Athens Arises: Trip Report (Ch 18)

[Alavaria]

In the siege, however, 2 or 3 would completely suffice, yet if put to a good use they would definitely shorten the battle time and limit the casualties on your side.

Well my standard is 2, be it 2 generals or 1 general + 1 (cavalry with an Armor-Piercing). So I guess yeah?

Also, not really, you usually can't break units right off the bat, and the best way to get them to where they'll break quickly is to shoot them about 50% dead or so with slingers. And at that point you save time by just shooting them again rather than messing about to get your horse in place to charge. I was only referring to the amusing fact that they hang on amusingly long at "Wavering" sometimes, but for obvious reasons I also prefer my slingers to get the kills than the horse (general getting kills is fine though, there's plenty to go around)

I think that also depends on your style. Overall I play a larger proportion of field battles but that's also because I would often wait for enemy forces to leave the settlement or attack an enemy stack that approached its settlement so as to engage the garrison units while they're reinforcing the field army.

Yeah? And though I've said it, I haven't explicitly mentioned why I deliberately fight the AI in settlements.

Yes, I've noticed that, as well. But that's also why I like to do the job with cavalry. They are very effective not only in flanking or chasing the enemy units, but most significantly in breaking their morale. That, yet again, shortens the battle time and limits the casualties among my infantry units. Though, since from what I see here you are playing mostly 0-turn campaigns the fact of taking casualties is probably not as important for you as it's for me in 1-turn campaigns.

No? If you set it up and do plenty of clicking you can spam in 1-turn so much it becomes irrelevant as you only fight minimal battles against the AI anyway. A unit of good horse (which I am using, has Armor-Piercing) is actually pretty cheap thanks to the way RS has set it up, you can really really spam horse I know.


A lot of this really hinges on the fact that there's something special about the AI in settlements or forts which makes fighting there very different from a field battle. Or indeed the way you're probably fighting in settlements.

A lot also comes down to battle difficulty, either way. If you mess about on VH your cavalry will do much worse in these fights than the super-slingers. And if I do this on M/H I will take so many less casualties than you would.

Spoiler for Example: This: 

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 3: 

Ch 3: The Fall of Sparte



Our secret weapon was ready. Sparta's walls of men had been killed, and now their walls of wood would follow. The siege ballista (stone throwing) would see its first field action! As the name suggests it throws stones in a way that allows walls to be taken down from a distance.

We also brought along some experimental "firepot" ammunition but it is very much experimental. Supposedly it would be useful against groups of massed infantry, but the engineers don't seem very sure of it...




With just a few shots, the flimsy wooden walls of Sparte were taken apart. Much easier than their walls of flesh. Flesh which, let us remember, was broken and bleeding and is by now part of the soil north of Sparte.

For various reasons, even if we leave a massive breach in the wall, an enemy cannot assault the settlement later on without bringing/preparing siege weapons, so there's no need to worry about the repair costs!




Although technically held by the Spartans, this was more of a victory parade than an assault. While they may not be known wall-builders, the Spartans (actually probably the perioikoi, come to think of it) had some nicely decorated if generally spartan structures.

It will not be a bad place have a second home. After we have completely secured the city, obviously.




See this temple here to ???. It's quite well built, which means it follows the Athenian style, of course. Who knows, an Athenian architect may have helped them produce this amazing raised structure.

Perhaps they should have reconsidered their choice of patron. Or perhaps their fall was their fault. Most likely a combination of these.




Thus, we reached the central square encountering exactly zero resistance. For our soldiers who were highly alert for potential tricks, it seemed indeed, all of Sparta's walls were unmoving for one reason or another.

It's hard to believe they rushed out to their deaths, but then again perhaps that is just like Spartans. Well, whatever the case, it worked out well for us and not for them.




Oh look, a standard market! Who would imagine the Spartans would have one? Of course there's a need for even a Spartan-controlled society to trade goods and services. Although, it is said that Spartans do not directly get involved in these things and have others do it for them. Bah! They wanted to train for war so much and see where it got them.

It is good to see they have not created a totally hamstrung society. With some work we can integrate what is worth integrating, making ourselves stronger.




A few remaining enemies awaited us in the shade of the center of the central square. Skritari operated a lot at night, so perhaps the bright sun was a weakness of theirs.

Regardless though, we have to remove them, even if it is relaxingly cool under those little shelters.




They were removed.

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 4: 

Ch 4: The End of Sparta



Now that we had taken Sparta, it was time to ensure that this constant fighting between us, which for so long weakened both sides and allowed upstarts to overshadow us, be brought to an end. Our initial idea had come from others, but nevertheless...

If we scattered the remaining Spartan homoioi class (which at this point has hardly any males of military age) then they should never coalase into an effective Spartan collective.


And of course, we would make doubly sure of this by using informants, much like the Spartans themselves did to police their helots. Ironic, isn't it?




I, Deukalos, brought up this plan to Our Lady while we were in the middle of registering any remaining Spartans to see just how many we had to deal with. Actually, it was in the context of my surprise about just how few there were who they regarded as equals.

After a moment (we were drinking the last of the wine brought from Athens), she simply said, "Anyone living here free before we arrived, bury them."




And so we most permanently ended the possibly of a Spartan return. We buried it all together and raised up a series of markers were established around the central site warning people strictly not to leave the place undisturbed. There was no reason to dig there anyway, as no valuables were to be found.

And of course, upon thinking it through, Our Lady was quite correct. After all, many "Spartan" armies had hardly any homoioi in them, it was mostly those Perioikoi and Helots which filled the ranks and various other roles. And of course various mercenaries.




