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Chapter 5
Chapter 5: The Heroes of Greece

Rome was one of the most powerful nations in the world, but split in two, the combined force of the Greeks and the Egyptians could be enough to defeat them.
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The once small troops of Greeks that had protected and expanded Patrai’s and Archaea’s borders had developed into an army, with 23,000 troops, able to match the might of even the biggest of Rome’s legions.
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The navy had also been rebuilt with 14 new decaremes, the largest ships to ever grace the mediterranean. A Group of Roman ships were caught off the coast of Greece and quickly defeated. Capturing many of the Roman’s small ships.
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Eager to continue their victories, Admiral Philinos took a fight against the full Roman Navy. The Greeks, certain of victory charged the Roman fleet out of formation, the fast but weak Biremes and Triremes took the front line, including the heavily damaged captured Roman ships. Without the aid of their larger brethren the Greek support fleet was destroyed and fled, leaving the decaremes and octeres to enter the battle unsupported.
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Philinos, wary of losing any of the large Greek ships to the Romans retreated from the battle. The Romans navy, knowing that losing to the Greeks would be a disaster for their civil war stayed clear of Greek waters for the rest of the war.
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Philinos was fired for his mistakes, his replacement Bikon, took advantage of the Romans no longer patrolling their shores to raid Roman cities. Turning Nobles into Slaves
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On land, the Achaeans went relatively unopposed, while the fourth and fifth legions of Rome tried to retake land from the Achaeans, they were given strict orders to avoid the Achaean army itself in order to preserve themselves for the Civil war.
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As the war drew out, it became clear that the would-be dictator Tiberius Fabius Rullianus, had lost on every front.
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Tiberius took a humiliating peace deal that ended Roman rule in Greece and Asia and restored two buffer states between the Greeks and Romans.
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The people of Greece rejoiced at their triumph over the Romans, the period brought a revival of Greek culture which cumulated in the creation of a new Epic, The Argonautica. Set just before the Trojan war, it followed the Argonauts, a group of heroes from all over Greece, who sailed the ship Argo under Jason. The Argonautica was a story of Greeks united under a single leader, working together to achieve the impossible. Many comparisons were giving between the Argo and Achaea.

However, a single Argonaut caused strife in the Archaean government, the Gerousia, “Thersanon of Andros”.
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Andros had long been a contentious subject in Greek politics, while the island was allowed to self-govern, it did so under the rule of Egypt, not Achaea, Andros had also not been conquered by Egypt, it had been freed by them from Macedon and had supported them. Not unlike how Egypt had supported Achaea all this time.

Whether the Argonautica had been intended to cause strife, it would now serve as a constant reminder of the shortcomings of Achaea’s new Greece while Egyptian suzerainty over Andros remained unchallenged . If Egypt would not surrender Andros peacefully, then it would be War.
 
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I apologies for being so late with this AAR, I took ill last week and only just recovered. Hopefully this will be the start of more common chapters again.

on another note, I have never seen the Republic ever win the civil war and from what I can tell, they are never suppose to win the civil war. The Republicans rule the entire mainland but they don't have a navy, the dictator is now hiding on some islands but has 156 ships so I don't think the civil war will ever end. If I wasn't in Ironman I would force the result, but as it stands, I think we have to live with Radioactive green Rome.
 
An eternally divided Rome does sound true to the incessant civil wars of the late republic, to be fair.

Achaia has won a victory over Rome, but Greece is not yet fully liberated, and the Diadochi are still a threat...
 
Your situation is precarious. When Rome will be full again you won't stand a chance against them.

The slave raiding of the undefended roman ports was very good, but how do you compare on pop numbers? I am afraid your army is not enough. Also, Theokirtos, the governor of Greece, is not fit to lead your armies. I would suggest army professionalization as soon as possible and get a general of minimum martial 9 to lead.

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Good luck next session, you will need all of it.

PS: whenever you are being flanked you should retreat, naval or land battle. The flanking bonus is too damaging to your units, it is not worth it. If you do not have enough units chose terrain with less combat width to engage bigger armies and hope that your quality is superior (morale, discipline, versus, terrain).
 
