Is it a Tribe? Is it a Monarchy? Is it a Republic? Probably.

[Lofman]

Is it a Tribe? Is it a Monarchy? Is it a Republic? Probably.
Eh. What kind of answer is that?

This a new AAR. Surprised? Didn't think so, the fact this is the AAR forum kinda gave it away. I intend this to be a somewhat interactive AAR. That is I will not only take suggestions on strategy into consideration, I will actually try to follow them. If it ends in ruin for us, then so be it. But the first decision is which country to be played. It will be with version 1.5 of my mod and we will start in 474. As I doubt everyone have memorized all possible countries, here they are:



So any of them goes, when we have decided I will start the game and prepare the initial information before we set up the nation (what ideas we should go with at start, which initially available laws we should enact, goals (long and short term), etc.). Each update after that should cover roughly 10 years, less if something interesting that we need to decide how to act on happens.

How is what we are going to do decided? Well what most people want as posted in this thread, however if there is a close call between two different options then whichever side had the best arguments will get their will done (if both options seem possible to do at the same time, then there may be an attempt to do so).

But the first decision is as already said which country should be the lucky one?

[yourworstnightm]

Scythia

[Hannibal X]

Qart Hadasht FTW!

[Patukov]

Dacia

[Warlord11030]

make it difficult, decide a tribe.

choosing a monarchy will make it VERY fun.

I have been playing Arverni for example and taken the entire top side of the map from italy and higher, specifically Luciana. with your mod of course, which is great.



lead your royal family to domination over europe. it is a lot of fun to build up a family from nothing to having your entire empire governed by the same last name.

[CJL78]

Theveste
Rhodes
If a tribe: Veneti

[L Lawliet]

SPQRhodes.
If you don't want something that tough, go for Epirus or Suebi.

[Enewald]

Lugii!
Aka Luigi!

[Lofman]

Currently looks like it might be Rhodes but is not by any large majority, I think that we leave it to the currently given suggestions and decide with one of them.

The Monarchies in question are Scythia with it's cavalry and Epirus which we all now begins ruled by Pyrrhus and in war with Rome.

When it comes to the Republics we have mighty Carthage, ruler of the seas, Theveste trapped between the Massyli and Carthage and Rhodes with its Colossus.

Of Tribes we have the Veneti in northwestern Gaul, mighty Dacia north of Hellas and last but not the least the Suebi and the Lugii in the deep forests.

[Warlord11030]

Currently looks like it might be Rhodes but is not by any large majority, I think that we leave it to the currently given suggestions and decide with one of them.

The Monarchies in question are Scythia with it's cavalry and Epirus which we all now begins ruled by Pyrrhus and in war with Rome.

When it comes to the Republics we have mighty Carthage, ruler of the seas, Theveste trapped between the Massyli and Carthage and Rhodes with its Colossus.

Of Tribes we have the Veneti in northwestern Gaul, mighty Dacia north of Hellas and last but not the least the Suebi and the Lugii in the deep forests.

Epirus.

it'll lead to a great game.

[Qorten]

Rhodes,

Lusitani

or Scythia

[Rebaltion]

Epirus.

it'll lead to a great game.

This, because it's true. (I vote for Eprius, if that wasn't clear)

[Emperor Walter]

Epirus.As others have said it is a great game.

[Treybor]

You should do Lugii or Rhodes

Also Bosporan Kingdom is always fun...

[Cleomenes]

Epirus or Lugii

[Lofman]

Well here it is, as decided it will be:

Epirus

So what do we have, well first we have three provinces, Epirus as well as the cities of Megale Hellas. Threatened by the Romans the Tarentines invited our great king to come to their aid, but more about that later. We produce grain and wood, the wood comes from Croton and other cities at the toe, which actually can have two trade routes. So for trade, should we do some internal trade, or try to have all provinces conduct external trade which is much more profitable, and if so, what trade goods should we attempt to get our hands on first?

