Historical Romani AAR/ Journal

[ZombiVoziKombi]

Hello all!

I'm relatively new to RTW & the Total War series in general -- played only the Romans, one full campaign on the vanilla game & then two partial ones on EB. I find it a great way to take time off obligations in life & work, and coming from the perspective both of an occasional history freak & a part-time software developer, EB is the way to go. I got to the point where I'd like to do a Roman historical campaign, roughly following the house rules and the timeline provided by @QuintusSertorius. I'm not doing it so much for the purpose of historical reenactment but for fun, challenge, and to test out modding ideas. Reading Quintus' amazing contribution & the ensuing discussions tickled my history nerve and I found myself doing online research, making additions to the timeline and more. I figured it'd be fun to share the details of what I'm doing on the forums and get other players' input on things I'm not quite sure about or any old topic in general.

So. I'm treating the next two posts as the up-to-date summary of what's going on. In this post I'll describe the technical details of my general game setup, as I'm employing some solutions that I think/hope may be of use to others. In the next post I'll briefly outline the house rules I'm following and the sub-mods I'm using. Finally, in the post after it I will deal with the conquest timeline and related topics, such as the treatment of the conquered and assimilation of territories. I will update all as I go along. Everything else -- the AAR, the questions that arise during the game, the rationale for specific decisions, etc. -- will follow.

There are two specifics I'd like to point out. The first one is that, even though I'm fairly technically proficient -- and this game is, in part, an excuse to nerd out -- I'm still relatively new to the game, so any suggestions & comments from more experienced players are not just welcome but invited. The second is that, because of the aforementioned obligations, I'll probably be posting in bursts months apart and am actually not sure if I'll finish. However, I've done enough research so far that I think/ hope there's a contribution to be made.

That said, let's be off!

* * *

I'll start with quick notes on my RTW+EB setup -- the technical issues of setting it up, and the solutions I've employed to any difficulties that arose.

Hardware

I neither have an up-to-date machine nor spend much time in Windows. My computer is an '08 multi-boot laptop and I use Winbl0w$ (32-bit XP) for software that I cannot easily run on GNU/Linux (testing websites on IE) and for not-so-occasional forays into gaming. These are limited to titles that can run on my hardware and don't take much disk space, since the room I left for the XP partition is tiny by today's standards. I'm running on 2G of memory, a 64-bit dual core Intel & an GeForce 8600 series graphics card, all plenty for RTW.

Runtime Environment

My base RTW installation is Gold I got at GameFly, and I recently beefed it up with Alex from Amazon. Since I'm running on a laptop that's usually docked in a two-monitor setup, windowed mode is a necessity. I also need a way to take screenshots while interrupting my game as little as possible -- I find the default Winbl0w$ routine of manually pasting them into Paint and saving simply unacceptable. In all of the above (using Alex to run EB, setting up a windowed mode to my satisfaction, and auto-saving screenshots) I've encountered difficulties, and since I'm probably not the only one, here are my experiences. Of course maybe someone was able to address them in a more satisfactory manner; if that's you, I'd love to hear from you.

Using Alex

The Alex installation I got complains that I don't have RTW installed. Nothing else to do, I need to reinstall RTW Gold, try again & if that doesn't work, call Amazon & complain. Luckily I presently have no intention of running Alex proper -- I recognize the appeal, but I'm feeling too wonky to pick up a game in which my only goal is to conquer everything in sight -- but I hear that the Alex AI is smarter & the game more stable, so I want to give it a shot. Thanks to @Maksimus (BCS: Hvala majstore!) for a great guide, the only two bits of the Alex installation I actually need are

1. the Alex executable, and
2. the file curiously named chat_filter.san.

The first is easy, RomeTW-Alex.exe is right there in the Alex setup directory. The second requires digging it out of a *.cab file.

Despite my hopes, neither WinRAR nor the Unix utility cabextract (for the initiated, I'm running Cygwin) could peek into the installation files, as neither seems to like InstallShield cabinets. The answer was a free software utility, imaginatively named Universal Extractor. I don't think it actually lived up to its name as it never finished extracting the entire data1.cab archive -- after a while it was just hanging -- but long before I had to kill it, it managed to pry out the needed file. Voilà.

Windowed Mode

Next -- this actually came first, months ago, when I first started to play RTW -- I needed to figure out how to run the game in windowed mode. The standard solution, the command line option -ne, doesn't really work for me -- an area on the upper left with no window decorations at all to minimize or move it around, which in my setup shows up on the wrong monitor and interferes with the Windows start button.

The great little utility that solved this for me is called D3DWindower. It works quite well once set up correctly, which can take some fiddling, in part because the UI is only partly translated from Japanese. If anyone is interested in details please let me know.

Taking Screenshots

Turns out it's surprisingly difficult in Windows to

1. take screenshots without leaving the game;
2. capture only the active window, preferably only its main area; and
3. auto-save the file into a target directory.

After quite a bit of fiddling & trying different tools I found a way to do this with IrfanView, my preferred Windows graphics app, with the rights settings in D3DWindower.

