For Rome's Honor

Enewald: Thank you. Archers is not a bad idea, nor is it original, for the purpose that it does have its usefulness. Think of the mass confusion resulting from arrows, seemingly out of no where imbedding themselves into your friend. The general tries to sense where they are coming from, but while he stops, more and more arrows keep arriving, and more and more friends keep falling. By the time you do see an enemy your numbers are far too few to make anything count. Though I do agree, in this situation, archers behind the lines would have been the best bet.

robou: Elves you say? I dare you to say that with an arrow pretruding from your back

canonized: Thank you, Kinda like saying is Julius brave or very foolish. Only fate will tell. If Julius does die, that would be a very unexpected way to end this AAR. But I can tell you this, he doesn't die.

Lord E: There is always danger in a battle. Your enemy could try a new tactic, such as rushing archers with cavalry. Remember that the desperate take desperate measures. And in this sense you are correct. The barbarians are learning, which in Julius's case, is the worst thing that can be happening. But in amidst of a battle, senses are blurred, Julius hastily charges in hopes of saving Publius, blind to the rest of the world. That is why at the very end when the action dies down, does he realize, truly, his surroundings.

It has been a very busy week. Olympics and consumers energy demanding we clear a path for electricity. Don't worry, I will get back on track. Originally, I meant to have these two updates follow 1 day apart, so you guys can get your action filled, but apparently, it didn't work out.

August 23, 697

Hooves were coming closer, but it sounded as if there were thousands, so it had to be Massiva. With that realization, Julius was about to find the fray but caught himself. An ever so faint voice came from the battlefield. It was Mark yelling an order to the legionaries telling them to assume an aggressive stance and attack every opponent they face, contendite vestra sponte. Why would Mark order such thing now?

No matter what the situation was he couldn’t stand here surrounded by corpses, he must take control of the battle. With that, he set off a run towards where all the noise was. While running, it was heartbreaking to glimpse at what remained of his guard, for all he knew, he could be the only survivor. Julius pushed that thought out of his mind and focused on his breathing. As he neared the sounds of battle grew louder.

Through the trees, Julius was able to depict the commander of his guard, Lucius. Calling out in joy, Julius heralded him. When Lucius recognized who it was, he broke out into a smile. “We thought you were dead. What happened?”

Julius nodded, “I too thought that you were dead, and you tell me what is happening.”

“When you charged, we tried to protect you the best we could, but soon you disappeared and we assumed the worse, so we retreated, drawing the barbarian cavalry into the reserve infantry, who had set up for repelling a cavalry attack. It was a slaughter with none of the barbarian escaping, but we didn’t find any indication of a general. The troops would have their morale greatly boosted if you showed yourself; they too thought you dead when they saw so few of us return.”

It was true. Beside Lucius were only a half dozen of his men. Then Julius commenced his story. He told Lucius of becoming unhorsed, and then fighting the general and how the man escaped, but Julius decided not to tell him of Servilia. After finishing, unexpectantly, a wave of selfishness swept Julius, he had charged the enemy at the expense of too many good men. “Get me a mount,” he uttered weakly. Lucius then galloped to the rear.

It was after that when he just noticed the barbarian infantry coming towards them. Thankfully, Mark and his men were still there guarding the reserve archers, who were firing volley after volley. Still Julius cursed himself for being so ignorant of not becoming aware of them. The barbarian infantry neared and Mark was about to give the order to hurl pila, when suddenly and unanimously they broke and ran towards the hooves. This seemed to confuse all the Romans, it was clearly illogical to charge cavalry.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the first of Massiva’s group. As expected Massiva was the one leading it, on top of his black stallion with the brilliant yellow eyes. The infantry must have seen Massiva so they hurriedly stopped, scrambled, and headed in the other direction. Unfortunately, one of foot cannot outrun someone on a horse. Massiva and his vanguard lowered their lances and charged into the rear of the retreating infantry.


The undisciplined mob held up their only piece of resistance, a small wicker shield. That did nil to stop the charge, which penetrated deep into their formation, and when the infantry realized this, and that Massiva and the vanguard was but a small portion of the charge, they broke and started to flee. A few hearty ones tried to stand their ground but it isn’t easy to stop the momentum of a horse.

Mark must have seen what was going on and he ordered a general charge. Excitingly they broke formation and started running down to join the killing. The resistors saw that they were now going to have to fight off against thousands of cavalrymen and thousands of legionnaires, so most broke, now there was a only a small pocket yet fighting.

The Romans redirected their charge to the last bit of the battle. They raised their shields, preparing to crash into the barbarians and push them against each other creating more chaos.


It was too bad that the barbarians gave up and ran for their lives. The Romans slowed and then came to a stop, there was no point in tiring oneself out just trying to chase down barbarians. Massiva and a few others gave chase, they had not yet gotten enough fighting.

