[EB AAR] Pontos Rising

[FriendlyFire]

Chapter 27: A Brief Family Interlude

Thankfully the Kianos line has been blessed with an abundance of sons, and the royal Pontic family is in no danger of dying out anytime soon. Since they're starting to spread all over the map, I thought it would be helpful to do a quick summary of who's who, as of 185 BC.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Hystaspis Kianos (265 BC - 200 BC, faction leader) had four sons:

• Zenon (57, S/C/V/U/P/D), the current king of Pontos, carving his way through Carthaginian lands. My best general: a gifted leader, great tactician, and strategic expert, tempered only by his love of beauty. Still hale and hearty despite his advanced age.
  

• Pharnakes (55, D/U/V/S/P/L), semi-retired in Pergamon. Not as blessed as Zenon, and has gotten increasingly testy as he ages. Hates strangers and is a good defender with a strong reputation as a famous victor, so well-placed to protect our western lands from treacherous Greeks.
  

• Gobryas the younger (27, S/U/V/U/O/L), moving into Armenia. Positive but still untested in combat, and may need to be watched a bit more closely than most: he's mildly extravagant, likes a flutter, welcomes foreigners, and is careless of personal security.
  

• Neoptolemos (22, D/C/V/S/O/D), also moving into Armenia. All that book learning in the Great School of Aramvir seems to have gone to his head: he's erudite and a skilled debater, but also worryingly seditious. What is it with young men these days?
  

Pharnouchos Kianos (253 BC - 192 BC) had two sons:

• Gobryas the elder (41, S/U/V/U/O/L), sailing from Anatolia to Africa. Makes a good ruler, since he's practical, humane, even-handed, a good trader, a grower, and has an understanding of natural philosophy. Sadly, he's also a raging drunk.
  

• Antipatros (20, S/C/V/S/O/D), just captured Kotais in Armenia, and a rising star. Positive, extroverted, fluent, and a consummate self-publicist and politician, with a wife above reproach, and angling for the top job. The only blot on his copybook is that he's mildly extravagant and financially irregular, but when your very first trait is "wealthy" perhaps that's inevitable…
  

Arses Kianos (256 BC - 195 BC) had one son:

• Arsames (27, S/C/V/S/O/D), currently defending Mytilene. Extroverted, erudite and a skilled debater, he can convince you of his many talents, but is also venal, sly, and of doubtful courage. Secretly infertile, so this interesting bloodline is unlikely to be extended.
  

There's also a new generation of grandsons of Hystaspis:

• Megabazos Kianos (32, S/U/L/U/O/L), son of Zenon, is helping his father in the wars against Carthage. Not like his father, but his lack of combat talent is compensated for by his calm and sober demeanor, and his devout and reverent behavior. Could make a calming (if lazy) governor.
  

• Ochos Kianos (34, D/U/L/U/O/L), son of Pharnakes, is also sailing from Anatolia to Africa. The least-blessed of all the Kianos clan: standoffish, flagging, and a jobsworth, with a powerful advisor and an ignorant but fruitful wife (who thankfully has only had girls so far).
  

I've also accepted many sons-in-law, favoring Hellenes for their governing skills, but I try to make it a rule that only a Kianos can lead a campaign.

[SavageFeat]

Really liking the AAR. I'm currently playing a campaign with points and it's sloop fun though not with EB but with ME

[FriendlyFire]

Really liking the AAR. I'm currently playing a campaign with points and it's sloop fun though not with EB but with ME

Thanks! I think Pontos is always gonna be fun no matter what mod you use, because it's in the middle of the map, so you can go in any direction.

I took a break in this AAR because I was at a point where it was clear I was about to fight a whole bunch of battles on the AI's turn, and I dreaded the thought of fighting for a couple of hours followed by a CTD. Thankfully I just played it through, fought four defenses, got two heroic victories, and no CTD, so now I'm good to go again

[Posantio of Umbria]

... Here's the world in 194 BC:



The Sweboz were wiped out by the Lusotana tide in 196 BC, with Rome stepping in to grab the final piece, but the Aedui are still hanging on in their little corner of northwest Gaul. The Seleukids have gained ground against Hayasdan while losing ground to Pahlava. I think those are the only changes.

