If that was a hint to get Sub to try your Banzai Charge tactic, I don't think it will work

Clanna!

3 Gold Chevron anything is fun, but with Generals you basically get a one unit army. I haven't had a 3 in some time, but just getting 1 Gold does a world of good.

It has been a while, but I have not forgotten this AAR.

Aete the Mad assaults Damascus, the only city of the former Seleucid Empire that remains outside of Amazonian control.


Look what I have here. Amazon Chariots.


Onagers vs. Rebel General.


The outer walls cleared, the army marched into the city.


I did not know I could go down this little sidestreet, at least not until my Armoured Hoplites chased some routing Rebels through it.


They are on the run.


They reform in the town square however, and are back at it again.


Then my Heavy Cavalry, which had ridden around to the other side of the city, charged in from the rear.


No survivors.


535 kills for the Agema Archers. This was their first battle too.


As it is a tiny settlement, I Occupy.


Here is an example of what a difference a General can make. Damascus with Aete in it.


Then when she leaves. +25% to Public Order without her.


In the east, the war with Parthia has begun.


I did not bother with the rest of this battle, as it was too small. I liked this picture of the Parthian General going down under a hail of arrows however.


Far to the west, Toxaris the Conquerer assaults Thermon. This brings in a full stack of Greeks to reinforce the city.


I know the Greeks are going to be coming in from the corner straight ahead, so I position my army to meet them in the open.


Here they come.


The armies are starting to come together.


One advantage of being between them in the city is that because this is a siege, when their units rout they run to the town square. This sends them directly though my troops.


I see a gap in the Greek lines that is only filled by Peltasts and Militia Cavalry, so I charge in with both Generals.


They break through and are into the Greek rear.


There is not much left of the Greeks on the right.


The heaviest fighting is now on the left, where I am slowly gobbling up the Greek Hoplites and Armoured Hoplites.


Here is a view from the Greek side, looking down the hill.


My Armoured Hoplites finally overwhelm the Greeks on the right.


Then it was just a matter of mopping up the left.


Back to the city, my Onagers had knocked a hole in the wall and neutralized the nearby towers and gateway. Then a fierce archery duel ensued.


You can see the bodies of the Greek Archers on top of the wall. Now my Armoured Hoplites march into the breach.


They crush the Greeks.


The chase was on.


The Greek General counter-attacked in the street however.


After a bloody brawl, he was finally cast down.


Then it was on to the town square.


*sigh* There goes another one. I sent her to attack some Peltasts in the corner of the square. So where did I find her? On the other side of the square fighting Hoplites. The joys of fighting in cities on Huge scale.


Still, the city was taken.


It is sadly ironic that the big winner here is the dead General.


The Greeks are clapped into chains. Now Sicily is all that remains of them.

[This message has been edited by SubRosa (edited 07-04-2008 @ 01:38 AM).]

Going strong as ever I see. Too bad you haven't started fighting against massed HA yet. I want to see how you, the master of HA, would fare against them

Agema Archers and Chariots will make short work of them. The first have the range and armour to win any archery duel, and the second the power (and sheer width) to destroy any cavalry that comes close. Not to mention archers of their own.

Your generals probably hate you Sub

Only the dead ones...

Time for an update.

Queen Andromache the Cunning corners the last Macedonian army roaming the hills of northern Greece.


Such good ground too.


The Macedonian General leads the way for his army, into the teeth of Amazon arrows.


He charged my Agema Archers in the center. I saw him coming and pulled them back behind my Armoured Hoplites. So he swerved aside and attacked the next Agema Archer over. I put every archer I have on him.


He routs from the arrow-fire just seconds later.


Things are not looking so good on my right flank however, my cavalry is heavily outnumbered by the Macedonian Light Lancers.


Things are no better on the left.


I refuse my right flank to protect the archers.


While on the left, Andromache gallops over and leads my two Heavy Cavalry over there to attack the Light Lancers.


Now the Macedonian infantry are coming up.


Uh oh, those Light Lancers are coming around my right flank.


One of them got around unscathed and is in my rear. I turned all my archers and opened fire.


