Post your EB empires!

[anubis88]

Once you get a hold on how to use the Parthian army, you're practically unstopable. When i Besieged Edessa, i had a half a stack, around 1000 men, only 1 unit + FM of Catas, the others were light horse archers. I defeated a Seleucid army of 6000 men, and broke their power indefinetly. Even once my HA ran out of ammo, i just moved them around, tiring the enemy till the Cata's approached, and slaughtered them.
An this was an ordinary AS army, which means lots and lots of phalanxes...

So yeah, the Pink death can be really scary

[SwissBarbar]

Yeah, you would not believe how many units of elite phalangitai have died without even killing one of my horsearchers ;-)

But I must say, also my foot-armies are quite fun to play, though they suffer from more dead. Just 20 minutes ago I successfully could defend the city of Charax, which my foot-army had captured. Its like this:

(Not all units in full strength)
1 FM
4 x Parthian Spearman
4 x Hoplitai Haploi
3 x Eastern Slingers
3 x Persian Archers
2 x Mardian Archers

And they were besieged by the Seleukids (Not all units in full strenght)

3 x FM
1 x Heavy Cav
2 x Parthian Spearman
2 x Elite Phalangitai (full strength)
5 x Other Phalangitai
and other light units and thureophoroi


All in all: I had around 2500 and they around 2300 IIRC

They had: 2 Siege Towers, 2 Rams, 2 Tunnel-Things to make the walls collaps.


It was great! My Archers could light one tower, the two rams (who went for 2 different gates) were lit fast to. Through the second tower, the enemy could engage the walls, and at the same time, they tried to undermine another part of the wall. The wall was down for 61%, when my archers managed to lit the Tunnel-entrance on fire, the wall stood, the guys under ground died. The second Tunnel-thing was on fire before they could go in. Just when the parthian spearmen of the enemy and some peltasts fought my men on the wall, the enemy sent klerouchoi phalangitai up the tower.. but with the last arrows also this tower was lit on fire and the phalangitai died under the collapsing tower. With all their siege equipment gone, the Seleukids waited, if their units, who were already on the wall, could do anything - they couldn't - and then had to leave.

Stats (in my opinion quite realistic battle stats for once)

Close Victory
Pahlava: Men 2500 - Lost 450 - Remaining around 2200 (my FM had a chirurgeon and some great traits ;-) )
Seleukids: Men 2300 - Lost 650 - Remaining around 1650

[Marcus Darkstar]

Yeah, you would not believe how many units of elite phalangitai have died without even killing one of my horsearchers ;-)

Well yes even in Vanilla RTW Horse Archers were the foremost killing machines in the right hands.

It certainly killed many famous military armies in ancient history like the Alexandrian army sent to Scythian territories or Crassus's Roman army.

[Mulceber]

In my last post, I showed off my potential Reformator. He had 3 stars, something like 10 influence, was S/C/V, a Popularis and had won a consulship. So I thought I was good for the reforms. Oh little did I know the scares that I was in for. While my general was on campaign with his Military Tribune, M. Iulius Caesar, he was awarded a Triumph by the Senate. I was briefly double-checking his stats to make sure he fit the requirement for a reformator...only to discover that his popularis trait had disappeared. With something like 10 years to go before the reforms were due, I resolved to take him off the campaign and rush him to a city with a temple to Ceres, hoping he'd get the trait back (and wondering how the heck he lost it in the first place). On the way I decided to take him to Rome and let him have his Triumph. Once that was done, I looked at his traits again, only to find that, lo and behold, he was now a Popularis again I guess from a Role-playing perspective he was trying to keep on the Senate's good side until he'd gotten his Triumph. So with that out of the way, I was feeling pretty confident that it was now smooth sailing. Oh how I was mistaken....

A few years later, with only a couple years left until the reforms, I checked Lucullus' traits. He was still a popularis...but now he had lost the Consular trait. As you can imagine, I panicked, since I REALLY wanted to see those beautiful Marian troops pouring out of Italy. And furthermore, how on earth does someone lose the Consular trait? I was certain that he'd had it - in fact, if you look at my first picture of him, you can see that he has the consular trait. So ultimately I decided, to keep going and hope that EB remembered that he had been a consul, even if the trait wasn't appearing on his scroll. If it didn't remember, I decided, I would just go into the EB data folder and delete the consular requirement from the Marian reforms.