Hey, that last settlement of the Aedui... I don't think the Luso's will ever manage to conquer it because they have a Magic Potion that gives them super human strength :p

and off course it's the home of this guy:


Great AAR BTW + rep

[The Kybrothilian]

Friendlyfire, is there any Pontic charachters who had died other-than-natural deaths?

[total war lover]

very nice AAR,please continue and more rep will be yours for the taking!

[FriendlyFire]

@Posantio: I wondered when someone was going to notice that! The Aedui are only surviving because the Lusos are pouring all their resources into fighting Rome, but they've fought off a few sieges so far. Amazingly they're doing it all with basic Celtic spearmen and slingers, because for some reason (bankruptcy?) they still haven't upgraded the MIC in that town. I guess basic spearmen are good enough when you have the magic potion

@scutarilegion: I lost a no-name governor early on, fighting a Getai full stack that wandered all the way across Anatolia before besieging my capital. They were even my allies at the time - it just made no sense in game-play terms, and they were happy to return to neutrality after the battle, so in the AAR I pretend it never happened. Apart from that I've been pretty careful in battles: I typically only commit my general to fight an enemy general or other heavy cavalry, and only when I have an advantage (often because I'm about to sandwich them using another unit). Haven't lost a Kianos yet, I think.

[FriendlyFire]

Someone over on the totalwar.org thread of this AAR asked for a family tree, so I posted one.

While I was composing the tree I also noticed that Neoptolemos Kianos the elder (far-right dead guy in the final pic) died in battle in 202 BC, so I was wrong when I thought I hadn't yet lost a Kianos. I went back to my notes and saw that I lost him in a charge in one of my endless sallies from Karkathiokerta against Ptolemaioi sieges. He charged the rear of a pinned phalanx and died instantly on impact. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred you just lose a bodyguard or two. One time in a hundred you lose your general

[Populus Romanus]

Someone over on the totalwar.org thread of this AAR asked for a family tree, so I posted one.

While I was composing the tree I also noticed that Neoptolemos Kianos the elder (far-right dead guy in the final pic) died in battle in 202 BC, so I was wrong when I thought I hadn't yet lost a Kianos. I went back to my notes and saw that I lost him in a charge in one of my endless sallies from Karkathiokerta against Ptolemaioi sieges. He charged the rear of a pinned phalanx and died instantly on impact. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred you just lose a bodyguard or two. One time in a hundred you lose your general

Which is funny because the bodyguards are typically only 20-40 men.

[tomthekiller]

but generals have 2 HP, don't they?

[lmt96]

but generals have 2 HP, don't they?

Normally, more than that. But it also depends on his trait.

[The Kybrothilian]

Btw, Friendlyfire, I think you should give the settlements north of pontus euxinus to sarmatians/geatae and haysdan, so that the romans can't get an border with you yet.

[FriendlyFire]

Btw, Friendlyfire, I think you should give the settlements north of pontus euxinus to sarmatians/geatae and haysdan, so that the romans can't get an border with you yet.

Yeah, if they get much closer I may have to do exactly that. Sadly they're still recruiting local troops throughout most of Gaul, even though many of the settlements have a Type-2 government, which means they should be able to recruit post-Marian legions if only they bothered to develop their MIC. Sigh

[FriendlyFire]

Chapter 28: Carthago Delenda Est

And… we're back!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

In 186 BC the kingdom of Epeiros had landed a small army near the Pontic port of Halikarnassos. The army then marched through Pontic territory until it reached the island of Lesbos, where it was soon joined by a second landing force. This was a clear and blatant violation of the treaty of 257 BC between Ariobarzanes Kianos and the great Pyrrhos of Epeiros (see Chapter 11: Negotiating with Pyrrhos), whereby Epeiros would hold sway over all lands to the west of the Hellespont, while Pontos laid claim to all lands to the east - including those such as Lesbos which were previously held by Makedonia, at least according to the Pontic interpretation of the treaty. What's more, the Epeirote army was also devastating the very limited farmland available on Lesbos.

The governor of Mytilene at this time was Arsames Kianos. Eager to counter the rumors about his lack of personal courage, Arsames pre-emptively attacked the two Epeirote armies, wiping them out but also triggering a state of war between Pontos and Epeiros.

