Soldiers for Rome

Description[]

Soldiers for Rome is the first scenario of the Roman Campaign in Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest. Help Gaius Marius defeat the Teutons and the Cimbri.

Briefing[]

From the Chronicles of the Republic, by Flavius Posthumous

Gauis Marius, newly elected consul, has recently defeated the Jugerthians and has been summoned back to Rome from his conquests in Numidea to defend the republic from barbarian migrations.

The senate is worried that two prominent Germanic tribes on its borders, the Teutons and the Cimbri, will soon cross the Alps and take control of all Northern Italy. These barbarians are making their way through the mountains, burning and pillaging as they go... They must be stopped before they grow bold enough to sack Rome herself! The new reforms that Marius has demanded upon his ascension to consul, namely the new idea of "conscription," have given Rome the manpower she needs to fight the coming battles, .. but just barely. What Rome's army needs now is for the man himself to train these raw troops into a cohesive well-oiled machine that is a Roman Legion.

Rome's new army will not only consist of its landed citizens, as it did in the past, but also slave and landless freemen classes. Many in the senate doubt the loyalty and morale of such troops, but Marius assures them that they will perform their duties as true Romans especially with the promise of money and land awaiting them at the end of their terms.

Objectives[]

Gaius Marius must survive.
Build an army by visiting four Roman villages and conscripting some of their citizens.
Build a defensive fortification to aid in your battle with the Germanic Tribes.
Several Freeman have presented themselves for conscription. Use Marius's conscription to convert them into Pilum units.
Travel to Mutania. Bring Marius to the city gates and then enter to conscript more troops. Do not forget to un-garrison the troops you have stored in the 3 Fortresses. Also be on the look out for more Teuton or Cimbri attacks.
Set up a defensive perimeter where Quintus indicated by the red flag.
Have citizens construct palisades to help bolster the defenses against the barbarian raids.
Use Marius' power of conscription to recruit new troops in the towns of Bononia, Patavium, and Piase.
Bring Marius to Pavatium and Piase to secure more troops and aid them in their struggle against the horde.
Take your forces out to the west to hunt for the Teuton warlord, Thideric.
This old Roman Fort should make an ideal forward base for producing new troops, when you are ready to do so.

History[]

While Marius and Sulla wrapped things up in Africa, several Germanic tribes began to threaten Rome's borders. There were more than 300,000 of these large, blonde-headed men, and they fought in intimidating lines in which they were chained together for greater cohesion. There were four main tribes: the Cimbri, Teuton, Ambrones, and Swiss Tigurini.

As they marched across Transalpine Gaul defeating every poorly lead army sent out to conquest them, they soon became a major threat to Rome, which lacked an army to protect the city with Marius in Africa. The road was open. The Senate immediately summoned Marius, who returned quickly. He gained his second consulship to defend Rome. Fortunately, the Cimbri and others turned west to Spain to plunder and pillage there. With plenty of time to prepare for their return, Marius proposed and implemented numerous monumental charges in Roman military policy. His first and probably most significant change was to begin recruiting from the capite censi, or headcount in the cities, instead of relying on the volunteers from the plebian farming population. As a result, loyalty was now towards Marius, the General, instead of the republic and the city of Rome, a significant change that eventually led to the fall of the republic. He vigorously trained these men. They soon became, "Marius' Mules," for the way they had to carry all their equipment and work so hard.

He also improved arms, altering the structure of a spear so that it would break on impact. By replacing the metal bolting with wood, the spear broke when it hit an object or person, eliminating any sort of re-use by the enemy. He also revised the strategy of the Roman military. Instead of the traditional form of attack in one huge legion would make an attack followed by another large group while later, he organized the legions into ten cohorts of six-hundred men each. This allowed for stronger cohesiveness and penetration into the enemy lines, and proved incredibly effective, especially against the lined attack by the Germanic tribes. Finally, he no longer selected legion commanders based on birth and family pedigree, but by ability. Those who were most able to lead a legion earned a job, instead of the man most respected in society.

