[EB AAR] Pontos Rising

[FriendlyFire]

Chapter 10: The Two Brothers

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

With his flanks now secure, Ariobarzanes Kianos turned his attention to the north coast of Asia Minor, near where the mountains of the Caucasus meet the Black Sea. There were many Hellenic colonists here, centered around the towns of Sinope and Trapezous, and the trade that their ports provided would be a major boost to the Pontic economy. A small Pontic army therefore marched north from Amaseia to "persuade" these Hellenes to accept a new king. Sinope would be the first to fall.

The army was led by Arsames Kianos (last seen in Chapter 4), for Ariobarzanes wanted to see if there was any truth to the rumors about the cowardliness of his younger brother. Arsames knew what was required of him, and assaulted the walls of Sinope with wooden rams in the spring of 261 BC. The defenders were led by Aigicoros of the Paphlagone, a veteran commander who had more men than Arsames but who had nothing to match the Pontic phalangites.

Despite their longer spears, the Pontic army found itself in a desperate struggle as soon as they breached the walls. Aigicoros inspired the Paphlagone to great feats, and they fought valiantly against the phalangites who sought to take away their homes and impose a new king upon them.

The best of the defenders were professional hoplites of the old style, and these came near to flanking the Pontic phalanx that was trying to breach the main street. Pontic thureophoroi, Hellenic troops of the new style, were sent in to support the phalanx but could not break the hoplites.

However, the thureophoroi gave the phalanx a chance to reform, and meanwhile Arsames had sent his Gallic mercenaries down an unguarded side street. From here they found their way back onto the main street, and fell upon the hoplites from behind. Once again an enemy of Pontos found itself trapped between sarissas and longswords.

Aigicoros and the last of his professional hoplites died defending the main street, leaving only hoplites levied from the townsfolk to hold their square. Attacked from two sides by phalangites who they couldn't outreach, and hacked at by the longswords of the Gauls, they fought until honor was satisfied and then laid down their arms.

Thus was Sinope in the province of Paphlagonia added to the Pontic kingdom. Arsames had won a clear victory, and more importantly his valor in combat had laid to rest the old rumors.

Much encouraged by this news of his younger brother, and feeling the thrill of war coursing through his veins once again, Ariobarzanes reclaimed command of the army for the march along the coast towards Trapezous. Due to the time taken to replace the army's losses, and the lack of roads in the province of Pontos Paralios around Trapezous, it was the summer of 259 BC before he could besiege the town.

His spies brought worrying news, for the kingdom of Hayasdan was also expanding, and while Ariobarzanes dawdled on the coast, inland an army of Hayasdan sought to add the town of Ani-Kamah to their realm. Ariobarzanes therefore assaulted Trapezous as soon as rams were made. The town was defended by Neoptolemos of the Tzanoi, another veteran commander with more men but nothing that could match Pontic phalangites.

As he spoke to his army before the battle, and exhorted them to feats of valor, the blood lust took Ariobarzanes. The world around him seemed to fade away, and the shouted questions from his subordinates sounded as if they were whispered from a distant hilltop. Fortunately his battle-plan needed few changes. Later, he was dimly aware that there had been a great success in seizing the main gate, and that one phalanx had entered and then stood firm in the main street, killing all before it.

And he was told, but did not comprehend at the time, that when defending hoplites tried to approach from the flank, they were blocked by Pontic thureophoroi, and then themselves flanked.

For what Ariobarzanes wanted was single combat, and he found it in a charge down the main street, crushing the hoplites before him into the waiting phalanx. And from there a charge to the square, his troops racing to keep up, hunting down the hoplites wherever they could be found.

Eventually there seemed to be no enemies left, and his troops were cheering, and the world came back into focus, and Ariobarzanes Kianos the warmonger found that he had captured Trapezous.

But while one brother gloried in combat, the other still found it distasteful. Although no-one would now call Arsames a coward, it was increasingly obvious that he was more suited to city life than out on the campaign trail.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

I think you're making things way too easy for yourself fighting large bridge battles - taking advantage of the AI's inability to fight such a battle with anything remotely resembling intelligence. It's better to fight battles in the open field, especially with phalangites.

I occassionally fight on bridges, but only with 'rearguard' forces of one or two units - one melee and one missile, to delay the enemy crossing rather than prevent it. Otherwise I deploy my army at the rear edge of the battlefield in such a way so as to let the enemy cross the bridge unhindered, and then fight them once they're across. It's more fun that way, really.

It's also more fun to besiege an enemy town with an army small enough to make the enemy sally out when you end the turn. Fighting them outside the walls is a lot more realistic and fun than fighting inside the town. I only assault if the enemy has a really small garrison of four units or less.

[FriendlyFire]

No argument about the bridge battles - it's a cheap tactic to survive in the early game. Not so sure about town assaults: I think defending against a sally is often easier than figuring out how to fight your way through the various defenders in the streets, especially if they have a good commander to boost their morale.

I was also about 30 years further on in the campaign, so you'd be seeing a lot more of the same types of battles. However, I don't really like the way the world turned out: I was pumping all of my mine revenues into Pahlava to keep the only other anti-Seleukid power alive, the Lusotanna had just captured Rome, and the Greeks and the Getai were attacking me through Epeirote territory despite not being allied to them. Plus I had a lot of writing to do before I could catch up to the present moment! So... I'm going to restart the campaign from just after the capture of Trapezous. Won't affect the story, but I'll be able to take more risks in the battles, and maybe the world will turn out differently this time :) (Thankfully I save every season, so it's really easy to go back and redo history like this)

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

I was also fed up with AI Rome being pasted every game by some AI faction - so I've given all Roman legionary units 2 secondary hitpoints to make them as tough as horsearchers in autoresolve battles. So I can still kill AI Rome - manual battles still play as normal - but no AI faction can manage it.

