The Pyrrhic Dynasty : A Makedonian AAR

[Europe]

I cant believe its over! The civil war was great, really entertaining! Makes me wonder what’s next!?
It felt like years ago that this AAR was about Demetrios and Alkyoneus, good memories

[HunGeneral]

I realy wonder what's going to happen next

Good to see the old colour back...

One question though: about the units you moded (top of page) are you going to make a Makedonian version of the Praetorians or something?

[Reverend Joe]

Thanks. It's good to have the color back to normal. Unfortunately it seems that the AI remembered they hated the color black and soon after the war ended everyone declared war on me. With all the losses I took in the civil war (mostly the 50% of my armies I disbanded at the very beginning) I'm almost having trouble defending my borders. I'm considering allowing some regions to fall for some nice story...

"Almost" having trouble, eh?

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

I had a bunch of time between classes earlier today and was bored so I looked over the beginning of my AAR and the good old days of Demetrios. I sure made big chapters back then but ironically posted them more often. One thing I had forgotten was just how much territory I had gained during the reign of Aristotelis, nearly as much as I gained under Demetrios. Too bad Aristotelis went crazy in his old age.

The units at the top of the last page are something I'm working on to make a non-Hellene regional Thorakitai. I wanted to make an eastern version that had scale and a western romano-keltic version. I was thinking of having some kind of reform down the road to have state supplied troops to troops along the line of the Marian reforms, at which point foreign troops will join the ranks of the Thorakitai as auxilaries.

I would have more trouble of defending my borders if the AI did a better job of attacking. They'll send just enough troops to win a auto_calc battle, but not anything played out, while they have tons of reinforcements just out of range to help. The Getic Confederation and the Gauls are still my friends, but other than that I've been almost completely turned against. I should just take out the small fries and concentrate on the big ones. The problem is that I'm having trouble adressing anything at all when it all happens at once. It is kind of fun since it is a challenge, though I'm still clearly winning on all fronts.

[Reverend Joe]

The Getic Confederation... are still my friends

Are you serious?! Still?! That's got to be the weirdest diplomacy quirk ever.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Yeah, they've really surprised me. I thought I would have been at war with Getai as soon as I took Kallatis, but even after buying a couple towns from them they haven't thought of advancing southward. Even after the civil war forced me to disband a bunch of my Danube defenders they didn't attack. My theory is that the Boii rebel spawn has confused them. They tried to take that town a dozen times a hundred years ago. Now they just have their entire military standing on the border to that region.

I hope to have the next chapter up soon.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Chapter 75 : A New Age

Loose Ends

With the fall of Demetreia, most Demetrid forces surrender, disband, or retreat to Aigyptos (where they join what is widely being called a "rebellion" and not a "civil war"). However, some still choose to stand in defiance of Philippos. Mostly due to fear of what will happen to them if they surrender, especially what will happen to the military officers. To deal with the problem, the Galatians are tasked with chasing them down, a job they gladly accept:


In the mountains between Kilikia and Syria, the last forces of what was the Demetrids are destroyed by the Galatians. Since in every battle the Galatians are force to take the offensive, many Galatians die in this last fight but their general continues to improve his skills:


With the war over and new defendable borders established. Philippos begins to reorganize his armies. Across Anatolia, Pontos, and Kappadokia garrisons are reduced and life begins to return to the old ways of peace these regions had once enjoyed as the center part of the Arche Makedonia. In Armenia garrisons are consolidated but the army of steppe cavalry remains in the region to hunt down rebels and brigands. The four large armies of Makedones and Hellenes, those of Philippos, Sotades, Herodes, and the mercenaries of Chrysoloras Delphikos remain in Syria and Assyria to reestablish order.

Many of the allied armies are sent back to their respective homes. The Illyrioi, having been almost entirely wiped out are sent back to Illyria and disbanded. After the years of war with the Romaioi and then the loss of this army in Syria, the Illyrioi almost entirely loose the ability and desire to wage war. Instead Illyria is garrisoned by Hellenes. From this time forward, the few soldiers recruited in the region no longer fight in their native style but in a Hellenistic formation [Thorakitai].

The Galatian army, still at two-thirds strength, returns to Galatia (a land which had gained much territory during the civil war). Many of the Galatian soldiers disband but a good deal of the amry remains a standing force. The Galatians had proved to be great allies and friends of Pyrrhos and Philippos but they had gained great deals of power and were becoming something to be feared. The Galatians now had power that could be used as leverage to make demands of Makedonia.

