On the Path to the Streets of Gold: a Suebi AAR (updated 11-17, final chapter)

[BroskiDerpman]

If the ai sallies out the merrier! But if you attack you can exploit the ai and win a decisive victory as some lets plays have shown.

[Hooahguy]

Chapter Six

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The voice in my head told me things. Things about my enemies, my rivals. About Raimund. It told me that he was a braggart who was thirsty for glory, and nothing else. I needed to exploit this. Maybe I would ignore Raimunds army, ignore their plight, even though there was a large army approaching them to reinforce the garrison at Noreia. But it told me that I must help my fellow Suebi. So I must go.

So I led my army, renamed The Champions of Wōdanaz, to attack the army that was headed to reinforce the Nori garrison.



It was early morning that we formed up to face the Nori.



We charged, and the battle began.





The battle didn’t take too long, the Nori lines crumbled fairly quickly, and our cavalry cleaned up the routers.




It was a surprisingly easy victory.



It was soon afterwards that we learned of what happened at Noreia. Due to losing the relief army, the garrison decided to wait it out, but when they were about to lose their food supplies, they had to sally. Raimund wisely decided that an assault on the city would not bode well.



The enemy offered battle on a foggy day, choosing that day to help conceal their movement.



The initial enemy force to counter us was a very small one, consisting of mainly ill-equipped tribesmen who routed fairly quickly.



The army reformed to meet the much larger part of the enemy army. But from all accounts, Raimund and his guard charged forward without waiting for the rest of the army, apparently looking to win glory.



They soon found themselves in a vicious melee alone, surrounded by enemy soldiers.



It was soon afterwards that people tell me that Raimund fell from a Nori sword.



The rest of the army arrived soon afterwards, and drove back the enemy forces.





The loss of Raimund was taken as a grievous loss for most of the Suebi, but for me, I was glad that his arrogance had gotten the better of him. And on top of that we had taken the Nori capital with minimal losses. It was a great victory, for both the Suebi, and especially for me.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Good stuff and nice screenies.

At least you gave the man the chance to die like a true barbarian

[JeromeBaker]

I like it. Well done sir!

[Bramborough]

Good riddance, Raimund!!!!

[Sp4]

Thats what I was thinking initially, but I remember in a previous M2TW campaign when I was defending against the hugely superior numbers of the Mongols, I would create choke points which worked wonders, so I kinda figured it would work here too. I neglected to take into account that then I was defending with rows of heavy spearmen and they had mostly cavalry armies. But here I wasnt really in control of my garrison forces, so that tactic wouldnt work with low-quality spearmen.



Not entirely sure. Id like to attribute it to the new patch and Radious's mod, but I know that the battle AI isnt moddable, so maybe the patch?

You must have some sort of different patch=P Or maybe legionaires are just overpowered...
Here's how the average siege goes for me and it doesn't really matter if I am attacking or defending =S

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/...EE5EECF17647F/

Looking at that screenshot.. it is also funny that on both sides, about 30% of the casualties came from friendly fire XD

[Hooahguy]

Chapter Seven

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Soon after the victory at Noreia, I was poisoned. I'm not sure how exactly, but I was feasting with some of the elders from Akink, when we all started to become sick. One of the elders eventually died, though thankfully the doctors told me that I will be okay, even though I won’t be feeling well for the next few weeks. We were able to find the person who tried to poison us; he was a Nori sympathizer who was paid by the Nori to put some sort of plant in our food which was supposed to kill us. Thank the gods that he failed.



While I was resting, I decided to meet with my armorers on how to better equip my army. With the money we have accumulated from our conquests and new discoveries in iron smithing, we have been giving our levies leather armor with metal plates while giving our Spear Brothers chain mail, and after capturing many Gallic helmets, we now had enough of them to give to most of our warriors.



With these improvements, our warriors now could face our more armored enemies. When we interrogated one of our Gallic prisoners on how they learned about their armor, and they told us that the Romans taught them. Clearly these changes are needed if we want to take on Rome.

After I recuperated, I began making plans. We would need to remove the Nori nuisance before we could address the other problems to the west, or the southern settlements would be constantly harassed by the Nori. They only had one settlement left, Segestica, so it was quite obvious where I would be heading next.