Managing Mods

The discussion of which sub-mods I'm using/ writing is probably better left to the next section... so just technical details here. There are quite a few sub-mods I'd like to try out, some for the purposes of realism/ historicity, others just out of curiosity. After reading quite a few times how good idea it is to make backups (I concur), I decided to save some trouble & put the entire EB subdirectory under version control. This way I can revert pretty painlessly to the previous stable version, to the pristine EB mod, or to any point in between. The utility I'm using is subversion. If anyone's interested in details, I'd be happy to share; some experience with Unix or GNU/Linux is a plus but not necessary.

Now that all that's out of the way, it's time to look at the game.

[ZombiVoziKombi]

I have played one partial game following @QuintusSertorius' Guide to Conduct Becoming of a True Roman (Redux for EB) and his suggested historically-accurate Roman conquest timeline. What follows is an attempt to distill this experience together with some research into a variant of these rules, which I then hope to apply to an actual game. As the game progresses, so will the rules. I'll also be quite open on what details I'm uncertain about, so if anyone following the thread wants to offer a suggestion, I'm all ears.

Apart from Quintus' work, I'll occasionally refer to @candelarius' Ultimate Guide to Playing RTR Historically as the Roman and to other relevant threads I've found. Many MANY thanks to all these RTW fans for their work and research. I'm a latecomer to this discussion, and whatever refinements I suggest -- to the timeline, the treatment of conquered cities etc. very much build upon these prior efforts. On the other hand, wherever I choose to ignore the original guidelines it's purely as a matter of taste -- because I think it'll leave me more room to focus on those parts of the game that I personally find more fun.

Difficulty and Scope

I agree with Quintus that a good setting for a historical Romani campaign is H/M.

As far as the historical flow of the game goes, the EB requirements for Marian and Augustan reforms could IMO be amended to reflect historical realities and timing more closely. In particular, while there certainly was an element of personality that led to both sets of reforms, they also resulted from social and economic pressures of Roman growth. To reflect this, I'm inclined to have a pair of alternative requirements for each: one with the right man for the job, which can kick in earlier & with fewer requirements on territory, buildings, etc., and one not dependent on the existence of a character, triggering a few decades later & with higher requirements. Something similar is in place now for Marian reforms but I'd like to refine it. I'll revisit this in more detail when I look into how to implement it.

If I ever reach 14 CE I will be tempted to mod the game to play a few decades more, say until the end of the reign of Claudius to round out the borders & conquer Britain, or until Vespasian & the revolt in Judea. If it ever comes to this I suspect modding it will be pretty easy. The funnest part would be simulating the reign of Caligula: hold games everywhere until bankrupt, disband (read: sink) the fleet, execute random family members, then recover best I can 4 years down the road. And Nero? Burn the city and blame it on Christians?

Finally, it's fun to speculate how the game would unfold from the POV of Rome if it were to start 3-4 decades earlier, when the Hellenistic empires had just formed and when Rome was still hard-pressed by the Samnites, taking up only Rome and Capua. This will remain just speculation, though, as it would require significant adjustments to the starting setup of the game.

Family Members

Although my main focus in strategy games is not hard core role-playing, I do pay some attention to the "lives" of the characters. The life histories of Roman men, as outlined by Quintus, run as follows:

• 16-19: Stay in Rome and get some education.
• 20-29: Get down & dirty as an army lieutenant.
• 30-37: Go back to Rome & serve in the government.
• 38-: Lead armies and govern settlements.

This outline makes a lot of sense and I tend to stick to it, although in the very beginning there aren't that many characters around, so the results get a little strange. For example, there is a teenager who needs to go to Rome to school right away in 272 BCE, but when all the older characters are off on campaign in 270 he effectively ends up governing Rome. Also, again in the early stages of the game, I find it convenient to put available younger characters (typically 30+) in charge of smaller settlements rather than leave them ungoverned. These restrictions of course do not apply to client rulers, where I tend to take whomever the game gives me -- usually a dude in his early 20s.

As far as suitors go, I tend to accept only those high in two or more of the three main traits (intelligence, charisma & vigor), and among older ones (35+), only those who have some accomplishments to their name. RTW, perhaps understandably, doesn't offer all that much in terms of women's rights, but forcing teenage girls to marry middle-aged losers is where I draw the line. Despite all the pious pronouncements about obedient Roman daughters, I'd bet this policy amounted to both good politics & good parenthood then, too.

While we're at it, can a woman rule Egypt in RTW?

Economy

I like to play a builder game. This is IMO somewhat in character: the earliest remains of public infrastructure in Rome suggest that it was out of proportion to the city's relatively minor size and importance at the time, so the legendary kings apparently subscribed to the principle "if you build it, they will come." As Rome expanded, it was apt to cast its conquests as a civilizing mission. In the early days, and certainly more than those who later coined the phrase, Romans seemed to have meant it, bringing the benefits of their technology and public works, and later citizenship, to the governed.

Playing a builder game means, no surprise, having all cities building something at all times. Of course, this is impossible early on when income is relatively low because the empire is still small and roads & markets relatively primitive, as well as during major military engagements when army maintenance costs are high. It does imply, then, that civilian building priorities are those that increase income, in other words, exactly in line with Quintus' suggestions: roads, markets, commercial docks. Departing from Quintus, however, it also means the taxes are set to the highest level allowed by public sentiment & population growth, usually Very High.

