Roman: Scipii

[Eagle Ranger]

If you're able to take Salona and Appolonia then good luck, otherwise I would suggest you wait until the Brutii have landed and are in the middle of wiping out the Greeks, then go after them in Southern Greece. I recommend you attack Syracuse to start the war, then create a force of hastati to take over to Sparta and Corinth, try to grab Athens if you can, but by then the Brutii should have taken Thermon, Larissa and Thessalonica. This not only gives you the richest cities in Greece, but some of the most advanced in the game at that point. The Brutii will then strike North into Dacia and Thrace, leaving you, their trusted Roman ally right in their exposed underbelly with their legions in the barbarian north. Ideal for when the civil war comes and you can use a few armies to capture the Brutii cities in Greece, leaving them with only the poorer, less developed cities in the wilderness

Yes, good strategy Rex and Dominii. It helps alot if you have a toe hold in Greece for the later game to cut the Romans in two. I too did that. I also went out a captured all of the greek islands like you plan to, they are extremely rich and provide naval conrol.

[Pontifex Rex]

*NB* addendum to self imposed handicaps -

v) No city walls. That is, if the locale has some sort of city walls when it is taken they can/will be repaired. However, any village town without walls will not have walls or pallisades constructed. Adds to the fun.

Report to the Senate, 465 BC

Greetings, fellow Romans,

I have both good news to report and a some potentially damaging bad news. The good news is that Salona, Appolonia and Kydonia have fallen and are being developed. A cavalry facility has been complete at Capua and our troops in Sicily are being reinforced with the first units. A 'Practice Range is about to be completed in Messana and will provide a few missile troops for the I Legion. The three Greek colonies are currently getting their economic houses in order and Appolonia is now able to produce a few Town Militia to garrison itself and Salona.

The bad news lays in the arrival two pirate fleets off the coast Sparta (50 ships and 75 ships) and south of Kydonia immediately after its capture. Depite attempts by our squadron of 20 biremes to evade, it was intercepted by both fleets and lost along with two cohorts of Hoplite Mercenaries, one cohort of Hastadi and one cohort of Cretan Archers. Further, General Quintus Scipio and the remnants of II Legion (one cohort of Hastadi and one of Roman Archers) are now marooned on Kydonia. The balance of our fleet (20 Biremes) is off the coast Campania shuttling Cavalry to Sicilia Romanus.

Five Year Plan for the years 465 - 461 BC

More ships are under construction at Capua and the plan is to gather some 80-100 ships and sweep the seas between Athens and Rome of any enemy ships while at the same time reinforcing the army in Greece. With some luck, Salona and Appolonia can continue on the economic track for the next five years while building up their population.

In the meantime, General Gaius Scipio is raising a third legion (III) of mainly mercenaries in Epirus with the intent of marching on Corinth. It is coinsidered wise at this point to join the Brutii there before they break into the city and take possession of the wonder. Syracuse has fallen to the Carthaginians but we feel we are currently strong enough to hold our own on Sicily. Messana will follow its construction of the 'Practice Range' with 'Stables', which should make the city self-sufficient for troop training in the near future. Capua, after finishing its paved roads will construct an 'Archery Range' and will become the factions main supplier of archers for now. Infantry forces will either come hiring mercenaries (Samnite or Hoplite) or the raising of a few Hastadi cohorts.

If events unroll as we hope, the next 5 years should be fairly calm with Corinth falling into our hands. Next report in early Spring 460BC.

Ave Roma!!

[Tellos Athenaios]

As the Scipii you don't have to worry much about the Julii in v 1.5:
they do take Caralis and Palma but these are relatively slow growing military unimportant cities.

Instead they leave the far more interesting regions of Narbo Martius and Massilia over to anyone who doesn't mind killing of a few Gauls for the sake of his empire. I actually found the Julii in the middle of a rather 'stupid' war: they landed near Osca, atacked the Spanish, got slaughtered, retried to capture the place and were busy doing that while a blitz campaign of mine enabled me to take: Narbo, Massilia, Lugdunum, Mediolanium, and Patavium.

Also: my Greek campaign meant that my Faction heir, now Leader leaded an army from Syracuse to Greece taking every settlement the Brutii had been busy weakening there. This resulted in me controlling virtually all of Greece, my Faction Leader becoming eventually a 10 star general when I sent him on a quick campaign in Illyria and the settlements the Gauls had conquered while the Julii didn't take care of the Gauls.

Instead of caring about those two regions on top of this post, I'd say focus on Greece and Southern France if you can - there are the strategically most important regions if you want to 'contain' your allies within your borders for as much as possible - and grab those very rewarding provinces!

[Quillan]

When I play the Scipiones, my usual strategy is to build a diplomat in Messana and consolidate my entire military force there. I capture/enslave Syracuse, destroy the greeks that are out in the field, and then make peace with the greek diplomat on the island. A little rebuilding while my diplomat moves over to Carthage, and then I take Lilybaeum, destroy any Carthaginians on the island, and make peace with them. After that I swing east. The Bruti have taken Appolonia by that point, but I'll swing in and take Kydonia and Halicarnassus (Byzantium was still rebel at this point the last time I played), and afterwards go back to war with the Greeks, taking Rhodes followed by Sparta. If the Greeks own Athens, I'll take that too, but that gives me a great economy with growth potential and I can go wherever circumstances dictate from that point.

[Pontifex Rex]

War! War!! War!!!

Report to the Senate 260 BC

Hail, and well met, fellow Romans,

The last five years have witnessed a quantum shift in the political and military efforts of not only our faction but that of the Roman Empire as well.

