[EB AAR] Pontos Rising

[Tyrfingr]

You mind posting a family tree?

[FriendlyFire]

You mind posting a family tree?

The full family tree is too damn big at this point :) But here are the three current branches of the royal Kianos line.

The center branch is the "Hystaspic" line, descended from Hystaspis Kianos, who was blessed with four sons:


The left branch is the "Mithridatic" line, descended from Mithridates Kianos. This is in danger of dying out unless Gobryas or Antipatros have a son:


The right branch is the nearly extinct "Arsamic" line, descended from Arsames Kianos. His grandson (also Arsames) is almost certainly the last, since he's infertile. (The middle unnamed dead guy was adopted, not a true Kianos)

[FriendlyFire]

Chapter 28: Carthago Delenda Est

And… we're back!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

In 186 BC the kingdom of Epeiros had landed a small army near the Pontic port of Halikarnassos. The army then marched through Pontic territory until it reached the island of Lesbos, where it was soon joined by a second landing force. This was a clear and blatant violation of the treaty of 257 BC between Ariobarzanes Kianos and the great Pyrrhos of Epeiros (see Chapter 11: Negotiating with Pyrrhos), whereby Epeiros would hold sway over all lands to the west of the Hellespont, while Pontos laid claim to all lands to the east - including those such as Lesbos which were previously held by Makedonia, at least according to the Pontic interpretation of the treaty. What's more, the Epeirote army was also devastating the very limited farmland available on Lesbos.

The governor of Mytilene at this time was Arsames Kianos. Eager to counter the rumors about his lack of personal courage, Arsames pre-emptively attacked the two Epeirote armies, wiping them out but also triggering a state of war between Pontos and Epeiros.

Across the Hellespont, the Greek colonists in Byzantion chose this moment to throw off their Getai rulers and declare their allegiance to the Koinon Hellenon. Seeing the great advantage that such a buffer state would provide to Pontos in any future war against Epeiros, Arsames immediately sent a diplomat to negotiate an alliance with the Byzantines. Pontos now sided with the Koinon Hellenon against the Epeirotes and Makedonians.

All these events were a mere sideshow to the great conflict unfolding far to the southwest, in the lands of Carthage. First, the Carthaginians had sent an army deep into their old territory, to try once again to retake Lepki. Opposing them was Megabazos son of Zenon. His father had taken the Pontic army further north, forcing Megabazos to raise a mercenary army supported by local Numidian cavalry to lift the siege of Lepki. This was to be their first real test.

As the battle lines clashed, it was hard to tell who was fighting who, since both sides were using mercenaries. However, only Megabazos had hired phalangites, and these stood firm against the onslaught of two Carthaginian generals. When the Carthaginian leader fell to the sell-swords, the Carthaginian army dissolved into a rout, only to be mercilessly hunted down by the swift Numidian horsemen.

Further to the north, Zenon had been resting and refitting his army in Adrumeto, but was himself besieged by a second Carthaginian army. Zenon ordered an immediate sally, trusting that his veteran klerouchoi phalangites could hold the center of the line against elite Libyan pikemen.

The two great armies formed up and faced each other outside the walls of Adrumeto. Zenon soon won the battle of the skirmishers, as his Cretan archers decimated the native light troops sent out to counter them. But then the two lines of heavy infantry clashed, and for a long time there was no clear winner. Finally Zenon led his cavalry behind Carthaginian lines, sending his steppe riders on ahead to pin the Carthaginian leader, and following up with a crushing charge by his own bodyguards. Once again a Carthaginian army lost its general and immediately dissolved into a rout, but this time there was a worse fate than to be stabbed in the back by a Numidian lance, for Zenon let his scythed chariots loose on the routers, cutting down all in front of them.

The Carthaginians had taken a great gamble, sending almost all of their troops in the two armies to fight Zenon and his son - and they had lost. Now Zenon would not give them a second chance. Taking the best men from his army, he marched out and laid siege to Kart-Hadast, which was defended by just a handful of elite Carthaginian troops.

The Carthaginians did not have enough men to defend the vast walls of Carthage, and so chose to stay in the central square. As the Pontic phalanx moved through the streets to challenge them, they were met by a hail of javelins, followed by an all-out charge of the cream of Phoenicia, Libya, and Iberia. The elites were better man-for-man, but the Pontic troops stood firm - and soon a second Pontic phalanx crashed into the rear of the Carthaginians. They fought bravely to the last, but the outcome was never in any real doubt.

Zenon ordered the population of Kart-Hadast put to the sword, seeking to humble this once-mighty empire, but he almost immediately regretted the decision. Not by nature a selfish man, this act of wanton violence went against his very nature, and it is said that he was forevermore plagued by nightmares of the days of violence that followed the capture of Kart-Hadast.

