[SS AAR] I am Skantarios! - Rebirth of the Eastern Roman Empire - **Complete**

[Skantarios]

The Laskaris Restoration of the Roman Empire, Part 3 (1511-1540 AD)

Conquest of Palestine, Egypt, and Arabia (1511-1517)

The Roman invasion of Palestine spearheaded by Emperor Skantarios met little opposition. It was obvious by this time that the Mamelukes were incapable of substantial resistance. They were barely able to garrison their cities with even minimal forces and totally unable to put together a competent field army for a counter-offensive.

Surging out of Jerusalem, Skantarios and the Imperial Army took both Kerak and Al-Aqaba in 1511 and then Tamya in 1512. Skantarios then plunged into the heart of Arabia and took the holy city of Medina in 1513. After the fall of the city, Skantarios ordered the entire populace put to the sword; the only survivors were a few hundred women and children that were later sold into slavery.

The fall of Medina was the death knell for the Mamelukes. Their failure to properly defend the second holiest city in Islam completely discredited the Mameluke ruling regime. The loss of prestige was so great that many of their cities rose up in rebellion.

Their once-mighty armies were defeated, their leadership was almost wiped out, and their cities were in open revolt. In 1513, the Egyptians were defeated by the Seljuk Turks and the Mamelukes were overthrown. The remaining cities of the former Egyptian Empire went over en masse to the Turks. The combination of Turkish and Egyptian territory gave rise to the newly named Ottoman Empire.

The transition to the new Ottoman government did not go smoothly. Many of the former Mameluke soldiers would not or could not serve in the new government. Many of their best warriors (including virtually all of their cavalry) simply abandoned the armies and went back home to their wild tribes in the hills. This loss of manpower left the Ottomans especially vulnerable in old Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula.

This turmoil in the new Ottoman Empire was fully exploited by the Romans. In 1514, Skantarios took and then burned Mecca, including the destruction of the Ka’Aba – the most holy site in Islam.

The adopted son of Skantarios, General Genessios, moved into Egypt proper with a small but capable army and secured the entire area by 1514. By 1515, the only remaining stronghold of the Muslims in the south was the distant fortress of Luxor which held out for a few years until taken in 1519.

Skantarios did not linger long in Arabia but started on the long march north to finish his conquest of the combined Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans were an empire in name only as their holdings were now confined to Armenia and a few possessions around the eastern shore of the Black Sea.

Spoiler for Skantarios and Islam: 

Skantarios and Islam

In the beginning years of Skantarios’s reign, he showed no particular disposition toward the Islamic religion. It was true that the Seljuk Turks were his chief enemy but he saw them as a political enemy, not a religious one. He did use much anti-Islam rhetoric but it was more as motivation for his troops and to improve his recruiting efforts rather than official state policy. However, the cumulative effect of his warfare against the great Islamic nations of the Seljuks and Egypt (particularly their part in the assassination of Theodoros) began to harden his attitude toward all Muslim nations and Islam in general. During the First Jihad (or Great Jihad as it was known at the time), Skantarios seems to have undergone a radical change in his attitude against all Muslims.

It was noted in many of his speeches at the time that the wars were now a matter of religion and not just politics. It had always been state policy to impose the Orthodox Christian religion upon those territories he conquered but more as a matter of gaining better control of the people rather than a full replacement of religious ideology. However, during the First Jihad and his subsequent campaigns, his stated intention became not just the overthrow of the Islamic governments but the subordination of the religion as a whole. He began to order the wholesale execution of all Muslim prisoners, the destruction of all mosques, the assassination of their imams, and the desecration of their holy sites.

Following the declaration of the Second Jihad to take Constantinople in 1506, Skantarios made the decision to utterly destroy Islam entirely. Such a notion even 20 years before would have seemed foolhardy in the extreme. By the early 1500’s, however, it was now possible and Skantarios pursued it with a frightening focus. This was brought to its highest (and most brutal) form when the Roman armies under his personal command took the holy cities of Medina and Mecca. Skantarios ordered them burned to the ground and had the civilian populace exterminated. He followed up this heinous act by banning all those of the Muslim faith from entering those shattered cities ever again.

His actions during the war earned him the never-ending hatred of all Muslims. This animosity continues up to this day.

The Conclusion of the Great Turkish/Ottoman War (1518-1525)

With the Egyptians eliminated, Skantarios now turned his full attention to the destruction of the Seljuk Turks/Ottomans. He pulled together the full might of the restored Roman Empire for a concentrated effort to reduce and destroy the Ottoman holdings in Armenia and around the Black Sea. The three main armies would be led by himself and the generals Genessios, and Vitos. Skantarios would strike deep to the east, take Mosul and then move into the Caucus Mountains to roll up the Ottomans along the Caspian Sea. Genessios (fresh off his conquest of Egypt) would come up through the western side of the Caucuses and along the eastern end of the Black Sea. Vitos (fresh off his own victory over the Second Jihad) would travel across the Black Sea to the Crimea and then move along the coast to link up with Genessios at Kutaisi.

The Ottomans were utterly unprepared to fight off the Romans. They were still trying to consolidate following the overthrow of the Mamelukes. Their armies were weak and disunited and their leadership was divided. The turmoil was so great that many of their cities were betrayed from within upon the approach of the Romans. The Roman agents were especially adept at making contact with disaffected guards or Muslim captains.