A moment later nearly a hundred of them were dead, and the remaining few running for the hills.


Meanwhile, Andromache was moving to the last of the Macedonians on the left.


Their center collapsed under the pressure of Amazon spears.


Victory. Unfortunately the Macedonian General escaped.


A pretty even distribution of kills. My archers barely used any of their arrows. However, their concentrated fire at key points really turned the battle.


Meanwhile, in the east my new Faction Heir Lampedo has laid siege to Arsakia, while Akantha has done the same to Susa.


My Roman allies attacked my German allies. I sided with Germania. Now I can attack the Romans without looking like a back-stabbing ogress.


This is interesting. Syracuse has several Roman buildings. This means that the Romans must have held it for a while. Yet the Greeks now hold all of Sicily. They lost the city and took it back.


Princess Lampedo assaults Arsakia. There are a lot of Parthians in there, and I do not have much infantry.


You can see I deploy nearly my entire army along one wall, leading the Parthians to do likewise with their garrison.


But there is this one siege tower off in the corner at a blind spot between the towers. This is where the real attack will come.


The entire army marches down the length of the wall, turns the corner, and continues on to the gate in the next wall.


My Armoured Hoplites take the walls with no resistance.


My Heavy Cavalrywomen toss their javelins over the gatehouse as Lampedo and Leukosia lead the way into the city.


The Parthian Hillmen are easily brushed aside.


Then came Persian Cavalry.


My Generals sent them packing too.


Whoa, there are a lot of infantrymen there. I stop my Generals and cavalry and bring up the Armoured Hoplites.


They set up in the street just in time to repel another counter-attack by Persian Cavalry.


Then their infantry came.


Meanwhile, down a side-street my Sarmatian Mercenaries were at it with more Persians.


Both of my forces gradually pushed to the edge of the square.


Finally the Parthian General charged.


I threw everything I had at him. These Eastern Generals are like Death Stars on hooves.


Well, I did not quite throw everything. I had Leukosia and some cavalry waiting at another entrance to the square. Once the Parthian General committed himself I unleashed them. Some Eastern Infantry tried to get in the way, but Leukosia was able to maneuver around them and continue on.


Bam! She charged into the Parthian General from behind and smote his ruin upon the flagstones.


Victory.


Leukosia is the big killer here. Armoured Amazon Generals have horse archer bodyguards, so they tend to rack up a lot of kills. They can just sit behind the front line, inspiring the troops and shooting the enemy at the same time.


Arsakia is Enslaved.


The same turn, Akantha assaults Susa.


Once again, my siege tower picks a blind spot.


While my army marches around the city to an undefended gate.


Once in the city Akantha easily trampled the archers and slingers in the streets.


She hunted them all the way to the edge of the square.


Woops, here comes that Armoured Eastern General. There is more iron in his bodyguard than all of Pittsburgh. Akantha beats a hasty retreat to the safety of the Armoured Hoplites.


I then took my time and brought up the infantry.


Once again my archers baited the Parthian General into attacking.


It was a tough grind.


When I ordered my Chariots to attack he finally routed.


Moments later those Chariots cut him down.


No survivors.


Akantha is the big winner here.


She is not as merciful as Princess Lampedo, and puts the city to the sword.

[This message has been edited by SubRosa (edited 07-05-2008 @ 00:10 AM).]

A small update for tonight, but a very exciting battle in it.

Everyone is making alliances against me.


Toxaris the Conqueror has sailed to Sicily, and is preparing to disembark to put an end to the Greek Cities for once and ever.


Far to the east, a young General named Derimachea was bringing replacements up to Aete in Damascus when she was attacked by a full stack of Egyptians. I did not like the look of it - they have five Chariots - so I withdrew.


The Egs pursued, and attacked again. Battle it would be.


I position my army near one map edge, as that is where the high ground was. I need every advantage I can grasp.


My cavalrywomen go out to skirmish and harrass the Egpytians as their army turns and advances on me. Their General (under the solid arrow) has become fixated with one of my Heavy Cavalry units and begun chasing it.


