Provincial "Defender" Generals/Stacks

[Vexillari]

I'm new to EB and playing as Romani. I've run across a killer stack of Eleutheroi led by a pretty hateful general who has the status of "Iuevaeotum Defender". I won the (costly) battle but the very next turn, the stack and formerly dead general were reborn. I'm assuming this is part of the developers way of discouraging non-historic expansion and denying my general the ability to bathe in the gold from the mines in the province...

I'm wondering if there will come a point where the stack/general will NOT be reborn? If not, can anyone suggest strategy for simultaneously dealing with the immortal stack and the city defenders?

Thanks

[Pharnakes]

Use two or three stacks, and take artillery?

[Thaatu]

You'll need to take the province, if I recall correctly. You'll have to use multiple legions.

[Divine Wind]

Use two or three stacks, and take artillery?

You can recruit artillery with the Romani? I haven't got that far yet since I restarted my campaign. I'm currently 20 years away from Polybian.

[antisocialmunky]

I thought you could merc them from Southern Italy.

[Conradus]

or highest level local MIC in some Greek cities to train 20-mina throwers?

[Strategos Alexandros]

Syracuse you can. I don't know any others though.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Gah, I discovered these bastards today... Not easy to deal with, but apparently I got lucky because I could siege on turn 2 after beating one such stack, then assault. But one was already spawned by the time I got the settlement, and he's still there. I have no idea how to deal with the guy, as he seems to have an even more dangerous army this time (not to mention he's camping in a very good defensive spot unlike last time when I could meet him downhill). Doesn't help that my Casse FMs like to get stuck inside forests, only to get killed by enemy infantry...

[Vexillari]

Yup, they're nasty little buggers. Good to know the stack remains stationary though after you take the town. I've watched the stack do a sort of linear patrol along a straight path back and forth in the Iuvaeotum...

[Maeran]

or highest level local MIC in some Greek cities to train 20-mina throwers?

Has anyone actually done this? I tried in the last build to do this in Syracuse and Athens, with no success. As such, I am now in 200 BC with my entire artillery capability resting on a unit of arrow throwers (ballistae then) that I managed to bribe at great expense.

Pretty useless, but I am holding onto them in the hope that they well be worth it in my impeding war against the overly aggressive Koinen Hellonen.

[pezhetairoi]

I fought Satres with my army, and after I beat him, I immediately besieged Iuvavoaeta and he did not reappear till three turns later. It was quite a nasty shock since I was expecting to starve Iuvavoaeta out. As it is, I decided to reload the previous turn and storm the town, because Satres dealt a far greater blow to my morale and my Third Army in their maiden battle than any faction ever could.

Anyhows, I have a recommendation for a battlefield. Satres always spawns in the same spot, apparently, two tiles west of Iuvavoaeta. If you controlled Veldideno, then stepped into Satres' western red zone (western, not north or southwestern), when he attacks you the next turn and you withdraw, you will end up on the tile, one tile northwest of the ford that divides Veldideno and Iuvavoaeta, whose screenshots are posted below. It's a very good location for a defensive stand, and provides ample opportunity for ambush. This is a pseudo-AAR or rather a commentary of the complete (but very painful) victory I won the third time round after practicing the coordination of my tactics. For those who are worrying about how to beat them, this may give you a geographical edge.

The view towards the front
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/444d8cc2af.jpg (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/)

As you can see you can place your defense on a knoll which is cliffed on one side, so you can simply form a defensive semicircle. The foreground is my left flank/front. The enemy would approach from the bottom of the screen. At any point of his attack, he would be attacking uphill. In the background you see a clump of forest that's just within the battlemap border. It's a perfect ambush point to flank the enemy's units attacking your rear. (I fought the battle three times and never once did they fully enclose my line. They always left my rear open. EB formations seem to limit how far the enemy front can curve, it seems.) You can see my 4 units of Iaosatae in position to enfilade the entire enemy centre from the rear. That's what happens when you roll back the enemy's left with the help of the units you have in ambush in the trees.

