Best Battles!

[Count Belisarius]

These are great stories!

My best recent battle was playing R:TR as Pontus. I had conquered most of Asia Minor, engaged in a war against Ptolemaic Egypt, but was short on cash and could only field 2 decent-sized stacks of decidedly inferior troops, mostly Eastern Infantry and other trash. Armenia, my erstwhile ally, had just stabbed me in the back; and I was forced to send one stack north to relieve the siege on my 2nd biggest city. My other army was located on the coastal plain in between Tarsus and Antioch when a massive Ptolemaic stack attacked.

I had a decent (4-star) general, a couple of pike phalanx units, 2 peltasts, 2 archers, 2 Pontic Light Cavalry units, 8 inexperienced (1 bronze chevron) Eastern Infantry units, and one recently-recruited unit of Cilician Pirates. I had never used Cilician Pirates before, but after this battle they came to occupy a special place in my heart. The terrain was flat and relatively open, which gave the advantage to the better equipped and more numerous Ptolemaics. I deployed phalanxes to the center, with 4 Eastern Infantry on each wing, and 1 archer, 1 peltast, & 1 Light Cav on each extreme flank in hopes of stretching out the enemy line and drawing off some of his phalanxes into a running fight.

The bad guys fielded a 3-star general, 1 unit of regular elephants, 2 Agemas (elite pike phalanx), a boatload of Greek and Macedonian mercenaries (the equivalent of Greek hoplites and Levy Pikemen, though with only 80 men per unit), assorted javelin and slinger troops, and a couple Cleruch (Ptolemaic heavy cavalry) units. Needless to say, I was in a bit of trouble.

I immediately sent my missile battle groups out onto the flanks to raise as much hell as possible before the main event started. The elephants began swinging out wide on my right flank, and the Cleruchs started heading for my missile troops. Predictably, the enemy's main body came at me head-on. I sent a unit of light missile cav galloping out to engage the elephants, set my right-hand archers on fire arrows, targeted the elephants, and sent my peltasts running into the fight. I was able to rout the elephants before they made contact with my Light Cav, and luckily, the beasts ran amok and mauled one of the Cleruchs coming out to carve up my missile troops. I charged my Light Cav into the confusion, taking heavy casualties, but routing the Cleruchs and neutralizing them as a fighting force. The peltasts disposed of all but 3 of the remaining elephants, and I turned my archers' attention to the enemy's battle line. My right flank was secure - for the moment.

On the other side of the battlefield, I rushed a unit of Eastern Infantry out of the line and onto the flank and sheltered my left-hand missile group from the other Cleruch unit. My archers over here were peppering the unshielded right side of the endmost enemy phalanx, and it turned about to face the music. Meanwhile, a combination of javelins and Eastern Infantry had decimated the Cleruchs, and I charged my Light Cav into their rear, routing them with minimal loss. HA! Left flank secure, and I left my peltasts to skirmish with the oncoming phalanx

By this time of course, the Ptolemaic phalanxes had neared contact with my main line. They eshewed engaging my phalanxes in the center, preferring to overwhelm my inferior Eastern Infantry. I obliged them by opening my center, turning my phalanxes left and right, and taking the nearest enemy phalanxes in the flank. Enemy skirmishers and slingers immediately behind the main line began a galling fire into the flanks of my phalanxes, so I charged my general (unit size 55, thank God) through the gap in my center and began making short work of the enemy missile troops, though I took casualties all the way.

Unfortunately, in all the confusion I had lost track of the enemy general. Instead of suiciding himself against my phalanxes as per usual, he had taken it upon himself to play merry hell on my erstwhile secure right flank. He was cutting my peltasts to ribbons, and I had no unengaged spear units nearby to help. The peltasts routed in shameful fashion, so I bit the bullet, turned off my archers' skirmish function, and attacked. My archers sacrificed themselves bravely, and my already understrength Light Cav took the enemy general in the rear. A general melee ensued, but the enemy general positively REFUSED to rout, much less die. He kept on killing and killing and killing, until my archers and Light Cav were whittled down to almost nothing. Finally, they got him and his bodyguard routed, but I was left with exactly 24 archers and 7 Light Cav. Ugly.

My Eastern Infantry in the main line were taking fearful casualties and before I knew it, 1 began to rout. You know how that goes. Fear spread like a virus, and 3 out of 4 Eastern Infantry on the right side of the line headed for greener pastures. My left was holding because my missile troops on that flank had managed to draw off enough infantry units to give me some kind of parity. I disengaged my general from his fun amongst the enemy's slingers, and galloped back to rally the troops. On the way, I was able to take a unit of pursuing elite Agema pikemen in the rear and rout them. SCORE!!!! My general's presence forced the enemy units that had broken my right wing back into phalanx formation, which gave my running infantrymen a bit of breathing room. I managed to rally 2 of the 3 routed Eastern Infantry units, and headed them back into the fight after a brief rest. Time to commit the reserves.

I had concealed my Cilician Pirates in the one tiny grove of trees on the field. As my rallied infantry moved forward to engage, the Pirates sprang up, loosed a devastating volley of javelins into the rear of the nearest hoplite formation, and followed up with an heroic charge with their hand axes. Rout. One after another, I was able to chop to pieces the enemy phalanxes, using my general to mop up the dregs. Without those Cilician Pirates, the day would have been lost.

Back at the main line, my phalanxes had managed to rout the two enemy units nearest my center. I formed them up, and began rolling up the enemy line. Unfortunately, my left wing chose this moment to break, though I was able to partially stem the tide with my phalanxes. I again sent my exhausted right wing into the fray, and set about rallying the left. I finally succeeded and the Ptolemaics began routing wholesale. The only enemy units contesting the field were depleted phalanxes that had been chasing my missile troops all day and a few missile units. Using a combination of arrows, javelins, cavalry, and the redoubtable Cilician Pirates, I was able to destroy them all piecemeal.

WHEW! The game classified it as an Heroic Victory. Personally, I would have classified it as Pyrrhic at best, considering that most units took 50% casualties, sometimes more. My general's once-proud 55-man bodyguard was reduced to a mere 17, and my Light Cav was practically nonexistent. It was a MUCH closer battle than I would have liked, and took FOREVER to fight, but it was loads of fun.