Rome Total War II

I am playing a new Rome Total War II campaign with my eldest daughter, in co-op mode.

Co-op mode is great fun, as long as you don't start too close together, as ganging up on the enemy makes the game too easy.  Too far apart, however, and there is not enough interaction, especially on the diplomatic front.  So my eldest chose the Macedonians, and I'm once again playing Ptolemaic Egypt.  We are on "difficult" level, although I admit I would have liked to go for "very difficult".

The game kicks off in -272, and we have reached -245.  Thought I'd show progress here, I'll do an update now and then, when anything particularly exciting happens.

By -245, we have both gotten past the "early survival" stage and are comfortably dominating our local areas.  Macedonia has defeated the Epirotes and has Greece under control, and is looking to expand northwards; Rome is still occupied elsewhere and is not yet a threat.

As for me, the 54-year old Ptolemy II (who died historically in -246), after finally beating down the Kushites in the south, has been able to turn his attention to the nothern shores of the Meditteranean Sea.

Here is my dynastic family tree in -245.  Ptolemy III has set off on a great exploration of the Known World, and is currently somewhere off the shores of Scotland.  Rowing past the Columns of Herakles was child's play to such a man !  Let youth see the world, I say.  Berenice - the one who married the Seleucid Antiochus II in real life - is heir to the throne and I intend to keep it that way  Lysimachos is beside his father in distant lands, more of that in a bit.  The young Thaleia is my top general; in RTW II, women can be generals in the Egyptian faction, nothing historical about that but I like the idea.

Initially, my plan had been to send my fleet over to Asia Minor, with two armies led by Ptolemy II and his eldest son Lysimachos, to beat up a couple of factions there, and maybe expand along the north and eastern coasts of the Black Sea.  On the way, I thought I would reduce Rhodes, to use as a forward base.  I chose to beseige it rather than waste my men in a direct assault, but my poliorcetics are not very advanced and it has taken a few years, with a few more yet to go.... 

 

During the rather long journey, the Pharoah's diplomatic corps did a sterling job.  Diplomacy is notoriously difficult in Total War, actually frustratingly so as it is difficult to achieve anything at all, leaving one with a permanent sense of isolation.  Perhaps co-op mode helps, or perhaps I am naturally gifted : )

In any case, beyond my Macedonian ally, and their Athenian and Spartan clients, and my own start of game Cypriot client, I acquired, between -250 and -245, the full alliance of Pergamon, Bithynia, the Pontic States and the Nabateans.

The greatest threat to my kingdom are - as historically - the Seleucids.  They control a swathe of provinces around their Syrian heartland, but they also have a lot of client states or satrapies - the Medes in Mesopotamia, the Persians, and the people of Sardis, who have carved themselves out a comfortable little kingdom in Asia Minor.

The Nabateans, after joining my Grand Alliance, then grovellingly asked me to join their war against Sardis, which I reluctantly agreed to, not wanting everything I had painstakingly built to fall apart by refusing help to my allies.  I steeled myself for the Seleucid reaction, and Thaleia had already been sent to Jerusalem to raise an army there, but surprisingly the Seleucids didn't rise to the bait.  The map shows that only Sardis is marked as my enemy.

I breathed a sigh of relief, reckoning this would give me time to finish off pesky Rhodes, then whittle down Sardis, leaving me sitting just leagues away from the main Seleucid cities which I would take in the Greek version of a blitzkrieg.

I hadn't realised, however, just how close to collapse my Nabatean ally was, after years of feuding with its powerful northern neighbour.  As you can see, a Seleucid army has just laid siege to Petra, which will hold out only two years at best.

 

Rats.  There are a few Nabatean forces around, but they are painfully weak at the knees.  I can't have Antiochus II bringing the whole of Arabia under his control, so it looks like the Syrian Wars are about to rage.  Historically, there were four of them, the first just ending as RTW II starts (-274 to -271), the second in -260 to -253, ending in marriage between Berenice and Antiochus II (none of that here, thank you !) and the third in -246 to -241, which is the one I am about to fight.  Historically Ptolemy III duked it out with Seleukos II and beat him hands down, so fingers crossed that such is my destiny !  If history then followed its course, all this would lead to the Fourth Syrian War and the epic battle of Raphia in -217.  Personally, I am hoping the Seleucids will long since have vanished from the campaign map by then !

Wish me luck, a lot of this will be about our respective abilities to hold our alliances together and direct our allies to the battlefield, which in RTW 2 is a bit like herding cats (and not a bad thing at that).  I am not going to cheat by calling on the military aid of my eldest Macedonian daughter, it is enough of a boon that she will not be stabbing me in the back.  I'll leave her to do her thing in the Balkans, whilst hoping that Rome does not come a-knocking too soon.  At most, I'll borrow a little cash off her to help raise some mercenaries, but knowing her the interest rate will be crippling...