[EB AAR] Pontos Rising

[FriendlyFire]

Chapter 3: Along the Royal Road

In the same season that Mazaka fell, Ariarathes Herakleotes the Hellene arrived with his army at the Seleukid town of Ipsos. They had marched through wild countryside past the hostile town of Ankyra, but had been untroubled by the Galatians there. A more immediate threat lay with the independent general Alkibiades, who commanded a sizable mercenary force to the west. Ariarathes quickly sent forth a herald, conveying a solemn assurance that the Pontic army would not cross the border, and the herald shortly returned with word from Alkibiades that in return he would not intervene in the quarrel between Pontos and Arche Seleukeia. With winter coming on, and some hopes that his flanks were thus secure, Ariarathes ordered the town to be laid under siege.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Once again a town was important more for its location than its current resources. Like Mazaka, Ipsos lay on the old Persian Royal Road, and in the mostly untracked lands of Asia Minor the paved surface of this road was by far the fastest route between east and west. With control of the road, Pontic armies could swiftly march wherever they wanted, and therefore Ipsos must be taken. Fortunately it was defended by even fewer troops than Mazaka, and did not have a general in command - the speed and direction of Ariarathes's advance had clearly taken the Seleukids by surprise, denying them time to reinforce the town garrison, levy more local troops, or even send a relief force. As a result, the Seleukid defenders were once again greatly outnumbered by their Pontic attackers.

On a bright winter's day, Ariarathes's troops attacked the gate using a single ram, but found the streets eerily quiet. Perhaps having heard recent rumors of the disaster at Mazaka, the Seleukid defenders chose to remain near the center of the town. And despite his numerical advantage, Ariarathes had a hard time pushing the attack home - his slingers could not easily operate in the narrow town streets, and his skirmishers found themselves facing a wall of Seleukid sarissas. In the end the Pontic and Seleukid troops locked sarissas on the approach to the square, and Ariarathes and his bodyguard had to charge into the enemy's rear to break them.

The final grind to rid the square of levy spearmen was equally brutal, with the combat devolving into a hand-to-hand affair as the phalangites broke formation and used their axes against the spearmen. As the last spearmen fell, the tired phalangites celebrated a victory of their own, blooding another Pontic army.

The capture of Ipsos was never really in doubt, but despite Ariarathes's best efforts his army had suffered 10% casualties, many of which were the irreplaceable phalangites.

The town was spared from major looting, although all trace of Seleukid life was obliterated: the military colony headquarters, armory, state shrine, and even the homes for military settlers. The presence of these settlers had been resented by the original inhabitants, and removing them went a long way towards ensuring the loyalty of Ipsos to its new rulers.

With two sections of the Royal Road now secured, the way lay open for the final drive to its western end, and the ultimate goal of this first campaign.

[An annoying battle - I really didn't use my missile troops very well, but then I realized I could roleplay that as Ariarathes being a better manager than general :) And we shall meet Alkibiades again later on, for he plays a surprising role in the history of Pontos]

[FriendlyFire]

Chapter 4: The Temple at Ephesos

In the spring of 271 BC, the youngest son of the king of Pontos came of age. Arsames Kianos had been born late in his father's life, and despite his royal blood he did not make a good first impression on the court. Although he was always well-spoken and cheerful, the young prince could came across as abrupt and self-centered. There were also rumors that he was perhaps a little too free with the royal treasury, and (much more damagingly) that he avoided sparring with anything heavier than wooden weapons.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Well aware of these rumors, the king arrived to take personal control of the town of Ipsos, and instructed Arsames to accompany the army of Ariarathes Herakleotes as it marched towards the next Seleukid town of Sardis. If anything could toughen the young man up, it would be combat. And there would be combat aplenty at Sardis, the town which marked the western end of the old Royal Road. As the Pontic army marched, they were closed shadowed from across the border by general Alkibiades of Pergamon, still suspicious of their intentions.

Once again the Seleukids were outnumbered almost two-to-one by their besiegers, who prepared battering rams to assault the wooden walls. Ariarathes had not waited for many reinforcements, and his army was much the same as the one that had taken Ipsos.

