H24

Winter passed in a flurry of activity. There was much to do to prepare for a Spring Campaign and little time to do it in. Scouts had to be sent out to listen for reports of enemy troop numbers, supplies had to be gathered, men had to be drilled, and messages had to be sent. With the mountain passes impassible until spring, the majority of those messages were between myself and Alexander V. The Young King had some twelve thousand men at Pella that he was attempting to drill into a proper army with the aid of some old veterans, largely men who had served Antipater and Cassander in the wars after Alexandros Megas' Death and who had since retired to a plot of land near Pella to farm in peace. The drilling was slow going. Many of the best men, who already had military training, had already been levied by Demetrios prior to Alexander's bid for independence, and my cousin was left with men who had not undergone much in the way of formal training to levy. 

Of course, I took solace in the fact that the reinforcements that had been levied for Demetrios were similarly green. It seemed that Antigonos had managed to rally some further thirteen thousand reinforcements for Demetrios' army of twenty-seven thousand men, bringing Demetrios' numbers up to an even forty thousand men. Those thirteen thousand reinforcements were also green recruits, however, and they required a similar amount of training to Alexander's army. Such a large number of troops required a larger city than Morrylos to supply, and Demetrios seems to have moved his winter quarters to Amydon at the last possible moment.

Unfortunately, it would take less time for Demetrios to cross the Axios and put Pella to siege than it would take my army to march to Pella from Dion. Simple geography meant that it was possible that Alexander V would be defeated before I could arrive to save him should Demetrios decide to take the city by assault rather than commit to a siege. He certainly had the requisite numbers, having over three times Alexander's. It all depended on how the first few weeks of the spring campaign shook out. It was unfortunate that I had no way to influence those crucial weeks.

Of course, that is likely what would have occurred, had I not received a message by courier from a source I was not expecting. Porphyrios and the Fleet had braved the autumn and winter Aegean Storms to return to action and had docked at Heraklios sometime in late January. They carried with them a contingent of six thousand men from the Garrisons in Thessaly and two thousand marines. Ordinarily, that would be a laughable number of troops to attempt any form of land campaign in Macedon with, but not now, when every city had already given what trained men they had on hand over to the various armies. In the current situation, eight thousand men in the right place might make all the difference in the world. I wrote back telling Porphyrion to sail north to the mouth of the river Lydias in the Thermaic Gulf and to disembark his marines and reinforcements there. They were to march north with as much haste as possible to Pella and reinforce Alexander V. 

With Pella reinforced up to twenty thousand men, Demetrios would have to settle into a siege as it would cut his numbers advantage down to just twice as many men as Alexander V. That wasn't a sufficient numerical advantage to storm a fortified, garrisoned, city like Pella. With the fleet cutting down travel time, the reinforcements should arrive just before Demetrios' army, if my scouts were correct. That would buy me the week I needed to make up the rest of the distance to Pella.

By the time March rolled around and the snows began to melt, I had a solid plan ready to go. I drew up my army and we marched north, beginning our spring campaign. From Dion, we marched north to Pydna, which had been so thoroughly stripped of trained men that the only parts of the garrison that remained that weren't green recruits were the Phryctoria Guards. Their captain, a man named Kleon, had been a peltast of Alexandros Megas' army and had survived four wars between Diodochi before obtaining his current position. Now forty-five years of age, Kleon knew that Pydna had no hope of holding out with just fifteen hundred trained men and surrendered the city to me as soon as my army arrived at its gates. 

A quick detour had us marching west to secure Phylakai, whose garrison had been entirely commandeered by Demetrios on his march south into Thessaly and they had not returned since. The priest of the Temple of Hermes in the mountains was the one who surrendered the town to my army, having done so in assurance that we would not ransack the city of valuables. I agreed easily and we stopped for the night before resuming our march.

From Phylakai, we marched northeast to Methone, once this was a thriving city until it was destroyed by Phillip II for the crime of allying with Athens. Now it was a small town, barely more than an oversized village, quarrying the ruins of its illustrious predecessor for stone to build with. Their Archon was a wizened old man in his sixties named Orestes, who looked like he may actually have been born before Phillip II tore down the original Methone given his age. They had only a few hundred trained men to resist my army and Orestes was wise enough to know they could not win. He surrendered Methone on our arrival. 

A similar story was had at Aigiai, where only two-thousand men of the garrison remained with any amount of training. The city was surrendered after a token skirmish with my outriders that saw maybe a hundred men killed or wounded on both sides in total. It was just enough for their honor to be satisfied and their commander, a man named Scylax who had taken a blow from a Treverii mace in the skirmish that had crumpled his helmet and left him bleeding from the forehead, surrendered the city in good humor.

On a hunch, I sent a detached column of twelve thousand men west to see if the other cities of the region were likewise denuded of men I waited for a few days before a courier arrived with word that the city of Beroia likewise had but a few thousand men remaining in their garrison and had surrendered. That was all the confirmation I needed to send the courier back to the detached force with orders to effect the surrender of the remaining cities until significant resistance was met as I continued north with twenty thousand men.

A week into April, our army was across the Haliakmon River in the Macedonian province of Emathia, having secured the crossing at the city of Aloros without a fight. Three days later, we were across the Lydias to the northeast and heading straight north for Pella. At our current rate of march, we would arrive in Pella in another five days to break Demetrios' siege. Unfortunately, it seemed that Demetrios was not content to just wait for us to arrive. A day into our march north, Bolgios' Treverii horsemen returned from scouting the road to Pella to inform us that an army of twenty thousand was marching down the road straight for us, bearing Demetrios' personal banner. With the detached force, my numbers had been whittled down from thirty-two thousand to twenty thousand. Demetrios and I had equal numbers for the first time in the campaign.

Two days later and our forces drew up against each other on the road south of Pella, near the City of Allante, ready to do battle. The fate of the entire campaign hinged on this battle, should I be defeated, Demetrios would be free to swing around and crush Alexander V, currently besieged in Pella. Should Demetrios be defeated, the way to Pella would be open, and whatever blocking force he had left in Pella to keep Alexander V bottled up would be crushed between our forces. As the lines formed up and Demetrios' men began to advance against mine, I saw his banner placed in the center of his phalangites, opposite my own position.

As the battle began, I had a suspicion that one of us would not leave the field intact. . .

XXXX

AN: Yeah, so Demetrios pulled most of the Garrisons from western and southern Macedonia to his army that he used to smash the Aitolian League at Cynocephalae. Now the cities there are feeling the lack of trained men for their garrisons. Accordingly, none of those cities has more than two or three thousand trained men left. Some are down to only five hundred.

That isn't to say they don't have the manpower to replace those forces, just that that manpower is in the form of raw recruits that are as green as grass. That isn't something you send against a veteran force and expect to win, though. 

Taking advantage of that has turned out to be something of a double-edged sword for Pyrrhus. On the one hand, he secured more territory, on the other, he had to detach enough forces to do so, and now that Demetrios has marched south with half his army, it means he no longer has the numbers advantage.

At any rate, next up will be the battle of Allante. Stay tuned. . .