It looks like a lot of ups and downs in this episode. The loss fo Titus, and Admiral Gaius getting crushed by a single fleet...

You have your work cut out for you now. Good luck!

Minor point- most readers do not comment. See Sepia Joust IV for proof- over two hundred people have read the tales there, yet only 9 have voted. But they do read. No need to start a new one, unless you feel the original was too unwieldy.

Replies

@ Terikel Grayhair:

Things are in a holding pattern for now. I'm able to keep an army in the field in Epirus under Cassius Brutus, with Cornelius being selected to lead a second army just in case I want to cut his teeth on a battle. However, it looks like I'll be stuck there for a little while.

In the last thread, GundamMerc suggested that I take Sparta as a strategic flank move. That would've been possible, had Macedon been satisfied with Salona and reasonable enough to make a ceasefire agreement with me early on. Now they're allies with the Greek Cities and I'm forced to keep the army in Epirus to head off any stacks which approach or lay siege to Apollonia. I'm hoping to have enough of an extra army built up in order to hold both fronts, especially with the family membership of the faction shrinking. Hence, the recruitment buildings in Apollonia and the chance to get an army barracks (for the triarii) in Tarentum.

As for update posts, I guess I will have to put up with these threads being inactive for a little while. At least my sessions will be shorter. This post begins my fifth session. Instead, I may compile my AAR segments ahead of time, then post on any reply which enables me to update the thread. However, if the thread is inactive for a month or so, I'm still tempted to start a new thread, especially if new ones keep sinking the inactive thread down off the page.

Progress

I started off the fifth session where I had left off, in Turn 58 (Winter, 241 BC). As is usual for the sessions, I started off taking stock of my faction's situation and looked around to see what courses I should take. At the end of the turn, Cassius Brutus had encamped at the ambush point east of Apollonia and awaited his orders for the next turn.

Admiral Cornelius was near the bay leading to the port of Thermon, where significant Greek military activity was spotted. Further north, there was a lot of Macedonian military activity swarming around Salona, which made me a bit reluctant to carry out the Senate mission still pending (take Thessalonica).

[img=http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/3983/jucbru10s5loadsession.th.jpg][/img]

[img=http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/8873/jucbru10s5t58viewcpgmp.th.jpg][/img]

I checked through the overviews tabs and lists to see what the current conditions were. Nothing much had changed, save for the passage of time. Aulus Brutus was still the faction leader, and there were 255 years remaining to achieve the victory condition for the Imperator campaign.

• 3 regions controlled (Apulia, Bruttium and Epirus);
  
• 49 battles won; and
  
• 12 battles lost.

Most of my losses were in recent naval contests against the Macedonians. The Greek Cities appeared to have lost their ability to defend their home waters.

At mid-turn, my projected profits were 1,476 denarii. The bulk of the expenses were for army upkeep, which were at 6,927 D for the turn. Total projected expenses, including wages and recruitment, were placed at 9,441 D.

My diplomatic overview showed no changes from the last start of a session:

• 6 allied factions (gens Julia, gens Scipia, SPQR - Senatus Populus Que Romanus, Parthia, Numidia and Spain);
  
• 3 enemy factions: (Macedon, the Greek Cities, and -- in general -- rebels);
  
• no protectorates.

It would be interesting to note that, in the current turn, all three of the other Roman factions didn't had a ceasefire agreement with the Greek Cities, though they maintained hostilities with the same three factions: Macedon, Carthage, and Gaul. I currently had only Macedon as a common enemy, while Gaul and I had a ceasefire, and I never did declare war on Carthage, even after missing the chance to blockade the port of their capital city at the Senate's orders several dozen turns before.

On the Senate overview, I still had 9 turns remaining on the mission to take the Macedonian capital of Thessalonica. My standings with the Senate and People both remained unchanged -- about 60% approval from the former, 20% with the latter. All three of the Roman families had the same standings.

My lists overviews showed the status of my three settlements controlled:

• Tarentum (pop 11,337; PO 120%; inc 1,854 D)
  
• Croton (pop 16,369; PO 100%; inc -975 D)
  
• Apollonia (pop 3,218; PO 170%; inc 1,608 D)

The active governors, military commanders and agents at this time were:

• Aulus Brutus (age 63, governor of Croton and faction leader, garrison 343)
  
• Cornelius Brutus (36, Apollonia, garrison 397)
  
• Amulius Brutus (60, Apollonia and faction heir)
  
• Vibius Brutus (59, governor of Tarentum, garrison 207)
  
• Cassius Brutus (43, commander of the army of Epirus, 748 soldiers)
  
• Admiral Manius (21, navy commander at sea, 20 crewmen)
  
• Admiral Cornelius (23, navy commander at sea, 38 crewmen)
  
• Appius Porcius (65, diplomat abroad in Media)
  
• Caius Flaminius (52, diplomat abroad in Syria)
  
• Decius Ovidius (59, diplomat abroad in Macedonia)
  
• Luca Antonius (52, spy infiltrating Thermon)
  
• Manius Cincius (45, spy active in Macedonia)

The family tree was getting a little thin. It wasn't looking good for gens Brutia. Unless someone stepped up and produced a heir, or we adopted a new family member or two, it looked like my faction could die out without taking another step beyond the borders of Epirus.

On the bright side, gens Brutia was holding three of the six Senate offices this turn:

• Pontifex Maximus: Vibius Julius (gens Julia)
  
• Censor: Aulus Brutus
  
• Consul: Vibius Brutus
  
• Praetor: Gaius Scipio ("the Harsh", gens Scipia)
  
• Aedile: Julianus Scipio (gens Scipia)
  
• Quaestor: Cornelius Brutus

I guess the people got the message about that Macedonian who somehow got elected pope a few turns ago...

With the faction's situation squared away, I took a closer look at the enemy forces which looked like immediate threats to the inhabitants of my province of Epirus. The Macedonians had fielded an army under Captain Attalos, approaching the border through the mountain passes northeast of Apollonia with a unit of ballistas in his full-stack army. For the Greek Cities, Captain Euonomos was encamped outside the walls of Thermon, looking just as ready to march upon my city, while Luca Antonius continued his observations of the garrison in Thermon -- no generals were to be seen from the Greeks.

[img=http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/3395/jucbru10s5t58armymacatl.th.jpg][/img]
[img=http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/6266/jucbru10s5t58armygrkenm.th.jpg][/img]
[img=http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/8634/jucbru10s5citygrkthrm.th.jpg][/img]

I was now ready to begin playing. Before advancing the turn, I saved the game under the new session name. This being the fifth session, I naturally chose something like "Brutus 2010 Session 5"...

[img=http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/4540/jucbru10s5savegame.th.jpg][/img]

It was now Turn 59 (Summer, 240 BC). The starting messages were the following:

[img=http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/5550/jucbru10s5t59rpteot.th.jpg][/img]

• Total profits for the turn just ended were 1,600 denarii.
  
• The large temple of Juno ordered for Croton was completed, which helped some degree with the public order of the city (I was still waiting to order the Pro-Consul's palace if the funds became available).
  
• Recruitment report: bireme (Tarentum), principes (retrained, Tarentum) and velites (retrained, Croton).
  
• Diplomatic report: all three of my Roman allies (SPQR, gens Scipia and gens Julia) declared war on the Greek Cities.

I looked at the situation and potential moves for each of my armies in the field. Admiral Cornelius waited for orders at the mouth of the bay leading to Thermon's port, having recently won a battle against a Macedonian fleet. Admiral Manius waited in the port of Tarentum. Cassius Brutus was with the army of Epirus, camped at the ambush point east of Apollonia.

I decided to bring Cornelius back to port at Croton for retraining, rather than risk any more of his crew in an engagement with uncertain outcomes at this point. Manius would remain in service as the ferryman bringing reinforcements from Italy to Titus in Epirus. Titus was immediately put into action against a pair of Macedonian armies which had now debouched from the passes northeast of Apollonia.

The Macedonian units spotted on the campaign map this turn were:

• Admiral Kleitarxos, commanding an unidentified ship spotted by Admiral Cornelius offshore from the port of Croton;
  
• Captain Attalos, leading a full stack which included a unit of ballistas into the foothills north of Apollonia; and
  
• Captain Anaxagoras, leading a single unit of levy pikemen through the mountain pass to the east.

[img=http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/7251/jucbru10s5t59navyadmktx.th.jpg][/img]
[img=http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/4976/jucbru10s5t59armymacatl.th.jpg][/img]
[img=http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/3428/jucbru10s5t59armymacaxg.th.jpg][/img]

The arrangements being completed for dealing with the invaders by land, I brought Cassius out of his ambush point and added retrained hastati and merged units from Apollonia to the reinforcement army led by Captain Quintus. They challenged the Macedonians to battle, driving Anaxagoras to withdraw back towards the border of Macedonia and bringing Attalos to a halt at a point on the coast near the port.

[img=http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/8707/jucbru10s5t59armycptqnt.th.jpg][/img]

As one of the armies was out of moves, there was no need to risk all on an engagement against the full stack of Captain Attalos at this point. I preferred to use reinforcements to distract the enemy force and wear it down to the point where the main army in my control could engage and deliver stronger blows that would rout units and send them running. I save this for the next turn.

Before advancing the turn, I checked on my diplomats still abroad in the regions of Asia. Appius Porcius was currently crossing through the territories of Armenia, having taken a look at the Parthians. Caius Flaminius was moved away from Antioch, having seen that the Parthians had given up their siege of the Egyptian city and withdrawn back to their home territories. Along the way, he saw that a Scythian diplomat was active in the area and I checked the diplomatic overview to learn that they had become a protectorate of Parthia.

[img=http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/143/jucbru10s5t59dpltcaius.th.jpg][/img]

At turn's end, the Greek Cities had dispatched their newest diplomat Gennadios of Pherae to Vibius at Tarentum with orders to repeat the same old song and dance number once more. Again, the door was slammed in their face. Apparently, the spirit of Jason of Pherae (*) was very much in possession of the faction.

(* Historically, Jason was a would-be hegemon of the Greeks based in the city of Pherae north of Delphi. He attempted to make himself such in the years immediately preceding the reign of King Philip II of Macedon, only to be assassinated in one of those revolutions which reduced the Greeks to secondary status by the time Philip and Alexander reigned. Basically, he was your militaristic strongman type, little more than a mountain bandit whose actions smelled of usurpation rather than popular ladership.)

On Turn 60 (Winter, 240 BC), the starting reports were the following:

• A financial deficit of 245 denarii due largely to retraining, recruitment and build orders;
  
• The completion of communal farms orderd for the region of Epirus at Apollonia; and
  
• Recruitments reported: principes (Tarentum), velites (Croton), hastati (Apollonia) and bireme (retrained, Croton).

I now made the move with Cassius and Captain Quintus against the army of Captain Attalos north of Apollonia. The Macedonians withdrew at the first challenge to a point north of the port, where they were forced to stand ground. As always, I chose the main army under the general to lead the attack, with the reinforcements under AI control.

[img=http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/2974/jucbru10s5t60armycassiu.th.jpg][/img]

• Cassius Brutus: 749 men and
  
• Cpt Quintus: 350 men, versus
  
• Cpt Attalos: 641 men (Macedon)

While the odds were pretty strongly in my favor, I didn't have much confidence in the abilities of Cassius's men, seeing as they were rather light in strong infantry units and even lighter on cavalry. The opposing Macedonians under Attalos had a strong mix of cavalry and heavy infantry (pikemen and hoplites). I arranged Cassius's army with a three-line group with the velites and mercenary peltasts screening the front, the archers behind the main infantry line between reserves, and Cassius and the equites behind these to guard the flanks. With so many horsemen opposing me, I decided to let the skirmishers fight it out while Quintus's reinforcements marched in from behind Cassius's right flank.



Captain Attalos had no less than 6 full cavalry units on his army, and 11 phalangites in a strong front. The only ranged units that he had were a single unit each of peltasts and ballistas. To be certain, I expected more than a few of the units on my end to wind up routing, but I could deal with that if the result was an equal or greater number of routers on the Macedonian side.



It really was a hard-fought battle. The reinforcements under Quintus did their job well, in spite of the quick rout by their captain, breaking up the phalanx formation and weakening it to the point where my infantry could effectively oppose them. Even Cassius was deployed into action to support the skirmishers, although he took a heavy hit from Captain Attalos's unit himself. The equites were deployed around the enemy's right flank to take out the peltasts and ballista crew behind their lines while they were engaged with Titus's infantry in front.





During the course of their maneuvers, the equites saw their opportunity to take down Captain Attalos, who had moved behind his own lines following a narrow escape from the melee...



With that task done, they set to work on the Macedonian peltasts and ballistas.



Still, the Macedonian phalangites were stubborn. Whenever a unit routed, I freed those units in Cassius's army who were engaged to come to the aid of others still locked in battle. This way, the rout spread, and those units still active on the field were wavering and vulnerable to being overwhelmed. Freed from their engagement with the skirmishers and artillery crew, Cassius's equites were used to run down any routing units leaving the scene of battle.






In the end, it was a clear victory. A battle well-fought in spite of the difficulties in maneuvering around the massive phalanx with a seemingly weaker infantry force composed mainly of skirmishers and raw recruits.

• Cassius Brutus: 445 kills; 641 of 749 men remaining
  
• Cpt Quintus: 184 kills; 125 of 350 men remaining
  
• Cpt Attalos: 383 kills; 12 of 641 men remaining

[img=http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/8392/jucbru10s5t60bt1sts1.th.jpg][/img]


With that battle fought and won, I recalled Cassius and the relics of Captain Quintus's army back towards Apollonia with an eye on merging depleted units and swapping retrained units for those who needed retraining. Those units who could not be retrained at the city on hand (essentially, the principes and equites) were to be ferried back to Tarentum. Apollonia was in the process of building a practice range so that my velites wouldn't need to be ferried, and that would be followed by a stables for the equites.

I took stock of all the remaining Macedonian units spotted by my watchtowers and other units on the campaign map. Salona was abuzz with activity to the northwest -- where these were headed to was unknown to me, but they certainly weren't trying to attack Epirus or anyone within sight of units from the other Roman factions. These were:

• Captain Anaxagoras, a lone unit (the levy pikemen spotted earlier?) camped out in the northern mountain valley of Eprius;
  
• Captain Choerilos, a small army composed of a unit each of light cavalry and peltasts entering Epirus from the mountain pass to the east;
  
• My old "friend" Euenus with a full stack army just outside the walls of Salona to the northwest; and
  
• Captain Ariphron, with an 11-unit stack including a slightly-depleted unit of militia hoplites (the only known unit) further north along the coast of Dalmatia.

[img=http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/2177/jucbru10s5t60armymaceun.th.jpg][/img]

There were at least a couple others, but these were the ones that my mouse-over highlighted that concerned me the most. The only Greek army in the field at this stage was a full stack led by Captain Euonomos along the road leading northwest of Thermon. I was expecting him to come north to besiege Apollonia, judging from the ballistas in his force.

[img=http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/5770/jucbru10s5t60armygrkenm.th.jpg][/img]

I advanced to Turn 61 (Summer, 239 BC). Amidst the starting reports, I saw that the public order "face" at Tarentum had turned blue, indicating something which happened, as stated below:

• EOT finances were pretty deep in deficit (-1,709 D);
  
• The faction was struck by a double tragedy -- not only did Vibius Brutus die quietly at Tarentum, but also Hostia;
  
• Amulius Brutus got a drillmaster for his retinue; and
  
• The recruitment report had the following: principes (Tarentum), hastati (2 including one retrained, Apollonia), and equites (retrained, Tarentum).

The Macedonians had continued to use Epirus as a highway. Cassius was in the field with the main army, while Cornelius was sent to command the backups at the ambush point east of Apollonia. I waited to see it either the near-full stack approaching from the north, or the full-stack Greek army near the border with Aetolia from the south would make the first move.

From my observations this turn, the armies were identified as follows:

• Captain Alketas of Macedon, leading a 16-unit stack strong in infantry, currently safe from immediate attack by either Cassius or Cornelius;
  
• Captain Assandros of Macedon, leading a single unit of light cavalry through the mountain pass northeast of Apollonia;
  
• Euenus of Macedon, still holding outside of Salona and apparently not making any moves as yet;
  
• Captain Ariphron of Macedon, remaining still further northwest of Salona along the Dalmatian coast;
  
• Captain Ceyx of Macedon, leading a 12-unit army in the field next to Ariphron;
  
• Captain Euonomos of the Greek Cities, still waiting by the dock of Thermon (now being blockaded by a Julii fleet);
  
• Captain Pinder of the Greek Cities, leading a single unit of militia hoplites near the east wall of Thermon;
  
• Captain Trypho of the Greek Cities, leading a 3-unit army (including two armored hoplites) near the city's west wall;
  
• Captain Melas, leading an 8-unit stack including ballistas along the road from Attica;
  
• Admiral Praxilaus of the Greek Cities, commanding a 2-unit navy on the other side of the cape where the port of Sparta was now being besieged by Admiral Cornelius; and
  
• Admiral Cleombrotos of Macedon, commanding a single-unit navy further east.

Seeing as there was no letting up in the wars against Macedon or the Greek Cities, I sent Decius Ovidius away from Thessalonica and parked him in the road northwest of Athens. There, he'd wait and play a minor observer role until I decided what to do with him. There was a sense that one of the two enemies was going to move soon...

I advanced to Turn 62 (Winter, 239 BC). The first move was by the Greeks, who besieged Apollonia. This was among the starting reports for that turn:

• The siege of Apollonia;
  
• Finances were at a slightly smaller deficit (-488 D), mostly in army upkeep;
  
• Tarentum's shipwright was completed (I could now recruit triremes!);
  
• The recruitment report included: spy (Croton), principes (2 units retrained, Tarentum), equites (retrained, Tarentum) and hastati (retrained, Apollonia); and
  
• The diplomatic report: Armenia declared war on Pontus, leading to the breaking of the latter's alliance with Parthia.

The first move of the turn was to get Cassius and the reinforcements into action against that Greek army that was besieging Apollonia. It was Captain Euonomos, whose big stack had spent the past couple of turns holding its place near the border by the port of Thermon. The AI decided that it needed to use those ballistas for something, but not for breaking through walls (my first thought when I start building artillery).



Because it was a siege, I wanted to get the reinforcements under Captain Placus under AI control, but avoid having Amulius Brutus and his garrison troops doing so. Cornelius was left back at the ambush point with a unit or two, while I let Cassius lead the attack.

• Cassius Brutus: 748 men
  
• Cpt Placus: 150 men
  
• Amulius Brutus: 294 men
  
• Cpt Euonomos: 674 men (Greek Cities)

Even with reinforcements, the match was even. Euonomos had in his army several units of armored hoplites. I was going to have to play this one carefully, especially as the active reinforcements under Placus weren't going to be very strong (a 3-unit force of light cavalry, mercenary hoplites and principes). Amulius was just a spectator.

I arranged Cassius's army in a different fashion this time, dispensing with the reserve infantry to have skirmishers (mercenary peltasts) on the flanks and the velites screening the front of the line. Light cavalry (equites) guarded the flanks, with Cassius commanding from behind the right flank.



Euonomos was lined up in a clearing, it seemed downslope from where Cassius was started on a low hillside. Placus was bringing his reinforcements in from the edge of the battle map on Cassius's right. The garrison under Amulius waited beyond the upper-left corner of the map, where they would've been directed by the AI to launch a kamikazi attack on the Greek left flank (knowing the AI, at least one armored hoplite unit would be perfectly placed to make Amulius into pork kebob when he arrived).



The way Euonomos had his army arranged was in the classic phalanx. He commanded the missile cavalry behind the center of the line, a unit of peltasts between him and the hoplites. A unit of light cavalry also guarded each flank. The ballistas where wheeling into position behind Euonomos, apparently intended to provide covering fire against whatever approached them.



I decided to send Cassius's army forward to line itself up in a diagonal fashion, with its left flank partially concealed in the woods nearer to Euonomos's right. This brought a few of his phalangites out of formation, but it also brought his light cavalry over, apparently intent on spearing the equites on my left. I drew back the equites and allowed the mercenary peltasts and velites on my left to have their way with them.



In the meantime, Placus had already arrived, and was in the process of engaging the first units which Euonomos had deployed to head him off.



My own velites and peltasts on the left had done their jobs admirably so far, driving back the Greek cavalry on the right and wearing down any phalanx which came into reach. The infantry in Cassius's line were brought up, where the hastati and principes were set to "fire at will" to inflict further damage before any hoplites came into contact with them. And the Cretan archers behind the line concentrated their fire on units beyond the reach of the skirmishers.




