Dividing the Spoils - Tournament 1: Concluded

[kronenblatt]

... His chamberlains put him to bed and attended him closely, but the pain increased and the physicians were summoned. No one was able to do anything helpful and Alexander continued in great discomfort and acute suffering. When he, at length, despaired of life, he took off his ring and handed it to Perdiccas. His Friends asked: "To whom do you leave the kingdom?" and he replied: "To the strongest." He added, and these were his last words, that all of his leading Friends would stage a vast contest in honour of his funeral. This was how he died after a reign of twelve years and seven months. He accomplished greater deeds than any, not only of the kings who had lived before him but also of those who were to come later down to our time...

... For Perdiccas, viewing with suspicion Ptolemy's increase in power, decided that he himself and the kings would make a campaign against Egypt with most of the army, but Eumenes he sent to the Hellespont to prevent Antipater and Craterus from crossing into Asia...

... Consequently about a hundred of the commanders were the first to revolt from him, of whom the most illustrious was Pithon, who had suppressed the rebellious Greeks, a man second to none of the Companions of Alexander in courage and reputation; next, some also of the cavalry conspired together and went to the tent of Perdiccas, where they fell on him in a body and stabbed him to death...

... The Macedonians elected Antipater guardian with full power. When Antipater arrived at Triparadeisus a few days later [...], he distributed the satrapies anew. To Ptolemy he assigned what was already his, for it was impossible to displace him, since he seemed to be holding Egypt by virtue of his own prowess as if it were a prize of war. He gave Syria to Laomedon of Mitylenê and Cilicia to Philoxenus. Of the upper satrapies Mesopotamia and Arbelitis were given to Amphimachus, Babylonia to Seleucus, Susianê to Antigenes because he had been foremost in making the attack on Perdiccas, Persia to Peucestes, Carmania to Tlepolemus, Media to Pithon, Parthia to Philip, Aria and Drangenê to Stasander of Cyprus, Bactrianê and Sogdianê to Stasanor of Soli, who was from that same island. He added Paropanisadae to the domain of Oxyartes, father of Alexander's wife Roxanê, and the part of India bordering on Paropanisadae to Pithon son of Agenor. Of the two neighbouring kingdoms, the one along the Indus River was assigned to Porus and that along the Hydaspes to Taxiles, for it was not possible to remove these kings without employing a royal army and an outstanding general. Of the satrapies that face the north, Cappadocia was assigned to Nicanor, Great Phrygia and Lycia to Antigonus as before, Caria to Asander, Lydia to Cleitus, and Hellespontine Phrygia to Arrhidaeus. As general of the royal army he appointed Antigonus, assigning him the task of finishing the war against Eumenes and Alcetas; but he attached his own son Cassander to Antigonus as chiliarch...

(by Diodorus)

The Dividing the Spoils tournament takes off immediately after the partition of satrapies at Triparadeisus in 321 BC, only a few years after the death of Alexander the Great and Perdiccas' original partition at Babylon, and immediately following the fall and murder of Perdiccas in Egypt while warring unsuccessfully against Ptolemy. Alexander, lying on his deathbed, left his empire to "the strongest", which was interpreted very differently among his generals, in particular the eight below...!

The lineup for DiSp: Dividing the Spoils - Tournament 1

1. Karvon.
2. TomoeGozen.
3. rbodleyscott.
4. batesmotel.
5. deeter.
6. Blagrot.
7. Aetius39.
8. kronenblatt.

It started off like this:

DividingTheSpoilsTournament1.png (158.57 KiB) Viewed 10405 times

And ended like this (what happened in the west during all this time; I thought "All Quiet on the Western Front" was about World War 1):



with the coalition of rbodleyscott (7 satrapies) and kronenblatt (6 satrapies) together controlling 13 satrapies, bringing a conclusion to this long-lived tournament (7 rounds) and:

Rikhardos Bodlos Skothos Nikator in 314 BC being the victor and true heir of Megas Alexandros!

[kronenblatt]

Overview

• Each player represents one of Alexander the Great's generals and one of the Diadochi, having been assigned one or more of the 24 satrapies after the death of Alexander.

• The winner of the tournament is the player who controls the most satrapies upon the end of the tournament.

• A player who doesn’t control any satrapies has lost and is eliminated from the tournament.

