For Rome's Honor

[comagoosie]

Winner of Q3 Favorite Rome AAR
Winner of Q3 Favorite Narrative Rome AAR
Winner of Q4 Favorite Rome AAR
Winner of Q4 Favorite Narrative Rome AAR
Winner of the "WritAAR of the Week Award" 6/23/08
Winner of the "Character Writer of the Week Award" 9/06/08
Winner of the "WritAAR of the Week Award" 4/17/09
2nd Place in Favorite Overall and Favorite Narrative in ACA 2Q

Dealt: A Polish colonel deals his last hand.
The world is engulfed in flames. The Roman lands have been split in two. Civil war has destroyed common sense. It is survival of the fittest, with no exceptions. Women, children, and the elderly are competition for the ambitious, the wealthy, and the corrupt. It is a power struggle that all take part in. Wars are fought over old grudges and neighbor accuse neighbor. Mothers aren’t mothers and fathers fight in distant wars. Abandon children roam the streets looking for anything to eat. Friends backstab friends while enemies look at enemies with disgust. Democracy is a fallacy; the powerful rule the outspoken poor. It is a desperate world, looking to dig itself out of a hole. One man will do so. One man will show the world how it should be. One man will change the course of history.

This man is Gaius Julius Caesar. Commander of the Northern Legions. Stationed at the brink of civilization between sanity and insanity. The only thing standing in the way of hordes of Gallic barbarians. It is he who will take destiny into his own hands. It is he who will bring judgment back into world. It is he who will establish right from wrong.

With a newly received message from Rome, Julius is about to set out pacifying Gaul’s countryside. Alone.

The Table of Contents

696 years since the founding of Rome:

June 21, 696
June 22, 696
August 5, 696
August 6, 696 - battle
August 9, 696
August 10, 696

697 years since the founding of Rome:

January 8, 697
January 9, 697
April 8, 697
April 30, 697
May 26, 697
June 6, 697
June 16, 697 - horde turns good
June 19, 697 - dinner
June 19, 697 - dinner continued
June 26, 697
July 21, 697
August 16, 697
August 23, 697
August 23, 697 - battle
August 23, 697 - battle continued
August 24, 697
August 24, 697
August 30, 697
September 1, 697 - Titus Arrives
September 1, 697 - Letters of Rome
September 15, 697 -Three brothers fight
September 20, 697 - Status of Publius
October 1, 697 - River and death
October 10, 697 - Pompey arrives
October 10,697 - Juluis rejects triumph
October 12, 697 - Celebration of rejection
October 18, 697 - Reason. Board Game
October 20, 697 - Foraging. Scout trouble.
October 20, 697 - Publius Consdius dies
November 1, 697 - River bridge Built.
November 3, 697 - Night bridge ambush.
November 7, 697 - Caesar starts commentaries.
November 16, 697 - Winter. Nervii found.
November 21, 697 - Divide and Conquer
November 23, 697 - Julius heads north.
December 1, 697 - Aedui declares war.
December 2, 697 - Julius loses battle.
December 20, 697 - Julius retreats to Mark.

698 years since the founding of Rome:

January 18, 698 - Julius meets Mark.
January 19, 698 - Mark's battle report.
March 23, 698 - Julius commits suicide.

Character List

[comagoosie]

Author’s note:

Hello and welcome to For Rome’s Honor. This will be a narrative AAR in third person about Julius Caesar during the Gallic Wars. I will try singlehandedly to bring Gaul under Rome’s control using a legion made up of 7,000 heavy infantry and 7,000 archers. I have played a few months forward so I have a clue what will happen, but other than that, everything is unpredicted. This is will make things interesting, though if something unhistorical happens, for example, Julius joins a civil war, I will…I don’t know, but I will go from there.

This AAR will have some historical truth, but don’t expect perfection. This is a story about the game, not history

In addition, I am playing patch 1.1

I hope you enjoy it!

[Will Lucky]

Looking forward to it, we want Hibernia (Ireland) conquered within 2 decades or else .

[hjarg]

Looks promising
With 7000 archers and 7000 heavy inf, you probably will get only Veni Vidi Gotmyasskicktimus.

[Wdll]

Looks promising
With 7000 archers and 7000 heavy inf, you probably will get only Veni Vidi Gotmyasskicktimus.

Hilarious

[comagoosie]

Will Lucky: I forgot to mention that this AAR will stop once I have completed my goals or Julius dies.

hjarg: We will see. Maybe Julius's cunning will save his men.

Wdll: Remeber that we want this AAR to succeed.

[canonized]

Ahh , good luck on your Roman , AAR , you silly goose XD

[stnylan]

Will look forward to it.

[Lord E]

Sounds like a great idea and a fine story. Looking forward to more.

[comagoosie]

canonized: Thanks, I will try

stnylan: First update should be in a few minutes

Lord E: I am crossing my fingers that this works out right.

I am very sorry for being so late, I had a hectic weekend and a very busy one, but thankfully I was able to squeeze a few words out so that all may have a taste.

[comagoosie]

June 21, 696

It was deep into night with the moon clouded over and so too the stars. Shadows had long invaded the camp and subjugated the light. Torches strained to keep the darkness at bay, but it was a fruitless battle resulting in shadows that couldn’t keep still. The battle was strikingly similar to the one Julius was fighting currently.

In front of him laid a map of the latest Roman intelligence. It contained the nations of Gaul, where they were located, and their estimated amount of able-bodied warriors in their army. Not to mention it had the location of where they were now and the few established supply lines. There was writing on the map showing current diplomatic relations between Rome and the tribes and written also was order from the senate that Gaul must be conquered.

