Pontic Campaign

[Sygrod]

Well, I thought I'd try my hand at sharing my progress in my Pontic Campaign.
I do not profess to be an expert or a stickler for historical fact as far as the campaign goes, and as has been mentioned often enough: History goes out the window after the first turn anyway.

First, I do have some "house rules":
1. I will NOT attack a friendly or neutral faction (This rule may go by the wayside late in the campaign if I need to actually win the campaign, but considering how aggressive the AI is, I do not think that will be a problem).
2. Any offers of peace from a warring faction will be cheerfully accepted - perhaps with some conditions thrown in.
3. Slugfest battles will be avoided as far as possible. I do not train units just to throw them away. My aim is to have units that are as elite as possible, experience wise.

Unit size is Huge and difficulty is M/M.

So, for those of you who may find this useful and entertaining, here it is.

272 BC. The entire army was thrown at Ankyra in order to take that city. Sinope was left alone, since it was allied with Koinon Hellenon (Rule 1). The gauls decided to sally out. 1347 against my 1676. Due to the nature of the initial units, this broke rule 3 and my army sustained 50% losses, but prevailed in the end. Fortunately, the gauls came out piecemeal, and I was able to inflict serious losses on them. When the 2 units of naked guys came out, I got my missile units, one eastern slinger and one eastern skirmishers to shower them with stones and javelines, thus bringing their numbers down considerably, before they made contact with my two phalanxes. I continually threw my generals and their guards at them. When a unit broke and ran for the centre of the town, I immediately sent 2 generals after them and managed to clear what was left in the town while the battle raged. Their general was killed and the units outside began to break, so I cut them down as they ran. Battle was over. BTW, my daughter calls the naked warriors "Snoppnissar", which any swedes reading this will enjoy. She's 5.

Well, with Ankyra in my grasp and no other enemies to tackle I set off building an economy. I found out from this forum that you can trade ancillaries between characters. Thus I proceeded to give the governors the best advisers and began to rake in the dough. A couple of rebellions started in the countryside and they had to be squashed, which gave my slingers another chevron.

In 257 BC, The seleukids decided to lay siege on Nikaia. There was no general present - just 3 units. After a short siege, it fell in their grubby hands, and I sent a spy in there. That brought the happiness from 30% to 0%.The town threw the seleukids out. 3 eleutheroi units outside town attacked the seleukids and defeated them, sending them back to Ipsos. Opportunity! I sent forth a small army of 572 men and laid siege on Nikaia. There was only a unit of Akontistai and one of Hoplitai Haploi for a total of 241 men. Next turn I assaulted the town and took it with only 9 casualties. The 3 unit eleutheroi army had moved to the North and remained there for quite a while until I had the means to crush it.

In 255 BC a general of mine was en route to Amaseia to upgrade the armour and weapons when a seleukid army attacked it. I managed to retreat beyond their reach. Rule 1 kicked in. Arche Seleukeia was about to loose Mazaka, Ipsos and Sardis. It was just a matter of time.

In 254 BC the offending seleukid army laid siege to Ankyra, but was repulsed with great loss. I proceeded to make a lightning strike at Mazaka with 1465 men against the garrison of 568.

[Treverer]

Subscribed ... and Good luck ! !

BTW: build your first mine in Nikaia, the income is twice compared to all other mines in Asia Minor (in case, you'd not know it).

And a question: in what way do you build the govs? E.g.: first gov4 or gov3, then gov2/gov1. No need to answer this right now, you can (if you desire) implement it into your AAR.

Yours, Treverer

[Landwalker]

Subscribed ... and Good luck ! !

BTW: build your first mine in Nikaia, the income is twice compared to all other mines in Asia Minor (in case, you'd not know it).

And a question: in what way do you build the govs? E.g.: first gov4 or gov3, then gov2/gov1. No need to answer this right now, you can (if you desire) implement it into your AAR.

Yours, Treverer

I learned from my own Pontos campaign not to build Type IV governments anywhere except in Ankyra until you get your economy off the ground. The wages of multiple client rulers can ruin a small faction like Pontos early on. Instead, I generally go with Type IIIs, because they're cheap and allow you to get some decent, or at least usable, native units, although admittedly once I had my economy up and going, most of my early-game Pontos armies consisted of mercenaries.

Cheers.

[Horst Nordfink]

I am currently running my own Pontic AAR, it would be nice to follow yours and compare where we differed.

