[Romani AAR] It began on seven hills...

[QuintusSertorius]

Fourth Makedonian War, 150BC

Thessaly

Roman demands for Makedonia to cease all warfare without the consent of the Senate had fallen on deaf ears. Rome's revenge took some time to gather, but was total. Two consular armies were dispatched to Greece to punish the temerity of their once-allies.

The first, under Decimus Sergius Esquilinus, was a new formation of fresh drafts. There hadn't been time to properly weld them together into a legion, but years of warfare against Qarthadast and others had made Roman military thinkers complacent. They'd forgotten that it was through constant fighting and marching that the previous generation had beaten Nepheris and taken Spain. While the men were confident in their general's record, he was not so sure about their experience.

He attacked the main Makedonian army in the mountains. He had numbers, but the mercenary general Kalisthenis had hardnened veterans amongst his ranks.



After some marching and counter-marching, the lines finally met on a wooded slope. Sergius' tribune Numerius Cornelius Rufinus, son of the consul, commanded the position of honour on the right. Gaius Thurinus commanded the left.



Orestes Pellaios, a Makedonian noble commanded the enemy right wing. Wasting no time, he charged the allied slingers, provoking a response from Thurinus and the equites extraordinarii, along with some allied cavalry.



Unaware of the fighting on the left, Sergius ordered the army forward to meet the Makedonian line.



With fighting all along the line, there was little Sergius could do but encourage the men in his immediate vicinity.



Spotting an opportunity, he ordered unengaged maniples around the Makedonian line.



On the left, Pellaios was overcome.



The fight ground on for an hour with little sign of a victor. Rufinus caught sight of Kalisthenis, and charged after him bringing allied cavalry and some of the triarii with him. Fighting his way through the Greek's bodyguard, he ran the enemy general through with his sword.





Both Makedonian wings routed.





But the elite heavy phalanxes in the centre stood their ground.



The fight dragged on and on, both sides reaching their limits of endurance.





Then little by little, the surrounded phalanxes began to tire.



Eventually even they gave way.



A Pyrrhic victory had been won, but Sergius' army was in no condition to carry the campaign to the Makedonian capital. He immediately sent to Italy for reinforcements.



Anatolia

Meanwhile in Asia Minor, Pergamon was acting in concert with Rome to defeat Makedonia's Asiatic Greek allies. Taking up the mantle from Euergetes, Publius Fabius Sopatros commanded one of Pergamon's armies, and marched to invest Ipsos.



The relieving army were delayed, so Sopatros got to work.



His skirmishers whittled down the first army's light troops.



Then the line engaged with a clash of shields and weapons.



His light troops and cavalry moved to envelop the enemy left.



The light cavalry charged the enemy general.



Caught off guard, he was overwhelmed.



As though on cue, his death heralded the arrival of Makedonian reinforcements.



But the panic had already begun to set into his army, who were unaware that their salvation was at hand.







The arriving army came on as a disordered mob, with little sign of direction.



Some elements were routed immediately.



The remainder didn't stand.





Their leader was killed fleeing.



And in contrast to the Roman effort in Makedonia proper, Pergamon had won a great victory.

[QuintusSertorius]

150BC:



The theatres against Makedonia. My main aim is to blitz them out of Asia Minor and those outside of Makedonia. They're going to be gifts to other factions. Ipsos has a skeleton garrison left now after Sopatros' victory, that's going to Koinon Hellenon, same with Side. I think I'll leave them as the "Asiatic Greek" faction for a while - least til it's time to create Asia province. The alternative would be to make the Kingdom of Pergamon proper, but that would mean a load of client rulers and fiddling with scripts. Wouldn't take that long to knock off Mytilene, Ipsos, Sardis and Side.

Nikaia I've given to the Getai, Byzantion is going to the Aedui. Tylis when I get there is for the Casse or Arverni. It's a quick solution that doesn't benefit any one faction overly, and prevents the creation of a power base in the region too. Pella and Thermon I'm keeping. Once I turn on the Greeks, Demetrias is first, then a blitz of Greece.

I realised why the first battle was so hard; almost all of the troops were super-veterans. Here's the reformed phalangites:



I'd originally spawned them in Thermon and Demetrias to stop the Makedonians being steam-rollered by the Greeks, since they seemed incapable of recruiting them, even though they could. Now here they were being used against me. Same goes with 7-experience peltastai, who were better than my principes. They had three of the former, and four or five of the latter. Against my newly-recruited army. Until the enemy general died, it was touch and go, I thought I was going to lose. Everyone got badly mauled.

In not too many turns I've also got to think about my war in Africa, plan is to roll up Qarthadast from two directions. Got an Italian general recruiting African mercs, I might resort to using create_unit if I can't roist up enough of them. Or bribing some Sabaen stacks.

I gave the Aedui Numantia back after it surrendered without a fight. Busy, busy.