L-Shaped Ambush Technique -Danger lots of Pictures

[Hoffman]

This is the most commonly used tactic that I use... too many uses of the word use in this useful sentance...


I opened up the Custom Battle, and I didn't realize it but had the unit settings on Huge, in my Campaign they'reo n Large, so in the Custom battle here I didn't fully use my legion build to its best because I wasn't expecting the line to be that long...

The legion in here is the same Experience and unit types of the 1st Legion under Aulus Scipio, currently residing in Segesta and under siege by the Gauls. Publius Scipio under the 2nd Legion with his semi-reconsituted troops fresh from the Capitol are ready to flank and crush the Gaul Army. But that's a different story.

We start out with a simple line of Battle, with the 1st Cohort's Hastati in 2 Ranks shield wall, this is the main battle line where the hordes of Gauls will crash against.
Centered behind them are the 2 Principes and 2 Triarii, these guys shift to the flanks or charge through the shield wall if necessary.
Usually in the finishing stages of a battle I'll order them to charge and carry the attack but for the most part they're generally used in reserves.



On the right flank is 2nd Cohort, 2nd Cohort is a light infantry cohort, 4 Hastati with a unit of Archers and Slingers, the Archers and Slingers were temporarily assigned to 1st Cohort for this battle as 2nd would be the maneuver element and I didn't want my precious missile troops exposed to possible flanks by enemy cavalry.



I position the archers and slingers in and around the Principes/Hastati, and the Velites to the front, they will rush forward and draw the Gaul into 1st Cohort's Shield Wall, then move off to the left flank and prevent it from being flanked.
This will bring the majority of the Gaul force into heavy contact with a Cohort on the defensive, Principes hold their Pila until the end, where the sudden throw will toss the Gaul Army into disarray and allow the Cavalry to sweep in and crush them.



Here the action starts.
The Velites rush forth and draw the Gauls in.
Their Cavalry moves to the right and is shadowed by the Equites.
2nd Cohort shifts to a longer line and a shield wall, preparing to meet the Barbarian Cavalry.








The Battle is fully engaged now. I patiently wait as the action on the right flanks ends and shift 2nd Cohort around into an L Shaped Ambush for the remaining Gaul Force. My Cavalry is forced away from the action to prevent enemy units from rejoining the fight on the extreme right of the L.
The Center is holding well, and the archers are tearing the enemy skirmishers, what little there are left, apart.


































































The slaughter begins, the gaul army is mostly broken, now for the Cavalry to return and mow them down like grass!

[Vangelis]

Nice battle, enjoyed it reading!

[MasterAdnin]

Can you just post the end phase where it tells you the amount of losses and kills, because this seems like a good tactic.

Adnan

[Hoffman]

Forgot to take a screenie of that, but it was something around 2900 Romans against 5,000 or so Gauls, all silver chevrons. MY Guys had the same experience as 1st LEgion in my Campaign under Aulus Scipio, so close to 3 Chevrons bronze for most of them, and a couple single silver chevron Hastati.

I lost about 200-300 Romans for the virtual annihilation of the Gaulic Force.


Merged double post. Please use the edit button next time. - Trajan


Again, it wasn't as perfect as it normally is, my Campaign is on Large Unit sizes and this was with Huge, I'm not used to Huge unit sizes so it was a little awkward.