This is the third installment of my rather successful (if I may say so ) series begun over at the .com (I was Tarrak there).
So if you know the series you need not read the next paragraph.
The Interactive Histories are basically me making up history as best I can. I set the parameters and the action by you, the reader desides for me where we are to go. At the end of each 'chapter' I give a number of choices, and the rule is it is the first poster that will get the decision, even if it seems foolish (of course I will try to make sure people don't sabotage it), so you better be fast.
So far I have done two on Hannibal. The first was set at the end of the Battle of Cannae and we ended up winning the Second Punic War against Rome is a series of grueling and hard battles where the tactical brilliance of Hannibal won the day time and again, but we had our setbacks, such as when the Gauls abandoned our cause due to maltreatment and our own troops nearly comitting mutiny because they were pushed too far into winter with no rest.
The second I dubbed 'Hannibal's Fate', and it was a much tougher set, both on me and the readers, in fact I never managed to finish it. It started out withthe hypothetical situation that Hannibal had managed to win at Zama (the Roman cavalry didn't return to hit the carthie infantry in the back and the elephants had somehow managed to not get spooked). While Carthage was seriously on the defensive we managed to settle the score good by kicking out the Romans. Scipio Africanus, already unpopular in the Senate couldn't hold on in the face of two rather serious defeats and was pulled home with his remaining forces. Masinissa was forced to join the Carthie side again and it looked like Hannibal was to set foot in Spain once more.
So the background and the rule (yes it is singular) is set.
Here we go:
Antiochus' Dilemma:
It is 191BC, and you are the high king of the Seleucid Empire, Antiochus III, later to be called the Great, but we haven't gotten to that yet.
The political situation in Greece has promted you to land forces there in the attempt to sieze or at least subjugate (or as you would prefer to call it, 'liberate') the area in the face of Roman pressure and ambitions there. You had hoped for help from the Aetolian League and from Phillip V of Macedon, but as it has turned out Phillip has been scared shitless after Cynoscephalae (197BC) and has duly chosen to stay well out of this encounter, while the Aetolians have sent you support mainly in the form of verbal encouragement and a few lighter troops.
You yourself was perhaps a bit too rash in getting into this business as you could only manage to bring 18,000 troops and a handful of elephants, some of these have even been spread out into garrisons and the few Aetolians have not made up for this.
The Romans already didn't like you very much, being scared of your growing power in the east, so naturally they have reacted with great strength, as is their custom. A force of some 20,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry and 15 elephants was crossed over from Brundisium, led by Manius Glabrio with the two famous Romans, Marcus Porcius Cato and Valerius Flaccus as tribunes. You have been caught with your pants by your ankles and several garrisons are lost, you have at your disposal only 10,000 infantry, 500 cavalry and 6 elephants.
As you sit in the house your have taken as your residence while in Greece you ponder the situation. The Romans are advancing fast and have even taken the Tempe pass to the north with an advance party, they outnumber you greatly and they have a serious advantage in cavalry. It looks bleak. Your political advisor Kassandros, a haughty but brave man gives his oppinion on the matter, "Bassileus, we have with us part of the Argyraspids, we are stronger than the Romans. They are not up to the pike, Pyrrhus showed that much. I say, meet them in battle in Boiotia before they get too clos for us to form up properly."
Just then Hannibal, son of Hamilcar, your advisor and tutor in military matters begins to speak up: "Sire, while Kassandros is right that your troops are better on a basis of one to one, it doesn't help much. The Romans deploy in much less dense formations and will thus easily outflank our formation in any normal battle. Either we should pull out of Greece alltogether or we should face the Romans at Thermopylae, the only pass left to us. If we are to go there we should post strong guards at the paths leading round the pass, so as not to suffer the result of Leonidas and his Spartans."
From behind Hannibal your aged strategos, Lysias, also gives his advise. "I agree with Hannibal, Thermopylae is the best shot we have here." He said looking at Kassandros. "But we are already far too few in numbers to deplete the main forces by putting them in the obscure paths. The wall has been lenghtened since the Persian Wars and we have preciously few skirmishers. I say let some Aetolians guard the pass, while we deal with the Romans."
The choice was not easy, for while Kassandros' advise sounds rather out of the question, it has its merits in that many of the plains of Greece are not that big and that your army could be able to find a suitable one on the path of the Romans. Hannibal, cautious in his latter days presents a battle you do not like. Thermopylae is cramped and a deathtrap if caught, but he is as always right that is is the only place to face the Romans if you want to be certain to not get outflanked by superior forces. Lysias present an alternative to the cautious advise of Hannibal, in his version you would be able to change to the offensive quickly should the Romans break in their attacks on you. Finally Hannibal, as always it seems, gives voice for a total abandonment of Greece without a battle.
What will it be?
1) Listen to Kassandros and seek out a battlefield in the plains where you have better tactical options, as well as you can get the best oput of your men?
2) Follow the advise of Hannibal and retreat to Thermopylae to face off with the Romans at the wall with a strong force guarding the paths to the rear, centered around the fortress of Callidromus.
3) Deside that Lysias has it right and deploy in an elaborate formation at the wall at Thermopylae in two destinct lines, that gives you the great tactical elasticity needed for a sudden change from defence to offence.
4) Leave Greece at best speed and cut your losses, hoping to get the Romans on sea on their way towards you in Asia Minor.
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