In the days that followed, a few interesting developments occurred:

One of my most trusted agents, a woman by the name of Hatilde, defected to the Nori. Why she would do such a thing and betray her people is beyond my understanding, and I am sure the Gods have her punishment ready for her when she dies.



But it seems as if the Gods have already begun their punishment for her. As my army was forming up for the march, we received word from our friends to the south, the Ardiaei, have already attacked Segestica, and have destroyed the last bastion of the Nori.



So I turned my army around and we marched towards the Raetii capital of Koria. Why they picked a small town as their capital I do not understand, but we offered battle, and the Raetii responded, albeit feebly.



I purposely gave battle on a day with a heavy fog to instill fear into their hearts.



It seemed to have worked, as they were only able to inflict twelve casualties on us before they fled.




And it was then our scouts reported the sighting of the people we have heard of for decades- the Romans.



There was a massive Roman force around the neighboring city of Medhlan, so we would need to beef up our forces before we can move against them. In the meantime, we sent our diplomats to arrange for a non-aggression pact to buy us some time.

This means we must end this war with the Raetii and the Helvetii. To do so, I plan on sending The Spears of Tyr, led by Gundovald, against the last Raetii town of Vesontio, and the Bloodsworn, led by Ricfried, against the Helvetii town of Bagacum.




Ending this war quickly is essential. Not only because the Romans are a considerable threat, but because politically things were not looking good. My family was gaining influence, while the others were losing support. I fear that a civil war is brewing, and I do not want to be caught unprepared. Since Gundovald was the new leader of the opposing families after Raimund was killed, I have to keep my eye on him, but considering the amount of gravitas he has, I'm not as worried about him as I was with Raimund. In addition, Gundovald is a lot more cautious than Raimund or Karl was, and the chances of him dying in battle are a lot slimmer, and as such, that makes him dangerous.

Writers note: A few new mods were added. I added a mod that introduced new units for the "barbarians," a mod that gave some of my units armor, as mentioned in chapter seven, and finally a mod which recolored my units to something less orange. And this is on top of already using Radious's mods.

[BroskiDerpman]

Authenticity note: Supposedly it was the Celts i.e Gauls who introduced the Romans to widespread mail usage. You tell can by how similar an armored Gauls looks like to a "Marian" Roman or Principe. There's this worn down statue of a Gaul late period warrior right before Roman conquest and he looks almost like a Roman.

Also a side effect with Radious is you get even more stacks of rebels once civil war pops up, an unintentional side effect.

[Sp4]

Authenticity note: Supposedly it was the Celts i.e Gauls who introduced the Romans to widespread mail usage. You tell can by how similar an armored Gauls looks like to a "Marian" Roman or Principe. There's this worn down statue of a Gaul late period warrior right before Roman conquest and he looks almost like a Roman.

Also a side effect with Radious is you get even more stacks of rebels once civil war pops up, an unintentional side effect.

Yes, that's because the civil war more or less copies your armies, so if you have 200 stacks running around, the rebels get 200 stacks of the same more or less.
Then they run out of food and all die.

[Hooahguy]

Authenticity note: Supposedly it was the Celts i.e Gauls who introduced the Romans to widespread mail usage. You tell can by how similar an armored Gauls looks like to a "Marian" Roman or Principe. There's this worn down statue of a Gaul late period warrior right before Roman conquest and he looks almost like a Roman.

Also a side effect with Radious is you get even more stacks of rebels once civil war pops up, an unintentional side effect.

Thanks! I did not know that the Romans copied the Gauls.

And I have a plan for dealing with the massive number of enemy stacks, as per the suggestions of the people in the mod thread. Its actually quite simple: uninstall the mod, go back to the turn before the civil war, have the civil war happen, then install the mod again.

[BroskiDerpman]

Haha, you commit high treason to the tribe. Waaaaagh!

I'm hoping for Barbarian Invasion 2 and hope it adds back some cut content I miss from previous TWs. (Sadly) Will be interesting to see what they'll add in if they make BI2.

