Baktria - Basileion Hellenon Asias

[miotas]

How the hell can you have more than 100k mnai with such huge armies and only 2 settlements? Are you cheating?
Anyway very good chapter, only one question, i thought it was the protagonists father who died in india, not his grandfather....

No cheats what you can't see in that pic is that when the army goes back in the city the income goes to about -3200mnai and my other town, kophen is on about 5000mnai, gotta love the mines baby

And his grandfather was Theodotos and he died in india, his father was that unnamed bodyguard who survived and got word back to Baktra, of course no one knows this apart from Oxyartes and his mother.

Bloody hell, looking at that rundown, this story is beginning to rival a neighbours plot

I just started reading this cuz i've had no wireless internet acess up here at my gradparents house and have had to use wire which i just got onto. It's 5 hours up to NY from the maryland suburbs of D.C. I'm following this and good luck.

Edit: HOLY SHIT how did those troops get so F***ing much experience. Did you cheat them in?Better not of or else... jk. Also you must of cheated the money.

they have that experience from killing so many besieging armies over the years, Diodotos has only left Baktra once, (and that was to kill a rebel army and he was back before the turn ended) Yet he has over 30 battles under his belt, using the army numbers I've been using in the AAR he would be getting close to having killed 500,000 men, 75% of those, being Pahlavan. He has the trait "seen the elephant" but has never even left the capital let alone his kingdom.

Neither Pahlava or Seleukeia have any big armies in their entire kingdoms because they keep sending them to Diodotos to be killed.

PS. some of those more familiar with Baktria may have noticed I added a new unit.
Does anyone know if I can change the name on their unit card to show up as "Athanatoi Hippeis" without also changing the name of the regular bodyguard unit?

*edit*
before I built that army Baktra was on about 1500mnai and Kophen almost 6000

[Raygereio]

PS. some of those more familiar with Baktria may have noticed I added a new unit.
Does anyone know if I can change the name on their unit card to show up as "Athanatoi Hippeis" without also changing the name of the regular bodyguard unit?

If I'm reading correctly; you added the Hetairoi Kataphraktoi as regular units?
If so, go to the entry in your EDU for 'Athanatoi Hippeis' and change the dictionary line into 'hellenic_cavalry_hetairoi_kataphraktoi_1'.

Then go to export_units.txt in EB/data/text. Go find the entry for 'hellenic_cavalry_hetairoi_kataphraktoi' and copy it.
Now in that copied entry, add '_1' to all instances of 'hellenic_cavalry_hetairoi_kataphraktoi'. Like this: 'hellenic_cavalry_hetairoi_kataphraktoi_1_descr_short'.

Unit info text is under the _descr line, the _descr_short line wil show up in the summary of all the units you trained at the start of your turn.
The actual name of the units as it will show up ingame is to the right of the dictionary line.
So simply change 'Hetairoi Kataphraktoi (Baktrian Late Bodyguard)' into something like 'Athanatoi Hippeis (Baktrian Weapon of Mass Destruction)'

Hope that helps and it's been fun reading so far.
Also yeah, once you get the mines going Baktria becomes incredibly rich, even more so once you get the Indian provinces.

[miotas]

'hellenic_cavalry_hetairoi_kataphraktoi_1'.

Then go to export_units.txt in EB/data/text. Go find the entry for 'hellenic_cavalry_hetairoi_kataphraktoi' and copy it.
Now in that copied entry, add '_1' to all instances of 'hellenic_cavalry_hetairoi_kataphraktoi'. Like this: 'hellenic_cavalry_hetairoi_kataphraktoi_1_descr_short'.

Unit info text is under the _descr line, the _descr_short line wil show up in the summary of all the units you trained at the start of your turn.
The actual name of the units as it will show up ingame is to the right of the dictionary line.
So simply change 'Hetairoi Kataphraktoi (Baktrian Late Bodyguard)' into something like 'Athanatoi Hippeis (Baktrian Weapon of Mass Destruction)'

cheers, glad your enjoying it,

I changed it and I worked but the unit card picture wasn't showing up so I went to Rome - Total War\EB\Data\UI\UNIT_INFO\romans_bruttii and made a copy of hellenic_cavalry_hetairoi_kataphraktoi_unit.tga and changed it to hellenic_cavalry_hetairoi_kataphraktoi_1_unit.tga so now the unit card picture is ok but the little picture that you can see in the screenie is still wrong, how would I go about changing that?