It was safe to leave the Helots be as they had no reason at all to attempt to re-create the Sparta which had made such extensive use of them. Indeed, speaking of "integration" we would in fact build a new system which they would definitely rush to defend, rather than being rushed to defend. It started out with the tax collectors.

Specifically, we sent out the taxmen to inspect the various fields and orchards (of course mostly being worked by Helots before our arrival) and access them for taxes. Those who reported working land and paid taxes on their harvests were assigned the land on a provisional but indefinite basis. In essence, they became "owners" of land they had once been forced to work by the now-dead owners.




Macedon wanted to hold a parade for us in Pella, to commemorate the victory against Roman-leading Sparta. But to those of us in the know, the legions of bright macedonian elites were a sharp warning - you may have defeated a half-dead Sparta but do not cross Macedon.

However before we could consider revenge against a larger if less "personal" opponent, we had to consider what an army of Thermos was doing near Thebes...

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 5: 

Ch 5: Parry & Riposte



Thermos was "surprisingly" undefended. Their one unit of hoplites stood no chance against us and the city immediately folded under our control.

Excellent. But, what about the force it should have had?




Deukalos' Intrepid Explorer (a critical strategic asset) found that Thermos had sent their army over to Thebes, which stood between them and Athenai. They had not been planning to pledge their spears to us.

However, as Thebes did not have any real force of its own within her walls, the army of Thermos were able to take them over without any real resistance.




We had anticipated this, and our campaign group was now approaching Thebes from the west. However, while the enemy prepared their defenses, we swung around via a brief episode of "shipping" and instead approached from the Athenai side, picking up reinforcements as well.

Being surrounded, there was now no way for them to escape. Even though they did have walls, it would not prevent us from smashing them out of existance.




Our marines sent in did not fare too well. However, we inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy via missile attacks. It's hard to see in this shot, however.

The fact is player swordsmen do very badly against AI horse on VH. It's also the case that while this isn't too much of an issue, pure spearmen are a more stable option for this.




This makes it easier to see. If you observe carefully the facing of units surrounding the Hoplites of Athens, you'll notice the following:

• There's a gap in the wall at the top-left
• Half of the enemy infantry have their backs facing this gap
• (Harder to see) Slinger stones coming from the gap, hitting those hoplites in the back

The men of Thermos and the rebels of Thebes, seeing they were caught together in a trap, resolved to fight together in order to break our force and then reclaim Thermos.
Which they manfully attempted, but were not successful in.

The enemy opened with long-range attacks from the safety of their buildings, and did a number on us. Also they tried to defend the breaches but there were too many... it was all over too quickly.






The parry and riposte strategy for dealing with enemy armies revolves around using the settlement/fort AI defense against it. Furthermore, you frequently have to deal with stacks in settlements.

This is pretty much how with just a stack (and some reinforcements) it's possible to hold off the Seleucids** indefinitely, killing stacks every other turn or so on. You can get much better numbers than this, for example only having 600 dead (and getting back a lot of them via BattleSurgery). But in part I was a bit rusty on my technique of dealing with enemy ranged units.


**It helps to at least take one of their treasury cities, Antiocha is on a coast and easily taken and reinforced. But use trap forts and not the settlement itself, as it would have stone walls which are not as good for this defensive technique.

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 6: 

Ch 6: Lunge



Rather than recover or perhaps consolidate as the planners in Pella may have thought, we instead began our march northward, with our rear and flanks secured by the city-states under our control. What do you think? Who else could we be attacking? Macedon's time had come.

Of course just Macedon's standing force is probably three to five times larger than ours, an extremely modern and well-equipped Successor force and in their homeland defensive positions... but I'm sure Our Lady has something in mind.


.

The first battle against the Great Enemy of Hoplites was not a real battle. Pharsalus did not put up any meaningful resistance. The garrison tried, of course, but they were there to keep order and maybe suppress bandits, not fight off a campaign force.

Perhaps what was most critical is that Pharsalus did not hold us up, its wooden walls fell much like Sparte's, allowing for a fast and hard assault.




But yes, the battle was an important way to begin this grand war. It is time to let the hubristic north burn!

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So, AI Pikemen are deadly swordsmen on VH. Making things worse is the fact they magically have a ton of mass in phalanx formation, even when backing up into a unit and will just force their way though, making it hard to really shoot them to death. However, as swordsmen they are as mentioned, still capable of killing infantry.

Oh well, there's not much that can be done but to shoot them up and accept there will be friendly losses. This can happen on the field, but is a lot more common in settlements/forts particularly with large unit sizes, as the AI gets confused. There is one even worse thing that can happen, which we will see...




Deukalos was concerned about the heavy depopulation of settlements such as Pharsalus. Though he understood the Spartan issue, he had cute but misguided concerns about local support, hearts and minds, keeping a viable population base, and so on. Sadly, it is hard to explain to him the amazing power of repopulation that exists in the current framework. It would probably break his mind.

I do plan to lift every settlement (even little backwater towns) into a Huge City in time. And they will be filled with people who are, of course, loyal. Where this population comes from can be rather odd, if you think about it too much...




We are doing decently for not having a Treasury. Actually Macedon has a lot to offer both in terms of exploitable resources, but also quick "cash infusions". In this early stage of the campaign, that can be useful. Also, wontonly killing people improves public order by preventing overcrowding and making people more pliant to military domination, who would have thought...

Did I explain to Deukalos that all settlements would have a high Unrest to start off with regardless? He's quite capable but sadly thinks too much "inside the box" of how he's been taught the world works.

