Mare bellicum, turn 1

[Xavi]

Hello there!

After returning from the French Cup 2009 in Pau, the DBArcelona (BAd Goping Rabble) start their Mare Bellicum campaign.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x181/xrequejo/Mare%20Bellicum%20Campaign/MareBellicumDBAv3.jpg

FIRST TURN ATTACKS

MOVIMIENTOS TURNO 1


* Inad attacks Arabia (Tzarkual) from Hatra
* Prich attacks syria (Tzarkual) from Cilicia
* Mukitauro attacks Armenia (Tzarkual) from capadocia
* Calico attacks Arabia (Tzarkual) from Tebadia --> border clash
* Tzarkual attacks Tebadia (Calico) from Arabia --> Border clash

It looks like Tzarkual botched his charisma roll for the first campaign turn :D

* Gorgoroth attacks Prhygia (Prich) from Achaea
* Zorash attacks Bythinia (Mukitauro) from Tracia
* Marechadesaxe attacks Lucania (presi) from Apulia
* Vidal supports Bohemundo (buuuuuuuuuh cowards!!)
* Presi attacks Sicilia (Baltasor) from Lucania --> border clash
* Bohemundo attacks Asturica (Divadzechan) from Tarraconensis. Vidal supports him --> border clash
* Divadzechan attacks Tarraconensis (bohemundo) from Lusitania --> border clash
* Xavi attacks Cyrenaica (Calico) from Tripolitania
* Baltasor attacks Corsica & Sardinia (presi) from Leugitana --> border clash

Border clashes work normally: you roll for agressivity et al. Winner conquers the territory of the other player. In non-border clashes the owner sets up terrain and is the defender. The invader is always the attacker; only if the invader wins it conquers the territory, otherwise nothing happens.

It looks like our LAP Tzarkual will have a tough turn, facing mithridaics (mukitauro), LAP (Prich), Ptolemaics (calico) and aramaics (inad). Talkj about being popular!! :D

The presi, in rome has also a pair of interesting battles vs late carthos (baltasor) and pyrrus (marechaldesaxe).

Let's see what happens :) Will keep you posted.

Cheers,
Xavi

[neldoreth]

Fantastic map there! It looks like a pretty big and interesting campaign. Already a lot action is taking place. So many players. Is it hard to run a campaign of this size?

And, not sure, but I'm guessing this is an early Rome period you are playing?

Great stuff!
n.

[Xavi]

TURNO2 UP AND RUNNING!!
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x181/xrequejo/Mare%20Bellicum%20Campaign/CampaaDBATurno2.jpg

As you can see the roman attack drove the celtiberians back. The italian penninsula is a battle4field, with pyrrus conquering the south and the romans driving the carthaginians out of Sicily. Big Al has decided to flex some muscle and successfully invaded Bythinia at the expense of Mithridates and the greeks attacked the persia in Phyrigia, but were driven back.

Meanwhile the orange persian had to face FOUR attacks. He successfully resisted the other persian (Prich) and the mithridaics, but the ptolemaics of egypt and the Arameans both succeeded in invading Arabia. In turn 2 they will fight to see who holds that territory.

Finally the oportunistic numidians, seeing that the ptolemaics were busy in the east expanded their herding lands into Cyrenaica taking advantage of the general confusion.

Now to wait for the movements of turn 2 ;)

Cheers,

Xavi

[Xavi]

The period is generic. Actually it would be the third century before JC, except that the 3 roman players are using MIR armies. So it is kind of a generic setting :)

The game mechanics are extremely simple (1 attack per turn, invaded is always defender, if attacker wins conquers territory, and a few odd rules more) so no, it is not difficult to run this :)

Cheers,
Xavi

[Xavi]

MAP TURN 3

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x181/xrequejo/Mare%20Bellicum%20Campaign/CampaaDBATurno3.jpg

Well, we can see a few changes over turn 2 :) Inad has conquered the contested territory of Arabia, while Calico has thrown him out of Egypt and maintains him imperium quite untouched. Calico I of the Ptolemaics has conquered Mesopotamia after a long and arduous march across the desert.

