Achaean Legacy (vanilla), why small nations in I:R are fun

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Prelude:


The Idea of city states wielding power over Empires is long since passed, never mind a tiny fishing settlement in the north of the Peloponnese. The question is can Patrai stand up the might of Sparta, the Diadochi and maybe even Rome? Even if they are successful, will they restore Greece to its former glory or prove to be yet another conquering power? Can a Local Power defy the whims of Empires, or will it just end up another pawn?

I didn’t ever intend on making an AAR, I played a game as Patrai, as I had a dozen times before, I enjoyed it so much and had such an interesting playthrough that I went onto the forums looking for other people talking about their playthroughs.

I read a couple of AARs and noticed very few people play small nations and if they do they get big quickly. I think this is a shame because I find that I:R is very tedious when playing large nations but is extremely fun when playing small nations, as such I am going to write an AAR Patrai game. I hope that this AAR inspires others to play small nations.

Originally I had intended to to a write up of my Previous game, but after writing the first 3 chapters, I decided that a half remembered game wasn’t alive enough to make into an AAR. So I have rewritten this AAR to be about a new Patrai game that I am playing while writing.

I don’t want this to be a narrative driven AAR, since most people playing I:R, I assume play for the game and not the narrative, so I won’t go in depth into characters in this AAR, I will simply explain my actions and why I am doing them, most importantly I shall let the Game create the story, showing why Small states are so interesting to me. I will also try to keep the AAR quite short (unlike this prelude, which you can skip at any point), because I don’t think people want to read though 30 pages of my writing, hopefully it will be short and sweet at under 10 chapters.

 

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Chapter 1: The Dream of Hellas

The idea of a united Greece wasn’t new, the great city states of Athens, Thebes and Sparta had tried and failed to Lead all of Greece and Patrai were coming from place rather unknown, still they have one advantage, The Achaean had united Greece once before. The Mycenaean, a bronze age civilization of Greeks ruled an empire from Create to Thessaly, in that time the word Achaean was synonymous with the word Greek.

During the wars of the Diadochi there were two main powers in the Peloponnese. Sparta, the powerful military state that had never been conquered and the Arcadian league, led by Mantineia, they banded together to oppose Spartan rule.

Patrai was not yet Achaea, there way no way to unite Achaea peacefully, so the first thing Archon Eumenes Hippalid did is pass the Abolish Assemblies law and summon a war council.

Of the two options, Azania is part of the powerful Acadian league, Dyme on the other hand is another Achaean with no allies.

After a quick battle in which Patrai and their Aigion allies defeat Dyme, Patrai annexes Dyme, Patrai then become a member of the Arcadian league for protection.

Using the time of relative peace under the Arcadian league, Patrai became a city, no longer known as a fishing settlement, from now on Patrai will be famed for its glassmakers and scholars.

Patrai built many forts to prepare for the wars to come, but no war even happened, disquieted by the peaceful nature of the Acadian League, Archon Pairisades, sent word to Sparta, that Patrai would help bring down the Acadians if Sparta agreed to an alliance, King Areus of Sparta agreed.

The Acadians boasted 10,000 troops between them and were far too powerful for the combined arms of Sparta and Patrai to take, so a plan was hatched. Patrai would declare war on Aeotolia for the island of Zakynthos, this would isolate Messenia, picking off the biggest of the league members. Aeotolian troops would outnumber the Spartans, but would have to siege heavily fortified Patrai to reach them.

the plan worked even better than expected, not only did Messene fall, but the Aeotolian allies split up their forces, with half attacking Argos, who was under the thrall of Sparta, they were quickly picked off by the renowned Spartan fighters.

At the same time as Patrai’s war ended, the bitterly long war on the Antigonids ended, The Antipatrid Kingdom of Macedon had been destroyed, Lysanders kingdom of Thrace and Antigonid Kingdom of Macedon now shared both Asia and Greece in an uneasy peace.

Would this new order be able to hold back external threats from Rome, Egypt or Pontus? Will the Diadochi turn on the Greek cities or give them Patronage? How will Archaea grow from here? Only time would tell.