It was at this stage that I accidentally hit a button on my keyboard that stopped Fraps and preventing me from capturing any more screen tabs into sometime in the next turn, when I "Alt-Tabbed" out of the game to see what had happened. Once I restarted the application, everything resumed like normal, but I lost screen shots of the rest of the battle and the results of it (a clear win, but Cassius's army was quite used up as a result of all the combat).

The rest of the battle was fought by concentrating Cassius's infantry on the right flank of the Greek army and following up with each unit routed by moving down the line. The archers were directed to aim at any isolated unit that hadn't yet made contact with the line, while those velites and peltasts whose ammunition was spent were pulled back and reserved for running down routers. Cassius and the equites on the right flank came forward to help the equites on the left, who had to dash into the woods behind the Greek lines to avoid getting caught up in Euonomos's missile fire.

As the battle closed, I directed the cavalry to aid any units engage in battle, after using them to destroy the ballista crews. Euonomos was routed and slain in pursuit. Then the rest of his army drawn out and picked off in detail.

Losing track of the rest of Turn 62 and part of Turn 63 (Summer, 238 BC), I missed the starting reports or any action which took place on that interval, but I recalled no major battles. Only retraining for those units sent back to be retrained, a build order for the Pro-Consul's palace at Croton and a few other things done to maintain the public order at Tarentum, no longer having a governor in the place.

After I restored Fraps operations, I was able to take screen caps again. The rest of this AAR installment will be based upon those:

The Greek Cities once again sent their diplomat Gennadios to Tarentum with demands to become a protectorate, to which I chose to counter-offer a ceasfire. Obviously, the answer was negative. The citizens in Tarentum took their lesson from the late governor well.

Advancing to Turn 64 (Winter, 238 BC), these were the starting reports:

EOT financial report: profit of 541 denarii
• Construction completed: Pro-Consul's palace (Croton)
  
• Retraining completed: principes (2 units, Tarentum), equites (Tarentum), hastati and velites (Apollonia)

I was also ready to order the building of a stables at Apollonia, through which I could eliminate the need to ferry cavalry over to Tarentum for retraining. After that, I took the time to view any potential hostiles within reach:

• Captain Carenos of Macedon, leading a 2-unit force (peltasts and ballistas) through the mountain passes northeast of the city.
  
• Captain Icarus of Macedon, leading a 3-unit force marching behind Carenos

I sent Cassius and the reinforcement units up to confront them, expecting them to withdraw. They didn't go anywhere, but neither could my armies. All that moving about had cost them too many movement points, and I was expecting the reinforcements to get rushed by the two Macedonian captains the next turn...



It was also here that my new spy was in the field. As I didn't get to take a screen cap of his introduction, I had no means of recalling his name at this time. (An argument for taking short notes during gameplay, just in case I accidentally shut down Fraps again...)

I checked on the activities of the Greek Cities, which were in the process of presenting me with a pair of tempting targets for Cassius:

• Captain Trypho, leading a 6-unit stack including one unit of ballistas, near to the border with Aetolia; and
  
• Captain Dieneces, leading a larger 10-unit stack right behind him.

Thermon looked even more tempting. Luca Antonius showed me that the Greeks only had four units inside of the city, and no generals. There appeared to be no other armies nearby.

I advanced the turn, and held my breath. Turn 65 (Summer, 237 BC) showed me:

[img=http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/8007/jucbru10s5t65rpteot.th.jpg][/img]

• EOT financial report: deficit of 594 D, primarily army upkeep with the build order for the Pro-Consul's palace at Tarentum
  
• My faction's popularity fell with the masses again ("It can't get any lower, can it?")
  
• Retraining complete: equites (Tarentum)

There was no diplomatic news to speak of at this time.

I had lucked out that the two small Macedonian forces contronted last turn didn't take advantage of the reinforcement units' isolation to attack, so I changed targets and sent Cassius and his reinforcements (under Captain Quintus) down towards the border with Aetolia to head off the armies o Trypho and Dieneces before they could threaten Apollonia. If I was lucky, I could destroy them and maybe have time to send a significant part of my forces foward with either Cassius or Cornelius to lay siege to Thermon.

On that turn, prior to advancing, I checked again with my diplomats in Asia. So far, Appius Porcius saw no signs of activity by the Armenians against Pontus by the Black Sea. Caius Flaminius was now at Hatra, where an Egyptian army was now laying siege to the city. Big Yellow Blob™ was making its progress, it seemed.

Advancing the turn, Tarentum got its EOT visit by another diplomat. This time, Macedon had sent Carpus of Cypsela to make the damands for becoming a protectorate. Again, I had the citizens in charge counter-offer the ceasefire which would be refused.

I also got the EOT battle popup for Admiral Cornelius, currently still blockading Sparta. The Macedonians had sent a rather depleted fleet down to aid their Greek allies.

• Adm Cornelius: 41 men (2 biremes) versus
  
• Adm Admetos: 11 men (? ships)

Even though the odds leaned a bit in my favor, I wasn't going to expect things to go my way, especially after recent experiences with a spent trireme crew destroying a near-full 2-bireme fleet...

A clear victory! The casualties on Cornelius's first ship were kind of heavy, but the Macedonians were practically destroyed. No Alexander, this time...



Turn 66 (Winter, 237 BC) brought me the news:

[img=http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9962/jucbru10s5t66rpteot.th.jpg][/img]

• EOT financial report: 844 D profit, mostly from having a better tax structure in place following the completion of the Pro-Consul's palace at Croton
  
• Construction report: stables (Apollonia -- no more ferrying cavalry to and from Italy!)

It was at this turn that I saw developments which prompted me to pull my armies away from the Greeks near the border: Euenus of Macedon was making his move!

• Captain Carenos was bringing his peltasts and ballistas out of the mountains north of Apollonia;
  
• Euenus's full-stack army was marching down to meet them; and
  
• Captain Icarus's 3-unit reinforcement was not far behind them.

There was no other choice but to meet this challenge. The matchup was surprisingly in my favor, but I still couldn't count out a full stack of Macedonian pikemen, cavalry lancers, and one general, could I?

• Cassius Brutus: 684 men and
  
• Cpt Quintus: 264 men, versus
  
• Cpt Carenos: 53 men,
  
• Cpt Icarus: 95 men and
  
• Euenus: 598 men

Before the battle opened, I saw that Cassius and his army was deployed on a broad plain near the coast again, directly in front of this massive spire of rock jutting up out of the ground. I made the modified 2-line arrangement (skirmishers out front and guarding the flanks along with the cavalry) and directed them to march to where their right flank would be against the rocks.

[img=http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/5153/jucbru10s5t66bt1cs1.th.jpg][/img]

I couldn't be more surprised by what happened next. This mass of Macedonian soldiers and cavalry, rather than at least try to inflict some damage on my Romans, just... turned and ran off. AGAIN!

[img=http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/5097/jucbru10s5t66bt1cs2.th.jpg][/img]

The only ones that actually stood their ground were Carenos and his ballista units, and that was likely because they could've get out of there fast enough. So I sent the equites forward to obliterate the fools. Euenus not being man enough to at least aid his own damned countrymen, put off the inevitable; Icarus fluttered away like the foolish young namesake of the waxen wings. "Chickens."

[img=http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/9760/jucbru10s5t66bt1cs3.th.jpg][/img]
[img=http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/2227/jucbru10s5t66bt1cs4.th.jpg][/img]
[img=http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/2718/jucbru10s5t66bt1cs5.th.jpg][/img]
[img=http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/1609/jucbru10s5t66bt1cs6.th.jpg][/img]

A clear victory was the result. No casualties at all on my part; only the virtual destruction of a ballista crew and decimation of the peltasts in Captain Careno's force on Macedon's part.

• Cassius Brutus: 47 kills, all 684 men remaining
  
• Cpt Quintus: no kills, all 264 men remaining
  
• Cpt Carenos: no kills, only 6 of 53 men remaining
  
• Cpt Icarus: no kills, all 95 men remaining
  
• Euenus: no kills, all 598 men remaining

[img=http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/1582/jucbru10s5t66bt1sts.th.jpg][/img]

Well, the Macedonian army routed... or did they? Cassius Brutus got a military tribune for his retinue, though. That bettered his chances of surviving in a defensive battle, in addition to the bonus it gave to Senate popularity. But where was Euenus?

I expected that he had beaten a hasty reteat back towards the north, making a beeline for his favorite resort (Salona). Imagine my surprise when I looked back towards the Greek armies waiting in the south and saw him down there! Was this guy given a worse sense of direction than Zoro, or did I come across my own "Hannibal Barca"?

[img=http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/2673/jucbru10s5t66armymaceun.th.jpg][/img]

I guess I'd find out when I started up session number six...

(Hannibal Barca, for those who wouldn't know, was the Carthaginian general who invaded Italy and made a name for himself by seeking to lure his Roman enemies into fights where he could have the tactical advantage, such as at Lake Trebia and near Cannae. I was thinking, "Did this guy pull a Hannibal and is trying to get me to fall into a battle with two stacks of armored hoplites?" I don't know, but I'll find out next session.)

Posting so you can.

Replies

@ GundamMerc:

Your reply posting is appreciated. I've loaded the latest session update now.

One of those things that I've been finding out about ImageShack is that you can actually select multiple thumbnails and click on a menu item on the right-hand column to produce a series of links to copy and paste. This spares me the hassle of individually clicking on each "info" button next to the thumbnail to copy the link from there, and then closing the popup to click on the next one. Lots of time saved, although I still haven't figured it all out yet.

As of this update, I've also gone one more session on the Brutii campaign and have been in the process of composing its AAR. There'll also be a Medieval 2 AAR centered around the Holy Roman Empire coming, but that'll be something for November.

Progress

I started the new session of the campaign with the usual overviews. Following the conclusion of the recent battle against the Macedonian invasion led by Euenus, I had seen where he ended up following his withdrawl and wanted to send Cassius and Cornelius Brutus down to the Aetolian border where he waited. I had no idea that things would turn around so badly.



The overviews for the current turn (Winter, 237 BC) were as follow:

• Faction: Aulus Brutus remained as faction leader, with 10 family members remaining; I had 57 battles won to 12 losses, but still controlled 3 regions (Apulia, Bruttium and Epirus); 251 years remained for the Imperator victory condition to be met (supreme ruler of Rome and at least 50 regions controlled).
  
• Financial: Projected profit of 1,294 denarii; the bulk of expenses were taken up with army upkeep, though there were also wages, building construction and recruitment (mostly in retraining units) costs.
  
• Diplomacy:[ This remained unchanged -- allies included all the other Roman factions (the Senate, Julii and Scipii) plus Parthia, Numidia and Spain; enemies remained Macedon, the Greek Cities and rebel factions.
  
• Senate: I had only 1 turn remaining for the deadline of taking the settlement of Thessalonica from Macedon, which I was not going to be able to meet (my one army in Epirus was isolated amidst hordes of Greek and Macedonian armies and was still too weak to challenge all of them).

I reviewed my lists scroll:

• Aulus Brutus (age 67, faction leader and governor of Croton, 244 garrison)
  
• Amulius Brutus (64, faction heir and governor of Apollonia, 197 garrison)
  
• Cassius Brutus (47, commander of the army of Epirus, 682 soldiers)
  
• Cornelius Brutus (40, accompanying Cassius and the army of Eprius)
  
• Captain Quintus (21, commanding reinforcements for the army of Epirus, 263 soldiers)
  
• Admiral Cornelius (27, navy commander blockading Sparta, 32 crewmen)
  
• Admiral Manius (25, navy commander waiting at the port of Tarentum, 40 crewmen)
  
• Appius Porcius (69, diplomat abroad in Cappadocia)
  
• Caius Flaminius (56, diplomat abroad in Assyria)
  
• Decius Ovidius (63, diplomat abroad in Attica)
  
• Luca Antonius (56, spy infiltrating Thermon)
  
• Manius Cincius (49, spy active in Macedonia)
  
• Amulius Genucius (25, spy active in Macedonia)

My faction was getting elderly. More than a few of them were destined to croak in the field before I could get any fresh blood. The recently-recruited spy, Amulius Genucius, was the youngest named character on the campaign map (excepting the captain of the reinforcement army with Cassius).

My key settlements appeared on the list as shown below:

• Tarentum (capital, pop 13,367; PO 110%; inc 854 D)
  
• Croton (pop 17,941; PO 125%; inc -261 D)
  
• Apollonia (pop 3,889; PO 160%; inc 2,034 D)

I thought I'd take a peek at the faction rankings for this turn. I seemed to be moving up slowly in overall rankings, just keeping pace with the Macedonians and Greeks with whom I was presently at war. I decided to focus on these two as my main targets since they had kept it up for so long.



My family tree had been getting thin. I was beginning to wonder if I had kept too many of my men in the field for too long. I had been in the habit of keeping those generals without strong civic traits out of the settlements for long periods due to concerns that they'd offset the beneficial traits and retinues of those chosen as governors, but I noticed that none of them had as yet produced offspring beyond the third generation. Unless someone turned up for adoption, or I had produced a man of the hour (MOtH), it looked like gens Brutia was going to stop right as soon as the youngest surviving grandson was dead.

Before starting with my moves for the session, I took a quick look at the Senate officials list:

• Pontifex Maximus: Gaius Scipio ("The Harsh", gens Scipia)
  
• Censor: Aulus Brutus
  
• Consul: Vibius Brutus (gens Julia)
  
• Praetor: Marcus Maxentius (SPQR)
  
• Aedile: Amulius Brutus
  
• Quaestor:Cornelius Brutus

I was beginning to wonder if this was something I should be doing at least every other turn. In historical Rome, offices were elected on an annual term. I could confirm this by getting a look at least on the opening turn of a year (summer). At any rate, gens Brutia seemed to be getting the majority of the offices at this time.

My first move was to bring the young new spy Amulius into action against the Macedonian and Greek armies that waited at the border of Aetolia. I got a look at general Euenus, who had been so persistent in invading Epirus after spending several turns hanging around in Salona. He had taken that town from my faction in that act of betrayal Macedon had him carry out so many years ago.



It was a mystery to me how he would not at least take a chance on standing up to the Roman armies I was directing against him. There were few negative traits I could identify with him, if any. Was this guy a regular Hannibal?

At any rate, Amulius the spy had earned a trait increase as a result of his successful infiltration of Euenus's army. He was going to be a worthy successor to old Luca.

Now was the time to prepare the armies of Epirus for the upcoming contest against the Macedonian-Greek alliance. I had Cornelius recruit a unit of mercenary hoplites to shore up Captain Quintus's reinforcement troops, while Cassius did the same with a unit of peltasts. I had hoped that this would be enough, as Macedon's armies seemed rather weak when it came to dealing with Romans. The Greeks' armored hoplites, however...




With the preparations completed, I turned my attention to the east. Developments there were intriguing, to say the least: the Greek Cities were at war with Armenia, who had been at war with Pontus, while Egypt had been pressing further and further afield, snapping up regions from its neighbors including the Parthians, with whom they were now conducting a war. Appius Porcius confirmed that Pontus was one of those factions who lost regions to Big Yellow Machine™; and Caius Flaminius was in the process of watching Parthia lose Hatra after failing in its bid to expand to the Mediterranean coast.




I used my remaining time on this turn to check on Manius Cincius, my jouneyman spy recruited from Croton several turns before. He had no strong traits and was barely able to muster a success rate for infiltrating other than the occasional small army (an average of 75%). I used this to get a quick look at a 7-unit Macedonian stack commanded by Captain Agathocles northwest of Thessalonica.



I advanced the turn. That brought about the EOT battle between the navies of Admiral Cornelius, maintaining a blockade on the port of Sparta after fighting off a Greek navy earlier, and the Macedonian fleet commanded by Admiral Astrabacus. Somehow missing the chance to screencap the opening popup, I missed out on getting the full bodycount and odds for the battle. Needless to say, it didn't go well.



Defeated, Cornelius managed to sail halfway across the Agean without meeting any other enemy ships. I would spend the next several turns nursing him back towards the nearest friendly port for retraining and reinforcement.



Turn 67 (Summer, 236 BC): my first acts were to begin some initial moves for the spies and armies before starting my fateful battle against Euenus and the Greeks. Amulius the spy was brought back into Thessaly to help keep an eye on movements among the Macedonian armies. Admiral Cornelius began his weary journey back home with the survivors of the previous disaster, carefully guided along a route south of the island of Crete.

As expected, the starting reports were mixed:

• Senate Missions: as expected, the failure to take Thessalonica sparked the usual outrage; but the Senate was generally quick to forgive such lapses.
  
• EOT Report: a 516 denarii deficit, due in large part to the spate of retraining and recruitment going on (heavy army upkeep was a normal expense by now).
  
• Events: The Creative Assembly never fails to inform you of peculiar trivia, such as the Carthaginians discovering the technique for producing clear glass.
  
• Faction Announcements: The family tragedy of Lucilla's death occured around this time; but I was losing track of my grieving widows, being concerned for the health of my old generals as I was.
  
• Recruitments: principes (Tarentum) and equites (Apollonia)

During the course of the turn, I found that I couldn't move the armies of Cassius and Captain Quintus very far; the roads weren't yet paved and their heavy infantry bogged things down. The battle against Euenus the Macedonian and Captain Dieneces of the Greek Cities was put off. Instead, I took the time to catch a gimpse of what the old diplomat Cassius Flaminius was witnessing while I set about preparing the armies of Epirus for the coming battle.



Partha wasn't taking Big Yellow's expansionist policies lying down.

I advanced to Turn 68 (Winter, 236 BC) without further EOT interruptions. The starting reports for the turn were as shown below:

• Senate Mission: My forgiving Senate assigned me a simple mission that wouldn't take too much effort -- blockading the port of Thermon again.
  
• EOT Report: 886 D profits for the turn, the bulk of it coming from trade and taxes offsetting the army upkeep and recruitment expenses.
  
• Construction: Pro-Consul's palace (Tarentum) and public baths (Croton)
  
• Recruitments: trireme (Tarentum) and town watch (retrained, Apollonia)
  
• Diplomatic: Numidia-Pontus and Pontus-Greek alliances; ceasfire, Gaul with SPQR

I was prepared to make my move at last. Before doing so, I took stock of what the surrounding armies from Macedon and the Greek Cities were doing through mouseover of what could be seen:

• Captain Agathocles had just crossed over from Macedon with his units and waited in the mountains near the northeastern border.
  
• Captain Python led a single unit of levy pikemen from the north, but posed no serious threat unless he were to join up with Agathocles and attempt an assault upon Apollonia.
  
• Captain Icarus had three unidentified units in his army, but was too far away to be of any concern while patrolling the mountains bordering Dalmatia and Illyria.
  
• Captain Alketas, with a strong 17-unit stack, remained just outside the west wall of Salona.
  
• Captain Ceyx was just a little further west of where Alketas was, leading 15 units in his army.
  
• Euenus still waited just inside the border of Aetolia with his Greek allies.
  
• As the only Greek army in range, Captain Dieneces had combined his army with that of another captain earlier and now had a full 20 units that included two ballistas and lots of armored hoplites.
  
• The only visible enemy navy was that of Admiral Astrabacus, the Macedonian sailor whose trieme had lately routed and driven off Admiral Cornelius from Sparta.

The presence of Euenus with the Greeks alongside him was a concern. I had a strong hunch that Euenus could be sent routing again, but the Greek armies had never turned away from a challenge like he did. I had to try something with Cassius and the reinforcements under Captain Publius (Quintus got relieved of command when he took over upon arrival from Italy) here.





Before I set things in motion, I did one more thing: I ordered the construction of an army barracks at Tarentum. With that, I could now have triarii in my armies and not need to keep recruiting so many mercenary hoplites of dubious value. This build order would be followed up with a blacksmith to help upgrade my units' weapons as needed (that, in turn would be followed by an armorer for the obvious purposes).



I brought the armies and navies into action. Publius was directed southeast to the foothills overlooking Euenus's right flank. Cassius was brought directly to Euenus's front to lead the attack. Admiral Manius was directed to attack the fleet of Astrabacus at sea before laying the blockade of Thermon as ordered.



The first round was under way:

• Adm Manius (71 men on 2 biremes, 1 trireme) versus
  
• Adm Astrabacus (28 men on 1 trireme)

A clear victory to wipe the stain off of poor Cornelius's logs. Manius set the blockade immediately afterwards.



As a diversion before entering the main event of the turn, I took a look at the nearest diplomat, Decius Ovidius, to see what he was able to observe amongst the Greeks where he was at (northern Attica near the Aetolian border). There was only one 9-unit Greek army led by Captain Diadromes in view. Hardly a concern for me unless I were to succeed in pushing Dieneces back to Thermon and start besieging him there.

It was time to fight the battle. Euenus wasn't so much of a concern for me as was the army of Dieneces, strong in armored hoplites. Captain Publius would serve as my AI-robot supporting army. The odds were actually quite in favor of the enemy now, but if I could pull it off, that'd give me my first heroic victory marker (the heroic win for a navy blockading Thermon several turns earlier seems not to have counted).

