Conquest and Pontification: A Pontus AAR

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The kingdom of Pontus at the beginning of EU: Rome.

Welcome to another AAR by yours truly! Some of you will no doubt be familiar with some of my previous work, links to which can be found in the signature, but for those who are not, I will say a word or two about this AAR and the form it will take.

First things first, let us talk about some particulars:
Start Date: 1 January 474
Country: Pontus
Difficulty: Normal
Verson: EU:R 1.1 vanilla

The goal is, as always, massive and rapid conquest of the world. This is my first game of Rome, apart from some time tooling around with the demo, so you and I shall find out together just how much conquest is really possible. The reviews all seem to complain about the slower pace of Rome--perhaps true, but so far I still find it quite congenial to my inner warmonger.

This will be a gameplay AAR, as opposed to a narrative. No real story, and lots of gameplay analysis. There will be some rooting around in the game files and in game testing of the influence of various stats. Also, there will be a fair amount of mathematical calculation, though I shall always try to sum up the results so that the reader does not have to go through it himself unless he wishes to.

As of now, there is only one substantial, perhaps gamebreaking, issue with 1.1 that I am aware of. There seems to be a growing forum consensus that the research just isn't robust enough to permit nations to keep up with where they are "supposed" to be. I have heard solutions talking of changing the research modifier from 1 to anywhere between 1.5 and 2.5. As of yet, I am still running a vanilla patch 1.1, but if it gets to be a major concern, I will change it. Just so long as the big AI empires and I are on a level playing field, I'm not going to worry about it for now, no matter how historically backward technologically we all might turn out to be in the end.

As far as I can see, Pdox hasn't much changed the battle system from EUIII. The premier explanation of what exactly is happening in combat and why remains, so far as I know, Kanitatlan's thread.

Also, how is the screenshot resolution? If it's too big for most people, I can make them fit into a normal compy screen more easily.

Now, on with the AAR proper!

 

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474-490: First Steps

(A side note:

I have read Rensslaer's excellent manual and most of his similarly excellent strategy guide. I highly recommend them.)

First things first: pontus is going to build a small, yet powerful core army. That means, first and foremost, we need to get iron for heavy infantry and secondly, we need to get our hands on some wood for archers. Also, Pontus is going to try to maintain as decent of a navy as it can from the beginning, which means wood.

There are two iron deposits in nearby friendly countries, one in Sparta and one in Macedonia. I send two trade route offers. For my last trade route, I send a request for my ally Bithnyia's wood. The result:

Two out of three ain't bad!

And a single source of iron is really all we need. We are just going to be building up a small core. 2 archers and 2 heavy infantry are ordered up. I go back and forth between disbanding the 4 light infantry I start with, and eventually just decide to hold onto them for now.

Next comes marching back and forth through the barbarian land to my immediate east. Eventually I provoke the barbarians and,

Even though I lost, I can still start colonizing and when the barbarians attack me in my own province, I defeat them soundly. Sadly, the barbarians then retreat into Armenia, so I don't have the chance to get the gold and slaves from finishing them off.

Then, Merry Christmas to me:

Now there is a question: what next? I eventually opt for building 8 triremes and taking over the Greek islands in the Meditteranean.

To get a CB:

How dare they behead my assassin! Clearly they are in the wrong and so deserve to be taught a lesson through war.

I station my triremes in their sea zone, declare war, then invade,

You'll notice at this point I've disbanded my light troops and replaced them with heavies. Quality rules over quantity in EU.

In truth I didn't even need to build new troops though. I think a single heavy infantry would have done it, because I caught the Cretan troops at low military maintenance--so they had low morale and quickly broke ranks and, because it's an island, were destroyed utterly.

Awww, how nice of them!

Next I turn to Rhodes. Rinse, repeat.

All this assassination and annexation leaves me with a pretty bad reputation:

A period of digestion is called for.

Pontus has doubled in size, from three provinces to six, and developed a respectable army and navy.

 

[germanpeon]

What resources have you gained from the new provinces?

 

[Jvstin]

Now there is a question: what next? I eventually opt for building 8 triremes and taking over the Greek islands in the Meditteranean.


I station my triremes in their sea zone, declare war, then invade,


You'll notice at this point I've disbanded my light troops and replaced them with heavies. Quality rules over quantity in EU.

In truth I didn't even need to build new troops though. I think a single heavy infantry would have done it, because I caught the Cretan troops at low military maintenance--so they had low morale and quickly broke ranks and, because it's an island, were destroyed utterly.

Awww, how nice of them!

Next I turn to Rhodes. Rinse, repeat.

A period of digestion is called for.

Pontus has doubled in size, from three provinces to six, and developed a respectable army and navy.

Island grabbing looks like a good strategy. Less Ping-ponging, more conquering.

 

[Dhimmi]

my interest is even more sparked by this.

i really sure about getting it now

its sounds even more fun then EU III imo

 

[Imperium Dei]

I'll be following this to compare with my first Pontic adventure. Definately not a slow game so far I've managed to expand around the Black Sea quite effectively, leaving only my now-useless ally Bosporus, and now I'm on the verge of a colonization race against Macedonia on the western coast. Picking on the small island nations seems like an interesting angle; I just wouldn't want to be caught up in the epic Seleucid/Egyptian conflict that has so far passed me by.

 

[comagoosie]

I like your strategy, it is very tactical. Though I heard that the AI is more proned to do Naval invasions, so we will see how long you will hold up.

Good luck!

 

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Thanks for the comments! I really appreciate them all.

