Battle Reports

[Warmaster Horus]

Battles of the Arche Seleukeia

This thread is for all Battle Reports. Any post in this thread which is not a Battle Report will be moved or deleted.

Note: Battle Reports can be extensive multi-part IC stories, but they can also just be OOC brief summaries of the action. The nature and length of the report is entirely up to you. It is encouraged that everyone post at least the final results of the battle, either typed out or by posting a screenshot of the results scroll that appears at the end of the battle. It is however crucial that we know what type of victory or defeat the battle ended in, since it influences the rank of a character (it must therefore be seen in a screenshot or typed as an aside).

[00jebus]

encript from "A history of hellenic civilisation - Chapter 4, tactical doctorine" by Giddens and Goldborn



.....though as a rule of thumb, commanders used whatever means they could to deprive their enemies of high ground to avoid such giving their enemies such an obvious advantage.

A prime example of this is an otherwise minor engagement faught somewhere on a hill road between Susa and Babylon in modern day Iraq, in 272 BC, between seleucid forces, and persian rebels, both sides numbering roughly 2000 men.

The persian rebels were composed of spearmen who also had bows, and the sparabara, made famous by earlier engagements between various greek forces and the persian empire, meanwhile, like most seleucid armies of the time, very few greeks were avaliable for combat, its believed the only 100 colonist from what was the city state of Thessilia were avaliable for the battle, who faught as heavy cavalry, the rest of the seleucid army was made up of both spearmen and slingers native to mesopatania, who had greek officers but were not trained in hellenic tactics themselves.

Put simply, both armies had relativly even numbers of troops of faily even quality, this should have been a relativly easy battle for the rebels to win, even though they lacked any cavalry.
However, the commander of seleucid forces was one Timarchos Mysiakes, who came from a region known as Sogdion, in modern day Afganistan and was used to hill fighting.

Mysiakes drew he army across the battlefeild in a line, crucially, his cavalry was on the far left, whilst his slingers occupied the centre.
In a simmilar action to the much more famous battle of Hastings, the slingers drew the rebel sparabara downhill whilst the cavalry moved un-noticed behind the crest of the hill.
When the sparabara engaged the seleucid spearmen, the cavalry charged over the crest and down the hill, in a few short hours the battle was over, with the seleucids as clear winners.

Some scholars, such as Baddaly and Bandura, argue that such a victory would be impossible for a phalax based army to win, due to the sheer exhertion involved in raising a sassara to a steep enough angle and keeping it there whilst on a hill.
Though these are in the minority, and it should be noted that phalax's were accompinied most of the time by lighter infantry, (such as peltists, royal guards or various mercinaries and auxillia, galatians seem to have been especally favoured for this role.) who could fight on broken and uneven ground better than the phalax.

In any case this skirmish, though minor, and seemingly of no great importance, marks the start of one of the most colourful period in hellenic history......


(for more on the second rise of the Seleucid empire, turn to chapter 18 pg 721 - 818 )

[00jebus]

272 - CV

Timarchos Anaias Mysiakes was bored and tired, gently bobbing up and down with the movements on his horse on the way to Babylon, the mesopatanian sun gently beating down on him, in his armour, as his slaves were left in Susa, and the baggage train that carried in through the summer was taken back with the units he borrowed from the cities garrison.
He looked to his right, another faceless mountain stared back at him, returning his gaze to the front of him, he saw a hazy horizon,
"probably a trade convoy" he muttered, and drifted off.

He awoke momments later with a start, as an arrow hit him full force in the stomarch, he double taked, starring first at his stomarch, a small dent in his armour was the only evidence that he'd been struck, then he looked up, the haze on the horizon was in fact 80 bowmen, oppertunistic bandits at best, he looked at his somotopalykes, drew his sword and screamed charge.......

Less than a minute later Mysiakes found himself looking back at 70 corpses, only 3 of which were his men, he smiled, probably the easiest victory in the history of the arche, he thought to himself.

[MerlinusCDXX]

Ekbatana-Apameia road, minor skirmish



Flushed out a group of bandits, none survived. Clear victory.

[kingsnake]

Tarsos has been conquered by the 1st Syrian Army.