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An eternally divided Rome does sound true to the incessant civil wars of the late republic, to be fair.
That is true, but I don't think nations in a civil war ever declare wars, which would be a shame because I like fighting a good war against Rome.
Your situation is precarious. When Rome will be full again you won't stand a chance against them.
I hope so, Right now things are going way too smoothly. In my last playthrough I lost two wars and lots of land against Rome before I turned the tide. Rome has so far been a mild inconvenience. I like playing minor powers because I like having to create strategies to outwit them rather than overpower them. It is also why I like going Naval, it gives you more options and angles of attack.
The slave raiding of the undefended roman ports was very good, but how do you compare on pop numbers?
I cannot raid a huge amount because it gives me Aggressive expansion that makes my subjects disloyal. Managing loyalty when you are small is hard, I need this tech to make it possible at all
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Green Rome has 8,062 pops, I have 1,542
Also, Theokirtos, the governor of Greece, is not fit to lead your armies. I would suggest army professionalization as soon as possible and get a general of minimum martial 9 to lead.
that is not my governor, that is my ruler, as far as I know, your ruler will always be your home province governor and you cannot change that, since rule is decided by election, I don't have much say on how good they will be. in battles I normally hire a mercenary army to lead as they get +5 marshal by default.
I would suggest army professionalization as soon as possible
If you mean legions, I would struggle to afford it. You can see that during the war with Rome I was barely making money, legions are also very costly to manpower and I don't like to focus on freemen pops because they don't make much money. I guess I could try experimenting with some legions later down the line though.
 
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Chapter 6
Chapter 6: An Alliance of Greeks

In their war with Egypt, Achaea found a new ally. The Bosporans Kingdom, once a colony of the Ionians, they had developed into their own power and in more recent years recaptured their homecity of Miletus from the Antigonids. Now bordering Egypt in Asia and wary of their intentions, the Bosporan Greeks offered to give aid to Achaea in defeating Egypt.
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The Egyptian navy was the largest Hellenic navy on the seas, known to favour smaller ships that could more easily weave around the banks of the Nile, using the Canal of the Pharoah’s, Egypt not only patrolled the Mediterranean but also the Indian ocean.

In response, the Achaeans recruited professional naval officers to match the experience of the Egyptians. The Egyptians, unafraid of the Achaean navy, sent troops to the Bosporus via sea to wipe out the Bosporans and Isolate Achaea.
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Admiral Bikon gave chase and caught up to them in the Pontic Sea. Learning from their mistakes in the last battle, Bikon ordered his smaller ships to stay back while the Achaean tetraremes enclosed the flanks while the large decaremes rammed the center. The smaller Egyptian ships couldn’t fight head to head, The Egyptian flanks collapsed leaving the centre surrounded on all sides.
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With nowhere to flee to, the mass of small ships was repeatably rammed by the decaremes until the entire Egyptian navy with nothing but flotilla.
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Cut off from reinforcements, the Egyptian armies that had landed in the Bosporus were picked off by the Achaeans.
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Numerous times the Achaeans forces proved to be the better and more disciplined fighting force. Taking far fewer losses than the Egyptians.
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Egypt, now unable to transport troops around the Antigonid empire, gave up all their Greek and West Asian provinces.
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Famed for his great wins over the Romans and Egyptians Admiral Bikon was elected the New Archon of Greece. Not wanted to be seen as another conqueror by the people of Andros or the Greeks, Bikon restructured the Achaean empire, allowing each the great cities of Greece to govern themselves. United in defence, Separated in rule.

While the Greeks on the Mainland had now all been liberated by the Achaeans, the Greek Colonies were still under the yoke of invaders and Tyrants. Bikon vowed that the the great cities of Rhodes, Knossos, Halicarnassus and Syracuse would be Free and protected under the Hellenic League.
 
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Well done!

If I am not mistaken, loyalty of your client states can be enforced by force as well as low AE. With legions you will have the effect of superior armies on your vassals all the time offsetting the AE effect on loyalty.

To pay for legions you need to do better in your economy. Are you export based economy? What are your national ideas? Greece has plenty of cities, in vanilla that gives +1 trade good. If you have surplus trade goods that are not traded away, the best solution are league cities, your best vassals like feudatories, they do not take a client state slot and give you bonuses on trade. Have you invested in civic tree economic inventions? Can I see your economy tab? Your balance is meagre, should be better.
 
