Re: The Great Wolf of the North - A Casse Mini-AAR
Update: The whole of Iberia is ours. We can now call ourselves a true Empire.
Carratocuros the Selfless: 206 - 188 BC
PROTECTORATES: Aedui and Arverni
CURRENT ALLIES: Sweboz
CURRENT ENEMIES: Karthadastim and Romani
CURRENT WORRIES: A bloody 2-front war against Africans, Germans, and Romans has reduced my coffers from 200K to around 30K, and the Romani have just initiated a massive invasion…
CURRENT RELIEF: The African War is won. And, thanks to a war in far-off Greece, the alliance between the Sweboz and the Romani dogs was shattered. Now they’re my friends, for as long as that lasts. Eat it, Romani dogs. Eat it.
197 BC
Wars, wars, wars…
Iberian War: 218 – 212 BC
Romani Wars: 228 BC – ?
After the utter failure of the first invasion, Carratocuros, newly elected High King of the Casse, sent his son, Borrodan, southwards to subdue the last of the Iberian tribes.
Things were quiet on the northern front for a couple of years…until Ryddon, an axebitten warmonger and great general not yet in his twenties, arrived from the Gallic coast in the year 212 BC.
Second Invasion
Carratocuros, tired of leading men to their deaths, gave control of the eastern army to Ryddon, who marched into Italy in spring of 211.
Ryddon, though not as smart or influential as Carratocuros, proved to be a far more capable general in the field. He utterly defeated two Roman armies at the top of a hill overlooking Segesta, losing only sixty-eight men in the process.
(and, after a flanking job by three hidden units of cavalry…)
These Roman armies were thick with mercenaries from their northern-most city, Aventicos. Ryddon, after defeating these men, realized something…if he could control forces like this, he could defeat the dreaded Roman Triarii much easier than with swords, and ravage Italy!
Ryddon sacked Medilanum that winter…but, instead of attempting to hold lands in northern Italy, he marched across the Alps and sacked Aventicos in the year 210, intent on employing the mercenaries of Helvetis. Things were all going to plan…until a horde of Sweboz, allies of Roma, descended on Medilanum in 210 and took the city for themselves. Ryddon was not prepared for this…
Over the following two years, Ryddon drove the Sweboz out of northern Italy…
…though Medilanum fell into Roman hands yet again in the process.
Though the Sweboz lost four armies – and four generals – the cost to Ryddon’s army was too high. Well over half of them, the most experienced warriors in the Empire, lay dead on various battlefields. War with the Sweboz could not continue.
Aventicos, the prize of the Second Invasion, was given to the Arverni by Carratocuros in exchange for a secure eastern border.
A ceasefire with the Sweboz followed soon after, and much-needed trade in the North Sea commenced once more. However, Ryddon was not happy about losing Aventicos at all…
…so Carratocuros set him loose upon the Arverni. The Second Gallic war followed…
(By the way, Medilanum has been one hot potato.
Aedui-Romani-Casse-Romani-Casse-Sweboz-Casse-Romani)
Second Gallic War: 208 – 207 BC
Ryddon was very bitter over the loss of his men and the unavoidable loss of Aventicos. The Arverni had refused to help him against the Sweboz…so he showed them no mercy.
The man-worshipers were attacked without warning. Arvernitorg fell in a single year.
After the Battle of Sequallra (the only real resistance the man-worshipers put up), the Arverni were brought to heel.
This short war would have been a mere footnote, if not for it’s dire repercussions in the raw, newly conquered southlands of Celtiberia…
African War: 208 – 197 BC
Major Battles of the African War
The Africans of Karthadast, long-time allies of both Arverni and Casse, were not pleased that the Casse had betrayed the Arverni. Perhaps they were afraid of a similar betrayal, or perhaps they were simply waiting for an excuse to attack Casse holdings in Iberia…who can say?
All the armies of Africa – and that’s a LOT – were emptied onto the beaches of southern Iberia, and the Qarthadastim attacked Baikor in the year 208 BC. Their forces were overwhelming, to say the least.
Borrodan, son of Carratocuros, was not prepared for this. The southern army – largely made up of Iberians in the service of the Casse – was depleted from the Iberian War.
