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Aedui

Averni

Getai

Carthage

Koinon Hellenon

Epeiros

Ptolemaioi

Pontos

[Delta Foxtrot]

The Illustrated Histories of the Kingdom of Pontos

Chapter 12 - Tora! Tora! Tora!

Spoiler: 246 BC (click to show/hide)

Local garrisons are dispatched to terminate various rebel bands roaming the countryside.





King Ariobarzanes I passes away on a cold winter morning. Peace be with him.

Spoiler: Battle of Chersonesos (click to show/hide)

The dead King left behind a growing Kingdom. In the northern wastes Holophernes assaults Chersonesos to bring Crimea fully into Pontic control.

The city is held by the barbaric steppe nomads. The good Greek people of this peninsula shall never again taste the dirty boot of an unwashed conqueror.

For the King, for Darius, for the Gods!



Holophernes opts for a full frontal assault.





Under a hail arrows we advance.



Spear and sword clash in the walls.



All the while arrows from below aid the defenders.



Sappers crumble a section of the wall.







Heavy fighting takes place all throughout the southern wall.



Second unit of our infantry attempts to flank the enemy defending the gap in the wall.



Yet the enemy brings more units to sandwich us in.



We snuck a unit to eastern wall where they took out a unit or two of enemy horses.



The first unit to assault the gap is reduced to a dozen frightful men.



Fresh troops quickly swarm in to replace them.



A unit in the middle wall is being whittled away by the constant pressure of enemy rabble.



Situation at the gap is turning from a fight into a mop up by our large body of fresh troops.





Our unit in the far right wall is holding their ground.



With the gap somewhat secured, cavalry moves inside the city.



Men in the middle wall fight and die to the last man.



Our far right also takes casualties against the overwhelming enemy numbers.



Our cavalry meets the enemy General in the city streets.









A dozen Greek turncoats for every one of us, Pontic superior cavalry tradition reveals its might as the enemy cavalry is being hacked to pieces.





While cavalry celebrates their triumph, our infantry entrenches themselves at the city gate.



One final enemy remains. A fresh body of nomadic nobility stands proud at the central plaza. Holophernes rests his cavalry and spearmen as they prepares for one final charge.







Thanks to our Chirugeons, many would-be casualties are patched up and saved from death or crippling injuries.





Having driven the steppe barbarians from the shores of Crimea, Holophernes is recognized as Defender Against the Barbarians by the local (phil)hellenic population.

Spoiler: 245-244 BC (click to show/hide)

You can't mock Seleucids for lacking persistence. 12th Battle of Mazaka:











As can be seen from the minimap, Getai lost their coastal province to rebels. This leaves them at three provinces total. Partially influenced by this, we siege Olbia, just west of Crimea.



Meanwhile, our diplomats in the Balkans have discovered that Koinon Hellenon are driving Macedonians back from Peleponnesos, giving them great grief. Their capital is also besieged by Epeiros. Capitalizing on this, I have Byzantion besieged by nearby garrison troops. Hayasdan, who was allied with both Macedon and us, chooses to stay allied with us, breaking their alliance with Macedon.

Spoiler: Battle of Byzantion (click to show/hide)

Enemy attempts to lift the siege. Mostly militia on militia action with heavy hetaroi cavalry on the Macedonian side.





Enemy cavalry crashes into our lines.



Enemy hoplites meet our lines while Thracian levies rout one of our archers.



Over half of our forces concentrate on killing the enemy general.



After driving the archers from the field, the Thracians turn their attention to our second archer unit. Our main battle line holds but the fight against the cavalry is slowly turning against us.



Finally the Thracians join the fray and cause a chain rout from our main line.

Damn that Hetaroi.

Spoiler: Battle of Olbia (click to show/hide)

Eager to avoid a meatgrinder similar to one in Chersonesos, Holophernes sieged the Getai at Olbia with a purposefully weak force in order to provoke an attack.

Most of the defenders were filthy barbarian scum with a few Hellenic units mixed in, particularly the Bosphoran Archers. (Comparatively) heavy armour, good quality equipment and training in both melee and ranged combat turn the Bosphoran archers into a potent force.

