Sygrod
09-15-2007, 16:42
After having plentiful CTDs (probably due to hardware issues), I decided to start from the beginning for some variation. Baktria had become a superpower, Rome was castrated by Qart Hadastim, and I was fighting with makedonia, Ptolemaioi and the thoroughly crushed AS (Arche Seleukeia).
Pontos starts with only one province and a large, expensive army. It is surrounded by mostly Eleutheroi, allied with Koinon Hellenon and one AS province (Mazaka) to the south east. Pontos is at war with Ptolemaioi and is allied with AS.
There was nowhere I could make a swift campaign without going bankrupt and the threat of being attacked was nearly non-existent. Therefore, I got rid of the expensive troops, recruited a couple of eastern slingers and waited. I spent all I could on economic improvements. Then I discovered that Sila to the south and on the Mediterranean shore was lightly defended. I sent a small expeditionary force of 2 generals and 2 slinger units and took the town after a small skirmish. Next turn, already, a ptolemaioi diplomat showed up and offered peace. "It'll cost you 500 Mnai", I replied and so peace it was. The turns were going by. Most of my activity consisted of moving two spies arpound the map and smiting the odd eleutheroi unit, where I could find one. It gave the slingers some target practice.
Then the AS had the nerve to lay siege on my capital. Bad idea. The expeditionary force, sent from mazaka, was only a couple of units, which I swiftly swept off the face of the Earth. I then proceeded to Mazaka and took the town next turn.
Shortly thereafter, the Ptolemaioi wanted an alliance, no less! I figured: Why not? Gives me time to build my economy. It turned out that they had allied themselves with AS, so suddenly, there was no war and the AS were listed as neutral.
OK. Keep building. From 265ish to 234BC (roughly 120 turns) I had to cross the border into Eleutheroi territory and chase small detachments just to get some action. Again, good target practice. Two of my slingers got a silver chevron.
Well, 234BC, AS decided against their better judgement to attack Mazaka. Again, not a good idea. Same result as before. A small detachment in the pass NW Tarsos defended my border in a fort and that detachment was sent down to Tarsos, which fell into my hands next turn. I could have moved on to Antioch, which was very poorly defended, but I decided that Tarsos would be easy to defend. There are many years and turns left to expand. Ipsos, however, was next on my list.
Ipsos is SW of Ankyra and was very well defended by over 20 units. 20 in the city and about 10 in the country north of the city. This one was going to take some planning. I decided on the following army makeup:
3 Generals, including the faction heir with 50 horses.
1 Medium mercenary phalanx
2 Levy phalanxes
2 Theurophoroi (hoplitai who throw spears)
1 scythed chariot unit
2 Mercenary Gaesatae
9 Eastern slingers (my main hitting force)
It took a couple of years to recruit and assemble this force. After irradicating some of the detachments in Galatia along with some eleutheroi, I went to attack a detachment just north of Ipsos. 1490 men against 1800 city garrison + 500 detachment. On the battlefield, I immediately attacked and drove the detachment off the hill. The hail of stones was awesome. I then quickly set up a defensive line on the hill and started pelting the AS army coming up the hill. The faction heir was sent off to chop down their slingers, but was in turn chased by no less than 4 enemy units (dividing the enemy quite nicely). The AS just barely made it to my line of phalanxes, but had suffered horribly from the constant hail of stones. It didn't take much to drive them back. The gaesatae were sent to deal with pantodapoi. I know that it is not a fair match, but that is exactly what I recruited them for.
At this stage of the game, I am laying siege on Ipsos. The garrison went down to 500 or so third rate units after the battle. Once I have taken Ipsos, Sardis is next. Then I will hold on and consolidate.
Playing with the money limiting mod makes one heck of a difference.
Quite a different campaign. It has been mostly without conflict.
/Sygrod
Pontos starts with only one province and a large, expensive army. It is surrounded by mostly Eleutheroi, allied with Koinon Hellenon and one AS province (Mazaka) to the south east. Pontos is at war with Ptolemaioi and is allied with AS.
There was nowhere I could make a swift campaign without going bankrupt and the threat of being attacked was nearly non-existent. Therefore, I got rid of the expensive troops, recruited a couple of eastern slingers and waited. I spent all I could on economic improvements. Then I discovered that Sila to the south and on the Mediterranean shore was lightly defended. I sent a small expeditionary force of 2 generals and 2 slinger units and took the town after a small skirmish. Next turn, already, a ptolemaioi diplomat showed up and offered peace. "It'll cost you 500 Mnai", I replied and so peace it was. The turns were going by. Most of my activity consisted of moving two spies arpound the map and smiting the odd eleutheroi unit, where I could find one. It gave the slingers some target practice.
Then the AS had the nerve to lay siege on my capital. Bad idea. The expeditionary force, sent from mazaka, was only a couple of units, which I swiftly swept off the face of the Earth. I then proceeded to Mazaka and took the town next turn.
Shortly thereafter, the Ptolemaioi wanted an alliance, no less! I figured: Why not? Gives me time to build my economy. It turned out that they had allied themselves with AS, so suddenly, there was no war and the AS were listed as neutral.
OK. Keep building. From 265ish to 234BC (roughly 120 turns) I had to cross the border into Eleutheroi territory and chase small detachments just to get some action. Again, good target practice. Two of my slingers got a silver chevron.
Well, 234BC, AS decided against their better judgement to attack Mazaka. Again, not a good idea. Same result as before. A small detachment in the pass NW Tarsos defended my border in a fort and that detachment was sent down to Tarsos, which fell into my hands next turn. I could have moved on to Antioch, which was very poorly defended, but I decided that Tarsos would be easy to defend. There are many years and turns left to expand. Ipsos, however, was next on my list.
Ipsos is SW of Ankyra and was very well defended by over 20 units. 20 in the city and about 10 in the country north of the city. This one was going to take some planning. I decided on the following army makeup:
3 Generals, including the faction heir with 50 horses.
1 Medium mercenary phalanx
2 Levy phalanxes
2 Theurophoroi (hoplitai who throw spears)
1 scythed chariot unit
2 Mercenary Gaesatae
9 Eastern slingers (my main hitting force)
It took a couple of years to recruit and assemble this force. After irradicating some of the detachments in Galatia along with some eleutheroi, I went to attack a detachment just north of Ipsos. 1490 men against 1800 city garrison + 500 detachment. On the battlefield, I immediately attacked and drove the detachment off the hill. The hail of stones was awesome. I then quickly set up a defensive line on the hill and started pelting the AS army coming up the hill. The faction heir was sent off to chop down their slingers, but was in turn chased by no less than 4 enemy units (dividing the enemy quite nicely). The AS just barely made it to my line of phalanxes, but had suffered horribly from the constant hail of stones. It didn't take much to drive them back. The gaesatae were sent to deal with pantodapoi. I know that it is not a fair match, but that is exactly what I recruited them for.
At this stage of the game, I am laying siege on Ipsos. The garrison went down to 500 or so third rate units after the battle. Once I have taken Ipsos, Sardis is next. Then I will hold on and consolidate.
Playing with the money limiting mod makes one heck of a difference.
Quite a different campaign. It has been mostly without conflict.
/Sygrod