Horns of the Bull - Carthage...our homeland

[Severous]

Summer 224BC

This is what our faction leader is up to.



Not a lot really. I found him in Dimmidi and have needed to use his high influence to keep the city under control. As more slaves have arrived from the various cities captured the population has grown, squallor increased and public order worsen. In view of his advancing age I have given as much of his retinue as I can to another general. He potters around making a short trips out into the desert to stop him getting bad traits from doing nothing. Because of my spy activity he has been dubbed as 'Cunning' and has earned a Spy Master trait.

Defense of Corduba



These are the forces available at Corduba. Individually our troops are no match for those upgraded Gaul. But we have cavalry and slingers in our favour and our general is a good one. Very Good.



I decide to leave many of the infantry on garrison duty and attack the Gaul on the bridge with cavalry, slingers and a few spearmen. With the battle odds thus against me a win will be better for trait gains plus I believe the Gaul will behave more aggressively and cross the bridge coming to me.

The initial deployment. My spears are far back. I was still expecting the Gaul to advance across the bridge. Plan was to shoot them as they advanced whilst falling back to my spears. Cavalry would kill any easy pickings.



I change my own plan straight away. Charge.


That looks really reckless. It was a bit. There was no charge order at all really. Its just the Gaul closed down the exit from the bridge quicker than the cavalry could get across. The objective was not to fight but to get across the bridge and out into clear space. To give Gaul who remained on their side of the bridge a run around. Perhaps causing much of their army to stay on this side and buy more time for my slingers to shoot up the Gaul who did cross.


Got clear but lost a few men.

Might have been close to routing given all the enemy around. But dont forget the 10 star general we have. He will help our morale big time. The gaul forces look like ants running around. In fact thats what they did, and where they did it for most of the battle. Brill. Tires them out.

Maybe this is their general.

I wasnt their general. Unit didnt last a second. Instant death to this tiny gaul unit from these spear armed cavalry.

Ah. There is their General . Captain led army really but is still referred to as a general during the battle. Cavalry make a good target for missiles. Given the mass of Gaul in this area the slingers can miss their target and still hit someone.



The larger Gaul units have dropped back a bit leaving three small units out in front. Now the cavalry charge. Lets hope they dont get counter charged by the big group of troops. Slingers to hold fire (fire at will is off). Our own infantry is moving forward as I think this maybe a battle we have to take to the Gaul.



Down goes the lone cavalry the gaul had left. Their general. As so often the case the last to fall. My slingers hadnt been able to pick him off.

Our horsemen went on to attack the two forresters and dozen skirmishers. But lost 6 men. Probobly it was the highly upgraded Forresters that did it. The skirmishers routed...across the bridge to my side. My horsemen broke off the fight and run out into the open again. Slingers again open fire.


Slingers holding fire until a gaul unit presents its back. Cavalry charge will test how low the Gaul morale is. Maybe it will cause Gaul to rearrange their units providing more good targets to slingers. Hey! Whats my general coming under fire from ?

6 routing skirmishers survived and recovered morale. Will go and sort them out.

The Gaul are attacking across the bridge!

Slingers were moved back to avoid hand to hand combat. Fresh General ready to charge if need be.

Gaul decide not to cross the bridge! Slingers fire into their backs decimating the unit. My own skirmishers are nearby and ordered to run up to attack them.


But my skirmishers persue their retreating target and run into some Chosen Swordsmen. Ouch.


Thats better.


Here our cavalry are luring an exhausted gaul unit away from the bridge. Skirmishers close in from behind and loose off a volley. Our troops now crossing the bridge and slingers out of ammo. They had been having a great time killing the Gaul.


Skirmishers and cavalry are doing some role reversal. Cavalry are the bait, skirmishers charging from behind.


Instant rout. Wont need spearmen in this fight.


Not all our troops are over the bridge. General doesnt want to be considered a coward. Needs to show he can fight and been in the wars. Charge.


Two horse units now rout two Gaul units. Not without losses.


Spearmen have a good defense ranking and a low attack skill. But with these odds the Gaul rout.