Enemy has more cavalry, but most of their cavalry is made up of light javelin cavalry, whereas our cavalry is fairly heavy medium cavalry.



Three units of infantry hold the main line, with spears and rest of the infantry hanging in the back as a reserve. Cavalry is entirely on the right wing, while chariots are in the left.



Enemy infantry moves headfirst towards our line while archers start softening us.



Our cavalry engages enemy light cavalry. Chariots troll along the advancing enemy.



Enemy infantry has engaged our main line with our reserves manoeuvring to flank the enemy. Chariots harass enemy archers and stray cavalry. Our cavalry is concentrating fully on decimating the enemy cavalry, currently far from the main battle line.











Holophernes' bodyguard disengages to charge into enemy rear at the main battle line. This sends the enemy on our left flank to flee like the little piglets they are



Enemy light cavalry has little chance against our heavily armed Cappadocians.



Enemy general gets slashed by our scythed chariots. This sends most of the army running.





After this it's a simple matter of cutting down the fools as they flee.



We took some losses, but nothing a few replacements can't fix. The Getai are currently limited to only two provinces. Hayasdan in turn lost a province to Sauromatae rebels. They still have quite a lot of troops in the area, so there's no telling which way it will swing. As long as they fight others instead of me, I'm happy.

Spoiler: 244-243 BC (click to show/hide)

You guys remember Artaxerxes? After the defeat of Nikaian garrison at Byzantion, he starts marching his army to capture Byzantion.



So, few turns after we declared war on both Macedon and Getai, KH and Romans ally themselves with Getai, while Macedon ceases hostilities with KH and Getai.

At least I don't have to fight KH and Romans (yet).



Seems like centuries of hatred and warfare can be swept under a rug at the head of a common foe. Macedonians and Getai declare an alliance, though it is of little consequence at this point.



After being relieve and replenished at Olbia, Holophernes sets sail towards coastal town of Kallatis. Too bad, at the south Getai conquered a province neighbouring Byzantion and are now moving towards Kallatis with an army of their own.



Further south, Artaxerxes is closing towards Byzantion. Spies indicate that Macedonian forces are too far to intervene in time to prevent the fall of Byzantion.



In the Steppe, Hayasdan are not showing any signs of slowing down. Seems like they and Sauromatae will be busy with each other for the time being.





And that concludes our update. Seleucids and Ptolemaioi have considerable forces preventing easy expansion on my part, but have been reluctant to attack with them. Status Quo reigns in the Eastern front. In the west my plan is to get Byzantion, Kallatis and the remaining Getai provinces.

My capital, Amaseia, is lagging in population in comparison to my other great cities (so much in fact, it's my only 'big' city unable to build paved roads). To counter this I'm upgrading my barrackses in Ankyra, Sinope and Mazaka. I'm also probing a bit to see if I could capture Karkathiokerta (at the Seleucid end of the Mazaka pass). Successful capture of Karkathiokerta would effectively put an end to Umpteenth Battle of Mazaka updates.

Couldn't you get horse archers by conquering some Sauromatae land and recruit the locals? They should be quite effective against those elite phalanxes the other greek/successors use.

Elite phalanxes have fairly good armour values but that's certainly an option. I don't even need high barracks levels to train HA's up north. And they're dirt cheap as units.

Enjoy the update.

[Stworca]

Looking at the map with all those indies left unconquered.. AI progress is terrible  Is this normal for EB?

There are some mods that ask you not to rush, but there seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding between most of them as to what exactly is "NOT rushing".
"Please don't attack any neighbor for 40 turns, otherwise AI will not grow enough" just points out that the mod is badly thought out.

Also : Byzantion! ...What? Execute all the survivors and their families for being personally responsible for the defeat.

[Teneb]

I think the problem with AI not expanding properly in EB has something to do with most factions starting with negative income. A human player can counter that by conquering rich provinces as fast as possible, but the AI at times is too stupid to do that.

[Delta Foxtrot]

EB script makes it physically impossible for AI to go below 0, and they get money bonuses on top of that. Expansion in EB is slower than in vanilla mainly due to fairly strong rebels (especially rebel Gauls in northern Italy spring to mind). Sometimes the AI does a little better, sometimes a bit worse. Early game still requires the player to rush a bit just to get a stable economy going barring few factions. This is acknowledged as necessary by the developers so it's not a case of "don't rush".

