Stop hijacking my awesome thread, yo >: |
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Chapter VI - Sardis
A few hours after the..celebration, we were sitting down in the courtyard of the mansion, discussing the current situation.
'Even though we managed to claim Ipsos two years ago, the Seleukidai still hold a part of Lydia, with the main city of Sardis,' the young Zopyros said.
Menedemos stared at the map for a good few seconds and then cursed.
'If we do not claim Sardis, they may cross the river Hermus and launch an offensive at Pergamon herself,' Xenophon continued. 'And even though we did promise freedom, losing the capital a second time will surely spell disaster.'
'What do we know of the defenses of Sardis?' I asked, finally saying something
Zopyros shrugged.
'Apart from the walls, which are formidable in their own right, they have some 640 phalangitai, 500 prodromoi and hetairoi, and the rest of the garrison is made up of around 1,500 Galatian levies. Not the best garrison.'
As if he had read my thoughts, he continued;
'We have more than 3,000 hoplitai and 4,000 psiloi standing, consisting of both sphendonetai and toxotai. Also, we have paid a Makedonian mercenary phalanx to fight for our cause.'
'Then I take it we should attack Sardis,' I said, glancing at Menedemos briefly.
'There is no "we" here, Alexanor. You
must lead the army to Sardis. I must stay here to...stabilize the population and watch over the city.'
'You do remember the last time I was in command of some soldiers. We lost the city back then,' I said sarcastically.
'Yes, well..this time I will send Zopyros and Xenophon with you. I take it you have no armor of your own?'
I looked at him for a moment, then shaked my head.
'Very well, we will have it made then.' Upon saying that, he stood up and walked away from us. I briefly glanced at Zopyros, who just shrugged and also stood up.
'I must prepare the speirai. When will we march?'
I overthought the situation. How long would it take to muster all the hoplitai and send word to the mercenary phalangitai in Mysia.
'Three days.'
Zopyros briefly nodded and then walked out of the courtyard as well.
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I returned to my old home not long after. Herine was surprisingly quiet when I came back.
'Did you come to the agora as well?'
She only nodded.
'Is there something wrong?'
'I don't know..you being a strategos now, I think that it might be too sudden for me.'
I sat down next to her and looked her straight into her eyes. She drew a deep breath before speaking again.
'I am afraid that you will abandon me now, and I have no means to look after the house alone.'
I laughed. 'Of course not. Actually...I was thinking of something else.'
She looked at me for a moment, not knowing what to expect.
'I know this might seem very sudden, but I was wondering whether you would marry me. This will secure our income, and you would come to live in a mansion with me.'
She looked down again and finally, after what seemed an eternity, nodded.
'I suppose that..I agree.'
'Very well then. For the time being, you can stay in the mansion of the governor at the center of the city, with Menedemos and his household.'
Somehow, the thought of Menedemos and my wife alone in one house gave me a very bad feeling.
'Where will you be going then?'
My heart sank at thinking about the fact again that I had to conquer Sardis.
'They expect me to lead an army..to claim the city of Sardis.'
Upon seeing her confused look, I continued my sentence.
'It's a city, south of the Hermus river, controlled by the Seleukidai.'
'I see...well..good luck, I think.'
Surprised (and somewhat shocked) by her lack of fear or any emotion whatsoever, I got up again and walked towards the door.
'I will send some gaurds to fetch you and your belongings. I would try to sell the house,' I said, before walking out. Things were finally starting to get together.
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Three days later.
The army was assembled some few hundred stadia outside of the city. As I rode past the lines of soldiers, I was impressed by their arms and armours. The mainstay of our army would be hoplitai, clad in the old fashion. Furthermore, we had toxotai and sphendonetai, quite useful in destabilizing the enemy before the true fighting would begin. The only ones who had not arrived, were the phalangitai mercenaries from Makedonia.
I rode towards my commanders, who were performing the final inspections before the march would begin.
'Where are the pezhetairoi?' I shouted, as I pulled up my horse next to them.
'They will meet us at the main road south, near the bridge over the Hermus river,' one of them said.
I nodded.
'And the supply lines?'
'Everything seems fair enough. We have more than enough food for 3 months, but we will have to be careful in any case. Our main problem would be reaching Sardis. If we can put the settlement under siege, we could raid nearby villages for fresh supplies.'
The idea of raiding the villages of innocent Hellene people didn't look at all appealing to me, but I composed myself and nodded.
'Very well. Let us go then.'
I rode towards the rest of my bodyguard, hand-picked Makedonian inhabitants of Pergamon itself, and as the massive force started the march, I looked out from the high hill to see the dust rising from the thousands of marching feet across the country. It was one of the most magnificent things I had seen in my entire life. I turned to my bodyguard
'Strategos?'
I nodded and pulled the reins. This is where my new life would begin.
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Within three months, we had reached Sardis, and put it under siege.
At first, we had enough food to feed all the soldiers, but as winter came closer, I was forced to ration what we had left.
However, this was not critical for the situation, and we didn't suffer any casualties. Day in day out fresh supplies came, mostly raided from nearby villages and farms.
We had come through the winter with no serious problems, and finally, on an early march morning, they came out.
