1.0x AI Faction Progression Thread

[Conqueror]

Update to my Makedonian campaign. It's certainly been an interesting ride with BI naval invasions. Ptolemaioi eventually gave up on capturing Hellas from me, but the Karthadastim just can't seem to accept that they'll never have Capua. They have actually built a decent navy and I haven't seen many pirates on western Med for a while.

250 BC:

240 BC:

(Note that I attacked the Getai faction, captured two of their cities and sacked all the rest of them, then forced them to accept protectorate status. They are now my bitches so you can kind of count their areas as a periphery of my empire )
230 BC:

It's kind of hard to see here, but the KH are holding Halikarnassos. They got it from the Ptolies via rebellion, after being stuck in Rhodos for many decades.

In the West, Casse has been progressing at a snail's pace in Britain. At this rate they won't be dominating the islands anytime soon. Gauls are totally mad, killing each other with neither faction able to gain the upper hand. Lusotannan are paralyzed and Karthadastim have ignored Iberia, focusing on Northern Africa and Italy. I'm glad that I have my Getic buffer zone all set up by now, so I won't have to deal with the scary and unbearably barbaric Sweboz.

Looking to the East, Baktria and Ptolemaioi have invaded AS territory in a kind of kinky double-penetration move. Pontos is doing very well, having expanded at the cost of AS and now sporting some big armies. Their king appearently has a serious lust for Lesbians, for he keeps throwing his soldiers against the walls of Mytilene. Hayasdan has ventured north to play tag with the Sauromatae. Meanwhile, the Pahlavas are putting the hurt on Saka Rauka.

Down South the Saba don't have much going for them... other than being insanely rich. They occationally make war with the Ptolemaioi, but it never seems to lead to any territory changing hands.

Finally, here's a look at the extremely interesting and confusing mess that Western Asia Minor has become:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Yes, that is indeed a Karthadastim army wandering north of Pergamon. Made up of a single brave galatian Kluddolon (not a single unit, a single man!) Bold as he may have been, he made the fatal error of crossing north into my lands, where his journey was ended in a dark forest by a scythian horse archer unit in my employ

[LordCurlyton]

240 BC, KH, H/M, BI-exe.
Some VERY interesting developments, possibly anomalies or chance. One should be very obvious, and that is the lack of 2 of the 3 steppe factions. Their killer: Bartix...I mean, Baktria. Instead of preying on the AS they've decided to become the new Horse Lords and I would not be surprised at all if they continued rolling right into Sauromatae lands, which mean we could have a Hai-Baktria war before a Baktria-AS war. The second anomaly is that I eliminated both Maks and Epeiros on the same turns that Baktria destroyed Saka and Pahlava, respectively. And the Maks died from lack of FMs, as they still held Mytilene when I took Pella, to boot.
The Romans actually invaded and conquered Corsica and Sardinia, and conquered part of Sicily, but it seems like they triggered the Pune Wars a little too early (less than 10 years into game) and are paying the price now as Carthage is advancing on all fronts and is sieging Bruttium, having taken it once already.
The Getai are doing resonably well but will most likely be headed downhill as they are about to get in my way, plus they lent military assistance to Epeiros in its final stand, so my excuse (and the diplomatic situation) are pre-made.
The Yellow Death is appearing yet again, so it seems that somehow the Ptolies have been given just enough of an edge (by accident, I'm sure) that 7 times out of 10 they will become dominant (I have seen some AS holding/dominant pics, but not too many). The also are being very annoying by trying to siege Rhodes again and again and again, and then signing peace and giving me 6k again and again and again. I'm hoping that the start of the Sand Wars will divert their attention (they've repulsed the initial Carthy wave but more are coming).
Aedui look to be the dominant of the Gallic factions and if they are lucky they can consolidate power before the Sweboz turn their gaze west.
Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary. Really enjoyed the challenge at the beginning for KH though I was sad that Maks pulled their main force back instead of sieging Athens, which gave me valuable time to solidify my situation.

[Soggius Chippius]

It's me again, which can only mean... it's 176 and time to blow my own trumpet once again.
The statistics screen is finally telling me that the Casse are the greatest faction in the known world in every single category. Finally my military is stronger than Baktria/Carthage, and here's a look at why that is.



