Edit: Had more time than I expected and proof readed.

I'm going to try to make an AAR on my own liesure. So this will be updated sporadictly. It's an AAR for Rome: Total War, with me playing as the Numidians after editing some files.

A storm was brewing in North Africa. For many years, King of the Numidians, Syphax, had kept peace with mighty kingdom of Carthage, supporting and trading with them even when the might of Rome was beginning to weigh on the country formerly led to glory by Hannibal.

With the passing of his life, so did his peace.

Even as the Kingdom began to rise from its nomadic roots and profited off of its conquest of African villages, the noose was beginning to tighten with an economic depression.

The Numidians had no ports, only having a weak agricultural based economy, and were technologically unadvanced. They had no more money to pay to raise an army. And by the next year they would finally succumb to debt.

The Romans saw the Numidian's peril, and saw a chance to profit off of them. What they didn't see is the chance for Numidia to become an even greater nation than Carthage.

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Quintus Caecus hated this place. After being carried by hired nomads through unpaved roads and deserts, he sorely longed to be back in Sicily, enjoying a quiet hot bath, and being washed by beautiful slaves.

However, he understood how much greater the task was than his being, and how if he succeded, the greatness of his task would also carry onto him as well.

That task was to bring Carthage to her knees.

He saw the great army that assembled near the border and coast of Numidia. The army was stationed there to keep watch for any Carthaganian or Roman army that dared to step onto Numidian soil. The diplomat felt uneasy behind his small escort of Roman and Numidian bodyguards.

One of the hired nomads was sent out to request someone who spoke Latin or Greek.

Sweating profusely in his garb, the diplomat was met with an intimidating Numidian captain. The captain was armored heavily with bronze and gold armor in contrast to the lighly armored troops. He towered over everybody else in the camp, and nobody was able to hide from gaze. That gaze was directed solely on the diplomat, creating an uneasy and hostile silence. The Numidians knew that the Romans were already engaged in a war with Carthage, and felt threatened of a foreign force across the sea occupying their neighbor's lands.

Quintus uneasily looked to his hired nomads, and back at the wide eyed captain.

"Er-, um, so you understand Latin noble captain? Or should do you know Greek at least? I'm actually more comfortable with Gre-"

"What do you want?" the captain curtly interupted in a rough Latin.

Even though Quitus knew already that the man sent out had to be able to converse with him, he was still shocked that he was able to talk with such a barbaric man. Gathering back his composure, Quintus recited as he practiced:

"I am Quintus Caecus. Noble diplomat of Rome. Sent by the house of Scipi to bring to you this message of not only peace and trade, but of great friendship"

Knowing the captain won't responded, Quintus handed the captain a scroll, which was quickly grabbed by the captain, who proceeded to unscroll the carefully prepared letter without any gentleness.

"Oh, that! That, that is to be opened by your King!"

The captain ignored the diplomat and after reading it, sent it another soldier who after being ordered in a language Quitus couldn't understand, mounted a horse and headed east.

"It shall take half a month for my man to return. Until then, you will accept our hospitality." The captain said, and without even looking at the diplomat in the eye, left the diplomat to be escorted to his tent.

Quintus sighed as he saw the small patch of dirt and cloth that he was to call home for the next 2 weeks. He did not understand why the Romans were interested in conquering this land at all.

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2 Weeks had passed. Quintus was able to wash himself with a bucket of hot water and a cloth everyday, but after only a few hours, the diplomat would be soaked with sweat. As he sat in his tent, nearly naked and being fanned by a nomad, the tent was suddenly opened, bring in a burst of light that was quickly blocked by the large captain's body.

Forgetting the shame being caught nearly naked, Quintus fell back fearing for his life.

However, the diplomat opened his eyes after he felt something hit his head. It was a scroll, made of harsher paper than the one he gave. Thanking the captain awkwardly, he opened the scroll after all had left.

The latin was of decent quality and was legible, and Qunitus' eyes opened with satisfaction when he read the reply. Yes.

However his mood sank as he read more. The new Numidian king demanded 1000 denari in return for some Map Information. Such information had value, especially in the wilderness and deserts of Numidia. However the sum was not cheap. Still it was not astronomically expensive and Quintus wrote a quick letter of acceptance. His leaders will understand and will quickly send the money, and he Quintus simply did not want to stay in the military camp any longer.