Very High taxes curb pop growth, which reduces it somewhat closer to realistic figures, and means that building projects can keep up with settlement size more easily. However, as RTW ties building choices to pop size, certain minimum pop thresholds need to be reached more quickly for the purposes of infrastructure. In particular, paved roads & highways are a must for Roman legions, so I like to keep growth at 2% or more for settlements under 6,000, between 1% and 2% until 12,000, and at a trickle afterwards. The upshot of this is that, after a while, it's difficult to avoid a certain uniformity among settlements.

The construction of other buildings, then, follows the need to balance between keeping growth adequate and taxes all the way up. In practice this means healers, sanitation, and baths pretty quickly in smaller settlements, and farming & religious buildings roughly in proportion to settlement size. In the rare cases where I get to start building temples from scratch, I try to follow the few historical precedents I'm aware of (Juno in Carthage), honor gods underrepresented in other cities, and otherwise trust my hunches on what may give me tactical advantage and appeal to the masses :)

Both Quintus and the game agree that Romans should be able to build hospitals and guard posts only in the Augustan era. I wrote a simple mod that enforces this limitation, details below.

Diplomacy

I'm totally on board with the instructions from the Diplomacy section of Quintus' guide: send diplomats out early, establish trading rights ASAP, don't ask for money for trading rights, trade maps only for maps, always ask for money for peace, and overall try to be a global power broker.

Where I depart from Quintus is the use of Force Diplomacy and the console to nudge other factions to behave more-or-less historically, in which I'm considerably more conservative. It's not that I'm opposed to this or that "it feels like cheating" -- I think Quintus justification is totally legit -- but for me personally, the role of deus ex machina in other factions' affairs ultimately took away from the game. Saying "Oh, it's 240 BCE, let me take Lilibeo off Carthage's hands" felt too easy, like I was forcing the game to be a historical reenactment when it didn't want to be. After thinking it over, the following guidelines seem reasonable:

Use the console only to:

• Clear the fog of war every so often, provided other factions refuse to trade maps. The ancient world was economically well-connected and news of faraway territorial changes would usually spread.
• Donate a token amount of money to a faction, to be used as payment for territory I'm about to hand over (see Force Diplomacy below), provided they are totally broke.
• Donate cash to an opposing faction whom I'm strengthening with a script-generated army (see Historical Event Submods below), corresponding to the upkeep of the army for a set number of turns.

Use Force Diplomacy only to:

• Hand over a conquered territory to another faction in exchange for a token payment, provided the territory is one of their target territories and they keep refusing it as a gift or in trade.
• Gain military access from an ally whom I'm clearly helping, provided they keep refusing to do so, in exchange for military access to my own lands.
• Make peace with an intransigent ahistorical aggressor, provided they aren't making any actual progress in their campaigns and are primarily a nuisance.

In particular, I don't expect to use Force Diplomacy to take territory, even if the goal is to pass it to someone else. Also,

• If a faction is being steamrolled by another and I want to stop it, I'll donate them money from the Roman treasury rather than via the console, or actually intervene.
• If it's the right year in history to acquire a territory by treaty and it isn't forthcoming, I'll attempt to conquer it in the least destructive manner possible .

Armies and Tactics

Romans used to say "res ad triarios venit" -- the matter has come down to the triarii -- when things are fought to the bitter end, and playing historically is a sure way to discover what they meant. I've found that RTW battle dynamics that arise from traditional Roman army composition, formations and tactics are nothing short of fascinating and well worth the trouble. That said, research into army organization is not my main interest -- I'm more into the interplay between conquest & economy -- so I'm happy to defer to the original guides in this regard. Both Quintus and Candelarius did an amazing job at it -- and while Candelarius' guide is for RTR, many of his guidelines adapt easily to EB. I cannot overstate the fun & challenge of putting together part-Roman, part-allied armies early in the game and managing their interplay in battles following these guides.

Since the numbers of allied and Roman troops early on need to be in balance, and Romans preferred levies to mercenaries, an important bulding priority in freshly captured territorries are regional MICs. Check the Recruitment Viewer to avoid spending money and building time in vain: regional MICs are useless in the starting five provinces, and some towns (Alalia, Karali) provide no new regional units past level 1 or 2. Still, in most cities lower levels provide adequate garrison troops, and I've found it great to build level 3 ASAP in places such as Taras (Bruttian infantry, classical hoplites, Hellenistic cavalry) and Bononia (Gallic archers and spearmen). These two MICs in particular don't work forever as both eventually become home provinces, but until that time (~75 years) they are an invaluable source of inexpensive, capable allied units.

I agree with not replenishing ground troops by retraining, as it doesn't seem to dilute their experience. Throwing money at an undermanned army shouldn't generate new silver-chevron soldiers in 3 months no matter how much one invests. This may turn out to be a significant disadvantage in Alex, where the AI apparently does retrain its troops, and I wish it were possible to mod the game to forbid retraining ground troops altogether. I see no problem with retraing navies, though, or with retraining to upgrade weapons and armor. In fact I try to do so as soon as possible.