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 7: 

Ch 7: Divine Revelation



You see this, this is in Pella and is currently giving the Macedon faction about 76800+ cash per turn. That's ridiculous and, while the AI does get "cash assistance" via the script (it is up to 40000 per turn, but is applied as "-40000" then "+40000" so if the AI is at say 30k it would only get 10k more).

An important part of strategy is knowing where the enemy faction's Treasury is and hitting them. Rome doesn't have one, it has bonuses spread over Italy (a bit annoying). Carthage has two, both on coasts so you could hit them both at once theoretically. Seleucids have two and one is way inland, making them a serious problem as they also have super units like superpikes.


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"The Athenians are here!" A sudden cry could be heard early in the morning through a particular palace in Pella, along with the sound of many elite soldiers assembling together in the courtyard. Phillip V, King of Macedon had not been expecting this particular message at all. He was immediately rushed into the city's garrison headquarters by his bodyguard.

"What is the commotion? Have the Athenians done something stupid?" He looked at their map table, which was now covered with a detailed depiction of Pella and the surrounding area.
"A large Athenian army has marched here from Athenai and is currently encamped just outside our walls."
"Impossible."




"We're not sure what happened to the southern border defense forts, Pharsalus garrison or anything south of here, no reports came in of this."
"Well, what have they brought here? You better not say the guards can't see how many."
"There's been a heavy fog but the numbers are... large. Nearly double the garrison, most likely."




Phillip and some of his officers went out to a high tower to observe the Athenian force. They were spread out around a portion of the wall, though if they were competent then the rest would be watched by scouts.

"What's that they're doing back there?"
"It's a ballista, isn't it?"
"Make sure we bring up some counter-artillery before they move that into range and start sniping soldiers from the walls."

At the edge of the fog one could just make out a group of soldiers behind the ranks who were working on something large. As Phillip turned to return to the garrison, suddenly a large sound of breaking stone could be heard from a nearby wall tower. Everyone present looked in its direction just in time to see stone pieces splashing down into the buildings behind the wall.




"That's no bolt-thrower, that's a Stone Throwing Siege Ballista! How did they get a heavy artillery train all this way?"

The Athenian camp turned out an impressive battery of siege ballistas, who concentrated on a particular portion of wall. While troops were being hurriedly gathered up across Macedonian holdings, the wall of Pella were giving way.


"We're having difficulty repairing the walls, it seems the stones are breaking apart and the wall structure isn't going to hold out. Furthermore, the Athenians are shooting anyone they can see trying to move the larger broken pieces."

The Chief Engineer on the Macedonian side was despondent as he saw Pella's defenses beginning to give way. "These walls weren't intended to take punishment from such heavy artillery, they were mostly intended to make any Dacian assault costly."




As Phillip was in the middle of inspecting the walls, there was a shaking, and that combined with another volley of the siege ballistas finally caused parts of the wall to give up standing upright. A number of nearly hoplites instinctively moved forward to repel an assault, but instead were met only with stones from slingers and the ballista. A cuirassed figure was sent flying backwards with a clearly broken back after being struck by one such a ballista shot.

"Get back from there." Dust and sharp pieces of stone began spraying into Pella from the breach as the artillery continued shooting into the debris. But then Athenian hoplites began rushing in!


"Stop them!" Immediately Phillip's men began to attack the hoplites, who fought back with vigor.




Though another breach, lighter troops came in, scattering the confused Macedonians. Also, slingers scaled various parts of fallen wall and began taking their best shots at Macedonian officers from their perches on the rubble.

"Damnit," Phillip said to his second in command. "Where are the pelta--"




A single lead bullet, probably shot at an officer, went a little high and, sailing over the melee, went through a large window and struck Phillip V in the head from where his surviving bodyguard had barricaded themselves. The slinger probably never realized that he had actually hit someone far more important than the missed target.

At the point of death, a lot of things happen. Phillip V became possibly the second person to realize something important about the nature of the world he was about to leave.


"There's someone else behind this, but I don't recognize her."




There was a panic as several firepots were shot into various parts of Pella along with distracting attempts on the walls. Many of the defenders didn't realize the walls had already been breached in one area, and now Athenians were suddenly appearing in the streets killing people who were either putting out fires or rushing towards the walls.

Some of them decided to run into a shrine dedicated to the original Phillip of Macedon, however (as some Athenians might know) it was a dangerous trap. Though perhaps more by chance, as a firepot struck it, setting the place on fire while also collapsing the main entrance...






Nearly half the Macedonian garrison ever had a serious chance to defend their city. Before they knew it, the enemy were already behind where they were stationed on the walls.

Spoiler for Details: 

And only then did the real slaughter begin.





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Delicious liquid cash. By the way as you can see, we've got an End Turn income of about 6900. To put this in perspective, that's a very measly amount for constructing in all our settlements, less than 1000 per settlement per turn.

On the other hand, that's 34.5 units of Thureophoroi** (the wages for 1 thureophoroi solder for 1 Turn is about 1). Or even more in terms of slingers**.


**Which as you can imagine is quite a lot given what just a few units can do in these assaults, heh (^__^)/

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 8: 

Ch 8: Luxury Cruise



It was the Winter of Year 3 of the Rise. We would good use of the Small Foundry in Pella to upgrade some of our troops. The blacksmiths in Pella were given a stay of execution for their decent work given the circumstances. Also, their apprentices were given the same consideration (only after I had brought it up with Our Lady, but of course she had simply overlooked that the apprentices might not be properly called blacksmiths, is all).

