Wine and Women, a Thracian Campaign, write-up thread

[Caius]

Settlements, images and the history of this PBEM here.

[Orb]

Post reserved for Orbster's write-up.

Eleven thousand monkey slaves are sat at type-writers as I type this. Eventually they will produce an appropriate history.

[Severous]

Hi

Here is my write up. (Written prior to Orbs post)

Ten years into the game and Macedon lands are ours. 9 regions with a solid financial position. Nice one Orb. Unfortunately Scythian troops besiege two of our northern regions. Their horse archer armies are difficult to counter with infantry.

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The sally against the Scythians at Porrolissum was tough. A leader and cavalry acted as reinforcement’s. The five units fought valiantly. At one stage it was looking as though they would pull it off. Militia Hoplites formed a phalanx on the hill and backed with falxmen and peltasts they broke the assault.


As the routing Scythians tried to squeeze out through the gate they got stuck. Many died with Thracian steel and sprears in their backsides.


But I had forgotten the Scythian general. He charged in late when I was mopping up routers and was unstoppable. The final fighting force was the Scythian king and two bodyguards against one cavalry mercenary. I lost when I routed…even though the plaza was Thracian owned.

Not a good start. Lost a city and a general.
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Soon had to defend another town. Against Dacia this time. Held out that time.

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Whilst northern lands were weak, gains in Greece were secure. Thracian armed forces on the offensive. War with Greek City states.


The outcome of this battle was a walk into Athens. Athens is rich and is the only city that can build archers. Pump out archers most turns.

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A small encounter. Interesting. The general gains a chevron of experience without killing anyone. That’s unusual.

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Two kings fall in the same turn.

Greek King in a field near Corinth.


Scythian King defending his capital. Revenge for that loss at Porrolissum.

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Corinth. Haven't used a siege tower in months of game play. There will be no opposition yet nearly 30 men would be crammed into the tower before the bridge goes down and they surge onto the wall top.


Three units gaining experience without killing anyone?

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Sparta. Spy opens the gates. Spartans being killed by archery from the wall top and then by ready pikemen.

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War with Gaul. Aassault of Salona. General had to work hard as there is no other cavalry. That would be a feature of the march up the Adriatic…an infantry only army.

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In the east the Scythians attack again. 6 horse archers, 2 foot archers, 2 axemen. One of the toughest battles of my 5 year stint. Killed one unit of foot archers in the opening seconds of the sally. All my troops go outside the walls to fight. Use the hill for longer range.



Picked off the horse archers in ones and twos. Eventually they retreated and I was able to cut off the escape of their infantry.


Peasants were bait. Most of the Scythian horse archers were killed in melee combat when they charged peasants and were intercepted by my three cavalry units. 3 to 1 they didn’t last long.

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Besieging Porrolissum some 30months after it was lost. The Scythian survivors from the previous battle came up to Porrolissum as a relief force trying to break the siege. A battle in the open against many archers and some dogs.

Thrace wins and killing the entire garrison means a walk in victory. Porrolissum is regained.
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New problem. Brutii at Apollonia. They ship over troops from Italy. Reinforcements from Thermon are blocked by a second Brutii force. So Apollonian garrison sally forth without support.


The sally goes well. Whittles down the enemy without loss.


Six months later and they sally again. They need to break the Romans this turn otherwise the Romans may use their Ram and assault the walls. Another Draw and despite some casualties the Romans are now too weak to assault…I think.

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A captain led battle against rebels triggers a ‘Man of the hour’. That’s good as we lack generals in the north. Dacian spies have been making it hard to control Campus Lazyges. An assassin built in Sparta is on his way to thin out the diplomats and help kill the spy.

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Ashore in Turkey. First of many battles to come against Pontus. The Pontus captain dies with dignity.

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The Pontus King. I have a tremendous respect for this unit. Has a high missile and melee attack. Pikemen stood ready and endured the missiles. It will be their turn to deal death in a second. My cavalry is ordered to run in behind to seal the trap and cut off escape.


A forest of pikes as two units are stacked together. Can just see the king. That’s his leg sticking up from the bottom.

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Expecting a simple assault against Dacia. A surprise. Julii are allies of Dacia so will also fight in a rare three way faction battle.


Julii reinforcements were killed in the open field before they could reach the Dacians. In the city the Dacians are about to die. General is again being given orders to cut off the escape. It wouldn’t work this time. Most of the Dacians ran back out of the trap without combat and my general had to withdraw back up the road.


But it ended well in the end. Here the multiple colours of the dead caught my eye. As a Thrace commander the number of blue dead is in pleasing proportion to the others.


And Segestica is ours.

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End of part one of my write up.

[Severous]

Write up continued.

The following battles occurred over the end of my final turn. Three regions fell to Thrace over the AI turn of winter 256BC.

I had thought Vuk would have a busy time assaulting cities in the summer of 255BC. But that is not to be. Instead the cities fell as the AI sallied forth and lost leaving the city open for capture.
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Dacia. King goes down. Militia cavalry are fragile but in numbers and supported they are deadly. Thought that would be the end of Dacia. It wasn’t. There must be another Dacian region somewhere.