Skantarios took some time to move north from Arabia but was finally in position to attack again in 1516 when he took Qarisiya. He followed up that victory by taking Mosul in 1518 and thereby secured his entrance into Armenia. Skantarios made short work of the cities along the eastern edge of the Ottoman Empire and took, in succession, Yerevan (1520), Tabriz (1521), and Baku (1522).

Generals Genessios and Vitos were similarly successful. Vitos took Caffa in 1519, Tmutarakan in 1520, and Azaq in 1522. Genessios had a somewhat more difficult time but still succeeded in taking Diyarbakir in 1519 and Kutaisi in 1522. The only significant resistance put forward by the Ottomans was outside Diyarbakir in 1519 and 1520. However, these were easily brushed aside in a series of mountain battles that saw the last Ottoman field armies destroyed.

The last remaining stronghold of the Ottomans was the ancient fortress city of Tbilisi. Skantarios and Genessios combined their efforts and took the city in 1525 where both the Ottoman Sultan and his heir were killed. The loss of their last city and the extermination of the royal line marked the end of the Turks/Ottomans and brought to a conclusion the great wars between the Romans and the Turks which had lasted since 1450.

The defeat of the Turks was a milestone for Skantarios. He had been on continuous campaign from the age of 23 to now age 60. The years of war weighed heavily on him and he decided now was the time to step back and retire to Constantinople. This was something of a controversial decision at the time as the Roman Empire was by no means at peace. There was a state of war between them and many of the great powers of the world including Persia, the Mongols, Venice, Sicily, the Papacy, and (most recently) Novgorod. However, with the Roman Empire now on firm footing, the economy booming, and the army strong and under capable leadership, Skantarios decided to retire from active campaigning and return to Constantinople.

Spoiler for National Boundaries 1525: 

National Boundaries 1525 AD.

Spoiler for Skantarios and the Nobles: 

Skantarios and the Roman Nobility

The political intrigue of the Roman nobility played no small part in the decay of the Empire over the past several hundred years. Despite numerous powerful and antagonistic neighbors, the Romans lost vastly more soldiers fighting other Romans than they did foreign enemies. It was political infighting that brought the Turks into Europe and it was political intrigue that had brought the untimely end to dozens of Emperors in the past. In fact, it was far more common for an Emperor to be killed by a pretender to the throne than it was for them to die of old age or in battle. Though Skantarios and Theodoros came to power in a palace coup (just as so many had done before), they determined that they would not suffer the same fate as their predecessors.

Both Theodoros and Skantarios had resolved that they would not suffer the nobility and their intrigues like in years past. They went about this in several different ways. First, by 1450, there was not much left of the noble families by to compete with. Their coup in the palace and the killing of “the Twelve” had cleared away almost all remained of the nobility left in the city. Second, they held power very close throughout their reign. The only men given command were either close family or personal retainers known for their loyalty. Third, Skantarios kept most of the Pronarii (i.e. nobles) fighting in the army (and taking high casualties) rather than leaving them idle in the newly conquered estates. Finally, Skantarios maintained a large and efficient network of spies (and assassins) in the Imperial employ who not only worked in foreign theaters but also back in Roman territory. He definitely followed a policy of “trust but verify” when it came to his people.

All of these precautions were hardly necessary. Skantarios’s success on the battlefield (and the cachet it brought) and the fanatical loyalty of the army virtually assured that no pretender dared rise up against him. Even so, his brother Vasileios remained in Constantinople not only to run the administration but also to keep watch on the nobility and cast a wary eye for pretenders

Skantarios in Retirement (1526-1529)

Skantarios’s time in retirement was marked by frequent travels, a reorganization of the tax system, redistribution of the armies, and several diplomatic coups. The most significant of his political successes was the exchange of territory between the Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary. Called the Romano-Hungarian Land Settlement of 1529, the Romans exchanged most of their territorial gains in the north (taken at the expense of Lithuania and Novgorod) in return for a large swath of territory on the eastern Adriatic and in the Balkans.

Spoiler for Map of Land Exchange: 

Roman Eastern European Holdings pre-Romano/Hungarian Land Settlement of 1529.


Roman Eastern European Land Holdings after the Settlement.

However, Skantarios did not have an easy time in retirement. The politics of the court and the lush trappings of the palace were a source of constant frustration and difficulty. Shortly after his arrival, he dismissed over half of the Imperial household staff and a great number of court officials. After living so long with the army, it proved nearly impossible to adjust to the subtleties of court life and the idleness of being a “stay at home” Emperor.

His personal life also proved difficult as he struggled to restore his relationship with Empress Maria. She and Skantarios had spent virtually no time together for the past 30 years and their wildly different lifestyles and personalities did not mesh well together. The accounts of the time show that, though they put on a public face of unity and remained loyal to each other, there was significant tension between the two.

Skantarios’s personal pursuits were held up to private mockery (most notable was his failed attempts at gardening) which led him to spend long stretches away from the capital. It was during one his inspection trips to the new holdings ceded by the Hungarians when he learned of the death of his brother Nikodimos and the destruction of the Roman field army by Papal forces.

Spoiler for Papal Relations: 

Relations with the Papacy

In the early 1440s and 1450s, the Papacy lent a sympathetic ear to the plight of the Romans. Pope Eugene IV had even called for a Crusade to assist both the Hungarians and the Romans in 1443-44. However, the so-called “Crusade of Varna” was crushed by the Turkish Sultan Murad and the Papacy’s enthusiasm for further religious wars was greatly tempered. From then on, the Pope would not move materially (i.e. money/troops) against the Seljuks for fear of reprisals. They were, however, generally sympathetic to their Christian brothers in Constantinople.

