Roma - Fledgling State to Mighty Empire

[thelord]

I'm going to try putting a bit more time into EB soon, I know I keep disapearing which must be really annoying for fans of this AAR, but I just havn't been able to get into EB lately.

[Chirurgeon]

I'm going to try putting a bit more time into EB soon, I know I keep disapearing which must be really annoying for fans of this AAR, but I just havn't been able to get into EB lately.

no worries. I know the feeling. I took a bit of a break myself :)

[thelord]

POST EIGHTEEN - EXPANSION & REBELLION

140 BC, I am currently in the process of defeating the Macedonian forces still lurkign around Pella and other areas they recently controlled, it is also time for me to begin to take the last of their territory on the Aegean, this will remove the last of my buffer states blocking the Republic from the mighty Arche Seleucia, so no doubt once this latest conquest is complete there will be a long run of Seleucid wars. I sent a legion to Byzantion to take it and effectively chop the remains of Macedon in half.



Of course they threw a half hearted attempt to force me to retreat, but it was highly unlikely that a Marian legion would lose to such levies.



The city proved quite problematic in subjucating however, with several riots occuring before I could install a Romanised government.



I have recently installed konny's allied legion mod which allows me to number my legions. Using this I have numbered my 6 defensive legions across the republics lands to defend the borders, extra legions trained for invasions will be given their own number. Currently the 6 legions have been stationed in :

Legio I : Cisalpine Gaul
Legio II : North Africa
Legio III : North Iberia
Legio IV : The Balkans
Legio V : Greece
Legio VI : Macedonia



137 BC, I have trained a new legion, Legio VII, in Italy to be sent to take Serdike and Tylis, both Macedonian possesions. This legion is under the command of Decimus Papirius Turdus, the son of my reformer. I hope to train him up for a few years against Macedon for when the inevitable war with AS begins as I will no doubt have need of experienced generals when the 3 full stacks a turn start pouring into my lands.



I have also edited the Ptolemaioi to have a more golden colour on the mini map.

In 136 BC, Oxtraca revolted against me, I have always had problems with this city for some reason. They revolted and spawned a large amount of Persian archers for some reason, despite the fact that they couldn't be much further away from Persia.



The city was easily recaptured and Enslaved however, which quickly brought order back to Iberia and showed any other rebels what happens to those who defy Roman rule.



Back in Macedonia, the 7th Legion took Serdike in 136 BC with very little military resistance from Macedon. Tylis appears to be more capable at defending itself when the 7th legion arrives at its gates however.



The 7th was attacked before it could arrive there however with the garrison from Tylis, a reasonably strong army with reformed phlanxes and hoplites aplenty.



I used some standard tactics here, to have 2 lines of cohorts, with the first in guard mode to hold the enemy and the second to flank.



After a relatively long battle, the Republic was victorious once again, with roughly 3 Macedonians dead for every Roman.

This victory clears the road for the legion to advance towards Tylis. Once fallen I will set it about taking Mytilene.

[Chaotix]

Woot! Thelord is back! Great chapter.

A couple of things:

- in that first battle, the battlefield was a purplish color. If I recall correctly, I think purple/pink battlefields have something to do with your graphics card overheating or something along those lines, so be careful.

- how did you get your unit cards to say "Legio IV" and "Legio VII" and so on?

[thelord]

Theres a mod called ''Allied Legion Mod'' which does it, they can only be trained in Roma though.

Also I think that the purple thing is just the time of day for the battle, will keep my fingers crossed that my comp doesnt blow up though.

[thelord]

I've just installed the Darth formation mod and Marcus Camillus player formation mod and it makes a HUGE difference.

[thelord]

POST NINETEEN - ARRIVAL IN ASIA MINOR

Macedon is proving to be quite a pain to defeat, their land is split into 3 seperate chunks and they only have around 6 cities left, but still they keep on recruiting armies, if it was the other way round I would have been bankrupt long ago. In 135 BC, I besieged Tylis, it was defended by a small but elite band of troops, they were outnumbered 3 to 1 but still took a good chunk out of my legion.



Macedon still had a good 4 full stacks left nearby, one of which was heading to retake Tylis, so I was forced to attack before they could besiege it. I have installed the Darth AI Formations mod, and this was the first battle I had with it in, and wow, it made a huge difference! The phalanxes actually kept a straight line, and covered each other when I tryed to flank, using their infantry to guard the rear. So finally I was facing some challenging battles. Luckily in this case I had a superior general, a 19 year old with 4 command stars.



What followed was a VERY tough battle, most probably the hardest I've played against Macedon, around half of my army was routed at one stage and I had to perform some very risky manouvres with my general. Casualties were high on both sides, and the Legio VII is in need of reinforcements from Greece.



Miraculously around half of my casualties survived, I think my general must have some traits/retinue that increase recovery chances.



There was still riots in southern Iberia, so I had to train an 8th legion to raise the public order there, in Italy a 9th and 10th Legio were created for my planned invasion of Macedon's holdings in Asia Minor and also for the inevitable AS wars which are bound to begin as soon as I border them. In 132 BC, I landed 3 legions in Asia Minor (VII, IX & X). I am apprehensive about facing the AS, as they are overunning the Ptolemaioi, Sauromatae and Baktria at the same time, whilst holding most of the eastern land.



The first of the Asia Minor battles was at Nikaia, where a large Macedonian stack was situated, I was expecting another tough battle against a hard line of reformed phalanxes...



What I met however was a pathetic rabble of nothing but 1800 levy hoplites and Akontistai, which rout after around 5 seconds of combat with a Marian Legionary Cohort. Even more easily as I had a 1 talent stone projector in the army, which cost a whopping 30,000 mnai to recruit.



What followed could not even be described as a battle, basically they broke just after they engaged, the Pilum killed about half of them and the rest were killed by the generals bodyguard.



Mytilene was only defended by 2 units of toxitai, so was captured by the 10th easily, the remaining Macedonian troops are in Pergamon, which I will probably starve out as I need to keep up the numbers in the legions for when I face the AS. As for the remaining Macedonian's in the north, I am happy to leave them there as long as they don't cause me any trouble, the Getae will most probably finish the job soon anyway.