Well, 172 came. Come Spring I still didn't have any new troops. But looking at the faction scroll I noticed something else:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

P. Licinius Lucullus had won his second consulship. I think that's the only character I've ever heard of winning multiple consulships. But hey, at least he's following the pattern set up by C. Marius. I ended the turn and when summer came around, I got a message from the advisor saying new troops were available. Here are the new legions:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

BTW, sorry if this is becoming a bit AAR-like, but the Marian Reforms are an exciting time and I wanted to share it with you guys.

PS. As you may have noticed from these maps, Roman holdings in Asia (and they are Roman, now that the King of Pergamum died and "generously" left his kingdom to the SPQR) have shrunk massively in my war with the Pontic kingdom - up until now, the two stacks of the Roman Legions have been occupied dealing with the Karthadastim, and so I've had to fight in the east using local troops (mainly Hoplitai and Hoplitai Haploi). But now that the Lucullian Reforms have been passed my first priority will be to send the legions east to deal with the Pontic King. The first Mithradatic War is about to begin! -M

[WinsingtonIII]

But now that the Lucullian Reforms have been passed my first priority will be to send the legions east to deal with the Pontic King. The first Mithradatic War is about to begin!

That's pretty awesome that you actually get to fight the Mithadatic Wars against a strong Pontos. That's not something that happens often.

[Alexokrat]

Mulceber are the Seleucids in Kyrene? How did they get there?

[WinsingtonIII]

Mulceber are the Seleucids in Kyrene? How did they get there?

It most likely revolted to them, the Seleucids are listed as Kyrene's ownership faction I believe, so whenever they revolt from another faction in the game they end up under Seleucid control.

[Mulceber]

I think Winsington's right - it isn't the first time I've heard of Kyrene being an island of Seleucid power. Although by this point in the game, they've taken Alexandreia, Thebes and Paraitonion, so it doesn't look quite so unusual to see Kyrene in their power as well.

Yeah, I'm realy excited about how this is really starting to mirror history so nicely. Not perfectly, but somewhat closely. I've sent Lucullus (as well as his rival, the Optimas M. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Censor) to Asia to retake the province. They've arrived just in time as well - the last Roman cities in Asia, Mytilene and Halikarnassos were about to fall. -M

[Arthur, king of the Britons]

BTW, sorry if this is becoming a bit AAR-like, but the Marian Reforms are an exciting time and I wanted to share it with you guys. -M

That's hardly a problem, it's way more interesting when people go more in deapth in their empire-presentation IMO.

[Unintended BM]

My current Aedui game.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

After I conquered the Arveni. The Aedui really do have an easier starting. It's very easy fighting other gauls anyway.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

My current empire. I didn't feel like fighting a bunch of elite allied infantry spam, so I'm just blitzing Rome. They had taken Segesta and Bononia anyway, and they were lining up troops on my border. When Segesta rebelled, I took it and moved in for Arretium, then they attacked me before I could get there, and I beat the crap out of them. I just got the first reforms a few turns ago. As you can see, I'm starving out Ariminum and Arpi. Carthage randomly sent up a unit of elephants to stand next to my main army. They're still allied with Rome, so they'll probably attack me if they decide to bring up some more troops from Sicily any time soon.

[Fluvius Camillus]

@Unintended BM

Can you beat this?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You have three more years to match this, I first took quite some rebel settlements, then killed the Aedui. After that I took some more rebel settlements and fougth the Sweboz, after that I pwned the Romani.

~Fluvius

[Mulceber]

Ouch Fluvius, that's one impressive Empire.