Lucius trotted up to Julius with a spare horse, which he quickly mounted. Surveying the battlefield, it was apparent that the Romans won the day. The infantry started drifting back to camp, and the reserve archers too. There was no clue as to what happened to the forward archers, either they all were killed in the cavalry attack or they had routed back to the camp. Massiva and the rest of his vanguard was giving chase.

Then once again, Julius took off, but this time in the direction of the barbarians fleeing. Lucius and the other five quickly followed. They were too behind to have caught any prisoners, but they did catch up with Massiva, who he and his men had stopped and were standing on the edge of the forest, looking out to the terrain that lay ahead.

Further on were the last of the routers. They were quickly scaling the side of a hill to catch up with their companions. Massiva muttered darkly, “Dead men running.”

Julius joked, “Well at least we are out of this forsaken forest.”

August 24, 697

“I suppose I should thank you for saving my life.” Julius looked awkwardly downwards and shuffled his feat.

Servilia chuckled, “Well, sometimes there is a benefit to receiving training with a bow and arrow from ones father.”

The sounds of celebration drifted towards them. With the battle won, the soldiers were dancing the night sky away. Since the camp was pitched on the plain, there was a host of activities to keep everyone busy including javelin, archery, and there was even a small track etched in the ground so races could be held. There was intended a rematch in wrestling between Massiva and Valerious, but both athletes agreed to focus more on the eating aspect of the night rather than the competiveness. It was true, since the Romans won, they got to loot all of Helvetian supplies, which contained bundles of grain and a horde of valuables.

Then the smell of a roasted wild hog wafted across Julius’s nose. The reminder of the dinner with the senator flooded back into his mind and he must have winced as Servilia gave him a quizzical look.

“Father,” Julius chewed on the word as if it was a piece of tough meat. “Your father may have indirectly saved me, but he will surely be the end of me.”

“Do not shame my father in front of me!”

Julius snorted and lost his cool, “You have done that yourself! And you are the cause of my problems. Why if you hadn’t had ran away, Gaul may have already be under my control.”

Servilia took a step back, “So now everything is my fault? You don’t think that there are other reasons behind my actions? I didn’t have to fire my arrow, you know.”

“You wouldn’t have needed to do anything if you hadn’t have tagged along!”

A few passing soldiers had stopped and started watching the scene. The pair of them received curious glances.

She lifted up here hands defensively, “Excuse me, I am a full grown woman and can take care of myself and do whatever I want.”

“Last time I checked you are in this army and I command this army, so you better expect to obey my orders.”

A crowd began to gather and from it Mark entered the dispute.

“What is going on here? You two are making a raucous that can be heard throughout the entire camp.”

Julius lifted his hands towards Servilia like he was giving her away, “Here take her, I can’t talk to her. She makes no sense and speaks only of contradiction. I don’t care that I owe her my life, she doesn’t deserve it anyways.”

Now Mark was confused and looked at Julius, “You owe your life to her?” Then his perplexed gaze fell upon Servilia, “What did you do to save his life?”

This was met by Servilia grinding her teeth and looking irately at Julius. They locked eyes and neither was looking away. Meanwhile soldiers were making crude jokes at how feisty Servilia was.

She spoke slowly and dangerously, “I have just arrived, how can I be the cause of all your problems? I am not the answer to your equation. Ask yourself this, am I the root of all your branching problems, or do you want me to be.”

Mark frantically searched for an answer between the both of them, but nothing was revealed. There was nothing more said as the tension mounted. It would be only mere moments before the area would explode.

Horse hooves came into the argument. It broke the stare-down but did little to alleviate the situation. Lucius rode towards them and was about to announce what he had to say, but even he could feel it and backed down. Turning his horse around and trying to look as unimportant as ever he quietly trotted away but he could feel Julius’s eyes boring into him.

“What?” Julius uttered. The crowd all peered at Lucius, to see what he would do. Immediately the horse stopped, but Lucius didn’t move, he was frozen. A few seconds that dragged on went by and slowly he turned around.

Julius looked straight into the eyes of Lucius, but he couldn’t do the same, and instead his eyes wondered. Swallowing salvia didn’t seem to boost his confidence. “Sir, er—Caesar, ahh, bit of bad news for you…we still haven’t found Publius.”

There was no apparent reception from Julius. Lucius relaxed but the silence dragged on, still Julius didn’t break off staring. Then Lucius started to squirm under the intensity and sweat beaded his forehead. He searched around to find some sort of escape, but all he found were others looking at him. “Gah, er, what I mean to say is that we still haven’t found him, but we won’t give up.” With that, he hastily kicked his horse and rode out of the circle knowing not to bring word of failure.

The crowd returned its gaze on the trio, but Julius returned their stares and taking the hint, they left the three alone. Mark was still bewildered at everything, but he had enough sense not to mediate

Servilia sneered, “Congratulations on getting your way by just staring, maybe next time you should try staring at barbarians and see if they will submit.” There was no response. “When you have worked out the true meaning of your problems, then we can talk,” Servilia snorted and walked away.

