Originally Posted by
CountMRVHS
I'm currently having a very interesting game as the Scipii. Playing H/H 1.5 w/ BI, and no downloaded mods. I have, however, made some modifications to the game myself, so I guess I should start there.
Like many people, I have come to hate Egypt and the way they will always take over the middle east so that by the time you get there they've knocked off other, more interesting factions. So in descr_strat, I gave Salamis and Sidon to the Seleucids, and took away all Egyptian starting units and buildings (aside from family members and core buildings) and modded population size wayyyy down in Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Memphis. Thebes I gave to rebels, as there was no family member in the town -- and I would have given Jerusalem away too, but I don't know how to move family members in descr_strat. Finally, to encourage Parthia, I gave them that rebel town between them and Armenia.
I've played a couple other short campaigns with this setup, and it usually results in Egypt staying put for much longer than normal, but still they will work up the numbers and eventually start to harass the Seleucids. (The ultimate dream will be to mod them out altogether, if I can ever figure out how.)
I decided I'd turtle and otherwise be a good Senate-fearing Roman. There was the usual scrum in Sicily, with the Greeks sending Armoured Hoplites my way, but after taking Lilybaeum from Carthage I was finally able to take Syracuse. For a long time I sat and built, as the only Senate missions I was getting were to blockade ports. The Brutii were doing their usual "on the boat, off the boat" routine, and not grabbing any land, which was driving me nuts, but the Julii were doing ok. After a short time they had kicked the Gauls out of northern Italy, grabbed Messalia and Sardinia, and were working on spreading out into the northern Balkans.
By this time my dipomat had rounded the Black Sea just in time to see Pontus besieging the Armenians in Kotais. Fairly typical, I thought, since Pontus always takes Turkey (those chariots, no doubt). I got map info from Parthia and was pleasantly surprised to see they had grabbed Seleucia, Dumatha, and Palmyra, and were currently at peace with the Seleucids. Seleucia was holding its own, and in fact was only at war with one faction -- Egypt. I had been expecting this, and as my diplomat moved down through the middle east I was expecting to see the yellow hordes besieging Sidon or Damascus. To my surprise, no Egyptians to be found. And to my *delight*, I found that Seleucia had actually captured Jerusalem from the Egyptians! Even with the modding I've done, I've never seen that happen.
I moved my diplomat on down to Egypt to find the Seleucids were actually following up on the war and invading the Nile region. They were holding their own, and kept sending stacks down there, but were never able to capture any Nile cities. They'd besiege Alexandria for several turns but then give up, or be unable to assault successfully. I helped by bribing all the Egyptian captains I could find, and worked on getting an army down there to help the Seleucids finish the job.
Meanwhile, the Senate had finally given me a new mission: take Apollonia. Macedon owned the town, so I worked on a ceasefire & trade rights with the Greeks, then got an army over there and took it. Unfortunately, this act of war against Macedon resulted in the Julii dropping our alliance. I was able to get it back a few turns later, but we never got military access back, which is very frustrating.
I held Apollonia for maybe 10 or 15 turns, at which point the Greeks decided they wanted it back. That wasn't so surprising in itself -- but what *was* surprising was the amount of Armoured Hoplites they brought to the fight. I saw 2 stacks, each half AH and half regular/militia hoplites. Plus ballistae, archers, Greek cav, peltasts. I knew I couldn't hold it and the town fell a few turns later -- despite the efforts of the Julii, who had now captured Salona and Segestica and were interested in keeping a large Roman presence in the Balkans. They showed up as reinforcements in a siege, but it wasn't enough against those monster hoplites.
Rather than try to take the town back, I did something I *never* have to do in RTW, and decided to just give it up and look elsewhere. Greece and Macedon were at war, so maybe eventually one of them would get weak enough for me to exploit. The Senate in the meantime wanted me to grab Carthage. I figured it was time. I set my recruiters to training two legions -- one for Carthage, one for Egypt.