After handing his reply to the messenger, he quickly left for the Trireme stationed near the coast. He had accomplished his goal and had no reason to stay. With the Numidians allied to Rome, their old peace loving faction leader dead, and with a new faction leader that was hungry for respect and glory, war between the two African nations were inevitable.

Carthage would now be being fighting a war with too many fronts. A war on Sicily, on Spain, and now on their homeland of Africa.

The Numidians will conquer Carthage, and when the Romans had acquired Naval superiority that will allow them to safely send their troops to Africa, they will be able to conquer the tribes of Numidia easily.

Quintus looked back at the continet as the boat left the continent. He felt a chill as he saw the cloud of dust and sand rise up into the air like smoke and the huge army that buzzed like angry hornets.

good reading,makes me wanna play rome right now!

Some info on Numidia and Syphax.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syphax

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numidians

If knew about Syphax's marriage, then I would have put that in the story, since that'll explain why he sided with Carthage later on. Well he's dead so who cares.

I should try this game again, but I've been playing too much EU3.

I've never heard of the Numidians but now i know they were a Berber tribe.

Akvod, did u write all that text in the OP?

Yeah, don't have time to write it all before hand >.< Sorry if it seems messy.

Gotta go now, but I'm going to post my pics for now so that when I come back I can just add the text.

And please, I hope you guys make your own AAR's because I'm not very good at them. Use FRAPs.

Gisgo sighed as he sat in his room. He hadn't moved to the capital yet, and didn't have a proper ceremony. But he didn't care for any of it. After being sent to Rome, Athens, and finally Alexandria to get a proper education, he understood where the Numidians standed. They could barely be called a nation. They occupied a huge land mass compossed of nothing but void. To attempt to glorify him as an leader of equal standing to other leaders was laughable.

But that will all soon come to change. He knew there was an opening for him and his country to sieze power and to become respectable.

Carthage, is already doomed to ruin. They are too splintered, too divided. It would have been better for the nation to have abandoned their colonies and concentrate their forces in Carthage and perhaps Sicily. But now their capital is left undefended, and they are the enemies of many.

And soon they shall have one more.

Gisgo chuckled, but it was not a confident one, but a nervous one. Not because he particularly feared failure and its consequences, but because for some unknown reason, he feared the success and glory that would come of it. That something he thought was unthinkable and impossible, would actually occur. As if he was allowed to preform a miracle, become immortal, or even meet god itself. Such absurdities actually being within his grasps, and the fact that he would then have to weild it...

A crazed laughter echoed throughout the villa.

Captain Bodeshmun ordered his men to make camp at a crossing on the Medjerda river. That way, they would have access to food and water, and if the Carthaginians attack them for their transgression, they would be able to defend the river.

He did not like the Roman man. He claimed to come for the interest of the Numidians, but why would a Roman care about the Numidians? Why would they care so much for them, when they don't care for the Guals, the Greeks, and the Carthaginians?

But he cannot disobey his king. Looking down across the river he sighed. Bodeshmun could feel that he was to be responsible for many things, death, among one of them.

The army was ready to move out. They reached the city unopposed, only meeting a few villagers, farmers, and travelers who failed to run to the safety of the walls.

The scene was quiet, almost peaceful. The city was barely defended, with only a few soldiers seen on the wall. Bodeshmun sighed as he ordered his men to make camp and to begin assembling the siege towers. As few flesh stood in their way, their swords and arms were powerless against the grand stone wall of Carthage.

It was strange though, as Bodeshmun sipped on his canteen. The quiet and peaceful atmosphere failed to convince the captain and his men, what truly happened. That it had finally begun.

War.

Added text to the last post. Will be using the space here for my next installment. I'm thinking about taking video from now on for the battles... but I just hope I won't be laughed at by other people since I suck...

The eeries silence that Bodshmun was starting to was broken by the sound of a horn and the shouts of the scouts. Their camp was being approached by the other army that just landed on boat, a sign of Carthage's desperate state of affairs. They were finally forced to pulling back the reinforcements that were initially meant to reinforce Sicily or Sardina, back to the mainland to reinforce Carthage herself.

