My favorite battle in TW:
Arretium has nearly fallen twice now. One siege was broken at the last moment by the Senate. The second siege was broken by a full stack Julii army from Patavium. I decided to break the siege because the battle would have taken place in a forest and my cavalry would have gotten shredded. When I moved my army to siege Arretium again from a different direction, I was surprised to find the Julii had actually set up an ambush. My faction leaders army was taken completely by surprise by a full stack of Roman units (still pre-marian)
The Julii began the battle with 1500men and not a single Roman survived. I began the battle with 960men and lost 79men. Beginning as an ambush I cannot even begin to explain the mass confusion that ensued but my faction leader and a few units of RS were at the head of the army and 3 units of RS were at the tail. Eventually they met in the middle and the Roman army was simply torn to pieces. Both groups of cavalry simply carried out what I like to call the Pac-Man maneuver. The Roman army never formed a solid battle line as they scattered to engage. Using three cavalry I was able to encircle and rout each unit in turn before disengaging and moving on to the next. There was not enough time to get many kills but my Iberian inf kept the Romans on the run until my cav had the chance to come back and finish the job.
There was a single unit of Triarii that I avoided like the plague until my single unit of SB inf made it across the field and engaged them. Of course their general made a bee-line for my faction leader. My faction leader (who had 45-man bodyguard, 2 silver chevrons and 9+ command stars) made short work of the enemy cavalry and ended with over 250 kills in the battle. It was very, very fun.
Now Arretium should (finally) fall as I have the men to hold the bridge to the North while besieging the city.
My Iberian army has grown to two full stacks and has begun a push into gaulish territory, leaving many half-clothed and completely dead barbarians in their wake. I have taken Narbo Martius and Massilia. Unfortunately this opens up a border with the Britons so there is the possibility of war breaking out there. Other than the wide area to cover, the biggest problem with fighting through Europe is the abundant forests. It is very difficult to command any army in the woods but especially hard for the cav dependant factions.
I have taken Kydonia, Rhodes and Thessalonica. I now have an army on its way from Greece to take Salona from the Julii. The assault on Thessalonica was another bloody affair where my losses were greater than the enemy. I did find some comic relief near the end. As I finally approached the city square with a unit of SB Inf in phalanx mode, the enemy general charged, lost half his number and routed… about 10 steps to the city square where his men regained their morale and promptly charged again. This happened three times before the unit was completely destroyed. Looked like a bunch of indecisive lemmings. Too funny.![]()
I aim to cripple but not destroy Gaul and hopefully avoid war with the Britons for now. Waging war in Europe is messy with very few strategic boundaries to defend. My next major opponent will be either Pontus or Egypt. Thankfully money is no longer a real concern. Rhodes and Corinth have to be two of the most desirable cities on the map. Corinth basically counts as a 1-step increase in taxes everywhere and Rhodes can make a massive increase in available cash if your empire is large enough.
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