Pontic Campaign

[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... :)