A few notes on tactics. Keep the infantry in guard mode, especially when assaulting cities, and expect losses. The first wave of hastati against enemy foot will get roughed up, particularly in narrow spaces where it's hard or impossible to flank the opponent. Take it in stride -- one of the secrets of early Roman success was the simple fact of manpower they could afford to lose because they had the capacity to replenish it. In the realm of ranged troops, for those coming to EB from vanilla RTW it comes as a bit of a surprise that you can not just survive but thrive without archers. This is even more true in historical play where legions depend on locally available units. Still, even in Gaul where Sotaroas are available I tend to balance them out with slingers, unless I'm up against barbarians in force and want to shake them up with fire.

As far as cavalry goes, it will feel strange to let one's general just sit back and watch the battle, but that's what it takes. I suppose I'd throw him in if it would make a difference between a win and a loss, and while I've had close calls, it's never come to that. Even so, I probably tend to use cavalry more than historically. True, default Equites aren't much to write home about, and all Roman cavalry in RTW has an unsettling tendency to disregard orders and seek out the nearest enemy spear that can get them mauled in short order. However, when closely supervised, Campanian cavalry is versatile, and most cavalry can chase away enemies' ranged troops, protect one's own, and occasionally set a death trap for the opposing general. Additionally, taking a page from Macedon, charging infantry even with inferior Roman cavalry can reap dividends despite losses. These diminish after Greek cavalry units become available.

Finally there's the question of army unit size. In history this varied over time in a way that's difficult to represent in the game without throwing off the balance. According to Wikipedia, which in turn cites The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History by Pat Southern, the size of a full-strength Camillan maniple was 60 soldiers, Polybian maniple 120, Marian cohors 80. At the same time, the size of the legions increased. As far as I see it, there are at least three viable options and it boils down to a personal preference between them:

• Use Large units (base size=80) to reflect Marian cohorts and as a compromise size for earlier armies.
• Use Huge units (base size=160) to better reflect the size of the legions.
• Mod the game for base size=120 to reflect Polybian armies, and as compromise between these two options.

Whichever the base size is, Polybian triarii are half as big, which is easily accomplished by editing export_descr_unit.txt as described here.

EB Submods

The submods to EB I'm employing and/or writing can be broadly divided into three categories:

1. Existing submods, those already written or described in detail by others.
2. General Romani realism mods, those that can be applied to EB no matter the faction of the human player.
3. Roman historical event mods, those that assume that the Romani are played historically by the human player.

Existing Submods

I like to tiptoe rather than leap into submods. Even if it were otherwise, I'd be forced to do so these days because, sadly, many of the links on the forums are dead either of age or due to the recent crackdown on download sites. The choice is made easier also because, while I am a fan of eye candy, I don't go out of my way obtaining graphics mods -- the game is immersive & addictive enough as it is. I'm using, considering, or have considered using the following mods:

• In: @Maksimus' Alex for EB, engine-only version, with thanks for his amazing instructions.
• In: @Jarardo's Force Diplomacy, as discussed above.
• I'd love to try @Lysander's compilation of formation submods, but downloading them seems mighty difficult these days.
• Still considering @JMRC's win conditions, reading up on how they affect the game.
• Need to try out @Atraphoenix' Realist Movement Mod. I'd love to make the game more dynamic, especially if it's more realistic, but I'm concerned it may throw off the balance.
• Considered @V.T. Marvin's Spoils of Victory but decided against it. The Roman state will let its soldiers keep the spoils they rightfully earned.

Thanks to @jirisys and @||Lz3|| for their great compilations I'm picking apart for ideas!

General Romani Submods

These modifications are fairly small and arise logically out of Romani historical house rules. They also comprise my todo list for hacking the game; I eventually expect to put them together into a Romani Historicity mini-mod of some sorts. Here are the changes that come to mind, in order of importance -- and therefore, also, likelihood of being implemented:

1. Done: Halve Polybian triarii unit size. Here is the DIY, I did it slightly differently.
2. Done: Bar Rome from building Hospitals and Guard Posts before the Augustan era. I found that the best way to this was to adjust the upgrade sequence of Town Garrison buildings -- will write a separate post about it.
3. Next: Quincunx player formation in line with Quintus' and Candelarius' instructions, or as close to it as the engine allows.
4. Probable: Change requirements for Marian and Augustan reforms, as discussed above.
5. Maybe: Change end date to 54 CE or early 70s CE along with winning conditions, as discussed above. I doubt I'll get this far.

Roman Historical Event Submods

In simple English, enemy armies appearing on schedule. Since I'm not adopting Quintus' approach of donating cash to my enemies and waiting for them to send armies at me, I expect to be building little scripts such as this one to give Roman legions some work :). I have little experience in writing these so I'll take them one by one, and keep a rough tally here. I expect my first chore in this regard will be Xanthippus.

[ZombiVoziKombi]

Roman Historical Conquest Timeline for EB

Key:

West ... North Italy, Gaul, Spain, Britain, Germany
South ... Central+South Italy, Sicily, Africa, Egypt
East ... Balkans, Aegean, Eastern Europe, Asia

City event: - Gain - Ally/Client - +Annex - [Raid] - (Siege) - !Quell - Loss
Treatment: - Occupy - Expel - Enslave - Destroy - Default

If you're having trobule interpreting any of this, there are more details underneath the timeline.

