The Semnoni-Suebi conquests

[Sans-Souci]

Recently, Rome has decided to conquer the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, and has declared war on the Ausetani:

We will try out the aadvantages of our new military techniques with the Lysmachid kingdom, profiting from the fact that they haven't got so many ressources as we have and that they are already at war with the Antigonid Empire. The Lysmachid kingdom hasn't yet reached our level of military science, so it should be easy to defeat their armies. And after we have incorporated them into our Empire, the next foe to subdue will be the Romans.

We are still reluctant to fight countries who have reached a much higher level of military research than we have. In earlier campaigns against well developed countries, we found out that even if we defeated their armes, our losses were much higher than theirs.

But generally, we are on a good path:

 

[Sans-Souci]

So here the situation at the outset of the war with the Lysimachides:

They have five armies and 108 units (only 28 units in Europe):

17 units in Suci
2 units in Crobobizi
9 units in Astike

40 units in Thynia, trying to regain it from the Antigonids
40 units in the Troad, marching towards Pergamon (40 Antigonid units are also on their way to Pergamon)

Let's hope our fleet will be able to hinder their two armies of 40 units each to cross the Bosporus or the Dardanelles from the Asian to the European side.

We have 7 armies and 98 units:

16 units in Taulanti
3 armies of 11 units in Dardania , another one of 11 units is on the march
27 units in Buridavensi
2 armies of 11 units in Piephigi

The army in Buridavensi is led by our Great King, he needs to be combined with another army led by good general to cover his bad skills, but we hope that the units under his command will get loyal to him so that we can assign them to other generals without taking the risk of instigating some generals to create their personal army.

We have left some other armies distributed elsewhere in our realm, in order to put down occasional uprisings. And one army each is stationed in the two provinces which we want to colonise, but which still have a too strong presence of Barbarians hidden somewhere in the forests.

The Antigonid navy is very impressive and shows that the war will not be easy when we will have to confront them in the future.

Currenty, the Lysimachids are allied with Rhodos (one province) and with the Bosporian kingdom (military level of 3), both don't seem to be a military menace:

So in the worst case, if allies are called in, we could face two more powerful countries:

However, the Seleukides are far away. On the other hand, our neighbours, the Kassandrian kingdom, could do us harm. But maybe they will stay put. No risk no fun.

The Kassandrian ally Syracuse is also far away:

 

[Sans-Souci]

So we declared war on the Lysimachides. Luckily, we sent as envoy the most corrupt and selfish man we could find (45% corruption), as:

We set our troops on march into their kingdom, their all for Allies was anwered on 1st March:

and on 21st March:

The outcome of our first battle, on 30st March 574, seemed to be a very good omen:

But of course the key to the campaign was their main body of troops, which we confronted on 6th April 754:

It lasted four days, and ended in a victory:

We didn't want to let their defeated army recover and folloed them to hunt them down. After several minor battles, finally on 23rd August 574, their land forces on European soil were no more:

 

[Sans-Souci]

However, in our plans for the campaign, we had not taken into account the Bosporian navy. Our fleet which was blocking the passage of Dardanelles and Bosporus in order to prevent the two Lysimachides armies of 40 units each to intermingle in our campaign, was attacked. The Antigonid fleet had no business with the Bopsorians and just watched:

Still, on 22nd July 574, the situation seemed quite favourate for us. The two Lysimachides armies in the Troad and Thynia had been defeated by the Antigonids. The sea battle in the Propontis stll going on, they didn't dare to take the risk of an attempt to cross over to Europe. Instead, they went off deeper into Antigonid territory, and we never saw them again. The Allies of the Bosporian kingdom had not yet entered the fight. We had some uprisings of malcontents elsewhere in our territory, but the armies which we had statione in strategic positions all over our Empire, were already on their march to put them down.

So it didn't matter so much that on 4th August 574 the battle for the control of the Propontis was lost:

The Bosporian fleet didn't take advantage of their victory and let us escape, but we were ambushed by the tiny fleet o Rhodos. Poor devils. The 24th August 574, we could celebrate twice: a victory on sea and a successful siege:

Our Mediterranean fleet being reduced to 4 damaged triremes, we began to build new ships in all our ports. It took many months until out fleet was strong enough again to deserve this denomination, and it was not before 8th April 575, that we could send the last ship of Rhodos to the ground of the sea.

However, an invasion of Rhodos did not seem feasible, we did not have enough ships to transport an arny there which would have been strong enough to defeat them. Especially with their science level which is double as high as ours. So we - reluctantly - decided to let them go. They did not interfere duringin the rest of the war.

 

[Sans-Souci]

In the North, against the Bosporians, we had left only one army. They easily defeated the Bosporian army opposing us, and laid siege on the first province, which fell on 5th February 575. For reasons I don't know, a Seleukid army of 2 units was stationed in Rhoxolani. They never moved, and ignored all our troops which we sent into this province:

On 28th April 575, there was a backlash: A new Bosporian army had arrived:

But as we had sent a lot of armies north as soon as they had become free after completing their sieges in the Lysimchides realm, our advance was unstoppable, and on 1st September 576 their last army was destroyed:

Shortly afterwards, on 12 September 576, the last province of the Lysimachides fell:

THe Lysimachides already had signed a peace with the Antigonides in 15 August 575, but this had been too late for having an effect on the outcome in their struggle against us:

As the Lysimachides were leading the alliance against us, we decided to annex some Bosporian territories first, before we would end the war. On 2nd January 577, the last Bosporian stronghold west of Kolchis fell. The Kolchis ruler did not dare to refuse us the right of military passage, and we headed farther east for the other Bosporian provinces.

However, on 17th June 577:

 

[Sans-Souci]

Reinforcing our troops would have taken a lot of time, so we decided to just end the war, for now.

The Bosporians were grateful for our kindness and on 18th June 577 the peace was signed:

Two days later, the Lysimachides also agreed on our terms. During the occupation of their territories, they had realised that Suebian rule isn't so bad after all. Rhodos was included in this peace and left untouched by us:

Shortly afterwards, people returned to normality:

 

[Sans-Souci]

Meanwhile, on the Iberian peninsula, the Ausetani are in trouble:

 

[magnate]

Hi, can anyone tell me what mod this game was using? I've never seen the "provinces return to normal" event in the vanilla game.

 

[Wraith11B]

Interesting game!

 

[...............]

How did you survive the Babarians at the start?