[EB AAR] Pontos Rising

[FriendlyFire]

Chapter 29: The Carthaginian Campaign - Into Numidia, 183 - 180 BC

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Despite the loss of their great fortress and barracks at Kart-Hadast, Carthaginian armies continued to strongly resist the Pontic invaders. For a year, Zenon Kianos had to defend Kart-Hadast and Atiqa, countering feints and counter-marches by small Carthaginian forces. Finally his nephew Ochos Kianos arrived by sea with enough reinforcements to support a new offensive. Dull of mind and spirit, Ochos had shown little promise as a general, but he was even less suited to rule Kart-Hadast in Zenon's place. Therefore, Zenon remained trapped in Kart-Hadast by the need to pacify and rule his conquests, and it fell to Ochos to lead the Pontic armies further west into Numidia. The next obvious target was the coastal city of Ippone, where Ochos landed in 182 BC.



Ochos's army was immediately attacked by the new Carthaginian Shophet, who opened the battle by charging his large contingent of bodyguards into the Pontic phalanx, creating a gap that Liby-Phoenicians then tried to exploit. Following the advice given to him before the battle by Zenon, Ochos tried to flank this headlong charge with his own bodyguard and the Pontic chariots - but his timing was poor, and their charge ineffectual. Bested in hand-to-hand combat, Ochos and his bodyguards were forced to withdraw from the fight, and in desperation he called for his last reserves of light Numidian cavalry. Eventually, somewhere in the melee, the Shophet fell with a javelin in the side, and as the broken Carthaginian troops fled Ochos found that he had won his first victory. The cost was high, with many Pontic chariots lying broken on the ground after being trapped in the melee, but the most unexpected change was that in Ochos himself. From being a somewhat ineffectual man ruled by a coterie of silent advisers, Ochos was transformed into a warrior driven by a hatred of the sons of Ba'al, and he was to rely ever after on a small circle of friends and erstwhile enemies who had stood on the field with him that day. Truly, the winds of war blow strange changes over men.







The winds of war were not to blow fair on Ippone, now defended by those Carthaginian troops who had escaped the battlefield. They were too few to stop the vengeful wrath of Ochos as he urged his army on in looting and slaughter, and it is said that the city burned for days afterwards.





Many even claim that the city was still blackened rubble when a large Carthaginian relief force finally arrived the following year. Besieged within the city, Ochos sent word to Zenon of his predicament. Thankfully by this time there was relative peace within Kart-Hadast, allowing Zenon to lead an army to relieve the siege. Again a Carthaginian general clad in purple opened the battle by charging a Pontic line, but as he did this his army was being torn apart behind his back by Zenon's forces. Even the great elephant war-beasts, pride of Carthage, were tormented and finally brought down by javelins thrown by local Numidian horsemen who owed their allegiance to a new master.









Again a few defeated survivors fled to the nearest strongpoint, which this time was the hill-top hamlet of Kirtan. There a new general had raised a host of local troops, mainly Garamantines paid for with Carthaginian silver. When the Pontic army approached to lay siege, this mass of defenders surged out of the wall-less town, and there was a great struggle before Ochos and his phalanx could even reach the outskirts. The turning-point came with the death of the Carthaginian commander, when the locals turned as one and fled for the safety of Kirtan's square, only to find that their numbers were too great for easy escape down the narrow streets. Ochos now led his bodyguards in a frenzy of killing, riding into the struggling mass and swinging his weapon until he became a red specter of death, covered with gore from head to toe.













Another Carthaginian army had been defeated, and another Carthaginian town had fallen, but as Ochos looked west he saw the enormity of the task before him. To wipe out the last of the sons of Ba'al he would have to chase them to the ends of the earth, and even as he did this his advisors reminded him of the tenuous supply lines to his rear. There his cousin Megabazos, the king's son, was fighting a strange war in the great inland desert…

[FriendlyFire]

Chapter 30: The Carthaginian Campaign - The Desert, 183-180 BC

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

When Zenon had marched to challenge the Carthaginians in their homelands, he had left his son Megabazos Kianos to guard the coastal supply road and the small ports along the way. For a time this had been an easy assignment, as Carthage concentrated its efforts in the north, but as the seasons passed new Carthaginian armies were spotted in the deserts nearby. In 183 BC one of these armies besieged the coastal port of Lepki, and Megabazos marched to relieve the town.



To augment his few phalangites, Megabazos had recruited many local Gallic mercenaries, and when the battle lines crashed these bore the brunt of the fighting, pitting their long-swords against the spears of the Carthaginians. Lacking the close ranks of a Hellenic army, the Gauls were unable to stop the Carthaginian general from leading his bodyguards entirely through their lines – but then a Balearic sling-shot toppled the general from his horse, and his remaining bodyguards fled in terror. As the rout became complete, old tribal vengeances resurfaced, and Numidian cavalrymen in the pay of Pontos chased down Garamantine infantry who had been bought with Carthaginian silver. The victory was a cheap one for Megabazos.