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War with Germany. 9 Spear war bands to fend off.


Had to run rings around the slow infantry. Didn’t want to control all my forces all of the time. So hid most in the forest. Three units move around looking for the best shots downhill into the Germans backs. Once the ammo runs out bring out a new fresh unit and send the other off to a far corner.


First German unit to break. Shows how the cavalry are positioned.


Saving ammo. Breaking the morale of a weakened German unit by surrounding it with high numbers of troops.


One sided despite the odds.


Nice collection of experience. Three units never came out of cover.

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Dacian sally.


Lost a few cavalry that time when the two Dacian leaders charged.

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Patavium.


Novice barbarian mercenaries are good against cavalry if fresh, war crying, and supported by a nearby 10* general.

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Part three of write up follows…showing position after 15 years.

[Severous]

Final part of my write up.

Position at the start of the summer of 255BC.


Patavium is in ruins. Its population was exterminated when it was captured. Provides a nice cash boost going into 255BC. Over €27k to spend.

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Plague broke out recently in Thessalonica….as usual. No family members were present and no units have moved in or out since. I hope it will die out very quickly.

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The strongest faction. Garrisons are as small as they can be….one peasant is all that garrisons our capital Bylazora. Most of our troops are out on campaign.

If that spy can open the gates of Vicus Marcomannii it can be ours this turn.
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Battles fought over the end of turn report trait and retinue gains in the end of turn message rather than icons falling down the left. Three Thracian generals earned command increases due to heroic victories.
On the map is our army in Turkey and its immediate threat, a big Pontus stack. Good luck. Vuk you will need it.

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Buildings. Running very high tax makes people unhappy. So temples are often needed. Cash flow was good enough to build all I wanted…but not enough to build unneeded buildings like barracks and walls.
One the map are two full Greek stacks guarding cities that could be our targets. Near Rhodes is a very good general on a ship. Find him a safe landing and hire mercenaries (there’s none left on Rhodes…ive tried there).

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Troop recruitment. Once the frontline is advancing quickly it’s almost pointless to build good troops in the central cities. Most of the time they are building peasants to move population around and provide cheap garrisons (freeing better troops to try and catch up to the frontline)
On the map Athens took a turn off building Archers to build a ship. To ferry the army in Athens to Turkey. I think that army is a good combination of pikes, mobility and archers that would be unstoppable under the command of the general on the boat near Rhodes.

Kydonia is building a port. It will generate a whopping 900+ per turn trade when complete (and that’s just in the Kydonia end of the routes). It’s important enough to have its own general, spy and a watchtower (on the mountain at the far end of the island)
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Diplomacy is not a strong suit. At war with all our neighbours.
On the map the units in the mountains have finally stamped out all the Brutii. But a spy reported on the Brutii ship at sea…it has an army on board. No doubt to threaten Apollonia again.

If we concentrate all those troops into Apollonia and build a ship in Thermon we might invade Italy? We don’t control the seas anywhere.
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Faction leader. He advanced alone into Italy leaving his slow moving infantry behind at the border. Hiring mercenaries he took Patavium as shown in a post above. His traits and retinue don’t add up to the command and influence he has. Those traits are not ones I’ve seen before. Especially on a non Roman. Most strange is the ‘faction heir’ trait yet as his unit card shows he is the ‘faction leader’.

He is in for an interesting time. Let’s hope his infantry can reach Patavium to support him.

Thanks for allowing me to participate and to the forum for providing this facility. Special thanks to econ21 for supporting us.

Very good luck Vuk.

Cheers

[Vuk]

I planned to write a very nice long detailed write-up, but as I have been kept very busy by real life I will have to just make it short. I have hit some pretty hard times and taken another job, so I'm planning on wrapping up most of my internet business. I will be releasing a very rough prebeta version of RTE today or tomorrow and finishing my writeups. I will still check these forums when I get the chance though.
Sorry to go on, in short:

Took Rome, destroyed Bruttii, almost Jullii, made war and took two provinces from Germania, preparing to attack last of Scipiis holdings by sea. Took all but one province from Scythia, made war with Egypt, Got butt whooped by Pontus at first, but am now on the offencive.
In short:

VENI, VIDI, NATES CALCE CONCIDI


(I wish I did that well in my Parthia campaign. lol)

[roan254]

What an intriguing mix—wine, women, and a Thracian campaign! It’s fascinating how history, strategy, and culture intertwine in games like this. Speaking of cultural journeys, if you're looking to pair your next session with some great wines, Harbor View Wines harborviewwines.com offers a fantastic selection to explore. Whether you're diving deep into history or relaxing after a game, a good bottle of wine can elevate the experience! Cheers!

[Noble Wrath]

I have to agree, wine and strategy games should actually go hand in hand. Brought out of those classic Ancient vibes is compelling Thracian campaigns. I’m glad you like the wine recommendation! I definitely want to remember to set the mood for the next time I fire up a campaign. Good gaming, and good wine!