The beginning of the downward spiral in Papal-Roman relations began shortly after Theodoros took power. One of his first acts was to halt any further talk of the reunification of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. The previous conciliatory dialogue and agreements between the Papacy and the Palaiologan Emperors was now utterly rejected.

When Skantarios evicted the Venetians from Greece and Crete in 1451, the Papacy lodged formal complaints and called for the return of the land immediately. There were wide-spread rumors of bribery directed against the Venetians as more than one Cardinal in Rome was opening accepting large sums of money to plead the Venetians case to the Pope. Regardless, the Papal directives were rebuffed out of hand by both Skantarios and Theodoros which greatly angered Pope Nicholas V. The Romans were now defying the Pope in both spiritual and temporal matters.

A compliant and weak Roman Empire was something the Pope could live with (perhaps even support) – a resurgent and defiant Roman Empire was simply not acceptable.

Following the conquest of Crete and the continued Roman victories against the Turks, the Pope switched from neutral hostility to open war. Pope Nicholas sent fleets to blockade the Roman ports to strangle trade and openly called for Catholic support to restore lost Venetian territory. While falling short of an actual call of Crusade, the Pope’s open aggression against the Romans greatly encouraged the Catholic nations of the region – most notably the Normans of Sicily. In essence, the Pope was signaling that the Roman Empire was “fair game” for any who wanted to invade.

When the Sicilian invaders were continually thrown back and the Venetians lost their holdings around Durazzo and Ragusa, the calls for aid from Venice became more stringent. However, the Pope continued to resist calls for an actual Crusade against the Romans for fear of how that call would be perceived by the other great Catholic nations. The problem was that the Romans were engaged in a great war against the Muslims. The neutral Catholic nations were profiting handsomely at the opening of markets to the east and the weakening of the Muslim nations – especially the Moors. Therefore, they were not eager to see this new-found wealth and trade come to an end; especially in some far-flung war.

The Pope put continual pressure on the Hungarians to heed the call for action against the Romans. However, the Hungarians had profited too much from the resurgence of the Roman Empire and the removal of the Turks. They had strong bonds of marriage and trade with the Romans and, although were not openly defiant of the Pope, did nothing to advance his cause either. Further, the Hungarians also made it known that they would not allow any other Catholic nation to send forces through their territory to attack Greece or Thrace which left only the tenuous hope of a sea invasion – something that the great Catholic powers were loathe to do.

In the face of continued Hungarian resistance, the Pope authorized the Germans (Holy Roman Empire) to make war on Hungary in a Papal sanctioned war to punish the Hungarians and open up avenues for a land attack against the Romans. The Germans met considerable early success in this endeavor but were thrown back by the great Roman General Benedek Buzad in a series of battles around Kassa and Esztergom. The failure of the twin Sicilian and German offensives closed most military options to the Papacy and they were then rumored to be resorting to alliances with Egypt and even the Turks to counterbalance the growing power of the Romans.

Spoiler for War in Italy: 

War in Italy 1516-1529

From the time the Romans re-established control of Greece, they were continually plagued by Norman Sicilian invasions around the Adriatic coast. From 1480-1510, Norman armies repeatedly invaded and assaulted Roman possessions around the fortress of Arta. These invasions amounted to little more than periodic raids but they had the cumulative effect of devastating the coastal areas, choking off trade in the Adriatic, and keeping Greece under constant threat. The continual threat of invasion and naval blockade hung over the Romans and caused no small amount of anger at the unrelenting Norman, German, and Papal aggression. To counter that threat and restore Roman prestige in the West, Emperor Skantarios gave permission for his brother, Lord Nikodimos, to gather an army and invade Italy in 1512.

Nikodimos was a controversial choice to lead this invasion. Despite his high status, he was known primarily as an administrator and had never before led troops in combat. Even during all the fighting in Greece, he was kept as governor of Thessalonica and did not participate in any of the dozens of battles in the area. However, he was a trusted noble and commanded some respect as third in line for the throne as well as his close association with Skantarios.

The invasion got off to a good start with the capture of Bari in southern Italy in 1514 and the subsequent capture of Ancona in 1516. However, the Normans soon counter-attacked and Ancona was retaken in 1521 and the Roman garrison was wiped out. Nikodimos, although not present, was blamed for the loss of Ancona and, though he captured Ancona again in 1525, his reputation had taken a blow and his leadership was brought into question.

Aware of his tenuous position and the relative weakness of his forces, Nikodimos adopted a passive stance in Italy despite repeated urgings from Constantinople for more aggression. It was only due to the military brilliance of Nikodimos’s adopted son, General Isidoros, that the Romans were able to hold onto southern Italy in the face of repeated attacks from the Normans.

The situation finally came to a head in 1528 when Skantarios ordered Nikodimos to go on the offensive or lose his command. With the threat of removal hanging over him, Nikodimos marched out of Ancona and took the lightly defended city of Bologne in 1529. He then continued west to Pisa but went down to heavy defeat when his besieging army was attacked by a superior Papal army and utterly destroyed in the fall of 1529. Nikodimos himself died in the battle which marked the first loss of an important Roman general in battle in over 60 years.

Skantarios took the news of his brother’s death very hard and publicly blamed himself for the loss.

Spoiler for National Boundaries 1530: 

National Boundaries in 1530

Skantarios and the Papal/Sicilian Wars (1530-1535)

The disaster in Italy brought Skantarios out of retirement and he led the Imperial army across the Adriatic into Italy in early 1530. He moved with his customary speed and made a lightening march across Greece and took ship over the Adriatic. He then moved immediately to join up with the only surviving Roman general on the peninsula, Isidoros, outside of Naples. In late 1530, the Romans assaulted the city and killed King Bernardo of Sicily.

