Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

[_Aetius_]

I've just finished my first go of BI a few minutes ago, i'm pretty impressed I have to say.

My campaign analysis so far.

I'm playing on H/H and at the beginning the very first thing I did was destroy all pagan temples and replaced them with christian churches etc, which reduced much of the unrest in the eastern provinces. Still getting a feel for the game I probably didnt train as many high quality troops as I should have and soon the Sassanids began raiding Syria and Cappadocia with modest sized forces.

After a few years of minor confrontations in the east it became clear that the Danube frontier was were my attention should be most of the time as the Huns rampaged against the Germanics. First the Sarmatians were pushed out of their homelands after the Vandals expelled them, the Sarmatians then expelled the Goths from their territory and then the Sarmatians and Vandals were pushed out by the Huns. So within 6 or 7 years there were 3 massive hordes on the frontier, thankfully they fought each other most of the time for now.

At around 368 things in the west looked somewhat bleak, constant rebellions pinned down my field army whilst the western Roman rebels seized Illyria, then my alliance with the western empire itself collapsed as I took Illyria from the rebels. Alarmed by this I increased the size of the western army whilst the eastern army campaigned against the Sassanids, Hatra was captured and Kotais (sp?) rebelled against the Sassanids and came over to me. So at this point despite the odd rebel army running around the east was secure and the Sassanids repeatedly defeated.

Its at this point things have begun to go wrong,the commander of the western legions was killed during the plague and my legions were severely weakened as the hordes began crossing the Danube.

First the Sarmatians crossed the unguarded frontier and lay siege to the city north of Salona in Pannonia, the city was lightly guarded and my field army was far to small to confront the Sarmatians who numbered some 4000. Second the Goths entered the empire and in the same turn lay siege to Constantinople, the Sarmatians stormed the city they were besieging and successfully plundered it, after 2 years Constantinople was stormed by the Goths and fell despite the Goths recieving 50% casualties (1500 men).

In one stroke the Imperial capital had fallen and the western provinces were totally isolated, whilst the Sassanids in the east renewed their assault on Asia Minor. To avoid a total rebellion in the east I moved the capital to Asia Minor instead of the much larger city of Alexandria then I left the game a couple of years later at 375 for a break.

I'm now contemplating my next move, I could attempt to retake Constantinople back from the Goths and try to salvage something of the western provinces or I could withdraw my western legions to Asia Minor where the campaign against the Sassanids could be pushed much further forward. Unwilling to sacrifice my 3 remaining western terrorities so easily i'm not to hyped on the withdrawel of the Balkans, however if the western legions are destroyed then i'll of gained nothing and the west will fall anyway and i'll have one less army at my disposal.

Its an interesting series of decisions I have to make, the big thing that is swaying me here is that I cant see how I can hold the Danube even if I retook it, eventually the much larger Huns will sweep down and remove me anyway. What shocks me most is that the Western empire is totally intact aside from losing north africa to the berbers and rebels, its actually conquered territory north of the Danube and is stronger than the east.

It's good to have these kind of problems for once unlike in RTW