To War!

Turn two is summer, the height of the campaigning season so it is time to attack!

Though Atháwulfáz is still too far from Ascaucalis, Hrábnáz is within striking distance of Gáwjám-Silengoz. Comparing the two stacks I felt that Hrábnáz’s war party was too small to carry off the attack successfully and so he has hired some Curepos mercenaries (light horse).



As he attacks I review the troops he’ll be facing and I’m glad I hired the mercs. They outnumber my forces by 50% with two units of archers to whittle down my forces.



With this in mind I deploy my forces on a single side of the village in a tight formation so that each can support each other. Hopefully I will be able to catch their units individually and destroy them piecemeal.

Unlike vanilla, you’ll notice that the general unit is made up of infantry – historically in war the leaders of the Swêbōz fought on foot. In game terms this makes every single battle more significant to your family members, in the case of defeat you cannot rely on your general’s ability to escape the victorious enemy.



The assault begins well, my infantry isolate and surround one of their advance unit. You’ll find that combat in EB is a lot more satisfying – battlelines actually lock together, units with high morale will stand and fight even when the odds are against them. Whilst my two units envelope the enemy unit, they stand long enough for their general to intervene.

Cavalry, though, is not the all-conquering medieval juggernaut of vanilla RTW. I throw my reserve unit into the fray and their general retreats, harried by my own cavalry.



My infantry mops up their advanced forces, but as they follow up my own skirmish cavalry becomes bogged down in combat with the Silengoz Sáhsnotoz.



They can do little but break off themselves and retreat to a safe distance.



The Silengoz pull back to their town square, I begin to usual procedure of setting my troops to encircle them – walking them in order to keep them from getting tired. As I set up the first side, however, the Silengoz boil off their square and attack! My infantry are knocked back and my general goes to support, whilst my encircling troops suddenly have to run in order to get around the hall quickly enough. Within the Silengoz close enough to their town square to benefit from the morale bonus a long drawn out melee without any positional advantage could gut my units.



Their general finally falls and once they are surrounded it is the end for the Silengoz. Still a hard fought battle and a third of my troops are left on the field.

Welcome to Gáwjám-Silengoz

We’ve taken our first settlement and Gáwjám-Silengoz is quite a prize. It is one of the stops of the Glêzostrátá – the Amber trade route from the Baltic to the Mediterranean – and the province includes Limios Alsos, a holy site for many pagan cultures.



Gáwjám-Silengoz also includes the following building:



This simply denotes the top level of government that can be installed (as you can see the type1 government appears in the Construction options as well, though I don’t have the funds to construct it at present).
Whilst there may be differences between the Silengoz and the Swêbōz cultures the environment and the basics of their way of life are very similar and so it is not surprising that I can fully integrate them into my society if I so choose. Doing so, however, is still a long and resource-consuming process. It would be quicker and easier to install a lower level of government, though that in turn will shape my recruitment and construction options in the future.


The Long March to Ascaucalis

To the north, Atháwulfáz is still marching towards his own target. Without roads and hindered by winter, the journey has taken longer than anyone would have thought. This is a good example of how in EB traits are used to give an insight into the current status of characters:



Here Atháwulfáz is in autumn 272BC. We can see from his traits that he has been force marching his troops and pushing them onwards as quickly as they can go. Whilst the march and potential for conquest has only been making him more and more enthusiastic, it has had the reverse effect on his troops who are now unsure of his ability to lead them.



One season on and Atháwulfáz has again marched them to their full extent and we can see the situation has worsened. He’s excited about the proximity of battle, but his men trust him even less. Just as a general who commands his men’s devotion can take them to the gates of hell, so too a general who does not may find his forces melt away when confronted by the foe.



The column finally arrives and Atháwulfáz launches his assault against the Vendi – here we can see the forces are more equal, however I will have to account for his men’s lower morale.



I take pains to keep my men together, however it is my cavalry that suffer, overextending themselves and then fleeing after losing a third of their number. Once again the regular encircling strategy flounders in the face of the AI which suddenly activates a defensive unit to slam into the marching flankers (the general and his bodyguard), whilst pinning down the other units so they can’t intervene. The fighting was intense and it looked for a moment as though the general himself would be killed as he was backed up against a wall and isolated from his men. Only the sacrifice of my cavalry kept him alive and the assault going.

This then is the extent of the Swêbōz lands as at the beginning of 271BC.



Gains have been made against the Vendi and the Silengoz and while I’m in debt my cash flow is positive. Further expansion, though, will be difficult without installing some form of government, both to help control the populace and allow me to recruit their men for my armies.



My family members are also being to develop their own personalities as well. Atháwulfáz as we’ve seen is eager for war, too eager perhaps and despite a victory his troops still do not have confidence in him. Anushárjáz – the general to the north-west whose troops were disbanded – is becoming a fearless raider of the Gallic lands on the Rhine; and Hrábnáz – the victor against the Silengoz – is developing as a thoroughly untrustworthy character.

With the EB trait system adding such a level of characterisation, it’s really possible to follow the ‘story’ behind your faction and its leaders.