The rams were to prove unnecessary, for a Pontic spy succeeded in spreading dissension within the town. Having heard of the fall of Mazaka and Ipsos, some townspeople of Sardis were persuaded that opening the gates to the Pontic invaders was their best option. This stratagem succeeded beyond Ariarathes' wildest dreams, for as his skirmishers kept the defenders pinned in place at the open side gates, he realized that the Seleukids had left the front gate completely unmanned.

Seizing the opportunity, Ariarathes ordered the main body of his troops to rush the front gate. Too late the garrison realized their mistake, and a Seleukid phalanx began to move from a side gate. This allowed the Pontic skirmishers outside to run up and hurl javelins over the low wooden wall into the backs of the phalangites, inflicting many casualties.

When it finally reached the main gate the small Seleukid phalanx found the Pontic army ready and waiting, and although it fought hard it was ultimately broken by two charges led by the young prince Arsames. Seeing the loss of his best troops, the Seleukid general Attalos Pergamou Mysiakes now despaired. After urging his bodyguards to hack at the pikes of the Pontic phalangites, he was himself cut down as Ariarathes led a counter-charge.

Soon only the peltastai were left on the square. Their flags flew defiantly, but were of no more use against Pontic sarissas than were their short swords. The older Ariarathes and younger Arsames then combined their bodyguards for a final charge into the rear of the peltastai, sealing the victory.

Ariarathes Herakleotes had won another somewhat bloody victory, losing men who might have been saved by a more experienced general. And although Arsames's bodyguard had fought bravely and well, rumors still persisted that he himself had not been in the forefront of the action.

[Another battle that I could have done a little better at: when the peltastai first moved off the square to challenge my oncoming phalanx, I raced in some skirmishers behind them to try to throw javelins into their backs. The peltastai promptly turned and began slaughtering the skirmishers before I could pull them out]

The town itself was not harmed. In this way it was hoped that word of the fate of Sardis would spread, and that other towns might also be persuaded to open their gates to Pontic armies. However, outside the town lay the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, and this was stripped of all its finery. For the temple had been the true target of the campaign all along: the gold and silver within it amounted to some 20,000 Mnai, and this was immediately transported back to the capital Amaseia.

Within a season, the money-men and scribes came to Ktistes Mithridates with great news: the temple wealth had repaid all of his kingdom's debts, his military was once again being paid regular wages, and Amaseia was now constructing facilities for the training and equipping of new phalangites. Additionally, the small mines around Sardis and Ipsos now generated enough silver to allow for a minimal amount of construction every season.

And from across the sea came more good news: a Pontic diplomat had traversed the land of the Hellenes, meeting with the warring generals Kalos Argeades of Makedonia, Pyrrhos Aiakides of Epeiros, and Chremonides Aithalidos Attikos of the Koinon Hellenon, and had negotiated trade rights with all three. No preferential rights had been given to any of the three, as Pontos maintained a policy of strict neutrality towards the west.

Meanwhile the newly conquered towns of Mazaka, Ipsos, and Sardis were integrated into the Pontic empire as Philhellenic Satrapies, giving them some degree of self-government, and boosting the loyalty of the population in their respective provinces.

In a year and a half, Ktistes Mithridates had expanded his tiny kingdom to the point where it could stand alone against the world. Now he just had to hold onto it.

[Going for Mazaka, Ipsos, and Sardis is a standard Pontic blitz tactic, kicking the Seleukids out of Asia Minor and getting the economy back to a slight profit. Looting the temple is optional, but saves a year or two of waiting around to get out of debt!]

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Nice work!

I wouldn't have looted the Temple of Artemis though. It is a wonder of the world, after all - and I'm not sure that the citizens of Pontos who are of Hellenic extraction would appreciate a king that sanctioned such a blasphemous atrocity against a goddess of the Greek pantheon. So although it might garner a lot of wealth, it might also make your Hellenic citizens more rebellious and maybe even an Hellenic family member less loyal. (You might want to roleplay this.......) ;)

[IrishHitman]

I only loot non-Hellenic stuff :P

Great AAR so far though.

[FriendlyFire]

Yeah, I feel kinda bad about looting the temple now. At the time I was really paranoid about the Seleukids attacking me before I could recruit any more troops, but as it turned out they laid off for a couple years, so I could have gradually made my way out of debt without the loot. Ah well. I'm role-playing it as the king promising his troops "just one more town boys, then I'll pay you all your back-pay with the loot from the temple" :)

Slight change of pace for the next update...

