The Basileus is crazy

[General Appo]

Indeed. 1+ to Aaldaemon (whatever that´s good for) and one to Happy balroae as well.
Might get an update in later today, we´ll see.

[General Appo]

Chapter 9: Sons of Mamers

When the great tyrant of Syrakousai Agathocles had died many years ago many of the mercenaries he regularly employed had found themselves out of work, and had decided to settle down in various part of the island. A particular group had decided to settle down in the city of Messana in the northeast of Sicilia.
Not only had they settled down there, but in doing so they had killed or expelled most of the city´s male population, and taken the women for themselves.
They had named themselves the Mamertini after the Oscan war god Mamers, and had truly behaved like sons of a war god, pillaging and looting everything in sight.
Years later they had called for Pyrrhos assistance against the Karchedoi, and had been given some breathing room by Pyrrhos intervention in what historians call the First Pyrrhic Sicilian War.
Now however, years later, they were not so friendly towards Pyrrhos and his kind. Seeing the establishment of a powerful ruler as a threat to their habits of raiding and looting they violently opposed Alexandros campaigns in northeast Sicilia. Even after almost all greek cities and towns had gone over to Alexandros they still resisted his rule, and continued to pillage the lands of Alexandros new-won allies, which called out to him for justice.
Having no choice but to act aggresively, Alexandros advances upon Messana, and the Mamertinoi retreated behind their wooden walls, hoping to disdain Alexandros from attack. Alexandros has no such intentions however, and his army surrounds the city and begins gathering wood for the construction of rams to break down the walls.

While waiting Alexandros contacts some mercenary captains and aquires the service of a band of Samnitoi and one of Keltoi, all young vigorous men equipped as assault infantry, perfect for an aggresive siege.
Soon the rams are finished and the the sun rises over citystreets soon to be littered with corpses. The Mamertines are outnumbered but not by much, and still has some hope to survive the day.


Alexandros army gathers in preparation for the assault, the men are eager for the treasures and women that are sure to await them inside.


No sounds is heard from inside the city, its defenders grimly ready to face their faith, whatever it might be.


Nor does any sounds comes from Alexandros army, as it awaits his order to begin the assault. Even the horses feels the nervous mood of their masters, and keep quiet.


The Keltoi stand ready with the ram to destroy the gate, and the Samnitoi right behind them.


Suddenly Alexandros awakes from his thoughts, raises his sword towards the clearblue sky and shouts the order that dooms the city. "Attack!"


First to attack are the Peltastai, who advances and throw their javelins over the wall towards the muffled sound of the defenders preparing for battle.


As many fall, the Mamertinoi learn their lesson and retreats from the gate, scurrying to avoid the many javelins.


The Samnitoi stands proud and ready to do battle, their shields and armour glimmering in the hot sun.


Soon the Keltoi have broken down the gate, and moves in. The defenders are quick to react though, and the two forces soon crash violently.


More defenders join the battle in an effort to push back the Keltoi and regain control over the gate. Little headway is made though as the tough Keltoi stand their ground and fights bravely.


The fight rages viciously, many men on both sides falling and being trampled beneath the masses.


Soon the Keltoi found themselves pushed back by the sheer wiegth of the hundreds of men that assault them, and some are even forced outside the gate.


Alexandros sees this, but is not alarmed. He calmy orders the Samnitoi to man the ram, and break a second entrance into the city.


The Keltoi are broken up into two groups, those pushed outside the gate and those still inside, who are now isolated and hopelessly outnumbered. Still they continue to fight, and take many Mamertinioi with them to whatever afterlife they believe in.


Alexandros orders the Phalangitai forward to support the Keltoi, and those cavalrymen who had ventured outside the city are swiftly cut down.


The Samnitoi goes unnoticed while breaking down a section of the wall, all the defenders to busy fighting the Keltoi.


Soon part of the wall is down, and the Samnitoi enters the city. Now the defenders have spotted them however, and engages them in fierce battle.


Alexandros and his bodyguard rides into the city aided by the rest of the cavalry and charges the Hoplitai that are fighting the Samnitoi.


The Thorakitai now enters the city, and aids the Samnitoi.


This becomes to much for the Mamertinoi who breaks rank and flees, but are cut down by the cavalry.


The Mamertinoi fighting the Keltoi are now attacked in the back, and swiftly cut down. The Keltoi have their revenge for their many comrades which have fallen in the battle.


Somewhere among the fleeing men the Mamertinos commander is cut down by the cavalry, and his men further demoralised.