[Raygereio]

cheers, glad your enjoying it,

I changed it and I worked but the unit card picture wasn't showing up so I went to Rome - Total War\EB\Data\UI\UNIT_INFO\romans_bruttii and made a copy of hellenic_cavalry_hetairoi_kataphraktoi_unit.tga and changed it to hellenic_cavalry_hetairoi_kataphraktoi_1_unit.tga so now the unit card picture is ok but the little picture that you can see in the screenie is still wrong, how would I go about changing that?

Woops; forgot about the pictures. Sorry.
Do the exact some thing you did for the unitinfo picture, but in the following directory:
EB\Data\UI\UNITS\ROMANS_BRUTII

[Tarkus]

Miotas,

I don't have my copy of EB or the Recruitment Viewer in front of me here at work, so I don't have all the data in front of me. But adding the Athanatoi Hippeis around 246BC is a major cheat, don't you think?????? That sally out of Baktra in 245BC was crazy...your Elite Cataphracts accounted for nearly 1800 of the 2344 total Seleukid casualties!! Unless I'm missing something in the historical part of the Baktrian simulation here, you're not playing on a level field.

I'm struggling through the early phases of my own Baktrian campaign (to be summarized in a separate thread, so as not to dilute your own excellent story), and I now see the value of trying to lay low in the first few decades and building up infrastructure in Baktra and Kophen. I got militarily greedy against the Saka and am now really paying the price...

[miotas]

Miotas,

I don't have my copy of EB or the Recruitment Viewer in front of me here at work, so I don't have all the data in front of me. But adding the Athanatoi Hippeis around 246BC is a major cheat, don't you think?????? That sally out of Baktra in 245BC was crazy...your Elite Cataphracts accounted for nearly 1800 of the 2344 total Seleukid casualties!! Unless I'm missing something in the historical part of the Baktrian simulation here, you're not playing on a level field.

I'm struggling through the early phases of my own Baktrian campaign (to be summarized in a separate thread, so as not to dilute your own excellent story), and I now see the value of trying to lay low in the first few decades and building up infrastructure in Baktra and Kophen. I got militarily greedy against the Saka and am now really paying the price...

That wasn't the Athanatoi Hippeis, as rich as I am right now I still doubt that I could afford 5 units of them, that was the generals bodyguards, Hetairoi Kataphraktoi, and they showed up by themselves, I'm not planning on using the Athanatoi Hippeis until I've subjugated India. Plus I had to add them before I started, as I don't think new units are savegame compatible, and as I don't have the knowledge to go fidling with reforms, I could have built them from the start if I'd had the money or the mic level.

But I'm roleplaying that after all those attempted nomad invasions they have decided to upgrade their bodyguards' armour, and if that goes well they will make a separate unit, once they have the money.

And the laying low method is still balancing on a thin wire, I almost lost it a few times, the retraining costs of all those nomad attacks almost crippled my economy, but i struggled through and it really paid off. For that reason I waited until I had played about 20 years before I started writing this to make sure I didn't lose it before I really got started.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Plus I had to add them before I started, as I don't think new units are savegame compatible, and as I don't have the knowledge to go fidling with reforms, I could have built them from the start if I'd had the money or the mic level.

Ah, and I was wondering how you added them as a recruitable unit. To my knowledge, adding a new unit to EDU is indeed not savegame compatible.

Nice AAR, btw.

[the man with no name]

I don't know how to do any of this add new units s*** and I agree that his roleplaying makes sence though.

[Tarkus]

That wasn't the Athanatoi Hippeis, as rich as I am right now I still doubt that I could afford 5 units of them, that was the generals bodyguards, Hetairoi Kataphraktoi, and they showed up by themselves, I'm not planning on using the Athanatoi Hippeis until I've subjugated India. Plus I had to add them before I started, as I don't think new units are savegame compatible, and as I don't have the knowledge to go fidling with reforms, I could have built them from the start if I'd had the money or the mic level.

You're right, fair enough...my mistake. I'm at 238BC in my Baktrian campaign and I still have the Somatophylakes Strategou -- how did you obtain the Hetairoi Kataphraktoi? Am I to assume this is because I haven't yet built up my MIC to a sufficient level?

And the laying low method is still balancing on a thin wire, I almost lost it a few times, the retraining costs of all those nomad attacks almost crippled my economy, but i struggled through and it really paid off. For that reason I waited until I had played about 20 years before I started writing this to make sure I didn't lose it before I really got started.

