AI faction expansion in your campaigns?

[Dayve]

Jarardo - That one with just the AI playing with no saving/loading is awesome... Just shows the mess that saving/loading actually makes of the AI...

I've abandoned my Romani campaign anyway due to every city on the map having huge stone walls and the Makedonians throwing constant full stacks of their best troops at me despite having every single one of their ports blocked and me taking most of the Greek peninsula.. Also i installed the trait fix so the save game became incompatible.

[Dooz]

Getai 193 B.C.


Man oh man, it's been a hell of a few years. After securing my borders after the initial war with Rome, I fell back and retrained my armies, as well as completed a full new army, bringing my grand total to 4 national, identical standing armies. One of them is stationed in the east under my faction leader, just in case the Seleukids get frisky. The other three you ask? Ah, well, you see all that Carthaginian land in Italy and Sicily? That my friends is the result of one hell of a Getic invasion.

Prior to military force, dozens of spies were ferried across the channel into the area, giving me a precise picture of what to expect. Luckily, the brunt of the Roman forces were away at war with Iberia, but there were still formidable defenses. When all preparations were complete, I sent in my three armies, two of which were lead by blossoming generals, the other by the faction heir, a great leader. Each of the armies was accompanied by a spy and an assasin, for reports had indicated high assasinatorial activity on the peninsula. And so it began. The great war for Italy itself.

Strategic alliances had been made to keep my focus on the war and keep my borders safe. One especially interesting alliance was with Carthage, who would reap all the benefits of my actions, as well as recieve generous financial aid to support a war with the Ptolemies. Over the course of 4-5 years, the peninsula was decimated. Wholesale slaughter of Romans abroad, destruction of buildings and whole cities. All that was left was passed on to the grateful Carthaginians.

When all was said and done, the Romans had been kicked out of Italy all together. I had three armies worth of seasoned troops and battle-hardened generals... unfortunately, one of the initial three would not make it off the island. Duras, a promising young general, was killed in an intense battle for Segesta, the last he would have had to fight. His replacement was brought in from Athens, another promising young lad, but there were no Romans left to kill. After the peninsula and island were secure, the glorious armies were shuttled back across the channel, back to the fatherland.

The balance of powers has shifted. We are in a new world order. The Getai are the most powerful nation on earth, masters behind every political move, every war, everybody. Welcome to hell.

[QwertyMIDX]

Looks like you may have made a monster out of Carthage though.

[Dooz]

Eh, I always wanted to see a monstrous Carthage. You want somethin' done right, you gotta' do it yourself! And so I have. I freakin' love seeing large Carthaginian stacks. Coolest freakin' troops and just everything. Plus, the invasion was unimaginably fun. Plus, they still haven't trained a single unit in any of the new provinces or brought in any troop from outside to garisson. Luckily, Rome hasn't striken against them yet because they're already at war with Iberia, Sweboz and myself. We'll see how things go from here.

[Jarardo]

Looks like a great game Wonderland.

[Dooz]

Getai 191 B.C.


It's been nearly two years since the invasion of Italy. Soon after my forces exited the peninsula, the Sweboz scared the Romans into submission and acquired their third protectorate (other two are Auedi and Sauromatae). The world climate has shifted once again. The Getai are now allied with Rome and the Seleukids, as well as Carthage, Sweboz, and Sauromatae. Baktria has solidified their holdings in the east and are at war with Hayasdan, one they have a good chance of coming out on top in. The Ptolemies and Seleukids are still stuck in their eternal struggle against eachother, and Carthage is squeeazing the Ptollies in from the west. Ptolemies are holding their own though, surprisingly effectively. They won't be going down without a hell of a fight, that's been shown already.

The only action in the west is the war still raging between the Iberians and Rome. I think the Iberians might eventually come out on top as Rome is now a protectorate. They do still have many massive armies though, although mainly consisting of Gauls at this point. They can hardly be considered "Rome" anymore. All the other nations are at peace currently.