The Macedonian forces mustered in Thessalonike began using the city as a temporary capital. One of the late Phillip V's generals had taken on command and they were preparing a strong blocking action on the critical bridge between Pella and Thessalonike while the full forces of the now bisected Macedon were brought up to full readiness.




We would also receive a number of important reinforcements. The more modern and flexible Thureophoroi would replace the last units of our Hoplites of Athens, and had come up to us from Athenai by sea.

Those in Thessalonike were about to get a surprise, thanks to those just-used transport ships. Indeed we were going to simply bypass their little bridge checkpoint.




A small group of ships sailed into the harbor bringing the usual trade goods... with all the troops being raised, ships laden with supplies were constantly approaching. The ship was expected and the captain directed to one of the unloading areas where dockworkers waited to begin.

However, the unloading crew were astonished when a sudden rush of Athenian thureophoroi marines emerged from the sacks of grain and other goods and began taking over the docks with deadly force. Those supplies were actually for us!

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I, Deukalos, was not on Trojan Ship #1 because my generals persuaded me that it was needlessly risky, so another of them went. I wasn't in ships #2 or #3 either (the first ones to sail in) rather I and my bodyguard landed in a heavy barge which was packed full of soldiers. It sailed in after all the dockworkers and (few) guards had been neutralized.

Our Lady was, however, on Ship #1. According to my general (who oddly enough could see her, he's the second person after myself who has admitted it at least) she was the first one off the ship by which he meant she just jumped off the side before the ship had even come to a stop.




She then just wandered about the docks while the marine contingent were clearing it out (with a lot of bloodshed, as you might assume). If Thessalonike was aware of what was going on, they weren't able to respond in time or decided it was a lost cause.

With these excellent facilities secured, soon the rest of the Athenian campaign group was ferried over from Pella and made landfall safely.




By the time the garrison realized what was going on (the port is outside the walls of the city) it was too late, we had our beachhead. We formed up the men and took care of our siege engines. It's not clear if the Macedonians knew just how many soldiers were there.

It could be that our distraction force had kept the bridge defense group preoccupied...




Yes, Thessalonike was spread out before us, for the taking. Our siege engines targeted some towers and then we were in...





The very first assault group sent in performed admirably and held the breach against the enemy's first pushback. It also helped like lighter units ambushed portions of the defenders en route to the breach.

We entered in numbers, of course.




The enemy general even tried using their heavy cavalry, what a pointless attempt.

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It is worth noting that now generals' bodyguard units are some of the most dangerous ones around as they are "full-sized". However, many Greek factions have an unarmored one meaning they are quite shootable.

Keep this in mind if you happen to have some decent ranged capabilities.




Pikemen seem to get the benefit of their phalanx formation in the oddest times, or perhaps they're simply in phalanx regardless of the unit breaking up due to pathfinding bugs.

Either way, it's annoying to deal with them, and when you start handling silvershield or other special hoplites it's terrible to melee them.




Either way we got a good victory out of it, as usual. Dealing with stone walls is troublesome, as a unit of the siege artillery can take down about 2 sections of walls + 3 towers, which means you really need to work the breach you have.

Flip side though is you frequently only have to contest with part of the enemy force (as some are on the walls) *and* since infantry go on walls, you may be fortunate enough to be fighting mostly cavalry which of course can be decently killed by spearmen (or your own generals, etc).




Oh yeah, so we ~depopulated~ this one as well. <3

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 9: 

Ch 9: Discussing Depopulation



Macedon's powerhouses had been gutted, however they still had substantial forces in the field that would have to be dealt with in some way. Regardless of their numbers, Macedon was now most definitely on the back foot here. The Athenian force made some use of Pella's Small Foundry while we are building a bigger Large Foundry in Athenai. Since the plan was to have centralized training in Athenai, the time of Pella's foundry was limited.

Obviously the forces Athens could muster would never face down Macedon's in a straight battle, but that is beside the point. The foci of critical energies which hold a faction together, the settlements, were the main objective. As long as these could be taken victory was possible, however a more prudent path would be to take down Macedonian forces here and there until a settlement could be taken and held.




Deukalos was quite upset at the severity of the purges of Pella and Thessalonike. Though he didn't make much of a fuss about Sparte, perhaps that was understandable. While he had trouble believing it, order was being maintained, even as Thessalonike was still being cleared of the slain.

It isn't hard to understand his worries, however it will take time to demonstrate the power of settlement construction.

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While we were on the road from Thessalonike to Philippi, I was talking with Our Lady while she was sitting behind me on the horse looking for something northwards. I wonder a bit what she is looking for, hopefully it isn't any Dacians about to take advantage of the chaos in Greece. If so, we would probably pull back southwards and let them fight it out with Macedon. Probably.

It was rather disconcerting to have someone behind talking to you. Though there's no place there to sit, she's just sort of floating slightly with a finger on the saddle to... well I don't know what. Fortunately while people apparently can't see her, they don't notice me talking into the air either.




D: "I've been worried about the men recently. I think the war is affecting them."
A: "Oh, how so?" She doesn't seem particularly interested.
D: "Some of them seem to have changed compared to when we were training to defend Athens."
A: "Oh, how so..."
D: "They used to look forward to returning to Athenai and rejoining their families, and other normal things but not anymore."
A: "Hmm, is this a problem?" Her response is rather uninspiring, given how seriously I had been mulling the issue.
D: "Yes it is! They're starting to turn into Spartans or something similar."