Here we see that we are a Federal Monarchy, and that by having one economic, one civic and one religious idea we can get +25% in tribute income. However we might wish to have a military idea (there are five available, but I feel Professional Soldiers is the most appropriate choice of them. The others are Horse Lords (better cavalry), Martial Ethos (better morale), Naval Ethos (as Martial but for our navy) and Tribal Recruitment (better reinforcement speed)).

Economic ideas available are Organized Recruitment and Naval Blockades. Civic ideas are Civic Duty (our cities will withstand sieges better), Citizenship, Diplomacy and Duplicity. As for Religious there is Deification (more popular ruler) and National Faith (more powerful omens).

My suggestion is Professional Soldiers, Civic Duty and Deification, which will not give us the 25% increase in tribute income.

Our government and available laws, don't mind the lack of a Prytanis, appearantly we don't have anyone old enough (that was not assigned to some other job) yet, but when we do one will be assigned. My suggestion is simple, Use Pike Phalanx and Discourage Piracy. The first for the fact we should probably already have it, the other since enacting it gives a nice +1 in stability. There is still the matter of which Citizenship law (they are mutually exclusive; service improves our army while sale improves income, both have a minor effect on how many freemen becomes citizens, more with sale less with service) and wether or not we should go with this Omen Law (increases power, reduces chance) or wait until we fail one omen and take the other one (increases chance, reduces power).

This is Italy. We are as you are all aware of at war with Rome. And their Etruscan and Massilian allies. Pyrrhus stands with a 16,000 men strong army of heavy infantry, archers, cavalry and elephants near Taras. Back home 11,000 militia (some are archers) wait for whatever we decide to use them for. Our navy of 150 triremes (well actually 15 in game, but that number do sounds too small considering it can transport 15,000 men across the sea) under the command of Hieron is at the moment in Epirus.

Rome have an army of roughly 17,000 in Rome, both heavy infantry and archers, if I recall correctly but no navy. They have the capability to raise more armies. Their allies are of little concern as they lack heavy infantry.

The Lucanians and Samnites may pay tribute to Rome, but while they are unlikely to do anything despite how grand our victories may be, military access could theoretically be negotiated (remember Rome already have that ability as they receive tribute from them) or we could just "liberate" them from Roman oppression.

Sicily is nearby, and Syracuse may be threatened by Carthage. We could either try to get an alliance with Syracuse or just guarantee them to make sure Sicily does not fall to the Carthaginians.

So any ideas for goals of our initial war? Any brilliant strategies we should try? Also how should we respond to alliance offers from the Leagues and other powers in Hellas?

[Enewald]

Ally with your neighbours in Greece and conquer those OPM's in the west.
Quickly.

[Hannibal X]

Ally with your neighbours in Greece and conquer those OPM's in the west.
Quickly.

That, and ally Carthage. Rome will continue attemtping to gain Southern Italy and eventually Greece. Let Syracuse fall, because allying Carthage will gain you a powerful navy to help stave off Roman belligerence.

That and Carthage is awesome.

[Warlord11030]

Ally with your neighbours in Greece and conquer those OPM's in the west.
Quickly.

no..

why would you want to give the other empires in greece more power? since you will be annexing them all. it is much better to keep macedonia as weak as possible. so you can take them and pontus on in the future.



you can handle rome alone, I suggest pushing your military to about 20k then splitting it into two armies. have your strongest general siege campania, and the other defend the samnites. you can push their armies away while sieging campania then once the siege is completed they can join forces. after that try not to get into any fights, scare their army away by moving back and forth and sieging slowly.

after this try to get at least two areas from them. and work an annexing the lucanians so your land is connected.

you should have probably saved the +1 stability law for later.



another good suggestion.. gain military access to illyra. look over how large their army is and see if you can take them on with your other military. that would be an easy three regions.

personally I would have tried to ignore rome for a bit, in your mod I have never seen them amount to much over time. so it might have been a safer bet of taking greece first.

[Emperor Walter]

Ally with the OPM's in Greece, conquer one or 2 provinces in Rome, then attack Macedonia.