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What can I say, I'm with Clementius on this behalf


And same counts for the way to or the area around Hasakah admittedly.

Right. Honestly, I wikipedia this stuff for narrative reasons because, well, I don't live in the Middle East. Google is a good friend!
 
Part 1: The War In The Shadows, Chapter 3: Be All My Sins Remember'd, the War Against the Sassanids Reaches its Climax, Part 3
Galerius’s dreams weren’t helpful at all whatsoever. His first dream showed a glorious victory, where the Sassanid leader - Kavadh - was even captured. In this dream, the Sassanids surrendered immediately after.

His second dream, by contrast, was far darker. It showed that, in the end, Anastasios’s army and the Scythia arrived too late. The three legions had been massacred and forced to retreat. Then, Emperor Justinian was shown negotiating a white peace - and that was refused. The war continued then, and disaster followed disaster. In the end, Galerius saw that all gains since Emperor Zeno’s reign were reversed - and a large war indemnity was paid to the Sassanids.

Galerius awoke, and all he felt was confusion. Why did his dreams show a good scenario and a bad scenario? Were they trying to warn him of something? Was his subconscious encouraging him to stand fast? Galerius didn’t know, but that didn’t matter. He would hold out as long as he could. If that wasn’t long enough, then so be it.

The battle did resume at dawn. Galerius had only just awoken when he saw that fighting was already under way. Clementius confirmed that the Sassanids had attacked at dawn. Thankfully, the line was holding, if only just.

Galerius unsheathed his sword and quickly joined the fray. The Sassanid soldier who he attacked was taken by surprise, and his death was quick. Unfortunately, the element of surprise didn’t last. Despite this, the three legions seemed to be doing well.

When Galerius had joined the fray, the fighting was inches away from the Eastern Roman camp. That had been immensely worrying. However, as the day wore on, the three legions managed to force the Sassanid army back. Soon, fighting was only occurring around midway between the two camps.

Unfortunately, this success didn’t last. The Sassanids held firm. Galerius attempted to attack their center, hoping to force at least some of them back, but this failed. At that point, he was wise enough to retreat back to the Eastern Roman line.

By this point, the sun had passed its high point, but it wasn’t visibly setting. Neither the Eastern Romans nor the Sassanids held the advantage. For a long while, neither side attacked and neither side retreated. The two armies faced each other, but battle wasn’t resumed.

That situation lasted until nightfall, when both sides decided to retreat to their tents. Galerius would’ve been fine if that was how the battle went from then on. His only goal was to hold off the Sassanid army long enough for the Eastern Roman reinforcements to arrive.

Of course, Kavadh probably knew this. Past experience told Galerius that he wasn’t facing an army commanded by an idiot. As such, he knew that a state of “cold conflict” was unlikely to last very long. All the Sassanids had to do was break the line of the three legions before said legions were reinforced. Conversely, all the legions had to do was hold the line. Furthermore, both sides knew that this was the case.

Galerius fell asleep as he thought about that. He had a dreamless sleep. This only served to further his dread. His first dreams showed 2 contradicting situations, and then he was shown nothing? Yeah, that didn’t help his stress levels at all whatsoever.
 
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I've looked it up meanwhile :p Blame yourself for this being a good story also without requiring exact background info and research right while reading ;)

Now let's hope Scythia has an organizer as Centurio and that he's better informed about the place of battle than Galerius or me.
 
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I've looked it up meanwhile :p Blame yourself for this being a good story also without requiring exact background info and research right while reading ;)

Now let's hope Scythia has an organizer as Centurio and that he's better informed about the place of battle than Galerius or me.

Here's to hoping! Because if it doesn't... well, that wouldn't be good, to say the least.
 
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Part 1: The War In The Shadows, Chapter 3: Be All My Sins Remember'd, the War Against the Sassanids Reaches its Climax, Part 4
Galerius sighed as he awoke. Yes, he was stressed, but stressing out wouldn’t cause the battle to be over quicker. That thought calmed him down. He left his tent and looked at the battlefield. Surprisingly, battle wasn’t occurring yet. He frowned. That was… unusual.

He looked up at the sky. The sun was not yet in the sky. Ah, that explained it. Very few people would willingly get up before dawn. He went back to his tent and crashed. Annoyingly, his sleep remained dreamless.

As he awoke for the second time, he heard the sound of battle. He cursed. That meant that the battle was nearby - he really hoped that it hadn’t reached where the Eastern Roman army was camping. That would be an unmitigated disaster.

