A Chremonidean War Story

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Started a little campaign as KH last night with the new patched files (sorry, they aren't totally ready yet, but we have an internal version of the patch we're testing out) and I found it really interesting what occurred. No screenshots, but I'm describing what happens very roughly. Pretty interesting I thought:

272: Areus arrives in Sparta. Antigonos and his army sit outside the gates of Athens with a considerable army, but diplomats report that the Macedonian king is much concerned with the Epeirote soldiers in Macedonian lands, so it is no surprise when he and his soldiers take leave of Attica after the summer is over and withdraw to winter in Demetrias to raise more soldiers and defend their current posessions. At that same time the Spartan king Areus and the men he can gather from Elis and Arcadia, as well as his Cretan mercenaries, march on Macedonian controlled Corinth and lay siege to the city. On the island of Rhodes, Agothokles Rhodios dies peacefully in the fall of the year, leaving a young son in the care of Chremonides of Athens.

271: In the spring the Spartan king and his Peloponnesian allies take the city of Corinth in a bloody battle, though most of the Spartan peers were slain along with many other hoplites. Areus and Akrotatos survive, but Akrotatos is soon sent back to Sparta. Spies report that Antigonos and his army have heard of the siege and leave Demetrias immediately, moving south through Boiotia towards Athens. The city is only very sparsely defended, and a plea is sent across the ithmus to Corinth for help. Areus. A small contingent of Areus' tired soldiers at Corinth, including only the handful of remaining Spartiates and Cretan mercenaries, rush to Athens and arrive at the city only shortly before the Macedonians lay siege to the place. Instead of reducing the city through starvation, Antigonos' fury pushes the Macedonians to assault its walls that same autumn. Greatly outnumbered, the Athenians and their Peloponnesian allies kill enough of the assaulting Macedonians along the walls of Athens to slow the assault, and a brave but foolhardy diversionary charge from the walls by Chremonides ends in a great victory as the king himself, Antigonos, is separated from his men and in a furious charge when the Athenian cavalry run him through at the tip of a spear. The remaining Macedonians, though probably still numerous enough to take the city if they had persevered, are hesitant to continue with the siege and withdraw to the north of Attica. As winter falls, the allied army marches out of Athens with a few additional men and catches the remaining Macedonians in an unfavorable situation and defeats them once more. This season, a new man is brought into a leadership position, Thersites, a Corinthian. An unfortunate name, but a young man with many talents, although quickly it is realized that this is possibly the only Corinthian yet known who knows nothing of trade.

270: With Areus still in Athens, and the small army of the Greeks at hand, he leads the combined force across the narrow straits towards Chalkis, and in the summer after a short battle liberates the city and island of their Macedonian oppressors. Word reaches Athens that the Macedonians have formed another army south of Demetrias large enough to destroy the allied army entirely, but they are now reluctant to move south because the path is no longer open: a large army is assembled near Thebes and is unwilling to allow them free passage south into Attica. This year a promising youth marries Chremonides' daughter Hermine, a young girl above all reproach. His name is Echepolos Andanieus, a Cretan, and proposes a bold new move for the Greek alliance...

269: As long as the army near Thebes remains, the Macedonians are unable to move south. Echepolos suggests that he be given command of a substantial force and a small fleet, whereupon he will move upon the hostile cities of Crete and bring it under the alliance's control. At this same time, a small fleet from Rhodes arrives at Athens and new soldiers from the Peloponnese have gathered off Epidauros to meet them, but at that moment a Greek pirate fleet sails up from the south and a battle is fought off the coast of Attica, with the Greeks winning the day. It is a sure sign that their interests in the Aegean should be their next concern. In the summer, with the seas calmed, the Greek fleet moves south with not just with the young and rash Echepolos, who is a native of the island, but with Areus, who knows Crete well, in charge of the army. By the time winter arrives they have achieved their objectives: the island is under their control and the fleet is brought in to port off Kydonia.

268: Areus returns to Sparta and Echepolos remains in Crete as the strategos in charge of the koinon's interests on the island. The fleet almost reaches the safe harbors in sight of Athens when two fleets from the Pontos Euxeinos sail into the Argo-Saronic Gulf. The battle that ensues destroys the remaining ships in the Greek fleet. Chremonides' son, Doros Attikos. has just come of age and was to remain at Athens in the schools there and in further military training while Chremonides sailed to Rhodes to remain and possibly pursue Greek interests on the Karian coast until Agothokles' young son came of age and was able to govern the city of Rhodes, but that will now have to wait until another fleet can be raised and the eastern pirate fleets brought under control in the Aegean. Areus, arrived in Sparta along with his son Akrotatos, begins to raise another army to continue the defense of the mainland in Attica again or elsewhere if needed.

