A Puny AAR

loki100 said:

that round of war with Rome was almost an anti-climax. Presume that means they are on their way down and its a case of having a snack off them at 5 year intervals? Or could they manage to rebuild an army that could hurt you? Otherwise you're set well to be the master of the Western Med

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They could always rebuild their armies certainly. And for the next war they maybe even keep some sort of army in Italy.

Scipio Aemilius said:

The Lusitani seem to be a bigger threat than the Romans now...

Any plans for the Eastern Med already?

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Not any real plans. The Lusitani may be relatively big, and at the moment in a better shape then Rome, but Rome is much more advanced and have better provinces. Still I do expect the Lusitani to be able to put up a good fight if I do get involved in a war against them.

Malurous said:

Quite a triumph, Rome seems to be pretty much out now.

The situation east of you is definitely interesting, what with a tiny sliver of the Seleucids at your doorstep and those Macedonian holdings.

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Rome is not out yet. They still have some good provinces. Provided they actually rebuild they can still become a problem.

morningSIDEr said:

Impressive how easily you dealt with Rome, I guess you caught them at the right time due to them warring with Dardanians. Very nicely done, your position has been strengthened considerably. Although the continued expansion of the Seleucids could prove cause for concern in the future.

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Yeah, I certainly caught them at the right time with no armies in Italy.

Stuckenschmidt said:

Aye.

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I still think Rome to be a greater threat then the Lusitani. Though both can still cause problems.

Alfredian said:

The Seleucids seem to be setting themselves up as the big 'end of level' villain again. I am looking forward to some elephant rich posts once that conflict starts.

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Provided they don't decide to spontaneously collapse, then they will certainly cause problems.

Narwhal said:

Could not read everything yet, but subscribed !

I like your mod. Looks fun. Hope it makes the game a challenge.

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Glad you like it.

Tommy4ever said:

Great AAR!

With the Romans in terminal decline you are pretty secure as masters of the Western Med. Where shall you go from here?

Try to conquer Iberia, Gaul and Italy? Or mabye go for supremacy in the Eastern Med as well. You are afterall a seapower at heart.

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Italy is one goal. And at least the Gallic provinces at the coast, but probably not much more inland. If the situation allows expansion to the east will be attempted.

A few years pass before it is time to attack the Ilergetes. Their allies, the Carpetani and the Insubres, decide to intervene. The Carpetani are the first to be removed from the war, they pay tribute as their main province is occupied after a brief siege. During this time the Insubres decided to send their army to Hispania. It is large but not especially well-led (the small Ilergetan army on the other hand is). The situation never becomes too bad, and the Ilergetes are annexed. An army sent to invade Liguria is sadly reduced in size by constant Insubrian attack and is eventually destroyed, should have retreated with it.

While the war nears its end, events in the east lead to another war. Everyone it seems goes to war against the Seleucids, first there is a war between the Seleucids and Macedonia, later Pontus declares war. Egypt is also eager to fight the Seleucids and the same goes for our Garamantian allies, so we also end up in a war against them. This is more important then trying to conquer Liguria, so eventually the war against the Insubres is ended (2 years into the Seleucid war, wanted white peace, they didn't so ended up paying 10 gold). We don't really do much, the Seleucids are far away and their nearby provinces in Cyrenaica are already occupied.

One thing we actually do is sending gifts to some of the other countries at war against king Lydiadas of the Seleucids. So kings Alcyoneus of Macedonia, Timoleon of Egypt, Sames of Armenia, Ariobarzanes of Parthia and queen Thessaloniki of Pontus all receive a big pile of gold each to help them in the war. Armenia quickly uses it to pay off the Seleucids, not surprising since their capital was occupied. We do fight some naval battles, and the main Seleucid fleet, led by the quite competent Archelaus Seleucid, is defeated though not without heavy losses. In the middle of 598 AUC things where not looking to great for the Seleucids, the only positive for them was the fact that they did occupy most of Greece and Macedonia.

The next to sign peace was Egypt, taking back a few provinces. Later the Macedonians agree to pay tribute but at least the Seleucids did not gain any provinces. I did try to ask the Macedonians for military access so that I could send an army and maybe even help them against the Seleucids in Greece but they refused.

