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May 4, 2007
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Hello again, fellow Paradoxians.

After a long time away from the forum I find myself itching to give another stab at AAR writing. As some of you may have figured out by the title this will be a Macedonia AAR. Expect it to be text heavy and sparse on pictures. I am hoping to have a first update done sometime on the 25th for a Christmas present to my old readers, here is to hoping they find it, but that may be a bit soon. If I miss the 25th I will be sure to bring in the New Year with the start of this story. After that I will try for two updates a week with one being a more realistic number. I am hoping to have play done by the end of the first week of January so I only have to worry about writing when I find time between moving, chores, and college.
 
Count me in. I can't play Rome well at all, but it will be nice to see someone else who is able to play competently! ;)
 
Count me in. I can't play Rome well at all, but it will be nice to see someone else who is able to play competently! ;)
Thank you Rob, I am glad to have you on board

Good to see you've got the AAR itch, Sematary! I'll be following this one for sure! :D
I hope I can make this worth following

Oh yeah, another Macedonian AAR :cool:

good luck!

btw, what version? VV?

EDIT: sorry, I kinda missed your game icon... :eek:o
Yes VV, 2.0 and all settings are default.
 
From what I have picked up this forum is very sparsely populated, and to celebrate the upcoming holidays and to celebrate over 100 views before even starting in such a dead forum at a busy time of year I have a present for everyone. I am feeling very confident that I can get my first update going the day after tomorrow and to tide everyone over I will be posting a two part prologue, to be submitted in a separate post momentarily.
 
Prologue: The First Rising of the Sixteen Pointed Star

Part One: Phillip II of Macedon

Phillip was born in 382 BC in the Macedonian capital of Pella, the youngest son of king Amyntas III and Eurydice II. For several years in his youth he was held as a hostage in Thebes, which was at the time the most powerful Greek city. During his time there Phillip received education under Epaminondas, the general and statesman who brought Thebes from a small tributary of Sparta to the leader of Greece. When he was finished with his training Phillip became the aites of Pelopidas. Pelopidas, who was a general and friend of Epaminondas, was the man who took Phillip as a hostage in the first place when sent to Macedonia to settle a dispute between two claimants to the throne. Phillip also spent time living with, and under the care of, Pammenes who was a third major general of Thebes. Because of this extensive education and time spent with several of the most promenade generals in the world at the time his future successes are almost to be expected.

In 364 BC Phillip was able to return to Macedonia and join his older brother. King Alexander II of Macedon had been the king and was the reason that Phillip was taken hostage. Alexander had expanded Macedonia but was assassinated by his cousin, who was favored by the Thebians. Phillip’s older brother, Perdiccas III took the government back by killing the cousin who had murdered Alexander II and had been acting as regent in 365 BC. In 359 BC, during a war to take back Upper Macedonia from the Illyrians Perdiccas III was killed in battle. He left the throne to his infant son, Amyntas IV, and left his younger brother to act as regent. In less than a year Phillip took the kingship from his nephew and crowned himself king.

In his first ten years as king, Phillip carried out intermittent wars with Illyria, Phoenicia, Athens, and Athenian allies. With great skill and patience Phillip won each war and slowly created hegemony over almost all of Greece. Once Athens finally submitted he sent a note to Sparta saying “You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city.” Sparta replied with but a single word, this word was “If.” Knowing full well the reputation of Sparta and seeing that they fully expected to fight him to the death defending their land, Phillip decided to leave Sparta alone.

After this Phillip started sieges to two cities in Eastern Thrace, Byzantium being the second city. Both sieges ended in failure for Phillip and it compromised his hegemony over Greece. He reasserted his power in 340 by beating a Theban-Athenian alliance and he formed the League of Corinth, which acted as little more than a Macedonian puppet with Phillip as its leader and commander of its army.

