Kingdom by the Lonely Sea - Pontos AAR (take 2)

[Orb]

Kingdom by the Sea

A Pontos AAR
RTW:BI exe 1.6, EB 0.81, VH/M, manage all settlements

'Dark Orchid' = Pontos
'Royal Blue' = Armenia
'Dim Grey' = Rebel (Sinope in the first scenes)
'Dark Red' = Makedon
'Dark Orange' = Koinon Hellenon
'Silver' = Seleucid

Opening: Four Kings

There is a black background to a solitary figure (Ktistes Mithridates, basileus sitting in a chair, facing away from the audience. This chair has the emblem of Pontos on the back. The curtain is pulled back on both sides, to reveal thee other dignitaries, sitting in a semicircle of chairs facing the audience and surrounding Ktistes. Two enormous Seleucid banners fall from the roof to the floor. The men in the chairs are Antiochos of Seleucia, Antigonos of Makedonia and Yervand of Armenia

Ktistes: King of Antioch, why do you fear a little kingdom by the sea?
Antiochos: Because it was not established legitimately. You have no right to be there!
Ktistes: Our subjects seem to think we do.
Antiochos: My armies seem to think you don't.
Ktistes: So what gives you the right to be here? To dictate terms to us?
Antiochos: Force of arms, and the tradition of Alexander.
Ktistes: Yes, your dead butcher.
Antigonos stands up: How dare you?!
Ktistes: How dared he? Thebai?
Antigonos still stands, visibly furious.
Antiochos: I will not have a Persian king in Greek lands!
Ktistes: Damn you, half-breed.
Yervand stands up and physically prevents Antiochos from attacking Ktistes.
Yervand: It would look bad to strike a man older than you, King of Kings.
Antiochos: Listen, Ktistes, if you do not cooperate with us, I will bury your dynasty and your subjects in your ocean, understood?
Ktistes (bitterly): Yes, King of Antioch.
Antigonos: You don't belong there, Persian, get out while you can.
Antiochos: I want proof. Proof that you can change, that you can govern for us, that you can obey!
Ktistes: I hear the 'Alliance of Greeks' supports the cities of Sinope and Trapezous. You oppose these, don't you?
Antigonos: What of it?
Ktistes: My son will take these cities from the Greeks. The Koinon will lose prestige for failing to defend them.
Antiochos nods, and looks at the others: what do you think Antigonos? Worth it to let him be?
Antigonos: I'm warming to him. His Kingdom stays.
Yervand: Give the Haikh time to gather and...
Antiochos: You may arrive after the Koinon is defeated. Silk is a luxury we have. Time is not. He stays.
Yervand (bitterly): Yes, King of Kings.
Drums begin playing, regular rhythm of single beats.
Antiochos: Establish with iron your kingdom, Persian, or I will shatter it.

Cut to Sinope, Autumn 272, the assault begins

Fall of Sinope

Enter levy hoplites and light infantry, many wounded, shields dented etc.
Haplos 1: We cannot hold, their slingers are too many
Akontistes 1: We must, lest they take the walls.
Haplos 2: The walls will be of no use if there is no man alive to defend them.
Peltastes: Another volley overhead, make way!
Akontistes 2: Get back!
Officer: Scatter!
Sound of stones
Akontistes 3: They bring rams!
Haplos 3: Where are our own slings?
Peltastes: We don’t have time, hold!
Sound of ram striking wall is heard.
Haplos 1: Our wall is Hades’ drum. Fall back!
Officer: Hold, damn you coward!
Akontistes 1: Stones approach, and we must flee!
Officer: HOLD!
Another crash
Peltastes: Pike, javelin and stone dictate their terms, we must flee.
Officer: HOLD!
Smoke covers them up, the wall comes down with a crash. Haploi 1+2 and Akontistes 1 flee through the smoke towards the audience and exeunt severally.
Officer: FLEE!
Sounds of combat and pain heard. The smoke clears as peltastes also runs, the rest are dead, Officer is on the ground and a pair of phalangitai (pantadopoi) finish him off, one with an axe and the other with a sword. One pantadopos runs up, grips peltasten and kills him with a knife. The Phalangitai advance and the lights go off. Cries of battle continue.
The scene re-emerges with the buildings at the forefront and the wall no longer there. Fifteen ‘Classical’ Hoplitai under the lord Aigicoros Sinopes are moving forwards, battering aside a group of twenty Phalangitai. The Phalangitai fall back slowly, and are clearly in disarray.