Across the Hellespont, the Greek colonists in Byzantion chose this moment to throw off their Getai rulers and declare their allegiance to the Koinon Hellenon. Seeing the great advantage that such a buffer state would provide to Pontos in any future war against Epeiros, Arsames immediately sent a diplomat to negotiate an alliance with the Byzantines. Pontos now sided with the Koinon Hellenon against the Epeirotes and Makedonians.

All these events were a mere sideshow to the great conflict unfolding far to the southwest, in the lands of Carthage. First, the Carthaginians had sent an army deep into their old territory, to try once again to retake Lepki. Opposing them was Megabazos son of Zenon. His father had taken the Pontic army further north, forcing Megabazos to raise a mercenary army supported by local Numidian cavalry to lift the siege of Lepki. This was to be their first real test.

As the battle lines clashed, it was hard to tell who was fighting who, since both sides were using mercenaries. However, only Megabazos had hired phalangites, and these stood firm against the onslaught of two Carthaginian generals. When the Carthaginian leader fell to the sell-swords, the Carthaginian army dissolved into a rout, only to be mercilessly hunted down by the swift Numidian horsemen.

Further to the north, Zenon had been resting and refitting his army in Adrumeto, but was himself besieged by a second Carthaginian army. Zenon ordered an immediate sally, trusting that his veteran klerouchoi phalangites could hold the center of the line against elite Libyan pikemen.

The two great armies formed up and faced each other outside the walls of Adrumeto. Zenon soon won the battle of the skirmishers, as his Cretan archers decimated the native light troops sent out to counter them. But then the two lines of heavy infantry clashed, and for a long time there was no clear winner. Finally Zenon led his cavalry behind Carthaginian lines, sending his steppe riders on ahead to pin the Carthaginian leader, and following up with a crushing charge by his own bodyguards. Once again a Carthaginian army lost its general and immediately dissolved into a rout, but this time there was a worse fate than to be stabbed in the back by a Numidian lance, for Zenon let his scythed chariots loose on the routers, cutting down all in front of them.

The Carthaginians had taken a great gamble, sending almost all of their troops in the two armies to fight Zenon and his son - and they had lost. Now Zenon would not give them a second chance. Taking the best men from his army, he marched out and laid siege to Kart-Hadast, which was defended by just a handful of elite Carthaginian troops.

The Carthaginians did not have enough men to defend the vast walls of Carthage, and so chose to stay in the central square. As the Pontic phalanx moved through the streets to challenge them, they were met by a hail of javelins, followed by an all-out charge of the cream of Phoenicia, Libya, and Iberia. The elites were better man-for-man, but the Pontic troops stood firm - and soon a second Pontic phalanx crashed into the rear of the Carthaginians. They fought bravely to the last, but the outcome was never in any real doubt.

Zenon ordered the population of Kart-Hadast put to the sword, seeking to humble this once-mighty empire, but he almost immediately regretted the decision. Not by nature a selfish man, this act of wanton violence went against his very nature, and it is said that he was forevermore plagued by nightmares of the days of violence that followed the capture of Kart-Hadast.

One benefit of the slaughter of Kart-Hadast was that Pontic spies now found it very easy to convince the citizens of neighboring Atiqa that it was in their own interests to open the gates of their city to Zenon. "Zenon the butcher", the spies called him, and they spread rumors of his bloodthirstiness throughout Atiqa. A lot of exaggeration and a little gold soon sufficed to open the gates, and a small Pontic force stormed through. Again, there were far too few Carthaginian defenders to do anything other than make a desperate last stand on the square, and Machimoi infantry from far-off Egypt were only to happy to send them to their maker. Atiqa fell a few weeks after Kart-Hadast, and the spies kept their word, for Zenon did not slaughter its inhabitants - instead, he sold half of them into slavery.

Carthago Delenda Est.

[dezikeizer]

Great update as always. The Carthaginians aren't going to last much longer if this keeps up.

[SavageFeat]

good update +rep.... when i can give ....

[Populus Romanus]

Excellent update!

[Jimmy-j]

Indeed great update and Carthage to its knees

[dezikeizer]

So is this dead or are you going to continue it?

[ptan54]

This is very good - hope you continue it.