A: "Do you remember when the Spartan democracy died?"
D: "Yes, it was a massacre. That one was necessary though, Spartans would never let it go."
A: "They could have been useful, but..."
D: "What, did you have anything to do with them?"
A: "This time I choose Athens, is all."




A: "But anyway, it is indeed as you say. Let the older ones return to their hearths now before it is too late."
D: "So you agree it's a problem then?"
A: "It's more worthwhile to build up from the young, and now they should be able to move into the officer positions. Make it so."
D: "Why is it that you don't see any issue here?"




A: "How can I explain this to you?" All of a sudden she sounds serious. "Consider a phalanx. What happens if the formation breaks up?"
D: "It will be defeated if the enemy is in formation and is able to exploit it."
A: "And how did we defeat the Spartan pike phalanx?"
D: "They were isolated and shot to pieces."
A: "After breaking through the center?"
D: "Yes...?"




A: "The issue is that it is costly to maintain the command-and-control during battles. Preparing the soldiers beforehand alters this."
D: "What are you talking about? Wasn't that battle with the Spartans according to your plan?"
A: "It didn't go according to the plan. You didn't notice, but you should have."
D: "But what does this have to do with all the depopulation?"




A: "The issue is: It goes against the conventions. Tell me, who handed these down, was it men or the gods?"
D: "They say that even the gods are involved in the ebb and flow of wars."
A: "If so, which one of them ended the conflict between your Athens and her rival Sparta?"
D: "None of them. It was on your orders."
A: "Do you understand now?"
D: "Not exactly."




A: "Well said, at least you can admit it. Then - the Spartans are not quite as unique as you think. To me, at least."
D: "How so, they were the finest soldiers in the world across many ages!"
A: "Look at it from my view. They weren't useful."
D: "And the Macedonians are?"
A: "Not in the way you're thinking perhaps."

[GreatOne]

A question, how did you get to play as Athens? I don't see it in swap factions or anywhere for that matter.

EDIT: Nwm, found it in battles and multiplayer section, odd stuff.

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 10: 

Ch 10: West Macedon



"General! The Macedonians are here!"
D: "Oh? So they did come out in the end." I turned back to my conversation partner who just shook her head.
A: "The Macedonians are coming from behind us."
"My apologies, but it isn't the Edessa garrison. This force came from the east along the same roads we used."
D: "This is bad, isn't it? Also, does no one notice me talking to you?"
A: "No? Get your men ready."




And indeed, the enemy ran away. However, they ran to Edessa, perhaps this was their plan? From Pella-Thessalonike, Edessa was closer than Philipoupolis.

Since Philippi had surrendered to us, the East Macedonians had not attempted to retake it.




Regardless of the various circumstances, our campaign group had turned west. Admittedly it would have made sense to have done this first, but then again with Philippi as a buffer it was safe to engage Macedon more directly.

Also because the Macedonian forces had been divided into two parts.




Our available funds were going into building mines. Our Lady said that these areas were rich in gold that had not been exploited so far. I was surprised to hear this but sent out some surveyors and mining experts to the areas she indicated. She said something about transforming gold coin into linothroaxes and bronze cuirasses, which didn't make much sense to me.

I also know that there are deposits of iron, copper, tin but there are no plans to mine these, so where will all our weapons come from?

**(Note that besides Gold/Silver, everything else only gives +tax bonus in mines. Due to hardcoded limitations on mining income.)




Though it was a ways from Pella and behind Edessa, Apollonia had a rather large garrison for some reason. But there was maybe one person who wasn't taken aback at all...

A: "It's because the Apollonia region borders the Thermon region."
D: "So, within plan?"
A: "Yes, you can take them."




Nowadays, horsemen are the ones using full-sized (size 10) aspis, while the hoplite heavy infantry use small ones (size 8) and our medium Thureophoroi infantry have the largest shields (size 10).

Thureophoroi are great at fighting horsemen as unlike the earlier hoplites, they are better at using their spears instead of constantly resorting to their swords.




The Epilektoi were trying their best, but this fight showed quite clearly that depending on non-pikemen to actually defeat pikemen was pointless. Also, their small round shields meant we lost some to random javelins coming out over the wall.

The infantry-skirmisher combination is indeed the way of the future. Though spears are useful against horsemen (we ourselves cannot match Macedon's masses of horse).






And somehow this was a Heroic Victory. I don't really get it.

(Did you know that the Greek announcer only says "heroic" for a Clear Victory, and uses "crushing" only to describe a Heroic Victory?

Spoiler for Details: 

As money started pouring into the mining projects, we still continued recruiting more soldiers, not just to replace those returning after the main Pella-Thessalonike thrust, but also to increase our active force. All these new reinforcements are still going into our one main campaign group.

I'm sure that Macedon hasn't been standing still, but East Macedon consists of 1 Large Town, so what force could they possibly be holding?




Seeing our victories over Macedon, Rome decided to offer us a lot in return for some maps. Interesting.

Our Lady was not amused when she heard about it afterwards though...




However, we were now at peace with (all the) Greek City-States and immediately got maps showing all their holdings. This will be useful.

Wait a moment, is Rome thinking the same time I'm thinking?

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 11: 

Ch 11: Time To Run



D: The Macedonians have split up their defense forces! Let us quickly attack Edessa.

With this victory, the West Macedonian forces would have no settlements left, and any forces remaining would be forced to retreat to Philipoupolis far in the east, which would definitely be a harrowing trial at best.






We opened with the usual long-range missile attacks. Whenever the enemy force is relatively small, the effect of our slingers is quite significant in degrading their strength even before a serious assault is undertaken.

There was no real resistance, the Macedonians were not well prepared for us.






