A tall, battle-scarred Thracian with a huge, blood-stained falx came up and slapped his hand on the bar.
"Barkeeper! Get me a beer to wet my throat, for I've a tale to tell!"
He took a swig of beer and launched into his story.
"So, it was three years ago the Macedonians invaded Thrace. We owned Byzantium, you see, and they wanted it for themselves, nice strategic location that it's in, the gateway between the Aegean and Euxine seas. A lot of trade flows through there. The Macedonians thought we'd be a pushover, remembering the days when Alexander subdued us. Ha! But they forgot one thing: Alexander is dead, and we had no intention of bending the knee to Macedon again. We Thracians never start a war, but when a fight is brought to us, we damn well see it through to the finish. So King Pytros sends his son Ziles and his nephew Gaidres to teach the Macs some respect. Ziles was our general, Gaidres his second-in-command.
We didn't think much of Ziles, frankly. Nor did the king, for that matter. He didn't seem to have any particular martial talent, nor was he a promising governor. He spent his days hemorrhaging gold on food, drink, gambling and women. So Pytros sent him to war in the hope of shaping him up. We weren't thrilled with our commander, but we're Thracians so we didn't complain. Whatever he was, he was our general, and we had a war to win."
He took another swig and slammed his tankard on the bar, spilling beer all over the place.
"There were two main Macedonian armies, one big one and one small, that were invading southern Thrace. The small one wasn't a real threat, so as we were the main army of Thrace, we went for the bigger one while the governor of Byzantium, Iptacens, sent a token force to crush the small one. We in Ziles' army marched west from Byzantium and met the Macedonian army on the border. It was under the command of a fellow named Aloeus.
We were about even in infantry, but they had a huge amount of cavalry, which was a worry to us. We had Ziles and Gaidres and their bodyguards, plus three squadrons of militia cavalry. The Macedonians had, in addition to their general's bodyguard, seven cavalry squadrons, all of them light lancers, which were superior to our militia cav. So, if we fought them on an open field, we'd probably have been massacred; they'd have slaughtered our cavalry first and then enveloped our infantry. So we needed to find some terrain we could use to take away their cavalry advantage and even the odds.
We went into the foothills right along the borderline between Macedonia and Thrace, and lured the Macs to us. Ziles' scouts informed him of the perfect spot to do battle, a hilly field with a cluster of giant boulders in the middle. We went and set up there, next to the boulders, which secured our left flank from the Macedonian cavalry. The militia hoplites formed the first line, we falxmen the second."
He took another swig of beer.
"Ziles sent our cavalry to harass the Macs while they were coming up the hill to us. We couldn't see what happened from where we were, because it was on the other side of the boulders, but we heard it from cavalrymen over our drinks the night after the battle. Ziles and all of his cavalry, and I mean all of them, went around the rocks and surprised the Macedonian cavalry, hitting them from the side. Completely shattered three squadrons of them! Ha! In one blow, the Macedonians' cavalry superiority was eliminated. After that, Ziles and his cavalry came back around the rocks to protect our right flank from the rest.
By this time the Mac spearmen had reached our lines of infantry, and hard fighting broke out. Our spearmen and theirs were about equal in numbers, but the Macs had longer spears so they started to break through in a few places. We falxmen then rushed in to plug the holes in the lines, hitting them from the flanks wherever we could. Meanwhile Ziles and his cavalry swung around our right and hit the rest of the Macedonian cavalry before it could encircle us. The militia cavalry also pelted the Mac spearmen with javelins. There was a dangerous moment when one of the Mac cavalry squadrons managed to get past Ziles and hit some of our falxmen from behind, but then our militia cav hit them from behind in turn and put them to rout before they could do too much damage.
That was a fight, I tell you! I'll give it to the Macs, they fought good and hard, gave us a hell of a battle. But none of our men ever broke, and our falxes cut through the Macs' armor like butter, so it was only a matter of time. Eventually the Macs finally started cracking. They only broke one unit at a time, but that was enough. As soon as our spearmen were rid of one enemy unit, they could turn and hit another from the flank, rapidly turning the fight against them. Finally the Macs had had enough and mass-routed, and our cavalry did the rest."
He slapped the bar again and let out a bark of a laugh. "Ha! We put paid to the Macs that day! Never again will they look down on Thracians as pushovers that can easily be conquered. We counted about 200 dead on our side, plus 1,200 Macedonian dead. We had a newfound respect for Ziles, whose tactical skill turned out to far exceed his reputation. We could have been massacred, up against that many horsemen, but Ziles won the battle handily by turning the terrain to our advantage."
He drained the rest of his tankard and slammed it on the bar. "More beer! Fear not, the story isn't over yet!"
"We wanted to go on to the Macedonian capital of Thessalonica then, which was virtually undefended, but just as we were about to head over there, a Thracian spy reported to Ziles that a massive plague had descended upon the city. So we returned to Byzantium instead, to replenish our troops and wait out the plague.
That plague ravaged Thessalonica for a long time, I tell you! We sat there for months in Byzantium, waiting it out. Eventually months turned into years, and that plague just wouldn't end. Meanwhile the Dacians invaded our north, so after two years of sitting on our butts in Byzantium, Ziles decided it was more important to head up there to fight off the Dacians. But we stopped in Tylis along the way, and before we could head further north, wouldn't you know it that we found ourselves under Macedonian attack again! This time the Macs went up via Bylazora, intending to strike right at Tylis in the heart of Thrace, thinking that we were all still down in Byzantium and Tylis would be undefended. Ha! They were in for a surprise."
He downed some more beer before continuing.
"The Mac commander, once again, was Aloeus! Ha! We were surprised to see him again, and we taunted him from the walls with greetings of varying levels of obscenity, but he wasn't pleased to see us. He was seething at his defeat in the south at our hands, and came up hoping to hit us where it hurts. And once again, he had cavalry superiority, but as this was going to be a city battle, that would actually turn out to be a disadvantage for him now.
This time our commander was Byzas, the governor of Tylis. But Ziles was there too, along with Gaidres and a fourth general named Bryzos. We ended up setting up in the square in the center of the city, in front of the palace, because the Macs had so many rams that we couldn't possibly defend the walls without overextending ourselves. We hoped to bottle them up at the two main western entrances to the square, where we could surround them with our hoplites. Once again, the hoplites took the front line, and we falxmen the second.
The Macs came in just like we hoped they would, all along the two main roads from the west. A couple cavalry squadrons tried taking a third road to get around us from behind, but Ziles and Bryzos went over there with their heavy horse and put an end to that plan.
What a slaughter ensued! Oh, I don't mean to say it was easy. The Macs fought hard. In the southwestern entrance to the square, where Aloeus himself was fighting, they actually broke through our lines briefly. But they never really had a chance, confined to a bottleneck and surrounded by our spears and falxes. We had the advantage all the way. Some of our cavalry went around the city to the west and came back up the same roads as the Macs had, trapping them and cutting off their retreat, killing anyone who fled. No one got out alive, not even Aloeus, who was killed by one of our falxmen. Poor bastard nearly got sliced in two; I saw it happen. Never play around with Thracian falxes! Ha!"
He drained his tankard again and slammed it down on the bar in satisfaction.
"That was it for the Macedonians. After those two defeats, their armies are depleted and their cities barely defended. And the latest word is that the plague in Thessalonica has finally abated. But little do the Macs know that their troubles are only just beginning, because Ziles is coming west with all his strength, yours truly included, and this time it will be Macedon that will bend the knee to Thrace!"
[This message has been edited by Kawada Shogo (edited 09-13-2016 @ 06:49 AM).]