“Julius may I talk with you,” came a voice. Julius looked up and rubbed his eyes, it was too dim to be looking at maps. A figure emerged out of the shadows. It happened to be his friend and fellow warrior, Publius Vatinius.

“Sure my friend, anything for you,” Julius responded, glad to have the security that there was someone with him.

“Since you and me arrived mere days ago to conduct the senate’s will, I have done an extensive inspection of the legions here and I do not bring news fit for your ears.”

Julius answered annoyed, “you know that I want to and need to be familiar with every nook and cranny of these legions. I am, after all, going to be leading them to their deaths.” Julius looked squarely in the eyes of Publius; Julius never allowed anyone to be superior to him, friends and enemies alike.

“These legions that you see here, they are green. Green as the grass of the consul’s lawns and as disloyal too. They are hardly fit to be in the army, let alone fight an enemy. If I was you, I would whip the hide off of every one of them. Worse more, is that they are loyal to the senate, not you. It seems they don’t even care that you are their general! Julius, these legions bode bad luck on you and me. Do you honestly think we should continue as ordered? Why not return to Rome and live alive?” Publius gestured widely with his arms, it was a well thought out proposition, but Julius countered.

“Yes we should continue as planned, and for good reasons. Firstly, when historians look back on what has been achieved throughout history, do you want them to skip out on us, just because we were too afraid to that we were going to die? Secondly, the immense amount of wealth and power brought to us by sacking those barbaric cities will make our retirement a comfortable one. Thirdly, with us being prestigious enough to have the legions that we command now switch their loyalties to us, who know what we can achieve.” The eyes of Julius sparkled with a flame dancing on them in the thought of the future.

Publius wore a frown on his face, thinking. After a few decisive seconds he agreed, “I’ll do it, but what you said must be true.”

Thinking he should get some rest, Publius started back towards his tent only to be interrupted by Julius. “Can you come back here and see what you can do about this small problem. You see, this is a map of the area with the tribes. Now I am wondering if we should take them down tribe by tribe or take them down all at the same time, saving us precious years.”

“Heh, it is quite simple.” Julius cocked an eyebrow at the remark. “Take them down one by one. You only have 14,000 men, why strain yourself against every barbarian when you can deal with one and go on to the next. Not only will this be safer and surer this might even be quicker.”

“Oh, really, and how will it be quicker?” Julius was intrigued and was paying close attention; his friend always had sound advice to give.

Publius promptly answered, “If we were to be at war with all of them, then we would face all their armies,” emphasizing all. “Not only would we have to conduct numerous battles, which would waste days and even weeks, but we would, in addition, have to find new recruits to fill the ranks, which would deplete any experience that this green legion earned.” He stood there smiling at the brilliant plan he came up with by himself.

Julius chuckled, “Good thing I promoted you to Primus Pilus, or else I would fear you would mutiny.” There was a halfhearted laugh from his friend. Julius dismissed him so he could be alone with his thoughts and the dancing shadows.

There were numerous things that could go wrong, Julius mused. With only four legions* against all of Gaul, the odds were not phenomenal that they were going to come out of this without a scratch. Additionally, the legions didn’t have any experience and they weren’t loyal to him, which could mess up his future plans. All that kept him from despairing was the thought of all the grand schemes he had mapped out in his head that would be the result of a successful campaign.

There was no way that he was going to stay up any longer looking at a piece of paper. In resolution, he unsheathed his pugio and imbedded it into the heart of Helvetii. The small knife cleanly cut through the map and into the wooden table. He stood up and muttered darkly, “Helvetii has seen its last days.”


* Historically, Julius had four legions with 3,500 men each, so luckily this is the exact number of the AAR. Maybe this is an omen, maybe it isn’t.

[stnylan]

Interesting.

I have only one real comment at the moment and that is that Julius seems to be very casual.

[StephenT]

And my comment is why is his friend calling him 'Julius'? That's only the name of the clan he belongs to, the Julii. Surely a close friend would call him 'Gaius', a less-close friend either 'Caesar' or, perhaps, make up a nickname based on his lack of hair or his reputed sexual habits.

Still, it's interesting so far. Good luck!

[canonized]

Haha an omen indeed it seems XD .

[Alfred Packer]

And my comment is why is his friend calling him 'Julius'? That's only the name of the clan he belongs to, the Julii. Surely a close friend would call him 'Gaius', a less-close friend either 'Caesar' or, perhaps, make up a nickname based on his lack of hair or his reputed sexual habits.

Still, it's interesting so far. Good luck!

Maybe it is a nick-name based on Gaius' known love of that orange gold known as Orange Julius?

This is a good start...I'm subscribed!

[comagoosie]

stnylan: Maybe he knows to be casual, for being casual can open many doors. And not real comments are welcomed too

StephenT: Julius is his commander. Would you call your commander a different names when others are around, despite the fact it is the dead of night. Anyone could be overhearing...

Honestly, I didn't think of that before, so thanks for bringing it to my attention.

canonized: Good someone caught that.

Alfred Packer: Good to have you along.

[coz1]

Nice work so far, comagoosie. Divide and conquer is indeed the plan of the day. Good luck tackling Gaul.

[Dhimmi]

interesting start

[Lord E]

Very nice update so far. Seems like the situation is Gaul is a little difficult, but there are several great opportunities ahead for conquests and that is also nice. Also I wonder if we are to get see anymore famous historical names? Mark Anthony maybe…

[hjarg]

Well, if you manage to pick them up one by one, you might even have a chance. G'luck and great writing thus far