Americans arrived in the Attica region in the Summer of 5 A.E, from the beginning there was bloodshed. Dale Sampson led a few dozen of his friends and family into the region, landing not far from the settlement of Afidnes. The group quickly took over a collection of small coastal villages and set themselves up as the new rulers of the area. Sampson expected the local Wanax to try and take the villages back, only to quickly surrender to the Americans once the overwhelming power of their guns became apparent, unfortunately for Sampson the local nobles were far more determined and clever than he expected. The local Wanax allied with a few other kingdoms, including Athens, together they launched raid after raid on Sampson's towns. Exhausting Sampson's forces and depleting his supply of ammo. The raids, combined with poisoned well water and assassination attempts, forced Sampson to retreat.
This would become a pattern for a few months, a group of Americans would land and almost immediately they'd be attacked by the local Achaeans, killed or forced to retreat, but it couldn't last. Every American killed came at the cost of dozens of Achaean warriors, who were not easily replaced. Fears of American invasion began to be overtaken by fears of decimated warrior-noble class, or worse, becoming weaker than their rivals. The brief moment of unity in Attica would be shattered when the Wanax of Gla made an alliance with the Sampson-Dixon group (Sampson having made an alliance with Edward Dixon, a former regional manager for a hardware company) in late 5 A.E.
Most of 6 A.E and into early 7 A.E would see most of what would have been central Greece dominated by warfare between independent Achaean kingdoms, American-allied kingdoms and new American arrivals. It was a confusing and chaotic time as alliances were formed and almost as quickly dissolving. New arrivals would often attack the nearest fortified settlement, not realizing the kingdom had already made an alliance with an American expedition until they came under small arms fire.
Unlike Mycenae, most of the Expeditions in central Greece were, on average, motivated far less by ideology and far more by dreams of conquest and glory, with many picturing themselves as another Rachel Wilson, conquering a mighty empire for themselves. Notably a few left wing expeditions found themselves attacked by other Americans, with the survivors being forced to flee south towards Mycenae or sailing back east, with most ending up in Lesbos.
The relatively straightforward nature of the American's ambition and their limited numbers and supplies, made it relatively easy for the average Wanax to negotiate with the Americans despite the chaotic warfare that was engulfing the area. Most Wanaxes realized it was relatively easy to make peace with an American expedition by promising them some power within their kingdom, usually secured by having one of the leaders of the Expedition marry into the family of the Wanax, usually by having them marry their son or daughter, or by having one of the sons or daughters of the Expedition's leadership marry a child of the Wanax or another noble. While even at the time most of the nobles realized this was only a temporary solution and a dangerous one at that, these alliances would prove key to the survivorship of many nobles and ruling Wanaxs from Athens (Where the heir to the throne was married to Brenda Melton, a key member of the Melton Expedition) to Iolcus. A few Kingdoms, most notably Pytho (More famously known as Delphi in Classical times), resisted any American alliance or influence, these Kingdoms would quickly find themselves overwhelmed and conquered by Americans and their new found allies.
By 7 A.E, most of Central Greece was under the control of tiny American Statelets and American-aligned kingdoms. This caused most of the fighting to die down as Americans quickly realized every bit of ammo they wasted would weaken their already very unstable power in the region.
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