The Siege of Tyre

The siege of Tyre was one of the main battles of Epochcraft I's war period. Over the course of the fight a joint Trojan-Nabataean force attempted to take over Tyre, one of the two Phoenician cities in the Levant. Owing to their numerical superiority and higher quantities of armor and weapons in their stock, the invaders ultimately succeeded in capturing the settlement.

## Background

Even before the war Phoenicia and Troy clashed frequently, the worst of the skirmishes being an attempted Tojan raid on Byblos. Most of the playerbase recognized that the two sides were going to settle their difference on the field of battle and, as such, it didn't come as a shock when war finally broke out between the two.

The Nabataeans, on the other hand, were something of a dark horse. Until the very last days before the war nobody knew who the faction would side with. Ultimately they chose to align themselves with the Trojans, which caused a lot of ~~butthurt~~ shock as the pariah kingdom of Troy was the target of a major coalition. Some say that the Nabataeans picked such an unlikely ally due to their innate contrarianism. Regardless of what led to that decision, the battle lines were now drawn.

## The battle

Prior to the actual siege the Phoenician army attempted to launch an attack on Petra, the capital of Nabataea. The operation ended in disaster for the Phoenicians - as they tried to breach the walls, a Trojan force showed up and attacked them in the rear while the Nabataeans pushed out from their battlements. With the invaders routed, the Trojan-Nabataean alliance turned its gaze to the nearby city of Tyre.

   Upon arriving at the walls of Tyre, the allied forces made the wise choice to assail the southern part of the city wall, which was, at most, 8 blocks high and could be scaled easily. The siege began with an exchange of arrows between the defending Phoenicians and the Trojan-Nabataean force. Slowly but surely the numerically superior invading army made its way towards the modest southern wall. The garrison of Tyre tried to delay their opponents by sending out small raiding parties with the sole purpose of breaking flags but such tactics only delayed the inevitable.

Soon the attackers scaled the southern segment of the wall and broke into Tyre itself, which lacked any sort of inner fortifications. As one group of the Trojan-Nabataean force moved along the wall, claiming more and more of it for themselves, another group pushed towards the home chunk. By this point the Phoenicians had already begun to run out of supplies, making it very difficult for them to stop the heavily armed and armoured invaders.

In a desperate attempt to turn the tides, the Phoenicians started to send out raiding parties in boats. These soldiers were supposed to go along the coast, land behind enemy lines, run up to the flags and break them. Unfortunately for the now depleted garrison of Tyre, such attacks didn't reverse their fortunes. Soon, the invaders surrounded the core building with the home chunk inside of it.

A race ensued as the remaining Phoenicians tried to get rid of what little supplies they had left while the attacking forces attempted to take the building and capture the meager loot. In the end the Trojan-Nabataean alliance got very little in terms of bounty from capturing Tyre. However, the city itself did fall and the Phoenician forces prepared to defend Byblos, their last stronghold in the area.

## Aftermath

The invaders were expected to launch an attack on the remaining Phoenician city. Interestingly, they never did. Satisfied with taking over one of the two enemy settlements, the Trojan-Nabataean alliance decided to call it a day, especially as the Nabataeans soon had other issues to worry about. The army of Babylon had just arrived at the walls of Petra and begun an assault at the city.