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If I am not mistaken, loyalty of your client states can be enforced by force as well as low AE. With legions you will have the effect of superior armies on your vassals all the time offsetting the AE effect on loyalty.
I can change that law for next time. Test it out. All the vassals I have are feudatories. I don't like client states because they use up an ally slot and I need to have allies, I am not Rome after all.

To pay for legions you need to do better in your economy. Are you export based economy? What are your national ideas? Greece has plenty of cities, in vanilla that gives +1 trade good. If you have surplus trade goods that are not traded away, the best solution are league cities, your best vassals like feudatories, they do not take a client state slot and give you bonuses on trade. Have you invested in civic tree economic inventions? Can I see your economy tab? Your balance is meagre, should be better.
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This is my current Economy, ideas and cities. I change Ideas around a lot, pick up military ones for big wars then go back to commerce at peace.
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I have done minimal investments in the Economy tree, only to get the extra research, most of my inventions go into making my subjects and military better.
 
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Well, Achaea has defeated a mighty empire. That reform should keep the country stable...

Who's your next target?
 
Your economy inventions are fine, I would say you could have a look at lighthouses as it is very good tech. Also free trade is the best stance to get the most of your exports. As you can see, exports should be the main drive of your economy. However, despite your +80,0% export value, the absolut number is lackluster at 10,92.

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To compare with Macedon at start and with a modifier of +29,0% they are getting 6,20 already:

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Do you use the trade route map mode to look out for empy trade routes? Do not trust the automate trade function of the game. If you hover over the province income you can see the breakdown of your income. For example, in Emathia province at the start of the game there are not unused traderoutes and they are exporting 4 trade goods and importing 4 others. You can observe that exporting is more profitable for your income (taxes) thus increasing surplus of high value trade goods is the best way to improve your economy:

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To get a surplus of goods in Vanilla the easiest way is to build cities and metropolis as they give you +1 base resource for free without having to add slaves.

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Adding slaves is the other option, with foundries and mills in cities, or mines or farms in settlements to reduce the slaves needed for local surplus. You should also disallow slaves promotion, specially in settlements, to keep the slaves from promoting to freemen:

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I bet what is happening to your economy is that your ratio of slaves has decreased with time as they have promoted. Your slaves are the ones that produce the most taxes and trade goods surplus. If you promote them you can have more levies (slaves are not levied) but you lose money. What is your proportion of slaves?

In the nation overview you can check. At the start of the game this percentage is between 30-50%, what is yours?

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our economy inventions are fine, I would say you could have a look at lighthouses as it is very good tech. Also free trade is the best stance to get the most of your exports. As you can see, exports should be the main drive of your economy. However, despite your +80,0% export value, the absolut number is lackluster at 10,92.
I moved over to free trade as you suggested.
Do you use the trade route map mode to look out for empy trade routes? Do not trust the automate trade function of the game. If you hover over the province income you can see the breakdown of your income. For example, in Emathia province at the start of the game there are not unused traderoutes and they are exporting 4 trade goods and importing 4 others.
I only have a single province, so I get a notifacation every time I had a trade route spare saying "unused trade routes in capital"
To get a surplus of goods in Vanilla the easiest way is to build cities and metropolis as they give you +1 base resource for free without having to add slaves.
all my provinces are cities, I only have one metropolis, I could likely get another one just by moving some slaves around though.

Adding slaves is the other option, with foundries and mills in cities, or mines or farms in settlements to reduce the slaves needed for local surplus. You should also disallow slaves promotion, specially in settlements, to keep the slaves from promoting to freemen:
I bet what is happening to your economy is that your ratio of slaves has decreased with time as they have promoted. Your slaves are the ones that produce the most taxes and trade goods surplus. If you promote them you can have more levies (slaves are not levied) but you lose money. What is your proportion of slaves?
I don't like to have lots of slaves because they decrease my army sizes, you only get levies from Nobles, Citizens and Freeman, so every slave makes my already tiny army smaller.
In the nation overview you can check. At the start of the game this percentage is between 30-50%, what is yours?
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chapter 7
Chapter 7: The price of war.

