Here's a real quick update for tonight.

First turn -

I start out the game. My finances are in the toilet, my empire's reach is overextended, and nobody is happy to be Roman right now.



I start the game and get this message about the Vandals. Luckily I should miss most of the hordes when I abandon western europe and move to the east.



I also get this message about religion. I plan on making my empire Christian, since most of the ERE is christian. I will probably end up leaving my pagan family members in doomed western Europe.



I do my best to bring public order up to 70% in every city, but its just not going to happen. I only start with 1000 denarii, meaning only ten cities can have peasants this turn. In places where there is no possibility of getting public order up to 70%, I move my garrison out of the city, rather than waste valuable troops putting down riots that are going to happen anyway.





Here is my lists scroll. This is really a handy trick I learned from Severous for keeping organized. If you click on where it says "Public Order", it lists the cities in ascending or descending public order levels.



There's the first turn. I don't have time put up more tonight, so I'll try and get to it later.

[This message has been edited by General_Zavier (edited 01-29-2008 @ 11:30 PM).]

Well, I have to say I was surprised when I saw this. WRE to move to ERE provinces? Wow!

As for your waning empire:
How about tearing down infrastructure in your doomed cities? You'll get a nice bonus of cash, and keep the rebels back a bit. Also, I'd disband many of your more western troops, it'll be hard to transport them, and you want to keep as much money as you can.

*Gasp* OMG

Just kidding. Seriously, Wow. I sure wasn't expecting this. A totally new concept, I should say. It probably won't be easy. Which area do you want to start migrating to? If you move gradually from west to east, the Sassanids will probably take advantage of the ERE getting weaker, becoming potentially more difficult to deal with.

I say you should tear down all the buildings you can in the settlements that you are going to abandon. Built up as the WRE is, you will get a lot of cash this way. Also, if you convert to Christian, you will run short on family members early on as most WRE family members start out being pagan.

First reaction upon reading the title-
"Good flip!"

Second reaction upon reading where you're going to=
"Bloody hell!"

This is going to be veeery interesting.

This is gonna be very interesting. I wonder how long it will take to conquer all the ERE.

Have you got an idea of how you're going to capture the East? Maybe it's a good idea to start in Egypt and then move up.

Very ambitious indeed!

Since this is a migration, do you have any kind of timetable on when you have to abandon your old territories?

This is more ambitious than Operation Market Garden. You have Franks, Goths, Alemanni and the Huns.

This is going to be hard. VERY hard.

But good luck.

Thank you all for your comments, and yes this will be a tad ambitious.

@CaesarVicens – I shall indeed be tearing down buildings and disbanding units. I lost my tally, but I disbanded about half of all my Foederati Cavalry and infantry. The reason being that they really aren’t that good of troops, and they have huge upkeep costs (about 300 denarii each!)

@xingjianma – Well, it will take a while to take out the ERE, but in migration campaigns, a slow moving army is a lost army. As soon as I start losing territories in western Europe, my finances will become worse than they already are. However, I will hit the ERE hard, quick, and where it hurts.

@EnemyofJupitor – Indeed I sure hope that it will be interesting. Thank you for your support!

@Hussarknight – I’ve pondered where to invade for a long time. I figure that after dropping a small stack on Kydonia (but not attacking the ERE yet), I will move to Phoenicia. There are three cities right by each other that I can siege simultaneously. Also, Alexandria will be cut off from the rest of the ERE and is relatively undefended. From there, I will move into Turkey. Greece will be last. If Greece provided the economic powerhouse it was in RTW I would probably go there first, but now its less provinces and that is where the hordes settle first. If I head there last I should be able to avoid most of the hordes.

@SubRosa – Well, if all goes will, I should be attacking the ERE in about 7-10 years. I would attack sooner, but it will probably take that long to move my troops. As for abandoning my provinces, I hope to abandon one province for every one I take, and after I have taken everything except northern Greece, I will probably ditch the rest of them.

@Legion Of Hell – I’m not familiar with Operation Market Garden, but I can assure you that this will be much more ambitious than that. (Whatever it is )

Alright, now for today’s update.

I start out my turn with this message:


Although no one is very happy with me, hopefully they’ll burn out their anger in a couple months, and look at that, I ended up in the black this turn!


I have the largest faction. No surprise there.


I recruit more peasants and build some temples and disband more Foederati troops and end the turn. I feel pretty good about this turn.

However, I shocked when my next turn comes up and I am 1600 in the red.


Turns out that three rebelling cities will do a number on your treasury.




