Revised Province Attack Order

by Roberto Ullfig

5th Revision

In general there are many minor errors on the card text that came with the original game. Some of the Attack Orders don't make much sense to me while some are obviously incorrect, like for example how can the 3rd Mithridatic War attack Syria when the only way that Syria can exist is if the 3rd Mithridatic War is defeated. Such errors make me lose confidence in the accuracy of all the information supplied in the game. I've looked at each War and tried to make sense of things. Changes are in Red and discussed later. This is also an attempt to keep as close to known history as possible.

War	Original Attack Order	Revised Attack Order
2nd Punic War	Cisalpine Gaul, Narbonese Gaul	Cisalpine Gaul, Narbonese Gaul
1st Illyrian War	Greece	Greece
2nd Illyrian War	Greece	Greece
Syrian War	Bithynia-Pontus, Greece, Asia	Syria, Cilicia-Cyprus, Asia, Greece [1]
1st Gallic War	Cisalpine Gaul, Narbonese Gaul, Transalpine Gaul	Narbonese Gaul, Transalpine Gaul [2]
1st Macedonian War	Illyricum, Greece	Illyricum, Greece
2nd Macedonian War	Illyricum, Greece	Illyricum, Greece

3rd Macedonian War	Illyricum, Greece	Illyricum, Greece
4th Macedonian War	Illyricum	Illyricum
Numantine War	Nearer Spain	Nearer Spain
1st Sicilian Slave Revolt	Sicily	Sicily
2nd Sicilian Slave Revolt	Sicily	Sicily
Spanish Revolts	Nearer Spain, Further Spain	Further Spain, Nearer Spain [11]
Jugurthine War	Africa	Africa
1st Cilician Pirates	Sardinia-Corsica, Bithynia	Sardinia-Corsica, Bithynia [10]
Germanic Migrations	Cisalpine Gaul, Illyricum, Transalpine Gaul	Transalpine Gaul, Cisalpine Gaul, Illyricum [3]

1st Mithridatic War	Bithynia-Pontus, Greece, Syria, Asia	Bithynia-Pontus, Syria, Asia, Greece [4]
2nd Mithridatic War	Bithynia-Pontus, Syria, Asia	Bithynia-Pontus, Syria, Asia
3rd Mithridatic War	Syria, Asia	Bithynia-Pontus, Asia [5]
Parthian War	Cilicia-Cyprus, Bithynia-Pontus, Syria, Asia	Syria, Cilicia-Cyprus, Bithynia-Pontus, Asia [6]
2nd Cilician Pirates	none	Crete-Cyrene, Cilicia-Cyprus [7]
2nd Gallic War	Cisalpine Gaul, Narbonese Gaul, Transalpine Gaul	Transalpine Gaul, Narbonese Gaul, Cisalpine Gaul [8]
3rd Gallic War	Cisalpine Gaul, Narbonese Gaul, Transalpine Gaul	Transalpine Gaul, Narbonese Gaul, Cisalpine Gaul [9]
Sertorian Revolt	Nearer Spain, Further Spain	Nearer Spain, Further Spain

Any war that attacks Bithynia-Pontus (developed side) also attacks Bithynia (undeveloped side).

[1] While none of these regions were Roman Provinces at the time, Antiochus' conquest route is pretty well known. He started in Syria then headed west through Cilicia to Asia before finally sailing to Greece. He never attacked Bithynia - his goal was Greece and he made a straight for it. The revised order reflects the historical path. The Syrian War is usually defeated before any of these Province are created anyway so this change would rarely come into play.

[2] 1st Gallic War cannot attack Cisalpine Gaul because the province can only be created when that war is defeated. Cisalpine Gaul has been removed from the Attack Order.

[3] The Germanic Migrations began in the vicinity of Transalpine Gaul so that really should be the first province it attacks. One could argue that Narbonese Gaul should be included and Illyricum should not but I believe the fact that the game considers the latter a Frontier province and the former not was taken into consideration with the original Attack Order. Historically, the Germanic Migrations never got further than Transalpine Gaul and Narbonese Gaul but it appears that their goal was the fertile plains of Cisalpine Gaul - moving on to Illyricum would have been highly doubtful.

[4] Historically, Syria never came into play during the Mithridatic Wars. I believe that Syria in this case is an abstract representation of Roman allies in the East, namely Armenia, which are not included in the game. Greece would definitely be the last destination of Mithridates so it has been moved to the end of the Attack Order.

[5] 3rd Mithridatic War cannot attack Syria because the province can only be created when the war is defeated. All the Mithridatic Wars should attack Bithynia-Pontus first since that's what started this whole series of wars and Mithridates was King of Pontus - so I replaced Syria with Bithynia-Pontus.

[6] The Parthians should really be coming through the Mesopotamia and Syria first then on to neighboring Cilicia-Cyprus. After that they could have headed North to Bithynia-Pontus or West to Asia. Since they never got that far which direction is purely conjectural so we'll stick with the original Attack Order for that.

[7] 2nd Cilician Pirates does not mention any Attack Order but the card is also filled with text and there's no physical room for one. Crete-Cyrene card says that it's attacked by Cilician Pirates and there's no mention of this on the 1st Cilician Pirates card. Cilicia-Cyprus card says that it's attacked by Cilician Pirates but since it's created by the 1st Cilician Pirates it can only be attacked by 2nd Cilician Pirates. Crete-Cyrene card also says that it's created by defeat of "Pirates 67" (or by a Bequest) which must refer to the year of the 2nd Cilician Pirates - for that reason I placed Crete-Cyrene first and Cilicia-Cyprus second.

[8] There's no reason why Transalpine Gaul should not be first in the Attack Order. That's where the bulk of any Gallic resistance was located.

[9] There's no reason why Transalpine Gaul should not be first in the Attack Order. That's where the bulk of any Gallic resistance was located.

[10] Note that only the Bithynia side says it's attacked by Cilician Pirates. It does make sense that the Pirates would only attack the weaker undeveloped side so 1st Cilician Pirates does not attack the developed side of Bithynia-Pontus.

[11] This war historically was confined to Further Spain while the Celtiberian/Numantine wars were confined to Nearer Spain.

Changes from 3rd Revision:
1. 2nd Punic War has been restored to its original Attack Order.
2. Removed Bithynia-Pontus from Syrian War Attack Order.
3. 1st Gallic War has been restored to its original Attack Order minus Cisalpine Gaul.
4. Removed Narbonese Gaul and restored Illyricum to Germanic Migrations.

Changes from 4th Revision:
1. Spanish Revolts (Lusitanian War) now attacks Further Spain first.