I'm about ready to give up...I recently lost Baktra to the Grey Death so, with the exception of Alexandreia Eschate, I have only small settlements (Kophen, Chach, Gava Haomavarga, Marakanda) that are not doing me much good. I guess I'll try to keep fighting until the bitter end...!

Keep up this very interesting AAR, Miotas!

[A Very Super Market]

March of Time. Its a little bit random, but whenever the Romans get a huge city in Italy that isn't Rome, you'll get your shiny new bodyguards.

[miotas]

You're right, fair enough...my mistake. I'm at 238BC in my Baktrian campaign and I still have the Somatophylakes Strategou -- how did you obtain the Hetairoi Kataphraktoi? Am I to assume this is because I haven't yet built up my MIC to a sufficient level?

They turn up with the march of time, which is the first roman reforms, and that happens when they get a huge city in italy that isn't roma, which in most games means that you get the reforms when capua upgrades to a huge city.

*edit* too slow, guess that's what i get for a long post *

I'm about ready to give up...I recently lost Baktra to the Grey Death so, with the exception of Alexandreia Eschate, I have only small settlements (Kophen, Chach, Gava Haomavarga, Marakanda) that are not doing me much good. I guess I'll try to keep fighting until the bitter end...!

Keep up this very interesting AAR, Miotas!

If you are capable of building a stone wall and some persian archers then you can basically create an impenetrable force field around you're city

Let them seige and then do a sally each turn, killing as many as you can with your archers from the walls, if you have all you're forces back within the walls you can exit the battle without losing it, you will get a message saying that the sally was successful and then you can click ok to exit the battle. And when you feel you can crush them with your horses you can sally properly.

and if all else fails then fight to the last man, making them pay a terrible price for every honest Baktrian's life those fiends take.

Seriously, it will be good for the combat experience, then come back as a fresh Basileus Baktries and teach those buggers a thing or three.

New update should arrive sometime tomorrow.

*edit

I don't know how to do any of this add new units s***

Neither did I but I followed instructions from bobbin in the unoffical modding sub-forum and now I have a vague idea, the thread was to do with these exact units funnily enough

[Tarkus]

Thanks for the March of Time info, AVSM and Miotas...shoulda remembered that. This is my first non-Roman campaign so I'm having to learn how to see the world from a different perspective!

And thanks again to you, Miotas, for the description of sallying tactics. I really f***ed up in my campaign by losing Baktra a few years ago so now it's going to take a long time to build up the remains of my empire to a point where I can make a serious bid to re-take the city, finally crush the Saka and keep the Pahlavans at bay...all while keeping my eye on Gandhara and neighboring rebel provinces. Wow...playing Baktria is hard but alot of fun!

Thanks again...looking forward to your update tomorrow.

[miotas]

Chapter 8

Late Phthinoporon, just before the first snowfalls of cheimon, the enemy sally forth to attack, starved
and demoralised as they must be following such a long siege, they should not be too difficult to
defeat.

My first time leading an army to battle, I hope I make my father proud.

I organised my men in two lines, Pezhetairoi in the first line, with peltastai in the second line
supported by light skirmishers. The small group of Persian archers formed up behind the skirmishers
and I ordered the Dahae skirmisher cavalry to wait well back behind the lines and prepare for the
elephantes to arrive.



It wasn’t long before the elephants arrived. It seemed that this time they would be used to disrupt
our lines for the infantry to attack, rather then attacking after we were already tired, like they did to my grandfather.

I ordered the Dahae cavalry to attack the approaching elephantes.



They were more effective than I could have hoped. Watching the javelins so easily toppling those
huge beasts it was hard to imagine that they could have given Theodotos so much trouble.



The guild warriors then started issuing forth from the city. There were more than Theodotos had faced.

A lot more.



Some cautiously attacked the front of the Pezhetairoi unable to break the sarissai wall.



While others flanked, charging the peltastai defending the flanks of the phalanx.



Antimachos, seeing they were in trouble, rode into the fray, wreaking havoc amongst the enemy
warriors. The Kataphraktoi were winning but many were unhorsed and it seemed this would be a
costly fight.



Yet another group of enemy warriors was preparing to attack the flanks of Antimachos.



So I ordered my cavalry to charge the tired enemy, quickly sending them fleeing for the safety of the walls.



Riding back to survey the battlefield, I noticed that on the opposite flank, the enemy were becoming
exhausted, so I ordered my still fresh pezhetairoi to break formation and charge.



