Straton picks up the burden of leadership of Athens with the Macedonian province complete, providing him a base of operations that afforded plentiful trade opportunities. The barbarians are at the gates in every direction however.
The strategy Straton decided to adopt upon taking power was the following (and like all well laid schemes it lasted till the point of first engagement): 1. Establish trade with anyone willing to do so. Expansion requires armies, armies require money. To this end also Straton issued the edict of 15% tax in the Macedonia province. 2. Form alliances or at least non-aggression pacts with neighbors to avoid being run over while building the army. 3. Establish a base of operations in Africa such that down the road the ability to directly confront Libya and their protector Carthage directly. Africa is a long term campaign objective, and Straton, not being a particularly healthy man, fancied all the wide open spaces and clean air might do him some good.
236 BC – Agents sent to scope out Africa, Rome offers non-aggression + money and I accept, I’ve dealt with Rome before and consider them a devious opponent I don’t want to tangle with at the moment. In hindsight this bit of diplomacy was a mistake, Rome proved militarily weak and incapable of handling their encounter with Carthage. Hindsight as they say is 20/20. At the time, I had a depleted military and the Ardiaei are at my border and hostile. I thought I could bind my time in taking Magna Graceia and tabled Italy for the time being. Besides, with Sparta as an ally I’m forced into confrontations not of my choosing closer to home that require my attention. They insist I join them in a war with Ardiaei and I accept because that’s what military allies do, even if perhaps against our better judgment.
Recruited champion with funds from Rome to train army commanded by Demodocus, signed non-aggression w/ Tylis to keep that nearby front calm while engaged w/ war Sparta wants to pursue. Upgraded ships under command by Erechteheus. Improve the city at Pella to provide better defense should Ardiaiei attempt to flank.
235 BC - Sparta mobilizes steaming their army towards the Ardiaei who in response immediately offered us peace, we countered with client state and $2,000 to test their resolve, declined. The Odrysian Kingdom offers non-aggression which I accept since I have no current focus on pushing north. The trusted spy Aido dies while working on the Ardiaei front and a replacement is recruited, but her experience and skill will be missed.
The navy in heading towards Africa and Libya for exploratory purposes encounters the Knossos, they appear at this point to be engaged with no one else but have a robust military presence already developed and stationed on the island, the admiral makes the determination to continue his mission, no further diplomacy at this point with them, but Rhodos was also encountered and trade negotiated.
Admiral Demodocus reports back from Libya Hellenisic rebels are all that control Cyrene (province of Libya neighboring the African province which is the goal), is this the base of operations Straton had in mind? This good news from the Admiral is followed by bad news; the province of Africa is controlled by Libya, which in and of itself would not have proven a problem, but, there’s always a but, they are the client state of Carthage, a sea power prowling the med and one our navy Demodocus assures we are not ready for yet. We will bide our time and work on taking advantage of what has presented itself in the form of neighboring towns ripe for the plucking.
234 BC - Tragedy strikes twice: Straton has been wounded while at the head of his army near the Ardiaei battle front, our spies are in pursuit of the agent that committed this heinous crime, they must be made to pay with their lives. If this was not bad enough, as our armies massed for the blow that would take Ardiaei out, the Spartan forces inexplicably sail off to points unknown, at which point two more entire armies come out of the woods in support of the forces our men have come to engage w/o their commander they make the decision to retreat and live to fight this fight another day when the fates are not so clearly against us.
Looking back, it’s difficult not to see the hand writing on the wall for our beloved Straton, while his wound would not prove fatal, that he would come to his final resting place a mere 16 years hence, it’s this date that must live as the mark of the beginning of the end for his reign, his health it would appear never fully recovered. Small satisfaction then that my trusty spies have done their work and ended the life of the agent who inflicted my wounds.
233BC – Hard conversations are had with Sparta over their desertion from a war they asked us to join. Straton upon recovery demands they attack the Ardiaei to recover some scrap of honor and justify our alliance. They do nothing. The Spartans are clearly a shadow of their former selves.
Being a leader of a people means making hard choices, and the fact is, this is not my battle, at least not right now, I offer peace to the Ardiaei and they accept. My dream is of glory in Africa. And with all my cities in Macedon improved, I feel confident the defenses can hold as my commanders sail w/o me, for alas I will never see it, my recovery from my wounds has come at a price, I now am forced from the field and into politics as a statesman from here on.
232 BC – In anticipation of the wars to come, and based on income from increased trade, the army is enhanced with more hoplites and bows. The great strategic question before us is this: Demodocus reports Africa is undefended, the armies and navies of both Libya and Carthage are at sea. Would Carthage drop Libya or come to her defense? While I pondered this the Romans engaged with an offer of a defensive alliance, I accept thinking at the time this might prove the perfect distraction to Carthage.
231 BC – Well, as a Statesman I’ve started out on the wrong foot and made the wrong bet, I went with Rome and in just one year Carthage nearly destroys them, the remnants of Rome cling to life on a small island and Carthage now controls Italy.
My spies have been working overtime sowing insurrection in Cosentia (controlled by the Etruscan League) and begin building a 3rd army under General Alkmonion (sp?) in Apollonia in anticipation of attacking this Libyan held province and slowing the Carthaginian expansion on the Italian peninsula.
230 BC – General Amphion and Admiral Erechtheus take Cyrene. The first step on the new continent is taken!
229 BC - Trade and a military alliance with Knossos (matching the military alliance Sparta also has with them) who has a fairly robust army patrolling off our Greek coasts. And I have signed a non-aggression pact with the Nasamontes, their presence near Egypt is militarily superior to our own at this time and I cannot afford to take them on just yet.