One benefit of the slaughter of Kart-Hadast was that Pontic spies now found it very easy to convince the citizens of neighboring Atiqa that it was in their own interests to open the gates of their city to Zenon. "Zenon the butcher", the spies called him, and they spread rumors of his bloodthirstiness throughout Atiqa. A lot of exaggeration and a little gold soon sufficed to open the gates, and a small Pontic force stormed through. Again, there were far too few Carthaginian defenders to do anything other than make a desperate last stand on the square, and Machimoi infantry from far-off Egypt were only to happy to send them to their maker. Atiqa fell a few weeks after Kart-Hadast, and the spies kept their word, for Zenon did not slaughter its inhabitants - instead, he sold half of them into slavery.

Carthago Delenda Est.

[FriendlyFire]

Chapter 29: The Carthaginian Campaign - Into Numidia, 183 - 180 BC

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Despite the loss of their great fortress and barracks at Kart-Hadast, Carthaginian armies continued to strongly resist the Pontic invaders. For a year, Zenon Kianos had to defend Kart-Hadast and Atiqa, countering feints and counter-marches by small Carthaginian forces. Finally his nephew Ochos Kianos arrived by sea with enough reinforcements to support a new offensive. Dull of mind and spirit, Ochos had shown little promise as a general, but he was even less suited to rule Kart-Hadast in Zenon's place. Therefore, Zenon remained trapped in Kart-Hadast by the need to pacify and rule his conquests, and it fell to Ochos to lead the Pontic armies further west into Numidia. The next obvious target was the coastal city of Ippone, where Ochos landed in 182 BC.



Ochos's army was immediately attacked by the new Carthaginian Shophet, who opened the battle by charging his large contingent of bodyguards into the Pontic phalanx, creating a gap that Liby-Phoenicians then tried to exploit. Following the advice given to him before the battle by Zenon, Ochos tried to flank this headlong charge with his own bodyguard and the Pontic chariots - but his timing was poor, and their charge ineffectual. Bested in hand-to-hand combat, Ochos and his bodyguards were forced to withdraw from the fight, and in desperation he called for his last reserves of light Numidian cavalry. Eventually, somewhere in the melee, the Shophet fell with a javelin in the side, and as the broken Carthaginian troops fled Ochos found that he had won his first victory. The cost was high, with many Pontic chariots lying broken on the ground after being trapped in the melee, but the most unexpected change was that in Ochos himself. From being a somewhat ineffectual man ruled by a coterie of silent advisers, Ochos was transformed into a warrior driven by a hatred of the sons of Ba'al, and he was to rely ever after on a small circle of friends and erstwhile enemies who had stood on the field with him that day. Truly, the winds of war blow strange changes over men.







The winds of war were not to blow fair on Ippone, now defended by those Carthaginian troops who had escaped the battlefield. They were too few to stop the vengeful wrath of Ochos as he urged his army on in looting and slaughter, and it is said that the city burned for days afterwards.





Many even claim that the city was still blackened rubble when a large Carthaginian relief force finally arrived the following year. Besieged within the city, Ochos sent word to Zenon of his predicament. Thankfully by this time there was relative peace within Kart-Hadast, allowing Zenon to lead an army to relieve the siege. Again a Carthaginian general clad in purple opened the battle by charging a Pontic line, but as he did this his army was being torn apart behind his back by Zenon's forces. Even the great elephant war-beasts, pride of Carthage, were tormented and finally brought down by javelins thrown by local Numidian horsemen who owed their allegiance to a new master.









Again a few defeated survivors fled to the nearest strongpoint, which this time was the hill-top hamlet of Kirtan. There a new general had raised a host of local troops, mainly Garamantines paid for with Carthaginian silver. When the Pontic army approached to lay siege, this mass of defenders surged out of the wall-less town, and there was a great struggle before Ochos and his phalanx could even reach the outskirts. The turning-point came with the death of the Carthaginian commander, when the locals turned as one and fled for the safety of Kirtan's square, only to find that their numbers were too great for easy escape down the narrow streets. Ochos now led his bodyguards in a frenzy of killing, riding into the struggling mass and swinging his weapon until he became a red specter of death, covered with gore from head to toe.













Another Carthaginian army had been defeated, and another Carthaginian town had fallen, but as Ochos looked west he saw the enormity of the task before him. To wipe out the last of the sons of Ba'al he would have to chase them to the ends of the earth, and even as he did this his advisors reminded him of the tenuous supply lines to his rear. There his cousin Megabazos, the king's son, was fighting a strange war in the great inland desert…

[FriendlyFire]

Chapter 30: The Carthaginian Campaign - The Desert, 183-180 BC

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

When Zenon had marched to challenge the Carthaginians in their homelands, he had left his son Megabazos Kianos to guard the coastal supply road and the small ports along the way. For a time this had been an easy assignment, as Carthage concentrated its efforts in the north, but as the seasons passed new Carthaginian armies were spotted in the deserts nearby. In 183 BC one of these armies besieged the coastal port of Lepki, and Megabazos marched to relieve the town.