Carthage has finally begun to bring reinforcements into Italy and train a few light troops in the southernmost city. They might attack Rome if they choose to honor the agreement we had made years ago for assistance. However, that'd be a foolish move at this point as the Sweboz would likely retaliate and the delicate balance in Europe would be destroyed. They did receive another huge grant from the Getai in the sum of 200,000 mnai. That should help them sustain their war efforts against the Ptolemies as well as aid in the reconstruction and refortification of Italy and Sicily.

And so is the situation in the summer of 191 B.C. The Sweboz may very well be the most powerful nation around at this point. Masses upon masses of men, well equpied, trained and lead, ready to attack or defend as necessary. I fear a Germanic invasion, I'll admit. My returning armies are fully retrained however and await orders. The victorious generals are enjoying the downtime after years of war across the sea, residing in the bordering cities. I think I'll sit back for the time being and see how things unfold. The wars in the east are quite entertaining and the Roman-Iberian war isn't too bad either.

[paullus]

Man, the first of your last two updates, I looked at the pic before reading your post, and I got REALLY excited that Carthage had taken Italy. Shoulda known that would be the result of gifts.

And if you have a major war with Sweboz (probably sometime soon), may I suggest posting some pics (in another thread of course) of what are sure to be slugfests.

[Dooz]

Man, the first of your last two updates, I looked at the pic before reading your post, and I got REALLY excited that Carthage had taken Italy. Shoulda known that would be the result of gifts.

And if you have a major war with Sweboz (probably sometime soon), may I suggest posting some pics (in another thread of course) of what are sure to be slugfests.

Ouch, sorry bout that! I know how you must have felt, I would too. I'll try to do some sort of mini AAR maybe with the possible upcoming war. I'm still hoping to avoid that though until EB is ported to 1.5 and I can start a new campaign :)

[paullus]

260 BC

[img=https://img468.imageshack.us/img468/1719/2604mr.th.jpg]

I should've been taking shots earlier. Note the Carthaginian army on the coast, and the large Roman army heading to Sicily. Well, around a year ago the C army invaded, beat a small Roman army, and then besieged Capua. Until the Roman army and a couple others attacked it and it withdrew. Its hard to follow the army movements during the turn, but they seemed to follow each other around, until the C army went toward Epirote territory, and then the R army is now making its run toward Sicily.

Not sure this says all that much about the AI, but it was pretty danged cool. I'm just a little sad that the climactic battle outside Capua didn't happen.

[pezhetairoi]

This is my Roman Empire in 226BC. A brief guide: Iberia, the Getai, KH, Makedonia, and Epeiros have been destroyed by my vigorously expanding borders.

The Arverni never expanded past their three provinces, while the Aedui spread strongly to the north, into the territories of the Belgae. They even had a fleeting war with the Sweboz, which was all sound and fury signifying nothing, and which ended in 4 years.

The Qarthadastim have been driven out of Spain, the Lipari islands, and Sicily. Right now every single port they still have is blockaded by a Roman fleet. The Romani have complete naval superiority in the Mediterranean, with a squadron headed for the Black Sea to finish the picture.

The Ptolemaioi have expanded uncontested across the bottom of the map. They have come into fleeting conflicts with the Qarthadastim and fought a long and hard Arabian war with the Pahlava. A long war with Arche Seleukeia was ended only 5 years ago. The Romani are allied to the Ptolemaioi.

...and my faction is also allied with the Sauromatae, who are, as always, the big losers in the steppe wars. They are reduced to two provinces, one of which (Olbia) was a gift from me after a very vigorous Hayasdan bribed it and came into direct contact with my border, making me incredibly nervous. So I counterbribed it and let it rebel into the hands of the Sauromatae.

Hayasdan. The big opportunists of the campaign. They now occupy a gigantic swath of Seleukid territory, but not through any direct conflict with the Seleukids. I have never seen a quicker landgrab in any campaign. No sooner does one Seleukid province rebel does a Hayasdan fullstack appear before it within two turns, and takes it.