• The tournament ends as soon as one of the following conditions is fulfilled (whichever is the earlier):
  1. one player or a coalition of players together controls a majority (13 or more) of the satrapies, or
  2. the C-in-C of all players have died (at least once) in battle, at which time the age of the Diadochi (the generals personally knowing and fighting with and for Alexander) is deemed to be over.

• Notwithstanding the above, the tournament will always continue until one of the players control more satrapies than all the others and there thus is only one winner.

Technical specifications and preparations

• Download the Dividing the Spoils mod with all army lists (to be selected under Select another module button when setting up challenge for battle).

• To download, apply the following steps:
  1. Click on the Download community scenarios button at the top of the main screen of the game.
  2. Select Dividing the Spoils MP Custom Battles v3. (note: should be version 3: v3) (currently near the bottom of the list)
  3. Click on Download the Selected Campaign.
  4. The mod will then be automatically saved into the the My Games\FieldOfGlory2\MULTIPLAYER\ folder, within the MP_DIVIDING_SPOILS_V3 folder..

• Please note that a player must own the Immortal Fire DLC in order to take part in the tournament.

Army lists

• All players use the army lists of the Dividing the Spoils mod, with one army list for each satrapy and with a number of vanilla army lists representing allies.

• If defending a satrapy, only the army of that satrapy can be selected for the battle.
  • He/she can still select any allies available to him/her through controlling certain satrapies (the attacked satrapy or any other satrapy he/she controls), provided always that there is an uninterrupted route through friendly satrapies (his/her own or any of his/her coalition partners') between the satrapy of the selected ally and the satrapy being attacked.
  • Example: a player controlling Phrygia and Kappadokia must in his/her defence of Phrygia select the army of Phrygia but can decide to use allies available from either Phrygia or Kappadokia, i.e., Greek 460-281 or Georgian 331 BC - 252 AD allies (or no allies at all of course).

• An attacking player and an aiding coalition partner can for their respective battles select any army (and available allies) from his/her own controlled satrapies (but not from a satrapy controlled by the coalition partner), again provided always that there is an uninterrupted route through friendly satrapies (his/her own or any of his/her coalition partners') between the satrapy of the selected army or ally, as applicable, and the satrapy being attacked.
  • Example: a player controlling Phrygia and Kappadokia can in his/her attack of any satrapy decide to select the army of Phrygia with Georgian 331 BC - 252 AD allies, if there is an uninterrupted route between both of Phrygia and Kappadokia and the attacked satrapy.

Units

• All units within an army list are freely available to deploy (other than the standard in-game limitations on numbers, etc.).

Allies

• Allies may only be selected by players controlling certain satrapies:
  • Only the controller of Makedonia (1) may choose Illyrian 680 BC - 25 AD as allies.
  • Only the controllers of Makedonia (1) or Phrygia (3) may choose Greek 460-281 BC as allies.
  • Only the controller of Thrake (2) may choose Thracian (Triballi) 350 BC-46 AD as allies.
  • Only the controllers of Kappadokia (4), Armenia (8), or Atropatene (11) may choose Georgian 331 BC - 252 AD as allies.
  • Only the controller of Aigyptos (6) may choose Libyan 549-301 BC or Kyrenean Greek 321-276 BC as allies.
  • Only the controllers of Aigyptos (6), Syria (7), or Mesopotamia (9) may choose Arab 312 BC - 299 AD as allies.
  • Only the controllers of Hyrkania (13), Baktriane (17), or Sogdiane (22) may choose Skythian or Saka 550-301 BC as allies.
  • Only the controllers of Paropamisadai (23) or Indike (24) may choose Indian 500 BC - 319 AD as allies.

• In these cases, it is always up to the player whether allies are in fact selected or not, and the player makes this decision for each individual battle.

Rounds

• A round is represents one year, with the first year being 320 BC.

