BI - Defensive Frank Campaign (Pictures)

[Severous]

Hi

This is a picture based account of a campaign played on RTW Barbarian Invasion.

As an experienced RTW player I am more likely to post things that are new to BI.

Difficulty vh/vh.

House Rules: No military movement outside of the single region the Franks start with. See how long I can hold out.

---

Here we go.

After the initial building and peaceful phase comes War. It is RTW after all. The red are the Western Roman Empire (Romans). Im blue...the Franks. Sally forth to defend my only town.

The result would be a clear victory and two deliberately killed Frank family members. I couldnt afford such an extended family.
--

This is how the campaign would settle down. I can afford this army and have a little left over to save up to complete the remaining buildings in the tech tree.

That would be a Heroic victory loosing 17 men. The Hunters (archers) have been gaining experience...in the silver range now.
--

Some archers fell off their own wall. The loss does not show in the battle stats. Quote after the battle was appropriate.

--

Tale of Adalwolf.

A rare kind of Frank family member. A Christian and with a good management rating. Trouble is he always takes over governing the town and his Christian ways causes unrest in Pagan towns like this. Enough unrest to make the public order go below 70% which is where riots are triggerred. If I lower taxes to keep order over 70% then I go broke.

So he has to go. Here he takes on an army. Orders were to cause casualties and also take out the enemy Onagers. Cant have them coming anywhere near the city walls. Then die.

He failed on all counts.

Unusual combination of trait changes. An 'increase' and a 'decrease' in the same trait over turn end.


He just wont die. His God must protect him.


This should do it.


I dont belive it...


Only kidding...

Enemy killed more of their own than he did. And so ended the life of Adalwolf. Long may his heroic deeds be remembered. But he was not a marter to Chistendom. Paganism remains the true faith for the Franks.
--

Here is a busy period coming up. Various stacks around. This is Lombardi on the attack, Burgundy is coming down from the north and WRE coming in from the south east for a change. (they usually attack from the west). Those three have been my enemies for years.

To the north is a greyed out rebel owned town. I cant see the town right now as fog of war is turned on. But I can tell my allies the Saxons have captured it. The border has a yellow line showing who owns it. A useful tip that. Watch the boundary colours.

Franks always sally when beseiged. General units are powerful. Archers on the walls are deadly. AI is silly...it often stands near the walls....or can be lured there if you know where to stand your own units.



---

Priests. Cant stand them chanting. Charge!

--

Odds getting worse. The WRE are fielding better troops.


Outcome is the same. Not enough missiles so have to carefully use all I have and finish off with 'infantry' combat.



--

More ?

[Glaucus]

Very nice. Keep us updated!

[pevergreen]

Im curious about the eagle? Howd you get that?

And how do you build First Cohorts in RTW?

[Severous]

Hi

^pevergreen
This campaign has been running many years. The Romans must have built the required buildings and are now cranking out those big elite infantry units with eagles. Most ive seen is four in one stack.

Capturing two eagles in one battle. One eagle bearing unit has been routed and another weakened by archery fire will be easy prey for my big general units.


You dont actually capture the eagle, nor see any standard symbol appear. Bit of a let down that. But the commanding general gets an eagle trait. +1, +2 or +3. I dont think it goes any higher than +3 no matter how many eagles you get.

--

Frank generals can always outrun the heavy infantry of any enemy. Thats what makes the Lombardi armies tough. Lots of archers and cavalry with a few dogs. Just too mauch to do for two generals and somewhere of other the Lombards get a salvo off or a cavalry charge in. Think a new faction the Slavs appeared at this time. Havnt seen them ...yet.

--

One of the barbarian horde factions has gone. The Goths. They were off to the east somewhere. Brown Vandals are also having a tough time. That seems to be all thats left of them...see their brown stack surrounded by red roman stacks.

--

Not as old as Ive seen posted by other players. But they dont get this old that often in my campaigns. And look at that ancillery...a spinster Aunt. She must be getting on in years if the general is aged 77.

--

Not often I get out to fight in the countryside in this defensive campaign. Nice battlefield feature.


Angle downhill is so steep that the flight path of the arrows make them hit the ground in front of the archers.

--

Ah ha. Here is the new faction. The Slavs. The horde of 6 stacks is coming my way. Sent my diplomat and became allies with them. As if I can rely on that to keep me safe.

--

Can easily break that seige. But where are the Slavs going? I see 7 stacks now.

