Roman Empire AAR--Stikmann vs. Von Altair

[Mr. Stik]

This AAR will chronicle the conflict between the Roman Empire (handled by me Stikmann) and the Barbarian horde (handled by Von Altair). We are using Von Altair's Roman Empire mod v1.21 Please bear with me as this is my first AAR.

Below is a screen shot from my fisrt turn. I have moved the Roman Legion I north from its starting location and will spend a few turns of production building them up for their first action. The Romans are limited in the number of units that they can field, so for a while it will be just this first Legion.

Von Altair will add to this AAR with his perspective. It may be a few turns before I am ready for combat, but I'll be sure to post when that occurs.

[von altair]

Our spys are getting information about those pesky Romans! They are planning to give us nothing more than slavery!

Runners has been sent to all over the Germania and neighbours. Warriors are gathering and it is time to defend our freedom, land and our future!

There is starting statistics about Barbarians

[Mr. Stik]

I see my worthy opponent has provided a snapshot of the power of his entire Army, so I will do the same. You will notice that Roman numbers are far lower than the godless Barbarian hordes, but Roman Legionaire's are indeed king of the battlefield.

[Manus von Olie]

Hi Altair,
thank you for developing this scenario! It looks very promising to me. At a first glance it wouldn't take me so much time to finish moves, so maybe it's a good option to get the old Arminius dusted off once more... I'm following your AAR with keen interest!
regards,
Herman.

[von altair]

Thank you for kind words Manus von Olie! Let me know what you think about scenario. How do you think balance is atm?

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Turns 3-4

We are currently playing 1 turn / day

Looks like Romans are delaying attack and gathering more forces. Thats good
for Barbarians. We have time to train our poor militia up and gather more
reserves. Diplomats also sent out to neighbour nations. We have great hope,
that they join us sooner or later!

We have to be ready for Roman invasion which will come soon.

[von altair]

Turns 4 - 8

Nothing special happening. Romans are delaying attack and gathering
more forces. I belive they plan some evil strategy. Barbarians are
ready for it! Time goes with us, every turn our poor warriors gains more
experience and catch up with legions.

[Mr. Stik]

After about a dozen turns of building up Roman forces, I have launched an attack on Gaul (Gallia). I delayed in order to be able to buy a second legion (at a cost of 95 PP, using a card to purchase). We'll see what I have unleashed . . . I believe my attack brings in Gallia on the side of the Barbarians, now I need to move with all haste to destroy these French "wannabes" or I will live to regret my actions. I believe the second legion was necessary to secure my home turf and to support my attack.

Here's a screen showing the aftermath of my attack. The Gallish cavalry felt the full power of a Roman legion with it's blood up. I believe only one cavalier survived to retreat.

[von altair]

I was expecting attack through Raetia and thats where my horde were... around
tonava. Now over 2000 warriors are running to Gallia with lightning speed.

We have sent few negotiators to Hispania and Mauretania in hope to bring them
against the Rome. We are expecting to hear some news in the next month.

[von altair]

Romans are advancing in Gallia. Our negotiators came back from Hispania!
What a good news they bring with them! Hispania joined our side and are striking
Roman southern flank.

We got a lot more warriors from Gallia and Hispania. There will be hard fighting
coming soon! Romans will have to pay for every landpiece they want to take from
us.

I'll add screenshot from fresh map situation around gallia and our new allies Hispania.

[von altair]

Here is our superior warband information!

[Mr. Stik]

The second skirmish of this war has just occurred near Burtigala. Julius Caesar's famed Tenth Legion and his Extraordinarii caught a band of Barbarians on the slopes east of the town and cut them down (I need to remember to take a screenie of the battles). Casualties were light among the Legions, but the Extraordinarii suffered more. Here is a screen "slice" (don't want to provide too much intel to the enemy) of the aftermath.

So the cowardly Spaniards have joined forces with the Barbarians! I must have missed this news, but I am ready for this and say bring 'em on!

A note on Roman strategy to this point: In previous games--which start in August I believe--against the AI and Altair I have quickly declared war on Raetia, immediaely to the north of Italy. Even successul battles bring you no new resources--Raetia is a poor mountainous country--and winter is soon upon you. Then you have mountainous terrain and Barbarian hordes across a major river . . . not a tempting route to take. [:(]

This time I opted to delay until the following spring while building up my legions and the PP it takes to purchase another legion. My hope is to secure my flanks and supply lines with the second legion as well as support my assault through Gallia. By going through Gallia, I have better terrain to move quickly through and can gain PP from the cities as I go. I was also hoping to hold the Barbarians just north of Raetia so it would take them a long time to react. (Altair claims above that his Barbarians are on the Raetia border, but we'll see if that's subterfuge--he's a sneaky guy.) I will have to move fast and destroy the enemy quickly before Altair can concentrate them, but the legions excel at destroying the enemy. Looks like I can also drive south into Spain . . .

[von altair]

Barbarian hordes are running from the Germania to catch invading Romans
at Gallia. Barbarian Warchiefs Arminius and Vercingetorix have meet at
secret place. They now have a good plan, how to destroy Romans. Before
5 years have passed, our braves are drinking a beer at the Rome! Not as
slaves, but conquerors!