These chosen swordsmen surprisingly routed without any combat. Gaul army morale must be really low. In the background a near full strength upgraded barbarian mercenary unit in gaul pay is going to be charged by three cavalry units and skirmishers.


The final second of the battle has most of our troops engaged in fighting.





That became the site of a famous battle.

Settlement management at Corduba

Corduba is a pain to manage in most campaigns. It has a fast growth rate and is often distant from the capital of your empire.



Last turn our leader stood still in the city as he was completing a building. I put taxes up very high and removed most troops. This generates positive govenor traits and the unrest causes a riot (which in such instances generates more positive traits like harsh govenor). This turn I start to build an upgraded Carthage government building to replace a gaul one. This will improve public order greatly when complete.

I do need to get public order back to 70%+ this turn or the city will rebel. So the victorious army from the bridge battle are split. Those that are needed to garrison the city turn back, the others , mainly slingers, go forward to help recapture Scallabis next turn.

I will not repair the building damaged by riots. Dont need to. Cash is not plentyful yet to spend on unnecessary items. I have started hiring mercenaries where most needed.

Campaign strategy

The faction heir is the general in Corduba. You saw his 10 star rating in the bridge battle. It would make sense to use him on the battle front rather than govern. Just south of Corduba fresh off the boat from Africa are a cavalry unit, a sacred band phalanx, and our Special Elephants.

Provided Corduba can be safely left without this leaders calming influence then these forces would make the core of the army that can sweep around europe into Rome. Given the age of the faction leader (60) that looks like the next players pleasure to command the faction leader as a 10 star on a campaign of conquest.

Meanwhile in Spain





Only a clear victory. Lost more in that battle than at the bridge. Spain is nearly clear of Gaul.

[Severous]

Summer 224 - AI turns.

After checking all the cities it was end of turn. The AI turn about to occur was the longest I have had to endure since I started playing RTW.

1st Battle of Capua

I had sent a small stack under the command of a city govenor to beseige Scipii held Capua. Had my spies opened the gates I might have captured the city after a lot of wall running. I would be punished for that failure.



I dont like those odds. I choose to fall back from battle and hope to fall back to the other army I have coming upbehind.

But I fall back only a little way and am attacked by another, bigger, Scipii army.



Whats this. I cannot retreat again. I have to fight.



I hide all my troops in the forest in the corner except for Hoplites which cannot hide. And the general which cannot hide. Hoplites go in the far corner, general as far forward as possible. The Scipii split their army on the battlefield. Part goes after the general and part after the hoplites. AI cannot see the remaining hidden troops. My general kills the Equites and makes his was over to join the rest of his troops.

He gets the enemy general to chase him and leads him into a trap. You can see in the battle map how far away some of the Scipii forces are.



Spearmen in green kill the General.



Charge!! Scipii are tired troops. Carthage are fresh.



Come on Hoplites..run. We need you quick. Take them out of phalanx, run to the fight, put them back in phalanx.



Scipii throw their pila unaware there is incoming pila from Carthage skirmishers on their flank.



It does annoy me when AI Romans throw pila during hand to hand combat. Here they rout part way through the throw.



Iberians were chasing routing troops. But ran into range of two Principles units who let loose a volley of pile. Killed loads. Ouch.


There goes another Scipii unit.


Hey. Where are you going ? The two untouched Principles units are running away. Retreating from the battlefield. Notice the slider bar down bottom left...61%. Theory: Kill 60% of an attacking army and they retreat.



I not only survived, it was a Heroic Victory.




2nd Battle of Capua

Same turn and another Scipii stack attacks.



Same tactics used as before. Same battlefield.

This enemy has a unit of wardogs. After disposing of the Scipii Equites our general charges the dog handlers.



Kill the dog handlers before they release their dogs and the dogs will die. The Scipii general is coming.


When running and turning, try not to turn too sharply. That will slow you down and you could get charged.



Trap for the general. Most of those troops are hidden.



Got him.


Much the same after that as the first battle above.


3rd battle of Capua

May our gods be with us. The SPQR army attacks.