Anything north of the Getai, east of Germans, usually doesn't get conquered that fast (depends a bit on how Sauromatae plays out), no AI really likes to go out to get the big poor provinces that far in the wastes. The biggest obstacle for AI faction expansion is usually other factions. Aedui and Avernii in Gaul and Greek factions in the Balkans are most prominent. Sometimes a clear victor pops up in 20 in-game years, sometimes it takes longer than that.

The fact is, EB plays more slowly than vanilla RTW. It's intended but not everyone likes it.

Spoiler: Toggle_fow'd 243 BC world map (click to show/hide)

[Teneb]

EB script makes it physically impossible for AI to go below 0, and they get money bonuses on top of that.

Ah, I didn't know that. Disregard what I said above.

[loose nut]

Speaking of archers, can you grab Crete, or are they one of the very strong rebel factions?

[Delta Foxtrot]

Speaking of archers, can you grab Crete, or are they one of the very strong rebel factions?

Weak enough for (human) Greek Cities to capture them in the first one or two turns. I have no idea if they're still rebel or KH. Either way I'm not too eager to go there just yet. We get Caucasian archers in our home regions already and if we upgrade our barrackses in the Crimea we can get Bosphoran archers. Caucasians are more fragile but shoot as well as Cretans, while Bosphorans are some of the most heavily armoured archers in the game. The other thing is that if they're KH, we'd take a hit to our trade income since Southern Balkan ports are mainly in KH possession. I plan to descend upon the paltry Hellenes once I'm done with Macedonians, but until then I'm going to milk every last trade tariff I can get from them.

Then there's the matter of force projection. Pretty much all of our forces are either in our south-eastern border fending off PtoleSeleucids or in the western Black Sea turning it into mare nostrum. While I am putting together another army to kick more ass, the cost and risks of taking Crete now (war with KH, loss of trade income) outweigh the benefits (yet another, albeit fairly awesome, archer unit, provided I get a high level barracks there). I also believe that we can hire Cretans as mercenaries in Anatolia (at least I can get Thessalian heavy cavalry as far as Kilikia-Syria).

I do plan to take Crete, but not until I've marched my armies down from Getai capital to Sparta.

[loose nut]

Ah, I thought they were still rebel from your map, and I know that in vanilla it can take a very long time for any of the AIs to grab it. Yeah, Cretan archers are no reason to get into a war with somebody else right now.

[Teneb]

Delta Foxtrot, do you intend to attack Hayasdan any time soon? They may turn on you on the worst possible moment if you let them grow too much.

[Delta Foxtrot]

The Illustrated Histories of the Kingdom of Pontos

Chapter 13 - Something new in the western front

Spoiler: 243 BC & Battle of Kallatis (click to show/hide)

Pontic forces in charge of Mazaka spotted and eradicated a small band of Seleucids inside the Mazaka pass.



Holophernes disembarks and engages the Getic army besieging Kallatis. It's made up of Getic elites, high quality Thracian and Gallic mercenaries and Thracian levies (among the finest levies in the game).



There's a reform system in EB. Some factions have active reforms that require specific actions (building specific buildings in specific provinces, conquering provinces, at least year X) while some others have passive reforms ("march of time", once Romans get ~24k population in a single central Italian city). Different factions get different benefits. Pontos doesn't have any active reforms, and their only benefit from march of time reform event is "late bodyguard" unit.

While our previous bodyguard unit was clearly eastern in appearance, the new bodyguard attempts to emulate the companion cavalry of Alexander the Great. They share much the same equipment as the Ptolemaic and Seleucid companions, while still having few eastern influences, such as that classy red rug on the back of their mounts. Overall pretty cool visual (and minor stat) improvement. Shows how wannabe Greeks Pontos rules were.



Half our heavy infantry form the main battle line, spearmen at the flanks and the rest behind the main line as reserve. Cavalry and chariots are on our right wing. I figured I'd try a night fight for once, I like the lights littering the battlefield.