Shortly after the formation of the League, the League went to war with Persia. While it was in its early stages Phillip was assassinated by one of his seven bodyguards. He left the throne to his son, Alexander III, forever known to history as Alexander the Great (Mégas Aléxandros). Of all the imprints on history the one with the longest legacy and possibly the biggest impact was the creation of the phalanx and the sarissa. Although to his son the most important things he left was the hegemony over Greece (except Eastern Thrace and Sparta), and the war with Persia.
 
Part Two: Alexander the Great

Phillip’s son was born in Pella like his father; his mother was Olympias of Epirus. His father was a great general and his mother was a cousin of the well known Pyrrhus of Epirus. It was said that he was descendant from Heracles through Caranus of Macedon by his father, and from Aeacus by way of Achilles and his son Neoptolemus through his mother. The night the boy was born Herostratus burned the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus to the ground, and it was later said that clearly Artemis was too busy helping make sure the boy was born to stop her temple from burning down. An oracle, however, said that Zeus was Alexander’s true father and his exploits later in life combined with the interesting trait of smelling good seemed to prove this.

Alexander was raised first by his nurse Lanike, then he was educated by a teacher said to be strict and frugal by the name of Leonidas. Leonidas trained Alexander to be a soldier and building his martial abilities, while making the prince live without kingly comforts. His most important teacher, however, was to be Aristotle. Aristotle was the student of Plato who had been the student of Socrates, the three of them created western philosophy. This made Alexander the heir of this chain of philosophers and perhaps the best educated person in the world at that point.

As a boy Alexander was talented and had a gift of perception but also lusted for glory and saw himself as superior to everyone, especially his father. When Alexander was 17, his father married his fifth wife (still being married to the other four), this wife was Macedonian while Alexander’s mother was from Epirus. A guest at the marriage celebration called for a toast hoping that this marriage would produce a ‘legitimate’ heir to the throne. Alexander is then said to have thrown his goblet at the man and shouted “What am I then? A bastard?” In reply to this his father drew his sword and moved toward Alexander, but in his drunken state he either stumbled into a table or tripped while trying to jump over a table according to different accounts. Alexander laughed at this and said “Here is the man who is planning on taking from Greece to Asia and he can’t even move from table to table.” This caused Alexander and his mother to leave to Epirus for a few years before Alexander returned to Greece.

When his father was assassinated Alexander was declared king of Macedonia at the age of 20. One of his first acts was to swiftly move against Thebes to prove that independence would not be tolerated. From then he started a 12 year war first with Persia and then against every nation that got in his way. When he finished his empire stretched from the Adriatic in the west to the Indus in the east, from the Danube in the north to Syene in the south. His death is not well known but one of his last words is said to mean “Strongest” in Greek. This lead to his top generals taking what they could and trying to keep Alexander’s empire for themselves, however none of them were strong enough to do this and the empire was fractured.

Now Macedonia only holds most of the Greek mainland and Ptolemy Kranous is king of Macedonia. Can Kranous live up to his name as thunder and start rising the star of Macedonia to its rightful place or will that be left to one of his successors?
 
Book One: Ptolemy Keraunos

Chapter One: The First Wars

Act I: Thrace

Scene One: A War Council


Keraunos looked at those assembled in the meeting chambers in Pella. His entire council was there, now it was time to begin. “Forty four years ago Macedonia was the greatest nation in the world; we controlled almost the entire known world. Now what do we control?” This was of course a rhetorical question; everyone knew that Macedonia didn’t even have the hegemony that Phillip created. Most of the Peloponnese had slipped away and the southern shore of mainland Greece, north of Pelop’s Island, had also slipped away. “Phillip made Macedonia a first among equals, Alexander made Macedonia great. It is time the sixteen pointed star rise again.”

At this point Zopyrus, the Hierophant, spoke up “My lord, should we not first consult the gods? Or at least go to Delphi and talk to the great Oracle there.” His priests had received a sign the other day and although it had not been fully interpreted it did not seem to be a sign that Macedonia should go to war with anyone.

“No Zopyrus, there is no time to consult the gods. We must figure out which way we should strike. I suggest I lead the First Stratos to Thrace to conquer what Phillip could not.”

