Bloodiest victories

[Frodge]

having just today won the most bloody battle i have ever had to fight i thought i'd share. having just started a Romani campaign i besieged Bononia, and i took it. but when the dust cleared 507 romans lay dead for only seven hundred Eleutheroi Gauls. and just to point out i'm playing on default unit size so that was quite a chunk of my army (a third if memory serves).
Share your bloodiest victories, if you feel like it obviously

[konny]

You should not assault towns that are guarded by naked fanatics, starve them out. And you are lucky to have won at all. When I went for Bononia the first time my men got shreddred.


I had just fought a comparable Pyrrhic victory: I caught three units of Romans off guard somewhere in the Alps with six of my units. Not much of a deal, everyday battle. I won with only a few men killed in the fighting - amongst them a family member, what means a 90 men double silver chevron bodyguard gone for a handfull of Romans.

[Sakkura]

You should not assault towns that are guarded by naked fanatics, starve them out. And you are lucky to have won at all.

Or if you positively have to have those towns ASAP, bring lots of archers and skirmishers, and make sure they use their missiles on the naked dudes only.

My most recent semi-bloody victory was going fairly well; I was assaulting Athens as Makedon. Seeing as it's early in the game, my best wall-unit was galatikoi kluddolon. They faced some hoplitai, but with my slingers up on the hill outside town, they persevered, and also took out the archers and slingers the KH had up there. That certainly did put a red spot on that wall, as well as loads of overflow on the street below. But my losses were comparatively light. Even when my main forces of phalangitai deuteroi and hoplitai haploi moved in, things kept going my way. A greek infantry general with 3 chevrons and 45 man just does not put a dent in 122 phalangites as long as they stay in formation. Now, I had spent a lot of time mopping up on the wall and letting the machine-gun towers whittle down enemy units too. So I found myself in a bit of a hurry to get to the town square. So I rushed some hoplitai haploi along some of the alternate roads around the place. Then my pahalangites made contact in there, and I had to tend them for a bit. Then I look down and see one of my hoplitai haploi with a big, red 24 and a "taking fire" icon. I go - WTF? I killed their archers and slingers? - and then I remember I sent one of the units the long way around, past one of the gates I hadn't taken over. And they had been parked there. I send them running, but the machine gun scores a few more hits, causing them to rout and start running along the wall, toward another tower with enemy machine guns.... So that was bye-bye hoplitai

[Xehh II]

You can't really get bloody in EB, you'd have to wait until EB2 for blood.

[Dyabedes of Aphrodisias]

I just fought a disgraceful battle as the Getai. I barely won, but it was a bloodbath. I had nearly a full stack of not too shabby units (light phalanx, axemen, light spearmen, Scythian archers, elite skirmishers), and I was sieging Sarmiszegethusa. A small stack came out and attacked from behind. I fought the first army, which was a bitch because it was horse-archers, cavalry and some infantry, and some infantry approached from the rear. So I'm doin' good until I see my general eating it. I go over, see him getting mauled by Tarabostes in the forest, and send in the axemen to deal with them. My axemen get jumped by some falxmen from out of nowhere, so I send in a light phalanx to deal with that. They get jumped in the forest by another phalanx and another unit of falxmen. I send in the other phalanx, which starts taking it up the rear by some slingers in the distance, and a bunch of pila come tearing through the trees into my men from a hidden unit of Komatai. Meanwhile my beautiful Scythian archers are running away with 30 men left from fighting light cavalry, and my other unit of the same is getting thrashed by the horse-archers. Off to the side, my Thracians are owning, and it's a random-ass mob of Thracians, falxmen, axemen, skirmishers of both sides, all in a huge ball that's getting ravaged by flying stones and arrows. It was horror; the Thracians...they kept coming out of the woods with no end...I was pissed; there weren't enough men to continue the siege...I killed 900 and lost 400, but it was still pretty sad how badly I got thrashed in that one.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Helluvalot I can't count them!

Once I wanted to assault Paratonion as the Maks. The had a Psiloi almost-full stack. I didn't want to wait - big mistake. I sent forth my Argyraspides - totally owned... Then my Hysteroi... my Galatian heavies... my Thureophoroi... I got the town in the end, but my army was unable to function afterwards - no more infantry except Phalangitai... Over 1000 dead because of a bunch of Psiloi.