The Phalangitai now enters the city to take care of the last defenders which are holding up in the city center.


The Phalangitai shows greats discipline as they refuse to break ranks to plunder the many rich houses that surrounds them, even when the gates to the houses have been left invitingly open.


Soon the Phalangitai engages the last defenders, and are aided by the Samnitoi and Keltoi who attacks their rears, and soon enough the last man is cut down.


The battle is won, the city of Messana now belongs to Alexandros. The remaining Mamertines are killed and the city repopulated with any who wishes to live there.



Next chapter: Total mobilisation

[Ibrahim]

"a thrilling account of the battle for Messana, the triumph and the tragedy"

indeed that is a good account. a serious moment and a break in the comedy/stipidity. balances the story out wonderfully. looking forward to the next episode.

[General Appo]

Thank you. In the next chapter I will attempt to explain how a small extremely poor and underdeveloped town with 500 inhabitants can mobilise an highly trained army of well-equipped soldiers numbering in the 600 hundreds.
It´s gonna be a hard chapter.
I think I´ve got quite a few battle chapters left to do. But once I´ve retaken Kypros and Helenos is firmly entrenched in some brothel in Sidon I hope to finally get some peace. Though with Pyrrhos on the lose with an army, you never know.
So far nobody has seemed to care about my little conquest of Karia, they´re all to busy figthing each other. Perhaps a chance for further conquest can be found, Echemenes is quite the bloodthirsty type.

[Aaldaemon]

Good going there. You'll think me mad, but I'm starting to like the crab on those green cavalry shields... the crabs of war are loose!!! Beware!

[General Appo]

Yeah, there´s something strangely cool about having golden crabs on green shields.

[General Appo]

Chapter 10: Total Mobilisation

When the people of Salamis rebelled from Helenos tyranical rule, they knew that in order to survive they must quickly mobilise, less Helenos soldiers quickly retake the city.
So word was sent to every little village and hermit hut on Kypros, and all that had family or friends outside on the mainland sent for them as well.
Aided by some military instructors and a great supply of arms and armour that Pharao Ptolemaios II had supplied them with all the gathered men began training as Iphikratous Hoplitai, heavy hoplite-like spearmen.
Helenos captains had quickly realised what was happening, and determined to retake Salamis they contacted every man they had ever met or heard of that would fight for payment, glory, pillage or adventure. Soon they had assembled an army far superior to that of the Kypritoi, both in numbers, arms, experience and morals. Surely the Kypritoi were doomed.

A certain captain named Sabon was elected commander of the army, by both Helenos and the mercenary captains.
He soon advanced with army towards the city, and as the Kypritoi hid behind the wooden walls of the city he ordered the surrounding of the city. Content with waiting the Kypritoi out, the army settled down for a lengthy seige.
For more than a year the Kypritoi endured the siege, but in the end they were forced to take action less they all die from starvation. So they assemble behind one gate to attack Sabons army that quickly marched into fighting position when the great noise and rumble from inside the city was detected. So the final desperate battle for Salamis and the freedom of the Kypritoi begins.


Sabons army stands ready to recieve the enemy, with Sabon and his Phalangitai placed comfortably in the back.


As the Kypritoi begins to exit the gates the Kretikoi archers and Rhodioi slingers fire upon them.


Soon the Kypritoi assaults some of the Keltoi mercenaries, who fight back with great ferocity.


Two separate forces of Kypritoi have now engaged the Keltoi mercenaries, but utterly failing to create any sort of battle line that is surely needed if they are to withstand such an superior enemy.


The Keltoi in the centre are next to be targeted, and soon after the Hoplitai on the right flank, but even now the Kypritoi remains isolated from each other.


As battle rage fiercely the Karians and Peltastai begins an flanking maneuver to envelop the Kypritoi.


Soon the Karians and Peltastai release a devastating volley of javelins against the Kypritoi, causing many to give up all hope and flee for the city.


Those who still stood fast on left flank and in the middle were quickly cut down.


On the right though the Hoplitai are hard pressed against superior numbers of Kypritoi, but aid soon arrives.


The last of the defenders are cut down and Salamis taken.


The army marches proudly into the city, having taken minimal casualties.



The few ablebodied men still alive were sold into slavery and the poor houses looted, as the army installs an iron-grip upon the population.



In Phoinike Helenos is now besieging Sidon, and hoping to take it within a few months.


In Karia Echemenes has firmly entrenched himself, ready to defeat any incursions upon his land.


