Photo Gallery

**Badnercalabrese** · January 24, 2018, 07:57 PM

In honour of the glorious Athenian Empire...

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**Badnercalabrese** · January 27, 2018, 08:39 AM

and just FYI
Part 6 Argos campaign is up.
I am missing some before and after footage sadly from my old HD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-izXktTRu8

**Phalangitis** · January 27, 2018, 03:45 PM

Epic pics

**Phalangitis** · February 03, 2018, 05:22 PM

Some concept art I really like

1)

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2)

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3)

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4) This Last one (and one of my favorites shoing the trophy Spartans placed after the big victory in Mantineia) was going to be used as a cover for the mod in steam at first but we droped the idea when the original logo was created by a friend

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**Badnercalabrese** · February 04, 2018, 06:06 PM

Great pieces art there...I like the first pic the most. The trophy is cool to see because it really shows what Thukydides means when he says "and they erected a trophy".

That said...I am more of an Athens fanboy over Sparta [emoji14]

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**Badnercalabrese** · April 24, 2018, 08:34 PM

Someone needs to teach me how to add these spoilers - whatever I do it doesn't allow the photos with the spoiler - please help!

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The Athenians set up a trophy - and they collected their dead.

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Athenian Empire vs Persia

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Alkibiades enters Sardeis!

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Edit: The Imgur links were not giving me the full address!

**Tenerife_Boy** · April 26, 2018, 04:24 AM

Type this:

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Then, put the cursor between the brackets and hit the button above that says "Inser Image", paste the URL of your screenie and your're done.

**Badnercalabrese** · April 26, 2018, 08:08 PM

Athens against All!

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**Phalangitis** · April 27, 2018, 03:39 PM

Great pics.. still away from my pc (away for work) but even from my phone they look cool.
Your Athenian campaign seems fascinating. In all my previous games strangely I have never faced Persia in a large scale conflict. I usually try to keep good diplomacy with them (shame on me I know..). In my latest campaign though a great war will start soon with them for the first time but I have saved the game just before my attack which was planned to happen in many fronts at the same time with navy mostly to cripple them with a decisive hit and overwhelm them before they recover. Unfortunately that save game was many months ago and till then I haven't found the time to play again.. real life responsibilities have gotten the better of me and I fear that for the first time in years I face the possibility to say to computer gaming farewell because of the lack of free time for my self.. hours are so few lately and they all go to family

**Badnercalabrese** · April 28, 2018, 12:18 AM

All I can say here is that the campaign was glorious. I am glad I was able to complete it on hard difficulty (although I will admit that I used the save feature more than I'd like!)...I'll pretend the oracle was in my favour. With Athens the campaign is not so easy at first but once you can overcome the main challenges like the dynamic events - you will really steamroll Hellas more than any other faction.

Taking Thermon and removing the Aitolians was probably the most significant event (in addition to holding Naupaktos). This ensured that when the Peloponnesians arrived - between my high walls at Thermon and Naval garrison at Naupaktos in addition to my full stack - the Spartan attempt was futile! On previous attempts I never even attempted to move my army here but i see that was a big mistake. If playing with Athens - remove Koinon Aitolion immediately! send a full stack ASAP.

I maintained an army of heavy infantry, heavy cav and some skirmishers in Attike. I know in the guide it says use the regional hoplites for tax savings but

this...In Attike, our best are on the field! Pentakosiomedimnoi only for hoplites - we can afford it with high taxes. (Hellenes please tell me how to say that word properly).
Then a more mobile, light cav, medium hoplite heavy skirmish army in Eubea...Over time this force got heavier when it could support any city when needed in Eubea and in Attike. Full navy stacks were implemented everywhere, whenever possible!

Maintaining the Delian league was my saving grace here. believe me, I didn't want to go to war with persia either but once the callias peace ended I had no choice. I did everything possible to maintain my alliances with Rhodos, Byzantion, Chios, Ionia...They made heavy blows to the Persians with my support more or less. I also received huge fortune in the homeland with Epirus being the North Greek faction that dominated instead of Makedon or Thessalia!...I found this fortunate because I didn't have to deal with endless units of heavy cavalry...Despite the annoying distances, I was able to remove this threat within 2-3 years.

With Northern Greece taken, Persia was not neutalised but had its horns removed - I was able to focus on the Peloponnese...I liberated all the city states from Spartan and Korinthian rule (Elis, Mantinea, Messenia, Koinon Akhaion, etc. Argos was kicked out to Kythera. I conquered Thebes as my subjugated state, Korinthos as occupation in addition to Argos...Argos had already fallen so it had no negative penalty as far as I know. Korinthos did damage but since I already ruled Sardeis - that gave me a huge diplomatic bonus...I didn't feel such negative impact which allowed me to focus again on removing Persia from the game. Sadly the Byzantines went to war with Chios and liberated the satrap of Daskyleion in their main walled city..I had to take it back, maintain my alliances but Chios and Byzantion refused to end the fighting. I still have more work to do but as you know, RL takes the toll!

