Freedom Under the Kings of Syracuse (Chap 32)

[Alavaria]

I can guarantee you there are many cool pictures of close combat

Since I have a general that uses horse, I also actually get some use out of charges which is pretty sweet!


Because the Levy Thureophoroi carry 6 javelins and can melee, I'm starting to like them a lot. Against horse they do decently and stop overkilling on my own guys like the slingers do (I can't just use my slingers to finish the enemy with a rear charge, they're useless in melee).

[Alavaria]

Chapter 2: True Roman Corpses

Captain: The Romans are here!
Hieronymos: Victory is near at hand, if all do their duty...
Romans: Attack!

The Romans push in through the breach, immediately encountering a wall of Syracusean soldiers. Undaunted, they press on, forcing the greeks back!


The Greek Slingers do their best, adding to the confusion and causing some casualties, but hoplites are falling to Roman steel and the enemy seems to still be flooding in, applying more and more pressure.

A unit of hoplites breaks under the stress!

This was not exactly what their general had been thinking earlier. Of course, at the moment, he wasn't really thinking anything....

It may have been the effect of a bronze spike through the eyesocket.

Now, he had thought to send the garrison infantry around, to clear the south side of the walls. And indeed they were able to find and engage some Syracuseans, however they had made a small miscalculation...

You see, Hieronymos had moved ALL of his forces into the settlement. As a result, the one unit of infantry could only do so much.

They never even realized what exactly had happened, in all likihood.

Certainly, their leader, the garrison commander wasn't realizing very much at all.

It may have been the effect of a sling shot to the head.

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 3: 

Chapter 3: Seeing The Dusk

The situation was tense. The Romans, every man of them with a super-heavy shield and magnificent mail armor (how they were able to do this is a mystery, even to Syracusean experts in mass production) meant that they were slowly winning out.

However, the tide turned when...

From the rear, the shouts of men fighting were replaced with cries of victory. Greek ones. The Roman garrison force had been defeated by the close order and discipline of Hieronymos's medium infantry.

And some slingers.

At the same time, the sound of horse, and orders in Greek came from behind. Hieronymos's horse had circled around outside the walls to reach the breach. The Romans knew their doom was coming for them.

And some slingers.



With spears in front, lances behind, missiles coming in from a third side and their own roman wall on the other, the only place left for them was the grave.

Syracusian weapons put them in that place with deadly efficiency.

The streets were now controlled by greek forces! Hieronymos led his elite troops to the center of the settlement to squash any last resistance and claim his victory!

Rather than face us fairly, the Romans stayed on their mounts as though there was any way to escape, with all our troops filling the streets.

There was no way to escape for them.

Despite having a reputation as less than stellar horsemen, they put up an amazing fight against heavy infantry. Roman horse are really something to be feared...

Losses were heavy, but we claimed victory nonetheless.

But how would Syracuse maintain a prolonged war effort?

Not by relying on help from the hero of Carthage, Hannibal, that was for sure. There had been a battle at a certain settlement known as Cannae, and...

[Stath's]

Niceee!

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 4: 

Chapter 4: A Smoking Firepot

Even as "friends" of Rome, we knew they had... intents unbecoming of a friend. Those barbarians think they are the best of men even though they don't even speak greek anymore. Their grasping hands went too far when they started eying our greek freedom.

We had all all the proof needed to demonstrate Roman intent on Sicily. They had, beyond any doubt, been caught in the process of organizing a takeover of our island. And Hieronymos was going to make sure it failed.

We swiftly advanced towards Arkragas, the second of three main Roman centers of importance. However, it had been mostly abandoned... a recall of troops to Italy to deal with Hannibal or a trap? Caution was necessary.

Simply leaving them be was not an option, however. Giving up the initiative meant a quick death, against Romans. We could deal the Romans a stinging blow, just... had to be wary of their trickery.

We started out by testing a new weapon of mass explosion; "firepot" ammunition. Archimedes' massive siege ballistas fired rocks, and could handle specially crafted containers of Sicilian Fire, which sprays out everywhere upon impact with devastating effects on anyone caught in it. The test was quite successful!

