Campaigns of the rogue general Alexanor Messaneos

His compact with Atintas still healthy, the two generals marched for Kallatis with their borrowed army. The first stage of their plan had been successful, and now for the second. The capture of the Getic coastal city which had once been a Greek colony. Information gleaned from outlying villages suggested there was still a vibrant Greek community in the town, but that it was in many ways subservient to the Dacians. This could not go on.

What Atintas did not know, however was that Messaneos was already thinking ahead to his next campaign, and even an endgame. He could not run from the Basileu's agents forever, he needed somewhere to build a power base of his own. But that was for the future, the now was Kallatis, which they laid siege to.

Kallatis

The garrison of the town were completely unprepared for the arrival of a foreign army outside their walls, so swift was the Pergamene army's march. There were few defenders willing to resist.



It wasn't really a battle, Messaneos lost few men.



Taking his share of the plunder and slipping away on a horse during the night, Messaneos then left Atintas alone to face the music.

Editorial Note



For the first time I witness firsthand just how scary Thrakian elites are. They went through the general and his bodyguard like they were nothing, and the unit of Lugoae defending the square lasted about a minute with them in their rear.

Bosphorous

Messaneos spent a year planning for his next move, hiding around in the countryside and drawing on his contacts for favours. His plunder went into greasing palms and more importantly hiring mercenaries. Lots of mercenaries. In the summer of 226 he gathered his mercenary army in the Thrakian forest and trained them in the manner of Pergamon's armies. He welded them together into a cohesive fighting force. He promoted the leader of one mercenary contingent to his second-in-command, to aid in co-ordination during battle.

Then one of his other favours came in. He was friends with the commander of Pergamon's navy, Admiral Damosthenes. His request was simple: provide transport for his army to the Bosphorous region. There were Greek communities there who he had been in communication with and some factions within them would welcome anyone who would overthrow their tyrants.

When they landed he asked one more thing of Damosthenes - bring back his family. These plans in motion, he disembarked late in the campaigning season. He was attacked immediately by the army of the tyrant.



They appeared in the distance, marching through the driving snow. Messaneos had deployed in the standard Pergamene fashion.



The lines closed, though it remained eerily still and quiet.



Then suddenly both armies pitched into action. The air was ablaze with arrows from foot and horse-archers.



Some Scythian nobles charged the Pergamene line.



Messaneos and his Thrakians drove them off.



Meanwhile the Taurii foot attacked.



Getting frustrated at the volume of arrows buzzing around, Messaneos ordered his mercenary horse-archers to push up and drive their counterparts away.



A swirling melee ensued, broken when the Thrakians charged home.



Messaneos' second and the Gallic mercenaries charged to the rear and broke many of the Taurii infantry.



Several fraught charges later, their entire army was in flight.



And in spite of many wounded by arrows, a victory was forged. Messaneos' mercenary army had performed adequately well.



Editors Note



I was actually a little surprised at how easy that battle turned out to be, not least because of my suboptimal use of my horse archers. I got frustrated at everyone being shot up, so just charged them after the enemy horse archers, which at least got them away from my infantry. Their foot archers had greater range than my Kretans too, which meant I couldn't touch them.

The Thrakian cavalry I originally sent after the fleeing Scythian nobles kept on charging when I wasn't paying attention and routed one band of archers. That's when I spotted them close by the horse archers, who were suffering in melee, and they massacred the enemy horse archers. They and indeed all my cavalry got a lot of kills in that battle.