Well, for now I have been following CountArach and JeffBag's recommendation and have dug in near Kotais.

In the meantime though, Trapezous fell to the Ptolomies. My caucasian spearmen were no match for their galatians.

A short time later, the people of Trapezous rose up to throw off the yoke of Ptolomeic oppression and ...


...entered the league of free greek states, the Koinon Hellenon. While I hoped it would revolt back to Hayasdan, I will have to settle with having my ally as my new neighbor. I'm sending them a small tribute of 100 mnai per turn to hopefully stay in their good graces.

I besieged Ani_Kamah, but later had to pull back due to the sheer number of Ptolemaic forces on their way to releive the garrison. Then this:


Here I set the stage for slaughter - Horse Archers surrounding the column of infantry:


With efficient results:


Mher finnishes them off:

I might enter that one into the next screenshot competition.

Victory!:


Mher's heroic defense of the kingdom!


With KH in the mix now this should get interesting as they border Pontus and Ptolomey now, but so far they have just turtled inside the city.

I think I'm going to try to save up and build the mine in Kotais while defending the mountain passes. Then once the mine is built, conscript some more troops and go on the offensive.