	From the Pyrrhic War to the end of the Second Punic War (272-201 BCE)
Year	West	South	East	Notes
272		Taras
270		Rhegion
264		Messana		Outbreak of First Punic War.
263		Syrakousai		Treaty & alliance with Hiero II.
258	[Alalia]			Alalia destroyed, control of Corsica contested.
256-		(Kart-Hadast)		First Roman invasion of Africa, repulsed in 255.
241		Lilibeo
238	Alalia Karali			End of Mercenary War.
237-	Massalia			Massalia allies with Rome, feeling threatened by Carthaginian expansion in Spain.
236-	[Bononia]			Raid to get Polybian reforms.
233	[Segesta]			Raid to get Polybian reforms.
228			[Epidamnos]	First Illyrian War. Optionally also [Dalminion].
226	Patavium			Patavium allied with Rome, per Wikipedia.IT.
224	Bononia			After the Battle of Telamon.
222	Medilanum			After the Battle of Cladistium.
221	[Arse]			Simulate Saguntum. City damaged by Carthage.
219			Epidamnos	Second Illyrian War. Actually Dimale.
218	Medilanum Bononia Emporion			Hannibal crosses the Alps, L. C. Scipio establishes beachhead in Spain.
216		Arpi Capua Rhegium		Defections after Cannae, per Wikipedia.
215		Syrakousai		Switches sides after Hiero II dies.
214	Arse			Saguntum retaken, per Wikipedia.IT.
213		Arpi
212		Syrakousai Taras
211		Capua
209	Mastia	Taras
206	Gader [*]			* Raid all remaining Qatardastim in Europe.
203	[Medilanum]	Rhegium (Atiqa)		Po Valley raid, Battle of Utica.
-201	[Bocchoris]	Kirtan Ippone Siga Lepki [*]		* Raid all Qatardastim holdings except Atiqa, Adrumeto, Kart-Hadast. Ally Numidia.
	From the Second Macedonian War to the eve of the Social War (200-92 BCE)
Year	West	South	East	Notes
200	[Bononia]		[Pella]	Battle of Cremona, Second Macedonian War.
195	Baikor Medilanum			Quell Turdetani; Corduba Roman since 206. LV Flaccus beats the Insubres at Medilanum.
-193	Bononia			Battles of Placentia and Mutina.
189			[Thermon]	Per Wikipedia.
-188			[*]	* Raid all Seleukid possessions in Asia Minor.
187-	[Segesta]			Raid Liguria repeatedly :).
-181	+Patavium			Aquileia founded. See also this Wikipedia page.
-179	[Numantia] [Sucum-Murgi]			First Celtiberian War, Lusitania temporarily pacified
168		[*]	[Pella] Byzantion	Makedon protectorate, Thrace client. * Raid any Seleuk in Egypt, Egypt protectorate.
167			Ambrakia [*] [Dalminion]	* Epeiros elliminated. Third Illyrian War.
164			Rhodos	Per Wikipedia.
-155			Dalminion [Segestica]	Alt: Segestica client, rebel & quell 35-33.
-154	Segesta			Liguria sort of pacified; also Shepherd.
150	[Sucum-Murgi]	Atiqa		Utica surrenders. Massacre of Lusitani.
149		(Kart-Hadast)		Third Punic War.
148		Adrumeto	Pella Demetrias [*]	Adrumeto ~ Nepheris. * Makedon eliminated.
146		Kart-Hadast	Korinthos Thermon Chalkis Athenai Sparte	Carthago delenda est. Greece annexed.
139	Sucum-Murgi Oxtraca			End of Lusitannian War.
137	Tyde
133	Numantia	Kirtan Ippone Siga Lepki	Pergamon Sardis Halikarnassos Ipsos Mytilene	Lose Numidia per this section. Alt: 148 or 118. Karia (Halik.) part of Perg bequest, Lycia not. Pisidia (Side) to Kappadokia. Mytilene uncertn.
-132		!Lilibeo		First Servile War, from 135.
131			Pergamon Nikaia Ankyra Mazaka	Pergamon lost to Aristonikos. Pontos, Bythinia and Kappadokia join Rome against him.
129			Pergamon Ipsos	Phrygia given to Mithridates V of Pontus.
127			Nikaia Ankyra	Nicomedes III.
123	Bocchoris			Per Wikipedia.
121-	Tolosa Viennos			Per Shepherd.
116			Mazaka Ipsos	Ariarites VII Pontos' puppet. Phrygia reclaimed.
113	[Iuvavoeta]			Cimbrian War. Battles in S Gaul & N Italy, -101.
107		Lepki		Per Shepherd's historical atlas.
105		Siga Lixus		Mauretania to Bocchus I. Ippone uncertain.
103-			Tarsos Side	Conquered in a campaign against pirates.
-100		!Lilibeo		Second Servile War, from 104.
96		Kyrene		Bequest.
95			Mazaka	Rome installs Ariobarzanes I.
94			Nikaia Ankyra	Nicomedes IV.
	From the Social War to the Conquest of Gaul (91-50 BCE)
Year	West	South	East	Notes
91		Ariminum Arpi Capua Rhegion	Nikaia Ankyra Mazaka	Kappadokia to Armenia, Bythinia to Pontus. Social War in Italy.
90			Nikaia Ankyra Mazaka	Roman clients restored.
89		Ariminum Arpi Rhegion	Asia Mytilene	Pontos takes all of Roman Asia Minor.
