Chapter 17: This Is Sparta
The Macedonian generals were, at this point, starting to take bets on how long it would take them to capture Babylon, and later, Persepolis.
They vastly underestimated their own power. The Macedonian army crushed Persia more rapidly than even the most optimistic of them had hoped. Even better, Carthage wasn't getting any more cities from them, all of Persia's losses were to them. Not that there was anything wrong with that...
To start off with, Persia's counter-attacking abilities appeared much diminished from what they once were. No longer could they manifest the giant stacks of doom they had earlier, just a few small attacks here and there. In 202 AD, they couldn't even do anything, at least not to Macedon. A battle against Carthage was observed, in which both sides fielded Cavalry, the Carthaginians were the attackers, and the Persians the losers.
The Macedonian army, on the other hand, was quite capable of crushing Persia. In 205, they made advances towards Hatra, making sure to deal with a stray unit of Persian Cavalry near Arbela in the meantime. They didn't take the city that year, but they did greatly weaken it. They saw poor results against the defending Spearmen at first, seeing two units of them having to retreat and another dying. But otherwise, they fought well, killing two of the city's 3 defending Spearmen units, and the Cavalry as well.
The Persians continued to show a lack of their former military strength in 207, when all they could do was attack two units of Macedonian Cavalry with their own, both sides losing one battle. They also lost Samaria to Carthage again. But, on the other hand, they were having some successes farther North- they were still beating Scythia, and managed to prove it by capturing Tsagan Aman. It was one of the few cities they hadn't just burned in the midst of the battle.
Rome finished knocking the Goths out of their core that year, capturing Ubii and burning Kuiavia to the north of it. The Goths responded by moving their capital to their last remaining city, the former Scythian city of Solokha. Alex wonders how they managed to move about 1000 miles in such a short period of time, especially considering the lack of roads not going through Roman territory, but doesn't really care much.
He does, however, notice that Solokha appears to be a rather easy target. A report from the embassy that investigated the city in 210 proved that was exactly the case.
About 4 Heavy Cavalry could easily take that and destroy the Goths. It would be a nice addition to the Empire, and be revenge for the earlier destruction of some city everyone already forgot the name of a while ago. Furthermore, they could from there continue on to take those cities Persia had taken from Scythia a while ago.
But in the meantime, taking the cities in the South was more important and could deal bigger blows to Persia. The battle of Hatra continued. Macedon continued to have some initial trouble, with the first attacking unit of Cavalry being killed by the defending Spearmen, But then they were easily able to kill the last two units of Spearmen defending the city. And just in time, too- the Carthaginians might have been able to get it soon if they didn't. Alex hopes they reach Babylon soon, if nothing else to take Hadrian's Wall and make all other cities easier to capture.
The Cavalry southeast of Arbela that had foolishly entered earlier were also destroyed.
Not much happened in 212, other than the usual random Cavalry battles. Carthage killed 3 Persian Cavalry units, and Persia killed one belonging to Macedon.
Carthage captured the Celtic city of Lutetia, the oldest city they had on Britain, and the only Celtic city that had bothered to build a Harbor. The Celts are now slightly more cut off from themselves than they already were.
Macedon efforts in 215 focused on getting to Zohak, then Hamadan, and then Babylon itself. Aside from one random Cavalry battle, which they won, that was all they did, in fact.
At Zohak, Macedon got nothing but victory, easily crushing the defending 2 Spearmen and 1 Cavalry.
Hamadan was a little tougher, as it had 3 Spearmen units and a Cavalry instead of 2 Spearmen units and a Cavalry. And here, Macedon had one loss of a Cavalry unit against one of those Spearmen. Otherwise, they did pretty well, with their other 4 attacks against the defenders successful, bringing a quick end to the Battle of Hamadan. They even got a worker and a Catapult that the Persians had used against them in the battle.
The remainder of the Macedonian army moved towards Babylon, killing a Cavalry on the way. The siege would begin now.