To the east, an army of Armenians and Thraikioi, who had settled in Armenia, had assisted Philippos in the war by taking control of eastern Assyria. Most of the Thraikio-Armenians take the end of the war as an oppertunity to return to their homes in Armenia, but a few remain to guard the city of Arbela where some even choose to settle. The Thraikioi, in the reigns of Demetrios, Aristotelis, and now Philippos had been given settling rights similar to the Makedones and Hellenes that had been settled by Megas Alexandros. Though few pick up and leave Thraikia, many mercenaries recruited into the armies of the Arche Makedonia, who had served in the east never return home and instead settle alongside native populations.

King Isidoros of Babylon remains in control of Mesopotamia and Philippos is slow to remove him from power or take control of the region. [Both Babylon and Seleukeia have Type3, representing a client state under family member control, since I don't want to spawn a client ruler.] Just prior to the civil war, Bykoli and Pefkolaos had nearly defeated the Median Empire, but their march to Pella had allowed to Medians to regain their lost land and even grow in power. Now, Media is a powerful empire and a client state in Babylonia under King Isidoros proves to be beneficial to Philippos. King Isidoros' army is not great and Mesopotamia lacks the income to launch an offensive war, thus Mesopotamia poses no threat to Media. If Philippos marches and army of Makedones into Babylonia, Media might take this as an act of agression. In order to maintain this buffer state, Isidoros gains greatly by remaining in power.

The Romaioi and their Consul also prepare to go home. Marching south from Syria, the Romaioi set up camp near Heirosolyma and make a stance of power to deture further attack from Aigyptos or Arabia. The Romaioi expect to wait a few months before boarding their ships to sailing back to Italia, but fate has one more mission left for the Romaiai...


Eastern Ways

Aristotelis, Bykoli, and Pefkolaos had all spent their lives fighting wars in the east. Since the era of Demetrios, these men had been the generals in wars against the Ptolemaioi, the Armenians, the Arche Seleukeia, and the Median Empire and the unique ways of fighting wars in the east. Aristotelis and Bykoli had especially been interested in eastern culture and warfare.

After a war with the Armenians, Aristotelis had attempted to develop his own kataphraktoi, but Demetrios saw no point in them and nothing much came of it. Later, during his invasion of Babylonia, Aristotelis had encountered the kataphraktoi hellenikoi of the Arche Seleukeia and had even managed to capture some of them. However, by that time in his life, Aristotelis only wanted to fight a war and not develop new types of warefare. Once the civil war had begun and the Demetrids had been cut off from western and Galatian smiths, chainmail and the new way of fighting that had been developing within the Arche Makedonia was cut off from them. The Demetrids were thus forced to turned to the eastern ways of fighting. With the captured Seleukids as their cores, the Demetrids began to found new military units to fight Pyrrhos.

With the quick conquest of Anatolia and the surrender of Demetreia, many of these new units had been left intact and are now looking for employment. As with most soldiers, to these men warfare is an issue of money and not necessarily loyalty. Thus several new types of military units, based in eastern technology present themselves to Philippos and offer their military services. Primarily amongst them are the Hellenistic kataphraktoi developed from the Seleukid model:


Also amongst the men deployed to fight in an eastern style are the Hellenistic horse archers. Developed in Baktria, this form of combat made its way to the Seleukids [Yes, I gave these guys to the Seleukids earlier, they just didn't ever want to ever recruit any.] and then into the hands of the Demetrids during the conquest of Babylonia:


Although the Demetrids never had the chance to use it before it fell into the hands of Philippos, they had also developed armor for the elephants of Demetreia, copying Indokoi tactics and technology:


Finally, there were the elite Thorakitai. With chainmail a rare resource in the east, it was reserved for the elites. Once again, copying Seleukid technology which had also been encountered in Babylonia, the Demetrids attempted to create an improved version of the Hypaspistai. Only a handful of these men were ever deployed and even less were available for recruitment:


Since his youth, Philippos had been interested in the technologies of foreign powers, though normally western powers, such as the Romaioi and the the Keltoi. For nearly his entire life, Philippos had gone to battle with his Thorakitai army and personally created a new style of warefare for the Arche Makedonia. Philippos took note of the new units but was unsure on how to actually use them and hesitant to recruit anyone with unsure loyalty while there were still rebellions and Demetrid supporters still around. It would actually be his elder brother Sotades who would begin experimenting with them while governor of Syria.