The Roman leader was possibly the first Roman to feel the "burn" from the experimental firepots, but by no means would be the last.

After having our men encircle and scout out the surrounding area, we sent in a small task force to clear the Romans occupying the town. There was actually very minimal resistance. Apparently the Romans had actually left the settlement.

We were also able to field test our arms against Roman horse. The results were fairly surprising, but very informative:

Please observe the vase image below of a battle between Roman horse and a Hoplite/Xystonphoroi horse force.


The Greek hoplites and the Roman cavalryman both have the same range from grip to point. However, while the infantry need thrust upwards only a little, the Roman needs to thrust down at a very steep and awkward angle due to their overarm grip which means their hand is fairly far above their target, whereas the hoplite can thrust easily straight ahead.

Naturally, this means the Roman horse will wreck even our heaviest royal hoplites.



Additionally, observe that the range of the xyston-bearer is a great deal longer than the Roman. The vase shows the difference; the Roman is about to be struck, but cannot even reach the horse of the greek. Furthermore, the greek horseman has both his hands on the lance, delivering a much stronger blow.

Naturally, this means that any direct combat, let alone a charge-and-countercharge scenario that involves taking the Romans head on will lead to annihilation of the greek lancers.


Naturally...

(The image shows lancers ignoring their left hand... probably inexperience on the part of the artist. It is vase art after all.)

Well, anyway, "live fire" tests on Romans aside, it was a valuable victory of itself. Our plan to free Sicily of Romans, without having to rely on those deceptive Carthaginians was well on schedule...

Clear evidence of an initial Roman effort to destabilize greek presense on Sicily was discovered in the town of Akragas. The international community could not but disapprove of their actions.

While we waited and grew stronger, several nations passed severe sanctions on the Roman Empire.

Yep. Judgement was on it's way.

(Judgement arriving)

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 5: 

Chapter 5: Freedom... Isn't Free

Surprisingly... the Romans never showed up to reclaim their town. Informants from Lilybaeum confirmed that the Roman fleet had sailed somewhere to the north-west, and loaded with supplies at that. Additional intelligence suggested that they had intended to move soldiers to Italy to counter Hannibal, but then due to the attacks of Syracuse, resolved to abandon the island.

More or less. There was still a small garrison at Lilybaeum, probably to prevent it from being overrun. Of course, overrunning it means returning Roman forces would have to "take the beaches" first.


One doubts they can swim well, seeing how every single cohort's soldier wears a full set of mail armor...

Hieronymos: Lilibaeum must be secured, immediately. Attack!

I am Siromos. Let me tell you a story about a battle for the freedom of Sicily. This took place in Lilybaeum, an ex-Cartheginian Roman-held port settlement that was a resupply point for the Romans' south-western patrols to contain Carthage.

Far from having to drive these barbarian invaders into the sea however, General Hieronymos had wisely chosen his timing, and resistance was relatively light. But again, these are Romans, the like of whose manufacturing and training are ridiculously high. It is said a green Roman Polybian Cohort recruit could fight even a Royal Hoplite, so heavy were their arms and effective their minimum training.

But we Sicilians were not without our advantages in battle... our technological advantage, from Greek thinking, led from powerful siege engines, to much smaller machines useful on individual Romans. Our strong combined-arms approach also had even smaller scale missiles, sling stones.

Any attack, regrouping or breach in Roman defenses would leave behind enemies shredded by all manner of projectiles shot at great ranges. Archimedes and the other engineers even created ultra-miniaturized catapults that could be carried and worked by a single soldier!


Of course, never forget the dreaded "fire support". Every Roman who had seen firey doom rained upon them from such distances was utterly broken by the spectacle. And then just broken.

I and my friend Asopus were serving in one of the old hoplite-styled units, back before the Sicilian Unification reforms. There had been no real resistance upon entering the walls, and two assault groups were ordered to move through the city and take down any resistance.


