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Thread: [TW Guide] RTW: Battle Walkthrough - Rome vs. Carthage (SPQR)

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    Default [TW Guide] RTW: Battle Walkthrough - Rome vs. Carthage (SPQR)



    Author: Tacticalwithdrawal
    Original Thread: Battle Walkthrough - Rome vs. Carthage

    Battle Walkthrough - Rome vs. Carthage

    Ok folks, by popular demand (well, at least one person) the latest battle walkthrough to roll off the Tac assembly line. You all wanted armoured elephants so I've given carthage 4 units of them, all 2 gold chevron

    The Combatants
    Rome - 3,149 men, all 2 silver chevron. 1 General, 1 Equites, 4 Hastati, 4 Principes, 2 Triarii, 2 Archers and 6 Velites
    Carthage - 3,800 men, all 2 Gold Chevron. 1 General, 4 Armoured Elephants, 4 Sacred Band, 6 Poeni infantry, 3 Skirmishers, 2 Iberian infantry.

    Incidentally, the costs of the Carthage army was 88,000, cost of the Roman army was 20,000. Both armies are the same unit-wise as a campaign battle I fought.

    The Setup
    I'm expecting the enemy to attack head on with his infantry, while sending his ellies around to one flank. The plan is therefore for the Hastati in the centre to hold their ground at all costs, supported by the Triarii. The Principes will be deployed on the flanks with the intention that the one not facing the elephants will move around the flank and (supported by the Equites) attack Carthage from the rear. The Principes facing the ellies will withdraw and support the front line.

    This leaves the Velites, ideally they are the only troops I want anywhere near the ellies. Their sole job in this battle is to kill (or at least neutralise) all the ellies, if they manage that then I'll see what I can do with them then. The worry is that this leaves the remainder of the army short of missile troops when taking on the sacred band, could get nasty.

    In the pictures, Hastati are green, Principes are blue, Triarii red.

    - The Hastati are holding the front (guard, shieldwall & fire at will). They are expected to stand and die at their posts.
    - Archers are supporting the Hastati, mainly to try and keep losses from the Carthage skirmishers to a minimum.
    - Triarii, Equites and the general are reserves for the Hastati.
    - Velites are split right & left, I'll move them to shadow the ellies
    - Principes split right & left as described above.



    Carthage have setup fairly conventionally. Looks like my expectations are going to be fulfilled with an infantry assault on the centre while the ellies move round to my left.



    Carthage has moved all 4 elly units to my left flank, immediately I move the Principes facing them out of shieldwall and withdraw them to support the front line (there's no way I want them to meet the ellies, they'd get squashed ). The Velites are massed in loose formation to face the elly onslaught. In the centre the archers are shooting at the skirmishers. On the right, the Principes and Equites are moving into position to move around the flank and attack the Carthage infantry from behind.



    On the left flank the ellies are now facing off against the Velites, after an initial skirmish, a stalemate is starting to develop. The ellies don't want to attack the Velites and I certainly don't want to order the Velites out from behind the protection of my heavy infantry. Meanwhile, the two Principes move to support the left flank, one attacking the Poeni infantry that have flanked the Hastati, and one moving in behind the Hastati.



    In the Centre the Hastati are desperately holding out against the whole might of the Carthaginian army. The Triarii and the General move forward to support the front rank (forming a shieldwall immediately behind the Hastati). The centre holds (just) but the Hastati are getting wiped by the Sacred bands.

    On the left, the Principes don't reach the Hastati in time who, when attacked from the left and front by Poeni and Iberians and then further attacked by Sacred Band. collapse and flee. The Principes arrive just in time to prevent the whole flank collapsing and stop the Carthaginians breaking through but they are now surrounded and in deep trouble. All I need them to do, however, is tie down the Carthaginian infantry long enough for me to win either on the right flank or against the ellies on the left. If the can't do that the carthage infantry will turn into the centre and the rout will be on.

    In the centre the Triarii have arrived in time and the centre is holding, and things get even better when the enemy general arrives at the same time and, instead of finding himself attacking over-pressurised Hastati, he runs straight into a Triarii shieldwall and turns himself into a kebab (very nice to see it happen to the Ai for a change).

    On the right flank, the Equites chase away the skirmishers while the two Principes attack the Carthage infantry from behind. The Poeni infantry collapse under this pressure and the Principes, now reinforced by the freed up Hastati, turn their attentions to the next in line, a unit of Sacred Band. They are supported by the Archers who have moved around the right flank and have now taken up position behind the Carthaginian lines and start shooting.



    On the extreme left the ellies have got bored trying to out maneuver the Velites and have charged. The whole battle now hinges on this confrontation, if the ellies get through they will hit the Roman left flank from behind and will rout it. At that point the battle is as good as won for Carthage.



