Fascinating development of Campaign: Pontos

[Sygrod]

After having plentiful CTDs (probably due to hardware issues), I decided to start from the beginning for some variation. Baktria had become a superpower, Rome was castrated by Qart Hadastim, and I was fighting with makedonia, Ptolemaioi and the thoroughly crushed AS (Arche Seleukeia).

Pontos starts with only one province and a large, expensive army. It is surrounded by mostly Eleutheroi, allied with Koinon Hellenon and one AS province (Mazaka) to the south east. Pontos is at war with Ptolemaioi and is allied with AS.

There was nowhere I could make a swift campaign without going bankrupt and the threat of being attacked was nearly non-existent. Therefore, I got rid of the expensive troops, recruited a couple of eastern slingers and waited. I spent all I could on economic improvements. Then I discovered that Sila to the south and on the Mediterranean shore was lightly defended. I sent a small expeditionary force of 2 generals and 2 slinger units and took the town after a small skirmish. Next turn, already, a ptolemaioi diplomat showed up and offered peace. "It'll cost you 500 Mnai", I replied and so peace it was. The turns were going by. Most of my activity consisted of moving two spies arpound the map and smiting the odd eleutheroi unit, where I could find one. It gave the slingers some target practice.

Then the AS had the nerve to lay siege on my capital. Bad idea. The expeditionary force, sent from mazaka, was only a couple of units, which I swiftly swept off the face of the Earth. I then proceeded to Mazaka and took the town next turn.

Shortly thereafter, the Ptolemaioi wanted an alliance, no less! I figured: Why not? Gives me time to build my economy. It turned out that they had allied themselves with AS, so suddenly, there was no war and the AS were listed as neutral.

OK. Keep building. From 265ish to 234BC (roughly 120 turns) I had to cross the border into Eleutheroi territory and chase small detachments just to get some action. Again, good target practice. Two of my slingers got a silver chevron.

Well, 234BC, AS decided against their better judgement to attack Mazaka. Again, not a good idea. Same result as before. A small detachment in the pass NW Tarsos defended my border in a fort and that detachment was sent down to Tarsos, which fell into my hands next turn. I could have moved on to Antioch, which was very poorly defended, but I decided that Tarsos would be easy to defend. There are many years and turns left to expand. Ipsos, however, was next on my list.

Ipsos is SW of Ankyra and was very well defended by over 20 units. 20 in the city and about 10 in the country north of the city. This one was going to take some planning. I decided on the following army makeup:

3 Generals, including the faction heir with 50 horses.
1 Medium mercenary phalanx
2 Levy phalanxes
2 Theurophoroi (hoplitai who throw spears)
1 scythed chariot unit
2 Mercenary Gaesatae
9 Eastern slingers (my main hitting force)

It took a couple of years to recruit and assemble this force. After irradicating some of the detachments in Galatia along with some eleutheroi, I went to attack a detachment just north of Ipsos. 1490 men against 1800 city garrison + 500 detachment. On the battlefield, I immediately attacked and drove the detachment off the hill. The hail of stones was awesome. I then quickly set up a defensive line on the hill and started pelting the AS army coming up the hill. The faction heir was sent off to chop down their slingers, but was in turn chased by no less than 4 enemy units (dividing the enemy quite nicely). The AS just barely made it to my line of phalanxes, but had suffered horribly from the constant hail of stones. It didn't take much to drive them back. The gaesatae were sent to deal with pantodapoi. I know that it is not a fair match, but that is exactly what I recruited them for.

At this stage of the game, I am laying siege on Ipsos. The garrison went down to 500 or so third rate units after the battle. Once I have taken Ipsos, Sardis is next. Then I will hold on and consolidate.

Playing with the money limiting mod makes one heck of a difference.

Quite a different campaign. It has been mostly without conflict.

/Sygrod

[Callicles]

Pontos is my favorite faction to play as, for reasons like this. In addition to never knowing what will happen, you have to fight like a rebel, never throwing away a skirmisher unit because, sometimes that skirmish needs to function like heavy infantry.

[Kampfkrebs]

Pontos is indeed a very nice faction to play with, in fact my favorite faction.

But I suggest you to take a trip across the pontos euxine to the crim-peninsula (sp?), some nice scythian units wait for you!
There´s also a scripted mission for pontos, to defend the peninsula. This is triggered if a sauromatae army wanders near the citys there.


So long,
Julian

[Sygrod]

All in good time. Thanks for the heads up on the script.

[mAIOR]

Yes Pontos is awsome. It appears in the next build they'll be even more awsome (tough their elite phalanxes might suffer)... I can't wait.


Cheers...

[Treverer]

... and in the next release, the "Pontic Faction Leader Trait" is working ...

[Kampfkrebs]

Finally they´ll get a proper general´s BG unit.

[Sygrod]

Not sure about the last two posts....

Anyway, Ipsos and Sardis are MINE! Makedonia has jumped into the continent and taken Pergamum. It seemed way too easy for them. They swept the large garrison away with very few losses. THey then proceeded to the next town to the north, where the garrison had exited the town and then mysteriously vanished. Hayasdan has expanded westward and taken all the Eleutheroi towns north and east of Pontos. The garrison in ankyra went on vacation in the countryside as well. Now, if I can just get enough spies in there and take it on the same turn, I'll be all set.

[Callicles]

Are you using any mods? I'm playing Pontos now using the City Mod with Errant's ai money mod as upgraded by MarcusAureliusAntonius and I've noticed that the AI is developing very slowly. Of course, because its 250 and I still can't afford anything looking like an army, I'm not complaining.