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Keen to retake the cities of Rhodes and Halicarnassus, Bikon declared war on the Antigonids. This time, Archaea would have to fight without the support of Egypt or any other ally.
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In preparation for the war, Bikon reformed the military. Organizing the ranks of Achaea into a professional military.
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The combined military of Greece fought its first battle in Larissa, getting into a phalanx formation stood strong against a Macedonian army.
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Unable to fight the Greeks on the field, the Antigonids instead focused on taking Apollonia, the Greeks, far away from their supply lines had taken many casualties sieging down Macedon, knowing this the Antigonids regrouped with hired Illyrian mercenaries to attack them in the mountain pass.
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The Greeks lined up along the mountain pass in a tight phalanx, every city state in Greece had brought troops to this battle, yet they were outnumbered two to one. The Antigonid General Statanor, believed that if faced against such superior numbers, the Greeks would quickly flee so ordered his troops to advance though the pass and Charge the Greeks. The Greeks however were fearless in the face of the odds. Their ancestors had faced similar odds at Marathon, Salamis and Mycale. many Macedonian Silver shields started to fall causing the Macedonian phalanx to falter. In desperation, Statanor ordered the Illyrians to charge through the gaps in his line, but they met only Greek spears on the other side. The Illyrians and Macedonians started to flee, the battle was over. Macedonia had been crushed.
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Having served his term as Archon, Bikon yet again took the role of Admiral, the fleet of Achaea had been reduced to just 70 ships as Archaea was no longer ruling all of Greece. The fleet destroyed many ships and lost very few, even against the 140 Macedonian and Cretan ships, but seeing his lines falter, Bikon ordered a retreat.
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The Antigonid navy believed Bikon went back to repair. So the Antigonids also left to repair. but Bikon instead ordered his navy to land at Rhodes. Bikon himself left with the troops to siege the city sending the Navy back to Port.
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However the Antigonids were far quicker to stop Bikon than he had accounted for. Outflanked and cut off, Bikon requested parley with the Antigonids.
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Without naval control of the Aegean, Greece would not be able to reclaim her colonies, but instead was given Macedon. Led by the Thebans who were eager to revenge the destruction of their city under Alexander. Greek soldiers took to Pella, burned the city to the ground and looted Alexander’s palace. Thessalonica and Eratyra were given the right to rule Macedon as a tributary to the league.
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Years later, the Antigonids abandoned their alliance with Aristarchos, an Cretan Tyrant who had, with the help of two other cities, declared himself king of Crete. Greeks, keen to liberate Knossos from his rule set sail to the island.
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As the Greeks attention was turned to Create, a Pannonian named Dumnocoveros, through a mixture of lies of bribery, made his way with a small troop into the curia and slaughtered the senators. Dumnocoveros made himself dictator and ended the Roman civil war. Although he was not popular as an outsider ruling Rome, the people and patricians of Rome were contented by the end of the 40 year civil war.
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Meanwhile in Crete the Greeks were struggling to coordinate their landing, when the Achaeans arrived, they were greeted by enemy soldiers. As they attempted to organise into a phalanx, the Cretans picked them off with cavalry skirmishes.
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Overwhelmed the Achaean legions suffered a catastrophic defeat and were harried by the Cretans. With nowhere to run, the Achaeans surrendered.
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Without enough manpower to raise more legions for the war, Achaea had to resort to using levies again, The Achaean levies were poorly led but far more numerous than the previous legions.
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Now able to outflank the Cretans, the levies secured victory and with it, a foothold in Crete. Moving back to the tactic of hiring mercenaries to assault walls and lead battles, the Achaeans managed to turn the war around.
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The wars against had been costly though, the Achaeans were running out of money and men, seizing on the Greeks newfound weakness, Rome struck out to reclaim their lost lands in a bid for Dumnocoveros to prove he was worthy to rule the city of 7 hills.

The original Achaean empire collapsed after an overconfident King fought an overseas war against the Trojans that cost them too much. Now it seemed the new Achaean empire might fall in a similar way.
 
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Achaea has legions, but many of them were wiped out. What were Achaea's vassals doing at this time?

Rome is reunited, and they now wish to rule Greece. Achaea might be in big trouble... how much money do you have? Mercenary armies tend to be very large in Imperator...
 
Achaea has legions, but many of them were wiped out. What were Achaea's vassals doing at this time?