To put an end to the threat from the desert, Megabazos realized that he had to root out and destroy the source of the Garamantines, in the town of Garama. It took two years of scouting and seemingly unending marches to even reach the town walls, as a second Carthaginian army shadowed the Pontic troops through the desert, occasionally breaking off to threaten Lepki and forcing Megabazos to turn his army around and march back the way they had came. Finally in 181 BC he succeeded in shaking off the Carthaginian army and besieging the stone walls of Garama, which was only defended by a token garrison.





Quickly throwing ladders against the walls, the Pontic troops swarmed over at an undefended spot, establishing themselves on the streets of Garama before the Carthaginian governor realized what was happening. Seeking to buy time for his handful of defenders, the governor then led his bodyguards in a doomed charge into the midst of the Gallic and Hellenic mercenaries of Megabazos. A derisive cheer went up as he was soon brought down from his horse, and the rising dust from the parched city streets covered his grisly end. Finally the Gauls advanced on the town square, sweating profusely in their heavy chainmail but secure in its impregnability against the simple wooden spears of the final desperate defenders. The end came swiftly, and Garama paid the price as half of its troublesome inhabitants were sold into slavery.









The desert war was over, at least for now, as Megabazos had secured the supply lines to the front.

Next chapter: vying for glory in the Armenian mountains!

[Basileus_ton_Basileon]

Bravo! You're inspiring me to make good on my Pontos campaign (which only consists of Mikra Asia and the Bosphores).

[FriendlyFire]

Bravo! You're inspiring me to make good on my Pontos campaign (which only consists of Mikra Asia and the Bosphores).

That's the perfect opening position - defensible and rich enough to support an offensive in any direction. Or all of them, if you're crazy enough :)

[FriendlyFire]

Chapter 31: The Armenian Campaign, 183 - 180 BC

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

In the mountains of Armenia, two great powers had been assembling armies and facing off against one another. The Pontic forces were concentrated in forts around Kotais in the west, while in the east the Seleucids had been cementing their grip on the old Hay strongholds of Mtskheta and Aramvir. By 182 BC, enough new troops had arrived from the Pontic heartlands for Gobryanos Kianos to lead an army across the border, directly challenging the Seleucids. And to his south, Arses Gordianos lead a second army to protect his flank.





Through the campaigning season of 182 BC, Gobryas Kianos led his troops eastwards in a series of battles against the Seleucids. Always he sought out the high ground, where he could plant his phalangites and watch the Seleucids throw themselves futilely against a line of pikes.









As the year drew to a close and snow covered the ground, the Pontic army reached and assaulted the walls of the old Hay city of Mtskheta, defended by the current Seleukid basilieus and a handful of picked phalangites. These veteran troops inflicted more losses on the army of Gobryas Kianos than it had suffered in the whole of the previous year, but sheer weight of numbers - and a charge led by Gobryas himself - eventually carried the day.







After overwintering in Mtskheta, Gobryas Kianos led his wearied troops out again in the spring of 181 BC, to lay siege to the large Seleucid garrison in the neighboring city of Aramvir. Taking the lead this year would be Arses Gordianos, who moved his fresh army up from the flank to take a blocking position in front of Aramvir. With forts to protect their flanks, they stood here for the entire campaigning season, holding their ground as a second wave of Seleucid armies launched desperate attacks in an attempt to reach and break the siege of Aramvir. As the seasons progressed the Seleucid armies decreased in quality: in the first battle phalangites were led by proud generals, but later their numbers were padded by levy spearmen, and finally the Seleucids resorted to simply hiring Greek mercenary hoplites. All were ground to dust, as Arses and his army became veteran killers.



















By 180 BC, there were no more Seleucid armies roaming through Armenia - but now the Hay had returned from over the mountains, looking to regain their ancestral homelands with a large army of native spear- and swords-men. And so as Gobryas Kianos maintained the siege of Aramvir, Arses Gordianos led his army north, to reinforce the words of diplomats with the threat of steel. The message was clear: the lands of Armenia and Hayasdan were now a province of the kingdom of Pontos, and no more independence would be allowed…

[DionCaesar]

I'm really enjoying this AAR :). Although I'm only at chapter 7 now, I really want to see how this story unfolds. Especially after seeing that this is one of the very few commited AAR's that go past the year 265, I'm very eager to read on.

Good job!

[FriendlyFire]

Chapter 32: The Mesopotamian Campaign, 183-180 BC

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The third and final front where the Pontic kingdom expanded during 183 - 180 BC was into the fertile river plains of Mesopotamia. Once the stronghold of the Seleukid empire, these lands were currently held by the Ptolemaioi, after they had been evicted from their lands along the Nile by Hystapis Kianos in the 220s. Now the young Neoptolemos Kianos would lead a series of strikes to throw them out of Mesopotamia as well. Already a veteran at 24, he had the charm and energy of a natural general, but no loyalty to anyone other than himself.