However, only one town is rioting, so that’s good news, right?


Good thing I had the foresight to tear down all my military buildings in all the towns that rebelled, or I would really be in trouble.


Next turn one more settlement revolts. I need to recapture these places or I’m not gonna be able to recover from this.


Like the others, it is garrisoned with only peasants. I also thought to bring a relatively large army close by.



Back in Spain, I assault Carthago Nova.


For a second I thought back to this, and got a little worried…


But they are regular easy to kill peasants. I like in this game how the upkeep for peasants is so low that they have become the ultimate garrison troops.


An inside the siege tower pic.


The clash. The peasants have lost about ten men and already broken. However, they are fighting to the death so I still have to kill them all.


My siege tower with a ballista on it starts firing.


Flying peasants are one of the most amusing things ever.




A second unit of peasants routes as my men take the tower.


Aw man, this almost never happens except when you don’t want it to.


It collapses, so I send my men up the other tower. This just means that we can’t flank the wall peasants and that it will take longer to kill them all. But no biggie.



At last, all the peasants are dead.


I mob the town center with my cavalry and spearmen.


My first victory of the campaign. I would have lost less men, but I forgot how much of a pain the overpowered generals can be in this game.


I sack the settlement for quite a hearty sum.


My faction leader gains a retinue. He’s getting kinda old, so I’m gonna give that to someone else when I first get the chance. I also need to find a good heir.


I end the turn with no potential for riots. It’s a good turn.


Oh boy, the first of the Barbarian Invasions.


Crap. I need to contain this as fast as possible. This might push my invasion date back a couple turns…


That’s it for now. Thanks for all your support. I’ve hit the ground running at the start of this campaign, but if I want to survive I’d better start sprinting…

Wow, when it rains it pours!

I wonder why those cities that rebelled did not get the full stack of two gold chevron rebel Peasants? Maybe it works differently for the WRE and ERE Rebel factions? I did notice where you got that picture from...

Was there anyone in that siege tower when it went up in flames? That would be a tough way to lose a unit.

I also noticed that picture of the Peasants on the wall, where your siege tower started firing, would make a great toon if given an appropriate caption.

damn, when you say ambitious you don't exaggerate, still I hope you do well, my mind is full of things that could go wrong. After your last campaign I think you could cope with most of them though.


Frostspider

I know you are going to dump all the cities eventually, but I have found certain cities can be kept happy by exchanging a pagan temple for a Christian church.
Lepcis Magna, in Tripoltania, is the prime example, it has a primarily Christian population with a pagan temple, not a good mix. There are at least two other cities which have the same problem.

It's too late for you now, but for those wanting to start their own WRE campaign...

I also noticed that picture of the Peasants on the wall, where your siege tower started firing, would make a great toon if given an appropriate caption.

I got the caption for it too (a caption at least)
"Gaius! No more beans before battle!"

Oh wait, someone's done one like that before, haven't they?

Those peasants are gonna feel bad in the morning.

In my own WRE campaign, I used a small little trick to earn loads of money. I put taxes up to very high in all my settlements on the first turn. Empire-wide riots were the logical consequence, but it did leave me with 10,000 Denarii at the start of turn two.

I would have lost less men, but I forgot how much of a pain the overpowered generals can be in this game.

I know how you feel. It just is not fun to see a Chosen Warlord routing two units of Comitatenses, for example. I'm actually working on a small mod to make cavalry less powerful, but it isn't quite balanced yet.

Hmm, IIRC Chosen Warlords in BI were not as powerful as regular Warlords, which is even more overpowered. I've had a unit of 80 unit Warlord rout 5 Equite Veterani of the ERE, and that's with one of their generals about 10 feet away.

Ouch at the 3 cities rebelling. Ouch again at the first barberian incursion. Ouch the third for the plague.
But good news on the sacking And I think Antioch area would really be the best place to go.

@SubRosa – I think because they are an emergent faction and they emerge with cities that they have no experience. I mean, I’m not really complaining or anything…

@Frostspider - Thank you for the vote of confidence and encouragement. Its what keeps me coming back to make these AARs.

@CaesarVincens - Yes, that is very good advice. However, I’ve tried to not build any more than I have to. Cities that I plan on holding on to for a couple more years I built docks and traders in to raise money. Some places I built temples, but really only to keep people happy.

@Hussarknight - Hmm… that’s an interesting idea. However, I like to keep my people as happy as possible. But that is a good idea, so maybe I’ll try it once.

@xingjianma - Yeah I cannot stand warlords. However, when I start getting more and more of them, then things get interesting.

