Chapter 8: Forever War
With all that could have been done that year done, there was little Alex could do but wait with his army near Iconium to defend, and see what the Persians could do to Counter-Attack. Hopefully, not much, or at least not enough to stop the Macedonian Armies.
And they didn't actually do any attacking in 348 BC, they just moved around. Some Immortals and Archers moved out of Iconium to the Northeast of the army. They didn't attack, perhaps out of fear of all of the Hoplites in Alexander's Army. They just sat there.
To the west, no activity was reported in the war between Rome and Carthage, aside from a Galley seen leaving the Roman city of Croton. Also, Carthage built a city in Spain.
In 345, it was Alexander's turn to attack again. He had his Army charge forward and kill the Immortals that had earlier left Iconium. Although the army suffered high casualties, and will have to retreat to heal now, the Immortals were killed. A Golden Age is at hand after this victory, which will hopefully push the Macedonians forward to many more victories.
(Forgot the Pic)
Later, some Horsemen attacked the Archers that were with the Immortals. The first unit retreated, heavily damaged, but the second attack resulted in victory for Greece.
Of course, the fact that Macedon was in a Golden Age was now a bit bitter, for Persian Immortals won a victory against Greek Hoplites in 343, meaning that they have a Golden Age now, too. Great. Also, some Archers moved around, and Rome and Carthage built more cities.
In 340, near Ancyra to the North, there were some Archers and the Immortals that earlier killed the Hoplites and should now have been easy to kill. So Archers attacked the Archers defending the Immortals... and were all killed. Oh well, a minor setback. A unit of Horsemen would now just attack the weakened Archers and... What? The Horsemen died, too? Seriously? Fine, attack them again! This time, luckily, Horsemen were able to finish off the Archers and Immortals with no further losses.
To the South, near Cyprus, some Galleys that were ahead of the settling party encountered several Persian Galleys in the area. They would have to be dealt with, or at least prevented from attacking the Galleys carrying the Settlers. So, the Macedonian Galleys decided to attack the nearest of those fleets, to great success. The Persian Galleys were sunk, with no loss to Macedonia. They were also positioned in such a way that the remaining Persian Galleys would not be able to reach the ones carrying the Settling Party.
Persian units continued their seemingly random movement in 338, and a unit of Macedonian Horsemen were killed by Immortals. Sigh, stupid Immortals.
There wasn't really much to do in 335, no cities to be attacked, still. However, there were some Archers and Immortals lying in locations that could easily be attacked. 2 units of Persian Archers were killed by Archers and Horsemen, and then some more Horsemen attacked some Immortals. Here, they could not defeat the Immortals, and thus were forced to retreat. Oh well, at least the Immortals were too injured to make any attacks.
Back to Cyprus, the Galley carrying the Settlers, Workers, and Hoplites reached its destination, and they left the Galley to a hill on Cyprus. They would soon be able to build a city here. Back in the water, another fleet of Persian Galleys found their way to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, courtesy of the Macedonian Navy.
Farther North, some Galleys that had been exploring the Black Sea found the city of Kellermeskaya on the coast to the Northwest of the Sea. It was inhabited by a group of Central Asian horseback riders who called themselves Scythians. They were quite skilled Horsemen, with Horseback riders who could, on the offense, at least, fight as well as the average Swordsman or Hoplite. They didn't have Iron, though, and were a bit technologically lacking.
Their leader was named Ateas. Due to their backwardsness, there was nothing to trade, but, oh well, nice meeting him.
The various fights near Ancyra and Iconium continued in 333. For the most part, Macedon lost badly here. A battle between Immortals and Archers resulted in predictable loss for the Archers. Archers just aren't very good at defending, and Immortals are excellent attackers. 2 units of Horsemen were also killed by attacking Persian Horsemen, although one of them managed to defeat some Persian Archers first. Then, a unit of Hoplites, some of the best defenders in the world, failed to stop attacking Persian Immortals. Luckily, the Immortals were reduced to a unit strength of 40%, so they should be easy to take down.
Actually, no. In 330, the almighty Random Number God decided that having the name "Immortal" meant they actually were immortal, as they were able to kill units of attacking Archers and Hoplites, despite their weakened state. Later, he decided this applied to Galleys as well, as 2 units of Macedonian Galleys failed to sink a single one of Persia's.
Alex complained. "What the hell, Random Number God? That's ridiculous." The God replied by saying that, "Hey, they did get injured, didn't they?" Which was totally true, both the Galleys and the Immortals were as injured as possible without being dead. Alex then pointed out that they'd just heal, as there was no other possible way to attack and prevent them from doing so, and that the RNG was being stupid. This would end up being only the least of the God deciding to do stupid things to the Macedonian Army (and, admittedly, the Persian Army too) for his own amusement, and the lulz.
The city on Cyprus, Thermopylae, was built in 330, and the workers got right to work building a road to the Dyes. This would only connect to the mainland when a Harbor could be built, but they were getting closer.
Thankfully, no battles were fought for the next few years, the Persian Army just moved around a little. The Macedonians were able to do what little attacks they could without being weakened by earlier attacks, and so some Hoplites killed some Persian Archers in 325... and... that was pretty much it. Then Immortals won a victory against those Hoplites in 323, and more Hoplites defeated those Immortals in 320. Sigh, this war will never end, will it?
There were some Horsemen on a hilltop in 318. This must have given them all the advantage the needed, as they were able to crush some attacking Persian Immortals, although they suffered some damage and would have to retreat back to Cyzicus.
318 was also a year of alliances, as Rome and Carthage, both obviously frustrated at their respective inabilities to do take any of each other's cities, tried to get more people on their side. Hannibal of Carthage requested Macedonian help in the war against Rome:
Alex thought about it, then said, "Not happening. I am not going to fight a war with Rome, I can't fight anyone as strong as them, and I'm certainly not fighting a two-front war. There is no way in heck I'm going to fight a war against Rome."
Hannibal walked away, disappointed. Now, the Romans decided to get an ally, and were more successful than Hannibal. The Egyptians joined the war against Carthage:
Alex finds Cleopatra to be kind of stupid to accept this, as Egypt cannot do much to fight Carthage. At all. They might even lose some stuff if Hannibal can bother to send his forces to the East.
Caesar also must have gotten wind of the fact that the Macedonians really didn't want to fight a war with him, as he decided to show up in Athens and make a demand:
Alex contemplated refusing, but then decided, "Meh, it's just contact with the measly Scythians, that's not worth risking a war over, and they'll find them soon enough anyway if they aren't stupid." So, he decided to just give it to them. Maybe if the demand had been higher, he wouldn't have caved, but such a small thing wasn't something he cared that much about. Caesar thanked him for the "tribute" and then left.
Back on the war front in 315, there were some Immortals sitting in plains in the middle of nowhere in Western Anatolia, clearly bored. Hoplites decided to relieve them of their boredom by killing them, and the Immortals, now dead, were obviously no longer bored.
To the South, the assault on the city of Iconium, which the Macedonian army had been trying to do for a while but not been able to reach yet, was started, as Alexander's now-healed army as at the gates, along with some Horsemen. Alex lead the assault, with his army proving just how they'd come to be in an army lead by Alexander the Great by killing all of the Spearmen in the city without even breaking a sweat. There were only Horsemen remaining, so the Macedonian Horsemen attacked and killed a unit of them. One unit of Horsemen remains to defend Iconium. It's safe to say that the city is probably going to fall soon.
Alex noted that the Romans and Scythians had met a new civilization, called the Celts, recently. Alex wanted to meet them, and decided to pay the Scythians some money to get to know them.
Alex then went to go meet the Celts, led by Brennus. They were located in the region to the Northwest of Rome that the Romans called "Gaul," and had some stuff there. Alex noticed they didn't yet have contact with Egypt or Carthage, and decided to trade it to them, since he knew someone else would if he didn't. He got some gold and the Celtic World Map as a result of this transaction.
Their map consisted of the entirety of the region of Gaul, and the 8 cities they had there. Their capital was Alesia, one of the Northernmost cities they had, roughly in the center of Gaul. They also knew about an island to the North of Gaul, that they were planning to build a city on. They ended up doing that in 313.