Commander: Aratos Arethousas Syriakes
2nd Commander: Arrhenides Cunobelinus

Battle Results:


Surviving Army:

[00jebus]

271 - Autumn

Dawn

Timarchos Anaias Mysiakes woke with a massive headache, cursing Mithras for sending him a glorified barbarian drinks mixer instead of a doctor, he strode outside his tent to find Dion, the greek captian of the royal army Timarchos was commanding waiting for him, Timarchos, in no mood to hear Dion's loud barking voice screaming order's all day long decided to cut him off before he spoke.
"Captian, we are but a short distance away from the enemy, we will march in kit, I want you to move through all the troops on the march and make sure they are prepared for contact at any momment"

Then Timarchos half ran away from the man, the sound of his own footstep's were like symbol's banging.
Making a mental note to have his herbalist Tomayris whipped, he prepared himself for battle.



Mid morning,

Timarchos looked downhill at his enemies, his guard were a good 5 minutes walk ahead of the main army, with the skirmishers in tow, he asked his swordbearer come adviser Cadayren if that was all they'd brought, Cadayren nodded, so Timarchos addressed his the captians of his advance force.

"No point waiting for the phalax, we can finish this ourselves, you'll space yourselves our, one unit of you by the tree's on each side of this clearing, another right here, loosen off a few volly's so their archers go loose and move away from their infantry, when they do, we'll charge down, get the attention of their spearmen, who'll chase us back up the hill, but will stop when we move around 'em to hit their archers again, then, they'll either move down to try and help their mates, in which case, shoot them in the back and we'll win, or they'll chase after you, in which case, shoot them in the face and we'll win.... oh... and win before the phalax arrive and everything they have is yours to loot"

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Dusk

"you could have at least let us help loot them!" dion barked
"for the last time, I dont care, now fetch me a messenger, I need to inform the council of this"
Timarchos' order was partly to shut the captian up, who'd been complaining ever since his personally trained phalax didn't even get to see a living enemy.
Feeling bad about himself, Timarchos called Dion back
"don't worry, there's a army of around equal size of our's that you can help me with if whoever's army this is now will let me." Timarchos said, as he handed him a note
"we can only hope, sir"
"Hope I didn't seam too arrogent or forceful when I suggested my promotion.....hmm"

[LordofUmbar]

That was a deadly bridge. Their army was all archers.

[Incitatus]

Battle vs some rebels south of Damaskos, winter 271

[johnhughthom]

Battle vs some rebels south-west of Asaak, Spring 270.

[Chaotix]

The Siege of Side, Spring 270 BC

Stats:

Clear Victory

Seleukids:

773 men
674 kills
702 remaining

Ptolemies:

675 men
84 kills
0 remaining

The First Lydian Army:
1st Pantodapoi Phalangitai: 117/122
2nd Pantodapoi Phalangitai: 113/122
3rd Pantodapoi Phalangitai: 89/122
Thureophoroi: 64/81
Peltastai: 69/80
1st Hippakontistai: 50/50
2nd Hippakontista: 50/50
Akontistai: 116/120

Light casualties overall, although retraining the weakened units couldn't hurt.

[kingsnake]

Summer, 270 BC

The city of Salamis on the island of Kypros has been conquered.

Commander:Strategos Aratos Arethousas Syriakes
2nd Commander: Strategos Arrhenides Cunobelinus

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Ptolemaic lord, Hikesios Hermopolites, was killed in battle.

[Rodrico Stak]

The Siege of Sidon - Summer 270

The city of Sidon in Phonecia has been conquered.

It was a clear victory, and 320 Ptolemaic troops were killed at a loss of only around 100 of our men.

Clear Victory

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

No screenshot because I forgot to turn off anti-aliasing.

[Celtic_Punk]

Battle of Pamphylia, Autumn 272 BC

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Bloody anti-aliasing screwed up my screenies.

Heroic Victory

Cunobelinus marched his army off the ships, but as soon as they landed, he knew something was very wrong.

"AMBUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!" cried a young captain leading the 2nd phalanx
"FORM THE LINE, PHALANX FORMATION NOW! PELTASTS FALL BACK BEHIND!!" His voice was urgent but calm, Cunobelinus knew to save his men he had to keep a cool head.

Ptolemy charged, It was wreckless, they didnt have the numbers, nor a true phalanx of their own. But to Cunobelinus' horror, he saw a regiment of his own brethren on Ptolemy's left flank. Galatian swordsmen! He bent his head down in disbelief, swallowed and ordered his peltasts to loose their javelins. Ptolemy continued his brutal charge, and by the time the lines clashed a large portion of men lay dead behind them propped up like puppets by the javelins that impaled them.

"Javelins complete sir!"
"Flank them on the left captain, I will take my cavalry 'round the right and hit the Galatians. Godspeed!"
The manouver worked perfectly, Ptolemy's flanks began to crumble but the hoplites of classic fashion held firm. The Jews were the first to break and run, and Cunobelinus broke off and charged home against them decimating them, leaving only a handful left to tell the tale. The cowardly archers had also run in fear of the heavy cavalry. Cunobelinus trotted his horses into positon behind the enemy's line. It would be the final charge.

