Haha, I'm playing the Scipii now in Mundus Magnus, and it's been highly entertaining. Seeing as I have plenty of time to waste as it is, I shall regale you with tales.

I formed my first grand army, as is my wont, at Croton (in MM you start with Capua and Croton), to cross over to Messana as was the senate mission. Taking it, I proceeded to manhandle Lilybaeum, and Syracuse. I was expecting the Senate to send me on to Hadrumetum (Thapsus) next, but lo and behold! They sent me to Salona. Fascinating. I thought they were just trying to break up my contiguous empire, so I just took it, thinking NOW i can get back to that planned assault on Carthago I had in mind...

But NO! The Senate had other plans for me. They sent me to *drumrolls...* Patavium! Now why the hell is that? That's Julii territory! Then I looked, and I saw the Julii floundering around in blood as red as their tunics, so I took it for the Julii, and kept it. Leaving my little patch of Illyricum to build its paved roads and markets, I left for Carthage. Then halfway down the Adriatic in my little fleet (which has grown into a nasty 10-bireme affair by now, in turn 15 mind you) I am told to turn east to Greece and take Athens, since the Brutii are so inept they haven't done anything about it. Sigh. I figured at this point that my invasion of Carthage was pretty much done for, and since Greece was bloody rich, I decided to lock my 1st Legion into Greece as a regional force. I began a second one on Sicily for Carthage.

1st Legion had a nice hard fight with the Macedonians and Greeks, eventually taking the whole Greek area up to Macedonia itself and Sardica (RTW Bylazora). In this conflict I tackled no less than 5 full-stacks, but eventually came out tops. Thankfully, thanks to newly balanced MM faction characters, Macedonia no longer churns out LL like nobody's business.

2 Legion swept through Carthage's territory with great ease, until it arrived at Lepcis Magna where two fullstacks attempted to contest the town with me (their last African foothold) from opposite direction. It was quite a battle, as my army prepared to face one then the other, only to discover that they opted instead to join into one line and come at me from one corner of the map. So I played along and shattered their infantry line while my cavalry rolled them up from the flank, though admittedly not without some trouble.

Things started going pretty fast now. 1st Legion left for Asia Minor to take out Seleukeia (they declared on me, as did the Ptolemaics, because I bribed Halicarnassus, Side, Ipsus and Sardis from under their noses in 4 turns. :P). Numerous fights led to the capture of all southern Asia Minor all the way to Antioch. 2nd Legion left for Egypt, which had initiated hostilities, and, meeting only 12 units' worth of resistance spread over 3 armies on the way, it took Alexandria and Memphis in a dazzlingly quick campaign. Leaving one diplomat to guard the approaches from Thebes, 2nd Legion leaves for the Levant to take out Egyptian possessions there.

Meanwhile, new armies have been formed, 3rd Legion in Greece and 4th Legion in Patavium. These march eastwards. 3rd Legion was formed just in time, as Thrace launched a heavy assault with one fullstack on Sardica. (Wow.) It was a hard fight that destroyed a fifth of my army, but 3rd legion won, mauled by Thracian militia cavalry (which I stupidly gave 7 melee attack) that made up the bulk of the full-stack. While Thrace shook in its boots and 3rd legion retreated to lick its wounds, 4th legion systematically took Aemona, Iuvavum and Aquincum, the last one by bribe. Singidunum fell to the glitter of gold a turn later.

Meanwhile 3rd Legion had taken Naissus, one of the linchpins of the Thracian defence. It now crossed the black sea to attack Mazaka, which was threatening undefended Asia Minor. 1st Legion was moving for Hatra at this time, after fighting off 3 consecutive Seleucid armies threatening Tarsus. Dunno what they saw in a depopulated town that doesn't even have a militia barracks yet.

4th legion took up the responsibility of the campaign in Thrace, while 5th Legion was formed in anticipation of an Egyptian attack on Lepcis Magna, which seemed the logical step to do since west Africa was undefended. Three turns later Lepcis Magna was taken and assaulted by the only Egyptian fullstack I have ever seen in the whole damned game. I let them have it, because although I could have relieved the siege, I preferred to have an army trapped in a city rather than outside it.

5th Legion besieged Lepcis with numerical inferioprity, and the Egyptians sallied out quickly. Very quickly. They were also routed equally quickly. Can someone explain why MM Nile Spearmen LOVE forming phalanx in LOOSE FORMATION?

After recapturing Lepcis Magna 5th marched on to Cyrene. By now 1st Legion had taken Hatra, 3rd had taken Mazaka and was going on to attack Pontus (which had really always been at war with me but never had enough troops to do more than make me laugh and give my diplomats target practice) at Sinope. 2nd Legion had been spectacularly successful in the Levant, taking Sidon and Jerusalem by storm and Damascus by bribe, and Petra after a pretty dry march.

At this point in time I began catching many spies from my erstwhile ally Numidia in Carthage, so I figured this was the time when I started a campaign against them to pre-empt. But they pre-empted me, trapping the Carthage units of 6th Legion in the city. Unfortunately, the remaining units from Lilybaeum, Messana, Syracuse and Hadrumetum of my all-cavalry 6th Legion were enough to massacre them. Pathetic javelin-men.

The campaign therefore ends with 1st Legion in Thebes, about to move on to Pselkis, 2nd Legion just leaving Hatra in ruins on the way to Arbela, 3rd Legion just taken Sinope and wondering what the hell to do with it (since it has only 450 population). 4th Legion is sitting around Seutopolis with the last Thracian full-stack grand army trapped inside it (it is scared of the excessive numbers of militia cavalry it sees in the city). 5th Legion has cleared the Aegean Island provinces as a pastime while waiting for Cyrene to complete its militia barracks and stables. 6th Legion is about to embark on a punitive expedition on Cirtan, with a pleasantly singing complement of 3 hastati trailing a turn behind to man the rams. I have 5 full-stack fleets of triremes, quinqueremes and corvus quinqueremes floating around in the sea.

Looking good. I'm going to focus my efforts east, now. Onwards to Susa!