From robbers to royalty, a Pahlav AAR.

[Maion Maroneios]

Just tell the story you want to write and don't care if people comment or not.

I second that

Maion

[johnhughthom]

Chapter5:A letter from home

In this chapter we finally get a glimpse of early Parthian warfare, a childhood friend of Keyarash writes him a letter describing a battle he took part in against a Seleukid general.

Extract:
"The letter began "My friend Keyarash, I have become part of Arshak the youngers personal cavalry unit. I was summoned to Asaak last year, given a fine suit of armour, and an even finer one for my horse, then called before Arshak to pledge my loyalty to him. He is a fine young man, brave and able to instill bravery in others. Just as importantly he is not rash, he will not charge into combat too early, and his tactical plans work well. We were patrolling the area east of Apameia when we got wind of a Seleukid army not far inside their borders. Arshak decided we would nullify the threat before they could reach our lands. We lined up for battle just outside a forest in an orthodox fashion,



the army of the Empire was composed almost entirely of spearmen. They were slow to manouvere and we found it easy to isolate them, one unit would pretend to charge then break off and the rest of the archers peppered the enemy with arrows when they gave chase. When they stopped chasing and tried to get back into formation the fleeing unit would stop and fire at the newly exposed rear.



We kept this up for what felt like hours, until eventually we were out of arrows, at this stage the enemy were tired, fragmented and disconsolate and my heavily armed unit came to the fore. We had stayed at the fringe of the battle at first, as we were slower than the others, and more likely to get caught and bogged down, but also to keep our energy up. For the charge.



Dear Keyarash, do you remember how as boys we used to dream of leading the tribes cavalry in battle, it's even more exhilerating than we imagined. Knee to knee with your brothers, lance down, horse charging right at an enemy scared out of their wits. The moment your lance hits another mans chest and explodes through, impaling him on it so you have to throw it away and use your sword! My goodness, we used to tell each other fantastic stories of what battle would be like, believe me it's even more bloody, brutal and loud than we imagined. Still, you have your Greek pushing matches to enjoy, while I kill our enemies! Anyway we wiped out the enemy and lost few men ourselves, the men we did lose were those too slow to get out of the way of the enemy, so I doubt they are a great loss. Still, Arshak was slightly annoyed with himself, he said he should never have lost so many men against an enemy with little missile support. He is young still, of course, he will make mistakes, so long as he learns from them."



Other incidents in the nascent Empire included the town of Khiva rebelling against the rule of the Saka. They asked Phrapates to take them back into the Empire but he refused, he was unwilling to get into a war with another people. However the Saka Warlord held Phrapates responsible and declared war, an emissary would be sent north to smooth relations. A small army of mercenaries pledged loyalty to Phrapates during the rebellion and he invited them south to become his royal army. Harasp, meanwhile, headed east after refitting in Asaak, a convincing victory over a Seleukid army was followed up by a siege of Alexandreia-Ariane,

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

a victory over a much larger army, with mainly mid level troops rather than the usual levies, was tempered with much larger than usual losses-almost a third of the army.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Mercenary Persian Archer-Spearmen were hired to help keep the city under control, but the treasury could easily afford the expenditure and the King found these versatile troops interesting and was keen to build an army around them.

[General Appo]

Still loving it. Keep it up.

[gamegeek2]

AARs are always good. Glad to see how your campaign's going. This thing compliments nicely with my Saka AAR, offering the perspectives of the nomads for once in a while. They never have enough money, but this makes for a unique playstyle, emphasizing battle skill especially, and less of the fullstacks.

[johnhughthom]

They never have enough money

You know, I started this campaign expecting to have to scrimp and save every penny I had, but strangely I have been spending loads on mercs which I never do in any campaign. Nice to know you are reading, I enjoy your AAR and was delighted to see it return.

[General Appo]

Well, that´s what happens when you advance fast and loot a lot (which I assume you have to). With Pahlava it´s pretty much either blitz or complete disbandment. Just try to prepare for that day when you won´t be able to conquer a settlement every second turn anymore, and have to rely on your own economy.
I did that mistake in my first Saka campaign, thought everything was going great until I decided to settle down and start taking advantage of all those Indo-Sakan units I´d unlocked. With no warbooty, I went bankrupt in 7 turns and had to build my economy while using mini-garrisons to defend against heavy Seleukids counter-attacks. Not best imaginable position.

[johnhughthom]

Chapter 6:Scraps and fragments

The chapters dealing with years 6, 7 and 8 didn't stand up well to the test of time. We can only glean some information from these years, which is disappointing as it saw the crowning of a new king and some territorial gains in the east.



The new King was Arshak, the Kings only son. He seems to have come to the throne without any opposition. His son Arshak the younger may well have been a potential claimant, from previous chapters it is obvious he is held in high regard by many, but he was a loyal son and subject and made no attempt to usurp his fathers birthright. Of course Arshak the younger was still a young man and would have realised he had many years ahead of him to become king. The other obvious claimant was Harasp, and there must surely have been many who would have favoured the restless nomad. However, Harasp was far from Hekatompylos when Pharasp died and would have been unable to stake a claim.

Arshak seems to have followed his fathers vision of a settled Parthian Empire. The mercenaries who pledged allegiance to Pharasp finally arrived in Hekatompylos during the new kings coronation and he made them his personal army. More archer spearmen and even some Babylonian spearmen were hired and the king suddenly had an army which could stand up to a Seleukid army without having to use the old hit and run tactics.

Arshak the youngers army was sent south east to join up with Harasps army in an attack on the Seleukid town of Karmana, this is the only battle we have any information on from this period.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Like the battle for Alexandreia-Ariane the Seleukid army here had some professional mid level troops so it wasn't the walk over battles in the early years had been.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Still it was a convincing victory and again Persian mercenary archer-spearmen were hired to garrison the town. Harasp's son came of age in this period and helped with the adminstration of this region, Propthasia was also taken in this period(we don't know who took the city it seems likely to have been Harasp), he seems to have been akin to his father in being keen to hold on to the old nomadic traditions though we are told little more about him.

Arshaks decision to abandon the steppe holdings seem to have been a wise one, Keyarash mentions the Saka and Baktria at war over these regions with some going back and forth. Being able to concentrate on the Seleukids without worrying about an attack from the north was a huge advantage for the blossoming Parthian Empire, though they never forgot their potential enemies-an emissary sent to the Saka managed to smooth over the misunderstanding over Khiva.

[General Appo]

Niiiiice. I see the birth of a real Persian empire.