Perhaps it was fitting that the last great battles of the long career of Emperor Skantarios took place in Italy – the birthplace of the Roman Empire. For the past 500 years, Italy had been loosely governed by a collection of city-states and minor kingdoms made up of varied ethnic groups and divided loyalties. Alliances came and went in dizzying fashion. Regimes were overthrown and then restored in a matter of months. The rich banking and trading families of Genoa, Pisa, Venice, and Milan dominated northern Italy and cut them up into their own spheres of influence.

That situation began to change when the major powers of Western Europe began their own expansionist efforts which soon stretched into Italy. By the early 1500’s, both Spain and France had established protectorate zones in Northern Italy – including the expulsion of Genoa’s ruling families and the last vestiges of German control. By 1530, the only remaining city-state was Venice and then only confined to the city itself with but a tenuous hold over the surrounding countryside. France was directly in control of Milan and Spain held Genoa.

At the center of this apparent chaos was the Papacy. Not content with a strictly spiritual realm, the Popes exercised direct temporal rule over the central part of Italy and indirectly ruled the rest. The power of the Popes had waned in the past century but they still held enormous sway over the common people and the rulers of Western Europe paid homage to him as their overlord in name if not often in fact.

Skantarios now determined to end the Papal influence not only in Rome but in all of Europe. Leaving Isidoros and the survivors of the Army of the West in Naples to recover, Skantarios moved east and defeated the last Sicilian army in Italy in 1531. Later that same year, he moved on Rome itself and put it under siege.

Pope Nicolaus was in residence in Rome at the time and put out a call for all the Papal armies to gather at the capital to destroy Skantarios and lift the siege of Rome. As the disparate Papal forces gathered in 1532, Skantarios slipped away from the city and left only a skeleton force manning the siege lines. He then fought a series of three battles around Rome that saw the utter destruction of Papal military power and culminated with the death of Pope Nicolaus in individual combat with Emperor Skantarios. With all the Papal forces defeated and the Pope killed, Skantarios was able to take Rome with little effort.

The death of the Pope and the seizure of Rome had huge repercussions throughout Western Europe. All of the Catholic nations (save Hungary) publicly denounced the act and virtually all pledged their military support to turn back the Roman tide and restore Papal authority. The first to act were the two greatest powers of Western Europe, Spain and France. Within a year, they both began gathering large armies and sent them into Northern Italy.

The French and Spanish War (1536-1539)

The first Spanish army came from Sicily (a holding of Spain since the 1440s). This was an immense army and virtually stripped the island of troops. However, they were poorly led and Skantarios and the Imperial Army easily defeated them in 1533 near Bari. Emperor Skantarios seized on this victory by dispatching General Isidoros to Sicily who took the whole island following a series of battles in 1534 against the much weakened Spanish garrison forces.

Skantarios then moved north along the Adriatic coast to Venice. The Romans and Venetians fought a huge battle on the Italian side of the Venetian lagoon where the Romans won a decisive victory. The entire Venetian army was destroyed and most of the city’s nobility was killed. Skantarios then took the city with little opposition and ended the Venetian dynasty forever.

While Skantarios had been fighting the Venetians, the French had rallied their forces and committed no fewer than five separate armies into Italy. They invaded the former territory of the Venetians and blocked the land routes out of Venice while also reinforcing the small Spanish garrison in Genoa.

Before the French could launch their attack on Venice, Skantarios acted first. Displaying his usual speed and operational maneuver, Skantarios slipped out of Venice by sea and then moved south of the Po River to surprise the Spanish garrison at Genoa in 1535. This battle was particularly significant as it marked the beginning of open warfare between the Romans and the French. It was also significant in that, by declaring war, both the Genoese (vassals of France) and the Rus used this as their pretext to break their treaties with the Romans and declare for the French.

Skantarios followed up the victory at Genoa by seizing Milan from the French later that same year. The French armies in Italy were now trapped between the Roman garrison at Venice and the Roman Imperial field army at Genoa.

In 1536, Skantarios moved against those French armies in northern Italy and defeated all three of them in separate encounters. The next year, King Godefroy of France led another invasion of Italy at the head of a large, professional army. However, like the previous French armies, Godefroy went down to heavy defeat to the Romans and was himself killed by Skantarios. In the course of three years, the French had lost five armies in Italy and had their king killed in battle.

Skantarios realized that his position in Italy would not be secure without holding the passes through the Alps. Therefore, late in 1536, he led his army north into the Alps against the Genoese at Innsbruck. In a huge battle, the Romans were completely victorious and the entire Genoese royal family was all killed. Skantarios would spend the rest of that year and a good portion of the next reducing the strong fortress at Innsbruck (who declared independence and refused to join the Romans). By the summer of 1537, he was prepared and launched an attack on Innsbruck and took it in a very bloody assault.

Having secured the eastern passes in the Alps, Skantarios descended back into the North Italian Plain. The Spanish and French had used the past year to regroup and both committed large armies to take back Milan. Skantarios destroyed them both in the summer of 1538 and executed all the prisoners.

The following spring, he led the army south to Pisa (under siege for the past four years) and negotiated a face-to-face meeting with Pope Victor. The two great rulers of the East (Skantarios) and the West (Pope Victor) met just outside the walls of Pisa with no retainers in attendance.

