OK, so I figured out some ways to minimize the impact of the bribery problem (avoid garrisoning cities with mercenary troops, don’t put good quality stacks under the command of unreliable generals, and then I just self-enforce a no-bribery rule). That has allowed me to continue to enjoy the great battles :).
I know we all have stories of our mighty martial prowess so here are a couple of mine:
Note - I’m using the Large unit size (80 roman infantry per company).
Numerius and the Saxons:
In my first campaign as the Julii (Medium/Medium), I’d managed to struggle through the Gauls and then I screwed up and got bogged down in Iberia while still trying to conquer Germania. My A stack during the conquest of Gaul was commanded by Numerius, an aged and stalwart general who at the ripe age of 66 is besieging the town in the Saxon province. His stack has been badly attritted by heavy fighting and the conquered towns have been too small and impoverished to replenish his troops. So hes down to 6 half strenght hastati, 1 full strength principes, 2 half strength velites and his own cavalry. He commands about 440 troops total. The Germans in the town are just remnants so I’m not too worried. I’m actually more worried about Numerius keeling over from old age than I am about the Germans. Then suddenly the German Faction Leader shows up with a stack of 1,600 men. I kid you not. It was one third peasants and about one quarter each of screeching women and spearmen, but he did have some Axemen and also the faction leader cavalry, plus another general with cavalry. And he had 1 company of barbarian cavalry (I think they were mercs). He attacked Numerius and tried to drive us off the Saxon town.
I get to the tac map hoping for a nice mountain to defend but instead I get a mixture of pleasant North European plains plus a smattering of forest. I put my infantry in line on the far edge of the map behind a small copse of trees. I hide my Velities in the trees and station good old Numerius as my reserve. I set my infantry to Guard and Fire At Will. I set my Velites to hold fire (as I don’t want them to give themselves away).
The Germans advance in a great big mass of spearmen, peasants and screeching women, with the axemen and cavalry bringing up the rear. The mass comes through the forested area and gets a little disordered. I’m holding fire on my Velites, waiting for the enemy to close. Just as the first couple bands of spearmen get within range of my infantry javelins, I have my Velites open up as well. The first wave of spearmen is broken just by the ranged fire and runs off. The peasants are next and the retreat of the spearmen plus the forest has disordered them badly. So I have my infantry charge them while my velites keep firing. We break the peasants easily and then march back to our starting line. Meanwhile I see that the enemy cavalry has moved to my right so I send Numerius over there to counter.
The next wave of enemy approach and this time its mostly screeching women and some spearmen. Sadly my infantry has used up its javelins now and the Velites are not strong enough to break the screechers. So the enemy engages my line and begins to inflict casualties. I am giving better than I’m taking but I’m still outnumbered 3 to 1 so things are looking dicey.
I see the German cav forming up on my right. Fortunately my best unit, the Principes are right there. I have them turn to face the cav and hold their ground. They take a tough charge from the Barbarian Cav and hold but then the German Faction Leader charges in. They hold but just barely and their morale drops to Wavering. Meanwhile I have moved Numerius around behind the charging German cav and then I flank them with a charge to the backside. This works beatifully - Numerius routs the German cav AND kills their Faction Leader. The Barbarian Cav fight on a bit and then their third cav unit rolls in. Numerius is outunumbered and i have to pull his unit with only 15 survivors. Fortunately this has broken their attempted flank on my right.
Now the battle boils down to the clash of the main battle lines. My poor wounded Principes have bucked up a little and I put them back into line. My Velites get overwhelmed by the advancing German Axemen, break and then rout before I can get Numerius over to rally them. I have one uncommitted Hastati on my far left flank so I bring them around and have them charge into the left side of the German infantry horde. The lines lock up and neither side is giving. My outnumbered Hastati are fighting hard. I bring Numerius around to the right, feeling desperate. I send Numerius and his depleted company into the right side of the German infantry horde. I hit some screeching women and break them, halt, charge again into a second screeching women and break them. I halt again and charge Numerius’ Tired company into a third band of women (no mercy!). They break also and the German morale goes to crap. Then the Germans start to crumple - Axemen companies start breaking and pretty soon their whole battle line is running.
I see that their surviving General with his measely 6 troops is trying to rally them. Numerius is down to 8 men and his troop is Exhausted. Nonetheless I send Numerius charging over to disrupt the general before he can rally the Germans. Numerius makes it over there, sends the charge home and routs the general. Then the Germans run off like dogs.