On Sicilia the situation in stabilising, as the greek cities and towns are getting accustomed to Alexandros rule. An army of the Karchedoi is however gathering on Karchedoi territory, no doubt to take part in some evil plan of theirs.


And in Africa Pyrrhos continues his sail across towards the end of the world, passing mile after mile of coast.


Next chapter: No clue, as I havn´t played that far yet

And a little bonus:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The known world in 263 BC.

[Aaldaemon]

I want to find out what happens when Pyrrhos reaches the end of the world... will he exit it ala The Truman Show?

[General Appo]

Yeah, and then he´ll trash the Tavern. Now that would be scary.

[Chaotix]

Great AAR!

but... I was wondering how you'd managed to recruit that many mercs. Then I saw that you had towns that were 10000 mnai in debt! I guess it's alright if you're using the money cheat, though, cause it's just a comedy AAR!

[General Appo]

Ya, as said, I only do it when I have to hire mercs. I have a couple of serious campaigns going but this isn´t really one of them.

[General Appo]

I feel I need to explain this a bit better.
When I started the campaign I had no intention to use any cheats (except toggle_fow) nor indeed to make an AAR about it. Anyway, after I had taken Krete (by this time I had used no cheats) I did some testing and calculations and found that unless I did some cheating I probably wouldn´t be able to do anything at all for at least 10 years. That´s the price for giving up your homeland for free and migrating.
Anyway, I´ve only used add_money for mercs, no buildings or stuff. I´m trying to draw back on it, but my economy is still a mess. I probably won´t have to use any more mercs in Sicily or the whole Krete-Rhodos-Karia area (got some nice barracks there) and hopefully Helenos won´t find any more. Once Helenos has settled down (or died) I hope to get some peace and get my economy on tracks again (not that it ever was on tracks).
I´ve got to say though, I´m begining to really like the Samnites, incredibly good looking, especially their swords and slashing animations.

Anyway, I don´t know if anyone else has noticed this, but my "empire" has pretty much been parted into three.
In the west, there´s Alexandros kingdom, consisting of the eastern part of Sicily. In the middle there´s Ptolemaois kingdom consisting of Krete ruled by him, Rhodos under the control of the puppet ruler Attidas and Karia under his son-in-law Echemenes.
In the east is Helenos kingdom, which I wouldn´t really call his. Even if he take Sidon I´m not sure the Kypritoi will bow beneath him. Neither the natives nor his army has any particulary good memories of him, and if faced the options to either send an army to rescue him or let him die they might just chose the later alternative.

[Reverend Joe]

So, is this still alive or what? I just recently decided to read through this AAR, and now I'm hankering to hear more about the ba-SILLY-us (ugh... I can taste bad pun in the back of my throat. )

[General Appo]

It´s alive, I´ve just havn´t had time to play any. Will hopefully be able to play later today though, and maybe even write some.

[QuintusSertorius]

Samnites are cool, I like those a lot. They're slightly improved in the form of pedites extraordinarii for the Romans, but they didn't need much help to kick ass.

Have you thought about taking Kyrene? It's Expansion region for Epeiros, though you'd be fighting both the Ptolemies and Carthage for it.

[General Appo]

Thought about it yes, but I´m not sure yet. I want to cool down a bit and let my economy catch up, it´s in complete shambles right now. That Echemenes fellow might turn out to be a real bloodthirsty fellow though, but it´s hard to say yet. I don´t wanna leave Karia undefended either.

[QuintusSertorius]

Fair enough, it might help your economy being a port and all, but that's more upheaval.

I think my next game will be a migrated Epeiros one, I want to play as Pergamon. I find Epeiros the best Hellenic faction to migrate, because after the death of Pyrrhus they become largely irrelevant anyway. Once 167 rolls around, I'll give my original territory to AI Rome and focus on Asia Minor.

As I've already found, the regional Greek roster is more than adequate to building good armies, with a central core of Classical Hoplites. Then it's just a case of recruiting some decent mercenary cavalry and Kretan archers. Plus having the top tier regional barracks so you can get mercenary generals.

[General Appo]

Chapter 11: A town for the taking

It is now quite fitting to take a quick look at the noble family of the Aiakides, of which Pyrrhos is the head. His three sons have so far produced only one male heir, but time is still ahead of them and that may change.
The one son is Pyrrichos, son of Ptolemaios. 12 years old, he was born in Epeiros, but has no memory of that land. His first memories are from Syrakousai, where his uncle Alexandros took care of him while his father drank himself under the table most every night.
After Ptolemaios settled at Krete, he began to show interest in his son, and sent after a tutor from the academia at Syrakousai. They boy may yet become something great, only time will tell.