To augment his few phalangites, Megabazos had recruited many local Gallic mercenaries, and when the battle lines crashed these bore the brunt of the fighting, pitting their long-swords against the spears of the Carthaginians. Lacking the close ranks of a Hellenic army, the Gauls were unable to stop the Carthaginian general from leading his bodyguards entirely through their lines – but then a Balearic sling-shot toppled the general from his horse, and his remaining bodyguards fled in terror. As the rout became complete, old tribal vengeances resurfaced, and Numidian cavalrymen in the pay of Pontos chased down Garamantine infantry who had been bought with Carthaginian silver. The victory was a cheap one for Megabazos.









To put an end to the threat from the desert, Megabazos realized that he had to root out and destroy the source of the Garamantines, in the town of Garama. It took two years of scouting and seemingly unending marches to even reach the town walls, as a second Carthaginian army shadowed the Pontic troops through the desert, occasionally breaking off to threaten Lepki and forcing Megabazos to turn his army around and march back the way they had came. Finally in 181 BC he succeeded in shaking off the Carthaginian army and besieging the stone walls of Garama, which was only defended by a token garrison.





Quickly throwing ladders against the walls, the Pontic troops swarmed over at an undefended spot, establishing themselves on the streets of Garama before the Carthaginian governor realized what was happening. Seeking to buy time for his handful of defenders, the governor then led his bodyguards in a doomed charge into the midst of the Gallic and Hellenic mercenaries of Megabazos. A derisive cheer went up as he was soon brought down from his horse, and the rising dust from the parched city streets covered his grisly end. Finally the Gauls advanced on the town square, sweating profusely in their heavy chainmail but secure in its impregnability against the simple wooden spears of the final desperate defenders. The end came swiftly, and Garama paid the price as half of its troublesome inhabitants were sold into slavery.









The desert war was over, at least for now, as Megabazos had secured the supply lines to the front.

Next chapter: vying for glory in the Armenian mountains!

[Basileus_ton_Basileon]

Bravo! You're inspiring me to make good on my Pontos campaign (which only consists of Mikra Asia and the Bosphores).

[FriendlyFire]

Bravo! You're inspiring me to make good on my Pontos campaign (which only consists of Mikra Asia and the Bosphores).

That's the perfect opening position - defensible and rich enough to support an offensive in any direction. Or all of them, if you're crazy enough :)

[FriendlyFire]

Chapter 31: The Armenian Campaign, 183 - 180 BC

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

In the mountains of Armenia, two great powers had been assembling armies and facing off against one another. The Pontic forces were concentrated in forts around Kotais in the west, while in the east the Seleucids had been cementing their grip on the old Hay strongholds of Mtskheta and Aramvir. By 182 BC, enough new troops had arrived from the Pontic heartlands for Gobryanos Kianos to lead an army across the border, directly challenging the Seleucids. And to his south, Arses Gordianos lead a second army to protect his flank.





Through the campaigning season of 182 BC, Gobryas Kianos led his troops eastwards in a series of battles against the Seleucids. Always he sought out the high ground, where he could plant his phalangites and watch the Seleucids throw themselves futilely against a line of pikes.









As the year drew to a close and snow covered the ground, the Pontic army reached and assaulted the walls of the old Hay city of Mtskheta, defended by the current Seleukid basilieus and a handful of picked phalangites. These veteran troops inflicted more losses on the army of Gobryas Kianos than it had suffered in the whole of the previous year, but sheer weight of numbers - and a charge led by Gobryas himself - eventually carried the day.







After overwintering in Mtskheta, Gobryas Kianos led his wearied troops out again in the spring of 181 BC, to lay siege to the large Seleucid garrison in the neighboring city of Aramvir. Taking the lead this year would be Arses Gordianos, who moved his fresh army up from the flank to take a blocking position in front of Aramvir. With forts to protect their flanks, they stood here for the entire campaigning season, holding their ground as a second wave of Seleucid armies launched desperate attacks in an attempt to reach and break the siege of Aramvir. As the seasons progressed the Seleucid armies decreased in quality: in the first battle phalangites were led by proud generals, but later their numbers were padded by levy spearmen, and finally the Seleucids resorted to simply hiring Greek mercenary hoplites. All were ground to dust, as Arses and his army became veteran killers.



















By 180 BC, there were no more Seleucid armies roaming through Armenia - but now the Hay had returned from over the mountains, looking to regain their ancestral homelands with a large army of native spear- and swords-men. And so as Gobryas Kianos maintained the siege of Aramvir, Arses Gordianos led his army north, to reinforce the words of diplomats with the threat of steel. The message was clear: the lands of Armenia and Hayasdan were now a province of the kingdom of Pontos, and no more independence would be allowed…