Best Battles!

[Tigranes]

What was your best battle? I have to say it was a massive siege I was under. Seleucids (me) vs. Greeks (ai). They assaulted me with six siege towers, two battering rams, and four ladders.

I had an army comprised mostly of phalanx pikemen, though I had a few podromoi, and about four units of peltasts. The Greeks had three units of Spartans (I was amazed, the ai rarely gets those units), and other assorted pikemen, along with peltasts and cretan archers.

It's hard to describe how the battle went, but I have no timers on, and I turned off the ammo limit (mostly to my detriment), and the battle lasted roughly an hour. One of their battering rams reached the gates, the other burned. I was desperate then. I knew I would lose if the walls were breached, so I sacrificed a unit of podromoi, who managed to rout the battering ram carriers (oddly, no other unit took it up). The podromoi were than killed by the general unit.

My peltasts fired from the walls, and most of them being in the gold chevron range, I killed the generals unit fast.

The siege towers moved in closer, and only one burned. I moved the peltasts to fire at the ladder people, and my pikemen to guard the places siege towers would land. Four siege towers, and the remains of four ladders on top of my walls and the attackers were better quality. I was holding out when I realized I had missed the fifth siege tower, which had gotton onto the walls and taken the side gates. They then proceeded to rush for the city square. I had all my pikemen on the walls, and only podromoi on the ground, not good for taking out spartans in a city. I took two of the phalanx pikemen on the walls and tried to rush them down (not nearly enough, but all I had unoccupied).

Meanwhile, the Spartans reached the square, and the timer began. I ran my podromoi from four different directions. One attacked the rear, another waited until the Spartans turned to get the rear threat, and then closed in, attacking from the rear again. The two side units waited. The first unit of podromoi was decimated, and down to twenty men shortly after the second unit attacked.

They soon died, and the other unit of podromoi began to get in craploads of trouble. I ran the other two units of podromoi behind the Spartans, and attacked from the rear again. This time I had some nice results, though I still lost all my podromoi.

By this time I had my phalanxes down, and my podromoi were dwindling. I took them out of phalanx and rushed one around to the behind of the sparts, where I reengaged phalanx. The other unit rushed forward. They arrived to see the last podromoi die. By this time, I had regained the the gates with a unit of peltasts, and my towers were relatively clear. I was doing some mild skirmishes in the outside, with my mercenary horsemen (thank you Sarmatia). My only real problem were the Spartans in the city square, with over forty men left. My triple silver phalanx approached from the front, and the double gold chevron from behind. I really wanted this to be a good hammer and anvil, but both units did not amount to many men. Seventy five in the front unit, and little more than a hundred in the rear. But it was my only chance. I couldn't get other reinforcements there in time.

I attacked from the front, long enough to grab their attention. Then, I came in from the rear. The Spartans died very slow, but surely. In the end, my front unit lost all their men, and the rear unit lost over half of it's men, before the Spartans finally routed (at two men), I chased and killed them, then got my glory as I watched the rest of the enemy army retreat.

I had beat them, outgunned and outnumbered. (Though being inside the walls did help. ~;) )

Any stories from you guys?

[Quietus]

Tigranes, Wecome to the .ORG! ~:wave:

Very nice. ~:) Yep, Siege battles are always a whirlwind experience. There's too many great battles to tell.

A memorable one, I'd share is a field battle that is my first encounter with elephants. I have my regular army attack a seleucid stack. I deployed and did my normal double envelopment move.

My left flank action didn't work and was tied down by the chariots and superpeasants. The Elephants smashed through my vulnerable center. However, I won the right flank engangement.

I drove my right flank back at their center and the whole field is literally in chaos, and units are routing in all direction (mine and the enemies). I thought I was finished but I managed to rally some of my troops that mass-routed.

I finally shattered the chariots then enveloped the elephants with whatever units I have left. The elephants routed eventually. I was so worked up that I drove my generals' cavalry at the retreating behemoths until they are all dead.

I won. But my professional army was smashed as well. I've never had such a close victory. ~D I'll post some screenshots later.

[pezhetairoi]

That sounded like Raphia.

My greatest battle was a really close one I had at the start of the Greek campaign, it was my first encounter with elephants too. I had the army that I had in Syracuse at the start, which had conquered Messana. The Carthaginian starter army on Sicily came and besieged Messana, after I recruited a few extra units of mercenary hoplites. So there I was sitting there in the city and I decided to sally.