 

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Chapter 2: The Arcadian Peace

Immediately after the end of the war against Messene, Sparta started to grow restless with Patrai, King Areus nofified the Archon Poseidonios of his discontent, threatening to break the alliance is action was not taken.

Feeling forced into action, Poseidonios started the war against the Arcadians immediately, rather than waiting for his troops to be ready.

The Spartans, not know for inaction in war, Quickly wiped out 10,000 Arcadians, however, greatly outnumbered, one month before Patrai’s forces were mustered they took a disastrous fight in Argos.

The war had gone badly, in a last attempt, Patrai hired mercinaries to try to siege down the League members and peace them out one by one. But his poor military skills meant he confused the Mercinaries and they never gained the courage or conviction they needed to turn the war around.

Broke, defeated and surrounded, The Patri called upon the god Pan to spare them and waited for Azania to ask for concessions. Five years after the start of the war, a peace deal was sent, Dyme was liberated, Sparta was forced to break all alliances and pay reparations for the war and the leader of the Arcadian league was giving land concessions.

Forced to accept their place in history, Patrai rejoined the Acadian league and started to spend money on peace rather than war, the Patri dedicated their city to Hekate, Goddess of Crossroads. In time Sparta was also relived of the burden of war reparations and became a full member of the Acadian league and Patrai’s ally.

at one point Aigion revolted against Azanian rule and Patrai was able to annex it. The only time Patrai would grow during the Arcadian Peace.

Archon Typhon, who was just 3 years old when the Arcadian peace started, had been secretly contacting Rome, promising them hegemony over Greece in return for land. After 40 years of peace, the newest power of the Mediterranean was about to battle with Alexander's legacy.

 

[HistoryDude]

Patrai is trapped in a precarious situation with the Diadochi. That's a problem that will require its rulers to choose the victorious Diadochi as allies.

It's always nice to see another I:R AAR, even if I feel somewhat called out .... Come to think of it, an I:R narrative AAR as a small nation might be interesting... I'll probably add it to my backlog of AAR ideas.

 

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Hello everyone, I wrote the 3rd part of my AAR yesterday, but I wasn't happy with how it turned out and I also wasn't enjoying making them. Because of this I have made the bold decision to completely rewrite my AAR with a new game, both chapters I had up have been replaced with new chapters. I hope no one minds that I axed the old AAR. This new game is ongoing, so if people want they can give me ideas as to what I should do. Right now, I am about to go to war, Rome is game for anything (as always), so if you make a comment, you can decide which of the two nations I will attack.
1: The Arcadian League, they defeated me 40 years ago, they boxed me in, took Dyme off me. They also own the parts of Greece I want the most, still attacking them means I am attacking Sparta my long standing ally who would aid me in other conflicts. (they would also be fairly weak)
2: The Antigonid Kingdom, they are big, they are powerful, they have plenty of troops and they own all of Greece. Rome will be doing most of the work here since I have just 2k troops, but it might at least be an interesting war to fight.
If I continue this before any comments, I will just pick one.

On another note, I don't like allying Rome, to me Rome should always be the final boss of this game, their armies are big and hit hard, they normally have the biggest navy late game as well. If I cannot defeat Rome with a tenth of their population late game, then this wasn't a good campaign. For that reason, I am going to limit myself while having them as an ally, since they are very powerful and I could just let them conquer the world for me while stifling them. I only allied them because Thrace and the Antagonids have so many vassals they won't ally me, Egypt lost everything in Greece early on and Macedon is dead.
1: I only get this coming war where I use Rome. After that I will break the alliance and never ally them again.
2: I have to give Rome some land in Greece (if we win), this is so they will be a bigger problem late game, it can be a single territory, but it has to be part of the land I need to unite Greece.

 

[HistoryDude]

Read the new one. It looks like the Diadochi are far less involved in this version. Patrai is also now threatened by a different state - the Arcadians. Still, we are allied with Rome...

Attack the Antigonids. That will eliminate a bigger future threat.

Also, ask for approval for interactivity or semi-interactivity for that vote before the thread's locked.

 

[delta180]

Read the new one. It looks like the Diadochi are far less involved in this version. Patrai is also now threatened by a different state - the Arcadians. Still, we are allied with Rome...

Attack the Antigonids. That will eliminate a bigger future threat.

