Kings of Mikra Asia - Pergamon AAR

[QuintusSertorius]

Excellent. I see you went with the royal blue for the faction colour, too.

[Hax]

Prologue - Subjugation and Betrayal

Less than 50 years ago Megás Alexandros came from Makedonia on his crusade to conquer the ancient Empire of the Persikoi. Even though Alexandros succeeded, he died a premature death in his capital at Babylon. After his death, numerous of his generals stood up and declared themselves Alexandros' successors. Ptolemaios "Soter" of Aigyptous, one of Alexandros' eldest hetairoi proclaimed himself Pharaoh. Seleukos "Nikator", named himself King of all lands east of the Tauros Mountains, and lord of the ancient cities of Ekbatana, Susa and Babylon.

Antigonos "Monophtalmos", the one-eyed was King of Mikra Asia, the gateway between Hellas and Assyrie, along with it's many mines. Kassandros was King of Makedonia, the homeland, from which Alexandros came to conquer the world. And finally, Lysimachos, King of Thraikia and Byzantion, an area of little wealth, but filled with barbaroi from the north.

However, in these little 50 years much has changed. Antigonos and Seleukos were killed, and Lysimachos was murdered and betrayed numerous times. Seleukos' son, Antiochos, took over the throne of Babylon and then subjugated Mikra Asia, dividing the lands between Ptolemaios Philadelphos and himself.

Even though Antiochos "Soter" triumphantly proclaimed himself Basileus tes Basileion numerous Kingdoms have started to rise on his borders. As he is predisposed with the Ptolemaioi, in the far east the Pahlava ride from the steppes to reclaim the old Persian Empire. Baktria is revolting, and the Shâhânshah is too busy claiming the settlements of the Levantine in name of his "glorious kingdom". The Orontids of Armenia are on the rise, and the Pontike Kingdom of Mithridates has already proclaimed himself King. And what does the famed "galatikekrates" do? Nothing.

So then why do we not rise? We are true Hellenes, the sons and daughters of Pergamon, ancient city on the banks of the Aegaen sea. Four years ago, our King, Philetairos Attalides, threw off the Seleukide shackles and claimed the cities of Nikaia and Byzantion.



Even though we fought bravely, like true Hellenes, the Thraikioi were relentless fighters. Hardy and brave, they killed many of some of our bravest men.



In the end, however, we were triumphant.



Byzantion had fallen to our might, as had Nikaia.





With Bithynia and Thraikia firmly under our control, we had a monopoly on all the trade going into the Pontos Euxeinos. With a stable cash flow, we had the resources and abilities to break completely loose from the Seleukide yoke.

Around the same time, the Seleukidai conquered the settlement of Ankyra, subjugating the Galatians. Before long, however, the Galatikoi revolted and proclaimed themselves a free state. Seeing the opportunity, Philetairos sent envoys to the Galatikoi, Ptolemaioi, and the Chremonidean League, securing an anti-Seleukide alliance.







While our armies in Nikaia and Byzantion were being readied for the march in Ipsos, we knew that we were too late.

It was only then that we found out they came to us.

[QuintusSertorius]

Those three settlements, with ports and mines, will sustain you for a goodly long time, even if you're exposed to Seleukids, Pontos, Makedonia and Getai.

What are you using for armies? I noticed the classical hoplites on that screenshot, they're certainly stalwart enough to resist even a phalanx. Are you recruiting many phalangites?

[Hax]

I'm trying to keep my recruitment of phalangites as low as possible for the time being.

Most of my armies (250's now) consist out of Keltohellenikoi and classical hoplitai, along with Thraikioi Peltastai and the usual sphendonetai and toxotai (I also use Galatians as mercenaries.)

If I use phalangitai, I hire them

[||Lz3||]

Perhaps you could change the faction simbol , there was another thread about changing factions somewhere, and he had swaped someone for Massylia (numidia) and changed all their faction simbols

[QuintusSertorius]

I'm trying to keep my recruitment of phalangites as low as possible for the time being.

Most of my armies (250's now) consist out of Keltohellenikoi and classical hoplitai, along with Thraikioi Peltastai and the usual sphendonetai and toxotai (I also use Galatians as mercenaries.)