I move our cavalry to try and take out the enemy general.



A small javelin exchange takes place before a Getic charge at my line. Their archers have been active ever since we got into range.



Spearmen engage enemy cavalry in our left while two of our reserve heavy infantry units circle behind the enemy engaging our centre.



Our centre/centre-right is taking the brunt of the charge. It will be a few moments before our reserve units are in position to rear charge those troops. Some of our reserves are already supporting our right flank.



In our far right flank our hillmen and falx wielding mercenaries I hired just before the battle are engaging the heavier enemy troops. At this time my chariots went amok as I was half heartedly harassing enemy archers and tying up some levy troops from joining the main fight.



My cavalry are made of fail and can't kill the enemy general and are forced to withdraw.



I rear charge the Gauls fighting my falx mercenaries.



With the help of my reserves and few select cavalry charges to the rear, enemy main line routs.



I march my freshest troops to engage the last enemy troops still standing. Those left are for the most part levies with little elites in the mix.



Charge! Charge! Charge! And so the wicked ones fall.



With Getic army beaten, road to Kallatis lies open. The chariots were a bit lacklustre in performance, though it might just be the way I used them. But hey, at least they didn't kill my guys when they went amok.

Spoiler: 243 BC (click to show/hide)

Seleucids attacked Arkathios as he was leading Mazaka garrison towards the Seleucid border fortress of Karkathiokerta.





Road to Karkathiokerta lies undefended.



Brothers Herakleotes extend Kingdom's western border.

One against Macedonians:



The other against unwashed Getic scum:







Akin to toned down wonders of vanilla, peculiarities such as this are present in most provinces in EB. They add a bit of flavour if you're so inclined.



Amidst these gains in the west, Ptolemaioi attempt to dwarf us in the east.





Young Galatian Arkathias takes Karkathiokerta for the glory of the Kingdom.





243 BC. It was a very good year.

Spoiler: 242 BC (click to show/hide)

3rd Battle of Byzantion:

Artaxerxes sallies out accompanied by his just come-of-age son. Cavalry and archer superiority against an army of levies. Gee, this is going to be tough.



Harassing with cavalry while archers pepper them.



Flanking move by our cavalry pits us against enemy commander and his light horses. It ends soon.





With their cavalry and leader gone, the rest of the infantry flee the field. I get two units of militia hoplites before they get away.







In the east, our border force attacks a Ptolemaioi force camping short distance away. 9th Battle of Kilikia-Syria:





Picture of the Getai front. Silly me didn't exterminate Byzantion and Kallatis, so now I'm having to deal with the unrest before I can move my armies further west.



Seleucids besiege Karkathiokerta. I'm going to risk and see if they assault next turn. I don't have a spy close enough to check their army composition and I don't want to find myself fighting Silver Shield spam with archers.



4th Battle of Byzantion:

Artaxerxes leaves Byzantion and the first thing on the agenda is to wipe out a Macedonian army camping near Byzantion. Aside from the Companion Cavalry, it's a rather pitiful army we're facing.



Battle is opened with an arrow exchange as both armies march to meet each other. Artaxerxes goes with a standard formation, pikes in the middle, spears in the flanks and hillmen/peltasts further away from our main line in the sides.







Our peltasts are engaged by enemy militia hoplites in our left flank. I order hillmen to flank them.



Hillmen are in turn flanked by Companion Cavalry.



Subsequently I flank the companions with my General and thureophoroi.



Enemy phalanx attacking our right flank gets surrounded.



Enemy general dies, enemy units engaging our main line are rear charged and sent running.



It's been a while since I used javelin infantry in my armies. Based on this battle, I'm quite pleased with what I did and could have done with my peltasts. They're definitely superior to hillmen as a general flanking force.





3rd Battle of Kallatis:

Getai besieged Kallatis with a small force of quality troops.I wanted to sally ASAP so I could start marching towards Getai capital.



Chariots harassed and distracted the archers, allowing my infantry to advance unscathed within javelin range. I massed all Cappadocian cavalry against enemy heavy horse archers.



After horse archers were taken care of, Getai General's bodyguard charged my horde. They're pretty tough nut to crack and to make things worse, I got flanked by enemy spearmen.





