That phalanx total war pic was most cool. I love seeing pics like that. 837 kills for one general. Yow! His sword-arm must still be aching from over-use...

I always make a regular save when I go into battle with general-led reinforcements because of that bug. That way if they come in AI controlled you can just quit and restart the battle.

With that helmet, how can you tell if he looks good?

That is really odd how your militia cavalry unit came into the battle in single file. I am guessing it is because of that odd rock formation they were moving through. The computer's pathing gets really strange near objects that are on the battlefield.

wierdo5000&stormer
Thanks for the encouragement. I wasn't planning to sit and play diplomacy, and it doesn't really matter that I'm at war with so many factions. Quite a few of them will be destroyed in a matter of turns.

SubRosa
Well, the Greeks had no cavalry. Peltasts and routing Hoplites are great targets for Generals. And that bug is really annoying. I had to reload my last turn for the Numidia SWAP 10+ times because the reinforcements would always be controlled by the AI when I sallied from Croton.


Now, some bad news.
School has started full swing, and the SWAP going strong, I'm going to have to put this on hold, at least until the current of SWAP is over. Thank you all for following this AAR since its start in November.

bump

Thanks, SubRosa.

Some of you might remember this. This AAR was started over half a year ago by a very inexperienced player. His previous 2 AARs were very far from being completed, and he was determined to see this one through to the end. That was, of course, me.

I fully expected to finish this in February during winter break, but writing the updates takes longer than anticipated. Normally, I don't have access to a computer at school, but a friend of mine who lives close to the school offered to let me use his computer. So of course, I jumped at the chance to finish the only AAR I've ever seen through close to completion. New writeups shortly to follow. And thank you all for keeping interest in this.

There is a plague in Macedonia, which causes it to... revolt to the Brutii? I don't think there was a message informing me it was bribed.

The Greeks have landed quite a force outside Halicarnusses. No doubt about their intentions.

Quite luckily, a fresh stack from Antioch arrives at Rhodes this very turn. If I can kill off the garrison, I would be able to destroy the Greeks, which means I won't have to deal with that big stack.

Even though my army composition is really messed up, it was still a very easy battle thanks to my elephants.

No culture penalty, so Rhodes is occupied.

Scratch the Greek Cities.

Hermeias the Conqueror assaults Porrolissum with a very "interesting" army.

Took more losses than anticipated, but still a victory.

Population enslaved.

The Seleucids really need some temples like this.

The Brutii sally from Appollonia with a full stack. I'm outnumbered 2 to 1.

But they decided to send out one unit at a time. You can imagine how that turned out.

Soon most of the troops they sent out are routing.

My general follows the routers through the gate.

The enemy general tried to come to the rescue, only to come face to face with my Pikemen.

He goes down in a sea of spears.

Same thing with the Equites.

I'm sure none of the Romans will like facing this.

The battle wasn't terribly hard, but I still earn a Heroic.

The small town is enslaved.

Meanwhile, we're still struggling to get rid of the Pontians at Pergamum with a tiny force. I wonder where these Generals are coming from?

Basically, I managed to kill one general, but another 89 Eastern General bodyguards were a bit too much for my depleted forces.

We are the strongest faction.

I finally remembered to send a force towards Arabia. Let's hope there aren't any unpleasant surprises there.

Finally, some new mercenaries are available in Asia Minor. The defeat of the Pontians is in sight.

A powerful Scythian army has laid siege to Phraaspa. I wonder what they are up to with rams, as they have an all-cavalry force.

I assault Campus Getae.

It's true. AI Generals just rip apart the human player's phalanxes on VH.

Enslaved

I'm glad you can continue your AAR; it's always sad when an AAR comes to a close, especially before its time.

I count about 35 provinces, putting you 14 and Rome away from winning, am I right?

Excellent, I'm glad you'll be finishing this.

Cheers, guys. Thanks for the support.

I think you got the territory count about right Caesar. But I'm at the stage where I'm steamrolling everything in my paths. Shouldn't take long now.

Good AAR and good luck

Thanks.

The next episode.

That makes another faction destroyed.

I attack a Dacian field army.

Easy one, they had mostly Warbands.

Looks like the Scipii are doing pretty good. I plan to land in Sicily before assaulting Rome itself, so this could be interesting.




We're attacked outside Pergamum.

Scythed Chariots running amok really make good General killers.



Here's all that's left of that bodyguard.

He's taken down.

Here's another unit of chariots with 2 more generals. Bet you know what will happen to them.

Yep, that's right.

How does killing 61 figure as a Heroic Victory?

I've retaken Thesssalonica, to find the plague in full swing.

D-Day in Italy.

Tarentum is mine.

Enslaved.

Which causes Tarsus to grow.

Hmm, seems funny that I can build over the Roman Shrine to Juno.

Wow, look at the population growth.

I attack the aforementioned Scythian army besieging Phraaspa.

They've built 6 rams...

Since I have Chariots, and Militia Cavalry are much better than HA in melee, I just order my cavalry to charge the Scythians.