Also, ask for approval for interactivity or semi-interactivity for that vote before the thread's locked.

Is it still a vote if I just asked for a comment? I am not going to tally votes or anything it is first come, first serve. I don't write enough AAR's to know what counts for interactivity.

 

[HistoryDude]

I think that it still counts. If in doubt, assume semi-interactivity (ask a mod, but you'll probably be accepted).

 

[delta180]

I think that it still counts. If in doubt, assume semi-interactivity (ask a mod, but you'll probably be accepted).

Okay, thank you for the help, I sent some messages out to two of the mods, hopefully they will get back to me.

It looks like the Diadochi are far less involved in this version. Patrai is also now threatened by a different state - the Arcadians.

it was breezed over in the first AAR, but Sparta boxed me in similarly to how Arcadia did this game, generally either Arcadia or Sparta win in southern greece. I am a bit sad that Macedon and Egypt lost what they had near me before I could do anything. Having Macedon and then Egypt as allies really put me in the forefront of the action. Honestly it doesn't feel that different to me because in the first AAR, the Antagonids defeated Macedon and Egypt to own Greece and then Rome and I partitioned them (not as allies, we just both attacked at the same time)

 

[Eber]

Okay, thank you for the help, I sent some messages out to two of the mods, hopefully they will get back to me.

Thanks for sending a request for the AAR to be semi-interactive. It's approved.

Just ensure you follow the rules of interactive AARs (which can be found here). Because this is more mildly interactive, where you have them voting for specific options with a clear end date, it is ok. Being fully interactive requires a much more in-depth review by the moderators, especially with the track record of the author.

Good luck!

 

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Chapter 3: The Acadian Civil War

The Antagonid’s had been the largest winner from the Diadochi wars, having defeated its rival Thrace the empire stretched across both Macedon and Asia, in conquering such a large area it had also gained 11 client states. Both Archaea and Rome were eager to see the Greeks liberated from Macedon and the Antigonids felled.

Rome had disciplined troops and having defeated Carthage in the first Punic war, a large navy, but they had never fought the Diadochi before and they had been unable to gain a foothold in Africa in the Punic war. Would they be able to take the shores of Greece?

The Romans landed an army 20,000 strong to take the ancient city of Corinth, The Antagonids, brought the elite Royal guard of King Polemon, comprised of Companion Cavalry and Silver Shield pikemen, the Roman armies known for their discipline and strength in other parts of the world were defeated by a Greek army of similar size.

Capitalizing on their victory, the Antigonids broke the Roman siege at Thermon, they also sent troops to Italy by boat, delaying further Roman reinforcements by forcing them to fight on their home front. Before long the 20,000 Roman expeditionaries were reduced to just 3,000. Soon the Antigonids had created a large enough navy to ward off the Romans.

9 years into the war, Rome and Sparta had stopped sending troops to the front, the Antigonids and Patrai agreed to a peace. Archon Zeuxis, dissatisfied with the Romans after the appalling inaction in the later stages of the war, called off the alliance.

During the war, Spartan king Gorgias had been maimed in combat, many Spartans stated that Gorgias’s injuries made him unfit for Kingship, but no one said it louder than Laomedon Euryclid, tensions eventually bubbled over with Laomedon starting a civil war backed by 4 members of the Arcadian league, Patrai unwilling to see Sparta fall, declared war on the Revolt backed by the other two member of the league beginning the brutal Arcadian Civil war.

In the first and longest phase of the war, Patrai declared war on Dyme, the Spartan armies were losing to the revolt and the forts they had taken cut the Leagues forces from Sparta’s, eventually the Patri hired mercenaries to defeat the revolt. Dyme and Mantineia were annexed and argos and Olympia were taken by Patrai.

In the second phase Patrai declared war on Tegea, the Revolt forces were overwhelmed quickly and hid, this allowed the Loyalists to turn the tide on the revolt and start to win, however, Patria took even more land from Sparta in the 2nd war, leaving Sparta only with its home province.

The 3rd phase was a very short phase where Sparta finished off the revolt, the league as had previously been, was no more, Sparta had been torn apart by the war, 3 of the league members had been completely destroyed and Patrai was now the more powerful than ever.