Rome is reunited, and they now wish to rule Greece. Achaea might be in big trouble... how much money do you have? Mercenary armies tend to be very large in Imperator...
AI and naval invasions never really get along but they were trying to help, you can see that 3 of my vassals joined me in the first battle I fought though.
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Achaea also doesn't have legions as they were all wiped out in the battle of Eleutherna.
I have 189 money and -0.43 a month so something will have to be done about that.
 
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Chapter 8
Chapter 8: The Mouse against the Eagle

380 years ago at Plataea, the Persian army suffered defeat on every front despite outnumbering their opponents 3 to 1. The Persians got into boats docked in the Greek province of Boeotia, and fled Greece. A collection of small Greek city states had overcome an empire that stretched from the Indian Ocean to the Aegean Sea.

Many Greek cities lay in ruins, Athens had been sacked twice and a Spartan King had been killed, but the Greeks were victorious. Greece was safe.

But that was 400 years ago, since then the Empires had defeated city states across the world. The Kingdom of Macedon had subjugated the city states of Greece and conquered Persia, the City states of Italy had fallen before Rome, and the city States of Asia bent the knee to the Antigonids.

Could Achaea really protect Greece from Rome, as Sparta and Athens had all that time ago?
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The war with Crete ended the day after the war with Rome began, the Achaeans left to return to Greece.
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Knowing the war would be fought on land and not sea, Archon Andromenes ordered that Achaea scuttle its great navy to afford mercenary troops.
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Even this was not enough and Andromenes reduced the wages for its elite and ordered Macedon to give an extra tribute.
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Mustering with other city states, Achaea raised a truly massive army of 30,000 troops. Dictator Dumnocveros of Rome, worried about his position, had placed his most loyal supporters instead of his best generals in charge of the army. Rome’s troops were lions led by sheep, but they were still lions. Even outnumbered, the Romans inflicted more casualties on the Greeks than they took themselves.
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As more Romans poured down through Illyria into Greece, the Greek armies that had split up to retake parts of Apollonia were steadily being overwhelmed.
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Seeing the massive Roman armies sieging his capital uncontested, Appius of Apollonia, no longer believed that the Greeks could defeat the Romans. he went to Rome and asked for peace, all of the land Rome occupied would be Annexed, but Rome would step no further into Greece.
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But Rome had taken advantage of the Greeks lack of navy to sail around to Thebes and take the city. The truce now left Thebes permanently under Roman rule. The Achaeans had failed to defend Greece. Rome was victorious and it looked like the remaining city states would be picked off and conquered just as Thebes had been. The age when city league could challenge empires was over.
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Dumnocoveros was keen to use the conquest to his political advantage and ordered a great Triumph in his name.

To the ire of the people and patricians of Rome, Dumnocoveros himself had not been part of the battles and the victories in Greece and so was undeserving of the triump he had bestowed upon himself.

When Dumnocoveros arrived at the Temple of Jupiter, a priest ran forward and slashed at Dumnocoveros with a sacrificial axe. The priest was quickly disarmed, imprisoned and executed. Dumnocoveros survived the attack, but his wound developed gangrene and he died shortly after. Appius, Dumnocoveros’s 13 year old son, who had been brought up as a Roman was then made dictator.
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Many had followed the Achaeans because they believed that the Hellenistic league could protect them. Now that proved no longer to be the case, Dion of Macedon led Thessalonica into revolt against the league.
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The revolt was swiftly put down but for the first time in 100 years since the Arcadia wars, Achaea had used the stick and not the carrot to enforce its hegemony.
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With the government in disarray, the league falling apart and the Romans as strong as ever, Archon Mnesidemos made a decision, the Achaean would fight Rome and liberate Thebes or die trying.
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Behind enemy lines and cut off, Thebes was quickly captured by the Greeks as Rome was starting to pour troops into Macedon from the north.
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The Greeks grouped up their armies and attacked, the Roman lack of good leadership started to show. Outmanoeuvring the Romans at every turn, the Roman legionaries charged into archers and their auxiliaries were cut down by Greek phalanx.
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The Romans discipline and morale started to work against them as their troops stayed in the fight, even when hopeless, causing them to take more casualties. This would be the biggest battle of the war, as in future, the Greeks would not dare face the large elite Roman armies.
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But for every Roman troop felled twice as many poured through the Illyrian foothills to take down the Greeks.
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But the Greek terrain took its toll on the Roman forces, as the Romans moved towards Thebes. The Greeks focused on retaking forts behind the Roman forces to box them in, cut them off from reinforcement, and take them out in small chunks. Using mercenaries and levies, they replenished their forces much quicker than the Romans. Greece was winning the war of attrition.
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The war of went on for 4 long and bloody years, only after 110,000 Romans had died fighting the Greeks, did Rome, battered by war exhaustion, accept that it would not be able to recapture Thebes and win the war.
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Greece was nearing bankruptcy, but Rome gave in, not only giving up Boeotia, but almost all its possessions on the Aegean Sea as well.
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390 years after the battle of Plataea, the Roman army suffered defeat on every front despite outnumbering their opponents 3 to 1. The Romans marched out of the Greek province of Macedon, and fled Greece. A collection of small Greek city states had overcome an empire that stretched from the Atlantic to the black sea.