@EOJ - I’m not going to Antioch exactly, I’m hitting more Jerusalem area because there is three cities within one turn of each other. However, I do plan on moving north to Antioch as soon as I can. The population is massive, so extermination is gonna bring in quite a bit of cash.

Alright, lets get this game underway.

I’ve taken one rebelling city, now its time to mercilessly crush even any thought of rebellion. I assault Salamantica, the other Spanish city that has rebelled. I need to take care of these three cities now as I spent all my money last turn recruiting mercenaries.


Standard assault, I bash down the gate and swarm the enemy general with everything I’ve got. It was close at first, but it was my peasants that turned the tide by lowering the general’s moral.


He gets scared and starts fleeing, and that’s when we get him.


Now all that’s left to take care of is the peasants. My general gains another experience for killing peasants.


Nike. My first general with silver experience.


I exterminate. Probably because there’s only like ten of them left, my mercenaries take none of the loot.


In Africa, I assault Lepcis Magna.



Same deal here. I was worried because it was their faction leader in the town, but he went down with relative ease.


My men take the town square.



Nike.


Once again I exterminate. I head back to Gaul to deal with Avericum, the final rebel city.


This time it is the Comatatensis that get to assault the walls.


Same deal pretty much as with Carthago Nova, my men easily take the wall from the peasants. Except this time, the second siege tower actually makes it to the wall.


They try to make a human wall to block the entrance to the tower.


Meanwhile, my men have come up behind theirs on the tower and open fire.


The wall is ours, and we move on to the town square. I throw just about everything at their general. At one point our two leaders were mere feet away from each other.


He ends up going down thought.


With that, victory is ours.


I exterminate again. Another 12000 in the bank, and all rebel cities captured. That means I’ll be in the black next turn.


The revolt is suppressed. I now rule Rome with an iron fist having crushed all who oppose me.


I’ve begun pulling out of my territories and congregating my armies in specific cities. They will all meet up in Rome to retrain (Rome has a foundary.)




That's it for right now. I'm a bit ahead, and I have about five full stacks total. That means that I can take five cities right away which is good because I'm gonna need a monster foothold to keep myself there. Also, the more Romans I catch off guard, the better. I only have once chance at a preemptive strike, so I'd better make it a good one.

[This message has been edited by General_Zavier (edited 01-31-2008 @ 06:16 PM).]

Mercenaries only take an extra part of the loot when a Horde sacks a city. So you will never have to worry about that this campaign.

Were those Berber Mercenaries I saw at the (re)taking of Salamantica? I liked how you used your Peasants there. In spite of what many believe, they can be of real use in battle. You just have to know how to use them. Which obviously you do.

General_Z(may i call you that?), I'm not sure, but i think you're doing it wrong(no offense meant) because i done a migration canpaign(not defensive, though) with carthage on RTW and i think you should blitz faster. Try This guide.I used it and got victorious.But i dunno, BI might be diferent.
EDIT:typo

[This message has been edited by Danilh (edited 01-31-2008 @ 07:27 PM).]

@SubRosa – Well I believe they were actually called some variant of “Moorish Mercenaries,” which is strange because the Moors weren’t in Spain until the 8th century. And I agree that peasants can be immensely useful in battle if used correctly. You can mob enemies with them reducing their moral, you can use them to absorb missile fire, the possibilities are nearly limitless!

@Danilh – Of course you can call me General Z. Indeed, I too have done several migration campaigns before, have read that guide, and agree that I am not moving very quickly. However, as Carthage you start out with what, six territories? As the WRE, I start out with 25 territories. Also, my troops are spread thin, and I am losing lots of money. I am also moving to an area where two superpowers (the ERE and Sassanids) dwell. Could I have left a good 5 or 6 turns earlier by not retraining all of my troops in Rome? Yes I could have, but I didn’t because I decided I would need to make as much money as I could before leaving. Not to spoil anything, but when I finally get to where I’m going I’ve gone from +22000 denarii to -16000 denarii. If I didn’t spend the last 5 turns I spent in Rome I would probably be down an additional 5000-7000 denarii.

Alright, here’s tonight’s update.

Rioting is still occurring throughout my empire, but it is happening less and less frequently as my cities are under tighter control.


Again with the plague? Geez is Ravenna ever susceptible to the plague…


Summer 366 -

I’m starting to make quite a bit of money each turn. Without having any buildings to build, I’m sometimes at a loss of what to do with my cash. Mostly I just buy peasants.


The Franks are eying my town it would seem.