Aristarchus spoke up “My lord I think it is my job as Grand Vizier to suggest a different path. Illyria is on our north western border, and they are threatening Macedonia proper. That is where we should cast our first blow.”

“Of course you would think that Aristarchus,” Hippolochos interjected, “everyone knows you have been on the war path to attack Illyria since you attained your post.” He bowed to Keranous “May I my lord?” When Keranous had given his assent Hippolochos continued “I think we should worry more about trade before we talk about any wars. We have the money at the moment to wage war with our current army of ten thousand but we do not know for how long that will last and our resources could be spread out better. And…”

“We could sit here and listen to you blither on all day about finances simply because you are the Royal Treasurer, Hippolochos but it does not change any thing.” Midas Pythied said with a sneer “Why should we worry about our northern bounds? Only barbarians live there, whither they be Illyrians or Dacians. No to the south is where we should look. Or maybe to Seleucia who are at war with Egypt.”

“Nonsense we have no way to get our force to Seleucia. We all know our navy would have to cross the Aegean four times to get all ten thousand men over there. Even if we did what if the war with Egypt goes on the side of the Seleucids? Or if one or more of their large armies remains in Galatia? No there are many questions and ways it could go wrong.”

“Is that so Kleitos? And I suppose as Chancellor you would have a better plan than myself, who oversees the army.”

“Yes Midas I do, we should ally ourselves with Epirus, and Alexander’s cousin, Pyrrhus, joining the war with these upstart barbarians who call themselves the Romani.” Kleitos Omirid looked at those assembled around the table. He knew his idea would not hold much weight, the Romani where too large and had too much lust for power and land, and more importantly he was the one to come up with the idea. He may have a gift for speaking but his words were spoken plainly and the slight hunch he was born with did not help either.

“I agree with my brother.” Melegar said “He should lead an expedition into Thrace and try to take what Phillip could not. It would be a good start and it would set up apart as better than Phillip and closer in league to Alexander.”

“No we should take full advantage of Pyrrhus’ war against the Romani. Take Epirus while he is away in the apoikiai if we are to take anything. I will have our priests look for signs favoring Epirus right away.” Zopyrus said butting in.

Pitholaos Xeonid took this time to make himself be heard. “No we should war with the barbarians. The Illyrians have always been the enemies of Macedonia and so shall they always be as long as there is a king who is not up to the challenge of crushing them once and for all.”

Ptolemy Keraunos had had enough of this, “SILENCE.” he bellowed. The one word cut through the air and all heads snapped to look at their king. Keraunos sat there for a minute relishing in the power he held. “Now, if any of you would stop bickering like old women over laundry maybe we could get something done. I have heard your arguments and I have weighed them. Everyone has their own idea that clearly benefits them in some way or another. Whither it is to right what you perceive as an old wrong or just a way to satisfy your lust for more power I don’t care.” Each of these nobles looked shocked. Then Keraunos’ cold gaze settled on Poseidippus, “Is the navy in any shape to bring war to the Seleucids once again?”

Poseidippus shook his head “No my lord, it is not large enough. We would have to over triple its size and considering we only have wood in the quality and quantity needed for ship building in the islands of the Aegean it would take us close to three and a half years to make it so, if we started trading wood to Athens and other ports near by that time could be cut by half but no more.”

“Very well. Midas, who can our army march on?”

“Well my lord, at the moment we could probably march on any one in Hellas. Pyrrhus is away with his army leaving Epirus free, but the fortifications at Epirus are daunting. The small alliances to our south could be invaded but if we move on them we should move now. Even Sparta would not be able to hold back our army. We could move against the Illyrians or we could march through Maedi lands to Thrace, but the supply lines might not be the best.”

“Very well we shall move toward Thrace. If we need more supplies we will take what we need from the barbarians. No more than we have to of course but they are barbarians.” With the final words the meeting broke up and everyone went their separate ways. Some to prepare for the upcoming war and others went home. Zopyrus, however, slipped away and headed toward the south and the Aetolian League.
 
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