The Empire Strikes Back - An SPQR AAR (with all assorted gadgets)

[johnhughthom]

Darn it, I had planned on starting either a Roman AAR or a Pahlav one with an old dude telling stories to kids in a tent...
Back to the drawing board.

Anyway nice start, are you going to go with the old assault on Taras first up or are we going to see something slightly different with this one?

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

Darn it, I had planned on starting either a Roman AAR or a Pahlav one with an old dude telling stories to kids in a tent...
Back to the drawing board.

Anyway nice start, are you going to go with the old assault on Taras first up or are we going to see something slightly different with this one?

I actually had to delay this a bit due to the fact 1.2 was launched like a day after it started, lol. But since the beginning of a Romani campaign is always so well know I might cut the details of my narrative for Taras. Still thinking of it!

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

Archesilaos scratched the back of his head, then wavered, then reminded of his duty. The inspiration of the moment left him aloof for a few seconds before he could realize the audience was waiting for him to continue, and that he best do it for the sake of his image as a historian. Continuing, he set himself on an eloquent mood to impress the audience.

“Legate, wake up!” – A voice cried in the tent.
“Yes… hmm, huh? Marcus!” – The figure of a man, relatively tall for a Roman and young in looks and manner opened his eyes and inquired the disturber.

The tent was a typical Roman tent, but this one was relatively large and special: thanks to the love of standardization found in the Roman army, it was a methodically organized and clean tent of large proportions compared to the others on the field, reserved for the soldiers. On the center was a table and a few improvised wooden benches and apparatus, presumably a tactical map, which also happened to be the most precious part of the cargo thanks to the lack of reliable geographers. It came straight from Rome, where a Greek master had sold it to the Senate for no less than 1000 Denarii. Grudgingly paying the bill, the Censor Plebeivs Dentatus consented in giving it to the young Cornelius Scipio, warning him that his political future was at stake with the Campaign and that not even his name would save him if he lost on the South.

Lvcivs Cornelivs Scipio was a man of ambition: young, he was since an early age tutored by Greeks from Italia in all sorts of cultured gadgets and wisdom. At 11 he held a sword for the first time, and had intensive training sections that only the warlike patrician clans of Rome could afford. His father, and in his absence, his close adult male relatives, taught him how to duck and dodge javelins and thrusts, how to stab with a Gladius and how to throw a spear into the distance. All of this was coupled with classes on personal defense, which included holding a large thureos shield which the very young Scipio could barely stand, then defend against the blows of his trainer like any common soldier.

It was true that Scipio would probably not use any of these skills: he was the son of the most ambitious and growing aristocratic family and gens of Rome, and the last assignment he could think of was of a common soldier. He would never share his room with the Plebeii on foot, but rather fight on horseback; but given the Roman tradition and the urge of his own family to learn every art, from the art of philosophy to the art of killing, he became skilled in the ways of the common legionary in a manner that many on his future battle lines would never be.

When he was 15, his father Barbatus, already an elderly figure, introduced him to horseback riding. Giving him a pony, and later a horse of Campanian breed, Scipio’s youthful energies were gathered towards charging, using a lance and controlling his mount. The best riders from Campania taught him how to hold the lance and fight mounted, and taught him essential precautions: “never fight on horse like you would on foot” – They told him, around the campfires – “On horseback, you are a big and easy target for your foes. Avoid a prolonged melee and rally your companions away for another charge. This is where strength lies: during the charge, you are unstoppable.”

Now, the ambitious young Scipio was alone on the world, and the Paterfamilias of the Scipiones. Thanks to his influence and lineage, he was able to convince the Senate to allow him to lead the army against Pyrrhus; many were opposed to allowing a young man to lead such an expedition, but the aristocratic factions in the Senate convinced most that the worst part of the Epirote war was done, that Tarentum would be an easy target, and that the Consuls and Praetores best be left managing the Res Publica instead of following such undertakings. It was how Scipio gained his first command, and on the year of 272 B.C., his army was ready to march on Tarentum. Men from all the Res Publica were levied for the undertaking, and a new legion, the Legio I, would be under Scipio's Command.

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

Updated, quite a long hiatus but now I'm doing it. Expect the Tarentum campaign to be up soon .