[The Celt]

Wow your going fast! In my Pontic campaign the AS attacked the moment I took Trapazous.(sp?) Which I met with a lighting quick takeover of their Anatolian lands.
My advice though, if you haven't already, be sure to take Trapazous and Ani-Kami(sp?) ASAP. Because once you have built those towns up economically they will rake in a whole lotta dough for you later.(You also don't want the Hai getting a hold of them either. )

[Sygrod]

As soon as the AS attacked, I switched my resources to building units. Not that it was a great strain on the economy - I had just not recruited a whole lot of units up to that point. The main effort went to recruiting Eastern Slingers, Pantodapoi Phalangitai and then some miscellaneous units, such as Eastern Skirmishers, etc to replace better units in garrisons. Mazaka was not threatened, so I switched some units to Ankyra and built up an army there. When it was big enough, I sent it to Ipsos. A small AS detachment came within range and was destroyed. I don't believe in long sieges, so on turn 3 of the siege, I attacked, but only after receiving some reinforcements.
Ipsos had a general and some average units as a garrison. The assault went quite well. My army of 1696 men acquitted themselves well against their 978.
It was a bit of a tricky battle, though. My army consisted of 2 Generals, 2 Pantodapoi Phalangitai, 1 Merc Kludduon, One Merc Southern Gallic Swordsmen, 4 units of Eastern slingers and 1 unit of Iaosatae. Since the defenders were lined up behind the gate facing the main assault, I split my army in two and lined them up against the side gates. The enemy had of course the general, 3 units of Pantodapoi Phalangitai, one of Klerouchoi Phalangitai and one of Akontistai. I broke the gates simultaneously. The one on the left was defended by a Phalanx, and I pelted it with stones. The Akontistai showed up and were likewise decimated. I then sent in one phalanx , followed by a general, and between the two gave the defenders a good licking. I tried to send a couple of units around the front, but a phalanx came marching that way and I had to slug it out with it for quite a while with my now tired units. Meanwhile on the other side, My units began to enter, but an enemy phalanx came marching from the town square. Quite a few stones later, it was sufficiently battered that I sent in my melee units, which still suffered at the pikes. Progress was slow and there was a great deal of hand to hand stuff. Finally the enemy general charged, but I had blocked his way with a phalanx. They retreated to the square with only a handful of horses. The remaining Klerouchoi Phalanx on the square was going to be a bit of a challenge. I attacked it from both sides with 2 phalanxes. While it marched to meet one, I had slingers hit it in the back. The garrison was wiped out to the last man. I had suffered 487 casualties, mostly mercenaries, and half a phalanx.

Ipsos was in Pontic hands. Sardis next. It had 2 generals, several phalanxes and some Akontistai. The battle was less of a challenge, but my 1533 man army suffered 431 casualties nonetheless against their 1230.

Sardis was now also Pontic, and AS had lost their provinces in the immediate neighbourhood.The year was 252 BC and I could now concentrate on removing the local rebels. Overwhelming superiority decided these battles. Between 252 BC and 245 BC four such rebellions were squashed. AS were very quiet during that period. I guess that their armies in the region had been wiped out and they were sending armies from the East and recruiting new units.

Well, 244 BC, an AS army finally came to lay siege on Mazaka. This time they brought 1865 men - a more than capable army. Unfortunately, i had had time to build my forces and had crammed Mazaka with units to my liking. There were scads of slingers and 3 units of Caucasian Archers, along with Cappadocian Cavalry and phalanxes. I also had no less than 3 generals present. The As army decided to relocate immediately and I had them thoroughly pelted with stones while they regrouped. I threw my cavalry out and made attempts to clobber their 3 missile units. Cavalry works well against them. Unfortunately, as soon as one unit tore into a AS missile unit, a melee unit or a general counter attacked. One of their generals chased after one of mine and they went all around the city. Some bodyguards were cut down by the small towers, but the real nasty surprise came when my general and his entourage rode through a deployed pontic phalanx. That general didn't survive the ordeal. Meanwhile one of my generals and the Cappadocian cavalry had destroyed a unit of Eastern Skirmishers and decimated a unit of Eastern Slingers, both of which were leaving the battle. I withdrew these two cavalry units some distance from the seleukids to recover from exhaustion.

I sent my three phalanxes out and formed a line. I then sent out my sligers and began to pelt the enemy line. As soon as a seleukid missile unit advanced, I threw my generals at it, hacked a few of them down and retreated back to my line with the enemy general following. His unit was soon rendered irrelevant by means of stones and pikes. Finally, the enemy army had had enough and took to the forest. They were followed by showers of stones and cavalry charges on hapless Akontistai. The seiege was lifted. My army lost 154 men against their 1418. That's the kind of losses I like to see.