I found Carthage had been kicked from Spain, but had taken all of Africa from Lepcis Magna west. They were making Poeni Infantry and even had a Sacred Band Inf unit in Carthage, with a few elephant units scattered around. All in all, more formidable than I'm used to seeing them.
As I sent my army to besiege Carthage I noticed something strange was going on. The Julii had lost Massilia -- to SPAIN. The Spanish were now, in fact, besieging Mediolanium, with another stack threatening Segesta! A few turns later Gaul was wiped out, collapsing under pressure from the Spanish to the south and the British from the north. Dacia decided to pile on the Julii from the other side, taking their Balkan possessions and eventually sacking Patavium. They must have known they couldn't hold it, because they left it a burning wreck and retreated their main force back north, leaving only a small garrison.
My army down in Egypt was doing what the Seleucids couldn't: I captured Memphis, then Thebes, leaving tiny garrisons in each, and then quickly sent my main army up to Alexandria, hoping it would be enough. About 5 turns later, it was: Egypt was gone.
However, in so doing, I actually *won* the short campaign for the Seleucids! (Of course I decided to keep playing with the long campaign) So much for my fears that they would be wiped out by Pontus. In fact, a few turns later, I got notification that Armenia, and then Pontus, had been destroyed. Map information from the Seleucids revealed that there were in fact only 2 major powers in the East: Seleucia, which had every Turkish region except Pergamum (held by the Greeks), and Parthia, which had grabbed Bostra. I left the Nile cities to the Seleucids and shipped my victorious army back west, where I needed them to deal with two things: my army that successfully took Carthage was now in turn under siege, and the Senate was asking me to take Thapsus as well; and also to help out the Julii by beating back the Spanish.
I haven't dealt with either of those situations yet, but I can't wait. Carthage has a stack and a half keeping me under siege in their former capital, and I just landed my troops to besiege Thapsus, hopefully in time for the mission. Following that, I need to get some damage control up in northern Italy, or the peninsula is going to be overrun by barbarians. And finally, eventually I'll have to head East and fight, for the first time EVER, a strong Seleucid empire. If I get lucky, Parthia will still be around and I'll have to deal with them too. Fun stuff!
CountMRVHS
Re: Best Campaign
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Any idea how that happened ? I had a Greek general rout two or three times and he gained a trait 'dubious courage'...but that didnt change his name.
154k profit from 4 protectorates. 
Anyway, and I promise I'll tell you this time, the next little game I play is to use the elephants as a weapon against the Seleucids themselves. Since they've been surrounded by 2 full stacks (one being led by my faction Heir...who really isn't the "true" faction heir that I'll be naming later on but for strategic purposes it is what it is now) they haven't been able to break the seige...just one army's seige. They've attacked the un-led army, since that's the one in the front of the city, 3 turns in a row and broken their seige...eliminating any equipment that has been built by that army. Thing is that the OTHER army beseiging them, the one with my heir leading it, has never had it's seige broken and just keeps developing more seige equipment. So obviously the Seleucids have tried everything to make this battle take place out in the field as opposed to inside the city, since they know we're going to be able to breach the walls. The plan is this: When I start breaking into the city with infantry, I'm going to have my skirmishers and archers focus their fire on the elephants. The bowmen are going to use flaming arrows from outside the walls and shake up all 70+ elephants so that while the major fighting is going on at the walls/right inside the city the Seleucid front linesman will get a nasty surprise behind them: 70+ elephants all running amok. As soon as that happens I am going to release my "entrance infantry line 2" if you will...another LONG row of nubian spearman in a phalanx formation which will drive the enemy back into the city a bit. This will pin them back with all of their cavalry like a sandwhich ...stuck together with all the elephants going crazy. At this point...I'll sacrifice a unit of camel cavalry (Bedouin Warriors) to make a daring rush at the elephants. Should keep them nice and "amok" 
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