• Each round consists of the following three phases:
  1. Attack declarations: All players announce, one by one in the order as specified below, which attack that they will make plus make any coalition announcements.
  • The decreasing order in which in which attacks are announced in a round are determined by each player's (maximum, if the player's having fought more than one battle) inflicted casualties (as represented by routing percentage in upper-left corner at end of battle) from battles in the previous round (i.e., the player with the highest inflicted casualties announcing first, and so on).
  • For the purposes of determining the order, the order of all partners within a coalition vis-a-vis all the other players in the tournament is based on the partner within the coalition with the highest level of inflicted casualties from battles in the previous round, and the order within the coalition is determined by each coalition partner's maximum level of inflicted casualties from battles in the previous round.
  • Example: In a four-player tournament, three players are coalition partners with 60%, 1%, and 40% in inflicted casualties, respectively, in the previous round, and with the fourth player having 59%. The value of the best coalition partner (i.e., 60%) is used for all partners within the coalition, making all three of them first in order vis-a-vis the fourth player ("only" 59%) but the order within the coalition uses their respective individual values; thus the following order is applied for the round: 60%, 40%, 1% (all three within the coalition using 60%) and last the player with 59%.
  2. Battle resolutions: All battles will be simultaneously played and completed in FoG2 during a period of three weeks.
  3. Satrapy control changes: The victors (if any) of the battles take control over the losers' satrapies-at-stake.

Attacks

• As mentioned above, each round requires a player (the "attacker") to announce an attack on another neighbouring player (the "defender").
  • The attack announcement is made in a post in the tournament's thread on the forum.
  • Please note though that within a coalition, one of the coalition partners will not be able to make an attack announcement in a given round (see Coalitions below).

• The attacker specifies from which one of his/her satrapies that the attack takes place and which neighbouring satrapy controlled by the defender that is attacked (the "attacked satrapy").
  • Neither of these two satrapies must be already included as a satrapy-at-stake in another player's attack this round.

• These two satrapies are then considered "satrapies-at-stake" for that particular attack.

• Definition of "neighbouring satrapies"
  • Every satrapy with a land border to another satrapy is considered a “neighbouring satrapy” to that other satrapy.
  • In addition, Thrake and Phrygia are considered neighbouring satrapies.

• Example on how to express an attack announcement
  kronenblatt attacks rs2excelsior, using the army of Makedonia and Greek 460-281 BC allies, calling Aetius39 for aid.
  Attacker stakes: Thrake.
  Defender stakes: Phrygia.

Battles

• The attack then takes the form of a Custom Battle - Open Battle with Large (1600 FP) force size, Wide (40x32) map size, and map type and terrain of the attacked satrapy (as indicated on the map).

• Map re-rolls can be made one or several times, if both players agree.

• The defender creates the challenge in the FoG2 Multiplayer Lobby (always password: DiSp) and always with defender as Side B (in order for the other player to immediately be able to deploy and make first round when accepting the challenge).
  • Please note that the Dividing the Spoils module (MP_DIVIDING_SPOILS_V2) needs to be selected and launched under Select another module when creating the challenge.
  • When the challenge has been created, the defender, for information, sends PM to attacker and posts in tournament thread.

• If a coalition partner aids in an attack, that player will play a separate battle against the defending player in the same attacked satrapy, but does not stake any additional satrapies.
  • The defender creates that challenge too, as per and in accordance with the setup above.

• Battle outcome, once resolved, is posted by the defender (along with combatants' casualties inflicted and whether any C-in-C has been killed) through posting in the tournament thread.

Effects of battle outcome

• The player routing the enemy is considered the victor of that battle, and the routed player considered the loser of that battle.

• If neither player routs the enemy, neither player is considered winner or loser for that battle.

• Players can agree to a draw before battle or at any time during battle, in which case neither player is considered winner or loser for that battle.

• The victor of the battle takes control over the loser's satrapy-at-stake, unless one or more coalition partners have aided in the attack.

• If one or more coalition partners have aided in the attack, the following applies:
  • For the defending player to retain his satrapy-at-stake, he/she must not be the loser in any of the battles (over that satrapy-at-stake) against the attacking player and his aiding coalition partners.
  • For the defending player to gain the attacker's satrapy-at-stake, he/she must be the victor in all of the battles (over that satrapy-at-stake) against the attacking player and his aiding coalition partners.
  • If the defending player loses his satrapy-at-stake, one of the victors of the battles (over that satrapy-at-stake) will gain that satrapy-at-stake, provided always that the victor already neighbours the defender's satrapy-at-stake (this in order to maintain one connected area of controlled satrapies).
  • If more than one victor are eligible to gain the satrapy-at-stake, the attacking player decides which victor will gain that satrapy-at-stake.

Coalitions

• Two or more players can be part of a coalition ("coalition partners").

• A new coalition is formed if at least two players explicitly agree upon it through announcement, such announcement to be made as part of their attack declarations or at any time during the round's attack declaration phase, in both cases through posting in the tournament thread.

• Entering into and abandoning a coalition becomes effective the round after the announcement has been made by all applicable players.