These military reforms absorbed most of Marius' second consulship while the Cimbri plundered Spain. However, when they changed direction and again threatened Roman territory, Marius immediately marched out to meet them. But, they held off and refused to attack. Meanwhile, Marius' second consulship came to an end. The Senate, though, granted him a third consulship in 103 B.C. and a fourth in 102 B.C. while he waited for the Germans to invade. The Cimbri then made their descent in to Italy, and Marius gained his fifth consulship in 101 B.C. to deal with them. With the pro-consul Quintus Lutatius Catulus, Marius annihilated the Cimbri and others at Vercellae.

Hints[]

° You have very little Food at the beginning of this scenario, and no way (presently) to get more. Hold onto it until it is needed.

° Make good use of combined arms -- place your foot soldiers on the front lines, ranged with infantry behind them and use your cavalry (if available) to flank the enemy.

° Be very careful to guard your hero, for if he should fall in battle, then there will be no way to halt the onslaught of the Horde and you will lose the mission.

° The Cimbri and Teutons are tribes whose warriors are skilled and ruthless. DO NOT underestimate them. Fight from well-defended positions and make sure all of your units are rested and healed before your next encounter.

° Construct palisades to help stem the tide of the barbarian invaders.

Storyline[]

101 B.C. -- For the last two years Rome has had the northern borders of her kingdom threatened by two tribes of barbaric peoples ... the Teutons and the Cimbri ...

General Gaius Marius, newly elected Consul, has been given the daunting task of halting a huge barbarian invasion. While the general travels to the northern portion of Italy, he gathers new conscripts and begins to train them in the ways of the Roman Army and tactics of the famed Legionnaire . . .

Meanwhile, a massive Teutonic Horde has been called to a gathering in the eastern foothills and forests of the Alps . . .

Northern Italia near Vercellae -- the camp of King Kelvid-Ulfir ...

A messenger arrives in King Kelvid-Ulfir's camp.

King Kelvid-Ulfir: Speak! What news do you bring me of the Romans?

Messenger: The Romans have refused your offer of tribute and refute our claim to settle here, my King. If we do intend to bring our people into these lands ... 'then that addled brained, idiot king has got another thing coming' ... 'this fool-hardy endeavor will be answered with swords and blood' ... in the Roman Govenor's own words, my King.

King Kelvid-Ulfir (spits in disgust): Romans! These white-skinned, small-boned things refuse us? Then let the cry go out ... No mercy for the Roman dogs! Death to all who oppose us!

A few miles to the south -- The small garrison-trading post of Florentia ...

Gauis Marius arrives to gather up the troops.

An assassination by the Cimbri is made.

Quintus Lutatius Catulus: Ware you, great Marius! The Cimbri have sent assassins to destroy you!

The assassins are dealt with.

Gauis Marius and his troops head off to Mutania. Only to be beset by an ambush.

Soldier: Draw steel! We are ambushed!

The ambushers are defeated.

Gauis Marius and his troops arrive into Mutania.

Quintus Lutatius Catulus: Marius! The Teutons are attacking Mutania's grain stores! We must drive these foul people back into the mountains which spawned them!

The Teuton army is defeated.

Gauis Marius' army receives some gold from Mutania.

Gauis Marius: We have received some gold for helping out the town of Mutania. This should help with the conscription of citizens in the other towns.

Bonoia is unveiled.

Quintus Lutatius Catulus: This is the town of Bonoia, General.

Patavium is unveiled.

Quintus Lutatius Catulus: This is the town of Patavium, General.

Pisae is unveiled.

Quintus Lutatius Catulus: This is the town of Pisae, General.

Gaius Marius and his troops are arrive in Bonoia, and more troops are conscripted.

Gaius Marius and his troops head for Patavium.

Gaius Marius and his troops arrive in Patavium, and more troops are conscripted.

Gaius Marius and his troops head for Pisae.

An invading force of Ambrones launch an attack on Mutania.

