The Ashes of Rome- Lands to Conquer

[Askthepizzaguy]

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1080 Anno Domini. Great Palace of Constantinople.

The Emperor stood over a map of Europe, tracing the old borders of the once-mighty Roman Empire. He took note of what little territory remained under his control, and was not pleased. The Seljuq Sultan Alp Arslan's victory over Greek forces at Manzikert left the Empire in tatters. Even now, a state of war existed between Alexios I Komnenos and the Seljuk Sultan, and the war was not going well. More grave news in the west; the Norman Catholics of Palermo threatened the Empire's holdings in southern Italy. Unless bold action was taken, Emperor Alexios would see the last of the Roman Empire defeated under his watch, and go down in history as the last, and worst, Emperor of Rome.

Alexios needed a grand strategy to reconquer lands which rightfully belonged to the true heirs of the Roman Empire, the Greeks. Would the war unfold as the Emperor predicted, or would this strategy lead to the very defeat the Emperor wished to avoid? Alexios held the quill of history in his hands. Once written, it could never be undone; any mistake could ruin the Roman Empire for all time. Would the history Alexios wrote leave his Empire in ashes, or would Rome be restored to its former glory? He began to write.

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Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Welcome to my After Action Report, or should I say, Before Action Report! I have decided to plan my strategy for this session of Lands to Conquer in advance, to see how well my ideas hold up in practice. As always, the difficulty will be on Very Hard/Very Hard, and with a bit of a handicap since I'm attempting not to deviate from my planned moves once the campaign is underway. Unexpected wars and surprises of that nature I will take as strikes against me. Should I be forced to deviate completely from my chosen strategy, I will have to consider this campaign a defeat. If Emperor Comnenus or his successors cannot predict the moves of the enemy, then the enemies of Rome will take the Empire by surprise. If this happens, then the war-weary Greeks and subjects of the Emperor will grow tired of his incompetent rule, and support for the war will fall away, starting with the lower classes who always bear the brunt of the war, and ending with the professional soldiery, and possibly even open rebellion from the generals against the Emperor's rule.

There is another planned aspect to this AAR which I will share: Should the Empire be reconquered as rapidly as I wish, then there will be an added layer of difficulty: The Emperor will grow complacent and corrupt, and celebrate too often with wine and foreign women... and madness will inflict his mind. At that point, the Emperor will become a tyrant both brutal and incompetent: raising taxes solely for the purpose of building little forts out of his massive piles of gold, ignoring the needs of his subjects, and even granting lands to the Empire's enemies after the Emperor romances those fine young female emissaries they so kindly keep sending.

Rome will fall, it is unavoidable.... it is destiny. And should the Empire fall due to its ruler's corruption, incompetence, sexual deviancy, drinking, and madness, rather than honest defeat on the battlefield, then the generals will rebel and assassinate the Emperor. They will then forge a new empire from the Ashes of Rome. A new empire will be forged not from the idealism of bringing superior Roman culture to those who have none, but from the brutal edge of a sword, through piracy, barbarism, pillaging and destroying Europe itself. An Empire rising out of the ashes, not to restore Rome to its former glory.... but to unleash bloody vengeance upon Europe, leaving nothing but charred bodies and ruined cities in its wake.

The Ashes of Rome: A "Before and After" action report by Askthepizzaguy. (Lands to Conquer, Byzantine Empire)

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