I would love to try some more campaigns here but I have a big problem...Your mod has really inspired my learning for this era in history. I've read Herodotus and Thukidides twice in addition to Xenophon...I developed a huge sympathy for Athens. With my passionate personality I feel it will be too difficult (even in a video game) to go against Athenai and play as Sparta or Thebes in this time period...The Sicilian disaster nearly puts me to tears when I read about it.

**Oskar_GD** · April 28, 2018, 12:59 AM

Originally Posted by Badnercalabrese

I would love to try some more campaigns here but I have a big problem...Your mod has really inspired my learning for this era in history. I've read Herodotus and Thukidides twice in addition to Xenophon...I developed a huge sympathy for Athens. With my passionate personality I feel it will be too difficult (even in a video game) to go against Athenai and play as Sparta or Thebes in this time period...The Sicilian disaster nearly puts me to tears when I read about it.

I became disgusted with Athens while reading history of Peloponnesian war. A perfect example of the degeneration of democracy. Crazy ideas like a Sicilian campaing and trial of generals after the battle of Arginuisae. Xenophon and Thukidides clearly showed the degradation and decline of their hometown.

**Phalangitis** · April 28, 2018, 12:52 PM

I guess that "taking sides" in history relies to the same rules of subjectivity as almost everything else. Same event produces profoundly different reactions from various people. I think though that a universal truth exists. War is sick. So nations going to war for reasons other than their right to exist peacefully in their habitat are already deeply wounded in their people's hierarchy of life values so ultimately they tend to either fall to attrocities during war time or follow blindly wrong leaders cause their judjment is wounded. The above problems appeared in both states. Both Athenian and Spartan I think

By the way the word Pentakosiomedimoi is pronounced Pentakosiomedimni (In Hellenic language the following are pronounced as: oi=i, ei=i, ai=e, ou=u, eu=f, au=af)

**Badnercalabrese** · April 28, 2018, 10:44 PM

Originally Posted by Oskar_GD

I became disgusted with Athens while reading history of Peloponnesian war. A perfect example of the degeneration of democracy. Crazy ideas like a Sicilian campaing and trial of generals after the battle of Arginuisae. Xenophon and Thukidides clearly showed the degradation and decline of their hometown.

of course in hindsight the Sicilian expedition was beyond absurd but we are biased in our thinking because we know how it ended.
If the expedition had a more bold leader like Alkibiades instead of Nikias, they probably would have taken Syracuse. With Alkibiades sent back for trial and the death of Lamicus, the command was with someone who never wanted to be there in the first place. Nikias was responsible for the disaster by requesting a massive force (in a possible attempt to persuade the assembly to vote against the campaign!) ...The Athenians won all the early victories but Nikias hesitated to attack the city outright. He hesitated to send a force to intercept Gyillipas.
When the situation started to favour Syrakuse...He had the ability to send the force home but instead requested a second force in equal size as the first. The larger the force, the larger the risk of total disaster (as we all know) and higher expectations on the expedition.

It seems Nikias was more concerned with a potential trial for his errors and destruction of his reputation than the well being of his men.
What I'm saying here is with a better commander, the Sicilian expedition could have possibly been won or at least the total disaster averted and the war would not have ended as it did.
At that point the Nikias peace was still in force and the Athenians were doing quite well. Had they won in Sicily it would have been a devastating boon to the Athenian empire.

Thukidides' history is one of my favourite written works ever made - Donald Kagan's critical analysis of the work is a very interesting read and it changed my perspective.
Thukidides did a great job being possibly the first "neutral" historian - but he definitely seeks to prove his point that Athenian democracy collapsed after Perikles died. He also had an agenda against Kleon especially! After reading Kagan I found myself being more understanding of figures such as Kleon and lost a lot of respect for Nikias. I can only assume when Thukidides failed in Kalkides, Kleon was the man who punished him and that is why when you read his work you are probably feel disgust over this profane, absurd and "cowardly" man.

Kagan's says it best like this... While Thukidides' history changed historical analysis forever - he was only human and was an actual participant in the war he was writing about. To think he does not have a bias in his writing would be like Winston Churchill writing the history of WWII and not expecting a natural bias.

Now with all that being said, I do agree that democracy degenerated heavily. After Kleon died there was very little direction. He certainly wasn't the best Athenian leader but he was bold, aggressive and effective. Arguably the last "first citizen" in the democracy who got results.

Phal's explanation is definitely correct - and thanks for the explanation of pronunciation.

**Badnercalabrese** · June 27, 2018, 08:42 PM

I did what I thought was the unthinkable...A campaign with the Boeotian League!
Was I ever surprised how great it played out. Every faction is a whole different game it seems.

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**Phalangitis** · June 28, 2018, 03:18 AM

AMAZINF photos. Very atmospheric

Well done on your newest success

**Badnercalabrese** · June 29, 2018, 11:46 AM

Thank you mate!
The graphics enhancement mods really make the game look beautiful. I love the dust features adding more realistic...Although it really does take a hit on my PC [emoji23]
Whenevever I update this I will really have to start some campaigns over again and max out everything to do the mod justice.

RL has me not playing so much these days but when I do...I am taking screens!

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