Many Greek, Macedonian and Illyrian cities lay in ruins, Thebes had been sacked twice and 80,000 Greeks had been killed, but the Greeks were victorious. Greece was safe.
 
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So I have just been having a look at what makes tributaries rebel, just to make sure it doesn't happen again, and I found the event in the game files.
#Tributary has had enough
country_diplomacy.40 = {
type = country_event
title = "country_diplomacy.40.t"
desc = "country_diplomacy.40.desc"
picture = war_chest
left_portrait = scope:tributary_enough.current_ruler

trigger = {
is_overlord = yes
current_date > 460.1.1 #You get some time to build yourself a normal army after startup.
any_subject = {
is_subject_type = tributary
has_land = yes
is_ai = yes
NOT = { has_truce_with = overlord }
war = no
OR = {
num_of_cohorts > overlord.num_of_cohorts
has_subject_loyalty < 35
AND = {
has_subject_loyalty < 50
num_of_cities > 3
any_neighbour_country = {
PREV = { is_subject_of = THIS }
}
}
}
}
}
this looks to me like some left over code from an earlier patch (the vanilla game can sometimes be quite unpolished since they took the entire development team away less than a month after a major patch was released). Regardless it says that if a tributary has more legions than the overlord, they will rebel, no matter how much loyalty they have. So from now on I am going to have some legions around.
 
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So I have just been having a look at what makes tributaries rebel, just to make sure it doesn't happen again, and I found the event in the game files.

this looks to me like some left over code from an earlier patch (the vanilla game can sometimes be quite unpolished since they took the entire development team away less than a month after a major patch was released). Regardless it says that if a tributary has more legions than the overlord, they will rebel, no matter how much loyalty they have. So from now on I am going to have some legions around.
Furthermore, having legions drilling is always good for your Military Experience generation through experience of your units. The experience will also help you reduce damage in combat (up to 30%).

If you can add up offense and defense to your units, you can win most of the land battles with the Roman Empire, no matter how many troops they have:

total_damage = base_damage * strength * discipline * loyalty * terrain * versus * offense_vs_defense * tactics * experience

Being a multiplicative formula, you want to have all factors up to the same level for increased damage, e.g., if you have 110% worth of points to distribute in the formula, you are always better if they are evenly distributed:

1) Total_damage = 1.10 * 1 * 1.8 * 1 * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.2 * 0.9 * 1 = 2.587
2) Total_damage = 1.10 * 1 * 1.3 * 1 * 1.4 * 1.1 * 1.4 * 0.9 * 1 = 2,775

In the previous example, with the same amount of modifiers points to distribute (110%) the result damage is lower if you have one factor that is very good compared to the the others. In 1) discipline is very high at 80% but terrain, offense_vs_defense are low at 10% and 20%. In 2) discipline is 30% but terrain and offense_vs_defense are 40% each, with the same amount of modifiers you get more damage in this case.

Discipline is very easy to get for all units (national ideas, inventions, etc..) You should match your enemies discipline but do not overdo it.

Offense and deffense are very good modifiers as they are substracted to the other units defense and offense respectively. These are unit dependant and mostly you get them through military traditions. One reason that legions are better than levies as you can chose which units you use.