A relatively clean victory. Edessa was very small and seemed eager to obey. Fortunately there was no need for us to thin them any.

Spoiler for Details: 

Our army grows with the addition of these Greek Hippotoxotoi (they are garrison units) who are great scouts. Don't underestimate their arrows either, though really their main mission if they were in combat is mostly likely little more than shooting routers in the back or stabbing them with a spear as they ran.

That is a very useful role, of course, but they will be good at helping keep settlements safe from raiders who would give -15% public order without a garrison.




A decent balance. We can set up initial mining operations at a rate of one per 6 months, and have been doing so for a while. It's an interesting decision to be doing this while Macedon is still very strong (how they maintain that is beyond me) but then again we are using what used to be Macedon's territory as a buffer zone.

Put that way, we're not taking any particular risks. Assuming we can pull back if the Macedonians really decide on a counter-offensive...




A: "You are kidding me, you didn't think this would happen?
D: "What, you expected the Romans to betray us?"
A: "Here's a tip. Don't trust anyone who borders us."
D: "Ugh, damn. Could it get any worse?"




The ceasefire between Rome and Macedon isn't of any importance. It's just a function of the fact that they now are not sharing a border. But that's because we took over West Macedon and are now the ones bordering Rome's greek holding.

How vexing. At least we have those maps of Italy...




Our first mines began digging and brought up a good amount of gold. Excellent! Also, Athenai has our first Large Foundry, and with all the craftsmen from Pella here, we are able to produce an amazing quality of arms and armor while still maintaining an improved quality.

Of course, all this comes together wonderfully since we're now at war with Rome, the giant that beat up Macedon a few times.




A: "There's an easy way to stop the Romans."
D: "Well, that's good to hear!"
A: "There's one important settlement. Hurry over and kill all of them. This will lead them to give us a ceasefire."
D: "That sounds odd, but... as you say. Let us return the army westwards, then."

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If you were wondering, the Macedon forces were cut off and attempted to move towards Philipoupolis. Rather than take the Pella-Thessalonike bridge (the pathfinding will not as it is wholly blocked by Pella's Zone of Control), they went instead through the northern way, through the Free People territory.

Only found out later, but they ended up fighting the Free People and, as far as I can tell, they lost the two half stacks that tried to retreat that way.

[Grimbold]

You only do siege battles or something?

[Alavaria]

You only do siege battles or something?

Short answer: Taking settlements is a critical part of winning.


Long answer: Sometimes the AI catches me in a way I didn't expect:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

But otherwise it's much less strenuous and safer to just dodge stacks** all day. Much like in real life, sieges are where it's at, though unlike it there's a 100% assault, 0% starvation ratio. But really? Assume that the assault encompasses a few months of siege (ie: fits within turn) except when the garrison is just 2 units or so. I don't really know how you can siege for months and the enemy doesn't catch you (which is impossible if you are immediately assaulting, of course) so pretend there's some handwaving.


**You can even trap AI stacks "deep" in your territory by shifting the frontlines enough, then you can keep the AI paying for a useless stack at least for a while...

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The most decisive battle to kill a faction (besides Romans, they're special) is probably assaulting their Treasury settlement. And holding it... you'd be surprised how even a fairly strong faction just starts falling part when it doesn't get that magic income. Plus, if you kill a faction the remaining stacks turn into generic Free People and are mostly harmless to you.

For Romans, the key is to take over all settlements with the "Roman Culture" building, as it has this:

taxable_income_bonus bonus 1150 requires factions { roman, }

So again, best way is to clear Italy, Sicily and those two islands. It doesn't really matter past that, even if Rome has backcapped everything to the west (actually, bonus points for me as Rome takes away Carthago Nova which is Carthage's second treasury settlement). What you don't want to do is endlessly be fighting Romans in the field over and over as though you can somehow eat up the nearly-infinite cash or the actually infinite (due to scripts) population.

Putting things into perspective, if the Rome AI has all 13 of the Roman Cultural settlements, that is a minimum of ~150,000 per turn.
The Silvershield Empire has about this much (80,000+ in each of Antiochea and Seleucia).
Carthage has about 50,000+ between Carthago and Carthago Nova
Most other factions have between 30,000+ to 40,000+ concentrated in a single settlement.
Cimbri are special, they start small (compared to say Carthage) but have 60,000 in their capital, so you frequently see them becoming the "richest" faction.

                taxable_income_bonus bonus 6000 requires factions { germans, } and hidden_resource area4 and hidden_resource r1
                taxable_income_bonus bonus 3700 requires factions { boii, } and hidden_resource area4 and hidden_resource r11
                taxable_income_bonus bonus 4300 requires factions { romans_scipii, } and hidden_resource area7 and hidden_resource r6
                taxable_income_bonus bonus 1450 requires factions { romans_julii, } and hidden_resource area1 and hidden_resource r6
                taxable_income_bonus bonus 1450 requires factions { romans_julii, } and hidden_resource area1 and hidden_resource r9
                taxable_income_bonus bonus 3100 requires factions { gauls, } and hidden_resource area13 and hidden_resource r6
                taxable_income_bonus bonus 3600 requires factions { dacia, } and hidden_resource area7 and hidden_resource r2
                taxable_income_bonus bonus 3600 requires factions { scythia, } and hidden_resource area10 and hidden_resource r9
                taxable_income_bonus bonus 1900 requires factions { spain, } and hidden_resource area2 and hidden_resource r1

