Huge Units = Big Difference
Having completed a vanilla Brutii Campaign I was impressed with the game but felt it lacked the final polish of its predecessors.
But having read about the Huge unit option I decided to have another go this time playing the newly unlocked Egypt whose chariots had impressed my Roman armies so much. But I also decided to up the video options to Huge Units.
Wow! What a difference. Suddenly armies really are hard to deploy and manoeuvre and those brilliant blitzkrieg attacks I used in the first campaign now need careful forward planning to allow time for the troops to form up.
Soon after the start of the campaign my trust and my alliance with the Seleucid Empire was betrayed by an ill conceived attempt to blockade my trade out of Salamis. The Seleucid ships that were sent on such a foolish mission now decorate the bottom on the Mediterranean.
But this was not enough, I was determined to teach these backstabbers a real lesson and at the same time take the opportunity to expand the borders of my own empire.
So a hastily raised army of 1,886 men under command of Pasebakhean Philopater (3 stars) and a veteran of the Judean uprising descended upon the Seleucid controlled city of Damascus.
Damascus was held by a Seleucid Army of 1,559 men mostly philos but with several hundred cavalry and 30 mercenary elephants. Pasebakheans army was mostly Eastern and Arab mercenaries with a small core of Nubian spearmen, 240 Desert Cavalry and a large force of slingers.
The battle opened with the a massive missile bombardment of the Seleucids guarding the city gates. Damascus only had wooden walls and so the arrows from the Arabian Horse Archers and the shot from my slingers rained down on their Phalanx formations in a deadly stream. The road behind the city wall was soon choked with Seleucid dead and, into this chaos they sent their only missile unit, 30 Elephants which caused total mayhem stomping back and forth through their own infantry whilst only doing minor damage to my slingers.
Eventually, the AI seemed to give up and withdrew from the walls leaving the piles of their dead to guard the gate alone.
At this point I sent forward my rams with two massive units of Eastern Infantry, one to breach the gates and the other the wall opposite the secondary street leading to the city centre.
Several counter-attacks by the Seleucids were easily beaten back by missile fire and only added to the carpet of bodies behind the walls.
At this point I thought the battle was more or less over bar the run to the city centre. This had always been the case in the past.
However, I had a rude surprise awaiting me for as my two huge Eastern infantry formations entered the city for the planned drive on the city centre the Seleucids launched a well timed counter attack. A large phalanx emerged from the secondary road and turned to attack the Eastern infantry entering the city through the gate.
I laughed at their stupidity for in attacking this unit they had exposed not just their flank but their rear to my Eastern Infantry entering through the breached wall behind them. In a masterly move I ordered a deadly pincer movement expecting to reap an easy victory and remove one more Seleucid unit from the enemies order of battle.
Not so, too late I realised the the enemy had planned for this move and even as my Eastern Infantry closed on the rear of their phalanx they in turn were hit in the flank and rear first by a massive force of Light Lancers and then by their 30 elephants.
In desperation I ordered forward my Nubian Spearmen to deal with the cavalry and my mercenaries peltasts to deal with the Elephants. But their was no room to deploy and so instead of helping they merely pressed in on the rear of the Eastern Infantry pushing their comrades onto the enemies pikes and increasing the slaughter.
The Eastern Infantry were slaughtered and broke jamming the gate in an attempt to flee the city and the enemy elephants were now in amongst the Peltasts who unable to escape due to the panic at the gate behind then were stomped to death in the street. The Nubians finally arrived after it was all over and managed to stabilize the situation just inside the breach and I finally managed to drive off the enemy Elephants with a costly charge by my Desert Cavalry.
Almost half my army had now dissolved and victory now looked far less certain. A more cautious advance by the Nubians began driving the enemy back along the secondary road, whilst my final unit of Eastern Infantry were ordered to move down the main road to take the city centre.
I must admit I lost track of the Eastern Infantry's progress at this time as I was carefully micro-managing the Nubian's in their slow pursuit up the secondary road. I suspect they were set upon by the enemy generals bodyguard for the next thing I knew they were broken and fleeing for the hills. Now I the Nubian spearmen were the only heavy infantry remaining in my army and they were committed to the wrong road. I was therefore forced to commit my Arab Cavalry to counter the enemy generals counter attack on the main road or risk having them sweep round and take my spearmen in the rear.
It seemed to work for a while, the enemy general was killed and the Arabian Cavalry were in the city centre mixing it with the dregs of the Seleucid routers. I eagerly awaited the appearance of the victory flag.
Not so again, suddenly my mercenary cavalry were in full flight and once again the main road was wide open to the city gates. This time it was the elephants that had returned from what I thought was uncontrolled rout to destroy the bulk of my cavalry.
I gritted my teeth and pressed forward with my spearmen along the secondary road ordering the remnants of my slingers and a few surviving Eastern Infantry who had managed to rally to keep the elephants at bay.
Fortunately, with their general dead the Seleucids had lost their resolve and I was able to slowly drive them back to the city centre with the intention of finishing them off with a hail of slingshot.
This plan worked up to a point, although the enemy had a final card up their sleeve in the form of a massive unit of peasants. I had more or less ignored these as they were normally rubbish and easily dealt with. However, in the huge numbers that existed in the city centre they took on a new menace descending on my small unit of 80 surviving Eastern Infantry and my slingers and doing considerable damage before being driven off.
Finally, the city centre was secure and the flag was counting down. I had settled down to count the cost only to see the flag disappear as 3 surviving elephants emerged from a side street and charged the city centre scattering my slingers and routing my 60 odd surviving Eastern Infantry.
There was no way I was going to lose this battle because of three stupid elephants and so I brought forward my generals chariot bodyguard, rallied my slingers and began pelting the beasts with everything I could throw at them.
It took a long while but eventually I chased them out of the city gates and killed the last one just outside the walls.
Phew! At last the victory screen. But little was left of Pasebakhean's proud army. 807 men reported for duty the next day out of 1,886. Only 146 of out of the 720 Eastern Infantry hired for the campaign remain and only 16 peltasts survived the disaster with the elephants.
The huge size of the units hinders the ability to use combined/mixed forces so that the 'rock/paper/scissors' concepts become much more critical and mistakes are a lot more difficult to correct.
I think this was the most challenging battle I have fought since starting with RTW but I suspect it will not be the last. Damascus is mine but the real prize is Antioch and that is guarded by two massive Seleucid armies and I have little money now to hire more mercenaries.
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Originally Posted by Fridge
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