The Battle of Pericles' Trap
170 BCE
It was rather quiet out west for the next century, a long time to wait for Greek retaliation for the destruction of their settling party. But then, to my surprise, creeping over the mountains in 170 BCE was... another settling party! Just 8,000 troops, a mixture of chariots and spearmen. Only 1,000 more than their last attempt to pass through the mountains.
Huh, no siege on Vandal? No 50,000 soldier army to overwhelm our western front?
If that's what Pericles was going to try, no problem. We set up for the same opportunity again - stationing much of our troops on the north and south ends of the road across the plains. We'd pounce when they tried to cross - for the second time.
But then, suddenly a scout reported that the settlers had turned back, and the Greek army had split and was marching on both Vandal
and Eblana! Pericles was trying to catch us with our troops outside of the cities!
Pericles' Attempted Trap
The fake was a good try, I'll admit, but quite naive. For one, with my road system fully in place, there was no problem at all getting them back to the city on time. They weren't that far away to begin with. Secondly, the Greeks brought far,
far to little troops. We had 27,000 alone stationed in Vandal, and their spearmen that marched towards the city numbered just 4,000. And we had 16,000 in the Eblana area, to take on the other 4,000 chariots.
We first engaged the chariots at the foothills of the mountain adjacent to Eblana. It was a slaughter - we had spearmen stationed at the frontline who easily handled the horse-drawn chariot charge. We only lost 600 of our own men.
Massacre Near Eblana
Over in Vandal, the Greek battalion of spearmen may have caught wind of the massacre of their other invading party. Instead of attacking the city, they dashed to one of our mines and attempted to destroy it. We sent axemen out from the city to head them off, and off came their heads.
Defending the Vandal Countryside
We lost 1,680 axemen in the fight - the spearmen did have the high ground. But all 4,000 Greek spears were felled, eradicating the last of the Greek military in our borders.
After the two skirmishes, we sought and audience with Pericles, in hopes of coming to terms on a peace treaty before he returned with greater numbers. Needless to say, he was furious when we met with him.
An Unhappy Pericles
But he agreed that both sides should lay down their arms and discontinue the fight. I agreed on the condition that no Greeks enter our borders, effective indefinitely. There will be no need to attack future settling parties because there will be none. The fight for the west was officially ends in victory!
Battle's Total Casualties
Greece - 8,000 (15,000 for the entire war)
Celtia - 2,280 (11,040 for the entire war)