Thankfully, it looked like that was not the case. The two armies looked to be engaging around halfway between the two camps. However, Galerius noticed that the Eastern Roman army wasn’t as large as it normally was. That could mean one of two things. The first was that the Sassanids had managed to kill a large number of Eastern Romans while he was asleep. The second, far more likely, option was that a substantial portion of the three legions was being kept in reserve.

If the second was the case, though, the reserve troops should be in the camp. Galerius looked over the camp. He quickly spotted the Second Isaurian Legion at the end farthest from the battle. He frowned. They hadn’t discussed keeping any legions in reserve at all during the battle. Of course, nobody was following the plan for the battle much at this point. The Sassanid resistance had been much greater than expected.

Galerius decided to join the fray once more. The Sassanids looked like they had been expecting this, however. They weren’t taken by surprise - or at least, if they were, they didn’t show it. For hours, the stalemate held.

Finally, both sides decided that direct melee fighting wasn’t bringing them any closer to winning the battle. The Eastern Roman army did nothing, despite this - all they had to do was hold until their reinforcements arrived. Of course, the Sassanids were also aware, so, when they realized how futile their actions were, they retreated.

The Sassanids weren’t about to surrender, though. Not when they were finally doing so well against their ancient enemies. They merely switched their lines so that their archers were in front. These archers shot at the Eastern Romans.

At first, Galerius - and his army, for that matter - were taken by complete surprise by this. However, he quickly realized that this was merely a new Sassanid strategy.

His reaction was very quick. He ordered the archers in the Legio I Armeniaca to move to the front of the line. However, he quickly noticed that the First Isaurian Legion had retreated back to their camp. Galerius cursed. He really needed to have another meeting with his fellow commanders about their strategy in this battle.

The Eastern Romans quickly shot arrows back at the Sassanid lines. Quickly, Galerius noticed that it was gradually getting darker. However, he paid no attention to that. It was probably just the natural passage of time.

Galerius didn’t have much practice with the bow, but he despised doing nothing in battle. Also, he did have a small amount of practice with the weapon - and, far more importantly, he had a bow. He drew his bow and began to shoot at the Sassanids.

Night fell far quicker than it should have. Galerius frowned. Why was that? Then, he looked up. He saw that there was no sunset. However, he did see many arrows. Quickly, he deduced what had happened.

That was a bad sign. After all, how often did battles where arrows blocked out the sun occur?
 
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Are the Isaurians going to betray Galerius? Is Galerius going to have forever sleep? Stay tuned Roman fans! Same Roman time. Same Roman channel.

Perhaps. Or they’re just being cautious...
 
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Part 1: The War In The Shadows, Chapter 3: Be All My Sins Remember'd, the War Against the Sassanids Reaches its Climax, Part 5
However, Galerius didn’t have much time to consider that. As he was distracted, an arrow almost hit him, and his focus was quickly drawn by the battle.

Unfortunately, the Sassanids seemed to have deduced that he was this army’s leader, as almost all of them were aiming at him. He somehow managed to dodge all the arrows aimed at him, but it was a very close thing. It was at this point that he decided that maybe being on the front lines wasn’t such a good idea.

As such, he quickly moved back a few miles, but he continued firing arrows at the Sassanids. Soon, however, the battle seemed to stop. Galerius figured that this was because natural night had fallen, but he was not certain. It was hard to deduce when dusk was due to the fact that the sun’s light had been blocked.

Both armies moved back to their tents. Galerius took this opportunity to go to the tents of both of his co-commanders. He scheduled a meeting about what they were going to do for the next night. That meant that he would probably miss out on some sleep, but he was fine with that. Coordinated strategy was more important.

Galerius dreamed of a battle that night. However, this battle wasn’t the one he was currently fighting in. He knew that because his dream contained many mountains, and, to the best of his knowledge, there were no mountains near Hasakah. He definitely knew that there wasn’t a mountain outside of Hasakah’s walls.

As he awoke, he wondered what his dream was about. It was about a battle, yes, but that was nowhere near specific enough. He only remembered one battle in a mountainous area that’d occurred on this campaign. That battle had been at Saokoros, but why would he be remembering that specific battle? Unless…

That was possible. His dream could’ve been trying to tell him where the next battle was going to be fought. He knew that there were Sassanid soldiers in, or at least near, Saokoros, but he didn’t know how many there were.

Actually, that brought up a good point. The original location of the Sassanid last stand was going to be Saokoros, so why were they fighting so much here? The only reason why there was a battle here at all was because the Eastern Romans had intercepted them… right?

