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I guess some people found out what operation asshole is - and it's related to the personal quality not the bodypart:rolleyes: - on my defense I really didn't knew what other move would I make in that situation since the odds were so against me


I agree with Stuyvesant you seem to have got away from Sicily without decimating your army.

I'm sure you can't wait to get some sort of naval parity with your opponent. Perhaps it is time to march overland to get at those Carthagian possesions in Spain?
Anyway I am looking forward to seeing the launch of Operation Asshole I am sure it will go down in the an(n)als of military history:)

I can't go to Spain overland, the path is blocked and I don't want to risk my troops in a sea invasion
 
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The update where I pull a dickish manoeuvre

Messana falls as expected making me lose 1 NM, currently Carthage holds all of Sicily

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But not for long, I am going to pull a pretty risky manoeuvre, Operation Blue Sea aka Operation Asshole. I have built some transports and together with the pitiful remnants of my fleet, they will land in Syracuse hopefully forcing it to surrender.

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And so despite all odds, my fleet manages to avoid the Carthage's fleets and land near the city, triggering it's surrender event. A move a bit too gamey for my taste but desperate times require desperate measures.

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In a single stroke and without requiring one battle I take 2 cities from Carthage - one of them being the largest in the island - and also a three star general and around 500 pw in units, not bad. However he still vastly outnumbers me and has another 3 star general in the field.

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I decide to take back Messana back, on the way I find the remnants of what I assume were the punic garrisons in the cities.

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Which also happens to be my first victory in this scenario, quite sad in retrospective.

My opponent having regrouped is forces sends his megastack towards Syracuse, making me decide to go back and face it since depleting Carthagenese army in the island before it reaches critical mass and tramples me should be my top priority.


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I angrily curse at the game for not letting me build more legions.
 
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that was quite a gamble with the fleet (presume on top of the Carthaginian navy you had to worry about storms), but it seems as if that 'hold Sicily for 2 years' rule left you with very little choice but to find someway back onto the island ... be interesting to see if you are going to be able to stay though
 
Yes, it's a bit gamey to force the Syracusae surrender event, but you could similarly argue that an automatic win after holding Sicily for 2 years is also gamey.

Anyway, you've stopped the countdown to automatic defeat, but it's not like you completely reversed the situation on the island: Carthage still has a powerful army and you're going to have to do something about that before you can properly subdue Sicily.

And since you have said you're going to attack that huge stack, I look forward to the outcome of that battle. If it's a big victory for either side, it will shift things strongly into that side's favor.
 
I thought it was a good move by Soulstrider and quite brave bearing in mind the current Carthaginian naval supremacy. Time will tell if my somewhat heterogeneous army will be a match for his nice legions in a pitched battle.
 
I agree I don't think that was a gamey move I think Soulstrider had no other choice based on the victory conditions for this scenario. In fact it was a brave move considering if your army had been intercepted at sea it would have been game over!

Based on the scenario victory conditions it looks like the opening moves of this campaign mean that as the Romans you have to concentrate both consular armies in Sicily as early as possible. Will be interesting to see if you can match that Carthaginian army.
 
More defeats

By seeing my opponent moving is stack towards Syracuse I realize it's probably not the best idea to siege Messana seeing that he can blockade Syracuse's port at ease and starve it more quickly than the time it would take to build some siege engines and demolish Messana's wall.

So instead I decided to move to Camarina, since the town has no port and therefore easier to siege. Also If am lucky, I will also trap his main stack between Syracuse and me, hopefully making supply transport difficult.

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On better news Ostia Shipyard was completed, now I can build Quinquirremes and got an handful of them for free.


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However I misread my opponents move, indeed he was going to attack me but not my largest town as I was expecting, instead he assaults the smaller Tauromenium. It only has a lvl 1 fort so he manages to assault it immediately and slaughter all it's garrison.


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Since I really don't know what to do, I decide to continue my siege of Camarina in a defensive posture and prepare for him to try to break it. I also catch a group of mercenaries going on their way to reinforce the already way damn to big Carthaginian stack, I proceed to dispatch them before they can cause any harm.

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I start building another port, more ships is always better and I nurture some slim hopes of beating Carthage at the sea.

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As expected his main army moves against me and defeats me, however the result is better than expected. I still dealt him quite a lot of causalities despite being completely outnumbered, so in a better terrain condition and with my army reinforced by the Syracusan Hoplites I am training, victory is not just a dream.

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Luckily the town surrendered just this turn to me, I will fall back to Syracuse and reinforce and plan my next move there while he besieges it.