The battle did not last much longer before the enemy broke formation and tried to flee. In a fit of
rage like I have seldom felt before, seeing so many of my men lying dead, I ordered that not a single
enemy man was to leave the battle field alive.

[Cyrus]

Yeeeeeaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!kill them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously, though, great chapter! I can't help wondering why those elephants attacked before the infantry..... weird, every time i beseige an indian settlement they always wait for my men to be tired.
You lucky bastard!

[miotas]

I can't help wondering why those elephants attacked before the infantry..... weird, every time i beseige an indian settlement they always wait for my men to be tired.
You lucky bastard!

I had my general off to the side of my formation, unprotected, and they were heading towards him, they probably would have arrived at my main formation just after the enemy troops but I rode my horse skirmishers out to meet them and for some reason the elephants never arrived.

I was quite surprised at how well they did against the elephants though, I've only really played as western factions, sauros was as far east as I've gone, so I've never fought much against elephants.

1 unit Elephantes Indikoi 13000 mnai
1 unit Dahae Skirmisher Cavalry 1800 mnai
Watching Dahae Skirmishers Elephantes Indikoi, priceless

[Roka]

nice story so far, a little bit of advice, once your cavalry have charged hold Alt and right click on the enemy to make them draw their swords (or axes)

EDIT: or is that ctrl?

[Vasiliyi]

Love this aar, keep it going. Oh and those Baktrian Body guards are one of the most beautiful units ever!

[the man with no name]

Neither did I but I followed instructions from bobbin in the unoffical modding sub-forum and now I have a vague idea, the thread was to do with these exact units funnily enough

I personaly think it's cheating to create units that weren't historicly there in ancient times. It's not accurate, it's that simple. Good chapter though. I liked the picture of the phezatairoi or whatever charging. Funny seeing phalanxes charge.

[miotas]

Chapter 9

Eiar the third year of the 134th Olympiad. I was woken early this morning by my retainer, aparently I
had been crying out in my sleep again. All those faces keep coming back to me. The heads of 8000
young men, this is the price I exacted upon Taksashila, one for each life their soldiers took in the
battle.

It is good that I have risen early, there are many preparations to make. Today I begin the march
west to besiege the town of Kophen. That fool Patrokles sent secret messages to the Basileus of
Seleukeia, explaining that if a seleukid army could reach the gates of Kophen they would be open, in
exchange for a heafty reward no doubt. Luckily Baktrian honour was preserved by my half-brother
Antialkidas, who redeemed himself of a lifetime of foolishness by locking up Patrokles and defending
against the Seleukid army.

The account of the battle had come from Euthydemos, one of Antialkidas bodyguards, he had been
knocked senseless in the battle but his armour had saved him and he was able to recover and escape
before the enemy found him.

The town had no defenders who could hold the gates, so while the enemy advanced upon the gates



Antialkidas quickly rushed his bodyguard and some slingers out a side gate.



He charged down some of the enemy axemen



While the slingers fired into the enemies rear, simply trying to kill as many as possible before they
would ineveitably be cut down.



The enemy breached the walls



And they were soon flooding into the town



Antialkidas fought admirably, his armour and skill with his weapon deflected many a blow and brought
low dozens of enemies






But the bodies of many of his close friends and bodyguards littered the ground around him and soon
he too joined them



Euthydemos was soon knocked senseless but he dimly remembers that the sounds of battle continued
for many hours, despite the small number of bodyguards that still remained in the city.



No doubt, they wished to redeem themselves of the treachery of their old general, Patrokles.



But there was no way they could hope to win against so many.

After he had given his account of the battle Euthydemos told me that my wife, who had returned to
Baktria after I had left Kophen almost 3 years ago, had given birth to a baby girl, Patrokles had been
intercepting any messages directed to me. If I find him alive once I take back Kophen it will take him
weeks to die.

[miotas]

nice story so far, a little bit of advice, once your cavalry have charged hold Alt and right click on the enemy to make them draw their swords (or axes)

EDIT: or is that ctrl?

Cheers

you may notice that I took your advice. And it is Alt.

[the man with no name]

1 unit Elephantes Indikoi 13000 mnai
1 unit Dahae Skirmisher Cavalry 1800 mnai
Watching Dahae Skirmishers Elephantes Indikoi, priceless

LOL

[the man with no name]

1 unit Elephantes Indikoi 13000 mnai
1 unit Dahae Skirmisher Cavalry 1800 mnai
Watching Dahae Skirmishers Elephantes Indikoi, priceless

lol

[Vasiliyi]

Nice chapter, its so refreshing to see a baktrain aar. Im constantly checking on this one.