(Will continue and may try a few screenshots with the next events)

[Ower]

Nice, reading

[Zaknafien]

great work, TA, im intrigued! the game-as-history-book approach works great, I cant wait to see more, and those screenies!

[Teleklos Archelaou]

267: The Peloponnesian soldiers did not join the main Greek army. After the fleet returned from Rhodes it loaded the men from Athens and those still on Crete for the journey back to Rhodes again, but the army did not include Peloponnesians in its numbers. The reason is this: when their spies reported that Karia was on the whole poorly defended, Areus still did not see reason enough to lead a Spartan army across the sea again at this time, but in a show of support he agreed to accompany the force to Rhodes in the hopes of bringing some cities over to their side and aid in diplomatic affairs. He arrived in Rhodes as the army was training the last of the soldiers for the expedition, and watched them board the ships as they prepared to sail into enemy lands.

266: Chremonides had been an ally of the Ptolemies and during his lifetime had visited Egypt, but if the koinon was to continue to thrive and grow, he knew new lands must come under their control. Areus was unwilling to accompany him directly, so Chremonides and the main koinon army boarded the fleet at Rhodes and crossed over to the mainland northwest of Halicarnassus in Lydia, Seleucid domains. No Seleucid army opposed him though, but diplomats arrived in his camp much more quickly than any army could, and informed him that any attempt to take the city of Halicarnassus would be the last straw for king Ptolemaios. Chremonides dismissed the diplomats and in the summer led his soldiers towards the walls of the Karian capital and with the siege received word that a state of war was had begun between the koinon and the Ptolemies. It was a calculated move though - the Ptolemies had their own troubles with the Seleucid forces in Syria and would hardly move upon the Greek armies in western Anatolia he reckoned. However, in the fall spies reported a Ptolemaic army moving west into the eastern borders of the province, but by winter they had returned to Pamphylia. Bad news fell in the winter on the mainland too though in two places. First, Thermon was attacked by an Epeirote force so large that there was little chance the Aitolians could hold out for long. These conditions immediately precipitated a return of the diplomat at Ambrakia and a state of war followed. Also, north of Sparta a large Arkadian army was raised and began to lay waste to Spartan trade routes north to Corinth and northwest to Elis. There was no koinon force on the mainland large enough to attempt to deal with the Arkadians at this point. Luckily the Thebans still blocked the Macedonians from venturing further south. The koinon now had lost all their allies as a result of the rash decision to move upon Halicarnassus and the Epeirotes actions at Thermon.

265: The battle of Halicarnassus would not have been won by Chremonides if not for the mercenary soldiers he recruited when he first set foot in Karia. They were clearly the factor that tipped the scales in his favor, and after a siege had worn the Halicarnassians down the final battle was mildly anticlimatic. Diplomats were sent to the Ptolemaic king, but they were not recognized and attempts to bring about a ceasefire were dismissed. Pleased with the victory, but disgusted by the inability of the alliance to sooth the anger of the Ptolemaic king's diplomats, Areus prepared to sail back to Sparta in the spring. The limits of their domain and the main army at Halicarnassus are shown here:

https://img401.imageshack.us/img401/1724/khstory1md6.th.jpg (https://img401.imageshack.us/my.php?image=khstory1md6.jpg)

264: Areus sails from Rhodes towards the mainland, but puts in at Chalcis first as a safer route is necessary to protect the Spartan king. A light raiding force of Epeirote soldiers crossed the gulf south of Thermon into Peloponnesian territory, but Euhpranor Ilioneus, whose name we will remember for some time, made contact and convinced the force to cease hostilities with the koinon. A ceasefire was agreed upon and trade rights established. The party was given 1000 mnai additionally to secure their good will, but no talks of reestablishing the alliance were tolerated. Spies reveal that the Seleucid forces in Lydia and Phrygia are much larger than our earlier estimates. Diplomats sent into Pamphylia have had no success in talking with the Ptolemies. At the end of the spring the Seleucid armies outside of Ipsos move upon Pergamon and lay siege to it. In the summer, Thersites leaves Corinth and travels to Olympia to compete in the Olympic games. He is 29 and this is his first Olympic games. To be honest, the people of Corinth are somewhat glad to be rid of him for a month, he has been a good governor these last few years, but he fancies himself a philosopher poet with refined tastes and while he is very much involved in the bureacracy and political life of the city he is also rumored to be corrupt and is never seen worshipping the gods.

