Naughtius Maximus
05-11-2005, 08:59
I just thought I'd share this story with y'all...
My first time playing on Hard difficulty in RTR- the first turn, and the Senate asks me to take Arminium.
Fair enough, but here comess Phyrrus of Epirus moving up through Campania with a sizeable army - reports from my spy have it at 950+ men with Elephants. I can't muster any more than 850 - the rest I sent north with my heir to take Arminium. I can't let him take Corminium; that would put him in striking distance of Capua, my capital. I had no choice, I had to risk it.
I have never been very good with skirmishers, and I have never fought elephants before. We end up manuevering in the forest, with the Greek phalanxes advancing up the middle and the elephants on their right, backed with archers and supporting cavalry. I am outnumbered and they have the advantage of mobility. The elephants smash into my left, decimating my two cohorts of Hasatii, one of my principes cohorts and two of my four cohorts of Velitae. My general and his praetorian Triarii are left alone, facing two phalanxes, one of whom is maneuvering into my rear.
It looks like I'm finished, but just when everything is looking pretty bleak, my two Velitae (that I thought had routed) recovered, turned and fired their last two volleys of pilae into the sides of the three elephants. The beasts go berserk. They plow through the second phalanx and charge off into the hills behind the battlefield. The rest of my troops, realizing that the pachiderms have packed it in, turn and fight. They decimate the remaining Greek troops, and my two heroic Velitae, not content with saving my ass, charge down the hill and kill Phyrrus in the ensuing rout.
Long story short- I regroup the survivors and take Tarnetum and Croton over the next two years and am able to turn on the Gauls and give them a sound thrashing.
It is now some 18 years later - Carthage is on the ropes, the Gauls are about finished and I am now sending two legions into Dacia.
And I owe it all to two half-strength units of Velitae.
My first time playing on Hard difficulty in RTR- the first turn, and the Senate asks me to take Arminium.
Fair enough, but here comess Phyrrus of Epirus moving up through Campania with a sizeable army - reports from my spy have it at 950+ men with Elephants. I can't muster any more than 850 - the rest I sent north with my heir to take Arminium. I can't let him take Corminium; that would put him in striking distance of Capua, my capital. I had no choice, I had to risk it.
I have never been very good with skirmishers, and I have never fought elephants before. We end up manuevering in the forest, with the Greek phalanxes advancing up the middle and the elephants on their right, backed with archers and supporting cavalry. I am outnumbered and they have the advantage of mobility. The elephants smash into my left, decimating my two cohorts of Hasatii, one of my principes cohorts and two of my four cohorts of Velitae. My general and his praetorian Triarii are left alone, facing two phalanxes, one of whom is maneuvering into my rear.
It looks like I'm finished, but just when everything is looking pretty bleak, my two Velitae (that I thought had routed) recovered, turned and fired their last two volleys of pilae into the sides of the three elephants. The beasts go berserk. They plow through the second phalanx and charge off into the hills behind the battlefield. The rest of my troops, realizing that the pachiderms have packed it in, turn and fight. They decimate the remaining Greek troops, and my two heroic Velitae, not content with saving my ass, charge down the hill and kill Phyrrus in the ensuing rout.
Long story short- I regroup the survivors and take Tarnetum and Croton over the next two years and am able to turn on the Gauls and give them a sound thrashing.
It is now some 18 years later - Carthage is on the ropes, the Gauls are about finished and I am now sending two legions into Dacia.
And I owe it all to two half-strength units of Velitae.