No sooner had that army been driven off than another appeared. I sent an army of mostly missile units forth to the ford south of Mazaka and waited. The army was 2942 men strong. The pitiful seleukid army that tried to come across was only 1532. While they arranged themselves to cross, Their army was cut to ribbons. It was like watching machine gun fire on advancing soldiers in WWI. Two AS generals fell. I still had to send a phalanx across and slug it out after running out of ammo. The skirmish was over quickly and the AS retreated. They had lost 1177 men against my 60.

Besides the obvious fighting and capture of cities, I had produced a number of spies and had managed successfully to get Side to rebel against their Ptolemaic masters. The city was soon in ptolemaic hands again, but the excercise was still satisfying.

[Sygrod]

In 240 BC A new rebellion had sprung up south of Nikaia. It was quickly dispatched. 718 rebels to my 1 phalangite as casualties. Much better odds.

My spy network had determined that Karkathiokerta was ripe for the taking. While its garrison was formidable, there were no other armies around to assist. The time had come. I advanced with an army of mixed composition, 2927 strong and laid siege on the city for two seasons to soften up the garrison a bit. Inside were 2 generals, one of them the faction heir, 3 Kleroucheroi phalangitai, 1 Pantodapoi phalangitai, one Thorakitai, one Caucasian Hillmen and one Akontistai.

I assaulted the city three times, twice being repulsed by the ^$#&*#@ CTD moderator. The third time, I actually managed to take the city, but it was a 3 hour haul. I had constructed a siege tower, 2 sap points and 2 sets of ladders. The far left corner had been selected for my scaling of the wall, with a diversion on the right far corner.

My left detachment consisted of my single unit of Chalkaspidai, 2 Easternn slingers, 2 Caucasian archers and a pantodapoi phalangitai in that order. The right detachment was a Pontic elite infantry unit, followed by 2 eastern slinger s and a Pantodapoi phalangitai. The rest of the army, 2 generals, a Scythian horse archer unit, an Eastern skirmisher, 3 Eastern slingers, a Caucasian archer and a Galatian short swordsmen were held in reserve in front of the city to tie up the main body of defenders.

As soon as the ladders went up, I decided to let a unit of Eastern slingers go first and set up a strategic position on a part of the wall. Unfortunately, the Thorakitai came running, and I quickly attacked them with my Chalkaspidai. This battle went on for what seemed to be an eternity. I could not throw stones at them for fear of hitting my own. Instead, my slingers busied themselves with destroying a Klerouchoi Phalangitai behind the East Gate. My left Pantodapoi Phalangitai marched around the back to the East Gate and attacked them when they were sufficiently decimated. Meanwhile, my 242 Chalkaspidai had a really hard time with the 144 Thorakitai. Man, they were tough.

Plan B: The right detachment was sent into position, while my in-town slingers raced over there to take the towers. Unfortunately, the Caucasian Spearmen were on the wall and came running. Panic time. I did not manage to get my slingers out fast enough and they ended up slogging it with the superior spearmen. I sent the Pontic Elite forward to scale the wall and managed to push through the slingers, through the tower attack the spearmen. The pus was working and the spearmen were being pushed back. My slingers extricated themselves with 50% losses. Hmmm. Note to self: have the melee troops closer to the wall at the ready.

The spearmen were finally exterminated and the elite infantry advanced along the wall to the front right corner. 2 slinger units followed. A unit of Klerouchoi Phalangitai came around the corner below the Pontic Elite and marched slowly towards the South Gate (my right). I sent forth my slingers and took up position to pelt them with rocks, the consequence of which was a thorough destruction of the phalanx. One down, 3 to go. At this point there were 2 phalanxes on the main square with the two generals. The front wall was held by Akontistai, backed up by another Klerouchoi Phalangitai. The Akontistai were right above a sap point, but being fairly easy choppings for cavalry, I let them be for later.

Well more than an hour later, my Chalkaspidai had finally managed to drop the last of the Thorakitai. They started with 242 men and finished with 35. Amazing that they didn't break. These guys needed a break and advanced slowly past and took control of the Northern Gate. I sent a unit of Caucasian archers in and positioned them behind the Chalkaspidai. A few volleys at the Klerouchoi Phalangitai on the front wall had no effect. The Pantodapoi Phalangitai had in the mean time been sent in and blocked the main street North. The remnants of the Northern Phalangitai came running back for more punishment until finally destroyed.

At this point, while the Chalkaspidai were resting, I sent my right pantodapoi Phalangitai in through the South Gate and set them up blocking the street from the square. I then moved my one general and the Scythians to support and brought another unit of slingers over to the right from the main body. Now, there was movement on the Wets (front) wall. The Akontistai were descending in order to bolster defenses on the main square.

