I fought Satres with my army, and after I beat him, I immediately besieged Iuvavoaeta and he did not reappear till three turns later. It was quite a nasty shock since I was expecting to starve Iuvavoaeta out. As it is, I decided to reload the previous turn and storm the town, because Satres dealt a far greater blow to my morale and my Third Army in their maiden battle than any faction ever could.
Anyhows, I have a recommendation for a battlefield. Satres always spawns in the same spot, apparently, two tiles west of Iuvavoaeta. If you controlled Veldideno, then stepped into Satres' western red zone (western, not north or southwestern), when he attacks you the next turn and you withdraw, you will end up on the tile, one tile northwest of the ford that divides Veldideno and Iuvavoaeta, whose screenshots are posted below. It's a very good location for a defensive stand, and provides ample opportunity for ambush. This is a pseudo-AAR or rather a commentary of the complete (but very painful) victory I won the third time round after practicing the coordination of my tactics. For those who are worrying about how to beat them, this may give you a geographical edge.
The view towards the front
As you can see you can place your defense on a knoll which is cliffed on one side, so you can simply form a defensive semicircle. The foreground is my left flank/front. The enemy would approach from the bottom of the screen. At any point of his attack, he would be attacking uphill. In the background you see a clump of forest that's just within the battlemap border. It's a perfect ambush point to flank the enemy's units attacking your rear. (I fought the battle three times and never once did they fully enclose my line. They always left my rear open. EB formations seem to limit how far the enemy front can curve, it seems.) You can see my 4 units of Iaosatae in position to enfilade the entire enemy centre from the rear. That's what happens when you roll back the enemy's left with the help of the units you have in ambush in the trees.
A view of the rear looking towards the knoll.
This view is from nearby the said ambush clump of trees, looking towards the front. The enemy is in a triply poor position on his left and centre, as you can see here and perhaps even more so in the previous picture, because 1) He's attacking uphill, 2) He's about to be outflanked, and 3) The place where the iaosatae are standing is actually an upslope, meaning he's trapped in a valley with people shooting at him like fish in a barrel, while your outflankers would actually be attacking downhill at some point, and would certainly have the high ground.
The view from the top of the knoll towards my centre and rear/right
In the left background you can see the final piece of my battle strategy: the protruding clump of trees is actually a huge and deep forest where I hid my second family member and my Leuce Epos, leaving the general in the rear to reinforce the flanking maneuvre and not advertise the position of the cavalry ambush since he can't hide. Hide them deep enough, and the enemy flank (which will sweep through the forest edge on its approach since this knoll is more than halfway across the map from the AI side) will not encounter it. Then once the flanking maneuvre is begun, I moved my cavalry from deep inside closer to the forest's edge, not close enough that the AI would peel troops away to counter it. Then, once the flankers have begun the rollback and the slingers have begun their fire for effect, then out comes the cavalry, straight into the rear of the enemy centre, combining with the flanking column and the other brihentin unit, slaughtering the enemy centre and left. By the time the enemy right, in your front/left, gets the idea and routs, it will already have been too late since your cavalry will have already reached them. When I played it, at no time were more than 10 men from the entire army able to escape, and once I completely annihilated him.
It has its similarities to Hooker's original plans in the composite outflanking move in the Chancellorsville campaign, except that the subsidiary column would only hit Lee's flank when the main column had already engaged, rather than for both to join in one huge outflanking like Hooker intended. Hmm.
I recommend placing your strongest troops in your centre left, because that's the place that will have the hottest fighting and will be fighting the longest. In my battle I placed my Appea Gaedotos there, and boy, can that phalanx hold. FYI, my army was fullstrength in all units when it started out, and my bodyguards each had about 100 men. If you're Gaulish like me, the Gaesatae are an IMMENSE help here. Place them in the main line, because their holding power is immense, Satres' army does not include slingers or archers, and your gaesatae have the advantage of high ground, meaning that enemy attacks don't do that much damage.
Provincial "Defender" Generals/Stacks
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Re: Provincial "Defender" Generals/Stacks
Originally Posted by Pharnakes
- my first balloon, from Mouzafphaerre
So while I probably can't destroy him as it is now, it's absolutely necessary that I do so in a not too distant future...
Re: Provincial "Defender" Generals/Stacks
Thanks for the help everyone, great instruction Pezhetairoi!
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