The city was certainly screwed, all Macedon was concerned about was making sure they ended up controlling it, not Carthage.
Carthage, of course, wanted Babylon and other Persian cities, too, so they attacked both it and Merv in 217, although with only one unit of Cavalry in both places. Still, they got rid of one defending unit of Spearmen in both places. Persia used its one counter-attack of the year to kill the one near Merv with Cavalry.
In more ineffectual news, Carthage got Scythia to declare war on Rome, and Scythia got the Celts to declare war on Persia. Alex highly doubted that Scythia could fight Rome, or that the Celts could fight Persia.
Proving the Celts' weakness and geographic inability to move that far Southeast, the Romans burned Uxellodunum, their most-recently built city to the North of their capital.
In 220, the Macedon moved quick to block Carthage from getting Babylon or Merv. They kept Carthage from getting Merv the easiest way they knew how: They simply captured it themselves, which, considering it only had 2 defending Spearmen units and they took no losses, was easy.
They also took out the Persian Cavalry on the hill to the North to make sure they couldn't attack Merv.
As to Babylon, they probably could have taken it that year, but weren't sure, so they just decided to arrange their units in a way that prevented the Carthaginians from getting there, and, just to make it easier in 5 years, had Ajax kill a Spearmen in the city.
And it worked- only one Carthaginian unit was able to attack Babylon in 222, the one that had already been there, and being injured already, it had to retreat. The rest went North.
They were able to do plenty of things to the Celts, however, as they captured the city of Hallstadt. The Romans also burned Nemetocenna, bringing the Celtic city total down to 3.
Sadly, despite the only visible Persian Cavalry unit near Merv being already dead, 2 more were able to attack, killing 2 of Macedon's- 1 outside the city, one inside, and the city was temporarily back under Persian control again.
But it wouldn't remain Persian for long. In 225, the Macedonians prepared to take it back, making sure to take Babylon back first for Hadrian's wall and control of the region's roads. Actually, that was pretty easy, or at least easier than expected- 3 attacks from Pyrrhus and 1 from Ajax were all that were necessary to break down the last 4 spearmen defending Babylon. Hadrian's Wall fell, and the great defensive bonuses it gave were now Macedonian to use. They even got another Catapult.
Now that that was done, some Cavalry went to Merv. 2 Cavalry outside the city down, the one that had captured it dead- and this city was, again, Macedonian.
Better yet, there were still some Cavalry left to move, so they decided to go down and evict Persia from Bactra, their last major city in Mesopotamia. It had 3 Spearmen defending it, but without Hadrian's Wall doubling their defense, killing them was a whole lot easier. Macedon didn't even take any real losses.
The Macedonian Generals were amazed and pleased at how quickly they could now tear through Persia's defenses. With Babylon taken, their end was now inevitable. They would concentrate their efforts on the last remaining real major cities in Persia, the ones with good strategic position, road control, or- most importantly- Iron, which they had 4 sources of left. If those were taken, Persia wouldn't be able to field any more Immortals or Heavy Cavalry, which would make them even weaker than the weak Scythians they'd been busy trying to conquer for a while.
Carthage's Cavalry went South again in 227, maybe because they weren't being blocked any more. Okay.... They also brought some units to Crete, with the obvious intention of capturing the city the Romans had there.
Random skirmishes that year were again limited to losing two Cavalry to Persian Cavalry. This is getting kind of old.
Some people said that Macedon hadn't really conquered Mesoptamia yet, as Jinjan, the Persians' southernmost city, was part of Mesopotamia. Hell, you could possibly count Susa and Ergili as part of it, depending on how you defined the borders. Those people shut up when Macedon conquered the city in 230, again with no losses against the 2 defending Spearmen.
The other major battle of the year was to take the city of Tureng Tepe. It didn't seem too important, as it wasn't a very big city- but capturing it meant that one of Persia's Iron sources fell out of their territory, that Persepolis was now within reach, and, perhaps most importantly, all the roads in the area went through this city, meaning that the capture of it effectively cut what was left of Persia in half.