• Cassius Brutus (730 men) and
  
• Cpt Publius (283 men), versus
  
• Euenus (598 men, Macedon) and
  
• Cpt Dieneces (730 men, the Greek Cities)

Starting on a hilly battle map facing the direction from which the enemy would be coming, I arranged Cassius's army in a formation similar to those which served his predecessor Titus so well. The velites screened the front of the infantry, who were flanked by mercenary peltasts and guarded by the cavalry. The two units of Cretan archers formed a third line with reserve units of infantry and general Cassius commanded from the center.



Starting the battle, I immediately saw how much of a challenge it was going to be: Euenus had his army lined up on the top of a very high hill towards the opposite corner of the battle map, beyond a high-rising outcropping of rocks. Dieneces was bringing his army into the field behind the hill, and Publius would be entering the field from the corner to my left. I moved Cassius and his men closer at a normal pace, waiting to see if the Macedonians would leave their position to meet him.




Euenus didn't have much in the way of infantry -- just a single unit of levy hoplites and pikemen. But he did have plenty of cavalry and missile troops on his side. Dieneces was just then bringing his mass of heavy infantry over the crest of the hill.



Dieneces was able to get into a position in front of Euenus's lines to defend the hilltop. Publius, true to AI-robot form was walking straight into a rout (or suicide by cavalry charge). This was one of those times when I wished that I could give orders to more than one stack on a battle map and have Publius's men link up as reserves or shore up my rather tender flanks to free up the skirmishers to pick off isolated units.




It was here that I started to change tactics. The rock outcropping at once looked like a perfect shield for my army's right flank and an obstacle for any enemy cavalry that could try a maneuver from that angle, so I separated the group and had Cassius lead the infantry up to it, while the flanking cavalry and velites would be deployed ahead to where they would be useful. One pair of units would be joined by Cornelius and the right-flank equites in heading off any charges from the right (they would be joined by a unit of archers shortly afterwards), while the left-flank equites would go support Captain Publius.



Euenus and Dieneces apparently saw what was being attempted and started scrambling units into position to head my units off. The Greek ballistas in Dieneces's force had arrived, but were too well-guarded by cavalry and archers for me to make an attempt at them right away.





It wasn't going to look good for Publius. The enemies were already sending cavalry down the hill to charge him, and I wasn't so confident in my equites' abilities in heading those off. The best that they could do was skirmish around the flanks and try to knock off any cavalry which connected with Publius's infantrymen.



On the right, the detachment of velites and Cornelius's cavalry units arrived at their spot next to the outcropping, where the high ground that they now occupied could give them a little boost to their range and striking power against any enemy cavalry that would venture to try a flanking maneuver. I would be bringing up a unit of Cretan archers to cover them.



It was at this point that I thought things were getting ready to turn my way. The enemy lines were breaking up: one portion headed towards Publius's approaching units, the other staying in place to deal with Cassius's and Cornelius's detatchments. I had sent the remaining velites forward to screen the infantry in Cassius's group as they marched up to their position by the outcropping.



Unfortunately, this was where it all started to go wrong. The velites were forced back by charging Macedonian cavalry that also threatened the infantry lines. At the same time, Publius acted true to his AI-robot nature and started auto-destructing his formation in spite of the coverage that my equites were providing him.





I was able to put the Cretan archers and General Cassius to use to protect the infantry on my main force. The two units of Greek cavalry that Euenus had sent forward were thrown back. However, the damage was done. I was forced to sacrifice my unit of mercearny peltasts to help rout one of the squadrons.




Meanwhile, the detatchments that Cornelius was overseeing to the right flank were presented with a tempting series of targets in peltasts and archers who came down off the hill to take a shot at them. I would send the cavalry forward to rout no less than three of these units. It would be a fateful decision.





Publius was well on his way towards self-destruction, and my poor equites were going to get caught up in that wreck...




Even Cassius had his hands full, but there was an opportunity to gain something from this situation: Euenus decided that he had to show some manhood after all...




As it turned out, Euenus finally lost his nerve while charging a wall of spears on my mercenary hoplites on the right, then was shot down by pila cast by the hastati while breaking away. Cassius was able to rout the militia cavalry unit of Captain Dieneces, who had come up to support Euenus, but was unable to pursue in order to finish him off because of the preponderance of armored hoplites now certain to converge on his men. Worse still came the news that Cornelius had died fighting.




Realizing that Cassius was not in a winning position in spite of killing Euenus and driving away the Greek captain, I decided that it was best to withdraw from the battle and preserve as many of the men as was possible under the circumstances. My hopes of being able to have Cornelius continue as a commander of his own army were dashed, and the lack of strength in cavalry on my part would make taking a stand against the armored hoplites in Dieneces's army a suicide run. A lot of units would get decimated in fleeing, but it was better off this way -- Cassius would live to fight another day.



The result of this battle was a clear defeat. Cassius retreated to the fleet of Admiral Manius that was blockading Thermon nearby, while the relics of Captain Publius's army fled back into Epirus.

• Cassius Brutus: 308 kills, 449 men of 730 remaining
  
• Cpt Publius: 85 kills, 48 of 283 men remaining
  
• Euenus: 225 kills, 340 of 598 men remaining
  
• Cpt Dieneces: 284 kills, 647 of 730 men remaining

What was left after this mess were the remaining men from Euenus's army under the command of Captain Iolaos (soon to be promoted to general) and Captain Dieneces and his men. These would move forward from their spot to besiege Apollonia before the next turn.

I advanced the turn. Turn 69 (Summer, 235 BC) brought me the reports:

• Senate Missions: Satisfied with my fulfillment of the blockade of Thermon, the Senate now assigned me the task of blockading Corinth.
  
• Settlement Event: Apollonia was now being besieged by a Macedonian army.
  
• EOT Finances: These turned up with a profit (342 D), but that was largely due to the lower army upkeep resulting from the recent loss offsetting the construction costs.
  
• Faction Announcements: A mixed bag -- my diplomat Decius Ovidius must've fallen ill, dying in Attica; Amulius "the Wrathful" gained a wrestler in his retinue (personal security and influence bonus)
  
• Construction: blacksmith (Apollonia)
  
• Recruitments: wardogs (Apollonia)
  
• Diplomatic: I reflex-clicked out of this one, but there was a war declared by some faction -- stupid gamer trick.

Done with reviewing the starting reports, I had Admiral Manius bring Cassius and the relics of his army up to support Amulius and the garrison at Apollonia. I wasn't so confident of beating back the Macedonians, as most of the units were decimated, and the Macedonians had promoted Iolaos to the general's rank. A lot of Manius's time was spent ferrying replacements for Cassius's army over from Italy and bringing those units he could have retrained back to Tarentum.



Before entering the battle, I made one more pass at trying to gain a ceasefire from the Greek Cities with Appius Porcius, who happened to be on the scene in Bithynia where Eumenes of Sparta was in the process of fighting the Armenians for control of the region. Natually enough, the old bugger wouldn't accept it.

On to the fight!

I advanced the turn, fully expecting Captain Dieneces to just settle down for a bit to allow me to have my way with Iolaos of Chalcis. No such luck -- Dieneces decided to come running up to pick the fight with me!

• Cassius Brutus (542 men) and
  
• Amulius the Wrathful (307 men), versus
  
• Cpt Dieneces (647 men, the Greek Cities) and
  
• Iolaos of Chalcis (353 men, Macedon)

Amulius had every right to be "the Wrathful" now. He was stuck with the AI-robot role that I hoped would give me some breathing room for outflanking the Greeks and those damned armored hoplites of theirs. He hadn't had time to retrain any of his units with that new blacksmith, and Iolaos was apparently happy to let the Greeks do the fighting for him.

I started the battle near the edge of a wooded hillside looking towards the direction from which Dieneces would be coming. Amulius's garrison was entering the battle map from behind Cassius's lines, while Iolaos was taking his time approaching from the far right-hand corner of the map. Arranging Cassius's army in a sorted double-line with the missile units out front, I ungrouped the latter and sent them forward into the woods to conceal themselves and provide a little screening fire.



Just as Dieneces's armored hoplites arrived on the scene and began to force the velites and archers back, Amulius arrived with the first wave of his men.




Once they made contact, I set most of my infantry to guard mode and hoped that they would be able to hold the hoplites in place and enable the reinforcements to do more damage. Unfortunately, Amulius was in full AI-robot mode and wouldn't last very long, so I sent Cassius and the equites around any gaps in the line to be able to deal with Dieneces himself and any enemy unit that looked vulnerable.





In spite of all that effort, I was hardly making a dent in Dieneces's line. All that time, Iolaos and his men slowly closed in...



By now, the reinforcements from the garrison under Amulius had largely routed and my units under Cassius were being worn down in the melee. I had tried using the remaining unit of equites to mount a few rear charges into hoplites that were locked in combat, but was unable to do anything more than lose a few horsemen on each blow. As more of my units started routing, it came back to that dreadful decision...





Another withdrawl; another clear defeat for Cassius Brutus. Things looked hopless for the defense of Apollonia.

• Cassius Brutus: 235 kills, 252 of 542 men remaining
  
• Amulius the Wrathful: 91 kills, 62 of 307 men remaining
  
• Cpt Dieneces: 443 kills, 411 of 647 men remaining
  
• Iolaos of Chalcis: 84 kills, 311 of 353 men remaining

I didn't even know what became of Amulius; if there was a "Heroic Death" message, I must've missed it. At any rate, he certainly didn't earn it according to the battle statistics entry (-2 experience?).




I advanced the turn, fully expecting the Greeks or Macedonians to begin laying siege to or opening an assault upon Apollonia and the now pathetically weak garrison while Cassius was forced to throw himself into the fray. Surprisingly, Turn 70 (Winter, 235 BC) offered me a little choice after I read the reports:

• EOT Finacial: A large profit (5,906 D) due to the steep drop in army upkeep resulting from the recent battle losses and improved trade and taxes.
  
• Faction Announcements: Amulius the Wrathful apparently died a Hero's death, after all; Cassius Brutus inherited the role of faction heir; and Aulus Brutus added an equestrian (10% bonus on trade income) to his retinue.
  
• Recruitments: principes, bireme (retrained, Tarentum)
  
• Diplomatic: Pontus-Scythia alliance; ceasefire, Macedon with SPQR

With his bireme crew retrained, Admiral Manius was immediately deployed to carry out the Senate's orders to blockade Corinth. Along the way down, he made contact with a Macedonian navy spotted along his path and engaged them:

• Adm Manius (71 men on 2 biremes, 1 trireme) versus
  
• Adm Astrabacus (16 men on 1 trireme?)

If this was the same Astrabacus with whom my navies had had two prior engagements, he was getting desperate. It never ceases to amaze me how Rome: Total War AI never recalls spent units to retrain them or merge them with others. In either case, it was a clear victory.



His movement points being spent for the turn (I couldn't complete the journey towards the port of Corinth now), I left Manius where he was. Nearby was another Macedonian trireme commanded by Admiral Acestes. I was wondering whether this one was going to try his luck on Manius or proceed to some other destination.



At any rate, I had decided to abandon Epirus. Prior to sending Manius on his way, I had used him to ferry Cassius and the relics of his and Amulius's armies back to Italy for retraining and a little rest. stripped of its garrison, the city of Apollonia basically surrendered to the nearest enemy army. The Greeks took possession of the settlement when I advanced to the next turn.

The reports for Turn 71 (Summer, 234 BC):

• Settlement Event: Apollonia was occupied by an army of the Greek Cities and its citizens put into slavery.
  
• EOT Financial: A large deficit (-3,544 D), the bulk of which was due to expenditures for recruitment and construction (I was rebuilding that army).
  
• Recruitments: Virtually all of the recruitments were retraining surviving units from the army of Epirus at Tarentum.
  
• Diplomatic: Senatus Populus Quo Romanus declared war against Macedon again (to be expected).

With the reports out of the way, I looked around the campaign map and saw where a part of that deficit might've been coming from: Admiral Acestes the Macedonian had gone around my navy and blockaded the port of Tarentum. Taking that navy commanded by Admiral Manius, I came back and challenged him:

• Adm Manius (70 men on 2 biremes, 1 trireme) versus
  
• Adm Acestes (24 men on 1 trireme)

It was a clear victory, but there was going to be some retraining for the bireme crew on Manius's fleet. At least he gained experience stripes from the battle.



In the meantime, I put my spies into motion. These were to maintain their presence in the Balkans to give me a heads-up on what was going on across the gulf, for I was going to try to retake either Salona or Apollonia as soon as my army was ready. In the course of this, Amulius Genucius infiltrated the army led by Iolaos of Chalcis.




As I was bringing Admiral around on his return journey from the Agean following the recent defeat at the port of Sparta, I saw where Admiral Acestes had run off to. He was nursing his decimated crew offshore from the tip of Bruttium.



Meanwhile, in Phrygia, Appius Porcius met with the Greek governor Eugenius of Sparta. I took one more opportunity to ask for a ceasefire and was surprised to see that he (reluctantly, of course) agreed to it. Apparently, the Armenians were putting up quite a fight for their Asiastic empire at this place. Nice comment on the decision, though: "Your proposal would shame a helot, but..."

Those Spartans must really keep their helots down for them to consider this decision a hard one.

I advanced to Turn 72 (Winter, 234 BC). The starting reports were as follows:

• Faction Destroyed: Germania, obviously taken out by either the Baby Blue Steamroller™ (Britannia) or Dacia.
  
• EOT Financial: Profit (1,098 D) due in large part to the reopening of the trade routes and low army upkeep.
  
• Recruitments: velites (2, including one retrained, Croton) and bireme (retrained, Tarentum).
  
• Diplomatic: Wars, the Greek Cities against Armenia, and Britannia against Gaul; alliance, Parthia and Britannia; ceasfire, Britannia and Dacia.

I'm thinking that before this campaign gets done, the big baby blue machine is going to be the barbarian bully on the block that everyone has to watch out for...

With the reports out of the way, I was watching the seas to see if any of the Macedonian navies spotted this turn would be a serious threat. Admiral Cornelius was just shy of the port of Croton, but Admiral Acestes had made no move on him. Conversely, I also had a couple of triremes (Admiral Astrabacus with only 9 men; Admiral Praxinos closer to Corinth with a full crew) along the path that Admiral Manius was to take to get to his Senate mission. I decided that he needed the sea battle experience.

• Adm Manius (71 men on 2 biremes, 1 trireme) versus
  
• Adm Astrabacus (10 men on 1 trireme, Macedon)

Clear victory (I'm thinking Astrabacus sank here).

• Adm Manius (70 men on 2 biremes, 1 trireme) versus
  
• Adm Praxinos (31 men on 1 trireme)

Clear victory!



I continued to move my spies into position for observing the Macedonian forces in the Balkans. With no need for a spy at the present time in Greek territory, except possibly as an observer, I moved Luca Antonius out of Thermon and sent him up into Macedonian territory. Amulius Genucius was leading the way into Dalmatia while Manius Cincius would follow through Illyria.

Once more, a Macedonian diplomat showed up at Tarentum upon advancing the turns. This time, it was Cassius who met Arrianos of Scotussa ("Where have you been off to?") at the door. Again, the same old trope: "Become our protectorate!" A flat-out refusal.

Turn 73 (Summer, 233 BC) only had the EOT financial report. I had a large profit due to increased trade income and taxation, along with continuing low army upkeep. Apparently, the presence of garrisons in three cities was something of a heavy burden, as was having high numbers of mercenaries in the army of Epirus all those years...



As the turn went on, I made my observations and moved units where I could. Corinth remained under blockade. Appius Porcius, still at Pergamum, watched as the city revolted from the Greek Cities and cast out its garrison -- apparently the citizens didn't think much of their rulers or the war against Armenia. Seeing that, he would go find out where the Greeks ended up at (at Nicomedia in Bithynia fighting Armenians).



I advanced to Turn 74 (Winter, 233 BC) without further incident. The reports came dropping down:

• Senate Missions: Blockade Apollonia; a unit of triarii were rewarded for the successful blockade of Corinth.
  
• EOT Financial: A small profit (177 D) due to expenses in recruitment and increased army upkeep.
  
• Faction Announcements: Aulus Brutus got a Tribune of the Plebs (+1 influence and a 20% bonus to popularity with the People) in his retinue; Cassius Brutus got an architect (10% construction discount and -1 squalor) in his.
  
• Construction: army barracks (Tarentum) and archery range (Croton)
  
• Recruitments: biremes (2, including one retrained, Tarentum)
  
• Diplomatic: War declared by Macedon upon Thrace.

I continued to maneuver my spies up into their stations. Amulius would be stationed closer to the Illyrian capital of Segesta to watch movements of Macedonian armies in the northern Balkans, while Manius would be nearer to Salona to watch movements in southern Illyria.

As I advanced the turn, Admiral Praxinos came back for a rematch with Admiral Manius...

• Adm Manius (70 men on 2 biremes, 1 trireme) versus
  
• Adm Praxinos (18 men on 1 trireme?, Macedon)

Praxinos was beaten again. Manius maintained the blockade with slight losses.



Tuen 75 (Summer, 232 BC) saw the following reports:

• EOT Financial: Massive deficit (-4,991 D), mostly due to a huge building order for the turn in addition to the increased army upkeep expense.
  
• Faction Announcements: The birth of Lentulus Brutus (the first kid in the family in... well, FOREVER!); Cassius Brutus gets a drillmaster in his retinue (+25% movement points for armies, and 10% discount on unit training costs).
  
• Recruitments: triarii (Tarentum) and Roman archers (Croton)
  
• Diplomatic: War, Dacia against Scythia; alliance, Parthia with Thrace

Once the reports were finished, I took stock of the situation. Admiral Praxinos had retreated a bit close to the port of Tarentum, and I was sorely tempted to swat him with the ships commanded by Admiral Cornelius. My spy network in the Balkans was in place. And I kept Appius Porcius next to Nicomedia to watch the progress of the Graeco-Armenian war there.




I advanced to Turn 76 (Winter, 232 BC):

• EOT Financial: A fair deficit (-871 D) due to a cutoff in trade (a Macedonian fleet blockading Croton) and large-scale recruitments.
  
• Recruitments: trireme (Tarentum) and spy (Croton)

The new spy was Tiberius Thrasea (age 22), a competent agent who was to join the others in the field in the Balkans. With Luca Antonius getting up there in years, it wouldn't be long before his life would end, and I needed better agents to carry out the increasing work that was to come.



That being done, it was time to send Admiral Cornelius south to deal with that pesky blockade. Admiral Praxinos had decided upon a little "tit for tat"...

• Adm Cornelius (71 men on 2 biremes, 1 trireme) versus
  
• Adm Praxinos (10 men on 1 trireme, Macedon)

Clear victory; a near-total wipeout of Praxinos.



Now I was within range of another Macedonian ship. Admiral Acestes had been transporting a diplomat from somewhere, and I felt like the opportunity had presented itself for Admiral Cornelius to get further sea battle experience.

• Adm Cornelius (69 men on 2 biremes, 1 trireme) versus
  
• Adm Acestes (12 men on 1 trireme)

Clear victory; a near-total wipeout for Acestes.



The rest of the turn was spent moving my agents into different observation points. Appius the diplomat was witnessing the siege of rebel Pergamum by an Egyptian army, while old Luca the spy took up a station near the port of Larissa to watch for Macedonian fleet movements.

Advancing to Turn 77 (Summer, 231 BC), I read through the reports:

• EOT Financial: I was turning a profit (609 D) for the first time in a little while, possibly due to lower recruitment and no construction costs.
  
• Faction Announcements: Luca Antonius the spy died of natural causes in Thessalia; Junius Figulus (the new diplomat) acquired a translator (+2 influence) in his retinue.
  
• Construction: blacksmith (Tarentum)
  
• Recruitments: diplomat (Croton)

I took a look at my new diplomat, Junius Figulus (age 38). I would send him north towards Rome to wait for orders and anticipate the arrival of diplomats from other factions. I also noticed at this time the tendency for units recruited in this city to be of a higher quality than those recruited elsewhere (The spies both started with 3 subterfuge, and Junius had 3 influence).

I also appreciated the addition of that blacksmith at Tarentum, after having lost Apollonia a few turns earlier. I wanted my units to pack a bigger bite against the armored hoplites and Macedonian cavalry that they'd eventually be having rematches against.

Advancing to Turn 78 (Winter, 231 BC) without an incident, I had only two reports: the EOT financial report which I had reflex-clicked closed without reviewing, and the recruitment report which informed me of all the units being retrained at Tarentum with the new blacksmith.



