Two Pontos questions.

**fraoula** · 02-22-2010, 16:07

Greets to you all, fellow EBers. Please note that I do not want to criticize any of the creator's decisions regarding the correct representation of the kingdom of Pontos , it's more of a perhaps false belief of mine but:
1) I always thought that Pontos was a dynasty of Persian nobles who spoke Greek from day 1 since they were "conquered" by Alexander however on the battlefield they do not give orders in Greek but they share the same language as the Pahlava, Armenians and perhaps a few more factions.
2)I am pretty sure that Pontos army was bolstered with a number of Seleukid klerouchoi during their conquest of Anatolia however once again they can not recruit klerouchoi phalangitai.

So am I mistaken or was this supposed to be "corrected" through a newer version of EB1 but never quite made it.

Thanks for your time.

**Hotseat_User** · 02-22-2010, 16:45

hey fraoula,

no idea and suggestion for the first question

but you can get those better equipped phanlagitai in Ipsos and the city north of Halicarnassus (Tarsus?) with a lvl4 regional mic. the do a better job than the pantodapoi are less cost-intensive than the elite ones but I for my self find a silver'chevroned pandodapoi' better than those, at least in puncto valuability.

cheers and have fun with the Kianos and Herakleotes families - they rock the field.

**fraoula** · 02-22-2010, 17:50

Originally Posted by Hotseat_User

hey fraoula,

no idea and suggestion for the first question

but you can get those better equipped phanlagitai in Ipsos and the city north of Halicarnassus (Tarsus?) with a lvl4 regional mic. the do a better job than the pantodapoi are less cost-intensive than the elite ones but I for my self find a silver'chevroned pandodapoi' better than those, at least in puncto valuability.

cheers and have fun with the Kianos and Herakleotes families - they rock the field.

Really? Thank you I did not know that. Well it's not so much for game play reasons. I tend to find the phalangitai way too overpowered to use plus I prefer something a bit more versatile given that I rely almost solely on infantry and can't use hammer and anvil tactics. It is the first campaign with Pontos I actually enjoy. Thankfully I only fight the AS and Makedonians and not all of my neighbours as many of my previous campaigns. I can't believe that Hayasdan are still allied to me and that I share a border with the Ptolemaioi and they have not attacked me for about 20 years.

**Ludens** · 02-23-2010, 15:49

I am not aware of the exact recruitment zones, but aren't the chalkaspides simply the Pontic equivalent of kleruch phalangites? They are a bit better equipped and have slightly lower morale, but they would be recruited from the same base population.

I can't answer the language question, other than guessing that the team may not have gotten round to implementing a Persian voice-mod.

**WinsingtonIII** · 02-23-2010, 17:51

Originally Posted by Ludens

I am not aware of the exact recruitment zones, but aren't the chalkaspides simply the Pontic equivalent of kleruch phalangites? They are a bit better equipped and have slightly lower morale, but they would be recruited from the same base population.

No, Chalkaspides are the equivalent of Agryaspides, they are meant to be an elite phalanx. However, they have less morale and lower stats in general than any of the other elite phalanxes. In fact their stats are more comparable to the Pezhetairoi than to Agryaspides, although they are still better than Pezhetairoi. They are also significantly better than Klerouchoi Phalangitai in both attack, defense, and morale. Chalkaspides are a bit unique as elite phalanxes in that they are more of a part-time levy than anything else (albeit a well-trained, well-equipped, motivated, and effective one). The soldiers expect to serve in the summer and be released in time for the harvest. So, in that respect they do share some parallels to the Klerouchoi Phalangitai I guess, in that the Klerouchoi Phalangitai expect land grants in return for service. But the situation is a bit different, the Chalkaspides don't get land grants as far as I can tell, they simply expect to go back to their farms in the fall.

Pontos does have access to Klerouchoi Phalangitai, I'm not sure of the exact AOR, but I do know that they are a regional unit for Pontos, not a factional unit. However, since you do not have access to Pezhetairoi, you may have to rely on them as your medium phalanx. Unless, of course, you decide to make your entire phalanx line be Chalkaspides, but considering they are a technically an elite unit I don't know how historically accurate that would be.

**fraoula** · 02-23-2010, 18:43

Yeah I konw. I tend not to use elites in great numbers cause it is both non-historical and non-gameplay wise.
Also I was not refering to the stats of each unit as to its way of recruitment and status in society.
For example, the Makedonian pezhetairoi were the equivalent of the classical greece hoplites. Citizens of a kingdom or city with full political rights such as electing officials for the army and infuencing foreign policies (war, peace, trade etc.) The klerouchoi on the other hand were mostly of greek and makedonian orgin and were given land for service as we all know , but did not have any political rights and were often switching sides in order too keep that land when it was conquered by a foreign power.
Given that the chalkaspides were an elite and the name of the unit was used as a makedonian pez. veterans I suppose that they are the the Pontic equivalent of pez. or argyraspidai in the game.
Finally I have checked the recruitment viewer and yes,the klerouchoi are recruitable through regional MICs so once again I must thank the fellow members from the previous posts for pointing that out.