Anshani AAR by Sydney 04-2003

[anguille]

Another AAR, very much more a game play narrative rather than a story. I'll try and keep updates coming as possible.

Play as Anshani

Location: Opposite Persian Gulf from Qatar in SE Iran.
Cities: Anshan (pop 4), Naband (pop 3)
Minor Settlements: Lar (copper), Bandar Taheri (wheat)
Layout: Anshan borders on Persian lands but has a river shielding one side but is far from Naband which is on the coast in the south-west. Lar is to the SE of Anshan but while geograhically close one must travel through mountains and hills to reach it. Bandar is up the coast from Naband to the northwest and sheilded from approaches from the Persians by a river with one crossing to the east. There is a broad flat plain leading to Sherihumi to the east.

Opponents: Persians to north, Marashi to north east, Sherihumi to the south east. Persia is large and only has access to Anshan. I plan to take Sherihumi quickly. They have one major city (Sherihumi) on the west bank of a river and the rest of their towns lie far to the east of the capital and thus it is hard for them to defend but a perfect barrier to the plains allowing access to Naband and Bandarin the west and the southern approach to Lar. Marashi are stuck in hills and moutnains and are not ideal of a campaign but it makes it hard for them to quickly descend on my settelments and cities.

Diplomats: Sent to Persian, Marashi, and Sherihumi.

Trade: I am +16 in copper and that is the only tradeable commodity I have that I'm not using right now. I trade 6 of my copper for 1 each of tin, horses, inscence and gems and still make 10 gold per turn. These materials are all important in upgrading buildings so I like to get an early start building up my reserves. As I get more copper I'll keep trading some more of it for more of these goods. Eventually I'll be overproducing on food and can sell some of that as well but for now the copper will do.

2500 BC.
Builds: Main goal early is to add building materials (BM) to allow more rapid building later. I am +37 per turn in BM. I tend to try and build upgrades rather than low level buildings because while they take longer and leave idyll workers early the extra space to build things like barracks is too valuable to miss later on. The number after each building indicates what level it is and basically how many workers it takes.

Anshan: Reed Bed (I), Reed Gatherers (II) and Reed Brickmakers (III).
Naband: Large Encampment (II) (only one slot to build in otherwise), Reed Bed (I), Reed Gatherers (II).
Lar: Copper Excavation(II)
Bandar: Basic Smallholding (II) (farm)
Neither MS has enough population to staff these level 2 buildings but with the excess BM's at the start and nothing else to use them on for at least 3 turns I like to get a head start.

Army: I break up the garrison in Anshar and send a Militia Spearman (MS) and Huptu skirmisher (HS) south towards Lar. I build 2 more peasant levies to hold the town- Note: creating army units now does NOT require a population point as in Legions so anyone trying to keep track of such things will be thrown off without knowing this. Armies only require resources. Leaving my captial poorly defended is risky but my diplomats give me a good field of view for any trouble coming my way. Naband sends 3 units- HS, HS and Khepti Auxilla (KA) east towards Sherihumi. Lar sends one HS to merge with the force from Anshan. Bandar sends 1 MS and 1 HS to merge with the force from Naband. Thye all meet 2 months march west of Sherihumi (the city). The force is 5 HS, 2 MS and 1 KA. I am missile heavy but in the early phases of the game, before chariots, the fire of missle weapons is devestating on lightly armoured units and so I load up on these guys and let them grind down my foes. All my units are level 3 in experience.

In December 2500bc my army arrives at sherihumi. They have 5 defenders: 2 HS, 1 KA, 1 MS and 1 Peasant Levy (PL). All but the PL are level 3. The PL is a meaningless lvel 1 unit. They deploy with the missle units far back and melee units up. My formation has 4 HS forward backed in the second row by my 2 MS and 1 KA. Behind that group is my last HS. I like to get my skrimishers into battle quickly and let them weaken melee units on the other side. By giving my melee units a rapid advance order while the missile units get a regular advance order, my melee forces will pass through the missle units before the enemy melee units can come to grips with them. The loss of cohesion- early on- doesn't matter as all units fight in loose formations. This gives me the best softening up and saves losses in my melee units since I can't easily replace the MS at this point.

The battle goes according to plan: my missle units savage the PL and KA while my KA and MS's deal with the MS on their side. My melee units begin to take fearsome losses from their missile units that finally come into range but the battle is deciced when I break their melee cover. Despite tough losses I close on their missle units and clear the field.