Anyway, in my Romani game, P. Lucullus and M. Scipio Africanus landed their legions in Asia and set to work retaking the province. Given the enmity between the two, it was probably a good thing that they chose to fight separately. Lucullus, after relieving the besieged city of Halicarnassus, surrounded Sardis and dug in, while Africanus began the siege of Pergamum. Each repulsed many relief attempts by the Pontic kings and their mercenary armies, but Lucullus was the first to retake a city in Asia. Having beset the city for a long time, his scouts reported the approach of a massive Pontic relief force, one which his troops would not likely be able to repulse. He thus resolved to take Sardis by storm, and did so with relatively few casualties. Africanus, whose troops had endured less hardship, maintained his siege. Finally, in the winter of 168, the Pontici sallied forth and were swiftly routed by the general's well-drilled men. As they sacked the city, Africanus received yet more good news:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Publius Licinius Lucullus, Triumphator and Thrice-Consul, had died in his sleep in Sardis. Here was a man who had brought great change to the Res Publica. He had achieved countless great victories and reformed the way Roman men fight. Now his death brings grief to the plebs in Rome, while many of the Patricians quietly mutter that the city is better off without him. -M

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Nice empire you have there!

[Fluvius Camillus]

Nice narrative, nice empire.

However, it looks like the Res Publica did no defeat Antiochos III Megas, or stop Antiochos IV Epiphanes with a circle.

Good luck with the Mithridatic wars and the enourmous monster that lies behind it!

~Fluvius

[Unintended BM]

Fluvius, I took all of Italy and Sicily by 254, but I didn't take as much of Gaul as you did. Here's a bunch of pictures:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

First one is when I destroyed the Romans, and after that, it's just a bunch of areas around my empire. The Sweboz attacked me right after I finished all of my Time of Soldiers MICs, so now I'm beating the crap out of them with my overpowered army. I already fought one battle, and having looked over some of their settlements, I don't think it'll be too hard to sweep right through Germania. After that, I'll probably take out Iberia, and I'll save Britain for last.

[plutoboyz]

Here, my Saka. after kicking Pahlava. next would be Seleukia then Babylon.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[The Celtic Viking]

Nice one there, Pluto.

Here's my Arverni campaign in 227 BCE:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

That's my Verrix and his army. For those who don't know their way around the traits, he's a pretty heavy drinker. Despite that, he's been keeping the Sweboz at bay, while my other armies deal with the Romans, Aedui and Getai. That big, eastern part came up at first because I accepted (as usual) the Epeirote offer and took Vindobona and Ak-Ink. After that, the Getai became such a problem that I eventually had to go after them, and now they've been pushed to the shores of the Black Sea. It was very close that they managed to grind my eastern campaign to a disaster, though; because of an ever present lack of manpower, reinforcements were hard to come by, seeing as I wasn't rich enough to safely negotiate a four front war. There came a point where I had to fight two armies that would've been impossible for me against anything but the AI, and I managed to get a Phyrric victory. If they had had another army there at that time, my army would've been lost, and I would've likely have lost most of my eastern holdings. However, I was given breathing room and could thus take Buridava (even if that was a close victory when they tried to relieve it). My army there is based on mostly locals and mercenaries now.

This, of course, doesn't mean that my eastern lands are safe. Patavium is under constant siege from mostly the Romani but at times also the Aedui. The garrison there are the remnants of my once so glorious royal army that started the eastern affair that is now reduced to practical insignificance, augmented by local levies and a few Illyrian reinforcements. The amount of Samnites in the Roman army is extreme.

In Gaul I've pretty much just kicked out the Aedui and "liberated" the Belgae settlements from Sweboz rule. The Aedui are not quite out of the game yet, though, which tends to happen IME when they lose all but one settlement. Somehow they've managed to scrape up enough dough to afford a lot of units of Gaesatae. In fact, my south-western army got obliterated at the very same turn that the picture was taken, after having successfully ambushed an Aedui magistrate and a unit of said naked quality. After that it, unfortunately, found itself without movement points, and against a numerically superior army with several more of those fabulous men, which ultimately after a long and bloody fight ended in a heroic death and the disintegration of the remainder of that army.

A new army is being raised, though, and I'm hoping that it will finally be able to kick the Aedui out of the game, so that it can link up with the Patavium garrison and secure the Roman front once and for all.

