Maybe you could take some pictures of your kingdom; each province, any trouble spots, anything you think is interesting.

Hello again, everyone:

I'd like to apologize for taking this AAR on hiatus for so long, especially without telling anyone.

I'm going back to school tomorrow, where my laptop will once again be connected to the internet. This isn't exactly at the very top of my priority list, but I do intend to make another update.

So, in short, expect to hear the continuing narrative of the Kingdom of Baktria within, say, a week.

Cool! And don't worry about not updating, it happens, real life comes first, and all.

Nice. I'm also doing an XGM Baktria campaign and have been waiting for an update for some time. The Parthians beat me to Gushan and I'm really scared of Indian elephants so I didn't take Opiana, but otherwise it's developing similarly to my game. Can't wait for the update!

Good to see you back Ibuprofen.

Nice to see you back. Hope you can keep this up. The interactive aspect is really cool.

Ok, children, gather round, it's update time! It is a rather short one, but hopefully I'll do another one later tonight, after I've done my work.

When last we left the Baktrian Empire, Prince Perseus was leading a large detachment of troops in to the south of our core provinces. I marched him south, looking for trouble. Next turn, a 1000-some man rebel army happens upon my army and attacks. Naturally, the screenie I took of the summary screen didn't show up in the folder, but here's one of the enemy army marching towards my men:


As you can see, a bunch of Indian spearmen, some archers, and some eles, for good measure. My army is: 2 generals, 1 unit of Baktrian cavalry, 2 Baktrian cavalry archers, 2 Phalangites, 2 Indo-Hellenic Hoplites, 1 Agema Hoplites, 2 Baktrian archers, and 2 slingers.


The silly thing skipped another shot or two, by here's the majority of the army marching up a hill to meet my men. My cavalry archers ran down the hill to harass, and skirmish mode leads them off to the right, drawing some of the Indians with them. Also, the eles are trying to flank.


A picture is only worth so many words. This one isn't great, but it was taken at an important stage of the battle. The eles (which I had neglected, trying to keep my horse archers alive) attacked my Baktrian cavalry, causing substantial casualties. I divert my slingers to attack the eles, which ends up driving them all amok-like, as I had intended. For some reason, my archers are too cool for skirmish mode, but the Hoplites charge in, saving them from having to participate in a melee.


The Agema Hoplites give the Indian spearmen what for.


The amoking eles, taking heat from my hastily repositioned slingers. I'm moving a phalanx away from those crazy pachyderms double-time.

At this point, the battle broke, the Hoplites routed the main line of spearmen, the generals executed some brilliant flanking on the archers. Pandemonium breaks out.

Eventually, my HAs track down the enemy captain, and...


His life was forfeit from the start.


Victory, and pretty handily, too. Those eles gave me quite a scare, but there's nothing like a bunch of overgrown kids with slingshots to take them down.

My army continues its (mostly exploratory) march south, and stumbles upon...


Well, well, well. I bet we just slaughtered what was supposed to be this city's garrison.

What shall I do here? Of course, I'm aching to attack the city, but are there more important matters that ought to be taken care of? Should I start building up my armies for that eventual clash with the Seleucids, which I sense is all too close in the offing? Any suggestions, specific or general, are greatly appreciated.

I am thinking take Alexandropolis by all means. I also think it would be a good idea to recruit at least half a dozen spies and send them out in all directions to scout around and see what is out there. That will give you an idea of where it would be best to go next.

I second that, and also building watch towers in strategic locations, especially along your borders with Parthia and big brother Seleucia.

And if there is extra cash to be spent, I suggest Bactrian Horse Archers, I'm confident you can out maneuver the Seleucid phalangites with them.

Looks like your financial situation is getting a little better eh? What are your next moves?

Well, the screenie no longer works, but my army stumbled upon the settlement Alexandropolis, which I'm going to take.

Yeah, I've been building sewers/baths in the settlements that need them, hopefully this will make them happier.

I suppose I'm going to build up another fairly large force, as well as follow subrosa's suggestion and send out some spies.

I'm sorry, everybody. I was very busy today and didn't get to update. I think I can do it tomorrow, though (Thursday) because I only have one class on friday. And less homework means more XGM.

[This message has been edited by Ibuprofen (edited 01-24-2008 @ 01:05 AM).]

Go for Alexandropolis, it'll be a good base for attacks on the Seleucids later. And I highly suggest you go for Horse Archers. They're less numerous than the Parthians', but they've got (some) armor! Using them to soften up the enemy before they crash into your phalangites is a great tactic.

A lot of stuff happened this time around, even though I didn't end up fighting a battle. Things are definitely getting more interesting in my little corner of the world.