Asopus: Well, after this campaign wraps up, I will retire from the army for good.
Siromos: But the Romans will return...
Asopus: I've had my fill of Romans and Carthaginians both.
Siromos: I take it you plan to take up the General's offer.
Asopus: Good land to settle in? Of course. We've fought enough to earn it.
Asopus: I've served more than enough, someone younger will have to take up this spear.
Siromos: Wait, those are... Roman soldiers!


Of course there were Romans. Every single Roman who was killed in the town-center that day was wearing a full set of heavy mail along with an awesomely heavy shield. Truly, they were all equipped as champions.

And these were the ones left behind...

The Romans charged in, and through sheer mass pushed the whole unit back, though they could not break us. The fighting was heavy and many spears were broken, including mine. The round shields which were standard in that time were not suitable for such a brawl.

Honestly, they weren't suitable for very much anyway, which was why they were phased out in the Reforms in favor of the large but more easily used Thureos.


But suddenly, the Romans began to break. We had succeeded!

Some fool shouted, "after them!" and other fools rushed off...

The Romans turned about. It had been a trick, and we had fallen for it!

One of them, I remember he was wearing a breastplate, was ordering the charge while running with his men. Siromos was right in front of him and I could see the Roman trying to thrust at Asopus' left while maintaining the momentum of the charge.


Siromos: Asopus, no!

Too late, Asopus tried to move to the right as I came up behind him to cover his left. The Roman didn't stop, but with his sword at the ready, thrust while still moving at full speed...

Remember, Romans don't fight the soldier in front of them, they actually attack the one in front of the Roman to their right...


The Roman hit me just about here. As I tried to duck, the thrust aimed at my arm ended up ripping through the top of my shoulder. I dropped my short sword and fell to the ground.

Asopus thrust at the Roman while trying to cover me. Just a moment later a volley of stones slammed through the melee, dropping Romans all over our battlefield.

(In the picture above, Asopus is the hoplite at the very bottom-left.
The hoplite on the ground in front of him is Siromos.
You can see the fallen roman general in front of Siromos.
Because Siromos was on the ground, he didn't get hit by the slingers.
A little further back, you can see some Romans doing their "stomach-grab" death animation)

And we were the lucky assault group. The second one had met Roman Triarii. Who knows why they were left on garrison duty, but losses were much heavier there...

Another worthy victory, but at what cost... as I was bleeding out on the foreign Roman pavement in the middle of a greek Sicily...

Siromos: Hey Asopus...
Asopus: Hold on, we're taking you to the surgeon.
Siromos: Freedom is bloody expensive.

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 6: 

Chapter 6: Facts On The Ground

The Romans had been shipping over colonists in an effort to colonize Sicily. This sort of illegal immigration was to stop!

We made it stop, at spearpoint. No more illegal settlements by Romans!

In order to prevent excessive concentration of Romanness, we moved some of them to nearby Akragas. Many would also have to undergo re-education to correct some of the more pervasive Roman misunderstandings about good Greek ways.

We would not allow this weed to take root in the soil of Sicily. Syracuse, as well, had some need of a cleansing purge to remove Romanish elements... our King made sure it was done to completion.

In the meantime, Syracuseans were spreading out across Sicily as part of a concerted attempt to fully employ the island's resources in its defense. Establishing lines of communication as well as a system of honest Greek government was important.

Akragas would be only one of many centers that grew up with an influx of new Greek inhabitants. King Hiero announced a long-running plan - Fortress Sicily, which would see our island become an unbreakable bastion of Greek progress in the world. The Romans would of course return, and we had best be prepared by then!


We began to build up, a lot of us being retired soldiers from the Sicilian campaign. Our freedom from Romans would continue only as long as we could support ourselves, after all.

I myself am awaiting the first batch of new wine from the western side of Sicily, Greek stuff not that crappy Roman-style alcohol. If you happen to drop by, ask for Asopus. I have some stories of the Sicilian Campaign, why I even fought in the battle for Lilybaeum.



