The pirates of Crete - a GCS AAR

[Zarax]

Chapter 1 - The Cretan way

Our island has known a great civilization in the past, before the gods struck it almost like far Atlantis.
Today we are little more than a polis and called bandits by many.

The greater poleis used to make us object of their mockery, making cretan the byword for threacherous action.
Now, after catastrophy befell them at the hand of the macedonians the last laugh may as well be ours.
Patras, mighty Sparta and rich Athens all fell to the might of Antigonos.

Their last rulers all fled here, once powerful men and now little more than refugees.



Our island is small and our polis of little wealth but the fate may still have a few twist in store for those that are willing to risk.

In the awakening chaos the cretan way may very well become the word for hope.

[Zarax]

Chapter 2 -The first gamble

Our treasury is small and our army pityful.
We cannot hope to win by relying on the hoplitai walls of our fathers alone.

Turning to the teachings of Iphicrates we decide to train some troops inspired by his peltastai who once beat the spartans.
Light troops able to fend off enemy skirmishers and levies, they are all we can afford at this moment.



It is also clear to us that alone we are hopeless and we need to turn some other poleis to our side.
Taking the newly trained troops and still enraged by their losses, the refugees from Sparta and Athens embark on what's left of the fleet. Their destination is another island, the small but wealthty Rhodes.



The island is lightly defended but the rhodian fleet takes its toll on our ships while also harassing our merchants.
It is more than our treasury can take and we are now in debt.



After a few months of siege our engineers managed to undermine a section of the enemy walls, making the city now reap for the assault.



Our hoplitai valiantly went for the breach while the peltasts borbarded the enemy with a deadly shower of javelins.



The battle for the city center was short but brutal.
Our hoplites assisted by the peltasts finally assailed the enemy bodyguard, but not before taking substantial losses.



Rhodes was finally ours, but the price of victory wasn't cheap.



Despite this, victory smiled on us and our first gamble worked, at least for now.

[Zarax]

Chapter 3 - building blocks

With Rhodes in our hands our treasury gained some breathing space.
Even more important, the wealth of the island meant that more troops were available for recruitment here.



For now, consolidating our base in the island takes priority also in face of the destruction of our fleet.
What's important now is that we feel we can recreate our past glory, this will be the first of many building blocks.

[Zarax]

Chapter 3 - new horizons

While we rebuilt our fleet news of even greater turmoil arrived.
Carthage and Rome went to war.



The carthaginians, sons of the phoenicians are an ancient people, as old as the greeks.
After reaching the lybian shores they proceeded to create a thalassocracy over western mediterranean, subjecting to their will lybians, numidians, nuragics and some iberian tribes.
They were often adversaries of the great polis of Syracuse and many times contested Sicily with them in a neverending struggle.

The romans on the other side are a relatively young people.
After beating the etruscans and submitting the latin tribes they recently had a war with Pyrrhus, king of Epirus and relative of megas Alexandros.
Their dominion is still small but possess great energy and a legendary stubborness even in face of defeat.

What will result is a titanic clash for certain, with the winner ready to be master of that part of the world.

In the meantime we took advantage of our enlarged coffers and added a new troop type to our army.
The thureophoroi are a new troop type and another result of the iphicratean reforms.

While they may not be the equivalent of hoplites in holding the line they are more mobile and their light armour allows them to sustain some melee combat.
Armed with javelins and spears they can be relied to deal against light infantry and cavalry.




In face of the new turmoil there has been great discussion and finally a decision has been reached:
Anatolia will be a safer course than attempting to retake Hellas.

The great variety of people and wealthy cities will help us to fuel a greater army and there's enough hellenes that will ensure a swift change of loyalties towards us. The decision however was not unanymous and many grudges are now present between the refugees.

Still, a new horizon is set before us, the city of Halicarnassos will be our next target.

[salaminomaxos79]

very nice aar so far, but what kind of settings are you playing?

[Zarax]

M/M
senate
loyalty on

[Zarax]

Chapter 4 - Halicarnassos

The new plan was set in motion.
While the athenians were left to defend Rhodes from surprise attacks, the spartans took the bulk of the army and crossed to Halicarnassos with the fleet.
Similar in size to Rhodes, the city was better defended.



