Spartacus in the Great Mithridatic War Scenario

[MarsRobert]

OMG! Spartacus looks like Kirk Douglas!!! How cool is that???? Alternatively, a likeness of the late Andy Whitfield (may he rest in peace, Andy left us way, way too soon) would have been a fitting tribute, but Kirk will do nicely.

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In any event as you can see from the screenshot, my boys drove Spartacus off the field but took heavy losses in the process. Another such victory will be the death of us! At least I knew better than to send that idiot Glaber. lol

FYI, the Mithridatic War scenario as the Romans is great fun (and most enlightening) as long as you can weather the early storm posed by the very tough Sertorius in Spain. You would have thought that Pompeius Magnus would run roughshod over Sertorius, but it was all I could do in the first year to keep the reverse from happening.

[Jim-NC]

You should see my AAR on the subject. I got hammered by the Sertorians in the beginning. We have reached the point where the slaves have revolted (not yet in the AAR, but I will get there).

[MarsRobert]

Yeah Jim, I'm in to the third year of the campaign and although things have stabilized a bit, I'm far from out of the woods yet. There are three things I'm starting to ken, however, about playing Rome here. One is that above all you have to make sure Pompey and his army survive. If Pompey gets caught in a siege and captured, then it's game, set, and match. For another, you need to take the field against Mithridates as soon as possible. I learned from the Marius vs. Sulla campaign that if you play it right and your luck holds up, you can pick up a lot of morale points in the East which should more than make up for morale lost in Spain. Finally, and as sort of a corollary to the previous point, the Romans need to spend as much money as possible on SPQR initiatives that will keep your moral from tanking too badly; i.e. bread and circuses. Anyway, if things get worse rather than better I may yet look at your AAR.

[MarsRobert]

Just finished it, and I eked out a minor defeat. My record in the game then is now one and one. Playing Rome in the Great Mithridatic War is definitely a moderate challenge. With enemies everywhere, I would imagine the Crises of the Third Century scenario being much the same. Concerning Sertorius, Pompey pretty much went on an aggressive defensive posture against him, and although his army remained intact (well, more or less), the problem with that was that towards the end of the game Sertorius had an enormous army. Each time Pompey ventured out of Genoa to challenge Sertorius, he came back rather chastised. Fortunately though Sertorius seemed disinclined to venture beyond Masillia.

With Mithridates, although I pretty well winged him, the knock out blow eluded me. Also, Mith did more than a few end runs, forcing me to go back and pay for the same real estate twice.

Concerning Spartacus, although Crassus eventually corned him in Naples, I didn't take the slave rebellion serious enough early enough, so they still had control of about five or six cities by the end of the game. Of course as happened historically, the demands of the wars against Sertorius and Mithridates left few troops available to fight Spartacus until Crassus showed up.

One thing I've definitely learned about AJE though is that it's probably not a good idea to play more than a year or two at most per sitting. Getting in too much of a hurry and not paying attention to detail in this game can be dangerous.

One more thing. I was expecting Crassus to look like Sir Lawrence Olivier, but it was not to be. lol

Anyway, bring on the Spartacus scenario.