Following SubRosa's suggestion, I send out four or five spies. I have two in a row die trying to look at a puny rebel army near Goshen, but look one another one stumbled upon:


The settlement immediately east of Bactra. Now, last time I checked, this was a Seleucid city. The ongoing war between the gray monster and my allies appears to be going fairly well, if I do say so myself.

I besiege Alexandropolis, but look what's inside:


I don't know about you, but I, for one, am tired of fighting eles. It'll surrender in five turns... why not just pitch our tents and wait?

Of course, life never works that way. Guess who comes to pay a visit:


Yep. I really need to do something about that southwestern mountain pass.

Predictably enough, next turn...


We can deal with that army, though. If they're foolish enough to assault, that is. Also, note that the Seleucids and I were not at war before this little incident ( we had been at one time, but that was short lived when I slaughtered the army they sent to Kophen).

The next summer, it becomes evident that that whole besieging Kophen thing was just an elaborate ruse. As you can see in the top right corner of this screenie, they've broken the siege. I decided to divert my army from Alexandropolis to take Phra, and I stumbled upon a small army besieging Neh, which I chase away. These are great city names, aren't they?


I train some Indo-Hellenic Hoplites and Bactrian HAs in Bactra. Here's a look at the latter's stats, which don't actually look all that spectacular. These are totally vanilla HAs, though, The ones in my army have one chevron, and I hire some more as mercs with two.


The army arrives at Phra. The fresh Hoplites and HAs come down from Bactra, each with one weapon and armor upgrade, which improves those HAs' stats, a little.


The next turn, of course, complicates matters. A pushover of a Seleucid force now interdicts the passage of my reinforcements, which, it must be noted, aren't exactly essential. The Parthians have also arrived to render assistance, but they only sent their faction leader and his bodyguards. Great.


He does have 10 stars, though.

Here we have it, the battle screen. I thought Perseas the Wrathful was a good general, but these two are better. This should be pretty interesting, I like to think.


Well, that's all for the moment. In retrospect, it might not have been as interesting as I thought, because the only people who died were some of my spies (and a couple of Seleucid ones. Oh, and people in sieges...) It should be nice to fight a good battle, though, the Seleucids have a fairly good-sized garrison here, and a Baktrian victory would knock them back on their heels, at least locally.

I'm now accepting advice on tactics (I'm sorry I don't have any intelligence on the enemy) and general campaign strategy, after I win here (gods willing).

Two quick diplomatic notes:

1) I proposed ceasefire twice to the Seleucids, once offering 1000 denarii. Both times I got the "polite" no, that is "blah blah blah, but I see no need to end the fighting just yet."

2) At some point in this little ark, I signed trade rights and an alliance with the Sabaeans.

[This message has been edited by Ibuprofen (edited 01-24-2008 @ 06:11 PM).]

Now, the battle.



My army is arrayed in front of the city. I also put two units of HAs off to my left, where I was pretty sure the Seleucid reinforcements were going to show up.

Sure enough, they arrived, one unit of spears and one unit of peltasts. Here, we see the former under attack from my HAs.


My two rams at the walls. Both are being operated by Indo-Hellenic hoplites.


The silly thing missed a couple of shots, I think, but here we see that the gate has been opened, and the Parthian bodyguards are chasing down some Seleucid peltasts.


Note that I am less a unit of hoplites, due in equal parts to very stiff resistance at the gate and poor reinforcement/generalship.

I thought this was a neat shot. Looking towards the town square, my army waits outside to the right, the small relief force (1 unit of I-H hoplites and one of Bactrian HAs) are in the background to the right.


Several minutes later, looking out from the square (which my men have just captured) at the remaining Seleucids, including the general.


My one unit of Phalangites forms up hastily, preparing to extinguish the bodyguards.


A couple of shots were skipped again, but Phra is mine.


The citizens are apparently alright with the regime change, and they're western civilised, so I occupy.


In the winter, Campus Amyrgicum completes a Western Civilised colony, which ends up having the opposite effect of what I wanted...


That's all for now, I'm a little disappointed with myself over that assault, if I had been in better form I could've pulled it off with fewer losses. I'm sorry, everyone, it had been too long since I'd taken a province. I've spent over 40 turns on this campaign, I should probably be more aggressive.

So... questions/comments/suggestions? I'd like to know how you think I should handle the situation in Campus Amyrgicum, as well as any general campaign advice you might have.

thanks

[This message has been edited by Ibuprofen (edited 01-26-2008 @ 00:32 AM).]

Bring another family member to Campus Amyrgicum, that should quell the cultural unrest pretty quickly. Also, you can demolish that eastern barracks if it doesn't produce any troops.

And just because we don't respond to each post doesn't mean we didn't notice it.

You're right, of course, I'm sorry Caesar. My meanness has been edited.

