Mare Nostrum II - Map based Saga Campaign - Antique

Tradition of map based campaigns continues with another era of antique campaign - previous having been played in 2015!
Rule set for this campaign is Saga, utilising three relevant books: Age of Hannibal, Alexander and the recently released Age of Caesars.

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The goal of the campaign is to build a mighty empire to last for a thousand years. This is measured in Might Points (MP), which are gained in the course of the game by conquering lands and raising vast cities. In the end, the player with the most MP will win the campaign. The campaign will last from four to six rounds based on random rolls, which means that the players have to plan their strategies accordingly during the campaign. You can read the rules here

Relevant things to know

* Gold, buildings on the map and campaign events can be used to increase your army size

* Armies start with 5 points

* Campaign events (chosen during the planning phase) impact both the actual Saga games as well as the map aka conquering areas and building buildings. One can even raid gold from the enemy

Campaign start

Each player got two regions to their kingdom, first one was the capitol area, based on faction played and the second was chosen by the player. In addition to Parthia, I chose Aquitania to be located also closer to the middle of the map and next to the strategic territory of Hispania (areas marked with a star yield an extra point to the might of the kingdom). See the starting map above.

My Army

Parthia and Rebels against Rome were the armies I had most anticipated, as my painting project for Parthia was far ahead compared to rebels, I chose to play with them.

Most of my models in this army are 3D prints, design by Scropha Miniatures

3D prints came out a bit larger then Scythian mounted archers by Victrix

Parthian mounted archers by Warlord Games are quite diminutive 
compared to the above, so no mixing. They usually take the role of
Nomad mercenaries. Characterful models!

Two on the right have 3D print torsos connected to Scythian lower parts

Scropha Parthians 

Kitbashed levy archers

Plastic Parthian Horse Cataphracts by Gripping Beast

Dedicated terrain

I had backed a kickstarter on STL files for Assyrian themed terrain with my eastern armies (Persians, Parthians, Palmyrans) in mind and my friend Timo printed them with his excellent resin printer. Painting them was fast and results quite nice, even if I say so myself. KS

Round 1.

Planning phase

• I was challenged by Ilmo, playing Dacians
• Ilmo chose Incited Rebellion event to buff his conquest
• I chose the Raiding party event to rob gold from Ilmo's treasury (to use it for increasing my army size and to buy Ruses)
• I played with a 6p. army, with 5p. of ruses, while Ilmo had a 6p. army and some ruses
• We made an alliance with Sarmatians, played by Marko

Game vs. Dacians

Scenario: Clash

My 6p. army and deployment

- Warlord

- Arrow bearer

- elephant (via a ruse)

- Nomad mercenaries

- 6 Camelphracts (I have found them too slow…)

- 18 warriors - deployed as 9+9 mounted with CB

All mounted, except the elephant. I've painted 100+ mounted models this year

R1

Left flank soon became the choke point of the battle, whily Dacian Warlord and levy archers stood in the right flanks woods

My cataphracts staying out of the archers' range
- not an ideal deployment

Dacian cataphracts made a mistake charging my elephant...

R4

Start of R5

Only my elephant had died, and my mounted archers had devastated loads of Dacian warriors... BUT 
most of my army was still within L of my table edge and would be destroyed, should the game after 5 
rounds. Dacians moved to block both routes to salvation... Once again I trusted too much on the 6th round being a thing... I placed too many dice on warriors activations - my mounted archers did destroy a one more unit of Dacian warriors... but I should have had more activations for my HG and warlord. I started my 5th round with a charge of Camelphracts, whom did destroy the two remaining enemy Cataphracts, but it took too many SD. One of my nine mounted archers were able to slip away, but I ran out of HG activations to push them and my HG out. 

On my left flank my other 9 man mounted unit was trapped and they shot and charged Dacian warriors
whom closed ranks and held the line, at least few more massacre points for me

Well, you guessed it - there was 
no 6th round. Which caused me to lose the game.¨
With 6 rounds it would have been a crushing victory 
for me instead...

Conclusion of R1

• Ilmo chose not to conquer any of my territories
• We made an alliance with Dacia
• I claimed neutral Persia into my kingdom

Round 2.

Planning phase

• I was challenged by Mikko, playing Republican Romans. He had his eyes on Aquitania
• Mikko chose Mercenaries event to increase his army by 1p. and to make a merc unit loyal
• I chose the Raiding party event to rob gold from Mikko's treasury (to use it for increasing my army size and to buy Ruses)
• I played with a 6,5p. army, with 6p. of ruses, while Mikko had a 7p. army and also 6p. of ruses

Round 2. Game vs. Republican Romans - REPORT WIP

Scenario: To settle a grudge

I find Republican Romans as my worst nemesis. I tend to play shooting heavy armies (Persians, Parthians, Indians...), and their Scuta ability just shuts down my shooting.

My army 6.5p

- 1p. Mercs: Nomad riders - 1p. Elephant (via Ruse) - 1,5p. HG - 3p. Warriors, 22 warriors 9-9-4 - Arrow bearer = 15 gold used to increase the army size to 6,5p. and 6 golf for ruses: Lost Legionaires (3), Elephants (2) and Forced March (1)

Roman army 7p.

1p Samnites (Loyal) 1p Cretan archers 1p Heartguard 4p Warriors

Deployment: most of the Romans deployed in the middle and countered them with my armour 5 warriors and cataphracts. Mikko played the Refused flank ruse and redeployed Cretan archers and Samnites to face my mercs and the elephant... exactly what I had tried to avoid in my deployment...

25-12 Victory for Parthia

Round 2. Conclusion

* I chose not to conquer any terrain from Rome, but instead conquered Syria, India and Chorasma neutral territories

* This expansion lifted me to the leading position of the campaign

* We made an alliance wit Rome

Round 3. 

Planning phase

• As the challenges went, we ended in a situation, that the only option for Ilmo was to challenge me and hence break our alliance.
• Ilmo chose Elite army event to get some rerolls for the game
• I chose the Raiding party event to rob gold from his treasury (to use it for increasing my army size and to buy Ruses)... I now had a whoopinmg 36 gold...
• I played with a 7p. army, with 5p. of ruses: elephants, refused flank and forced march, while Ilmo only had 12 gold, fielding a 6,5p. army and having some ruses

Game vs. Dacians again

 We rolled Winter Warlords scenario

Took these ruses + forced march, total 6G

Wonky deployment to screen vulnerable units from the Dacian manuballista - Dacians had the 1st go

New 3D printed terrain was taken into use... 10 Dacian warriors with 2handed wpns 
moved through ruins without being slowed down (veteran ability from the campaign rules)

They clashed with my Paragon-elephant couple of times
and both units ended being destroyed. Unfortunately Ilmo forgot to use his
rerolls (from the event) on a whiffed attack roll on the elephant!

Decisive blows against Dacians were delivered by my trusted 
Nomad rider mercenaries, whom used Forced March ruse to outflank 
the enemy and then prceeded in shooting to death both the 4 men battery 
unit and the manuballista. Dacian warrior pack attacked my levies,
but were then destroyed by my Cataphracts.

Before playing my last round (I was P2) we calculated VPs and
I was surprised, that I had not won yet... so I made a plan to kill
few more levy archers to gain the needed points, but there was a risk...

I managed this and THEN we remembered, that we had not counted 
the destruction of the manuballista. So I had won already at the start of my 
last round. 26-20 Victory for Parthia

Round 3. Conclusion - TBC