Started a little campaign as KH last night with the new patched files (sorry, they aren't totally ready yet, but we have an internal version of the patch we're testing out) and I found it really interesting what occurred. No screenshots, but I'm describing what happens very roughly. Pretty interesting I thought:
272: Areus arrives in Sparta. Antigonos and his army sit outside the gates of Athens with a considerable army, but diplomats report that the Macedonian king is much concerned with the Epeirote soldiers in Macedonian lands, so it is no surprise when he and his soldiers take leave of Attica after the summer is over and withdraw to winter in Demetrias to raise more soldiers and defend their current posessions. At that same time the Spartan king Areus and the men he can gather from Elis and Arcadia, as well as his Cretan mercenaries, march on Macedonian controlled Corinth and lay siege to the city. On the island of Rhodes, Agothokles Rhodios dies peacefully in the fall of the year, leaving a young son in the care of Chremonides of Athens.
271: In the spring the Spartan king and his Peloponnesian allies take the city of Corinth in a bloody battle, though most of the Spartan peers were slain along with many other hoplites. Areus and Akrotatos survive, but Akrotatos is soon sent back to Sparta. Spies report that Antigonos and his army have heard of the siege and leave Demetrias immediately, moving south through Boiotia towards Athens. The city is only very sparsely defended, and a plea is sent across the ithmus to Corinth for help. Areus. A small contingent of Areus' tired soldiers at Corinth, including only the handful of remaining Spartiates and Cretan mercenaries, rush to Athens and arrive at the city only shortly before the Macedonians lay siege to the place. Instead of reducing the city through starvation, Antigonos' fury pushes the Macedonians to assault its walls that same autumn. Greatly outnumbered, the Athenians and their Peloponnesian allies kill enough of the assaulting Macedonians along the walls of Athens to slow the assault, and a brave but foolhardy diversionary charge from the walls by Chremonides ends in a great victory as the king himself, Antigonos, is separated from his men and in a furious charge when the Athenian cavalry run him through at the tip of a spear. The remaining Macedonians, though probably still numerous enough to take the city if they had persevered, are hesitant to continue with the siege and withdraw to the north of Attica. As winter falls, the allied army marches out of Athens with a few additional men and catches the remaining Macedonians in an unfavorable situation and defeats them once more. This season, a new man is brought into a leadership position, Thersites, a Corinthian. An unfortunate name, but a young man with many talents, although quickly it is realized that this is possibly the only Corinthian yet known who knows nothing of trade.
270: With Areus still in Athens, and the small army of the Greeks at hand, he leads the combined force across the narrow straits towards Chalkis, and in the summer after a short battle liberates the city and island of their Macedonian oppressors. Word reaches Athens that the Macedonians have formed another army south of Demetrias large enough to destroy the allied army entirely, but they are now reluctant to move south because the path is no longer open: a large army is assembled near Thebes and is unwilling to allow them free passage south into Attica. This year a promising youth marries Chremonides' daughter Hermine, a young girl above all reproach. His name is Echepolos Andanieus, a Cretan, and proposes a bold new move for the Greek alliance...
269: As long as the army near Thebes remains, the Macedonians are unable to move south. Echepolos suggests that he be given command of a substantial force and a small fleet, whereupon he will move upon the hostile cities of Crete and bring it under the alliance's control. At this same time, a small fleet from Rhodes arrives at Athens and new soldiers from the Peloponnese have gathered off Epidauros to meet them, but at that moment a Greek pirate fleet sails up from the south and a battle is fought off the coast of Attica, with the Greeks winning the day. It is a sure sign that their interests in the Aegean should be their next concern. In the summer, with the seas calmed, the Greek fleet moves south with not just with the young and rash Echepolos, who is a native of the island, but with Areus, who knows Crete well, in charge of the army. By the time winter arrives they have achieved their objectives: the island is under their control and the fleet is brought in to port off Kydonia.
268: Areus returns to Sparta and Echepolos remains in Crete as the strategos in charge of the koinon's interests on the island. The fleet almost reaches the safe harbors in sight of Athens when two fleets from the Pontos Euxeinos sail into the Argo-Saronic Gulf. The battle that ensues destroys the remaining ships in the Greek fleet. Chremonides' son, Doros Attikos. has just come of age and was to remain at Athens in the schools there and in further military training while Chremonides sailed to Rhodes to remain and possibly pursue Greek interests on the Karian coast until Agothokles' young son came of age and was able to govern the city of Rhodes, but that will now have to wait until another fleet can be raised and the eastern pirate fleets brought under control in the Aegean. Areus, arrived in Sparta along with his son Akrotatos, begins to raise another army to continue the defense of the mainland in Attica again or elsewhere if needed.
(Will continue and may try a few screenshots with the next events)
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