Home Trending Latest threads New posts Developer diaries

Last Stand in the West

Jump to latest Follow Reply
  • We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Nikolai: Exactly! Roma Invictus Est!

Samorim: True, and one day I would like to ally with the East. Relations right now are -25 and only getting worse, however, and I have no money for diplomats.

Rensslaer: Welcome! I know you're busy these days but I hope you get the chance to stop by every so often. :)

My attack on the Ostrogoths was a combination of calculation and ill-considered aggression. The Osties were weak and had land I wanted so I decided to attack, whether the army was ready or not. Besides, Rome's been playing defense for too long.


Mettermrck: Glad to have you! Eagles was a big part of my inspiration to do this. Unfortunately, my wars don't turn out quite as well as Remus'. ;)

Lofman: Thank you! :)

Emperor_krk: Yup, though I'm a little surprised there aren't any other 476 AARs. It really is a great mod.

likk9922: Thank you, hopefully things will stay interesting. ;)

yourworstnightm: Well, I've never played as the WRE before and the only other game I've seen is Mett's, which has been self-moded, so I'm basically flying blind. But I do know what happenned in RL and I'm keen to avoid the fate of Odoacer's Italy.
 
We last left off with a huge revolt of 10k rebels breaking out in Lombardia and sieging Mediolanum. This, quite frankly, really sucks as my entire army is committed against the Ostrogoths. Short on soldiers, and short on the ducats I need to recruit more soldiers, I'm forced adjust my budget sliders and mint.

This is something I'd wanted to avoid but realistically probably couldn't have. My census tax income at this point is only 26 ducats, some 23 of which go to army maitenance (when it's set at full). Because inflation is so high I didn't want to make matters any worse but, on the other hand, inflation is already outrageously high so what does a few more percentage points matter?

With money slowing coming into the treasury, I break off 2k men from the army in Steiermark and send it to Mantua where I begin training an additional 2k Inf and 1k Cav. This costs 29 ducats and leaves my treasury empty. Oh well, easy come, easy go. It looks like I'll be minting for a while.

Soon after I've broken off those troops the main Gothic army comes crashing into mine in Steiermark.

1stostgothwar-3.jpg


Despite the advantage of numbers and terrain my army is beaten and driven from the field. The goths have what's proving to be a decisiv morale advantage, which I attribute to their higher LT. Whatever the reason, the one-on-one superiority of the gothic soldiers is a huge influence to the result of the war.

I reroute my army from Steiermark and send it to besiege Krain. I've lost a couple battles at this point but if I can pull off my sieges of the three border provinces I should be able to get at least one of them in a peace deal. They're all cores of mine and, besides just generally weakenning a potentially troublesome neighbor, are the goal of this war. My hopes are cut short, however, when my army in Bosnia is routed.

1stostgothwar-4.jpg


Counting the 10k strong rebel uprising I'm fighting on 1.5 fronts and the strain on my resources is telling. Fearful of being jumped by Visigoths when my back is turned, I accept an offer of alliance with the Suevi and Romano-Gauls. Whether or not this affects the AIs behavior I'm not sure, but the western goths do not attack Rome in support of their eastern cousins so I'm happy with the alliance.

sueviealliance.jpg


This doesn't help me with the war I'm already in, however, and things in Dalmatia aren't great.

1stostgothwar-5.jpg


By this time Mediolanum has fallen to the Rebels and, if you look in the corner of the screen, they now are marching towards Ravenna. This puts me into a minor panic and I quickly send the army I've been raising for counter-insurgency to defend my capital. My 7k is too weak to beat the rabble of traitors in the field but I hope that being on the defensive in the marshy terrain of Romagna will tip the balance.

Feeling pretty full of themselves, the Ostrogoths send me a peace offer.

1stostgothwar-peaceoffer1.jpg


Things aren't great but they're gonna have to get a whole lot worse before I even consider giving up territory. The barbarians have won a battle, not a war, and I therefore reject their presumptious offer.

