[FOE] A Phalanx of What? - Update 2

[Alavaria]

A Phalanx of What?

Epeiros campaign on VH/VH.

I've also modded slightly, so all the other factions (AIs) get:

• +100% taxable_income_bonus in settlements with Tier 1 Core Government (all Minor and only a few Major regions)
• +200% taxable_income_bonus in settlements with Tier 2->5 Core Government (most Major regions)

Spoiler for Update 1: 

The Romans are coming. The only person badass enough to stop them - King Pyrrhos.







The King reached Tarentum, having crossed the sea, and is ready.






The Romans press their luck, moving close to Herakleia in a blatant attempt to project their force.






It is time for battle!!






The King's army has few infantry compared to the Romans, but more cavalry and (importantly) elephants.

We shall see how these Romans fare with their "trained" troops.




-------------------------------------




As the battle starts, the King's horsemen take to the left flank and attempt to run off their Roman counterparts, to better free the field for later action.






Numbers and simply better horsemanship work together to destroy the enemy's equestrian spirit.






The Roman army advances in a massive line, clearly intending to simply outflank the phalanx.

This is a problem, because they clearly can stretch their front to over five times the pike line.






The horse try to break the Roman skirmishers, who can be deadly against phalangites.

However, the enemy velites are tougher than they look and are more than capable of holding their own against even our heavy cavalry.






The Romans storm the line under a hail of pila.






Almost instantly, the far left of the line shatters apart under pila fire as the enemy makes clear their intention to strike it from the flank.

Cowards!








The enemy general is caught and cornered.

Some of their allied Samnites rush to his aid as our men hack away at the Roman bodyguard.






It is too late to save their general, however.

He is speared and trampled thoroughly before the horsemen flee the infantry.







More of the pikemen flee. Only the veterans are still holding on at what was earlier the right of the line.

Now, it is all that is left of the "line".






The horsemen try to come to the aid of their allies, but velites with their javelins and nimble dodging of horsemen make this a difficult prospect.








The elephants had been held in reserve (due to fear of javelins) however, if they now run amok, there are many Romans to harm and few good Greeks.

They are ordered into the fray.






There is some success. However, even veteran pikemen are outmatched against Romans in close quarters and the elephants did little to help them remain cohesive.






The Cretan archers who had been held behind the (non-existent now) infantry line opened fire on targets with lighter armor and smaller shields.






Meanwhile, the Rhodian slingers sent a hail of missiles towards some Roman triarii, hoping to cut down those elite troops from a safe distance.






Some Roman units begin to rout under the missile fire.






The hoplites are forced to form a blocking force.

Seeing the order of their hoplitic phalanx, the enemy swarm these last heavy infantry.

However, this is not the wisest approach ...







The archers and slingers fire several volleys into the now-exposed Roman backs.

Then the elephants move in and begin destroying the shaken Romans.






But the animals finally had enough of warfare, and decided to run for it.

As expected, their continued wandering around the battlefield in confusion harmed the Romans more than the Greeks, however the inability to control them meant the beasts were not nearly as effective.








The hoplites formed two separate phalanxes, which the Romans easily flanked.

At the same time, ranged units were prepared and, when the enemy flanked the two phalanxes, began to pour in fire.








It was very effective, however at this point, it was obvious that everything hinged on the ability of the hoplites to keep far more Romans engaged.








They performed like heros of old, and many many Romans fell pierced by an arrow or stunned by a sling shot.

However, there were that many Romans.








The elite hoplites (especially the Agema, who were a large amount of the Epirot strength) were eventually overwhelmed.

Any semblance of order broke as they swordfought, and lost to, the Romans.








King Pyrrhos, realizing the day was lost, called for a fighting retreat.

The few men left shot missiles to confuse the Romans and ran for it.'







A defeat?

Many good Romans lay dead, but nevertheless they drove King Pyrrhos to his ships.





Nevertheless, it was a disastrous victory for the Romans, who had lost many men for it.

