A Chremonidean War Story

**Teleklos Archelaou** · 12-26-2006, 04:58

263: The decision is made to send Akrotatos and Thersites with the force at Athens to Argos, where they land and move towards the Arkadian army. The army retreats further into Arkadia, but the army catches them and, with reinforcements of Eugenios from Sparta, finally bring the area back under the alliance's control.

Thersites then travels north to Corinth and Akrotatos returns to Sparta. There is no longer a need for Eugenios to remain in Sparta, nor the army. Maybe some use for him in Athens can be found if he is given some further measure of education, so in the summer he is given command of the western Greek army and they board the fleet at Argos. They sail back towards Athens...

In Asia Minor, the Greek spies report that Mytilene still remains guarded by only a medium sized force. What was originally the main greek army, now the alliance's eastern army, is gathered outside of Halicarnassos, and Chremonides sees an easy opportunity. There are no large Seleucid forces in Lydia or in Mysia, so the path to Lesbos looks clear. He takes the army and marches towards the Lydian border, to wait for the next year and a campaign to rid the Ionian coast of Macedonians.

262: Chremonides moves on Mytilene in the spring. The Macedonians have equal sized armies on the island, one in the city and one guarding the western shore of the island. The battle occurs immediately, as a lone spy had managed to open the main gate of the city. It is also an interesting one - the units guarding the gates were mostly light infantry, and once inside the city the alliance army split and surrounded the Macedonian hoplites. They had just been finished off when the other Macedonian force arrived but were bottled up and surrounded as well, laid waste to by the Cretan mercenaries.

In the west, at this same moment, Eugenios, who has sailed from Sparta with the western alliance army, at the Attic coast orders the Nauarchos to set sail for Thermopylae instead of returning the men to Athens. Word has reached them that only the smallest of armies is present in Demetrias, with no other reinforcements in all of Thessaly and only a moderate sized force in Macedonia itself. If there was a time to move against Macedon, this is it. Given that there is nothing whatsoever in Eugenios' character to explain this decision, I have chalked it up to the influence of the evil tutor that he has in his retinue. But when Doros of Athens gets word, concerned with Eugenios' utter incompetence and poor understanding of military tactics, he sends a message to the fleet and he and the few hoplites he can muster gather off Marathon to meet them. When Eugenios disembarks, his force reaches the walls of Demetrias quickly. The winter snows arrive just in time for Doros and his men to reach the borders of Thessaly. But Eugenios does not hesitate for the spring thaw to allow more Macedonian soldiers to move south from Pella. Unfortunately along with the snows, terrible diplomatic news arrives at Rhodes: Ptolemy and the Seleucid king have agreed to an immediate ceasefire and even more surprising an alliance. The Ptolemies, once close allies, now have only one enemy: the alliance. Immediately a large army moves from the borders of Pamphylia to Lydia. Halicarnassus is only lightly defended and spies report another large army in Side. Still Eugenios does not know of the news, and even if he did at this point it seems a good decision to push ahead with the attack. For the first time in known memory, phalangitai are hired by the alliance to fight in a battle, as a group of misthophoroi phalangitai are hired by Eugenios before the battle. The battle did not last long - the Macedonian faction heir fought till the very end, but was finally slain in the mass of pikes and spears at the center of the city.

261: Disaster. In the spring a large army leaves Pella and arrives, then begins besieging Demetrias. At the same time the Ptolemaic army leaves Lydia and reaches Halicarnassus, besieging it. All hopes rest on Chremonides and his army in Mytilene, but word has just been sent that he will not be able to lead the army because he is now dead. He had finished a long and frigid night preparing invasion plans and under the light of a full moon walked through the camp to ascertain the mood of his men. When he returned to his quarters he asked that an extra blanket be prepared and complained that the room was far too cold. In the night he awoke with severe sweats and by dawn half of the camp already knew that he had not heard the rooster's call. There is no other general in the entire eastern Aegean, no allies other than the distant Baktrian kingdom, no units recruitable yet in Mytilene, no more mercenaries available for recruitment in the east (because no generals are present) and no generals anywhere in the alliance over the age of 34, and the Ptolemies are allied with the Seleukids, the Epeirotes, and the Macedonians, forming an uber-alliance against the koinon hellenon...gah.

**Ower** · 12-26-2006, 11:55

Hard times, wish you luck

**Teleklos Archelaou** · 12-27-2006, 04:20

261 (continued): There is no hope of hiring further units in Karia to help the army there, but there is hope of bringing relief to Demetrias. The Theban force still remains in its position, so soldiers from Athens are not available, but Doros of Athens was still on board the fleet when he heard of the siege. The fleet hurries north to the eastern slopes of Mt. Olympus where Doros and his bodyguard disembark with chests of silver, enough to hire three groups of infantry and two of missle soldiers. Not enough to defeat the Macedonians alone, but with the soldiers from Demetrias maybe.

The battle should have been won by the Macedonians and through a poor decision in arranging their army here it is quite possible they have made the mistake that will cost them their kingdom. It was fought north of Demetrias, on the road to Pella. The Macedonians chose to array their forces (a good mix of infantry, cavalry, and skirmishers) along the road though, instead of on the high ground to their right. The small koinon mercenary relief force coming from the north immediately ran towards the high ground, which lay directly between them and Eugenios' force. When the two forces merged, on top of the high ground no less, it was not difficult to cause enough casualties to drive the best infantry and cavalry off the field and into northwestern Thessaly near the Epeirote borders. Both Doros and Eugenios' forces retired to Demetrias at that point. The greek fleet sails to Thessalonika and sieges the port there, and diplomats approach the Macedonians at Pella, but they will not listen to propositions of a ceasefire.

In Halicarnassus, the siege was still ongoing, with the koinon relief force from Mytilene sure to arrive in the summer, before an assault on Halicarnassus can begin. Another serious incident has occurred here. While koinon troops were marching through Lydia, Sardis rebelled from the Seleucids, certainly due in part to the single Koinon spy sent there the previous season. The army is not large, but will hopefully delay any possible action on the Seleucids' part towards Lesbos. When the battle itself begins, it becomes clear that the entire Ptolemaic force is made up of light skirmishers. With three units of Cretan mercenaries and some slingers in the alliance army, and with the high ground from the start, the battle did not see the death of a single alliance soldier - half of the Ptolemaic force fled the field and retreated past Sardis to the nearby Seleucid armies.

The best news though is that an Athenian general named Piales was promoted and now is in control of the army at Halicarnassus.

With these events, things pretty much opened up for my campaign. Things became easier with the Macedonians and the Ptolemies were all I had to really worry about. I think this is where I'll end it - as it was getting more complex and I was mainly interested in these events at the start. Moving on to some other things.