Now that you mention it, I did delete that eastern barracks, it wasn't producing any troops. It didn't do anything to help, so I'm a little bit at a loss. I guess the "cultural buildings" in that bar for Eastern civ'd is the "natural culture - Eastern Civilised" building, right next to the palace on that screenie. I'll send another governor over there, if I have a man to spare. I would assume that that conversion rate is influenced by Influence, though, and his is decent. We'll see.

I was saying to demolish the barracks just for the money, the small culture penalty, and the off chance Parthia took the town they'd need a new barracks.

The conversion rate is influenced not by influence, but by traits, such as "Western Civilized" and the like.
And yes, the culture building influence is the native culture, there is always a certain rate towards at least one culture. If you can build theaters, that helps convert the populace as well.

Regarding Campus Amyrgicum, if you don't have anyone to spare, just fill the queue with peasants until the PO goes up to 70% or 75%. It looks like you have enough money for that, at least for a turn or so until more of the population is converted to Western Civilized.

I have often seen the same public disorder when building the colonies to change civilizations in XGM. I do not know any real fix for it, except perhaps to hold off on building the colony and instead try to replace most of the other buildings with those of your culture first, putting a General with high influence in there, and of course the old 20 Peasant garrison.

It will die down after a while, once most of the population has been converted to Westerners.

I would not feel bad about it seeming that you are moving slowly. XGM is like that. Things like the culture penalties and the higher unit costs are designed to curb people blitzing through the campaign. In XGM you have to take more time developing your cities, and get used to having fewer armies to conquer with.

Also, those Horse Archers are not so bad at all. I know the stats may seem low, but that is another area where XGM skews the stats from normal RTW. Most units have lower attack ratings and higher defense in order to make battles last longer. I also think that DBH wanted to make Horse Archers a little less over-powered from how they are in the vanilla game. Do now worry though, HAs are still quite nasty. Look at Caesar's Sabaean AAR, he used Horse and Camel Archers to great effect in XGM.

[This message has been edited by SubRosa (edited 01-26-2008 @ 02:57 PM).]

Quoted from SubRosa:

Also, those Horse Archers are not so bad at all. I know the stats may seem low, but that is another area where XGM skews the stats from normal RTW. Most units have lower attack ratings and higher defense in order to make battles last longer. I also think that DBH wanted to make Horse Archers a little less over-powered from how they are in the vanilla game. Do now worry though, HAs are still quite nasty.

You're right, of course. I don't have a screenie of it, but those two units of HAs I put off to the side in that assault completely destroyed the Seleucid reinforcements (one unit of heavy spearmen, one of peltasts) and only lost something like four men, either to javelins or friendly fire, I don't know.

I need to get some more Bactrian Cavalry, they're very powerful and well-armoured (and, interestingly, say "for Rome!" when they charge). I lost quite a few to those eles in that other battle, even though a lot healed.

I'll check and see what temple I have in Campus Amyrgicum, if it's not Athena (which gives +5% from happiness and +5% from law), I'll rebuild it. I had the city on very high tax rate, when the colony was completed, PO was at 0. Even though there are riots right now, I think 65% PO is high enough for the riots to stop.

Not quite, 70%, which still shows red, won't riot, anything under that will riot. But fortunately, most of the time recruiting a unit of Doryphoroi will gain 5% PO.

Quoted from CaesarVincens:

Not quite, 70%, which still shows red, won't riot, anything under that will riot. But fortunately, most of the time recruiting a unit of Doryphoroi will gain 5% PO.

Well, that's alright, then, I've got a couple of units in the oven over there.

I'm sorry this isn't an update, but it's time to fuse a little bit more of that vaunted interactivity back in.

What I'd like you all to determine is:

1) It is becoming increasingly evident that I could really use a second army. What should make up this army (sure, a bunch of HAs, but what else)?

2) Where shall I go next? The way I see it, there are two options:

a) Turn back east, and capture the remaining three or four rebel provinces.

b) Continue to take on the Seleucids. I can bring most of my army out of the city I just captured, and win a few more battles before my as-yet-uncreated reinforcement army arrives. At that point, we can (possibly) continue to drive west.

So, make your selections now. I'll probably update either later today, or tomorrow, depending on feedback.

I think I would finish off the rebels in the east. My guess is that those Indian provinces will be worth a good amount of money, and then afterward you can concentrate solely on expanding westward. While you are in the process of conquering the east, you can also build up that second army.

As far as what to make that second army, I would go with mostly Horse Archers, but that is just my personal preference. I would also make sure it has some heavy cavalry and at least a few Hoplites for taking cities though.

[This message has been edited by SubRosa (edited 01-27-2008 @ 03:11 PM).]