Macedon also founded 3 cities that year, as part of its continuing attempts to fill in holes. Miletos (Miletusians yelled at them for not being able to come up with an original name), in west-central Anaolia, Artemisium, on the Southern coast of Anatolia, and Megara, in the Far North.
The Carthaginian Cavalry went back North in 232. Leading Macedonian commanders suspect them to have multiple personalities, one of which wants to go North, the other wants to go South.
Meanwhile, Persian Cavalry attacked both Macedonian and Carthaginian Cavalry. Both sides lost one Cavalry unit.
Not long after, news was heard that the Carthaginians had burned the Celts' last city in Britain, Cenabum. The Romans also captured the capital of Bibracte, making them move to Atuatuca, their only remaining city. Macedonians are now taking bets as to how long it will take Rome to burn it.
In 235, the Persian cities to come under Macedonian fire were Susa and Gazaca, but not before the obligatory random Cavalry skirmish near Jinjan (which Macedon won, of course).
At Susa, the Army failed to break through the defenses, and two of the Cavalry units had to retreat. But they suffered no losses, which is something Persia can't say, as they lost 2 units of Spearmen.
They did lose one Cavalry at Gazaca, but that doesn't matter much when Persia lost all 3 of the Spearmen that were defending the city. Gaining the city also took 2 Iron sources from Persia, leaving the one near Persepolis as the only one they had left. It was now a prime target.
Also that year, preparations were finally ready to take Solokha from the Goths. Stupid long travel distances taking 4 Cavalry this long to get within striking distance of Solokha. At least the culture borders in the area made that possible without entering Gothic territory. Anyway, after a brief stop to inform the Goths that they were going to die now...
...They rode into the city confidently. It was even less well defended than they thought, one of the Archers wasn't there. That was even better, as one archer and one teutonic warrior were no match for them at all. They barely even got scratched. The Goths just don't have anyone capable of defense. Or rather didn't, as Solokha's fall ended the Goths' existence. Their last few Warriors disbanded after the city was captured.
They'd briefly stop to heal, but then it was on to take those Scythian cities from Persia.
Persia's counter-attacks in 237 resulted in both sides losing one unit of Cavalry, for what felt like the hundred millionth time.
That year, the alliance between Carthage and Macedon against Persia ended, as did the right of passage. Alex saw no reason to continue it- he didn't need to go through Carthage, and Carthage being able to go through them was more annoying than helpful, and he didn't need the help against Persia anymore if they decided to sign a peace treaty. He was pretty sure Persia didn't have the money to get Carthage to declare war, so, all in all, there was no point.
Susa would be far easier to take in 240. For starters, there were less of them, and more Macedonians. To make things better, Macedon's rarely-needed Fire Catapults were now able to be useful as they were outside the city, and so they bombarded it, bringing the Spearmen inside down to nearly nothing. Cavalry got rid of the first two. As the last one was all but dead, the Hoplites that came with the Catapults decided to get some combat experience they rarely managed to get and attacked them. It seemed like a safe bet to attack such weakened Spearmen, but no, it wasn't. What were we thinking, of course only Heavy Cavalry have enough attack to kill Spearmen. So, Cavalry got rid of them. Eh, the Hoplites doing that would have been preferable, as it wouldn't have lost anything, but oh well.
In the North, Cavalry got rid of a Persian cavalry in the area, then advanced to Gordium, Persia's Caspian Sea port. It was defended by 3 Spearmen. Please, you think that's going to stop us? Well, okay, one retreat, but seriously, you think that's going to stop us?
The army advanced to the gates of Persepolis. Hi, Persian capital! They also headed to Ecbatana. These two cities were the last real major cities in Persia's core. Well, what was left of Persia's core, anyway. They had several Cavalry and an army outside each city. Persia was doomed.