My commanding general went as fast as he could around the left, entered through the North gate and raced towards the West gate, arriving just in time to cut the Akontistai to ribbons. The other general came around from the East and joined in. Now, I noticed that you can not attack a unit, which is half on the ground and half on the wall with cavalry. It is considered to be an the wall. Solution: march the units right up to the gate towers and let the generals slug it out on their own initiative.

As the Klerouchoi Phalangitai were trying to follow the Akontistai, I sent forth my Caucasian archers and let flamingn arrows rain down on them. To good effect, since I was hitting them in the back. As they were coming piecemeal down through the exit, my generals cut them down. To make matters worse for them, I sent forth my Pontic Elite infantry to join in the fun.

OK, you say, what of the siege tower? Decoy. The Galatian short swordsmen were guarding it throughout the battle and never came to blows.

I sent in my second and third Caucasian archer units after the first had used up all its arrows and was sent out side the walls to make room. These two units took up position and were able to rain flaming death on the square. The seleukid generals came charging. Good thing I had advanced with my eastern phalanx. The generals, desperately trying to kill something, attacked and were consequently seen off. Especially after I charged them from behind with my generals. The phalanxes in the square were enticed to move back and forth and as they did so, I had them pelted from behind. Down to 30 men each, they were finally charged by my cavalry and the assault was over.

My Pontic army arrived with 2927 men and suffered 467 casualties. The 1827 strong garrison was almost wiped out. The remaining 29 surrendered.

[Sygrod]

For some reason, my screen captures are all black, or I'd have some eye candy.

[Sarkiss]

For some reason, my screen captures are all black, or I'd have some eye candy.

same here. use "fraps"

[Akhenaton]

This is realllllly good. I like reading this, even if there aren't any pictures. :)

[Treverer]

... this report is helpful for a dummy like myself, who never attacked stonewalls ...

[Akhenaton]

And for a dummy like myself, who's only done it once or twice, and not at all on EB...

[Sygrod]

I'm glad you like my reports...

Attack - Consolidation.

After I had taken Karkathiokerta, I needed to fill the ranks again, and bring more units forward to create another offensive army. I noticed that Edessa and Antioch were as good as defenseless, but didn't want to attack right away, since I would not be able to secure them. The seleukids provided some distraction and practice by converging small detachments on Karkathiokerta. A detachment of 254 men were quickly dispatched south of the city. 2 men survived against my 1 casualty. Another AS detchment had been loitering north of Karkathiokerta on the Hayasdan border. It came around and I forced it into a battle. 1303 against 605. The cowards had lined up on a hill in the far left corner. The AS army consisted of a unit of Klerouchoi Phalangitai,a unit of those heavily armoured guys (name escapes atm) and a unit of Akonstistai.
My vastly superior force consisted of a general, my unit of Scythian horse archers, 4 units of slingers, 2 units of Caucasian archers and 2 phalanxes. War is not fair and I prefer an advantage whenever possible. I split the army in 4 divisions. The missile troops split in two separate forces to flank the enemies, the phalanxes just marched forward and my cavalry rode up on the hill to their right. This provoked the seleukids to move their armoured unit to attack. The Scythians just pulled back. As soon as the armoured seleukids turned around, I advanced with my Scythians again and sent a stream of arrows into their backs. The Akontistai decided to advance on my right wing, but I changed their minds by letting loose all my missile units. They pulled back with great loss. The armoured guys attacked again, but this time they chose a phalanx. Bad choice. They were utterly ruined. While I cleaned up, the enemy phalanx ran away. It was the only unit to get away. I lost 2 men.

[Treverer]

I'm glad you like my reports...

Thank you!

-- I just checked your settings again and I can tell you that Pontos on M/x is ... well, a lot more relaxing than playing it on H/x. I'm playing a Pontic campaign on that level (my first one ever with anything above M/x) and, man, it's da** tough!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I blitzed the the AS and took their three provinces in the first year, but I was massively in debt, unrest was a LOT higher than I was used. So I "cheated": I gave me a 40,000 mnai loan, repayable every Winter-turn (5,000 mnai) over ten years. Building govs, roads & barracks, recruiting one or two garrison units, retrained some units, but: no mines with that money. That helped until ... the Ptolemaioi allied with the AS and now the AS started to send stacks with mercenaries and ... OMG! I gave up playing fair and started to cheat massivly.

: ... looking forward to your next update.

Yours, T.

