Thank you.
It has been a while, so here is a pic with the Fog of War off. The Roman war machine has moved off from Rome and is enjoying the beaches of southern Italia. The Egyptians have just stopped doing anything, and the Gorgons have almost squeezed out Numidia. Gaul is on its last legs, with the Britons having taken all of modern France.
As far as I can tell, this is all that is left of the Sarmatians. I am guessing those units they do have are tiny in size, as their flag is barely filled in at all.
Now back to the war. A sad day, First Equal Okypous the Cunning has gone gently into that good night.
However, she has left the Valkyrja as the most advanced faction in the world.
But the Sarmatians are richest once more.
A big German army has come to batter itself upon the walls of Vicus Gepidae.
Pantariste crushes them.
That big Thracian army I saw in Epirus ignored Molpadia and instead headed east to lay siege to Pella.
Thankfully I had seen them coming and managed to get a few Generals and Agema Archers in the walls before their attack. Xanthippe the Mighty is no stranger to killing Thracians. She sallies.
My Agema Archers can hit the Thracians from the walls. Got to love that.
I start by disposing of their cavalry.
Soon their entire army turns and heads for the map edge. I notice there are a lot of bodies piled up along the line they had been deployed in. It looks like my two Agema Archers from the garrison were what made the army retreat. This is why their unit description says they have been known to single-handedly defeat enemy armies.
I run down as many as I can.
Victory.
Here is the tale of the tape. As I suspected, the Agema Archers killed half the Thracian army.
Now it was time for Apollonia. One of my hired thugs removed the Thracian General there of his responsibilities, forever.
Then the Army of Thrace, now led by Kardika the Honest, moved up to the city.
In the east, First Equal Klito (all those stars and she does not have an epithet yet?) makes landfall and immediately assaults Themiskyra. After five centuries, the Valkyrja have come home.
As you can see, half of my fleet has sailed up onshore...
These foolish women have not built stone walls.
That oversight costs them dearly as my archers work them over.
Eventually I was into the city.
The Amazonians tried to stop me.
But the free women of Valkyr cannot be dissuaded.
The Amazonian Captain was cut down as she tried to flee to the square.
Uh oh, some Amazonian Agema Axes have come over from the other wall, behind my troops headed for the square.
I get some Drakones in place to block them.
My spearwomen really cannot hope to stop these head-hunters on their own.
So my Onagers lend a hand.
As does a unit of Heavy Cavalry.
That still did not do it. Finally I got some cavalry in behind them.
That broke them, but only after losing a lot of women.
Then it was on to the square, where my Agema Archers were baiting the remaining Amazonians out and into the street.
How is that for the clash of spears?
While that was going on, First Equal Klito and a unit of Heavy Cavalry were sweeping through the city streets to enter the square from another side.
They enter as the last of the defenders are engaged by the Drakones. One charge and that was it.
No survivors.
Once again, it is the archers who did all the heavy lifting. You can also see that almost all of my losses came from that one unit of Amazonian Agema Axes.
As these are sister Amazons, merely misguided by aristocratic tyrants, I Occupy. Besides, Themiskyra is near to being Huge level, which means Companions. Once the initial unrest dies down this will be an invaluable base for all my operations in the east.
Speaking of which, the Amazonian heartland lies bare.