Clash of the Successors - the Diadochi IH

**Pyrrhus the Molossian** · April 24, 2016, 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by Bastard Feudalism

Thinking of playing that one Bactrian character who can be a relative of Roxana's

That would be excellent to make a pro Roxane's child faction.

**Dirty Chai** · April 24, 2016, 10:54 PM

That's kind of the idea

Did Roxana's brother have a name?

**Barry Goldwater** · April 24, 2016, 10:55 PM

You'll have some competition there, I think Xion is planning to do such a character as well. I don't think Roxane's bro's name was ever mentioned in the historical records (at least none that I know of), btw.

Also, the AOR units are now finally finished, as usual for an IH the game can begin in earnest as soon as we have at least five players who've registered their characters.

**Dirty Chai** · April 24, 2016, 11:05 PM

Barry, would you consider adding Scythians (or whatever other name you'd apply them) to the roster?
It would cover tribes north of the Caucasus, the Black Sea of course, but also more importantly all those up in Central Asia, including the Dahae (which were a major component of the later Parthians), Massagetae, Wusun, etc.

This comes from a personal, selfish love of the Central Asian Iranian tribes, so if you think they're too fringe or irrelevant, then that's fine.

**Abdülmecid I** · April 25, 2016, 07:02 AM

Hi, I'm interested in participating, because I'm really fond of the game's theme, but I literally have no idea how Interactive Histories are supposed to be played, except for what I read from Barry Goldwater's guide, since I didn't manage to find any specific rules. Could someone give me a brief explanation of what exactly constitutes a move or how are armies move and etc.? BTW, according to Encyclopedia Iranica, Oxyartes had three sons, but I wasn't able to verify that bit of information. However, one of his sons was certainly named Itanes, according to Arrian's account.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**Pyrrhus the Molossian** · April 25, 2016, 10:15 AM

Originally Posted by Abdülmecid I

Hi, I'm interested in participating, because I'm really fond of the game's theme, but I literally have no idea how Interactive Histories are supposed to be played, except for what I read from Barry Goldwater's guide, since I didn't manage to find any specific rules. Could someone give me a brief explanation of what exactly constitutes a move or how are armies move and etc.? BTW, according to Encyclopedia Iranica, Oxyartes had three sons, but I wasn't able to verify that bit of information. However, one of his sons was certainly named Itanes, according to Arrian's account.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

We'll probably have something along the lines of a movement thread. And welcome to the game mate.

**Barry Goldwater** · April 25, 2016, 10:46 AM

Originally Posted by Bastard Feudalism

Barry, would you consider adding Scythians (or whatever other name you'd apply them) to the roster?
It would cover tribes north of the Caucasus, the Black Sea of course, but also more importantly all those up in Central Asia, including the Dahae (which were a major component of the later Parthians), Massagetae, Wusun, etc.

This comes from a personal, selfish love of the Central Asian Iranian tribes, so if you think they're too fringe or irrelevant, then that's fine.

I'll probably throw in some recruitable Scythian mercenary companies once I get a merc thread up.

@Abdulmecid Yeah, as Pyrrhus said I'll post a movement thread once this gets rolling. You can post your movements there (armies generally move at a pace of 1 province/day, in the event that there's a hostile army there a cavalry/light infantry-heavy force will be able to move around faster than an heavy inf-based one and will be able to force a battle on terrain more favorable to themselves). Ace_General did ask me about the possibility of attempting secret movements that go unannounced in the movement thread, and I believe that can be done - shoot me a PM for your secret maneuver and I'll make a roll to determine whether it's possible or if your army botches it (in which case they obviously get detected, meaning I'll post your now-not-so-secret order in the movement thread & there's no chance of ambushing a hostile force in the targeted province) with increasingly severe penalties being applied to the roll depending on the size of your army (I'd imagine moving a force of 5k in secrecy would be easier than trying the same with an army of 100k).

Also: as I recall, armies in the Diadochi wars were pretty damn big. The Battle of Ipsus at the war's climax saw almost 200,000 soldiers (~80k men total on both sides and hundreds of war elephants on the allied side to Antigonus' 75) killing each other, after all. So, for your starting treasury, after the Partition of Babylon you can have double the total income of all your provinces combined. And as usual your first 'turn zero' units are recruited instantly.

@Ace_General Please don't just completely replicate an RL figure for your character. You can base your character on someone like Demosthenes or Leosthenes, but as I told Pyrrhus earlier they should have some traits to distinguish them from their real-life bases (and a different name obviously), heck even a character who's a composite of both would be more original than a straight adaptation of either. In any case, I was planning to make the historical Demosthenes into a recruitable special ancillary like Roxana.

**Abdülmecid I** · April 25, 2016, 11:07 AM

Ok, thanks for the answers, guys. On a final note, I see that the number and the age of the children are up to the dice roll. What about their sexes, though? Are they also determined by the dice or by the player?