Losses are heavy ranging from 1/2- 1/3 in all units but at the end of the fight I still have all 8 units functional that can recover in Sherihumi.

Sherihumi is a good take. It is a Small Village (III) and a very valuable infantry barracks is found intact in the city. There are two free slots to build in and I start building a Homestead (I).

t the end of the year I have added 1 city and am producing +80 BM per turn (whihc is essentially 1 level I building's materials per turn or 1 level 2 building every 2 turns)

Part II
More... 2499

This will be a building year. There are no easy targets about my lands and adding one city only makes defense harder since I have one barracks and it is in Sherimuni whihc I just captured. I'm also down to just 27 food units after my campaign- Important Note: your armies consume much more food on the march than they do in city. At this point I can't both defend my cities and moount an offensive.

Trade:
My copper production increases and with a smaller army on the move I have more food to trade. I increase copper sales to 9 and add in 5 units of food. This allows me to get 2 each per month of tin, horses, gems and incense..

Tek Advances:
I am now able to build Skirmisher Barracks.

Population:
Anshan gains 2 workers this year
Naband gains 1 worker this year
Lar gains 1 worker this year
Bandar gains 1 worker this year
Sherimuni gains 1 worker this year

Build Orders
Anshan: Reed Gathers(II), Skirmisher Barracks
Naband: Reed Brick Makers (III), Small Village (III)
Lar: Open Cast Copper Mine (III)
Bandar: Small Wheat Farm (III)
Sherimuni: Basci Small Holding (II), Reed Bed (I), Reed Gathers (II)

Population Usage:
Anshan 5 workers creating BM
Naband 3 workers creating BM, 1 food
Lar 2 workers creating copper
Bandar 2 workers creating food
Sherimuni 1 worker creating BM, 2 food.

By years end I am producing 128 BM per turn so I've doubled my capability in just 2 years.

Army
The large army is in Sherimuni and I split that. 3 HS and 1 MS head back to Anshan and leave 1 MS, 1 KA and 2 HS in Sherimuni. I can't leave my capital undefended. I take the least battered units and put them on the march. Units heal much faster in cities so I want my healthiest units on the march in case they get ambushed since they won't be healing. Fortunately, I have no military encounters. I fact, I only see a small Marhahsi army several months northeast of Lar but it is clearly not threatening the city. The 4 unit force reaches Anshan and begins healing.

I build 1 KA in Sherimuni to reinforce that army but have no other builds early on, this is at least partially due to my low food suplies during the first half of the year but also the only units I can build are lvl 1 PL's. These units are damn near useless except as cannon fodder.My approach with these units is to only build them when I see an enemy force approaching and to only then just enough to fillout a garrison. Tactically, these units are useless in and of themselves. Used properly they can be of some use. Using skirmishers, I will push the PL out in front of my force in the first rank, usually with enough separation to make sure they draw all the attention of the enemy forces. Let the enemy converge on the exposed PL. They won't hold up long enough but they will stop the enemy long enough for skirmishers to rain javelins on them and also allow better melee units to hit the enemy in flanks and rears. Needless to say, they have an extremely low survival rate in my army.

The worst part of the early game phase is this: you, and the AI, start with these lvl 3 units. All your builds will be level one. This makes those intial garrison forces very valuable as they are far and away the best forces you have going. It also makes expanding w/o using those forces a tough go whihc is why I was so glad to have all 8 units survive my Sherimuni battle. I will usually try and fill out garrisons with units I want to gain experience and hope the AI or raiders do me a favor and let me win some fights. Here's the rub though- your units gain more experience if they actually fight. You can't just sock a few units in back and expect them to advanace very fast. the problem is that lvl 1 units tend to take huge losses and might well disintegrate after one battle meaning you will have to start your buid process over. Juggling this need to get better with a need to survive is one of the keys to long-term survival. My usuall approach is to recognize, first, that the AI is usually coming with lvl 1 units as well. I use the scouting reports to try and match higher on lower- I send MS vs KA, my KA vs PL. PL doesn't matter since they are useless. I try and get them to draw missle fire away from units I want to suruvive. Usually I will pair a lvl 1 unit with a level 3 units so that they are both sort of hitting the same unit and hoping the level 3 does enough dmaage to keep the level 1 alive. It doesn't always work, particularly with incomplete scotung reports but you get the idea.