Pontus.The story of a kingdom !

Starting Conditions:

Campaign difficulty: Medium
Battle difficuly: Hard
Version/Mod: RTW 1.5 whith TE 5.1 (a very beautifull and stable Mod, extremely infrequent CTD`s...)

Please excuse my poor english, i am not a native speaker of this language.

The King of Pontus, Mithridates, was sleeping in his villa from Sinope.. when... he suddenly woke up, like from a nigthmare.His loving wife, Laodice , quikly embraced him... she knew he sometimes used to have nightmares, and this was the best way to make him calm down...

"My dear husband and king... what dream has troubled you this night ?"

Mithridates looked at her whith much saddness .In his eyes, she saw many tears... the tears of a middle aged man.... a man who had seen blood, war, but also tasted all the richness of an easterners life...

"My wife and queen, i had a terrible nightmare... i saw the country torn apart in a civil war.... i have seen death... terrible death among our people... i have seen our nation suffering under a foreign yoke..."

Laodice embraced him, and kissed him, in hopping that her love will calm him down... She was a women of noble greek origin, and she was well educated in the knowlodge of philosophy and ancient wisdom.

"My king... when people have no outside enemyes, they search for enemyes whithin.... if our country would have foreign enemyes, there would be no internall unrest as all the nation would unite to fight ...."

The next day, king Mithridates still having in mind the words of Laodice, sent a couple of envoys to the towns of Colchis and Satala, in the hope of opening a new trade route trough those lands. Riders went from Sinope and from Amasia, travveling all across the rocky mountains and deep woods, further away towards the barren plains of Anatolia and the misterious shores of the legendary Colchis.

Mithridates ordered also that new roads should be built in Amasia and Sinope... new markets should be opened... for it was the time to bring more money into the treasury.

Howewer, in the next week, the emisaryes came back from Colchis and Satala whith not so good news...

"Great king Mithridates, king of Pontus and king of the kings, whe bring to you bad news and bad omens... The men of Colchis and the people of Satala decided not to open the trade routes to our caravans, and even more, the threathend to kill all our traders !'

Mithridates rose up in anger...

"So they want war... war is what they will have !"

The man of Kotais where brave men, nevertheles... they defended theyr city in the last years fighting and defeating a large Armenian Army... They where skilled marksmen, and at the defense of theyr stone walls, they thought themselves to be invincible. The ones of Satala, lived in poverty. Theyr only booty was taken from the unfortunate Seleucid armyes and caravans who often got lost in the high mountains of Capadoccia... then the men of Satala ambushed them in the passes , killed them and took as boothy what they could...

The nephew of Mithridates was already sitting on the border whith Colchis when he received the news that war against this rebels have broken out. Quikly he gathered all the men and started marching acrros the border.The local villages sent a few hundred Sparabara to join him... mainly for the money...

From Amasia, another nephew of Mithridates gathered more than 2/3 s of the cityes garrison, and marched towards Satala.A skilfull spy went already a few days ago in reconaiscence and managed to infiltrate Satala.

In the middle of winter, Satala was sorounded by the pontic troops.... it was a great blizzard.... lot of snow, and the man where very tired. The prospect of waiting another season to attack, was not acceptable... especially when the spy sent a message that he can guarantee that for certain, the citygates of Satala will be open...

SO, the siege started. Pontic archers marched towards the gate, and covered the advance of the Sparabara militias trough an inferno of arrows... despite the heavy blizzard, many of those arrows found theyr targets.The Pandophatoi Phalangitai then entered the city in force , storming the enemy militiamen guarding the gate. The comander of Satala, seeing the fact that the battle was lost, commited suicide by charging against the front of the phalanx whith his heavy cavalrymen... Satala was taken... the population was spared, but the altar to the false god Armazd has been destroyed.

In contrast, the siege of Kotais was a much more bloody bussines. The terrain where bad, there where no phalanxes, only Sparabaras... Armenian reconoiscence forces patrolled across the border, ready to storm the mountain passes at any moment...

Maybe it is not good to tell the story about the siege of Kotais... it was a very bloody bussines... a shame to the Pontus... King Mithridates was enraged when he learned that more then 2/3 of the attacking army was lost, while having a huge superiority in numbers...but anyway, Kotais was taken....

The next years, rumours came that Armenia started growing even stronger... the Armenians under King Aramu launched several failed attacks at the gruzin fortress of Mtskheta... then, turned against the fortress of Cabalaca, not farr away from the shores of the salty Caspian Sea...

Mithridates was still troubled... a war against the armenians would be more likely a disaster... theyr quick horse archers would certainly decimate the slow Sparabaras... there was no prospect of recruiting archers, or pontic cavalry in large numbers... Pontus was (stil) a poor kingdom...

But the Bythinians... yes, they where rich.. and even more, they where close to the rich greeks... to Pergamum... they had mines... many resources...
But a march towards Nicomedia would be fatale.... galatian rebels in huge numbers roamed across the central Anatolia... even if a pontic army was able to get pass trough them, it would be in such low numbers that a siege against a well defended town such as Nicomedia would end in a disaster...

https://img337.imageshack.us/img337/...uation1ts6.jpg

Under the command of a rather anonymous captain, the pontic task force joined the fleet in the SInope harbour, and started sailing across the deep, blue waters of the Pontic Sea.... ...

The siege of Nicomedia turned to be a very hard task.The city was protected by the kings greek phalanx, made out of experienced soldiers, many of them who fought in the wars of the Successors states...