My women retreat to our lines, while Derimachea and all the other cavalry come over at a gallop.


The Egyptian is so transfixed by his prey he does not notice the other women bearing down upon his flank.


Bam! He is crushed under a wave of Amazons.


But now all my cavalry is on my left, leaving my right dangerously exposed to the Egyptian Desert Cavalry.


They charge my Agema Archers, who hold them just long enough for some of my Heavy Cavalry to counter-charge.


The Egyptians are driven off.


The Egyptian infantry is still struggling up the hill in the center, and my other Agema Archers have routed one of their Chariots.


Here is a view from further back, where you can see a lot of Egyptians, including chariots, coming in on the left. You can see I have pulled my Militia Cavalry way to the left of the picture. This will keep them from underfoot of the Egyptians, and give them a charge in the Egyptian rear when they come after my main force.


They came Chariots first, and I was obliged to send everything in after them.


Again they were driven off.


Now I am staring to take fire from their Bowmen, and I am forced to divert one of my Agema Archers to deal with them.


The Egyptians on the left are still not finished. These Desert Axemen routed when Derimachea began her charge against them. But there are Chariots behind them...


Things are happening on the right as well. Now Nubian Cavalry has come up to menace my right, but thankfully I have a Heavy Cavalry over there close enough to intercept them before they can do any damage.


Over on the left the Egyptian infantry is now engaging in earnest. I send Derimachea in with some Heavy Cavalry to charge them.


Back on the right my Heavy Cavalry has sent off the Nubians, but left the way open for some Egyptian Axemen to now come up on the flank.


Agema Archers in front, Heavy Cavalry in the rear. Looks like a bad day to be an Egytpian...


Derimachea has driven off the infantry on the left, and is now gleefully running them down. I send my Armoured Hoplites forward.


The Egyptians are on the run. I send everything forward.


They are broken.


Clear Victory, but it seems more like it should have been a Heroic one.


Almost a thousand kills between Derimachea and one Agema Archer alone. Amazon quivers are open graves.


What is this? I am at war with Scythia and Germania has broken our alliance?


Here is why. The Scythians have attacked me. By Ares this will not go unanswered! The Sea of Grass will soon be known as the Sea of Blood!

I'm loving this, keep it up.

Is there any battle you can't win?

Sure. Severous uploaded a few unwinnable battle saves about a year ago on another forum. I lost both of them. Of course, he did too...

I just avoid fighting those battles in the first place. That is why Derimachea retreated when the Egyptians first attacked. I did not want to fight that one, but in the end I had no choice. On the other hand, it was very exciting!

A small update for tonight.

In southern Parthia, Akantha enagages a small enemy force.


Interesting little battle here. They have 2 Horse Archers and a Persian. I have 2 Amazon Archers and a Chariot. This can be seen as a warm-up for the eventual battles on the plains.


I send my Chariots around to the far left where they get on the high ground and start an archery duel with one of the Parthian Horse Archers. In the meantime my infantry move up quick to cover my Amazon Archers, who likewise start an archery duel with the other Persian HAs.


I let the archery duel go on for a while. I lost a lot of Chariots, but the Parthians lost a lot more. Finally when they shifted all their cavalry to one flank I sent my infantry forward at a rush.


The Parthian light troops folded instantly.


Then my women were into their General.


He routed as Akantha charged from behind, and moments later was killed.


Victory.


To the north, Princess Lampedo attacked a large Parthian field army outside of Ecbatana. This brings out the garrison as reinforcements.


Their infantry line is a lot longer than mine. But I have them massively outnumbered in cavalry.


My Scythian Mercenaries start things out by engaging their Persians on my right.


Shortly after my heavies charged in and swept them aside.


On the other flank three units of heavy cavalry will bracket this Horse Archer as shown, leaving it no escape. It was destroyed moments later.


While I was having all of this fun on the flanks, the Parthian General was getting his bodyguard killed on my Armoured Hoplite's spears.


The first Parthian army is on the run.


Unfortunately, the second one did the same, before I could engage them.


One of my young Generals has a chance to head off the fleeing Parthian General.