[Bramborough]

Lol....you left out the best part! In what horrifyingly exotic way was the failed poison assassin executed? Thrown into a pen of hungry pigs? Buried up to neck next to an anthill? Covered in honey and hung upside-down from a tree for the local bears?

I've always thought it interesting how Rome militarily dominated without a marked technological edge (at least, not a military one). It's not as if their armor and weapons were made out of metals or with designs the crafting of which other cultures weren't capable. IIRC, the gladius was a Spanish weapon, for example. It seems their military advantage lay in copying the best or most useful stuff from the peoples around them, and synthesizing it all through superior organization, administration, logistics, and training.

[BroskiDerpman]

Then they were defeated through superior organization, admin, logistics and training; If you want to talk about Byzantines.

When the Goths took over Rome they maintained everything till the ERE came and caused a lot of destruction and imo Rome ended then.

I might say the gap between the northern non Romans and the Romans lessened and the Romans got less advantages to use over the barbarians when the barbarians are adapting and are Romanised.

[Hooahguy]

Lol....you left out the best part! In what horrifyingly exotic way was the failed poison assassin executed? Thrown into a pen of hungry pigs? Buried up to neck next to an anthill? Covered in honey and hung upside-down from a tree for the local bears?

Yeah, its been a really crazy week for me, must have forgotten about that part.

Now then, I am floored by the latest beta patch, and it shows in the next installment, coming soon! I gotta say, I was absolutely shocked by the AI.

[BroskiDerpman]

Did it do something smart or did it Derp out?

[Hooahguy]

It did something very, very, very smart.

[BroskiDerpman]

Wow Geezers Wiliker! Boy oh boy wait till I tell that to my grandpa!

All sarcasm aside: If it's the battle map I'd be even more surprised.

[Hooahguy]

Yeah, it was the battle AI actually.

If this is how the AI is going to act from now on, I gotta step up my game.

[BroskiDerpman]

If it was an even battle and the ai lured you to a trap then something is going wrong...

[Hooahguy]

Tad more complicated than that, but you will see when I post the update.

[Hooahguy]

Chapter Eight

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Spears of Tyr marched towards Vesontio. Their scouts reported a relatively light enemy force around the city, so Gundovald continued on towards the city, seemingly unaware of the Helvetii army coming down upon him. They offered battle, along with their Raetii allies.



The enemy armies approached from two separate directions, obviously trying to split us and weaken us.



From all accounts it worked, splitting the Spears of Tyr in half, with one half dealing with the Raetii army and the other with the Helvetii.




A Helvetii cavalry charge from the rear on the right flank was stopped by a unit of our Noble Cavalry, but they sustained casualties while doing so. The left flank was essentially held up by an elite Raetii unit that fought to the death, taking over two hundred of our warriors with them.




But what really put us in trouble were the slingers that the Helvetii and Raetii units had fielded which rained death on our flanks. Our infantry was tied down fighting the very stubborn Celtic infantry. We didn’t have enough cavalry to chase down all the slingers and to deal with the enemy cavalry, and to defeat the elite units we had to surround them. So when we would surround them the slingers would mow us down from the back, and then would attack the cavalry when they were chased after since they couldn’t all be chased after at once. As said, we didn’t have enough to chase down all the slingers rapidly, so that resulted in hundreds of casualties from their slingers.

Eventually the left flank defeated the Raetii elite unit and was able to come into assist the right flank by taking out their slingers, but not before Gundovald had to charge in to assist the line with the Helvetii.



Eventually the tide turned and our men were able to defeat the Helvetii by slowly surrounding them and finishing them off with a well-timed cavalry charge.




It was a very costly victory; about half of the army was dead or wounded, but we had defeated a large Helvetii force.



In his after-action report to me, Gundovald mentioned that we had to remove the levies from our offensive armies; they broke too quickly and sustain too many casualties in battle. Of the six units of levies in his army, three had been totally annihilated and the other three had been decimated to the point that they were combat ineffective. This made me realize that the four units of levies in my army, while extremely experienced, might also be a liability. When we were not at war I will replace them, but for now, I do not have the time nor funds to replace them.

But our vulnerability was plain to see, and the remaining Raetii forces, quite large when put together, seized that opportunity and attacked our exhausted force. They retreated as far as they could before the enemy finally caught up with them.



