Rome - Total War

I have recently gotten into Rome Total War again. Again, I am Scipio. Again, I have to play the game from scratch (meaning I must succeed with a roman faction in the short campaign before I can even consider playing one of the non roman factions).

By about 140 BC I have taken Sicily, Crete and Palma, as well as Carthage and Thespas. The Numidian is sending in his main armies to take my newly conquered african provinces from me, and I hold him at arms length with forts while we maneuver for position before the inevitable major battle.

By exterminating the population of conquered provinces and then shipping in surplus peasants from my homeland I have kept my growth rate up as well as a sizeable treasury. This is also the first game I have made major use of mercenaries to complement my legionary core.

As always, a good game.

New miniatures

I went to Melbourne over the weekend, and managed to pick up a few more miniatures for my 6mm Spanish Civil War armies. I'm not sure when I'll get around to painting them (nor the remaining five battalions of infantry I already have) but, when I do, I will be able to field armies representing any of the main forces of the conflict in a battle up to regimental size. That will be good, as I have located another potential player. The number of interested parties is now seven.

For the record, the following is what I purchased:

1 each of BA10 soviet armoured car (will use as BA3), French Laffly-White armoured car (WWI surplus), half tracked Austin-Pulitov armoured car, early WWII lorry, horsed 'Tachanka' wagon mounted with machine gun (from russian civil war range), BT7 soviet medium tank, and a Il 16 soviet monoplane fighter.

I also purchased a company of FT17 WWI french tanks (used by both sides), and another company of PZ Is (will make these Spanish identification rather than Kondor Legion).

I will keep you updated.

EF II update

The battle continues to be joined in the East Front II scenario I am playing with Wayne. We are finally into the final fifth of the game. My first panzer's tanks have been shredded by the hordes of Russians, and the few numbers of T34s and KVIs amongst the bulk of his smaller vehicles has more than been made up for by the quality of those vehicles. I've taken out individual vehicles, but not eliminated any platoons yet.

His ring of steel closes around the isolated grenadiers in the southern village. Although they hold sufficient victory point locations at present, they still have several turns of increasing hell to look forward to. On the central hill, the remnants of my infantry are barely managing to retreat before the advancing battalions, themselves with armour support. On the northern hill slopes the last of my tanks has gone, and his armour there closes in on the flank of my embattled infantry.

The only bright point for me is my advanced units operating behind russian lines. They are taking key points, and threaten to grab several objective hexes if the russian doesn't more stoutly defend them. This is drawing units away from the main battle in the town.

The question will be, how many units are drawn away from the main front by my marauders, and can my infantry hold out against the resultingly mainly armoured assault. Time will tell.