Campaign AAR
 

This is more of a campaign feel. Pretty quick and fast from ym point of view but just something, again, to give a flavor.

Conventions: if you see 100/100/100 it means that 100 food/ 100 ore/ 100 lumberr is the cost of something. The measure is always food/ore/lumber. The army sizes are given in the unit sizes listed by the game.

AAR Calabrians

Start

City Pop Food Ore Wood
Tarentum 2351 50 90 80
Messapi 1817 25 0 125

Here the figues are multipliers. The higher the number the btter your production of a good will be.

Army (parenthesis indicates number of formations)
25 Hoplites (1)
38 Javelinmen (2)
38 archers (2)
32 Peltast (1)

Production
+6 Food
+13 Ore
-12 Wood

The Calabrians are the heel of Italy and a Greek culture (which defines their build options). They are in a reasonbly favorable strategic spot since they have foes in only one direction. The problem is they have limited expansion options. There are no close cities in either the Lucian(NW) or Iapygian(N) lands. Wrose, the bigest weakness of the Calabrian lands lie in their lack of good food production and there are no cities close by that provide food. Also bothersome, Messapi is far down the heel and movement between Messapi and Tarentum is long and difficult.

Spring 176bc
Tarentum starts with a blacksmith and a mine. I decide to add a fishing village (+4 food per worker) since it is by best food option and it has no maintenance cost and only cost me 80 ore.
Messapi starts with stables and a farm. I add a lumbermill to try and address the lumber problem.
Summer
The Lucians DoW me, bastards. I move my Peltast and a unit of archers from Messapi to Tarentum to meet the assault.
Autumn
No action
Winter
My two units arrive (told you it was a long way).

Spring 175bc
Food is now +18, Ore +13, Wood +12 as both building complete (all building take 4 seasons)
Tarentum builds a City Hall (350/100/350). It is a splurge but it allows for build buildings and lareger units to recruit.
Messapi can build nothing.
Summer
The Iapygians DoW me. Double drat. Still no armies on the horizon.
Winter
A Lucian army is marching on Tarentum so I add a Peltast (0/80/0, maintenance 0/8/0) so I have 7 units. 3 Peltats, 1 Hoplite and 3 archers.

Spring174bc
Food +17, Ore +5, Wood +8
My Peltasts is complete (all armies arrive in the spring). Just in time as the Lucians are at the city gates and the Iapgyians are closing in.
Summer
The Lucians attack Tarentum, from left to right:
1st rank: Peltast, Peltats, Hoplite
2nd rank: Peltast, archer, javelinmen, archer
All on normal advance. I'm hoping the Hoplites can hold the right while the Peltasts crush the left.
Success. The Lucian army of 4 Peltasts was arrnged so my hoplites stood vs 3 units of 32 peltasts each. They were mained while the other enemy Peltasts routed off the field and their right crumbled.
My losses:
8 archers, 12 Peltasts, 4 javelinmen, 25 hoplites (this is crushing since it effectively eliminates the hopiltes whihc i can not currently rebuild). They lost 128 Peltasts.
Autumn
I build a new Peltasts (0/80/0) and a Large Mine to keep the Peltasts in the field since each cost me 8 ore per season.
Winter
Iapgyians are close, Lucians reject a peace deal.

Spring 173bc
Food +17, Ore -3, Wood +8
No actions other than my new Peltasts
Summer
Iapgyians attack Tarentum, from left to right
Peltast, Peltast, Peltast
Archer, Peltast, Archer, Archer
The Iapgyians show up with 76 archers. Good thing I'm on the attack!. 76 archers die and 37 Peltasts fall. I win and I offer the Iapgyians peace.
Autumn
They reject my peace deal.
Winter
No action

Spring 172bc
+22 food, +6 ore, +8 wood
Tarentum I build a mine. Realize afterwards no really smart. I don't have enough people to man the large mine I just finished so there will definately not be anyone to man the new mine. Oh well, advance planning isn't all bad is it?
Summer
Lucians ask for peace, they are at war with the Campains to their north. I accept.
Winter, Fall
No action

Spring 171bc
+22 Food, +6 Ore, +8 Wood The mine is complete but I really don't have anyone to work in it. Bummer. I'm tired of being a punching bag so I build two Italiio Greek Cavalry in Messapi what won't arrive unit next spring.
Summer Winter, Fall

Spring 170bc
+2 food, +6 ore, +8 wood
The IGC arrives and heads north arriving in winter of 170bc

Spring 169
+2 food, +16 ore, + 8 lumber- I got a few guys into a mine.
I have an army of 4 Peltasts, 2 IGC, 2 archer that will march into Lucia. the target is Heraclea. A rich food producer so I can shift my production from food into ore and lumber whic are in short supply. I offer an allaince to the Campains who are fighting the Lucians.

Summer
I cross into the Lucians lands and the Campians reject my allaince, Pisser.

Auttumn, Winter
I march on Heraclea, the Lucian army are tied down in the north versus the Campians so I have a free runner at Heraclea.

Spring 168
I attack Hercalea, from left to right
Archer Peltast, Peltast, Archer
IGC, Peltast, Peltast, IGC
All normal advance. The IGC is shooting the gaps in my line betwen the center Peltasts and flanking archers.

The enemy has a ton of Peltasts (96) A unit of IGC and 19 Javelinmen. They have deployed with the cav forward on the left and a mass of Peltasdts in the center with the javelinmen on the right. I IGC routes the Javelinmen, the archer pour fire into the copacted mass of their Peltasts and they get flanked by the cav. Hit on two sides and getting battered with arrows they break and flee.
Losses: 17 IGC (one unit lost effectively), 53 Peltasts, 0 archer versis 96 Pelts, 16 IGC and 19 Javelinmen.