[Sygrod]

I have used a particular strategy with good results. It is a kind of offensive defense. From the start, unless I can make good use of my units immediately, I disband the expensive units. I keep units with excellent staying power (phalanxes) and missile troops. The generals will provide ample cavalry in the beginning. I proceed to recruit enough units to defend what I have. I concentrate on building my economy in my towns/cities and wait. Rebellions are ruthlessly attacked and provide good training for the troops. Once a faction attacks, I have already a plan to take a town or two. I let the enemy attack first. With some luck and skill, I manage to destroy an attacking army laying siege to one of my towns. That will usually give me an opportunity to send an army to the town it came from an take it. Once taken, I consolidate. Usually, the town is in a state of unrest and needs a sizeable force to keep it under control. This serves a second porpose: The strong defense will repel any siege. Consolidation. As the territory is expanded, strong defenses are placed at points where an enemy army will come. Attacks on enemy towns are basically blitzes from a strong defensive position.

[Sygrod]

Regarding the spoiler: The blitz is what killed your efforts. You could not expand that fast and consolidate, ie: bring the area under your full control. Try again but concentrate on 2 things: Defense and cash flow.

[Sygrod]

Well, it was just a matter of time before the seleucids would send armies to recapture Karkathiokerta. 238 BC, a small army of only 886 men under a strong general (read "arrogant") laid siege on the city garrison of 2412. Guess what happened. They endured a hail of stones from the ramparts. I sent out the Scythians again and the seleucid general fled with only 268 men left. My losses were 0. Another army marched up from the East after I had sent off a detachment towards Edessa. My 1749 to their 1834 with no less than the faction heir commanding.

This battle was a bit of a chore. I had lined up my slingers on the eastern walls. They gave the seleucids quite a pelting, before the enemy lined up on the hill out of range. Fortunately, they lined up with 2 toxotai units on the far left flank. That's where my general's cavalry went. While trying to stay clear of pointy spears from nearby melee units, My cavalry ruined the first toxotai unit. An enemy unit with sharp implements gave chase, but changed their minds when they came within range of my slingers as my general took refuge below the wall. Another attack decimated the other unit of toxotai. I then repositioned the general in front of the gate to rest. Once rested, he attacked the caucasian archers on the seleucid right flank, but was charged by the faction heir and his bodyguard of 100 horses. They were taken on a long tour around the walls, where first the slingers, then the towers did their work. Once the general had gone around the city once, he had 23 guys with him, so I turned my general around and hacked them to pieces. The general, now alone fled, but a few well aimed stones changed his future. Another attack on the caucasian archers sent the enemy fleeing.
My losses: 42 of the general's bodyguards
Seleucid losses: 1285 men, including the faction heir.

The road to Edessa lay open, and my army of 1025 took it with ease in 238 BC. The garrison consisted of 301 men, including a unit of Pantodapoi phalangitai. The two generals were killed and half the phalanx had been bludgeoned with stones when the square was in my possession.

No sooner had I secured the city than one of the wayward seleucid armies laid siege to it with 547 men against my 928. You probably know the outcome by now. Losses 3 against their 375.

In 238 a rebel army had sprouted on my vital line of communication between Mazaka and Karkathiokerta. This had to be removed, and it took a couple of seasons to scrape together a sufficiently large army to crush it. They had 903 men, including 2 units of Persian archers and a unit of medium cavalry. The pontic army was 1013 strong. Pontic losses were 4. Only 6 rebels got away.

These fantastic disparities in losses are attributed to a strong force of missile troops behind a wall of pikes. If you don't let the enemy anywhere near you, then he can't hurt you.

In 237 BC the army that had been chased from Edessa came back. No reinforcements. bad idea.

Ptolemaioi declared war and a lost an ally in Hayasdan. Hmmm. This must be one of the dumbest things the AI had done in this campaign so far. Any idea what I'll do next? Guesses?

still 237 BC. Karkathiokerta is under siege again... 520 man seleucid army against my 1604 defenders. What are they thinking?!?!? 113 of them got to leave the siege on foot.

487 intrepid seleucids then decided to lay siege to a fort I had placed east of Edessa. A relief army arrived and was generous enough to send all the attackers to Hades. every single one of them. It took a bit of dancing around with my slinger units, but the enemy always managed to present a nice backside target to pelt.

A ptolemaic detachment had been posted north of Tarsos, just south of the border, where a strong detachment of pontic heroes were guarding the pass in a fort. 201 ptolemaic soldiers - the entire detachment - were brought to ambient temperature to no losses of pontic warriors.

[Treverer]

Ptolemaioi declared war and a lost an ally in Hayasdan. Hmmm. This must be one of the dumbest things the AI had done in this campaign so far. Any idea what I'll do next? Guesses?