No cavalry. Thats good. Got some archers. They would be good to kill early on.



Carthage horseman looks nervously over his shoulder at the mass of enemy running his way. All the rest of the Carthage army is hidden..I learnt how to hide hoplites..take them out of phalanx formation.



With only the General visible all the SPQR army is after him. Tiring themselves out whilst Carthage troops stay hidden and fresh. I misjudge the distance and SPQR throw pila and kill some bodyguards.



SPQR Principles were exhauseted. So tried a charge at them. Killed some but the didnt rout. Break off and outrun the pila fire.



Decided not to attack the big army. Just had the skirmishers reveal themselves, open fire, then run. Skirmishers hid in another forest. Most the SPQR army then went after the general but one unit went slowly after the skirmishers. Skirmishers fresh, principles exhausted, downhill, surprise emerging from hiding. Will they be able to defeat these upgraded principes.?



No. They would not defeat the Principes. Later with our generals help they did.



This is the big battle. Can I rout some and get a chain rout going. Fresh troops vs exhausted troops.



Routing. Except its Carthage. Chaos. Missiles taking a terrible toll.


Run everyone. Three Carthage units routing and only one SPQR. Time to get out.


Managed to extract some troops.


Killed three more SPQR isolated units and ran the timer down. As defender that made Carthage the winner.





Thats three battles on the same spot on the same turn. I was well overdue to do some jobs around the house by then. But then another battle occured....

Battle in France

Did I mention that we had stepped foot in France? It met with an immediate reply.


Got the enemy general just as his unit were 'sparkling' with an experience upgrade.


Three Sacred bands emerge from hiding in the forest and the slingers take protection behind them.


Elite of two factions go toe to toe. Is it good to use sacred band out of phalanx formation? Can charge the enemy before they can charge you.


Was a walk in the park compared to the Roman battles.




Trait and retinue gains



The General who had fought three roman armies went up two levels of command traits in one turn.

The Governor of Osca received two ancillaries for his retinue. Despite the city in riot.

Stranage...no riot messages. Maybe having enemy battle over turn end stops riot messages occuring ?


So ended my longest ever end of turn.

[Severous]

Double post - deleted.

[Severous]

Winter 224 BC

It is now my turn. I can choose the battles again. I have never before faced 4 battles over the AI turn like I had just gone through.

I chose to initiate another battle in Italy.


4th battle for Capua

After trying the seige to see if Spy's open the gates (they didnt) I resorted to a field battle. Success for this battle is only if I capture Capua. By attacking the SPQR army next to Capua we will lure the Scipii defenders out of the town as reinforcements to the SPQR. If we kill the Scipii and win the battle we can then walk into an undefended Capua.



I like these odds better than the last battles. Best though are the units I command. Capain Jubal commands 3 cavalry units. I sorely missed horsemen in the previous battles. Carthage has good horsemen. Captain Chieron commands 80 Town Watch just off the boat from Caralis. A diversion force.
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Deployed infantry in the far corner and cavalry near the Scipii entrance point. 1st battlefield objective, as so often, is kill the enemy mobile forces. This is vital here as at all costs I want the Scipii general himself dead. If he escapes he will reoccupy Capua preventing the walk in.

The Scipii general rears up to give some inspirational command and in doing so falls behind his bodyguard. My cavalry pounce and he is dead seconds later. He was virtually the first in his unit to die. Excellent.

--

Battlefield shot is interesting.



The SPQR army marches in good formation towards my infantry in the corner. I cannot hope to win that as seen in the previous battles. I need time for my cavalry to finish off the Scipii horsemen in the distance. So in goes the Town militia. That get a clear, yet long, run into the SPQR rear. Better still its against the archers who command the SPQR. Objective is stop the SPQR marching. Its a tale of epic heroism. (Suicide)
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Militia got the archers. Prolonged fighting..and were losing. 1st of the Cavalry is ploughing in. A great target for horsemen. General also coming as fast as he can and is blowing his horn to try and help the militia nerve.