The only moves that I made during that turn were to direct Junius towards Rome and to set up another group of units for retraining through Tarentum's blacksmith. Along the way, Junius crossed paths with the Macedonian diplomat Pefkolaos of Oricus, with whom I decided to float the offer of a ceasefire with his faction. Surprisingly, he accepted (though with the commentary about shameful behavior for helots -- were those Spartans getting some influence over there, or what).

It was at this stage that I started taking stock of situations near Italy aside from my immediate neighborhood of the Balkans. Gens Scipia seemed a little quiet now, still in possession of their three regions (Campania, Sicilia Roma and Sicilia Graeca) but not showing much action against the neighboring Carthaginians, nor being harrassed by them. Gens Julia had theirs still in hand (Etruria, Umbria and Liguria), but were showing lots of movement against the Gauls in the neighboring regions.



I would be seeing the Julii make progress starting in Turn 79 (Summer, 230 BC). When I advanced turns, they had taken Patavium and would be taking Mediolanium soon afterwards, much like in the historical Roman conquest of northern Italy. Egypt had taken Pergamum, while the Greek Cities continued to struggle for control of the region of Bithynia.

My reports for Turn 79 were as follows:

• Senate Missions: My letting the mission to blockade Apollonia lapse got my faction another tongue-lashing.
  
• EOT Financial: I turned a modest profit (1,705 D), mostly because I hadn't made any recruitment or build orders for that turn -- I was waiting for the catapult range ordered for Croton to be finished.
  
• Faction Announcements: Old Appius Porcius finally passed away while observing the Graeco-Armenian war in Bithynia.

The reports out of the way, I now turned to my spy network in the Balkans to get information as to what I would be fighting against were I to make a move in that direction. The settlements of Salona and Segestica looked like tempting targets now, since their garrisons were very small, but for the presence of several heavy stacks within striking distance were I to put those retrained units back into the fields. These were the Macedonian armies as observed by my spies:

• Salona itself had a governor, with four additional units including archers.
  
• Next to Salona waited a 14-unit stack commanded by Captain Perdicas, revealing about half of it being low-level pikemen.
  
• Another 8-unit stack debouching from the mountain passes east of Salona was being led by Captain Balas, who included a unit of ballistas.
  
• Captain Ariphron led an 11-unit stack near the bridge east of Segestica in Illyria, showing many cavalry units.
  
• Captain Ceyx accompanied Ariphron with two unidentified units.
  
• Segestica had only its governor and a unit of levy pikemen as the garrison.
  
• Larissa in Thessalia had, as its governor, Syras the Harsh, with a single unit of archers as spotted by Tiberius Thrasea (he also observed a large Greek army near the border of Epirus nearby).

I advanced to Turn 80 (Winter, 230 BC). The reports for that turn informed me of:

• Senate Missions: I was assigned once more with the blockade of Apollonia.
  
• EOT Financial: Still in the black (905 D) with only small expenses for recruitments in the last turn.
  
• Construction: catapult range (Croton)
  
• Recruitments: Roman archers (Croton) -- the rest of the available units for retraining were finished at Tarentum.
  
• Diplomatic: Alliance announced, gens Julia with Thrace

The last bit would be interesting. As the Julii had just taken the regions in north Italy once controlled by Gaul, they could well be in a position to begin fighting Macedon. Allied with Thrace, the Macedonians could well decide to turn their sarissas against a fellow Roman. I could well have the opportunity to take back Salona.

However, with my army upgraded with stronger weapons and the addition of Roman archers (and, soon, strong artillery such as onagers and scorpions), I was in a better position to avenge my recent losses inflicted by the Greek Cities. I began to shift my spy netword southwards to get a better look at the enemy that I would be facing sooner.

• Tiberius Thrasea was in a perfect position to look at the strongest army, led by Diadromes of Delium near the borders of Epirus and Macedonia.
  
• Captain Xuthos was bringing a unit of ballistas north from the region of Aetolia.
  
• The garrison of Apollonia currently had only one unit each of armored hoplites, peltasts and militia hoplites.
  
• A 15-unit stack led by Captain Kallimachos waited near the northern border of Epirus.

Seeing that the Greeks were tied down in Bithynia with their war against Armenia and the Macedonians probably concentrating on wars against Thrace and, potentially, either the Julii or Dacia, I determined to follow through on the Senate's orders to blockade Apollonia. The Julii had already carried out a blockade of their own during the previous turns, but that fleet had left the area and the path was clear for my upgraded navies.

I also sprang an alternative plan for my deployments given that the numbers of my generals had been getting lower. I could try and get a man of the hour (MOtH) from a battle with units sent under a captain to harrass the Greeks in Epirus. I was unwilling to risk Cornelius while he had a young son who needed upbringing, and he was getting on in years as it was. Most of my armies would now be composed of good Roman units, with the occasional mercenary recruited from Italian soil as needed.

My ultimate goals for the coming turns would be to salvage my position by retaking the territories lost in Epirus and Dalmatia, with an eye towards eliminating the Greek Cities as a faction and establishing my empire in the Balkan peninsula and the Agean sea. The next turn would be the start of that campaign.

next

Question: Do Apollonia or Salona have stone walls? If they don't, I would recommend sending a spy to Athens (or Sparta if Sparta has a stone wall yet) to see if they have built an Army barracks there. If they have, capture Athens. The gate towers will cause any rams to be burned down, forcing the Greeks to use siege towers and ladders. This will force them to fight in a way that gives the advantage to you... by the sword rather than the spear.

Replies

@ Orcrist_Beleg:

Coming up.

@ GundamMerc:

I did see that, from the overview that my agents were giving me. That would explain the presence of armored hoplites with a lot of hitpoints in the Greek armies. Alas, I was too far away to make a serious bid for Athens by the time your reply was posted, but once I saw Apollonia, I was satisfied with something the Greeks had done for me in my absence (built the stone walls I could repair once I took the town). I'll have a chance to defend my settlement using the heavy infantry, the unit of onagers (they can shoot over walls, though there's the risk of a stray shot damaging your own fortifications) and some mercenary Cretan archers (long range firepower) to whittle down the assaulting armies.

Progress

When I saved the game at the end of the 6th session, it was Turn 80 (Winter, 230 BC). My faction (gens Brutia of Rome) was reduced to just the two Italian home regions and a couple of family members: Aulus Brutus and Cassius Brutus. The Greek Cities controlled Epirus now, after I had given it up following a series of blunders which played right into their hands. Macedon remained in control of Dalmatia and appeared to be dominant over the Balkans. However, I wasn't finished with them yet.



As with the start of any session, I went through my overviews.

The faction remained active, with Aulus Brutus as the leader and Tarentum remaining as the capital city. There were still 8 family members in all. I now controlled only Apulia and Bruttium, with 65 battles won and 15 losses. 244 years remained for the Imperator victory conditions to be fulfilled.

Due to increased army upkeep, a large number of units being retrained and new build orders, my finances for the turn were projected to run a deficit (-1,719 denarii). The bulk of the income came from trade, with taxes, farming and mines covering the balance. The corruption income was fairly low (484 D).

At the present time, I had only rebels as my enemies since I had recently concluded ceasefire agreements with the Greek Cities and Macedon. My allies still included all the other Roman factions (the Senate, gens Julia and gens Scipia), Parthia, Numidia and Spain. This was bound to change as the campaign progressed.

The Senate had just assigned me the mission of blockading Apollonia. My standings there didn't change much in spite of recent failures to carry out missions, but there were frequent messages telling me that my popularity among the masses was low. Yet that never seemed to drop below 20% (two seals on the rating graphs).

My two settlements were currently experiencing profitability and good public order. Aulus remained governor of Croton, while Cassius was governor of Tarentum. The overview showed these details:

• Tarentum (pop 17,669; PO 125%; inc 1,302 D)
  
• Croton (pop 23,596; PO 165%; inc -22 D)

These were my active generals, governors, military commanders and agents at the end of Turn 80:

• Aulus Brutus (age 74, governor of Croton and faction leader, 393 soldiers)
  
• Cassius Brutus (54, governor of Tarentum and faction heir, 724 soldiers)
  
• Admiral Manius (32, navy commander of 3 ships, 70 crewmen)
  
• Admiral Cornelius (34, navy commander of 3 ships, 70 crewmen)
  
• Julianus Figulus (39, diplomat at Rome)
  
• Caius Flaminius (63, diplomat abroad in Bithynia)
  
• Manius Cincius (56, spy active in Epirus)
  
• Amulius Genucius (32, spy active in Illyria)
  
• Tiberius Thrasea (24, spy active in Macedonia)

There was really only one other diplomat on Italian soil at this time: Dejotarus of Cevenna, a Gaul present at Rome. I figured he was there to deliver messages to the Senate, since his faction had just lost their territories in northern Italy (Venetia and Cisalpine Gaul), and were being pressured very strongly by the Julii.



Saving the game to produce the new session, I received a surprising EOT message: Cassius Brutus produced a candidate for adoption in a garrison commander named Quintus Varus. He looked promising, and I decided to accept him, especially since I was reluctant to place Cassius in the field at his advanced age.



It was also then that Aulus Brutus died. The torch was passed on to Cassius now, and Varus would be his faction heir.

The rest of the starting reports for Turn 81 (Summer, 229 BC) were as follows:

• EOT Financial: The large deficit wasn't quite so high as projected (-1,222 D).
  
• Faction Announcements: Cassius Brutus was inaugurated as faction leader following the death of Aulus.
  
• Construction: forum (Tarentum)
  
• Recruitments: equites (Tarentum), and onagers (Croton) -- the remainder of the units at Tarentum were upgraded using the blacksmith this turn.

The addition of a forum meant that I could now recruit assassins, in addition to the trade boost that was to be expected for the building. I intended to field at least two in the coming war against the Greek Cities.

In the meantime, I maneuvered my old spy Manius into position to keep an eye on the Greek armies and generals moving through the region of Epirus in preparation for future moves against them. I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to strike at isolated armies if I could ferry an army over from Italy for the purpose.



On Turn 82 (Winter, 229 BC), the starting reports were as follows:

• EOT Financial: Running a deficit (-957 D) due to increasing expenditures, including army upkeep, wages, retraining costs and recent build orders.
  
• City Status: Croton had reached a population level needed for growth,
  
• Senate Status: The first of several "Popularity Falls with the Masses" messages that kept dropping down for the session.
  
• Recruitments: scorpions (Croton), assassin (Tarentum) and peasants (retrained, Tarentum)

My army now had a unit of field artillery in the scorpions, though I wasn't sure how effective they would be at that stage. They would be invaluable against unsupported phalanxes, I was certain. The assassin would be my first such agent.

There was a rebellion in Apulia in this turn. I had sent a unit of equites forth under Captain Herius to deal with the rebels, who were a unit of peasants led by Captain Leocharis. It looked to be a very simple matter.

• Cpt Herius (28 men) versus
  
• Cpt Leocharis (61, rebels)

It turned out to be a little harder on my light cavalry than I originally thought. Leocharis held out quite a bit after Herius's equites made initial contact, fighting back by sheer weight of numbers to the point where I almost thought that the latter would have to be extracted before his unit began to rout. But the advantage of horsemen over mere peasants soon took effect, and it was Leocharis who broke first.








Once the surviving rebels broke, it was simply a matter of running them down and killing their leader before he could escape.



It was a close victory. The fact that my equites came close to breaking reminded me how unreliable they were against opponents who weren't serverely depleted or in the process of fleeing a battlefield in a rout. I was going to need to be more careful with my cavalry until the Marian reforms made recruiting heavy cavalry possible.

• Cpt Herius: 61 kills; 15 of 28 men remaining
  
• Cpt Leocharis: 15 kills; no men remaining

With the rebellion in Apulia quashed, I took the time to get an overview of a couple of things before advancing. My new assassin was Decius Valerius (age 32), a rather low-skilled character with only 1 subterfuge point. He wasn't going to be very useful for much besides observing the enemy at close range, taking easy sabotage missions, and (hopefully) building up his skill level with a few hits on enemy assassins.



The second thing I took an overview of was the present Senate Offices list. It looked like my faction fell pretty low on the totem pole this turn, while the Senate faction was able to get all the top spots.

• Pontifex Maximus: Not even present on the list (did this mean that the office doesn't always get filled?)
  
• Censor: Lentulus the Mad (SPQR, apparently not getting around much did that to him)
  
• Consul: Publius Maxentius (SPQR)
  
• Praetor: Gaius Maxentius (SPQR)
  
• Aedile: Titus Trebonius (gens Julia)
  
• Quaestor: Cassius Brutus

Advancing to Turn 83 (Summer, 228 BC), I received these reports:

• EOT Financial: Back into a profit for the last turn (1,085 D), sue in large part to higher trade (the AI auto-built a shipwright under my nose in Croton when Aulus passed away).
  
• Construction: shipwright (Croton)
  
• Recruitments: diplomat and equites (retrained, Tarentum)

Not catching the new agent in time to review his qualities, I advanced to Turn 84 (Winter, 228 BC). The starting reports for that turn were:

• EOT Financial: A large deficit (-1,939 D) due to high construction costs and increasing army recruitment and upkeep.
  
• Construction: large temple of Mercury (Tarentum)
  
• Recruitments: triarii (Tarentum) and scorpions (Croton)

I finally got to look at that diplomat that completed training on the previous turn. This was Publius Lutatius (age 21), a youthful agent who showed considerable promise in his role. I would deploy him immediately to the Balkans to help the other agents in keeping an eye on enemy movements and replace the late Decius Ovidius in his role.



As I prepared my armies for their new campaigning in the Balkans, I took the time to take a look at the forces that the Greek Cities could have arrayed against me. All I was aware of at this moment was that the Greeks were in the process of attempting to expand into Asia, and that they had many strong armies in the field.

• Captain Lysikles, spotted by Tiberius Thrasea east of Thermon, had a strong infantry force suppoted by archers and two ballistas.
  
• The same agent was aware of the arrival of a new general, Chabrias of Drepana, in the field in Achaea north of Corinth (was the Macedon-Greek alliance still standing?).
  
• Manius Cincius still had his eye on the army led by Diadromes of Delium, a well-rounded 16-unit stack.
  
• Near Diadromes, Captain Callimachos led a 15-unit stack -- what were they doing with all those ballistas?
  
• The garrison of Apollonia was light, having only armored hoplites and missile cavalry -- a tempting target.
  
• Thermon was garrisoned only by a single unit of armored hoplites, but I was reluctant to send an army in that direction with so many strong armies nearby.
  
• Athens had just 2 units, but none of my agents were in a position to infiltrate the city to find out just what they were.
  
• The old diplomat Caius Flaminius was still watching the Greek armies in the field around Nicomedia in Bithynia, noting one led by Captain Eleon.
  
• The strength of the Greek navies concerned me; Caius also spotted the 8-unit fleet commanded by Admiral Peithon.
  
• Admiral Praxilaus had a 2-unit fleet supporting Peithon's.
  
• Decius the assassin spotted a 3-unit army led by Captain Deinokratis -- something was up.

As it seemed, there was going to be quite a minefield in the Balkans, if the Greek Cities were showing all that much movement. I advanced to Turn 85 (Summer, 227 BC).

• Senate Missions: The Senate assigned me the task of blockading Athens; their reward for my fleet's successful blockade of Apollonia was a unit of hastati.
  
• EOT Financial: A smaller profit than this last turn (582 D); army upkeep and wages were getting higher.

While preparing a course for the port of Athens with my navies, I discovered an obstacle to their mission: a 3-unit pirate navy commanded by Admiral Shabaka. Apparently, these corsairs were getting a little adventurous after spending some time raiding Africa. I was going to dispatch Admiral Cornelius to make the first attempt.

But, more importantly, there was the concern about a new rebellion breaking out in Apulia. This was a more serious threat. Captain Aischylos led a stronger 6-unit army in the field.



My plan was to set Quintus Varius upon them immediately. He picked up units from an army originally intended to stage a few raids on Greek territories across the Adriatic channel. I would now bring them up to deal with the rebels.

Advancing to Turn 86 (Winter, 227 BC), I took the time to read all the starting reports:

• EOT Financial: The recent build orders coupled with increased army upkeep and wages helped to bring up a large deficit (-2,045 D).
  
• Recruitments: hastati (retraining, Tarentum) -- that new unit gifted from the Senate.
  
• Diplomatic: This was a surprise -- Macedon's alliance with Gaul was in tatters.

I was wondering what caused the alliance of Macedon and Gaul to end. There were no wars announced in the diplomatic report that would've indicated anything, but as I had my agents investigate further, I was going to see the reason.

I deployed Admiral Cornelius and his fleet of 2 biremes and 1 trireme south on their voyage towards Athens. Shabaka the pirate seemed to have moved off, but I would find out where as soon as Cornelius completed his move -- the pirate fleet was parked in the bay next to Sparta. I fully expected a naval battle at the end of this turn.



Moving my agents into position to get a view of what was going on, I finally saw what might've triggered the rift between Macedon and Gaul -- Greek armies were invading Macedonian territory and laying siege to Corinth! This was a turn of events that I should've been anticipating with all those Greek armies marching about. They had to be going somewhere...



Here was an opportunity that I would be willing to take up. If those Greeks had pulled a "Trojan Horse" on the Macedonians, maybe the latter were rethinking their recent hostile posture against my faction? At any rate, I wasn't thinking of it openly, but I had my diplomat Publius Lutatius in a good position to act where I was sending him.

I advanced the turn. As expected, the pirate fleet under Shabaka took advantage of Cornelius being the nearest target. With the forces being evenly matched, I was fully expecting a defeat at the hands of sea raiders (it usually happened this way).

• Adm Cornelius (71 men on 2 biremes, 1 trireme) versus
  
• Adm Shabaka (70 men on 3 ships, rebel pirates)

I was somewhat pleasantly surprised by the result: an average victory. Cornelius's biremes had taken a serious flogging, though the win was there. I felt a bit like old king Phyrrus, though, and decided to recall him to retrain the remaining ships and replace the lost one (I merged the biremes).

Turn 87 (Summer, 226 BC) brought the following starting reports:

• EOT Financial: The lack of any recruitment or build orders and the completion of a highway gave me a modest profit (476 D).
  
• Construction: highway (Croton)

This turn finally brought the opportunity for Quintus Varus to cut his teeth on a real battle. Captain Aischylos had a decent mix of units in the field, including two units of hoplites. Varus's army had archers and more cavalry.

• Quintus Varus (510 men) versus
  
• Cpt Aischylos (268 men, rebels)

Quintus had pursued Aischylos's army a short distance north along the plains of Apulia. They finally took a stand along the foothills facing east. I arranged Quintus's army so that the archers stood behind the main infantry line and the velites screened the front. The equites stood off from the wings.



Aischylos and his men stood off at the far corner of the battle map, in the edge of the small ridge where my army was starting. I had grouped the main army together to keep its formation while the equites would go ahead to guard where the flanks would be positioned once they stopped. The rebels didn't budge (I would've closed in or maneuvered to a flank to try and disrupt the enemy on the march, if I were in a similar situation).



Once my army took its positions, the archers behind the lines started firing away. I could've set them to "Use Fire" mode, but I preferred to let them get more kills while covering the lines. Aischylos's Samnites charged towards the right flank, so I set my legions to "Fire at Will" mode to give them a suitable welcome.



Of course, things don't always go as planned. A unit of peasants charged the lines right behind the Samnites and came into contact with my velites after the latter unit broke and ran. By now, Aischylos's hoplites were advancing. In order to reduce friendly fire casualties, I ordered the archers behind the lines to focus their fire upon them.



Each of the light infantry units would rout in turn. However, the hoplites managed to come into contact with my infantry line, and I was forced to pull my archers back to a safer place and turn off their auto-fire function to avoid having any accidental casualties. Their fire was directed to whatever enemy unit hadn't yet made contact.





Recognizing that a flanking maneuver was needed to prevent the rest of Aischylos's men from returning to the fray, I sent Quintus and the equites forward. The cavalry on the right went after the units that were routing and finished them; those on the left joined Quintus in trying to maneuver into a position to catch Aischylos himself, a commander of light cavalry. Behind them, I sent the left wing forward to catch the remaining hoplites and infantry in the rebel army, who had held back.



Seeing an opportunity, I sent Quintus charging into the unit led by Aischylos behind his infantry line. The closing infantry on my left were keeping them too occupied to pose an immediate threat to him, but I was prepared to pull him back in case the hoplites on Aischylos's right would turn and point their spears towards him.




I didn't need to worry about my right wing for very long. They had surrounded the hoplites from Aischylos's left and crushed them. I brought my triarii and principes from the left up to charge the remaining hoplites from the rebels' right flank before they could be a factor in Quintus's contest against their leader.




After a stubborn contest, Aischylos finally broke and ran off. He escaped, but it was a matter of wiping out his remaining infantry, who all routed as soon as they saw their leader flee.