Pahlav look really big and pink, but they are weak in the middle. Most of their victories were scored with small mobile forces against the equally small mobile forces of the Sauromatae. In other words, they don't have any military power worth talking about. But that could change in a hurry since there's plenty of time for them to build a new army. They had a few provinces rebel to them in Arabia from Ptolemaioi, which I think is damnedly weird, but as said elsewhere on the forums, nothing to be done about it.

Yuezhi...no comment. They suck, fullstop.

Baktria has been taking the slow-and-steady approach, building up fullstack after fullstack. They launch these on massive offensives every 10-20 years, then retreat back behind their borders to consolidate for decades on end. They have had two wars with the Seleukids. (Dammit, i couldn't even get peace with the Seleukids even after pushing my borders all the way to Antiocheia, and they got peace TWICE.)

Currently my 'marches', that is to say my warzones, are in Gaul and Asia Minor.



Here's Gaul, where there is a three-way fight going on between me, the Aedui and the Arverni. There is a Cauldron battle shaping up around Bibracte, which seems to be attracting fullstacks like flies despite my attempt up north at Bagacos to lure some Aedui forces north. The Gaulish campaign is extremely bloody, since I am contesting Carnute Cingetos, Gaesatae, Soldurii and Brihentin with Camillan Romans, and I am playing in cohort style, which means every triarii must be accompanied by one hastati and principes, so I don't become exclusively a phalanx army.



And here you see the Asia Minor theatre. The army at Nikomedia is composed exclusively of Mytilenean (or Lesbian, if you so wish to call them) peltastai, who conduct themselves admirably against scythed chariots and cappadocian cav. The army currently besieging Pergamon is a fullstack of Skuda, Bydirag and god knows what other Baexdzhyntae horsearchers, hired as mercenaries from the horsearcher countries. Don't look down on it, its silver-chevroned veterans have gone through over 35 battles, and contributed immensely to the destruction of the Getian, Makedonian and Epeirote empires. They have also eradicated countless rebel armies in the Balkans on their own. And prior to this screenshot, they had just completed cutting a swath of destruction through Pontos (who initiated a war with me without which I would never have entered Asia Minor) all the way to the gates of Amaseia itself, destroying every major army on the way save the last one in Amaseia.

Anyhow, that's all for my AI expansion broadcast. Goodnight.

[King Thengel]

A restart of my Epirus campaign(262 bc now), as I only realised my error in the end of the last one .

[Jarardo]

@pezhetairoi, I like your post, looks like you have a great campaign going on, some questions about how you play the Romani.

I only played one campaign with them, and I went first and conquered all of west africa, I realized that I could only recruit cavalry there, and had a really hard time maintaining the area, as I had to move all infantry out of Itally, and it seems the mercs arent very well set up in that area yet, as there wasnt a lot of infantry through that rout either. So how were your recruitment options in the provinces you took?(IE spain/greece)

And when your empire gets that large, do you find yourself fighting on all sides? Do your turns take a long time?

[Oleo]

Old situation:

Roman Campaign, Medium/Medium v0.7.3a,
227BC,

214BC
v0.7.4


Armenia bribed switzerland, Aedui bribed Croatia and expanded, Ptolemaioi had bribed 3 of my african citites that have been recaptured.

Casse have invaded europe but for some reason they keep changing between war and cease fire every turn with the aedui city in belgium

[pezhetairoi]

@pezhetairoi, I like your post, looks like you have a great campaign going on, some questions about how you play the Romani.

I only played one campaign with them, and I went first and conquered all of west africa, I realized that I could only recruit cavalry there, and had a really hard time maintaining the area, as I had to move all infantry out of Itally, and it seems the mercs arent very well set up in that area yet, as there wasnt a lot of infantry through that rout either. So how were your recruitment options in the provinces you took?(IE spain/greece)

And when your empire gets that large, do you find yourself fighting on all sides? Do your turns take a long time?