• Players can enter an existing coalition only if all current coalition members explicitly agree to it through announcement.

• A player can unilaterally abandon a coalition at his/her own choice.

• Coalition partners cannot attack each other.

• A player can be part of maximum one coalition.

• A player can cede any of his satrapies to a coalition partner at the end of a round, provided that:
  • both players announce it as part of their attack declarations or at any time during the round's attack declaration phase, in both cases through posting in the tournament thread.
  • at the end of the round, the satrapy to be ceded is neighbouring any of receiving player's current satrapies and is controlled by the player giving the satrapy away.

• The partners in a coalition can during any given round in total only make as many attacks as the number of partners in that coalition minus one.
  • As a result, one of the coalition partners will not be able to make an attack announcement in any given round.
  • Example: If there are three partners in a coalition, only two of them can announce attacks that round.
  • Thus, the coalition partners may need to agree between themselves who will get the opportunity to attack in a round, or the coalition partner last in order may simply not be able to make an attack announcement if the other coalition partners before him already have announced attacks (he may still be called upon for aid and accept or reject it though).

• A player in a coalition can (but doesn't have to) call for aid from one or more coalition partners (provided that a coalition partner called upon must have an uninterrupted route through friendly satrapies (his/her own or coalition partners') from his/her own satrapies to the attacked satrapy, but independent of whether a coalition partner has made or will make an attack declaration of his own) as part of his attack declaration.
  • The coalition partner called upon can then decide whether to aid in the attack or not.
    • Aiding consent requires an explicit announcement, and lack of announcement is considered an aiding refusal.
  • If a coalition partner aids in an attack, that player will play a separate battle against the defending player in the same attacked satrapy, but does not stake any additional satrapies.
    • If he/she neighbours the attacked satrapy already upon the time of the attack announcement and is the victor of his battle, he/she has a chance of actually gaining that satrapy-at-stake (see Effects of battle outcome above).

• The advantage of a coalition is that its partners together become stronger and can assist each other in attacks, especially when it comes to resisting a player having grown too strong (like Seleucus, Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Cassander joined against Antigonus). However, the disadvantage is that attack opportunities are limited (especially for the weaker coalition partners) and that the coalition risks being dominated by the strongest partner, using the other partners for his/her own purposes. So sooner or later (probably rather too soon than too late) a coalition should be abandoned, because otherwise one of the partners may have been "helped" by the others to win the tournament with themselves as ultimate losers.

[kronenblatt]

Round 1 (320 BC)

Order of attack announcements (first round is order of signing up to tournament, thereafter it will be determined as per the rules in second post of this thread)

1. Karvon (Sep. 12)
2. TomoeGozen (Sep. 13)
3. rbodleyscott (Sep. 14)
4. batesmotel (Sep. 15)
5. deeter (Sep. 16)
6. Blagrot (Sep. 17)
7. Aetius39 (Sep. 18)
8. kronenblatt (Sep. 19)

Once attack announcements have been made, battles are resolved simultaneously during a three-week period of Sep. 20 - Oct. 11 (see Battles in the rules).
(If all battles have been resolved before that, round 2 may commence earlier, but plan for first order of attack announcements on Oct. 13).

Please note that:

• Date (midnight CET+1 (Pella) time) above indicates deadline, after which opportunity to announce attack is forfeited and the player next in line may announce attack.

• Once a player above has announced an attack, then player next in line is free to announce attack, up to his/her deadline.

• Satrapies already included as a satrapy-at-stake in another player's attack this round may neither be attacked nor attacked from nor constitute a satrapy-at-stake in the attack in question.

Example on how to express an attack announcement
kronenblatt attacks rs2excelsior, using the army of Makedonia and Greek 460-281 BC allies, calling Aetius39 for aid.
Attacker stakes: Thrake.
Defender stakes: Phrygia.

[Karvon]

Round 1

Karvon attacks Aetius39, using the army of Aigyptos and Arab 312 BC allies
Attacker stakes: Syria
Defender stakes: Mesopotamia

[TomoeGozen]

Round 1

TomoeGozen attacks Kronenblatt, using the army of Hyrkania with Skythian allies.
Attacker stakes: Baktriane
Defender stakes: Sogdiane

(I hope I've got that right...)

[Karvon]

A suggestion for Army size modification

Default battles now are 1600 pts. Why not allow variance based on the size of your faction with a modifier for the number of provinces at stake?

