Conquest and A game of Empires: A Seleucid AAR

[seleucid empire]

Hello, this is going to be my first AAR and im not the best writer so i hope you'll treat me kindly. This will be a mid-game AAR with my favourite Faction which is of course the Seleucid empire. The first few chapters will have few pics because i didnt really know how to take any before today. So enjoy! and feedback or criticism of any kind is welcomed. (SORRY FOR THE GAME OF THRONES RIP-OFF NAME)
Played on H/M
Also note i mite add pictures or edit the post in between chapters so keep checking :)

1. Introduction to the Warrior Kings of Seleucia
Winter of 125 BC, inside the Great school of Antioch, a group of young nobles await their tutor, an elderly man walks in


"greetings students, my name is Menalous of Alexandria and i will replace Cleitus as your tutor. Today we begin our history lessons on the Warrior Kings of the Seleucid Empire, whom many of you are related to be blood or are direct decendants"

A few groans escaped the class. Menalous sighed. He remembered well how boring history lessons during his youth were.

"I believe Cleitus has taught you about Seleukos, the founder of our glorious empire and Antiochus I, so i will move onto Antiochus II Theos and his two brothers for today's lesson. Do you all have your papyri open? Good lets begin"



"Antiochus II Theos is possibly the greatest King of the Seleucid Empire to this day. When he inherited the Kingdom in 270 BC [lets pretend BC stands for something else ;)], there were enemies attacking from all sides and the future of seleuko's Kingdom looked bleak. In the autumn of the year of his coronation, he devised a daring plan which still puzzle many generals today. Firstly, he ordered all of the garrison troops and standing battalions between Syria and Persia to congregate at Antioch. Most Kings would not have done this as it would leave the heartlands open to rebel attacks. Then he spent the remaining treasury money on a unit of medium cavalry, 1000 strong, the prodomoi. His third order was that his older brother Alexandros Syriakos would join him at Antioch with his personal retinue of heavy cavalry. He also ordered his youngest brother Sarepedon to gather whatever forces he could and attack the Ptolemaic holdings in Asia minor and the islands of the Mediterranean.

Ah yes, why did Theodoros inherit the throne instead of his older brother Alexander you ask? simple. Alexander was deemed too incapable by Antiochus I to rule or manage the empire

Anyway, after he gathered his forces, he began one of the most brilliant campaigns in military history, only matched by those of Alexander the Great, Cyrus the Great, Hannibal, Nikeratos the reformer and perhaps Kleon of Kolesyria. His military genius was staggering and he took Sidon, Jerusalem, and Alexandria within 2 years, The battle of Alexandria shows the brilliance of Theodoros, when he won a overwhelming victory dispite being outnumbered by the Ptolemai 40 000 to 26 000. The ptolemai also had professional galatians and phalanxes while Cleon only had pandapotai phalanxes, levy slingers and the combined cavalry force of his and his brothers' retinues. The key to hs success was his ability to take cities quite quickly. He never besieged a town for more time than it took to build the siege engines. Later in his life, he was given the nickname 'Wall-Breaker"

After the siege of Alexandria and Memphis, he continued west and left Alexandros in charge of the city with instructions to arm the greeks and defend the city using the Ptolemaic treasury and start the new front south when appropriate. In a quick succession of battles, Theodoros conquered all of Africa and Libya west of Lepki including the famed oasis of Siwa and returned to Alexandria. Meanwhile his brother Sarepedon had successfully ousted the Ptolemai in Asia minor and Cyprus. What was surprising though was that he had managed to take Rhodes and Halicarnassus as well, giving the empire control of all of the southern asia minor and the eastern Mediterranean. Theodoros sent a letter of congratulations as well as a portion of the loot from Egypt to Sarepedon and asked his brother to gather a new army to invade galatia and Pergamon, two Kingdoms which had been a constant threat to their holdings in Mikra Asia. By the time Theodoros returned to Alexandria, his older brother Alexandros was already in Nubia besieging the last great Ptolemaic city of Pselkis. Soon the three brothers Theodoros, Alexandros and Sarepedon were famous for their victories and the other great empires began to tremble at the thought of facing all three brothers united. When Theodoros entered Alexandria again 2 years after he had sacked it, he recieved two messages. One good and One bad. The first message told of Sarepedon's victories over both ankyra and Pergamon. He had also expelled the Macedonians from Asia minor by taking Mytenile. The second message was grim. The armies of Pontus has crossed the border and besieged Mazaka and Ankyra with a total force of 120 000 mercenaries, levies and heavy cavalry. They had declared war on the Arche, in what would be known as the short but incredibly bloody Pontic Wars. Lets leave it here for now and we'll continue tomorrow"

[seleucid empire]