Also in 313, the war continued. The injured Horsemen that had earlier held off an attack from immortals had limped back across a river into a forest in Greek territory. It was now that the Immortals attacked them again. It appeared that they were pretty much screwed, but it seemed the Random Number God decided to toy with Persia right now, and the Horsemen were all but dead, but still slightly alive, and the Immortals were killed in the attack. The Horsemen would now be able to heal, as there were no more Immortals to attack them with.
The Greek scientists had finished work on something that year, and presented it to Alexander. They called it Literature, basically a bunch of books to read and write stuff in, that could be used to tell stories, fictional and not. And... well, stuff, they didn't really say much about how incredibly useful it could maybe be.
One thing was certain, it could be traded to others for gold and technology, in 310. And Macedon was lacking something- the technology of Mathematics, which could be used to count things and build Catapults, which Rome had had for a while and everyone else had more recently gotten. So, he decided to trade Literature to Rome and Carthage, to get this technology and some gold. Rome had such a huge amount of gold that Alex decided it would be best to get gold from them and technology from Carthage. So, this is exactly what he did, although he ended up having to pay a bit to Carthage for Mathematics, which he wouldn't have if he'd traded Literature to them first, but then he probably wouldn't have gotten his money's worth for it. All in all, he probably got more this way.
Back to the war front, Iconium remained defended by only a unit of Persian Horsemen. That was pretty bad defense, and they were eaten for breakfast by the attacking Macedonian Horsemen. Iconium has fallen to Macedon, the first city to be captured in the war recently.
Alex noticed some completely undefended Persian settlers on a road to the north. What, is Darius stupid or something? Sadly, there was no way any Greek soldiers could reach it, so it would remain, and probably escape.
To the west, Persian Archers had been, for a while, advancing on the Macedonian city of Miletus. Not wanting Miletus to fall, Alex had some Hoplites and Horsemen kill them. Well, the Hoplites, at least. The Horsemen retreated, failing to actually kill the Archers, but did at least do a little damage. Grr. Oh well, they could attack again in 305, and there was no hope for these Archers. At all.
No, really, that wasn't sarcasm or the tempting of fate, the Archers really were killed by Hoplites when 305 came around.
Also in 305, Alex noticed that the Persian Settlers to the North of Iconium didn't move, and didn't get any defenders. After briefly wondering just how stupid the Persians were, he had some Horsemen go capture them. Thanks for the free slaves, Persia!
He also noticed that Rome, Carthage, and Egypt had a new technology now, called Currency, that they could use to keep track of money and run Markets. Where did they all get that from- wait, Egypt doesn't have Literature yet?
Interesting, thought Alex. He went to Egypt and decided to trade the technology Egypt lacked for the one Macedon lacked, a trade which hopefully would be highly beneficial to both of them. He decided to throw in a World Map trade, too, cause hey, why not?
He was happy to notice when the trade was complete that the Egyptian Map included the Scythians' territory map, meaning he now knew where they were. A bit larger than he expected, with about 10 cities scattered at random across the northern and eastern coasts of the black sea, and a couple on the Western coast of the Caspian Sea. At least, he thinks it's the Caspian Sea, if it actually goes that far North.
Persian Galleys brought a unit of Immortals to Cyprus in 303. They now pose a bit of a threat to the city and to the workers nearby, but not a very big one. The Hoplites in the city are more than capable of either killing them on the offense or withstanding an assault from them.
And in 300, they decided on the first one, to prevent them from attacking the workers or destroying the roads. And they were successful at that, which was good, as there weren't a lot of them around to fight the Immortals. The Galleys that brought them there were also sunk by Macedonian Galleys. Things are looking good right now.
Farther north, some Spearmen to the Southeast of Ancyra were killed by Alex's Army. This is almost too easy.
The War to the west got a newcomer in 298, when Carthage convinced Scythia to declare war on Egypt. This probably will be totally ineffectual, as the Scythians are too far North to really do anything to the Egyptians.
Also, a new civilization, the Goths, got contact with Macedon. Alex doesn't know who met them and traded contact with them, but judging from their location, probably the Celts or Scythians. The requested a Territory Map Trade, and Alex said "Sure, why not?"