Quintus Lutatius Catulus: Marius! We are being raided! Is there no end to the number of men they have?

The invading Ambrones forces are defeated in Mutania.

Gaius Marius and his troops arrive in Pisae, and more troops are conscripted.

The conscriptions are fully completed.

Gaius Marius: Now that we have conscripted soldiers from these four towns, it is time to seek out the camps of the Teutons and the Cimbri. Quintus, the reports your scouts have delivered place the Teutons to the West and the Cimbri to the North, yes?

Quintus Lutatius Catulus: Yes, Marius. We must be on our guard, however, as no doubt the barbarians will be on the look out for us ... they know the terrain well, my lord. And they will use it to their advantage -- I'm sure we can expect an ambush around every corner.

Gaius Marius: I am tired of this defensive fighting ... it is time to take the fight out into the wild! We must seek out Thideric, the warlord of the Teutons and destroy him. With his death the Teuton horde will lose heart and then we can worry about the Cimbri and their king.

The Cimbri camp is found, with a subsequent attack launched on it.

Gaius Marius: Either myself, Quintus or Sulla has taken one blow too many! Retreat! Pull back inside the walls -- we can hold them off from there!

King Kelvid-Ulfir is killed, with the Cimbri army now fully defeated.

Gaius Marius: King Ulfir is dead! These cursed barbarians are finally and utterly defeated. Now will I head back to Rome to enjoy my victory and receive the laurels that I so richly deserve!

Walkthrough[]

Briefing[]

Objectives: defeat all invading Germanic tribes
Difficulty: easy to medium
Enemies: We have three Germanic opponents with many units and an relatively aggressive behaviour: the Cimbri, the Teutons and the Ambrones. Their units consists mainly of shock infantry (Barbarians, Celtic Warriors, Gallic Warriors, Maceman), but you will see also Horsemen, Celtic Light Spear, Bowmen, Chariot Archers, Javelins, Bronze Cavalry and even the new unit War Hounds (a weak scout). Each tribe has its hero: the Cimbri the mounted Warrior Ulferic, the Teutons the infantry Warrior Thideric and the Ambrones the mounted Warrior Gretunix. A tribe is vanquished when you kill its hero, and the other units will usually try to flee from the map.
Starting conditions: We start with an already strong army and have a population cap of 150 (and if we want, we can achieve a population count of up to 172), but we have only very few ranged units and counters against shock units, nearly no resources and no base. The challenge of the scenario is to find the resources and the counter units that do piercing damage.
Heroes: we have two heroes, the mounted Marius and the infantrist Quintus; both are Strategists and can heal and use battle cry.
Conscription: this new mechanic allows Marius to conscript Citizens for a cost of 25 gold each, transforming them into the much needed Pilum (spear wielding ranged unit), a powerful counter to the Germanic shock infantry
Roman Legionnaire: this new unit is shock infantry, and in this campaign the best in this unit class due to its higher attack and shock armor, and also because of its special attack "pilum attack".
Farm: a new build command allows us to build a single Farm field (at the usual cost of 50 wood) in other locations than adjacent to a Granary. It is "hidden" because its button looks like the usual Granary building button. It is a useful command we want to use early.
Palisades: a new type of walls and defense towers – less robust, but cheap and fast built, it does the job for this scenario.
Civilization points: they introduce an annoying new mechanic: we cannot earn civ points through achieving certain goals in scenarios with the possibility to allocate them to our liking. Instead, after winning the first scenario, we get an amount of 84 civ points that is automatically invested in bonuses the developers thought to be the appropriated ones for the Roman civilization.
Tactics: This walkthrough assumes that you are familiar with basic tactics

Phase 1: Getting a base[]

Florentia: in this first town, we find three fortresses with a good army, and 7 Citizens waiting to be conscripted – we have exactly the amount of gold to do that. Do not do it right now.