If I use phalangitai, I hire them

I can understand entirely. I don't know how close you're trying to play things to history, but apparently Pergamon had manpower issues which precluded heavy use of phalangites anyway. They seem to have liked their Thureophoroi, too.

Will we be getting any battle reports?

[Hax]

Perhaps you could change the faction simbol , there was another thread about changing factions somewhere, and he had swaped someone for Massylia (numidia) and changed all their faction simbols

I'd have to go into texturing for that. I fail hard at anything with art.

I can understand entirely. I don't know how close you're trying to play things to history, but apparently Pergamon had manpower issues which precluded heavy use of phalangites anyway. They seem to have liked their Thureophoroi, too.

I will play things historically. I won't field 20 sphendonetai units, and I will keep imit recruitment low. I won't alter the AI in any way, though.

And yes, there will be battle reports. More than you'd like, maybe :P

[Chaotix]

Nice AAR. And you could just use the already existant EB2 Pergamon faction symbol you know

[Reverend Joe]

I'd have to go into texturing for that. I fail hard at anything with art.

Done in 5 minutes with MS paint. Granted, it's really cruddy, but with a decent image editing program I think it would be fairly easy to clip out the Pergamon symbol from the shield thing and make it into a halfway-decent symbol.

[Hax]

Chapter I - Loss and exile

After a siege of less than a year, Philetairos rode out to speak with the Seleucid commander. As I served as the commander of the Hoplitai back then, my lochos was tasked with protecting the gate from the invaders. However, what we did not know was that they had spies in the city, who overran the overseers of the gate and opened them before the beginning of the battle.

The Seleukidai immediately rushed forward as a band of barbaroi from Galatia, with no formation or alignment whatsoever. As the first few lochoi ran in, we tried to hold them off for as long as we could, but in seeing the amount of soldiers they had, our morale quickly sank



Shortly thereafter, I was knocked to the floor by a horse, and I lost all notion of time and space.

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A few hours later, I awoke amidst a pile of corpses. I couldn't move my right leg anymore, and my left shoulder felt as if it had been crashed into a wall numerous times.

However, as I lay upon the floor, closing my eyes, waiting for Thanatos to take me, I suddenly heard the sound of footsteps coming towards me. I tried to turn around and crawl away, but I was unable to move whatsoever. After a few times, I gave up and tried to turn my head towards the sound.

'Take what's left of these men and drag them outside of the city. We'll burn the corpses on the hill some few dilochoi* from here.'

I felt how one of the corpses was lifted from my body and I closed my eyes, waiting until they would drag me away. Two strong hands dragged me over the ground towards the city gate, from which I lay not even five metres. I opened my eyes and looked around. It was horrible. The dead lay everywhere, and the air was filled with the smell of gore and death. I tried to hold up, but I felt vomit shooting up through my throat. Somehow, the vomit gave me energy. I released myself from the tight grip of the man that was dragging me and grabbed a small dagger from my belt. Before he could react, I stuck it up, driving the iron blade straight through his hands. He screamed in fear and pain and released my other hand immediately, while he tried to grab for his sword. I dragged myself along the ground with one hand, causing my leg to increase in pain with every second. Finally, I heard the man running towards me again. I closed my eyes, shivered and waited for the blow to come.

It never came. After a good two seconds, I opened my eyes again and looked behind me. My attacker had stumbled over an arm, and subsequently impaling himself on a spear sticking out of someone's body. I threw up again, and dragged myself further along, until I could no longer hear the sound of the buzzing flies, waiting to feed on the corpses. I finally dragged myself into what seemed to be a small alley, and there I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

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The next morning, I awoke when I heard someone scream and run away. With great effort I opened my eyes again and looked around. I was covered in vomit, dried blood and something else I would rather not think about. I closed my eyes again and waited until I was found. Of course, then the inhabitants would take me to the soldiers and I would still be executed. After a full five minutes the girl came back, along with another man. I heard them converse, though I could not really understand what they were saying. They soon grabbed me and carried me from the alley to someplace else. Apparently, they had carried me to their house, where they treated my wounds and fed me...cared for me in any way that they could.

