Well, I'm back for another round. This one spans about seven or so years, and nothing much happens, but if you read on you'll get to see some interesting things happen. Or at least, maybe my descriptions of them will be interesting.
I'm no longer allies with Pontus. I never really cared about them anyways, and they'll probably get squished between Seleukeia/Ptolemaic Egypt and Macedon.
The first thing I do is to send my spy into my army. This way I can get a better idea of what the enemy has to fight me with when I'm doing a siege.
Yeah, I imagine this will we a curbstomp battle, and it really is.
Here's
the status of my newly acquired city, or village as it truly is. Not much of a conquest, but it'll get me money, which I'll need to avoid debt and build up troops so I can enter India and take the rich territories there.
Specifically, I'm aiming for Taksashila.
If you've kept up with EBII updates, you'll this place will be home to a new faction. Right now, though, it's home to some of the toughest garrisons on the entire map. These Indian cities aren't usually as bad as places like Syracuse, but with their elephants and Patiyoddha infantry, I'm going to need at least a full stack of troops to get by.
Lo and behold, I'm making money!
Now that I'm not spiraling into debt like some factions will in the beginning, I can start building buildings.
I end hostilities with the Ptolemaioi and make trade.
Then I go to Arabia and get more trade rights, then send my diplomat Mr. Nysaios up north to travel the rest of the world.
Suspicious...
Luckily this army doesn't attack me. A definite relief, 'cause I wasn't prepared to defend Baktra at this point in time. I just don't have the kind of money needed to hold up a garrison force and an attacking force.
I also get a husband to marry one of my family's daughters. I'll introduce him later, though.
This may seem
like a pointless image, but I just decided to name Dion Nysaios, my diplomat now in Gallia, to be my faction's official historian. With his crappy ability to get other factions to cough up their map information, though, he's not exactly that efficient. However those nice old Getic tribes offer me their info for 430 mnai, and I take it. I'm a sucker for map data, what can I say?
Now here...
is where it gets interesting. Yep, Seleukeia has declared war on me by attacking Baktra with a thankfully small army. This, I promise, is only the beginning of hostilities between myself and the Seleukids, and I laugh at their messed up priorities. I guess getting a little fringe satrapy back is more important to them than, y'know, fighting their mortal enemies from Egypt currently raiding their territories. Speaking of Egypt, around this time they and the Carthaginians sign peace... then go to war again the next season. I had no idea they were at war in the first place, to be honest.
My reaction
to the Seleukid assault is to send two family members and a cavalry unit to ride over like the Rohirrim and attack the Seleukid force from behind, along with their newly hired mercenaries.
With
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds blaring in my headphones, I coordinate a two-front attack on the Seleukid force in the wintry valley of what will in the future become Afghanistan. Their army is crushed, and only one unit escapes. Around the same time, a second level regional barracks is finished in Kophen, ready to pour out troops for my Indian campaign.
Here
I would like to point out a really cool part of the AI (yes, the AI can be awesome sometimes). While it isn't a particularly plausible thing sometimes, it makes strategic sense. Basically, the Ptolemies are allying with me, because I'm the enemy of their enemy. And you should know how that old saying goes. The AI will commonly ally with factions all the way across the map just because they share an enemy, and when it's one like Seleukia is to the Ptolemies, then you can be sure there will be some interesting negotiations going on.
Seven years in,
this is the state of the world an my little rebellious satrapy, hoping to one day become an empire. In order for that to happen, though, we need India. And so, there is the focus of my next installment: taking our slice of the Indian subcontinent, and pissing off an empire mightier than Seleukeia at its height.
But wait!!
I promised last session that I would show you my family, and their initial sanity that will soon enough turn them all into cheese obsessed madmen. (Note: that actually happened on one Baktrian campaign I led.)
First up:
Diodotos Baktrios, my faction heir. He's a pretty normal guy, for now, but he's a bit bored with waiting around in Baktra. Alas, little guy, some just aren't meant for greatness.
Now,
here's his dad, Theodotos Baktrios! He's really smart and likes rhyming. You'll see a lot of that in future family members, I'm predicting.
Third, now.
Patrokles Marakandaios, besides having an annoyingly long name, is also a treacherous bastard and since it's on his profile I'm guessing he doesn't make much of an effort to hide it. He's a good general, though, so I'll get as much use out of him as I can. Also, I'll call him "Pat" from now on. I'm sure he'd love that.
Finally,
the new guy! He's kind of dumb, but that doesn't matter. He'll go out into battle and fight and roar and since he's really upset about being chained to a single girl, he's gonna have a lotta kids.
There are two others that I haven't reported on yet: a newcomer, also married to one of my daughters. He's a good character with good stats, but he's Macedonian so he'll probably end up getting drunk all the time.
The other one is a newborn child, coincidentally named Alexandros...
Hope to see you all reading and commenting on this and all that! I'll be sure to entertain, and you'd best check in for my next update, whenever it is, in which I'll be setting foot into the lush land of India!