Hi jarardo. I realised from the outset that I couldn't rely on recruitment in the conquered provinces except for garrison troops or inferior allied troops, so I didn't worry too much about recruitment. Especially since I play in the historical style, with all armies coming from Italia and returning to Italia to retrain, and filled with Roman units as far as possible.

In Spain, recruitment is impossible in the north as no units have been set up there yet, though I understand some ethnic units will be placed there in 0.8 or something like that. In the south, depending on your government system, you are able to build Curisii, Equites Caetratii, Caetratii infantry and Scutarii. In Greece you are able to build Taxeis Hoplitai, Akontistai, Toxotai and Peltastai, that is all. But peltastai alone can pretty much hold their own as shock infantry, so there isn't really much of a problem. In Thrace, the recruitment is pretty much the same, with the exception that in Tylis you are also able to recruit Galatian Kuarothoroi, who will be extremely valuable should you ever decide to send a Roman army there, and need shock infantry to replace your dead hastati.

In the Getian region, recruitment is again shot to pieces for some provinces. In some, you can recruit Mala Gaeroas, but that's about it.

In Gaul, you get Clyddabre, Lugoae, Leuce Epos and Sotaroas. Simply put, Clyddabre are useful as garrison troops because of their large unit size, their cheap upkeep and low recruitment costs. Lugoae are neither here nor there. Leuce Epos are useful because they are the only skirmisher cav you will have, and their attack is nothing to scoff at. Sotaroas...well, let's put it this way--they are the most damaging archers I have now, since Toxotai are just about useless save for flaming arrows. Oh, and may I add. Capture Aventicos and install a IV government and you can get that excellent Mori Gaesum, who will be your stone wall to shatter barbarian charges after Polybius comes. Freaking expensive, 2 turns to build, but by gods, worth it.

In Sicilia, you can recruit nothing of the Qarthadastim units, even in Lilibeo. You cannot recruit anything in Messana either. Same for the Lipari islands. However, Syrakousai is a goldmine of units, with greek units in there. The Iphikratid hoplitai will be a must in your invasion of Africa after the Polybian reforms, i think, because it's the only equal counter to the Liby-Phoenicians, and even then it's a slightly inferior counter.

I have conquered Nikomedia in Asia Minor, and it would appear right now that all I can recruit there on a IV government is Belgae Batacorii, which others have already pointed in a bug since the Belgae are supposed to live thousands of miles away, unless they got drunk and lost their way home.

Mercenary wise, Gaul is a perfect place for mercenaries, if you have the money you can have an instant army of decent infantry and cavalry. If you look at my Gaul screenshot the Roman fullstack in the centre of the screen facing the Arverni fullstack is completely made up of mercs and nothing else. Spain is moderately good for mercs, since scutarii can be recruited there. But because of its distance there is really little need to recruit them or export them elsewhere after you have conquered Spain. In Asia Minor there are also a lot of troops to be hired, with Galatians, Greek phalangitai and hoplitai, peltastai and thureophoroi. You can also create instant fullstacks in Asia Minor if you so wished.

In Greece the same applies, with Hippeis Thessalikoi being available in Thessalia (where else?). Barbarian mercenaries in the lands I am in are so far pretty generic. The only difference I saw was that for the first time I came across Ridoharjoz mercenaries in Sequallra.

With an empire so large, it may surprise you to know that I am not attacked from all sides. As my post stated, I have only two fronts to fight on--Gaul, and Pontos. I make sure that I don't go to war with the whole world at once, and I annihilate one enemy, or at least render him unable to fight back, before turning on another. Gaul was a miscalculation on my part, because the moment I attacked the Arverni, the Aedui attacked me, landing me with an anarchic situation. Pontos was an unprovoked fight.