Base army size 1450 pts plus (50 per province less (defensive provinces at stake -1))

Example 1:

Starting situation 3 provinces attacking 3 provinces defending no additional attacks against defending faction.

1450+150 vs 1450+150 a standard 1600 pt battle.

Example 2:

3 provinces attacking vs 3 provinces defending but facing attack for a second faction.

1450+150 vs 1450+100 1600 vs 1550 pt battle.

Example 3:

6 provinces attacking plus facing attacks from 2 other factions vs 3 provinces defending plus facing attack from second faction

1450+200 vs 1450+100 1650 vs 1550 pt battle.

I choose a 50 pt modifier, that could be made smaller or larger, depending on people's feelings on varying force size. It just seems to me that larger factions should have a some advantage over a smaller one. However, if the modifer is too large, it would make battles too one sided and less interesting.

Karvon

[kronenblatt]

Round 1

TomoeGozen attacks Kronenblatt, using the army of Hyrkania with Skythian allies.
Attacker stakes: Baktriane
Defender stakes: Sogdiane

(I hope I've got that right...)

Yep, you did! (Only thing you got wrong was that you attacked ME... ) So a steppe battle in Sogdiane... I may also bring Skythian allies... Or maybe Indian. We'll see.

[kronenblatt]

A suggestion for Army size modification

Default battles now are 1600 pts. Why not allow variance based on the size of your faction with a modifier for the number of provinces at stake?

Base army size 1450 pts plus (50 per province less (defensive provinces at stake -1))

Example 1:

Starting situation 3 provinces attacking 3 provinces defending no additional attacks against defending faction.

1450+150 vs 1450+150 a standard 1600 pt battle.

Example 2:

3 provinces attacking vs 3 provinces defending but facing attack for a second faction.

1450+150 vs 1450+100 1600 vs 1550 pt battle.

Example 3:

6 provinces attacking plus facing attacks from 2 other factions vs 3 provinces defending plus facing attack from second faction

1450+200 vs 1450+100 1650 vs 1550 pt battle.

I choose a 50 pt modifier, that could be made smaller or larger, depending on people's feelings on varying force size. It just seems to me that larger factions should have a some advantage over a smaller one. However, if the modifer is too large, it would make battles too one sided and less interesting.

Karvon

Thanks for ideas, Karvon. I've already had a similar suggestion in the other tournament (TYME), however I think it's too complicated, and there's already enough rules. Plus that larger factions most likely already have an advantage in that they managed to get large (i.e., they're really good at FoG2), and that the more satrapies you have when attacking, the more flexibility you have which army from which of your satrapies to bring to battle. So to sum up: I'm not in favour of FP differentials (only in SP versus AI...).

[rbodleyscott]

Apologies for the delay in declaring challenge. One thing I am not clear on, can one declare war on someone who is already involved in a war this round? If so, presumably you cannot attack a province that already at stake in another battle this round?

[kronenblatt]

Apologies for the delay in declaring challenge.

No probs, Richard.

Can one declare war on someone who is already involved in a war this round?

Yes, given the requirement you present below i.e., both the satrapy that you attack from and the satrapy that you attack into must not be at stake already this round.

If so, presumably you cannot attack a province that already at stake in another battle this round?

Correct. And as mentioned above, you cannot attack from your own satrapy if that satrapy of yours is already at stake this round (because another Diadochus player has already attacked it this round).

(Example: since treacherous TomoeGozen has attacked my Sogdiane from his Baktriane, both these satrapies are now at stake, so you cannot attack Baktriane this round. But you are free to attack Areia from either Drangiane or Arakhosia (please do!). And if you decide to attack from Arakhosia, that satrapy is now at stake this round, and I cannot attack Arakhosia once it's my turn (not that I would ever do that...). Should you instead decide to attack my Indike from your Arakhosia, you have effectively prevented me from making any attacks, since my only satrapy not at stake and from where I could attack would then be Paropamisadai, which borders only Arakhosia and Baktriane, both satrapies already at stake this round.)

Does this answer your questions?

[rbodleyscott]

Apologies for the delay in declaring challenge.

No probs, Richard.

Can one declare war on someone who is already involved in a war this round?

Yes, given the requirement you present below i.e., both the satrapy that you attack from and the satrapy that you attack into must not be at stake already this round.

If so, presumably you cannot attack a province that already at stake in another battle this round?