Upon getting their map, Alex noticed they were even more scattered than the Scythians were, and smaller, though in both cases, not by much. They were located to the Northeast of the Celts and to the North of the Romans.
Also, a Persian Galley unit unloaded some Immortals... on some plains in the middle of nowhere in Anatolia. Okay...
Said Galleys were attacked in 295, by Macedonian Galleys. Result: Persian Galleys heavily damaged, Macedonian Galleys in splintered piles of stuff on the sea floor.
And it did, of course, get worse. In 293, Persia decided it needed an Ally, and told Scythia to declare war on Greece.
The value of this alliance was instantly shown, when the fearsome Scythian Riders attacked some exploring Greek Horsemen in the North, and killed the Horsemen. Alex wanted to go kill some Scythians, but they were far away and not worth the time it would take to go actually kill them. He would make sure to destroy any worthless little Scythian Rider attack they sent his way, but other than that, do nothing.
He did, however, decide that two could play at the alliance game He also decided that Persia wasn't aiming very high if they got an ally as weak as Scythia. In 290, he decided to get the help of the strongest civilization in the known world, the Romans. It cost quite a bit, but would hopefully be worth every gold piece.
And in the meantime, he would work on attacking Ancyra, and killing all the Persian units that were going in the general direction of Iconium. A unit of Hoplites killed a unit of Persian Archers near Ancyra, and then he himself led his army to kill the Persian spearmen that were threatening an Iron mine on a mountain to the east of Iconium. His army was quite successful in this endeavor. Horsemen then got to work killing Immortals. They were less successful, with one unit of Horsemen down and one unit of Immortals down.
It was Persia's turn to attack in 288. They used this opportunity to use two units of Immortals to attack some Hoplites fortified on a hilltop. The entirely predictable result of a bunch of dead Immortals ensued.
The Macedonian Army didn't really do much but move around in 285, as there were no attacks to do. However, that didn't mean Macedon did nothing. They did build the city of Corinth in one of the many large gaps between cities in Anatolia. Seriously, Persia, what's with all these gaps?
Meanwhile, in 283, the Scythian army got busy. Some more exploring Greek Horsemen were killed by Scythian Riders. It's hard to explore the north when all your explorers keep dying. Sigh. Also, they got the Persians to declare war on Egypt. Well, probably, or maybe Persia just declared war on Egypt of their own free will.
This is probably going to be bad for Egypt, who doesn't really have the military power to fight off Persia for very long. Alex will try to help them in any way he can, by either giving them resources, keeping Persia busy in the North, or both.
In 280, the Macedonian army was ready for battle. Again. That seems to be happening a lot. Well, anyway, some Horsemen attacked a unit of Persian Spearmen... and lost, a bit badly. Oh well, they could at least have Ancyra, which was probably not going to be able to hold off all of the Macedonian soldiers nearby without luck or plenty of defenders. Catapults bombarded the city, weakening the defenders a bit. Alex likes this new weapon, these catapults. Then Hoplites and Horsemen prepared to attack. It ultimately proved fruitless, though, as there were simply too many soldiers in the city. Hoplites were able kill a unit of Immortals, but then some Horsemen retreated when attacked by Spearmen, which Hoplites were able to finish off, but only after taking quite a bit of damage. This attack force will have to retreat now if it wants to live, and given the number of Persian Immortals in the area, it might not be able to do so.
At least it might be less screwed than Iconium, with the huge number of Immortals advancing on it. Alex's army is currently defending some workers outside, and will go to reinforce the city soon if the Immortals get too close. Hopefully, they will be able to hold off the attacking forces, but for how long?
Elsewhere, the building of cities continues, with the city of Delphi being built in the North near Rome, and near some Iron and Silver...
...and the city of Pharsalos being built on an island to the west, to make use of some land that needs to be made use of. Er, something like that.
Alexander is slightly worried now about the fate of his armies near Ancyra and Iconium, but they will probably be able to hold out for quite a while. Those Immortals can't be that tough, can they?
, Lets kill us some Persians. 