The known world in159BC:

Next: Chapter 76 : The Sons of Pyrrhos

[Aemilius Paulus]

Wow, this has got to be the longest running AAR in the history of EB. You have probably beaten just about every AAR record there is out there, haven't you ?

Any chance of going to fight the barbarians of the north or the nations of the far east?

However, it does seem more likely that you'll just go for the Numidians/Qarthadastim or Aiguptos. (with maybe a possible chance of a brief war against the Saba)

[Tarkus]

Can't really say much more than what others before me have said...wow. The discussion of available merc units is outstanding!

I agree with Aemilius -- I'd love to see some action against the Sabyn...

[Hooahguy]

my god, MAA!
i just spent the past 1.5 hours reading everything!
spectacular job!

[General Appo]

Me thinks the coast of Africa should be secured for the glory and well-being of the Arche Makedonia.

[tls5669]

BACK TO BLACK finally...

Its actually dark brown!!!....;p

[Reverend Joe]

Its actually dark brown!!!....;p

Be wary, lest you invoke the wrath of Megas MAA.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

In four days, this AAR will be a year old.

Since everyon in Europe (other than the Lusotanni) are my friends (for now), I don't really expect to fight barbarians anytime soon. Though I would like to gain some more territory in Gaul, for instance.

My original plans for conquest after the civil war was to deal with Aigyptos (I had originally planned to just make peace with them [other than Alexandreia there isn't really much to gain from Aigyptos, it doesn't have too great of resources and it is overpopulated with people that don't like Makedonia]). After Aigyptos I had planned to take the coasts of Numidia and Mauretania (Siga and Lixus) to hopefully bankrupt them and at least cut down on there per turn unit spawns. Then have Philippos move to Iberia and finish what he had started with the Lusotanni. My plans didn't really work out, though. As the oracle said to Demetrios, "Friends will become enemies, and enemies friends."

The color is actually a dark brown. It is supposed to be black but black doesn't look great on the minimap. With the current color, you can see the contrasts of the terrain on the minimap better. I still call it black, though.

Thankyou to those of you who have read my AAR and thanks to those who have commented. I caught up with my picture editting and have about a two hundred uneditted pictures from the last couple months / decade of play that I need to edit before I can even start the next chapter. The next five years will go pretty fast...

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Beat the shit out of those pesky Numidians and take their lands! They have rich mines after all. They deserve it.

[General Appo]

In four days, this AAR will be a year old.

in advance. And since it´s never to early to start celebrating a birthday, let´s party.

[General Appo]

Hmpf, apparently there´s some stupid rule about max 50 images a post.

[Reverend Joe]

You only need one image to party.




(And the image limit is to prevent people from spamming full-sized images.)

@MAA: Ccongratulations. I've been following this since day 30 or so; you and Chirgueon (I forget how to spell his name) have truly raised the standards for AARs, at least around here.

[satalexton]

ALL HAIL MAKEDONIA

[Dutchhoplite]

Makedonia

[gamegeek2]

[Olaf The Great]

October 2nd was my best friends Birthday...

Hmmm...Which is more important..AAR, or Birthday?

[NickTheGreek]

The AAR damnit
Cool update MAA I eagerly await the next

[Cbvani]

The AAR damnit

Seconded. Happy (belated?) birthday for this AAR.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Lol. Thanks everyone.

I didn't have the internet earlier so I was doing some personal modding. I'm still trying to make some foreign under-hand spearmen Thorakitai for a future reform. This is what I've made out of the Roman auxilia to be a European foreign Thorakitai. (Removed the pants and resized and reskined the shield.) I'm still not happy with them though, still look too Roman:

I've also made a series of changes to the skins and stats of my existing types of Thorakitai.

[Justiciar]

It's the tunic, I suspect.

This is my first reply in this behemoth of the AAR world, so I'm obliged to say; awesome AAR, MAA!

[General Appo]

Yeah, it´s the tunic mainly.

[Olaf The Great]

Give them greaves and an Iron helmet.

[hrrypttrbst]

Still, it is a cool thing that you mod your game only for an AAR.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

I went to change their helmet and decided to change their whole head. They look less Roman, but with the cheek guards, you can't see their full beard and they look like mustached Gauls:

I thought about adding greaves but decided against it since these guys aren't supposed to be as well equiped as my regular units.