I sent one unit of militia hoplites out the gates to lure the enemy closer, and they started converging on that one poor militia hoplite phalanx while my other militia and standard hoplites were converging on the gate to defend it, my sole unit of archers and my sole unit of peltasts set to attack the elephants the moment they came in range with flaming arrows and javelins.

I saw that my bait wasn't going to make it back to the safety of the gate in time, so I made it turn and fight, just in front of the gate, and just made all my other phalanxes attack through the gate at whatever was there. It degenerated into a confused melee with 1200 on either side slugging at each other at the gate, with my hoplite numbers dropping like crazy. Because my general was just behind them, though, they didn't rout. The elephants didn't run amok either, though, despite flaming arrows raining down on them. The Carthagnians charged everything they had at my hoplites, and were rewarded with their general's cavalry dying. Their Balearics took a terrible toll of my hoplites, but they held. All this while my faction heir was repeatedly charging through the hoplites into the iberians they faced, retreating, charging again.

The situation was getting very dire, because the blue/red indicator was still stuck at only about half/half (which was a significant improvement from 1/8 to me and 7/8 to the Carthaginians) but my troop count was getting really low. Then, thankfully, the elephants finally ran amok, and because they had been the first wave, they routed right through all the other iberians and town militias and balearics piled up behind. About 30 seconds after that, in conjunction with another heir's charge (he was now reduced to about 20 men) they all broke and routed. I gave chase and destroyed what units I could with my decimated cavalry.

At that time I had only about 10 hoplites, 20 militia hoplites, 2 peltasts and 100 archers left, down from nearly 1200. Really close. If they hadn't broken when they did...

[Count Belisarius]

These are great stories!

My best recent battle was playing R:TR as Pontus. I had conquered most of Asia Minor, engaged in a war against Ptolemaic Egypt, but was short on cash and could only field 2 decent-sized stacks of decidedly inferior troops, mostly Eastern Infantry and other trash. Armenia, my erstwhile ally, had just stabbed me in the back; and I was forced to send one stack north to relieve the siege on my 2nd biggest city. My other army was located on the coastal plain in between Tarsus and Antioch when a massive Ptolemaic stack attacked.

I had a decent (4-star) general, a couple of pike phalanx units, 2 peltasts, 2 archers, 2 Pontic Light Cavalry units, 8 inexperienced (1 bronze chevron) Eastern Infantry units, and one recently-recruited unit of Cilician Pirates. I had never used Cilician Pirates before, but after this battle they came to occupy a special place in my heart. The terrain was flat and relatively open, which gave the advantage to the better equipped and more numerous Ptolemaics. I deployed phalanxes to the center, with 4 Eastern Infantry on each wing, and 1 archer, 1 peltast, & 1 Light Cav on each extreme flank in hopes of stretching out the enemy line and drawing off some of his phalanxes into a running fight.

The bad guys fielded a 3-star general, 1 unit of regular elephants, 2 Agemas (elite pike phalanx), a boatload of Greek and Macedonian mercenaries (the equivalent of Greek hoplites and Levy Pikemen, though with only 80 men per unit), assorted javelin and slinger troops, and a couple Cleruch (Ptolemaic heavy cavalry) units. Needless to say, I was in a bit of trouble.

I immediately sent my missile battle groups out onto the flanks to raise as much hell as possible before the main event started. The elephants began swinging out wide on my right flank, and the Cleruchs started heading for my missile troops. Predictably, the enemy's main body came at me head-on. I sent a unit of light missile cav galloping out to engage the elephants, set my right-hand archers on fire arrows, targeted the elephants, and sent my peltasts running into the fight. I was able to rout the elephants before they made contact with my Light Cav, and luckily, the beasts ran amok and mauled one of the Cleruchs coming out to carve up my missile troops. I charged my Light Cav into the confusion, taking heavy casualties, but routing the Cleruchs and neutralizing them as a fighting force. The peltasts disposed of all but 3 of the remaining elephants, and I turned my archers' attention to the enemy's battle line. My right flank was secure - for the moment.

