The battle started with the usual deployment, however while the Romans refused to come to us, reinforcement arrived from the town.
Our general look the lead by attacking the usual Roman skirmishers. Though a great man, an almost total lack of cavalry means his own bodyguard must run the Romans from the field.
Officers are "walking the line", checking that our formation has no walls. As I am carrying the banner of the Sicilian Alliance, I follow behind my unit's officer.
In front of us, the light infantry are screening our advance from the javelins of the roman velites.
Despite attempts by the slingers to draw the enemy into an attack, we were only able to isolate this unit of Roman militia. However, when they formed up in a large circle, the general ordered us to ignore them.
Apparently once huddled together behind their shields, they are unlikely to break their formation.
We begin advancing slowly, and the Roman host appears in disarray, for no particular reason.
Perhaps they were uncertain about the wisdom about engaging us on such ground - not entirely level, but elevated in our favor.
As the Romans attack, they head for our left flank.
The order goes out and the officer and I retreat to the back of the unit as pikes are levelled.
From behind the line, all that is audible is the sound of rocks bouncing off Roman helmets and pikes hitting Roman shields.
However, their Hastati were unable to penetrate the line before they were stoned to death.
By the cheers coming from unengaged portions of the line, our general was still out taking on enemy forces, unlike the cowardly Roman who was safely behind all his men.
A unit of Principe approached the line and began breaching the spear line.
Even without seeing, simply hearing the men in front scream "armor!" is enough to tell me that the heavy troops have arrived.
Disaster struck. At first, I didn't understand what had happened. I actually thought that perhaps the line had been broken in a part.
Our leader had mounted a furious charge into more skirmishers. Despite all the skills of his bodyguard - and himself - he died nearly instantly.
Some captured Romans claimed that a velite had thrown a javelin at our general and knocked him off his horse. For a while we accepted this possibility, as our own men, could not see the general during this charge (we were facing the right side of the unit, whereas he rode on the left).
However, extensive questioning of allied troops who were just behind the enemy velites at the time revealed that the brave Syracusean had fallen prey to the bane of many a horseman - rock or gully or hole in the ground. His horse having tripped, Demetrios was flung headfirst into the ground.
However, we did not know this at the time, only that our commander was dead by some evil stroke of fortune.
His second in command immediately realized that we had to press the Romans and push them from the field, or risk being overrun.
The order was given for the line of advance. The officer and I made our way through the unit (completely unengaged as of yet) and checked that the formation was in order.
Along the way, we paused to use our pikes against the Roman militia formations. They were completely helpless against the reach of a sarissa.
With this, the Romans started fleeing the field. We were unable to catch the killers of our beloved general as they fled like frightened sheep.
One unit, however, was too slow. While the Romans abandoned them, we took good care of the stragglers.
Syracuse: A Tale of 1000 Pikes - Update 8
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But it's your AAR
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Originally Posted by AchillesXX