Aigicoros: We have them now! Fight on! Drive them from our city!
Lochagos Pontikon: Hold them here, weakened by iron darts and stones they cannot keep this up.
Lochagos Sinopes: Drive them to the walls and make them fear the name of Sinope even in Antiocheia!
Phonai Hopliton Sinopes: Poseidoni anangkasomen!
Enter Ariobarzanes, his bodyguard Gyges and nine other men, carrying javelins and spears.
Ariobarzanes: Give way, man of Sinope! Your time is at it’s end, life under our guidance is better than death from the apathy of your Rhodian kinsmen.
Aigicoros: When the men of Sinope are content under Persian rule, I will pluck out both my eyes so that my weeping will not be seen by the Gods!
Ariobarzanes: In that case, fool of the Greeks, I will put out both your eyes for you and leave them on Poseidon’s altar so that all who go to worship will see how foolish their former king was.
Aigicoros: Your malice will not overcome the Hellenic spirit!
Aigicoros charges, they fight, neither makes headway and after ten seconds of combat with underarm spears (for they are duelling), Aigicoros thrusts over Ariobarzanes’ shoulder. Ariobarzanes moves forward and uses his shield and body to spin Aigicoros round.
Ariobarzanes: GYGES!
Gyges stabs the Hellene in the back with a spear-thrust, Aigicoros knocks back Ariobarzanes and begins to turn. A hoplite, Menandros, sees his predicament and runs forwards, dragging Aigicoros off-stage. A shout of ‘in here, lord’ is heard. The scene changes and as the din dies down, you see Aigicoros, injured badly on the one side of the stage, while Menandros holds the door shut and a citizen is removing Aigicoros armour.
Aigicoros: You know what, Menandros?
Menandros: What, lord?
Aigicoros: I didn’t expect this end to be allowed. The gods have let such fine men be slain by humble slingshot and the Greeks to be ruled by the Persians.
Menandros: We have not lost yet, sir.
Aigicoros: We lost three men out of five before contact was made. They outnumbered us two to one initially. Our walls fell without struggle. Our men are no doubt surrounded.
Menandros: Keep hope, sir.
Aigicoros (to the citizen, examining his own wound): Thank you sir, but I see already that it will kill me. Please help me put that armour back on, so the Persians will not even say my name for a year because of their terror.
Alkimos, the ‘citizen’, actually a Pontic spy, stabs the general in the heart with a short dagger and takes the general’s sword with his left hand. Alkimos gasps and tries to get his shield in the way, but is thrown to the ground. Alkimos strikes a pair of cymbals together repeatedly. Menandros runs at him.
Aigicoros: Phuge neania! Ouk esti chronos sou!
Menandros still knocks Alkimos as he is about to strike again, but the spy is too quick and fresh for him. They fight as Gyges and Ariobarzanes enter. Gyges prepares to stab.
Alkimos: Stop!
Ariobarzanes: I see you have done well.
Gyges: Surrender your spear, Hellene.
Aigicoros: Mache Menandros
Menandros slowly puts down his spear. Alkimos assists him. Menandros goes to put down his shield.
Aigicoros: Keep the shield, aner times, you have not fled.
Ariobarzanes: Alkimos, your performance was outstanding, take this purse to repay your deeds and any of your needs will be attended to.
Alkimos: My lord, before I leave, I would like for my sister, Euridike, to come here, from Amaseia. It will be safer here than near the Celts and the Seleucids.
Ariobarzanes: An odd request? Are you sure she will fit in? How will she avoid the locals’ anger. We cannot remain here with the army for long.
Alkimos: I would rather she be here, lord. She is only twenty, and I would hate to see her life taken by some marauding barbarian.
Ariobarzanes: My brother shall arrange for it. You should set up an estate here, while you wait for your next assignment.
Alkimos: Come, Menandros, show me the best parts of the city. We both need something light-hearted to discuss after these grave duties.
Menandros: Let me first take the body of the lord to his family, and tell her how he died. Without honour, without a chance, due to treachery.
Alkimos: Young man, that dagger-thrust hurt my soul as much as it hurt the body of your master. I hate treachery, I hate deceit, but like my Prince here, I have a duty to do.
Menandros: Your slingstones over spears and your knives over swords?
Ariobarzanes: We have a duty to our soldiers, to their families. That duty is to keep as many of them alive as possible. I have to endorse any method, and Alkimos has to carry any method out, simply in order to fulfil my duty. My soul will not be looked on with delight by the Gods, but when it is examined, they will see a king who was struck by every stone and javelin that his men launched. Please show Alkimos around the city, as a mutual sufferer, not as a slave.
Menandros: I understand, Prince.