                taxable_income_bonus bonus 4900 requires factions { parthia, } and hidden_resource area15 and hidden_resource r1
                taxable_income_bonus bonus 3000 requires factions { armenia, } and hidden_resource area11 and hidden_resource r6
                taxable_income_bonus bonus 2800 requires factions { greek_cities, } and hidden_resource area9 and hidden_resource r11
                taxable_income_bonus bonus 4500 requires factions { numidia, } and hidden_resource area8 and hidden_resource r13

                happiness_bonus bonus 1 requires factions { parthia, armenia, egypt, }
                taxable_income_bonus bonus 4800 requires factions { macedon, } and hidden_resource area8 and hidden_resource r7
                taxable_income_bonus bonus 4650 requires factions { egypt, } and hidden_resource area14 and hidden_resource r4
                taxable_income_bonus bonus 8200 requires factions { seleucid, } and hidden_resource area14 and hidden_resource r12 ;;syria
                taxable_income_bonus bonus 8200 requires factions { seleucid, } and hidden_resource area15 and hidden_resource r10 ;;Susiana
                taxable_income_bonus bonus 3700 requires factions { pontus, } and hidden_resource area12 and hidden_resource r4

                taxable_income_bonus bonus 3800 requires factions { carthage, } and hidden_resource area3 and hidden_resource r6

The other carthage one is in a cultural building, and I think Sarmatia's are also in cultural buildings or so..

taxable_income_bonus bonus 1100 requires factions { carthage, }  and hidden_resource area2 and hidden_resource r12

(Note that "scythia" is Sarmatia and the actual Scytian faction is "romans_scipii"...

taxable_income_bonus bonus 225 requires factions { scythia, }  and hidden_resource area10

[Grimbold]

Im aware of that, but when the AI has multiple stacks of different sizes on the field, you're bound to be attacked.

[Alavaria]

Im aware of that, but when the AI has multiple stacks of different sizes on the field, you're bound to be attacked.

I've only gotten "caught" a couple of times. Being in a fort usually encourages the AI to attack something else, like a settlement or fort with only one unit in it. Then the AI army gets bounced (small, see Chapter 10 for example) or disappears (large, see Chapter 5 for a parry&riposte using a settlement).

Also, frequently the AI just sieges my fort with an army that runs away when I sally, so I just keep on pushing. If you are sallying against AI, it will frequently try to retreat while it would not if you attacked on the field. Say, a full stack vs a half stack, the AI's halfstack will try and retreat. If you have horse archers you can sometimes get some decent free kills off this:




Sometimes the AI is annoyingly timid when it sees your forts lying about... but in some cases, well:

[Grimbold]

Well that seems like a sound strategy, but as i dislike siege battles i prefer fighting on the open.

I do use forts, but it's more to block bridge access and other tight crossings.

[Alavaria]

Well that seems like a sound strategy, but as i dislike siege battles i prefer fighting on the open.

A couple clarifications:
1. There's a few ways to finagle a stack out of a settlement for a field battle, but in general if a stack is already in the settlement I find it easier to just kill it in there.
2. I prefer not fighting as far as I can. But there's not many options when the settlement I want has something already in it (or next to it, though you may be able to Night Fight or so on)

Like this stack, they apparently cannot get back home. Too bad for the Silvershield Empire, but it's a rather elite stack too...

I do use forts, but it's more to block bridge access and other tight crossings.

Yeah. They also distract enemies. In general if there's random forts lying around, it is because I did it to protect my stack at the End Turn (and I then just kept it around as a distraction).

[Alavaria]

Ch 12: A Detour



New life! Somehow this now 60+ year old general has had a bunch of daughters while nearing the end of his life. It's rather surprising, but in any case I won't be using the marriage method for getting new generals. Right now, we're looking at 2 generals now and another 2 generals coming in about 30+ turns. I'm fine with this.

At some point I'll get into what population growth in this Athenian soon-to-be-empire is like... after all the depopulating.

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So, the mighty Roman cohorts. It is said they are very good in infantry-fighting, so we shall have to come out strong with our missile troops! And spears, of course. The objective is clear - eliminate the Roman presence on this side of the waters. Peace over mailed corpses!

Our Lady said that while there were still more Roman forces on our side of the sea, we only needed to control Dyrrhachium. As long as they were denied this critical strategic settlement (and port), the Romans would attempt to pull out**. Good enough for me, if they try to keep fighting, we will just have to destroy them.


**In this case, the Exit Plan for the stranded units is a long march march north and then westwards until they reached northern Italy (mostly on foot).




Roman bodyguards are amazing! They are super-heavy shock cavalry which, in a charge, can use their one-handed spears to deliver an impact comparable to a cataphract with a two-handed lance. It is hard to say, but Our Lady apparently believed that a fight between their and our bodyguard units would require us to win in the charge... of course this is a moot point, because -

We shot many to death with our slingers. Too bad that their bronze cuirasses were damaged, they could've been useful. They will be melted down and sent back to Athenai, most likely.




Romans are pretty good at using swords, unfortunately for them fighting in melee is pretty slow and provides plenty of time for missile units to... many Romans felt the sting of being shot in the back with our armor-piercing stones. Did you know that the sound of dying Romans is not particularly exceptional?

Also, missile attacks are much more quickly lethal than spear- or sword-fighting. It is why we rely on spearmen, because they can engage horsemen well, while even heavy and elite infantry take a long time to defeat our medium spearmen (thureophoroi).

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Ranged units (including archers and slingers, and non-precharge javelins) can also do an interesting melee-shooting trick. This is not particularly useful, but anyway remember that a single unit cannot "friendly fire" its own soldiers. It basically makes no sense, even worse than the point-blank volley fire that units can do.