88		Capua	Chalkis Athenai Korinthos Sparte	Pontos takes the Aegean and Greece.
87			(Athenai)
86			Pella Demetrias Athenai	Sulla sacks Athens, destroys port & academy.
85			Greece Asia [*]	Status quo ante bellum except Tarsos, Side. * Pont: Amaseia, Sinope, Trap, Kotais, Crimea.
83-			(Amaseia)	Second Mithridatic war. Siege, withdraw by 81.
82		!Roma		Sulla's second civil war.
80	Oxtraca Sucum-Murgi		!Mytilene	Mytilene revolted and retaken. Sertorian War. And Quintus missed it?!
79	Baikor, Arse
75	Baikor Arse		[Serdike] [Naissos] [Singidunum] Tarsos Side	Dardanian War. Isauricus & Ceasar temporarily pacify Cilicia.
73		Capua Taras	Nikaia	Pontos takes Bythinia. Spartacus in Italy.
72	Oxtraca Sucum-Murgi	Capua Taras Rhegion	Nikaia (Amaseia) Tarsos Side	Lucullus relieves Bythinia, pirates take Cilicia. Battle Spartacus in Ariminum or Bononia.
71		Rhegion	(Kydonia)	Spartacus defeated. Invade Crete & withdraw.
70			Amaseia
69			[Karkathiokerta] Kydonia
67			Amaseia Tarsos Side	First Battle of Zela. Pompey pacifies Cilicia.
66			Amaseia Ani-Kamakh [Armavir] [Phraaspa]	Mithridates beaten, Armenia protectorate. The raids are Romani VC, historicity uncertain.
**			[Babylon] [Seleukeia]	** Romani victory conditions, FWIK ahistorical. Raid at this date or later during a successful historical war with whoever holds them.
65			Trapezous Kotais	Pompey pursues Mithridates.
64			Sinope Antiocheia Damaskos Sidon Hierosolyma [*]	Pontos and Syria annexed, Ioudaia client. * Pontos eliminated. Alt: not in Crimea.
63			Chersonesos Pantikapaion	Crimea client, per this post and Wikipedia. Alt: leave to Pontos, make protectorate.
61	!Oxtraca !Viennos			Per this post.
58	Aventicos Bibracte		Salamis	Caesar invades Gaul. Dates per this post.
57	Bratosporios Cenabum
56	Darioritum Lemonum Burdigala
55	Bagacos			Also Caesar's first invasion of Britain.
54	[Camulosadae]			Caesar's second invasion of Britain.
53	Vesontio		(Edessa)	Crassus tries invading Parthia, defeated.
52	Avaricos Gergovia
	From Caesar's Civil War to the Death of Augustus (49 BCE-14 CE)
Year	West	South	East	Notes
49	!Massilia	Atiqa (Atiqa)	Crimea Kotais Trapezous Ani-Kamakh	Besiege Utica & lose or withdraw. Battles in Epirus & Thessaly. Crimea (alt. Pontos) hostile.
48		[Alexandreia]	Sinope Amaseia	Caesar in Egypt.
47			Crimea Kotais Trapezous Ani-Kamakh Sinope Amaseia	Veni, vidi, vici. Status quo ante bellum. Alternative final date to eliminate Pontos.
46	Mastia Gader	Atiqa Ippone Kirtan		Battles of Ruspina and Thapsus.
45	Mastia Gader			Battle of Munda.
44	+Tyde	Sicily	Pella	Tyde per Quintus and this map.
43			+Rhodos or !Rhodos	Per Wikipedia.
42			Pella	Battles of Phillipi.
41		Arretium		Perusine War. Optionally lose & retake Rome.
40	Karali	Arretium	Syria Hierosolyma Tarsos Mazaka ...	Pahlava takes Syria, Ioudaia, and large parts of Asia Minor. Menas in Sardinia.
39			Tarsos Mazaka ...	Rome retakes Asia.
38	Karali		Syria	Rome retakes Syria.
37			Hierosolyma	Antony retakes Ioudaia.
36		Sicily		End of Sicilian revolt.
34		Kyrene	Syria Salamis Hierosolyma	Donations of Alexandria, to Ptolemeaoi.
-33			Segestica	Sources: coast, inland. If client, rebel & quell.
30		Kyrene Paraitonion Alexandreia Pselkis Dispolis-Megale Memphis [*]	Syria Salamis Hierosolyma	Annex Egyptian coast and the Nile Valley. * Raid the rest to eliminate Ptolemeaoi.
29-			Serdike Naissos Singidunum Kallatis [Sarmisegethusa]	Moesia taken by Crassus' grandson. Punitive expedition into Dacia.
26	[Maryab]			Raid of Saba. Do better than Aelius Gallus.
25	[Meroe]	+Siga +Lixus	+Ankyra	Raid of Kush. New provinces per Shepherd. Mauretania alternate dates: 33 BCE, 40 CE.
-20		Hibis Ammonium		Per Shepherd. Augustus loves the desert.
19-	Pallantia Vellika	[Garama]		Cantabrian Wars. Septimus Flaccus in Fezzan.
-15	Iuvavoaeta Veldideno
12	Gawjam-Habukoz		Tylis	German campaigns of Drusus. Rhoemetalces I.
11	Gawjam-Heruskoz
-9			Vindobona
2 BCE	[Swebotraustastamnoz]			Aenobarbus crosses the Elbe, per Wikipedia.IT.
4 CE	Arctaunon			German campaigns of Tiberius.
5	Vindelicoppidos
6	[Eburonum]		Segestica Dalminion +Hierosolyma	Great Illyrian revolt. Judea made province.
9	Germany		Segestica Dalminion
12	Gawjam-Habukoz

