Scipii in Egypt vh/vh

[Severous]

A few more pictures as the campaign continues.

A battle outside Rhodes. The enemy garrison acts as reinforcements and is also destroyed. Leaves the town empty and ready for Scipii to walk in unopposed. But first...I remove the governors from all other cities..except Sidon. So when I enslave Rhodes the 4000 slaves go to a city of my choice....Sidon.

--

Seleucid have made an important strategic move. They attack me. Under my self imposed rules of engagement that allows me to fight them. First though I will have to save as many of these poor velites as possible.

--

I snap up Seleucid Damascus. I then offer a ceasefire to which they say 'on yer bike' or words to that effect. The end of turn was very eventful.

- Seleucid besiege just captired Damascus
- The pirates in the small fort send frantic reports of multiple Seleucid stacks marching south from Antioch
- A good Scipio named candidate adopted. 3command, 1man, 1infl.
- Mission success blockading Pergamum gives special senate office favours
- New mission to blockade Antioch.
- Selucid spy killed in Palmyra
- Selucid spy evicted from Jerusalem (7 eye..causing massive unrest)
- Selucid spy evicted from Sidon
- Selucid spies (2 of them) evicted from Damascus
Dont think ive ever seen 5 enemy spies located in one turn before.

--

A tip ive only recently learned is how to eliminate enemy agents. Surround them then send a unit into the agents location. With nowhere to move the enemy agent is killed. So I launch a massive manhunt. To eliminate the enemy agents. In particular this guy who has 7eyes so causes -35% to public order. I had previously had to lower taxes to keep Jerusalem from rioting. Three spies would be hunted down that turn..one other would get away.

--

Nice assortment of Scipii troops beating off Selucid forces from a good defensive position. The enemy are all mobile. Quite unusual. Cavalry and chariots. No infantry. A salvo or two of fire arrows is heading towards the Scythed chariots.


With predictable results. They go amok and cut up two of the enemy cavalry units. They are in the distance being shadowed by camel archers. In the foreground the dogs bite on a stationary cavalry unit. I hadnt anticipated how well the dogs would work in this battle. I never released them..they self released when cavalry charged my main mass of infantry. The hounds chased the routing cavlary and would have played no further part in the battle. Except Camel archers had shot the last of the fleeing cav..so the dogs selected another target...those cavalry you see here.

--

Next turn and its less eventful on the spy front...but the Selucid armies attack on a wide front. Two towns besieged and two others threatened.


And if that wasnt enough. Pontus attack on Rhodes. That was easy to counter. Here a Ballista crew have been ordered to leave their artillery and chase down tired Pontus routers. Im trying to gain experience.

--

Gotta go fight some Selucid now....

[Severous]

A small update.

Forts. Defensive but used on the advance. As I push into enemy areas that have powerful forces I build fortifications. If I am besieged I have at least a turn to bring up additional forces. They also stop the enemy advancing to besiege my towns. Avoiding my own town being besieged will save enough money to pay for umpteen forts.

---

Heroic. Didnt really expect this. OK so I had more men but numbers alone dont confer advantage. The enemy had been of higher quality and that had resulted in greater than normal casualties. Yet still a Heroic. Still..that was another Senate mission complete.

---

Senate missions continue to draw me westwards. The main battles against Pontus about to occur. Two sally battles to fight. Flaming arrows are the principle weapon against Pontus (and Seleucid) forces that contain chariots.

---

Ballistas are not decisive when they sally from a town/fort. They dont get many shots over the walls. Here Ive got a ballista in the town that is sallying, plus a ballista arriving in reinforcements. So I was looking forward to using the artillery outside the walls. Alas it wasnt to be. The corner where the artillery arrived had trees. They blocked the way. The crew had to run forward without their artillery.

---

Another constraint I am imposing on my campaign. Not building any military buildings. For a long time that limited my archer and cavalry production to one city each. That makes it nice to capture advanced enemy cities..suddenly gain access to new units.

[uruk-hai]

nice aar.i love reading it.feels a bit like we are playing the campaign when reading it.keep up the good work.

[mrdun]

Really cool house rules

[Severous]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I had wondered if many RTW players remained on this forum. Seems mostly MTW2..more so than other 'RTW' forums I belong to.