2. The Pontic Wars
The pontic forces with their advantage of surprise and overwhelming numbers should easily have won the war and taken Asia minor from the depleted army of Sarepedon. However their lack of experience in siege warfare and the inexperience of their King caused their downfall. The Pontic King Ariobarzanes split his army into 4 separate forces of 30 000 men each and sent one to Pergamon, one to Galatia, one to hunt down Sarepedon's forces and lead one into Cappadokia. He believed that the army of Sarepedon about 15 000 strong, was too weak to engage in any of his armies. This was a major miscalculation on his part as the men of Sarepedon were veterans of the Seleucid conquest of Asia Minor, Cyprus and Rhodes, many of them had been fighting with Sarepedon for the last 7 years. They knew every inch of the ground they were defending and unknown to the Pontic King, their numbers had been boosted by Galatian mercenaries. When the pontic commander tasked with finding Sarepedon marched into Seleucid lands, he was ambushed near Sardis and his entire army destroyed. Sarepedon's army was about 30 000 strong by now and he marched up to engage the second pontic force near Pergamon. He won a Pyrrhic victory there destroying the Pontic army but losing more than half his men to the heavy cavalry and chariots of the enemy. The 3rd Pontic army successfully conquered Galatia and quickly conquered the Kingdom of Bithynia

Sarpedon sent out a call of help to his brothers in the south but he knew that by the time they arrived Asia Minor would be overrun. The message was intercepted at Antioch by its governor, a man named Euletes Charakos Medikou, who was eager to find out how the war was going. He knew Antioch would be threatened if Cappadokia fell and after reading the message he decided to act. He raised an army in Syria and called for all nearby mercenary bands to join his army. Meanwhile unknown to either Ariozarbanes, Euletes or Sarepedon, Theodoros the Great had landed with his royal army on the coast of Asia Minor near Side

Once the pontic king became aware of this, he withdrew his army from Cappadokia and began to raise new forces. Theodoros sent orders to Sarepedon to attack Bithynia and force marched his entire army to Galatia. The pontic army levied for the defence of Galatia numbering 34 000 attacked the Royal army numbering 20 000 but were completely wiped out by Theo's veterans leaving Galatia free for the taking. Sarepedon was successful in conquering Bithynia and began to raise local support to defend Nikaia. Theodoros then marched east and took the Capital of Amaesea. Eulete's army arrived after the siege and he was ordered to attack sinope, the last major city of the pontic kingdom. he was also given a unit of Theodoro's veteran phalangites.

Euletes met the Pontic army just outside Sinope in one of the bloodiest battles of the generation


Because the Pontic invasion force was almost completely destroyed, Ariozarbanes Kianos raised 10 000 levies in addition to his 30 000 troops. In this battle the levied pandaptai would prove very effective in pinning down the seleucid phalanx. The pontic army also had an advantage in heavy cavalry, having some 4 000 kinsmen cavalry while Euletes only had 1 000 gallic mercenaries, 1000 thessalians and his own retinue of 400 hetairos. The battle began with skirmishing on both sides, before the infantry clashed.
The pontic King's royal foot guards prove effective even against the veteran Pzehetairoi

The Pontic cavalry proved devastating against the seleucid fanks and the battle looked like it was over. However, the last minute, Euletes charges in with his bodyguard and kills Ariozarbanes, who believing the battle was won, had become reckless. The gallic cavalry in reserve then flanked the ponti royal hoplites who fled immediately. The rest of the army, seeing their champions flee, followed suit, earning Euletes an overwhelming victory and a place for his name in the histories as the man who destoyed Pontus




Theodoros then conquered Byzantium, giving him control of the Hellespont. This would prove to be the start of another bloody war, this time with the epirotes, which would go on to consume all of greece

[seleucid empire]

Is anyone actually reading this???
oh and sorry i know i said it would be a mid game AAR but i just had to include the history of my faction leaders because each fo them has been awesome and with different army fighting styles (because of location)

[seleucid empire]

3. The Seleucid-Greek Wars
The Epirotes were the dominant force in the Balkans at the time and had been building up their forces from their new capital Pella. Their original plan was to send those forces to Serdike, destroying the last of the exiled macedonians before concentrating their forces south on the Konion Hellion Alliance. However, Antiochus II Theo's attack on Byzantium alarmed the Epirote King Ptolemaios Aikaldes who decided to make peace with both Macedon and the League and focus on driving out the rising empire from the continent.