Currently, however, I have 5 fullstacks in Europa, one of Mala Gaeroas going to retrain in Illyria, and 2 in Asia Minor ripping Pontos apart in retaliation for their unprovoked attack on Byzantion. They are positioned in such a way that they can cover all the fronts with possible threats easily. Those I cannot deal with are kept with alliances. E.G. Skythia, which I let Sauromatae have so they could be a buffer between me and Hayasdan, whose fullstacks honestly scare me.

Turn length... ouch. Let's put it this way, I play about 8-9 hours a day when I'm not in the army, and in that time I only go through about 2-3 turns on a slow day (with lots of battles, typically 5 a turn) or 8-9 on a fast day (only building and management with less than 5 battles in total). To make things worse, I'm the patient sort of commander, in other words, I take full advantage of the fact that there is no time limit. In assaults I let my troops rest after each phase, so they are fresh before they start on the townsquare assault. This takes about 5-10 minutes on triple speed if they are exhausted.

So yes, my turns are freaking long. You need patience to play EB.

[QwertyMIDX]

Man, the AI must be utterly hobbled by the load/save bug in your game. Hopefully we'll have the 1.5 version of EB out in the nearish future and you avoid that.

[pezhetairoi]

Do elaborate? Why do you think the AI would be hobbled by the loadsave bug? I think I've not been having problems so far in the campaign, since the Pontic army besieging Byzantion when I saved the game for the night was still besieging it the next morning when I reloaded the game...

[QwertyMIDX]

They wander away the next turn usally. Whenever you load a game in 1.2 the AI gets very confused for a few turns.

[pezhetairoi]

Oh, that one. Yes. They wander away. But I've tried to minimise it by playing for hours at a time. Of course, there're very few turns passed in that period of time, so it stymies their strategy somewhat.

[The_White_Knight]

Armenia bribed switzerland, Aedui bribed Croatia and expanded, ...

That's hilarious ... in a peculiar way...

[pezhetairoi]

Well, in my game Pontos, as part of their ongoing war against me, bribed Vindelicos, north of the Alps. Then they couldn't hold on to it, so it rebelled back to the Aedui (curses!). So right now I have BOTH a Pontic fullstack of Lugoae/Mala Gaeroas and a halfstack of two-gold-chevron Carnute Cingetos, Bataroas, and Brihentin on my northern border. The former is a walk in the park, but the latter, GAH!

[aleh]

Ok, so this has been my first ever campaign with EB, as the Romani. I'm currently involved in war with the Epeirotes, I win very battle, and I mean /every/ battle against them. Yet they just have more and more troops to throw against me, it's sick, right now, I'm recruiting garrison forces against them so I can take all of their cities within a couple of turns without having my eastern army(Legio VII, VIII, and IX) bogged down in garrison duty.

The Getai have suddenly exploded out of their holdings, and within a couple of years captured a lot of land. Thank the gods I'm allied with them. Right now, they've got me encircled in the north, but I'm trying to beat them to Patavium, which I no doubt will since I've plenty of time. The Macedonians have been relegated by the Epeirotes to Mydelone(or something) and Pella. The Greeks are putting up fierce resistance in Sparta, and they've Rhodes as well. But soon enough, the entire Epeirote/Macedonian/Greek holdings on the mainland will be mine. In the east. The Seleucids are getting /hammered/ by the Baktrians and Hayasdan, especially the Baktrians. They've also shot up in a mere decade, both of them that is. But in turn, the Seleucids are beating(to a minor degree) the Ptolemies in the east, and they've expanded into Arabia.