I decide to pull out of York before the Celts attack. I would like to stay away from them for as long as possible.


More rioting.


I have nearly all my troops back to Rome.


I end my war with the Samaratians, although I do not know why we were at war in the first place. It looks like the Huns have arrived.


The Celts ask for a ceasefire, and I accept.


Eburacum revolts. It is now garrisoned by a family member and peasants.


Carthage is besieged by the Berbers.


Some announcements for this turn. The biggest piece of news is that the Samaratians have horded. That means that they’ll probably swing by Greece.






Rome is starting to look like it did when it was run by the SPQR. But those days are long gone.


Nearly all of my military in Gaul is on the way to Rome. All that remains is peasants.


Same with Spain.


The old man has finally kicked the bucket.


My next faction leader is also Christian. I don’t think I’ve explained my decision to keep my empire Christian, so I’ll do that now. First off, my generals with the better traits and good command tend to be Christian. Also, I am traveling to the ERE where there are only two or three pagan territories making it a hassle for public order. I do plan on keeping Kydonia pagan so that I can build a temple of Mithras there (it gives +2 experience and +1 weapon upgrades).


Rome’s numbers swell with each passing month. Deciding to wait a couple more years than I origanlly thought, (for the reasons I explained above) I decide to retrain all of my troops in Rome.



Alright we’ve got a battle this turn. The Berbers assault Carthage.


Because of the huge walls, I put my peasants on the wall to absorb the missile fire. My spearmen are on the sides waiting to rush in when the tower runs out of ammo or reaches the wall.


Lots of casualties just from that tower. Good thing I didn’t leave my spearmen there.


Luckily the ram catches on fire and is burnt to a crisp.


These Berbers decide to stand in the line of fire of my towers. Fools.


I’ve seen this bug before in my Romano Brits campaign. They simply cannot enter the tower for some reason. I’m not complaining though, it leaves my towers free to pick them off.


Back to the Berbers by the ram… wait, what happened?


Their extremely feminine general stands and watches.


Idiots. Won’t even look behind them.


One man makes it up the tower and onto the wall. He’s not gonna do much by himself.


He dies, and I get a victory message? The berber horses didn’t even leave the field. That’s weird, it didn’t even give me the option of continuing…


Back in Gaul, the Germans return.


My finances have really improved, I’m up to 15k.


These guys just don’t give up, do they?


Rumors of rebellion in the east creep to our ears…


The Celts attack me at Samarobriva. For some reason they keep leaving London alone.


Then when its their turn, the abruptly ask for a ceasefire. Crazy much?


Two of my cities are under attack by those foul barbarians.


Its 270 A.D. and I’ve decided to take fog of war off once every ten years. Here is the Balkens and Anatolia. Looks like Constantinople has fallen (probably to the Samaratians) and the ERE rebels have taken control of Ancyra.


The Sassanid Empire. As expected.


Where I plan on invading the ERE. Nice and undefended. I like it.


Dacia. Look at what happened to the Goths. Those poor bastards.


Germany. Also as expected.


And England.


And Africa.


Oh boy. This is exciting news. They look at pretty full strength which is suprising. Usually when the Hordes finally make it to the WRE they’re pretty depleted powerwise.


And on that note I leave you. Its currently 271 A.D. In the next five years the crap really hits the fans. It really starts getting intense campaign map wise. However for the next five years there are almost no major battles. So in order to keep you guys interested, I’ll try and play a custom battle or something and include it in the next update. Because I’m serious. There is one battle and the only screenshots I have are the “You Sally Forth” and “Victory” messages. I get besieged a lot, but they always seem to abandon the siege after one or two turns for some reason.

Also if you’ve paid attention to the picture numbers, you’ll notice I’m skipping a lot of pictures I took. However, they’re all uploaded. Most of them are too boring, monotonous, and repetitive to include all of them. However, if you really want to see innumerable shots of End of Turn reports and Civil Disorder reports, please feel free to look here.

General Zavier, are you using some kind of mod to change the appearance of the strategic map? The reason I ask is because mine looks much different. It does not have all the neat "stuff" that yours does on it. Or are you perhaps using Vista and Direct X 10? I am on XP with only DX9.

For example, here is what mine looks like:


Compared to your own:

Ah, I know the reason behind that one.

Its because of a mod I downloaded called Rome Medieval. I dunno if you've heard of it, but its pretty much M2TW on the Rome engine. Anyway, its just in beta right now and I was trying to clear out some space on my computer so I took it out. However, there must be some files in my regular RTW files because some things are still different (I don't have multiple copies of my RTW data, I tried it once, and it go messed up when I tried to play a mod... I used the thing in your sig, but maybe I didn't do it right.)