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Meanwhile, in the east and to the west, a storm was brewing...


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A battle had taken place in Italy. Hannibal engaged a Roman force near the city of Cannae. Hannibal, of course, came prepared with a plan to defeat the Romans, having learned from recent Roman defeats.

However... he had not thought his plan through. Our spies relayed to Syracuse what had happened.



Hannibal decided to take the Romans on in the field, rather than within Cannae, his first mistake. He successfully, though at great loss, was able to gain both flanks and even the rear, encircling the Roman forces. It seemed he was about to achieve victory, as his men closed in on all sides.

But alas, if one remembers, every single Roman soldier of the Polybian style was armed with the previously mentioned magnificent mail armor and super-heavy shield. And thus, the Romans cut their way out in every direction with their swords, delivering a deadly blow to Hannibal. He was never to be heard of again in Italy as an object of fear.



Hieronymos only commented at the time: "He had Balerics. If only he had shot the Romans in the backs."

But elsewhere, there were great concerns. In Carthago, a group of radical moderates began an aggressive campaign for peace with the Romans. Of course, everyone in Sicily knew that would mean an even stronger Rome, and just about hand to them all our lives. Indeed, most of the citizens of Carthage refused such cowardice, pointing out rightly that Sicily had been freed from Roman rule just recently.

Of course, we were free Sicilians and not Carthage's Sicilians, but anyway...


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The situation in Carthago deteriorated. Despite advocating for peace, Hanno and the like had fully planned on being forced to seize power. It seemed even Carthaginian "dialogue" could be derailed by force.

Hanno's supporters ransacked temples to arm themselves and began an armed coup. These pro-peace terrorists, calling themselves "Sacred Band" had armed themselves in the "traditional" heavy hoplite manner with bronze cuirasses and a close formation. They dedicated themselves to bringing about peace by use of these stolen religious arms.


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At this time, Hiero was working on a framework for unified governance of the Sicilian region, called the United (Sicilian) Cities. There were suggestions that it be called the United Sicilian City-States, or the United Sicilian States, but in fact, Hiero only intended to have one Sicilian state covering multiple cities.

One state, under one King, of course.


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The situation in Carthago had become one of open street fighting as Sacred Band fought against the various civic forces of the city. Heiro was asked by the government of Carthago to assist: he dispatched Hieronymos to Africa on a humanitarian intervention mission.

Hopefully, the liberator of Sicily would be seen as a supporting and inspiring figure that would calm the violence.

Hiero and his followers disagreed.

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 7: 

Chapter 7: An Inside Job

The whole of Sicily was dotted with refurbished Roman as well as newly constructed Greek settlements! Fortress Sicily* was only beginning construction at the time of the "Carthaginian Debates" (a euphemism, doubtless).

As the greatest polis of all Greeks everywhere, Surakousai numbered -a lot- prior to its effort to resettle Sicily. The great leadership of Hieronymos in the war with Rome led to manificent achievements. A great ship, "Syrakosia II", which must be the greatest war vessel ever built and one of the greatest of its time. Its self stated goal was to be loaded up with elite marines and heavy naval war-machines and ship off to every part of the Mediterranean that was under First Navy attention.


But, Syrakosia II was not the ship I was sailing on. It had not been built in the time of this story. My men and I had sailed to Africa on "Syrakosia", a humbler cargo ship, which was laden with humanitarian aid for Carthago. (If you recall, there was essentially a small civil war occurring within the walls.) As for us, we were neither aid goods or marines, but serving as Hieronymos' honor guard during the aid mission. After being honorably retired from the Sicilian campaign due to injuries, I was able to recover in time to sign up for the Carthaginian mission.

The Kingdom treats returning veterans well, usually with rank, benefits and honors. This continued through the Sicilian campaign and later. I actually received a promotion to file leader, and armor; a sturdy bronze heart protector with a purple square mark. (This honor was thereafter referred to as a "purple heart".) In later years, such armor was far more common, though the honors were not.

