3rd Legion - Roma's Bulls

[Wolfman]

Thanks for the link CaesarAugustus. Finally A mod were i can play the Samnites!!

[Wolfman]

P.S. I also like the Samnite angle CA. I think it's awesome to finally see the romans portrayed from the eyes of former enemys.

[Shifty_GMH]

Glad to see you continuing the story of the 3rd legion. Keep up the good work.

[CountArach]

Just so you know guys, I am in the middle of exams at the moment. However, I should have an update coming in teh next couple of days.

[Orb]

I like the new angle.

Great AAR!

[CountArach]

Book 2 – Chapter 2 – To Kill a Gaul
241 – Summer to 240 – Summer – The Consvlship of Gaivs Clavdivs Centho and Marcvs Sempronivs Tvditanvs

My Brother,

I hope this finds you well. Give my love to mother.

Well the last letter I sent you told you of the events of the spring of last year. Let me continue this story.

In the Summer of 241, the foolish Koinon Hellenon, the alliance of Greeks, besieged Taras. Why would they do such a thing? To strike properly at the Romans, one must strike at something they actually care about. That is why the Makedonians went for the capital, Roma.

We learnt that the Koinon Hellenon was soundly defeated by the second legion, almost undoubtedly because of Samnite strength at arms. So the Romans had secured Italy, at the cost of our men’s lives.

Shortly after, peace was secured and Rome had but one war being fought, and that was over Sardinia against Carthage, their eternal foe. The fourth legion had made the island their permanent residence and was fighting battles almost daily to help keep the island secure.

As for us, we were sent to Northern Italy.



It quickly became apparent that we were there for expansion purposes. Rome had run out of lands to conquer, so they decided that they must push north.

The north is comprised of barbarians, brother, some of whom fight naked, even in the snow. Their numbers appear endless, and indeed I wondered if it would be possible to conquer the land at all.

I was soon to find out.

We were sent to Segestica, the nearest land to Rome, and were to take the city. We set up around it and waited for the enemy to sally forth. They were not cowards; they met us within days of our arrival.



Flavinivs Bradva, in his usual Roman shortsightedness, had not considered deploying us in battle order until the enemy had begun their sally. This was useless, and meant that by the time we were deployed, we were tired and disorganized.



That was the start of our problems.

The enemy came up to our centre and was met by hails of javelins. Every maniple threw whatever they could get their hands on, and the Accensi added in their stones.



Yet the enemy did not break, they just charged on.



Very quickly our entire line was engaged. Fortunately, I was on our left flank, whilst the true enemy warriors, the naked ones, all hit our right flank. Our centre was beginning to buckle under pressure, yet some Rorarii temporarily filled the hole. We were still winning our fight.



Then Conan charged.

Conan was the enemy general. He had with him a bodyguard of cavalry that was capable of smashing a Roman line head-on.

Yet he charged our flank.



The crashing sound he made was terrific. The sound of the thudding hoofs mixed with the sound of metal on metal and the sound of the bones of those on the left hand side snapping.

At this point our leader ordered me to the left. I ran there and began fighting these cavalry.

They started performing hit and run tactics on our flanks, whilst the levy spearmen of the enemy kept us pinned down to our front.

Eventually Bradva countered.



He led his own bodyguards on a valiant effort to win the day. The fight across the line was going badly and only the death of the enemy general would save the day.



It backfired.

As he fell from his horse, everything seemed to stop. All eyes turned to him and watched as he slowly but surely hit the ground and did not rise.

Immediately the Romans started running.



I ran too brother, and am not ashamed to say as much. I was not going to go on fighting whilst these cowardly Romans ran. I was not going to risk my life for these worthless curs.

So the battle was over, and we had suffered a humiliating defeat.





So brother, we have now returned to our fort in Northern Italy, and our future is uncertain. Some speak that perhaps we will undergo decimation, others that we will have to go north and fight them again.

I hope for neither brother, I really do.

Your brother,
Vibivs Postvmivs

[CaesarAugustus]

Ouch. Nasty defeat there. It's till not as bad as the humiliating defeat suffered by my grand legion against the barbarians in Patavium, though. Eight units, routed from the town square by a handful of determined Bodyguards and Luogae.