• Quintus Varus: 262 kills, 497 of 510 men remaining
  
• Cpt Aischylos: 16 kills, 6 of 268 men remaining

After clearing the battle, I pulled back for a broader view of the campaign map. Macedon was making a bid to take Patavium from gens Julia, but my Roman rival seemed to have things well in hand, with a strong military presence nearby to help give aid to the besieged garrison. I pulled Admiral Manius from his blockade of Apollonia to make the voyage down to Athens, while Cornelius's fleet underwent retraining.

There were no surprise messages on the advance into Turn 88 (Winter, 226 BC). The starting reports were as follows:

• EOT Financial: A modest deficit (-676 D), due to large recruitment orders (the retraining of Admiral Cornelius's fleet).
  
• World Events: Archimedes had invented his water pump ("Archimedes Screw").
  
• Recruitments: triremes (2, including 1 retrained), bireme (retrained) and scorpions (retrained, all at Tarentum)
  
• Diplomatic: Ceasefire, Thrace with Scythia

Quintus had to deal with another rebellion on this turn. Captain Astrabacus (the pirate?) had an army of 5 units in the field near Tarentum. Quintus drove him into the mountains west of the city, then was joined by fresh units including the scorpion crew that was recently upgraded. The force was kind of paltry compared with the rebel Aischylos, but I wasn't in a mood to give quarter.

• Quintus Varus (504 men) versus
  
• Cpt Astrabacus (193 men, rebels)

Quintus's army was arranged in a broad lline covering the archers and artillery unit, facing the crest of a low foothill of the mountains where Astrabacus was standing ground. The light cavalry were on the wings, and the unit of velites guarded the left flank next to the scorpions. I placed reserves of infantry between the archers and front line.



The rebels didn't descend as my army marched up to its position. The scorpions were to deliver their payload upon the enemy on the right flank while the archers covered them and the rest of the infantry line from behind.






Astrabacus didn't stand there taking firebolts for long. He began to move his infantry downhill, and I responded by bringing up mine to take a stand, peppering the rebels who closed in with pila and sending many of them routing.




Finally, Astrabacus himself was forced to charge the lines, but he didn't last long -- a suicide charge into the unit of triarii in my front line routed his unit, and he was killed before he could get away.







Now, it was just a matter of catching the rest of Astrabacus's men before they could regroup for a final stand, and routing them so that the cavalry from the wings could join Quintus in finishing them off.

• Quintus Varus: 183 kills, 498 of 504 men remaining
  
• Cpt Astrabacus: 6 kills, 10 of 193 men remaining

Pulling back from this victory to look over the campaign map, I saw that Macedon had failed in its bid to take Patavium from the Julii. In fact, they were having a number of setbacks, including the loss of Corinth. The Greek Cities currently had armies besieging Larissa in Thessalia, as witnessed by my diplomat Publius. I was in a "wait and see" mode here.

I advanced to Turn 89 (Summer, 225 BC) without interruptions. The starting reports were:

• Faction Destroyed: Pontus -- whoever did it, I wasn't likely to know until I had dealt with the Greek Cities.
  
• EOT Financial: A modest profit for the turn (550 D), due to lower recruitment costs, and improved farming and trade income.
  
• Construction: crop rotation (Tarentum)
  
• Recruitments: hastati, town watch and peasants (retrained, Tarentum)

Just about the only thing that I did for the turn was check up on my agent network in the Balkans. Admiral Manius was in the process of blockading Athens at this point, so I took the time to look around at the forces that the Greek Cities were fielding. Macedon was busy fending off the armies besieging Larissa, while Publius looked on and awaited his orders to contact the beleagered faction. I advanced to Turn 90 (Winter, 225 BC).

The starting reports for that turn were:

• Senate Missions: I was rewarded for successfully blockading the port of Athens, getting preferred attention for Senate offices.
  
• EOT Financial: A second season of modest profits (567 D) due to lower recruitment costs.
  
• Recruitments: triarii (retrained, Tarentum) and Roman archers (retrained, Croton)

On this turn, I pulled the bireme commanded by Admiral Valerius from the fleet blockading Athens. Along the way, he spotted a pirate fleet of 3 ships commanded by Admiral Eumenis anchored just off the western tip of Crete. Thinking that the presence of an ally in the Julii fleet blockading Sparta would give him assistance, I directed Valerius northwest to a position right next to them.

I also checked on the remaining turns of an ongoing Senate mission to blockade the city of Thermon. The Greeks still had strong armies in the field near the city, and I was currently in the process of blockading their mainland ports. There were 5 turns remaining in that mission, so I had separated a bireme from Admiral Cornelius's fleet to wait at the port of Tarentum to transport any armies needed for the Balkan campaigns. This was commanded by Admiral Gnaeus.

I advanced the turn. Not surprisingly, my Julii allies had packed up and left, leaving poor Admiral Valerius to fend off pirates by himself.

• Adm Valerius (21 men on 1 bireme) versus
  
• Adm Eumenis (76 men on 3 ships, rebels)

A clear defeat. Somehow, enough of Valerius's crew survived to enable him to get away.



There were only two reports for the start of Turn 91 (Summer, 224 BC):

• EOT Financial: A large deficit (-2,000 D) due to construction and retraining costs.
  
• Recruitments: trireme (Tarentum)

Eumenis the Pirate was still at large near the Pelopponese coast. But Admiral Valerius was even more unlucky -- his fleet had come to rest near the coast of Crete, where the pirate went to finish him off!

• Adm Valerius (11 men on 1 bireme) versus
  
• Adm Eumenis (69 men on 3 ships, rebels)

A total wipeout.

For Turn 92 (Winter, 224 BC), there were only two reports:

• EOT Financial: A modest profit (607 D) due to there being no additional recruitment or construction costs.
  
• Diplomatic: Alliance, Macedon with gens Julia; ceasefires, Macedon with Thrace, SPQR and gens Scipia; the Julii had become a client kingdom (protectorate?) of Macedon

This was strange news, indeed. I thought that the Julii were able to hold their own against the Macedonians and would turn the tide against them, if they so willed it. The wording of a faction becoming a "client kingdom" of another always confused me. It was as though the Julii just gave up fighting and surrendered to the Macedonians.

Still, this turn of events signaled something to me that I could take advantage of, in my situation. I had noticed the Greek diplomat Pankratios of Boeotia entering Apulia from northwest. If the Greek Cities were in difficulties against the rest of the Macedonian armies, perhaps an alliance with Macedon could again turn me to an advantage.

I sent Admiral Gnaeus with his new trireme east to blockade Thermon. If I wasn't going to take the city, I could at least deliver an economic chokehold on the Greeks this way.

The starting reports for Turn 93 (Summer, 223 BC) were the following:

• Senate Missions: I was assigned to take Thermon; the Senate had awarded 1,000 denarii for carrying out the blockade of its port.
  
• EOT Financial: That reward had increased my profits for the turn (1,566 D).
  
• Senate Status: Of course, the people weren't very appreciative of that ("Popularity Falls with the Masses", again...)

This left me considering my options in the Balkans. It was true that the presence of strong Greek armies in the field were a cause for concern in terms of taking any settlement, so I took stock of what they had based upon what my agent network was able to observe:

• Mikkos of Phocis was leading a 12-unit stack through Epirus on this turn, apparently bringing a pair of ballistas to yet another siege operation.
  
• Apollonia was now very lightly garrisoned by a single unit of armored hoplites.
  
• A single unit of light cavalry was in the field near the port of Thermon, led by Captain Lysandros.
  
• Thermon itself had only a governor and a unit of ballistas in its garrison.
  
• One 8-unit army was nearby, commanded by Captain Demetrios -- one reason I didn't want to just go up to take the town yet.
  
• On the road due east of Thermon marched a unit of peltasts and archers under the command of Captain Eurysthenes.
  
• An 11-unit army led by Captain Euclides was in the centra pass leading from Aetolia towards Larissa, which currently lifted the Greeks' sieges.
  
• One of the two small armies in the field near Larissa was a single unit led by Captain Demonous.
  
• Captain Deinokratis led the remnants of a second army consisting of 2 units, including a rather decimated unit of armored hoplites, indicating that these had been part of the unsuccessful siege.

I advanced the turn, and got the EOT ceasefire offer from the diplomat Pankratios to Cassius Brutus at Tarentum. I had him refuse, knowing that the Greeks' preoccupation with Macedon would run to my advantage if I took action now.

The starting reports for Turn 94 (Winter, 223 BC) included:

• EOT Financial: A small deficit (-57 D), due to increasing army upkeep and recruitment orders offsetting trade improvements from that turn.
  
• Construction: highways (Tarentum)
  
• Recruitments: bireme (Tarentum)

I had recruited a new bireme crew to help ferry units over to the Greek mainland for the upcoming campaign. Quintus Varus would be deployed immediately to try and see if he could make an impression in Epirus. My spy Manius Cincius was keeping an eye on Mikkos and the garrison at Apollonia, not knowing if these would be a threat to Quintus yet. Quintus pursued the small 3-unit army of Captain Kallikrates into the mountains north of the city before returning to the fleet which ferried him over, now blockading the port.



Advancing the turn, I received the EOT battle message from Mikkos and his army.

• Quintus Varus (695 men) versus
  
• Mikkos of Phocis (352 men, the Greek Cities)

Although the army under Quintus was nearly double the size, the presence of armored hoplites in Mikkos's army made the contest more or less even. I drew Quintus's army up in a more or less phalangial formation on the slope of a hill facing Mikkos's approach, the archers behind and 4 units of velites screening the front. Quintus's bodyguard cavalry unit and 1 squadron of equites were the only horsemen on my side.



I let the Greeks approach so that they could fall under the archers' fire. Their ballistas were far too slow to be an immediate factor on the battlefield, but I placed the velites in loose order and drew them off to my left to put them at an advantage over any phalangite unit that decided to pursue them. All of the velites and cavalry units were ungrouped so as not to interfere with the formation of the infantry and archers covering them.





I had a real concern about the artillery behind Mikkos's lines, so I directed Quintus and those velites who had spent their missiles off to the left to try a flanking maneuver on the ballista crews, while the equites on the right galloped past the Greek left. I set the infantry already engaged to guard mode and watched them carefully.



The opportunity to take down the ballistas finally presented itself. While my men were occupied with holding the lines or charging anything within reach, I directed my equites to make straight for the artillery while all the other units were preoccupied.





As the conflict dragged on, it seemed that more and more Greek units were routing. As each one did, it freed up a unit that had been engaged to go aid those which remained in combat. For his part, Quintus was in a serious melee against general Mikkos.




It seemed like it would be a bitter contest to the end, but eventually, the news that Mikkos fell in the fighting against Quintus discouraged the remaining men on the field, and they finally broke as those units who were able to come to the aid of their comrades overwhelmed them. It was a clear victory for Quintus.

• Quintus Varus: 351 kills, 576 of 695 men remaining
  
• Mikkos of Phocis: 207 kills, 1 of 352 men remaining

The second EOT battle raged between Admiral Manius, who was recalled from his blockade of Athens to get reinforcements, and the pirate Eumenis near the southern coasts of Crete. Although the numbers were fairly evenly matched, I was surprised by the result: a clear victory!

• Adm Manius (51 men on 1 bireme, 1 trireme) versus
  
• Adm Eumenis (56 men on 3 ships, rebels)

It was on Turn 95 (Summer, 222 BC) that I received the following reports:

• Faction Announcements: The faction leader Cassius Brutus died, leaving Quintus Varus in charge; Quintus adopted garrison commander Aulus Hostilius (age 24) as his faction heir.
  
• EOT Financial: A modest profit for the turn (192 D), due in large part to increasing trade and taxes.

Young Aulus had many promising traits, not the least of which were the "Good Attacker" and "Wall Breaker" ones. This man would be my general for the retaking of Epirus.

It was also interesting to note that there was some negative effect from corruption starting to show on my finances. The loss of 191 denarii was attributed to this, which informed me that I might have to get that Imperial palace up in Croton soon. Marius was going to show up a century early, I suppose.

There were also rebels to deal with, again. A 3-unit army under Captain Adeimanthos showed up that needed quashing. To this effect, I took a part of the garrison from Tarentum and combined it with surviving units from the battle in Epirus (the rest being sent into the city for retraining while the generals were brought in to take over governors' duties) under Captain Tiberius, and sent them north to confront the rebels. Adeimanthos didn't even consider staying in the area and retreated across the border into the Julii region of Umbria.

Turn 96 (Winter, 222 BC) advanced without further incident. The reports for that turn were the following:

• EOT Financial: A large deficit (-4,280 D), due mostly to the retraining of units from the battle against Mikkos in Epirus and new build orders.
  
• Recruitments: Practically all of it was the retraining of units at Tarentum (including Aulus Hostilius's bodyguard cavalry, the onagers and scorpions from Croton, and those units brought back from Epirus).

The only action for that turn was Captain Tiberius continuing his pursuit of Adeimanthos's rebels in north Apulia. Since the rebel crossed into Julii territory, I would bring the captain and his troops back to be joined by Aulus for their mission to Epirus.

The starting reports for Turn 97 (Summer, 221 BC) were the following:

• EOT Financial: The profits were getting a little better, but not by much (210 D) -- army upkeep was still a major factor here.
  
• Faction Announcements: The spy Manius Cincius died of old age over in Epirus; Aulus Hostilius gained a priest of Mercury in his retinue (+1 management; 10% bonus on trade income)

With nothing else being planned, I advanced the turn. This brought the Greek diplomat Lycophon of Delphi up to my diplomat Julianus Figulus at Rome, making another ceasefire offer. I had him refuse, of course. The war wouldn't be over until the Greeks were well out of the way and vanquished.

These were the reports for Turn 98 (Winter, 221 BC):

• Faction Destroyed: Numidia (likely by either Carthage or Egypt)
  
• EOT Financial: A modest profit (336 D), mostly due to trade and tax income offsetting the army upkeep and wage expenditures.
  
• Recruitments: bireme and trireme (retrained Admiral Manius's fleet, Tarentum)

It was now time to act: I had Admiral Manius drop off Aulus Hostilius and his siege army in the field at Epirus and immediately began operations against Apollonia. I could see that I did well to bring the onagers -- the Greeks had given the city stone walls. Since the garrison was a paltry force, there were little issues with doing anything other than making a breach and getting past the armored hoplites in Captain Olganos's garrison.

• Aulus Hostilius (646 men) versus
  
• Cpt Olganos (163 men, the Greek Cities)

Hostilius found himself in a position by a gate near the northwestern corner of the walls. I rearranged his army so that the onagers were directly opposite the gate, while the infantry waited behind. The archers and velites made the first line on the right of the onagers, supported by a unit of scorpions. A second unit of scorpions supported by light infantry stood opposite the wall on the left, where I had intended my onagers to make a breach. The general and a unit of equites waited behind the reserve line of triarii.





The onagers got to work. While they were making the breach in the wall near the corner, the Cretan archers in Hostilius's army delivered a barrage of arrows at the unit of peltasts atop the wall next to the gate. I also saw that I was right to place that unit of scorpions where I did; a unit of armored hoplites placed itself to guard the breach.





Once the breach was made, my onagers were free to use the remainder of their ammo to try and knock the peltasts off the walls, while my archers spent the rest of their arrows in the process of doing the same. The scorpions were brought up to systematically wipe out the hoplites guarding the breach and open the way for the infantry to begin their assault.



My velites in the front had started taking hits from the walls in spite of their loose formation. I was concerned about their being decimated, so my next plan of action was to send them and the peasants guarding the scorpions forward to try and scale the walls, or at least draw off the attention of the second unit of armored hoplites still waiting behind the gates.



This was carried out with good effect. I was able to get the velites inside the breach and down the avenue to where they would be able to keep the second hoplite unit, one commanded by the garrison commander himself, preoccupied while I brought the infantry forward to engage him. It didn't take long to finish him off. In the meantime, the peasants were able to get on the wall and start working their way along to the next gate to clear the path towards the city square, while the Triarii would get onto the wall next to the gate to finish off the peltasts.






Once Olganos and his armored hoplites were out of the way, there only remained the task of taking the city square and eliminating the remaining defenders there. This was only a unit of regular hoplites. I placed light infantry around the periphery of the square and brought the heavy infantry up. While the hoplites bore down upon a unit of hastati at the edge near the avenue leading to it, I directed the principes to converge on them and attack.

Once these routed, it was over. Aulus Hostilius arrived with his cavalry in time to help finish them off. It was a clear victory, and Apollonia was retaken. The inhabitants were enslaved.

• Aulus Hostilius: 162 kills, 544 of 646 men remaining
  
• Cpt Olganos: 116 kills, no men remaining

With Epirus back in my hands, I took the time to contact the Macedonians at Larissa. Borus of Lissus was the governor, and he accepted Publius Lutatius's offer of an alliance and trade rights. For now, at least, I could merely keep an eye on them and make sure that I wasn't caught off-guard if the next Euenus would come along seeking to strip me of my cities.



As far as the Greek Cities were concerned, there were still strong armies in the field. I was expecting these to descend upon the newly-recaptured city at any time.

• The spy Tiberius Thrasea had infiltrated the army of Captain Euclides near the border with Thessalia, 12 units strong.
  
• The general Eugammon of Centuripae was within striking range of Apollonia, leading a 16-unit army.

There was a small rebel army in the mountains near where the Greek armies were waiting. That was a 2-unit force led by Captain Memmon, so I didn't expect him to be much of a distraction to the enemy.

I quickly brought over a few more units to reinforce the garrison at Apollonia, not even realizing that I took up the last open slot to where a unit of town watch was going to be going. Needless to say, when I got the EOT battle alert upon advancing the turn, this poor bastard showed up outside the walls and was immediately beset upon by the Greeks!

• Cpt Decius (41 men) versus
  
• Cpt Euclides (469 men, the Greek Cities) and
  
• Eugammon of Centuripae (404 men, the Greek Cities)

"Crap."





The unit of town watch, raw recruits led by Captain Decius, was in a hopeless situation. I made the best of it, marching straight for a stand of trees in the field but, realizing that the commander of an army would always be visible on the RTW battle map, I settled for a kamikaze charge at the approaching cavalry bodyguard of Eugammon and his associate general.

It was a clear defeat. Routed in the onslaught, the young captain and the survivors of his unit disappeared and were never seen or heard from again.

• Cpt Decius: no kills, 7 of 41 men remaining
  
• Cpt Euclides: no kills, all 469 men remaining
  
• Eugammon of Centuripae: 34 kills, all 404 men remaining

As the reports for Turn 99 (Summer, 220 BC) came around, I received the notice that Decius had deserted and gone into hiding ("Your Forces Melt Away"). As the Greeks laid a siege down on newly-reclaimed Apollonia, I read through the remaining reports:

• EOT Financial: There was a large profit (2,146 D) as a result of income from reclaiming the city of Apollonia and the region of Epirus it controlled.
  
• Construction: armorer (Tarentum) and stone wall (repaired, Apollonia)
  
• Recruitments: Practically all of the units which needed it were retrained at Apollonia, save for the unlucky unit of town watch led by Captain Decius who was pushed out into the waiting arms of the Greeks at turn's end...

The Greek armies that were surrounding Apollonia in the siege were led by Eugammon of Centuripae (maintaining the siege) and Captain Euclides. I realized that I had no reinforcements on hand which I could direct to Aulus to help break this siege. Thus, I began to consider the options.



I could try for a sally on one or two occasions, using my Cretan archers and onagers to pick off the besieging units until a more favorable outcome could be gained by a full counterassault. To this end, by withdrawing shortly after driving the enemy off from the walls, I could be able to weaken them enough to make any final assault more costly than if they had been allowed to weaken the garrison through maintaining the siege.

Or I could wait it out and hope that the Greeks were overeager, launching the assault with towers or by undermining the walls, giving my units instructions to hold the breach or defend the wall against any boarding parties in hopes that a final defense could be set up by the scorpions and spear units in the avenues leading to the city square. These just being two of the options that I could think of at this time.

A third option would be to wait and see if the Greeks hold off for the full 7 turns remaining in the siege, using the time to recruit reinforcements intended for giving aid to the garrison at the crucial moment. It all went well, I could be able to turn things around in spite of the odds.

Before closing out the turn and saving the game for the next session, I went through one more deployment. A trireme under Admiral Spurius was separated from a fleet nearby and sent ahead to blockade Athens. Along the way, he crossed paths with a pirate fleet led by Admiral Arkha.

• Adm Spurius (31 men on 1 trireme) versus
  
• Adm Arkha (29 men on 2 ships, rebels)

The odds were about even, but the pirate ships must've either been fairly weak, or their crews too spent to make an impression. Spurius was able to proceed to his task with a clear victory.