I was awoken by one of the speiarchai, and after refreshing myself with a wet cloth, I walked outside to greet the rising sun. However, the sun wasn't the only thing I had to greet that morning. The Seleukid strategos had come to discuss terms with me concerning the next few days. He came riding with his hetairoi some twenty minutes after the sun had risen, and the sound of hooves were to be heard from far away. They rode up into our camp, after having been allowed access by the commander of the gate. He rode up to us and finally dismounted, where he finally took off his helmet and walked up to me.
'Hail Strategos Ikadion of Susa,' I said, nodding. Greeting eachother had become a tradition in Hellenic warfare, 'What brings you here?'
'Hail, Strategos Alexanor Pyrrheios of Pergamon,' he said in return, bowing. 'I have come to discuss terms concerning the city.'
'Let us not longer linger outside,' I said, bowing as well, 'Let us go in.' One of my somatophylakes opened the tent and we walked in together, taking two seats at a table placed in the middle.
'What do you wish to discuss?' I said, after offering him something to eat.
'I have come to discuss terms on which the following battle shall be fought.'
'So you wish to meet us in the field of battle?'
'Yes, we do, since our supplies have been running out. However, there are a few terms that we need to discuss.'
I nodded. 'Of course, such a thing is only honourable.'
'We have a few terms to which the battle shall be fought. Should the city of Sardis come to fall, we ask you not to harm the population itself. However, to counter this proposition, we have come with the amount of 2,500 minai as a token of our gratitude, should the city come to fall. This will be dealt with by my administrators, should I come to die in the following battle.'
I nodded again. 'Very well. On the counter, I ask that, should the coming battle be a failure for us, you do not hunt down any fleeing man and do not attempt to execute any impartial bystanders. Under "impartial bystanders" I refer to my treasurers and chirurgeons.'
'Of course. That would be all. We shall march out of the city tomorrow morning.'
I smiled. 'Best of luck.'
He bowed and after exchaning gifts (a golden statuette of a Chimaera against two hand-crafted silver goblets), he left once again, returning to the city.
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The following morning I had awoken early. I was already busy speaking to my speirarchai on the coming battle. Finally, the battle begun. I spoke briefly with a Seleukide messenger, who had to confirm our knowledge of the battle, and after that was done, we were ready to begin.
The mainstay, mercenary pezhetairoi, had been arranged in a stretched formation, with sphendonetai in front of them, and toxotai behind them. The hoplitai served as the guardians of their flanks.
Finally, the Seleukidai came out, and the order was given to the sphendonetai to open fire.
The first ones to come out were the poorly-armoured Galatians. Many of them were pelted down by either our sphendonetai or toxotai, and the broke off before even reaching our line.
I smirked. It would seem these barbaroi were not fearless after all. From my position on horseback, I watched over the battlefield, waiting until something interesting would happen.
Soon after, something did happen. The Seleukide prodromoi had come out and were following the sphendonetai.
Upon seeing this, one of my somatophylakes turned to me.
'Strategos, shouldn't we do something?'
'Wait for it..'
If all had worked correctly, the hoplitai would engage with the prodromoi. I had expected them to hunt down the psiloi, and they did. Before the battle, I had personally spoken with the locharchos of the hoplitai, and told him to engage with the cavalry as soon as they had made contact with the sphedonetai.
It worked.
However, these were not the prodromoi..these were the somatophylakes of Ikadion himself!
I glanced over the battlefield and finally noticed a group of Galatian spearmen not far from the gates.
'Alright, charge on me!'
I pulled the reins and unsheathed my sword, raising it high in the air.
'Nike!'
The somatophylakes joined me in the cry of victory and galloped along with me. Within mere seconds, we were no more than 10 metres from the Galatians. Still desorientated, they stood no chance whatsoever. I heard one of them scream as my somatophylakes grabbed their spears and urged their horses forward in their charge. We crashed into them.
I distinctly heard the sound of breaking bones underneath me and I didn't stop to look. I grasped my kopis even harder and swung it down. By pure luck rather than judgement, I had cut through the limbs of one particular sorry man, who screamed and fell down in pain. The rest of the somatophylakes hadn't been sitting around doing nothing. Their large horses and xystoi had cut down the entire first line, and soon after, the entire lochos was routing.
'That would be enough for now,' I said, as I saw the Galatikoi running away in fear, 'Let's fix something else.' I had turned my head towards Ikarion, who was still in close combat with the hoplitai and was losing rapidly.
I ordered my somatophylakes on again, and we flew forward with the speed of Hermes. Within moments we had reached the rest of the hoplitai. They were brilliant. My bodyguard crashed into theirs, even harder than they had been with the Galatikoi. However, they were not so easy to rout.
We quickly engaged in close combat. I managed to avoid two dangerous blows and I stuck my sword straight through my attacker's armour. The following man was more dangerous. He almost splintered my shield, but I managed to grab his xyston and push him off his horse. He looked up to me one last moment, before his head was crushed by two hooves.
After less than ten minutes of fighting, the bodyguard of Ikarion had been wiped out, but Ikarion himself was nowhere to be found. Some rumours were that he had escaped before even engaging in battle, others said his corpse had been mutilated in such a horrible way that he could not have been identified.
It mattered not. Sardis was ours.
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Sorry for the lack of screenshots of the battle, really. Somehow, Fraps didn't record all of them I wanted >: |
Re: Kings of Mikra Asia - Pergamon AAR
Originally Posted by General Appo
I'm a hippie, man. I call 'em as I see 'em.
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