[plutoboyz]

Its actually not really nice. I might be good at conquest but my empire is horrible. so vulnerable, poorly garrisoned and unrest. the money as you see there, its not from city income. looting is my only hope.

[Unintended BM]

Nice Arverni game. What year do you get the Eperios mission? On my Aedui game, I'm around the same year as you and I haven't gotten anything.

[The Celtic Viking]

Are you sure you didn't just miss it/forget about it? You should get it pretty early on, through the advisor.

Its actually not really nice. I might be good at conquest but my empire is horrible. so vulnerable, poorly garrisoned and unrest. the money as you see there, its not from city income. looting is my only hope.

Sure, but that's pretty much what you can expect when playing as a nomad, isn't it? It's kind of the price you pay to completely own the battlefield.

[Unintended BM]

I never got it. Must've missed it. Doesn't matter, I'll take on the Getai soon enough anyway.

[Mulceber]

A few years later, Africanus followed his great rival to the afterlife, and both left their armies in the care of their lieutenants, Sp. Octauius and Mn. Iulius Caesar respectively. The Roman people, in varying degrees, mourned the death of a great patriot.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

These deaths in the field presented their own problems, however. Caesar, a respected Optimas, had already served as Praetor and thus was eligible to hold Imperium over Rome's armies, but although Octauius was Caesar's equal in both age and skill, he had yet to rise above the rank of military tribune. He had great influence, both with the men and other officers, however, and so the prospect of any other man succeeding Africanus as Dux was swiftly cast aside and the men universally recognized him as their leader. The Senate might not like it, but they were back in Rome and the only one in position to do anything about it was Mn. Caesar, who had no desire to create tension with his new colleague. Thus the war progressed and many Pontic generals were killed. Mn. Caesar even earned the Spolia Opima for personally slaying an enemy commander near Ankyra.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

But while Caesar and Octauius continued to press the enemy, the excursion has taken them further and further into Asia and resupplying has become a great difficulty for the commanders. The war with Pontus has stretched them to the limit, as the Pontic King forces them to subdue and re-subdue all of Asia. This is not the only conflict brewing for the Res Publica however: Tb. Aemilius Paullus, the Proconsul of Africa Vetus has marched east into Egypt, intending to "support" the ruling Ptolemaic dynasty against the Seleukids. After besieging Kyrene for many months, Paraitonion and Alexandreia fell in rather short order, and now the Proconsul and his legions have fallen upon Memphis.

While these two conflicts are large, the Empire is otherwise experiencing a period of relative harmony. Gauls, as usual, frequently stage raids into Gallia Transalpina, but Rome herself suffers no civil strife, although tensions between the populares and the optimates still brew below the surface.

[Unintended BM]

Cool Roman game. That's an odd place for Hayasdan on the map.

[Mulceber]

Yeah, I'm hoping to restore their ancestral lands to them later and set them up as a border region to protect eastern Asia Minor from Seleukid attacks. -M

[Andy1984]

Its actually not really nice. I might be good at conquest but my empire is horrible. so vulnerable, poorly garrisoned and unrest. the money as you see there, its not from city income. looting is my only hope.

I know the feeling. In my current Saka game, I'm dying around 230BC as I have only six settlements but Bactria, Pahlava and a giant AS are constantly wearing me down. I may even have to loot and plunder migrate my way through AS-territory in order to survive! At least your empire seems to be more or less save. I have at the moment two settlements (out of six) that aren't dangerously threatened and could fall within two or three turns. None of these two have the infrastructure yet to train Saka horse or foot archers. My economy is far more broke than yours. I make 2000 mnai/turn without building anything and I've already destroyed all Greek buildings in my 'kingdom' as well as in those regions that I once owned.

On the other hand, it's one of the most bitter strifes I've ever been pulled down in.

More complete description of the situation in said campaign, look here.

