Battle walkthrough - early Julii vs. Gauls
Well, I've started a Julii campaign from scratch so I can use the increased unit numbers change that Lt gave out a while back. There will be a Mighty Julii (2) thread where I'll post about the campaign (if anyone is interested that's a bonus). This post is in response to a lot of people that wondered how I was getting such low casualties in my last campaign. I'm gonna walk through a battle and explain what I did step by step, any comments would be appreciated.
Background - faction leader Flavius Julius has just taken Segesta and has now moved to seige Bononia. Army is basically the starting one (date is 269 BC) and comprises - 4 hastati, 3 Principes, 2 Triarii, 1 Velites, 2 Archers and a general for a total of 2046 men. Bononia has 2086 Gauls in it.
AI turn - Gallic army of 3130 force marches to relieve Bononia and attacks, Flavius Julius decides to stand and fight, his 2046 vs. 5,216 barbarian scum. Victory is expected
Flavius sets up position on a slight hill above the town, standard formation:
The Gallic general sends one unit of cavalry towards Flavius' right flank, and Flavius counters by moving a unit of Triarii to block, a standoff ensues. The second unit of gallic cavalry get a bit ambitious and charge the Roman lines. They are quickly routed and the archers hasten them on their way before switching target to the stationary cavalry on the right flank, it's a massacre.
Disgusted at his cavalry's incompetance the Gallic commander orders the infantry to attack. The Roman shieldwall stands firm but Flavius orders a unit of Principes forward to support the left flank (where the barbarians are lapping around the end of the shieldwall), and a second forward to support the centre, just in time as the enemy general drives his cavalry in.
With no time to lose and with the shieldwall holding the Gallic forces in place, Falvius springs the trap. He has overloaded his right flank and now moves himself and his spare Triarii unit around the right and into position behind the Gauls. The Archers meanwhile engage the routing Warband that was the first gallic unit in range of the pilums and sufferred accordingly (this means I won't suffer friendly fire casualties and gives the archers something to do).
It is now a race to get the Gallic right flank to collapse (where 3 gallic units are taking on 5 Roman + the General) before the shieldwall in the centre fails. In an effort to bolster it a little more the Velites join the fight.
The battle splits in two with heavy concentrations of Gauls on the left and right flanks. Flavius drives his bodygaurd into the rear of the Gauls on the extreme right, at the same time the Triarii drive into their flank. As they rout Flavius pulls back and charges the rear of the next formation in line, and again recieves support from the infantry that has been freed up. Meanwhile the Velites disengage and move off in pursuit of the routing infantry. On the left the shieldwall plus its supporting Principes units is still holding firm, and they achieve the supreme coup of trapping and killing the enemy general.
Now the rout is on, with the death of the general the Gauls on the left flank break as well.
Flavius and the Velites pursue supported by a unit of Triarii. The remainder of the army reforms after the initial pursuit to face the
second Gallic army. With Flavius and his infantry returning from the pursuit, the army reformed:
Slightly less standard formation now, the 2 most beaten up Hastati have been withdrawn to the reserve (they actually play no further part in the battle) and their places are taken by two Principes units (with the one Principes with pilums left on the left of the line closest to the gauls). Velites too have been pulled right back as they have no javelins.
Deciding the bulk of the Gauls on the right is the threat Flavius moves all his army, except the left flank Triarii, himself and the Velites, to block them with the archers engaging the two swordsmen units. Meanwhile, as the snow comes on, the Triarii are ordered to attack the isolated Heavy Spear warband and the velites and Flavius move round behind them.
Again the tried and tested tactic of pinning with the infantry (in this case the Triarii) and attacking the flank and rear simultanously with cavalry and infantry works, the Heavy Spear warband routs and is hotly pursued (a little too hotly, Flavius in his wisdom decided to charge the fully formed warband that was coming up from behind, he lost 15 of his bodygaurd before I could get him out
)
With the left flank now secure and Flavius and his infantry back with the main body of the army, Flavius ordered his infantry to attack. Again the tactics were simple, the shieldwall engaged and pinned the nearest Gallic unit, while the Triarii went round the back (Flavius would have gone too but he counter-charged the Gallic cavalry when it attacked the centre of the shieldwall, killing the Gallic General):
With the Gallic army again collapsing a general pursuit was ordered. The 2 Archers and the Velites attacked the unit of skirmishers on the left flank, driving them back and finaly routing them. The Triarii targetted the regrouping Gallic cavalry, however they were too slow and the Gallic cavalry managed to charge the Archers and Velites. However, it is a little known secret that concentrations of skirmishing troops are lethal to cavalry () and the cavalry routs for a second time.
Meanwhile the one remaining warband is pinned by two Roman units, and then routs when charged from behind by Flavius and his bodygaurd.
Stats:
Roman Army - 2046 men at start, 1545 at the end, 4516 kills and a Heroic victory with swords on the map.
Gallic Army 1 - 3130 men at start, 457 escaped, 321 kills
Gallic Army 2 - 2086 men at start, 237 escaped, 230 kills
Kill ratio: 4516:561 or just over 8:1 (and don't forget, this was using the expanded unit sizes).
Summary
OK, so the second army made it a bit easier by sitting back and then splitting up, but the main reason the victory happened was the use of a very simple hammer and anvil tactic:
1. shieldwall is the anvil. It pins the enemy troops and holds them in place
2. one flank (in this case my right) is then overloaded with troops.
3. these spare infantry then move around the flank and attack the enemy infantry in the flank.
4. at the same time the cavalry (in this case the general) moves further round the flank and attacks the same enemy units form the rear.
5. as the enemy units rout my freed up infantry attack the next enemy unit down the line, soon you get a general rout and the cavalry and velites switch to pursuit mode.
This only works because the enemy cavalry are neutralised. When the Gallic cavalry came round my right flank, moving the triarii to block stopped them dead in their tracks. If my archers hadn't massacred them, then I would have charged them with the triarii and attacked their flank with the general, and then moved onto step 3 above.
The other trick worth remembering is that velites do make good cavalry killers. To do this you stack 2 velites units together and make sure skirmish is switched off. They will take casualties from the initial charge but the now stationary cavalry are then cut to shreds by the rmaining velites. Because of theis, I often use them as flank gaurds if there is cavalry about and once their javelins are spent.
Anyway, hope this is of some use, please post comments as I plan to do another one if there is enough interest.
- It's my smilie and I'll use it if I want to...... 
Originally Posted by lt1956