"Steady men, we charge together. AS ONE!" Cunbelinus kicked his horse, Bedwyr and he bucked up "FORWARD!"

The hoplites were too busy fighting for their lives to see the heavy cavalry coming to their rear. Cunobelinus blew his horn at the last minute and skewered a young egyptian with his spear. The final engagement was short one, and not a soul survived it.
"It is done Cuno. You saved us." remarked Achaikos, nodding in acknowledgement.
Cunobelinus scratched his stubble. "Perhaps. But I was wreckless with the peltasts. they were butchered. only a few dozen remain, they left kypros with 77. thats unecessary casualties." He looked up at the sky... and questioned what really happend today.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Since the screenshot buggered up heres the stats:
Heroic Victory - Famous Battle!
AS-409 deployed - 386 Kills - 97 casualties - 312 men remaining
P -425 deployed - 114 kills - 389 casualties - 36 men remaining

OOC: lol the jews cut and run as soon as my cavalry hit the galatians, my guys didnt even have time to switch to swords :P

[Rodrico Stak]

Battle of Phonike - Fall 270



Commander:Attalos Pergamou Mysiakes
Enemy Commander: Captain Theudesios

Engaged Ptolemaic force consisting of 2 Iudaioi Taxies, 1 Mistoporoi Toxotai Kretikoi, and 1 Hipies Thessalikioi. Most retreated before making contact, but 230 were killed anyway at a loss of only 62 men.

[Incitatus]

Minor skirmish west of Damaskos, winter 270




A simple battle, although I had to attack up the side of a mountain. Of course they were waiting at the very top... my spearmen were Very Tired before the fighting even started.

[MerlinusCDXX]

Autumn, 269

Engaged a largish force of bandits at the Parthava-Aria border.



sustained heavy casualties among the Daha horse archers, minor casualties among the rest of the army.
the composition of the bandit force was heavy in archers, and included a unit of Daha horse archers. The arrival of the rest of my cavalry should mitigate casualty reports like this one.

[The Celtic Viking]

The battle for Pergamon, Winter 269

Combatants: Sarpedon Syriakos (Arche Seleukeia) vs Ennomos (Pergamon)

Forces:

Sarpedon Syriakos
1x Somatophylakes Strategou
2x Prodromoi
2x Toxotai
1x Thanvare Payahdag
1x Peltastai
4x Pantodapoi Phalangitai
1x Iudaioi Taxeis
1x Thureophoroi

Ennomos
1x Greek General
1x Thraikioi Hippeis
1x Sphendonetai
2x Peltastai
1x Thraikioi Peltastai
1x Akontistai
3x Misthophoroi Phalangitai
1x Galatikoi Kluddolon
2x Hoplitai
2x Hoplitai Haploi

Total Men: 1096 vs 1340

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Battle

"Men! They're coming out. Move up that hill, double time! It will be a tough battle, but fight on, don't give up and we will be victorious!"

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Well up on the hill, Sarpedon forms a traditional successor formation: phalanxes in the middle, guards on their flanks and cavalry on the wings. Sarpedon positions himself on the left wing, expecting that that's where Ennomos will be coming.

The first contact is made when a band of Hoplitai Haploi attacks the Thureophoroi before the rest of their army has formed up, but are forced to retreat. Making no more mistakes like that, Ennomos forms up properly just outside the walls. He has fewer Makedonian-style phalanxes, but they are of superior quality, and he also has hoplites and a superior number of non-phalanx units, and thus proves a good threat to Sarpedon's lines.

"Archers!" Sarpedon orders his archers to open fire at the enemy's left flank. He hopes it will hit them from their sides, and thus bypassing their shields, in hope that it will weaken the enemy sufficiently for his right flank to hold. That's where the Thraikioi Peltastai and hoplitai units are, and the Thureophoroi will have a big fight in front of them without proper support. Ennomos were indeed coming at Sarpedon's left wing. The mercenary phalangites are going phalanx against phalanx, and the Galatians are making for the Iudaioi spearmen guarding the pantodapois' left flank.

Soon after contact is made, Sarpedon's arrows are all spent. Many had hit their mark, killing or wounding the target, but some had missed all together, and yet some had got stuck in shields or bounced off armour. Not enough had died to make Sarpedon feel his right flank secured, and indeed it was threatened, with Ennomos' second-in-command challenging Sarpedon's Prodromoi. Peltastai a nuisance. In the middle, the Pergamon phalanxes had proven their superiority, and broken through the very middle, but the left flank was holding firm. By this point, Ennomos had retreated behind his lines, so Sarpedon along with the second Prodromoi unit were helping out the Iudaioi Taxeis, who had come in a little trouble when a unit of Peltastai had joined in.