With enemy spears taken care of by Holophernes, enemy general was within an inch of his life as Pontic infantry reached the enemy line.



Our infantry charges enemy that tried to charge our tired cavalry.





Following enemy general's death, enemy morale began to waver as they were hammer & anvilled by our army.





Thracian peltasts have a pretty nasty AP longsword which probably caused most of our infantry casualties. I may have pushed Cappadocian cavalry a bit too far, but they got the enemy cavalry killed and healing ancillaries tend to do a decent job at healing casualties.





In the winter of 242 BC, Seleucids lift their siege of Karkathiokerta. They sure love trolling us.



Ptolemaioi keep throwing bodies at our pikes. 10th Battle of Kilikia-Syria:







And that, Lords and Ladies, concludes year 242 BC for Pontos.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Delta Foxtrot, do you intend to attack Hayasdan any time soon? They may turn on you on the worst possible moment if you let them grow too much.

I'm keeping an eye on their lands and armies for early signs of trouble. For the time being they're friendly towards us (they have an enemy to fight, we're allied, they didn't betray us for Macedon and I'm paying them minor tribute to keep them friendly), but I do intend to conquer their lands as well. I'll probably jump on them once I get minimal defences in the Crimea (small horse archer stack most likely) and a proper army to conquer the Caucasus with. It's going to have to wait until I get barrackses to recruit thureophoroi/thorakitai in more than one province as my current training capacity is pretty much spent reinforcing the western front.

I can already recruit horse archers in two provinces up north and I'm one barracks level away from getting thureophoroi and Cappadocian cavalry from Mazaka and Sinope. I can also train Gallic spearmen and Kelto-Hellenic hoplites in Ankyra. You never know, but I doubt I'll attack Hayasdan before 239 BC with current troop production and finances.

Here's another update, enjoy.

[Delta Foxtrot]

The Illustrated Histories of the Kingdom of Pontos

Chapter 14 - Where we grab more coastline, and other assorted hijinks

Spoiler: 241 BC (click to show/hide)

Artaxerxes opens the campaign season by engaging stray Getai forces between Kallatis and Byzantion.





Meanwhile Holophernes makes his way inland towards the Getic capital.





Seleucids besiege Arkathias in Karkathiokerta, but this time we sally forth to meet the foe.



Shooting downhill from atop our walls, Pontic archers exact steep casualties on the Seleucid horde. With a little goating the impetuous cavalry is provoked into charging our flank.





Final touch, our Bronze Shields descent upon them, causing men to break left and right.

Spoiler: 241 BC (click to show/hide)

Artaxerxes continues clearing region near Byzantion. This time against the Macedonians.

Some militia, peltasts, little elites in the form of royal guard and Thracian mercenaries. What worries me the most is that cavalry advantage. Ours is medium and light cavalry that won't be standing toe to toe against that kind of an enemy.



Our archers are deployed at the front with rest of our forces hiding in the woods.



Enemy medium cavalry chases Artaxerxes into the waiting arms of our spear units.





Enemy general attempts to flank our archers only to be greeted by a pike wall and an axe horde to the back.



It is around this time that more and more enemies are moving towards our left flank in the woods. Close to our centre are the enemy phalanxes. A unit of peltasts is ordered to harass and divide the enemy.



I should've reconsidered putting my peltasts out in the open in the face of enemy cavalry superiority. A quick rear charge by the Macedonians sends my skirmishers running.



There's been a phalanx pushing match in our centre for quite a while with lots of harassing on both flanks by both sides.

Two of our units are routing but others are doing better, with quite a bit of flanking going on. Speaking of flanking, the royal guard joins the fray as our pikes are fighting some cavalry.



We break the enemy centre and send their remaining phalangites running. This frees up quite a bit of troops. On our right flank Celto-Hellenes are able to tie up enemy heavy cavalry.



With enemy centre crushed, we have plenty of pikes to surround the royal guard with.



With only a few isolated pockets of resistance left, the Macedonians are virtually beaten.

Spoiler: 241 BC (click to show/hide)

Getai attempt to break the siege of Buridava.