--

The battlefield edge works funny sometimes. Those enemy have been charged whilst most of the unit is retreated (not routed) over the line.



As the AI realises these retreated troops are now in battle they all instantly 'snap' back onto the battlefield. The whole unit is now just on the battlefield...on the line. They will fight and rout a few moments later. Then the survivors cross the line as normal.

--


Biggest mistake of the campaign.



Had moved the governor out of the city to see if any cheap mercenaries were available. If so they would be hired and disbanded to add to the population. But when the governor moved back into the city the other, less able general retained governorship. I didnt notice. His effect on public order was less good. The city rioted. The bad governor paid with his life, so did two agents, lots of citizens, troops and much damage to buildings. It would take years to repair that damage. Just when the Slav hordes are approaching. Gulp.

--

Hey. Alliance has paid off. The Slavs will act as reinforcements in the sally against WRE. Dont often get battles like this.


Battle underway. My archers are doing most of the work. The Slav ally only sends forward its horse archers. The rest of its army stays well away (see mini map)


When the Slav horse archers took a beating and routed they come into MY city. Now that had me going I can tell you. These are the first non Frank forces to enter the city during this campaign. What would happen to the plaza when they got there? Would the Slavs capture it? I sent my general racing 'home' just in case but I neednt have worried. The allied Slav horsemen got to the plaza, rallied, then came out shooting again.


With so many Slav reinforcements on the battlefield the Romans decided to retreat before too many casualties had been inflicted on them. Here the Romans showed the Slav horse archers that despite retreating they were still capable of fighting. Nice...two other factions slogging it out. A potential enemy being killed is always good. I hate fighting horse archers.


A big % of the Slav horse archers died that day.


And how do I repay my allies assistance.


--

Immediately after such a rare battle with an ally another horde faction helps me in a sally battle. The brown faction are the Vandals. They have long lost all their horde troops and infantry. Just 5 leaders making a menace of themselves. (guess what happened to their 5th leader )
The Vandals have no chance of gaining a settlement as they have no infantry, They fight and loose yet the leaders replenish their bodyguards.


Fighting side by side with allies.


Learnt something here. The Roman general is dead. So where did the Roman unit gain that 'command unit' boost to their morale? Its the eagle bearing unit in the foreground thats doing it. There is a commanding figure standing between the two Roman units. My Vandal allies are waiting for me to shake up the Roman line....good boys.


--

A few years later. The alliance situation is the other way around. The Lombard beseigers have Roman allies. Lombard seems rich? Often has mercenary troops. Another Eagle in the Roman line up.


Peasants with the finishing touches against those tough mercenaries.


--

Not a nice day to be a Roman archer. Typical heavy cavalry hit an run tactics. Picking off the weaker units. My archers will wait until they get a shot into the heavy infantry backs.

--

Camels. Not seen those in Germany before. Ever.

--

Training up my only assassin on those rebels. 95% chance. But he failed. As the message states...You could say he lost some of his skill...he was slain by bodyguards!

--


Thats as far as Ive got for now. Will post any more interesting aspects as I come across them.

[Severous]

A few more years have passed. A few more pictures.

---

All from one encounter.

Five eagle bearing units in this beseiging WRE army.


Nothing wrong here.


But outside...how did those archers coming down off the wall top end up on the outside?

I watched as they appeared out of the wall on the outside. None went through the gate. A BUG.

Soon be 5 more Roman Eagles for the trophy room.

---

Thought I would try out becoming a Protectorate for once. It goes against the grain a bit. Sacrificing my independence is not the act of a fierce and victorious faction. In many turns, in many different campaigns, ive had requests to become a protectorate and have never agreed. So Im going to try it out for the first time. I asked for trade, map, and 700 for 3 turns. WRE accepted.


It lasted about three turns. During that time I had expanded my agent force and made trade agreements with many other factions that were allied to WRE (and thus no longer at war with me). It was a golden few turns. But it didnt last.


Ive read somewhere that surplus cash goes to your protector. And conversly if you are running a deficit that your protector with make good the deficit. I didnt get the chance to prove that either way. Im now running a deficit as trade has dried up and ive got too many agents and family members.
---

The strongest WRE stack so far. And they have allies.



A typical early move. Race family members outside. Will look for light troops and cavalry to isolate and charge down. Archers on walls holding their fire waiting for good targets.