After a lot of fighting, the prodromoi on Sarpedon's right wing were finally beaten and retreated off from the field, which made it a matter of time before the whole right wing collapsed. But being busy fighting on the left wing, Sarpedon took no notice of the happenings on the other side. He had enough problems keeping the phalanxes from running, as well as keeping the Iudaioi, who fought bravely and proudly, alive. But of course the inevitable happened: the thureophoroi had had enough, and ran. After a lot of losses, so did most phalangites. It is only thanks to the archers brave attempt to delay the enemy that Sarpedon, the jews and the remaining phalanx avoided being enveloped. All seemed hopeless when the second unit of Prodromoi were beaten off the field as well.

The change came when Ennomos finally exposed himself to Sarpedon, and what was left of his bodyguards. After successfully isolating him from the rest of the troops, Sarpedon mercilessly charged home, putting everything on that last card. At this point, a big part of both armies had retreated - Sarpedon only had 11 bodyguards and 34 phalangites - but Ennomos were still alive, and he still had a numerical superiority.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Soon enough, though, he fell to Sarpedon's own blade. Since Ennomos' second-in-command had previously died, the chain of command was broken, and the rest of the Pergamese soldiers were thoroughly shaken - but not yet beaten. There were still phalanxes willing to fight, but since they were exhausted, and lacked proper support, Sarpedon was able to use the typical hammer-anvil tactic to rout the rest. Chasing them back into town, and taking the gates in the process, Pergamon finally surrendered to Sarpedon Syriakos. It was an important victory for him, and in the process he gained a reputation for his bravery.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Results:

[Chaotix]

The Siege of Halikarnassos, Summer 268 BC

Stats:

Clear Victory

Seleukids:

800 men
601 kills
478 remaining

Halikarnassos:

604 men
379 kills
0 remaining

The First Lydian Army:
1st Pantodapoi Phalangitai: 41/122
2nd Pantodapoi Phalangitai: 53/122
3rd Pantodapoi Phalangitai: 70/122
Thureophoroi: 31/81
Peltastai: 22/80
1st Hippakontistai: 50/50
2nd Hippakontista: 50/50
Akontistai: 120/120

Heavy casualties for the infantry, but none for the missiles. The army needs to be retrained, and I'll be returning it to Ipsos as soon as possible. The city's inhabitants were expelled, however unrest is still very high.

[MerlinusCDXX]

Rebels outside of Alexandeia-Arian,

[kingsnake]

266 BC - North of Karkathiotherka

AS: 1st Syrian Army + City garrison reinforcements led by Strategos Aratos Syriakes

Enemy: Rebels

Clear Victory

29 allied casualties.
No garrison unit suffered casualties.

[Roka]

[Alerion]

Theodoros met the 1st Parthian Army under Captain Sositratos in autumn. He had to decide what to do now. If he engaged the Rebels he was ordered to attack with full force, he knew they would retreat and be out of reach. It would take time to pursue them; time the Arche didn't have. He knew the only way to make sure these scum were crushed as soon as possible was to take a risk. He left the army and took only two cavalry regiments and his bodyguards with him to attack the rebels, leaving orders with Sositratos to march for Seleukeia.

With his cavalry regiments he reached the roaming brigants and crushed them utterly. Only few survived while the allied cavalry took only minor casualties.

OOC:
damn... I'm not familiar with taking screens... I took quite a few of the battle and of course the results. Downloaded irfanview but then I saw there were only 3 tgas in the tga folder (i took more screens) and when opening them in irfanview the were all black.. can anbody advise?

for now this has to suffice:

Heroic Victory
Theodoros Syriakos: about 120-130 men
Losses: about 25 I think

Enemy: more than 400 men
Losses: I think 30something were left

I recreated my losses by looking at the leftover cav... considering they were at full 44 men at the start the median cavalry lost 15 and the missile cav 5 - I think my bodyguard lost about 5 too...

[navarro951]

In Chaotix27's absence, I have taken command of 1st Lydian Army against a decent sized rebel force just outside Tarsos. The battle went well accept when rebel commander Captain Epaphras personally charged into one of our Hippakontistai and nearly wiped them out till Panaitolos Ankyrikos bodyguard saved the day.

