An Age of Miracles Continues: The Empire of Rhomania

Reader mode

RogueTraderEnthusiast

Basileus444 said:
RogueTraderEnthusiast: The problem with a Danube supply route for the Germans is that once they get to the delta, they’re on the Black Sea. A brown-water fleet would be useless against Constantinople itself (the Andreas Niketas itself has more firepower than the entirety of the Roman Danube fleet). So they’d have to build a blue-water fleet literally in the backyard of the Roman Imperial Navy, all while said navy hurls everything it has at the construction sites.
Click to expand...

Thats fair, but the Germans don't NEED to leave the Danube. Having a secure supply depot in Prusa means they have a quick way of supplying any campaigns near Constantinople, even if they can't apply naval power to the city itself.

Also, yay. Battle of Belgrade. I'm excited to see how it goes!
 

ImperatorAlexander

Basileus444 said:
Also Theodor, acting as Roman Emperor, formally cedes all of ‘Rhomania in the East’ to the Triunes, and allows them to bar all of his subjects, both present and future, from those territories.
Click to expand...
That made me choke on my drink laughing. Serious question, is Theodor an idiot? Everything said and done by him makes a very strong case, which is strange given the intelligence of his sister and predecessors.

Basileus444 said:
The plan is simple. Belgrade-anvil. 120,000+ Serb-Roman army-hammer.
Click to expand...
It's a simple strategy, but who is in command? Given that the Serbian army should be miniscule compared to the Roman force it would be inappropriate for a Serb, without the standard of training Romans have to lead. The Germans seem to have a better-than-average generation of commanders leading....
 

Duke of Nova Scotia

I feel Blucher will have something up his sleeve for Belgrade, a faint, only to side step it to catch the big fish making its way there. If I were the commander, that's what I would be doing to save my strength.
 

Tuna-Fish

Duke of Nova Scotia said:
I feel Blucher will have something up his sleeve for Belgrade, a faint, only to side step it to catch the big fish making its way there. If I were the commander, that's what I would be doing to save my strength.
Click to expand...

Basileus uses a lot of historical names to refer to people. While those people are not exact copies of the real people who had the names, they do tend to tell you what to expect. And this time, the Germans have Vauban with the army with his own siege train. For those uninitiated, Vauban is the premier siege artist of history. Whether it is taking walls or designing impregnable ones, he's quite possibly the best there ever was. Against him, fighting from static positions is a liability.

My prediction is that the Roman host that expects to come hammering down on tired and badly supplied Germans strewn around the city in siege lines instead reaches the walls to find that the city fell in two weeks, had it's fortifications repaired, and is currently hosting Vauban's artillery. Just as the Germans fall on their flank.
 
Lascaris

Lascaris

Tuna-Fish said:
Basileus uses a lot of historical names to refer to people. While those people are not exact copies of the real people who had the names, they do tend to tell you what to expect. And this time, the Germans have Vauban with the army with his own siege train. For those uninitiated, Vauban is the premier siege artist of history. Whether it is taking walls or designing impregnable ones, he's quite possibly the best there ever was. Against him, fighting from static positions is a liability.

My prediction is that the Roman host that expects to come hammering down on tired and badly supplied Germans strewn around the city in siege lines instead reaches the walls to find that the city fell in two weeks, had it's fortifications repaired, and is currently hosting Vauban's artillery. Just as the Germans fall on their flank.
Click to expand...

The Greeks err Romans I mean might lose this battle. Then they might not. Either way the war will not be decided in a single battle. And assuming they lose... time for the levee en masse and to see who of the two can replace casualties better.
 

Namayan

Tuna-Fish said:
Basileus uses a lot of historical names to refer to people. While those people are not exact copies of the real people who had the names, they do tend to tell you what to expect. And this time, the Germans have Vauban with the army with his own siege train. For those uninitiated, Vauban is the premier siege artist of history. Whether it is taking walls or designing impregnable ones, he's quite possibly the best there ever was. Against him, fighting from static positions is a liability.

My prediction is that the Roman host that expects to come hammering down on tired and badly supplied Germans strewn around the city in siege lines instead reaches the walls to find that the city fell in two weeks, had it's fortifications repaired, and is currently hosting Vauban's artillery. Just as the Germans fall on their flank.
Click to expand...

The Romans got their own Vauban though. And the Romans got an OTL 19th century military staff which the German side dont have one yet. So logistics and organization the Romans have the advantage.

Even if the Germans do take the city, the Romans can technically take those as well due to them having their own Vauban or if dead at least the knowledge passed to the Roman military staff. And the Germans/Triunes dont have a military staff to keep that large army fed/running and organized the same level as the Romans.

It is even quite possible that ATL Vauban read and learned from Roman military siege books just like Iskandar was reading those.
 

JohnSmith

Man, the Romans really can’t catch a break can they? Iskander in Asia, Moulay Ismail in Africa, now this? The Romans are long overdue for another great military commander.

If Casimir is with the German army, how much has he left in Poland? It’s surrounded by enemies it’s recently taken a bite from, and could jump in at the first sign of weakness.
 

JohnSmith

Khaine said:
It would be interesting if this resulted in a reverse siege of Vienna which signals the start of the decline of Germany.
Click to expand...

Anything less than a smashing victory for the Germans (which isn't happening) will lead to a really bad future for the Germans. They've pissed away their trading/colonial possessions, alienated the merchant class, made massive concessions to the Triunes and racked up huge debt. Rhomania will give no quarter to them, the only solution is to conquer it piece by piece, they'll have to bleed away their entire army to reach Constantinople alone.
 

