Wow. This was freaking intense. So, seeing skillfultree's post made me want to take the new chariot mechanic for a spin with a similar setup. So for kicks, I decided to replay a moment in history where the scythed chariots could have turned the tide. so I set up a Pontos + Athens vs. Roma x 2 custom battle to kind of re-enact Sulla's siege of Athens and the following battle of Chaeronea, during the First Mithridatic War. Sulla famously hit Athens' walls with an artillery barrage of a kind never seen before and took the city and in the followup battle, Archelaus chaotically deployed scythed chariots at Chaeronea where the terrain wasn't suited and was routed. So I was playing around with the idea in my head of seeing what would happen if those scythed chariots were instead deployed at Athens. This isn't really historically accurate and is only half-serious. (i.e., it's not a night time battle and I forgot to include siege towers.) Onward!
Outnumbered by a margin of over a thousand, it looked like we had about a thirty percent chance of holding the city.
So...yeah, that's a lot of artillery you're packing there:
I had to think quickly, so my first move was to mock Sulla's pimples and hope he would go away. That did not go over well:
They opened fire and I immediately noticed a problem: They had parked their ballistae right at the edge of range, and being behind my city walls, I had no line of sight and there was no way I could hit their ballista with my own. Again, I had to think quickly, so I immediately started mocking Sulla's pimples again, and also moving my own ballista outside the city gates. I'd basically be leading them to their deaths, but...oh wait:
Okay, so I can't take out his artillery with my artillery. And it looks like they're now stuck in the gate, preventing it from closing. Awesome. Ooh, even better: It looks like Sulla's going to have at least a couple of holes punched in my walls pretty damn soon...
With my gate open, I can take maybe one or possibly two holes in my walls. Anymore and I'll be stretched too thin between his superior numbers. Which means I'm going to have to get someone out of my city while out of view, sneak around and take out the ballistae without getting killed too soon. How? You guessed it: It's time to mow the lawn...
But once spotted, all it'll take will be some cavalry to intercept them, pin them down and some skirmishers to rain death on them. And there just happen to be two units of Socii Equites on the left flank, between me and those ballistae. So, classic glass cannon strategy. I'm taking half my army with me---pontikoi pelasti, thorakitai doriphoroi, and thorakitai xystophoroi---to run interference:
It's risky. On one hand, I'm leaving an outnumbered city defense even more depleted. On the other...well, actually I don't really have a good reason. But if anyone here watches American football though, essentially I'm protecting my running back for a Hail Mary pass. So I'll need to take out their cav with my own:
It's such an awesome sight that a wagon decided to float up into the air just to get a good look. But the cavalry isn't the only threat. Since I'm bringing spears along to protect my cav, I need to engage their very heavy sword infantry (Cohors Prima) too:
I need to hold all of them in place so they can't pursue my ballista busters. Speaking of which....
Yeah, not so tough now. Ballistae are neutralized. Now they'll never bring down the wall. I turn around, ready to take a bow. No, please don't thank me. I only saved Athens and....oh.
Oops.
Oops.
Oops. Guess I kind of got there too late. That whole exercise was really kind of pointless in retrospect, wasn't it? Wow, that balance of power bar sure moves in the wrong direction when you least expect it. I think I'm looking at a one in four chance of pulling this off now. Alright time to move on to Plan B. What's Plan B? Trying to think up a Plan B. Just kidding. I have a Plan B, and it involves getting to the wall quickly.
But I've pretty much left all my protection units behind on the other side of the city. Between me and the wall are a dozen elite melee units....and one of the generals along with his Equites Consulares. [PSA: It's a bad idea to engage a very heavy cavalry unit head on with a chariot unit, especially one with their entire army nearby. They'll immobilize you, and everyone else will swarm you. Chariots are like sharks: You stop moving forward, you die. Don't be like Skotos!]
Routed. Next up are three units of Principes. They have their back turned to me, and for that they cannot be allowed to live:
But by the time I've dispatched the Principes, I'm in trouble. They've called in the spears, and skirmishers. Remember what I said about not getting pinned down? I've heard that spears and arrows don't mix well with horses.
I take some casualties. I keep moving, and luckily they don't have time to get into formation or face me. I plow into their flank and press on. Meanwhile, the Romans are pushing further into the gaps in the wall. I still have to take care of a few Cretan archers. Take that, Cretan archers! That's is what you get for ruining Caius Gracchus's revolution!
Whew. Okay. And so I race back and find several of the Romans are already inside the city walls. But that's fine. That's where I want them. This is what I wanted to try from the beginning. With the revised chariot mechanic, the narrower the better. The Athenians, with their heaviest hoplites still have them mostly fixed in place from the front. By getting stuck in the gaps, the fish have just served up the barrel and I am in the perfect formation to deal maximum damage.
Hi there.
Hi. Is this your eagle? Because I have it now. I have your eagle.
You might have also noticed a few pics back that those broken edges in the walls have now made perfect arrow towers. And so Athenian archers now make them suffer the slings and arrows of...no, I'm not doing a Hamlet quote. Wait, are those fire arrows?!
Dude!
Dude! Stop! Totally not necessary. So it's not enough to slice them down, now we have to burn them alive too?! Well I'll allow it to continue, but I will point the finger of scorn.
And now we're inside, and I bet they wish they were outside.
Speaking of inside. There's someone who is trying to make for the city center. Witnesses report that he has ghastly pimples and a taste for raiding the treasury at Delphi. ::prepares Church lady voice:: Could it be....Sulla!?
Hold on Sully, I'm coming!
What the hell?! Again with the fire arrows.
“Only the dead have seen the end of war.” - Snoop Dogg.
Hey, um, hey man. You alright? Battle's over, man. No hard feelings, you're free to go. No offense but you seem a bit...hey, are you listening?
Who the hell got 1,123 kills? Oh yeah, it was me. Well, despite the win, this was nerve wracking as hell and it could have easily gone the other way. On the whole, I really like the change to chariots. It makes them even more “high risk/high reward”. You can't attack an army that's spread out, especially a heavily armored one that you could get stuck in. You're forced to use them even more strategically and carefully, but with a greater payoff. Well done, team.
Originally Posted by gary
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Re: Screenshot Thread
THE BEARDED MACE
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