City of Protis: A Massalian AAR

[QuintusSertorius]

Don't stop writing! Yours and General Appo's were the ones that inspired by Epeiros-as-Pergamon migration AAR.

[Swordmaster]

I'd missed out on this one, too. (I wasn't around here until I got a new machine.)

Great battles, too. Your use of peltastai says it all about how good these units are.

[QuintusSertorius]

I'd missed out on this one, too. (I wasn't around here until I got a new machine.)

Great battles, too. Your use of peltastai says it all about how good these units are.

I think they're brilliant, myself. Get them upgraded kit and a point or two of experience and you've got solid medium infantry who have lots of ammo to skirmish with, and don't tire easily.

Are you sure you don't mean Celto-Hellenic hoplites (who's mini-card looks a lot like Peltastai's does)? They're brilliant too.

[Swordmaster]

I think they're brilliant, myself. Get them upgraded kit and a point or two of experience and you've got solid medium infantry who have lots of ammo to skirmish with, and don't tire easily.

Are you sure you don't mean Celto-Hellenic hoplites (who's mini-card looks a lot like Peltastai's does)? They're brilliant too.

I see. They've got the same type of helmets and moustaches, hence the confusion. Even so, peltastai rock.

[Reverend Joe]

I actually believe number of views is a highly misguided way to look at an aar "success". Everytime the author enters his thread or changes the page, edits something etc = view count goes up. There's also quite a lot of people I believe who enter the thread give it a cursory glance and then exit... Other people only look at screenshots, other people just don't have the mental desire to read more than the initial few posts etc... I think the very best way to see if there's enough interest in an aar is through the number of posts adressing your last update... but the community here simply isn't into aars all that much, and they just don't realize that a lot of aar writers need replies to their last updates to get the desire to continue. (I don't deny there's a few authors who don't give a damn about replies and they can drone on on their own forever - but they're very very few) There's nothing worse for a lot of aar writers to put a lot of effort in an aar and then be met by silence. The silence of aar readers kills aars.

I think the problem around here (it's true with me, at least) is that all we (the fans) can think of to say is "great job!" and we feel like stupid fanboys by not being able to say anything else. So, we remain silent mostly out of embarrassment. It's not that we don't like AARs that much; we're just not used to working with the writers on a literary level.

Edit: also, I think AAR fans around here tend to stick to a few AARS that they like, rather than commenting on them all. So yeah, the fanbase can be small, but it also is usually dedicated.

[Swordmaster]

I think the problem around here (it's true with me, at least) is that all we (the fans) can think of to say is "great job!" and we feel like stupid fanboys by not being able to say anything else. So, we remain silent mostly out of embarrassment. It's not that we don't like AARs that much; we're just not used to working with the writers on a literary level.

Edit: also, I think AAR fans around here tend to stick to a few AARS that they like, rather than commenting on them all. So yeah, the fanbase can be small, but it also is usually dedicated.

Quality is what counts, not quantity.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

I follow just about all the AAR (at least browse every one) but the good reverend is right, I feel stupid if the best thing I can come up with is "good job". So if I don't have anything specific to say, I'll just ghost the AAR.

[Megas Methuselah]

III. The Cost of War



It is 365 years since the founding of the city (235 B.C.), and the Molossian Herakleon Gallicvs, King of all the Gauls, has the Lusitannan city-fortress of Baikor under a heavy siege. With him, the king has a force of Celto-Hellenic hoplites, supported by Gallic archers and mercenaries. Herakleon, having the blind support of the young Megakles Orraitas, his second-in-command, is led to believe that all local military resistance has been crushed save for the limited number of Lusotannan warriors holed up in their fortress hall.



However, the cunning enemy soon proves the famed king wrong, and much to both Herakleon's and Megakles' surprise, a force of Lusotannan warriors march from their hidden forest camps in a bold attempt to sorround and crush the Hellenistic invaders.

The horns are blown and the men roused from their slumber to find themselves once more under attack in this forsaken wasteland. The king dons his armour and issues orders for his hoplites to take up their battle stations while Megakles eagerly jumps on his warhorse and encourages his waking companion cavalry to prepare themselves for battle in haste.



With his army in the field, the king notices a Lusotannan warband rapidly approaching his position. Knowing there would be more enemy warriors in the forests ahead of his troops, Herakleon orders only a portion of his hoplites to form a line behind the main force and engage the advancing barbarians. Furthermore, he sends Megakles Orraitas to command the men, with the hope that the young soldier will prove to be of some value in the campaign.




Upon noticing the Massalians' plan for a confrontation, the Lusotannan warriors holler their battle-cries out loud and rush forward under a hail of javelins into the ranks of their hated enemies.



Shouts of challenges, defiant calls, screams of hate, and gasps of death are all heard in the tight mass of enraged warriors. The hoplites grind their teeth under the pressure of the barbarians' sword blows upon their shields, and return quick strikes with their deadly spears in an effort to drive the Lusotannan line back.



Megakles Orraitas, noticing the Lusotannan infantry had no troops in reserve, let out a cry of joy and eagerly wheeled his companion cavalry around the enemy's flank in the hope of realizing the possibility of breaking the barbarians' line in a single, brutal charge. His one last order was to the Gallic archers, instructing them to follow his route at their own pace.

Of course, the Lusotannan cavalry advanced to meet this new threat, and Megakles impetuously chased them down away from the main scene of combat. If he believed he could tear apart the enemy's cavalry and return to run down the infantry in little time, Megakles was disastrously wrong. The Lusotannan warchief, having already isolated Megakles' companions, turned around and engulfed them!