My decision is vindicated when I complete the sieges of Krain and Croatia, pushing the War Score in my favor. Looking to further improve my bargaining position I send my armies forward to Odenburgn and Serbia. Serbia is the Ostrogothic capital and if it falls I'm confident I can get the land I want at the peace table.

1stostgothwar-6.jpg
 
Quite an inconvenient time to be at war with the Ostrogoths - they are led at that time by, if I remember correctly, Theodoric Strabo and Theodoric the Great. Both of them are quite decent military leaders. You should be able to pull of a win though, if you indeed outsiege them.
The rebels should lose, attacking over the river and into marshes. Hopefully that battle leaves you enough troops to retake Mediolanum. Of course, if the 8'000 men strong Gothic army doesn't do that for you first...
 
You do like Roman AARs don't you VILenin :)

This one slipped by me - an oversight I have obviously now corrected. Looks like you are having fun.
 
Yeah one battle won't make the war...do the Ostrogoths have allies? Trying to remember if the Roman Empire is going to back them up or not. I've seen the Ostrogoths assemble some decent armies going into Italy (15k average) so you're right to keep up the pressure, especially knocking out detachments such as that one in Pest.
 
Pity those rebels didn't go east. Then they and the Ostrogoths would have engaged in a bit of mutual destruction. Outsieging looks about the best strategy. It's just a pity they're Christian and not pagan or you could annex them in one bite.
 
A tough war, but you should be able to win it, just avoid direct contact with ostrogoth armies lead by super- Theoderic. Try to siege more provinces than they do. Also keep your eyes open, you don't want the Vandals or Burgundians to strike now.
 
I think a royal marriage with the East might be a good idea. And after this war, the primary target for your attention when it comes to military adventures should probably be the Vandals I think, take them out before the East gets cores there.
 
The Visigoths and Suevi fought several wars until the Visigoths finally conquered them - after about 100 years. As Suevi allies, you will be drawn into their wars. As allies of Gallia, you will be brought into wars against the Franks. If the three of you can gang-bang the visigoths, you will be set fair to eliminate the Goths and then build up your fleet for Vandal fun.
 
Emperor_krk: Perhaps I should've given more thought to their leaders, as that could be the reason why they outperform my soldiers on the battlefield. They showed weakness, however, and I couldn't resist an attack. I feel that in this world it's kill or be killed.

stnylan: Glad to have you aboard! And yes, I guess you could say I'm fond of the Romans. If you count my abortive HRE AAR I've covered the Roman Empire in three of its iterations. Well, diversity is overrated anyway. ;)

Mettermrck: The Ostrogoths start as vassals of the ERE but they broke vassalization and fought a brief war with the Roman Empire shortly before I attacked them (in fact, that's probably the reason for their low stability). Currently they have no allies and my fellow Romans are busy fighting the Sassanids. I haven't looked at the event files but I was concerned that at some point they might sic the Ostrogoths on me like happened to Odoacer.

Chief Ragusa: Yes, my enemies fighting each other would have been nice but no such luck. :(

yourworstnightm: I don't want to give anything away, but you'll soon see if my siege strategy bears out or not.

Lofman: I don't have the money for diplomacy right now, though patching up relations with Constantinople is one of my mid-to-long term goals. As for the Vandals, I'll have to wait until I'm out of this war, then we'll see.

Chief Ragusa: Yes, there is a fairly large possibility that I will get drawn into a war against the barbarians because of my alliance. However, the only likely agressor that I actually border is the Visigoths who I'm anxious to gang up on before they get too powerful.
 
Nice.

Good timing on the war with the Ostrogoths. Strike them while they're weak. Just watch out for their leaders.

I suggest going for the Vandals after that.
 
