Enter Grimjack the bountyhunter.
A warmongers dream come true, as I discovered defense is almost irrelevant. Just hit them harder and faster than they can hit you.
RBC12C-Huns, wherein we show who rule the steppes.
480AD, We are making progress against Eastern Rome. As long as we do not bring in the other barbarians, we should get a hefty amount of VPs for the troops trapped on the other side of the sea.
Plans are to put a quick end to the romans, and leave enough forces alive so that T-Hawk can put an even swifter end to Sassanids who does not have Legions as defenders.
And we haev a warlord ARMY
Our army is 36 Heavy Cavalry, 16 warlords and 2 spearmen. ( It is hard to get people willing to stand guard, when there is so much glory to be had on the battlefields. )
I build embassies with Anglo-Saxons and Vandals. We are likely to want to know their feelings, and it couldn't hurt for them to feel some gratitude to us for making the effort to appear friendly.
Kiel of the AngloSaxons is size 8 and building migrants. 7 spearmen are trying to guard. They are running a 40% science tax, but as far as I know they have no tech to research. They have three luxes and a market, so no clowns.
Hippo of the Vandals is size 4, building spearmen to complement the 6 spearmen garrison. They also have what appears to be an ancient cavalry. I didn't know they could build heavy cavs. It must be a horseman.
The entire Sassanid mounted force seems to be heading northwards. Some 20 HCs and 10 Horse stringed out along the road north. Would be nice if they were trapped while we destroyed their core. Lots of VPs parading about there.
We might want to keep Nisibis as a staging area for the next war, so I betetr make sure it is captured as the seventh city. I do not know if you may be allowed to keep the eigth city, or if they are all raezd as you parade in.
( Old habits are hard to shake off, and I make us a couple of bucks selling maps. Not that I know what to do with money. )
IBT: Twiddles tumbs as I watch loads and loads of amateur horsemen gallop past on the northbound road. Other interesting news, Anglo-Saxons and Vandals decide to duke it out amongst themselves. Better keep a close eye on their VPs, as they could rack it up fast with the expensive units they get. Byzantine counters are non-existent. She expose a cavalry, and I see a spearman move around.
We finish three heavy cavalries.
482: We beat the Ostrogoths with one turn to the second furs. I dispatch a warlord to sentry duty while hiding behind a large tree, so they can not find me to 'discuss' the orders.
Watch in dismay as I spot a regular cav. They are not supposed to display such amateurism. Upgrade warrior in Bourgas to warlord, as he is threatened by both a cav and an archer due next turn. Dispatch a cavalry as well, and am fairly certain we can keep city. Dispatch another wounded cav to make more certain.
Warlord army kills top defender in Iconium. Another Legion is revealed. Our cav defeats the revealed cav taking three hits. Move up a fresh one to cover. Another cav defeats the exposed garrison without taking hits. Woops, alsmost attacked by the regular horseman that followed the army around. I will see if I upgrade him. We have lots of money, and a regular cav is better than a regular horse.
It is a weird feeling making 157 gpt, and not have anything to do with the money. We will save it in case we need to bribe some AI.
IBT: An envoy from the roman camps appeared. I send him back lacking his head before he could insult my honor. by opening his mouth. Only two more cavs this turn. Roadblock on norther road is still active.
484: Continue to collect my forces, so I can attack. I reccon a lightly defended city will need five cavalry to be fairly certain of fall. ( Two legions.. )
Ack, the heavy cav just wounds our warlord, and then retreats. Chicken horsemen.
Sardicia, battle of
Heavy cavalry vs legion wins losing just one.
Heavy cav vs garrison retreats without dealing damage.
Give bows to next cavalry unit, and they manage to kill garrison, while redlining themselves.
Last heavy cav vs garrison, wins taking one damage. Sardicia still stands though.
Iconium, battle of
Our warlord army creates a marauder taking out the top legion and a garrison is exposed.
Garrison is taken out by a heavy cavalry, and Iconium falls. Seeing no reason to let it stand, I burn it to the ground. Somehow the roads gets completely blocked by rubble even though I specifically instructed our horsemen to take it easy.