By the way, enemy generals may have many hitpoints and can tie up a single unit for quite a while by themselves, but even they can take volleys of melee missile shots for long.







And so, for peace! Depopulation! In order to correct Deukalos' earlier and misplaced, trust in Romans, it was necessary to conduct a through purge. Because massacring Romans is always a good choice.

Also, the settlement had some gold which we could mine, so it was added to the list for future development.

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The Romans had set up some sort of weird monument. We were ordered to take it down immediately. One shudders to think what the Romans might have been doing on Greek soil, with their terrible rituals.

[Alavaria]

Ch 13: Hi.



The Illyrians are famous for being pirates as well as fierce fighters and hard to subdue. Phillip of Macedon won Macedonian praise after defeating the Illyrians with his newly developed pike doctrine.

To take control of this area's gold and silver, we had to take Salonae. Pretty simple in comparison, huh?




Although they are here using their spears while attacking pikemen head on, these Paiones Hippes are very good units. Their strength is not in using a lance to charge (though they do this well) but in the curved sword they carry which is able to pierce armor. This allows them to capably assault heavy cavalry which our Thureophoroi can hold and tire out, but not defeat in a reasonable timeframe.

In Athenai we are able to train units like this, which is why they are worth mentioning. This is because, of course, we took that one important settlement. Amazing how productive following Our Lady's advice is.






If you're unarmored**, your death by missiles is not long if your shield is facing the wrong direction. However of course what happens if the missile troops flank while someone is already engaged in a melee fight?

**Well, even if you are armored. Since stones pierce armor.




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This will definitely never cause problems in the future. By the way Salonae is only a Large Town, so after depopulating it down, our construction possibilities were very limited, and corruption was quite a problem. Of course with a large population comes difficulty using garrisons and squalor issues, so this was better.

Still, it would take a while for Salonae to reach City level, and before that point, the Large Town can do quite a bit for Public Order but via Happiness and not Law.




After being the one to unify the Greek cities as well as take down about two-thirds of Macedon, Deukalos finally was able to command 500 horsemen. Though his army is bigger than 3500, and he doesn't even have 500 horsemen in it.

Well let's not worry about it, he now has a good base of Command Stars and +Troop Morale modifiers.




Although Athens just kicked Rome out of Greece, further to the west, Romans have been taking control of many lands. This isn't too much of a problem, because if we were to start killing Rome in earnest the first, fastest, and earliest gains in Italy/Sicily will be the most important. More on this later...

Unsurprisingly enough Macedon got seriously beaten up.




Ok, so with 2 settlements and no Treasury, Macedon apparently still has an army larger than ours (though you can also see it rose a lot early on and then dipped to current levels).

On the other hand, Rome has seriously ramped up its forces. But we won't fight them for a pretty long time, and even then most of their "legions" might just disappear somewhere else.

Don't worry about the Greek City-States, as that faction has cities all over, it's hard to really see in advance if we'll meet any of these forces.






That was not the Ceasefire I was expecting. Of course, seeing that Rome estimates its forces as 8 times of ours... haha.

If it came to it, we could take down Rome pretty fast by just crossing the water, but... nah, I won't.




And so we are down to two generals. It's quite a ways until the next generation comes of age, but we'll be fine until then.

[Alavaria]

Ch 14: Not Forgotten



The time had come to take care of Chalkis. It might have once been a useful "outpost" for the Macedonians, due to proximity to Athenai, but this was nothing compared to our sudden assault into the heart of Macedon. There's nothing particularly important there for us, but it was on the way for Deukalos' force, which had rotated though Athenai. His First Army now had our best equipment mass-produced to date.

We were thinking about exiling the Macedonians to this island, but eventually Our Lady made the decision to just remove them from the board entirely. I can't find fault with that.






There's nothing major, the First Army is quite capable at assaults and street fighting. Remember that by this point, it has already faced elite Macedonian armies with fancy gear. Chalkis never had a chance, really. It was said that most of the population had in fact evacuated to Philipoupolis.






Just another day's work for the First Army.

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Having a capable general like Deukalos makes everything easier. For one, the Command, Control and Coordinate Network (C3N) aura) works much better when the general and command staff & officers are capable. The "settlement assault" is definitely one of the easier missions compared to "major field battle" but potentially the most critical mission due to the importance of controlling settlements.

Actually the settlement assault is very stressful on infantry units, since usually at least the first unit in will be attacked by nearly all the defenders at once. In this way, it basically lets you "test to failure". And for the Thureophoroi, they definitely can take a lot if supported by a great general like Deukalos. They pretty much fight to the last soldier.





Besides morale, perhaps even more important on a strategic level, is getting any +Movement Points you can stack on them. This allows you to:

• Move surprisingly fast with artillery, even in areas with bad/no roads.
• Move really super fast on the defense, as you tend to have decent roads and might be fine with leaving artillery behind.

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As our mines come online, there's a good flow of cash which is going nearly entirely into new mines, for now at least. The next priorities will be roads and population health & growth. Hmm, that's quite a shift.

Our defense spending is slated to rise only modestly, with additional income gains going primarily to investment, absent any sudden threats.




On the plus side, while we were on the road to Philipoupolis, we heard that Macedon's allies abandoned it. And we also did actually get a ceasefire with Rome. Huh, I wouldn't have thought they would back down after a massacre**. Perhaps they're not as tough as their reputation suggests. At least, not if they can't march across a border to reach you...

**This does come in to play in Medieval 2, with factions and (if relevant) pope being quite unhappy if you sack or depopulate settlements.