I was cleared to resume the campaign on the next session. Then, I'd find out how well Aulus Hostilius and his conquering garrison could deal with a large siege...

good job, I would recommend getting Athens next, the income provided there is priceless (especially if you get trading rights with every other Mediterranean power).

Replies

@ GundamMerc:

That might be possible, once I get past Eugammon and Euclides. If I can weaken the Greek Cities to the point where they're unable to keep retraining units, those stacks which are marching around the region could just keep getting smaller and smaller until I can pick them off in detail. Taking Athens could go a long way towards breaking up their power in the mainland at this stage.

This session that I'm posting about now should be the opportunity to test that possible move...

Progress



I had resumed the 2010 Brutii campaign about halway through Turn 99 (Summer, 220 BC). Aulus Hostilius, recently adopted into the faction as the heir after Cassius Brutus passed away, had just reclaimed the city of Apollonia and the region of Epirus that it controlled, but was now besieged within the walls he had just restored by two Greek armies. I was about to find out how well the garrison, just retrained following their taking of the city and using upgraded armor and weapons, could do against Greek phalangites in defending against a siege.

I settled for trying a few sorties to keep the enemy off-balance. Under the cover of mercernary Cretan archers who had been quickly dispatched to support the garrison after the city was taken, and the unit of onagers who would be able to launch projectiles at the cumbersome armored hoplites, I could at least send out a few units to harrass the Greeks in their movements towards a safer position. But only enough so that I could weaken the besieging army as a whole, in hopes of breaking their ranks and making them vulnerable to a spirited defense, if they should finally be able to stage an assault.

In the meantime, I would begin recruiting new units on my Italian home regions, plus prepare building upgrades such as the Imperial palace that Croton was needing as its population grew. Knowing that this would trigger the Marius event which changes everything for the Rome: Total War campaign, I prepared myself for the time that I would need to sacrifice the old units. By then, I would hope to have retained Epirus and weakened the Greek Cities to where they would be easy pickings...



I checked through all the overviews before proceeding, My regions controlled included Apulia, Bruttium and (tenatively, at present) Epirus. Tarentum remained the capital. Quintus Varus was the faction leader now, with Aulus Hostilius as his selected heir. I checked the family tree to see if there was the chance that a young member of gens Brutia could still be available.



He was -- Lentulus Brutus still had a few years to go before he would achieve manhood. For the time being, he was being tutored by his stepbrother Quintus Varus.



The active generals and agents were the following:

• Quintus Varus (age 33, faction leader and governor of Croton, 321 soldiers)
  
• Aulus Hostilius (26, governor of Apollonia, 679 soldiers)
  
• Admiral Manius (42, navy commander, 50 crewmen)
  
• Admiral Cornelius (44, navy commander, 30 crewmen)
  
• Admiral Spurius (20, navy commander, 26 crewmen)
  
• Admiral Gnaeus (25, navy commander, 50 crewmen)
  
• Admiral Caius (23, navy commander, 20 crewmen)
  
• Julianus Figulus (49, diplomat in Latium)
  
• Publius Lutatius (29, diplomat in Thessalia)
  
• Caius Flaminius (73, diplomat in Ionia)
  
• Decius Valerius (41, assassin in Epirus)
  
• Tiberius Thrasea (34, spy in Thessalia)
  
• Amulius Genucius (42, spy in Epirus)

The settlement overview showed these statistics:

• Tarentum (pop 20,426; PO 100%; inc 1,643 D)
  
• Croton (pop 27,337; PO 90%; inc -226 D)
  
• Apollonia (pop 4,228; PO 140%; inc 828 D -- under siege)

I used my network of agents in the mainland and abroad to take a look at the Greek forces arrayed against me. The immediate concern was with those two armies besieging Apollonia, but there were also several others. I had no knowledge at the moment of their movements against Macedonia in this turn.

• Amulius Genucius was currently observing a 17-unit stack being led by young Krinippos of Sparta, certain to be a threat in the future.
  
• Thermon only had its governor's bodyguard as the garrison at this time.
  
• Tiberius Thrasea, further east, observed reinforcements armies such as the single unit of armored hoplites being led by Captain Simoisius, amongst others.
  
• Captain Leon was leading a 3-unit stack which escorted a herd of pigs (the "incendiary" pigs which must've also doubled as victuals and the occasional sacrificial animals).
  
• Captain Otus led 3 units of hoplites through Achaea, as reported by Thrasea.
  
• Athens had only a single unit of armored hoplites in its garrison.
  
• A general, likely the faction leader, was the only garrison unit in Corinth at this time.
  
• 4 units of armored hoplites and a single unit of Spartans garrisoned Sparta, of course...
  
• Admiral Peithon with an 8-ship navy was transporting 3 army units at sea east of Attica.

In the last moves before starting the battle, I had my elderly diplomat Caius Flaminius make his way through Ionia towards the city of Halicarnassus to see what it's current status was. It turned out that the Egyptians had captured it, adding the effects of its Mausoleum to their abilities in the process. If I were to be involved in a contest with them, this would have to be one of my primary targets.



I was ready to make my move. The armies of Eugammon and Euclides were formidable in combination, putting the odds slightly in their favor. I was determined to have Aulus succeed in cutting them down to size.

• Aulus Hostilius (680 men), versus
  
• Eugammon of Centuripae (405 men, the Greek Cities) and
  
• Captain Euclides (469 men, the Greek Cities)

I saw what needed to be done as soon as I entered the battle map. Eugammon's army was waiting outside the eastern gate, just outside the range of the ballista towers. I would anticipate their attempts to move either north or south by posting the archers along the eastern wall at intervals where their arrows could reach the enemy, and near to where Euclides's reinforcements would be approaching from.



Also along the wall at intervals were placed units of velites, hastati and principes to anticipate any movement from the enemy towards the walls. Even though they hadn't yet constructed any mines or towers, it would be a good plan. One unit of Cretan archers was placed directly atop the east gate opposite of Eugammon's army; the others were placed near the tower on the northeastern corner of the wall with the onagers to anticipate the approach of Euclides's army. The two units of triarii were placed behind the gate so as to anticipate the attempt by any unit that might try following routing sorties by that route. The peasants, both units of scorpions and town watch waited in the city square, placed so as to anticipate assaulting parties coming from along the avenues there.



I started the battle. As expected, Euclides was approaching from the north, certain to come by the northeastern corner of the walls and into the range of the two units of Cretan archers and onagers posted there. Eugammon directed his forces back away from the eastern gate before the depleted unit of Cretans there could deliver enough of an impact upon his line.



In hope of producing a stronger effect on the reinforcements, I set the onagers to use burning projectiles ("Use fire!"). The mercenary archers would continue to use standard missiles in order to have more killing power. Hopefully, there would be no friendly fire incidents other than a few cracks in the walls where the stumblebums operating the low-experience artillery would bounce a few fireballs off of them.




As was to be expected, the onagers with their flaming ammo weren't so effective, except for a few lucky shots that landed on slower or massed units. One thing that I didn't expect was to have a few units oblige my velites posted along the north wall not far from the tower to use them as targets. These, along with the Cretan archers posted next to the tower, provided admirable service, practically decimating some units of Euclides's forces before they could reach Eugammon to reinforce his line. Another thing that I noticed was that the onagers weren't apt to fire their projectiles unless the targets got beyond a distance from the wall (likely the range of the ballista towers).



Euclides finally drew all of his men out of the range of either the ballista towers, the archers on the walls or the onagers, and joined the army of Eugammon. I had one more ploy to try, in hope of drawing the Greeks back into range.



I brought Aulus Hostilius out the east gate to take a position out in the open, maneuvering to see whether or not Eugammon would come forward to attack him. He would be joined by the unit of equites that I had posted by the northeast tower. The onagers I directed to a place closer to the enemy's right flank behind the wall, in hopes of their being within range to launch a few more projectiles into whichever unit came within range, and the unit of Roman archers that was by the southeast tower brought up to support the Cretans over the gate.



Alternating between Hostilius's cavalry unit and the equites, the with both together, I brought them out to a point where Eugammon's forces reacted and then sent them galloping back to within the cover of the archers and the walls when it appearaed that any unit would come within striking distance. Eugammon reacted by wheeling his army around to the left as if anticipating the rest of Apollonia's garrison lining up next to Hostilius along the road leading from the east gate, which placed the units on his right wing within the range of the onagers.



This process was repeated 4 times. In each time, the onagers struck more targets on the right, even though some stray shots did bounce off the inside of the northeastern wall and give a total of 16% damage to it by the end of the battle. Still, the results satisfied me enough to want to try it again by the next turn, if the Greek armies maintained their siege.



At the times in which Hostilius and the equites were drawn back towards the walls, Eugammon brought his right wing back out of range and faced the walls once more. As the sortie continued, I could see where the line was getting a little thinner, but the strength of the enemy was still enough to pose more than a threat to a full sortie by the men on the walls.



Finally, I was running out of time. I saw where the onagers weren't goint to be any more effective if they kept making more its on the wall or random spots on the field, rather than the Greek unit they were supposed to be hitting. Though I knew it was going to result in a draw, I exited the battle and prepared myself for the next turn...

• Aulus Hostilius: 283 kills, 673 of 680 men remaining
  
• Eugammon of Centuripae: no kills, 389 of 405 men remaining
  
• Captain Euclides: 7 kills, 202 of 469 men remaining

The task finally done, I advanced to Turn 100 (Winter, 220 BC). There were a few starting reports:

• EOT Financial: A large profit (2,211 D) due to the increased trade, taxes and farming income offsetting the costs of retraining units and repairing the walls of Apollonia.
  
• Recruitments: Nearly all of it retraining the units at Tarentum with the armorer which had just been completed -- only 1 unit of triremes was added to the fleet.

At this stage, I had decided that my assassin Decius Valerius had played the role of idle observer long enough -- he wasn't going to get any skill increase by standing around doing nothing. Much to my surprise, the 31% chance of killing the rebel captain Memmon succeeded, providing the much-needed experience.



At the same time, it had become apparent that my neighbors had been busy training other agents for their dirty work. Even the Macedonians had an assassin in the field, one Arpalos of Pella spotted by my spy Amulius Genucius. I recalled Amulius to Apollonia to watch the gates, remembering how Macedon had betrayed me before...

Turn 101 (Summer, 219 BC). Among the starting reports for that turn were the following:

• Agent Detected: A Greek spy was detected and captured -- Amulius was fulfilling his purpose wonderfully.
  
• Settlement Besieged: The Greek Cities had sent another army to lay siege, but this was a paltry force compared to what was sent before -- Eugammon had departed with both his and the reinforcements in the last turn.
  
• EOT Financial: A large deficit (-4,449 D) -- there was a major construction order in addition to increasing army upkeep and the retraining of units.
  
• Construction: The stone wall of Apollonia was repaired.
  
• Recruitments: Roman archers (retrained, Tarentum), town watch (Apollonia) -- practically all of the other units were retrained at Apollonia following the last siege.

It was time to get down to business. The current siege of Apollonia was being led by Captain Euclides, who apparently felt the need to prove his worth to his fellow Greeks. His 7 units were hardly a concern for me, as there were no reinforcements to be found anywhere within range. I decided to let Aulus Hostilius come out to play.

• Aulus Hostilius: (682 men), versus
  
• Captain Euclides: (202 men, the Greek Cities)

Euclides was lined up opposite the south gate. Placing one unit of Cretan archers over the gate, I grouped together some strong units that I felt would give Hostilius a fair advantage against the Greeks in the field. The artillery was kept within the walls with the weaker garrison units, the onagers set up by the eastern wall where they could fire projectiles over it to strike the enemy beyond.



The battle commenced. Under the cover of arrows and the onager's projectiles, Hostilius brought his men out the gate. Euclides drew himself off to what he considered a safe distance opposite the southeast tower and lined up to receive the Roman lines. I wasn't going to let him off lightly -- the archers on the walls and the onagers were brought over by the southeast tower to provide more covering fire.



The onagers carried out their work splendidly. While the Greeks never did keep themselves within the range of the archers or ballista towers on the walls, they kept their formation -- even under some punishing fire from the onagers. AI stupidity struck again.



As I brought them up by the southeast towers, I had regrouped Hostilius's units in a 3-lines, missle units first arrangement. This would bring the full units of Cretan archers to the front with the velites, but I was confident in their ability to inflict serious damage upon those units which came forward, even before they could make contact. The velites would do what they could with anything that got a little closer, until they used up their missiles and were relegated to supporting the infantry line.



The tactic worked perfectly. Waiting until the onagers had used up their ammunition before advancing any closer, I let the Cretans in my front line deliver their payload into the nearest Greek units, which broke formation to try and stop the irritating missile fire. These came within range of the archers on the walls, who picked off more units from their vulnerable right flank, while my velites were sent forward to use up their missiles in an attempt to further weaken approaching units before they could force me to withdraw my archers behind the infantry.



Once the velites' missiles were used up, I withdrew them behind the infantry line and set the units of prinicpes and hastati to "Fire at Will". These would hold their formations until the Cretan archers in Hostilius's group and on the walls would use up all of their arrows, then charge the now-weakened ranks of Euclides's besiegers.



As the principes on the right surrounded and engaged a unit of armored hoplites which had reached the lines (I drew off the archers so that they wouldn't accidentally hit any of my own men), I called up a unit of triarii from the flank to get behind the engaged unit and charge them. Noticing the approach of the peltasts from Euclides's line, I ordered the archers to deliver a little covering fire while I sent Hostilius and the equites by flanking maneuver to intercept any similar moves. The equites charged and routed the peltasts and wiped them out.



As the rest of the infantry were picked off and routed in detail, Euclides and his cavalry unit tried to gallop off, but I sent Hostilius in pursuit. That proved not to be a good tactic, as the armored cavalry were no match for the lighter cavalry's speed, so I brought up the equites from their pursuit of the routers to support him. Trapped between two units of cavalry and seeing his remaining companions killed by a charge from Hostilius, Euclides routed and was killed by the equites who caught up with him.

A clear victory -- the city was safe!

• Aulus Hostilius: 170 kills, 678 of 682 men remaining
  
• Captain Euclides: 4 kills, 32 of 202 men remaining

Turn 102 (Winter, 219 BC) brought me the following 3 reports:

• EOT Financial: A good profit (2,374 D), helped in large part by lower recruitment and construction costs for the turn.
  
• Construction: The stone walls of Apollonia once again needed repairing, but the risk was worth it.
  
• Recruitments: hastati (Apollonia) and assassin (Tarentum) -- the rest were units retained at all the appropriate buildings (triarii, Roman archers, principes and peasants)

The only move for that turn was to send Captain Kaeso with a small detachment of 2 prinicpes and 1 Cretan archers north to deal with the rebel Captain Buccoli. He withdrew into Macedonian territory, leaving Kaeso free to be sent down to the old ambush point east of Apollonia.

Turn 103 (Summer, 218 BC). I received the following reports:

• Senate Missions: Once more, I received a little tongue-lashing for the failure to carry out a mission -- the taking of Thermon got put off due to all the threats of Greek armies in the region of Epirus.
  
• Agent Detected: Amulius performed his duties admirably, enabling the capture and execution of another Greek spy.
  
• EOT Financial: Large profits (2,673 D) offset army upkeep, increased wages and recent build orders through increased taxes and trade income.
  
• Faction Announcements: Quintus Varus gained a Tribune of the Plebs in his retinue (bonuses to influence and polularity); Aulus Hostilius gained a priest of Mars (attacking command bonus)

For this turn, my new assassin Decimus Sulla had spied another rebellion outside the walls of Tarentum. Rather than let it fester, I decided to let my garrisons have a little combat action and drew out a force to confront the rebels. They were led by Captain Olganos, a familiar name -- wasn't he commanding the garrison in Apollonia when Hostilius took that city a few turns back?

• Captain (), versus
  
• Captain Olganos (, rebels)

I had arranged for the units under Captain X in three lines, with the hastati and mercenary units in the front, the triarii in the second, and the Roman archers in the third. Captain X and his equites squadron remained in the back, anticipating any flanking maneuvers that could be launched. Olganos and his rebels were taking up a position upslope in a clearing closer to the western edge of the battle map.



Once I got Captain X's army into position on a low ridge at the edge of a clearing, the archers let their arrows fly and provoked the front line of Olganos's group into charging. While the infantry was in a melee with the hastati from Olganos's group, I switched the archers over to the slower hoplite unit until these could be safely engaged. Olganos's hastati routed first, regrouping once they got back by their captain.



Finally, Olganos himself was driven to advance upon the lines with his hoplites, but the barrage of archer fire took its toll and he was caught by the infantry in Captain X's line. He routed, only to be hunted down by X.

A clear victory -- the rebellion was crushed.

• Captain Numerius: 106 kills, 292 of 312 men remaining
  
• Captain Olganos: 21 kills, 15 of 121 men remaining

As I went to advance the turn after the battle was done, I got a rude awakening as to the status of the Greek navy. Apparently, they finally decided to bring that massive navy under Admiral Peithon south to deal with the fleets blockading their ports. Admiral Cornelius and his trireme crew were the first to get hit:

• Admiral Cornelius (31 men on 1 trireme), versus
  
• Admiral Peithon (161 men on 8 ships, the Greek Cities)

Cornelius defeated.



Cornelius and his surviving crewmen were then caught by a trireme commanded by Admiral Hippias where they had managed to retreat to, off the southwest coasts of Asia Minor:

• Admiral Cornelius (17 men on 1 trireme), versus
  
• Admiral Hippias (31 men on 1 trireme, the Greek Cities)

Defeated again!



Wherever Cornelius ended up going, I was going to have to find out if his fleet was still afloat. In the meanwhile, Hippias caught up with Admiral Spurius, who was blockading Athens:

• Admiral Spurius (27 men on 1 trireme), versus
  
• Admiral Hippias (28 men on 1 trireme, the Greek Cities)

A clear defeat -- now I had two wasted navies that I needed to track down and bring back to port...



Now it was time for a final surprise -- Captain Kaeso's ambush force had an opportunity to savalge a situation, but the Greek unit commanded by Captain Aristandros managed to spot him in time to avoid it.

• Captain Kaeso (162 men), versus
  
• Captain Aristandros (42 men, the Greek Cities)

With the quarry escaping the ambush, Kaeso and his men were positioned at the top of a hill overlooking the copse of woodlands where they would've been able to launch their attack. I arranged them so as to flank the unit of scorpions that he had with himself -- the 2 units of principes on the left, Kaeso and his equites to the right and the Cretan archers in the rear.



Aristandros was still in the clearing at the base of the hill. I brought the men forward, fully expecting the Greek captain and his unit of hoplites to stand their ground and oblige themselves to be shot to pieces by my archers and artillery -- he didn't do that.

Aristandros withdrew from the field and the battle was won ("Close Victory"). Looking back at this, I wondered if it would've been better to separate the scorpions from Kaeso's group and charge the rest of the units forward to try and outflank the enemy before they could escape. I certainly could've lured him with the equites, and had the Cretans open fire from a distance until the heavy infantry could catch up. As it was, it was a bloodless battle...



Turn 104 (Winter, 218 BC) brought me the following reports:

• Senate Missions: The Senate decided that I was to get an easy assignment again -- blockade Sparta.
  
• EOT Financial: The proft was slightly lower this turn (1,520 D), in part due to additional retraining and construction costs.
  
• Recruitments: triarii (Tarentum) -- the rest were units retrained there using the armorer.

The Greek Cities had apparently taken notice of my success in killing off their agents and started deploying assassins against Apollonia at this time. Why they never targeted my assassin Decius Valerius, I never could guess, as pitting an assassin against another assassin gives a rather astronomical success rate (95%) in Rome: Total War. Either way, I welcomed the opportunity for Decius to gain skill levels and retinue (he got a courtesan from this hit) without risking his life much.


Advancing the turn, I started seeing the roll-call of naval battles start up again. Admiral Peithon was on the warpath for the Greek Cities:

• Admiral Gnaeus (51 men on 1 trireme, 1 bireme), versus
  
• Admiral Peithon (140 men on 8 ships, the Greek Cities)

Gnaeus was defeated, but he was able to deliver quite a bit of damage while getting beaten down.



Turn 105 (Summer, 217 BC) brought out these reports:

• EOT Financial: The low construction costs for the turn brought about a good profit (2,244 D)
  
• Construction: large temple of Mars (Apollonia)
  
• Recruitments: trireme (Tarentum) and bireme (Apollonia) -- beginning elements of a new fleet.

The new fleet under the command of Admiral Caius, I deployed south to blockade Sparta. There, I found Admiral Hippias still waiting:

• Admiral Caius (51 men on 1 trireme, 1 bireme), versus
  
• Admiral Hippias (28 men on 1 trireme, the Greek Cities)

It was a clear victory. Hippias was driven away and the port of Sparta placed under the blockade.