As the King said while his ship brought the royal entourage away, and towards Tarentum.

"More victories like that, and the Romans will fall."

Since the enemy general had died, the battle was called a "Phyrric Victory". Even though the Romans were the victors, they had done so only at great cost to the King. Also, describing the Roman vitory as "Valerius" isn't the way to keep morale high.

King Phyrros: "So, about those barbarian troops. The ones from Illyria that were promised us....

[DukeCanada]

Cool. Most of the time this battle is won, so I wonder if this will change the outcome of a typical Epeirote campaign.

I enjoyed the story very much and the plentiful pictures are great. Looking forward to the next installment

[MasterOfThessus]

Wow, thats a lot of images!

Perhaps you can hide some of them in spoilers, or only take the best. Good work so far!

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Update 2: 

Update 2: Regaining Momentum

Before news from the East arrived, Epirote forces in Sicily under the leadership of Hiero were pushing back against hostile rebel forces (unaligned with either Rome or Carthage).






The rebels sent forward some of their scouts to harass our advancing hoplite line.








Our own men, rushing downhill, caught the scouts by surprise.

At the same time, Epirote archers fired on the rebel hoplites as they attempted to withdraw and reform top receive our phalanx.










The enemy attempted to move counter-forces into position, but Hiero's horsemen moved in before hoplite support was in position.

The heavy mounted troops ran down the light archers, securing ranged superiority for the rest of the battle.






Hiero's reinforcements were attacked in force by the enemy general, however their spears managed to bring him down.

This supported several suggestions that even light hoplites, led well, could - if not repel - at least inflict some losses on charging cavalry.








Enemy hoplites, seeing our one unit of reinforcements alone and in disarray after repelling the charge, closed ranks and prepared to charge!

However, they failed to notice our own horsemen approaching them from the rear - however the friendly hoplites did not.

With their shieldwall prepared, they took the charge and moments later were able to begin chasing their foe who were routed only seconds after contact.










The last three units split up from one another and were taken apart by either horse or bow.








Despite having repelled this one attack, Epirote forces will must contend with a larger opponent - an unallied city-state - but also Carthaginian holdings on the island.

Giving Sicily's importance to both Carthage and Rome, they will have quite a fight on their hands just to hold their ground!








The Romans are at least a persevering people, and worthy, if barbaric, people!

Warm with the glow of their earlier victory, the Romans' forces were joined by a new general, and immediately marched out on Tarentum.

The citizens were sore afraid of the Romans as they watched from the walls a growing set of siege camps and field fortifications.

Mikon, the Epirote garrison commander, reminded them that Pyrrhos had not been destroyed, only once defeated - and sure enough, soon the King's flag was seen in the horizon as the Greek fleet brought back the survivors of the earlier battle.






The arrogant Romans, seeing the King's flag, gathered their men to meet him while our two forces were still separated.






First they sent their horsemen to attack our flank. However, in their eagerness, they separated themselves from the more powerful infantry.

Rather than keep his elephants in reserve, Pyrrhos had them engage the Romans.








The Romans launched an infantry attack of two prongs - one on the flank and the other to pin the phalanx in place.

It's troubling how the phalanx is supposed to pin the enemy, but the Romans are capable of turning this around and pinning them in place instead!








While the flank attack was kept occupied by allied horsemen, the Rhodians moved into position and began to clear the Romans off the phalanx.







The rest of the Romans began to turn and flee when they saw the flags of the Tarentum reinforcements arrive on the field.

Little did they know that those banners were only that of the horsemen - the infantry were still far away from the battle.








Cretans moving on our right flank (now cleared of Roman horsemen, at great cost to the latter) and opened fire on the triarii who had joined the hastati on the phalanx line.

The men toeing the spearline began to break when they started taking fire from both right and left.








The slaughter was quite impressive - a majority of the Roman casualties were on the right flank and the spear line.










With this victory, the first Roman thrust had been not only turned aside, it had been broken!