As far as the history of the last 10 years goes, it's really been a bit of a fizzer compared to my last update. In the east, Baktria was finally provoked by its long time client state Pahlava, and proceeded to crush them, the faction's final destruction coinciding with the destruction of the Seleukids in the Autumn of 178 (it's a nice feeling having two faction destroyed boxes pop up after the AI turn) and aside from that, Baktria have finally gained a decisive upper hand in the steppe war, and have pushed the Sauromatae back to the very edges of their once fairly impressive grassland empire. And that's it really. Mentioning any of the other factions out east seems a bit anal since they've done next to nothing in the past 40 turns. That's not going to stop me of course, but the complete powerlessness of the east sans Baktria really can't be overstated.
Let's see. The Seleukids lost Antioch and Damascus almost immediately after 186, but managed to hold on to their one city in the Caucasus less due to their own impressive will than to the extreme disorganisation of the Baktrian army in the Middle East area (they've been far more interested in the steppes for some reason) Happily enough, they did finally succumb, but the city turned Eleutheroi for a fair while until retaken only a turn or two ago.
The Ptolemies were kicked out of Babylon early on (around 183 IIRC) but did have a resurgence for about two turns when the eastern coast of Egypt revolted for the umpteenth time. They now have enough stacks to take back their lands, except they're all stuck on Cyprus in some sort of post-apocalyptic world where the art of boat building has been lost completely. Oh well. At least they're still around to whip up trouble for Phoenicia Nova.
The Mako-Phrygians are doing ridiculously well considering the size of their kingdom. They have so many full stacks I can barely see the actual land, so I can at the very least expect them to hold back the blue for another decade.
Pontos is.... well...Pontos. They're still around at least, which I frankly find hard to believe, but there you go.
Finally, the Greeks are thriving on Baktria's cack-handed overexpansion, lapping up cities around the Black Sea through civil revolts. Unfortunately, due to the nature of taking cities through chance revolts, their 'empire' is pretty sporadically set out, *and* sitting right on Baktria's active front as well as their soon-to-be-active front in Anatolia.
I suppose I could try and say something positive about the Saba, but really, only Themistius could possibly put a positive spin on their position. They haven't got a chance of coming back, what with one front being blocked off by Baktria and the other by Carthage *and* Baktria. Even then, they're not going anywhere, because their lands aren't worth campaigning for. Even the AI knows this. It's a logistical nightmare, not only for invasion, but also for counter-invasion by the Saba, so they'll most likely be ignored until Phoenecia Nova is swallowed and the Mako-Phrygians are dealt with. And even then their conquest will take several updates. :P
Oh, the Saka? Why bother. They still have the same lands they had in 216. The only difference between them and the Parthians is that they're smart enough to not nip Baktria's heels.

Now, what about the west? Well, aside from Greece and the Balkans, it's all under my thumb. The last decade has mostly been consolidation, with my Spanish army taking of the rest of Africa (Fun fact: Tuat is aptly named, as it takes something like 2 years to reach from the closest town, and when you get there all you meet is a bunch of Tuats. They're such Tuats in fact, my general had to sit in their godforsaken shanty town for 4 years just to get them to promise not to murder the weak client ruler they put forward. Even then they were still 'disillusioned') He was only able to leave a few turns ago, and is currently speeding towards the eastern front of Libya. As for said eastern front, look! A picture! A break in the text! Make a run for it!



Interestingly enough, that picture shows you basically the full power of Cart...sorry, Phoenicia Nova. Aside from those troops, they have maybe a half stack in the field left over from their suppression of the Ptolly rebellion on the east coast. Also keep in mind my one army has been able to deal with about 3 full stacks in the past 2 years, and I doubt very much those two stacks there have anything close to a better grade of troops, so once they're gone it's just a matter of trouncing the tiny garrisons they'll have left. (though before I move into Libya it may just be time to move my Capital. Rome maybe. It's currently Gergovia)
Aside from that, I made two more acquisitions in northern Europe, taking the little island off Scandinavia (forgive me for forgetting the name. Possibly Gotanoz) which I then used as a waypoint to ship an army off to Sapmi (interesting landmark there) to teach the remaining Sweboz a lesson (they're not really the Sweboz anymore anyway. The Sweboz merged with the Casse upon taking their king's seat. The remnants are just the Neuriji, one more independant power amongst the many in Eastern Europe) Can't really be bothered continuing east, since one more settlement and I'm slap bang under the gaze of Baktria, and I don't think the distance to capital bonus would be much fun either.
Finally, the Epeirotes declared war on me. Normally, this is where I say "The fools decided to assault Patavium, at which point the mighty war machine of the Casse was brought to bear on their weak fragmented pocket kingdom" but honestly, if they'd waited any longer I'd be calling them idiots anyway, so more power to them.
Or less really, since the Adriatic is all mine. Here's the threat my new acquisitions currently face from them.



The invasion so far has actually been a bit of a laugh. I faced something like two full stacks before assaulting the first city along the road from Patavium, and then encountered token resistance from then on, with two unit armies trying to lift the siege on cities with 2 unit garrisons. 4 unit armies aren't exactly the toughest challenge you're going to face in TW, but a 4 unit army broken up into two parts through reinforcing somehow manages to be even more of a walkover. Anyway, since I have little to worry about from their full stacks that have so far proven to be 2 elite phalanx units and 18 Akontistai (give or take some skirmisher cavalry) I'm just going to ignore them and go straight to a once great city, the mining industry's Constantinople, Pella.



Also, it would seem my previous guesses as to why the Epeirotes seemed to be sitting around doing bugger all has been proven, as my spy can attest.



This really explains a lot of things actually. Firstly, why the Epeirotes took so long to attack me. They had been focusing on avian pie, sending army after army into the jaws of the Boii. Secondly, why they were so easy to send into civil revolt/why their infrastructure was so shoddy (half of their provinces are still roadless) They'd been wasting all their money on super armies that were never going to come to anything anyway.
I guess I should be outraged that those rebel provinces are making the game so easy, but honestly, I really like them. They lower the time I have to spend fighting army after army of akontistai and fragile horse, and they leave me with a massive challenge once I've cleaned the Epeirotes up.

