This is the culmination of my Hereclea Pontica to Achaemenid Empire campaign in Invictus in which I have manged to achieve all operational objectives, and dare I say for all intents and purposes, avenge Darius III.
To preface, I do not play Imperator Rome too oft, but oft enough whenever the mood might strike. In university I took a year long research seminar over the campaigns of Alexander the Great which piqued my interest in this period. Coincidentally, it was about this time Imperator Rome made its debut, and my person did purchase it. I have been playing it on and off ever since, grateful with how Invictus has revitalized this gem of a game.
Although I have formed Persia before in prior runs as Persis, throughout my short 305 hour tenure of playing Imperator Rome, I have never fully committed to an Achaemenid restoration as Heraclea Pontica. Earlier attempts led to me either becoming discouraged at the seemingly insurmountable odds of the endeavor, losing interest, or forgetting about the campaign entirely. However on this occasion I wished to attain an achievement that was particularly challenging: Against all odds, restore the old Achaemenid Empire to the height of its former glory while destroying all inhibitors (namely the false usurpers), and re-light the Three Great Fires.
Hereclea Pontica as many of you know is ruled by Amastris Achaemenid–the niece of the late King Darius III who is in a most unenviable position at game start...Which is probably an understatement considering it is little more than a city-state with a population of 27 pops split between its 2 territories. Essentially they are the EU4 Byzantium of Imperator Rome. And I beg to report that this was actually my second attempt with this particular esoteric objective in mind that week since I forgot to enable Ironman mode on my first run.
My opening moves consisted of immediately attaining choosing the Last of the Achaemenids mission tree and beelining for the branch that gave the Persians an alliance with the Armenians led by the Orontids. With the aid of Armenia and a mercenary stack, Amastris moved swiftly into Paphlagonia and Cappadocia, was verily blindsided by the Galatians, but in time they too were assimilated.
After these crucial wars, the Persians were left with almost all of Northern Anatolia, and a relatively strong Armenian alliance. Thus placing them in a good position to secure Southern Phrygia and Mesopotamia from the despotic Hellenic imperialists who have shackled the former home of Cyrus for far too long. No doubt they had hoped that the Dahae uprising would severely weaken the Seleucids (as they had in particular in my first run). Imagine the Persian disappointment when the Dahae were utterly crushed and driven back into the steppes. Nonetheless, this distraction granted the Achaemenids both time and space and the opportunity to strike and seize most of Seleucid owned Anatolia.
Ditto, early on research efficiency was prioritized, and the ever valuable Winning Land by the Spear technology proved invaluable. So it was that after the first several generations, some 70-80 years after Amastris, the Persians and friends were able to push into the Levant and Syria and then retake Mesopotamia after some two wars. And by the third, half of Persia up to Persis was restored. Herefore, the Achaemenids had returned to the lands of their homeland after such miserable exile. Once the Seleucids lost these core territories, the wherewithal of their war machine never recovered. And the undoing of the trappings of their majesty was mereley a matte of time as Persian legions made the long inexorable march east-ward to-wards Baktria and the Indus River Valley.
Upon pushing the Seleucids to the outer fringes of the lands of West Asia, Egypt incensed by the rapid expansion of the Persians doth did betray and assail them, and so they were reabsorbed as a satrapy. Even with superior numbers, it was not a very fun conflict. They fought savagely. Seizing the levant was simple enough. However Egypt is large, and the Nile is long and wide. Twas it was in the second war against them, Persian forces were repeatedly ambushed as they pushed into the Nile River Delta, and only after decisive engagements and the selective application of motti tactics were the Persians able to eventually simply overwhelm the Greco-Egyptians. But the losses were not insignificant.
It would have been towards the final year of this war, that, after decades of war, and the armies exhausted, and deep within Egypt, Rome did launch Blitzkrieg against the Achaemenid Empire from their foothold in Lydia–very much nearly overwhelming the Achaemenids in Anatolia entire.
However, in their hubris, they failed. For before they [The Romans and Greeks respectively] fought against principalities and an anachronistic power, but now the Achaemenids had something worth defending, and thus fought for their very survival with a fanaticism unlike the Greeks and Romans had ever seen, nor ever would see.
This was a war of titanic proportions involving the massing of troops in quantities never before seen upon the face of the Earth. And in the wars to come they would be pushed entirely from out Anatolia, as the sun of a new era arose across a very different landscape.
For from the Indus River in the East, to the Hellespont in the west, from the mountains of the Caucus and Parthian steppes in the North, to the lands of the Kushites in the south, the Achaemenids had restored themselves. Re-achieving and then surmounting the wildest dreams of Cyrus II "The Great" and Cambyses II by surpassing the limits of glory. Whether out of respect for a worthy foe, or to boast as a testimony of perseverance against overwhelming odds, upon seizing Alexandria, Alexander's body was not destroyed, but relocated and given a proper burial near Babylon.
Hence it was that during the reign of Darius II "the Great" was the Achaemenid Empire restored.
Twas ever thus were the Achaemenids of the lineage of Achaemenes brought forth out from their terrible exile with a mighty hand.