    So, we now are at a crucial point, the original plan is still (just) working. The Left flank and centre are still holding, though both have required me to commit my reserves. The ellies and the Velites are battling it out but the main thing is that the ellies have not yet been a factor. I desperately need the right flank to start destroying the Carthaginian battle line before my Centre and Left collapse.

    Unfortunately, the Scared Band are proving impossible to rout, even though their general is dead and they are being attacked by 5 Roman infantry units from all sides, they are still holding up my Right wing. Things in the Centre and left are getting desperate.

    In the 'backfield' the Equites are busy running down routing units to prevent them reforming, the general moves to join them (I don't want them anywhere near the main battle lines, I want the Velites and Archers to have a free hand without worrying about shooting them).

    At long last though, two bits of good news:

    Firstly, the ellies are all dead, wiped out by the Velites (all 144 double-gold chevron armoured behemoths , the Velites are due a serious reward after this). Immediately this turns the balance on the left flank as the Velites move in behind the Carthaginians attacking the lone 2 Principes units and start attacking with javelins from behind.

    Secondly, the archers' attacks from the rear are decimating the Carthage centre, in desperation they launch an attack by the remainder of the general's bodyguard, who are cut to pieces when the archers refuse to flee.

    The only bit of bad news is that the Sacred Band on my right flank are still holding out.



    The Velites move into position and prove lethal, javelins in the back massacre the Poeni, Iberian and Sacred bands, not a single one of the men from those units even start to run away.

    The routing Skirmishers in the background are chased down and killed by the Equites.



    In the Centre, things are also slowly turning to us. The two central Hastati units have been nearly wiped out, but, supported by the Triarii, they still fight on. On the right flank the Sacred Band are now totally surrounded and are (slowly ) being cut down. In the Centre, the archers are massacring the remaining Carthaginian units, it is now only a matter of time.



    As it happens, it is the Carthaginians in the centre that break first under the hail of arrows from the archers. Once they rout the Sacred Band on the right flank finally bow to the inevitable and rout as well. All are run down by the Velites and the cavalry. It is a Heroic victory!



    After Battle Analysis

    Casualties were 3,696 Carthage vs. 1,079 Roman or 3.5:1. Not bad when you consider he had 144 armoured elephants and all of his troops were double gold chevron.

    As this battle has hopefully shown, ellies are far from invincible and (to my mind) are actually fairly useless when handled by the AI if you have the Velites to deal with them. The AI has in fact got a lot better, it now at least attempts to move the ellies around to avoid the Velites and targets the Velites with missile troops. You therefore need to keep your Velites safe and sound until they can get at the ellies.

    The main difficulty the ellies cause is to draw away 6 units of Velites from your main battle line. This means that your infantry has to go toe-to-toe with the Carthaginian infantry. You have to go for a flanking move and roll up his line but this tactics fails when (as shown here) you hit Sacred Band, the little buggers just won't rout.

    Far more effective against them were the Archers and Velites attacking with missiles from the rear. The attack of the archers basically saved my centre and in two volleys turned the Sacred Bands' message from 'certain to win' to 'only a genius could win this one'. As for the Velites, massed attacks of 6 Velites on infantry units is just pure massacre.

    So, when fighting Carthage and he brings along ellies, remember the following tips:
    1. Run away unless your Velites have decent experience. They must stand and fight, not rout, when charged by the ellies and only experienced troops will do this. I reckon you need 2 Velites for each elly, but don't weaken your army with more than 6 Velites unless he hasn't brought along a lot of infantry
    2. Likewise, the rest of your army needs decent experience. They are going to have to slug it out toe-to-toe with the Carthage heavy infantry and you need them to hold the line to give you any chance of bringing the flanking troops around the back.
    3. Support the front line. If you look at my finishing army the 3 remaining Hastati were down to 8, 16 and 75 men left yet they fought on. The unit that routed was at around 95 when it broke. The difference was that it was cut off and surrounded whereas the others (the 8 & 16) has Triarii directly behind them
    4. Against units like the Sacred Band (or Spartans), infantry attacks, even overwhelming infantry attacks, from behind don't break them quick enough (nor do cavalry attacks for that matter). Archers and (particularly) Velites are a different matter, they are absolutely lethal. Where possible always leave the Sacred Bands to the missile troops, and concentrate your infantry on his non-elite troops
    5. If the ellies attack frontally then you just have to accept your front line is going to be in a world of pain. Immediately change your archers to fire on the ellies with flame arrows (you never know, they might go amok). At the same time move your Velites forward to engage and pull back your reserves to form a line behind the velites. This will give your front line something to rout to (if they do rout, sometimes they fight on amazingly). Again, pepper the ellies with javelins. You should still win but it'll be a lot closer!

    Hope this helped, it was certainly fun to do. next up, a hoplite army vs. Rome......
    Last edited by Sir Adrian; December 31, 2013 at 01:34 PM.
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