The Siege of Massalia (a minor AAR)

[Carados]

Morirex instructs his skirmishers to arrange themselves in front of the siege equipment with their shields raised in order to soak up as much fire as possible. When the siege towers and ram are in place, they are to retreat to a safe distance and wait until the gates can be opened. Having suffered large casualties taking Narbo, Morirex was sure not to repeat the same mistakes this time and orders his nobles to push the siege towers towards either side of the gateway. Meanwhile, his warbands were to engage the enemies on the flanks with the use of ladders. Finally, the Gaesatae were instructed to break down the gate and to butcher all the cowards inside!

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Regardless of this strategy to perserve his troops, Morirex suffers punishing casualties as a quarter of his warriors lay dead on the field before Massalia's might had even been tested! Although both rams were destroyed, all 16 ladders and both siege towers found themselves at the walls.

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His forces are finally through the hail of fire and gain a foothold on the walls!

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The nobles are beset on both sides by the skilled Cretans. Although archers, these men are still proficient warriors in melee and are more heavily armoured than the Gauls typical warriors - as many were to be soon all too fatally aware of. The Gaesatae are instructed to stand ready behind both siege towers. When the gates fall, they are to charge inside.

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The nobles claim the gateway for the tribe and the Gaesatae charge through, engaging the nearby hoplites. Meanwhile, the combined might of the nobles lay waste to the Cretans by the gateway.

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Morirex joins in the fight and soon routs some greeks at the gate. However, there is still plenty more fighting to be done before the gate is secure.

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Two units of swordsmen utilize stealth to get around the melee at the gate and attack the central plaza.

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Morirex finally claims the gate and his forces pour through, swamping the hapless greeks and cutting them down as they flee!

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The enemy general finally enters the fray, engaging the swordsmen that have attacked from the rear.

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The swordsmen are soon massacred by the superior might of the phalanx!

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The Gaesatae and Nobles engage the hoplites in an epic clash of the titans. Meanwhile, the light infantry and cavalry move around to the rear of the melee.

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The heavy cavalry charge the hoplites in the rear causing heavy casualties to the colonies elite. The cavalry retreat to allow a final volley of pointy sticks and to reform for one final charge.

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The enemy general cries out desperate words of encouragement to his men, moments later he would lose his head!

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Morirex stands victorious!!

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But at what cost?

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Heehee

[Caesar Augustus]

An interesting read

[Carados]

^__^

Was a playtest using the revised stats and morale. You can expect some of this one day .

I'm no good coming up with stories. Being a biologist I deal with facts better than anything else, so... yeh. Good thing pictures tell a 1000 words, eh?

[Caesar Augustus]

^__^

Was a playtest using the revised stats and morale. You can expect some of this one day .

I'm no good coming up with stories. Being a biologist I deal with facts better than anything else, so... yeh. Good thing pictures tell a 1000 words, eh?

Sweet! I really need to get round to playing a few more turns. I must've only done about 5 years or so of my 3.5.3 campaign

I've no idea what determines which units have their casualties healed though

[Quinn Inuit]

Ouch. Good fight. I thought the narration+pictures worked quite well. Massilia lasted a long time as an independent, so I gave it a pretty serious garrison.

[Ramiro]

Seing the list of healed casualties I wonder why almost all the recoveries are distributed amognst 2 or 3 units. Is it possible to make all the units recover a certain % and not only just a few units that recover all and others that do not have any recovery?

[Carados]

I have no idea about the casualties. It is rather strange. I've seen entire units come back to life sometimes.

[FriendlyFire]

I think the earliest casualties in a battle stand more chance of being healed - this explains why it was mostly skirmishers who were healed here, since they were the first to go out and "soak up" the missile fire

[Carados]

Come to think of it, I do recall making a link between missile casualties and healed casualties. It would also explain why elephants typically recover from their wounds when I retreat having "killed" them, since I usually do it with pointy sticks. There might be an false-positive idea that they recover from early casualties because that is when the missile exchange usually occurs. I don't know if you have noticed, but I find units that have fought to the death or get completely wiped out in combat never get any of their troops back, even if the army had won the battle.