The rest of the SPQR army continues to advance on our infantry...that army has to be stopped. The Blue Scipii in the distance are Triarii...my cavalry dont mix with them. They can come to my infantry.
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SPQR Archer general is dead..although he looks like he is trying to get up. Killed by a falling horse perhaps? After that the SPQR army loses cohesion as it charges in all directions after my marauding horsemen.

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Joy. Infantry formations dont always work for me. Here though the Triarii of SPQR go exactly there I want them. On the points of phalanx spears.



Horsemen are tired and were resting but not for long. SPQR Principes unit is advancing on the left flank of my infantry so Cav now making best speed to charge the Principes in their rear.
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Cavalry rout the Principes but it was a moment too late. A hail of pila are going to kill many of the green spearmen.

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Victory. What is uncertain is if the 16 Scipii that survived are enough to re-garrison the city of Capua you see next to the battlefield. Will I get the walk in capture ?
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City of Capua. Gladiator Uprising !

In the batle above we did indeed have a complete victory and destruction of the Scipii faction. Faction destroyed.

Our Great Gods however favour us with a test. A Gladiator Uprising. We are now to pit our skills against some of the most feared units in the known world. (This is a first ever one of these for me.)



In the Gladiator line up:
Barbarian Peasants
Peasants
Egyptian Chariot General
Town Watch
Peltast
Heavy Peltast
Amazon Chariots
Long Shield Cavalry

These rebels appear to behave like any others. But what a unique mix. These are my first Amazons in battle (I bribed them when I met them in Brutii campaign).

I lay seige to the city again. Perhaps the three spies would open the gates now that the city was under new management. They wouldnt. So seige towers ordered and we assault next turn. Going to be an interesting battle.
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Naval Actions

Our Navy rules the Western Med. We are pushing into the Adriatic with little resistance. We blockade the Gaul Ports in both locations. There is no Julii naval trade in the adratic. So we dont need to blockade those ports. The lone Scipii fleet in the Adriatic became a rebel ship once Scipii faction was destroyed.

My experienced Triremes easily beat this ship.

Notice the banner. Scipii dog/blue showing on this Rebel controlled ship.

Decision is soon needed on the Atlantic. Move ships there or build them. We will find it useful to control the seas if we attack Britian.
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Battle for Scallabis (recapture)

Slingers are in the reinforcements that have arrived from Corduba.


Pile of dead Spanish cavalry horses wont block this breach.


An easy recapture. We now have an Atlantic port.
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One more region to capture in Spain. We are on the move towards it destroying opposition along the way.

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5th Battle for Capua - Sally forth by Gladiator Uprising rebels

Again the AI brings the battle to me over the turn end. Wisely it choses to attack the depleted Town Watch unit commanded by a captain. So the battle takes part under the generalship of a no star captain rather than our now 7* General.



Slightly anxiously I wonder how the AI will play this. Two Chariots can make mincemeat of cavalry and weak infantry. I dont have any missiles.

But it was a bit of an anti climax albeit interesting and unique battle.

The rebels deployed inside the city facing my lone town watch. Nothing lined up against my seige tower weilding main army. When it started my town watch ran for their lives to join up with my main army...they wouldnt stand a chance when enemy chariots came out.

Peasants and peltasts came out first. But by then I had a unit on the walls via the seige tower. Running the walls capturing towers and gates seemed to trigger the AI to go on the defence and it pulled back its forces to the plaza. It lost many troops to tower/gateway fire.

I slowly took my troops into the city and set a trap once they were rested.


Had a good first look at Amazons in action.





Unique in the history of RTW?. Dead Egyptians, Amazons and Carthage troops alongside each other.



And so I finally capture Capua. My most fought after city ever.

13,158 slaves expand our empire. Lepcis goes up a level.

We are the most Advanced faction in the known world.
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Whilst Ive concentrated on battle and campaign accounts ive not been idle on the economic front. Law and Order buildings have been necessary to control our huge public order crisis. Not one military building has been constructed under my reign. (I capture those)


The army you see there is the garrison of Lepcis..our eastern frontier town. Spys out in Numidian controlled Africa report no threats to our African lands.
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[Severous]

Summer 223 BC

Advance on the last Iberian region getting well underway. Some opposition to dispose of.