On the other side of the battlefield, I rushed a unit of Eastern Infantry out of the line and onto the flank and sheltered my left-hand missile group from the other Cleruch unit. My archers over here were peppering the unshielded right side of the endmost enemy phalanx, and it turned about to face the music. Meanwhile, a combination of javelins and Eastern Infantry had decimated the Cleruchs, and I charged my Light Cav into their rear, routing them with minimal loss. HA! Left flank secure, and I left my peltasts to skirmish with the oncoming phalanx

By this time of course, the Ptolemaic phalanxes had neared contact with my main line. They eshewed engaging my phalanxes in the center, preferring to overwhelm my inferior Eastern Infantry. I obliged them by opening my center, turning my phalanxes left and right, and taking the nearest enemy phalanxes in the flank. Enemy skirmishers and slingers immediately behind the main line began a galling fire into the flanks of my phalanxes, so I charged my general (unit size 55, thank God) through the gap in my center and began making short work of the enemy missile troops, though I took casualties all the way.

Unfortunately, in all the confusion I had lost track of the enemy general. Instead of suiciding himself against my phalanxes as per usual, he had taken it upon himself to play merry hell on my erstwhile secure right flank. He was cutting my peltasts to ribbons, and I had no unengaged spear units nearby to help. The peltasts routed in shameful fashion, so I bit the bullet, turned off my archers' skirmish function, and attacked. My archers sacrificed themselves bravely, and my already understrength Light Cav took the enemy general in the rear. A general melee ensued, but the enemy general positively REFUSED to rout, much less die. He kept on killing and killing and killing, until my archers and Light Cav were whittled down to almost nothing. Finally, they got him and his bodyguard routed, but I was left with exactly 24 archers and 7 Light Cav. Ugly.

My Eastern Infantry in the main line were taking fearful casualties and before I knew it, 1 began to rout. You know how that goes. Fear spread like a virus, and 3 out of 4 Eastern Infantry on the right side of the line headed for greener pastures. My left was holding because my missile troops on that flank had managed to draw off enough infantry units to give me some kind of parity. I disengaged my general from his fun amongst the enemy's slingers, and galloped back to rally the troops. On the way, I was able to take a unit of pursuing elite Agema pikemen in the rear and rout them. SCORE!!!! My general's presence forced the enemy units that had broken my right wing back into phalanx formation, which gave my running infantrymen a bit of breathing room. I managed to rally 2 of the 3 routed Eastern Infantry units, and headed them back into the fight after a brief rest. Time to commit the reserves.

I had concealed my Cilician Pirates in the one tiny grove of trees on the field. As my rallied infantry moved forward to engage, the Pirates sprang up, loosed a devastating volley of javelins into the rear of the nearest hoplite formation, and followed up with an heroic charge with their hand axes. Rout. One after another, I was able to chop to pieces the enemy phalanxes, using my general to mop up the dregs. Without those Cilician Pirates, the day would have been lost.

Back at the main line, my phalanxes had managed to rout the two enemy units nearest my center. I formed them up, and began rolling up the enemy line. Unfortunately, my left wing chose this moment to break, though I was able to partially stem the tide with my phalanxes. I again sent my exhausted right wing into the fray, and set about rallying the left. I finally succeeded and the Ptolemaics began routing wholesale. The only enemy units contesting the field were depleted phalanxes that had been chasing my missile troops all day and a few missile units. Using a combination of arrows, javelins, cavalry, and the redoubtable Cilician Pirates, I was able to destroy them all piecemeal.

WHEW! The game classified it as an Heroic Victory. Personally, I would have classified it as Pyrrhic at best, considering that most units took 50% casualties, sometimes more. My general's once-proud 55-man bodyguard was reduced to a mere 17, and my Light Cav was practically nonexistent. It was a MUCH closer battle than I would have liked, and took FOREVER to fight, but it was loads of fun.

[MackBolan]

Definately a good battle, but only beacause of the merciless victory against greater odds (on VH/VH). Deep into the Brutii campaign, Im starting to bump head w/the Egyptians. Not taking the easy way on Egypt (going and taking the Alexandria Wonder) I started from the top and worked down. The first full stack they throw at me is close to 1000 units larger (no peasants either, all infantry/phalanxes, 240 unit archers, chariots and desert cav) plus 2 generals including the Heir. I decide to play aggressivly so I take a full stack (including the general "Amulius Scarface" 10stars, 10influence, and a solid 82 years of age) and attack in the open field. AI starts out typically, setting up the line and pushing up w/their cav. The chariots are shooting my boys as they march towards the Egyptian line (they were uphill too so my archers were out of range for a good bit). I send cav and a general to each flank and have them attack the Chariot Archers keeping 1 equites unit on each flank, ready to attack engaged Egyptians. Finally the Cretians get within range and start doing some damage. Unfortunatly the Bowmen are sending volley after volley at my Principes. By this point my line is getting very close and Ive routed the main general and 2 units of desert cav w/well timed charges from my generals guards and equites. I quickly have my Principes unload their pila and charge on the enemy. Cretians are firing on the Bowmen and rear cav/chariots while my principes make hamburger outta the Egyptian phalanxes and axemen. A few charges on the enemies rear while my Generals handle the Chariots and their units are all Routing. My only major losses were on Equites, a few units losing about half, but you can see my final tally. Oh yea, I had triarii, but they werent used all too much. Check out the pic.