You mean that Pontos has lost its alliance with the Hai? In this case, pay attention to your border with them. My experience is that they soon send a big expeditionary force to one of your cities.

You might consider sending a diplomat to the Sauromate and trying to gain an alliance/trade rights with them.

Oh, and watch your back! Monitor the Makedons! After all, they are allied to the AS. Though they rarely attack as they are busy with both the KH and Epiros, and the Getai, not to forget. If you haven't already done this, get trade rights with all 4 of them.

Yours, T.

[Sygrod]

Yes, typo. Pontos lost an ally. I think it was Hayasdan, but this happened last week and I could be wrong. I'm catching up reportwise.
Hayasdan do not share a border yet and seem pretty much locked in their original position. Units are huge and that seems to have had an effect on expansion.

I sent diplomats early on and got trade rights from everybody except Casse.

The Makedons have their hands full. They have been almost overrun by Koinon Hellenon. KH are currently laying siege to Pella. Other than that, the Makedonians only have Mytilene and Sardika (N Pella). The large army in Mytilene is kept busy. I have 4 spies there. Every time they try to expand to Pergamum, happiness goes to 55% and they have to return due to riots. Great fun. I have nothing to fear from the Mekedonians. My garrisons in the West can easily deal with their army.

So. Anyone figured out what my response to ptolemaic aggression is going to be?

[Treverer]

Take out Tarsos and Side. Then try to make peace with them. Prepare for an assault on Antiocheia (and Edessa).

... and don't forget to monitor the Hai ! ! They are a number one candidate for backstabbing Pontos.

[Sygrod]

Yup, exactly the plan.

The Hai are actually of little consequence. In my now defunct 0.81a campaign as Pontos, I held them at bay at 2 river crossings. They tried to come across east of Amaseia, but my fort there in the mountain pass stopped that effort. Sinope and Crimea kept them quite busy, otherwise.

I am debating whether to make Antioch government 4 or not. I really want the 3span artillery, and I can only get it in Antiocheia, Mytilene or Sinope, and ONLY with lvl 5 regional MICs

[Treverer]

Yup, exactly the plan.

... I held them at bay at 2 river crossings. They tried to come across east of Amaseia, but my fort there in the mountain pass stopped that effort.

Hmm, that explains it. I've had both Trapezous and Ani-Kamah.

I am debating whether to make Antioch government 4 or not. I really want the 3span artillery, and I can only get it in Antiocheia, Mytilene or Sinope, and ONLY with lvl 5 regional MICs

Where do you need them? Respond to this and your location should be clear.

Yours, T.

[Sygrod]

"Where do you need them? Respond to this and your location should be clear."

Where do I need them? Anywhere I have a strong defensive position with lots of enemy activity. The 3spans are very useful in forts, since the enemy will be within range. A unit of these guys will inflict horrendous casualties. When aimed at a middle rank of three, at least 80% of each salvo strikes home. They are fantastic for taking out archer units without loss. Once I can recruit them I'll recruit at least 3. In a former baktrian campaign they acquitted themselves famously and tilted the battle in my favour before it even started. I'd take out a particularly unpleasant enemy unit before they had a chance to do anything. They are useless in garrisons with stone walls, so the trick is to deploy them with one defensive unit outside town. Preferably where an enemy army will not attack. To route an army laying siege to the city, they are then brought up beside and outside the city walls, with their protection.

I will deal with the Hai if and when they become active. I have spies out their way and will spot any threat early enough to counter it.

[Sygrod]

Well, the *&$%$ Game crashed as I was about to capture Side. GRRRRRRRRR
Time to write an update.

The seleucids tried to be smart this time. They laid siege to a fort east of Edessa and Edessa proper. I had moved out almost all my slingers to the fort from Edessa. Force composition was not good at all. What to do... I sent forth 2 generals, the Scythians, a nwely recruited Hippakontistai and a slinger unit from Karkathiokerta. and attacked the force laying siege to the fort. THe 5 slinger units in the fort became reinforcements. The enemy had 3 phalanxes, two of which were Argyraspidai - elite phalanx. They also sported a reduced Thorakitai and the remnants of an earlier army. There was a lot of dancing around, trying to stay out of reach and sling stones into the backs of the enemy. It worked. My 976 men, though rated much lower than the enemy saw to it that of the 744 attackers, only 18 got away to only 10 own casualties.
The slingers raced to Edessa and, followed by the two non-general cav units helped to lift that siege. They didn't even have to do anything. The enemy cowards fled.

Tarsos. My 1111 men had little problem vanquishing the 735 man strong garrison. 4 slinger units provided entertainment for the 2 ptolemaic Thureophoroi units and the Caucasian Hillmen. Once the gate defenders had been removed, the Chalkaspidai were sent in. They took a bit of a beating when blocking a street by the square. In the end, my cavalry convinced the enemy peltasts that it was time to pack it in and take a dirt nap.