But it was too late. The Numidians had declared war on an unprepared Carthage and hit her right in the very heart.

Bodeshmun sighed as his officers did the final preparations. The enemy were now in sight and the men weren't in proper order yet, most of them being levied from nomadic tribes and small villages.

Fortunately today he did not see the grand army of Carthage, hailed as being on par with the Romans in terms of organization and discipline. In front of him he saw an officer leading a group of slingers, composed of boys, farmers, and anyone who can sling a rock like some mischievious child.

"Ezena! Sweep away those slingers before they can begin firing! Avoid fighting with the calvary, the men here will take care of them"

Ezena nodded, and with an cry, the air was filled with dust and the sound of hooves breaking the dry ground.

The slingers stopped their advancement and began to retreat. Not even standing in lines or orders, it was like massacring an angry mob. Most of them didn't even have equipment, wearing nothing more than plain clothing. But Ezena and his men showed no mercy. They drove through the crowd, throwing Javelines into the soft backs of the slingers, and dismembering them with their short swords.

The hungry African grass greedily outward reached for the moisture of human blood, completing the cycle of life feeding on life.

Ezena stopped for a momment and caught a look at the Carthaginian calvary advancing towards them, desperately trying to fix their mistake of sending the slingers on the front. He shouted amongst all the screams and noise to pull back from the slaughter.

He could only hope they heard him.

Captain Bodeshmun saw the enemy officer charging towards Ezena. Behind the officer was a unit of professional Iberian Infantry.

Ezena fortunately managed to wheel his men around out of the way, chasing after other slingers. Meanwhile, the army's spearmen had made it in time to intercept the calvary. It was too late and too sudden for the calvary to change course. The nomads weren't trained extensively, nor had they fought any battles, but any man could simply bend their arms the way they were told, hold their spears, and let the horses impale themselves on it.

Ezena saw the horses crashing into the infantry, and ordered his men to circle around. The men were able to hold formation still, but it would save a couple of lives if Ezena and his man went after the officer than the routing slingers.

The javelines were thrown and impaled the Carthaginian horsemen in the back. And the ones who managed to turn around towards the source of the missiles were met with another spear into their bodies.

The Carthaginian officer fell down with a loud scream, which allowed his men to know their leader was dead.

The professional soldiers lost all hope after their leader was killed, and instead of fighting like an tightly pack of soldiers, they disintegrated into a death fearing mob.

However, Captain Bodeshmun ordered his men not to give chase. For he heard the slingers, levied hunters from the plains, shout that the other army was approaching.

"So the army from Carthage herself showed..." the Captain muttered as he saw the army approaching behind the slingers. It wasn't a very large force, but they could not go easy here. If they won here, the city that stood in the scenary like a mirrage would be theirs.

The Iberian infantry charged into the ranks of the Desert Infantry, ordered to form one big line so as to prevent a route. If there was no calvary apart, the more heavily armored swords men of Iberia would have tore into the lightly armoured desert troops. However, the Numidians boasted their famous Numidian calvary, raised and bred in the plains of Africa.

Ezena crashed into the flanks of the Iberian infantry before the second wave could support the first wave.

Ezena ordered his men to disengage and let the infantry route, for Carthage's hired mercenaries were about to flank them. And so the two horse Numidian horse men, one fighting for glory and nation, and the other for greed and money, colided.

Ezena threw a spear into the neck of one of the horsemen. Jumping over his corpse, Ezena slashed wildly with his shortsword as he pulled it out of its scabard. Blood spilled onto Ezena's face, and he could feel the heat of it, reminding him of how recently it was part of something living. In a few seconds however, the blood and body shall go cold.

With only one eye opened, Ezena was in a trance. Swinging his sword as if he was dancing, timing his strikes to the rhythem of the war drums.

The mercenaries routed, wildly urging their horses to escape the battle.

Ezena and the rest of the calvary butchered the remaining Iberian infantry that routed, unable to escape the horsemen on foot. But Ezena clucked his tongue in frusturation as he saw the Numidian mercenaries escape towards the walls of Carthage.

But they would not be entering the walls, but will be going far away from it now. As they only fought for money, and won't blindly sacrifice their lives in a hopeless battle.

The Captain breathed in deeply through his nose and sighed. They did it. They actually took Carthage.