As for the Ptolemies, they're trying to expand into Asia Minor, and they're involved in a war against the Carthaginians. Somehow, they've captured most of available Africa, I only realized it after a while and was astonished. As for the Carthos, they've captured a Ptolemaic region a while back, but right now they're also involved in a war with Iberia. Speaking of whom, the Iberians have also shot up somehow, most of the northern and central Spanish peninsula is in their control. Right now, by what I can see of troop deployment, unless they mess up or something else happens, I give the upper hand to the Iberians in their current war with Carthage. The Arvenni have expanded somewhat into this region, and they're trying to expand into northern France and into Aedui territory. The Aedui are almost penned in from all sides(sea, Arvenni and Sweboz), but I think they're starting to gain the upper hand in their fight with the Arvenni, but if ever the Sweboz declare war, they're royally messed up. Oh, funny thing, Galatia rebelled! I was surprised to see a darkish greenish blob in Asia Minor.

The Sauromatae have done little since they started, and Pontos has only recently started to move.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Epeiros looks like they have a number of provinces that can really churn out the money though - with ports and markets in every province, and mines in some too. It looks like Thermon is going to give you grief! It always seems to be one of the toughest places in EB (to me) to take. I like seeing Epeiros occasionally take greece though - it doesn't happen that much, but it does sometimes. If Epeiros has Makedonia as a protectorate, they may be getting cash from Pella too (which has tons).

I like the distribution over almost all of that map actually - except maybe the Baktrians in the steppe and the Ptolemies insisting on going west.

[TekcoR]

As of 165BC, the Roman Republic (me) is slowly expanding its control into Iberia, who temporarily kicked out the Carthagians. Getai are huge, but have posed no threat to the Roman Republic. Whats interesting is the Konion Hellon expansion into the Crimea. I was wondering where they had departed to, after kicking them out of Greece and Rhodos...



Update: As of 160BC, I have expanded my control into Iberia and Gaul, along with taking Corisica and Sardina from Carthage. I did launch a failed expedition to take Carthage. Sweboz is destroying the Arveni and Aeudi and still being destroyed by the Getai. The Seleucid Empire is expanding again. Joy.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

The KH can sometimes acquire cities in the Crimea if a rebellion occurs when another faction controls it. They seem to have gotten lucky there before you ran them out of Greece.

[King Thengel]

My new campaign as the Aedui, 248 B.C. My expansion in Iberia has been greatly slowed due to my old but great generals dying, and in the east my King has been slowly conquering the Getae with no real problems.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

So I assume the Epeirotes asked for your help, and you sent troops to the upper Danube to aid them. Is that correct? Neat to see that working sometimes.

[King Thengel]

Yeah, I was surprised to see that the army is still surviving though, after making it there morale was horrendously low and I almost lost everything.

[mattholomew]

wow, i haven't posted on this forum in ages, and though i've played many campaigns now (mostly unsuccessful), only two of them really seemed worth saving screenshots of, so here are some from my makedonian and roman campaigns. As for the makedonian one, i think i might have played a few more years but really i just got bored.



With the romans, i have just finished a huge war in greece against epeiros and makedonia, starting in 263 bc and hopefully reaching its end in 248. Caivs avrelivs cotta, my faction leader, managed to defeat EIGHT (no exageration) full stack makedonian armies in two turns (six in one turn, two more the next).