She charges in and routs him.


He slippery as a fish however, and escapes!


Victory, but indecisive, as the garrison of the city got away.


My Generals are the big contributers today.

I basically only look at these AARs to watch the empire build up, so I only look at the screens where the map is visible and I have to say you have one nice empire going on.

But I think the coolest part is how the greeks own all of sicily. I wonder if they shall start making another great empire or just remain there and cower thinking about the day that you come for Sicily.

I must say it, SubRosa; You never disappoint.

Nice battles & expansion there. Looking forward to seeing that war with the Scythians.

Quoted from KeithLB:

I wonder if they shall start making another great empire or just remain there and cower thinking about the day that you come for Sicily.

Toxaris the Conqueror is about to set foot upon Sicilian soil... *cackles gleefully*

Wow Surosa, I've been reading your AARs and, jeez, you never get more than about 10% losses. Very, VERY impressive.

On the other hand, it does make the AARs a bit... unexciting, knowing that all you do is to ruthlessly, mercilessly and brutally steamroll anyone stupid enough (i.e. Lord AI) to ever oppose you. At least you can't fight the naval battles, so there is a chance that your plan may fail. I'm looking forward to see you with Empire: Total War though...

If Alexander the Great was like you, we I think we Chinese would be speaking Greek too XD

Sub fighting a guerrilla campaign, or, worse, facing one. Now that would be an interesting AAR.

And not retreating from battles even if they look like you can't win them. Sometimes in M2TW I force a few spear militia units or similar to guard a road against a huge army. Better results than you'd think, trust me.

In a Greek camaign I put an amoured hoplite or two on bridges to defend against the Briton stacks swarming me or at least delay/weaken them. They did very well and nearly wiped out several stacks.

If Alexander the Great was like you, we I think we Chinese would be speaking Greek too XD

well, the persians and indians he fought were (i hope at least for them) a bit smarter than the Lord AI...

Honestly, battle markers as my witness, a tree in a trance is smarter than Lord AI...

Quoted from gallowglass:

And not retreating from battles even if they look like you can't win them. Sometimes in M2TW I force a few spear militia units or similar to guard a road against a huge army. Better results than you'd think, trust me.

It is not about the numbers. It is about the type of troops involved. Look at my Scythian AAR and you wills see that I was typically outnumbered by 2-1 or 3-1 in most battles, if not more. Numbers mean nothing.

You need the right tools for the right job. If you do not have them, you cannot do the work. For example, a single Armoured Hoplite can hold a bridge against an full stack. A single Horse Archer cannot. A smart General brings the tools she needs to do her job. A foolish one does not.

Likewise, a smart General arranges things so the battle is in her favour (i.e. has the high ground, waits for winter when leading barbarians, takes her infantry army against cavalry in the forest, etc...). Battles are won or lost before they are ever fought.

A small update tonight.

My fleets have caught Odysseus trying to carry a Greek army to mainland Greece.


Tonight he sleeps with the fishes.


Toxaris the Conqueror steps on Sicilian soil and assaults Syracuse.


A costly battle ensued with the Greek Archers on the walls.


Then it was on into the city, where the Greek Armoured Hoplites were baited into coming over to fight my own infantry just outside the square. My Archers were very disappointing. Most of them could not get clear shots because of the buildings.


A slugging match ensued with the first Greek Armoured Hoplite.


Then it was on to the second one.


For some reason, one of my Archer units decided to attack them in hand to hand.


Finally the real sluggers roll over the remaining Greeks.


Vicoty, but at heavy cost.


The Greek men are lead off in chains.


The same turn, Glaukia assaults Apollonia.


Two of the Macedonian Militia Hoplites were annihilated by my archers near the walls. Then it was into the city where my Armoured Hoplites me their Light Lancers.


The last Macedonian Militia Hoplite was lured away from the square, and then slaughtered in the street.


Victory with almost no losses.


As it is a tiny city, I Occupy.

[This message has been edited by SubRosa (edited 07-09-2008 @ 10:07 PM).]

Nice, i was looking at the file names: 955 pictures?!