The plan to rush troops to Corinth to try and steal the city and the 'Wonder' failed as the Brutii did not wait to starve out the Macedonian garisson but assaulted as soon as their seige engines were ready. In order to forestall any further moves north the III Legion (Gaius Scipio) was directed to Thessalonica, where we entered the war against the Macedonians in the spring of 263 AD. After the briefest of seiges and moderately heavy casualties to our Samnite mercenaries, the city fell.

In the meantime the II Legion (Quintus Scipio) on Crete was fleshed out somewhat by mercenaries and sent to join III Legion in Greece. Our squadron of 20 Biremes defeated a small squadron Macedonian ships off the coast of Crete and reopend communications with the mainland. Before the two legions could link up, however, the Greek Cities declared war on our faction in the winter of 262 AD but was defeated in the field near Larissa (Thessalia) by elements of III Legion, now under Captain Secundus. II Legion was marched north from near the Macedonian city of Athens in the spring of 261 BC while III Legion laid seige to Larissa. Then, in the fall of 261 BC the pernicious Carthaginians, despite being in combat with the Greeks near Syracuse also declared war on us and have laid seige to Cornelius Scipio (our beloved leader) his I Legion and Messana. In Greece, a large Macedonian army marched south from Piaonia and has laid seige to Gaius Scipio and the garrison in Thessalonica. As of the time of this report, our faction is now at war with Carthage, the Greek Cities and the Macedonians.

Five Year Plan for the years 460 - 456 BC

We actually have a few miltary options but there are some risks involved. At Messana the I Legion (Cornelius Scipio w/ 24 Heavy Cavalry, 2 Hastadi, 2 Town Watch, 2 Veletes, 2 Equites) can either strike immediately at the Carthagian army (9 Iberian Infantry, 3 Skirmers) or wait for some reinforcements from Italy in the form of Lucius Scipio's column (1 Hastadi, 1 Samnite Mercenary, 1 Equites) which will march south into Bruttium and link up with our fleet of 60 Biremes. The relief of Messana would take place this fall. The decision on this will wait for 24 hours while those who wish to give advise may do so.

While events began to unfold in Greece and Sicily, Flavius Scipio had been sent north to recruit barbarian mercenaries from the Gaulish territories when he was commanded by the Senate to take the town Segestica. Unfortunately, when Flavius reached the town he found it already seiged by the Dacians, who look quite capable of successfully concluding the conquest. The column under Flavius' command (2 Barbarian Mercenaries, 1 Barbarian Cavalry) will now move as quickly as possible down the Dalmatian coast to reinforce our legions in Greece.

Captain Secundus (III Legion) will abandon the seige of Larissa and march north to Thessalonica and, together with the garrison, raise the seige, hopefully destroying the Macedonian army there. Quintus Scipio (II Legion) will hire what infantry are avalable near Thermon and harass the Greek troops in the region or perhaps draw the Greeks away from Appolonia by laying seige to Thermon. Desius Maecenas, governor of Kydonia (Crete) will also raise what mercenaries are available and send them to Greece to aid II Legion.

Ave Roma!


https://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f...cipii265AD.png

[SWT]

I hope it not to crush your screen

I think it's not a huge empire, it's my first game...

At first I conquered Sicily, then, I defeated Carthague. After that, the Senate send me to Termon so I took Termon itself, Sparta, Athens, Thessalonica... Everything until Campus Getae. Next, I went to Turkey and took it all, to defeat the Greek Cities, and conquered some Ponthus settlements like Artaxarta and Kotais... I also sent an army to Africa to take Siwa, Cyrene, Lepcis Magna... And now i'm defeating the egyptians and their rebel cities. I'm playing in normal-normal. I have 41 regions... I want to finish it, and start another campaign...

Is my money normal? I could not spend it in my whole life! I would know if someone else has got this amount of money, I don't think I am the only one, there are players who are much better than me here!

[Quillan]

That looks fairly typical for the Aegean Sea. The exact number vary with population levels and port levels; I assume Halicarnassus is very large while Athens is probably the smallest in terms of current population level. But that area generates an OBSCENE amount of money, and it's even more productive in the hands of the Bruti, since they have a temple that increases trade goods.

[CountMRVHS]

Ok, now I have to ask: how on earth do you keep track of your individual legions by number? I can keep track of certain family members, and remember which army I've got with Gaius the Killer, but II Legion, VII Legion...? Is there some feature I'm missing whereby you can label your armies, like the renaming cities feature in BI? Or do you keep track of it with a notepad?

You do a great job with these writeups, so I'm naturally curious how you go about recording it all. Keep it up!

CountMRVHS

[Pontifex Rex]

Ok, now I have to ask: how on earth do you keep track of your individual legions by number? I can keep track of certain family members, and remember which army I've got with Gaius the Killer, but II Legion, VII Legion...? Is there some feature I'm missing whereby you can label your armies, like the renaming cities feature in BI? Or do you keep track of it with a notepad?...You do a great job with these writeups, so I'm naturally curious how you go about recording it all. Keep it up!

I usually do it by the name of the commander and by breaking the action every 5 years (ten turns) for the right up and to let the scribes make their notes. If the action gets hot and heavy a few notes on the side can be kept. The garrison legions are set and deployed by geographical regions, i.e. XIII (Greece). Its four patrols are stationed about 1.5 turns apart and do not move unless they spot a rebel group or are shipped off to another legion (very rarely). Finally, once a legion starts driving in a ceratin direction, it will likely keep going, so its easier to keep track that way as well.

Being a bit anal about things doesn't hurt either. I like a tidy empire and a tidy battlefield. I also do not mind spending the time necessary to keep track of the story,... I'm in no rush to finish a game.