[FriendlyFire]

Chapter 5: A New War for a New King

"Where was I when the great king Ktistes died? Starving in the winter snows outside some Ptolemaioi fishing town that the gods had forgotten about! You know something's wrong when a messenger comes galloping into the camp, royal banner flying, horse all lathered. Five minutes later we're ordered into formation, the prince comes striding out of his tent still wiping away tears, and then we all had to stand there in the snow and swear our royal oath again. You don't forget a day like that in a hurry."

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

"It seemed like we'd been marching for a year by then. See, the prince Ariobarzanes Kianos had one army, yet to be tested in battle, while his brother-in-law Arirathes Herakleotes the Hellene had another, with whom I had marched and fought in Ipsos and Sardis. And the two armies were supposed to meet in the lands of our old Ptolemaioi enemies, combine our strength, and march along the southern coast to kick the Ptolemaioi out of our rightful territory. Carve out a new homeland for Pontic settlers, that kind of thing. And after Ipsos and Sardis we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. Sure, we'd lost good men, but we'd already taken two provinces, sent the Seleukids running back to the east, gotten well-paid after liberating the treasures of the gods from that temple near Sardis, done everything that the great king Ktistes had told us to."

"Then things started going wrong. We soon found out that the Ptolemaioi hadn't even bothered to cut the simplest trading roads through their impoverished province. So that slowed us down. Then when we actually located the other troops and combined our strength, it was the largest army Pontos had ever seen. Small by today's standards, but back then it was huge. With us all concentrated in one area, foraging was harder than ever. So rations started to run low, troops were grumbling a little. We were supposed to be inside the town of Side by winter, but even that hadn't worked out according to plan. And then we had this new leader, Ariobarzanes Kianos. Suddenly the great old king is dead, and the prince steps forward. People were whispering that the gods must be unhappy, that we weren't meant to be fighting the Ptolemaioi. Well, how would you feel in the circumstances?"

"Ariobarzanes wasn't one to be deterred. This was before he was, well, you know, but even then you could see signs of it. Right after the oath, he ordered the army to form up and march out of camp. I'd been promoted after Sardis to captain of a phalanx, so I had to chivvy my men into position. Back then we were just levies of course, not the professionals you see now. No metal armor, just padded cloth, and none of these fancy swords. Hand-axes were what we had when I fought in the phalanx, and we were good with them too. You still can't tell me that a sword can do much against one of those Eastern cataphracts - when your sarissa's broken and one of those great iron-clad beasts is stomping on your foot, an axe is your best friend. That was one thing I didn't like about being a captain, having to give up my hand-axe.

Where was I? Oh, the fight. Well, our spy had gotten a good look at the garrison of Side beforehand, and he said there was good news and bad news. The good news was that the garrison was lightly armed, just spears and javelins. The bad news was that there were more of them than there were of us. That was another shock - we had gotten used to fighting with the advantage of numbers."

"Anyway, we march up to this fishing town - that was all Side was back then, no roads, no port worthy of the name - and we get the last surprise. No walls! After Ipsos and Sardis we thought we knew how to take a town: you make a ram, push it up to the walls, let the skirmishers do their thing to clear the enemy away from the breach, then get inside quickly and lower your sarissas. At that point the battle would be as good as won, and that was when men became cautious, for none wanted to be the last to die before a great victory.

The battle of Side was different. With no walls to breach, our phalanxes advanced in front, with the skirmishers following. The streets were so narrow that Ariobarzanes ordered us to divide into three, with the other two full-strength phalanxes moving towards the side streets, while I had the honor of leading my own phalanx towards the main street. Then everything seemed to happen at once. The Ptolemaioi started boiling out of that town like rats from a sack, more men than we had ever seen before, horses too. I barely had time to order my men to drop sarissas and then they were upon us. I could see that the other two phalanxes were similarly hard-pressed, turning to face their attackers. That's the moment that's clearest in my mind: standing to the left of my men, looking like a damn fool in that fancy cape and crested helm they give you as a captain, telling my men to stand fast. Telling them their new king would do something to save us. Praying to my gods that I was right."

