Crazy Greeks

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

I had to write this as I still can't quite believe it.

I have just downloaded and installed RTR and was playing the first few years as Roma in as realistic a fashion as possible. Made peace with the Gauls in the north and was busy subduing the rebel Italian towns to the south while keeping an eye on Pyrhhus and his huge army around Tarrentum. Anyway, the annoying Greek catches a steal on me and captures one of the rebel towns which provoked me into moving a legion south to screw up his supply lines to Tarrentum.

The upshot of some clumsy maneuvering of my part was that he suprised my Legion in a bottleneck between the toe and the heel of the island. Battle was joined with favourable omens.

Due to the will of the gods, I was able to deploy in open country in a checkerboard formation of classic velites, hastati, princepes and triarii. I was lucky to have 2 generals in attendence and an additional units of Italian cavalry, making a strong right wing of equites.

Poor old Pyrhhus deployed on the wrong side of a small wood and advanced through it to meet me. My skirmishers moved into the wood to harass and provoke him.

Low and behold, one of the velite units scurried in retreat back towards my large equite contingent which had moved up in support after being charged by Greek heavy cavalry. And there he was: Pyrhhus alone with his bodyguard on my side of the woods with no supporting units. I enveloped him with 3 times his numbers in heavy cavalry and within 10 seconds he was cut down on the field.

Not 5 minutes into the battle and the great Greek general was dead in a small puddle of Greek cavalry corpses all alone of the field of battle. The rest was a cake-walk.

How lucky was I?!

[Switch]

Aye, suicidal generals have always plagued RTW . And when you're facing so strong an opponent as Phyrrus, it really helps!

I think some of the most recent versions of the game engine have fixed the problem, thankfully. Which versions of RTW and RTR are you running, by the way (I'm on BI and RTRPE 1.9).

[Maximus Lazero]

Heh, I staged an alliance with the Greeks early on in my Rome game, and we attacked the same village. I initiated a siege assault, but then sat back and let Phyrrus do all the work for me! After his men broke the initial defense at the walls, he and his elephants charged toward the city square ahead of the rest of his army! There, Phyrrus and his elephants learned that light infantry/missile infantry may be weak when charged, but in the melee that followed, they are just as deadly.
The Greeks did win, but they lost Phyrrus, nearly all of their elephants (if not all), and about half their army do to their deplorable tactics. I, in turn, lost no men, and still got the town, since I was the one who started the attack!



Them Greeks sure are crazy.

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

Playing the latest download and enjoying it hugely in a break from Invasio Barbarorum. I just wish I had had fraps loaded at the time!

[pseudocaesar]

Heh, I staged an alliance with the Greeks early on in my Rome game, and we attacked the same village. I initiated a siege assault, but then sat back and let Phyrrus do all the work for me! After his men broke the initial defense at the walls, he and his elephants charged toward the city square ahead of the rest of his army! There, Phyrrus and his elephants learned that light infantry/missile infantry may be weak when charged, but in the melee that followed, they are just as deadly.
The Greeks did win, but they lost Phyrrus, nearly all of their elephants (if not all), and about half their army do to their deplorable tactics. I, in turn, lost no men, and still got the town, since I was the one who started the attack!



Them Greeks sure are crazy.

haha brilliant. im gonna try that next time i play rome.

[Juba1]

well, Pyrrhus is supposed to have been killed by a launched tile of the hand of an old woman, in Sparta i -272.

so i guess u gave him a more honorable dead.

i play rtr 1.9 in VH/VH and i send my diplomate make peace with greeks against a 1 turn tribut of 14 000 denarii, they always accept it, but after i recieve money, i kick them out of italia.

[Ludens]

well, Pyrrhus is supposed to have been killed by a launched tile of the hand of an old woman, in Sparta i -272.

Argos actually. And if you want to be completely accurate, the tile only stunned him, so the woman's son was able to finish him.[/nitpicking]

[Locky]

Poor old Phyrhos was decapitated, apparently his head was difficult to remove Tuff old bastard.

[HeirophantX]

I just eliminated the Greeks as a threat in Southern Italy. I took the two rebel towns straight away and the Greeks offered me a cease-fire. I took it. Meanwhile I rotated and retrained my troops plus reinforcements while Pyrrhus took over Bruttium. To do this, left Taranto and Croton lightly garrisoned. I kept track of him with spies and diplomats.

Then I decided to try and provoke him and moved an army to the border. He took the bait. Unfortunately for me (I thought at first), he had split his forces and attacked me with two armies and significantly outnumbered me. Then I saw the battlefield.

In real-world terms, it was perfect. I wasn't sure how the computer would play it or represent it's effects in game, but there it was, a forest!

I lined my men up obliquely to maximize cover. His smaller force was mostly peltasts and they began the battle in the woods with me. I moved my men into position and engaged his peltasts with my velites and flanked them with my generals cav. Massacre. I repositioned and the major force lined up pikes out and walked right into the woods.

Brilliant! The trees totally broke up their lines. And, they acted like they were blind. Their army completely lost cohesion with the phalangites breaking line and charging any unit of mine they could see. only a few of my units were visible at any one time so I used my Italian spearmen to give the phalangites and hoplitai something to charge. Once they were committed then I could charge them from the rear with the hastati that they didn't even see. I was able to do this to all of their infantry units.

From the perspective of Pyrrhus, it would have looked like his entire army walked into the forest and disappeared. Eventually he charged (my annoying sacrificial velites helped) and I counter-charged with my general's cav and enveloped him with spearmen and skirmishers. Those Greeks all died in the shade.

After that, Croton was guarded by 3 hoplitai units whom I promptly slew, and Rhegium (which was left garrisoned withall the weakened units from it's capture by the Greeks... his elephants didn't make it, awww), will be mine shortly.

All in all I felt quiet satisfied.

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

Very nice. Let's hope your eventual Carthaginian war will go as smoothly . . .