That was what his colleagues - and what he - had thought, but now he wasn’t so sure. What if the Sassanids had wanted to fight at Hasakah, and they had successfully tricked their opponents into thinking they didn’t? Warfare often involved deception, but Galerius thought that someone would’ve figured that out before now if it truly was the case.

Galerius frowned. The most likely possibility was that the Sassanids had begun doing better than expected… not only by Eastern Roman standards, but also by their own standards. They had probably then figured that they could fight here just as well as where they’d originally wanted to - Saokoros.

However, if that was the case, then the arrival of Anastasios and the Scythia would not end the war. If the Sassanids knew that the battle was lost, they might have an escape plan. Which meant that this battle, as long as it was, wouldn’t be the final stand of the Sassanids.
 
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Powerful Bow!!! Able to shoot a few miles!!! Do the Sassanids escape Hasakah? Does Galerius have a new plan? Stay tuned Roman fans! Same Roman time! Same Roman channel!

Galerius doesn’t like the current plan at least. Then again, it isn’t being followed at all at the moment, so…
 
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Part 1: The War In The Shadows, Chapter 3: Be All My Sins Remember'd, the War Against the Sassanids Reaches its Climax, Part 6
He decided that he would rest for a while. He needed to be fully awake for the meeting with his fellow commanders, which was going to happen tonight. Fighting in the battle would, therefore, be extremely counterintuitive. That didn’t mean that he couldn’t watch the battle, though, in order to ensure that he wasn’t needed. And if he actually was needed in order for the line to even hold? Then he would join.

Yes, he needed to be awake for the planning sessions, but those sessions would be useless if they had already lost the battle. The commanders of the Isaurian legions had said that they would have their legions reinforce his if the battle looked lost, but he didn’t trust them. Few could resist the pull of greed, and he didn’t believe for a second that the Sassanids were above using such tactics. War was like necessity - it knew no law. Most states would do anything to win a war.

Strangely, the Sassanids hadn’t seemed desperate before this battle. Actually, in hindsight, that wasn’t so strange. They were merely preparing to make their stand.

Galerius looked over at the area between the two camps. He frowned. It was empty. Why was there no fighting occurring right now? He looked up at the sky, just to make sure it wasn’t earlier than he thought it was. No, the sun was nearing its high point in the sky. It was long past dawn. So why wasn’t the battle occurring yet?

He decided to look around his own camp. Then, he spotted where his legion was. They were at the edge of the camp… wait, if that was the case, why hadn’t he spotted them before? Then, he figured that he simply hadn’t been looking hard enough. Why weren’t they fighting, though? Even if they had simply decided that they didn’t want to fight that day, the Sassanids would still force a fight… right?

Where was the Sassanid army, anyway? Why weren’t they taking advantage of this… new development? Unless they were also taking a break, but wouldn’t that be horribly unstrategic? He knew that the Sassanids knew just as well as he did that all the Eastern Roman army had to do was hold the line until reinforcements arrived.

Of course, Kavadh - the Sassanid commander - didn’t know that there were more Eastern Roman forces en route. However, the Sassanid army contained various survivors of all the battles that the Eastern Romans had defeated the Sassanids in… at least during this war. That meant that Kavadh knew that Anastasios’s army and the Scythia existed at least… so why weren’t they worried? Of course, Galerius hadn’t seen Kavadh during this battle, so he had no clue what he was thinking.

He decided to look at the Sassanid camp. Oh. That was where the Sassanid army was. They were at the edge of their camp, or at least some of them were. The two opposing armies glared at each other, but neither moved. It seemed as if no one wanted to fight anymore. The two armies were a hostile detente.

Galerius sighed. He currently didn’t have a plan, though, so this actually somewhat benefited him. This bought him more time. He knew that reinforcements were coming… eventually. While he was thinking about this topic, what was taking his reinforcements so long to arrive? For that matter, where were Anastasios and the Scythia right now? And where had been when the battle began?
 
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It might not always pick the best paths regardless, but for awareness, it's safe to assume any AI has a spymaster in any province to spot player armies :D

True. Galerius does think that Kavadh knows about the other army’s existence, just not where they are. The battle would’ve started before that information could be shared, even if the Sassanid emperor did know it.

They’ll probably be more on Sassanid politics in one of the spinoff AARs, whenever I decide to start those...
 
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Yup, game files thankfully allow research on what of matter happened when also in other realms and courts than the own to a degree. I might or might not have researched before what was going on in Constantinople in 784 in my game ^^

Specially for narrative AAR's that do not only focus on player's actions or what affects them this can bring in quite interesting perspective, so definitely a good idea.
 