Again, after the engineers managed to create a breach for the troops the assault started.
The first wave of defenders came to meet us on the streets, clashing against our hoplites.



The hoplites were now blocking the street to the center and a pushing match started.



The overwhelming numbers on our side made the enemy line collapse and soon the last defenders were desperately holding the city square.



Finally, in a conclusion worth of homeric tales, the two generals duels for the city.



The effectiveness of the new army is confirmed and Halicarnassos now lays in our hands.

[CaesarVincens]

Excellent stuff, Zarax.

[Zarax]

Chapter 5 - A twist of the fate

We barely had the time to celebrate and let the troops rest when the fate turned against us.
The mightiest empire in the world after Alexander's went to war against us and besieged Halicarnassos.



This is a far greater menace than the macedonians, truly dark times are upon us.
At the same time, not all is lost. Great power always attracts enemies, and as soon as we were attacked an embassy came to us.



The kingdom of Armenia pledged to help our cause, always hoping to weaken what they see as an usurper to their persian heritage.

Luck may not smile on us now, but one must always take care about the twists of fate.

[Zarax]

Chapter 6 - Desperate defence

Luckily what came after us was not the Basileus' army but rather a satrapal one.
Composed by a mix of anatolian greeks and easterners, it was mostly light infantry but far outnumbered our forces.
Even worse, it's core was composed by thorakitai.

These troops were a refined evolution of iphicratean tactics, mixing the staying power of hoplites with a better flexibility on the battlefied.
Heavy armour, javelins and spears makes these troops more than a match for our hoplites.



Soon the enemy brought its engines to assaut the walls.



To withstand the enemy's superior numbers it was decided to concentrate our defences in the town center, where the few accessways could be blocked by a sturdy wall of hoplites.




Wave after wave, the enemy was routed, unable to bring its numbers to advantage in the small streets.



Even the enemy general couldn't break the wall with his heavy cavalry


Eventually the rest of the army followed, giving us a great victory!

[Zarax]

Chapter 7 - unlikely friends

Our successful defence brought us notoriety and with that a new alliance.

The parthians were a former satrapy of the seleucid empire who recently rebelled from their rule.
A semi-nomad faction, they relied on horse archers and heavy cavalry to defeat their enemies in battle.



Shortly after, an ambassador from neighbouring Pontus did the same.
The pontics were another achmeneid successor, started their rise to power with little more than a few horsemen and made themselves masters of Amasia and Sinope.

Heirs of an ancient people like the persians, they have been humbled by Alexander's conquest of the former empire and now combines their familiarity with the various tribes of anatolia with a will to learn good ideas no matter the source, even the enemy.
A mix of persians and hellenes, they have the potential of doing great things under a good leader.



With different people becoming unlikely friends in unlikely circumstances and our flank covered by our traditional ally the ptolemaic empire we can now with some confidence at pushing forward.

[salaminomaxos79]

very nice updates

[Zarax]

Chapter 8 - Ephesus

With Leonidas left to guard Halicarnassos, Agis went to Ephesus.
It was a smaller polis but still very useful due to its greek population.



Agis took his bodyguard and manned the ram. As a true spartan, he will lead the assault.



After quickly overpowering the troops guarding the gate, a furious fight for the square started.



Soon, our troops delivers victory.

[Lycurgus the Lawgiver]

Nice AAR! Also good initiative to let people pick up writing AARs for XGM-XC.
One note to add: could you upload the pictures to the forum instead of linking to them?

Edit: Yes. Of course, hadn't thought of it from that point of view

[Zarax]

I could, but I think thumbnails are easier for slower lines...

[Conqistador]

will this beautiful AAR continue, Zarax?

[Zarax]

Possibly, if I find time...
Let's say that either I continue this or I work with the rest of the team in churning out the next version, you know which takes priority

[Conqistador]

ok man! great mod btw, +rep!

[Lycurgus the Lawgiver]

Please let it continue! One post in two weeks is enough to keep me hooked .

[Zarax]

It will continue after 3.32 is released, right now by files are too messed up to play properly.