The survivors tell us there was a very grim atmosphere among the remaining warriors. The night before there was a light snowfall, leaving the battlefield looking very depressing, as each man contemplated his fate.



Gundovald, aware of their impending doom, initially decided to make a giant shield wall. But once again, the enemy forces were split. The large Raetii force was a ways off, and the much smaller Helvetii force was quite close. So Gundovald made the decision to take on the Helvetii force first before dealing with the Raetii. And he had to do it quickly, because the Raetii army was fast approaching.




It wasn’t long before they arrived, and Gundovald was still in the middle of defeating the Helvetii.



There was very little that our warriors could do but fight as long as they could.






Initially it looked like we might actually pull off a victory, but fresh Raetii warriors entered the fray, and we were doomed. There were simply too many of them for us to fight, and too few of us.



It was about this time when Gundovald died valiantly in battle.



While he was the head of the opposing family, I harbored no resentment against him like I did Karl or Raimund. He was a good man, and a loss for our nation.

The Spears of Tyr were totally trounced. There were only 85 men remaining of the over 3,000 that left a few weeks before, so confident of victory. Was it hubris, or just bad luck of being attacked by massive enemy armies multiple times without being able to retreat and recover?



Hearing of the defeat, the Bloodsworn headed to avenge the loss of our brothers, and the Spears of Tyr were resurrected back in our home province, for we would not allow those filthy Celts to forever tarnish the name of one of our armies. We would get revenge on the Helvetii and Raetii. I might be getting old, as my 50th winter is fast approaching, but I will see the Helvetii and Raetii destroyed before I die.

[BroskiDerpman]

Then the Spears of Tyr popped up again hours later.

Wondering what are your plans to crush these Celts...

I got to say those Thureos look really cool.

[Hooahguy]

Well I certainly cannot let those dirty Celts ruin a good army's name, can I? The Spears of Tyr shall be reborn, and wreak havoc among the Celts. How they will do that exactly, Im not sure yet, but I will, and the Celts shall be wiped out.

[Hooahguy]

Sorry for the lack of updates during the last few days, my life had been very hectic with work and its hard to find time to play, much less write an AAR. But thankfully today was the hardest day and tomorrow I will have much more free time. With luck Ill be able to update tomorrow or Friday.

[Hooahguy]

Chapter Nine

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

With Vesonito taken by friendly armies, we headed for the final Helvetii town: Octuduron.

Not wanting to head into the same trap that Gundovald fell into, we sent our scouts ahead. What they reported was disturbing. The Romans had taken over the town, eliminating the Helvetii. At the same time, we got word that the Treverii, the Gallic nation that took over Vesonito, had defeated the last of the Raetii. A war that had lasted almost ten years was finally over.




We were now in a very interesting situation. To our south were the Romans, a very formidable threat. To our west were the Treverii, who were a growing, but not quite daunting, threat.



I met with Ricfried and Baldovin, my best generals, on what they thought we should do.
It is a very daunting issue, as either path puts us into a difficult war. Baldovin said that we should attack the Romans first, as they are more of the threat. Our relations with the Treverii are stable for now, and they seem to be attacking towards their western neighbors. But Ricfried argued that we must take out the Treverii first. More land, more money, more armies to fight Rome with. And besides, how long would it be before the Treverii attack? Their war with the western Gallic tribes wouldn’t last long, and then what? We would undoubtedly be their next target. Although the Romans might get to them first, but I doubt it, the Romans just started a war with the Avernii.

We ended up deciding to head into Treverii territory. From our information, they only have three or four territories. If we strike hard and fast we can take their towns and cripple them quickly before they can launch a meaningful counter-attack.

Soon after our meeting, some thugs ambushed Ricfried and his guards. They were able to fight them off, but Ricfried suffered an arrow to the knee, so one of his captains took over the Bloodsworn as he recovered.



We could not launch our invasion as he was recovering, plus a reserve army was being mustered. So in the meantime, we sent our spies to scout out the lands further into central Gaul. We found that the Romans had taken a key Gallic town, Bibracte, as well as the Treverii were beefing up their defenses, seemingly aware of our impending attack.