Notes:

• The timeline is meant to fulfill Roman Europa Barbarorum victory conditions (VC) by year 12 CE. In the very rare cases where I could not affirm the historicity of VC, the timeline notes so, and suggests what to do.
• Different sources often disagree on dates by one or two years. In such cases, the dates are the ones that seem to appear most frequently, with mild preference to the ones from Wikipedia.
• Where dates were uncertain, rather than give ranges, the earliest or the latest firm date I could find is shown, such as 237- (starting in 237), or -193 (by 193). How much leeway this gives is usually clear from the notes and related events. If unsure, 3-4 years is a safe bet.
• In a few wars where lots of territory changed hands, the name of the region in bold type is given (roughly, the "province" in the Roman administrative sense), rather than enumerating every individual city. These uses are consistent and should be self-explanatory. For example, Asia stands for mainland Asia Minor, while Syria stands for the three Romani VC territories in Syria: Antiocheia, Damaskos and Sidon.
• "!City" means lose then regain the city in approximately the same year. If the city was a Client/Ally before, now it's just another province, and if it was a gov IV for more than a generation, now is the time to start it off at gov III.

I will gladly share this post's raw markup with anyone who would like to tweak, improve or totally overhaul the timeline. I think work of this kind functions best when people can take it over, hack into it, make copies, and freestyle on it. Make it yours, and please share it in turn.

Please let me know if anything is unclear or if there are details you think need to be to fixed.

A detailed discussion follows on questions that came up with regard to treatment of the conquered & handling allied and client states.

Treatment of the Conquered

QuintusSertorius' guide for Romani historical play was originally written for RTR, and one detail specific to EB I think he missed is the treatment of the conquered. While EB doesn't change the effects of the three options of what to do with a conquered city, it describes them differently: instead of Occupy, Enslave, Exterminate, it's Occupy, Expel, Enslave, in that order. I think this is a pretty clever choice that can substantially affect what one with a conquered city.

As Quintus correctly pointed out, Romans typically did not destroy or exterminate occupied cities, although there are likely to be more cases than just Carthage and Corinth. Expulsion, taking large parts of population hostage and/or resettling them far away as basically free people, was instead a viable option and very much used by a number of ancient empires. Like the vanilla "Enslave" option, it makes sense that expulsion would generate a moderate amount of loot while increasing the population of other cities. Of course, outright enslavement was also common, and in line with the vanilla "Exterminate" option, it generated an immediate infusion of cash from sales of people as chattel. I suggest, then, to treat the Expel and Enslave as described in EB, and use them when either action is historically corroborated and/or makes strategic sense. In practice this implies choosing EB enslavement / vanilla extermination much more frequenty than Quintus suggests.

This, then, raises another question: what to do when the town really was destroyed? I think the answer is clear: enslave the population, then go through each building, one by one, and destroy every single one of them. This means unique buildings, too, unless they are features of the landscape, clearly outside of the city, or historically known to have survived. The policy extends to some occasions when the city was looted but not completely destroyed. Say, after Athens was captured in the First Mithridatic War, the port of Piraeus was burned. And what did Sulla do to Plato's Academy, pride and joy of the classical world?

Before	After

To sum up, there are four options for treating a conquered or raided settlement:

1. Occupy: As in vanilla RTW, loot the town but leave the population alone.
2. Expel: Loot the town and resettle or take hostage half of population.
3. Enslave: Loot thoroughly and sell the most of the population into slavery.
4. Destroy: Enslave, then tear down everything that can be torn down.

Assimilation, Allies, and Client States

The assimilation approach from Quintus' house rules consists of starting each captured settlement at government IV, then increasing the level of integration every generation or so, roughly every 25 years. There's much going for this approach: a frontier settlement can be made productive in a very short time, churning out affordable local garrison troops in a few turns and better ones not long after. The ability to recruit a less affordable, but competent client governor prevents family members from being stretched thin between education, military, and governance duties.

Many have pointed out that, since gov IV stands for "Roman Allied State", this approach results in an ambiguity: there is no easy way to differentiate recently captured settlements from actual Roman allied or client states like Massalia or Numidia. The true flavor of a closely allied or client state would probably require a way -- say, a government type -- to give Rome control over economic and military matters but leave civic and religious details to the locals. In other words (and here's my builder streak), to keep the ability to construct native-culture civic and religious buildings even under Roman rule. But, we cannot do this..

Trying to resolve this ambiguity with a simple yes or no prescription appears to me less than optimal. Capture all allied and client states and bestow gov IV on them, and Rome ends up expanding much too quickly, then giving up territory haphazardly when less pliable local rulers come to power. Capture none of them, and the game does not reflect strategic realities: Roman armies are treated as strangers by steadfast historical allies, who in turn are at risk of incursion from foreign powers.