RogueTraderEnthusiast

frustrated progressive said:
Really I think only the Triunes and Iberians will profit from this war.
Click to expand...

I dunno, if Arles is involved, if the Romans can get enough momentum that they can start deploying to France, which would be VERY bad for the Triunes.

Really, it just depends on whose side Lombardia joins if they do. If with Germany, they could conquer the rest of Italy (but risk being conquered in turn). Whereas if they're Pro-Roman, its better for Lombardia to stay out.

I'm curious to whether Prussia or any of the Russias may get involved on the Roman side. Poland wouldn't like that, and it'd open a second front the Germans would have deal with.
 

InMediasRes

JohnSmith said:
Anything less than a smashing victory for the Germans (which isn't happening) will lead to a really bad future for the Germans. They've pissed away their trading/colonial possessions, alienated the merchant class, made massive concessions to the Triunes and racked up huge debt. Rhomania will give no quarter to them, the only solution is to conquer it piece by piece, they'll have to bleed away their entire army to reach Constantinople alone.
Click to expand...

Not to mention the Triunes are positioned perfectly to backstab them as soon as it becomes profitable. And fighting your way down the Balkans against an overwhelmingly hostile population, the army will definitely bleed enough for that time to come. The Germans will probably suffer the consequences of their overreach for a long time.
 

RogueTraderEnthusiast

InMediasRes said:
Not to mention the Triunes are positioned perfectly to backstab them as soon as it becomes profitable. And fighting your way down the Balkans against an overwhelmingly hostile population, the army will definitely bleed enough for that time to come. The Germans will probably suffer the consequences of their overreach for a long time.
Click to expand...

I personally would love to see their overreach lead to a Roman Frontier, i.e. the edge of the Roman world to be Vienna, perhaps an ally in Bohemia. Drastic, but it'd be a great way to push all future warfare between the Romans and the Germans to the Carpathian basin, as any peace that involves Vienna cannot end well for Hungary, which leaves the Roman sphere of influence South of the Carpathians and Alps, the Germans north of those. It'd be as good a victory as the Romans could dream of. Germany beyond that would be as hard to control for the Romans as the Balkans would be for the Germans.
 

catconqueror

Even if the 120.000 thousand Roman army is wiped out, there is still no way for the German to win this. Sure they might take Constantinople. But then what?
 

HanEmpire

Evilprodigy said:
Stop? Make the Bosporus a border.
Click to expand...
He can't stop. Theodor's entire casus belli is that he's the rightful Roman Emperor coming to claim his crown. Stopping quarter-way like that will just let the Greeks put up a pretender, and unless that's stopped conclusively the German Imperial line's legitimacy will be nothing but a joke.
 
Last edited:
Basileus444

Basileus444

RogueTraderEnthusiast: Any coastal supply depot though would be incredibly vulnerable to attack, or at the very least would require a very strong garrison. Plus the supply route would either be by coastal vessels (which the Roman navy would be all over) or along coastal roads which are still very exposed. A ship-of-the-line shelling a wagon train would not be pretty.

After the summer/fall campaign I’m planning an update that’ll focus mainly on diplomacy as both Munich and Constantinople try to pull in more allies.

ImperatorAlexander: He is obsessed with ‘reuniting’ the Roman realms. Some things to consider though-
1) Once he’s in command of a combined German-Roman Empire, any agreements with the Triunes would be subject to ‘revisions’.
2) The important thing is to gain control of the Imperial heartland, a large bloc of territory with 20+ million inhabitants, much more impressive looking on a map then the specks of ‘Rhomania in the East’. Eastern trade is nice, but tax receipts from the Aegean basin bring in a lot more money.
3) Finally, Theodor is in Munich. He has little to no awareness of eastern trade. The HRE is much less involved in eastern waters than the other players. If Rhomania, the Triunes, and the Spanish are all 10s, the Lotharingians are a 8, Arletians 5, and the HRE 2. So his personal experience suggests that losing the east isn’t a big deal, plus see item 1.

The Megas Domestikos will soon be taking personal command of the army in Europe.

Duke of Nova Scotia: Belgrade is important, but Blucher definitely realizes that the Roman army in the field is the real threat.

Tuna-Fish: I admit that it sometimes feels like a cheat, but using OTL names in TTL contexts is an easy way to get the appropriate atmosphere across. It’s one thing to say the Allies have a good siege commander, but it has a lot more oomph if said siege commander is Vauban himself.

Stark: One of these days I’m going to make it that simple. Nobody will see it coming and it will be great…

Lascaris: Agreed. The players are too big to be taken out in a single battle.

Namayan: The Romans can take Belgarde; they have before. It’s not impregnable by any means, but for either side it is a very tough nut to crack.

JohnSmith: Casimir came with 6,000 Polish cavalry, the best that Poland can field. So there are still a decent number of soldiers back in Poland (Theodor doesn’t need more foot soldiers) but they’re mainly second-rate troops. (This is the OOC reason for the sundering of Russia; a united Russia would be smashing down the Polish frontier by now).

Khaine: Interestingly, Jan Sobieski and the Polish cavalry at the 1683 battle of Vienna was the initial impetus for including the Poles in this campaign.

Frustrated Progressive: Henri the Spider wouldn’t have it any other way (minus the Spanish of course)…

InMediasRes: The Triunes don’t backstab people. Henri was just trying to swat a mosquito for you and forgot he had a pointy object in his hand…

Catconqueror: In truth, it’d probably be like Napoleon in Moscow. ‘Hey, I took the city. That means it’s over, right?...*crickets*’

Minifidel: Blast through the land walls with lots of cannons. It’s possible, in theory.
 
Reader mode
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top