Clear Victory

Panaitolos Ankyrikos
-Deployed 1026 men (Garrison of Tarsos supporting 1st L.Army, did not use them however.)
-Killed 423 of the Rebel scum
-961 men remaining

Captain Epaphras
-Deployed 465 men
-Killed 69 men
-42 Men remaining (Routed however after battle)

[MerlinusCDXX]

Engaged rebels in central Parthava



clear victory, took more casualties than I would have liked though (d'oh, fighting uphill against archers)

[00jebus]

"well, they've caught us." a greek captain broke the news, it was the middle of night, and Timarchos had arranged this meeting in secret so as not to disturb or un-nerve his inexperienced men.

"Dammit, there's practically no way of winning this, a plain, they have more troops and better one's than us... we are screwed"

"We could surrender, they outnumber us nearly two to one"

"Or...we could not, no, are all the captains here?" Timarchos looked around at the ten men in his room

"Yes sir, and Attalos Pergamou is umm...otherwise engaged" Attalos' second in command said, blushing and trying not to mention spicy food, or think about it too much.

"Fine, these are your orders... tomorrow, we'll assemble in battle formation, if we can beat the first army, then we should have a chance to regroup, or put some distance between us and the second."

Timarchos slept badly, he always did before battle, in the morning, he addressed all his Somatophylakes, his only full time professional troops
"I wont lie to any of you, were outnumbered, their better then our guys, and it doesn't look like we can beat them through mobility, so were all gonna die" he heard a few laughs and this strenghtened him before he carried on "So, after learning my art of war from near constant tribal conflicts and beating away rebels for the arche, I and my father, the exilied king of Pergamou, have come up with this plan for our predicament based on our extensive battlefeild experience;
We will mount our horses enthusiastically infront of these inexperienced jew's and iranians, then, we shall ride like bastards from hell and charge down anyone stupid enough to get in our way!"
An appriaciative cheer went up from the currently dismount cavalrymen

half an hour later and the army was waiting for the enemy.

[IMG][/IMG]


It did not go as planned, Timarchos remembered very little of the day, as he was concentrating on keeping himself from being impaled on someone's spear, however he deffinantly remembered that his centre was swallowed by the better trained and more numerour egyptian phalax, so much so, that, after 3 hours of battle, the army was in full retreat, with only the Somatophylakes left to cover the retreat, Timarchos saw Attalos charging down on the least heavily armoured enemies left on the feild as he picked another unit and slammed his guard into its flank.




He looked up, over the screams of war he saw Attalos being brought down, impaled on the spear of a Karin mercinary, he swore, looked around, saw that his army had practically nothing left, shouted to his men "Sod this for a game of soilders, retreat!"



For about a week after the battle, Timarchos barely smiled, hardly ate, guilty that he survived when so many others, his father not least amongst them, did not.

[00jebus]

Timarchos was looking downhill towards his enemy, this time, he was outnumbered more than two to one, but was fortunate to have what was left of Bithys Nisaias' army securing his flank, he turned around, and addressed his assembled men;

"They outnumber us so much that you'll have to make sure you kill three before the fates decide its your time.. fortunitally this hill is like a fort, all you have to do is stand on top of it and kill anyone of them who makes it to the top, Cadayren will be leading your efforts...the cavalry will be following myself compleating hit and run attacks so you don't have to fight so many at once...now... to arm's!
show these cat-£&**$!'s how a real army fights!"

[00jebus]

Timarchos' speach to troops before 2nd battle of Sidon

"Gods we could only use spit as a weapon and still win this, hurry up and kill the idiots, I dunno about you lot but its been far too long since my last brothel visit!"

[kingsnake]

Battle Report:

Heroic Victory on one of the Pontic armies camped out of the city and on the city's garrisons who came to reinforce the first army. They were exterminated. The city was completely clear and the 1st Syrian Army took it. A enemy General died in the battle.

There is still a Pontic army camped outside the city.

No image (black screen, what a dumbass)

A very strange heroic victory, they were slightly larger than me. My kills were almost the same as my army size.
However the city was cleared and I could jump in, it was probably that.... o.0

[Adamantarius]

Battle Report:

HEROIC VICTORY

victor: Hamaktyon Nikopoleos Syriakes
Men Deployed/Kills/Men Remaining
29 / 120 / 16

loser: Ptolemaic Captain
Men Deployed/Kills/Men Remaining
121 / 15 / 1

*Sorry, didn't catch the guy's name...*

[kingsnake]

Clear Victory on the remaining Pontic Army, by the 1st Syrian Army.

No screen.

The region of the former Pontic Capital has been clear of enemy armies.

Enemy Family Member dead.