Great Invasions AAR: The Persian Years

duncan · Post by **duncan** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 8:57 am

Hi everyone!

I love to write (and read) AARs. Right now Great Invasions is what i'm playing, so I'll share my current GI game with you folks and I'll help promoting this fun game.

I loved those Eu2 AARs, but i don't have access to the paradox forums right now. So feel free to share with us some AARs in this (mostly) forgotten) off-topic sub-forum. I would love to read some Victoria or Civ IV AARs!!!!

Here we go...

duncan · Post by **duncan** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 8:57 am

I'm gonna start a Great Invasions game AAR. I bought this game back in october, but Legion Arena was released then and it was so good (

) I didn't have the time to play GI. Having finished LA in both normal and hard and having a rest before starting with very hard, I reinstalled Great Invasions again and started a new game. I'll try to keep this AAR up to date. Don't know if I'll be able to finish it though, but at least you'll get a glimpse of the game. I won't be following a story line, just throw in some pictures and comment them.

I'm playing the first scenario (from 350 A.D. to 475 A.D.) and I'm yellow player. Each player controls some nations. Yellow player controls

1.) Sassanid Persians
2.) Alans
3.) Vandals
4.) Burgonds
5.) Blemmyes

I have to explain this a bit: 2.) to 5.) are Raider tribes, so I can't control them yet. When they'll gain barbarian status, I will be able to control their armies. The next steps are kingdom and empire. So that's the way that it goes:

Raider tribes --> Barbarian tribes --> Kingdoms ??“> Empires

duncan · Post by **duncan** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 8:59 am

Sassanid Persia is a kingdom. It has the option to become an empire right at the start, but I'll stick with kingdom as long as I can, because it has some bonuses (lower army mantenaince, etc.).

Here are my starting position:

duncan · Post by **duncan** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 9:02 am

Can't seem to make screens work

EDIT: OK.

duncan · Post by **duncan** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 9:05 am

I play Persia, as I explained before. So I won't bother about the rest. Persia has to conquer some territories to gain victory points (and ultimate victory). I have to expand towards Mediterranean area and to the south, to Arabia to win those Vps. So I'll have to fight Eastern Roman Empire (ERE) and some Arabian tribes.

My starting position is not bad, only one front to look after (the west front), but most of my population is not of my nation's ethnic, so I'll gain recruits slower. There's nothing I can do about it, though, so I'll get recruitable population slower than my rivals all the game long.

I have too many religions and that can be a problem: my nation's religion is mazdeism, but I have lots of mediterranean paganism and some catholics too.

They can be trouble, so I'll convert some infidels using a game feature: a stratagem. Basically, stratagems are playable cards that give you advantages (military, diplomat, civil, whatever. When used they disappear from your pool, but you'll get some new back in time (two years or so).

So I play this stratagem and voi-la, I have some more mazdeists and more stability (less revolts).

duncan · Post by **duncan** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 9:06 am

My King is Shapur II. I sign a trade agreement with WRE (Western Roman Empire) at the start of the game and I order to build some mines. They'll give me some annual income (income comes in january and in august, the latter from the farms). In February 350 I start gathering my armies and I fortify the border with ERE.

My first objective will be the armenians. They're rich. Period. But.....they're allied with ERE!. Some stratagems will be played, then.

The darkest, the richest.

They've got some armies and a good leader, Arsaces III.

I'm planning to soft them a bit before going to war. I should kill Arsaces III ASAP and use my assasins.

But first of all. unleash hell!

ERE has declared war too, because they're allied with Armenia. I'll play one of those stratagems...

therlun · Post by **therlun** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 4:40 pm

Great!

Hopefully you will manage to manage several empires...
And hopefully i will manage to understand it then. ^^

Have fun.

ps. an overview screenshot a little bit zoomed out would be nice.

anguille · Post by **anguille** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 7:32 am

The game sounds fun...i've read it's very complicated?
How stable is it...do you play version 1.4?

duncan · Post by **duncan** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:42 am

anguille wrote:The game sounds fun...i've read it's very complicated?
How stable is it...do you play version 1.4?

Im playing 1.4, it's pretty stable (believe me, I played 1.2 and 1.3 and they weren't stable at all, 1.4 works nice at least...). About the game being complicated, i don't know...I'm usually bad at pc games (I enjoy them, though), but it seems to be more or less like EU2..so i like it.

Problem is I have received Civilization IV as a Xmas present and I'm enjoying it a lot (surprisingly, because I hated Civ III), so i won't be playing GI that much

. But I finished that Armenian war (it was finished before starting my AAR), so i'll update as soon as possible...wait, just another turn more....

duncan · Post by **duncan** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:44 am

therlun wrote:ps. an overview screenshot a little bit zoomed out would be nice.

I thought I "maximized" zoomed out, I'll try again tonight...just for info, WRE is being kick-assed by everyone...

duncan · Post by **duncan** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 4:45 pm

Some update...THE ARMENIAN WAAAAAAAR!!!

duncan · Post by **duncan** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 4:52 pm

O.K. First of all: Get rid of those mighty ERE armies. There's nothing a good loking persian princess can't do, so I marry one of the sons of the eastern emperor...

..and a peace treaty is signed with ERE. One enemy less!!!!

duncan · Post by **duncan** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 4:55 pm

Then, my hashassins do the dirty job

Ok, the persian agents have cleared the path for the persian army, let's get into some dirty hand-to-hand combat in the mountains of Armenia. Surely, the terrain is against us, but we've got the numbers. Anyway, Arsaces still lives and some poison have been poured (acidentally) in his cup of wine.

duncan · Post by **duncan** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 4:58 pm

Arsaces is dead now. His son is the kings, but he's got less military skill. Our agents have paid some peasants to revolt in Armenia. You can always find someone against the king in every land...

This will distract the armenian army and give persian army some time...My soldiers fight in Armenia against the main armenian army.

We win and we siege armenian city. Meanwhile, some of my armies try to eliminate the last armenian armies fortified in the other province...

duncan · Post by **duncan** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 5:00 pm

My siege goes well. due to some engineers brought in from Mesopotamia.

I send a spy too. He will open the gates for us, if he's lucky enough.

The Siege is won!!!!! Artaxata is ours!!!! We've got some problems in the province of Araxes, they have defeated my first and poorest army and they're on the run back home, I have to send in my inmortals...

duncan · Post by **duncan** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 5:03 pm

My strongest armies come to battle

And we finally win!!!!

A peace treaty is signed in Artaxata. Araxes is now under persian control. Now we'll have to recover, the wounds are great, those armenians are a hard bunch of guys..

duncan · Post by **duncan** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 5:07 pm

Well, one year of the game and too many things...I have used all my stratagems and won't have more in a few years. So, that's it...I have to build my economy, it seems I'm not understanding the basics and the manual is poor...

And 1.04c has been released past week. I hope is compatible enough with my save game!!!!

anguille · Post by **anguille** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:50 am

Stratagems should probably be used at key moments?

I haven't the game yet....too busy with my roman campaign in Legion Arena