In the fall, in addition to word coming from Olympia that Thersites had failed in his attempts, the Seleucid envoy at Athens demands a small sum of money or their soldiers in Lydia would attack. Fearing yet another state of war, the alliance agrees to pay him off...although there were thoughts that it could bring the Ptolemies back into favor with the alliance if they were to take a harsher stand with the Seleucids. Bad news also arrives in the fall: a moderate sized Macedonian force leaves Demetrias and approaches the province's borders to the south, crossing over into our lands. Areus arrives at Gytheion, the port south of Sparta just in time to hear the news. It is decided that a force cannot be raised at Sparta large enough to deal with the Arkadians, so their other Peloponnesian allies continue to build an army at Corinth. In the winter, the Macedonians have succeeded in evading the Theban army and arrive suddenly outside the city walls of Athens. Chremonides' son Doros is in charge of a very small garrison - relief must come from elsewhere if the city is to remain free.

Areus is too exhausted from his long sea voyage and travels back to Sparta to lead a relief force. His son Akrotatos takes his personal bodyguard and a number of skirmishers south to Gytheion where they board the fleet and move north to the Isthmus. The gathering army at Corinth cannot cross the Isthmus itself, as the force of Thebans would pounce upon them as they crossed over into the Megarid and leave no men left to attack the Macedonians, under the command of a captain Polykratis, sieging Athens. Doros is well loved and the people bear the siege well so far, but are too few to stop the advance of the Macedonians themselves.

264: Eugenios, son of Agothokles of Rhodes, formed a close friendship with Areus while the king was on Sparta, and the youth accompanied him back to Sparta to undergo the traditional agoge training instead of remaining on Rhodes. In the spring of 264 he comes of age and decides to remain at Sparta to continue his training. In Corinth, Thersites leads a small but balanced army onto the ships south of the Isthmus and joins Akrotatos. Their plan is to sail around the coast to Marathon, to join forces with a handful of hoplites from Euboia and surprise the Macedonians. They are unable to put in at Marathon though, and land at Oropos further north where a unit of Cretan mercenaries joins them. Then now have a force that may pose some problems for the Macedonians, but if the Thebans move upon them they will not last long.

There is no turning back now though, ships bearing the flag of the king of Tylis sail into the Gulf of Euboia in the late spring and utterly destroy the small alliance fleet anchored off Oropos. But the Thebans have not moved, so only the battle with the Macedonians remains. Thankfully no further relief force for their soldiers has arrived. As the alliance army begins to cross the last set of hills north of Athens, they find the Macedonians have the higher ground. With the barbarian ships visible in the straits to the north, and with Athens visible in the distance to the south, the battle begins. With a small relief army coming from Athens, it is a very close battle. Having the high ground, tree cover, and several units of sphendonetai, the Macedonians start to pick apart my soldiers. I charge ahead on each wing with a general's bodyguard, and hit the sphendonetai, but a full Thessalian cavalry unit goes after Akrotatos, who loses many men and begins to flee the battle. Thersites arrives to help him and he regains his composure, but Thracian prodromoi have slammed into the wing of my hoplite line, and phalangites pop up out of the trees and rush into my own slingers. Doros and his soldiers rush from Athens, but only his mounted bodyguard arrives in time - but it is just barely enough - he slams into the back of the Thessalian unit, which routs, then the Thracian prodromoi, which routs as well. Two of my units of hoplites had routed also, but the Cretan archers rushed into the Macedonian phalangites and held them long enough for all three generals to collapse into their rear, finishing off the last of the seriously dangerous units. The other skirmishers in the woods then fled. It was a clear victory - they destroyed half of my army of 500 total, but I eliminated almost their entire army of 350 soldiers. Had they been led by a general, they probably would have won. The siege is lifted. (note: no CTD even with reinforcements and all generals (3) surviving).

The remants of the army move into the city of Athens, and the Macedonian survivors flee north to Demetrias. There is now for the first time two koinon armies clearly - one at Halicarnassus, and a small but growing one at Athens. No movement towards Arkadia is taken yet - but soon the rebels must be dealt with. The Ptolemies still refuse to speak with us on the topic of a ceasefire. To make matters worse, in the fall word reaches Corinth and Athens that Areus has fallen ill and died. Akrotatos is still recovering in Athens and is named the new Eurypontid king of Sparta at the age of 32. As Akrotatos has no children yet, the people have clamored for Doros to be named heir. Given Areus' relationship with young Eugenios Rhodios, if the boy had any promise whatsoever, he might be named heir at this point instead, but it has only taken a year for the Ephors to realize that although he has become quite Spartan in his manners, he has alienated the people around him and it is clear he is stunningly incompetent. It is only too bad the Macedonians do not ask for a trade of a peace for an important hostage. :grin: In order to not risk provoking the Thebans, the decision is made to form a new fleet at Rhodes, sail to Attica, board the army with Akrotatos there, and sail south to surprise the Arkadians by attacking them from the direction of Argos. The Macedonians are clearly occupied with expansion to their north and few soldiers remain south of the Vale of Tempe. But wherever the Epeirote armies now are, they are not fighting the Macedonians and Thermon is nearly empty.