I was in one of the last non-Royal units of hoplites that our kingdom would put on the field. Actually, a much larger number of the more modern Thureos-equipped soldiers were also with us.


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We had set up our military camp somewhere north-east of the walls of Carthago. The engineering teams as well as the doctors and aid supplies were based closer to the city proper. Our armed men were clearly instructed not to be seen near the city armed, in order to not provoke the Carthaginians.

Hieronymos and the advisers from Carthago were preparing to send out the first deliveries of supplies into the city when suddenly...

Carthaginian Runner: General, disaster! Sacred Band have taken down a portion of the walls, and mercenary forces supporting them have moved in!
Cartheginian Adviser: Outrageous, this means a full-on coup! How did they manage such destruction?
Carthaginian Runner: I have only heard some reports, sirs. Apparently they rammed a cart into the wall, bringing it down.


Hieronymos: I'm not getting involved in your civil war, go hire your mercenaries. We're leaving.
C. Adviser: No, by the time any help arrives, Sacred Band will be the only ones paying anyone.
C. Runner: You have to help us! Their men are marching down the streets killing anyone who resists!
Hieronymos: I thought they were pro-peace protesters.
C. Runner: Clearly not if they're fighting their brothers in the city square.


C. Adviser: If you just leave us to them, then Syracuse must stand alone against Rome.
Hieronymos: Too late for bluffing, we already know Hannibal has failed terribly in Italy.
C. Adviser: Hannibal is our greatest general, leading a legendary force!
Hieronymos: Our informants brought word of the disaster at Cannae.
C. Adviser: ....

Well, the rest of the negotiations were kept secret, probably to avoid embarrassing our Carthaginian allies, but in any case, we were ordered to form up and march towards the breach in Carthago's walls. It was up to us to defeat Sacred Band and their various Libyan mercenary forces. Though we were, indeed, fully equipped, this was a tall task. However, we would have the support of loyal Carthaginian fighters who were at the moment dying in the battle against Sacred Band.


As we marched into the walls, someone noted that the rubble appeared to have fallen inside, whereas supposedly the cart that rammed down the wall had done so from within. But we didn't have time to consider this... (and we weren't engineers anyway, the engineers were back at camp tending to the honor guard siege engines for some reason).

We could see the terrorist hoplites advancing towards us. They were there so fast, the only explanation could be...

Captain: It's a trap!
Siromos: Sacred Band, prepare yourselves! You face men of Syracuse!

Reinforcements: Stand fast hoplites, we will fight with you!
Captain: Sacred Band, you will not be victorious today!

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 8: 

Chapter 8: No One Locks Shields Anymore

Ok, so it was at that battle-we-didn't-come-to-fight at Carthago, right? Sacred Band had attacked us just after we had entered through their breach in the walls. Well, our unit's attached slingers shot a lot of them to death, but someone shouted at told them to stop because once you've downed most of the enemy, it's far too easy for us to get hit. Having allies "help" by spraying the battle with missiles is a little disconcerting.


Sometimes it's hard to appreciate the value of the greaves (they're a little awkward until you get used to them), but sheesh, I'll take that over risking a broken shin from friendly fire support any day. While they're at it, a helmet that protects from missiles flying parallel to the ground is probably a little too complicated... maybe some kind of plate that can be raised and lowered?


Oh yeah, Thureophoroi don't use greaves, instead you get that nice tall shield. A decent tradeoff, sometimes the round shape of the aspis is a bit of a liability. Less so with the even older large versions, but they were even less wieldy in a brawl. Anyway, don't blame the missile guys, they do a good job. Just try to play defensive when you know they're about, and use the shield. Dodging might leave you uncovered when the stones come in and you really don't want that.

So the battle, sure. I was all the way on the right side. Yes, we still did the right-is-best orientation for hoplites. And here comes one of the Sacred Band trying to get around the side of the unit, as though they weren't nearly already all dead! So naturally, I've ditched the spear some time back, and with these swords you really have to get in close and practically slam it into their face or something.