**Pyrrhus the Molossian** · April 25, 2016, 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by Barry Goldwater

I'll probably throw in some recruitable Scythian mercenary companies once I get a merc thread up.

@Abdulmecid Yeah, as Pyrrhus said I'll post a movement thread once this gets rolling. You can post your movements there (armies generally move at a pace of 1 province/day, in the event that there's a hostile army there a cavalry/light infantry-heavy force will be able to move around faster than an heavy inf-based one and will be able to force a battle on terrain more favorable to themselves). Ace_General did ask me about the possibility of attempting secret movements that go unannounced in the movement thread, and I believe that can be done - shoot me a PM for your secret maneuver and I'll make a roll to determine whether it's possible or if your army botches it (in which case they obviously get detected, meaning I'll post your now-not-so-secret order in the movement thread & there's no chance of ambushing a hostile force in the targeted province) with increasingly severe penalties being applied to the roll depending on the size of your army (I'd imagine moving a force of 5k in secrecy would be easier than trying the same with an army of 100k).

Also: as I recall, armies in the Diadochi wars were pretty damn big. The Battle of Ipsus at the war's climax saw almost 200,000 soldiers (~80k men total on both sides and hundreds of war elephants on the allied side to Antigonus' 75) killing each other, after all. So, for your starting treasury, after the Partition of Babylon you can have double the total income of all your provinces combined. And as usual your first 'turn zero' units are recruited instantly.

@Ace_General Please don't just completely replicate an RL figure for your character. You can base your character on someone like Demosthenes or Leosthenes, but as I told Pyrrhus earlier they should have some traits to distinguish them from their real-life bases (and a different name obviously), heck even a character who's a composite of both would be more original than a straight adaptation of either. In any case, I was planning to make the historical Demosthenes into a recruitable special ancillary like Roxana.

All excellent developments Barry. Are we going to be adding a naval element to the game as well? Would be important for the Greek Revolt and the rest of the Mediterranean.

And from what I can see we have six players signed up so far.

**Ace_General** · April 25, 2016, 12:06 PM

Ok, I will change my character. Instead I will have a character more of the vein of Xenophon. Like a dude who is a son of an Athenian timber and horse merchant and Thessalian noblewomen. A dude who fought against Phillip and was forced into exile and went to Syracuse and served at one point as a mercy art, merchant, privateer, and advisor to the Syracusans.

upon the death of Alexander he returns to Greece to help lead the rebellion against Macedonian oppression

also something about being a compromise candidate ideologically among the Greeks that favors either limited democracy with property requirements or oligarchy that also includes commercial interests. In addition, my character would favor written laws and a constitution to reign in both the excesses of the mob as well of that of a tyrant

**Barry Goldwater** · April 25, 2016, 01:02 PM

@Ace Sounds good to me.

Rolls for the characters with kids registered as of this writing:

Calas (Pyrrhus): 1 son & 1 daughter, ages 14 and 10
Herakles (Oda): 1 daughter, age 3
Antiochus (Isabella): 3 sons & 1 daughter, ages 30-25-21-15
Aristazanes (Abdulmecid): 1 son, age 7

**Mary The Quene** · April 25, 2016, 01:03 PM

Thanks Barry.

**Pyrrhus the Molossian** · April 25, 2016, 01:08 PM

Thank you Barry. When do children come of age? 16?

**Ace_General** · April 25, 2016, 01:14 PM

Question what about having adult children if you have a chat who is 50+?

**Barry Goldwater** · April 25, 2016, 01:20 PM

Yeah, kids come of age at 16.

If you get adult kids as Isabella just did, treat them as you would a normal character: you'll need to assign them a trait & biography. If you're so inclined you can also have them married at the start of the game & ask for further grandkid rolls.

**Pyrrhus the Molossian** · April 25, 2016, 01:23 PM

What about family members such as brothers or uncles etc?

**Barry Goldwater** · April 25, 2016, 01:54 PM

Same thing as adult kids, I suppose. This should make it possible for you to set up a decently-sized family for the classical period & thus not get wiped out too early into the game in the event that your main char dies in battle/on someone's execution grounds/thanks to assassins or unlucky disease rolls.

**Mary The Quene** · April 25, 2016, 02:14 PM

When is that partition going to start? can't wait lol

I have completed my biographies and all that stuff except for the daughter

**Barry Goldwater** · April 25, 2016, 03:15 PM

I'll let Perry finish his bio before launching the Partition of Babylon thread. Alexander's last act will be to give his ring to one of the Diadochi characters (to be determined by a roll), giving them a leg-up on assuming the regency after his death, and I'd like for all the Macedonian Diadochi characters to be complete by then so they all get a fair shot in the roll.