In the winter, the fleet arrives in Athens, but spies report that almost the entire garrison of Demetrias has moved north to aid the Macedonians' interests in taking Dardanoia. Should the Arkadian (eleutheroi) forces be dealt with, should I send Eugenios (what a misnomer!) in a headlong charge against the Arkadians? Should the Theban forces be dealth with instead? Should the fleet take the smaller mainland army to Thessaly and attempt to liberate Demetrias from Macedonian control? It is winter now, but some decision must be made to prepare a spring campaign...

[Daimon]

Ooh.. I will follow this!

[Quirinus Kuhlmann]

Yes, I will follow this too! Thanks for the joyful read. For me, while playing the Koinon, it's very interesting to be told about, what happens in a parallel world, where different decisions are made. For instance I intentionally didn't put my hand on Halikarnassos to avoid trouble with the great successor kingdoms, but now those brave Halikarnassos-Citizens rebelled to my side and so I have war with the Seleukids anyway.
This Koinon Hellenon is a great option to play with: You have strong and thrilling opponents, quite enough money to deal with them and highly evolved traits to gain and buildings to build.
Looking forward to your next update!

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Yeah, I'm not playing really with the rules I should (not attacking Halicarnassus is one), but I'm trying to playtest here too really and see if problems can develop (wanted to test that script out - it worked!). The main thing that caused me to want to do this is when I captured Corinth and suddenly a Corinthian was offered for adoption (plus he was sharp/charismatic/vigorous) so I took him, then as I was thinking about going to Krete, a Cretan wanted to marry into the family (and he was sharp/charismatic/langorous - perfect for sitting and governing without going out to fight wars). That seemed too perfect, so I wanted to go into detail. Pure chance, but still great. :grin:

[Teleklos Archelaou]

263: The decision is made to send Akrotatos and Thersites with the force at Athens to Argos, where they land and move towards the Arkadian army. The army retreats further into Arkadia, but the army catches them and, with reinforcements of Eugenios from Sparta, finally bring the area back under the alliance's control.

Thersites then travels north to Corinth and Akrotatos returns to Sparta. There is no longer a need for Eugenios to remain in Sparta, nor the army. Maybe some use for him in Athens can be found if he is given some further measure of education, so in the summer he is given command of the western Greek army and they board the fleet at Argos. They sail back towards Athens...

In Asia Minor, the Greek spies report that Mytilene still remains guarded by only a medium sized force. What was originally the main greek army, now the alliance's eastern army, is gathered outside of Halicarnassos, and Chremonides sees an easy opportunity. There are no large Seleucid forces in Lydia or in Mysia, so the path to Lesbos looks clear. He takes the army and marches towards the Lydian border, to wait for the next year and a campaign to rid the Ionian coast of Macedonians.

262: Chremonides moves on Mytilene in the spring. The Macedonians have equal sized armies on the island, one in the city and one guarding the western shore of the island. The battle occurs immediately, as a lone spy had managed to open the main gate of the city. It is also an interesting one - the units guarding the gates were mostly light infantry, and once inside the city the alliance army split and surrounded the Macedonian hoplites. They had just been finished off when the other Macedonian force arrived but were bottled up and surrounded as well, laid waste to by the Cretan mercenaries.

In the west, at this same moment, Eugenios, who has sailed from Sparta with the western alliance army, at the Attic coast orders the Nauarchos to set sail for Thermopylae instead of returning the men to Athens. Word has reached them that only the smallest of armies is present in Demetrias, with no other reinforcements in all of Thessaly and only a moderate sized force in Macedonia itself. If there was a time to move against Macedon, this is it. Given that there is nothing whatsoever in Eugenios' character to explain this decision, I have chalked it up to the influence of the evil tutor that he has in his retinue. But when Doros of Athens gets word, concerned with Eugenios' utter incompetence and poor understanding of military tactics, he sends a message to the fleet and he and the few hoplites he can muster gather off Marathon to meet them. When Eugenios disembarks, his force reaches the walls of Demetrias quickly. The winter snows arrive just in time for Doros and his men to reach the borders of Thessaly. But Eugenios does not hesitate for the spring thaw to allow more Macedonian soldiers to move south from Pella. Unfortunately along with the snows, terrible diplomatic news arrives at Rhodes: Ptolemy and the Seleucid king have agreed to an immediate ceasefire and even more surprising an alliance. The Ptolemies, once close allies, now have only one enemy: the alliance. Immediately a large army moves from the borders of Pamphylia to Lydia. Halicarnassus is only lightly defended and spies report another large army in Side. Still Eugenios does not know of the news, and even if he did at this point it seems a good decision to push ahead with the attack. For the first time in known memory, phalangitai are hired by the alliance to fight in a battle, as a group of misthophoroi phalangitai are hired by Eugenios before the battle. The battle did not last long - the Macedonian faction heir fought till the very end, but was finally slain in the mass of pikes and spears at the center of the city.