In 242, Persia did little but attempt to say "We're still kind of powerful, dammit!", which they did by killing 2 Cavalry rather than one in their random counter-attacks of the year. They also burned the Scythian city of Minusinsk on the Caspian Sea, but really, who's impressed by kicking Scythia around anymore? They're pathetic.
Those 2 random counter-attacking Cavalry were killed in 245, a year that heralded great losses for Persia, and signaled their doom. First, Ecbatana. Ajax's army was right outside the city, defended by 3 units of Spearmen. "Nice defenses. I think I'll kill them." He did just that.
Some Cavalry also got rid of a Persian Archer on the Gold Mountain to the Southeast.
Now... Persepolis. Darius and the Persian government had already packed their bags and left, as they already knew there was no point in remaining. They were pretty much right. The 4 Spearmen units defending the city were no match for Pyrrhus' army and a unit of Cavalry. The workers in the city were captured, the Iron and Horses were taken (although Persia still had some Horses up in Scythia), and the capital of Persia was Macedonian. It was hard to express in words how awesome this was.
The Persian Government set up its new capital in Maykop, in the area that had once been Scythia's core. Like the Goths' move to Solokha, Alex wonders how exactly it happened, but meh.
It didn't end there, though- control of Persian roads in the area meant that they could still reach a few more cities. 3 Cavalry units attacked Herat, capturing a worker outside the city and killing the two defending Spearmen units within. Good thing Persia doesn't defend such weak cities very strongly.
And 2 went to Dariush Kabir to kill the defending 2 units of Spearmen there, which they laughed off like they were nothing.
4 cities in a single year is presumably a record for Macedon, and it's certainly a very good thing.
Macedon celebrated the successful eviction of Persia from their capital after this, and knew they would soon be able to completely kick them out of all of their non-Scythian cities, and perhaps conquer them completely.
But the question then was, what next? They still needed to do a lot in the next 50 years, and time was rapidly running out. If they did not hurry, all of their gains would be for nothing.
The Macedonian generals were, at this point, starting to take bets on how long it would take them to capture Babylon, and later, Persepolis.
They vastly underestimated their own power. The Macedonian army crushed Persia more rapidly than even the most optimistic of them had hoped. Even better, Carthage wasn't getting any more cities from them, all of Persia's losses were to them. Not that there was anything wrong with that...
To start off with, Persia's counter-attacking abilities appeared much diminished from what they once were. No longer could they manifest the giant stacks of doom they had earlier, just a few small attacks here and there. In 202 AD, they couldn't even do anything, at least not to Macedon. A battle against Carthage was observed, in which both sides fielded Cavalry, the Carthaginians were the attackers, and the Persians the losers.
The Macedonian army, on the other hand, was quite capable of crushing Persia. In 205, they made advances towards Hatra, making sure to deal with a stray unit of Persian Cavalry near Arbela in the meantime. They didn't take the city that year, but they did greatly weaken it. They saw poor results against the defending Spearmen at first, seeing two units of them having to retreat and another dying. But otherwise, they fought well, killing two of the city's 3 defending Spearmen units, and the Cavalry as well.
The Persians continued to show a lack of their former military strength in 207, when all they could do was attack two units of Macedonian Cavalry with their own, both sides losing one battle. They also lost Samaria to Carthage again. But, on the other hand, they were having some successes farther North- they were still beating Scythia, and managed to prove it by capturing Tsagan Aman. It was one of the few cities they hadn't just burned in the midst of the battle.
Rome finished knocking the Goths out of their core that year, capturing Ubii and burning Kuiavia to the north of it. The Goths responded by moving their capital to their last remaining city, the former Scythian city of Solokha. Alex wonders how they managed to move about 1000 miles in such a short period of time, especially considering the lack of roads not going through Roman territory, but doesn't really care much.
He does, however, notice that Solokha appears to be a rather easy target. A report from the embassy that investigated the city in 210 proved that was exactly the case.