This picture sums up the battle quite thoroughly. Turns out bare chest muscles, as chiselled as they may be, aren't spear proof.







Getai still have three provinces left, two for Holophernes and one for Artaxerxes near Byzantion.

The Getai army south of Buridava is mostly made of Thracian mercenaries. Those guys are pain incarnate when in melee.



Before the year is through, the Ptolemaioi pop in to say hi once more. The result is beyond predictable at this point.

Spoiler: 240 BC (click to show/hide)

Holophernes sweeps through the north, crushing all resistance and bringing Getic mountain stronghold of Sarmiszegethusa into Pontos' growing kingdom.





Artaxerxes applies pressure near the coastline.





Getai desperately try to retake Buridava.





In the winter they push on to Kallatis with a strong mercenary army. The defenders opt for a pitched battle.



I immediately go in for the kill and attempt to bring down Getic general.



It doesn't end well...



Getai general proved to be a lot tougher than I anticipated. With my cavalry wasting away, the Thracian mercenaries were free to just plough through my heavy infantry while phalanxes and thureophoroi were swamped on all sides.



Damn, I had just shipped those units in to join Holophernes' army.



What a way to end a year. At least Getai are down to one province.

Spoiler: 239 BC (click to show/hide)

Artaxerxes hurries to the rescue before Getai are able to breach the walls.



Unwashed barbarians are blooded but successfully avoid total destruction.



Eager to put an end to Getai menace, Artaxerxes faces Koson per Drobeta once more.

It must be mentioned how heavily our enemy relies on mercenaries at this point. Koryllos' army is made up entirely of mercenaries, barring his own bodyguard. Koson isn't faring much better, with core of his army being Thracians.



Our archers pincushion the unarmoured Gauls in Koryllos' army while our spears attempt to pin down the Getic generals. Though we fail to wipe out Koson before Koryllos' Gauls reach us, our superior numbers enable us to do some flanking and rout the arrow-thinned mercenaries. And the Thracians? Well, apply enough heat and even the devils themselves will melt away.

That blade has seen the death of many a Pontic warrior.



Peltasts took rather heavy casualties since it got a bit hectic at times and I just couldn't pull them out. Yet they stood their ground like proud Hellenes should.





Holophernes keeps pushing towards the last remaining Getai stronghold and wipes out a small Getic force on a river crossing.



Macedonian siege of Byzantion is driven out by the local garrison assisted by some Celtic reinforcements.

I'm a bit bummed that they just flat out ran. I know the AI does it when faced with particularly nasty odds, but I would've liked to test out my new Celtic troops against them.
Ah, maybe next time.



While Holophernes is holding a bridge he recently liberated from Getai control, he is attacked by the Getic forces from their last stronghold of Naissos.



So... they traded away siege defence for a chance of attacking me on a bridge? That's one way to end a nation, I suppose.

Spoiler: 238 BC (click to show/hide)

The year starts anew but Holophernes hasn't yet breached the walls of Naissos. We do have some action in the north, however. Nothos Kianos has been chosen to lead the northern army, currently consisting of 10 units of Scythian horse archers and a small core of heavier Pontic cavalry and any impromptu mercenary infantry. "When in Steppe, fight like Steppe." With that in mind he went and assaulted the coastal city of Tanais.

We are now at war with the Sauromatae.



Even enemy armoured horse archers fell to our massive arrow barrages.



Only ones who proved impervious to our arrows were the Sarmatian general and his bodyguard. It took the combined effort of all our melee capable troops to take his entourage down. These nomad bodyguards are definitely a step up from what we've seen thus far.



We are now one province short of controlling entirety of the Black Sea.





After the victory last year, the siege of Naissos is little more than a formality for ending Getai. Their last hurrah.



Defiant, they charge us the moment we crash open the main gate. Even with all their vigour and bloodlust, these brave wolves are cut down by our hired blades and cavalry's lances.



As we enter the gate, their nobility crashes against the rock that is our heavy infantry. Mercenary falxes that we've purchased prove their worth by brutally cutting down the high born horsemen.









While the Getai have been destroyed, Artaxerxes continues pushing back the Macedonians.