We couldn’t delay forever, so as soon as Ricfried could walk we launched the invasion. We would hit Bagacum and then Treverorum soon after, in order to take away most of their sources of income from those towns and isolate their final town of Vesontio. Ricfried reached Bagacum first.




Resistance in the town was light, and it fell easily. Clearly the town wasn’t important enough for them to defend heavily like their other towns.





It was an easy victory, but I had a feeling that the rest of them wouldn’t be as effortless.

Authors note: Sorry for the relatively short update, its been an absolutely insane week for me. I hope to update again tomorrow.

[Sp4]

Oh Rome is moving nicely into Europe, I like that. The last time I tried, Rome bunkered up in Italy.

[Bramborough]

Short or not, one of my favorite installments so far, for the humor in it.

[Hooahguy]

Short or not, one of my favorite installments so far, for the humor in it.

I actually have done humorous AARs in the past:
Reuniting the Tribes: A Getai AAR
and Casey the Casse: a Casse AAR.

Unfortunately I wasnt able to finish either of them, but Im hoping to finish this one, and I may start implementing a little bit of humor into this one.

[BroskiDerpman]

Crush them all!!!

Boz! Boz! Boz! (EB barbarian yelling)

[Hooahguy]

Chapter Ten

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Spears of Tyr, eager to draw Gallic blood, attacked the army that was camping by the town of Treverorum.



There was an eerie atmosphere that day; the late day sun hitting the clouds gave the battlefield a brown-red glow.



Our Spear Brothers and Bloodsworn rushed to make close the range, as the enemy had many slingers in their army.



It didn’t take long to route an army mainly composed of slingers and tribesmen.



We then pressed our attack onto the town itself. We decided to attack in the rain, to reduce the impact of their slingers.





An easy victory with minimal losses.



When I heard news of the victories I immediately requested whether or not one of the armies would be able to march on Vesontio. The two generals replied that they could not, as they were dealing with civil disturbance in the towns they had captured. So I marched my army to besiege the town. While it left a gaping hole in our defenses, I couldn’t let the Treverii use the time to organize a counter-attack. But more importantly, the voice in my head told me I had to. It told me I didn’t have much longer to be in this world before Wōdanaz takes me to Walhalla, and I needed to win more glory for myself. Let the others fight to take the small towns; they are dust to the achievement of taking a fortified city!



We laid siege to the town and the defenders promptly sallied out.



It was a very foggy day, and visibility was very low. In addition, a large hill on our left flank concealed enemy movement.



Because we couldn’t see very well, we sent our scout cavalry to find the enemy forces. After travelling along the hill for a bit they found the enemy, and reported back.



It didn’t take long for the enemy to appear over the hill. They ran down, formed a battle line, and charge. Our lines clashed.



Their right flank collapsed quickly, while their left flank, reinforced by their general held on for a bit longer. But what can you expect from a few low-skilled tribesmen and some slingers?




Our cavalry chased down whoever they could, and then returned to the camp to prepare for the final assault.




Finally our preparations for the assault were ready.
First we had to deal with a few units of slingers that somehow slipped through the siege, but they were easily taken care of by our cavalry.



Our battering rams advanced forward. We had one at the southern gate and the other at the western gate.




The defense at the western gate was relatively feeble. Two depleted units of skirmishers were left to defend the western gate, which was surrounded by high natural walls which would have made for a great killing zone had it been defended better. But the southern gate was extremely defended, and our warriors storming that gate found themselves in a terrible melee, with enemy skirmishers raining javelins from above as they came through the gate.



But it didn’t take long for our battle hardened warriors to break through the enemy, and when our men from the western gate arrived, the Treverii surrendered.




And so I was wrong. The Treverii, who had subdued the last stronghold of the Raetii only a year ago, had not fallen with a shout, but with a whimper.



Vesontio was ours, and with that the chieftains had raised me to the status of Frijaz. While I was honored with the promotion, I feel like it may be alienating the other chiefs. Supreme power was never held in high esteem in the tribes, and I have heard murmurs of discontent among the chieftains. While right now we are riding on the high tide of victory, I wonder how much longer it is until the tide ebbs…