As soon as Marius conscripts the last Citizen, we are attacked from the east by a troop of Cimbri: 12 Barbarians and 3 Horsemen. First empty the fortresses, put the counter units (Phalanx) and the Legionnaires in the front line, the Citizen in the back, the healing heroes nearby. Now conscript the Citizen. With this preparation, you win the battle easily without losses.

You now have the following units (using 67 population space):

the two heroes Marius and Quintus
5 Royal Guards (group them with Quintus)
6 Phalanx
14 Roman Legionnaires
26 Short Swords
3 Cavalry Archers
7 Pilums (after conscription)

Group them according to their types.

Mutania: We march to the announced town of Mutania slightly northwest of Florentia. 10 Teutonic Vikings try to ambush us on the way. As soon as we arrive at the city gates, Mutania is attacked at its farming area northeast of the city by 8 Celtic Warriors, 7 Simple Bowmen and 2 Horsemen. See that your troops arrive at the gate in good formation, then advance fast and kill the attackers before they can do too much damage. As soon as the last one falls, you get to control the city. It will be your main base.

Phase 2: Building up[]

Economy: We can gather food, wood and iron here, and we get 500 gold as reward. We have 9 Citizens and need 6 each for wood and iron, 8 for food and at least 2 as a construction team. We have one Farm in the city. At the Granary, three are possible right now, and we can construct more around the Capitol. Chop wood inside the city walls until the area defense stands, then it is an option to chop the wood around the Granary to free space for Farms. Since we have no time pressure, we can gather resources as long as we want.

Defense: We will see a lot of attacks for some time and have to secure the area with Palisades, wooden Towers and our troops. It is important to realize that enemy units like the Barbarian can travel through wood and the forest is no safe border anymore. The hot spots are:

The forest northwest of the city. It is easy and fast blocked by Palisades that start at our stone tower
The road into the north/northwest is marked by the game with red flags (very short, so easy to overlook). After killing the loitering enemy units, this spot is also easily secured with Palisades
The forest northeast of the city, we have to treat as open terrain and guard it well with units and some towers
From the south/southwest road we are regularly attacked. There, we position the soon-to-arrive Cavalry with Marius as their mounted healer

Army:

Upgrades: As soon as the resources come in, we upgrade our iron units (Phalanx, Legionnaires, Royal Guards, Short Swords): 2x attack, 2x shock armor, 2x piercing armor, 1x hitpoints. Do not use the gold for upgrades!
Reinforcments: 10 Cataphract with 5 Stone Throwers (25 population space) soon arrive, a very useful reinforcement. Send them immediately to the vulnerable position north of Mutania to help guard the northern road until the palisades are built, then use the Cataphract with Marius as their healer as guards on the road in front of the stone Tower.
Training: We have Barracks and can build a Stable, but no Archery Range. Since we have more than enough shock infantry and cavalry, we concentrate on the needed counter units and build 8 Bronze Cavalry (later 2 more). Perhaps 1 Legionnaire if you want to have 15 of them.

When we have a solid defense, all important units, all iron upgrades and at least 1000 wood for the fortifications at the next town, the next phase begins.

Phase 3: Recruiting[]

Quintus tells Marius where we can find more Citizens for conscription: Bononia slightly east of our base (11 Citizens), Patavium in the north (10 Citizens) and Pisae in the west (12 Citizens); they are shown on the map. We could visit them in this order, but it is advantageous to do Pisae first due to its much-needed gold mines and when we still have precious population space left, which allows us to mine the gold faster.

Pisae: We advance with our Cavalry (Cataphracts, Bronze Cavalry, Marius) northwards until we arrive at the junction to Pisae. Marius goes there with 3 Bronze Cavalry until we get to control their Citizens, then he returns to the junction where he will be needed soon. We now have access to two gold mines with 2,500 gold each, one at the beach of Pisae (7 Citizens), one at an island in the west with 5 Citizens. After 5 minutes, Pisae will be attacked by the Ambrones under their leader Gretunix. Their Barbarians will attack through the forest in the northwest of the city. The other units, including Gretunix, will take the road. The beach and the island are safe.