The expanse of our Kingdom at the end of 238 BC. Do note that anything outside our borders or Greece is effectively unknown to us at the moment.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We're at war with Macedon and Sauromatae at the moment. We have good relations with Hayasdan. We have had no conflict with either Epeiros or Koinon Hellenon, though I'm pretty sure it's a powder keg waiting to be ignited. KH has Epeiros' old capital, but the latter controls large parts of northern Balkans. Epeiros is also a protectorate of Romans, so we can expect their wrath if we end up fighting Epeiros any time soon. Our eastern border is quite secure. Macedonia holds four provinces, two within our easy reach. The rest would require us to stampede through KH. Not that it deters us, I'm sure.

I have already started building barracks level 4 in Ankyra, once it is done, I can start churning out Gallic elites (both heavily armoured spear/sword hybrids and naked fanatics). Once it's done, I'll compose one army entirely of Celtic troops trained in Ankyra and send them rampaging somewhere. Not quite sure where just yet. I also try to expand my northern HA army to take on more Sauromatae cities, but it's a tertiary priority at best for the time being.

And we're back with another update. Enjoy.

[Delta Foxtrot]

The Illustrated Histories of the Kingdom of Pontos

Chapter 15 - Celts and the multicultural Pontos

Spoiler: 237 BC (click to show/hide)

After the Battle of Naissos last year, I've spent quite some effort consolidating my hold in the former Getai lands. I've also been shipping troops to and from the eastern kingdom. Depleted units get shipped back for retraining while fresh troops are shipped back to the front.

By late 237 our armies are rolling against our foes once more. Artaxerxes leads an assault on Serdike, a settlement only a season's march away from Macedonian capital of Pella. His army has many auxiliaries from our subjects, Celto-Hellenic infantry from Galatia and traditional Greek style hoplites from western Anatolia.

Enemy garrison has probably the best levies in the game (hoplites & thracians), but they're still just that, levies. Two units of Royal Guard may or may not cause problems.



After our archers had depleted  their quivers, hoplites were sent in first. As a durable defensive infantry, they would be able to form a foothold and tie up most enemy units, allowing my more offensively designed infantry to pour in and kick ass.

Also spear bonus vs. cavalry.





Enemy general was pinned down after additional units protecting him had been pincushioned.





Just as planned. Once enemy units started surrounding our hoplites, some heavy infantry charged through the wall into enemy's flank. Combined with Macedonian general's death, defenders quickly broke and were cut down as they fled.







Year 237 BC ends with the acquisition of Serdike. Road to Pella lies open.

Spoiler: 236 BC (click to show/hide)

Holophernes wipes out some renegade Macedonians on his march to Pella.



Back east, in our border fort of Karkathiokerta, Arkathias fights off another Seleucid army.



Holophernes is intercepted by a Macedonian army from Pella. Plenty of elites and heavy cavalry in that army. Reinforcing the Pontic side are some Cretan archers and Thracian mercenary cavalry.



Holophernes positions his forces atop a hill and has his Cretans fire volley after volley upon the advancing Hellens.

As the Macedonians close in, their advance cavalry is decimated to a man after three simultaneous downhill charges by Pontic heavy cavalry and a very short melee.



Companion cavalry arrive just in time to receive similar treatment. Three fresh cavalry units hacking and slashing are too much for the famed Alexandrian cavalry.

Macedonian infantry takes heavy casualties from constant arrow and javelin fire.



With missiles used up and enemy cavalry decimated, Pontic defenders charge down upon the weary Macedonians. Some already fled as the javelins flew, few pike units still try to hold their ground but are quickly surrounded and hacked to pieces.







Serdike rebelled. The loss of the settlement itself isn't that bad. But the units:



FUUUUUUUU--

Decent-ish units on their own, those Illyrian bandit and levy troops are on the level of many freshly trained elites thanks to their chevrons and upgrades. God dammit. Well, you win some you lose some.

Thankfully there is an army close to Serdike. Both Pella and Serdike are besieged by the Herakleotes brothers.

Meanwhile the northern HA army thumps some rebels.

Spoiler: 235 BC (click to show/hide)

Holophernes takes on the Macedonian capital.





