vonBredow
Sergeant
Posts: 69
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 8:03 pm
Location: Frankfurt, Germany

AJE: A Spartacus AAR

Sat Nov 24, 2012 10:00 pm

THE THIRD SERVILE WAR

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Mount Vesuvius, Italy, 73 BC

Spartacus deftly whirled his sica through a sweeping, low-line parry; the blade clanked into the Roman's heavier gladius. He then bashed his shield straight into the face of his outclassed adversary. The impact thudded and the militiaman fell backward, blood gushing forth from his broken nose. He instantly backpedaled, but not far enough to prevent Spartacus from cutting his throat. The man gurgled, twitched, then collapsed.

The Thracian immediately whirled back around. He had given his back to the fallen Roman's companion, who was driving in to kill him, and sure enough, the man had rushed into the distance and was cutting at his head. Spartacus parried, feinted low to draw the gladius down, then cut high.

The second Roman was blinded by the blood pouring fast into his eyes from his sliced brow. Yelling in pain, he reeled backward.

The former gladiator thrusted his sica upward into the man's jaw.

All around him, Spartacus' men were chasing down the Roman stragglers, shouting cries of victory and defiance; in a clumsy attempt, militiamen had tried to ambush a group of foraging slaves led by Spartacus himself, but the trap had failed and now the Romans were being routed.

Weeks ago, with his dozens of loyal followers, Spartacus had escaped from the ludus of Lentulus Batiatus, leaving dead Romans in his wake. Harrying the Italian countryside and plundering villages for food and weapons had marked their bloody flight from Capua to the more defensible Mount Vesuvius.

Caught unprepared, the vengeful Romans had been hastily dogging their each step, and had sent bands of militiamen to hunt down the motley crowd of household slaves, brigands, shepherds and veteran gladiators, but Spartacus and two Gallic slaves -- Crixus and Oenomaus -- that were acting as his lieutenants proved themselves to be more than equal to their would-be captors.

Meanwhile, they had rapidly grown in numbers. The poor, the oppressed, the enslaved: all flocked to the Thracian. Mount Vesuvius would be their haven of refuge and the escapees believed freedom was to be found under its shelter, within the camp of the former gladiators, these men of blood and iron.

If Spartacus was to succeed, however, he would have to give his followers some semblance of an "army", before the Romans were too strongly consolidated. Under the constant threat of capture and its terrifying consequence, only a very small number of his men could preserve the presence of mind they were in such need of, and Spartacus would need all his authority to keep order as the former slaves marched onward to freedom. He knew the Romans would never give up.

The Thracian ditched his shield, grabbed one of the fallen Romans' gladii, then charged...



Welcome to my little AAR of the short-yet-sweet AJE DLC: Spartacus. I already own Napoleon's Campaigns, along with Rise of Prussia, but only very briefly played them both and have little AGEOD experience, but the die is cast, so onward with the bloodbath.

The aim of this AAR is to present the Third Servile War in the style of an unreliable narrator (or rather, a Roman historian), who may or may blur the fine line between fact and fiction... this gives me an excuse to rewrite history.

(Don't mind the cheesy Spartacus poster :D I did it in a couple of hours using Paint.NET, in the drawing style of the game... looked alright to me)

Anyway... Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant!
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vonBredow
Sergeant
Posts: 69
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 8:03 pm
Location: Frankfurt, Germany

Mon Nov 26, 2012 10:44 pm

The Third Servile War rages on.

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In less than seven months, Spartacus' band of slaves evolved into a semi-organized freedom army, bringing death and destruction to the Romans' very doorstep. Groups of militiamen -- picked up in haste and at random, for the Romans did not consider this a war yet, but a raid, something like an attack of robbery -- were simply overwhelmed by the sheer size and ferocity of the revolt that swept through Italy like a wildfire, from Capua down south to Tarentum.

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Even a hubristic praetor despatched to bring Spartacus back in chains to Rome -- Gaius Claudius Glaber -- barely escaped with his life, when his siege attempt at Mount Vesuvius was thwarted by the slaves. Content with blocking the only route down the mountain and starving the slaves out, Glaber's men paid the price of their legate's arrogance in blood, after the Thracian devised an unorthodox plan to outflank the Roman camp. His men would make ropes and ladders from the vines and trees growing on the slopes of Vesuvius, then descend down the cliffs on the side of the mountain opposite Glaber's militia.

Hit hard and unexpectedly, the Romans were almost annihilated to the last man.

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The following months, the surrounding countryside would see more bloodshed. To avenge the death of his fellow rebels, Spartacus would even force many captured Romans to fight each other to the death as gladiators.

Spurred on by their numerous victories -- their advance north would only be checked at Capua by the Romans, albeit at a high cost -- the ever-growing band of rebels pushed directly into the southern towns of Metapontum, Nola and Luceria.

It would take time, but Rome -- hard pressed by two crises abroad, namely the Third Mithridatic War and the rebellion of Quintus Sertorius in Hispania -- would eventually respond to these brazen attacks with all its overwhelming power.

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Jayavarman
Lieutenant
Posts: 132
Joined: Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:31 pm

Mon Dec 24, 2012 9:34 am

Any more updates? :)
"Sad fragility of human things! What riches and treasures of art will remain forever buried beneath these ruins; how many distinguished men - artists, sovereigns, and warriors - are now forgotten!"

"The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."

vonBredow
Sergeant
Posts: 69
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 8:03 pm
Location: Frankfurt, Germany

Mon Dec 24, 2012 1:22 pm

All work and no play makes vonBredow a sad Roman :/

Hopefully this week (I also got caught up in Caesar's Civil War scenario)!

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