So I shield bash the guy, hoping to knock him over for an easy kill, but no luck. He's got a bronze-covered shield and a heavy bronze cuirass. His shield was even bigger than mine, I think, and I bounced right off like a fool. Well, I was trying to regain my guard, but he thrusts right past the right edge (and these shields have a bad one-on-one grip, it protects empty space on your left) and well, he should've got me right them.

But instead his sword point hits the tunic and stops. The annoyance of dealing with that bronze plate had just been amply repaid.


Oh, and that's about it. I dropped my sword and instead grabbed his sword arm, tried to get it pinned against my chest. I didn't kill him, one of the others actually got behind the damned terrorist while he was trying to figure out how my shirt stopped his sword. And then snapped his neck. Hah! Teamwork.

Don't discount such moves. It's harder than you think to kill someone in armor from behind. Not with a short sword, certainly not with the Syracusean sword. Instead, if you've gotten behind him -say, a Roman- you basically press your shield against his back, and with your empty right right, reach around, usually about cheek level or so, then grab hold of their chin or something. Then pull it upwards and backwards. Like you're trying to tilt their head backwards, but really sharply and really far back. That usually snaps the neck.


If it doesn't kill them, usually they'll be off balance and likely have lost their helmet. So then probably you'll need some help to finish them off. But a good thrust from a friend will do them in, like -this-.

Yeah, this is actually the terrorist's sword. Rather than try to find my own after the fight, I grabbed his. It nearly fell on my foot. It's a good thing to have sturdy shoes as well, I tell you.


About this time, the Royal Hoplites came in and saw the slaughter. They were quite impressed, if I say so myself.

[Alavaria]

?? Thanks forums...

[CatoTheYounger]

Syracuse Royale hoplites are beautiful tanks.

[Alavaria]

Chapter 9: At The Gates, In The Square

No sooner had we reformed our ranks (actually in the middle of doing so) than we were attacked again! At first, when we saw the hoplites approaching us, the captain called out to them, seeing they bore standard Carthaginian shields, not the dazzling white ones of Sacred Band. However, once they saw us, there was a great shout as the hoplites threw away their heavy spears and charged with their swords, ready to break into our phalanx!


Captain: Wait! These must be the mercenaries of Sacred Band! Stand strong!


Our attached skirmishers, who had earlier made way for the Royal Hoplites, were of course unable to help us.

Once the enemy had committed to the fight, our help came in and began their deadly work. Fortunately, we did not have to rely on their rather worrisome help, as these enemies were much easier to dispatch with spear or sword.


After that, as we were picking up spears to replace our broken ones (they tend to break a lot, it must be the wood quality), someone realized what had happened. It seemed that these were not mercenaries, as reported. Sacred Band had actually armed some Libyan sympathizers from the Carthago armories. That was the only explanation for how they were able to get men into the city so fast; they were already within the walls.


This did raise the question of why they rammed a cart into the wall to bring it down. Probably to terrify the citizens into giving in to their insane demands.

As we approached the square, Hanno spotted the banners of the Royal Hoplites and realized his doom was approaching. He shouted out over the gathered ranks of yet more cuirassed terrorists at us:


Hanno: "Do you how the Romans greet one another nowadays? They say Hannibal is at the gates!"
[*After Hannibal's death at Cannae, his body (along with leaders of his forces) was strung up near one of the gates of Roma to much celebration. Victory Games were held several days, notable in that they began with the declaration "Hannibal is at the gates!" These Victory Games were all about recreating the Roman victory at Cannae, in some cases using actual captured soldiers from Hannibal's army.]


Hieronymous looked at one of the officers of his Royal Hoplites, a mercenary who had come from Sparta, according to the stories. The hoplite laughed and thrust his spear into the air.

Spartan: "Hanno is in the square!"

Initially, the plan was to attack the center from all directions. However, Hieronymous realized his veterans (that's us!) and elite infantry were all with him, while the newer units were elsewhere. As a result, rather than a slow advance, we had to rush to ensure that we attacked first. This way, the other forces would come to help us, instead of potentially being beaten back, which would only serve to encourage the terrorists.