Checking our cities, I am starting to feel the crunch for more tiles as our largest cities reach size 9. I think about slipping in a temple to let them grow, but decide against it. I hope game is over withing the next thirty turns, and thats the timespan for a temple to pay of. I will slip a temple into one city though, and chose it so that I will get extra tiles in more than this city. I start a migrant in Montana instead. I will use him to fill in the desert in order to grans plains tiles to the cities surrounding said desert.
Switch Kutch to Temple. This will let both Kutch and Pliska use more tiles. In the end, after long deliberation, decide I will not risk increasing corruption by a filler city, so I order plovdiv to build an altar to celebrate the divine us.
IBT: The roads are still clogged by green troops heading northwards. Now there are archers as well as cavalry.
Still no Byzantine counter, although a cavalry and garrison stands around nervously on the plains next to my camp of warlords.
Two cavalry more this turn.
486: In the mountains south of Burkas. Early morning. A battered force of Byzantine cavalry is trying to rest and recuperate from the last weeks fighting outside Burkas. Just like that the silence is shattered, and a small force of Axewielding barbarians are wreaking havoc amongst them. A small pitched battle erupts as the Byzantines realize there is no way out of this. Losses are heavy, but in the end, the axemens ferocity is to much, and the Byzantines are slaughtered to the last man and horse.
Meanwhile at the siege of Sardicia, the warlords cry out in joy as they finally catch up to the milling cavalry. Fierce axewielding barbarians are too much for the embattled garrison, and Sardicia is burned to the ground.
The reinforcements due to Sardicia later, will not reach it any longer. We have captured and apprenticed them, shown them the way of the warrior.
The Byzantines cavalry on the plains was almost ineffectual in trying to hold of the bloodhungry cavalry, and were slaughtered to the last man. Complaints were heard amongst the most elite of our cavalry that there was no opportunity to proove themselves.
IBT: Yet again, the impotence of civilized society shows itself. Two cavalry is sent out to the plains outside the cities to engage our warlords/cavalry. They are doomed. Three cavalry are produced.
488 The cavalry protecting the roads to Amorium are slaughtered by the howling berserks. Insignificant losses, and we now have axemen outside the city of Amorium, prepared to enter. One of our cavalry units comes of age in the hills in no mans land, as they defeat their assigned cavalry with some losses. One fresh unit will guard the exposed one. Amorium seems to be heavy defended, as after our army feels a little, a second legion is exposed.
Lots of troop movement, as the end of Byzans can be foreseen.
Pliska needs another tile mined, and then it will reach 24 spt. Workers are far away though. I am depending upon myself to MM every turn, as I try to juggle food and shields to fit requirements. If I forget, we will lose turns on our cavalry.
IBT: Oops, sloppy of me, our GA ends, while I still have tight reign on cities. Great bulgar riots, and I use scroll ahead to get specialists in the rest of our cities. Only two more cities needed fixing.
Warlord is the only thing produced in the bleak aftermath of our GA.
490:
Battle of Nisibis:
Vet cav vs reg legion loses and promotes the now two HP legion,
Vet cav vs reg legion wins taking one damage,
Vet cav vs 2Hp legion wins taking one damage and promotes.
Vet cav vs reg garrison wins taking two damage and promotes,
Vet cav vs reg garrison wins taking one damage, and Nisibis is ours. I chose to keep this city, as it is a good staging area for combatting the Sassanids.
Four resistors will probably put up a better fight than the defenders though.
VPs 9160
Battle of Amorium:
Vet warlord vs reg Legion wins creating a marauder,
Vet cavalry vs reg Legion wins, and AMorium is ours. I keep it, as I want to use it to build a migrant.
Byzantines are out of here. Thanks for the excellent setup Ridgelake. I can only hope to set T-Hawk up just as good. We didn't get a SID score, but a respectable 17390 VP total is ours now. Rome is at 23460.
I spend the rest of this turn setting up for a quick strike at Sassanids, and putting together a force capable of holding out the Sassanids cavalry at least a couple of turns or two, so our attackers can go to work, should the sassanids cavalry decide to swing east.
Build an embassy in Ostrogoth land. It is size 1, building yet another spearman. City is full of raiders and spearmen, do they perhaps lack iron ? They are heavily wipped as their only citizen is a clown. Not even a taxman.
IBT: Manage to build one spear, one cavalry and one migrant this turn. Still a lot of Sassanid troops travelling northwards. I have a cunning plan though.
