The Pyrrhic Dynasty : A Makedonian AAR

[Olaf The Great]

Well when Obama fixes your computer.....

I'm thinking giving them the ability to recruit much more badass units through lower MICs(since because of Hais wacky recruitment, they're basically screwed with type 3 govs), and giving both factions the super-cataphracts Pahlava can recruit, and the infantry Armenia can recruit.

You might want to add_unit them armies, since they're probably going to throw tons and tons of Pantadapoi at you.

[Chaotix]

Wow... such a tragedy, this AAR is so great. My computer died last month, too, and I had to get a new one. If all else fails, MAA, you will probably be able to salvage your hard drive with all the data on it. Then you can connect it to your new computer with a certain cable, and transfer all of the data.

[strategos roma]

I remember seeing spartans in a demetrid army in the civil war. How did you do it?

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

So far I've been content with the "Median" recruitment. I have the feeling I won't be after a while, though.

The Spartan Hoplite has its own model, so it is really easy to mod into any faction. You just have to copy the greek_cities line in the descr_model_battle.txt and change the faction name to your own (for both models and sprites). Then add your faction to the recruitment line in the export_descr_units.txt and add recruitment where you want (probably just copy and alter the one entry KH has for them). If you plan to manually do this, you'll probably want to search the forums for a better description. (I actually added them for my faction too, but have never used them. I wasn't sure how the civil war was going to turn out at the time and whether I was going to roleplay the Spartans joining me. Instead Sparta was destroyed and I've decided that nobody will ever field "Spartan Hoplites" again.)

My new powersupply arrived today and my computer is back in working order. I'll probably start work on the AAR again tommorrow.

[SwissBarbar]

good news

[Olaf Blackeyes]

WOOT!!!

[julius_caesar_the_first]

Excellent news

[HunGeneral]

Great news indeed

@Olaf: "WOOT!" -what does that mean?

[julius_caesar_the_first]

Use this : http://www.urbandictionary.com/ . I'm not too good with abbreviations and the Urban Dictionary has helped me a lot.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

@Olaf: "WOOT!" -what does that mean?

It means WOOT!!!!!!!
(Or for those of you whom can't speak 1337, awesomness)

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Chapter 93 : Folly

The death of King Isidoros Oresteus had hit the Babylonians hard. He may not have been a Babylonian, but he was their king. From his intial position as a minor general of Makedonia, Isidoros Oresteus had made himself the king of an ancient city, rebuilt the city, and governed it until his death. With no sons to take his position after his death, the title of King of Babylon had fallen to the husband of his only daughter. Thus, Keraton Apolloniates had become the new king in Babylonia.

Although he is of the line of Isidoros Oresteus, most Babylonians (and even many Hellenistic settlers) don't feel that Keraton Apolloniates is worthy or capible of being the new king. Under King Isidoros, popular support had been able to resist the Median invasion, but the changes in kings had brough many changes in the minds and feelings of the people. Many in the army of Babylon desert. Hellenes and Makedones call for reunification into the Arche Makedonia. Amoung the locals the opinion is split between supporting King Keraton, choosing their own king, and simply surrendering to the new Persian Empire, who claim to be their brothers.

Seeking to prove himself worthy to his new people and seeking to take the fight to the Persians (a thought that Keraton had suggested earlier but had been turned down by Isidoros), King Keraton assembles his army and crosses the Tigris River. At first there is considerable success and the eastern banks of the river are easily retaken. Encouraged by his initial success and full of foolish pride, King Keraton marches his army northward into eastern Assyria.

Around this time, a messenger arrives from Syria bearing the seal of the Basileus. Orders arrive from the Basileus' heir for all armies and allies to defend their ground and fight conservatively. Even with these new orders in his hands, King Keraton Apolloniates makes the choice to push forward.

Near the occupied city of Arbela, a large organized force confronts King Keraton and his army. Although he is outnumbered, King Keraton does not back down:


In an area of rolling hills and scattered woods, near the base of the mountains, King Keraton arranges his army. On foot, he forms three lines. In the first row are his elites and lesser spearmen. In the second row are the light eastern infantry. Finally, in the third are his heavy archers. The king takes position behind the lines with the light cavalry on his flanks:


When the Persians take up position in a low lying wooded area and do not move forward, King Keraton gives the order for his army to march down from the hill they are assembled on and to move to confront their foe:


The Babylonians march forward slowly, until the point where the enemy are just before them. As the enemy psiloi begin to throw their javelin, the Babylonians begin their final charge down the hill:


The fight is quite short and the entire Persian force are broken and flee into the forest. Babylonians, both elite and levy, give chase:


To the Babylonians, the day looks won and victory is in the minds of all King Keraton's men. However, when the first of the pursuers come over the next hill they view a great Persian force before them, assembling in the next valley:


The Babylonian spearmen try to reform their line, but before they can achieve any order, the Persian army is already upon them. Some of the first men sent in to soften up the Babylonian line are men from Arabia, in service of the Persian Empire. For the Babylonian elites, these men are no challenge at all, but are simply meant to tired the line before the main attack comes:


The Persians hit the whole length of the line, soon after. Many of those from the first force who had been fleeing now turn and join in the fight once again. Already tired and outnumbered, the Babylonian morale begins to faulter.