Next turn, all seleucid units near Edessa had retreated, but a confident detachment of 3 ptolemaic Jewish spearmen units came by. So I sent out a bunch of guys to greet them - with stones and arrows. They didn't like that. The army routed and vanished.

Take Side: I found 2 excellent points to scale the walls with ladders and sent in my slingers and eastern skirmishers, who took as many towers as possible and let the ptolemaic phalanx "walk in the shade" (of arrows). I had just finished this lot with my slinger unit and... CTD. [Sigh!]

I've got to get Tarsos under control (they are upset that I took their city) so that I can take Antiocheia and get access to military docks to build a small fleet so that I can take Cyprus. That's my plan. I am also building an army in a fort defending the pass east of Amaseia. This army is meant to pay Ani-Kamah a visit once it is ready.

[Sygrod]

I managed a few rounds before the CTD struck again.

Side was taken. The walls were not defended and I had just to climb the walls in appropriate places. The phalanx defending the front gate decided to leave after it was hit with arrows from a tower. I moved my Eastern skirmishers from the right entry point all the way to the left entry point, gaining control over the entire front wall. The wayward phalanx was for some reason sent to guard the left gate, where a unit of Galatian short swordsmen were holding short. Between my slinger unit and the Caucasian archers on the wall there, the unit was destroyed. I marched up my phalanx to a position just short of the square and brought my slingers up. A dozen bodyguards were slain, before the general charged headlong into my waiting phalanx. Things were going well until the horses began to come around the side. I sent forth two of my three generals, tilting the odds heavily in my favour. The enemy general was ultimately slain after reducing my phalanx by about 80 men. Only an enemy phalanx remained. I positioned a missile unit at every corner and sent a general onto the square. The phalanx began to chase him, and I switched my missile units to hit the phalanx in the back as they were led around the square like lost puppies. To the last man. My losses were 90 men in total to their 552.

Cheap units were recruited after and during these conquests to provide garrisons so that the better units could be freed up to be sent to Antiocheia, were I will end my expansion in the Middle East. Cyprus is my final target, before I start to look at expansion in other directions.

My army build-up east of Amaseia is almost done. I just want 2 more units, before entering the valley. Ani-Kamah will be a good natural brick wall for the Hai to try to overcome. I will make sure that the units in there can repulse any army that tries to lay siege.

It is now 236 BC, and a sizable army has cut Edessa from the rest of the world. I tried to sally, but as I was just decimating the last unit after most of the enemy had fled with great loss, the cheating AI decided to CTD. Now I have to fight the battle all over again, after rebooting the machine. GRRRR again.

[Treverer]

Why do you have these CTDs? Try reducing the graphics quality and turn off the music. So far, I've had three CTDs with 1.0, all but the second due to own fault.

[Sygrod]

Most likely memory problems. A Ctrl+Alt+Del reveals a number of programs running in the background. I try to turn some of them off for EB, but I believe that there are memory fragments left that screw things up. I've only got 1.5 Gig (only... heh. That was excellent two years ago) memory and 4 Gig left on C:
A clean start usually works for EB and it can then run all day with no problems.

[Sygrod]

So I had a chance to run almost 3 seasons. The battle to repulse the ptolemaic siege on Edessa went well. Very well, in fact.

THey were lined up outside the west gate. I placed 4 slinger units and a unit of Caucasian archers to the right of the gate, inside the wooden walls. My two phalanxes, the Galatian heavy spearmen, the general and the Eastern skirmishers were lined up inside the gate and the Scythian horse archers and the Skirmish cavalry were placed behind the northern gate. As expected, the ptolemaic army drew off to the northeast, receiving a thorough pelting from the missile units. The cavalry was sent out and headed for a place behind the final ptolemaic line. The all units except the missile trops were sent out after the ptolemies. The two phalanxes were drawn up in a line 5 men deep with the skirmishers behind. The general went to the far left. The galatians came up and took position behind the phalanxes. Then my main effort arrived: my missile troops. They showered the enemy line where it would do most damage.