"Hmmm? Oh, sorry. I just get lost in that moment. Well, what happened then was that I heard this great thundering sound behind me, the new king came sweeping by on a charger blowing his horn, his bodyguard slams into the enemy spearmen pressing the phalanx to our left, and those spearmen all start screaming and dying and running away. I still hear that horn in my dreams, it sends chills up my spine to this day. That was when I started believing in Ariobarzanes Kianos."

"That wasn't the end of it, of course, just the beginning. I had only just turned back to cheer my men on when I saw their sarissas shiver. Ever been in a phalanx, history-man? No? You'd know what I was talking about if you had. In a phalanx, see, you're locked in tight with the men around you. Shoulder to shoulder, chest to back, so close to each other that you know which way they're going to step before they do it. All pointing your pikes forward, trying to keep them nice and lined up, taking strength from your numbers. Then, let's say someone on the far end of the phalanx suddenly sees something that scares him. Lots of things can do that to a man on a battlefield. He'll give a little involuntary flinch, and the tip of his sarissa will waver a little. Everyone around him will turn to see what he's looking at, and the odds are that some of them will flinch too. Pretty soon you've got this ripple going across the entire phalanx, and your spear-points are all making circles in the air. You always want to see that in an enemy phalanx, best sign of the battle. Means you can break them. Not so good in your own men. Anyway, my men were doing that because the crazy old Ptolemaioi general was charging us. Three score and two years old he was, almost as old as I am now, and still spurring a battlehorse on, just like old Ktistes did. Charging his horsemen into braced sarissas!

So things got desperate again. My men in the front rank were dying. Those in the ranks behind were dropping their broken sarissas and drawing their axes. The formation was falling apart because those damn Ptolemaioi bodyguards were chopping their way into it. Not a good moment. Then I hear thundering from TWO directions. Ariobarzanes comes charging in from our left, Ariarathes comes charging in from our right, and that Ptolemaioi general is stuck in the middle. Squish. When the old-timers get together now, we still argue about when the enemy routed. Me, I swear they had all started running before their general finally died, and I had a better view than most."

"Then comes the bit no-one really talks about, when you start stabbing fleeing men in the back, even as they're crying for their mother or their king or their gods. That's how battles are won, but you wouldn't know that from the histories I've read. You going to change that, history-man? Going to tell your readers how it feels to wade through blood?

Anyway. Anyway. Ariobarzanes called us back from the main street before we reached the square, chasing the stumbling and the wounded and the dying. Some of the men get a bit carried away in those moments, axe-crazed we called them. Every phalanx has a few, soldiers who let the bloodlust get to them. You soon find out who they are. They're the only ones who'll meet your eye right after a battle, and you can see the glee on their faces. As a captain, you have to decide where to put them in the formation. Some captains preferred to have them in the front rank, but I always figured that just meant they'd drop their sarissas sooner, so I stuck them on the side next to me, where I could keep an eye on them. So, I had to calm them down, reform the phalanx, clean up the lines a little. We all take a breather, and then it's finally back to the battle we know: lower sarissas, slow advance to the drumbeat, box them in on the square and push forward. Another bit that's not talked about much, but at least they die facing you and hurling defiance instead of begging for mercy. Mostly."

"We win, the Ptolemaioi lose, we take over their town. We count up our casualties, patch up the wounded - we didn't have chirurgeons back then, or even herbalists, your mates just wrapped a piece of cloth around any holes you had, and if you made it through the night you'd probably live, and if you didn't that's another one for the priests to worry about. Anyways, I figured my phalanx killed about ten Ptolemaioi for every man I lost. Damn good men. We got hardened after that battle, too. Tougher. "

"So, that was Side. Did you know that more men died in the battle than the place had inhabitants? That should have been another sign, really. What kind of king bothers going to all that trouble for a little fishing town? Still, we loved him for it, back then."

[CCadaver]

Interesting. I am curious to see what the captain is talking about, with the signs the king is showing. Btw, I found out what you were talking about earlier, starting an AAR, and such. I don't know if I'll continue mine, I find that it interferes with my enjoyment of the game. I can't play without documenting the events, even if I simply don't want to today!