No longer feeling the Arcadian League suited its interest, Archon Amantas left the league, Both Azania and Sparta felt betrayed by the Patri and broke the alliance they had with Patri.

With old city state alliances crumbling and Rome growing ever closer to Greece, King Amphoteros of the Antigonids, son of the great Polemon, who had defeated Rome 40 years ago, looked to Patrai to unite the south and stand with them against the Romans.

 

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I also want to give a picture of how big Rome is right now

at the start of this session they were just the size of Italy, they hadn't even conquered the Boi. Thrace is also their vassal.

 

[HistoryDude]

That Rome looks very threatening... but they couldn't defeat the Antigonids...

It looks like the Arcadian League is dead, and Patrai can exert its influence... if they can survive Rome and the Antigonids.

Do you plan on making Rome and the Diadochi release states if you defeat them in the long run?

 

[delta180]

That Rome looks very threatening... but they couldn't defeat the Antigonids...

they only ever sent a single army to Greece, the AI in this game isn't great at naval invasions, The Antagonids also created a bigger navy as the war went on. In a land war they will be a lot more deadly. They were also using levies against Royal Guard legions before.

Do you plan on making Rome and the Diadochi release states if you defeat them in the long run?

It really depends on what happens, as you can see from the rest of this AAR, I have a very opportunistic playstyle. I likely won't release anywhere from Greece, as I at some point want to complete my mission to unite Greece, but outside of Greece I will happily release land.

 

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Chapter 4: The Rise of Achaea

The Acadian League, had failed to protect Greece, instead, the infighting and politics of the league had led to the death of thousands in the Peloponnese. The biggest threat had not come from the Diadochi or the Romans, but from within the league itself.

Weakened from the civil war, the Acadian League was quickly overwhelmed by the Antigonid-Patri alliance. Soon all of the Peloponnese fell to Patria.

No longer would Greece be ruled by many different city states fighting amongst themselves, now there was a single, Centralised Greek nation ruled from Patria. While Sparta and Athens before them, viewed their conquests as extensions of their great cities. Archon Pelops recognised that Patria was now a union of many city states and took on the name Achaea, a term that referred to the land of the people of Mycenae, which 1000 years ago before the emergence of any city states, ruled all of Greece.

In service of their new nation, the Achaeans built a new great metropolis in the City of Patrai, outshining Athens, Sparta, Thebes or even distant Pella, this would serve as the new court for all the Greeks.

The Greeks have always been a seafaring people but until now, none of the city states had a large navy. Requested by the Archon Niketes, a massive fleet of Quadriremes were built to ward off anyone who would try to land on their shores.

King Amphoteros Antigonids of the Macedonians, looked upon all the Achaeans did and was filled with envy, planning the Greeks demise, Amphoteros broke the alliance between Macedon and Achaea. Archon Niketes Pleaded with the young Queen Philoxena of Egypt to help protect them and oppose the Antigonids. Philoxena agreed.

Hearing that in the distant east, the Seleucids had invaded Macedon, Niketes struck first against the Antigonids, the war took the Macedonian Navy off guard, and all 121 ships were destroyed by the combined Greek and Egyptian force. The Macedonians would no longer be able to transport troops across the Aegean sea, isolating the larger of the Macedonian Armies in Greece

The Achaeans had set out with the Aim of liberating Corinth from Macedonian rule. Defending Corinth was the most feared of all of the Greek forces, the Antigonid royal guard. they famously defeated the Romans and Achaeans at Corinth 80 years ago and won battle after battle against the Achaeans.

Desperate, the Achaeans granted citizen status to the Spartan people, hoping that the Spartan forces would turn the war in their favour, still fearing it wasn’t enough, Archaea mothballed their navy, to hire Athenian Mercinaries.

Surveying his forces, Pelopid, the Athenian general pulled back to the fields outside Lechaeum, a town between Sikyon and Corinth, the same site where Spartans and Athenians fought against eachother in the Corinthian war. Kallisthenes, leader of the Antigonid Royal guard and a student of Greek tactics was weary of the Athenians pulling a skirmishing tactic as they had done so 250 years ago. Kallisthenes ordered his troops to charged the Greek lines, in order not to give them the chance to skirmish and break their lines, but Pelopid had predicted this course of action and had instead formed a defensive bottleneck along the battlefield.