492: As Sass had put a couple of spearmen close to one of our cities, I told him to leave, and he does. No cooperation from him there. I therefor make the ritual beheading of the ambassadors as a token of appreciation, and it is war with the Sassanids. ( And no, they had not researched Siegecraft. )
I get a bit thoughtful when Rome is insulted by straight peace, but greasing the right pockets with gold make peace an 80 gold deal. I am fairly certain it will take more than twenty turns moving our forces to Rome, while taking out Sassanids.
Pillage the northern road in case sassanids want to take it towards us. Southern roads needs be kept open, as we get luxes that way. After checking that we didn't have any current deals, I cut off the sassanids cavalry by pillaging the road they have just taken towards the other AIs.
That also ought to cut any traderoutes Sassanids might have had.
Kill of an archer and a cavalry in the process.
Ura Tyube is razed quickly as it is defended by a single spearman. The spearman managed to retreat the first cav, but two proved too much for it. Meanwhile, Sassanids cavalry digs itself into the mountains, and I lose two cavalry smoking out another two from the mountaintop.
Kill off another three cavalries and two archers without incurring anything other than a bloody nose.
Save a lot of horses in Nisibis, as that is the city most likely to be hit by a counter.
Romans have 23735 VPs, so if no one goes to war against them, they get 275 VPs per turn. We may indeed have to prune them. Migrants and workers are on their way to build a bridge to Europe for our victorious troops.
There were a lot of troops exposed, so I am not in a good position to strike out cities. I expect a couple to drop next turn anyway, but getting eight will be hard.
IBT: Somehow one Sassanid cavalry was in a position to strike at our northern cavalry. Good thing I pillaged the road, as otherwise it would have been battle in the city. I will let it be, as there might be others lurking in the fog. In another counter one of my siegers win against a cav though. I see a lot of spearmen stream southwards away from the front, while workers stream northwards towards the front. Seems a bit backwards to me, but what do I know, I am only a barbarian.
Get another cavalry as replacement though.
494: We kill three spearmen in Bambur using a warlord and a cavalry, but Bambur holds. ( We got a marauder from the warlord, and marauder won as well. )
Borazan had four spearmen, but they fell against the might of warlords and cavalry. Two down, six to go.
The warlords laugh at the poor catapult crews, as they all miss their target. Sieges is not something we are particularly good at.
Four warlords then proceed to decimate Merv, but Merv still holds with a regular spear after three vet spears and a cavalry. I use the two marauders to take out the last spear. Merv is razed. Three down, five to go.
Found Gabrovo, and start it on Galley. Galleys take 30 shields, and can carry two troops. Not very whipping efficient.
Increase lux tax to 40% just in case we lose a lux.
IBT: Now I know for sure that the Sassanids went northwards. Their elite cav strikes out one of our cavs at our northern endpost. Another ten cavalry show up in the neighbourhood, and keeping that city outside their ownership looks like a forlorn hope. Vandals and Franks sign alliance against sassanids, but I doubt they will rubberband, as our cities are the most lightly defended.
496 We have four horsemen, and 6 heavy cavalry outside Montana. Things look bleak indeed. The problem is that the extensive roading someone have made, makes it possible for the sassanids to leapfrog if MOntana falls. I better make sure we kill Sassanids really really fast now. I am starting to regret a little bit my greed in not signing up Ostrogoths, as they would likely have kept the cavalry inside their borders.
Bamburs last spearman falls to our elite cavalry, four down, and four to go.
We kill two spearmen in Istakahr, but it is still defended. Regulars now though.
Siege of Arbela starts good by slaughtering a cav and two spear.
Siege of Zohak is more bloody as we kill two spearmen, lose one cav, and get two cav redlined.
I reinforce Varna as much as I can, but we will lose it. Hopefully I can deal with Sassanids next turn anyway, since I just spent a lot of money upgrading Raider MPs to Warlords. There is no way Sassanids will survive to see 502AD.
IBT: Celts and AngloSaxons sign up against Vandals.
Those stacks of horsemen are huge. Our garrison was one redlined cav, one reg spear and one reg warlord. We redlined two cavalry, killed one, and died. They kept the city
We lost another cav in the siege of barbella. That was not good, as that was the weakest siege we had.
Continued.....