Don't worry about the siege strategy, even if the goths reach Ravenna (which would be a minor setback of course) their advance will stop there. Ravenna is a killer, takes years to siege, and your enemies usually don't have large enough armies to pull it of.
 
Woops! Has it been a week already? Sorry about that. :eek:o Flare-up in activity at work. But now another primary has come and gone so I once again have some moments of free time. Update and feed back coming tomorrow. :)
 
Basileios I: Apparently there's a lobby for war against the Vandals. That decision is coming up, but for right now it still to far away to consider. One war at a time, otherwise this'll be a short AAR.

yourworstnightm: You're absolutely correct, and all I can say is taht I wish I'd remembered that while playing the game. You'll see what I mean soon enough.
 
We left off with my armies marching triumphantly further into Ostrogothic territory while simultaneously mustering a defense of Ravenna where the rebel army would hopefully be turned back. Their advance is so slow that I'm able to raise some extra troops while I wait. Finally, battle is joined.

1stostgothwar-7.jpg


The numbers are about even and I figure that the terrain should give me the advantage. Boy am I wrong. The battle is a slaughter. Over 2k of my troops killed for less than 500 of the rebels. My army flees north like the worthless cowards that they are.

1stostgothwar-8.jpg


Fortunately my small army of now-veterans has better luck in Odenburg. A gothic counterattack is repulsed and the city is quickly put to siege. My main army in Dalamtia, some 9k strong, has put the ostrogothic capital of Serbia under siege by this point as well. So despite the emberassment at Ravenna things still seem to be going fairly well. The operative phrase being "seem to be." A battle in Serbia shortly thereafter disabuse me of that misconception.

The initial match-up of forces.

1stostgothwar-9.jpg


With my advantage in numbers and fire-value advantage I think I stand a pretty good shot at winning. Nope.

1stostgothwar-10.jpg


After only a few days of combat 1200 of my men are dead and the rest of the army is on the verge of flight. Gothic casualties are minimal. Fleeing before the numerically inferior but tactically superior enemy, my troops move south into Bulgaria. Undetterred, I wait for my forces to regain their morale and then send them back towards Serbia. Taking the enemy capital is the lynchpin to my strategy and essential to forcing a favorable settlement. The province will be viciously contested in the months to come, and while I manage to win most of the battles I don't win them all. Twice the siege is lifted, forcing me to start all over again.

Odenburg proves to be a less difficult nut to crack. With the siege there successfully concluded I route the army back west to liberate Steiermark.

1stostgothwar-11.jpg


At this time I reach the highpoint of the campaign. The overall battlefield tally is in my favor and I've captured 3 provinces while only losing 1. The rebels have beaten off another attack at Ravenna (at virtually no loss), however, and I'm starting to grow nervous about my long term prospects. I toss a peace offer at the Goths, not really expecting them to accept.

1stostgothwar-peaceoffer2.jpg


I'm not disappointed: the offer is refused. A month later, however, they come back with an offer of their own.

1stostgothwar-peaceoffer3.jpg


I likewise refuse, though I admit that my resolve has weakenned somewhat. My army's taking quite the beating and the combination of my inability to crush the rebel army with losses to numerically inferior gothic armies has me a little rattled.

I started this war, however, and pride bans me from buying off an enemy. Millions to defense but not one penny for tribute is Rome's new policy. So instead of peace, I continue to mint and raise new soldiers as the war enters its final stage.
 
Looks like you're balanced on a precipice...having to prosecute a distant war with a relatively small army, and now you have revolts breaking out in your background. It's a risk, gambling for even a tiny bit of money. And if the Ostrogoths concentrate? I look forward to seeing if you play cautious or go for it. :D
 
If 9% is the high point, 11 gold sounds a small price to pay. At 9k the rebels aren't strong enough to take Ravenna, you could just ignore them and send your men to fight the Goths, retaking Steirmark in the process. If the Goths did get to Ravenna, the rebels would act as defenders for your city.
 
A gutsy move continuing the war.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back