My approach, then, is to treat allies and clients on a case-by-case basis, with preference given to political relationships that lasted a long time and/or had substantial strategic significance. Some examples are:

• Massalia was Rome's ally for close to two centuries, and Rhodes for over a century, before each was annexed.
• Numidia under Masinissa prevented Carthaginian expansion after the Second Punic War, and under his successor Micipsa provided troops for the Roman conquest of Spain. It dropped out of the client status as Jugurtha rose to power.
• Various client kingdoms in Asia Minor throughout the late Republic kept Pontos and Armenia hemmed in, and their dynastic struggles served as tinder for the Mithridatic Wars.

On the other hand:

• Thrace was independent but subject to Roman influence since the Macedonian Wars, the areas along the Aegean and the Propontis more so. My call was to make Byzantium a client early on and leave Tylis independent until much later.
• Kyrene was bequested to Rome in 96 and was a client territory until 75, when it was made province. Since this happened in less than a generation, I just called it a Roman gain in 96 and didn't bother with the client stage.

As these examples suggest, the timeline is generous in identifying clients and allies, but not precise or exhaustive. Unsurprisingly, any attempt to approximate history in a game is messy and full of judgment calls -- in no small part because history was immeasurably messier itself.

[Moros]

Great this is going to be interesting!

I'm moving this thread to the sub forum made for guides and AAR's though.

[ZombiVoziKombi]

Thank you @Moros, haven't seen the subforum at first.

[Moros]

Thank you @Moros, haven't seen the subforum at first.

Oh no worries. Got the feeling this is going to be a good one... :)

[jirisys]

Never knew one could mention someone like that.

If you need any separate mod, just ask me, and I'll try to see if I can give it to you.

@Moros. Envoi moi un waffle svp.

Good luck, and will check this with excitement.

~Jirisys ()

[ZombiVoziKombi]

Thank you @Moros & @jirisys, I hope I'll meet at least some of the expectations :) As I said this is a long-term thing, for now I expect I'll finish the timeline & house rules, and put out one or two mini-mods.

A n00b question: I've noticed the forums allow for attaching compressed files (zip, rar, 7z etc.). Is there a reason why people use the (unreliable) file sharing services instead?

Talking about downloads, @jirisys, I was able to fetch all of the mods except Lysander's compilation of formations, so if you could find a way to send it to me I'd be much obliged. On the link you posted here, I went through all the hoops, only to learn that "All free download slots are taken". I can PM you an e-mail address if that works.

Correction -- FileFactory just let me download it (on my 3rd try). Thank you!

Un waffle pour moi, aussi, peut-être? Merci beaucoup! (J'ai étudié Français le siècle dernier...)

[jirisys]

A n00b question: I've noticed the forums allow for attaching compressed files (zip, rar, 7z etc.). Is there a reason why people use the (unreliable) file sharing services instead?

So people in the other forum board (TWCenter) or other people don't have to visit the org and then look for the post and then download the attachment. Insteadm you go to a site, click, and less hassle.

~Jirisys ()

[ZombiVoziKombi]

So people in the other forum board (TWCenter) or other people don't have to visit the org and then look for the post and then download the attachment. Insteadm you go to a site, click, and less hassle.

Thx, will try both options.

[Blxz]

I'm unlikely to post much. But I just wanted to let you know I am keeping an eye on this from time to time. Good luck and hoping you can start your AAR/re-enactment soon.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Hey ZVK,

Thanks very much for your hard work that's clearly gone into this little project - very helpful indeed!

I have an idea that I used in my own Roman campaign, about allied independent states, that you might want to consider.

One problem with RTW/EB is that your faction is always at war with the Eleutheroi (Rebel) towns. In cases where they were historically allied to Rome although remaining fully independent, this can seem unrealistic, and being at war with them denies you valuable trade income.

The other problem is that the Eleutheroi towns are always very attractive targets for other factions - they keep getting attacked until they are conquered. It's not good for rich coastal cities like Segesta or Massilia to fall into the hands of the Gauls, or for Syracuse to fall to Carthage.

A way round this is to conquer the town, then give it to another faction that you are at peace with, and which matches the culture of the city. For example, take Segesta, Massilia and Syracuse and give them to Koinon Hellenon, so they get developed as Greek cities. Maybe take Bononia and give it to the Arveni.

The advantage of this approach is that you get trade income from the allied city, and when you actually want to bring it into the Roman empire as a client state, you can have a war over it since it is held by another faction.

Or you could wait until an Eleutheroi 'ally' gets conquered by another faction, then send a Roman army to the rescue.

[tobit]

Good idea Titus, I kind of did that in my game. I conquered Segesta early just cause I wasn't running a totally historical game, but I did raid Bononia for the reforms. I saw the Aedui being slowly beaten by the Averni (the Aedui took Vienne but the Averni took Bribacte) and decided to give it to Aedui. I signed an alliance with the Aedui I set up a puppet king in Massalia. But about 230 BC the Aedui betrayed me and made a massive attack on Segesta captured it and all the gold I've given them to fight Averni they used to invade Roman lands.

It's been a pretty interesting campaign and now I will take my time wiping out the Cisalpine Gauls to be able to own Patavium by 200. I'm not really following history, but more like slowing my conquests.