It began when Epeiros attacked capua. General cotta, then only a young boy, moved on taranto in the absence of an older general. He desposed of the epirotes quickly, but the young man would learn to hate the greek armies, greek culture, and greek people. Even through his ten years studying in roma and capua, he retained this hatred. Even as the senate raised armies for the invasion of sicily and spain he could only think of his armies marching on greek soil. Even after ten years when pyrrhos sent his navies to blockade roman ports, Cotta hated the greeks. It didn't take long to convince the senate to give him a legion. Many romans and samnites, but no greeks, joined up with the young general's legion. He deployed into epeiros quickly, defeated pyrrhos, and defeated a makedonian army which strayed into the new roman lands. After this, peace was made.
War began again, two years later, when Cotta and two other roman generals, Numerivs ambrosivs and Domitivs Scipio, liberated Southern Greece from makedonian oppression. Scipio and his Samnite Legion took control of sparta a few years after cotta slew pyhrros. Ambrosivs captured thermon the same autumn. Cotta proved most ambitious and nearly took athens before retreating towards Chalkis, which served as his base for much of the war. With these three cities in southern greece, as well as ambrakia and epidamnos to the north, the three roman legions were soon left on the defensive. The senate did not have enough money for this greek war, A rebellion had sprung up in Ariminum, and blasio was busy fighting the gauls at bononia and patavium. Cotta had hoped the invasion would subdue the unprepared makedonian army, but he underestimated his enemies. The makedonians had a massive army. Nearly a dozen mighty legions marched around pella and soon halted the roman advance. Their counter attack was fierce but the romans held out for a few years. As soon as korinth was besieged by Scipio and his primarily samnite army (i know it's probly inaccurate but it looked fun, plus they're expensive and thus harder to use. Also, i like the golden shields.), Cotta sailed to attack pella. However, he was cornered by the makedonian navy and forced to land on the coast north of demetrias. Scipio took korinthos shortly afterwards, and athens was taken too. Then the makedonians sent every single army to destroy cotta, who won all 8 battles in a row.

oh, also, i edited the map a bit so that africa cannot be crossed by land. That should hopefully let the carthaginians push into spain. I like that the sarmatians are expanding nicely, except for armenia's invasion. One more thing, in a baktrian campaign that i played, the parthians managed to make a large and coherent empire. They actually took hekarompylos. I think i conquered all of that back though.

[Comtempt]

The above is from my campaign as the Koinon Hellenon, and it is currently year 255. Here's the rundown on what happened during my game:

I assaulted Crete the first turn with the troops I had, using a spy to open the gates. I won a heroic victory there, before attempting to cart my Faction leader back to the main land. Tragically, the Makadons attacked the fleet, and sunk it to the last man, including my leader. This would begin a chain of events that would wipe both Makadon, and Eperios from the map.

The new faction leader, a mere age of 22, quickly mobilized Sparta, and launched a campaign at Kornith, while getting an alliance with Eperios. My new faction leader was meet with a much larger Makadon army, but he quickly crushed it, and then procceded to break the city.

Following that, he took the Makadon city east of Athens, but not before becoming an Olympic campion. Building of his success, he marched north on the road to Pella, with an army made up of veterns of the Kornith campaign, and slingers and akontisti. My faction leader burned a path through Makadon, and quickly was able to take Pella. Retraining his troops, he marched on the last Makadon city on the mainland, north of Byzantium.

Meanwhile, Eperios became jealous of Hellenon power, and betrayed us to seige Pella. I launched several unsuccessful sallies in the hopes of saving my general there, but to no avail. A second army was built quickly in the main cities, and was quickly sent north. The captain won a clear victory against a Eperios army going south, and was quickly adopted for his deeds.

My faction leader was facing troubles of his own. Beseigeing the Makadon town, which had a force of 1600 within it, with an army of 1400 men, he hoped to starve them out. A Makadon army of another 1600 however, moved to relieve the city. When they attacked, my leader retreated. Unfortunetly, he did not retreat to better ground. Instead, he retreated until he was pinned by the city against a mountain.

When the two Makadon armies attacked again, it became a win or die situation. With this in mind, my general defeated the combined Makadon force of 3200 with only 700 causalties to his mostly slinger, mercenary, and peltast army. The city was his, and he could now relieve Pella from the Eperios army. And relieve he did, saving the general trapped within.

Quickly retraining at Pella, my faction leader quickly defeated several Eperios armies, before defeating Pyrros in a pitched battle, killing both him and his son. It was not soon after that the Eperios was destroyed, completely. Following this, I gathered an army, and destroyed the huge two stacks of Makadons on their last island, wiping them from the game.

Now Koinon Hellenon is poised to dominate the Med. Oh, and a province rebelled to me from Pontos. I don't even know how, or even remember when.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Trapezous does that sometimes. Quite plausible (esp. considering the relatively higher implausibility of other factions gaining provinces this way) - and lucky for you too.