Certainly, at least one part of it worked; the enemy broke ranks to charge straight at us! How unlike the historical Sacred Band (the military soldiers, not the terrorist group of the same name) who marched very slowly in formation.

[Alavaria]

Chapter 10: Never Negociate With Terrorists

The green troops could not possibly have taken the long route through Carthago's smaller streets and arrived more quickly than the veterans taking the direct path straight into the city square. Hieronymous need not have worried about the timing for his plan.

However, we had to worry about fighting off the terrorists of Sacred Band directly, spear against spear. Many of us never saw the victory we were about to earn. By the time the other forces arrived, the honor guard's hoplite unit had been devastated.

On the right flank, the enemy was pressing us hard. The enemy hoplites had abandoned the usual close ordered phalanx for a melee with swords. They tried to get around our flanks, but the hoplites with me were all veterans and engaged them without fear. Still, their heavy armor and fearsome fanaticism proved overwhelming. While we fought, they began to force our flank back and inwards...

Impossibly, the sounds of fighting in the center appeared to be moving further to the front!

It was not our reinforcements, those were much further away. In fact, we could tell they had arrived when a great deathcry was heard among the enemy ranks. Better yet, as I was on the flanks, though fighting for my life of course... still, at least it was unlikely to be felled by friendly missiles.

Then again, there were hostile swords to deal with. Such is war.

The mystery was soon clarified as a unit of veteran Thureophoroi appeared to help secure the flanks. The Royal Hoplites had advanced in a dense square formation; the enemy began to stretch themselves thin in an effort to flank and surround them.

Hieronymous' plan was complete. With the help of the Thureophoroi, the fight on the right began to shift in our favor. Now we had gained the enemy flanks. Victory was near at hand!

Following the newly developed "Line Peltast" style of fighting, our skirmishers were not finished when they had used their last javelins. Drawing the "Syracusean sword", they charged into the back of the enemy. There was no way out for any of the terrorists.

Certainly not for Hanno. The leader of the Carthaginian moderates was heard to scream as he went down "we only want peace!". Heieronymos shouted back over the battlefield "there can be only war"

Once his horse was felled, Hanno was unable to stop the hoplites stabbing him repeatedly with the spikes at the end of their spears. It was over.

I need to stop doing this, the enemy killed 200+, and my own troops killed another 100+ of my soldiers. Terrible.

Many Carthaginian refugees from the civil war that was now erupting in Africa would move to Sicily, with long-felt effects...


Next Time: Fortress Sicily, and the Roman Invasion

[Atticus-R]

Love it man.

[Alavaria]

Chapter 11: Fortress Sicily

After the end of the Sicilian Campaign, the Fortress Sicily project commenced. The Sicilian people worked together with the goal to protect their new union from future Roman aggression. With the arms of free Greeks and Carthaginians, backed by the best minds in Syracuse, surely we would...

Wait, what is that? Rioting?

Ok, so this is what happened... fast forward from the end of the Sicilian Campaign to the aid mission to Carthago. Many "Carthaginians" moved to Sicily as refugees from the increasing civil war that was distracting all of Africa from the greater Roman threat.

But, these weren't actually citizens of Carthage.

Actually, Hieronymous had allowed a large number of Libyans to migrate to Sicily. Many of these immigrants only had hard lives under Carthaginian rule, and the civil war against Sacred Band was a convenient excuse for them to search out greener fields. And Sicily was very green.

As it happens, a large number of the Sicilians did not take kindly to this. Problems swiftly occurred.

Sicily experienced a brief period of extreme growing pains. Hiero's plan to alleviate overcrowding in Surakousai was proceeding apace, but the sudden flood of Libyans from all over Carthage's Africa holdings had not been accounted for. Initially, he thought to split them up and settle these Africans into the relatively more organized areas around Messana and Lilybaeum.

However, this was still excessive, and greater steps had to be taken. All this while work on Fortress Sicily could not be slowed down, due to the impending Roman threat.


