Gaul

[gardibolt]

Finally got back to this Gaul campaign (need to finish it so I can load BI) and decided to make an all-out blitzkrieg in Spain. Wiped out the Spanish faction heir and faction leader, wiped out the Carthaginian leader in Spain and am besieging the last cities in Iberia, so that should be no problem in the future. I got lucky with an assault team on the main German stack near Alesia, and the Macedonians have gotten distracted by the fact that when they emptied Patavium to attack me, it went rebel on them so they've gone back to deal with their problem children. Finally found someone who would trade with me (Greece and Thrace) so I've started having a couple thousand of income again, and we may yet be able to right this ship. If I can just hold off the British from moving farther south into France before I can conquer Iberia completely, this may work out after all. Oh, and while Macedon will probably retake Patavium, it seems to have mysteriously come down with the plague. Heh heh.

===

Edit 10/04/05: The plan worked beautifully so far. I exterminated Cordoba, Osca and Lusitania, getting me enough ready cash to put Alesia, Rome and Arretium on a good financial footing and build some much-needed market upgrades and a crop of Foresters--and incidentally keeping those rebellious provinces quite happy since they now have lebensraum. Now that I have peace in Iberia and trade working the cash is starting to flow and I have the Germans on the run. The Britons are still a problem (they seized Acquitaine, though I made them pay dearly), but I'm moving a half-stack from Iberia to go deal with them, picking up soldiers along the way. The former Spanish faction heir is parked along the way and I'm going to try to bribe him to head this stack. I anticipate driving the Britons off the continent in 2-3 years without much trouble. The Brutii kept attacking me in Arretium until finally they left Arriminium undefended, so now I've seized that and am looking at a move on the Scipii capital. The breathing room from the Spanish conquest was exactly what I needed. I've been able to go to Numidia and gotten trade rights there, which should help immensely--I couldn't before because of the humungous Spanish fleet, which seems to have evaporated.

===

Edit 10/6/05:

Mopping up the Germans and heading towards driving the Britons off the continent--the Britons are down to only Condate Redonum and I've been picking off the expeditionary forces it keeps sending down so its once-full-stack is no more than half a stack now. I have druids on the way from Spain but they may no longer be needed by the time they arrive. I eliminated the Brutii in Italy in spectacular fashion--the final battle was a very near thing, with my entire army routing except for 2 groups of foresters numbering 35 and 13--but they still had arrows and picked off the Brutii general, and then mowed down the rest of the army to the point that when they ran out of arrows and the remnants of the Brutii charged, the foresters were able to rout the entire thing fighting hand to hand! Alas for me, when I hit End Turn I got a CTD. I was so depressed I couldn't bear to reopen to see whether it saved before the CTD. I'd be in a bit of a difficult spot, since the nearby Scipii have three 3/4 stacks, but I really hate to lose what was such an epic turn of the tide.

EDIT 10/7/05:

Well, I finally looked to see if the save was good, and it was. Whew! The Britons were again expelled from the continent, though they just landed another stack at Samarobriva so after I deal with that it's time to pay a little visit to the British Isles. Macedon has gotten more aggressive and has started attacking me in Mogontiacum along with the oncoming German stacks (I thought I'd killed most of their big cities but apparently there's still something more tasty out there). Stupid phalanxes. Eat Forester arrows, Mac. The Brutii have been pounded into submission so I finally decided to pay some attention to the Scipii with my spy; I've been ignoring them for the most part with their one city in the boot. They just landed another stack from Sicily, and the damned thing is half onagers! I see I'm going to have to attack them pronto; 2 more turns of building cavalry and I should be good to go---assuming they don't assault me first. Ai ai ai! With any luck they're far enough apart that they won't be able to reinforce----not sure I can take on four stacks of Romans in the same battle plus whatever might wander out of the city. By then my diplomat should finally have been able to get to Egypt; an alliance or at least good trade should be a nice boost for me. I hope. While I'm at least keeping my head above water (5-6000 net income per turn), I can see that the next few turns are going to be muy critical. I wish I had an Esus temple closer to Italy; I could really use some druids there.

Edit 10/10/05:

The turns were not quite as critical as anticipated. I finally got my diplomat to Egypt, and got trade rights, though they were utterly uninterested in map information. The Scipii conveniently split their four stacks up, which is a good thing since they just got the Marian Reforms and I'm not sure my barbarians could handle a full army of post-Marian troops. One stack went after Tarentum to support their Brutii brethren (who keep coming in dribs and drabs from Thrapsus across the Adriatic) and they were quickly slaughtered in the open field. The second went to Rome and died before the walls on my first sally. I then sent the Roman army to Capua and seized it without too much difficulty, thanks to my troops being numerically smaller and thus the Scipii were encouraged to sally out and attack rather than give me a hard time besieging. They paid the price. The fourth stack was standing around and having a fair amount of cash handy I bribed the stack and took in their family member, since I only had one general in Italy and could really use another one. Those darned Scipii were a step ahead of me, though, because when I moved him into Capua, the Scipii sent an assassin with the plague in and infected BOTH my generals. Aaaaargh! They're not dead yet....we'll see whether they get over it. At any rate, it's finally time to start building a navy and assault Sicily. Mediolanum is building up to take the fight to Macedon, and the Channel has been successfully crossed and Londinium exterminated. Looks like pretty clear sailing in the immediate future, with about 24 territories yet to be taken. I'm hoping that once I've taken Sicily the Scipii will go about fighting with Egypt and Numidia and leave me alone.

The Spanish army hit on the idea of a naval assault on Palma, the last Carthaginian territory, and one that always generates lots of trade income. But what to do about the unbeatable full stack of Macedonian ships patrolling the straits? Misdirection. While I build my army on the promontory opposite Palma, I'm building little boats in Osca and Narbo to go out and attract attention, slyly pulling the Macedonian fleet ever farther away from my real target. Once they can't intercept me, off goes the invasion boat. So far, it has worked like a charm and right now the Macedonians are up fooling around on the Riviera sinking my decoy boats. Just need to keep them busy for the 2 turns it takes to get to Palma and Carthage is toast.

===

Edit 10/24/05:

Taking Palma was definitely the right move; income jumped from 2000 per turn up to 6-8000 by this one stroke. Macedon made it a little more difficult than it should have been, since one of its fleets didn't take the bait and what should have been a 2-turn excursion ended up being a 5-turn trip instead. So I've started building large boats at every single port to start cleaning up the navies.

Germany has been destroyed, and their allies Dacia made the mistake of helping just before they went under so I'm now eliminating them too--they're down to one province, Domus Dulce Domum and that won't last them long since I greatly out-tech them. Macedon has given me endless grief in this game, so I've started pounding them one city at a time. I ended up losing the battle for Thessalonika, their capital, however, due to the 15 minute timer--only the 2nd time that has ever happened for me (the first was when I was still trying to figure out the siege equipment). But playing on medium unit sizes I slew over 2500 of their best troops so the return engagement shouldn't be too difficult. Even though the Greek Cities are at war with them, they refuse any sort of alliance, even after modest gifts.

The Scipii are reduced to just Lilybaeum on Sicily, and that's not long for this world. I built a diplomat and parked him in the middle of the island, and whenever they send over a contingent of troops I bribe it away. So what was a fearsome full stack of Legions and Urban Cohorts is now just a handful of men that will quickly fall before my Foresters. Six provinces to go for the victory condition, and now it's really just a matter of deciding which six they will be. This has been a very tough campaign till just recently (seizing Spain and then Parma was the key to turning it around) but a lot of fun and intriguing.

I've always wondered why some people seem to find they have too much money as Gaul, and recently I've figured it out: there's nothing to build above level 3, so you're not doing much construction in the late game and have nothing to spend money on. The cultural differences are great enough in the Macedonian cities that I routinely exterminate as a way not to tie up troops in garrisons, and so cash flows in and little flows out.