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Yup, game files thankfully allow research on what of matter happened when also in other realms and courts than the own to a degree. I might or might not have researched before what was going on in Constantinople in 784 in my game ^^

Specially for narrative AAR's that do not only focus on player's actions or what affects them this can bring in quite interesting perspective, so definitely a good idea.

Yup! It's very convenient...
 
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Part 1: The War In The Shadows, Chapter 3: Be All My Sins Remember'd, the War Against the Sassanids Reaches its Climax, Part 7
Galerius waited. The strategy meeting would occur soon, and he had every reason to wait for it. The two armies currently stood at a detente. Galerius didn’t expect this to last long, of course, if only because the Sassanids would want to get this battle over with as soon as possible. They would be very worried about possible Eastern Roman reinforcements arriving.

Still, neither side was actively fighting, and neither side seemed to want to fight. That meant that Galerius had time, and time was the most precious substance in the entire world. If he was out of time, that would be a disaster, but his time wasn’t up yet. He could still fight, and there was no battle occurring.

The uneasy detente lasted until nightfall, and Galerius smiled at that. The detente might break when dawn arrived once more, but it had existed for long enough. The Eastern Roman commanders could make their plan. Galerius smiled as he headed towards the meeting tent…

When he arrived, Albinus was already there. That was actually surprising, as it was dusk, and Clementius wasn’t there. Clementius and Albinus were normally together, although that could just be him arriving late.

Clementius arrived soon after, and the three of them made small talk for a while. Then, Galerius cut to the chase.

“So, our initial plan failed pretty badly,” he said. “The Sassanids weren’t nearly as surprised as we had hoped that they would be, which meant that the battle has lasted longer than planned. In addition to that, the Sassanids seem to know a lot about the terrain near Hasakah. As such, what should our new plan be?”

“To be fair, Hasakah was under Sassanid control for quite a while,” Albinus pointed out. “It only makes sense that they would know the terrain. As such, any plan involving taking advantage of the terrain that assumes that the Sassanid army doesn’t know what the terrain is will not work.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Galerius replied. “The good thing is that we don’t have to defeat the Sassanid army. All we have to do is hold long enough for our reinforcements to get here. That should be easier than outright winning.”

“We thought that this battle would be easy,” Clementius pointed out. “And now we’re barely even holding the line. Our line has almost collapsed multiple times. The Sassanids have made it inside of our camp. This battle has been far from easy. We shouldn’t underestimate our opponents.”

“Is that why neither of the Isaurian legions have actually been fighting against the Sassanids in recent days?” Galerius snapped. “The Legio I Armeniaca could have used some help keeping the Sassanids from overrunning our position!”

“You were doing fine,” Albinus said. “We need to preserve our forces. Yes, we shouldn’t underestimate the Sassanid army, but we shouldn’t overestimate it either. Completely destroying the Sassanid army isn’t our goal. We shouldn’t even want Persia proper in the long run anyway!”

“I thought the Imperial Throne wanted to destroy all Sassanid military might forever,” Galerius commented. “Why don’t they? If the Sassanids are eliminated, we won’t have to deal with them in the future, right? Why should we have to deal with an enemy on our eastern border?”

“You’re ridiculously naive if you truly believe that, Galerius” Albinus responded. “If we conquer Persia, our eastern border will be even harder to defend than our current eastern border is. We need a natural border, and the Zagros Mountains count as that, if nothing else. Seizing control of Persia proper would force us to defend against incursions from both Central Asia and India. If we conquer those areas, then we need to take Cathay, which we know only from rumors! One empire can’t govern the world! Regardless of such matters, this meeting was supposed to discuss strategy, so what’s ours?”

“We hold out until reinforcements arrive,” Clementius suggested. “All three legions engage the enemy, and we hold them for as long as we can.”

“That’s a good strategy,” Galerius mused. “But it doesn’t account for if we can’t hold. If we must abandon Hasakah, we should burn it and all of the areas around it. We should ensure that the Sassanids win a useless plot of land.”

“That’s harsh,” Albinus commented. “But it will be effective, and that’s what matters. Agreed.”

Clementius agreed as well, and Galerius moved back to his tent to get a few short hours of sleep. However, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Albinus was plotting something…
 
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Rolled tactic for the day: "Hesitant Commander" on two flanks :D

True enough. Both of them had their reasons, though. Patience is a virtue, after all.
 
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