One last point I nearly forgot as well. In 184, my mighty faction leader Adcobrovatae, vanquisher of the Carthaginians, conquerer of Italy, the islands and North Africa, died peacfully in his fort amongst his men, as he defended Lepkis from his old foe. He has left his capable son Caradog in charge of the destruction of the white menace, a task he's already well on his way to completing. Already, a hero cult has emerged around him, with hero cult mausoleums across the empire dropping the worship of older heroes like Barae and Gwydion in favour of the sole worship of Adcobrovatae the Magnificent. His worship has bound the diverse peoples of the empire more tightly together than simple administration ever could, and certainly doesn't seem to be coming to an equilibrium. Indeed, it only seems to be increasing in popularity, with a few people beginning to suggest that he was in fact more than a mere human. His birthplace in the fens seems to have merely reinforced the belief of some that his true origin was the otherworld.

Anyway, hopefully I'll stay interested until 166. 4 years till the Yuezhi come! (btw, I read somewhere I need to d/l some patch to stop the game exploding when the Yuezhi arrive. I certainly don't want to lose the use of this campaign, so can anyone clarify?)

[Bava]

Whoa, blue seems to be the new grey...

Certainly one the most impressive progression reports i´ve ever seen, Soggius!
I sincerely hope you´ll keep your interest in the campaign, another update would
be great.

P.S. For some reason or another i cant stop looking at this massive baktrian empire...^^

[Tristuskhan]

And that's it really. Mentioning any of the other factions out east seems a bit anal since they've done next to nothing in the past 40 turns.

Bored to THAT point?

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

That is frightening man. Really frightening.

[Justiciar]

Long live the proto-European Union.

[Soggius Chippius]

Bored to THAT point?

Perhaps 'wikipedian' would have been a better choice of adjective. :P

[tapanojum]

Year 244bc as Pontus, (VH/M) Huge Settings. Been at constant war with Ptolies/Seleukids for a long time now. No allies left, at war with Maks/Epirotes/KH as well. Doing fairly well and have a nice income with many mines build across Anatolia.



Getai are doing very well

[blank]

An update from my KH campaign
235 BC (i don't have much time to play and i have to fight several battles each turn... damn you, Ptolemies )



After Epirus attacked my i forced them out of the peninsula. Then they decided to focus on Italy take Rhegium instead. Aedui seems to have pretty much won the Gallic war. Casse sitting on their arse. Sweboz are struggling with the Boii. Ptolemaics have slowed down a bit (due to me sacking and looting their cities), and have also come into contact with the Sabae. Baktria's expansion route is rather weird IMO. Seleucids look to be in a stalemate with the Ptolemies in Syria. They attacked me though (idiots), so i had to take a few of their cities in Anatolia.

[The General]

235 BC, playing as Sweboz, pretty typical progression for my games (except that Makedonia is more alive than usually [and also having two full stacks stand on the shores of Lesbos]):

[Jurdagat]

Makedonia 214 BC, BI.exe, H/M difficulty.



And here is my previous post from 231 BC.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
In 171 BC, nothing interesting is happening anymore, with the AS and KH boringly conquering everywhere. Pontos, Hayasdan and Pahlava are long gone. Epeiros, Makedonia, Baktria and Saba will join them soon.



Bononia is my force-diplomacied gift to my useless allies and I left Roma undead on purpose.
.

[Empedocles]

Sauromatae campaing. H/H. BI 1.6

226BC:



Same campaing in 207BC:





Factions destroyed: Baktria by me, Epirus by the KH.
Factions near the bitter end: Averni and Aeudi.
Current wars: As, Saba and Saka.
Protectorates: Haysadan
Allies: Ptolemaioi

A little description (I have played a couple more years after that screen:

My war with the AS is nearly finished. All they have left is a piece of southern egypt and some cities in Asia minor.
The saka has attacked me in the last years and now I'm on the offensive.
The romani and the Luso are fighting for supremacy in southern gaul and it seems the Luso are winning.
My next target will be wiping out everyone in Asia Minor and then attack the Dacians from Olibia.

Here is the savegame:

http://rapidshare.com/files/71618605/sauro207.zip.html

[Mykingdomforanos]

Hi, Im new to EB, first RTW mod and first campaign as Casse (VH/Med)
Im kind of cheap because I constantly reload when battles and AI movements dont go my way but old habits die hard :)

Nevertheless:




257 B.C.

After conquering Britain (first via my distant kin the Belgae in Bratosporios and Bagacos to get some trade money going and get me out of the red ASAP) I then took the Eleutheroi settlements all down the western Gaul (Atlantic) coast and cut east to take the Mediterranean ports of Tolosa and Massilia, from where I am now considering my options.
I now have a Naval port on the Med (Tolosa) , buffered somewhat by the populous stone-walled city Of Massilia which is a nextdoor troop factory from where I can dispatch Celtic armies across the Med.
I have no enemies (except Eleutheroi of course) , am still allied to the Aedui and Arverni but due to my Blitz all my settlements are undefended (or with 1 levy unit to keep the peace)
The Irish navy (lol) patrols the channel and atlantic coast and the Aedui are showing no signs of stabbing me in the back yet as long as I keep off their land so I am going to continue to blitz and risk that if I have to race back to defend that I will only lose a couple of settlements or so.