We took 1600 Germans on with 440 Romans - we took 220 castualties and inflicted 1200. We got a Heroic Victory and took the Saxon town. Numerius earned the title of The Mighty and died of old age the next turn :). I mentally held a tribute in his honor.
Spartan Ambush
In my second campaign as the Brutii (Hard/Hard) I take two towns and then settle down to build up a while. I’m at war with the Greeks but stay peaceful with the Macedonians. I send a spy and a Diplomat into Greek lands to check things out. I see that Sparta is lightly defended and I have an army of Hastati and Principes ready to roll. I bring in some Equites, hop onto my ships and cross the Tyrrhenean Sea. We get to the western Peloponese and debark. I have a good solid army led by a 6 star general: 9 Hastati, 2 Principes, and 4 Equites, all with blacksmith upgrades and 1 or 2 bars of experience (from the temple of Mars). Also I hire some Cretan Archers so I have about 1200 men total. The Greeks have about 200 men in or around Sparta so I figure this will be a cakewalk. I advance on Sparta and as I pass through the woods, the Greeks pop out and ambush me. This is the first time I’ve been ambushed and I am shocked to be rushed to the battle screen with no deployment. I’m even more shocked when I see my army straggled in a long column, and even more shocked when I see that my units are also in column. Then I look at the Greeks and go “Holy Shit”. They have 1400 men, about 1/4 each of Militia Hoplites, Hoplites and Armoured Hoplites. They also have one unit of Spartan Hoplites, a Faction Leader cav, and a couple of peltasts. Worse yet, they are surrounding my straggly column in a nice encircling U. I’m thinking I’m completely screwed.
Three things saved me: the basic toughness of the Roman units, a lucky distribution of units, and the sheer agonizing slowness of the hoplites. They had me. They had me right where they wanted me. But they were too slooooow to close the loop.
I got lucky in that my three front units were my two Principes and my Cretan archers. I immediately had my Principes make a crude U in line formation and had my archers start firing on the approaching hoplites. I set my Principes to Fire at Will to try to blunt the inital charge. I had my hastati run forward to extend the lines of the U - giving each one orders to run up and get into line formation. Then I had my Equites and my leader run forward and form up on the right in hopes of getting a chance to flank and charge.
The Greeks were too slow. If they could have closed the loop on me before I got my line setup I would have been toast. But between the Cretan archer fire and my Principes toughness, we held them for long enough for the Hastati to get in line. The hoplites ground away at my line on both the left and right, but we held. My infantry disrupted them with javelin fire and then the melee started. My archers were firing away and my infantry were fighting hard. We held and held, but it was clear that the superior weight and phalanx of the hoplites was going to break us on the left, and my right was too heavily engaged to shift.
I had my Equites in position to flank but waited a couple of agonizing minutes for the Greeks to fully commit to the battle line. Finally they engaged all their hoplites and sent in their General. When they did that. I charged in on the right, flanking their Armoured hoplites and breaking one, then two. We tried to break a third (Spartan Hoplites) but they turned their spears on us, pretty much trashing two of my four Equites. The final two Equites were tangled up with the Spartan Hoplites and with the Faction Leader Cavalry, so I sent my leader Quentus into flanking position. While he got into the right spot, my 3rd and 4th Equites were getting savaged by the Spartan Hoplites. Finally I sent Quentus into their rear with a charge and we broke them, then we broke the Faction Leader and rode him down. He died running like a dog.
It was lucky that I did so well on the right, as my left completely broke at this point. Their hoplites had been grinding away and finally just made my Hastati run like girlie men. Fortunately my right was secure and since I was in a U formation I just shifted the right to the left and held that line.
Meanwhile Quentus rallied the surving 3 companies of Equites (one must have routed in the frenzy) and we turned the corner from the right to the center, flanking and charging hoplite after hoplite. After 2 or 3 more broken companies, the Greeks turned and ran.
We were too beaten down to pursue but we accepted the victory. The computer awarded me a Clear Victory but it was a much closer-run thing than that. We lost 600 of 1200 men and the Greeks lost 900 of 1400. I limped over to Sparta and sieged it but would not have been able to take it without reinforcements.
It was a great battle as I learned how nasty (and yet how limited) phalanxes are, and I also learned that ambushes suck :).
OK, those are two of my best stories, what are some of yours?
Dan