Tzarkual, the Poor, challenger to the supremacy for the Persian Empire has been soundly trashed once again and after the defeats suffered at the hands of Prichaxerxes and Calico the First only has one territory (Syria) remaining in his hands. His counterattack against the Pontus was unsuccessful and mukitauro soundly trashed him in the mountain passes of Asia Minor. Recognizing his weakness, Tzarkual has accepted the supremacy of Prich and become a vassal of the later king of the Persians.

Meanwhile, the Achaeans of Gorgoroth keep trying to expand, but with a limited success. This time they attacked the Pontus, and were beaten back by the Pyrrhic troops. Still, it was (once again and for the third time) a pyrrhic victory: 3G-4. Everything remains as it was.

Alexander, and his general Marconius continue their meteoric conquest of the world in the name of Macedon. This time the eastern romans of Vidal were soundly trashed and lost Moesia Citerior to the Macedonian Phalanx

The Romans are being attacked in all fronts. Vidal (eastern roman) is being invaded by Big Al (Marc). Meanwhile Pyrrhus is attacking the italic peninsula and contesting Sicily from Roman control. Althinor, the Caesar, is defending both territories with tooth and nail. Taking advantage of the chaos the Carthaginians have decided that Italy is a difficult battleground and are attacking the Romans in Tarraco instead, defended by gaius Bohemundo.

In Iberia the celtiberians of Divad keep up their struggle with the Roman invader, but they were beaten back to the hills by the Romans after being soundly trashed. The Numidian opportunists are quite keen to exploit any sign of weakness, and decided to cross the strait of Gibraltar, but they were smacked in the head and thrown to the sharks by the angry celtiberians, after killing the Numidian king’s envoy

IN this third turn we have active the Sea People rule, so we can expect to see quite weird matchups. :) Let’s see what happens

[Rich Gause]

I would be interested in hearing more about the game mechanics for this campaign. Are they posted online anywhere?

[Xavi]

Yup, but in Spanish. I can translate them, but it will take a while. We went for the extra-simple system, really since this is an excuse to kick each other in DBA battles :P

The link to the spanish rules is this one:
http://asociacionilion.mforos.com/1530857/8304248-dba-bases-campana-mare-bellicum/

Cheers,
Xavi

[Rich Gause]

I would be interested in an english translation. Unfortunately my Spanish is limited to stuff like "Dos cervesas por favor".

[Tony Aguilar]

I would be interested in an english translation. Unfortunately my Spanish is limited to stuff like "Dos cervesas por favor".

Knowing you it is more like: "Dos cervezas por favor...a la misma vez" ;)

I can only imagine what the Barkerese to Castillian-Spanish translation is.

[Rich Gause]

Knowing you it is more like: "Dos cervezas por favor...a la misma vez" ;)

I can only imagine what the Barkerese to Castillian-Spanish translation is.

Nope, one of my rules to live by is always be nice and polite to people who could do mean things to your food or beer before bringing it to you............

[Tony Aguilar]

Nope, one of my rules to live by is always be nice and polite to people who could do mean things to your food or beer before bringing it to you............

I just added..."bring them BOTH at the same time." Not mean, but efficient.

[Rich Gause]

My online translator gave me "At Once!", which seemed more like "Now!" Of course I would want them at the same time the first one is usually gone quickly and I wouldn't want to wait too long for the second........

[Xavi]

That would be "a la vez" for you ;)

Cheers,
Xavi

[Xavi]

MARE BELLICUM TURN 4

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x181/xrequejo/Mare%20Bellicum%20Campaign/CampaaDBATurno4bis.jpg

The struggle continues in the Mare Bellicum. The third turn saw attacks all around the area due to the Sea peoples special rule. The Achaeans conquered Corsica & Sardinia in a daring shipborne assault, and Tzarkual's persians removed Crete from Achaean control. An epic battle around Alexandria ended with Calicoemus the First kicking the Pontic and Alexandrian armies out of the Nile area. Meanwhile Pyrrhus kept on attacking the romans, and the Romans kept attacking Pyrrhus. The situation in Italy and Epirus ended in a stalemate.

