When a campaign stalls
This is a continuation of my thread a short time ago called "adapting to egyptian armies* , my problem was i was advancing further and further east and the egyptian armies were simply overwhelming my phalanx heavy armies and seriously threatening my then flourishing empire (thanks to some advice my amies are now a match for them). Which had all of greece except Apollonia as far north as Bylazora, plus Byzantium it included all of western asia minor as far east as mazaka but not including pontus, tarsus and galatia, i also had crete and rhodes.
Alot has happened in the 25 years or so since the point of that *crisis* its around 195BC now and the empire has expanded considerably, the crimea is now under my control, as is Tarsus in asia minor, Thrace, Illyria, Dalmatia, Antioch, Alexandria, and Pannonia and for a decade Rome itself was under greek control, but recently fell to the Julii.
My new problem is that my expansion has stalled and the empire is now in the first stages of decline, my economy was 200,000 but in about 12 years has dropped to 150,000 still plenty of cash true but 1/4 of my ecomony has gone in a decade and my armed forces have increased very marginally (most being spent on naval repairs and sanitation) but with the amount of wars im having to fund its dropping faster and faster as the years go on. The Marius reforms have taken effect for the small roman empire (mostly just italy and sicily carthage etc) and they exacted the first significant defeat of a greek field army thus far this game, in the important province of Illyria thanks to their advanced legionary and praetorian cohorts.
The now established northern frontier is suffering regular Thracian and Dacian incursions since installing the patch AI controlled navies have been the most irritating thorn in my side constantly harrassing my ports and even though my navy is vastly superior so many 1 ship navies are around my empire that they are overstretching it, as ive now lost control over the black sea.
The large expedition i sent to egypt succeeded in capturing and sacking Alexandria but the lesser force sent to take Memphis was crushed by the egyptians and Alexandria is under siege, Rome which was taken by another large expedition has fallen after years of sieges and greek victories infact all the destruction of the senate and the taking of Rome accomplished (apart from a massive fortune from the sack) was the gigantic sky rocketing of Roman production and massive armies now patrol the once defenceless italy.
The problem is, these expeditions although successful were impossible to follow up due to commitments in the homelands and eastern frontier, with Rome gone and my gains against Egypt looking frail at best plus the now ridiculous amount of wars im funding the empire looks in severe danger, I have the Small kingdoms of Dacia and Thrace to the north whom im at war with, the three empowered roman factions to the west, the weak but navally powerful armenia to the east and the major power of egypt to the south.
So ive completly stalled, I cant make permenant gains abroad and am barely holding my frontiers in the east if Antioch falls, Tarsus and Mazaka will soon follow my armies in western asia minor are inferior and outdated hoplites from the early campaigns against the Pontus, as my major field armies have moved east my weaker units have logically been on garrison duty thus advancement in technology has been neglected.
Even greece itself it lacking sufficient high quality troops to send out as most went to italy and later egypt, public order is becoming more and more of a problem and plague is starting to become more common, and if the future couldnt look much worse, upon looking at my family tree most of the governors who spurred the empire to economic brilliance have died or are near death leaving incompetant or no heirs to replace them.
Im sure everyone has had a great empire suddenly stall, but im not seeing a way to get out of this depression with the amount of wars im involved in and there reluctance to make peace its only a matter of time before the frontiers simply cannot hold them back any longer, despite my power my field armies are scattered and would take years to consolidate sufficiently, so any thoughts? or any similar experiences?
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Why cant we just get along???
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