On this turn, I grew a little concerned about Macedon. They had a 15-unit stack led by Kalas of Amphipolis marching through my territory north of Apollonia, and the last time I saw a stack like that was when it was about to pounce upon my city. The betrayal by Euenus was not forgotten here.



Keeping an eye firmly upon Kalas, I advanced the turn. The next wave of Greek naval attacks began:

• Admiral Manius (51 men on 1 trireme, 1 bireme), versus
  
• Admiral Croesus (51 men on 1 quinquireme, the Greek Cities)

A clear victory, with only one man lost? Croesus must've been as overconfident in his big ship as his namesake must've been in the city walls of Sardis...



Meanwhile, Admiral Vibius with his ships was on the way towards an attempt at renewing the blockade of Corinth when the Greek admiral Onetas caught up with him.

• Admiral Vibius (51 men on 1 trireme, 1 bireme), versus
  
• Admiral Onetas (99 men on 5 ships, the Greek Cities)

A clear defeat...



Done with Vibius, Onetas went after Manius.

• Admiral Manius (51 men on 1 trireme, 1 bireme), versus
  
• Admiral Onetas (81 men on 4 ships, the Greek Cities)

Defeated, Manius abandoned the blockade of Thermon that he was holding.



Onetas was clearly feeling his oats. Having whetted his appetite on two Roman fleets, he turned back to the south and caught Admiral Spurius on his way back to port.

• Admiral Spurius (20 men on 1 trireme), versus
  
• Admiral Onetas (80 men on 4 ships, the Greek Cities)

Spurius, defeated again...



Finally, Admiral Manius's worn-down trireme was caught where it had come to rest, on an island in the Agean off the coast of Sparta, too distant from the fleet of Admiral Caius to send for aid when a fresh crew under Admiral Mentes found him.

• Admiral Manius (13 men on 1 trireme), versus
  
• Admiral Mentes (31 men on 1 trireme, the Greek Cities)

Manius, defeated. As there was only one survivor, it was most likely him being taken prisoner and his ship sinking.



The long string of naval setback was over. Turn 106 (Winter, 217 BC) brought me the news:

• The Marius Event: The completion of a certain building in Croton had something to do with this -- the Marius Event meant the phasing out of traditional units and the transformation of my armies.
  
• Senate Missions: Satisfied with my performance of the mission to blockade Sparta, the Senate gifted me 1,000 denarii.
  
• EOT Financial: I had a smaller profit on this round (1,106 D), in large part due to large recruitment and construction costs.
  
• Construction: public baths (Tarentum) and Imperial palace (Croton)
  
• Recruitments: trireme (Tarentum) -- the rest of it was retraining for other units at Tarentum and Apollonia.
  
• Diplomatic: War, Britannia against Dacia -- this forced the latter to break its alliance with Parthia.

The Baby Blue Steamroller™ was on the move again, it seemed. With stronger units and the core of a professional army, I might have the means of figthing back, should I ever come into conflict with them. However, my immediate concern was for the rowdy neighbors I has facing in my own back yard.



Deciding that Onetas needed to be stopped, I directed the fleet of Admiral Gnaeus south to where he was waiting. He ran out of movement points right on the cusp of reaching his target.



This left me with one more move before advancing the turn -- Decius Valerius had another easy target in yet another Greek assassin, Baerius of Delphi. Baerius should've brought that prophetess along for advice...

The EOT battle message came up, pitting Caius at the port of Sparta against the fleet of Admiral Onetas. He had slipped away from Admiral Gnaeus to pick the easier target.

• Admiral Caius (38 men on 1 trireme, 1 bireme), versus
  
• Admiral Onetas (79 men on 4 ships, the Greek Cities)

Caius was sent packing.



He wasn't done yet, either. Onetas then turned north, and attacked Admiral Gnaeus.

• Admiral Gnaeus (51 men on 1 trireme, 1 bireme), versus
  
• Admiral Onetas (75 men on 4 ships, the Greek Cities)

Here was a surprise -- a Heroic victory! Hand of fate or whatever, Onetas had apparently gotten a serious case of hubris after kicking so much ass.



As if they hadn't had enough, two Greek fleets under the admirals Mentes and Hippias showed up on the scene to get back at Gnaeus.

• Admiral Gnaeus (43 men on 1 trireme, 1 bireme), versus
  
• Admiral Mentes (26 men on 1 ship, the Greek Cities) and
  
• Admiral Hippias (16 men on 1 ship, the Greek Cities)

This turned up an average victory. Although victorious, Gnaeus was too badly beaten-up to continue where he was, so I would pull him back to port to get retrained and await the next move by the Greek fleets.



Turn 107 (Summer, 216 BC). The starting reports were:

• EOT Financial: A modest deficit (1,134 D resulting from large construction and recruitment costs.
  
• Events: Greek logic had been developed -- whatever it meant for Romans, it probably wasn't desirable.
  
• Faction Announcements: Coming of age (COA), Lentulus Brutus; death, Urgulania; retinue, equestrian for Quintus Varus (trade income bonus)
  
• Recruitments: Roman cavalry (Apollonia) -- my first post-Marian army unit

The Greek Cities continued to feed my assassin Decius Valerius this turn. Their latest agent Pedocles should've stayed home in Sicily. Now, Decius was known as "the Killer"...



Speaking of assassins, I finally got a chance to check on Decimus Sulla (age 27). The ugly bastard needed to get out of town and go do things for me soon. There appeared to be no serious threats to my faction in Italy at the moment, and he would be needed to deal with whatever the Greeks or Macedon would be likely to cast my way.



I also got a look at young Lentulus Brutus (age 16) at Tarentum. His positive traits currently outweighed the negative one ("Inferior Engineer"), but I wasn't about to send him into battle yet. That would wait until there was a clear path to a target in Greece, after his step-nephew Hostilius had played around for a little while. For now, he was to supervise the improvements of the region and the recruitment of the professional army units.

Turn 108 (Winter, 216 BC). These were the starting reports:

• EOT Financial: Profits were back up to a good level (2,635 D), likely because of no construction expenditures and lower recruitment costs that were offset by the increase in trade income.
  
• Faction Announcements: Death of Paulina; marriage of Aulus Hostilius (looking after his legacy, I see).
  
• Recruitments: praetorian cohort (Tarentum, Croton), bireme and trireme (retrained, Tarentum)
  
• Diplomatic: War, the Greek Cities against Egypt

I was curious to see what brought that about, so I had old Caius the diplomat take a trip to see what was up. It seemed that the Greeks were turning into perfect enemies -- taking on more and more conflict than they could possibly handle in their present situation, rather than preparing for it ahead of time.

I could use the praetorians to shore up the garrisons a little bit. The legionaries and auxilia would go into my armies in the field, replacing the old ranks of velites, hastati and principes as these were whittled down in fighting. Any of the old units which were spent below half of their original strength would be pulled back to garrison duty and eventually disbanded.



On this turn, the Greek Cities also made moves against my faction. A navy had approached the port of Tarentum, getting caught in the range of all three of the fleets that were waiting their turns for retraining. In Epirus, Krinippos of Sparta led his 16-unit stack north and was obviously headed out to besiege someone's city. Likely my Apollonia.

I wasn't going to wait around for the first move this time. I started by sending the navy of Admiral Vibius who had just gotten retrained out to anticipate the ship of Admiral Mentes who had arrived on the scene. He was joined by Admiral Spurius with his crew.

• Admiral Vibius (51 men on 1 trireme, 1 bireme) and
  
• Admiral Spurius (13 men on 1 trireme), versus
  
• Admiral Mentes (19 men on 1 trireme, the Greek Cities)

A clear victory.



Now, it was newlywed Hostilius, whose honeymoon had been so rudely interrupted, whose turn had come up. It probably explained why his battle-speech was particularly fiery for this one. He headed off the advance of Krinippos with part of the garrison from Apollonia and the siege engines. Captain Kaeso led an obsolete unit of equites in the supporting role -- he was to be the kamikaze to help distract the enemy.

• Aulus Hostilius (668 men) and
  
• Captain Kaeso (28 men), versus
  
• Krinippos of Sparta (508 men, the Greek Cities)

I started the battle positioned at the top of a hill looking south down the slope toward the approach of Krinippos's army. Arranging the army so as the have the velites screening the infantry and the scorpions on my left flank guarded by the Roman cavalry, I advanced down the hill until the enemy would be within the range of the onagers behind the lines. Kaeso entered the battle-map directly behind, directed by the AI in a beeline towards the enemy like a guided missile.



Kaeso performed his suicide run quickly. Drawing the attention of Krinippos's archers and light cavalry on his approach, he made contact and skirmished with them until they routed him, while my line got into position for the artillery to do their thing. Kaeso himself was taken down by the enemy cavalrymen as they pursued him back in my direction.



It was the Greek cavalry's turn to rout next, as they were exposed to a withering volley of pila, Cretan arrows and scorpion bolts as they closed within range. This sent them scampering back behind Krinippos's lines. I could afford to retire the surviving men in Kaeso's squadron.



Sitting secure uphill from the Greek lines, I let the onagers expend all of their ammo against the enemy lines, where they did a little bit of damage (earning just enough experience points to warrant a 2nd bronze stripe). Then I took up a new position a little closer, where the scorpions could carry on their work before moving in to let the Cretan archers do theirs.



Krinippos wasn't going to take Cretan archer fire lying down, like he did with burning rocks and scorpion bolts. He sent units from his army forward to try and drive back the archers and velites, but I only took them off of "Fire at Will" mode and redirected them to shoot anything not yet in contact with my infantry. The principes and hastati in the lines, I directed to "Fire at Will" to allow them to deliver a damaging pila barrage to the hoplites before contact. More than a few Greek units routed before even reaching the lines.



Those units which made contact with my lines were picked off in detail. The routers were finished off by the Roman cavalry on the left, who also went after any other Greek unit which left the safely of the lines, routed these, then were drawn back to my flanks to wait for another opportunity.



Seeing that the Cretan archers had now spent all their arrows, I ungrouped them and sent them to join the velites behind the lines as I regrouped the infantry for the final charge against Krinippos's line. Aulus and the Roman cavalry were also brought forward to take the enemy in their flank, where the unit driving the "incendiary" pigs was beginning to move. There were also the ballistas to deal with, as they were already starting to make an impact on my infantry units.



Once Aulus Hostilius and the Roman cavalry got behind the lines and started to rout the light units while the hoplites were pinned down by the my infantry, Krinippos decided to withdraw. It didn't take long for the rest of the Greeks to break and rout after that.



Of course, the rest of the story was basically the same -- continue the battle to pursue the routers and deliver as much damage as possible to the enemy before they can escape. It was a clear victory for Hostilius.

• Aulus Hostilius: 475 kills, 622 of 668 men remaining
  
• Captain Kaeso: 9 kills, 7 of 28 men remaining
  
• Krinippos of Sparta: 67 kills, 21 of 508 men remaining

The coast was cleared. The Greek army had been routed and any immediate threats from that quarter ended. However, I wasn't yet ready to pursue the next goal, as the presence of Macedonian armies within the territory of Epirus raised my concerns about another betrayal. Aulus was to return to Apollonia to oversee the retraining of those units which would be restored to full strength, and the recruitment of the new professional soldiers needed for my plans for advancing against Thermon, Corinth and Athens to the south.



The session was ended and the game saved for the next time...

Excellent work.

Session number 9 now up.

Progress

When I had closed the last session with a victorius battle against a Greek army led by Krinippos of Sparta on Turn 108 (Winter, 216 BC), I had cleared the path towards greater glory and the conquest of the Greek Cities. The Greeks, it seemed, had made too many enemies at this time and now faced not only my Brutii faction of Rome, but also the armies of Macedon, Armenia and Egypt. They were seriously compromised by many successful sorties by the garrion at Apollonia and by repeated efforts by Macedon at retaking their city of Larissa.

The only gray clouds that I saw thus far was that the Macedonians were once again using my province of Epirus as a highway for their armies on their way south to get to Larissa, instead of going by way of the roads leading from the neighboring regions of Illyria and Macedonia, and that the recent Marius Event meant that my original units of velites, hastati, principes, triarii and equites were now going to need replacement by the professional legionaries associated with Gaius Marius's "New Man". I was going to use the next couple of turns to retool my armies, recalling any old units which were too spent to be effective to the settlements to serve as garrison support and sending the new units to the front lines to join Aulus Hostilius. Eventually, even young Lentulus Julius would go to the Greek mainland to lead forces there.

My other plans would be to try and capture those Greek cities which seemed like an easy pick for me: Thermon, Corinth and Athens. Their ports needed blockading, in order to prevent the Greeks from replenishing their armies with the trade profits, so I was to rebuild the navies that I had salvaged from the wreckage of a series of defeats inflicted upon me by the Greeks several turns before. The nearest ports and cities would be the first targets.

Before proceeding, I checked on the overviews to get my bearings:





My military commanders, governors and agents at the start of the session:

• Aulus Hostilius (age 30, army commander in Epirus, 580 soldiers)
  
• Lentulus Brutus (age 16, governor of Tarentum, 282 soldiers)
  
• Quintus Varus (age 37, faction leader and governor of Croton, 324 soldiers)
  
• Admiral Gnaeus (age 29, navy commander of 2 ships, 28 crewmen)
  
• Admiral Vibius (age 22, navy commander of 2 ships, 37 crewmen)
  
• Admiral Caius (age 27, navy commander of ships, 15 crewmen)
  
• Admiral Spurius (age 24, navy commander of ships, 12 crewmen)
  
• Julianus Figulus (age 53, diplomat at Rome)
  
• Publius Lutatius (age 33, diplomat in Thessalia)
  
• Caius Flaminius (age 77, diplomat in Phrygia)
  
• Decius the Killer (age 45, assassin in Apollonia)
  
• Decimus Sulla (age 27, assassin in Tarentum)
  
• Amulius Genucius (age 46, spy in Apollonia)
  
• Tiberius Thrasea (age 38, spy in Attica)

My cities controlled:

• Tarentum (pop 21,213; PO 100%; inc 1,322 D)
  
• Croton (pop 26,614; PO 115%; inc -453 D)
  
• Apollonia (pop 5,265; PO 175%; inc 1,569 D

I advanced to Turn 109 (Summer, 215 BC) to get things started. The starting reports for the turn were the following:

• Senate Missions: I was assigned the task of blockading Sparta.
  
• EOT Financial: A deficit (-1,478 denarii) owing to large construction expenditures and increasing army upkeep for the turn.
  
• Construction: mines+1 (croton) and armourer (Apollonia)
  
• Recruitments: auxilia (Tarentum, Apollonia), trireme and bireme (retrained, Tarentum)

The professional legions of the post-Marius era were slowly taking shape. My navies were starting to be rebuilt, as I found a few stragglers left over from the recent wave of Greek sea victories that disrupted my blockading fleets and brought them back to Italy to be retrained.



There were still Macedonian armies using my region of Epirus as a highway for their attempts at retaking Larissa from the Greek Cities. Theirs was quite the ding-dong, drag-out contest. I was reluctant to let Aulus Hostilius proceed with the next step in my Greek campaign without ensuring that a strong garrison remained at Apollonia to defend against potential betrayal by the Macedonians. Euenus's taking of Salona would not be forgotten...

• Captain Callimachus had two units of archers coming up out of the region of Aetolia, apparently having been chased all over Greece after a failed siege attempt.
  
• The Macedonian faction heir Ariphron of Selinus had just entered Epirus from the north with 5 units (his bodyguard, 2 light cavalry and 2 militia hoplites).

The Greeks were fairly active, but not yet fully recovered from their recent blockade. However, there were still several strong units going around, most of them gathering up around Larissa. Their navies were another concern.

• Captain Midas had a 12-unit stack up by Larissa, strong in armored hoplites.
  
• Captain Tharybis led a group with 2 units of armored hoplites and 1 of Greek archers entering Thessalia from the south.
  
• The general Onamakritos of Delium waited outside the walls of Athens with a unit each
  of heavy peltasts and depleted armored hoplites.
  
• An unidentified unit being led by Captain Ptolemeos was in the field east of Corinth.
  
• The depleted trireme crew of Admiral Mentes drifted at sea off the tip of Bruttium.
  
• Admiral Euanthes commanded a quinquireme off the coast of the island of Euboea.
  
• Admiral Telephus's trireme was following Euanthes.
  
• The garrison of Pergamum, so recently taken from the Egyptians, had no governor commanding its 6 units.
  
• The governor of Athens, known as Chabrias the Killer, commanded 2 armored hoplite units.
  
• The faction heir, Cordylion of Sparta, governed Corinth and commanded a single unit
  of heavy peltasts in its garrison.
  
• There was no known governor in the capital, Sparta, and its 4 units remained unidentified.
  
• Larissa was governed by Adeimanthos of Corcyra with a single unit of armored hoplites.
  
• At Thermon, our old foe Krinippos of Sparta resided, in command of a garrison of 7 units.

There were only two other navies in my vicinity. A pirate fleet commanded by Admiral Ceyx was dangerously close to the port of Croton, so I had concerns about sending any ships down towards him (he had 2 ships of unknown quantity). The Julii had a fleet under Admiral Valerius (1 trireme, 1 bireme) moving southeast along the Apulian coastline.



The only moves I made during this turn were to deploy Admiral Vibius with a retrained fleet to blockade the port of Thermon, and to recall Aulus and the units who had just defeated Krinippos in the previous turn to be swapped out and retrained. The navies would take turns reestablishing the naval blockade of the Greek Cities as each was retrained. Any city that was taken in the interim would start training new ships to join the rest of the fleets.

There were no surprise battles as I advanced the turn. The reports for Turn 110 (Winter, 215 BC) were as follows:

• EOT Financial: Much recruitment, increasing army upkeep costs and construction orders led to a large deficit (-3,407 denarii).
  
• Recruitments: auxilia (Tarentum), early legionary cohort (Apollonia), trireme, bireme (retrained, Tarentum), Roman armoured general, onagers, scorpions (2), Cretan archers (2), Roman cavalry and town watch (retrained, Apollonia)

The armourer at Apollonia was getting quite a workout with Hostilius's troops needed upgrading before they took on the next big fight. It looked like they would be in for it, too:

• Captain Kerkyon appeared just within the borders of Epirus, apparently headed north into one of the mountain valleys with 6 units from Thermon.
  
• Deiphonous of Thessalonica was a new general identified, leading 10 units into the valley northwest of Larissa.

Opposing the Greeks were also the armies of Macedonia, espeically the the one led by Ariphron. He seemed to be waiting to descend upon Larissa as he stopped just inside the border of Macedonia. Nearby, Captain Callimachus's archers continued their passage through Epirus.

I advanced to Turn 111 (Summer, 214 BC) without further incident. There were few reports for that turn:

• EOT Financial: A small deficit (-299 D) due to recruitment costs and higher army upkeep.
  
• Flash Flood: Dalmatia
  
• Recruitments: bireme (Tarentum), praetorian cohort (Croton), early legionary cohort (Apollonia), trireme (retrained, Tarentum), principes (retrained, Apollonia), velites (3 retrained, Apollonia), hastati (retrained, Apollonia) and town watch (retrained, Apollonia).

I took a look around the map to see where that flood was. If it hit Dalmatia, it was nowhere near my territory. It did look like a corner of Julii territory was involved, though, as the flooding actually occured right on the border between Dalmatia and Venetia, even reaching the docks outside of Patavium. Those gods weren't too good with their aim, if they were punishing the Macedonians.



With his units' retraining being done, I thought a bit about sending Hostilius down to take Thermon. A quick glance of the city showed me that Krinippos was left all on his own as the garrison, and the nearest Greek army was that half-stack led by Deiphonous near Larissa. There was also some units being led by Captain Kerkyon further north. This latter Greek captain became food for my assassin Decius the Killer.



All of my navies were back in action, and in a position to lay down a simultaneous blockade on the ports of Thermon, Corinth and Sparta. Admiral Vibius only saw one Greek ship, commanded by Admiral Telephus, off the coast of Laconia where he was about to carry out the blockade ordered by the Senate.

I set the blockades and waited to see if Telephus would attack Vibius at the end of the turn. No EOT interruptions. I started Turn 112 (Winter, 214 BC) with these reports:

• Senate Missions: My fulfillment of the blockade of Sparta earned me a 1,000 denarii gift from the Senate.
  
• EOT Financial: The Senate transaction helped to offset the expenses of the next round of unit retrainings that were carried out in the previous turn -- I made a small profit (176 D).
  
• Recruitments: spy (Apollonia) -- all others were retraining at Apollonia (peasants, wardogs, auxilia and Cretan archers)

There was also a reminder to keep my assassin Decius nearby at most times. A Greek assassin named Eudorus of Eretria was spotted near the border with Dalmatia who needed rubbing out. I recalled Decius from Macedonia to deal with this postential threat.