The Epirote forces were 90 000 strong with an addition attachment of 10 000 mercenaries. When Antiochus became aware of the mobilization of the entire epirote army, he knew he would have to make a choice: To defend Byzantium against the epirotes while waiting for reinforcements or to push on with his lone army against all the forces of Greece. His decision was an easy one

To push on was a very dangerous choice. He was still at war with the Greek Alliance, who wouldn't accept ceasefire without the return of Rhodes and with the Macedonians who would not accept ceasefire from the Seleucids, who had betrayed them. In addition to the 100 000 epirotes, he would have to fight 80 000 Greek Troops and 40 000 Macedonian troops with just his royal army. Antiochus Marched to Pella, destroying one epirote army who attempted to relieve the siege. As soon as the siege engines were ready he assaulted Pella, despite the Garrison being equal in numbers to his own forces. Using his veteran phalangites to block certain streets he was able to destroy the garrison with few casualties. Meanwhile Alexandros had conquered Meroe and Axum and sent a message to Antiochus II Theodoros, promising his brother that he would come and assist in the invasion as soon as he had set up a proper government in Meroe. This filled Antiochus with hope and he continued west to Epirus after building some fortresses in the north and south of Pella. He sent a message to Sarepedon, asking him to bring the veterans of Asia minor as reinforcements.

The Epirotes had been destroyed defending Pella and the siege of Epidamnos and Ambrakia were relatively short affairs. Antiochus Marched west into Thessaly but he decided that the Greek Force of 80 000 opposing him would cause too many casualties to his army to continue campaigning. Meanwhile Sarepedon had arrived at Pella with his forces. So the next half a year was taken up by maneuvering by both armies to get the better position. What the greeks were unaware of was that Alexandros had landed with Newly conscripted Alexandrian Greeks in southern Peloponnese. Theodoro's "maneuvering" was in fact just a ruse to draw the greek forces from their heartlands. Finding the Greek lands undefended, Alexander Quickly took Athens, Chalkis, Corinth and Sparte before coming up behind the Greek Forces and crushing them in a vice.

After the brothers had taken Demetrius, shocking news reached them. Their brother Sarepedon had been assasinated by a Greek assassin. This event shook the brothers to their core and filled the King with anger. He began to massacre the Greeks in his newly conquered cities. Over 400 000 Epirotes and Greeks were slaughtered in the next 3 months.

Theodoros then finished his campaign by Taking Thermon, Serdike and Tylis, thus wiping out the Macedonians. Alexander was then travelled by ship to syria to organise the invasion of the northern Arabian lands while Antiocus Theodoros marched overland to syria to consolidate his rule on Asia minor.


So students we can see once again the brilliance of Theodoros. He managed to conquer Greece in less than 6 years against superior forces

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4. The Armenian Campaign, A New alliance, Heir to the throne
When Theodoros reached Antioch, he refit many of his veterans with new equipment and handed out land, creating a bigger class of pzehetarioroi and nobles. The greek campaign and the assassination of Sarepedon had changed the King. He decided that as long as there were kingdoms on our borders there would always be war, so his strategy was to strike first and as hard as possible. He gathered his royal army and in a incredibly fast campaign subdued all of Armenia which became known as the "Armenian Blitz". The reason for his quick campaign was the fact that all of the Hayasdan armies were out on the steppes fighting the Sarmatian Federation. Theodoros took all of Armenia in 3 years and without reinforcements, the Armenian armies in the steppes were destroyed by the horse archers


The Sarmatian horselords then thanked Theodoros for his assistance against the Hayasdan and cemented an alliance with the seleucid empire. In the west, the Great Roman empire sent diplomats to our king asking for an alliance. Theodoros gladly accepted and the world shook in fear as the Greatest empire of the east and the Greatest empire in the west united. Only Carthage, the second greatest people in the west seemed unconcerned about this alliance, feeling secure in their homelands of North Africa.

The King was getting old now and he knew he needed to find a replacement for the throne who could mirror his achievements. Without a King as competent as himself, he knew that the Empire he created would crumble. His son kallinokos should have been the heir, however, Theodoros realized that Kallinokos was unsuitable as he was lazy and arrogant, so he picked his grandson Nikeratos instead


However, The King wanted to make sure of his choice so he asked Nikeratos to accompany him to invade the east. Theodoros never made it to Parthia. He died peacefully near the Parthian Seleucid Border at 63 years of age. The greatest King of the Seleucid empire, who defeated 5 of the Empires most powerful enemies, the man who secured all of the west, south and north, the man who filled the empire with gold and slaves from conquered foes, was dead.


When the will of the King was read in the court of Antioch, Kallinokos was infuriated to discover that he was not the new King but his estranged son was. However, Kallinokos was never popular, held no influence over the court and had no army so he did not attempt to usurp the new King. After receiving messages of support from the lords of Antioch, Nikeratos breathed a sigh of relief and continued onto Parthia with his grandfather's army

Also of note was that the Great general Alexandros also passed away in the same year. He was the greatest general of the empire after theodoros himself and played a crucial role in the Egyptian and Greek Campaigns. He was also the conqueror of eastern and western arabia and was considered a great man by all, second only to Antiochus II Theodoros 'The Great'


Map of Theodoros' Campaigns


Map of Alexander's campaigns

[seleucid empire]

Map of Alexander's campaigns