Re: A Chremonidean War Story
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.
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