[RS AAR] A Pyrrhic Victory (Epirote AAR)
A Pyrrhic VictoryAAR main objectives:
An Epirote After-Action Report, by Selahedīn
- Destroy our Roman enemies from the West.
- Unify all of the Italic peninsula under Epirote rule.
- If possible, maintain an alliance with our Macedonian neighbours.
- Preserve the borders, keeping the barbaric tribes from the North at bay.
Settings:
- Campaign difficulty set to Hard.
- Battle difficulty set to Hard.
- Unit recruitment time set to 1 turn.
- Fog of War turned on.
- Manage all settings option turned on.
- Ab Urbe Condita year calculation system.
House rules:
- No bribes of any kind.
- No Auto-Resolved Sieges.
- No cheats.
Introduction:
It is the year 473 from the founding of the western plague that is Rome, and my name is... not important. What is important, however, is that the story of my brave Epirote brothers echoes throughout eternity.
That is why I am writing these words, so that they may be remembered for countless generations, as the men who changed this barbaric world.
But first, let me tell you a little about our current situation:
- To the North, the Illyrians threaten our borders, a mere nuisance is what I call them. Nothing more.
- To the East, live our Macedonian brothers. While they may have lost their once great Kingdom, they have not lost their fighting spirit! We salute them, as the true examples of Greek might that they are.
- To the South, one can find the arrogant Athenians, as well as some other Greek city states. Rats, all of them. They dare call us "barbarians", but they know nothing of our culture or our people!
- And finally, from the West, comes the greatest threat to our people. The Romans, or the Western plague as I like to call them. Their only objective is to subjugate the entire world, and they will stop at nothing before doing just that.
Well, I say it is our responsability, as descendants of Achilles himself, to destroy these Roman dogs, thus putting an end to their plans of world domination! For the first time in hundreds of years, the people of this peninsula shall know peace, under the fair rule of our king.
However, do not confuse us with your current leaders, as we are not tempted by the ultimate power, all we care about is stability and respect, and that is exactly what we shall grant you.
Now, it is time to let you know how this dream came true...
473 Ab Urbe Condita (Summer)
(The painting: "Enemy at the gates", as seen at the Museo Morandi)
Our wise king, Pyrrhus of Epirus, knew full well the necessity to fortify our position in the Italic peninsula, as it would not be long before the cursed Romans would try to remove Tarentum from our hands.
(An ancient scroll with information about Pyrrhus, as seen at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli)
While Tarentum was obviously of great importance to us, being our only province on the western border of the Adriatic Sea, there was another land further to the South, which would greatly increase our staying power in the peninsula. I am, of course, speaking of Croton.
We did not have much time, as the Romans would surely attempt to add this province to their own empire soon enough, and with that in mind, our fair king raised an army of 1002 and marched south, to the gates of Croton.
As he got there, he was forced to face an army of 607, led by Captain Voteporix, a brave man indeed.
(An ancient scroll with information about the battle of Croton, as seen at the Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Spinola)
It was obvious that our king had the upper hand, seeing as he had an army almost two times larger than our enemies'.
As we approached the city gates, we made sure to place our intimidating war elephants at the front, in an attempt to scare off the enemy. However, at this point it became rather clear that Captain Voteporix had no intention of giving up that easily.
After our troops were formed and ready for the coming assault, we sent our war elephants to destroy the main gates. A task they performed quite easily.
Once that was done, we merely had to unleash the large animals into the streets and let them create panic in the enemy ranks. Men could be seen flying ten meters into the air, as our elite pikemen ran up to support the, now surrounded, beasts.
(The painting: "Beasts of war", as seen at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli)
Once our brave pikemen reached the front, there was nothing else the enemy could do but despair. The animals had damaged their ranks too much, and they were now unable to hold the line, as we sent wave after wave of motivated soldiers, into the fray.
From there, it was a matter of minutes before the enemy started fleeing to the main square, where they (foolishly) hoped to make a decisive last stand.
(The painting: "The Last Stand", as seen at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister)
The cowardly dogs did not last long after that, as we met them head on with our countless sarissas. We did not even need to use our cavalry, which remained quietly at the back, as if enjoying the, rather gruesome, scenery.
Victory was ours, but many good men perished for us to take that city. I only hope we will not simply lose it to the Romans after all this trouble.
(A scroll containing detailed information about the casualties of Croton, as seen at the Museo Morandi)
473 Ab Urbe Condita (Winter)
Several months had passed since our victory at Croton, and so far, our people had enjoyed a very refreshing period of peace. Were the Romans too busy dealing with the barbarian tribes of the North to notice our plans?
Of course they were not, they were simply raising two full armies to come after us, one at Cannae and the other at Neapolis. How I wished to be wrong, for once...
During the Winter, they came in full force, and their target was the city of Tarentum, as I had predicted.
As the two legions crossed the border, our brave king moved to intercept them, before they had the chance to reach our gates. We obviously wanted our innocent people to stay as far away from this conflict as possible.
This time however, the numbers were not as favorable, as 783 of our men were forced to face the armies of Captain Nero and Captain Secundus, each leading 401 men.
(A scroll containing information about the battle of Tarentum, as seen at the Galleria di Palazzo Rosso)
Their forces were, indeed, famous for their courage as well as their determination, but our wise king was counting on them to make the first move and had a plan to counter their advance.
(Initial arrangement of the Epirote forces, at the Battle of Tarentum)
Our king knew full well that they would attempt to shower us with their javelins before proceding to a full frontal attack. In order to counter that, he placed our own skirmishers at the front, ready to constantly return fire and thin their lines.
This process worked quite well, as they wasted their medium range ammunition on our skirmishers and some of our auxiliaries, while our elite pikemen, simply waited patiently at the back.
When our enemies finally decided to charge, we promptly called back our remaining peltasts, and moved forward our main phalanxes. This caused them to collide with an enormous wall of spears.
After that, and since they had almost no cavalry of their own to counter our move, all we needed to do was move our heavy cavalry around both flanks and charge them from the rear. Oh, what a spectacle it was...
(The painting: "Wall of Death", as seen at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek)
That was the end of Captain Nero, but we still needed to pursue and destroy them, before they had a chance to regroup.
To that effect, we decided it was time to send in our powerful elephants. Let beasts take care of beasts...
(The painting: "A Gruesome Spectacle", as seen at the Galleria degli Uffizi)
After that, all we needed to do was hold the line against the incoming forces of Captain Segundus, but this proved to be much harder than expected.
Their infantry came at us from all sides, and our cavalry, as well as our elephants, were now busy chasing the remainders of Nero's forces, so we could not easily surprise them as we had done before.
Our king sent his Elite pikemen to the front, in an attempt to aid our auxiliaries, but much to our surprise, these legionaries really could fight! We shall not underestimate them again...
In a natural attempt to flank them, we promptly called back our cavalry , and ultimately that is what won us the battle, but too many men were lost in the process. That we did not foresee.
(The painting: "A Pyrrhic Victory", as seen at the Guggenheim Museum)
From this day on, people shall always think of a "Pyrrhic victory", as something obtained through incredible sacrifice. How many more must we lose in order to defeat this terror from the West?
(A scroll containing information about the battle of Tarentum, as seen at the Galleria degli Uffizi)
I only hope we can replenish our forces fast enough, or the people of Tarentum will be in a world of trouble.
To be continued...
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Originally Posted by Matse
