A Romani AAR

[Steve2392]

great thread guys but i wonder if any one can help me out

whenever i go on custom battle and play as Rome i cant find any well roman units. please tell me if you can help or im just being stupid and their right in front of me thanks very much

[NickTheGreek]

Cheers for following Chirurgeon, tbh i didn't think i was going all that fast.
Steve what you need to do is open the EB multiplayer, that lets you play with full factional units.

[NickTheGreek]

In case you guys didn't already notice, I've changed my name. I thought Luther was a bit crap tbh, and besides Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is such an awesome film
anywho...

The Conquest of Sicily, the First Punic War and the Conquest of Dalmatia and Illyria

It was in 259 BC that the man tasked with bringing the islands of Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia under roman dominion crossed the sea at the toe of Italy and laid siege to the Mamertine stronghold of Messana. The man’s name was Servivs Clavdivs Marcellvs.
Marcellvs had risen to command after displaying great heroics at the Battle of Patavium and on the senate’s orders had been given command of the expedition to Sicily, after, of course he made a bit of a name for himself defeating brigands and rebels in the Italian heartlands.
The Sicilian conquest had a curious start. Marcellvs realised that the Mamertine defenders of Messana were ex-mercenaries and as such were professional soldiers. To assault and take the city could result in unneeded casualties for the roman forces so Marcellvs resolved to starve the defenders out, he laid siege to the city for one and a half years. After this time had elapsed he expected the Mamertines to come out and fight which they did not do. They surrendered the city of Messana and as a result were granted a pardon by the republic and, provided they gave up their arms, were allowed to stay in Messana, many even agreed to form part of the garrison that was being raised their to defend the city.
Thus was the city of Messana captured in 258 BC without so much as a drop of blood being spilt.
The war in Sicily was going well for the republic but it was not the only military endeavour that the forces of Rome had embarked upon. In 257 BC the armies of Lvcivs Cornelivs Scipio had retrained in Latium and had crossed the Illyrian border. The Legio I made good time to Segestica, with the intention of capturing the city and its valuable mines.

The Battle of Segestica

Reaching the city in the summer of 257 BC Consul Scipio wasted no time in deploying siege fortifications, however he did not mean to employ a lengthy siege instead he opted to assault the city in the autumn of the very same year.
An account of the battle comes from the journal of Lucius Labienus, one of Scipio’s cavalry bodyguards.

We arrived outside the Illyrian capital in midsummer and proceeded to deploy in a time tested siege fashion. The enemy were completely surrounded and in the first week alone we captured some one hundred and thirty carts of food and goods destined for the pirate markets of the Illyrian King, Faros.



The army advanced and created two breaches through which to proceed. This tactic confused the Illyrian defenders who seemed unsure which breech to defend. In the end their confusion left both breaches undefended and our men entered the city relatively unmolested. We enveloped the enemy closest to the breaches and, in less than ten minutes, two regiments of the enemy’s best fighters were annihilated.
After it became apparent to the enemy king that the defences had fallen he withdrew his forces to the centre and prepared for us, leaving only a handful of Greek archers as an ad-hoc defence.




With the enemy hemmed in the general sent in the second wave to attack the centre plaza with a frontal assault.



The Illyrians held valiantly for some time and fought well knowing their king was with them, however their lightly armed spearmen could not stand up to our disciplined Princepes or our fierce Gallic auxiliaries and soon Faros was surrounded and had his back well and truly against the wall.



With their king surrounded and beleaguered the enemy began to falter and it was now the Hastati launched their surprise attack on the enemy’s rear. Chaos ensued.



Seeing his men cut down Faros sought to reorganize his defence, however by taking his mind off the immediate enemy he left himself open and vulnerable. Our men exploited this and cut the Illyrian King down.



The straw that broke the camels back, as the Mauritanian traders say. The Illyrians were cut down soon after. The town and its vast mineral wealth fell to the Republic’s men.



Glory to Iupiter Optimvs Maximvs.

Victory was swift and relatively painless for Scipio’s hardened men and with the capture of the mines new wealth flowed into the senate’s coffers.
In Sicily things were not going as planned. After the capture of Messana the Carthaginians remained neutral and Marcellvs thought it safe to proceed to Syrakousai. However during the fifth month of siege the Carthaginians accelerated matters by sending a punitive force to besiege Messana. They were driven off by the city’s garrison but the attack raised questions, the foremost being should Marcellvs abandon the Siege of Syrakousai for now and attack the Carthaginians directly at Lilbeo. One thing was sure though the decision had to be made quickly.