I take Heraclea. Porblem is that the territorial adjustment doesn't meet my borders. Even if I hold Heraclea I won't have a contiguous territory and will instead have apocket in Lucia. I offer peace to get out of this war and they have three armies near by.

Summer 167
They attack with the cloest force. A mere 64 Peltasts thrown ina head long assault. I use the same batle plan minus one unit of my IGC. All 64 of their men fall and 43 of mine do as well but no one unit gets savaged.

Autumn
I've still got Heraclea, my latest peace offer is rejected and I'll have to build some units in Herclea to fend off the next Lucian attack.


TBC..........

Excellent, once again. :)

A few questions arise;

1. Can you enlarge previously built units?

2. Do you have any control over reinforcing/rebuilding damaged units?

3. If not (it happens automaticaly), will units continue to reinforce beyond their original strength?

4. Still not clear on this; Is the losing army completely eliminated?

5. Do armies you construct always show up in the following spring regardless of when you start building them?

6. Are building costs (units, buildings, etc) paid for when you order their construction(up front) or over the time period it takes to build them(a little each turn).

Keep up the great and informative work Sidney. I'll wait till you answer Ratster's questions before I ask any; besides, Ratster asked most that came to my mind.:) You dont sound to popular down in the Heel, must be a lousy neighbor.:D

I see you can recruit some units in conquered provinces.

Some of these are game mechanics questions I'm not sure on but I'll you you my answers for now and see about some of them.

1. Not to my knowledge. I'll try and build some upgrades and see what happens- if small or medium units "upgrade".

2. No. They rebuild at a fixed rate. As happened to my hoplites, some units can be battered so bad they are apparently beyond repair.

3. No they rebuild up to strength over time but no more.

4. Losing army is 100% gone. Gamewise this doesn't bother me becuase the lost units free up recources to rebuild. I have no idea if ancient armies survived battlefield defeats and were still in some sort of fighting shape.

5. Yes. Spring is the recruiting season. Functionally it sounds like you should not build until Winter, whihc is the right thing if you have surplus population and building to allocate them to. For example, if you have 6 people and 2 mines you are better off putting all 6 into the mines for Spring, Summer and Autumn and then building with them in the winter for a spring debut. But, if you have no extra buildings but surplus people it makes no difference.

6. Costs are deducted all at once. When you decide to build 'em they come out of the treasury no matter if they appear next season or in 3 seasons.

Well the first two wars weren't my fault. :)

Yes but to my chagrin you can only recruit what your native category (Greek, Tribal, Celtic) can build. Thus tribals have a bad time of it becuase even whacking an nice Greek city doesn't give them access to the hoplites and Peltasts.

Thanks for the answers Sydney! Clears a lot of things up for me. :)

I was curious about the armies being destroyed thing because they list casualties for both sides in the after battle report screen. I wonder if surviving manpower)(for the losers) is added back into population at all (even if abstractly).

Sometimes ancient armies were virtually anihilated, or at the least ceased to exist as a coherent fighting force . In any case, as a gameplay issue, its ok by me. :)

I dont have a big problem with the loser evaporating. Generally, the losing side was in very bad shape after these battles. So Sidney, are the new units and graphics for them in yet? How do they look? I noticed you mentioned Peltasts, that's new.

Actually, loosing armies of the early republic rarely took more than 15% casaulties, which I wouldn't call in "a very bad shape". ;) Since armies were citizens/warrior class as well, the survivors would tend to live to fight another day as well. It was only later on during the Punic Wars that losses often reached 40-50% on the loosing side, due to the general tendency for the victors to mount a vigorous pursuit. Even so, most armies survived to learn from the experience; e.g., the army that beat Hannibal at Zama largely consisted of survivors from the battles of Cannae and Herdonea.

The abstract is that the resources used to maintain those armies goes back into the kitty. Thus, those resources are available to build new armies.

The annihilation works ok for me because with the auto-rebuild feature and a lack of an EU style morale system if they didn't get wiped out there would be little to no consequence of losing a battle.

Strategy, of course your correct. I was thinking more of the later scenarios with Rome fighting the barbarians. Even then there were survivors but the loser was gravely hurt. Since Legion is a strategy game with a nice tactical element as well, I'm not to upset with the abstractions dealing with tactical combat. As long as the battles are fun and the overall outcome makes sense, I'll be happy.

Sidney- A couple more questions come to mind;

1. Is there any attrition of units not in cities.

2. If so, is this affected by the season?

1. No

2. No

There isn't an attrition model unless I'm not paying enough attention.

Hmmm, interesting, I thought they would have an attrition model. Again no biggie, just don't have have to worry about seasonal campaigning, except for the spring production. Thanks again Sidney! :)

Isnt the timeline off a bit? 176BC would be after the Punic Wars and not in the early days of Rome.

Hey Sydney, can you give us an idea about what is offered in peace negotiations?

Negotiations are pretty simple. If you have taken a city in any peace deal you get the city (no EU style stars). A peace offer might include resources (ore, food, lumber) as well- this can happen with or without taking a city. The aI is pretty tough on peace. It is normally pretty loathe to give up a chunk of their empir. In many cases taking one city can cripple an small empire (if, say, for example, you take the Romans ore city early they'll never have enough ore to build legions and they ar toast).

Also note that when another power request an allaince you can demand more from them and you can get them to bribe you into giving them an alliance.

Sounds good, can't wait to play.

Thanks again, Sidney.:)

1. Strat layer sounds as Shogun, is this true?
2. Strat layer: how is the troops movement? is always the same or depend of terrain, troop composition, seasons(winter,...) as EU?
3. Can you see the enemy (quantity and quality) before the battle?
4. Weather conditions?