[vollorix]

Hm, i´ve given Romans a 0 turn recruitment for Princeps, Hastati and Triari ( reducing the unit size of Triari and Pedites by half ), it seems to work quite well in earlier stages, but i can´t confirm any success of those changes for a longer timeframe, yet. It´s quite funny - normaly it´s the Lusos who manage to destroy Romans, but never any of the two Gaulic factions. I still somehow suspect the "ap" weapons of the Lusos responsible for that... But in my current Pontus game ( i had liftet the FoW incidently ) Carthies seem to expand in Spain, while Lusos are on defence ( but it was still the year 245 b.c. ). I´ve also noticed a slight Sauromatae drawback expansion wise: normaly they were able to grab Crimea quite fast, but in all my later games they seem to have some troubles with it, while Getai are quite successfull ( beeing able to take and keep Olbia, for instance ). I should continiue that game to see the outcome, though. ( playing on H/M on Ferromancers BI.exe with Konnie´s traits adjustments ).

[FriendlyFire]

Interesting pro-Roman campaign fixes! I might try one of those two alterations if they get in trouble again in this campaign, but so far they're doing much better. The Sauro do seem oddly lethargic - are they generally just crippled economically, and thus permanently stuck?

[FriendlyFire]

Chapter 11: Negotiating with Pyrrhos

Although he had just conquered the north coast of Asia Minor, Ariobarzanes Kianos still wanted more. Putting down some minor rebel incursions did not satisfy his lust for war, and only a year passed before he sought once more to expand his kingdom's borders.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

A Pontic diplomat who had crossed the Hellespont into the lands of Thrace provided the opening. The diplomat sent word to Ariobarzanes that he had encountered the great Pyrrhos of Epeiros, at the head of an army led by huge and frightening beasts from the east. Pyrrhos clearly had both the will and the army necessary to seize power in the area. Ariobarzanes sent back word to negotiate an immediate truce with Pyrrhos. He offered peace between the two kingdoms in return for separate spheres of influence. Epeiros would control all lands on one side of the Hellespont, including the town of Byzantion which had once asked Pontos for help (see chapter 6), while Pontos would have free reign over all lands in Asia Minor. Pyrrhos agreed, and trade resumed between the two kingdoms.

Wanting to immediately secure the new borders, Ariobarzanes marched with his army towards the town of Nikaia, which sat across the straits from Byzantion. This was in the lands of the Bithynoi. The Pergamese general Alkibiades again closely shadowed the Pontic army from across the border, but did not attempt to interfere as Ariobarzanes laid siege to Nikaia.

Since his army was appreciably smaller than the garrison, Ariobarzanes expected the defenders to sally immediately and offer battle. Instead they sought safety within their walls. Ariobarzanes feared the Thracian rhomphias wielded by some of the defenders, and especially the effect they might have on his cumbersome phalanx formations if caught off guard within the narrow town streets, so he chose to starve the town out instead of assaulting it.

And thus it was more than a year before the battle finally took place, against defenders weakened by hunger. They were led by Moskon, a young general of some skill, and although they had lost almost a quarter of their strength to starvation they were still equal in number to the army of Ariobarzanes.

Ariobarzanes had chosen his ground well, setting up his battering rams on a downward slope leading to the walls. As the Bithnyoi ran past these, they found themselves having to fight uphill, while arrows streaked overhead from Caucasian archers behind the Pontic line.

Moskon led his bodyguards against one flank, but their charge could not break the experienced thureophoroi stationed there. After losing many men, Moskon was forced to break off the fight and return to behind his own lines, cheering his men on as they struggled to break through the phalanx.

Following his opponent around the flank, Ariobarzanes now led his own bodyguard in a headlong charge against Moskon. The heavier Pontic cavalry, with the slope in their favor, pinned Moskon against a ram and killed him in the first moments of the charge.

The death of their general broke the will of the Bithynoi army, and the survivors fled for the safety of their city. Ariobarzanes hacked his way through them, leading his bodyguards to capture the gate.

Only a few defenders survived the rout and the melee at the gate to make a final desperate stand on the square. The flag of the Bithynoi did not fly for long, as Ariobarzanes charged home - and victory had been obtained very cheaply.

And thus in 258 BC the kingdom of Pontos now encompassed almost the whole of Asia Minor. On the west coast Alkibiades still defended the great mines of Pergamon, and the Antigonid kingdom of Makedonia had a colony at Mytilene, but these were minor threats. Let Pyrrhos have Byzantion - Pontos was secure.

The world in 258 BC:

[I tried to get the defenders to sally before they starved, even replaced Ariobarzanes with a zero-star FM, but they just weren't falling for it. When I saw the slope I understood why - I really didn't need two phalanxes. Meanwhile the world is developing nicely. An early rebellion has put Saba at war with the Seleukids, Makedonia has been crippled by Pyrrhos, both the Lusos and the Aedui are off to fast starts, and Baktria and Pahlava are holding their own in the east.]

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Sorry to tell you this, but historically phalanxes didn't fight on steep hills, only gentle slopes. Holding the long sarissa pike at the right angle was very difficult on steep slopes, even when facing downwards.

Your army should have been positioned a lot closer to the walls, where it's flat. You'll have more fun by giving the AI a fighting chance, instead of going for the maximum advantage possible against the computer which is too stupid to take advantage of terrain the way you can.

Unfortunately, despite being well written and beautifully illustrated with wonderful images, this AAR is becoming boring for me since you're winning the battles so easily. Sinope was the only one where you had any difficulty at all.