At this time, about 4 years after begining his great journey from Kypros, Pyrrhos passes the Pillars of Heracles, and reaches unknown waters. He orders the captain to take the ship further west, towards the setting sun. but constant storms and lack of supplies beats them back.
Instead Pyrrhos settles for sailing up the coast of Iberia, having decided that the end of the world lies in the north, not in the west.



At this time Helenos finally orders the assault on Sidon to begin. His army of mercenary Galatikoi has prepared two rams for the assault, and now moves them into place. The Sidonoi have armed themselves as milita units, and even freed some slaves to aid them, but they are still outnumbered and unused to war.


The city of Sidon had once been a great city, home to the Phoiníkē, founders of Karkhēdōn and great sailors and merchants. After Megas Alexandros conquest of Phoinike however, the cities of the Phoenicioi had fallen into ruin, their inhabitants either dead or having moved to Karkhēdōn and other colonies.
Now Sidon is but a shadow of its old self, but the remainning Sidonoi will die for it in either case.


Helenos small army stands ready to assault the city. The Galatians are manning the rams, supported by assault infantry who fight naked in the Keltoi tradition. Some light cavalry has also joined the army, and stand ready with spears and javelins.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

If for some reason you want to see them without the crotch dots, then this is for you:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Helenos has with some difficulties managed to strap on his old armour, but even so he has decided not to take part of this battle. Rather he shall sit outside and have wine poured down his throat and grapes fed to him by young women while his men die for him.


The Galatikoi begins pushing the rams forward, and soon they are at the gate and the wall, and begin their work.


The weak wooden wall soon tumbles over, and the Galatikoi throws their javelins at the defenders inside, and as the gate too is broken up, the Sidonoi retreat back to the city centre.


The Galatikoi moves into the city, and begins to move towards the city centre.


The cavalry is first to reach it, and hurl their javelins towards the enemy.


Soon the Galatikoi moves up, and battle is joined.


The battle is fierce, with men falling on both sides, but the Galatikoi have the advantage, as more men moves up to aid in the fighting.


The cavalry circles around the city and charges the Sidonoi in the back, but is in return attacked from behind.


The battle is clearly going in the way of the Galatikoi, but the Sidonoi fights valiantly to their end.


Soon the Sidonoi commander falls dead, and after some final fierce fighting the battle has been won, and the men celebrate.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Again, if you like them without crotch dots, this is for you.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The city has been taken with little casualties, and Helenos is pleased.


Most of the city´s inhabitants are sold into slavery, and those remaining live just as slaves to Helenos and the Galatikoi.



Helenos is quite pleased with his life, as every night he drinks himself under the table in the company of young women.


All is not well though, for unbeknownst to Helenos a Ptolemaioi army is gathering in Ioudaia, likely to take back the city of Sidon. What will become of this is yet to be seen.


Next chapter: Megas Helenos

[Aaldaemon]

Helenos is my hero! Can't wait for the Megas Helenos part.

The only saddening part about this update was the fact Pyrrhos did not reach the end of the world... I still have high hopes he will though. Maybe he'll find the EB dev team designing the new Baktrian general shields.

[Swordmaster]

If I were playing Casse right now, I'd turn crazy seeing an Epirote ship sailing past. Why doesn't the AI do anything like that?

[Aaldaemon]

If I were playing Casse right now, I'd turn crazy seeing an Epirote ship sailing past. Why doesn't the AI do anything like that?

The AI doesn't listen to Vogon poetry.

[Lysimachos]

Pyrrhos proves to be a really wise man, by deciding that the end of the world is not in the west

[Senshi]

Holy ....

General Appo, you are killing me...at least my poor internet connection.

You break one of the oldest internet laws, and that in hundred times manner...:

Never ever post screenshots in .bmp format! Compress them in advance with a serious program (NOT MSPaint) to .jpg-format (Paint sucks and makes the picture ugly as hell), use good, free, and simpley programs like "IrfanView" to compress your pics to .jpg-format.

You just renamed the pics to end with .jpg, but that doesn't change anything. They still are .bmp-files and they still are as big as bmp-files...

This way pictures who are 1.3MB in .bmp-format are now just 200-300kb in size...Another advantage: Your pictures won't be cropped and resized automatically by Imageshack, as you propably uploaded always pictures larger than their 1.5MB-limit...