About 4 Heavy Cavalry could easily take that and destroy the Goths. It would be a nice addition to the Empire, and be revenge for the earlier destruction of some city everyone already forgot the name of a while ago. Furthermore, they could from there continue on to take those cities Persia had taken from Scythia a while ago.
But in the meantime, taking the cities in the South was more important and could deal bigger blows to Persia. The battle of Hatra continued. Macedon continued to have some initial trouble, with the first attacking unit of Cavalry being killed by the defending Spearmen, But then they were easily able to kill the last two units of Spearmen defending the city. And just in time, too- the Carthaginians might have been able to get it soon if they didn't. Alex hopes they reach Babylon soon, if nothing else to take Hadrian's Wall and make all other cities easier to capture.
The Cavalry southeast of Arbela that had foolishly entered earlier were also destroyed.
Not much happened in 212, other than the usual random Cavalry battles. Carthage killed 3 Persian Cavalry units, and Persia killed one belonging to Macedon.
Carthage captured the Celtic city of Lutetia, the oldest city they had on Britain, and the only Celtic city that had bothered to build a Harbor. The Celts are now slightly more cut off from themselves than they already were.
Macedon efforts in 215 focused on getting to Zohak, then Hamadan, and then Babylon itself. Aside from one random Cavalry battle, which they won, that was all they did, in fact.
At Zohak, Macedon got nothing but victory, easily crushing the defending 2 Spearmen and 1 Cavalry.
Hamadan was a little tougher, as it had 3 Spearmen units and a Cavalry instead of 2 Spearmen units and a Cavalry. And here, Macedon had one loss of a Cavalry unit against one of those Spearmen. Otherwise, they did pretty well, with their other 4 attacks against the defenders successful, bringing a quick end to the Battle of Hamadan. They even got a worker and a Catapult that the Persians had used against them in the battle.
The remainder of the Macedonian army moved towards Babylon, killing a Cavalry on the way. The siege would begin now.
The city was certainly screwed, all Macedon was concerned about was making sure they ended up controlling it, not Carthage.
Carthage, of course, wanted Babylon and other Persian cities, too, so they attacked both it and Merv in 217, although with only one unit of Cavalry in both places. Still, they got rid of one defending unit of Spearmen in both places. Persia used its one counter-attack of the year to kill the one near Merv with Cavalry.
In more ineffectual news, Carthage got Scythia to declare war on Rome, and Scythia got the Celts to declare war on Persia. Alex highly doubted that Scythia could fight Rome, or that the Celts could fight Persia.
Proving the Celts' weakness and geographic inability to move that far Southeast, the Romans burned Uxellodunum, their most-recently built city to the North of their capital.
In 220, the Macedon moved quick to block Carthage from getting Babylon or Merv. They kept Carthage from getting Merv the easiest way they knew how: They simply captured it themselves, which, considering it only had 2 defending Spearmen units and they took no losses, was easy.
They also took out the Persian Cavalry on the hill to the North to make sure they couldn't attack Merv.
As to Babylon, they probably could have taken it that year, but weren't sure, so they just decided to arrange their units in a way that prevented the Carthaginians from getting there, and, just to make it easier in 5 years, had Ajax kill a Spearmen in the city.
And it worked- only one Carthaginian unit was able to attack Babylon in 222, the one that had already been there, and being injured already, it had to retreat. The rest went North.
They were able to do plenty of things to the Celts, however, as they captured the city of Hallstadt. The Romans also burned Nemetocenna, bringing the Celtic city total down to 3.
Sadly, despite the only visible Persian Cavalry unit near Merv being already dead, 2 more were able to attack, killing 2 of Macedon's- 1 outside the city, one inside, and the city was temporarily back under Persian control again.