I have but a single army of about 6 units of experienced slingers (awesome for killing half the enemy in sieges without even entering the city lol) and 4 modest infantry which are the best I can train(naked spearmen/gallic swordsmen) to protect the slingers and take city squares.
My general on his damn chariot just gets in the way pretty much lol but someone has to collect command stars (Ive gained 1 so far between us damn this is tough heh))and provide morale boosts I guess

So, now Ive arrived at the Med with all the options its opens up Ive had a wee cheat by peeking at the recruitment viewer to see which province produces the best troops!
Mikra Scythia on the Black Sea is standing out bigtime (Elite Thracian falx guys, Heavy Cav, elite archers, Horse Archers, phalanxes) and its a naval port!
From there I have a base against the Eastern menace, but I would head west and take Getai (and train those cheap as chips Drapanai armour slicers) and proceed slowly west taking over the rest of Europe.
Noone seems to be expanding much in Europe except the Sweboz and I want to get my hands on the Alp provinces before they or the Arverni do, as the Rhaetic axemen and Alpine phalanx are useful judging by custom battles.

However, its cheap and unrealistic to think the Casse from Britain would get in their boats in Tolosa and go right across the Med to take Scythia so I will just slog east taking over the Sweboz and eventually arriving at the Black Sea!
From there I can train some falxmen and horse archers and return west to lay waste to all Europe inc the Romani and Lusotanni (possibly bringing Carthage and the East into the war also)
Im getting some good income now so I will train another army up to either take Iberia or run parallel to my east-bound one, either way it will be closer to home in case I need to defend my turf.

Going on custom battles and my geographical situation Im aiming for an army of Drapanai with 1 or 2 phalanxes to hold the line and block roads in sieges , heaps of slingers to win the sieges cheaply, and 1 or 2 Scythian Riders to distract the enemy's rear with arrows and charge when needed.
The Elite Thracian Infantry (Rhomphaiorii) with their armour slicers are quite cheap and from what I could see pretty much invincible in custom battles , even against Gaesatae who dont have much armour. When I can train them (level 5 regional mic) they look pretty much like all the melee infantry Ill need.
The Goidilic hammer guys arent the worst either and I can get them fairly quickly.

Edit: Just noticed that my little Empire above is similar to that of England's in Middle Ages during the Hundred Years War with France. Aquitaine on the west coast along with Normandy across the channel. Aquitaine was obtained by marriage though AFAIk not by conquest, but a nice little parallel even so

[Sarkiss]

in all of the campaign i played and seen Hayasdan always expands north. always. would it change if they didnt start at war with Sarmatians?

[blank]

229 BC



Casse look to have finally woken up.
Baktria is getting pushed back by the united effort of Sauromatae, Saka and Pahlava ( ). Ptolemaics have decided to let Seleucids be and attacked Saba instead. Carthage finally made a move to seize Italy

[Teleklos Archelaou]

in all of the campaign i played and seen Hayasdan always expands north. always. would it change if they didnt start at war with Sarmatians?

We have worked on things like penalties for settled factions conquering nomadic territories, making roads less common from Armenia across the mountains to the north (though leaving passes open), and such, to try and keep them from going North as often, but when their allies are the AS to the south, it's hard to let them expand anywhere else except in their immediate area and north.

[Soggius Chippius]

Hello again. Well, I'm not bored of the Casse yet, so here's a new update. I warn those of you who aren't into longish posts, this one might be somewhat....lavish.
Voila la carte de la monde.



Just like the last one really, except the tiny factions have become even tinier/extinct.
Baktria has all but forgotten about Anatolia and the Middle East, and continues to grasp at the very slippery Sauromatae. They can beat them easily enough, but they can't seem to hold on to any territory they gain for more than a few turns before it revolts back to the horsemen. (rather oddly, this includes Xiyu, which revolted to the Sauromatae rather than the Saka after *finally* being taken by Baktria early in the decade)
Saka lost their protectorate status with Baktria, though I suspect the aggressor was actually Baktria this time. Whether Baktria can be bothered trekking all the way up to Chighu to wipe them out I'm not sure, but it's certain the Saka are no longer a threat (well, less so than they were before anyway)
As for Makedon, I'll go into a bit more detail on them shortly, but they have, opportunistic bastards that they are, gone into alliance with Baktria. Which I have no doubt the AI pair will lovingly maintain until Makedon are down to one or two cities.
The Saba have, somehow, gotten weaker. I'm not sure why exactly, because it's not the first thing I tend to look at when I toggle_fow (or the last honestly), but I have a feeling they've been having a go at Baktria and not doing terribly well. This picture sort of proves it (as does the fact that they're at war admittedly)



Incidentally, that fullstack is the only army the Saba have. Their towns are woefully undergarrisoned, and Arabia isn't well known for wooded areas for armies to hide in, so maybe we're seeing the beginning of the end for them. Honestly though, for its size, Baktria is remarkably placid, so they may last a while yet.
Finally, Pontos was wiped from the map in the Summer of 170 after the most lacklustre campaign I've seen any faction ever carry out.
Oh wait. Not finally actually, because I've managed to forget one faction. Here they are with a force large enough to at least wipe out the Saba, and possibly Carthage. The Ptolemies!