The ptolemies tried to counter charge, but as they got closer, my missile units were drawn back, causing the enemies to return to their lines, at which point they received concentrated missiles and suffered heavily. When the enemy line finaly broke, I sent eveything forward. the cavalry massacred the borken units. The general charged and caused more units to route. The last unit to be destroyed was the phalanx, whichgtried to escape to the Northeast.
Of my initial 1647 men, only 34 were killed. of the initial 1754 ptolemies, only 178 got away and scattered after the battle. HEROIC VICTORY.
The following season, I finally decided to advance on Antiocheia. I had enough units to keep Tarsos and Side under control. A strong detachment of seleukids arrived south of Edessa and I was unable to guess its intentions, so I dared not send a large army from Edessa. On top of that, the seleukids had sent a strong army into Antiocheia. It was not going to be a walkover.
After my turn, the seleukids decided to lay siege to my small fort east of Edessa. Not a good idea. When it was my turn again, I sent a small detachment from karkathiokerta and with 165+199 men, I sallied against the 420 strong enemy. They were cut down to the last man, thanks in due to the 30 chariots. This gave me the confidence to send forth a strong force to the bridge SW of Edessa to be forwarded to Antiocheia, which I finally laid siege to, building 2 sap points and two towers.

[Sygrod]

Antiocheia

The siege had taken its toll on the garrison, and I wanted to have crushing superiority before assaulting. Besides, it took 2 seasons to build the siege equipment.

I lined up a main effort and a secondary effort. My Chalkaspidai carried one tower and the Thureophoroi had the other on the far right. My first move was to get the tower to the wall, but not against the wall as quickly as possible to use the destructive missile power. The units behind and on the wall were seriously depleted by this shower from Hell. Then I sent the tower against the wall - I had to start somewhere and there were Toxotai just where the tower was. I decided that I needed some more firepower and sent my other tower over to deliver death, but the Thureophoroi were pelted by slingers that I had missed. Finally on the wall, I had to slug it out with a unit of Hellenic Royal Guards that had arrived. It was a hard fight. The Chalkaspidai were taking heavy losses and were getting very tired, while the Guards were still fresh.
I sent in a unit of Pantodapoi Phalangitai to help and these finished off the Toxotai, but were greeted by a unit of spearmen. I sent in another unit of Pant. Phalangitai to assist, but too late. They first unit had been destroyed. Finally, the enemy units on the wall had been broken and swept off. I sent the Thureophoroi over the wall on the far right, followed by Heavy Persian Archers and slingers. These got rid of the units ion the ground behind the wall and advanced to the gate. I was not interested in sending in any units through the gate, because there was an ugly formation of Elite Phalangites there. I could not inflict enough casualties from the wall above, so a unit of slingers went down on the ground on each side and pelted the phalanx from behind as it triad to attack the unit that was throwing rocks. This phalanx finally broke and was cut down on its way to the square. Meanwhile, the two enemy generals were moving. I had them placed under a murderous barrage, followed by my 3 generals charging in and finishing them off. Now, there was only one enemy elite phalanx left on the square. I placed my missile troops around the square and sent in a general for the phalanx to chase. As the phalanx turned its back to some missile units, it received a relentless pelting and finally was whittled down to the last man. Victory.
Antiocheia finally gave me the ability to build ships, and I started with the cheapest variety.
The Ptolemies thought they were going to take Edessa. Wrong. Their 1792 strong army of 90% melee units were no match for my 2193 Man mostly missile units. They left 1006 men behind to my 20.
234 it was time to take Ani-Kamah. It took a bit of effort and manoeuvering, but the city was taken with 252 casualties to their 1209. I did not destroy the local government and was able to recruit all sorts of new exciting units, including horse archers. I also recruited a merc eastern general and he has the funny moniker of "interloper", but the city is still happy enough that it doesn't make any difference.
My new fleet allowed me to send 3 units over to Cyprus, where the ptolemies had two units of Peltastai and a unit of Thureophoroi. They attacked when I laid siege to Salamis. The first unit of Peltastai was the main effort and the other two units were way behind. I sent the fist unit off after inflicting massive casualties. The other army took a bit longer, as I had only one slinger unit and it had to concentrate on the Thurephoroi. The final result was that 1/3 of my detachment had been killed, but the enemy units were destroyed, thus placing Salamis under my control. Now, I started to attack the ptolemaic fleets around, which were blockading my ports. There is still a strong Seleukid Penteconterai that I am not confident enough to tackle, but its time will come. The next 6 battles were to repulse armies laying siege to either Karkathiokerta, Edessa, the fort east of Edessa and Antiocheia, two resulting in Heroic victories and adding a couple of neat ancillaries for a local general.

The line from Antiocheia to Karkathiokerta via Edessa is firmly under my control. Units are added and enemies vanquished. Armies are now arriving that have few chevrons and are at full strength, since their more veteran armies have been destroyed.

EDIT: My edits are just fixing spelling... :)

[Treverer]

Impressive as/like before. Congratulations!

Yours,
Treverer