Macedonians are now limited to only two provinces, one in western Greece and the island of Euboea. With the loss of their capital they must be in a hurry to reassert themselves. They besiege the city of Athens.



The rebels in Serdike are starved to sally out.



Phalanxes hold the centre line, Greek hoplites guard the right flank, Celto-Hellenes on the left with heavy infantry in reserve.



Enemy units charge all over, though the focal point of their attack is on our right flank.







Casualties in our right flank mount high, so I send a few idle phalanxes and Celto-Hellenes to flank the Illyrians.





When the battle started we had ~220 hoplites. Now we have less than 80. The Illyrians have effectively obliterated our right flank. Thankfully I'm able to divert more phalanxes to flank those buggers. It's still a meat grinder though. Thanks to their gold chevrons they just won't flee.



Our once proud hoplites. Yep, that's all of 'em.



We lost almost three full units of troops to the Thracian peltast unit alone.



Only our archers and phalanxes survived more or less without devastating casualties. Most of the others will be needing merging/retraining.



Macedonians conquer Athens, pushing them up to three provinces. Koinon Hellenon have two provinces south of Athens, two north of Athens, and Rhodes.

It is my plan to sail down to Athens and conquer Macedonian cities there and then launch an assault on KH itself. This is assuming KH doesn't declare a war on me first.

Spoiler: 234 BC (click to show/hide)

Ptolemaioi are fought back at Kilikia-Syria and Seleucids at Karkathiokerta. Artaxerxes, nearing 50, is tasked to govern Pella with a hefty garrison and guard it against KH incursions. Holophernes prepares to sail with two armies to southern Greece.

Northern horse archer army lead by Nothos Kianos conquers an independent settlement of Gawjam-Bastarnoz just north of the old Getic lands.

Spoiler: 233 BC (click to show/hide)

KH besieges Athens while our invasion force besieges Chalkis. We are still neutral towards KH.



Up in the north things are more peaceful. The Sauromatae have been preoccupied with Hayasdan. This has given us enough breathing space to put our HA army up against the independent regions of the north. Further north or Northwest are much stronger tribes, but Gawjam-Bastarnoz gives us a decent stepping stone to stride further into the Baltic/Germania in the future, if we so wish. Some roads and local levies to bolster our armies will come in handy in case we move further into barbarian lands.



Holophernes captures Chalkis while KH fail to retake Athens.



In the following months Holophernes starts the siege of Athens, while a Pontic army is shipped to independent Crete to capture it.

Just another day's work at Kilikia-Syrian border.

Spoiler: Spring, 232 BC (click to show/hide)

Remember how I've been blabbering about that barracks I need in Ankyra? Well, I finished level 4 a while ago. Here's the result:



It's a largely Celtic army recruited from Ankyra. Only non-Celtic units are my Pontic general and a unit of Cappadocian cavalry. I wanted to create a Celtic army with a small Pontic cavalry core. I tried to get this to be a fairly balanced army. There's two units of naked fanatics and two units of noble infantry. Rest of the infantry are barracks level 2 and 3 stuff. Once I get a level 5 barracks I can train Gallic heavy cavalry into the mix, but for the time being I'll make do with Cappadocians and Gallic mediums.

As you can see in the picture above, I'm within striking distance of both Antioch and Edessa. I'm not quite sure if I want to attack the Ptolemaioi or the Seleucids. Feel free to pitch in if you have any preference.

I tried to not get too spammy with the pictures. Hope you like it.

[loose nut]

I don't know EB, but I'd tend to think the Ptolemaioi lands would be better for your cash flow, yes? Or maybe chomp off a bit of both – gobble up Cyprus and the Levant, and then decide whether to finish off the Ptolemaioi, turn east, or deal with the rest of the Greeks.

[USEC_OFFICER]

If you're going to take Crete, then you might as well go after the Ptolemaioi lands while you're at it, just to secure the eastern Mediterranean and help protect your holdings. Plus think of all that lovely trade income you'll get.

[Teneb]

Keep in mind that the ptolemaioi seem to have a full-powered stack there, while the selucids don't. Taking edessa might be easier, but that army may give you some trouble if you don't face it soon.