The exact details of the meeting are in dispute as the official Vatican and Roman records contradict each other. What is clear is that following the meeting, Pope Victor declared himself and the Papal States as vassals of the Roman Empire and issued edicts declaring an end to hostilities between the Romans and the Spanish/French alliance. The Treaty of Pisa also formally recognized the union of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches with the Patriarch of Constantinople being the titular head of the Unified Christian Church. For the Romans, Skantarios pledged an end to westward expansion for “as long as the peace shall last with the Latin nations of Western Europe.” This declaration has gone down in history as “The Peace of Skantarios.”

In the fall, Skantarios also arranged for the marriage of his niece to the heir to the French kingdom in exchange for a formal alliance and the French ceding the important stronghold of Bern in the Alps. By gaining Bern, the Romans now possessed all of the major passes into Italy and gained a measure of security for the peninsula against future invasions.

It was enroute to take possession of Bern that Emperor Skantarios was killed during a minor earthquake in the Alpine passes south of the fortress. In February of 1540, he and his horse fell from a high pass and plunged some thousand feet into a snow filled crevasse. Despite an extensive search by the Romans, the body of Skantarios was never recovered. The search for his remains was the focus of many historians and adventure seekers but, to date, they have all been fruitless.

Spoiler for National Boundaries 1540: 

National Boundaries 1540 AD.

The Legacy of Skantarios

The passing of Skantarios marked the end of an important era for the Romans. In his lifetime, he had restored the Empire from the brink of destruction, reclaimed the entire Eastern Empire (including the Holy Lands), subjugated enormous additional territory in the east, subordinated the Catholic Church, and drove the Muslims to virtual extinction.

The peace that Skantarios established before his death would not long survive his passing. The Spanish and French both chafed from their defeats and loss of territory in Italy and Africa and seized on Skantarios’s death to renounce their treaties and renew warfare with the Romans. Although the Empire was many, many times stronger than when Skantarios came to power, it was still beset with enemies on all sides and had wars raging on multiple fronts. The Roman’s struggle to keep the newly won territories, fight back invaders, and continue the reconquest of the old Empire would be the true measure of the Legacy of Skantarios.

[Skantarios]

The Tactics of Skantarios

Spoiler for A Skantarian Battle: 

A typical “Skantarian” battle involved five distinct stages.

Spoiler for Map Legend: 

First Phase (Spread the battlefield), he would spread out the battlefield by deploying his horse archers to the wings, light cavalry in the middle, and then two or more wings of heavy cavalry (if available) behind the light cavalry. Ideally, his forces would form a wide arc with the opposing army in the center.


Second Phase (Reduce the enemy’s mobility and kill/remove their leadership). The horse archers would fly to the flanks (or even rear) of the enemy army and concentrate their fire on the enemy’s heavy and light horse to disrupt their formations and limit the enemy’s mobility. A secondary target was always the enemy’s general if the opportunity arose.


Third Phase (Destroy the enemy’s missile troops). When the enemy’s ranged troops would move to engage the horse archers, the signal was given for the light horse to charge forward into the lightly armored archers and crossbowmen (or gunners) and annihilate them. The light horse often suffered the greatest casualties during this stage and the enemy horse and pole-armed troops would engage quickly, so the light horsemen were drilled to break off the engagement at the first sign of resistance. If the enemy’s horse pursued too closely, the Roman heavy horse would descend on them and achieve local numerical supremacy.

Once the enemy’s ranged forces were depleted or destroyed, the mounted archers would continue their fire until all their arrows had been expended. Many battles did not progress much farther than this third stage.

Fourth Phase (Destroy the infantry). At this point, ideally the enemy would be deprived of their horsemen and, perhaps, their leadership. Skantarios would then deploy the heavy cavalry wings of his army on multiple fronts. When the enemy infantry would turn to face one wing, they were vulnerable to a flank or rear attack by another wing. It was in this phase that the independent initiative of his captains came into play as they would charge into the rear of the enemy spears or pikes and then withdraw quickly. As the enemy turned to face the charging cavalry on one front, they would be assaulted by another. This not only caused horrendous casualties amongst the enemy foot soldiers but also allowed the original wing to disengage more quickly and take fewer casualties. It was a rare and disciplined army that could withstand these successive attacks on multiple fronts without breaking.




Fifth Phase (Pursuit). The final phase of every battle was the pursuit of retreating forces. Skantarios was known for being ruthless in chasing down enemy soldiers attempting to flee. His cavalry would run them down without mercy and slay or capture as many as they could either during the battle or immediately thereafter. These prisoners would be useful for ransom to gain money or would be executed to instill fear in the enemy (or denude an area of defenders). It was typical for his battles that few, if any, of the enemy would make it off the battlefield alive.

There were, of course, variations to Skantarios’s methods especially when it came to dealing with large numbers of enemy horse archers. In this case, he preferred to use his own foot archers to kill the enemy’s horse archers or selected a battlefield where his own horse archers had a distinct height or ranged advantage over the enemy. Skantarios also utilized battlefield artillery (especially the Mangonel) to further increase his ranged advantage and negate the enemy’s missile troops or attrit their best infantry.

The decentralized tactics and fluid maneuvering were something not seen since the Mongol invasions of Genghis Khan and his great general Subatai. They were just as effective for the Romans against the Turks and the Egyptians in this century as they had been in years past for the Mongols.

Spoiler for Animated Battle: 

[Karnage]

Great to see you back my friend, great update and at a crucial time , I am sure, just like all of us, you must have been waiting for TWC to return

[Dan the Man]

Awesome! So incredibly awesome!