In the east the Seleucids lose one of their capitals to rebels and one Helladius proclaims himself king in Seleucia having control over most of Babylonia.

Still the Seleucids are powerful, Parthia and Pontus may currently be winning but it is possible that the Seleucids can turn the tide now that Egypt and Macedonia is out of the picture. Rome has spent this decade still at war with Dardania and Scythia. Anyway here is the world in the year 600 AUC.

loki100 said:

does seem as the not so lucid Seleucids got that rather wrong ... useful to see them taken down a notch for later (& have lost some of their heartlands). And rather a change in tone from your earlier focus on the Western Med.

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Yeah, it is always nice to see the big guy go down a bit. Too bad they are likely to get back up fairly quickly.

morningSIDEr said:

As loki says, it is promising that the Seleucids seem to now be struggling quite considerably. Just annoying that Macedonia did not give you military access as being able to give the Seleucids a further bloody nose there would have been useful. With Rome still busy at war do you see yourself attacking them once again any time soon?

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Will probably go after Rome again soon. Depends on what happens though.

Malurous said:

So the Seleucids have been taken down a notch and Rome seems to be still wasting its time, which is of course good since otherwise your other wars could have given them time to recover. Lusitani appears to be the only nation of interest that did itself any favors during that time period.

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Just too bad that the Seleucids are still doing fairly well (partly because of that Archelaus fellow, he has 9 martial giving them an edge, on land now that their fleet is gone).

TonyJoe said:

Great game so far, you're doing really well. Can't wait until Rome is yours.

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Hopefully there will not be too many eastern diversions until Rome is gone.

While not doing anything is possible, I decide to do something. An invasion of the Achaean League is what I decide to do. My army successfully lands in Messenia, and while I defeat the Achaeans first attempt to dislodge my army, they are lucky enough to cause more casualties then I anticipated and I decide to return home. I do sign peace with them and all other Seleucid allies.

King Helladius of Mesopotamia does not do well, Babylon is lost to the Nabateans and later the Seleucids completely crush him, he did last about four years though. The Seleucids soon sign peace with Pontus, paying a small sum, meaning they are only at war with the Parthians me and my Garamantian allies. A short rebellion in Damascus leads to one Azimilik declaring himself king, but he is crushed after a few months. Later the Garamantes sign a white peace with the Seleucids and due to not really having fought anything in a long while and the only reason for the war still going on was the Garamantian occupation of Corniclanum and Barca, a white peace is automatically signed. Parthia holds out for some time but in the end is forced to cede their southernmost province.

So years of actual peace follows, some internal politics such as populists getting too strong for my liking, ending up with two charismatic populists exiled to Theveste and some attempts to increase my freemen by switching one national idea to emancipation despite not having civics in charge at the moment (but as it is the religious guys and I have a lot of money, regaining stability is not hard). Rome is also in peace and seems to have fully recovered, having a big (40k) army on the border.

In the east there is some less then thrilling events, the Macedonians and the Egyptians go to war with each other, which is made worse by the Macedonians still paying tribute to the Seleucids and decide to even join them in an alliance. So after around four years of indecisive war the Seleucids are brought in, quickly resulting in a white peace between Macedonia and Egypt and a few months later with Egypt ceding Judea to the Seleucids. This Seleucid-Macedonian alliance is problematic, especially as they are the two wealthiest countries after Carthage.


And here is the world in 610 AUC.

loki100 said:

that is a rather worrying pan-Hellenistic block that has appeared. Trying to be positive, it must be another limit on Rome's ability to recover and expand in any direction?

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That would be one way to look at it certainly.

morningSIDEr said:

The Seleucid's do still seem a considerable threat, especially with Macedonia funding them, hopefully they'll weaken a good deal soon. Anyway with some luck, soon on to Rome!

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Certainly.

Alfredian said:

Is it time to make friends with Illyria and Pontus? This would set Carthage-Pontus-Illyria against the Seleucid-Antogonids.

