has discovered that the Thracians have taken Pella and Bylazora from the Macedonians.


Making them allies seems like a good idea right now.