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

[Hooahguy]

Chapter Eleven, Part 2

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We have to learn more about the Romans. Considering that they are our biggest threat, we knew very little about them. So I sent my best spy, Erminigilid, to discover more about the Romans.
Starting from Koria, he moved past Medhlan, which we already knew about it, and headed south.

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He eventually found the city of Roma.

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He ventured further south, finding more Roman towns and cities, until he came to the ocean.

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He thought that was the end of Roman rule, but then he learned about passage to an island off the coast called Sicily, where he met with a Siracusani envoy who talked to him about a possible alliance.

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And he found out that the main part of Roman lands is called Italia. Our way into Italia could be Sicily. If we were to land there, kick out the Romans from the island, give it back to Syracuse as a gesture of goodwill, then we could use the island as a staging ground to invade lower Italia, and eventually take Roma.

While this was going on in the northeast, two of our neighbors, the Aestii and Lugii, went to war. For decades the Aestii have been sitting around, doing nothing, and now it seems like they plan on doing something with a numerous armies they have been raising.

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And a month later, the conflict was over.

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Although it was not the Aestii who defeated them. The Eravisci defeated the Lugii, giving us a new neighbor. A neighbor with whom we do not have the best of relationships with. It seems like they want their home town of Akink back. Which is a shame because I don’t think we will be feeling too amicable to the idea of simply giving up a town that we captured to them.

I met with Ricfried and Baldovin about our next move. They brought something to my attention the problem with the Artrebartes. Our relations with the once-small Gallic tribe had soured to the point where our spies report that war was being discussed by the Artrebartes tribal leaders. It was time that we took steps to remove the Artrebartes threat, because we do not want to be in a large conflict with the Romans and have the Artrebartes attack an undefended border. Another army was being trained at the moment, as soon as that was completed we would begin our invasion. Ricfried thought that an obvious first target would be the Artrebartian capital of Nemetocenna. A factor that we had to take into account was the numerous smaller Artrebartian navies that might land their troops far behind our lines and cause havoc to the countryside. So to remedy that problem we would raise a number of small armies on our northern border to ensure that we would be able to defend from any possible incursions.

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When Erminigilid came back from Sicily a few weeks later, I asked him what he thought of the city of Roma.

“It is massive. I have never seen a city so large. It makes Lupfurdum seem like a small village. Also, Romans are small. I felt like a giant there, and all around Italia. They seem to be very haughty; I feel we can use this to our advantage somehow. And they are very wealthy. Almost everyone I saw was dressed in clothes that in our nation would only be worn for special occasion. I believe that should we take this city, we would be rich beyond our wildest dreams.”

I went to bed happy, and I once again dreamt of roads paved with gold.