I took a look at my new spy, Kaeso Ofonius (age 28). He was immediately sent down to Thermon to get a closer look at the city in preparation for my plans to take it. Once there, he saw a good many things that would be quite useful for my later campaigns, such as a dockyard (for the quinquiremes) and a great agora (increased trade). Krinippos remained the lone garrison.



I immediately took Aulus Hostilius and selected units down to the vicinity after ensuring that enough good units were placed in the garrison of Apollonia to hold out in the event of a surprise siege. However, they ran out of movement points shortly after boarding the fleet of Admiral Spurius, who was holding the blockade of the harbor. That was when I noticed the enemy ship sitting in the harbor itself...

• Admiral Spurius (51 men on 1 trireme, 1 bireme), versus
  
• Admiral Pixodarus (51 men on 1 quinquireme, the Greek Cities)

The odds were slightly in the Greeks' favor, so I was fully expecting Spurius to be driven away with the hapless besieging army taken along for the ride... imagine my surprise when he wasn't.



How was that for an upset? I guess the general found a way for his onagers and scorpions to be used on a trireme's deck...

Turn 113 (Summer, 213 BC) brought the following reports:

• Senate Missions: Once again, I anticipated a Senate mission, for they decided to assign me the taking of Thermon.
  
• EOT Financial: I took a big hit this turn, even in spite of having no recruitment or construction expenditures -- I was about to find out why.
  
• Plague: Tarentum was struck -- "Death Stalks The Land" -- losing 2,205 citizens and most of my trade in that region (the income on the city info bar was reading -2,089 denarii).
  
• Construction: awesome temple of Mercury (Tarentum) and forum (Croton)

Enough with the plague! It was something that was going to have to run its course.



I disembarked Hostilius and his besieging army, and took a look around at the situation he was in. It looked like a few Greek armies had come to give assistance to poor little Krinippos. There were at least 3 stacks in the vicinity, and I needed to decide which way to send Hostilius.

• Captain Theophanes was approaching Thermon from the harbor up north, leading 5 units in his army.
  
• Captain Lichas had 2 armored hoplites and 1 heavy peltast unit in his group.
  
• Captain Xenophanes had 3 units (2 armored hoplite and 1 Greek cavalry).
  
• In Thermon itself, Krinippos was joined by a unit of armored hoplites.

I settled on attacking the stack led by Theophanes first, hoping for him to seek fight in order to annihilate him with my artillery. When he withdrew and squatted on the opposite side of the harbor, I turned to attack the units led by Lichas. He didn't run, but held out in the hope that Xenophanes and Krinippos from Thermon would come running up to join the rather one-sided fight.

• Aulus Hostilius (656 men), versus
  
• Captain Lichas (123 men, the Greek Cities),
  
• Captain Xenophanes (110 men, the Greek Cities) and
  
• Krinippos of Sparta (54 men, the Greek Cities)

When I started the battle, Hostilius and his army were climbing the slope of a low mountain overlooking the city to the west. I was going to be maneuvering a lot of times here, as the Greeks would be approaching my army from the front and from the right flank.



Krinippos and his hoplites were approaching from the right, but they had such a long climb up to get to me that it turned out not to be such a concern. I would have more to worry about from Lichas and Xenophanes from my front, where they were approaching from a lesser slope opposite the mountain peak.



Seeing an opportunity, I sent my archers and velites ahead to cover the infantry and artillery units in their uphill climb to the peak. Lichas was already just beyond the summit, so it was probable that he didn't see my army yet. The Cretan archers were at least going to keep the peltasts away.



They actually did a pretty good job. The peltasts in Lichas's unit were shaken enough by losing so many men under the arrow storms that they broke and ran even though they came close to making contact with my velites on the left. The hoplites were only aple to reach the hill and drive the archers back, but were subjected to pila from the velites on their right.



The next thing that happened surprised me even more. Instead of closing in and trying to force a fight, the two reinforcement armies turned and left the battlefield without even advancing another step. Lichas was forced to withdraw as well, but this just left his hapless hoplite unit, which had almost touched my infantry line in the front, open to getting shot down as they ran.



I had actually planned on fighting the battle in a slighly open box formation, with the infantry on the front and on a right flank guarding the artillery as it fired at whatever came within range. Instead, the archers did the heavy lifting and inflicted enough casualties to rout the heavy peltasts. The armored hoplites that came close to reaching my lines ended up being chased off the field and run down by my Roman cavalry.



The armored hoplites weren't such a threat when they were on the run. Hostilius had a clear victory to his credit.

• Aulus Hostilius: 62 kills, all 656 men remaining
  
• Captain Lichas: no kills, 61 of 123 men remaining
  
• Captain Xenophanes: no kills, all 110 men remaining
  
• Krinippos of Sparta: no kills, all 54 men remaining

One thing that Hostilius got out of this was a Greek turncoat for his retinue. That would provide him a needed boost against the Greek armies he would be facing from here on out. That done, I turned him to the task at hand.



I had the means. I should've been able to smash my way in.

• Aulus Hostilius (656 men), versus
  
• Krinippos of Sparta (223 men, the Greek Cities)

Something was just a little different about these walls, though...



The wasted shot. I was actually trying to hit the corner between the towers on this side, where I didn't see any enemy units lined up. If it all worked out, I would've been sending a few units through the breach to take at least two towers on the left, and another onto the walls to my right to take out the towers along that side and give my army a chance to make it to the city square and hold it against the garrison guarding the gate to the left after destroying the defenders holding the square.



By the time I did realize my mistake, it was too late. The wasted shot would've opened the breach that I needed. As it was, Krinippos brought a unit of hoplites over to guard the breach, which they seemed a little too eager to do, getting mostly buried under the rubble that ws thrown down as a result of the damage that my onagers were giving the wall.



Out of onager ammo, I knew that my scorpions were no use against walls of any kind. The options were to quit the battle, hit the "withdraw" button (and rout), or just sit there and let the clock run out. I chose "quit", and dealt with the consequences -- a close defeat.

• Aulus Hostilius: 44 kills, 636 of 656 men remaining
  
• Krinippos of Sparta: 8 kills, 181 of 223 men remaining

It seemed that my new units of legionaries and auxilia took a few ballista bolts in the back while they were walking away...



One thing that I could've done without in any of the Total War games was the AI-guided routing for your retreats. It's bad enough that your navies end up flipping from one fire to another...

I had to hold my breath for a few minutes when I advanced the turn. I was expecting EOT battle messages!


The first concerned Admiral Vibius, whose fleet now maintained a blockade of the port of Sparta. A Greek fleet had made the first move.

• Admiral Vibius (51 men in 1 trireme, 1 bireme), versus
  
• Admiral Pixodarus (28 men in X ships, the Greek Cities)

A clear victory. Vibius was a tough old sailor now.



It was a surprise that the Greeks near Larissa didn't take advantage of Hostilius's discomfiture then. I did not receive the expected EOT battle alert from him. I would turn that to my advantage.

Turn 114 (Winter, 213 BC). I read the reports:

• EOT Financial: A massive deficit (-4,811 D), helped by a number of factors, primarily army upkeep and new build orders.
  
• Plague: Tarentum (2,006 citizens, and 10 soldiers lost)
  
• Senate Standings: Popularity fell with the masses again -- that was never going below 20% (I think I should've been utterly zero by now).
  
• Faction Announcements: Marriage, Quintus Varus (a bit late, Old Man...); retinue, silk merchant for Quintus Varus (trade income bonus)
  
• Recruitments: onagers (Croton) and bireme (Apollonia)

I think the largest part of the deficit for the turn was the continued effects of the plague at Tarentum. What surprised me was that the city's governor Lentulus Brutus didn't yet get infected. I was also too busy working on trying to take Thermon and other Greek cities with Hostilius to even think of using my strategy of sending an infected spy and a plague fleet abroad to spread the contagion into the enemy settlements.

I also recruited the new unit of onagers at Croton to send directly to Apollonia, to serve as a defensive batter in the case of another siege. It worked quite well in the previous turns after I retook the city, when Greek armies had laid siege immediately after.



At this point, I had brought my spy Tiberius Thrasea in to infiltrate the city of Larissa, where Hostilius and his army had stopped after their AI-guided auto-retreat following the withdrawl from the siege of Thermon. Among the buildings I saw there was this awsome temple of Zeus, which I didn't mind so much as that silly goddess who gave old Aulus the village idiot in his revenue several turns back. I resolved to take this city in lieu of Thermon.

Much to my surprise, the large Greek army which had been on the scene in the previous turn where Hostilius stopped didn't stay around. Instead, it looked like he abandoned his fellow Greeks at Larissa to his mercy. I started the assault.

• Aulus Hostilius (636 men), versus
  
• Adeimanthos of Corcyra (54 men, the Greek Cities) and
  
• Captain Theophrastos (81 men, the Greek Cities)

I arranged my army where it was set, outside the south gate opposite the odeon near the southwestern wall. Adeimanthos and one unit of armored hoplites was all that remained on the garrison; Theophrastos was approaching the city from the southeast corner of the battle map. This time, I was arranging my army with the bulk of the infantry in the rear behind the artillery and the Cretan archers in loose formation in front of it. Hostilius, his unit of Roman cavalry and the mercenary hoplites guarded the onagers as they set themselves to work.



This time, I made damned certain that my onagers focused only on one section of the walls, and didn't throw their projectiles into anything else! Theophrastos was slow in approaching, showing that he had no cavalry units in his force, and Adeimanthos withdrew to the city square.



While the onagers were doing their work, moved the scorpions to the right fank and had the Cretan archers join them, where they would fire upon the approaching units led by Theophrastos. The Greeks were again doing what AI-controlled units generally do in Rome: Total War, by sending reinforcements directly into the line of fire of enemy armies, instead of going for a gate opposite of where the besiegers were positioned, and then moving through the city to set up a defensive position.



As Theophrastos was obliging his men to become steak kebobs, the onagers carried out their work and opened a breach in the walls.



Theophrastos didn't stay around very long. Taking serious losses from the scorpions and archers, he hastily beat tracks through the south gate (ignoring the massive gaping hole in the wall to his left), and proceeded to retreat to the city square. The coast was clear to begin the assault.



Sending a few of the spent pre-Marius units ahead to take and hold the walls, and capture towers that would've been delivering damaging ballista fire on my units' flanks as they marched along towards the city square, I set about the capture of Larissa. Theophrastos had joined Adeimanthos in the square by this time, and neither showed any interest in setting up secondary defensive lines. It was like they just wanted to give up and run away. (One thing I could use in future Total War games would be the option for a garrison to retreat out of a gate, although the losses could be higher than for a battlefield withdrawl, but the "Fight to the Death" setup worked in my favor here.)



With the walls being cleared along the path that I chose, I brought the rest of Hostilius's men inside, leaving the artillery outside the walls to guard the breach, and the two units that I used to take the walls on their place. My plan of attack was to send the mercenary hoplites ahead down the avenue towards the city square, followed by other units that would serve to cover their advance and open the way through.



Once the hoplites had reached their position, I sent the Cretan archers on up behind their lines to begin firing into whatever came within range. Theophrastos's heavy peltasts were finished off in this manner, and the rest of the hoplites and Adeimanthos were next in line. I had taken the archers off of "Fire at Will" in order to prevent them from shooting fellow soldiers in the back while these were engaged with any enemy unit.



It was interesting to note that Adeimanthos and his garrison units (including the armored hoplites that were with him) actually spent much of the rest of the battle outside the city square, as if they had wanted to retreat and abandon the city. While Theophrastos ended up sitting there taking hits until his units were all destroyed, they paced around in the avenues near the north wall like spooked lions, occasionally making approaches back towards the square as if they wanted to rejoin their comrades.



Only after spending all of the archers' arrows did I begin to advance the infantry into the city square. It was then that Adeimanthos finally decided to return and defend the square, and this set him up to be charged by Hostilius, who went to work on him. The Greek general fought valiantly, but it was a losing cause.



Once Adeimanthos was killed, only Theophrastos remained, having tried his own withdrawl from the city square. Obliged to try and retake it, he was met by the phalanx of the mercenary hoplites in Hostilius's army and kept out. Finally routing under the pressure, he was taken out and the battle was finally won.

• Aulus Hostilius: 135 kills, 610 of 636 men remaining
  
• Adeimanthos of Corcyra: 28 kills, no men remaining
  
• Captain Theophrastos: 3 kills, no men remaining

Larissa became a slave mart to help shore up the Roman economy. Aulus Hostilius would gain further experience and would likely surpass the late Titus Brutus as the faction's greatest general.

During the course of these actions, two characters received trait increases and retinue:

• Tiberius the spy gained benefits to his skill and line of sight as a "sneaky" agent (+1 subterfuge), which would benefit his usefulness in the field.
  
• Hostilius gained a slave trader, which would benefit population growth.

Advancing the turn, Admiral Vibius was challenged by a Greek fleet at his blockade of Sparta:

• Admiral Vibius (48 men on 1 trireme, 1 bireme), versus
  
• Admiral Pixodarus (18 men on 1 ship, the Greek Cities)

A clear victory. Vibius maintained the blockade.

The starting reports for Turn 115 (Summer, 212 BC) were:

• EOT Financial: The lingering effects of a plague at Tarentum and a blockade of the harbor of Larissa by the Greeks contributed to a small deficit (-536 D) that offset the income from increased taxes and farming at Larissa.
  
• Plague: Tarentum (1,940 citizens and 10 soldiers killed)
  
• Faction Announcements: food taster and bodyguard for Aulus Hostilius (improvements to personal security and battlefield valour of the bodyguards); procurator for Lentulus Brutus (tax income bonus)
  
• Construction: stone wall (repaired, Larissa)
  
• Recruitments: early legionary cohort (Larissa) -- the rest were units retrained at Larissa and Croton.

I took no further actions for that turn, preferring to keep an eye on the Greek armies moving around. None of them sought to retake Larissa, it seemed. Instead, most of these continued to stream north, where the remaining Macedonian territories were located. However, I would be compelled to send Hostilius out to pick off some of these armies in detail, so as to prevent their returning and becoming a serious threat to my expanded territories in the Balkans.

I advanced to Turn 116 (Winter, 212 BC) without incident. The starting reports for that turn:

• EOT Financial: A minor deficit (-33 D, mostly due to increased army upkeep and recruitments for that turn.
  
• Faction Announcements: Birth of Julia.
  
• Recruitments: assassin and mercenary hoplites (retrained, Larissa)

I gave my new assassin Titus Turranius (age 32) a mission right away: to eliminate the assassin Milicertes of Thebes, who waited outside the gates of Larissa -- his success gave him additional skills for use in future endeavors.

I began check around the vicinity for targets and potential threats to be eliminated before they could advance against any of my cities in the Balkans. The Greek Cities were still very active, but their forces were small and widely scattered, seemingly focused only upon the Macedonians at this point. Many of their cities remained woefully short of garrisons. The units that I identified were as followed:

• Captain Phrynon, leading 3 armored hoplite units through the passes towards Greek-occupied Thessalonica (formerly the capital of Macedon).
  
• Krinippos of Sparta, whose bodyguard cavalry unit was directly behind Phrynon's, providing Hostilius with an opportunity which couldn't be missed!
  
• The biggest concern was a 14-unit stack led by Captain Damasithymos near the dockyard of Thermon, where he could soon move the besiege Apollonia -- I had strengthened the garrison in time.
  
• Captain Theophanes led a 9-unit stack including onagers -- an immediate concern for the garrison at Larissa!
  
• Captain Democedes's 3 units could easily join up with Theophanes to add strength and make a more serious threat to the city.
  
• Admiral Pixodarus remained at large, waiting near Admiral Vibius's fleet as it continued the blockade of Sparta.
  
• Admiral Endymion waited opposite of Vibius's fleet off the cape where Sparta's harbor was located.
  
• Admiral Drimylos waited on the Agean shore of Euoboea opposite the port of Pergamum.
  
• Admiral Echemmon's fleet was in the channel between the island and Attica.

I decided not to waste any chances. Hostilius was immediately brought into the field with his pre-Marius veterans and the Roman cavalry, following up behind Krinippos and the hoplites under Phrynon.

• Aulus Hostilius (170 men), versus
  
• Krinippos of Sparta (13 men, the Greek Cities) and
  
• Captain Phrynon (124 men, the Greek Cities)

Since the enemy had virtually no missile units and Krinippos was the only cavalry unit around, I arranged the veteran infantry in a straight line ahead of Hostilius and the other cavaly. They were climbing the slope of a hill where the Greeks were making their stand.



Krinippos was waiting near the top of the hill, while Phrynon was approaching from my left. However, the latter's armored hoplites would be slower than the hastati and principes in my army, so it was going to start off with a cavalry duel between Hostilius and Krinippos. To his credit, he put up a better fight in this contest than his kinsman Adeimanthos did in the defense of Larissa.



For all the good it would do him. Once he started to rout, Krinippos was a dead man.



Not wasting any time chasing down the remainder of Krinippos's bodyguards, I brought Hostilius back to regroup with his army and face off the approaching hoplites under Phrynon. This would be the deciding phase of the battle, as the lesser captain would prove to be a more steady opponent than his general.



This phase of the battle, I used the old "Hammer and Anvil" tactic. My infantry launched their pila first, then charged into Phrynon's hoplites and held them while the cavalry galloped past their flanks and set up repeated charges into their rear while thus engaged. Once Phyrnon fell, the rest of his troops routed and were ridden down.

• Aulus Hostilius: 135 kills, 146 of 170 men remaining
  
• Krinippos of Sparta: 4 kills, 1 of 13 men remaining
  
• Captain Phrynon: 24 kills, 1 of 124 men remaining

With this clear victory, Hostilius returned to Larissa as a superior commander. For now, the threat of the Greek Cities was cleared. At the same time, my assassin Decius the Killer was deployed against another Greek assassin, Nelpus of Python, with the usual high rate of success, which increased his traits to make him an expert assassin.

Before advancing the turn, I leapfrogged my navies again, keeping up the blockades while relieving those forces depleted by recent battles. Admiral Gnaeus attacked the fleet of Pixodarus who waited near the fleet of Admiral Vibius:

• Admiral Gnaeus (51 men on 1 trireme, 1 bireme) and
  
• Admiral Vibius (46 men on 1 trireme, 1 bireme), versus
  
• Admiral Pixodarus (10 men on 1 ship, the Greek Cities)

Pixodarus was done. I advanced the turn, and immediately got a battle alert:

• Admiral Caius (51 men on 1 trireme, 1 bireme), versus
  
• Admiral Endymion (42 men on 1 quinquireme, the Greek Cities)

Caius wasn't going to have the same luck this time as his predecessor in blockading Thermon did. Likely because he was the one being pinned down in a harbor by an attacking ship, Endymion was able to defeat him.



Turn 117 (Summer, 211 BC). These were the reports:

• EOT Financial: For the first time in a little while, I was getting a profit (3,373 D) -- the ending of the plague at Tarentum revived a trade route.
  
• Faction Announcements: Death of Marciana
  
• Construction: crop rotation (Croton)
  
• Recruitments: early legionary cohort (Larissa), town watch, auxilia, praetorian cohort (retrained, Tarentum) and onagers (retrained, Apollonia)

On this turn, my largest concerns remained the armies of the Greek Cities. Captain Damasithymos was marching up into the mountain passes near the eastern borders of Epirus. However, along with others, he was apparently focusing on Macedonia:

• Damasithymos near the borders of Epirus, Thessalia and Macedon with 14 units.
  
• Captain Theophanes near Thermopylae with his 9 units, headed towards the north.
  
• Captain Democedes with his archers, peltasts and onagers halfway along the coast, providing an easy hit.
  
• Captain Orthaeus approaching from the regions of Attica with archers and another onager, providing another easy hit.
  
• The garrison at Thermon, 3 units, of which only armored hoplites were identified.
  
• Chabrias the Killer, the Greek faction leader, with 5 veteran armored hoplites and yet another onager in his garrison at Athens, as identified by the spy Kaeso Ofonius.

Kaeso had become a better spy for sneaking into Athens to identify its units and buildings. Now it was Tiberius's turn to get a closer look at the units in Damasithymos's army near the borders. Everything was in readiness for the next series of moves, but I decided to leave these decisions for the next session.

Before closing out, I checked once more on the time remaining on my Senate mission to take Thermon -- there were still 6 turns to go. I was now considering how best to deal with the Greeks passing through my territory in Thessalia before proceeding to make the second attempt at the city. My immediate thoughts were to send a portion of the garrison of Larissa north to take out the light units with Theophanes and destroy his onagers, then make a quick run south to do the same to Orthaeus.

Those would be my first moves in the 10th session...