I'll just be stealing these for my future campaigns, okay?

[ER5013]

How good do you have to be to pull off those tactics? I'll still probably try and steal those tactics and try to use them effectively. BTW where does your infantry fit into all of this?

Edit: How did you get to enter peace talks with 2nd pope using an army? I need to know how to do that if my diplomats suck.

[Skantarios]

The Last Update

For this last post in the AAR, I will step away from the story and just speak as the author. It will be some of my remembrances, favorite/least favorite moments, and some statistics as well as some concluding thoughts.

My Favorite Moments in the Story –
1) The First Jihad – Multiple battles every turn, deep odds, and engaging story; made for a fun time in the game and the AAR.

2) Battle of the Bosporus – Really the closest I came to having Skantarios defeated and killed. Couldn’t retreat and the odds were very much against me; a real challenge. Came so, so close to losing that battle but now I think it was my best battle in terms of game-play and story.

3) The first twenty or so turns. The starting position is so hard and I could have lost Constantinople on numerous occasions. Victory was never a sure thing but being so close to failure and thinking of how I would proceed should I suffer a major setback was exciting. For those looking for a challenge, the Byzantines on VH/VH in the 1450 Campaign is certainly it.

4) Raid into Egypt and Conquest of Arabia. Something to be said for plumbing the dark side of a personality and trying to show what wrath and Nemesis can mean.

5) The Three Battles of Rome and Personal Combat with the Pope. Reclaiming Rome for the Roman Empire was significant in many ways. The tricky battles in order to do it and the story of the single combat with the Holy Pontiff only made it that much better.

6) The Entire 1539 Post. The last acts of Skantarios where he turns away from war and looks to his legacy. Oh, and the vassalage of the Pope.

7) The series of battles with the French, Venetians, and Genoese in 1536-1537. Some huge battles against bad odds but with a great army.

8) Taking of Tbilisi and ending the war with the Turks. About the best I can write a battle and it also marked the conclusion of a long war.

9) Vitos collecting princesses (“disgraced a Polish and a Kievan princess as young man; eventually married one of the daughters of Skantarios). Don’t really know why I liked this so much but it seemed like the creators of the game were having a bit of fun with this part of the game and it translated into some smiles when it happened.

10) The Many Monikers of Skantarios. The game kept changing his name throughout the campaign. During the course of the AAR, he was variously called:
- Skantarios Laskaris
- Skantarios the Conqueror
- Skantarios the Mighty
- Skantarios the Tyrant
- Skantarios the Merciless
- Skantarios the Silver-Tongued
- Skantarios the Cunning
- Skantarios the Killer
- Skantarios the Brave


My Favorite Non-Story Moments:
1) Having a “TV Tropes” page done on the AAR by Argeus the Paladin. I'm still very humbled and happy that he took the time and effort to put this together. I've gone back to it many times and spent far too much time linking to other pages on the site.

2) The review of the AAR in The Critic's Quill by Kallum.

3) When I had the AAR blatantly plagiarized by another site and had to call the guy out. Just. Too. Funny. It’s a shame but the original thread (and the back and forth with the “author” and the other members after discovery) has now been deleted (at my request). You can still see some of the discussion on it here when I complained to the sites moderators. It’s really too bad. I would have let the guy use the AAR if he had just asked.


Least Favorite Moments:
1) Going back and finding all the errors that I made writing. I still go back and edit some of the posts when I find stuff. Could have really used an editor.

2) Fighting with the forum to get the posts formatted as I wanted them. A couple of times I had to scrap whole posts and redo them because of “phantom” formatting problems. Extra line breaks, spacing, double or triple spoilers, randomly changing fonts, etc. Very, very frustrating and cost me more than a few hours.

3) Losing more than one post when I took too long to edit. When I hit submit, my log in had timed out. Hours lost. Still, I learned a valuable lesson and made sure not to repeat the same mistake.

4) The numerous crashes that happened during battles. SS is a pretty stable mod overall but some of the battles had to be fought a couple of times (or just abandoned entirely) because of a crash or multiple crashes – not funny, just painful.

A little while back, I made up my "Ten Rules for Writing an AAR." For those AARtists out there, you may be interested in learning some of the lessons that only came to me after painful failures.

Funniest battle (not included in story): “The Battle of the Flying Castle”.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

FLYING CASTLES!! (or, what happens when your troops are campaigning in the land of opium poppies.)

I know it was just a glitch in the SS campaign map but still quite funny. Thought about including that as a letter to Skantarios but couldn’t come up with the right comedic angle (not really my forte). There were a couple of other battles where the game had a glitch and the armies could not deploy properly (mountainous terrain mostly) and so I just had to stare at the other army until time ran out. Frustrating and funny…okay, mostly just frustrating.

The Things I Would Do Differently:
1) Choose a different profile name for myself. Having both my forum name and the name of the main character the same was too confusing. It even confused me sometimes. Also, I worried that it might lead to people thinking I was talking about myself when I meant the character. Definitely didn’t put enough thought into that when I did it.

2) Take better notes. Some of the earlier posts were a little rough and I tended to play too far ahead. Going back to figure out what I had done didn’t always work as well as I had hoped. Also, I missed several important screen shots that should have been included (starting battle card and results, mostly).

3) Start cropping pictures from the beginning. Too many of the early posts were just straight screen shots with a lot of extraneous detail. Now, when I see people do that, I think it is lazy. So, I think I was lazy then.


Statistics!