@germanpeon: The new resources are wood for the two islands, and um... grain for the other one I think?
@Dhimmi: Yeah, it's much more strategic than EUIII, with its whole trade system, character management, and the importance of careful diplomacy in such a constrained area. Also, there are more types of units, so getting the ideal mix to the proper place becomes much more problematic, especially after the intial stages of the war are over.
@Imperium Dei: About that Egypt/Seleucid conflict... well, you'll see.

 

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490-501: Rambunctious Neighbors

Sad day:

Apparently my last King committed suicide because it was the only "honorable" thing to do. Guess I need to pay more attention to the old King's popularity stat.

Poor Pergamum!

THIS... err, was Sparta... (Sparta was Pergamum's ally.)

Ouch! The aggressiveness and power of these Seleucids is very troubling.

Yes!

All my big neighbors are getting bigger...

I really didn't pay attention to technology. But building a forum and irrigation GREATLY increases income. In your early game strats, I recommend getting to Civic 1 as fast as possible. It's the most important initial tech.

Apparently something about the turn of the century got some people riled up,

 

[coz1]

You seem to be doing pretty well. Much better than I have in the few games I've played. I'll be watching this closely.

 

[comagoosie]

I have noticed that if you take advantage of a nation at war, which has been at war for a year (so they can move their troops away) you can quickly attack and make peace for a couple provinces. This is what I use, yet it is very risky, as if they attack back you don't have much chance of withstanding.

 

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501-515: Egyptian Misadventures

So this war between the Seleucids and the Egyptians is interesting... I wonder what I can get out of it?

Because Egypt holds two Greek provinces on the southern coast of Anatolia and the island of Cyprus, also quite Greek, I decide to throw my old hat into the ring. While they are occupied with the Seleucids, I want to get in, take enough provinces to get a peace settlement for three provinces, and get out.

The initial invasion is good:

Then things turn sour:

Good news:

Then some very bad news. The Seleucids made peace with Egypt before I can make significant inroads into the heart of Egypt itself. I decide that at this point, discretion is the better part of valor and,

So, what to learn from the whole Egyptian debacle? The key problem was the lack of troops on my part. If one is going to stage a lightning campaign, well, one needs a number of troops. I just wasn't beseiging enough provinces at once successfully enough to pull it off.

Immediately thereafter, my ally Bosporus decides to declare war.

Then,

Over the course of this war, one of my very disloyal and pretty popular generals dies. For once I find myself celebrating the death of a very talented military commander... Triumphs are a great way to bring up loyalty, but I don't think I was quite aware of this at this point yet.

This war goes a little better,

Bosporus proceeds to annex the remaining Colchis province after awhile. About 8 years then pass, in which I simply sit, burning off BB. Then,

Bosporus has finished what it started!

So all in all, the whole Egyptian debacle set Pontus back quite a bit, what with the BB from assassinating, the gold spent on full military maintainence, the war exhaustion, the creation of more troops when it became clear what I had in Egypt wasn't going to be enough, and, perhaps most importantly, the aid provided by my troops to the mighty Seleucids in becoming even stronger.

While ruminating upon his past mistakes, an messenger appears at the court of Polyxenos Mithridatid,

Ominous. Portents of doom gather upon the horizon.

 

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Ominous. Portents of doom gather upon the horizon.

You are going to be eaten alive unless you can get Egypt on your side. Too bad you just invaded them!

 

[comagoosie]

pay the tribute and invade the neighboring kingdom, that seems to be the most logical.

 

[Dhimmi]

is it me or is the AI more aggressive/able in comparison to EUIII?

as i remember that you were playing on normal difficulty?

 

[Imperium Dei]

Bad luck for Pontus With any luck the Seleucids will have themelves a civil war to distract them for a good long time. I found that with Colchis (and Rhoxolani) if you force them to pay a 1 gold tribute from their one remaining province they will inevitable default on the tribute and give you an excuse to take it out on them through annexation Good luck fending off the Seleucid behemoth! Hopefully Bosporus won't turn its greedy eyes on Pontus as well.

 

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@BaronDietrich: Yeah, weakening Egypt and making them mad at me, not such a good move perhaps.
@Dhimmi: Yeah, it's normal. And yeah, the AI does seem more aggressive.
@Imperium: That's an interesting way to get CB's! Hmmm, might try that...

 

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512-519 : The Beast Groweth

Oh just what I always wanted! A stronger Seleucid Empire!

Because, I expanded/colonized so fast, and into such low-population provinces, my tech is going a bit slow.

Had to do it, so the Bosporians won't get it.

At this point its time to expand a bit,

What an outrage! I must avenge him!

Well, I suppose it's not a bad a peace treaty as it could have been.

Macedonia is allied with Bithnyia. But, at the moment, they are dealing with a Civil War. And if I can win the sea battle before they take care of that little issue, then I can block the straits and render the large Macedonian army completely impotent.

Yay!

Now there's a die-roll!

There is a simple trade-off in building up your army. The more front-line troops you have, the more units will be engaged directly in battle, the more of a "morale pool" you will have to draw from before your units retreat. An almost half infantry/half archer army will withdraw when it gets down to 50% morale. A 3/4 infantry and 1/4 archer army will fight on until it gets down to 25% morale.

But, the 50/50 army will, in a straight-up, knockdown fight, cause far more casualties, because every infantry unit has archer support. So it's a question of having as many archers as possible, but still having enough morale to win battles consistently.

Then,

An offer from the beast itself! I dither long before I accept. Eventually though, I decide the Seleucids are just too powerful to be resisted. Like much of the rest of the world, Pontus falls into their orbit.

 

[stnylan]

Better allied to the Seleucids than their enemy.

Pontus starts off in an interesting situation, but the Seleucids are an ever-present worry.

 

[comagoosie]

Accept the alliance offer. Or else they could take it as an insult and declare war on you, which would not be good.