Hillforts were erected all along the borders of Carpetania and Turdulia. Borrodan kept the rebellious peasants of Baikor in line while his uncle, Belenos, defended Celtiberia valiantly over the next two years in a series of epic bridge battles.
One African general after another fell.
Though the African forces were mighty, they could not cross into Carpetania. Belenos’s army of mercenaries and Iberian allies managed to keep the Africans at bay while Borrodan rallied reinforcements.
With each successive battle, the humiliation of the Africans, victors of many wars against the Greeks of the Sahara, grew…until the Battle of Some Bridge in Turdetania.
Winter, 202 BC: The Battle of Some Bridge in Turdetania
The African prince, a 5-star general, led a vast army of against Belenos’s battle-wearied Britaino-Iberian forces.
The clash was epic. It was also the first time any Briton laid eyes on terrible creatures thought to be mere myth – elephants!
Thanks to newly trained skirmishers from Baikor, the elephant monsters were killed – though they massacred two battalions of scutarii, and many men fled in terror at the very sight of them. The battle raged on.
Belenos himself fell even as he put the African prince under the sword. This did not bode well for either army. The battle was fierce and incredibly bloody…and the Africans managed to win by the narrowest of margins.
Good thing Barrodan had been busy training reinforcements…
The Battle of Some Bridge in Turdetania left the African coast open for the retrained army under Barrodan. One large – and leaderless – African army remained to be dealt with.
Spring, 200 BC: The Battle of Gader
The two armies met on the fields outside the great city of Gader.
The leaderless Africans, though they had superior numbers and superior troops, foolishly and arrogantly attacked uphill.
Though the fighting was hard, the Africans routed and were slaughtered as they ran like cowards. Only a handful of Barrodan’s men were lost.
Gader was sacked soon after, bringing rich mines of Turdetania into British hands.
Meanwhile, Gwenddolau of the Gaels had conquered the ravaged lands of Lacetania. He marched on Edetania – which had recently been taken by Karthadast – and defeated the Africans at the Battle of Arse.
Only one obstacle remained before total Casse domination of Iberia – the huge, grandiose city of Mastia, garrisoned with the last major African army in Iberia – and, by far, the most dangerous, as spies informed Barrodan that the army was almost entirely made up of elite forces, including the dreaded Sacred Band, and the Africans’ new prince, an 8-star general, commanded them…
Winter, 197 BC: The Battle of Mastia
Barrodan called upon every able-bodied man in Celtiberia to march on Mastia. They met his battle-hardened Celt-Iberian army at the walls of the city, and laid siege.
Mastia did not have the huge walls of Gader (in fact, only a wooden wall stood between the Celts and the city proper), but the defenders were legion.
Gwenddolau’s army from Arse arrived in the Winter of 197 BC. The Britons outnumbered the Africans 3 to 1…however, the elite African army was indeed a monstrous force to take on with a horde of which 2/3’s were spear-armed farmers and inexperienced shortswordsmen…
The city was surrounded. The Britons attacked. In the brutal battle that followed, countless men – Briton and African alike – died fighting in the streets of Mastia.
Gwenddolau fell as he foolishly attempted to ride down a dreaded Sacred Band.
It was only the bravery of two small and very experienced bands of Calawre from the Gallic Coast, veterans of both the Iberian War and the previous battles of the African War, that inspired the Britons and Iberians to keep fighting – and to win.
The city was taken. The Africans were slaughtered, and they lost yet another prince to Celtic blades. It was a great day for all Britons…though, keeping the chaotic, riot-ridden African coast from rebelling when most of the fighting men in Iberia are dead and rotting will prove to be quite a job…
197 BC: Romani Invasion
Not long after the victories of the African War, the eastern borders of the Empire – which had been rather quiet the last couple of years – were attacked.
Ryddon, warlord of the eastern armies, is now facing a 3-pronged Romani invasion. Five armies of the Romani dogs have laid siege to Massalia, Viennos, AND Arverni-controlled Aventicos…good thing the High King has been preparing!
(by the way, I'm not embellishing any of this - EB tends to be epic without anybody helping it along...)
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Originally Posted by Leon Blum - For All Mankind
Re: The Great Wolf of the North - A Casse Mini-AAR
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