Skantarios specific stats (does not include battles fought by other generals)
Battles won by Skantarios: 95
Battles lost by Skantarios: 0
Number of enemies killed by Skantarios’s army in battle: 84,715
Number of troops lost by Skantarios’s army in battle: 9,025
Kill ratio: ~ 9 to 1
Number of civilians killed by Skantarios during sacks and exterminations: ??? (estimate is ~140,000)
Number of cities taken by Skantarios personally: 45
Number of cities exterminated: 6 (Alexandria, Cairo, Damietta, Gaza, Medina, Mecca)
Number of cities sacked: 31
Number of cities taken by others: 40
Number of cities traded/given away in diplomacy: 9
Number of cities gained by trade/diplomacy: 5
Number of cities purchased: 1
Regions under control in 1450: 2
Regions under control in 1540: 91 (including Pisa)

Spoiler for Beginning and Ending World Maps: 

The world in 1450 AD.


The world in 1540 AD.

Spoiler for Animated World Maps from 1450-1540: 

Story Stats:
Number of new content posts: 77
Number of pictures used in the AAR: 3,811
Number of posts in thread: 805
Total number of page views: 53,000 (and counting)

Well, this marks the end of the AAR as far as new content. I will still respond to inquiries and other input in the thread but I will be posting no more content relating to the story.

For the future, I am in the planning and early stages of writing two new AARs. The first will be the promised “Legacy of Skantarios.” That will continue this campaign through the wars with Spain and then France. I haven’t played it out or even written much content (just a couple thousand words at present) but there is still a story to be told there as the Roman Empire moves on after the death of Skantarios. I will first copy and paste all the updates from this thread so that the story will be consolidated and progress as it should. Then, I will use the historical posts I did at the end as the prologue to the story to illustrate "what came before." I will try to get this going as the summer progresses.

The second AAR I have in mind will be something very different. The working title is: "A Tale of Pagan Vengeance." I don’t want to give too much away but I came up with (what I think is) a good idea for both a character and a story. It won’t have the huge scope of this one but should make for a decent AAR. It will be mostly story driven but will include the requisite battles (and pics). It will be kind of dark but, then again, so were the Middle Ages. I am still trying to decide on the Mod I will use. Right now, I am thinking SS again but I may look around and investigate some others before I begin. No definite start date but I am already writing content (in a general sense) and I have a pretty good idea for the entire arc.

Hope you will still be around to read them when I get it going.

Let me just say that it has been a great experience doing this AAR. The commitment of time and effort for it far exceeded my most dire estimates but I am happy how it finally turned out. The feedback I received from the readers really kept me going and knowing that you enjoyed the story made it all worthwhile.

So, the last thing I want to say is thank you for the comments and thank you for reading!

Hope to start another adventure soon!

[ER5013]

I have 2 questions about the Legacy of Skantrios AAR.

1. Are you going to go for English Territory?
2. Which general's perspective is this going to be written in?

[Dan the Man]

Excellent work!
How did you make the animated maps?

[dezikeizer]

Great job, though it's very sad to see this over. Though it was a hell of a ride. Oh, a little tip for logging out before you post thing. There's a little box there when you log in that says remember me. Always make sure that box is checked, because that way there's no log out timer.
Just a few things:

were incapable substantial resistance

I think you meant: were incapable of substantial resistance.

and securing his entrance into Armenia

The tense seems to be thrown off a bit there. Perhaps that should be: and secured his entrance into Armenia.

out of the Venice

I think you meant: out of Venice.

and kill remove

That would probably make more sense as: and kill or remove.

[Soulstrider]

"A Tale of Pagan Vengeance." hmmmm I smell a Lithuania AAR.

Once again I'll congratulate you for your great job, the best AAR I've read so far.

[KDK]

Great AAR!!

[Karnage]

Well done my friend. I cannot wait to see a Skantarios Legacy AAR. You have my support my friend

[Skantarios]

Skantarios the only word I can use to describe this is EPIC! I started reading your AAR a few weeks ago after returning home and when I finished I had the wife read it and now she is hooked on playing MTW2 so a big thanks and REP to you good sir.

High praise, indeed! Very glad that both you and your wife have found it so enjoyable. The game really lends itself to AARs and I've just tried to bring that out. Glad to have you as a follower.

I've finally finished reading this AAR after a period of about a month or so. It has been a great read, one that I have truly enjoyed. I honestly thought when I started reading it that I would get bored before the end due to its great length. However, I have been proved wrong. This is a truly epic AAR, a wonderful piece of work, and all the time put into it really shows through with the quality of the writing. I'm also liking these bonus updated from a historian's perspective. It adds a new dimension to the story. +rep

Thank you for your very kind words. I've really enjoyed your AARs although I must admit that I haven't had a chance to read them all the way through. You have a great style of writing and have really put in a great effort for your multiple AARs.

How about a short epilogue where you defeat the Persians and capture all of Arabia?

As Thokran indicated in his follow-up post, the conclusion of the Muslim wars will be left for the sequel AAR, "Legacy of Skantarios."

Great to see you back my friend, great update and at a crucial time , I am sure, just like all of us, you must have been waiting for TWC to return

Good to be back. The down time has affected us all. I was actually contemplating moving to another site for my follow-up efforts but I'll wait and see how the site performs now that they have a back-up server. In the meantime, I've made an offline backup of everything (just in case). On a completely different topic, congrats to you on the success of your current French AAR. It seems to be doing well and you have definitely stepped up your "game."

How good do you have to be to pull off those tactics? I'll still probably try and steal those tactics and try to use them effectively. BTW where does your infantry fit into all of this?

