Reunification: a Marcomanni AAR (updated chapter 25)

[Hooahguy]

Chapter Nine

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

With our war with the Rugii all but finished, we had to look to our next objective. Unfortunately that would not be so simple as it had been before.

The north was a mess. The Arii and the Helveconae were locked in an alliance and had large forces romping around the northern areas, doing whatever they wanted short of actually invading me. By our estimations there were well over eighteen thousand Arii and Helveconae warriors spread out over eight armies; a very formidable force to be dealt with should we attack. Not that we can really attack them at this point anyways: while we were on very good terms with both nations, they were firmly locked into their alliances, and it doesn’t seem like that will be easily broken. We could field only five armies, and we still had to defend the southern border with at least one army. I tried to get the Arii to break their alliance but they declined, even when we offered over 20,000 gold coins, a pretty decent fortune for any faction, large or small. We will try the Helveconae next, and we will see if they will break their alliance, as they are much smaller than the Arii and might need or want the money more than the Arii did. If they too refuse, we will have a major problem on our hands.





Though things were not all well on the home front as we were trying to figure out what to do; plague swept through one army, decimating them and preventing any action for a few months.





But with the bad news of the plague came some good news! The Frisii agreed to integrate with us! The first step into a truly united Germanic confederation!





Soon after we realized that they had an ongoing war with the Iceni. It took a lot of money but we managed to get the Iceni to halt their pending invasion of our newest town, Flevium. We also found out where the last Rugii fleet was hiding!





We managed to corner them on the coast and sink the last of the once proud Rugii, wiping them off the map for good. It was not a very hard fight, as they had been at sea for a very long time with minimal supplies, so they were exhausted and starving by the time we found them. In fact, we probably could have let them rot at sea until they fell prey to a storm or something. But I preferred our way, to dispatch them with our steel.


(


But with the Rugii “threat” gone, we still had the impending doom of over three large Iceni armies coming across the ocean. I know that we are at a rather uneasy peace with them, but at any moment they could just come and violently take towns away from us, just like they did so many years ago with the Suebi.


What is puzzling is that the Caledones, a northern tribe above the Iceni, declared war on us. We never had any contact with them before so I really have no idea why they declared war. We would deal with them in due time though, because a naval invasion is just beyond our reach for now.





But then the Arii went on the march, travelling through our lands towards the coast. I’m not sure where they are going, but they are at war with the Iceni so I can only assume that they are planning on travelling across the ocean to attack the Iceni at their home. But of course this leaves the Arii homelands wide open to attack, so perhaps this is an advantage for us? Time will tell, and in the meantime we will consolidate and prepare for the hard battles that are sure to come, whether our enemies are the Iceni, the Caledones, the Arii, or the Helveconae. I might not know what to do right now, but surely the Gods will show me the path to earn our proper seat among the greatest of nations.