The first days were horrible. My leg had been crushed and my bones had been broken. Luckily, I was in the house of a chirurgeon, and he had treated me in the best ways he could. I would wake up in the middle of the night feeling an intense burning pain everywhere.

His name was Schidas Herakleiotes, and the name of his daughter was Andromache. He worked as a chirurgeon, first under Philetairos, and he was now treating the Seleukide wounded. To hear such a thing filled me with anger, but then I realized he was doing his job as any other man and he had to feed himself and his daughter in some way.

After a few weeks, I felt that the pain in my leg had gone, somehow. I tried to stand for the first time since the battle, and I collapsed almost immediately. As I lay on the wooden floor, I tried to hear if there was anybody in the house. I turned around after a few moments and just lay there, completely motionless.

After a few hours, I heard some stumbling on the stairs. I tilted my head so I could look at the stairs. Up came a little boy, who kept staring at me. I opened my mouth and closed it again, while he still kept looking at me. Then he crept towards me and started staring at me from a closer range.

'Good boy..go get your mother.' I whispered

Either he didn't understand me or I must have said something, because he then poked me in my eye and turned around, crawling back to the stairs.

I sighed and closed my eyes again, smiling.

After another few hours, I was finally found on the floor by Andromache, who helped me back into my bed.

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After another week I was almost fully healed. I could walk again properly, and I was able to help Schidas and Andromache in the housekeeping and such. On the second day after I was fully healed, Schidas sent me to the agora for some minor chores. As I walked through the city, I was surprised at how calm everything was. There was hardly any damage in the city, and everything seemed quite peaceful. As I came at the agora, I noticed a philosopher proclaiming how friendly the Seleukidai had been to our city, yet that we should not forget that Philetairos surrendered the city.

I was dumbstruck when I heard this. Philetairos had surrendered the city? I dropped the basket that I was carrying and stared at the man. How could such a thing have happened? I waited until he was done speaking and then I walked up to him.

'Tell me something, friend.'

'What is it you need to know, young one?'

'Back there,' I pointed at the pillar where he had stood, 'you proclaimed that Philetairos Attalides surrendered the city?'

'Aye. Do you not know? In exchange for his life, he coerced the Seleukidai into not harming the city, nor it's inhabitants.'



He looked at me vaguely and I stepped back from him

'I am sorry, I did not mean to interfere in your business.'

'It is of no concern, young one. In the future, be careful of who you ask about Philetairos. They might suspect you would be pro-Attalidean. Or even worse, part of the resistance.' He winked and walked off, leaving me dumbstruck for the second time that day.

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When I returned to the house, with everything I had to do done, I was more quiet than usual. I hardly looked at Schidas nor Andromache and I left for bed soon afterwards. Something about what the philosopher had said troubled me. Pro-Attalidean? There were still family members of Philetairos alive? I had suspected that with the fall of Pergamon the cities of Nikaia and Byzantion would have revolted. If they had not, there were still soldiers alive. And if there were still soldiers alive, we could reclaim Pergamon.

That evening, I walked up to Schidas and asked whether I could speak to him alone. Andromache simply shrugged and walked out of the room.

'Listen..I am grateful for everything that you have done for me, but I need to leave the city.'

Schidas raised an eyebrow and looked at me, yet he was still silent. After a short moment, I continued speaking

'As you might have well guessed, I am a soldier. I served under Philetairos, as did you. You have to understand that I need to make for either Nikaia or Byzantion, and from there, strike back at the Seleukidai.'

He was silent for almost a few seconds and then finally spoke.

'Impossible. You will not even get out of the city.'

I opened my mouth and closed it again, deciding it to be wiser to let him speak his piece

'Last week, a spy was found. Apparently, he was sent from Nikaia.'



'Since then, they have maximized all security, whether coming from inside or outside of the city.'

I remained quiet again and then wished him a good night. My time would come, eventually..

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Blegh. I hated this chapter. Okay, to help you out of two dreams. This won't be a novella-style AAR. It will be for the next chapter, but afterwards it will be way more massive slaying action and such. If you want to read good novella-style AAR, I suggest Across the Waters by Theodotos I.