We had scouting warband in good position at mountains, but some Roman
cohort came in and killed almost all of them! It seems that our brave
warriors can't match those good equiped Legionaires! Mayby if we bring in
A LOT of our warriors, we can fight better!

[Mr. Stik]

Caesar's Tenth and the 3rd Gallica have taken Burtigala, but casualties were higher than expected--almost as many as the Barbarians. (I wonder what Altair has done to the combat formulas in this mod? I noticed that concentric bonuses seem pretty low. Even though I had legions on three side, including on opposite side, my conc. bonus was only 20%)

Here is the situation after combat. I will post casualty figures in a separate post. Note the Barbarian cavalry in the south. This is why I found it necessary to delay attacking for over nine months. Altair's mod doesn't allow the Romans to build new units, not even to garrison towns (exception: using the hand card to buy a single legion), and this leaves their supply lines and towns too vulnerable. I think some tweaking may still be in order . . .

[Mr. Stik]

Here are the casualty figures from the battle at Burtigala.

[von altair]

Burdigala is lost. We had fully rested, well feed 400 warriors inside citywalls. Still the Legion with
heavy infantry marched in. Half of my warband died and the rest are running like chickens...
As soon as they conquered area, we heard rumors about slave caravans moving to the Rome.
Our warriors are angry, since many had families in a city.

Warleaders maded a new plan and ordered some reserve guerrila forces to attack Roman supply
lines and rescue all slaves they are trying to move out of Gallia. While doing that, we noticed a new
Legion marching from Roman territory. We decided to cut its supply lines too! Lets hope they didin't
stockpile too many supplies along with Legions!

While all these months has passed, our Horde has become more powerfull and gained good
amount of experience while practicing battle formations. Our scouts informed us how
Legions are fighting, we are trying to do the same. Offcourse we don't have as good armour
and weapons as they do, but still, we are getting better!

[von altair]

ORIGINAL: Mr. Stik

(I wonder what Altair has done to the combat formulas in this mod? I noticed that concentric bonuses seem pretty low. Even though I had legions on three side, including on opposite side, my conc. bonus was only 20%)

Altair's mod doesn't allow the Romans to build new units, not even to garrison towns (exception: using the hand card to buy a single legion), and this leaves their supply lines and towns too vulnerable. I think some tweaking may still be in order . . .

Yes, I modified concentric values and tuned them down. This comes along with low amounts of roman container units. When the game is getting older and the Rome has 3-4 Legions, then Romans should not have problem with them.

I've tryed to make new kind of warfare where one side has superior units but few containers. Other side has a lot of low quality units. With this system, normal concentric bonuses would favor barbarians too much, since they can easily surround few Roman units and get a huge bonuses. So, this is needed to make this system work correctly. I am not saying that this is balanced yet though. As we all know, all new systems needs testing and balancing before they work perfectly. At the moment balance seems good enough. Anyway, battlesystem favors Romans as it is now.

[Mr. Stik]

Having soundly smitten a band of Spanish cavalry (bloody Barbarian sympathisers!) in plains terrain in my last battle (sorry, no screenie), I conclude that the reason my casualties were high at Burtigala is because of the terrain benefits of the city for the defenders, which is as it should be. My casualties against the Spaniards in the open were something like 3 infantry . . .

[ghoward]

I have been reading this with interest. This scenario has a really different feel to it. Nice Job Altair. I have a question about the briefing--about 5 paras down it says "transfer action point limit is 200" Is that really what you mean? And if so, How do you transfer action points? It is in the section that discusses crowding, so I am guessing that it is the additional hexside stacking allowance

[von altair]

ORIGINAL: barerabbit

I have been reading this with interest. This scenario has a really different feel to it. Nice Job Altair. I have a question about the briefing--about 5 paras down it says "transfer action point limit is 200" Is that really what you mean? And if so, How do you transfer action points? It is in the section that discusses crowding, so I am guessing that it is the additional hexside stacking allowance

Thank you for your kind words.

"Transfer action point limit" term basically means how far away the one can transfer
units from HQ. I limited this a bit, becose ancient technology didin't allow unit transfers
all around the world. Soldiers mostly had to walk to target, some rich ones used a horse
and few could achieve target with a boat.

[von altair]

Heavy fighting in this turn.

Julius Caesar Legion at Burdigala didin't do anything, but counting slaves!
This is good for us. Second Legion is trying to open supply route to Caesar's
legion, but failed. A cavalry from that Legion skirmirshed with Barbarian
counterpart and won, but didn't advance enough. Support legion moved
a bit and attacked on my bait warband, which I moved in good position
at hill. Legion attack stalled with heavy casualties and more importantly,
lost some important morale on it.

Barbarian counterattack happened right after Legion's capacity were used.
Advancing cavalry cut off from both Legions and our experienced German
Barbarian hordes moved in position and maded heavy attacks against
two support legions cohort. Barbarians won both fights, since that legion
is quite weak and cohorts have low morale after a turn without supply
and an attack with heavy casualties. Both cohorts escaped in panic and
leaved supply routes behind. Support legion remains without supply and
so does Caesar.

Here comes Roman attacks (one more happened with success, but didn't
take screenshot)