Despite the numerous indications that his seemingly simple plan may have gone catastrophically wrong, Megakles foolishly ordered his men to stand their ground and beat back the barbarians, even going so far as to cut the throat of his own soldier who started to flee in a panic.

However, in spite of all their bravery and horsemanship, Megakles' men began to be slowly cut down. In a last, desperate attempt to change the tide of the deplorable struggle, Megakles angrily broke through his shield of bodyguards and charged the Lusotannan warchief, engaging him in single combat!



However, Megakles was, though a soldier, a young and inexperienced man. The Lusotannan warchief smirked, and easily parried the weak thrust of Megakles' sword. Although the Gallic archers had already joined in the fight, they made it only in time to watch as Megakles was unhorsed and mercilessly stomped on by the hooves of the Lusotannan warchief's mount.




Despite the great discouragement suffered by the Massalians due to the horrible death of their general, the soldiers knew that the only way between them and victory was the Lusotannan cavalry. With one, last, desperate battlecry, the remnants of the dead Megakles' companion cavalry and Gallic archers slew the Lusotannan horsemen and achieved what had been thought nigh-impossible: they slaughtered the warchief and mutilated his corpse in their anger, leaving it in the fields to be shamefully eaten by the carrion birds and dogs.



As the exhausted troops trudged back to the main Massalian battle line, they found that the hoplites had already shattered the Lusitannan infantry. Megakles did not need to die.

However, there was no time for mourning, as the other force of Lusotannans was sighted by the scouts marching towards the sound of battle...



...and they were eagerly out for blood. It was not within their knowledge that a great chieftan of theirs had already died, and so they impetuously stalked forward with killing in their minds.

Soon enough, the first Lusotannan warriors were within sight of Herakleon Gallicvs, who quickly ordered his hoplites to obliberate the impudent barbarians off the face of the earth. The soldiers hurled their javelins and charged forward in a fantastic display of Gallic courage and Hellenic honour.




The hard soil began to turn red with both barbaric and hellenistic blood. As the ordered lines of warriors underwent a disfiguration into one constricted heap of shouting madmen, soldiers started slaughtering every living organism within sight. Herakleon, seeing the Gallic rage in his troops, knew nothing could be done to stop this psychotic bloodshed.



However, he soon noticed Lusotannan skirmishers and ambushers in the forests ahead, and brought his companion cavalry out of reserve to run them down.



While at the same time, the shouts of madness from the combined voices of Lusotannan and Massalian close-order infantry began to die down. Sanity was returning to Herakleon's hoplites, who soon found that in their lunacy they had already killed most of their enemy. It took little effort, then, to finally slaughter the rest of the fearless, barbaric, heavy troops.



However, some hoplites managed to witness their king charge into the forest ahead, and went after him. Soon stumbling upon a clearing, they found even more of the barbaric enemies waiting to do battle, which once again, soon began.



Herakleon's companions had almost finished cutting down their target skirmishers when noise of another conflict soon interrupted their cruel pursuit.



Soon finding the clash between his own hoplites and the Lusotannan ambushers, Herakleon gathered together his cavalry and crushed the barbarians in the classic, albeit exhausted, hammer and anvil tactic of his distant relative, Megas Alexandros.



With the garrison of Baikor utterly annihilated, the Massalian force was able to march on the city-fortress without meeting resistance. Herakleon angrily let its people feel the wrath of his troops, and put the barbaric place under the sword and chain.



Sadly, this great victory was bittersweet. Megakles Orraitas was monstrously killed and, for all his foolishness and other vices, was the eldest son of the Massalian Lord of Roma, a much-respected figure who fought alongside the king's father in the conquest of Italy. Megakles was to one day assume governorship of Italy, something which will now never happen.



For his part, Herakleon will weep for the young soldier. Megakles was, after all, the son of Herakleon's own sister, thus being the king's nephew.



Anger and rage will spread through Massalia's realm like a storm, and many great and terrible things are bound to happen.

* * *

Kingdom of Massalia, 365 years after the founding of the city (235 B.C.):



NEXT: (Yet to be revealed)

[Megas Methuselah]

Any and every comments are welcome. Even if it's just a "good job," after doing a bunch of work to get chapter 3 out, a good job comment is heart-warming, even if the poster would claim it makes him/her look stupid. Yeah, I'm talking to you, Marcus.


Come what may, I attempted to solve 2 problems that have been posted through constructive criticism and/or suggestions in this chapter:

1- I actually wrote the chapter.
2- I made the pictures 10% smaller, so as to make them more friendly for the older, smaller monitors.

And to say it again, any and every comments are welcome.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

"Good job."

Thanks for the smaller pictures. The old one fit my monitor but just barely.

Are you going to conquer all of Iberia? Where to after that?

[QuintusSertorius]

I just love seeing all those Celto-Hellenic hoplites in action.

I'm surprised, though that you haven't made Massalian hoplites recruitable for you in Massalia itself.

[Megas Methuselah]

Where to after that?

Wherever God takes me.

But to be honest, I have plans for everything, ranging from an invasion of Britain, incursions into Germany, landings in Sicily, trouble with Italy and the alps, and maybe even a strike force in Africa. Of course, I want to try to establish distant colonies, too... So be that as it may, we'll see what happens.

I'm surprised, though that you haven't made Massalian hoplites recruitable for you in Massalia itself.

I had a Koinon Hellenon migration campaign to Massalia back in 1.0, and those hoplites were my mainline infantry. However, I ended up getting sick of those men and their barbaric-looking armour, so I wanted to try more flexible and prettier units in this campaign.

[Reverend Joe]

Looking good. When can we expect another update?

[Megas Methuselah]

Dunno. It's too much work for me to care... Someday.