[Arthur, king of the Britons]

An update to my Makedonian empire:

The extent of the ΑΡΧΗ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΚΗ as of 147 BC:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Following the return of the Basileus to the capital the people were ecstatic, for they have waited many years for their hero to return from his bold campaigning in the west. He just like his father had the "man of the people" aura about him and the Charisma needed to influence people around him. By the historians of the Arche he is regarded as the greatest military leader Makedonia have ever had, possibly to be rivalled by his son.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

After the shameless attack on the Arche's Egyptian holdings by the Noubaoi king, it befell the Royal heir ΟΛΥΜΠΙΑΔΗΣ to deal with the problem.
After defeating them in battle he set up a number of client kings in the area who hopefully were to be more loyal.
Currently he is studying in Alexandreai and readying his army for another campaign, this time into Persia and beyond.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

In the East the Parthian Persian Empire are sending their armies against the border. The reason to this is that both East-Hellenic kingdoms are given financial support from the Arche Makedonia which of course is not something the King of Kings Baghâbigh find very amusing..

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

For the Hellenes in the East things were not going too well. With collapse threatening both Hellenic kingdoms due to the conquests of nearly all their lands by the Persians the situation is looking dire indeed.

The Persian empire is the only nation at this time who can rival the might of the Makedonian Arche and is a serious threat to our plan.

Comments are appreciated.

[Mulceber]

Impressive job taking the map, and some very nice narrative. -M

[Arthur, king of the Britons]

Impressive job taking the map, and some very nice narrative. -M

Thanks!

[[cF]HanBaal]

hey all

started an Hai campaign a week ago and while the geographical position can be very entertaining and difficult since they are surrounded by a lot of factions and diplomacy plays a big part (now even Epeiros, KH and Makedonia joined the party in western asia minor) their factional units are boring! Their initial units can be quite fun with the low level Caucasian spearmen and archers having nice stats (combat bonus in hoods for the spearmen and +6 attack for the archers' missiles, a slight advantage over their counterparts). But their mid-high units come to me as FEW and USELESS! They only have the armeniam spearmen/medium infantry (bit expensive and not worthy statswise imo), the horse archers (worse than other factions) and the armoured horse archers and cataphracts (weaker and more expensive than their counterparts). The armoured horse archers were the biggest frustation! Initially i thought they were their 'factional special unit' only to find later in exp_descr_units they loose in every respect to their counterparts:

-recruitment cost (~4180 vs ~3900 for the parthians)
-upkeep (~1040 vs ~900 for the parthians)
-missile attack (5 vs 6)
-missile range (187 vs 190.4)

The economic disadvantages hurts even more in a 'poor' faction to begin with. It evens makes me less enthusiastic to build the final tier and try their noble infantry (their stats are only ok and they are few) and cataphracts (again weaker and more expensive).

So basically i decided to keep building my armies with Hellenic native phalanxes (large, strong and cheap unit with axes to help); mardian archers (decent); scythian riders (another cool unit with composite bows and a nice charging spear - again better than the armenian ones) and the FMs as heavy cavalry with a couple armoured horse archers just to appease my frustation of all that buildup waiting/investing (being the ONLY native units!).

Maybe a cheap and effective axe/hillmen unique to them would be nice to complement their unit roster since they come from a mountain area? Or there wasn't one historically?
Somehow i feel this faction is lacking something which is bad since they have one of the most if not the most interesting starting position.

here's a pic of my current campaign:


was playing really slow and trying to use diplomacy to its best but even this is frustating in the AI. My long lasting allies Pontos were hammered in the west by KH, Mak and Epeiros, in the south by AS and when they only had one city Sinope.....they decide to attack me. Dumb AI... or maybe not since i had just taken Amaseia from AS and Amaseia was their initial capital. I dunno seems stupid anyway to attack your only ally left. So i'm moving in west next and declare war on the weaker Makedons, then KH and continue to fight AS for Asia Minor and Babylonia. But to be honest i'm more inclined to abandon this campaign due to the boring unit roster and start one with Pontos which have an also great starting position and a much more interesting unit roster.

cumps

[Arthur, king of the Britons]

Nice empire HaanBaal! About the units, I believe triggering the Persian empire reform will get you some more/better troops.