Spartans, Athenians and Patri now stood in the same hoplite formation, ready to repeal the Charge of the Royal Guard. Even together they were outnumbered by the fearsome Antigonid Royal Guard, but they stood their ground shoulder to shoulder. Each of their shields helped cover the man next to them. The Greeks united were unbreakable, the Macedonians fled and Corinth was liberated.

The Greek victory was short lived however, the Macedonians had too many forces, but fighting on all fronts with no navy, unable to recapture Corinth, the Antigonids sued for peace, giving generous concessions for a truce.

Corinth was liberated and given the right to rule itself under Achaean protection, but Athens and Thebes were still under the thumb of a Diadochi. As soon as possible the Achaeans resumed the hostilities with the Macedonians. All of Greece would be liberated

Macedon had rebuilt its fleet since the last time, still it was smaller and comprised of smaller and less ships than the Achaean navy, this hubris proved to be the undoing of the Achaeans, as Timotheos, one of the greatest admirals in Greece turned a sure defeat into a victory and Captured the Achaean flagship.

On land however, Macedon were defenceless, there were no forts from Attica to Edessa, when Pella fell, the Antigonids accepted Achaean hegemony over Greece.

With all the major Greek cities now under the control of Achaea, Mycenae had been restored. Only Rome stood in the way of Greek unity.

All the remaining Greek cities bowed down to the Achaeans, for the first time since the Trojan war, all Greeks were working together.

Meanwhile in Rome, not all was well with the Republic, Tiberius Fabius Rullianus, famed general and Consul of Rome was unhappy about Romes complete inaction for the last 60 years. Tiberius stormed Rome, and attempted to seize ultimate power and become a dictator. The Senate led by Aulus Castiliani Brutus, opposed his rule and led the Soci into battle against the legions of Rome. This was the weakest Rome would ever be, a glaring chance for Achaea to take back Greece.

 

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I am going to be away for the next few days, so this is an extra long chapter, because the next chapter will likely be out in three days time.

here is a look at the all important ledger so you can see who the main powers are at the moment, you can see Rome has almost 10 times as many pops as me, but right now they are split in two, this event only happens once, so it would be good to take advantage of it. As always, any and all advice is welcome. I am fairly Sure Red Rome always keeps all the Legions and Navy, so they will still be extremely powerful.

 

[HistoryDude]

Achaea has defeated the Diadochi and rules Attica, Boetica, and Achaea itself.

Rome's civil war is something that you can take advantage of - you're targeting Thessaly and Epirus, right?

When will you attack Crete?

 

[IsaacCAT]

At 1000 POPs you are extremely vulnerable in the year 600.

I would suggest using slave raid military tradition ability and steal POPs from all the Med and Bosphorus nations. Growing tall and getting many metropolis. In Vanilla you can get to 4000 POPs this way and improve your economy (cities+metropolis give +1 and +2 trade goods) without going wide.

 

[delta180]

Achaea has defeated the Diadochi and rules Attica, Boetica, and Achaea itself.

Rome's civil war is something that you can take advantage of - you're targeting Thessaly and Epirus, right?

When will you attack Crete?

when it comes to Greek Colonies such as Create, Rhodes and Ionia, I plan to integrate them a little bit differently into my empire. So I cannot conquer them just yet

At 1000 POPs you are extremely vulnerable in the year 600.

I would suggest using slave raid military tradition ability and steal POPs from all the Med and Bosphorus nations. Growing tall and getting many metropolis. In Vanilla you can get to 4000 POPs this way and improve your economy (cities+metropolis give +1 and +2 trade goods) without going wide.

I never even knew that was an ability, goes to show how many options you get as a small nation in this game. hopfully that is an upper limit if you are min-maxing it, otherwise it sounds a bit overtuned.

 

[IsaacCAT]

I never even knew that was an ability, goes to show how many options you get as a small nation in this game. hopfully that is an upper limit if you are min-maxing it, otherwise it sounds a bit overtuned.

The limit is your ability to hold population (building aqueducts help) and having enough food for them (importing from other provinces/nations).

Having all territories in your capital region being cities is a wonderful sight in I:R map