Unfortunately for them, their influence is so minimal that they've been completely unable to start any riots in egypt over the past ten years, so they can pretty much be ignored.

And with that, all the factions I have no contact with are done! So how have the Casse fared?

Well, not badly, as the map suggests. What the map doesn't suggest however, is that the last ten years have been the most challenging and fun campaign years I've ever had in a TW game. I've had war on two fronts, and both have been amazingly well played out.
Firstly, the collapse of the Epeirote empire. I though of calling it a conquest there for a bit, but it just didn't feel like one. The Epeirotes were poorly organised, their resistance sporadic and manned by pathetically weak units. If you recall, I was on my way to Pella during my last update, and I did indeed take it, tearing its garrison and reinforcing army to pieces, after which I doubled back, tearing through all the inland settlements on a route parallel to the Adriatic coast (I was able to ignore all the Getic lands since they'd revolted).
I had one settlement to go before bordering the eleutheroi again when something only sort of half expected struck, but with a ferocity I definately didn't expect. I'd fairly stupidly agreed to an alliance with Makedon, effectively giving them all my map information for free. They besieged the city north of Pella with a smallish army, which I kicked back to the Hellespont fairly smartly. Unfortunately, they sent a fullstack against Pella, took it, took the city north of the city north of Pella (sorry, the names haven't stuck, and it takes nearly 10 minutes to load EB and then the save to check) and left me with my mouth hanging open, and in quite a situation. Makedon, it turns out, had/has a surprisingly competent empire with a decent army. I took the final Epeirote city on my campaigning route, leaving the remnants in the north, and headed back to Makedon to take my cities back. After a bit of fighting I took the two cities back, but fullstack after fullstack just kept on pouring forth from the Hellespont to do two pronged attacks against Pella and its northern sibling.
Thankfully, the preceeding 5 or so years had seen the return of the Sapmian army to Belgium to get back to full strength, so a new general was appointed to its head and it was quickly sent down to the Balkans to sort the Makedonians (who were trying to take the rebel Getic lands) and the remaining Epeirotes out while the official Balkan army tried to stem the flow of Makedonians over the Hellespont.
Here's the current situation of the two campaigns.



The Epeirotes are down to one city, and my army is about to fight the small army, hopefully drawing the garrison as reinforcements. I don't *really* want to fight their Faction leader there, but if I have to, there's no real likelihood of me losing (though I'll have to restore troops from somewhere, which will be an unwanted waste of time)



The Maks have been pushed back to Byzantion, though as you can see there, my army has quite a nice welcoming party waiting for them. Again, they're in much the same situation as above, about to draw the garrison as reinforcements, but we all know what a pain in the arse running down every last Akontistai before they escape is, so I may have quite a slog on my hands before I can enter the city.

Incidentally...



The Neuriji Federation are still sitting around waiting for their cue to be a slight irritation to me by taking a city or two. I'm currently debating whether I really want to go for them once Epirus is sorted out, or whether I just want to leave them and consolidate by taking Getia. As far as arguments go, getting rid of them means I'm safe if any of my Germanic settlements throws their toys, but none of them look like doing that just yet, while the against argument says that a. there's a lot of them and consolidation would make everything much easier anyway, b. Taking that settlement would give me a border with Baktria which I'm not terribly keen on just yet, and c. The Getic settlements are undergarrisonned, and what there is isn't the most terrifying thing you're likely to face anyway. Hmm. Looks like I just made my choice.

Also, I didn't bother to take a screenshot, but lightly garrisoned Greece, which I've been fairly happy to leave be for the past while, has been sending small armies into my lands and then taking them back. From my experience, that usually suggests to me that they're thinking of doing something phenomenally stupid, so I've just this turn finished assembling quite an impressive force to take their 5 cities and shut off yet another front. I guess that army can go and play in Asia Minor once it's done, or something like that. (that means there's three full armies in the Balkans. I feel like such a spammer)

But really, Greece and the Balkans is just an incidental thing. Ever since arriving in the south of France, this campaign's been centered squarely around one faction and one faction only. Carthage.
Since their golden age back in 220-odd, they've been in steady decline due to my efforts at teaching them why asking for an alliance with someone and then kicking them in the nuts just isn't cricket. They've been repulsed from Italy, Sicily, Spain, the western Isles, their homelands in North Africa, and now, from Libya and the Nile Delta. From a purely principled standpoint, this won't stop until they've been wiped off the face of the earth, but really, once I've taken everything south of the Nile Delta from them, using them as a buffer zone with Baktria is really looking attractive. Especially since river crossings are laughably easy to defend.
Anyway, while the surprise Makedon had in store for me was quite nice, nothing prepared me for the show Carthage has put on for me since 176.
If you recall, I was just on the verge of invading Libya and all Carthage had to throw at me was about two and a half stacks that were centered around Kyrene. I knocked these on the head, took Augila and thought "easy sailing from here. They're completely ungarrisoned, and have no field army." Much to my surprise, 4 turns later, a full stack comes from the fog towards Kyrene. It's repulsed, and I head towards the next city east of Kyrene (sorry again), pushing back the fog to reveal.... 2 and a half stacks, one headed for me, and the other one and a half headed for my Spanish army (half strength) currently stationed in Augila. Luckily enough, I was able to beat both full stacks with the main army under Caradog (son of Adcobrovatae, the last faction leader) and take out the half stack with the Spaniards, after which Ammonion was taken with the half-army while Caradog's army marched east (to Pantikopion? I think that's the city's name. Let's pretend it is for now. I can edit later or something)
After taking a completely unwalled Ammonion, several turns had to be set aside in order to sort out the governments and build a wall so the army could actually proceed, but unfortunately, that's when the madness began. The Carthies started sending 4 man armies into Libya, filling the place up with them, and sending them all, not to Ammonion, but to Augila, which still had some unpleasant garrisoning issues (barracks could only produce Akontistai at that stage, and had only been completed a turn or two prior)
Ammonion was abandoned to fight these armies off (which were, rather dangerously, interspersed with nearly full stacks which had to be sorted out by Caradog, although the Spaniards famously held one off at a river in quite an impressive Heroic Victory) Surprisingly (or perhaps not considering how the AI thinks), Ammonion was left alone, but sorting out all the armies took several turns, and several of them almost got through)
Finally, Pantikapion was taken, and the cry from the army was "ONWARD! TO THE NILE! TO FRESH BLOODY WATER! I'M PARCHED!" Naturally, Caradog told them to make do with the town well while the government was set up and Akontistai were shipped in from Kyrene, but soon enough, the march east began, and within a few days, an impressive sight was before the army.



Indeed, before them was the Pharos, and Alexandria up on a hill, clearly built by beings with a knowledge of levitational engineering as one corner of it was built, quite spectacularly, on nothing at all. Also before them was the city's rather stupid garrison who had sallied to help out a single unit of nubian spearmen that had read about Thermopylae but didn't quite understand the logistics behind it. Needless to say, both were routed, and the city fell.
Next on the list was Memphis, and I'm quite pleased at the square my besieging army happened to land on, as it gave me an epic backdrop to a truly epic set of battles.



I rather cleverly decided that a shot of Caradog sitting behind the front line was preferable to a shot of the actual army that we were facing, but there you go. I can assure you that while it wasn't full of elite troops or anything, it certainly was an unpleasant surprise to face after facing stack after stack of paper doll nubians and Machimoi. After a massive merc drought in Libya (not once did I see the chance to buy one), landing in Egypt gave me a much needed chance to replenish my troop stocks. Which I cleverly squandered by buying one unit of horse and leaving the rest (like, 14 different units, quite a few of which were impressively strong cavalry) for 'later'. Turns out later's real name is Gisgo, as he was the man who tried to break off my siege of Memphis with his bloody mercenary army. It was a tough battle, of which there are only two remaining records. Here's one.



Quite a few dead bodies. Not used to seeing so many dead horses either.



There's the "I'm so awesome" screen. Let me promise you, it was a tough fight, but at the end, the gates of Memphis were left open for my army to waltz in.
If only they had.
I got in yet *another* battle, though this time it was with a rather less impressive army of Machimoi and Nubians. Still, men with sticks are men with sticks, and it did result in yet more casualties. Thankfully, that's all Carthage had left, and Memphis fell. Yes, they tried hard, but in the end, it was a Memphis Meltdown.
Okay, sorry.
Anyway, here's a pic of the remainder of Carthage's resources (Phoenicia is so de-militarised it might as well be New Zealand, so don't worry about that)



Really, I should stop here, but there is one last thing I think is relevant, especially since I've been talking up Adcobrovatae and Caradog for the last few updates.
Caradog is currently what I affectionately term "really quite old, and about to collect on his life insurance, no really, he has a coffin picked out and everything" and what is more commonly referred to as "59 years of age", so I thought I'd firstly immortalise him here like I didn't do for Adcobrovatae, as well as go on about the potential issues the Casse face after his death.
Firstly, here's a short look at his personality.







As you can see, he's a stand-up guy, much like his father. He's the sort of fella you'd like to go the the pub with. The sort of guy you'd be happy to have in charge of your country (though he's obviously humble enough to have passed the big job up. He realises that with the passing of Adco, the kingship is only a figurehead role. Adco took the rest of the public's adoration with him to the grave, and any personal advancement within the empire can only really be done now through conquering, as Caradog well knows. Anyway, apologies for the diversion, on with the show) His base personality is as good as it gets, and the only negative experience based personality he has is Pessimism, which is partly due to his intelligence, but also partly due to his son.



Admittedly, Caradog has two sons, but they're both pants on head retarded, and while the other son is slightly less unpleasant, he's in Camulosadae. Cynan was born during Caradog's endless campaigning and has been with his Dad ever since. I guess he's the rebellious type, since he's everything his father is not. His base personality is the same as that of half the WoW subscribership, being stupid, boring, and lazy, while his only positive experience based attribute is his loyalty, which is really only there because, despite his rebelliousness, he's insightful enough to know that he's too useless to make it on his own (yet not quite insightful enough to realise that loyalty has to be shown. I suspect he's the sort of person that talks about the 'gummint' despite not really knowing anything about it. The additional irony being that he's *part* of the government. Oh well)

So yes, my point is, Caradog is unbelieveably great, being both austere and extravagant, a magnificent warrior (if he got off his chariot anyway) while still being cultured, a tactical genius who also enjoys a bit of poetry, *and* looks like Adonis, while Cynan is a brainless, charmless, lazy hypochondriac, whose only truely positive point is that his wife is both stupid *and* sickly, so even if she does finally work out how the bits fit together, she'll likely be unable to bear the child anyway. Unfortunately, when Caradog finally heads off to join Adcobrovatae as prince of the Casse kingdom in the Otherworld, Cynan will be left in charge of his earthly possessions, the only relevant one of which is the army. Luckily, the Spanish army is currently headed by a spectacularly competent young general, and a merging of the two armies is a future possibility, but it is a bit sad when the grandson of the era's greatest leader is such a pillock.

On that note, I leave you with a portait by one of Rome's finest artisans of Caradog leading his men into battle.

[Folgore]

Nice AAR Soggius

Here's my Arche Seleukeia campaign. I'm a bit tired of it, so I think I'll start a new campaign today. This is in part due to the death of my faction leader. My old faction leader was a great man, but his son is a complete idiot.

Here's my empire in 222 BCE:


I have been at war with the Ptolemaioi since the start of the game. They have never accepted any of my peace proposals even though I have been kicking their arse since 272 BCE. I am also currently at war with the Karthadastim. After I had captured Paraitonion from the Ptolemaioi they declared war on me and besieged the city. This in turn forced me to abandon my conquest of Egypt entirely, as I hadn't enough soldiers at the time. So I burned down Paraitonion and Ammonion and set up a blocking force in the Nile Delta under the command of King Antiochos II's two youngest sons. Which has held out for some 30 years now.

After wasting 10 years in Egypt I moved my faction leader and heir north to Pontos and completely destroyed their army and captured their cities in a one-year campaign. I then proceded east and did more or less the same to Hayastan. However this time Saba allied themselves to Hayastan and actually send an army to their assistance. This army was heroically beaten back by the Garrision forces of Syria, but now I had to secure my southern front. So after annexing Hayastan I sent the former commander of the Egyptian Army to Charax (which had been conquered by Saba some time earlier that year). To my surprise a 3500 men all-mercenary army suddenly jumped out of the bush and attacked my army, utterly defeating it. (This has been my only lost battle in my campaign so far (not including the cities I lost to sieges).) Anyway, I moved my Kings army into Arabia and he defeated some 3 full stack armies before dieing peacefully at the age of 65.

Outside my borders Baktria and Pahlava started out very good, they were tied down in a war with Saka, using all of their resources to defeat them and in 240 BCE they finally did. Unfortunately this caused the balance of the area to be lost and only a few years later Baktria declared war on Pahlava. This has been going on for a while now and they are very close to whiping them out.
In Greece Koinon Hellenon gained the upper hand rather quickly and by 235 BCE they made both Makedonia and Epeiros their protectorates. Only a few years ago the Makedonians revolted and they have been kicking their arses back to only one province with a half-stack army protecting it.

This is my faction leader ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΣ II (ingame called Theodros Syriakos) 2 years before he died. In those 2 years he managed to get the 'strategist' trait, bringing his number of command stars from 7 to 8. The year is 229 BCE.

Personally I call him 'Antiochos II the Great, conquerer of Egypt, Pontos, Hayastan and Arabia'.

And this is his son ΣΕΛΕΥΚΟΣ II (ingame called Kallinikos Syriakos), now king in 226 BCE.

Note the ugly whore ancilliary...

[tapanojum]

"Note the ugly whore ancilliary..."

Hahaha nice

[The General]

My brother's Easy/Easy (he's a beginner, both in RTW/EB and in strategy games in general) Koinon Hellenion campaign
https://img137.imageshack.us/img137/...llenionpq4.jpg

Nice Aedui, Hayasdan and Lusotanan advance, and also nice to see Rome destroyed by ze Qarthadastim in a huge, no doubt, Punic War (I've never gotten to witness one in my campaigns).

The Ptolemaic "Empire" was just gargantuan, owning pretty much the southern half of Anatolia also, before going into war against my bro's insanely rich KH state.

[Nikaïa's tyrannos]

Hi, here is my KH campaign VH/M. It is 238 BC and I don t focus on conquest but on bringing back hellenic cities in the Koinon (well even if they don t want ) and role-play.

