Wednesday 21 March 2012

Empire Campaign: 230-220 BC

Events during this turn:
  • The Carthaginians conquer Southern Gallia
  • The Ptolemaic Egyptians continue their run of success by taking Armenia
  • The Bactrian Greek invasion of Mesopotamia is defeated
  • Rome conquers Cisalpine Gaul
  • The Indian invasion of Parthia is defeated by the Bactrian Greeks
  • The Macedonians reconquer the rebellious province of Pontus
This takes us to 220 BC.  First up, Bactria rebels from Indian control.  And Hannibal is unleashed on Rome: the 2nd Punic War begins.  However, I have heavy commitments for the next couple of months, so it looks as though we will be taking a break before we can play any more.  The strategic map now looks like this:

6 comments:

  1. What, work more important than warames! :)

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  2. Unfortunately, there are times that it has to take precedence...but I do my best to resist as much as possible!

    Thanks for looking, Andrew

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  3. Hi Paul,

    Great blog. Curious how did you get hold of the map? It looks the business for a campaign map. Do you have hoem made campign rules or borrowed from a boardgame? I have used the old SPI game The Coqnuerors for campaigns such as Late Roman v Sassanid Persia as well as the usual fair of Rep. Rome vs Macedon and Syria aka Seleucid, with movement pilfered from the SPI rules including the ambassadors which is great stuff for working out allies etc.

    best regards
    Mark

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  4. Hi Mark, thanks for looking. The map is from the first edition of Phil Sabin's Empire game, which you can find here really cheap:

    http://soa.org.uk/store/store_games/

    Even with postage if you're not in the UK, it's still good value. My copy is falling apart due to over-use, coffee stains and all the usual mess, but it is still very portable, which makes it ideal for taking to the club for map moves. I do have the new version, which comes with the expensive but very good quality Lost Battles boxed boardgame.

    The game is very broad-brush and abstract. A turn is 10 years and each power gets a single attack during that time, except when a Great Captain appears. So you don't find the level of detail you'd expect from SPI games. But it does the job as a battle generator for Tuesday evenings...

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  5. Hi Paul. Thanks for the info on the map. I use to be a member of the SOA long time ago. I guess I should re-join at some point.

    I've see Lost Battles (On the web), what's it like in the flesh so to speak, how does it play? I'm going to have to admit I do like the work from Phil Sabin

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  6. The new version of Lost Battles is extremely good, although you do pay a lot for it. The boardgame components are high quality, and the pack includes Empire as well as the Lost Battles book and the game itself. It is very much a deluxe acquisition, but it serves many different purposes apart from playing the games. The book is pretty much standard reading now for anyone who plays ancients. I think the clincher for me, though, is the up to date army compositions for so many major battles, at least so far as current research goes. Now that I find myself constructing and playing so many historical scenarios, that bit is coming in really handy. Hope this helps!

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