Re: Athens Arises: Trip Report (Ch 15)
Ch 15: Showdown
When we arrived at Philipoupolis, Keteus' Second Army had already been working the land by establishing some forts to secure a critical bridge that ran on the direct road from Philippi to Philipoupolis. The Macedonians did not take kindly to this.
However, the majority of their remaining forces remained concentrated in Philipoupolis. More the pity. It seems it will come to the major battle they had been anticipating.
Somehow, despite their dire straits, the Macedonians still mustered a substantial force. Including all the reserves and support units we have drawn up, we number 6900 to their 6700. However, Our Lady seemed confident and ordered the siege to begin. She said that we would carry out a sharp assault and murder them in the streets, rather than a slow attrition strategy or perhaps a field battle.
Since moving first has definitely been to our benefit in this war, it is hard to disagree. This time we can be sure all the enemies are in front of us, as well.
Support elements of Keteus' Second Army were put into battle position behind my own First Army. The First would first deflect any attempts at an active defense before leading the assault proper.
As the fighting progressed, we would rotate in the support units, letting any frontline units move to the rear. This would be a serious match of fighting logistics and preparation.
Initial reports put the Macedonian heavy corps as deploying a suspicious distance away from the settlement proper. Furthermore they seemed to be waiting for us to make the first move. The intention was quite clear, they would wait for the assault and then hit our rear. Then continuing to crush the First Army army against Philipoupolis' walls and garrison.
We deployed our pikemen group to defend the line between our forces. They would stand firm and protect the First's flank, while the Second covered our rear.
Rather than an aggressive assault, we shifted to a more sustained one so that the First would not be tired out should the enemy try for that flank attack. Some of the newer slingers were sent out to begin bombarding the garrison while the siege ballista began knocking down sections of wall to provoke a response.
The initial response was relatively weak so we began moving up infantry to threaten the breaches. The assault was not called for yet...
Reports began to come in that the Macedonian heavy corps were preparing to move into the settlement. Rather than push the assault, we only sent in probing attacks and more missiles. The garrison meanwhile did not seem particularly eager to show themselves.
Hastily raised troops generally do not perform well in the chaotic street fighting, so... either they were trying to draw us in, or they were not confident enough to seriously contest the breaches.
As the return missiles from Philipoupolis began to increase, so did our response. We had to decide to contest the primary breaches now, or else settle for a more drawn-out assault.
With the heavy corps accounted for, the contest was much safer, so we prepared by concentrating our forces.
When they heard about it, the Macedonians now had to decide if they should resist us near the walls or not. A sharp fight would be preferable for us, but allowing the battle to drag out also had risks for Macedon...
They decided to engage us with units not well suited to urban fighting.
Our assault unit was surprised by a combination of heavy cavalry and pikemen who made use of the straight road structure to roll over them. We attempted to extract, but a number of soldiers were trapped in the settlement's outer buildings and were fighting dismounted or dispiked Macedonians.
We saturated the area with slinger shots but it seemed that the enemy had won this round. Of course, to actually remove our first assault units and defend against a second wave would require they send more forces to that area.
To try and relieve the pressure on the primary breach area, light units were sent out... into our waiting pikes. They were crushed against their own walls in an ironic fashion.
Attemping Macedon's pike-in-streets tactic was dangerous while they had the ability to control all the surrounding buildings, thus our pikemen were simply waiting.
The enemy decided to move heavy troops to the primary breach. We then sent in our real shock force. The second assault wave attacked along a series of secondary breaches. This area had been targeted by our support slingers earlier, but the enemy had decided we were not serious about it.
Particularly as this series of breaches was closer to the central square, making it a riskier proposition for us.
While this was happening, a number of the Macedonian pike units were wiped out near the primary breach area by the remaining first wave with outside support. Put simply, pikemen are not really supposed to fight in doorways. Their pikes and formation make up for a lot, their little swords are not a strength.
Reinforcements entered to strengthen the first assault wave, but after contact was made, we withdrew the first wave and had their reinforcements take up their defensive positions rather than push inwards.
Now the Macedonians attempted to outflank our pikemen & secondary breaches. Now our cavalry took the chance to deliver another series of blows outside of Philipoupolis' walls, removing more light units from the fight.
(Note that of course, the General's bonuses will go over walls, see below)
The hardened veterans in the second wave fought well and were "pushed" back into the outer buildings, much like the first wave had. However this was actually what we had planned for. They quickly took up positions and waited for the enemy to try and dislodge them.
This was quite within expectations. We still had a lot more in terms of assault units, what was critical was ensuring anyone who entered Philipoupolis was able to maintain the order needed for these tactics to work.
The secondary breach area was now heavy with (mostly Macedonian) corpses. We were making good progress, and with this mostly settled the first serious thrust. The Macedonians generally had to regroup while allowing us to hold our little pockets. This ended the first day of serious fighting.
We actually began moving supplies like food and reinforcements rotated in to these pockets via the breaches. It was an odd sight. Oh, we also "made use" of whatever could be found in those buildings, as well.
As we geared up for the third assault wave, heavy cavalry attempted a surprise flank attack in the early morning. Seeing our infantry taking up positions in their own settlement, the Macedonians probably figured out that we wouldn't tire before they did.
However, like their last attempts, the pikemen were there and we drove them off, though with some losses. After this, we began to press the attack again, sending new troops in.
All remaining forces were formed up together and we began another serious attack, this one being in between the primary and seconary breaches. Meaning that Macedonian response forces could not bring their full force up without risking a flanking from within their own streets.
We also began sending slinger shots down the streets to harass any attempts to form up.
We went straight in, breaking through defense lines of weakened defenders. The Macedonian general was caught up in our advance and killed in the streets.
Whatever other resistance had been planned (if any) collapsed pretty quickly as all troops began a general purge of Philipoupolis.
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Originally Posted by Flinn