Immediately build two more Bronze Cavalry and start upgrading them more or less in this order: 2x shock armor, 2x attack, later 2x pierce armor and 1x hitpoints
Build 5 towers in the line of Pisae's Granary and position the 3 Bronze Cavalry and 2 Citizens as a repair team there – that is more than enough to defend against the incoming Barbarians
At the junction, position the Cavalry and reinforce them with the two newly built Bronze Cavalry – since Gretunix is mounted, he arrives long before his troops and is killed fast
At the island, immediately populate the Settlement to a Town Center to boost gold gathering and train 6 Citizens for this, balancing this out with the food requirements of your upgrades, if necessary. When you run out of wood, you can switch them to chopping to get more wood fast. Later, when you have enough resources, delete them and produce more at Pisae for conscription
At Pisae, build a Settlement at the gold mine and populate it to a Town Center, then train 6 Citizens for gold mining
As the resources come in, upgrade your gold units: first the Bronze Cavalry, then the ranged units Pilums and Cavalry Archer: 2x attack, 2x range, 1x hitpoints. Give the Stone Throwers 2x attack, 2x range, 1x area damage – your ranged units now out-range any enemy tower

Now you can wait as long as you want, as there will probably be no more attacks. When you have really enough resources

Secure the second junction where the road to the north starts with at least 4 towers and position your Cavalry there (10 Cataphract, 10 Bronze Cavalry)
delete the Citizens on the island, train Citizens in Pisae until you reach the population cap of 151, conscript 15 of them to Pilums and send them to the fortified junction

Move Marius to Mutania, give him an escort of the 7 Pilums and the Legionnaires (with Quintus & his Royal Guards) and visit the two remaining locations.

Bononia: recruit the 11 Citizens; the village does not have to be fortified
Patavium: on your way north, you have to fight a group of enemies. In the city, conscript the 10 Citizens. South of Patavium is a stone field you can use, but you do not need it at all, and it would probably require some fortifications and a lot of time.

Arriving at Patavium ends the recruiting phase and triggers attacks at Patavium and Pisae. Barbarians come through the Patavian forest and other units (including siege weapons) may wait outside the Patavian city walls where you can safely kill them from within with your Pilums. At our fortified junction, our forces easily defend it against the attackers.

Phase 4: Attack[]

If you followed this walkthrough, you now have a population count of 172/150. For this final phase regroup your units, perhaps as suggested:

Group 1: 10 Cataphracts + Marius
Group 2: 10 Bronze Cavalry
Group 3: 15 Legionnaires, 5 Royal Guards + Quintus
Group 4: 6 Phalanx
Group 5: the Short Swords
Group 6: 25 Pilums
Group 7: 20 Pilums
Group 8: 3 Cavalry Archers
Group 9: 5 Stone Throwers

Teutons: Attack the relatively weak Teutons first. Their base is located in the northwest at the western edge of the map. The easiest tactic is to position your troops in good formation in some distance of the camp and lure the enemies out with the Cavalry Archers shooting at Thideric – he will only move if our units come near him, but other units near him will pursue our bait. After you killed them, continue the archer attacks on Thiderics until he falls. The Teutons are defeated without battling 90% of their base forces – they try to flee, but since they think it is a good idea to do this right through our troops, not one of them escapes. You now could destroy the buildings, but that is completely irrelevant.

The orange fortification in the north is irrelevant.

Cimbri: Now attack the last Germanic base; you have to go back to our fortified junction and take the road into the northeast, killing some enemies on the way. This base is fortified with Palisades and wooden Towers. A simple tactics is to again position your troops in good formation on the hill before the enemy camp and lure the enemies there, where our ranged units will kill them fast. When the guards are gone, destroy the towers with your Stone Throwers and other ranged units. Destroy also the Palisades as they hinder your movement and formation. Again lure enemy units. Keep an eye on the units just north of the Palisades, do not attack King Ulferic before they are killed or they will attack you in your flank. When Ulferic dies, you win the scenario.