Again, two small Pontic armies would be used, one protecting the flanks of the other. Neoptolemos lead the first, which was immediately challenged by a Ptolemaioi army of roughly equal size and strength. The Pontic phalangites stood firm on a slight rise, but the lines swayed to and fro for some time before Neoptolemos caught the Ptolemaioi general between two sweeping wings of cavalry and decisively ended the battle.









Leading the two armies eastward in 182 BC, Neoptolemos now besieged the city of Arbela. A small Ptolemaioi relief force combined with the much larger garrison of Arbela, while the second Pontic army reinforced that of Neoptolemos. Both sides avoided battle until they could marshal their forces, allowing Neoptolemos to form one of the longest phalanx lines ever deployed by a Pontic general. Seen from the Ptolemaioi side, this appeared as a vast semi-circle on a low hill-top. The Ptolemaioi brought up their own phalanx blocks in response, together with a huge contingent of cavalry that soon threatened to break through the center of the Pontic line. For a second time, Neoptolemos swung his bodyguard around the flanks to kill a Ptolemaioi general, but this time he won a city along with the battle.











The following year Neoptolemos and his combined armies were besieged in Arbela by an even larger Seleukid force that had come down out of the mountains. Technically the Ptolemaioi and Seleukids were still at war, but in practice these both reserved their hostility for the upstart Pontic kingdom. However, in this case the Seleukids had sacrificed quality for quantity, simply collecting a huge mass of Persian archers and levy spearmen from the east and marching them up to the city walls. Once Neoptolemos's phalangites came of the gates onto an open field, these lowly troops melted away like dew on a hot morning. Indeed, it is said that more Pontic troops suffered wounds from each other's weapons than ever were inflicted by enemy spears and arrows, due to the confusion and killing-frenzy when the Seleukid army broke and fled for the mountains.







Much heartened by this victory, Neoptolemos now split his armies again, leaving one to garrison Arbela while he marched south with the other. As soon as he crossed the border into the great plains of Mesopotamia he was attacked by a Ptolemaic army from Seleukeia. Unlike the Seleukids, the Ptolemaioi sent quality troops, including fearsome thorakitai infantry and Babylonian spearmen. Setting his phalanx as best he could amongst the palm-trees, Neoptolemos outlasted the heavier Ptolemaioi troops, letting themselves wear themselves out in their heavy armor in the summer heat. Soon they were routing from the field, leaving the way open for Neoptolemos's victorious army to march on through Mesopotomia and besiege Seleukeia itself.







Had the Ptolemaioi governor of Seleukeia not sent his best troops into the field to die, he could have mounted a substantial defense of the city, but now he had too small and too poor an army to adequately man the walls. Neoptolemos's thureophoroi were first up the ladders, finding only light-armed missile troops in their way. Quickly overcoming this resistance, the thureophoroi opened the gates and descended into the city streets, hurled javelins at the last of the oncoming Ptolemaioi garrison, and then made way for the final clash of phalanxes and generals. Thus did the once-great capital of the Seleukid empire, temporarily occupied by their Ptolemaioi enemies, now fall to Pontos.













As in Carthage, so in Mesopotamia: the sudden fall and slaughter of one great city will always cause some in neighboring cities to decide that it's better to appease the invaders than to resist them. To speed this along, Pontic spies began quietly spreading rumors in neighboring Babylon about "Neoptolemos the butcher", his terrible wrath that must surely soon fall on the Babylonians, and the ready supply of Pontic silver that awaited any who would let a few troops into the city to end it all quickly and without bloodshed. These words fell on eager ears, and half a year after Seleukeia had fallen the Babylonians woke one morning to find Pontic phalangites swarming through mysteriously-opened gates. The stout Parthian spearmen that formed the core of the city garrison resisted for a time, but even they broke and ran when Neoptolemos led his bodyguards in a thundering charge down the ancient streets.













Sadly for the Babylonians, a rumor never comes with a promise, and having taken the ancient city by force Neoptolemos proceeded to sell half of its inhabitants into slavery. "Neoptolemos the butcher" had found his true calling, and Babylon had a new master.

[FriendlyFire]

Here's the world in 180 BC, with red arrows showing my advances over the past three years: west into Africa (both along the coast and into the desert), and east into the Armenian mountains and the Mesopotamian plains.



Compare to my last snapshot from 194 BC (I made this one larger so the arrows were easier to draw)



Note that the Aedui and Casse are still hanging on to their little corners of Gaul (go go Asterix!). Rome is still fighting furiously against both the Lusotanna and the Getai. Hellas is still a crazy three-way battle between Epeiros, Makedonia, and the Koinon Hellenon. The Hai are on their last legs, and in the east the Arche Seleukeia are forcing back Pahlava and the Saba, pushing into India and the Arabian Peninsula.

[Populus Romanus]

Go Romani! It looks like your rear in Aigyptos may be exposed to a Ptolemaioi attack.