[Maion Maroneios]

Updated, quite a long hiatus but now I'm doing it. Expect the Tarentum campaign to be up soon .

It's Taras you filthy Roman dog! Just kidding, nice update I'm eager to see some Roman arse-kicking for a change

Maion

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Romani are evil (Insert super evil laugh here)
nah im just kidding i am gonna see how this one turns out.

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

The Battle of Tarentum (or Taras for you Greeks out there :P)

Scouts had told Scipio that a war party of Greeks was spotted on the border. He wondered what they could be doing alone: apparently they were relatively small. “Scouting”, perhaps? As Scipio left his tent dressed in full equipment, a wave of aides came with new reports; reports on the payment of soldiers, reports on the daily drilling of men, reports on disciplinary procedures, etc… etc…

Scipio could not stand the minutiae of running a camp, and frankly speaking he was tired of standing ground all the time while waiting for the rest of the legion to gather, and what men! Most of them were lost during the march, and he needed to send scouts so they could be found and guided to the right path and the encampment. Unsheathing the sword, he gently rubbed his hand on it: “prepare to be blooded!” – He muttered quietly.

The Legio I was the only standing legion of the Res Publica: all the rest were either disbanded or destroyed during the constant pressure of the war with Epirus. Scipio hoped that he could finally end this chapter of affairs and hoped for an end to the war, on his terms of course. And the men were a mixed blessing: tough veterans stood along with the fresh conscripts of the year, most of them as young as 16. Scipio reviewed them in detail, dressed in armor, and occasionally correcting their stand and lifting their morale with encouragements.

“Milites!” – His voice echoed through the camp – “Today, we follow our own march to the Epirote. Strengthen your hearts, for winter is coming, but we cannot waste time! Remember what your fathers, cousins and even some of yourselves have done on the field against them, and take it to your hearts and minds of our ultimate goal, and that goal is to kick the effeminate butt of the Epirote all the way back to their ugly mommies!”

His men sycophantically shouted in approval: “hurrah! Hurrah!”, some of the young men as loud as they could to appear confident. Scipio then proceeded: “When you kick their arses at least do it gently. You know what they have been through when they were boys!” – The laughter took control of the men over there. It was the mission! But Scipio knew that marching his men on winter, even the Mediterranean winter, would require more than a sharp tongue…

“God I hate this” – One of the Tribunes was complaining – “Why can’t we just come home. I’m sick of these god damned Epirotes and their stubbornness! They should have handed Taras long ago!” – Scipio was listening closely and replied – “This is not the way it works, young Aulus. I know these god damned Epirotes were tough to crack, but it will be far easier now. Pyrrhus is on Greece, thinking he can be a God, and meanwhile the news of our inevitable, hear well, inevitable victory will bring him down to the ground. As if we really needed those fancy elephants to win anything for us!”

“I agree, Legate.”

The war party marched closely through the flat and gentle ground of Magna Graecia towards their destination. Scipio’s plan consisted in besieging the city of Tarentum, and hopefully starving the men there onto submission; he wished to avoid any and all bloodshed, but naturally he set his own plans for a battle: in case the Epirotes tried a slugging match on the open ground, he would ram them frontally and hope for the best. That’s what any sensible Roman would do, and never mind the fact that some of them carried pikes larger than the Via Latina. “It must be a phallic obsession, you know”, a Tribune known for his lewd mind said, “they and their pikes, and their rear ends”. Scipio merely uttered a superficial laugh, knowing that the large number of phallic jokes would never win a battle for him. And indeed, the men looked gloomy, more than the usual for a boring march.

“Uphill go!” – The Hastati were leading the march onto a hill, close to Taras proper – “I’m surprised, you know. Even though our spies and scouts sighted a couple of Greek war parties, they never dared to approach us.”

“Good enough, Aulus. Now let’s lay siege to that damn place!”

It was then, in what seemed like another boring day, that a man on a horse came as quickly as he could. He could barely breathe, but once spotting the main body of the army he began shouting: “THEY ARE THERE, THE GREEKS, THEY ARE COMING FOR US!”

Scipio then sounded for the war preparations and deployed his men on the hill for the inevitable battle. "And so it begins!"

[Maion Maroneios]

Just read your update, it was very good mate. I laughed a bit when I read that line about the Greek boys

Maion