Thracians, well-hardened and bloody , where the second force in the defence of the Bythinians.... so eager where the man of Nicomedia to resist the Pontic forces, that they even rased a unit of those peltast.... peasants armed whith javelins.. mincemeat for the though pontic archers, or at least this words where said by captain Dionysos of Pontus...

But before the troops landed, a terrible news struck the kingdom.... Mithridates was dead ! Yes, dead.... he was found in his pallace by his loving wife Laodice , who died soon after...

The new king, was Pharnaces... he was different than his father... he had expansionistic visions... he dreamed of rulling the world... his young wife, Dynamis, showed often infidelity towards him... he saw her several times in the company of other nobleman.... but he wasnt interested at all in this... he got the taste of Harem from his ancien persian blood...

He sent an envoy to Nicomedia, where Dionysos started landing his troops.

"Commander Dionysos, start the siege as soon as possible.The King of Pergamum might send reinforcements, and also the Galatians might join in the fight, so you need to hurry. I await news from your victory"

Urgently, Dionysos started the siege....
https://img429.imageshack.us/img429/...omedia1ze0.jpg

The wall where quickly taken, but ruthless streeth fighting started... the Thracians cut trough the Sparabara`s, and almost half of the army was on the run... only the Phalangitai resisted, and they turned the tide of the battle by defeating the Thracians... the Bythinian King died in a futile charge...

Despite the heavy losses, king Pharnaces showed mercy towards Dionysos...

https://img320.imageshack.us/img320/...comediask2.jpg

The population was enslaved.... the man and women of Nicomedia where sold as cattle on the markets of Sinope and Amasia...only the children where spared, but the young boys where forcibly conscripted into the army...

Some money flowed into the Pontic treasury, so the army of Kotais under prince Sauromates crossed the Armenian Border, upon recheaving the news that the armenian army was sieging in vain the fortified caspian town of Cabalaca.Sarmatians offered peace, and peace was made whith them, so the northern flanks where secure.

The siege of Armavira was ment to be a short siege. Sauromates knew this.A very quick one... there was always the danger that the armenian army might return from Cabalaca at any time... also, the pontic soldiers did not like to fight in the winter...

https://img368.imageshack.us/img368/...rmaviralg1.jpg

The walls where taken after a quick fight... Armenian prince Aramu died... he died by the spear of an ordinary Sparabara militiamen, altough Sauromates would have desired to kill him whith his own sword....

It was a victory...

https://img407.imageshack.us/img407/...rmaviragj3.jpg

The coming winter saw some skirmishes near Armavira. Pontic troops from Satala and Amasia , under the cover of fog and winter, attempted to attack and lay siege to Thopsia. Howewer, the Armenians dispathced a force against them... a battle erupted in the fog... and it was a large snow.... white-out... pontic troops fought well, but they where too slow for the Horse Archers... it was a victory, but yet undiceded...

Neither the pontians gained enough supremacy to launch an attack towards Thopsia, neither the Armenians managed to drove them out....

MORE, COMING SOON...

Hate to break up your story, but good work, The more pictures the better. And I love seeing others campaigns so thx, and keep it up.

Yeah, it´s so good to see that the REAL AARs are starting up at the org.

I wait for other people also to start writing down campaign accounts...

But, i will return now to my story, because i have alot of things to tell....

In the year 269 BC operations resumed in and around the armenian controled city of Thopsia (*sorry if i mispell the name). King Pharnaces wrote a letter to the pontic commanders in Satala :

" Gather quickly an army, cross the river and start devastating the armenians in Thopsia. If our previous attacks have been unsuccsesfull, maybe this time we will defeat them trough attrition. Avoid any direct fighting at all costs."

Howewer, the armenian forces under the capable captain Artavazd quickly cornered the pontic forces under captain Thyrsos... Thyrsos evaded the first time, but the second time it was caught... it had to fight...

https://img432.imageshack.us/img432/...thospiavg7.jpg

In a deep armenian forest, the troops deployed...

https://img393.imageshack.us/img393/...hospia1wg5.jpg

But it turned out to be a great disaster... as armenians managed to get very close to the pontic lines whithout beeing properly noticed by captain Thyrsos...

Armenian cavalry, numerous, crushed directly into the pontic flank, which crumbled... the lack of cavalry is the one thing which prooved to be fatal...

https://img423.imageshack.us/img423/...hopsia2gk1.jpg

When news got to king Pharnaces about this devastating defeat, all of Sinope could hear the cryings from the Palace... rarely the man of Sinope had ever seen theyr king so nervous...

But Pharnaces quickly found joy even in this moments, when he heard news about his army besieging the rich city of Pergamum. Yes, the king of Pergamum did not want to submit to the pontic power. Instead, he intrusted Krateros, his most loyal general, to defend the city against the pontic invaders.Taking Pergamum would practicly "open the gates" of the Aegean Sea for the growing Pontic Kingdom...

https://img521.imageshack.us/img521/...tuationjy9.jpg

The siege of Pergamum went on for a one and a half year... until the king of Pergamum, decided to attempt a sally. Food suplies in the city where running preety low... there was in any moment a danger of disease, and the supplies received from the sea , sent in by the Polis of Byzantium, where less than sufficient.

https://img527.imageshack.us/img527/...amsallyvk2.jpg

A very great battle followed up.... thousands died, but not in the battle... following the pontic victory, the inhabitants of the city where slaughtered... indeed, for every single pontic soldier killed, 100 citizens of Pergamum had to pay....

Try using those bridges south of Nicamedia and Pergamum, to lure in the selecuids make sure to have good archers, maybe some Cretan, and The best hoplites you can get.

Just take 4 archers 2 hoplites and a general, and you should have some good stories.