[MackBolan]

I cant seem to post my pic, but here are the stats.

Brutii
Men Deployed: 2655 - Kills: 2952 - Remaining: 2465

Egypt
Men Deployed: 3233 - Kills: 202 - Remaining: 281

Needless to say, I couldnt believe how many I killed to how many I lost. Prolly my best battle ever, considering the odds.

[The Stranger]

nothing,

gauls deployed 1800 remaining 1200
romans deployed 5500 remaining 500

now that's a battle

[Viking]

You`re playing on huge Emperor, you are cheating..

[pezhetairoi]

hahaha but the proportions, that's what matters, hahaha... I yearn to face the Egyptians. I have never engaged them before. Must... attack... them!

[Es Arkajae]

My army (half an army actually) which was actually on its way to join up with some other guys to form my GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC TM, was attacked by another army (Macedonians) and wishing to avoid a battle with casualties as I was just transferring the guys I hit 'withdraw'.

Unfortunately they caught up and to make it worse I ran into another enemy army that had been hiding in a forest.

So now caught between two enemy armies I was screwed, my 4 Principe and 2 equite units caught in a vice on an open field battle against one cavalry heavy army (lancer stack) and a pikemen heavy stack.

Long story short I got my arse kicked in the battle, BUT I killed off FOUR enemy generals leaving the Macedonians with ONE general unit left and he was stuck in Sparta which was under siege to my forces and fell the next turn.

The Macedonian faction was thus eliminated despite having six cities left and I just moved in and defeated the remaining rebels with ease and took all their cities.

That dead captain got a posthumous Knighhood in the Order of Gloriously Lucky Bastard from me~D

[Franconicus]

My best battle was Germania against Brutii. I was just invading nothern Italy- In Italy I besieged Segesta, just to keep the Julii busy. I also sent an army to the Brutii town west of Patavium. I sent my horse army (+one spear gang) and besieged it. I didn’t expect to conquer this town, just tried to keep the Brutii busy. What a surprise when I found myself surrounded by three Roman armies (first the small garrison with gerneral, second a general with guard and a third a General with more than 3000 hasatii and velites). My army was some 400 and I could not withdraw. I decided to show the Romans how Germanians (and their mercs) die ~;) . I guess you learned about this battle in school - but here are details you may not know The battle was in winter. The terrain was a valley with high mountains on each side. There was some forest in the valley. The earth was covered with snow. I decided not to hide in the wood. I placed my troop on top of a mountain. Spears on the left, then mounted archers and lancers, gothic cav, light cav and chief. Then I saw them coming. It was just the third army and the 3,000 Romans filled the valley as far as the eye could see. They started climbing up the mountain. 3 units of velites tried to flank my left side. I attacked them with my chief and made them run away. Then the light cav attack followed. My horse soldiers dived through the hesatii which were already exhausted from climbing. Then my riders returned to the top of the mountain. All the time arrows were raining on the climbing legionnaires. The Roman general saw his right wing running and he tried to help him. Now I attacked with chief cav, light cav., gothic cav and lancers. The Roman general was killed and the complete first battle line run away. No I even sent my spears to keep them running. My cavalries dived several times into the mass of Roman infantry. The Romans had terrible losses and were running as fast as they could. I gathered my tired troops on top of the mountain again. The second Roman army was approaching. It was just one general with his heavy cav.. This time he was the one who was outnumbered and I was the one who was exhausted. I managed to kill him and his guard flew. The garrison didn’t arrive on the battle ground and so I was the winner. I lost about 100 men, over 2.000 Romans were killed. Although there were still other big battles especially against the Brutii this was the decisive one. The Brutii left the town.