I don't see how you will actually be able to pull off decimation in the game though, ther's no way to partially disband a unit. Great installment, as usual.

[CountArach]

Yeah I know, decimation would be a cool option. It won't happen though, except maybe in story. I'm still deciding.

Either way VP won't be the tenth man.

[Boyar Son]

Decimation wasnt cool to the tenth man though! great AAR!

Maybe you should send a combined two legions there. Or seige them again with one, and try to extend all the way to the po river.

[antisocialmunky]

Gaulish heavy cavalry is uuuuber

[Tuuvi]

What I usually do during sally battles is I form my units into single line formation and put them into defensive position. The enemy will usually concentrate on certain parts of your line, and if a unit starts to waver you can take a nearby unit out of defensive and flank the enemy unit.

Very good AAR by the way.

[Warmaster Horus]

Funny how a loss prompts a discussion about strategy...
I don't think it would have been possible to salvage the situation. CA was outnumbered (1500 to 2500), and among those 2500 were at least a hundred Gaesatae. As we all know, these warriors are practically invincible.
In other words, the battle was lost from the start.
What I would have done then, was charge the enemy General, a loss against another. Except that would be very un-roman. Remember, Hannibal won, because he thought before. Varro (the Roman General at Cannae, I think) had organized his lines in a very ordinary manner. Romans were rather un-imaginative, at least at the beginning. What they had, though, was fierce determination. That's what saved them. Until Scipio Africanus, at least.
Good job, CA. You did what you could. Now go play the next chapter!

[NeoSpartan]

hey, CA was outnumbered almost 2-1, and his army was NOT all Elites either. The battle was lost as soon as the lines clashed. Also note CA didn't put his army all the way back to EXPLOIT the inability of the AI to manage exaustion (sp).

I, would have retreated the entire legion.....

Still... a fun campain has its defeats they make the game a whole lot more intense. Besides, the Romans were not too happy to fight GAULS! (exept for Ceasar)

[Teleklos Archelaou]

I'm going to do a delete or hide on the contentious sidestory that has developed in this AAR thread, with the AAR author's permission. Who was at fault - doesn't matter so much to me, it just needs to get back to the AAR as it's not a discussion about the AAR or historical elements or anything relating to EB as much anyway (even posts that try to get things back on track - I'm just getting rid of all of the ones that stray from the AAR). I haven't even read all the posts yet - will do it now and will be deleting them (that just means they're still there but hidden to all but moderators).

edit: done - left the initial discussion about the battle and tactics, but when it started getting too contentious and the replies were more about other replies/comments/arguments and not about the battle or AAR, I dumped them.

[Kugutsu]

Loving this AAR.

Thats a pretty cool twist in your tale! Perhaps the legion should be disbanded and a new one formed. Their consul is dead after all. Didnt that mean his legion disappeared too? Perhaps merge into another consul's legion?

[CountArach]

Nah, he was only a Praetor. Besides it isn't the general that matters, it is the legion itself. Every legion has had multiple leaders.

And thank you TA

[Zim]

Great AAR! I've been following this one for a while, and just wanted to say how much I enjoy it.

[CountArach]

Good to hear

Aloso guys I have reached 5000 views here! Thanks for bearing with me this whole time!

[Warmaster Horus]

Not difficult to do that, though (bearing with you).
Thanks TA.

[CountArach]

I've added an index to the first post. I'll try to get another update later today.

[CountArach]

Book 2 – Chapter 3 – A Second Attempt
240 – Summer to 236 – Summer – The Consulship of Pvblivs Cornelivs Lentvlvs Cavdinvs and Gaivs Licinivs Varvs
Brother,

I need not tell you of the events closely following our defeat at the hands of the Gauls, yet I must still keep this all written down for the sake of posterity, in addition to informing you of more recent events.

Well as you know, we returned back to the Italian heartland for some reinforcements. That is when I saw you last. That was about two years ago. Since then, much has changed.

As you may know, our nobles returned home and took up their swords instead of their spears. Our spears were simply not good enough to fight the Gauls. Unfortunately, I do not own a sword, and as such was simply stuck with my spear.

Well after leaving home we went to join our new commander. He was on the verge of 50 at this time, and had risen through the ranks. Unfortunately for us, he had very little idea of tactics. His name is Qvintvs Maelivs Fravcvs



He took us back north. “Surely… no… he couldn’t be that mad,” I thought. But I was wrong.