[paullus]

Makedonia will soon have a harder time in Pergamon, and if you like playing with Pontos, you will indeed have a number of new toys in the upcoming release, only a few of which have been previewed thus far...muahahaha

[Sarkiss]

Makedonia will soon have a harder time in Pergamon, and if you like playing with Pontos, you will indeed have a number of new toys in the upcoming release, only a few of which have been previewed thus far...muahahaha

cant wait. September preview maybe?
Pontus rocks! in my Pontic campaign i once reached the point when i had no enemies at all! even eleuteroi (free peoples) asked for a ceasefire. piece and prosperity. one of the best game i ever had. i controlled 6 towns in northern Anatolia and my kingdom was so beautifully shaped. too bad i screwed a save game

[Elminster12]

I have a great Pontos campaign going, map has been up in the faction progression for a while. I was sick of the Seleukids BSing me, so I just went wild on them from the beginning. I think I really broke them, because the Ptolies are the power. I fought them for a while, and got money to be their protectorate. Surprisingly, they've been behaving themselves. When I get back to it, I'm going to go after Ankyra, and, if the Ptolies cooperate, mess with the Maks. I think Mytilene and Byzantium would look good in Pontic purple

[Sygrod]

As for mods, I am only using a money limiting mod, not sure which.

Ankyra pays off taking, since some cheap but powerful galatian units become available. In a recent battle, the Seleukid (who else... sheesh) General charged his bodyguard cavalry at my slingers, which I quickly swung behind a Chalkaspidai unit (elite phalanx). The cavalry got stuck on the phalanx and then I charged with 45 galatian swordmen. Together, they killed all but the general. The phalangites suffered heavier losses than the galatians.

I've had some close call battles, where I had to really use my units well after my slingers ran out of stones and the enemy had not fled already. I love EB.

[Treverer]

Not sure about the last two posts....

...

I was referring to the missing "Faction Leader trait" for the Pontic FL. At least in my games some weeks ago, it was missing and I had to "mod" the char_trait-file to give some kinda "Basileus"-trait to my Pontic FL.
Maybe it is fixed in the actual download. I don't know.

Yours,
Treverer

[Sygrod]

Could I have some more detail on the faction_leader fix?

Antiocheia just fell to my assault. First, though, I had to fight two larde battles agaisnt armies reinforced by the garrison. It was a tough fight, but I prevailed in both engagements. My 3 phalanxes were reduced to around 30 men each, mainly from absorbing enemy generals' cavalry and fixing enemy phalanxes while I sent my Galatian swordsmen to hit them in the back.

Fascinating development:

Other factions are supposed to become quite hostile as soon as they share a border. Well, Both Makedonia and Hayasdan have shared borders with Pontos for quite some time and the worst I have seen from them is hayasdan armies using Pontos as a throughway.

While AI in most cases is unpleasantly predictable, it can still surprise.

[NightStar]

Fascinating development:

Other factions are supposed to become quite hostile as soon as they share a border. Well, Both Makedonia and Hayasdan have shared borders with Pontos for quite some time and the worst I have seen from them is hayasdan armies using Pontos as a throughway.

While AI in most cases is unpleasantly predictable, it can still surprise.

I have often shared borders with A.I factions for dozens of turns without them being hostile. I am playing as the Romani and I shared borders with the Adui for 40 years without conflict, but of course they were embroiled in war against the Averni. When that came to close I had an "Celtic Invasion".

In 223 b.c the Po valley got swamped by 5 full stacks of screaming gauls. I had kept my northern borders lightly garrisoned because of the good will between me and the Adui. But Luckily for me the consular army was having R&R in Rome, filling up the ranks after skirmish with Karhadast. Of course after a bloody battle the gauls were sent packing.

[Sygrod]

Re: Gaulish invasion:

I would say that it is perfectly OK to keep friendly borders lightly garrisoned, as long as the troops are either experienced, or can hold their own if need be. A couple of generals will ensure that a mercenary army quickly can be put on feet and used until better troops arrive. City garrisons can be defended by relatively large numbers of missile troops without enormous cost, They can decimate the sieging army from the walls, and as long as you can field a couple of cavalry and acouple of good melee units, the enemy can be driven off.

[NightStar]

Yes, but in this instance my cities would never have held out against the gauls, they didn't have stone walls and my slingers aren't that good from behind the wooden walls. And the Gauls had a lots of high quality units.

But I love being taken unawares, fighting battle after battle with depleted stack, when there is chance to lose

[Treverer]

Could I have some more detail on the faction_leader fix?

...

Look at page 2 or 3 of the General Discussion. The threat was started by myself and called "Pontic Faction Leader Trait". In it, I explained how to add a "Basileus"-trait to the Pontic-FL.
But after doing it, DON'T FORGET TO DELETE THE map.RMW (or rwm, or whatever; I never remember the exact extension).

[Cyclops]

Love those Pontians.They get to fight a heap of different factions on their way to victory. The one province start up adds a thrill-until you get the north coast secured they are a heartbeat from annihilation. I've had one campaign end quickly with a massive AS stack steamrolling me inside the first 10 years. I have to say that left me quite sulky, I don't usually knuckle under to the AI.

I don't like stacks with 9 slingers. I'm no historian but settling land battles with fusilades just ain't my cup of tea.

My favourite Pontos line up is an eastern army (medium and light Cav, panto's, skirmisher's, archers), a hellenic force to the west (chalki's, peltasts, slings, only bodyguard cav) and a gallic strike force of Tindanotae, Gallic haevy Cav and Galatikoi whatcha-callums to beef up the active front.

Such a diverse set of family ethnic traits too. If there are even more diverse units in the next build, all I can say is yum yum.

[Sygrod]

" I don't like stacks with 9 slingers. I'm no historian but settling land battles with fusilades just ain't my cup of tea."

... which is why you were steamrolled by the AS. Cheap missile troops keep AS at arms' length. As far as historical accuracy, it usually goes out the door after the first turn anyway.