But it wouldn't remain Persian for long. In 225, the Macedonians prepared to take it back, making sure to take Babylon back first for Hadrian's wall and control of the region's roads. Actually, that was pretty easy, or at least easier than expected- 3 attacks from Pyrrhus and 1 from Ajax were all that were necessary to break down the last 4 spearmen defending Babylon. Hadrian's Wall fell, and the great defensive bonuses it gave were now Macedonian to use. They even got another Catapult.
Now that that was done, some Cavalry went to Merv. 2 Cavalry outside the city down, the one that had captured it dead- and this city was, again, Macedonian.
Better yet, there were still some Cavalry left to move, so they decided to go down and evict Persia from Bactra, their last major city in Mesopotamia. It had 3 Spearmen defending it, but without Hadrian's Wall doubling their defense, killing them was a whole lot easier. Macedon didn't even take any real losses.
The Macedonian Generals were amazed and pleased at how quickly they could now tear through Persia's defenses. With Babylon taken, their end was now inevitable. They would concentrate their efforts on the last remaining real major cities in Persia, the ones with good strategic position, road control, or- most importantly- Iron, which they had 4 sources of left. If those were taken, Persia wouldn't be able to field any more Immortals or Heavy Cavalry, which would make them even weaker than the weak Scythians they'd been busy trying to conquer for a while.
Carthage's Cavalry went South again in 227, maybe because they weren't being blocked any more. Okay.... They also brought some units to Crete, with the obvious intention of capturing the city the Romans had there.
Random skirmishes that year were again limited to losing two Cavalry to Persian Cavalry. This is getting kind of old.
Some people said that Macedon hadn't really conquered Mesoptamia yet, as Jinjan, the Persians' southernmost city, was part of Mesopotamia. Hell, you could possibly count Susa and Ergili as part of it, depending on how you defined the borders. Those people shut up when Macedon conquered the city in 230, again with no losses against the 2 defending Spearmen.
The other major battle of the year was to take the city of Tureng Tepe. It didn't seem too important, as it wasn't a very big city- but capturing it meant that one of Persia's Iron sources fell out of their territory, that Persepolis was now within reach, and, perhaps most importantly, all the roads in the area went through this city, meaning that the capture of it effectively cut what was left of Persia in half.
Macedon also founded 3 cities that year, as part of its continuing attempts to fill in holes. Miletos (Miletusians yelled at them for not being able to come up with an original name), in west-central Anaolia, Artemisium, on the Southern coast of Anatolia, and Megara, in the Far North.
The Carthaginian Cavalry went back North in 232. Leading Macedonian commanders suspect them to have multiple personalities, one of which wants to go North, the other wants to go South.
Meanwhile, Persian Cavalry attacked both Macedonian and Carthaginian Cavalry. Both sides lost one Cavalry unit.
Not long after, news was heard that the Carthaginians had burned the Celts' last city in Britain, Cenabum. The Romans also captured the capital of Bibracte, making them move to Atuatuca, their only remaining city. Macedonians are now taking bets as to how long it will take Rome to burn it.
In 235, the Persian cities to come under Macedonian fire were Susa and Gazaca, but not before the obligatory random Cavalry skirmish near Jinjan (which Macedon won, of course).
At Susa, the Army failed to break through the defenses, and two of the Cavalry units had to retreat. But they suffered no losses, which is something Persia can't say, as they lost 2 units of Spearmen.
They did lose one Cavalry at Gazaca, but that doesn't matter much when Persia lost all 3 of the Spearmen that were defending the city. Gaining the city also took 2 Iron sources from Persia, leaving the one near Persepolis as the only one they had left. It was now a prime target.
Also that year, preparations were finally ready to take Solokha from the Goths. Stupid long travel distances taking 4 Cavalry this long to get within striking distance of Solokha. At least the culture borders in the area made that possible without entering Gothic territory. Anyway, after a brief stop to inform the Goths that they were going to die now...
...They rode into the city confidently. It was even less well defended than they thought, one of the Archers wasn't there. That was even better, as one archer and one teutonic warrior were no match for them at all. They barely even got scratched. The Goths just don't have anyone capable of defense. Or rather didn't, as Solokha's fall ended the Goths' existence. Their last few Warriors disbanded after the city was captured.