You can see that the constant fighting, careful retraining and retained buildings is developing some useful experience in the cavalry units.
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Twinkle twinkle little star. More experience gained.



Spanish captains dont wear the faulty blue uniform of the Spanish generals.
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Iberian Infantry has low morale. All these men will be dead in seconds. Not that much could stand a charge into their rear by five cavalry units when the battle is already lost.


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Think this is the last Gaul army in Iberia. Will be the site of a famous battle.


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Over the end of turn the toughest battle of the turn occurred. One of the smallest. Spanish force catches my elite remnants on their way back to Numantia for retraining. Fortunately a General on his way to command the assault forces had camped with the cavalry. Still. Its more than 4 to 1 against in numbers.



Spain has some remnants in its army also. But its superiority in cavalry numbers that is the concern. A nice little tactical skirmish this.

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I hide the cavalry in the forest in the centre. After a little movement of my General I get the Spanish to pass the forest rather than through it. I have to wear down the infantry with some cat and mouse running around.


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Right this is the plan. Walk General around the edge to that rock feature in the distance. Hopefully that will split the Spanish into two formations and cause disorder. Charge into that or lead half the Spanish cavalry to the forest then spring the surprise and kill the Spanish cavalry in small parcels. By then the infantry will be exhausted and easy to rout and kill.


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It didnt turn out like that at all. The Spanish announced they would all retreat off the map. They all ran straight through the forest where the cavalry were hiding. Effectively they attacked my cavalry whilst my general was over the other side of the map.

It was a desparate struggle to join up my three units whilst killing whatever I could. The Spanish general was the prime target and in his blue tunic was an easy one to spot. Devils own job to get him and I was close to losing.


--

Tiny force left at the end of battle.


Thought the 2 silver chevron Roundshields had done better than that. They seemed to hold up well in mellee against the Spanish longshields

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Generals. Sorted by the number of troops they command. The worst general is shown on the right.


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I have two spies on their way to Spanish Asturica. Neither has reached there but one is close enough to have learned some intellegence. Defenders should easily fall to the assault forces we have on the way. The faction leader is named 'the Cunning' and the faction heir is 'the Lewd'. I vow: Both will die within a year!

[Severous]

Winter 223 BC

An uneventful period.

- No battles of note.

- Some important buildings are completed. New government palace in Cordoba in particular. Its effects will allow the great commander who is stationed there to leave for a campaign of conquest.


Riots.

These have been frequent as I try to kill off populations and gain positive governor traits. These carry risk to buildings and governors. Unfortunatley the most harmful riot I can imagine occured in Dimmidi.



Asdroubas the Cunning our 62 year old faction leader is killed. Four buildings are damaged.

Special Carthage Elephants

These are now travelling with a Sacred band guard commanded by Captain Hiram. He is in Spain. You can see him on a bridge to the right of the riot screen above.

New Faction leader



He is 10* in attack. He has been a harsh governor causing riots and reducing Cordubas population to now managable levels. A big garrison of low quality troops can perhaps be used in conquest. Not that is needed. An invasion army is ready to be commanded.

Army for Invading Gaul



Located in the fort in the mountains north of Osca is a useful army. A spy in the first Gaul city in France reports a full Gaul stack nearby of basic troops. An ideal, if big, start to any invasion perhaps.

Spanish Capital

It is ours for the taking.



Have all the troops that we need nearby. Elephant will bash down the walls so we dont need the spies that are also available.

Italy

Loads of troops. Our commander in Capua is a vetran of defensive battles. There could be many more.



Apollonia

Our next theatre of operations? We have loads of troops including a War Elephant, Onager, 3 Sacred band infantry. Many, dozens, of cheap units also looking for action. Ships rule the seas. But Apollonia is a tough nut to crack. Might be better assaulted with lots of missile troops and artillery than fight those many cavalry in the open.

Game ready to pass on.