So...

The greatest bulk of the new Libyans were moved to the north-east part of Sicily, where they were generously allowed to lease large amounts of land. More immediately, they would be needed to work on the various defenses facing Italy. More cynically, this meant that the first casualties of any Roman invasion across the waters would be Libyan.


The Libyans settled in and immediately began farming and construction. Besides sea-walls overlooking the most obvious landing spots, along with defensive bastions in chosen heights, other less obvious stretches of coast would be carefully set with sharp rocks or stakes.

In Lilybaeum, on the west side of Sicily, the pace was less frantic. Indeed, though there was a Roman presence on islands to that side, the greater concern had been a Carthaginian force from Africa; a worry that was no longer relevant.

Instead, a secondary center of training was established for the self-defense forces of Sicily.

Our preparation and defenses would soon be tested.

[Alavaria]

Chapter 12: The Roman Invasion: Inferno Onagers Loaded

The Roman Invasion was a fast moving assault, with troops landing at an appropriate, pre-selected beach area and establishing a base camp. From there, a swift attacking strategy would be employed to take strategic assets.

The Romans, on the other hand were bogged down almost from the start of their attack.

Both sides had given thought defenses, their own and the opponents. The Romans had begun constructing some defenses west of Rhegion, perhaps. It wasn't clear, but rather than risk it, the Sicilians landed further north instead. The Romans were taken by surprise, and we unloaded soldiers, horses and even Syracusean-make siege engines. Our siege camp was soon established and ready.

The Romans fared worse. While a similar move avoided our best defenses, east of Messana, the Fortress Sicily construction to the north delayed them enough that... we shall see.

Under General Hieronymos, we struck hard at the imperialist regime's occupation of these Greek portions of Italy. They only had a servile bootlick, who commanded some Italian militia forces.

While the Roman invasion stalled in a forest of stakes, under heavy weapons attack from the defense lines north of Messana, we were preparing to break through the walls of the settlement that they were relying on for supplies.

While Romans indeed are rather ingenious, after the manner of barbarians, they still cannot match the like of the Archimedes Rapid Siege Engineers corps, who have developed a means to bring with the army sets of carefully selected parts that greatly reduce the time taken to prepare assault-ready siege engines in the field.

These poor Italian troops attempt to make a brave show of it, but their lack of ability in close formations betrays them; they are still using their spears underhand, clearly they are not a match for real hoplites. Though, they apparently interlock their shields, while our own actual hoplites do not do that. Something is odd, must be due to Roman deviancy.


In any case, if they thought large rocks was the most we had, they were to be shown wrong. From one of the famous chemist labs of Surakousai, we prepared to unleash...

LET'S START AN INFERNO
ENGULF THEM IN FLAMES
FIRE FROM SKY

Everything will go up in smoke, even a Roman general!

The effect of this terrifying ammunition was immediate, thankfully the heat of the burning chemicals covered the stench of the Italians'... gut response.

Of course, the destruction did not end there...




Regarding the use of the terms "firepot" and "onager"...

[_Tartaros_]

very nice progress
when did you wipe out the intruders in messana? they coudn´t flee anywhere and are trapped atm

[Alavaria]

I'll be honest, at some point they just... disappeared. Or maybe took boats and left, I have no idea what happened to those stacks.

I am fairly certain they either left and stopped at Caralis, OR they were actually caught on a boat that was destroyed at sea. I have saves and could check.

[_Tartaros_]

Nice, did you use BI.exe? in my current game the AI transfered alot of armies by sea and catch each other up.

[Alavaria]

The AI indeed began a naval invasion, but because I started massing ships, apparently it changed strategy, and the stacks became cut off and therefore harmless.

I was actually expecting it to siege Messana, but my defense strategy in those cases is the magic "defensive siege assault". This is not frequent in 1-turn, in 0-tun (like the Sparta campaign), AI counterattacks are a lot more frequent, as it spams more stacks, so it triggers DSA a lot...