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He can probably handle losing 22,000 men better than you can afford to lose 13,000, but it's still a defeat I wouldn't be too unhappy about. Not least you managed to destroy six elements. Permadead units are always good.

How long until your Syracusan units are trained?
 
very tense stuff, in effect the limited number of provinces really put you face to face, so the consequences of getting caught are pretty brutal.

but as you say, as defeats go, that last one was not too bad ...

Yeah it was not that bad and the demage to my army was quite minor, don't forget that the battle was on a plains where he had full frontage.


He can probably handle losing 22,000 men better than you can afford to lose 13,000, but it's still a defeat I wouldn't be too unhappy about. Not least you managed to destroy six elements. Permadead units are always good.

How long until your Syracusan units are trained?

Actually I think he doesn't. He lost more elements therefore he has to pay more to recover and Carthage's NM is connected to how much money they have in the treasure,furthermore I think he can't retrain some particular mercenary units and elephants.


Can't really say how long the Syracusan units took to train since this was quite some time ago, however by the time of the next big engagement I will have trained 1 Syracusan hoplite unit and 2 Mercenary ones, plus an Heavy Syracusan Cavalry which despite trained wasn't yet in my main stack.
 
Updated myself on this thread. Well, it looks like your force in Sicilia are weaker, and you are not going to bring reinforcements anytime soon due to the Carthagenese fleet.

Good luck with that: )
 
Pyrrhic Stalemate

After letting my army recover a little, I move toward the unprotected town of Tauromenium, they lost their walls during the last Carthaginian assaults so conquering it was easy.

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Then I move to Henna and besiege it, my opponent doesn't do anything while I do this moves since he is still besieging Camarina.

I also enlist the help of Emporiae, they give me a free liburne (the smallest warships in the game) squad, not much but hey at this stage I welcome any help.

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After recapturing Camarina, my oponents moves toward Syracuse, which are great news, why? Because Hiero's locked stack is waiting outside with orders to retreat once engaged, which they do successfully. This gives me an extra 500 power to join my main army, excellent.

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This screenshot is outdated, I made Hiero's join my main stack, not the opposite.

Not waiting any moment my opponent moves is army to try to break my siege, though technically I was defeated the losses were few and we both stayed in this province. This is not as bad as it seems, my army is entrenched in a defensive position and hill region which doesn't let my opponent to deploy is massive army properly.

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In the next turn as expected he once again engages me in full force, leading to the most massive battle so far.

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Both of us lost around half our troops for an inconclusive result, though my opponent retains the NM advantage since he won 2 in the battles whereas I only 1.
 
guess the only way to evaluate that slaughter at Henna is in terms of who has the best replacement rate? The loss of elements could be important in that regard if one of you can recoup the losses. Otherwise, if you hang in, and on the defense, sooner or later he'll need to break off for to replenish his supplies.

I like the appearance of this scenario - a very claustrophobic tussle for a very limited range of provinces
 
To me, you clearly won that serie of battles : you still have your legions and did not lose much elements, plus his advantage in number is decreasing.
 
The legions are very good at keeping their cohesion, so on the long run, if you can still force him into battle, you should get more victories. I believe he'll try to evacuate his stack.
 
A lot of bloodshed. I did notice that the last battle was classified as a Roman victory, so perhaps the tide is turning? The others have made fine points about cohesion and lost elements, so I won't add anything to that. :)

I assume the Carthaginians can't keep up these punishing assaults, so I expect some kind of lull while both formations try to regain strength. How effectively can you replenish your army in Sicily, while most of the towns are still controlled by the Carthaginians?
 
I hear ill tidings that this forum might be closed soon (what with Paradox and AGEOD separating, and all the IP returning to AGEOD). It's the way things work, I understand that, but I just wanted to make sure I left at least one comment of general thanks for the AAR, in case the closure comes sooner rather than later. Here's hoping you can reach the finish line before it happens, but if not, I enjoyed the AAR anyway.
 
Thanks for you support guys, regarding the future of this AAR I will probably continue it in the AJE AAR section.


I assume the Carthaginians can't keep up these punishing assaults, so I expect some kind of lull while both formations try to regain strength. How effectively can you replenish your army in Sicily, while most of the towns are still controlled by the Carthaginians?

As long as I have Syracuse I will not have problems with that.

guess the only way to evaluate that slaughter at Henna is in terms of who has the best replacement rate?

So far I had no real problem but I can see myself going out of money