The bloodiest I think was Maks - Seleukids. Both sides lots of mercenaries, Sabaen on the Seleu side and Gallic on mine. The battle went very well for the Seleus, and my troops routed. But I managed to recall them, and towards the end of the battle, I had only say 150 men left, my General only like 10 horsies, and with a bit of unfair tricking I managed to win at the end through breaking the morale of their last Mistophoroi Phalangitai unit. It was on Huge, and I don't remember the casualties, but they were above 90%.

[Barnabas]

I fought a very Pyhrric victory last night. I was playing as the Avernii. I do a bit of roleplaying, forcing each offensive army that I own to have at least one general (and I make sons of the Avernii sit in Avericum until they are 25 to get a proper education... some turn soft, but it helps most of them). I was forced to take a guy with fairly low skills who constantly complained about not being in a city. He had clearly turned soft.

My general brought with him four groups of Norther Gallic Swordsmen, three of the light Gallic cavalry, three units of slingers, and two units of Gestatae (I hate using too many of them... it feels like cheating). I added a unit of local spearmen and shiny bronze infantry from my province in Iberia. The army moved in the winter, defeating a Lusotann army with relative ease, and then sieged the nearby city. It fell in two turns, but I lost about 40 Gestatae in the process, and had to send one of my cavalry units, and two units of Gallic Swordsmen. The rest of my troops were in fair condition.

I figured I'd take one more city with my remaining half stack. My general hired some mercenaries that seemed like they would be fierce (they cost a pretty penny anyways). Two units of Mercs were added that had nice armor and melee abilities. I then set out to find and siege the southern Iberian city (just above the holdings of Carthage). By the time we reached the city, my army was forced to ration, making our morale even lower. We set up sap points, and since I didn't want the morale to drop any further, I figured that I'd proceed with the attack. I had around 700 men and the opponent had 1200.

Once the walls were down, I sent my mercenaries through the two breaches in the wall. They immediately were bogged down by enemy fighters. I then sent in my Gallic Swordsmen and some Iberian spearmen, which managed to sneak behind the enemy lines and proceeded to march up and try to take the gate. Last, I sent my Gestatae, followed by the Slingers who were attempting to pelt the enemy and force them to flee. The Cavalry stood at a distance, watching my spearmen get slaughtered at the wall. By this time, the enemy had closed the gap, cutting off my spearmen from getting reinforcements. In desperation, I ordered my general and cavalry to take the left breach by force, crashing into the enemy... and the plan worked after about 30 seconds of intense fighting.

Through this time, I had been losing quite a few troops due to those pesky towers and walls, so I was eager to break for the center square. I sent both my mercenary units to reinforce the right breach, and sent all other troops towards the center of the town. My slingers moved in to cover me, also providing support for the right breach and taking the tower to our left that I was previously unable to deal with.

My men managed to reach the center square, where about 300 enemies were gathered. Their general had been slaughtered when he attempted to retreat from the left breach, so I figured this battle would be cake. However, it took several minutes to finally get to a position that looked like I could win the center square battle. Meanwhile, all remaining Iberian spearmen had been slaughtered at the wall. A unit of Northern Gallic Swordsmen and two mercenary units had been forced to flee, mainly because of the whithering fire of the gate towers on the wall. The enemy poured out of the wall, rushing towards the center square. I sent a 42-man weak unit of N. Gallic swordsmen to delay them, though that only worked for a few seconds. My slingers attempted to retreat, though one unit was cut off from the others and sacrificed so the two other units could make it up the hill towards the town center. I left a unit of 20 Gestatae to mop up the defenders that remainded in the city center, positioned the half-unit of Gestatae on the top of the hill with my general and slingers behind for support. Two shattered cavalry regimens were on either flank. As the enemy came, I sent all that I had available at them. They outnumbered me by a small margin, but my men were all exhausted and of low morale. Finally we surrounded the enemy and cut them to pieces.

In the end, I lost all but about 200 troops. Both mercenary units were completely gone, as was a unit of slingers and a unit of Northern Gallic Swordsmen. My Gestatae had fewer than 20 men in both units, and I had only 3 men in my general stack, along with only 25 or so cavalry spread between two divisions. I also had a couple badly hurting N. Gallic swordsmen left with some crippled slinger units. 500 losses, 1200 kills, and a city gained... but it is a long trek back to the capital, and Carthage and Lusotann are threatening. For the Avernii, that is a Pyhrric victory.