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As Roman generals studied maps, barbarian chieftains barked questions at their scouts. Soldiers on both sides marched and countermarched around the Mediterranean, waging a war of maneuver. Roman towns and villages suffered under barbarian ravages, though, while the leaders who were supposed to defend them worried more about their rival politicians than enemy hosts.

Tauruscrania

"North Africa?" was the baffled question on many a legionary's lips as their fleet landed in Cyrenaica. With Parthians besieging Jerusalem, Blemmye raiding the Nile Delta, and their home province of Syria left unprotected, the rank and file of Tauruscrania's army buzzed in wonder at why they had sailed here. The only troops around were a detachment of Gracchus' troops, who fled west at the sight of the massed Syrian legions. In the command tent, the proconsul Tauruscrania chuckled at what Gracchus would think of his latest gambit. No matter what he thought, though, his forces would be insufficient to hold both his new province of Spain AND his old one of North Africa. "Hah!" he laughed, "bit by bit, I cut away at thee, my enemy..."

Gracchus

Up front with the cavalry, Gracchus whooped as they chased the Iberian raiders towards the Spanish foothills. The tribesmen had grown fat on the province's spoils, and would doubtless be unable to reform after fleeing from his mounted troops. His naval landing force of two legions had shocked them and freed his new province of Spain at one stroke. He slowed to allow the messenger on the foaming mount to catch up. What could be wrong back in Saguntum, his new capital? The news rocked him. "That mad, old Sybarite did what?" The Syrian legions landing in North Africa would force him to abandon his garrison in Jerusalem. The remaining single legion in the province would have to retreat west and consolidate. He couldn't risk being the one to start a Civil War.

Incitare

In the Alps and their foothills, a lethal game of cat and mouse began between the large German raiding army and Incitare's three legions, which marched to catch them. When the proconsul committed to the pass leading into the Roman province of the Rhine, which the Germans had overrun last year, the raiders doubled back. They slipped through a smaller pass and descended into Roman Lugdunensis, cheering gleefully at the banquet of Roman towns and Celtic villages spreaad out beneath them to raid. In the Rhine, a frustrated Incitare smashed any resistance and reasserted control of the province. News also came to him of the Gallic raiding army continuing west towards the Spanish border, raiding Roman towns along the way. Damn! They would not sit still long enough for his legions to smash them!

Drusus

As Drusus marched south with his legions through Greece, he pored over the reports of his spies in Egypt. What a mess! Jerusalem besieged since last Autumn by Parthians (stirred up by Tauruscrania), savage Blemmye riding unchecked among fertile Egyptian lands in the Nile Delta (now that Gracchus had withdrawn the garrison), and finally, an -- unsanctioned by the Senate -- irrational landing in Cyrenaica by Tauruscrania and all his Syrian legions. The silly bastard risked civil war! And THIS, was the province he was to inherit? Gods, Drusus thought, you truly have withdrawn any favor you showed me. It would be summer before he crossed the Mediterranean, and the bubbling pot of chaos could be boiling over by then.

Late Spring was a strange turn for the campaign -- no battles! Gracchus had reduced the barbarian forces on the map by making the Iberians disband. The Germans eluded Incitare, though, while the Gauls, Parthians and Blemmye were unopposed (unless the Blemmye were Tauruscrania's actual target. Who knew Joel's mind?). He had already taken a step close to Civil War, and next turn would reveal whether he planned to cut into Gracchus prestige point lead with edge of the sword or the sharpness of his mind.

More 1st Century BC Campaign

Turn 1 (Herald 42)
Turn 2 (Herald 43)
Turn 3 (Herald 44)
Turn 4 (Herald 45)
Turn 5 (Herald 46)
Turn 6 (Herald 47)
Turn 7 (Herald 48)
Turn 8 (Herald 49)
Turn 9 (Herald 50)
Turn 10 (Herald 51)
Turn 11 (Herald 52)
Turn 12 (Herald 53)
Turn 13 (Herald 54)
Turn 14 (Herald 55)
Turn 15 (Herald 56)