Once again I am looking for likely targets. I consider Zygia - a small four-city nation just to the east of me, but it has as a strong ally in Siracia and so I decide to bide my time. For my next Omen I choose the Blessings of Demeter to boost population growth. Then I am “blessed” with a populist leader. Such things are no doubt sent to try us.
However, I now realise that my truce with Sarmatia has long since run out. My claim to the rest of Bosporanum is still active, and they have now allies. I attack with full support of the Senate (71/100 - the highest support for a war I have yet seen). Shortly thereafter the remnant of the Scythian Revolt gives me 25 gold, which will become most welcome.
I then realise suddenly that Sarmatia appears to have picked up an ally - Maeotia. Maeotia is not particularly strong, but I didn’t get a message about it. I did go through the message settings to try and find a setting for this, but I was perhaps skimming too quickly as I didn’t find one.
I then realised that though I was at war with Sarmatia I was still trading with them, when I got the following event:
The two options give two citizens or four slaves and an opinion malus with Sarmatia. Given that I was at war I decided it was most appropriate to take the slaves, but really I would have thought trade routes should be cancelled in a war.
It is the start of 499 and I defeat a Maeotian army. All my techs also start to tick over to Level 3, and I get an invention which boosts my Discipline +5%. In June we defeat a second Maeotian army. But then I notice something odd:
A second war flag has appeared.
I am very confused.
And then I notice the sidebar.
It appears that Sarmatia has had a revolt break out, and that I am now at war with both. Well, not so bad I think, and then I notice Siracia has allied to the revolt. Remember Siracia was the nation I didn’t want to fight originally. Well, no matter I think. Sarmatia proper still controls the two provinces I actually want to get. I should be able to get a peace reasonably quickly and then we shall see. I stackwipe the Maeotian army that had been bothering me, which should make that even easier.
A couple months later I realise Scythian troops have marched into my territory, and I realise that the Sarmatian Revolt has made an alliance with Scythia and pulled them into my war.
Great.
Suddenly this all becomes a lot more serious. I almost immediately make peace with Sarmatia proper, gaining the two cities I desired along with gold.
The Scythian army is attacking Theodosia. I choose to abandon Taurica for a moment - the forts there should slow matters. With one of my armies I start to siege the Scythian fortress to the north of my own lands and carpet siege the rest. With the second I ready to attack a Sarmatian Revolt army in northern Bosporanum.
That battle goes well, but in June Theodosia falls. One pop is killed and another enslaved. The fort, now in Scythian control, immediately starts to occupy surrounding terrain and the Scythians march to the province capital. In September I take the Scythian fort, and the Scythians complete their conquest of central and eastern Taurica, taking a few more slaves along the way.
Overall though I am not unhappy with how the campaign is going. I start moving one army south to Taurica, and it actually catches a small Scythian army besieging another fort, sending them packing. My other army fights a battle in northern Bosporanum against a combined Sarmatian/Siracian force.
This turns into a very long battle. Very long. After an initial flurry casualty figures on both sides go down to only around 20 per day, or even less. Eventually though my army breaks, despite numerical superiority, and flees the field. I appear to have neglected to take a screenshot of that battle defeat, but here is one of another victory as the army in Taurica started to retake that land. The battle up north can be seen below, with the lone horse-archer still just about holding out. That fight began in early May, at this point it was nearly six weeks old.
And to top it all off, I spy an army of barbarians approaching.
Well, there is nothing for it. To begin I hire some mercenaries who were hanging around the local area.
And next I pay off the barbarians.
Fortunately I have the coin to do all this. Unfortunately I forget that mercenaries start off at zero morale, and I send them into battle too early. This results in a ridiculously hard-fought battle where my mercenaries outnumber a small Sarmatian force by nearly 4-1. However it does eventually end up victory.
There are several more battles. My defeated army, now back on the field, combines with the mercenaries to defeat a large (if not as large) opposing force. It is not in time to save my most northern fort, but it is enough. In August 502 a member of the Military Faction is elected Archon - the extra morale being most welcome. I also go for the Blessing of Ares for extra discipline, because I want to be sure this war is going to be over.
A couple more battles and all my land retaken, and quite a healthy haul of Scythian land besieges, I forge my peace.
Scythia, for its faithlessness, is reduced to scattered scraps. My position looks much easier on the eye as well. I dismiss the mercenaries, and start to try to consider rebuilding. I have a manpower deficit of over a thousand. Given how hard-fought this war was, I consider that not bad at all. The barbarians are still wandering around, but thanks to my previous tribute are not actually doing anything currently.
So that was the conclusion of a rather interesting session. I am going to have to search the message settings more carefully, and I think there may be unintended consequences of this country in war getting a revolt so there are now two wars. There are certainly occasions where I could imagine that getting downright annoying.
It feels a bit like Victoria 2 with the differences between Great Powers and Secondary Powers (and the rest.)