We were going back to fight the Gauls.



Early in 239 we moved out of our fort and approached the town. Unfortunately, some other Gauls had beaten us to them.



So we returned to our fort for most of the year. Eventually, we are lead to believe, the people of Segesta signed themselves over to the Aedui alliance. This still did not deter our new general.

So we laid siege. Due to their close proximity to the sea, they were capable of bringing in many supplies. Yet, still we persevered. Eventually, after two years, the enemy came out to fight us.



Many of the enemy had died of starvation, yet we still could not ignore the number of heavy cavalry and Gaesatae the enemy had.

So the enemy came out and approached our well-formed lines. This time we were on the right flank of the army this time. We were to use our spears to deter enemy cavalry.

We hurled our javelins as is customary, yet this time there was no pre-battle skirmish.



Fravcvs charged himself into a handful of enemy skirmisher cavalry to our right. They should have broken within seconds, yet they didn’t. He stayed there and had to kill them to the last man. By then though, they needed our help.



So we charged the enemy Gauls. This time we were determined to ensure that we beat them early.

Unfortunately, when we reached Fravcvs, so did Conan.



Fravcvs was capable of pulling out of the combat, but not without losing the vast majority of his bodyguards.

So Conan spurred himself forward to our unit. The enemy coming out of the fort ran towards us as well, following their leader’s example. Fravcvs ordered the Triarii to guard our flank and join in the combat.



Conan pulled out of the combat and charged in, time and time again. I was thankful for my spear. I am told that the nobles suffered at the hands of the Gaesatae on the other flank.



Still though, things started to go badly for us. Our spears could not stop us losing men. I was almost lost.

A large horseman approached me, looking straight at me and purring his horse onwards. He pulled his spear back and prepared to skewer me. His horse hit me, forcing me to drop my shield. I tried to use my spear, but the man next to me blocked me.

I was going to die.

But then one of Fravcvs’ bodyguards, a military tribune came forward and smashed into the horseman, knocking him away.

At this point Fravcvs pulled his men out of the combat again.

I will never forget that Tribune’s name - Spvrivs Cordivs.



So we continued to fight n against the infantry to our rear and front. Conan’s men went around our rear and were later killed by the Roman’s Equites.

I engaged with the standard bearer of one of the Gallic units.

I blocked a blow from the man next to him, yet he had his sword across his body and slashed across me. It knocked me straight over and I fell to the ground, my shoulder bleeding.



I later learnt that after a few more minutes of fighting, the cavalry were capable of killing the enemy general. This broke the morale of all the remaining enemy soldiers, except of course the Gaesatae, but most of them were dead by this time.

So we had avenged our previous defeat, and the settlement capitulated to us.





So now brother, I wonder where Fravcvs will lead us. I am determined to follow this man. Though I hate the Romans, I will always remember the danger he put himself into in order to save my life and that of my comrades.

Oh, and just so that you are aware my shoulder was just dislocated and cut. The surgeon popped it back into place and I should be ready to fight very soon.

Your brother,
Vibivs Postvmivs

[CaesarAugustus]

Nice to see Spvrivs Cordivs make another appaerance in this story. He must be old now, though. Nice to see the Romans take their revenge on those barbarians, too.

[CountArach]

Yeah he's in his 50s.

[CaesarAugustus]

Ah, I thought he was older. He's just about the right age for a tribune, I guess.

[CountArach]

Nah, lol. Most Military Tribunes are about 20 or so.

Either way, this is the last entrance he will make. He's going back home to die peacefully.

[Boyar Son]

SPVRIVS CORDIVS, an honourable man.

ROMA VICTA

[Wolfman]

Awesome update! So Spvrivs became a tribune?
Edit: Never mind you answered my question.

[CaesarAugustus]

Nah, lol. Most Military Tribunes are about 20 or so

Really? I thought that a tribune was a very senior military position. Shows how much I know, lol.

[CountArach]

It is, but most of the people who have it get it as the first step in their military careers. There are 4 to every legion.

[CaesarAugustus]

According to Wikipedia there are six to each legion (24 distributed among four Consular legions).