The Devious Movement of the Turn (TM) was without any trace of doubt that made by the Carthaginians. After assuring the romans that they would be supporting th Roman attack vs Epirus they allied themselves with Pyrrhus and attacked Campania!! The attack was unsuccessful, but is having long lasting consequences, since the Romans have declared that they will be handling huge rewards to anyone willing to attack the Carthaginians. The Carthaginians are claiming the same, just declaring the Romans as the target. The struggle between those 2 people seems to match 100% the developments of history so far! :)

In this fourth turn the Carthaginians continue their attack on the romans from their power base in Hispania. Meanwhile the Romans are counterattacking from the Balearic Islands supported by the celtiberians, eager to bring the war to the Carthaginian homeland of Africa. In the Eastern front, Pyrrhus and Alexander attack the Dacian romans while the Asian powers keep their intestine wars raging, battling among them with no quarter. Again, the oportunistic Numidians have seen that the field army of the Ptolemaics is in Asia and taking advantage of the situation are trying to move the border slightly to the east, travelling witht heir goat herds towards the Libyan water wells. With a little bit of luck those wells will become water holes for the Numidian camels.


Cheers!
Xavi

[Xavi]

MARE BELLICUM TURN 5
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x181/xrequejo/Mare%20Bellicum%20Campaign/MareBellicumTurno5.jpg

An other turn has seen blood flow freely in the Mare Bellicum. This past turn has been extremely adverse for the powers of Rome. Pyrrhus continues with his offensive through the Italian peninsula. The rains of September have slowed him somewhat, but he is about to have enough territories to raise a second professional army to wage war on the offensive. Meanwhile the perfidious Carthaginian power has beaten the invading army of the Romans that was trying to invade Africa with celtiberian support in an epic naval battle, and has taken advantafge of this victory to invade Narbonensis unopposed.

In Africa, the Numidian shepperds of Xavinissa, king of Mauritania, Numidia, the Sahara, Lybia, his home (when his wife allows it) and part of the Foreign lands and who is perfectly humble about it (ehem ehem) has been invited by his friend, the Pharao of Egypt to send his herds to pasture in Lybia. However, a nephew of the pharaoh does not seem to understand that this and had to be convinced peacefully, after dispersing one third of his army that the Numidian intentions were peaceful.

Asia has seen (again) an other turn fratricidic wars. The Persian Tzarkualazar has lost his last Asian province at the hands of Inad, King of th Desert (and some more territories) being relegated to his last bastion of Crete, and plots his vengeance from there. Mukitaureses, king of Pontus has been stopped in his tracks, while, after turn 4, Inad becomes the most powerful sovereign of the Mare Bellicum: he has 7 territories, so he can launch 2 attacks in turn 5. Prichaxerxes has expelled Arbaalus Magnus from Asia Minor reconquering Bithyinia for the Asian powers. Still, Prichaxerxes has lost Cilicia at the hands of Pharaoh Calicomeus the First.

In the Carpathian mountains the invasion of Panonia by Arbaalus Magnus has faced logistical problems and has suffered a delay in the advance of his phalanxes. The achaeans of Gorgoroth have sufered a close defeat when they tried to attack the growing Epirus Empire.

In this fifth turn the wars continue in Asia, while the pacific numidian shepherds are trying to reach the Nile to make their herds drink: they are thirsty after pasturing in Libya. The revolting nephew still does not understand this, and hads allied himself with the Arameans (the coward!) to contest this move to the Numidians. The Romans and celtiberians continue their close combat woith their nemessis Pirrhus and Carthage, while Arbaalus Magnus and the Achaean leaders have decided to recover their foothold in Asia and are attacking Bithynia



Your correspondent in the Mare Bellicum

Xavi of Numidia