The Greater Greek Empire of the Cimmerian Bosporus (GGECB)

[Mygreatlord]

The Greater Greek Empire
of the Bosporus
(GGEOTB)​

The GGEOTB was founded by our current king, back then it was called the Bosporan Kingdom. He managed to unite some greek city states making all of them allies. He then proclaimed himself to be their ruler and managed to be recogniced as just that - the ruler.​

This is my first EU ROME AAR.
I bought my gold version 2day.
You should know that I have played the game earlier
(having it borrowed from someone)
but now finally bought my own version.
I never played it with any expansion.
Settings: standard (nothing changed)
Patch: 2.2
Country: Bosparan Kingdom
Aim: Get all lands around the Black Sea.


I am starting as the so called Bosporan Kingdom, although right at the beginning of my reign I do announce a change of name into the GGEOTB (as outlined in the title ).

Of course I am not the king, and it's not my reign. But I am the king whisperer. So don't underestimate me.

The first step I advise the king, Pairtasades Spartocid, to take, is to tell the reader something about his kingdom. The GGEOTB is not as large as other empires, it's no even a regional power. It is in fact sandwiched between two powers which both have larger military then we have. Furthermore, they see us as their natural competition and feel threatened by our badly trained 3000 men force.

Concerning all these issues, we can't do too much. We are poor as well, not even generating 0.2 pounds of gold a month (not that poor...I mean I got a big athenian villa and servants & stuff... but it may well be the "government" that is poor).

What we do first now is, we set up trading routes. This may at least give us some more gold. Our culture is Greek in fact, as we are early Greek settlers who have now for some time created an empire at the top of the Black Sea and life together with some natives. So, beeing Greeks, we at least know how to trade. That said, we even decide to trade with rights. For example to right the call oneself a citizen of our state. Do you want to become one? Give me the money first!

Well all of that is great! But we are still poor, small and weak. There our king has some great ideas. Not only does he send a delegation of camel traders to Pontus, but also gets rewarded for that with an military alliance. Beeing now allied with Mitrhridatrid (King of Pontus) our king P. Spartocid even decides to visit Pontus. He gets green with envy when seeing Mitrhridatrid's large army and therefore decides to reform his own armed forces.

Back in his palast, P. Spartocid sends out a large amount of recruiters. "I WANT 10'000 men" he cries! After years of recruiting everyone between the age of 12 and 40 (most people died with 40 at this time) and his recruiters visiting the most remote villages, he finally gets quite a large army together. Unfortunately, they are all poorly trained and equipped. Therefore, P. Spartocid introduces military duty, which trains all his soldiers and makes poor peasants to decent soldiers, increasing their awareness but especially their defence (+0,5).

NOOO I forgot the change the TITLE into the newest name!

 

[unmerged(129932)]

Certainly, controlling the Black Sea, for this time period, will be momumental for controlling the trade that exists and will develop here.

I will follow.

 

[Mygreatlord]

We rush out!

We Rush Out

Beeing allied with mighty Pontus, we dont hesitate to push our war preparations further. Colchi and Rhoxalani think they can threaten us? They think they can crush us between them? NO THEY CAN'T! Our mighty army rushes forward. And there actually seems some confusion, we have a lot of armies walking trough our territory:

Unfortunately our people seems quite concerned about our expansion plans and thus there are a lot of rumors and political disputes. But we actually do not really care!

After several changes of the military plans we finally forced Rhoxalani to accept our terms. Therefore we always had to go east/west/east/west because we had to try to keep the forces of Colchi away from our capital (because I am there and I do not want to be sieged it's uncomfortable not beeing able to go out without a large amount of guards around you).

Finally we had Rhoxalani where we wanted it and Pontus had helped us a lot in keeping Colchis Forces small within this period of time. We soon forced their whole alliance to make peace with us - to our terms. As Pontus was that helpful, we send them a virgin in a gold(-plated) cage as well as some sweet little toe dancer boys. They are greeks like us, they will like it!

Now, the GGEOTB has already fulfilled 1/5 or even 1/4 of it's plan to conquer everything around the Black Sea. Isnt that nice? But will it keep being that easy? Or will it become easier? Will the Seleucids kills us sooner or later? Or will Pontus break the alliance and stop us on our way?

 

[unmerged(59077)]

You're Greek.

It's guaranteed win, even if you lose.

Also, Crimea is nice.

 

[Mygreatlord]

You're Greek.

It's guaranteed win, even if you lose.

Also, Crimea is nice.

Mhm, I dont get it (the greek win/lose joke).

Whatsoever, I may be Greek but at the beginning only ONE of my provinces is. Only decades later, the second province becomes Greek as well.

 

[unmerged(129932)]

I take it this AAR is supposed to be comedic?

 

[Qorten]

That's off to a good start. You'll have quite a lot of work coolonizing the barabaric provinces on the west side of the Euxine Sea though, and usually either Pontus gets eaten by über Seleucids, or they become quite über themselves!

 

[Mygreatlord]

I take it this AAR is supposed to be comedic?

I am not sure yet. First it was serious, then it became more comedic. I am not sure. But am open for constructive criticism.^^

 

[Qorten]

Good comedy is hard to write. I'd practice a bit until you feel confident and good enough in your comedic writing before posting a really comedic update here. But that's just my humble opninion.

 

[Mygreatlord]

Good comedy is hard to write. I'd practice a bit until you feel confident and good enough in your comedic writing before posting a really comedic update here. But that's just my humble opninion.

After yours as well as the other guys critique, i decided to keep it serious. I have also changed the last post to make it more serious.

 

[Mygreatlord]

Further expansion

After making peace with our former enemies, a herald of Pontus reached our court. He was really nervous and demanded an immediate audience with the king.

The king, in the bathroom (beeing washed by some Egyptian slaves), did not want to listen to him in the first place and told his servants to ask what Pontu's herald wanted. It soon became clear that it was a matter of peace and war and the king allowed the herald to enter the royal bathroom.

The herald brought truly interesting news. Pontus was attacked by Tylis and called us to arms. The king did not hesitate to guarantee the herald that we would help them. So it came that we declared war on Tylis.

We send them huge amounts of iron and even ready made swords and bucklers but they did not manage to win the war. And we didnt even think about throwing our troops in. This war was too large scale and our small peasant army would not have had a considerable effect anyway.

In 484 AVC before our small army had totally recovered from our last war with Rhoxolani and Colchi, Pontus was forced to cede Pahlagonia, which should heavily cripple their income.

Only few months later our army had finally recovered and we went to war with Rhoxalay again. Ares must love us, as our troops were increadibly succesful.

This may be due to the fact that Colchis did NOT join them, as they still had a peace treaty with us and thought war against Iberia in the far east. Therefore we could force Rhoxalani (which didnt even hold the province Rhoxalani anymore since the last war) to cede two further provinces.

We could now afford to sustain two separate armies which could work absolutely independantly. Altough they were still poorly trained and cost us more than half of our finances! Our income was well below 1 thousand pounds of gold so we still were quite poor. But I felt that destiny prepared big things for the The Greater Greek Empire of the Bosporus.

 

[Mygreatlord]

I take it this AAR is supposed to be comedic?

no longer! (see previous posts)

 

[Mygreatlord]

Further, Further!

Of course this wasnt enough. Our king now became confident to have splitted the alliance between Rhoxalani and Colchis completely, especially as Rhxalani was now paying tribute to us. Therefore he saw himself in the position to declare war against Colchis.

We could soon force them to give up everything except for their home region, a rather small region where their so-called king would live his last days.

Just when Pairisades Spartocid was trying to prepare his army for another war, he died unforeseen. We will never forget him, who startet the conquests which would once make our realm a major regional power. All of Pairisades efforts to strenghten the army soon vanished and the army's morale became damaged.

Two weeks later, the new king, who now called himself Basileus of the Greater Greek Empire of the Bosporus, rose to the throne.

He wasnt the cleverst guy on earth, but he was ok. Unfortunately I, the royal Advisor, died one week later, too and so the new Basileus, Spartacus Spartacoid will have to continue this diary.

 

[Mygreatlord]

Father and Son

I, Spartacus Spartacoid, will end what my father has begun. First of all, I will make sure that the army and the people is loyal to me, as it was to my father. I therefore rely on an extraordinary idea one of our philosophers had.

After beeing recognized as the legal heir, my armies crush the last doubters and head to the border to go to war against Colchis.

When our troops arrived at the border, they were welcomed by our brothers in arm, the Great Army of Pontus. They had just annexed what had been left from Colchis.

I then ordered the armies back and ordered them to solve the Rhoxalani-problem before any further step would be taken, although I was quite angry at our brothers in arm. I indeed think, they should be punished for this clear intervention into our sphere of influence.

The Rhoxalani problem was solved within days. Enemy armies were blown away from our experienced troops, if they had the heart to fight us at all.

We took over their last land and I claimed myself Basileus of the Greater Greek Empire of the Bosporus, King of Rhoxalani and Ruler of North Colchi.

Now I went back to my palast and back to my desk. I had to think about Pontus intervention. What did they really want? Do they play with us? What might be the nature of their intrigue?

 

[Qorten]

Well, talking about a quick advance! Keep it up.

 

[Mygreatlord]

Iberia

Actually, I thought "Iberia" would be a peninsula in the far west - near the end of the world - where some of our greek ancestors once built some of their colonies. But the scholars must have told me wrong!

After our most recent conquests we found out that a so called kingdom of Iberia was now east of us. Some huntsmen told the local governor about it, after they were stopped by border troops to further move on and hunt in the Iberian royal woods. We had never heard - even the wisest men could not remember that state in the east. Nevertheless, I decided to send out some scouts as well as secret agents to find out more about this kingdom.

Meanwhile some barbarians caused some trouble, but were no major problem. Then a herald from Pontus reached our court once again. He was supposed to call us to arms against the Aetolian League. We had heard of them but did not intend to follow the call. This was the time of revenge for Pontus' earlier intevention into our sphere of influence, which is the reason why not all of our lands are in one piece.

But even if they had to fight against this Greek League now, they were still strong, stronger than we were. The numbers were the same, but they troops were far better equipped and trained and even more experienced. No, we could not fall in their back now. But at the same time our realm is still to weak and small too stop expanding and start restructuring. We have to expand to make sure that we can not be blown away by cold breeze of history. So we invaded Iberia (spys could tell as that they were not too strong but quite jerkwater).

The war was succesful and no special events happened. We had once again gained controll over two new provinces! New provinces would mean more taxes. More taxes means the ability to spend more money for army reforms. So, I ordered to build up a core force of heavy infantery only supported by peasant soldiers. The remaining peasant soldiers would be the reserve as well as the defender of our capital. I gave full military authority to my best man and then we invaded Pontus.


Pontus - although completely surprised - was a strong opponent. We had to bring in a lot mercenaries to win the war but finally won the upper hand - without even calling in our new ally, the Seleucid Empire. To this time more than 15'000 men must have fought under our flagg. By the way I do not exactly know why the Seleucids asked us to become their ally at all, but they did. I could not reject that offer but showered their diplomat with pure silver! (I would have used gold, if we had enough )

Well, so we won the war against Pontus. Afterwards, I sent home a lot of the troops, especially the mercenaries, to avoid becoming bancrupt as well as having money again for my luxurious lifestyle.

Now I want all the historians to write it down: This was the 4th military victory in only 4 wars. We must truly be blessed by the gods! I am proud of my father as well as of my own work! We were a decent regional power now allied with the only one which could possibly threaten us: The Seleucids! No one could harm us. So I thought.

(by the way it seems like there must have been a second war against Iberia to get their capital but I dont remember that! Stupid me! But I dont cheat so there must have been one. I am some years later meanwhile so I cant really tell you.)

 

[unmerged(59077)]

Yes, the confusion of having two Iberias and two places called Caucasus (Pamirs/Caucasus proper). Ancient geography is so unfriendly.

 

[Mygreatlord]

Yes, the confusion of having two Iberias and two places called Caucasus (Pamirs/Caucasus proper). Ancient geography is so unfriendly.

As well as ancient names! I was totally confused by two guys with the same name both having nearly the same skills/stats - one was the true heir and one was a guy starting a civil war... i thought oh yeah great he is still loyal and seconds later the other guy declared the war i think they should add something to make that a bit more playable, even if its unrealistic. playability is more important in this case, i think.

 

[Kubelwagen]

Great AAR, keep it up! I will be following

 

[Mygreatlord]

The war against Tylus and the cataclysms of Traperus

The war against Tylus and the cataclysms of Trapezus​

Of course we did not intend to stop our continuing expansion. Not at all was there an end to this "era of the great conquests". We now had 21000 Men under arms. They were separated in 3 armies. 5000 men were securing our homeland and capital from barbarian invasions and possible slave riots. They were what I call a peasant army. On the opposite 8000 men were the main force ("core force"), our real army, heavy infantery assisted by a small number of light cavalry to hit the enemy's flank or defend our own. Furthermore, there were another 8000 men, right between the both mentioned before. They were average trained and consisted partly of former peasants and partly of heavy infantery mostly recruited from the rough lands of the conquered territories.

After we had just recently made a peace settlement with Pontus and were also allied with the Seleucids we didnt have much choice. We invaded Tylis. Tylis capitol is located in Constantinople but they had not only slightly expanded in the west, but also heavily in the east which had resulted in a amputation of Pontus main lands (as you may remember in one of my previous posts, they asked us to join them in the war).

Our 8000 men core force was deeply penetrating their eastern territories when the enemy forces - all of a sudden and without a warning - landed in Trapezus. They killed the "average" 8000 men who had waited there as a reserve for the core force. I myself had commanded them. But they surprised as that much, that it was totally impossible to set up a battle formation. They killed everyone. Everyone. Although some tried, they could not manage to flee. It was a hell of a slaughter.

Thus, we had to send back our core force to fight the Tylis barbarians (and indeed they are fighting with bare chests!) who had already taken over control in one of our provinces. I myself had been able to flee with a horse which was faster than the enemy's arrows.

Unfortunately our main force was not luckier at all. We knew we were outnumbered, but our most skilled general should have brought victory home. Instead, he died in the field. We had recruited proud barbarians for this army and they were well paid. So they stood there and fought until the last of them perforated by the enemies swords, spears and arrows. It would soon be known as the second cataclysm of Trapezus. The fields of Trapezus are soaked with the blood of these noble warriors. The Great Greek Empire of the Bosporus will never forget her sons and brothers and will revenge them!

Overlooking our remaining forces I decided that without a doubt we had to do something. And recruiting new forces wouldnt do it - at least not, if we wanted to keep what I and my father had conquered. So we sent out 10 of our fastest messengers to remind the Seleucids of our alliance. To underline the utmost urgency we also send a force of 500 men to escort large parts of the royal treasury.

They helped us. They send 22'000 men in and helped us a lot in distracting the enemy forces. Meanwhile were heavily recruiting using every trick in the book. Recognizing that most of the families had already given away their children, we soon had to rely on expensive mercenaries. But there was no alternative.

Finally we built up a new army not smaller than 22'000 men (we still had the other 5000-6000 to secure our homelands). I gave command to Leonidas Timolid, a very promising man who's origins were Spartan. And one could easily recognize that in the field.

He drove the Barbarians out of our territory, managed to destroy their morale and soon also their whole army and conquered all of Tylus' provinces in Asia Minor. He could not lay siege on their capital, as they were having a huge fleet blocking the bosporus. And the other way round is quite... long. Nevertheless in the peace negotiations, we managed to make them cede all the seized provinces.

Fortunately, these were very prosperous provinces which - according to our mathematician - increased our national income by more than 100%, even nearly 200%. That would make me able to buy some new slaves from Egypt. I love them!