261: Disaster. In the spring a large army leaves Pella and arrives, then begins besieging Demetrias. At the same time the Ptolemaic army leaves Lydia and reaches Halicarnassus, besieging it. All hopes rest on Chremonides and his army in Mytilene, but word has just been sent that he will not be able to lead the army because he is now dead. He had finished a long and frigid night preparing invasion plans and under the light of a full moon walked through the camp to ascertain the mood of his men. When he returned to his quarters he asked that an extra blanket be prepared and complained that the room was far too cold. In the night he awoke with severe sweats and by dawn half of the camp already knew that he had not heard the rooster's call. There is no other general in the entire eastern Aegean, no allies other than the distant Baktrian kingdom, no units recruitable yet in Mytilene, no more mercenaries available for recruitment in the east (because no generals are present) and no generals anywhere in the alliance over the age of 34, and the Ptolemies are allied with the Seleukids, the Epeirotes, and the Macedonians, forming an uber-alliance against the koinon hellenon...gah.


https://img401.imageshack.us/img401/3346/kh2mm4.th.jpg (https://img401.imageshack.us/my.php?image=kh2mm4.jpg)

[Ower]

Hard times, wish you luck

[Teleklos Archelaou]

261 (continued): There is no hope of hiring further units in Karia to help the army there, but there is hope of bringing relief to Demetrias. The Theban force still remains in its position, so soldiers from Athens are not available, but Doros of Athens was still on board the fleet when he heard of the siege. The fleet hurries north to the eastern slopes of Mt. Olympus where Doros and his bodyguard disembark with chests of silver, enough to hire three groups of infantry and two of missle soldiers. Not enough to defeat the Macedonians alone, but with the soldiers from Demetrias maybe.

The battle should have been won by the Macedonians and through a poor decision in arranging their army here it is quite possible they have made the mistake that will cost them their kingdom. It was fought north of Demetrias, on the road to Pella. The Macedonians chose to array their forces (a good mix of infantry, cavalry, and skirmishers) along the road though, instead of on the high ground to their right. The small koinon mercenary relief force coming from the north immediately ran towards the high ground, which lay directly between them and Eugenios' force. When the two forces merged, on top of the high ground no less, it was not difficult to cause enough casualties to drive the best infantry and cavalry off the field and into northwestern Thessaly near the Epeirote borders. Both Doros and Eugenios' forces retired to Demetrias at that point. The greek fleet sails to Thessalonika and sieges the port there, and diplomats approach the Macedonians at Pella, but they will not listen to propositions of a ceasefire.

In Halicarnassus, the siege was still ongoing, with the koinon relief force from Mytilene sure to arrive in the summer, before an assault on Halicarnassus can begin. Another serious incident has occurred here. While koinon troops were marching through Lydia, Sardis rebelled from the Seleucids, certainly due in part to the single Koinon spy sent there the previous season. The army is not large, but will hopefully delay any possible action on the Seleucids' part towards Lesbos. When the battle itself begins, it becomes clear that the entire Ptolemaic force is made up of light skirmishers. With three units of Cretan mercenaries and some slingers in the alliance army, and with the high ground from the start, the battle did not see the death of a single alliance soldier - half of the Ptolemaic force fled the field and retreated past Sardis to the nearby Seleucid armies.

The best news though is that an Athenian general named Piales was promoted and now is in control of the army at Halicarnassus.

With these events, things pretty much opened up for my campaign. Things became easier with the Macedonians and the Ptolemies were all I had to really worry about. I think this is where I'll end it - as it was getting more complex and I was mainly interested in these events at the start. Moving on to some other things.

[Alkiviadis]

Very impressive description, is as if you read historical book...Congratulations...:laugh4:

I do never attack to Halikarnasos and the reason is to not loose so early my alliances...But you got a great deal with this hell year (261)...