I can't imagine two powerful blocks like this getting into trouble (unless someone's heir got assasinated on a visit to a Balkan province)

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Well, I already have too many allies to have a chance of getting more of them. Though the best way of dealing with the Seleucids at this time would be to go after their other allies like the Siraces, as there are no longer that cascading alliances stuff, that would allow one to fight the Seleucids without necessarily involving Macedonia (though it doesn't work the other way as the only ally Macedonia have is the Seleucids).

Wave said:

Is this conquest still alive? It seems that AARland has gone into hibernation once again after January..

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Well, it have taken some time since the last update but a new one is coming very soon.

The next five years is spent at peace. Fortifications are strengthened for important cities, and our army is prepared for an upcoming war. Against Rome as they are probably the best target, the Seleucids and Macedonians are too strong (as we would end up in war against both of them), Egypt is too distant, and the barbarians have few provinces worth taking. Some care is taken to increase our number of freemen and consequently our relatively low manpower. Of course a populist Suffet decides to switch the emancipation idea with the citizenship idea. Works too, it does greatly increase our chances to get some cultural conversions, and one of those in the right province would certainly boost our manpower.

Well to war we eventually go. We have naval dominance (more then twice as many ships as the Romans, though some are kept in port far to the west, and the Romans do have better tech), and the armies sent to meet each other in Lucania are fairly equal in size, though ours are slightly better led. Sadly we still lose the battle, as well as a follow up fight in Thurii (though luckily our army still survive).

While the Romans lay siege to Thurii, we spend time recovering our losses, luckily our manpower is enough for it, though it certainly would not be enough to deal with too many such battles. When I feel our armies have recovered enough we meet the Romans again near Thurii. This time it is a great victory for Carthage.
We follow the Romans into Lucania and annihilate their army, from there our armies (I had two, one 22k, and one 20k working together) split up with one going to Apulia and other remaining in Lucania. There is some sieging for the next two years, the romans in vain try to raise new armies to stop us (they have the manpower, their economical situation is not that great though) failing mainly because they send in their armies long before they are large enough to actually be a threat. So eventually there is peace and we gain Lucania and Campania.

Well as the decade ends how does look in the world now in the year 620 AUC? Well Egypt is not doing so well, the Macedonians have conquered a few provinces. Egypt has also been forced to pay tribute to the Seleucids, although luckily not losing any provinces to them. The Seleucids are currently in a war against Pontus, it is hard to tell how it is going, hopefully well enough for Pontus to end in a white peace or better.

loki100 said:

nice little nibble out the Romans ... presume its a case of snagging small chunks and gradually wrecking their manpower (sounds like their economy is already gone west?)

the big map is interesting, despite your relative power in the West, you have some potentially huge problems forming up in the East

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Well the main problem for the Romans economically seem to be their fixation on getting lots and lots of cavalry, despite it being quite expensive while having extremely cheap heavy infantry at their disposal (and the only thing cavalry is strictly better at is maneuver (well some other troop types are slightly less effective against cavalry, but only really archers can be expected to be numerous enough to matter of those (the other two being light cav and elephants)) so not really that much useful except on the flanks).

Malurous said:

Good gains, Rome is starting to look oh so small on the world map.

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And they will become even smaller.

morningSIDEr said:

Good progress against Rome, I think it fair to say you can best them with relative ease at any point now. Hopefully the same can be said of Egypt, Macedonia and the like in a few years time.

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Egypt would not really be a problem consider the shape they are in. Macedonia, well they are quite powerful, only the Seleucids are stronger then them.

Wave said:

Macedonia looks quite scary, I doubt that they'll like you any more than anyone else does so you might need to take a few rounds with them before the game ends

Good job with Rome, despite those provinces not adding anything to your manpower pool they'll bring in quite an amount of gold I assume and then you could do historically accurate Carthaginian mercenary warfare

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Money has not been a problem for me for quite some time, so I have much to spend should I ever need masses of mercenaries.

Alfredian said:

Some of those Egyptian occupied islands in the eastern Med look like they might make useful jumping off point. Are Egypt now weak enough to make an island (?Crete?) obtainable?

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Could conquer Crete certainly (they are still independent), but for now I focus on Rome as those islands are quite far away so I would suffer more losses then I would like just getting there.