----
Ancillaries added: Gyges (Ariobarzanes), +3 Personal Security

[Orb]

Much improved from the original, I think.
Plus, I have side-stories aplenty to add :D

[Orb]

Enter Menandros and Uncle Philippos, in the background, a pair of workmen are painting a Pontic emblem over a Hellenic (KH) flag (chalked onto a wall) with Greek slogans on it, one being ‘diaphthere ten archen moron’. The others generally make nasty references.

Menandros: Uncle, I appreciate the offer, but I’d prefer to stay here.
Uncle: My only nephew wishes to stay under the yoke of Persian tyranny?
Menandros: Prince Ariobarzanes has offered me a position as his left-hand-guard. I can’t…
Uncle: PRINCE?! You think of some Asian man with a particularly scheming heart as your prince.
Menandros: He deserves the title. His actions may seem dubious, but his intentions are noble.
Uncle: Damn this idiocy. Boy, you are coming with me, on my ship, back to Rhodes, where you bloody well belong. I will not have my only nephew corrupted by these glorified faggots.
He grips Menandros' arm.
Menandros: I am going to fight on behalf of my Prince; you can take your jaded tongue to your beloved kings of Greece and…
Uncle: I will not stand for this!
Menandros: You have no choice in the matter!
Some of the extras, who are walking around and carrying out things in the background stop and stare.
Uncle: Listen, boy, unjust rulers are always punished. Your ‘prince’ is getting punished, there was a bloody riot against him. Nearly a hundred of his soldiers were killed!
Menandros: And you don’t know.
Uncle: WHAT?
Menandros: I’ll tell you what happened. Ariathres, second Prince, decided that it was right to return weapons confiscated when the city was stormed to their owners. That idiot who follows him around handed them to the wrong people. The owners, wanting their armour and spears back, went to the town square to get the weapons returned but the crooks decided to attack the rightful owners before they were told to surrender the weapons. The Pontic soldiers there intervened, even though many of them were in civilian garb, and not armed with more than belt knives. They died to protect the good men and punish the bad.
Uncle stands, surprised
Uncle: Perhaps I was mistaken. Still, I can’t stay here, the bastards might take my ship.
Enter Euridike, she is a short-ish, immensely pretty, half-Greek half-Persian.
Menandros: Did you get too much trouble from the jeweller?
Euridike: None at all.
Menandros: Glad to hear it. Uncle, meet Euridike.
Uncle (embarrassed): How do you do?
Euridike: Fine, thank you.
Uncle (to Menandros): I can see why you wanted to stay.
Menandros (in reply): I’m taking care of her for Alkimos - she’s his sister.
Uncle: Alkimos, wasn’t that the assassin?
Menandros: Don’t judge him ‘til you meet him, he’s a good man.
Uncle (to all): Well, I must go. I have business to attend to in Rhodes.
Euridike: Please visit again, it wouldn’t be courteous of me not to recognise you in the light of all the help Menandros has given me here. We need an overseer of trade for the town, as the last one was killed in the riot. Would you, a merchant of note, be willing to pick out a suitable man?
Uncle (going red): Well, let me sort out my business in Rhodes first. I’ll tell them about the riot’s events. That should calm some tensions. Then I’ll come and oversee it personally. Menandros, how’s the training going? Is your underarm stab still that awful…
The voices are drowned out by background noise, as the new Pontic emblem on the wall raises to let them pass.