Ive extended my house rules. In summary they are now:
1) Obey Senate missions immediately.
2) Must never attack Neutral or Allied factions (except for Senate missions)
3) Must never eliminate another faction nor enter its last region (except senate mission)
4) Must offer ceasefire after capturing a region (with offer of cash and trade)
5) Build no military buildings
6) Never exterminate a captured city population

A small update.

Every AAR has its gotcha. The felling of an enemy general. Heres mine.
A Seleucid goes down amid flying dust from fleeing hooves and a sandstorm. Equites are my favourite Roman troops.


--

Here my rules of engagement have a complex result. Ive been ordered out of Macedon Corinth....yet I went there to assist an ally.


Macedon is my Ally. They are down to one region. Easy meat except I cannot attack them due to alliance and it would destroy them. So unless I gain a senate mission I cannot attack them.

Thrace is a powerhouse in this campaign. Im neutral. So cannot attack them.

Greeks. Sparta was captured from them recently on a Senate mission. Immediately afterwards my diplomat made peace with Greece. The large Greek stack near Sparta is now neutral. So I cannot attack them either. Im expecting them to try and regain Sparta.

Ive sent a modest force from Sparta to stand next to Corinth. They should get drawn into any conflict at Corinth. That also weakens Sparta encouraging attack by Greece. Who knows whats going to pan out here. Its been stable for one turn.
--

Lost my first Senate mission. I needed to blockade Thermon in western Greece. But Brutii captured Thermon before my ship could get there. That cancelled the blockade mission.
--

Hey. Every cloud has a silver lining. My next mission after failed Thermon was capture of Hatra. Thats the last region of Seleucid. Sweet. Means I no longer have to stand guard on my borders next to Hatra and be unable to attack.



Eliminating Seleucid turns a reasonable stack of Seleucid forces into rebels. I can attack them OK.
--

Currently running a cash surplus of €120,000. I invest it into lots of buildings each turn. Fill up build queues for more than half my cities. Means I dont have more than €50,000 at the start of any turn. So maximizes trait gains and avoids corrupting governors.

Sev

[uruk-hai]

love that pic of that enemy general dieing.i gress the senate don't want you to help your ally lol.nice arr.remember to show your enemys the power of rome!

[Severous]

Hi.

Few more pictures.

The complex situation at Corinth his kicked off. Thrace attack my Macedon Ally. That drew me into war against Thrace. Under my house rules I can now fight Thrace and capture one of their regions..then I have to offer peace again.

Here we go at Corinth. Ive cut and pasted each army onto this screen.


The AI attacker is Thrace. They attack the east wall along its whole length. They start at all angles. Not neat at all. The AI defender is Macedon. I am the dark blue reinforcements coming in on the western edge.


Tally ho!. Braving tower fire my horsemen arrive after a long run around the town. They smash up the weaker units and avoid the tough ones.


We Scipii rule the open area. But Thrace now has four falxmen units up on the walls. Macedon archers are not good wall fighters.


Once Thrace comes down off the walls my slingers get up on them and fire down. Archers help guard the plaza and come to greet the Thracians. Wont be long now. Thrace had been weakened by missiles and killed by Macedon cavalry and phalanxs.


Macedon took the brunt of the fighting and killed more than me. Im happy with that. Both factions weakened.


Now at war with Thrace. So can fight them for more territories. Soon after they came to me with peace offerings. I asked for Athens in exchange for trade, 738cash (its all I had) and ceasefire. They accepted.
--

Pontus. Down to two regions and under attack. Both Pontus stacks are bigger than mine and the garrison has three chariots that I would prefer to fight in the town than in the open.


A lone dog unit has besieged the town . It proves the two spies have failed to open the gates. So no assault of the town is possible this turn.

The rest of my stack, shown, will now attack the other Pontus army that is outside town.

The town garrison cannot join in as reinforcements as my dog siege has trapped them in town. That evens the odds on the slider and with cavalry and missile superiority this would be an easy fight. After that fight outside town Ancra is sieged properly with my main army. Got some pictures of that assault...tommorrow.

Sev