I assault Phra immediatly. This is no great victory, but it's my first battle and therefor worth posting.
My plan of attack was simple. I had two colums of infantry attacking the the northern entry points of the settlement while my Bactrian Cavalry attacked from the west.
A unit of Doryphoroi valiantly charged one of my pike syntagmas.
This felt more like a parade than a battle.
Although I need money, I also need a population to tax and peasants to levy to the battlefield. So I spared this settlement.
Although taking Phra helped my treasury a little, it didn't solve my deficit problem. But now I'm one step closer to conquoring Persia. Merv is pretty much isolated from reinforcements at this point. So I Painfully spent money on throwing up a wooden pallisade around Phra and recruiting a unit of peltasts for garrison duty. Then i sent my spy to scout for more Seleucid towns to sack in west and south. Merv poses not much of a threat considering it's caught between my garrison in the south and the Parthians to the north.
At the end of the turn, a young garrison commander was up for adoption. This was very convenient. Now I can have someone govern my new province while Diodates can continue his conquests.
My treasury is still in the red. Damn!
While scouting for more towns to sack, my spy spotted a Seleucid general marching twards my borders. I had Diodates meet him before he could raise more troops and cause too much trouble.
But this so called Greek decided to fight more like a Scythian than a good Hellene with his infantry. Amythaion had four units of Median Cavalry and one unit of Doryphoroi.
It's been a long while since I've taken screen shots while playing so my pics aren't all that great. Maybe after a few posts I'll be able to take some decent screens once I work off the rust.
I have always had trouble against horse archers. At first, I wasn't sure how deploy my troops. But I had a couple units of Bactrian Archers, that are just as effective at close range as they are at a distance. So I drew a simple phalanx flanked by light infantry and cavalry. I was fighting a fast moving enemy, so I knew my syntagmas would fair poorly if engaged in phalanx formation. Mobility seemed critical and I left the phalax formation off.
Once my army was depoyed and the battle to a start, the Seleucids where holding a small mound in the center of the field. I used a simple "rope-a-dope" tactic to flank their right in an effort to push them off the mound.
I knew engaging my phalangites against the evasive horse archers would only prolong the battle with higher casualties due to a horse archer's common skirmishing tactics. Seeing that my Bactrian Archers were quite capable of holding their own, I disabled their skirmishing mode and rushed the foward to engage the Medians. Hoping to lure them into a couter attack. The Medians took the bait and charged into my archers. My Bactrians held their ground while my phalangites moved in from behind and overwhelmed the enemy cavalry. Meanwhile, my cavalry and light infantry swung around the left flank in an effort to cut off an escape route for the Seleucids. Seeing there was no chance for victory, Amythaion withdrew the rest of his army from the field.
After being driven from the field, Amythaios took the remainder of his forces to Merv. This was a problem that i could not ignore. I wanted to leave Merv for the time being as a buffer against the Parthians. But now that the garrison is reinforced with horse archers and light infantry, it sullies my plans of moving south west. So I saw no alternative to attacking merv and eliminating the threat before it grew too strong.
I kept my army deploy on the western side of the town considering there were two entry points to exploit. This would also keep my units from being isolated. I drew a column for each entry with my phalangites up front with archers and light infantry to the rear. The plan was to bull doze my way through the city while my archers menace the enemy from a distance during the march. But enemy skirmishers and light infantry disrupted the course of this tactic and I had to engage my cavalry earlier than I wanted. They were met with enemy cavalry including Amythaion's bodyguard, which was destroyed along with Amythaion himself. Once Seleucid mobility was crippled, their light infantry was vulnerable to a juggernaught of pikes and spears.
Victory!
After taking Merv, I was presented with a hard choice to make. The population was already small and not rebellious, which would come in good use later in the campaign. But occupying the settlement would not help the deficit. I had an army to march and three other cities to maintain and I needed money. So I slew the popultion and looted town. The good thing about this is my treasury is back on track and Merv should stay peaceful for a while. But the bad thing about this is the population is almost nonexistant and will prove to be a problem when defending against a possible Parthian invasion. Merv is about three turns away from the homeland and will be hard to reinforce. Perhaps I could give it to Parthia....
Bactria
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Originally Posted by Webba
Hope you're ready for The Seleucid's revenge!
? Now that Bactria got on their feet firmly, what's next? Any expansion plan in mind?