Generals now outside. WRE army faces them. My archers now have a shot into the rear of an enemy. Together with Tower fire the Romans will be destroyed.


Had to use the generals and archers in hand to hand to finish off the Romans before time ran out. Only just made it in time. Having lost my two young generals my cash flow may now balance. Risk is both remaining experienced generals are old. Cant loose both generals or I am out the game.

--

[Severous]

Last post in this short (for me) AAR.

For years the Western Roman Empire has been the most prolific enemy. With a big area under its thumb its been cranking out troops.

It was not uncommon to face two armies. In a sally one army is always the besieger and the reinforcements join from other side(s). When the action moves from the campaign to the battle map the relative positions of the armies are maintained.

In this shot the besiegers were to the south of the town, and reinforcements to the west. The armies had merged by the time of this shot. Beseigers stay where they are and the reinforcement march over to them. As shown in the minimap ive hand painted an arrow to show the line of march the reinforcements took. Of course this means they march close to the town walls and the deadly wall towers. That trail of dead in the foreground was the result.


Archers were used in hand to hand combat when they ran out of arrows. Had to be very careful against those Roman infantry types. Here the WRE is trapped. Only the timer is the threat now...time is nearly gone

It would end as a draw as I couldnt finish them off in time. The WRE army routed on the campaign map so good enough.
---


Both my faction leader and heir die of old age on the same turn. I assume it was old age..both were old codgers over 60. Theres never a good time for that. Also broke with understrength units. Now face another WRE stack. Odds are the worst.


Managed to achieve a draw. The Romans then built a ram and ladder. Its fortunate they dont build equipment in the turn they arrive. This gave me a second chance to sally and beat themback...and start an eagle collection for the new faction leader.

A few turns later I got another family member. I noticed he wasnt gaining bodyguards as befitted his status as heir...he wasnt heir? He didnt automatically become the faction heir. I selected him to be heir manually. Never noticed that before...then ive never lost both leader and heir in the same turn.

---

Factions destroyed.
Vandals 439AD
Roxolani 448AD
Sassanid 466AD

Ive seen this bug before in RTW. Why are Roxolani in diplomatic events? They were destroyed as a faction in 448...thats 36 years (72 turns ago)


Oh yes. 3xGold chevron archers. Ive found 3xGold very hard to achieve. I know my archers have killed many thousands of enemy whilst already on 2gold. They refuse to increase to 3gold. The technique I use is allow (who am I kidding?) a lot of archers in the unit to die. When down to something like 25% strength i swap archers between archer units. The small left over unit often increases one exp level. Thats what happened here. A small unit became level 3 after merging two depleted units. The 3gold unit was then retrained up to full strength and retained its 3gold status. Once you get one 3 gold unit and use it to replace campaign losses in other units you soon spread the experience.

Income from trade and another short lived protectorate encouraged me to buy that 4th archer unit. Its not seen much action yet.

---


Surpisingly quick. Campaign end. Franks had held out with just their starting city. Not as much fun and strategic skullduggery as the very long RTW German defensive campaign I posted on another forum. Was much shorter.


Stats:
98 Battles
45 Heroic Victories, 44 Clear Victories, 5 Draws, 4 defeats

110,000 dead
71,000 WRE, 19,000 Lombard, 12,000 Burgundy, 5,000 Rebels & 2,600 Frank

Cheers

[Moosemanmoo]

Nice campaign, congratz with killing over 70,000 Romans
I definately woudn't want to attack your cities those archers look powerfull

[Severous]

Hello Moosemanmoo. Welcome to the forum.

Thanks for the feedback. Those experienced archers on wall tops were very deadly. They needed to be due the increasinlgy good troops they faced as the campaign went on.

[Gizmo04]

I would just like to say well done Severous! I've never played any of the savage barbarian factions so kudos on showing me one of them. You did very well in holding out on only your capital... quite a challenge indeed. Oh and the deaths... that a lot of Romans killed... alot of mummy's yipeeing your defeat lol. You created the type of faction that pissed of the Romans lol gotta love that attitude!

Which form did you have your German campaign on? If you remembr lol

[Severous]

Thanks Gizmo04.

It was pretty repetitive. Defend a walled city with a handful of archers and some heavy cavalry. I will send you a link to the German defensive. Its a bit less repetitive but its very long.

[Good Ship Chuckle]

Yeah, it seems that cav/archer combo really did the trick.
You may have inspired me to do my own frankish campaign.