[the man with no name]

lol

LOL

woops i ment to edit

[miotas]

I left captain Andragoras to look after the new administration until the new local ruler is chosen. I
pushed my men hard, knowing that the Basileion was in a dangerous position, enemies completely
surrounding us and now inside our borders as well.

Phthinoporon of the third year of the 134th Olympiad. I have arrived at the borders of Paropamisadai,
Kophen lies little more than a weeks march to the west. I held a meeting of the captains this morning
to try and decide which course of action we should take. Many of the captains suggested we set up
camp and wait until Eiar rather than trying to lay siege during cheimon, Antimachos suggested that
we march forth now and waste no time in reclaiming land that rightfully belongs to Basileion Baktries.
I think that I had already made up my mind before I even called the meeting so I ordered the
captains to go and ready their troops for the march.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We had received reports recently that an army lay to the west within Baktrian borders, it was an
army of almost 2000 prodromoi who had been dispatched from Baktra when the Seleukid army had lain
siege to Kophen but had arrived to late to be of any assistance.

I immediately sent riders to order them to come and aid in the siege of Kophen. They would be oflittle
use in the tight confines of the town streets, but I could use all the help I could get, as I did not
wish to hire mercenaries who would likely want to pillage Kophen after we had recaptured it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We arrived at the town 9 days later and the prodromoi arrived soon after.

We soon learned that the old Baktrian spy rings had remained active during Seleukid occupation and
that it would be little trouble for them to ensure the gates would be open when we attacked as the
entire citizenry would be more than happy to see the Seleukids driven from these lands.

Our assault started on a foggy morning in late phthinoporon.

The enemy was ill equipped to hold a siege, having little more than 2000 heavy infantry.

I formed the main assault force outside the northern gates. Antimachos took position at the eastern
gates, while captain Biton positioned his pezhetairoi next to the western gates and captain Herakon
prepared his mixed cavalry force of kamboja's and prodromoi to ride around and try to secure the
southern entrance.



Noticing that the enemy did not have much of a force defending the north wall, I quickly rushed my
Kataphraktoi to the gates to take advantage of the situation.



After the gates were secured I ordered the pezhetairoi to form up and defend against an enemy
counter-attack from the east.



The counter-attack from the west was met with my kataphraktoi.



The enemy horsemen seemed to have endless numbers and I was forced to put the rest of the battle
out of my mind in this mad struggle for survival. There was nothing but my sword, the enemy and my
loyal hetairoi fighting by my side. Many fell that day, and if this had been an open field their armour
may have protected them, but in these tight confines all who fell were soon trampled to death.



After the enemy infantry were destroyed by my pezhetairoi the enemy, becoming desperate, threw
their archers into the fray.



After all resistance was broken at the north gate, I gathered my forces and marched towards the
east gate to see how Antimachos was handling his attack. It seemed that the majority of the
infantry had attacked Antimachos however he had established a foothold inside the gate and was
slowly pushing back the Seleukid forces.

I gathered my kataphratoi and charged into their rear, breaking any resistance.



With all enemy crushed in the north eastern section of the town, I took my bodyguard and rode
around to the west to see how captain Biton was faring.

His assault had proceeded flawlessly, as predicted the enemy had sent most of their forces to attack
Antimachos and myself so the western gate was lightly defended.



When I arrived they were dealing with the last resistance around the western gate.



Just then a runner from captain Herakon arrived bringing news that his horsemen had crushed the
enemy at the southern gate in a viscous fight of kamboja vs kamboja.



They were holding position outside the gates, as many had been injured and they were awaiting my
orders. I ordered them to hold position, as the enemy forces had all retreated to the town centre.

The rest of the fight would simply be mopping-up the remaining forces with my pezhetairoi.



At the end of the day the dead numbered over 20000, almost 4000 of them fine sons of Baktria.

[miotas]

Its not dead yet! It will just be progressing very slowly from now on.

[Vasiliyi]

Awesome. Im glad this is back up.

[Maion Maroneios]

Good stuff mate, keep it up

Maion

[Horatius Flaccus]

I just read the whole thread, it's very good!

In my own Baktrian campaign I abandoned Baktra (the Saka, Pahlava and Seleucids are now vigorously fighting for it, it has changed ownership about 7-8 times now (in about 10 years) and fortified in India.

[NickTheGreek]

Hurrah it returns