They couldn't handle that many cavalry charging at them.

Meanwhile, my Chariots have a special task.

Which they complete beautifully.

Fun battle between 2 all cavalry armies, but it was, TBH, quite easy thanks to the Chariots.

We're attacked while sieging Campus Iazyges.

Victory.

I assault Siwa, which is still held by Numidia.

They had about 9 units of Javelinmen, so you can imagine how that went.

The populationis enslaved.

The plague in Thessalonica rages on.

It looks like the Brutii are looking to take back Thessalonica.

Tarentum is getting to be uncontrollable, so I'll have to start razing buildings to lower Culture Penalty.

That sure wasn't easy.

Demetrius and Alexander lands in Sicily. There will be plenty of action ahead.

I attack the smallest army.

Here's a look at their full stack.

Nothing to worry about, the stack didn't make it, which makes the battle sort of pointless though

The Scipii stack retreats to Messana, and we lay siege.

Hermeias assaults Campus Iazyges.

Victory.

Enslaved.

The Scipii sally from Messana.

I have 3 generals, one with 1 gold chevron and another 3 silver chevrons, so they will be able to take care of the Romans if they keep on sending their men to death one at a time.

Meanwhile, I manuever one of my siege towers to a far corner of the walls, in an attempt to turn the city's defences against them.

Unfortunately they ran right into some troops the Scipii sent out through the side gate. But nothing to worry about. The General charged home seconds later, routing both Scipii units.

The siege tower is in place.

Enemy General down!

I didn't notice until too late that one of my Amok Chariots were aiming for Alexander's bodyguards.

Ouch, that has got to hurt.

In other news, my wall runners have started capturing the towers, which have been causing me a lot of causalties.

Darn, they routed just when they were about to capture the gatehouse.

I guess we have some climbing to do then.

Momentum is surely an important factor in battle. A single general chasing routers has single handedly routed most of the remaining Romans.

The final stand.

Victory.

Enslaved.

An offer for adoption. Looks promising, so I'll take him.

Cleitos is attacked while sieging Campus Scythii.

But the Scythians have no HA, so no sweat.

The population is enslaved.

Another good lad willing to join the family.

That looks like quite a fun cavalry battle you had vs. the Scythians there. Those Scythed Chariots really do a number on horsemen.

You can build your own temple of Asklepios over that of Juno because they are both of the same classification in the internal game files. temple_of_healing to be exact. You can also build an Asklepios temple over one of Brigantia and Imhotep as well for the same reason.

That population growth you are pointing out is actually the bonus to public order because of population growth. The actual population growth is the line above (which is still pretty dramatic at 10.5%).

Hey, do us a favor. Before you take rome, take fow off.

SubRosa
Yep, Scythed Chariots really cut down cavalry. The only problem with them is that they will run amok after awhile even if they've only taken, say, 5 causalties.

I figured it was something like that with the temple, but I've never seen that before. Funny, I'm pretty certain you can't build a Temple of Mars over a Shrine to Nike or Shrine to Ares.

Actually I knew about the population growth. I just thought that the 55% effect on Public Order was more impressive than the 10.5% growth rate, as I think I've seen higher in cities like Alexandria, Memphis and Corduba.

Monkcrazy5
Will do, I will certainly post some screenshots of the world with FoW off at the end. Just curious, why before taking Rome though?

The saga continues.

I assault Croton.

I probably lost more men then I should have, mostly to pila.

Remembering how ugly things were in Tarentum, I exterminate.

No more big green (although they weren't really big in this campaign...)

I assault Bostra. Probably should have gone this way a long time ago.

Victory.

That's Scythed Chariots for you

Enslaved.

Now this is an interesting offer...

One of the daughters of the royal family gets a suitor.

I have started landing troops in Italy. I believe the Seleucids are the only ones who can field Chariots and non mercenary Elephants in the same army.

No sooner have we landed than we are attacked.

I would have lost less if the Elephants and Chariots hadn't run amok.

Hermeias the Conqueror leads the assault on Aquincum.

That's what auto-resolving gets you...

Cleitos is attacked by the Scythians.

But I have chariots, so HA are not a problem.

My massive increase in territories must have something to do with this

I assault Pergamum. Notice how the number of men magically grew from 70 to 300 even though I've been laying siege since last battle.

Thanks to my Cretan Archers, I've managed to run the Chariots amok a few minutes in, but unfortunately, they decided to come out through the gate Inside of rampage inside the walls.

My Thracian Mercenaries didn't get out of the way in time.

And here my own unit has run amok after cutting a path through the Pontic generals and back.

Now this is going to get really ugly. 3 Eastern Generals vs. my assorted infantry.

And ugly it was. I had to use my general to plug the gap where the Pontic generals cut through. Notice how many men I've lost in my infantry, and I haven't managed to kill a single general yet.

But in a siege, you don't have to kill everyone. The remaining general and archers routed, and I win.

Pergamum is occupied since it was originally a Greek town. Looks like the Pontics have been busy in my absense.

Finally, the Pontics are no more!