It's fun to read your AAR, but it takes ages to load the pictures for my poor internet connection (and I'm sure some others too)...

[Swordmaster]

Holy ....

General Appo, you are killing me...at least my poor internet connection.

You break one of the oldest internet laws, and that in hundred times manner...:

Never ever post screenshots in .bmp format! Compress them in advance with a serious program (NOT MSPaint) to .jpg-format (Paint sucks and makes the picture ugly as hell), use good, free, and simpley programs like "IrfanView" to compress your pics to .jpg-format.

You just renamed the pics to end with .jpg, but that doesn't change anything. They still are .bmp-files and they still are as big as bmp-files...

This way pictures who are 1.3MB in .bmp-format are now just 200-300kb in size...Another advantage: Your pictures won't be cropped and resized automatically by Imageshack, as you propably uploaded always pictures larger than their 1.5MB-limit...

It's fun to read your AAR, but it takes ages to load the pictures for my poor internet connection (and I'm sure some others too)...

I should recommend XnView for browsing and converting pictures.

[General Appo]

Holy ....

General Appo, you are killing me...at least my poor internet connection.

You break one of the oldest internet laws, and that in hundred times manner...:

Never ever post screenshots in .bmp format! Compress them in advance with a serious program (NOT MSPaint) to .jpg-format (Paint sucks and makes the picture ugly as hell), use good, free, and simpley programs like "IrfanView" to compress your pics to .jpg-format.

You just renamed the pics to end with .jpg, but that doesn't change anything. They still are .bmp-files and they still are as big as bmp-files...

This way pictures who are 1.3MB in .bmp-format are now just 200-300kb in size...Another advantage: Your pictures won't be cropped and resized automatically by Imageshack, as you propably uploaded always pictures larger than their 1.5MB-limit...

It's fun to read your AAR, but it takes ages to load the pictures for my poor internet connection (and I'm sure some others too)...

Yes well... I do use IrfanView, and I don´t use ImageShack, I use Photobucket. Also, at least to me, my images don´t appear resized, and I should no, I´m the one who took and edited them after all.
But, if you could advice me on how to compress the pictures to .jpg format I will be very thankful.
As it is I have found MSPaint the easiest and quickest way to edit my screenshots.

[Senshi]

Sure.

If you use IrfanView, it's very simple. If you only want to compress a single picture, just open it with IrfanView and then click "File->Save as..." (or you simply press the shortcut: "S").

Here you give a name and then choose filetype "JPG - JPG/JPEG Format". A small box should appear to the right of the "Save"-dialog, there's a bar at the top where it says "Quality" and ranges from 0 to 100. Here you can choose the amount of compression you want. The more left your bar is, the more compressed the picture will be in size, but quality will suffer a bit (pixelated effect, unsharp colors, etc.). A usually very good compromise of quality and compression are values between 70-80.

The rest of the options is secondary and not really important.

Now, just hit the "SAVE"-Button et voìla, you have a sweet small picture with the same quality as your .bmp-file.


If you have masses of .bmps (as rendered usually by FRAPS) and don't want to convert them one by one (very time-consuming), you can use IrfanView's "Batch Conversion" which is quite a cool tool.

For that, just open IrfanView, go to "File -> Batch Conversion/Rename" (or hit the shortcut: "B")

In the dialog which should appear you can simply add as many picture files as you want to the lower box (Drag&Drop).

Choose "Batch Conversion" in the upper left corner of the dialog, then choose "JPG" as Option for Batch-Conversion in the drop-down-box below, press "Options" next to it and choose your desired quality.
Choose your target directory in the field below where you want your newly batch-compressed pictures to be saved.

Then, just hit "START" and wait until Conversion is finished :)

Hope that helps as a starter, just play around a bit if you want more options, it's surprisingly simple if you once get the principle used...

And I apologize for my perhaps bad English, that's all we learn at school here

[General Appo]

Thank you, I believe I grasp it now. It will take a little more time this way, but it is certainly worth it if it can decrease my readers loading times.

[General Appo]

I am afraid that I will be missing from these forums and all of the internet for a few days, as I have a football (the real kind) tournament coming up in faraway lands (or well, 2 hours away by car lands).

[Aaldaemon]

Aahhh, I see you're going to play at EURO2008. Just be kind to the Russians, as they're my favorite team left.

Seriously, have fun, and remember I _demand_ my MEGAS HELENOS fix.