----
Just a simple bit of dialogue to show some background events. It was slightly annoying to lose almost a 100 men because Ariathres managed to acquire a pet idiot and the jobsworth trait at the end of a turn and cause a riot from formerly 80% public order.
Ancillaries added: Uncle Phil (Ariathres) (Management +1, Trade +10), Menandros (Ariobarzanes) (Personal Security +1, Unrest -1)

[Fondor_Yards]

Interesting approace you have here, keep up the good work.

[Orb]

Some custom ancillaries have been added, and the next installment is approaching.

[Ower]

I like the story, realy interesting

[Orb]

A dream for each
The entire sequence is done in red lighting

Dream of Ktistes
Enter ho Pais (Ktistes is in a large, luxurious double bed)
Ktistes: Who is this boy, who thus disturbs my sleep?
Pais: No-one, king, except an admirer.
Ktistes: Why are you here?
Pais: To show you two futures, which you have prompted.
Ktistes: Alright, show me.
Pais: The first approaches. Follow, so as not to miss it.
Exit Pais, with Ktistes behind him. Lighting dims

Dream of Ariobarzanes
A woman and Ariobarzanes are lying in the bed as the lighting reappears.
Ariobarzanes: Why did you wake me?
Gyne: Some harmless fun.
She kisses him
Ariobarzanes: Your voice – are you feeli…
Gyne: Don’t protest. Two sights are awaiting you.
Ariobarzanes: I don’t…
Gyne: Understand? You don’t have to. Come with me, I will show you.
Exit Gyne with Ariobarzanes in tow. Lighting dims.

Dream of Gyges
Enter ho stratiotes. Gyges is on the bed.
Gyges: Is the sword I ordered ready?
Stratiotes: Yes, but there is a more pressing matter.
Gyges: Has there been another riot? Do they need me to finish off some barely armed thugs again?
Stratiotes: It’s more important than that. Watch closely.
Gyges: Watch what?
Stratiotes: Something you will see. Keep up.
Lighting dims

Dream of Menandros
Menandros is in the bed when the lighting reappears. Enter ho Geron.
Menandros: Uncle, how are you finding the ‘vile occupa…’
Geron: I am not your uncle.
Menandros springs up, reaching for a dagger on a bedside table.
Geron: Calm yourself. I haven’t permission to deal with you.
Menandros: Who are you?
Geron grips his arm.
Geron: You don’t need to know. Keep up.
Exit Geron, dragging Menandros with him. Lighting dims.

Dream of Alkimos
Enter he Parthenos. Alkimos is nowhere to be seen.
Parthenos: Wake up, spy.
Alkimos rolls out from under the bed, a dagger in his hand. He draws it back; then he sees he is confronted by a woman.
Parthenos: A vision will appear to you soon. The best men will watch with you.
Alkimos: Watch what, lady?
Parthenos: I do not know.
Alkimos: I shall go.
Parthenos: Good, I knew you would.
Exit Parthenos, Alkimos follows. Lighting dims.

Enter the boy, the woman, the smith, the old man and the maiden, each followed by their respective target, as appropriate (the woman touches Ariobarzanes flirtatiously, the Old Man drags Menandros)

The gods arrange the five men in a small semi-circle, with Ktistes at the centre, Ariobarzanes on his right, and Alkimos on his left. Gyges is on the right of Ariobarzanes, while Menandros is on the left side of Alkimos.

The gods speak, standing behind their targets.

Boy: I, Hermes, was sent to bring the greatest.
Woman: I, Aphrodite, was sent to choose my favourite.
Soldier: I, Ares, was sent to summon the strongest.
Old Man: I, Hades, was sent to take the kindest.
Maiden: I, Athene, was sent to draw here the cleverest.

All Gods: Here comes the first vision. Watch closely.
Enter a dozen Antiochene soldiers, who move forwards and clasp in iron fetters the unarmed and defenceless men of Pontos. The men are clearly struggling to move, even before they are fettered.

Hades: Soon you will meet me, if you forsake the weapons offered.

All Gods: Here comes the second vision. Watch closely.

The soldiers step back, and the men of Pontos stretch their arms. The fetters snap and each god hands a spear and shield to the man in front of him. The Pontic men charge at the Seleucids, cutting down many of them in little time. The rest flee. Gyges especially should give an impression of immense power, ability and confidence in combat.

Ares: But with my tools, men will tremble at your names.
Athena, Aphrodite and Hermes: But is it worth it?

Exeunt the Gods, as the lighting dims to a darker and darker red, until it finally becomes black. Aphrodite kisses Ariobarzanes before she leaves. All Gods except Ares take back the weapons and shields they have granted (thus Gyges is left with spear and shield).
Exeunt.

-----
Edit - Since the Indigo colour alone wasn't distinct enough, and the bolding wouldn't go with it, the Gods remain only as bolded beings.

[Ludens]

~:thumb:

[Ower]

Cool, using the gods this activly in a AAR is realy cool

[Tellos Athenaios]

Very nice AAR - and here's some approach I never saw before. Keep it up! :2thumbsup:

[Rilder]

This is a very cool and very differen aar, good work.

[Orb]

2 More Years done.
A lot has happened.

The feedback's encouraging :balloon:

I'll try to get some bits written up today. Edit: not coming today, got pushed off main computer.

The active use of Gods is basically pinched from Greek drama. Sorry if I confuse by adding some names in Greek. Normally it's intentional.

[Boyar Son]

Yikes! does no one like the seluecids?

Great AAR! the story is most interesting. People should read this with AoM music in the background:2thumbsup:

[Intranetusa]

Yikes! does no one like the seluecids?

Great AAR! the story is most interesting. People should read this with AoM music in the background:2thumbsup:

I love the Seleucids because they are the only one who can stand up to my millitary :D. They are the last great challenge to my empire --> fun

[Boyar Son]

In alot of the AAR's I read people write that the seluecids are warmongers. The Greek minority controls the eastern majority. It's not fair people make them seem imperial by default, it was their leaders whom they did not choose.

[Xtiaan72]

Damn you and your "Exhaulted One"!!! Just joking. Pontis is giving me fits in my AAR so I will be checking in to see how your doing. Nice work but are you planning any pics?

[Orb]

In alot of the AAR's I read people write that the seluecids are warmongers. The Greek minority controls the eastern majority. It's not fair people make them seem imperial by default, it was their leaders whom they did not choose.

There is a very good reason:

The Seleucids are The Bad Guys.

I'm writing a play, I need a clear black and white villain :laugh4:

If I were using a different format, they would probably be more blurred, particularly if I was further away from them.

Then I would have the possibilities of Romans being The Bad Guys.

Anyhow, this is going to get some more updates, but my computer just got owned (Orbs.computer.justgotowned.com) so the story won't be progressing until it's fixed.

[Boyar Son]

Now that was funny! too bad there isnt a stop button!

Still looking forward to your AAR's

[Ludens]

Anyhow, this is going to get some more updates, but my computer just got owned (Orbs.computer.justgotowned.com) so the story won't be progressing until it's fixed.
Did you manage to fix it or is this AAR dead?

[Orb]

The computer's redied in the middle of my more recent Lusotannan one (the Pontic Campaign was lost forever). I might try to revive the concept, but the AAR as it is isn't going to be continued.

[Ludens]

The computer's redied in the middle of my more recent Lusotannan one (the Pontic Campaign was lost forever). I might try to revive the concept, but the AAR as it is isn't going to be continued.
Pity.