Hello everyone.
Together two weeks ago we faced the first counterattacks of Persia in Asia Minor.
I would like to invite you to join me on the expedition against the Asian hegemon this Tuesday in the seventh developer stream of Age of Alexander campaign as Hellas.
In the last stream, we were able to secure and hold a bridgehead in Anatolia and even expand its area a bit. Nevertheless, so far, the advance has been quite slow and cautious.
The Persians made several counterattacks in Anatolia and several of our cities switched their alliance due to our poor vigilance. We sent too many units to the battlefront leaving the newly conquered and quite rebellious cities unguarded. This led Smyrnos to revolt and hand over the keys to its gates back to the Persians.
It was certainly our fault because we should have anticipated this and kept the city garrisoned. Later, we conquered Smyrnos again but due to the extremely hostile attitude of its citizens towards us and the high risk of another revolt, we decided to plunder the city.
Unfortunately, we didn't learn from this and the same situation repeated itself with Sardis. The city was damaged and we didn't take care to repair it, we didn’t even leave a garrison so it came as no surprise that Sardis decided to join the Persian overlord again. This action was cruelly punished by us in the same way we punished Smyrnos.
Furthermore, due to the lack of slaves, we decided to enslave the population of Halikarnassos right after we conquered it.
After all these actions, there is no doubt that the attitude of the whole region towards us is very hostile and we cannot rely on its citizens to stay in line.
Apart from that, Persians also made several attempts to disembark on our mainland. Even though we were able to fend them off without much harm done, it really showed us the necessity of keeping good garrison units in the rear.
The situation against the Persians was also tense at sea and we engaged in a number of naval battles with our slowly growing fleet. We used the tactics of "wolf packs" - staying in the background, getting all ships ready to attack and then striking one particular enemy fleet at a time. Once the battle was over, we withdrew from the area as soon as we could and started preparing for the next battle. This way, we were able to sink several Persian ships which eventually allowed us to take control over the Aegean Sea with all its islands and forts. Moreover, at the end of the last episode, we were just about to launch our very first trireme. Hellas is becoming a naval power!
Apart from the Persians, the rest of the world was quite peaceful. All our borders are stable and relationships with our neighbors slowly improve. Carthage even offered us a confederation but due to the fact that we would lose all the agreed treaties with the Romans and Illyrians, we declined. Nevertheless, we might come back to this later again.
One small trouble in our foreign relations did happen with the Odrysians (confederated with the Bosporan kingdom) who tried to influence several of our border areas, they were partially successful. Although none of these regions are particularly important, this could eventually indicate some divergence with the Bosporan kingdom later.
Economy-wise, we slowly repaired the conquered regions in Asia Minor. All these construction works totally depleted our stone reserves. The situation should improve soon with the new "quarry" improvements in all of our blacksmiths. Another technological advancement which should considerably improve our economy is the paved roads. We have started building "highways" but the shortage of stones seriously impedes our efforts.
On the other hand, we have abundance of gold and enough iron to start enlarging our army. We have built a couple of new hoplites and axemen and moved them closer to the battlefront. This should be the core force which will be sent further into the Persian heartland in the following turns.
One big disaster struck in May 328BCE when an outbreak of plague killed almost a third of our citizens! What a hit. The plague wave struck in Greece and made it the least populated part of the republic.
It was also the reason why we sent Andronicus (a sage from a temple on Peloponnese) to travel to Asia Minor to start a philosophical school in one of the cities there, rather than spend him in one of the now small cities in Greece.
The last stream ended with us in a pretty tricky situation in one of our smaller military operations trying to conquer a stone quarry on a Persian island. We were able to take over the island, yet our supply ships were attacked and are now severely damaged. Let's hope our hoplites will find a safe way home. If we lose them (and potentially also one of the fleets), this whole operation can only be called an utter failure.
In the next episode, we will try to not only save our hoplites but also further advance in Anatolia and appease the local citizenry and win their loyalty. Join me on our campaign further into the Persian heartland!
As always, Pavel will be happy to answer your questions during the stream so please join in Tuesday 15th on our Twitch channel.
See you there!
Yours,
Kube Games team.
P.S. Here is the last episode in case you missed it.