Terrain modifiers are usually forgotten but they can be very powerful if used wisely. Terrain modifiers can be unit specific or for your whole army, they are acquired through military traditions only. It is more tactic than strategic but choosing the battlefield following your terrain advantage is very satisfying and helps build a story in the map.

Because moral damage is function of total damage, the above is also helping you with morale damage:

morale_damage = total_damage * morale

 
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Chapter 9 (final)
Chapter 9: The Dawn of Hellas

The Romans, Humiliated and afraid, never came back to Greece. They turned their sights to fighting the empires of the world rather than the League.
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The victorious Greeks rebuilt Thebes, larger than before, the city stood as a testament to the might of the league. Their triumph over the greatest empire.
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Before long the Greeks rebuilt their navy and turned their attention back to Crete, learning from their mistakes they took elephants to Crete to better make use of their limited manpower. With the superior army, the Cretan dictatorship was ended and a Greek democracy was installed on the island.
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Next the Greeks turned their attention to the Antigonids, who still owned the great Greek colonies of Rhodes, Halicarnassus, and Ephesus. Using their navy to assault ports, they deprived the Antigonids of any coastal defences.
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They then raised a massive army of mercenaries in Asia and retook the ancient colonies.
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Finally, Greece had undisputed control of the Aegean sea. The Antigonid Kingdom, who had once oppressed the Greeks, had now been defeated by them, without the core of their empire, the Antigonid kingdom collapsed on all sides.
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Though alliance or vassalage, the Achaeans now welcomed 20 different Greek states into their league, having surpassed the ancient Mycenaeans, they took a new name, the Hellenic League.
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Looking inwards, after 300 years of constant warfare, the Greeks had peace at last. An Oasis within a sea of empires that none dared to challenge, Tryphon ordered a great road network to be constructed between the major cities of Greece.
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Patrai grew into the greatest city in world, not a warlike city with many slaves and soldiers, but a city of philosophy made rich by trade and tribute.
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300 years ago in a tiny fishing settlement of Patrai, the nobles envisioned a Greece that would work together, all the great city states fighting as one against the Diadochi as they had against Persia long ago. The dream of Hellas had suffered setbacks along the way, the Acadians had subjugated them, the Antigonids had frustrated their efforts to liberate Greece, and Rome had conquered their lands. Each time the Greeks had overcome their setbacks and defeated their enemies.

The Hellenic league was a collection of cities that had defeated a Pharaoh, brought down a Kingdom and had defied Rome. They had done this not in the name of a warlike king like Alexander, who wanted more land and fame. They had Liberated the Greeks to allow each city to rule itself, to uphold their traditions and bring about the discovery of new technology and philosophies.
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The sun set of the Hellenic period, a time when vain men had squabbled over rulership of great empires. The Pax Romana began, a time when Rome ceased its wars and grew ever more decadent. Greece, now surrounded by Rome, would enjoy this peace for centuries to come.
 
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So I am going to write a retrospective of my AAR. Warning, it is going to be very long and most of it isn't worth reading. If you don't read it, know that it says that this game was very fun to play and I recommend you find a small state to play and play it!

I will talk about the pros and cons of my AAR and what I might do differently if I did this again, I will talk about the game and how I found it, and why I find this is the most enjoyable way to play.

Writing Concerns

Firstly, I am not a good writer and I felt that my writing style could be all over the place at times. even within a chapter I found it bounced around a bunch, so between chapters it is likely terrible. I spent several hours (and in one case 2 days), writing these very short chapters just because I wasn't happy with them and often felt I needed to publish them because I was spending so much time writing them. If I want to improve how I write, I really need to read more books. If you found this AAR enjoyable, it was likely because of the story, which was very good.

This AAR also ended up a bit longer than it should have been, I was aiming for a 20 minute read, it was going to be just 7 chapters, but a lot happened towards the tail end of the game which dragged it out. Rome looked like it was going to stay in civil war forever, but luckily the war ended and I got that final showdown with Rome at the end.

I also noticed (a bit too late) that the pictures that I was pasting were blurry, that isn't because I am uploading blurry pictures, it is because the forum blurs my pictures (presumably because they are too big), so if I do a future AAR, I will lower my resolution so that I don't have blurry pictures. If you noticed a lot more cropped pictures later into my AAR, that is why.