[Somebody Else]

N.B. I play RTR

Hardly count them as great - mostly rather cheesy, playing as the Sarmations, with unlimited ammo (I'm a firm believer in logistics)... I've had battles where I've killed more than 10 times as many men as I brought to the field. One general went up against a rebel army of three mercenary elephants units, one archer unit and 10 sparabara units, he had three units of bog standard horse archers, and his bodyguard of course. My general won the "Stonewall" trait (undeservedly admittedly) and thus the epithet 'the Steadfast' and three command stars in any defensive position.

Taking on the starting Senate army was also a treat, all those well-night invulnerable praetorians... took ages.

*most of my generals have similar traits... heroic attack/defender, chancer, skilled risky attacker, jaws of death and all...*

[fireblade]

My best battle futured me as a roman jullii. I was playing with 3 units of samnatian gladiators against an army of pontus(890 men). A massive charge against his men( Including some phalanx pikemen) and his army retreated, with only 100 men alive. I lost about 50 percent of my forces, and my gladiators rose from 2 bronze chifrons each to 3 gold for 2 units and 1 gold for the thirth.

fireblade

[Craterus]

Welcome to the Guild! ~:wave:

Samnite Gladiators never fail to amaze me...

Is this 'best' as in most fun? Or 'best' as in kill/loss ratio?

[master of the puppets]

my best battle was in egypt as the greeks. i had long ago set a force under antiochus the great to get a toe hold in the heart of egypt, after a great battle thebes (the only province i had in egypt) was dangerously undergarrisoned. from sparta i sent out a relife force, after two naval defeats the battered navy force now down to one ship landed in lybia. it consisted of 3 armored hoplites, 2 hoplites, 2 cavalry ,1 general, 1 greek pelasts and 2 mercinary pelasts. after defeating a force of numidians the army made camp just east of the pyramids. the egyptians fearing for the city memphis sent out a full stack to destroy my force. 2 generals, 3 cavalry, 5 axemen, 3 archers, 4 nile pikemen, 3 peasants. all in all i was screwed.

they were quick to attack but Ares sent his blessing in the form of a huge rock face. seeing my chance i formed my hoplites in a half ring around the rocks ,3 armored and 1 normal, all in phalanx 1 hoplite with swords inside to fight any who made a gap. behind the hoplites i put all my pelasts. i put all my cavalry very far to the left so they could charge in when needed but would not be attacked. when the battle began the egyptians had to run almost the entire lengh of the feild to get to my men so they were tire when they got there.

2 of there cavalry was the first there, there courage was there undoing as they gored themselves onto the pikes. pike men came next, phalanx style, they were shredded by my armored hoplites. wave after wave of soldiers pored at my warriors, i quickly had to send my cavalry to chase away archers, as my cavalry cut down 2 units of archers there remaining cavalry killed mine. by now my forces were tired and i had suffered many loses but the pike wall held strong. the skirmishers position allowed them to hurl spears over the hoplites heads with no freindly fire but after 10 minutes of suicidal attacks the egyptians had suffered more losses than i had. i one desperate charge the cavalry of egypt with there chariots struck a tiny gap between two phalanxes, there pharoh was killed instantly but the cavalry forced there way through. they were bruttaly cut down as they engaged my hoplites and skirmishers. but still 2 units of axmen rushed in, i commanded my men to drop phalanx and fight with xyphos and kopis. the axe men are routed. i send my hoplites to cut down the routed soldiers.

now the egyptian forces had only 1 full unit of archers, 2 battered units of axemen i near routed general and assorted broken units. i possesed only generals cavalry, 3 battered units of hoplites armored and not, and thats it. several small battles later i was confident in my victory. i haD ONLY 2 FRACTURED UNITS OF ARMORED HOPLITES AND THEY only had 1 archer. for the next 10 minutes my hoplites chased those archers into exhastion. the archers, unarmored and quick, every little while had time to halt and shoot arrows at me. as there arrows dwindled they bagan using flamming arrows and one units of my hoplites was routed. upon seeing this i was startled so i attempted to finish it quick with another charge of hoplites. the flamming arrows rained down like the unbridled wrath of the gods, my last unit routed in a pour of fire. and like that, i lost...i had lost the best battle i ever played.

well anyway in a reckless bought of vengence i brought the whole of greece down upon egypts heads. they were completely sdestroyed within the next ten years.

srry if the story is a little fractured, it was a long time ago.