[General Appo]

Chapter 12: Megas Helenos

The Ptolemaioi army stationed in Ioudia has made its move. Under the command of the Makedon Pizas Tanites the army invaded Phoinike, and surrounded Sidon with Helenos and his small army stuck in it.


Though heavily outnumbered Helenos is certain of victory, and proclaims that he alone (and some bodyguards and such of course) shall defeat the Ptolemaioi army.
So, after a few weeks of excessive starving Helenos is once again able to ride a horse and strap his armour on, and so prepares for battle.


Helenos and his heavily armoured bodyguards storms out of the gate, to the surprise of the Ptolemaioi army, which expected the defenders to wait quitely within the walls.


Helenos is once again a magnificent figure upon the battlefield, at least at a distance, for once one gets near him, the stench drives away any fiction of grandeur.


The Ptolemaioi forces are thus not arranged for battle, and Helenos can unhindered charge some unarmoured skirmishers.


Helenos fights as a true warrior, but is forced to retreat when darkskinned spearmen from Nubia arrive to support the skirmishers.


By now the rest of Helenos army has exited the city, and has arrayed itself before the gates.


The Keltoi cavalry sees a chance and take it, throwing javelins at the enemy as they advance.


Helenos once again falls upon the Ptolemioi skirmishers, this time the Peltastai on the other end of the Ptolemaioi line, and once again retreats when the Nubians arrive.


Now the Ptolemaioi general Pizas acts, charging his bodyguard against the naked Galatikoi veterans, who charge in turn.


A fierce battle ensues, as the rest of the Galatikoi and the some levy spearmen recruited by Helenos joins the fight.


This becomes to much for Pizas, who is forced to retreat, leaving many of his bodyguards behind, dead or unconscious.


At the same time Helenos and the Keltoi cavalry is mopping up some of the skirmishers that have become separated from the rest of the army.


With Pizas and his bodyguard retreating, Helenos infantry attacks the phalanx. These soldiers are not well trained and as such chaos ensues when they are forced to turn to face the enemy.


Pizas now returns to the fight, and brings with him some skirmishers he has rallied in an attempt to distract the enemy while his Nubians and levy spearmen manuever into position.


The Nubians and spearmen are too slow though, and soon the Keltoi cavalry charges the phalanx in the flank, bringing further disorder.


It is hard to say what exactly was going on in the minds of the Nubians and levy spearmens minds at this moment, for had they used simple common sense and charged Helenos infantry in the side the Ptolemaioi would surely have won the battle. Instead they marched around in strange patterns with unknown goal.


Helenos charged some of the spearmen that were dangerously close to the infantry´s rear.


Now at last some of the Nubians mustered the courage to charge Helenos infantry, but it was much to late.


Just a few feet away from the Nubians Pizas was being attacked by two Galatikoi warriors who slew his horse beneath him. He broke his neck in the fall.


The Nubians soon realised what had happened, and fled in terror almost before they had completed their charge.


Seeing their allies routing the levy spearmen soon fleed as well, and within seconds the isolated rout had become a big mass of hundreds of men running for their lifes.


Helenos and the Keltoi cavalry wasted no time in persuing the routers, and managed to kill most of them while they were still fleeing.


A great victory had been won against all odds and Helenos and his bodyguards especially had caused immense damage to the Ptolemaioi.


The army gave a brief cheer in Helenos honor, and he took it as an encouragement. Soon enough Helenos had proclaimed himself the son of both Akhilleus and Zeus-Dodonaios, without explaining how this would be possible.
He also demanded that people treated him with the correct respect, that is bowed down and worshipped him every time they saw him. He began styling himself as Megas Helenos and called himself not just an equal of, but an superior of "my daddy´s drunken, boy-loving, Makedones cousin".

On Sicilia, Alexandros but 12 year old daughter was married to an officer in the army, one who had been borned in Epeiros and carried the blood of the ancient Mollossioi in him.
This man, Kamandros Berenikeus , apparently excelled at nearly all tasks, and Alexandros was happy to have found him, even though Kamandros was less than happy to be forced to spend his wedding night with a 12-year old.
But, he reminded himself, the priestess of Aphrodite in Syrakousai was much more "open-minded" when it came to little adventures than those back in Hellas proper.


By now, Pyrrhos and his fleet had rounded the peninsula of Iberia, but were still forced to sail along the coast by constant storms and lack of supplies.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

And now, the best part of the entire chapter, the uncensored Galatians!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: