Spain

[pezhetairoi]

why thank you for the compliment. :-) I've ended my spanish game (burnout, my game crashed (see thread in Colosseum) and I want to try Egypt once I get it restarted) with about 30+ provinces. I own all Italy thanks to that preemptive strike, I've annihilated the Brutii, having had to chase them with two armies and two diplomats all the way from Apollonia to Vicus Marcomannii to down the last factioner. I own all lower Greece (Sparta, Athens, Corinth). This was due to a stroke of luck as my spanish swordsmen are incredibly crappy against hoplites, so I used diplomats as the shock troops. I managed to bribe 4 greek factioners (IN ONE ARMY) to my side, and recruited enough mercenaries to lay siege to and storm Sparta with their own greek troops. Now preparing to crush Macedonia in 3 turns flat. In the west, the Gauls have fought 3 major 20 vs 20 stack battles with me, and gotten trashed. I now own all western Gaul up to Condate Redonum, as well as southern Germania. In the south, I own all western Africa, and Cyrene. In the east, I own Kydonia and Rhodes and I actually owned Pergamum but gave it away to Pontus in return for alliance and an attack on Seleucids. The Pergamum army is now en route by ship to Antioch, which is the real prize. I've an army on the sea on a 20-large-boat-navy that surrounds and trashes any any in its way en route to Alexandria while the Cyrene army heads for Siwwa and Thebes. Altogether now army deployment are as follows, 3rd Army currently recuperating in Athens, 4th Army at Nepte en route to Lepcis Magna tp take ship to Chersonesos (I know, it's quite a long way), 5th Army en route to Antioch, 6th Army at Trier about to descend on Alesia and the two Gaulish rebel provinces, 7th Army at the border of Armorica (so much for indomitable Gauls) moving for Samarobriva, 8th army at Vicus Gothi laying siege, 9th Army at Cyrene, 10th army moving by ship to land near Thessalonica from Sparta... btw the numbers of my armies tells you the order of their formation.

[katank]

Are you playing 1.2? Using diplomats as shock troops, lol.

I did that a lot in 1.0 and 1.1 but not so any more. The hapless AI often have nearly full captain-led stacks running around which are perfect prey.

That's a lot of armies. Guess you must have conquered fast and furious. How much upkeep does all of that cost?

I've never maintained more than 5 armies in my games but then again, I don't go for much of a blazing speed endgame.

[Craterus]

Ok. We got going again. About to assault Rome, we were attacked by the massive Roman force. Tried Hannibal's "weak-centre tactic" and we deployed as far back as possible, it didn't work too well. Then we re-loaded and tried a three-line tactic. This worked. But our depleted force was attacked the next turn by half-Roman stack, with Scipii and Julii reinforcements. Needless to say, being attacked by 3 different directions meant that we lost.

That force is now almost dead.

It is a short campaign so only one more region is needed and then we win. We are hoping to breed a force in Italy, and attack Croton. It would be nice to take Rome for the final settlement, but the army is almost dead and it is v ery well protected (4 armies).

[pezhetairoi]

Ho hum, nice to know it's gotten going again :-) Hurray!

Katank, it probably cost me about 10k in upkeep, but I still made 10-20k a turn, because I captured some really good trade pairs and developed port cities. And I fully developed those that weren't. Quite a comfortable margin even with 7 armies, 5 of them full-stack, running around like loose cannons.

[Garvanko]

Wow, Spain is fun. Especially, if you do them right.

I just started a campaign after a month off from RTW and BI. Took Corduba, Tingi, Numantia, Palma, Cirtis, Carthage and Thapsus in that order. The key of course is to get the economics right in the first ten turns or so. Corduba got me Bull Warriors (though I havent used them yet!) before I even captured Palma!

I like the Scutarii and Spanish Mercs though. A poor man's Plumbatarii, but effective nonetheless. Really flexible unit roster.

And those temples!!

The only problem you'll have is chronic alcoholism!