The Trading Republic of Kart-Hadast. (AAR)

[Numahr]

Congratulations Aenos!

Your AAR is very pleasant to read, and your battle shots well chosen. I'll be following it!

I would only suggest you sometimes post a campaign map shot to illustrate the general situation. I would like, for example, to see how do Roman forces in Southern Italy look like...

[Aenos]

Thank you for the compliments. Hmm.. Alright, I'll include the suggestions in my next update. I've got part of it finished, but well, I'm still questioning myself on what to do. Try to fight the Romans (and then the question is, what general, Hamalcar II or Xanthippos) or try to regain the much needed trade with Rome.. Ah well..

[Numahr]

Thank you for the compliments. Hmm.. Alright, I'll include the suggestions in my next update. I've got part of it finished, but well, I'm still questioning myself on what to do. Try to fight the Romans (and then the question is, what general, Hamalcar II or Xanthippos) or try to regain the much needed trade with Rome.. Ah well..

For the choice of the general, i really think that Hamalcar should stay in charge of the Sicilian operations: that's a major one for Carthage, and Xanthippos is, after all, a foreign (brilliant) mercenary.

Now for the political decision on wether to continue the war or not... maybe you can role-play your senate by looking at the influence scores of the family members members of the "trade party" vs those supporting the "war party", in order to determine the outcome of the debate... just a suggestion...

[Aenos]

I guess you're right about Hamalcar II and Hamalcar I leading the 'Sicilian' army. About the role-play.. That went kinda wrong.. At first (the beginning) Hamalcar was aggresive in his acts and Hasdrubal was a great economical person.. Point is though.. Hasdrubal now is a 3-star general (without actually fighting though) and Hamalcar is in economical ways second only to Shophet Mago.. *sighs* The only remaining roleplayable part is that Hamalcar has the trait 'righteous anger'.. That's one of the reasons that I'm thinking of letting Hasdrubal 'resign' as chairman of economical (reason- nearly always Hamalcar has won and the fact that Hasdrubal's influence is quite low) and letting the young Himilco (or something like that name) take the lead. He's lived in Kart-Hadast for a long time and seems the logical second Shophet as he is the 'student' of Mago.

[Empedocles]

HI AENOS! I'm really enjoying your AAR! May I ask your difficulty settings?
Best regards!
Diego, from Argentina

[Aenos]

In the Council Halls of Kart-Hadast.

Councilor Hamalcar: ‘Seeing the recent successes in Sicily, I think it is time that we push forward into Italy. The nearby town of Rhegion would be a fine asset to our empire.’

Councilor Hasdrubal: ‘The war has cost us a lot even in these few years, our treasury has already been emptied of one third of all that was there. And yet you want for even more war? How can this be I ask, for can’t you see that our armies and our fleets are drawing us closer and closer to bankruptcy?’

Councilor Hamalcar: ‘Indeed, we have lost a lot of our ancient wealth, but look at the Romans! Their ports are blockaded and in their desperation they are gathering all of their remaining soldiers to safe themselves. Only a few more years and they’re done for, beaten, crushed! Why would one of us wish to stop this war?’

Councilor Hasdrubal: ‘*sees that the favour of the council once again is shifting to Hamalcar’s side* *sighs and then replies* Iberia is weakened, the town of Mastia is under siege and if what you say is true, that the Romans gather their remaining armies, then our chances of winning the Roman War are shrinking..’

Councilor Hamalcar: ‘Mastia is soon to be relieved by a force from Arsé. Iberia is in no true danger. *grins *’

Hasdrubal sighed and knew he had lost, again. Ever since he had taken over had the economy been at a side-track. Perhaps it had been coincidences, but Hasdrubal didn’t think that was the case. As votes once again showed that Hamalcar had won, Hasdrubal retreated. A few days after this a letter reached the young governor of Arsé, Bisaltes, it read:

Bisaltes,

I’ve heard positive news about the way you’ve
governed the town of Arsé in Iberia. The people
say you’re a kind and promising leader. There-
fore I order you to sail to Kart-Hadast, where
you are to study under the wise guidance of
shophet Mago. When you’ve finished those
studies, it is likely that you are to be the chair-
man of the economical side of the council.
May your journey be swift and safe.

Signed,

Hasdrubal.

And thus it was that the inexperienced Bisaltes suddenly became a bit more influential, but only time would show if Hasdrubal’s trust had been well placed, or not.

---
Just a short update this time, might make another one later today, but we'll see. Making Bisaltes this important was a bit of a reckless gamble, but seeing he's the only one who is young and has 'sharp' as intellegence (yes my aristocracy are nearly all dumb..), I didn't have much of a choice sadly.. (well there was one other intellegent leader, but he only has 1 on influence and he's already 30+ so not likely to change much )

About the difficulty settings, they are VH/VH.

And about a map, well if you request one, you'll get one. *grins*




Those Roman armies mainly consist of some useless Akonstitai and a frightening amount of the well-armored Triarrii.

[Aenos]

The Roman War: Defending Sicily.

A few months after the debate in the council, Hamalcar II was preparing to move his army to Italy, when he heard of the coming of a Roman legion. An large Roman army was moving towards the island.

Hamalcar II: ‘A few months ago we threw the Romans out of Sicily, we did that to secure the island, to make a strong base from where we could strike all the way to Italy! But now an army of Romans marches towards us. We’ve held the line against Rome’s finest more then once and we shall do so again!’

After saying this he ordered his men to make their stand at a flat piece of land about a mile from the coast. He set his phalanxes on front, ready to counter the triarrii, then came the Iberian soldiers, followed by a band of Samnites that had sworn to fight the Romans. Then he came to the matter of his cavalry.. He knew the Romans had some cavalry to counter his own and as such he decided to split his cavalry in two divisions, one on the left and one on the right. He did this to ensure that should one side be attacked, the other could continue fighting.

Then the battle begun, the overly-proud Romans foolishly charged their cavalry ahead of their main army giving our more experienced cavalry a chance to destroy them.

Hamalcar II: ‘Cavalry! Show those inexperience Roman bastards what a cavalry force is supposed to do! *laughs*’



With the Roman cavalry destroyed, the battle focused mainly on the infantry. Even though the battle had already been decided, the Romans fought on for a long time, taking over a thousand of us with them.



But in the end even the bravest of the triarrii fled. The message to Rome was clear, no one would pass into Sicily without approval from Kart-Hadast.



And whilst the Romans mourned their defeat, Kart-Hadast celebrated, but still, it had only been one legion.. How long could Hamalcar II hold out against the other legions that our scouts reported to be coming?