The first years were tough with Athens under constant siege until I managed to liberate Korinth. Then I attacked Chalkis and enslave all the macedonian settlers (bringing pop to Sparta who need it a lot). With this linear front I managed to push back all the macedonian offensives (which grew stronger and stronger) while Pyrrhos never put a foot in Makedon and go wandering in Illyria . Once my economy strong enough my faction heir invaded Mytilene. At mid-siege (I was starving since there was a full stack in it) a huge stack attacked Athens where fortunately I left a good garrison. Nevertheless the fight was tough and one of my most promising (if not the only one besides the faction's heir) young general died heroically on the wall under Pheraspides' spears. Receiving this information my heir headed to Pella after taking Mytilene and after a quick siege exterminate the population and destroy all that was possible (yes including the Royal Tombs $$ ), his fellow spartan avenged he went back to Athens. It was around 260BC more or less.

I strenghtened my economy and upgraded the MIC and "attacked" Thermon to convince them to become a member of the Koinon, they accepted after a quick battle where I lose my faction's heir on their walls . Meanwhile in the east Pontos took Byzantion and turn its armies toward Pergamon. So I send one of my not-so-good general to the west to seek for allies because a lot of greeks were calling for our help from Sicily where roman and carthaginian armies were walking here and there. He managed to convince the tyran of Syracuse to join the Koinon.
And surprise!! a young boy succeed in the agoge and the kryptea (sp?) and have the quality to become a great strategos. While the army was coming back from Sicily spies were sent in great number (with training along the way) to spread rebellion in the cities under the king of Pontos but they have set some kind of KGB-like organization, nearly all my spies were killed or didn t manage to do anything... and Olbia where I didn t send anybody rebelled to me! With Sauromatae on its doorstep I send money the time to assemble an army under the command of the future strategos of the Koinon. Here he is on the screenshot with his great army dreaming of glorious victory but he doesn t seem to know the word hippotoxotai...

[Conqueror]

Update to my Makedonia campaign, now @ 220 BC:



Ptolemaioi have become the Big Giant Piss Monster

Poor Seleukids are being crushed, but I will try to keep them alive. I gave them Galatia, after taking it from the Pontics and exterminating the population.

Koinon Hellenon were doing well but succumbed to a sudden death: although they were expanding in Asia Minor, capturing cities from Ptolemaioi, all of their "family" members were stuck in Rhodos without transport. Then the Ptolemaioi attacked the island and killed them off, thus destroying the faction

Baktria looks like it's growing into a superpower. This could be good if they start squabbling with the Big Giant Piss Monster, but knowing the AI on VH the two will probably just become the most loyal of allies

The Aedui are in major trouble now, they keep begging me for an alliance. The Sweboz invade Cisalpine Gaul regularly now, and though the Aedui have resisted them so far, they are losing slowly by attrition. It seems that a confrontation between my empire and the savage barbaroi from the north will be inevitable.

Kart-Hadast has become a bit passive after I kicked them out of Sicilia at the end of the great Helleno-Punic war. They have not launched anymore naval invasions for a while, save for a single unit of skirmishers which is camping next to Lilibeo not daring to attack

Hayasdan is kicking some Sauromatae ass and Casse are close to unifying the islands. Arverni have forged a nice kingdom but will they have the strength to deter the Sweboz for long? Time ought to tell

[The General]

Just for the fun of it, have a guess which faction I'm playing? There's quite a few successful ones there, and I've been conquering quite slowly myself (it's 231 BC) compared to some of my other games where I've expanded awfully fast (but then again, with those factions, it's been only natural, really).

[Conradus]

SPQR? I don't think the AI would ever expand like that.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Either Rome or Pontus?

-------------------------------------------------------

Here's my Carthage campaign, 250BC:



The Saka have been wiped out in 255BC by Parthia and Baktria.
Pontos developed quite good, but have big problems now with AS.
AS and Ptolemaioi are fighting as always with slight advantages for the AS.
Saba conquered their part of the world.
Koinon Hellenon is doing fantastic, as always.
SPQR conquered fairly well so far.
Casse and Lusotannan, Sweboz and Getai do not very good.

[The General]

SPQR? I don't think the AI would ever expand like that.

Depends. Most often SPQR AI seems to go either west to southern Gaul/northern Iberia, or north towards the Helvetii and the Boii, but they occasionally decide to expand their realm into Illyria/Pannonia etc regions.

And, once I've seen the AI gone Caesar - after conquering Italy it declared war against the Aedui and conquered almost all of Gaul.

The sad thing is that I'ven't ever witnessed a Punic War in my games... But, at least my little brother has, once, in his KH game. :/


EDIT: But yeah, I'm SPQR. I just like how several other factions have expanded too, in some of my games the AI factions all seem awfully peaceful and fail to form any empires worth mentioning. Apart from the Ptolemaioi, of course, who always conquer Koile-Syria and often also northern Mesopotamia and/or middle Anatolia.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

The GUI always gives it away: spqr.

Nice map and strategy/role-play explanation Nikaia! I like it and that army you've got there too.

[The General]

The GUI always gives it away: spqr.

*Slaps himself on the forehead*