On the right edge of the Babylonian line, light Persian spearmen have managed to surround the flank and are pushing in on the elite Babylonians from all sides:


Earlier, King Keraton had ordered the second and third line to no give chase after the intial battle. As the first line of spearmen had given chase to the Persian army, Keraton and the rear of the army had slowly marched forward to conserve energy. When the second fight began, Keraton had hoped to reinforce his line with his light infantry. It had become too late, though. The Persian cavalry are able to circle around the flanks of the first line and charge in at the second line of light infantry:


The Babylonian cavarly, detached from the main force and cut off from their king's commands had been ordered to chase routers and had already moved behind the enemy line. But rather than charge in at the enemy rear and relieve the spearmen in the first line, the cavalry had already begun chasing down routers and looting the dead:


While looting the dead, a second trap is hatched. While passing a small patch of trees, a group of light spearmen, that had been appearing to flee, suddenly turn and charge the Babylonian cavalry. When a second group hit the cavalry from the rear, there is nowhere left to run and the Babylonian cavalry is cut to pieces:


King Keraton watches as his men die, but knows the battle had not yet been lost. The Babylonians are outnumbered but all it would take is one correctly timed move and the Persians would break. However, Keraton knew that time had come and gone when Prince Aram, mastermind of the Persian battle strategy, arrives on the field to the west:


Prince Aram and his men soon joined the force fighting against the Babylonian spearmen and started to push them back up the hill they had come down:


King Keraton had stayed near the rear of the battle at first, but had moved up when Prince Aram arrived so as to help inspire his men. Now alone in the rear and out of arrows, the heavy archers decide to save themselves and flee the battlefield:


Behind the Babylonian main line, to the surprise of all, the Persian cavalry had been slaughtered by the light spearmen. These men then move up to the right flank and brake a large group of Persian levies. When a second Persian cavalry charge came on the right flank, the combined force of elite, levy, and light spearmen crushed it handley. King Keraton then orders the light spearmen to the center of the line while he tries to rally his men to keep fighting on the left flank.

Not far from where he is encouraging his men, up a hill, Prince Aram moves forward to watch the battle from high ground. Seeing the enemy prince alone with his kataphraktoi, King Keraton Apolloniates ordered his cavalry up the hill to face the enemy general.

As he draws near Prince Aram, King Keraton ordered the charge. Prince Aram ordered a counter charge, but his cavalry did not move. Instead, an unseen group of psiloi come out from their hiding behind the trees and horses. These psiloi charge through their prince's bodyguard and straight for the charging Makedonian cavalry:


The charge of the psiloi cost Keraton his momentum (and the lives of many psiloi). Soon after, Prince Aram and his kataphraktoi charge in. The charge alone kills many of King Keraton's men. Facing heavy kataphraktoi and surrounded by light infantry, King Keraton has nowhere to run when the enemy spear pierces his side:


King Keraton Apolloniates dies there on the battlefield, the last king of Babylon:


At this moment, Prince Aram orders his elites into the fight in order to finish the last of the Babylonian resistance. On the right flank, the Babylonians face elite Persian heavy infantry:


On the left flank, phalangitai box in the line while lighter infantry charged in on the flank:


Surrounded, outnumbered, and king-less, some Babylonians chose to fight to the death. Most surviving Babylonian soldiers, however, find their way from the fight and turn to flee:


Seeing himself as the "better man" and seeking to not found the new Persian Empire on blood, Prince Aram allows these men to leave the battlfield. Even in victory, though, the Persians have lost the bulk of their army and all of their cavalry:


It is in Euktimenos' camp that the first survivors arrive. The heavy archers and many of the elite Babylonian spearmen had managed to get away from the battlefield but had chosen to flee to Assyria rather than Babylonia. Most of the surviving levies of Keraton's army chose to disband, return home, or disappear into the hills.

When news reaches Babylon that their king is dead and their army defeated, rioting brakes out in the streets and buildings burned. Specifically targeted are the Katoikiai and anything that is of a Hellenistic nature. For months, anarchy rules from the throne of Isidoros:


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The loss of the Babylonian army and the termoil in the east completely dwarves events to the north. Passing almost unnoticed, Herokles takes the old Hellenic colony city of Tanais:


As a descendant of Euboulides, Herokles and his brother remain the only direct descendants of Antigonos Gonatas but rule only the regions north of the Pontos Euxinos. To add to this region, not only is Tanais taken but also all of the remaining coastline and the territories along the river far inland. These lightly populated fertile lands hold great potential for grain production to feed the growing Arche:


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Several months after the death of King Keraton, a small force directly from Media crosses the Tigris River and attacks the city of Seleukeia. Within the city are many still loyal to the Arche Makedonia or to the idea of raising another king in Babylon, so the city resists:


With many arrows still available to them, the wall defenders rain down death on their enemy like they had many times before under King Isidoros:


Dispite their best efforts, the enemy tower reaches the walls of the city and the Persian troops come onto the walls, pushing back the defenders:


The city defenders fight will all they have but cannot resist the invaders in the end. Killing two-thirds of the enemy army in the process, the city defenders eventually surrender and Persia takes the city:


In an act that is apposed by Prince Aram yet will be remember by all Hellenes for centuries to come, the surviving Persians and their reinforcements sack the city and kill many. After killing the Hellenes and Makedones and enslaving the royalists, the city is placed under Persian control:


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News of the fall of Babylonia reaches Basileus Philippos V just as he enters Illyria. After retraining his army, he, his army, and his newly recruited army from Massalia, comprised of Massalioi and Keltoi, move eastward. At the same time, a second new army, comprised of Sikilioi and Italioi, moves up Italia. A third new army, comprised of Epeiroi and Illyrioi, wait in Epeiros for the arrival of the Basileus. The Basileus rushes his plans forward, but little does he know, things will get worse before they get better:


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Next: Chapter 94 : Rock Bottom

[Olaf Blackeyes]

WOOT!@!!!!!!!!!!
AWESOMESS IT LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!
(Does the happy dance before dieing if a heart attack)

[Dutchhoplite]

*Joins dancing and cheering*

[SwissBarbar]

Yeah, great

Oh, but you forgot the map ;-)

[julius_caesar_the_first]

WOW!!!! It can get even worse for the Arche?

This truly is an EPIC campaign. Incredible job your'e doing MAA

PS: I voted your AAR in the Hall of Fame and I'm sure it will win

[Maion Maroneios]

Excellent, truly excellent. I'm very happy to see this continuing

Maion

[NickTheGreek]

Yay I'm so happy this is continuing

[HunGeneral]

YAY. This is great. The Arche lives!!

Lets party

Great update by the way

[Subotan]

Awesome! And it's great to see that although your AAR lives, the Arche is having a bumpy ride. Makes a change from the string of glorious victories.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Honestly i think this is a good thing. A campaign where u do NOTHING but win gets boring fast. What i would like to see happen is the Arche gets the @#$@$ kicked out of it, is forced to make a peace with the Persians and actually has to rebuild its forces. Then its like an epic world war, between the two powers with hundreds of battles and no one is winning, until someone important dies or something then one side collapses.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Thanks for following! I'll try to keep updating this regularly again... hopefully. The next chapter is going to be a bit short, though I might include some info I was going to not even mention to extend it a bit.

There was no map in the last chapter because I only had one from the previous year and the next year, neither of which fit the situation I ended the chapter in.

The next chapter will show that Persia isn't the Arche's only concern...

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Cool chapter, MAA. Was it very hard to lose that battle?

[Kuningaz]

my god is this awesome... are you in a pact with the devil or something maa?

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Cool chapter, MAA. Was it very hard to lose that battle?

Was it obvious? Just choosing to fight a battle that outnumbered basically lost me the battle. I also purposely played less conservatively then I usually would (ie the chasing to the first routers). I may have been able to win the battle, but I'm not sure I could have won the battle without exploiting AI stupidity though (such as exploiting the fact that the AI tends to never concentrate their power in one place on the field).

my god is this awesome... are you in a pact with the devil or something maa?

Sell my soul to write a never-ending AAR?

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Not extremely obvious, but somehow logical... I can remember only one time that I lost a battle I thought I'd win, and I think this would be somehow similar with other players...

When you destroy the first enemy troops in a battle where the enemy comes with reinforcements, the following troops are not able to go into a proper formation. I think the AI somehow doesn't notice the absence of the already destroyed troops. It will instead scatter its units around the countryside, each on its own. That's not only tactically stupid, but more importantly quite strenuous if you have to kill one unit after the other. Always wait until the enemy has reached its final formation, use 3 x speed maybe.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

In that particular battle, the second army did attack me, though the third just stood around in weird places (that is why the Median general was just up on a hill 90degrees from the battle, doing nothing).

[Kuningaz]

Sell my soul to write a never-ending AAR?

What else would be worth it?

[Ibrahim]

I have yet to actually comment in this thread in a serious manner, even though I have repeatedly read this, but I must say: this is a great AAR. Thank goodness that you saved it, MAA.

What else would be worth it?

never ending dinohunting trips?

[Chirurgeon]

I leave for several months and come back and MAA is still cranking out the goodness. Awesome update. Can you post a map of where things are at? You are still fighting a massive civil war if I remember correctly. Nice to see some defeats mixed in with victories. Setbacks are a natural evolution of expansion. Keep it up!

[Olaf Blackeyes]

The Civil War ended several pages ago Chruriegon sorry to say it.