How the game was to play

people might have noticed that I didn't expand much at all during the early game and you might be thinking that looks boring. However I was doing a lot of internal growth at that point, the game gives you a lot of ways to grow early on and a lot of choices. I interacted with characters and queued events a lot more and I wouldn't have been nearly as powerful as I was late game if I hadn't done this period of growth. Honestly you have so many choices that large nations can feel overwhelming. I imagine if you have 1000 hours in this game it can feel monotonous because you know all of the best choices. But if you don't there is a lot of fun to be had trying things out. I did consider talking about how I was growing in my AAR, but I decided that would take way too long and as said I wanted my AAR to be short.

I am also not very good at this game, this is my 4th completed campaign (1 as Egypt, 2 as Patrai, 1 as Aigion) and I don't start many campaigns that I don't complete. So you don't need to be very experienced to play a small nation and go up against the larger powers. I don't personally recommend island nations because naval invasions aren't very fun and can be quite hard. I have heard people say Crete is like Ireland in CK2/3, but it is a lot more like Ireland in EU4. You can take out the other islanders quickly, but after that your main base is very hard to invade from and doesn't have much pop. Also the AI never invades Crete.

The war with Rome in the Eagle and Mouse chapter, was extremely fun and I don't think I can do it justice in AAR form, it doesn't help that I got so engrossed by the war that I forgot to take screenshots of what was happening, and then later I wasn't sure on all the details. It really felt like the cumulation of the entire campaign.

Everything I had done had worked up until that point and I was doing everything I could to win, using everything I learnt and the strategies that people who replied to the AAR told me about, I was very worried about my allies making peace, and the fact that even when my warscore was positive, Rome wasn't willing to make peace for a long time. In my previous campaign the only times I fought with Rome, I lost horrible or it was during their civil war. So I have never done this before and it was quite the accomplishment for me.

I brushed over everything that happened after, because winning that war against Rome, really was the true ending of the campaign, but I felt that I should also see the campaign to the end since I was only 60 years away.

Why I think this is the most enjoyable way to play

Playing a large nations in Imperator is disappointing. The internal politics still feel like an early build. You might notice I never talk about the internals of my empire, that is because they never effected me. Past the very early game you should have no democrats in office and 70% of the governments will be traditionalists and you can pass anything, Tranny isn't that bad anyway, because can always avoid civil war, and civil wars don't get enough troops and land to matter. The only issue with civil wars is that they take your disloyal subjects and armies. It is a real step down from EU:Rome that makes large nations just about blobbing.

However Imperator gives you a huge amount of options to deal with large nations from a disadvantage, the inventions also give really good choices on how you want to specialise your nation (although research ones can feel mandatory). You can entirely specialise your nation to deal with a certain enemy and winning that end game against a big power (especially if you were losing before) is very satisfying.

What is also great about starting small is you will go later, and the later you go, the more options you get. I imagine multiplayer for this game is also very fun for this reason. (although paradox multiplayer is always hard to set up).

How it differs from the EU4 small state experience

You might be wondering if you can get the same experience in EU4, the answer is no. EU4 small states are very powerful, I made a thread about how OPM really are OP in 2020 https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/opm-rant.1393722/ and have way too much power in the early game. Local powers like Sparta are something to be feared, not pushovers like Brunswick. If you have 2,000 troops then Macedon with multiple armies of 20,000 are scary. In EU4 coring gives you the full potential of a province in 2 years. In Imperator, it will take the whole game to completely culturally convert a nation and you only get that power over time. Imperator are small states done well, you are not just 'large state in waiting', it takes you a long time to reach the potential of nations like Rome, in my case, I never reached that point.

The World
I am aware that many people never reach the endgame or if you do, you have a massive nation, so all the border gore and the fact Rome never annexes Carthage might be unknown to you. So here are the maps and ledger
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after counting all my vassals, we have 3305 pops
 
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Achaea did well. Congrats on finishing!

Also, that war with Rome was bloody. I wonder if the Greeks will try to liberate more of the world in the future. There are still many colonies that once belonged to Greece - in Italy and Sicily, mostly.

I liked it. AARs that literally just recount the gameplay are an entire genre - you don't need a long narrative or in-universe explanation (I like to have these personally, mind, but it's not necessary).

Rome hasn't annexed Carthage in my AAR, but I also rule northern Sicily, so...
 
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