It was now just the two of them. Mark chanced a quick glance and Julius and saw him staring at him. With a jump, he started after Servilia. “So tell me again how you saved Caesar’s life?”

“It got tiring wasting my breath,” sighed Julius. This he knew was false. It was Servilia's statement that got him to resort to staring. Who’s fault was it for the situation they were currently in?

Was it truly Servilia’s? She ran away from home and it appears that Mark stole her. There would be no telling how her father would react. Would he pursue with military might, smear Julius’s reputation to nothing, or do nothing at all? Then again, Mark wasn’t all that innocent, after all he was the one that seduced her, or was it the other way around?

What about supposed friends? There was still no word on the Aedui, as far as he knew, they could still be sitting there with nearly twice his numbers, doing nothing. Pompey was consul and could greatly help him out, but instead it seemed Pompey was wielding power against him and revealing secrets. On the other hand, Crassus wasn’t doing much either, complaining about this and that and especially about Pompey. Those two were as incompetent as two bickering elders were.

Even his wife couldn’t accomplish simple tasks, and wound up under house arrest. Then a surreal realization came over him. Maybe it was his fault for what has happened? No, it was impossible, but then he thought the same thought again. He quickly dismissed it. There was nothing going his way, and most likely in the future things wouldn’t go his way. Was it that he was just born unlucky? No matter, he would prove to the world that despite all of these setbacks that one can truly rise up in the world and take command.

Hooves broke his concentration. Lucius had ridden up beside him and prepared to receive that hard stare. Though once he realized that there was nothing tense about, he relaxed but he seemed saddened. “Caesar, we have found Publius, but he is in the hospital*, your presence is requested.”


*A hospital is Valetudinarium, but if I would have said that you guys would have no idea what was said until you read this and by then, the moment would have been gone.

Heh, it seems I have a lot to respond to

Gigalocus: Thank you. I hope you enjoy your stay here and let us know how you are doing.

Enewald: Weren't you just saying a minute ago that the AI is so bad that you can only get heroic victories? Now imagine if I had lost the battle (erm...I would have to if in reality I lost). All the men do look the same, don't they? Well I guess back then the technology wsan't available. I wonder how each man will look in E:TW.

robou: Yes the Helvetii lost a battle. Their casuslties may be enormous, their leader may have turned tale and run, but are they defeated, it is still up to the game. As far as I know, the Helvetii can rejoin as an army, a weak one, though an army nontheless, and then they could replenish their numbers by neighboring friendly tribes, so I won't count the Helvetii our yet. And still no word from Titus...

canonized: Tricky for sure, but Masssiva and his experienced men are up to the challenge.

robou: Julius's fault? Well, if it is let us hope he does improve and so he doesn't make the same mistake.

Lord E: New troubles? Yes, Servilia is trouble. So far she has only been breathing trouble down Caesar's neck, but let's hope that the situation stabilizes. And don't worry, we shall find more about Publius's condition later. Heh, yeah, when the going gets tough, just stick to what you know, which happens to be fighting.

vanin: Nor will they anytime soon, I fear.

canonized: Glad to see you entertained. The romans are known for their tempers.

Enewald: heh, the romans odd? I think you are. I can't seem to decipher your comment

10k Views​

As everyone knows, there has been a certain writer abroad that has captured the attention of all. His writing is unprecedented and AARs a joy to read. This is probably why this author won two awards this past ACA for two different AARs. Not only does this show that this writer has a top quality AAR, but that he has multiple, which he routinely updates, letting his readers never waver. He can even write an update solely on a Swiss election and make it interesting.

Personality. This will get you far in the world and it is a requirement to get into the Tempus Society, as we don’t want grumpy ole men in our club. Fortunately, not only is the author top notch but he also qualifies – no – exceeds our demands for personality. He is hilarious, finding jokes in the tiniest of cracks. Caring, he catches up with you if you have been absent for a while and makes sure you are ok. Clever, his intuitive ideas keeps you baffling in amazement. Energetic, even if you are sluggish in the morning, he will get you going like a full pot of coffee his energy is that contagious.

Yes, robou gets the induction, there was no reason for me to beat around the barrel until now. His two award winning AARs: [thread=363851]Carefully Applied Force: A Prussian AAR[/thread] and [thread=348049] The Rocky Road Northwards: The Story of Italy at War[/thread] won History-Book and Gameplay respectively. Robou’s current Narrative, [thread=357192] 'I'm sorry, but you're not the only one...'[/thread] is a must-read and potentially award winning, so make sure you check it out.

All of robous' AARs are top notch. They are each one of a kind, and highly qualified for any and all audiences. For instance, his newest one, Carefully Applied Force:, is all about Prussia and all the deep crevices that politics can reach into. If you are not into that and rather time traveling then his narrative, which has just ended, I am sad to say, would tickle your fancy!

Coupled with his great personality, it is fated that this man will go far. Congratulations robou you are now a Fellow in the Tempus Society!