I assault Palmyra with some new units from Antioch.

Here's the enemy.

I didn't get the end screen, but all 3 of my Cataphracts lost over 60 men, and not even to Eastern Infantry, but to ... Arab Cavalry?

I exterminate the town for causing me so much trouble.

The makes 49 regions. Now all I need are Rome and Petra (for my own victory conditions).

[This message has been edited by xingjianma (edited 05-25-2008 @ 07:14 AM).]

How about you get every settlement =P

I doubt I'll have the time or the patience. Taking over the whole world takes a lot of time and effort.

The last episode.

A Scipii stack popped up out of nowhere to attack me. This does not look to good.

So that's what an elephant looks like on the inside!

Elephants and General are really giving these Principes are hard time.

The Roman general is killed.

Then my elephants decided that they had enough.

Here come the dogs.

This is... interesting...

With most of my forces torn apart, I order a withdrawal.

Look at these guys. The best slingers I've ever had. Unfortunately they were run down by the Romans seconds later.

Defeat.

I'm attacked west of Capua while transferring troops. Thankfully I have managed to put together something resembling a stack, so this shouldn't be a problem.

Basically, I just used my abundance of cavaly to simultaneously charge the Roman units. Throw some elephants and chariots in there for better effect.







Victory.

Hermeias the Conqueror leads the assault on Segestica.

And he gets a gold chevron while earning a heroic.

This is what, the 5th one in as many turns?

Look at these babies. Unfortunately I doubt I'll ever see them in action.

Also... my first silver chevron Militia Cavalry.

Hermeias encounters an all infantry Julii army. This should be a breeze.

It is. I just isolated and charged each unit in turn, and they mostly routed right there and then.









Another Heroic Victory.

Alexander the Conqueror has been brought to the front lines in Sicily to try to keep things in control. Hopefully he shows better command talent than Demetrius.

The first order of business it to get rid of the enemy archers.

My infantry and archers were quickly dismantled. But Alexander and Demetrius were determined to cause as much damage as possible. Here they rout a unit of Hastati that try to rescue the archers.

And then a Principes and another Hastati unit.

And another Principes unit.

Here come the last of the Romans. Their general and an Equites unit.

The Equites got slightly ahead of the General, so I charged with both my generals.

Then the general got caught in the action.

He is brought down.

If that's not a Heroic than I don't know what is.

Great job, both of them.

I'm (finally) attacked by the big SPQR stack.

Here's deployment. I have a general and a militia cavalry on the right flank to defend, while I concentrate on my other cavalry on my left flank. My plan is to hopefully take down a general or 2 before the action starts, and then sweep around the Roman flank and come at them from behind.

The Roman Triarii will most likely be my biggest threat.

As expected, I take down a general right off the bat.

Here is the SPQR faction leader. Originally he had 113 bodyguards.

But throwing yourself on the ends of a wall of pikes is not a good idea, no matter how many bodyguards you have.

My general charging from the rear routed the rest of the bodyguards. Notice how while I've mostly cleared up the Roman left flank, the right flank is coming at me at an angle, which means my phalanx line may be in trouble.

I turned one of my phalanxes around just in time to meet the SPQR general head on.

A fourth general charges in.

The former general is brought down before my pikemen routs.

This bodyguard still has a general in it. I send my troops to try and cut him off.

My Chariots have arrived, routing most of the remaining Romans with one charge.

Unfortunately this general escaped.

That was easier than I thought. Massed cavalry + Chariots really do wonders.

The same army is attacked again by a tiny SPQR force.

Victory came at a great cost. One of teh 34 casualties was my best general in Italy.

Cleitos has also been dubbed the Conqueror. Nice army he has. You don't see a massed HA and Chariots in the same army.

They run before I can get all of them.

And another MoTH.

Missed the battle screen, but I assault Rome with almost the same army that took down the big SPQR stack. I have lots of siege equipment, so the I'm assault the walls from two different sides.

I take the walls with ease.

Two units or Principes remain.

Unfortunately, the Chariots run amok upon arriving at the plaza, cutting a path through my own cavalry.

And pikemen.

And the troops already at the plaza are all routing.

The next second, the commanding general was killed. I have no idea how that happened. Needless to say, this started another chain rout.

Some units regrouped, were ordered back to the plaza, and routed again.



I've finally managed to get the party started.

Definitely one of my worst victories.

Still, I've captured Rome, which means, the Seleucids are the mightiest power in the world! All hail, the rebirth of Alexander's empire!

Actually I was still missing Petra (for my own conditions) when I took Rome. I took it 2 turns later.

Some stats of the campaign.

Mealanaidheachd! To put it in English, congratulations! Congratulations on a conquest well...conquered. That last victory in Rome was close

Congrats on your victory. Your type of warfare is just what I like.

Congratulations! That is quite a sea of Seleucid silver.

Those dead Generals of yours look odd without their helmets.

Thanks guys.

Just noticed that my empire looks quite a bit like SubRosa's Pink Parthian Empire, only the color's different. I think Grey looks better than Pink