Anyway, a few traces of the mod still remain. The music in the game is not the RTW music, it is the music from Rome Medieval. A couple graphical things remain too, only on the campaign map for regular RTW.

For instance, any Roman family members in RTW look like they are wearing medieval era armor. There's one or two other minor things, but nothing really serious, so I never bothered to reinstall RTW.

Yeah, that actually looks a lot like the M2TW campaign map, with farms, brighter colors, etc.

Good thing you are abandoning your territories. I wouldn't fancy fighting all those hordes.

Indeed, General_Zavier's campaign map looks different from all of ours. I simply assumed that he changed the settings, because the picture looks more rough, but looking closer, he's definitely had it modded or edited. You'll notice that his ships look different from ours too

wow
great work so far

Hey guys, sorry its taken me so long to update, my internet has been out since Sunday, but here's another update.

@xingjianma – Yes, a couple other things in regular RTW look different too. I’ll try and get a couple pictures of the various small glitches in the game. I would reinstall and I’m sure that that would fix the errors, but I think the campaign map looks more interesting now, and the other errors don’t bother me that much. Although I do miss the RTW music sometimes, its just the campaign music, the battle music is still the same.

Alright, update time. I’m really sorry that I didn’t get to play any battles, so its gonna be a slightly boring update, but an important one.

Even though the trade in London is extremely profitable, I decide to pull out because the Celts are storming the beaches of Normandy, and I need to keep them in check.


My invasion force is going to be massive. Five full armies of troops. Each army will consist of:

-3 Generals
-4 Comatatisis
-5 Limitanei
-4 Archers
-1 Foederiti Infantry
-1 Cavalry Archer
-1 Samaratian Auxilia
-1 Foederiti Cavalry


I get in a small brawl with the Alemanni. They only had two depleted units of archers, a unit of wardogs, and a unit of spearmen. My family member took on the archers and wardogs while my peasants mobbed the spearmen so my general could charge them from behind.


Nike.


Only one city rioting and the Alemanni have routed. Things are looking up this turn.




However, the Franks have allied with my enemies. This will only mean more barbarian incursions into WRE territory.


At long long last, my armies are all retrained and ready to invade. Its been probably two and a half years longer than I had wanted, and I probably am bringing way too much military with me, but I like to be prepared. Also, after all this EOD playing with the rarity of mercs in those games, I’ve kinda subconsciously stopped hiring as many mercs as I used to.


The vandals have left Roman lands. I feel sorry for the Goths though…


I get in a naval battle with the celts…


And I lose??? I had more men then them! I’ve noticed that Roman navies tend to fare worse than others outside of the Med.


Next turn I find that the Goths have gone horde on me.



Here’s the culprit.


Hm. Never gotten one of these guys before. Random, but I’ll take it.


There they go, finally leaving Italy.


Oh crap. There goes the Eastern front.


Oh crap. There goes the other Eastern front.


This is the second time this city has revolted this game.


I besiege because I figure if I mob this guy with all my peasants, I should be able to win.


But hmmm, look who was hiding in the wilderness…


Yeah, I’m gonna run away from this one…


There goes another city. At this rate I won’t have anywhere in Gaul under my control soon.


This is part of the reason I sat around Rome for so long. I was trying to build up as much money as I could. I’m gonna need that now that I’m losing all of my cities.


The Celts and I are at war again.


At the rate I’m losing cities and money, I estimate about three or four more turns till I’m broke. And I’m only half way to my destination. And its probably gonna be another three or four more years before I get where I’m going. Oh well, I’ll just do lots of exterminating I guess.


That’s it for today, sorry its so dry and boring right now, most of the pictures don’t need much of an explanation, but I’ve been writing more to make it slightly more interesting. However, there is still probably one full update of pictures before it gets interesting. If you guys want, I can just post all the pictures in my next update without explanations (so it would just be 20 or so pictures without any words) and if you have any questions about anything you can ask and I’ll explain it. I don’t mind talking about my pictures, but its pretty much going to be more of the same, people attack me, places riot, I lose money, rinse and repeat.

Tell me what you think about that idea, or any other questions or concerns you have for me.

[This message has been edited by General_Zavier (edited 02-07-2008 @ 06:13 PM).]

Actually, this looked pretty interesting to me. I was hoping for that Peasant vs. Peasant matchup though. That is a battle you rarely see!