They'd briefly stop to heal, but then it was on to take those Scythian cities from Persia.
Persia's counter-attacks in 237 resulted in both sides losing one unit of Cavalry, for what felt like the hundred millionth time.
That year, the alliance between Carthage and Macedon against Persia ended, as did the right of passage. Alex saw no reason to continue it- he didn't need to go through Carthage, and Carthage being able to go through them was more annoying than helpful, and he didn't need the help against Persia anymore if they decided to sign a peace treaty. He was pretty sure Persia didn't have the money to get Carthage to declare war, so, all in all, there was no point.
Susa would be far easier to take in 240. For starters, there were less of them, and more Macedonians. To make things better, Macedon's rarely-needed Fire Catapults were now able to be useful as they were outside the city, and so they bombarded it, bringing the Spearmen inside down to nearly nothing. Cavalry got rid of the first two. As the last one was all but dead, the Hoplites that came with the Catapults decided to get some combat experience they rarely managed to get and attacked them. It seemed like a safe bet to attack such weakened Spearmen, but no, it wasn't. What were we thinking, of course only Heavy Cavalry have enough attack to kill Spearmen. So, Cavalry got rid of them. Eh, the Hoplites doing that would have been preferable, as it wouldn't have lost anything, but oh well.
In the North, Cavalry got rid of a Persian cavalry in the area, then advanced to Gordium, Persia's Caspian Sea port. It was defended by 3 Spearmen. Please, you think that's going to stop us? Well, okay, one retreat, but seriously, you think that's going to stop us?
The army advanced to the gates of Persepolis. Hi, Persian capital! They also headed to Ecbatana. These two cities were the last real major cities in Persia's core. Well, what was left of Persia's core, anyway. They had several Cavalry and an army outside each city. Persia was doomed.
In 242, Persia did little but attempt to say "We're still kind of powerful, dammit!", which they did by killing 2 Cavalry rather than one in their random counter-attacks of the year. They also burned the Scythian city of Minusinsk on the Caspian Sea, but really, who's impressed by kicking Scythia around anymore? They're pathetic.
Those 2 random counter-attacking Cavalry were killed in 245, a year that heralded great losses for Persia, and signaled their doom. First, Ecbatana. Ajax's army was right outside the city, defended by 3 units of Spearmen. "Nice defenses. I think I'll kill them." He did just that.
Some Cavalry also got rid of a Persian Archer on the Gold Mountain to the Southeast.
Now... Persepolis. Darius and the Persian government had already packed their bags and left, as they already knew there was no point in remaining. They were pretty much right. The 4 Spearmen units defending the city were no match for Pyrrhus' army and a unit of Cavalry. The workers in the city were captured, the Iron and Horses were taken (although Persia still had some Horses up in Scythia), and the capital of Persia was Macedonian. It was hard to express in words how awesome this was.
The Persian Government set up its new capital in Maykop, in the area that had once been Scythia's core. Like the Goths' move to Solokha, Alex wonders how exactly it happened, but meh.
It didn't end there, though- control of Persian roads in the area meant that they could still reach a few more cities. 3 Cavalry units attacked Herat, capturing a worker outside the city and killing the two defending Spearmen units within. Good thing Persia doesn't defend such weak cities very strongly.
And 2 went to Dariush Kabir to kill the defending 2 units of Spearmen there, which they laughed off like they were nothing.
4 cities in a single year is presumably a record for Macedon, and it's certainly a very good thing.
Macedon celebrated the successful eviction of Persia from their capital after this, and knew they would soon be able to completely kick them out of all of their non-Scythian cities, and perhaps conquer them completely.
But the question then was, what next? They still needed to do a lot in the next 50 years, and time was rapidly running out. If they did not hurry, all of their gains would be for nothing.
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