Edit: How did you get to enter peace talks with 2nd pope using an army? I need to know how to do that if my diplomats suck.

Well, I have played the game quite a bit. The battles in this form are rather hectic but it helps to group your forces so that you are only moving six or seven groups as opposed to twenty units. Even so, it is a rare battle that my troops don't end up exhausted (and me a little frazzled). As for infantry, most of the battles fought by the character Skantarios were cavalry-only and so I didn't have much infantry (also, infantry isn't the strong suit of the Byzantines/Romans). If I ever get enough time, I can work up another presentation using infantry-centric tactics. For that, I usually use infantry with artillery. Hold the line with the front ranks and then sweep around on the flanks with my reserves and cavalry. Pretty standard stuff.

As for diplomacy with an army, alas, that is not possible. What I did in the AAR was done by my diplomats and patience. How I presented it in the AAR used a bit of creative license.

I have 2 questions about the Legacy of Skantrios AAR.

1. Are you going to go for English Territory?
2. Which general's perspective is this going to be written in?

1. I will have to see how it plays out. Although it won't be a focus, I would imagine conflict with the English is almost unavoidable. If so, I would probably confine my activities to England/Scotland and leave the Irish isle out of it in order to replicate the original Roman borders. 2. I am still kicking around who I want to narrate the Legacy AAR. Top candidates would be the new Emperor Vasileios and Skantarios's adopted son Genessios. I have also thought about having the dowager Empress Maria narrate or even Vitos. Dark horse candidates would be Isidoros, the Pope (from his captive position), or the new heir Efthymios.

Suggestions are welcome.

How did you make the animated maps?

The "moving" map is an animated GIF. I used the map cuts from the various stages and sized them exactly the same (not perfect, as you can see, but close). Then I used a free program called Photoscape that has an animated GIF function. When I have that, I just upload it to Photobucket and link it in like a regular pic.

"A Tale of Pagan Vengeance." hmmmm I smell a Lithuania AAR.

You are very close on that. At the risk of spoiling things, it will actually be a hybrid between two factions - the Lithuanians and the Cumans.

@dezikeizer - thanks for the edits. I've made those you recommended. As I've said before, I could always use a second set of eyes to fix my oversights. Thanks!

I would also like to give a rather overdue thanks to those who have posted their support for these final posts that I haven't included above: Croat Axeman, pattonrommel, Julius Barca, Gastrilis (welcome to the forums!), Exarch, TaronQuinn, DirtySmurf (also welcome to the forums!), StGene, Valandur, Vampire1016, Thokran, Supreme Turkey Lord, Soulstrider, TemplarX, and KDK.

As I've said before, your support is one of the primary things that keeps me writing. Thanks!

I have a couple things I want to do before I dive into the Legacy AAR but I should be working up some of the initial posts in the next month or so. Hope you will tune in when I get it together to start writing in earnest.

[Karnage]

Thanks man, I must admit, my "game" is quite better then before, perhaps I learned few tricks from you, either way, thanks for the nice comment, always appreciated.

[Julius Barca the Great]

1. I will have to see how it plays out. Although it won't be a focus, I would imagine conflict with the English is almost unavoidable. If so, I would probably confine my activities to England/Scotland and leave the Irish isle out of it in order to replicate the original Roman borders. 2. I am still kicking around who I want to narrate the Legacy AAR. Top candidates would be the new Emperor Vasileios and Skantarios's adopted son Genessios. I have also thought about having the dowager Empress Maria narrate or even Vitos. Dark horse candidates would be Isidoros, the Pope (from his captive position), or the new heir Efthymios.

Suggestions are welcome.

I personally like the idea of Maria as the narrator. Her experience with Skantarios was unique. It'd also be a totally different viewpoint, I'd think. Make for an interesting tale, to say the least.
That said, any narrator you choose will be great. I'm just looking forward to more of your work!

[Exarch]

Well Done, SKantarios, aye and your moniker 'silvertongued' is well deserved lol

thanks for everything but especially for taking the trouble to include appendices particularly with horse archer combat tactics-i'll be looking into employing more use of light cavalry and horse archers in my campaigns more

you're a talented writer and a dedicated artist, true and always giving to us, your fans.

if this was RL, i'd be leading a standing ovation for sure

[CamilleBonparte]

Incredible AAR, looking forward to Pagan Vengeance if it's about what I think it's about.

[Playeraka]

Out ing standing AAR lol
i liked it a lot keep it up!

[spelunker]

I know I'm coming in late for this but I just had to register and say what an awesome story this hs been! The story and detail and battles. Wow!

Over the past two weeks, I read all of it. Even the bonus stuff. At home and work and even on my phone! Sorta Glad i came when I did so I can see the end but also sad that its over.

Here's hoping you write something more and soon !

[Skantarios]

For the occasion of my 200th post, I would like to announce that I have begun work on the sequel AAR to I am Skantarios! titled:

"The Legacy of Skantarios"

The actual preview post immediately follows this one. The rest of the AAR will be started in a new thread as it is time to put this one to bed. I should have the first few posts done by the middle of August, then I have to take about a ten day break and will continue after that.

Legacy should be significantly shorter than this one (I hope). It will take up immediately after the death of Skantarios and describe the actions of his descendants and rivals. I haven't decided exactly when I will end it but it should be something along the lines of the old Imperial Empire with perhaps a few additions.

Although the character of Emperor Skantarios is gone, his Empire endures! I hope you'll join me as we continue the journey started here.