Imperator de Basileia Ton Romaion-A "The long road" M2TW AAR

**Darkarbiter** · 09-01-2007, 06:32

Originally Posted by Ramses II CP

Very interesting. I'd thought about doing a Long Road AAR after my current Danish one finished, but with Kingdoms out and looking buyable I doubt I'll ever get to it. You're going to run into trouble with the ages of your family members. ;)

Looking forward to some good battle reports.

Well played through to about 1130 and didn't have any major troubles.

**Darkarbiter** · 09-02-2007, 05:48

Chapter 1:
1080:
"Now is the perfect time to strike!".
Emporer Alexius agree's to his officers comment.
"Officers send out word to gather more men... we will attack Nicea as soon as enough men are ready. Let us take back Asia Minor and show the Muslums the power of Byzantium. In order to pay for this I will be scrapping the fleet. Since we own no overseas provinces apart from Cyprus it is hardly necassary anymore. Should the need arise for a fleet again we can allways rebuild"
"Here here"
"It is done then. Soon we will have a sizeable army in Constatineople to attack the evil turks. I will lead our army personally"
Later that year:
A rather impatiant looking messenger burst in through the door of the house we were communing our meeting in.
"My Emperor... we have not heard from our spy in Nicea for quite some time. It would appear he has been captured or killed"
"This is most troubling... we will need to starve them out or attack them directly then. Still the plan to attack will go as planned."
1081:
A turk just entered our commune. "My master wishes to talk peace". "Peace... there can be no peace tell your master about your arm"
"I am sorry I am not very good at speaking Greek what did you mean by arm"
"Guards show this man what having one arm feels like"
I doubt that the Turkish will send another emissary for peace talks again. Certainly Alexius has shown to them that he means business.
Later in 1081:
Alexius and the council are passing their time while Alexius waits for the last of the troops to arrive for the assault.
1082:

Clearly the turks had not learned the lesson from last time. Alexius was quite enraged by this proposal. "You are threatening the might of Byzantium?
We have god on our side and the biggest army on earth. Tell your master to see that he does not send another diplomat and guards... let this man walk
home blind". Most people in the court tried not to look disgusted as to get on Alexius's good side. Alexius was not really watching anyone else however.
Later 1082: Alexius and the council are still waiting for the last men to arrive. Reports say they should be here in a week.

Emperor Alexius marches towards Nicea with his men.
"Emporer Alexius our scouts report that the enemy outnumbers us 3 to 2."
"I do not care... we shall besiege their castle anyway. If dare rally we shall fight them. If the siege continues we can allways use extra reinforcements.
Do not forget that god is on our side."
1083: I don my armour as I hear the call for arms. We march the last mile to Nicea and begin setting up trench and fort networks. So far the enemy
has not made any signs of responding apart from manning the walls. A group of Armenians approach the council and Alexius. "Emperor Alexius we are mercanaries
from Orthodox Armenia and we wish to join your fight against the Turks. We hate the Turks nearly as much as you do. For a small sum we will fight by your side and join your army".
"Yes alright that seems fair. We can use any extra man we can get... if only to reduce losses. We will capture this City I assure you."
After 6 hours pass Alexius orders the stand down and only keeps a third of the army ready at any one time. It would appear the Turks are either waiting for reinforcements or for us to break off the siege. I don't think Alexius will give up until the city is taken however.
Later 1083: More men from Constantineople arrive to back us up. If we were outnumbered before the odds are very close now. Either way Alexius's commanding
will get us through.
1084: The siege continues... Gavriel has arrived to convert the populace when we break through to the city.
Later 1084: The siege is still on... with no sign of Turkish reinforcements the Turkish inside are getting anxious.
1085: A messege bearer comes in and tells us that mail armour is now relatively common throughout the technologically backward Europe. We will need to be more vigilant when fighting our foes now.
Later 1085: The turks are running quite low on food and water now. A few of them have died or given their lives away allready. We've seen a few soldiers jump off the walls due to disease and madness. We suspect that they won't last another year of this before surrender.
1086: The turks are now on half rations and have little water left. Alexius claims their surrender is just around the corner.
I awoke at 6am to the sound of shouting. The officer from our council on duty had awoken Alexius and he said that there is much sound coming from the city.
The front gates just opened and there are now men pouring out. I quickly don my armour and get into my cavlry battalion amongst the chaos.

Only time will tell the outcome of this one. Until then I shall wait.

**gibsonsg91921** · 09-02-2007, 05:51

cool AAR keep em comin

**uruk-hai** · 09-03-2007, 08:13

this is a great AAR keep up the good work!can't wait for teh next part.

**Darkarbiter** · 09-03-2007, 11:51

Thanks. Chapter 2 being posted here on Friday (it's allready up on my forums in sig)

**Darkarbiter** · 09-07-2007, 03:31

Chapter 2: The siege of Nicea

Our men are nearly formed up now. We will be ready in time for the enemy.

Alexius has ordered the men to take up a more defencible position further up the hill.

The archers are at the front ready to retreat should the enemy get close and Alexius the
other officers and me are located behind the main line ready to flank the enemy. The enemy are forming a line
just outside the gate as well now.

The enemy heavy cavlry attack one of the Armenian battalions of spearmen who didn't form up with the main line
quickly enough.

Alexius is angry with the Armenians letting him down. He does however want their losses minimized and orders a
counter attack seeing a chance to attack the enemy heavy cavlry when they are weak.

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The startled enemy take many losses and I take my chance to kill a couple of Turks myself.

Our main line being of superior quality and significantly larger holds steady. A lot of the Turk army is made up
of archers and other Auxillaries. They have not had their chance to shine in this battle and will probably end
up being wasted.

The enemy general obviously believes his life is in danger. He is running away! "Clearly the enemy general
had far too much Hash if he believed he could beat any army of mine!" Alexius is in a rather good mood at the
moment partly due to drawing turkish blood and the fact that the enemy general is running.

Alexius orders us after them!

Although Alexius has lost many of the novice members of the guard in doing so the enemy General is down to his
last few guards.

I have just killed the enemy general. Alexius will be pleased!

With the death of the enemy General most of the Turk army is routing... the battle is pretty much won! Just a bit of
a mop up job now.

We now own Nicea! This is the first step in taking back Asia minor! The turks will not recover from this loss easily!

**Magraev** · 09-07-2007, 09:27

Great start on the AAR. Good luck.

A small plea: Could you keep the picture-sizes slightly smaller? The widest pictures are too big to be seen without scrolling, and that pulls the text out too making it annoying to read.