Purchased military access from Egypt in order to pursue expansion of a base of operations through the taking of Hellenisitic rebel controlled Ammonium.
228 BC – Our army in Africa encounters Cryenencion rebels on the way to Ammonium and defeat them
226 BC – Our army lays siege to Ammonium and our agents continue to sow unrest in Cosentia in anticipation of Alkmonion taking his forces there to liberate the town.
225 BC – Hypsipyle has come to the end of her days and laid her burden down, such a seasoned diplomat will be sorely missed, improvements in our towns continues and finances are looking up, what I lack in diplomacy I’m working to make up for economically. It should be noted on a similar vein that I have committed most all of my research on economic matters; as a result, I expect my successor to find good reserve funds available for him pursue the glory of Greece.
224 BC – Sparta has the audacity to request our support in a war with Ardiaei again, having been down this road once and been burned, I’m leery of trusting Sparta. But they are “our people”, so I agree against my better judgment, the last thing I wanted was a two front war, so this alliance with Sparta has so far proven nothing but a headache, that said, I also leaving an enemy on our border unattended to lest this turn into a fiasco on two fronts at once, which I fear it most assuredly will. With that I set the orders with Sparta to attack Ardiaei and I command out forces once again to the front.
The siege of Ammonium is victorious, but comes at a bitter price; we lose General Amphinion in battle. Unforeseen reinforcements came in from the desert (not even by road) from a direction the general never anticipated. A close victory, but a victory nonetheless, and as a result we now have a foot hold on this continent from which to base our attack of Africa.
223 BC – The battle w/ the Ardiaei begins tragically as another general dies, this time Herakleitos. But he did not die for nothing, Epidamnos is ours!
This victory has caused Straton to strategically pause and weigh his options. While this was a war not of his making (and once again not joined by Sparta who started it), it does appear from the news from the front we have the advantage here, and could well press our luck in taking additional cities and even perhaps complete the Illyria province North of us, hopefully taking the Daorsi out for good, and securing a buffer to our homeland and additional income to boot.
On the Libyan front I’ve two of the four settlements that would complete a province, admittedly this is not Africa, but it is the basis for staging an attack. One of these settlements is held by Egypt though, and they have been actively seeking alliances, the politics of this adventure are becoming increasingly complicated.
222 BC – Admiral Erechtheus after long years of service goes to meet Poseidon, he served us well. The Nasmones (sp?) attack Paraitonion controlled by Egypt, I stand by watching in the hopes they will succeed. This would un-complicate matters in terms of taking the province.
Agents of the Ardieai are active still and having nearly killed me once, I pull my agents home to deal with them.
And the decision weighed as to the opportunistic war with the Dorsai has led me to push forward, I feel I must strike while the iron his hot here. The war for the Illyria province is on.
The siege of Delminium ends in victory, the General Almonium mints his newly created army with their opening victory with support by the Brothers of Xenophan!
To keep the initiative the Brothers push on w/o rest to the outskirts of Iader anticipating being joined shortly by General Almonium to press home the completion of the destruction of the Dorsai and the control of the province Illiaryia.
221 BC – Before reinforcements can arrive the Brothers are ordered to attack regardless and they cover themselves in glory taking the city which the cowardly Dorsai have all but abandoned. Interestingly, scouting parties revealed the Breuci army had been on the outskirts of the city as well, but for the speed with which the Brothers attacked the Brueci would have surely taken the settlement and complicated our drive to complete control of the province.
What had begun as a duty to abide by a troublesome alliance with Sparta ends in Athenian glory and the riches a new complete province can provide. Our revenues continue to expand.
220 BC – The remaining agents of the Dorsai are dispatched to their maker and will trouble us no more. I’m unsure what my predecessor will make of our continued alliance with Sparta, but for my part, inertia is really all that holds us together as far as I’m concerned. This is the 2nd war they’ve requested us to join with the Dorsai only to find them fail to commit troops. I could only surmise they would have done this yet again if not for the fact we’ve utterly destroyed them.
218 BC – Nasmones failed to defeat the Egyptians, which is a shame. I’m left settlements and doubt as to how to proceed. The front on the homeland has cleared up, so perhaps the time has come to bring the remaining armies to bear on this problem. Egypt will prove a tough nut to crack should I decide to complete this province in my continuing dream of Africa, they are allied with Sparta and the Pergamon, the latter are aggressively moving navies and armies south of Greece in and around Sparta. They do not appear to be a faction to be taken lightly. General Aegon heads to Cyrene as the staging for either expansion of operations or the war for Africa.
217 BC – Knossos navy aggressively pursues remnants of Dorsai army and navy destroying them all, they’ve proven a more useful ally than Sparta by a large margin by this action alone. To Spartas credit they did bring units to the defense of Pella when a rag tag ban of Dorsai threatened there. Meager, but better than what they’d done previously. The army there ultimately engaged the raiders and destroyed them.
216 BC – Our agent Althaia stays in Greece to keep an eye over the homeland along with the army of Alkmeion in Delminium. The rest of our army and remaining agents head for Cyrene to stage our African conquest.
The old wound has come back to haunt us, our illustrious leader Straton has been struck down before his time and dies before he could realize his dreams of an African victory.
He will be remembered as a cautious and opportunistic leader who struck where weakness presented itself in his expansion of the Athenian Empire. His diligent work in opening trade routes along with research focused on economic matters has placed the empire on a strong footing for future expansion. Nearly 5,000 per year is coming in and almost 20,000 in the coffers, with three fully developed and trained armies, his unrealized dreams of a new continent will pass to his successor, may he far exceed our endeavors and expand the power and glory of Athens.
Originally Posted by Kamakazi
Re: Athens: Summer. Harvest. War (R2TW succession game)
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