A view of the rear looking towards the knoll.
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/c995f68085.jpg (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/)

This view is from nearby the said ambush clump of trees, looking towards the front. The enemy is in a triply poor position on his left and centre, as you can see here and perhaps even more so in the previous picture, because 1) He's attacking uphill, 2) He's about to be outflanked, and 3) The place where the iaosatae are standing is actually an upslope, meaning he's trapped in a valley with people shooting at him like fish in a barrel, while your outflankers would actually be attacking downhill at some point, and would certainly have the high ground.

The view from the top of the knoll towards my centre and rear/right
]http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/00f7ae6a7a.jpg (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/)

In the left background you can see the final piece of my battle strategy: the protruding clump of trees is actually a huge and deep forest where I hid my second family member and my Leuce Epos, leaving the general in the rear to reinforce the flanking maneuvre and not advertise the position of the cavalry ambush since he can't hide. Hide them deep enough, and the enemy flank (which will sweep through the forest edge on its approach since this knoll is more than halfway across the map from the AI side) will not encounter it. Then once the flanking maneuvre is begun, I moved my cavalry from deep inside closer to the forest's edge, not close enough that the AI would peel troops away to counter it. Then, once the flankers have begun the rollback and the slingers have begun their fire for effect, then out comes the cavalry, straight into the rear of the enemy centre, combining with the flanking column and the other brihentin unit, slaughtering the enemy centre and left. By the time the enemy right, in your front/left, gets the idea and routs, it will already have been too late since your cavalry will have already reached them. When I played it, at no time were more than 10 men from the entire army able to escape, and once I completely annihilated him.

It has its similarities to Hooker's original plans in the composite outflanking move in the Chancellorsville campaign, except that the subsidiary column would only hit Lee's flank when the main column had already engaged, rather than for both to join in one huge outflanking like Hooker intended. Hmm.

I recommend placing your strongest troops in your centre left, because that's the place that will have the hottest fighting and will be fighting the longest. In my battle I placed my Appea Gaedotos there, and boy, can that phalanx hold. FYI, my army was fullstrength in all units when it started out, and my bodyguards each had about 100 men. If you're Gaulish like me, the Gaesatae are an IMMENSE help here. Place them in the main line, because their holding power is immense, Satres' army does not include slingers or archers, and your gaesatae have the advantage of high ground, meaning that enemy attacks don't do that much damage.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Yes, the battlefield choice is extremely important with that bugger. I attacked him from the east, a few tiles closer to Iuvavovaeta from the river to the east of it. I managed to catch him in a very steep uphill, but unfortunately I had to run forward to claim the position, so my slingers didn't have too much time to fire. It became a total slaughter, surprisingly without that many own casualties even though I only had 6 gaeroas, 3 naked spearmen, 7 iaosatae (the army had previously been used to assault a settlement, thus the high number of slingers), 1 FM, 1 very damaged horse archer merc and 1 very damaged ridanz merc. Again, no fancy tactics, just a lucky hill ~:)

[pezhetairoi]

Now that is an impressive display of the importance of geography. ;-) My kill ratio pales in comparison. O.o Took nearly 30% casualties, and that even though I outnumbered him by nearly a thousand men.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Yup, they're nasty little buggers. Good to know the stack remains stationary though after you take the town. I've watched the stack do a sort of linear patrol along a straight path back and forth in the Iuvaeotum...
Ah, good to know. Unfortunately, his new spawning position is blocking a river crossing and connection between one of my settlements and a settlement that will soon be mine (hopefully), and he is in a position with risk for ambushing my troop transports, and the position also happens to be an incredibly difficult battlefield for an offensive. Not to mention my army is peasant rabble compared to his... And Casse has almost no cavalry, at least if the game should be historical - my house rule is to not start hiring notable quantities of cavalry until I've lost at least one battle against an enemy with >5 units of cavalry... ~:( So while I probably can't destroy him as it is now, it's absolutely necessary that I do so in a not too distant future...

[pezhetairoi]

That's one restrictive house rule... Methinks the Casse would have looked around once they got onto the Continent and went 'I gotta get me some'a those horsey things with men on them! Bigods, I never knew you could do that to them! I only ever did that to my women...'

You're gonna need cavalry for Satres, Rodion my friend. I think infantry to infantry, he can beat yours unless they're equal in quality...

[Vexillari]

:bullseye: Thanks for the help everyone, great instruction Pezhetairoi!

Time to use the landscape to hammer Satres :smash: