[RTR AAR] The History of Rome - The Eagle Standard

**Lord Nicco** · August 03, 2008, 06:16 PM

The History of Rome - The Eagle Standard

I will be using Rome: Total Realism for this AAR after my last AAR finished rather abruptly because of exams and computer problems that put pay to my saved games. I will be playing with Huge Unit settings and Normal difficulty.

- 280BC -

To the south lies the Campanians and the Lucanian Italians, tribes not loyal to Rome and the Greek Italia under Pyrrhus, Prince of the Greek City States. To the north lies the Gauls and the Etruscans. It would be important for Rome to take control of the region to defeat these powers, particularly the Italian tribes and the ever dangerous master General Pyrrhus.

In Rome at this time the Consul and sole ruler of Rome was Quintus Maximus. He had no children and with his advancing years there would be very little chance that he would ever have a chance to father a successor. Quintus knew this and a year before he had arranged that the three most important men in Rome be placed as the next in line to Consulship of Rome. These three men were Publius Laevinus, Tiberius Coruncanius, and Lucius Aemilius. They were all powerful in their own right, but Publius had been given the right to be heir to Rome, giving him the advantage over his rivals. All the men however were civil to one another; knowing that all of them would have to serve Rome when she needed them.

**Lord Nicco** · August 03, 2008, 10:00 PM

- 280BC -

In this year Quintus and Publius each led an army south to besiege the Campanians and Lucanian tribes, looking to defeat these tribes once and for all. These tribes were a mixture of Italian and Greek. The Campanian tribes (Osci, Aurunci, Ausones and the Samnite remnants within the region) had united to try and survive the coming attack from the Romans. The Lucani people stood alone against Quintus’ army they now faced incorporation into Roman territories. All these tribes saw that they faced the best chance of victory forcing the Romans to break down the walls of Paestum (Campanians) and Corfinium (Lucani) and therefore funnel the attack through a narrow gap.

Meanwhile in Rome, Publius’ 13 year old daughter Fadia is married to Luca Trebonius, a 30 year old noble, who was powerful within the army and a competent commander of men. His marriage to Fadia now meant that he would hold more and more power within Rome as he was incorporated into the Laevinus family.

Sextus Antio, Roman diplomat

In December, Sextus Antio, Roman diplomat met with the Gauls in Bononia. Rome wanted to know what territories the Gauls held, but they would not give up this information. Instead the secondary mission was to agree a trade agreement between Gaul and Rome. The trade agreement was mutually beneficial and they agreed. Sextus headed east from Bononia to carry Roman diplomacy to other peoples.

In Late December, Quintus had had quite enough of waiting for the Lucani to come out of Corfinium. He took the initiative and decided that he would assault the walls of Corfinium. He readied his commanders for the battle as the Battle of Corfinium was about to begin...

- Battle of Corfinium 280BC -

Quintus brought with him 1021 men to this battle, and Aethon the leader of Lucani had slightly less 1002, but they had the advantage of being behind walls.

The battle began with Quintus ordering forward his skirmishers to attack the Lucani skirmishers posted on the walls of Corfinium. Whilst this was occurring the skirmishers created the screen for the two rams manned by Roman infantry to advance on the wooden walls of Corfinium. The Roman skirmishers got the best of the Lucani skirmishers and the tactically withdrew, forcing several Lucani infantry unit to come forward into the Roman skirmisher range in anticipation of the Roman attack. The Lucani swordsmen took severe losses at the hands of the Roman skirmishers as the walls of Corfinium gave way before the Roman rams.

Quintus ordered through both wings of his infantry. The left wing of infantry got stuck into the skirmishers who had remained near the walls away from the Roman skirmishers. The Roman infantry there was also met by some Lucani swordsmen. The right wing entered the town walls unopposed. Aethon scrambled some spearmen to meet that attack.

After some minutes of fighting, Quintus sensed that perhaps the right wing would be harder to break down and sent in the principes that he had in reserve. As this occurred the spearmen fighting the Roman right wing of infantry broke and routed. The two infantry units on the right were now free to go across and flank the beleaguered Lucani troops on the left. Aethon leading from the front now led his own division into battle as his skirmishers units routed and were slaughtered mercilessly; the Lucani infantry units were also looking weak and sudden. It was now that the battle was reaching its climax. After some ten minutes of fighting, the Lucani could no longer hold the Romans and they routed as they fled towards Corfinium town square they were slaughtered.

Having dispatched the majority of Lucani, Quintus knew this battle was now almost over, the Lucani only had one unit of spearmen left and a cavalry division. Quintus wanting to protect his army from unnecessary casualties placed his spearmen at the front and ordered them to push for the cavalry creating a screen for his other infantry to attack the spearmen in the town square.

The spearmen were able to quickly annihilate the cavalry as they were forced onto their spears in the narrow square. The fighting continued as the remaining infantry were encircled and killed to the last man. Rome had defeated the Lucani and conquered Corfinium!