Correct. And as mentioned above, you cannot attack from your own satrapy if that satrapy of yours is already at stake this round (because another Diadochus player has already attacked it this round).

(Example: since treacherous TomoeGozen has attacked my Sogdiane from his Baktriane, both these satrapies are now at stake, so you cannot attack Baktriane this round. But you are free to attack Areia from either Drangiane or Arakhosia (please do!). And if you decide to attack from Arakhosia, that satrapy is now at stake this round, and I cannot attack Arakhosia once it's my turn (not that I would ever do that...). Should you instead decide to attack my Indike from your Arakhosia, you have effectively prevented me from making any attacks, since my only satrapy not at stake and from where I could attack would then be Paropamisadai, which borders only Arakhosia and Baktriane, both satrapies already at stake this round.)

Does this answer your questions?

Yes indeed, and by a strange coincidence I am indeed attacking Indike but from Gedrosia, so you will be able to return the compliment if you so desire.

[kronenblatt]

Apologies for the delay in declaring challenge.

No probs, Richard.

Can one declare war on someone who is already involved in a war this round?

Yes, given the requirement you present below i.e., both the satrapy that you attack from and the satrapy that you attack into must not be at stake already this round.

If so, presumably you cannot attack a province that already at stake in another battle this round?

Correct. And as mentioned above, you cannot attack from your own satrapy if that satrapy of yours is already at stake this round (because another Diadochus player has already attacked it this round).

(Example: since treacherous TomoeGozen has attacked my Sogdiane from his Baktriane, both these satrapies are now at stake, so you cannot attack Baktriane this round. But you are free to attack Areia from either Drangiane or Arakhosia (please do!). And if you decide to attack from Arakhosia, that satrapy is now at stake this round, and I cannot attack Arakhosia once it's my turn (not that I would ever do that...). Should you instead decide to attack my Indike from your Arakhosia, you have effectively prevented me from making any attacks, since my only satrapy not at stake and from where I could attack would then be Paropamisadai, which borders only Arakhosia and Baktriane, both satrapies already at stake this round.)

Does this answer your questions?

Yes indeed, and by a strange coincidence I am indeed attacking Indike but from Gedrosia, so you will be able to return the compliment if you so desire.

Ok, great: so please make a formal attack declaration, specifying e.g which satrapy army you will be using.

[rbodleyscott]

Ok, great: so please make a formal attack declaration, specifying e.g which satrapy army you will be using.

Ah, I had not realised I did not have to use the army of the province I was staking.

That being the case I will rather churlishly change my challenge to:

Round 1

rbodleyscott attacks kronenblatt, using the army of Gedrosia.
Attacker stakes: Arachosia
Defender stakes: Indike

[kronenblatt]

Ah, I had not realised I did not have to use the army of the province I was staking.

Yes, the attacker can freely choose which satrapy's army to use, whereas the defender must use the army of the satrapy being attacked. Both can add allies, if available (that is, if they control the satrapy providing that ally army list).

That being the case I will rather churlishly change my challenge to:

Round 1

rbodleyscott attacks kronenblatt, using the army of Gedrosia.
Attacker stakes: Arachosia
Defender stakes: Indike

You...

[batesmotel]

Round 1

batesmotel attacks TomoeGozen, using the army of Persis.
Attacker stakes: Karmania
Defender stakes: Hyrkania

Chris

[TomoeGozen]

I assume I still use the Hyrkanian army even though (at least some of) it has gone off to Sogdiane? Can I use my Skythian allies as well (they have also gone off to Sogdiane) ?

Thanks
Dave.

[kronenblatt]

I assume I still use the Hyrkanian army even though (at least some of) it has gone off to Sogdiane?

Yes: you always have to use the army of the satrapy you're defending.

Can I use my Skythian allies as well (they have also gone off to Sogdiane)

Yes: since the satrapy being attacked is the same as the satrapy of your selected ally. (Has to be an uninterrupted route through friendly satrapies (his/her own or any of his/her coalition partners') between the satrapy of the selected ally and the satrapy being attacked.)

[TomoeGozen]

Great thanks

They will be exhausted....

[Aetius39]

First of all, great job getting this together!

Second, this might be somewhere but I can't find it, so asking this: does the attacker lose their province if they are defeated by the defenders, or just the defender keeps their province and only attackers gain?

Thanks!
Aetius

[Karvon]

The defender gains the attacker's province if he wins. If attacked by a coalition, he would have to win all related battles to do so.