Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

In Progress Let's defeat the Romans battle after battle without ever taking Rome in Field of Glory II

Grimgravy

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Messages
3,469
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire
Use the gauls
 

oscar

Arcane
Joined
Aug 30, 2008
Messages
8,038
Location
NZ
Use the gauls. Though warbands aren't particularly great for fighting Romans their noble cavalry will come in handy
 

ValeVelKal

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
1,605
216 BC : Battle of... Cannae ?

The Year was 216 BC. A new consular army was marching against Hannibal, who had the choice between engaging it with an army depleted, by Gallic reinforcement, or wait for more troops.
The commanders vote confirmed Hannibal's decision : it was time for battle.

I had to leave Tindrlal and the Javelinmen of Badadabon's skirmishers as garrison, but I received some new troops from the Gauls :



- 1 warband in loose order
- 1 noble cavalry
- 1 slinger
- 1 bowman

I would have preferred more line infantry than this but it will do.


Sadly, the battlefield is going to be extremely open - perfect for legions of course, but it also mean that my infantry will be torn apart by the legion in case of prolonged battle.



For this battle, I expect total cavalry superiority, so I will deploy my cavalry (still under the command of Baudon) on the left wing - where the field is the most opened.

Teepasthènes and the Lone Gisco have not received from the battles in Gauls, and as weakened force I will put them in the center, so they will quickly be "helped" by the cavalry. I decided not to have they accompanied by Balitim and Nostra's spearmen, but rather by the Phoenician-style medium infantry as the medium infantry will not be able to hold the right wing (the furthest away from the cavalry) long enough.
For obvious reasons, Westbral's infantry is the most to the left.

Consequently, Andjordal takes command of a small right wing ; small but strong with Balitim and Nostra, but also the Gallic warband. In addition, the Elephants are put under Andjordal command to counter the (limited) Roman cavalry that may deploy on this side, and support the infantry.

Finally, Badadabon is leading the skirmishers in the middle ready to move left or right depending on the needs.



The plan is to deploy as a line the hold in the center but advance on both flanks - a double envelopment if you will.

The Roman deployment has a few surprises :



The Romans have their traditional checkboard deployment, but they could not fill the ranks fully with heavy troops and some "tiles" of the checkboards are occupied by weak-ish Italian foot. In addition, the Romans have some hastily recruited legionaries, put at the left-back from me - the furthest away from combat.

The Romans also have a strong velites deployment on their right.

Interestingly, their leader is Paullus, and since we are in 216, this has to be the battle of Cannae...

The nastiest surprise is that the Romans are not really facing me as expected. Their center is in front of my left, and since they are fairly compact it means my right is facing... no one.
This would be OK if I was expecting my cavalry to win a charge face to face against their heavy infantry. It is not the case, so I need to realign my force in significant confusion :



Unlike our previous opponents, the Romans advance steadily on us, and already the first velites send their javelins on our men :



For Baudon on the left wing, and for the light cavalry, it is already time for decision :

@Baudon : Will you charge the Velites, which will separate you from the center of the Punic line and desorganize your force for future action, or will you wait and support their harassement ?
@hyme @Oscal @Anderbal : If Baudon's hold the charge, will you skirmish yourself (at the risk of being surrounded, isolated and destroyed), or will you bid for time by pulling away from the Velites Javelins ?
 

ValeVelKal

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
1,605
216 BC - Battle of Cannae - 10 AM.

Commander Baudon had decided "We are on flat terrain, so a chargeshould work; so CHARGE!"

This was not was Hannibal had expected, but nonetheless, Baudon ordered the charge :



Initially, the charge did not yield much result, as the velites dispersed and fled in front of the cavalry.

But seeing the Velites running for their lives and the cavalry on his right unnerved the Roman Consul, and Paullus ordered part of his force to rotate to face the cavalry.
Meanwhile, as horses go faster than men (except on very short distance, as we all know thanks for Mr Terry Pratchett), Lammo managed to catch some of the skirmishers already - with devastating effects :



The rest of the force was now getting closer except for the elephants which were still catching back. Badadabon and his men, on the other side of the battlefield, had already started what they do best by saturating the enemy by all sort of projectiles.



Ultimately, the Romans were in contact, with Zeppax infantry the first among the infantry to be engaged in melee :



As for Baudon, the enemy right had rotated toward him, and he was going to fight for his survival with his sword.

The pursuit of the velites, meanwhile, was going well. This was an activity at which the Gallic reinforcement were particularly skilled, as the gallic cavalry showed to the rest of the Punic and Spanish cavalry :



The gallic cavalry totally wrecked one of the velites units and fragmented another, while putting two more under flight. This did not go unnoticed by Hannibal.

"Who is this ? I rarely saw the Gallic being so efficient ?"
"The warriors are gallic, certainly" Narval said "but their commander is some German nobleman of renown. I can't remember his name."
"I will be happy to meet him after the battle"


Some of the infantry chased by the gallic cavalry chased away by the Gauls fled toward Grimgravim, which caught them easily :



Meanwhile, the rest of the cavalry were positioning themselves in a way where they could help their commander - except Lammo who was too busy and to excited to stop his own little pursuit.

Meanwhile, Badadabon carried on his trade, disrupting part of the Roman line.

Finally, the Romans moved to contact all along the line :



The disciplined advance of the Romans left Badadabon and his men the time to move to safety through the Punic lines. Contact was made all along the line, and in some planes the Punic infantry, unused to the mechanical discipline of the legions, left ground.
Already, Paullus was engaging some of his triarii to bolster his left, though the situation was good enough that most of them were still kept in reserve.


On the right, the Roman cavalry finally started to accelerate toward the Punic line. On the left, Baudon was now deeply engaged from all sides by units personally led by Paullus and two of his commanders - an uneven combat certainly.

The left and the right are too much away from Hannibal to receive order, and will have to act on their own initiative.

@Swuulibal : The enemy cavalry is upon you. Your elephants can brush them away, but they move faster. Do you engage them and pursue will all your elephants (including Alxon's) or do you engage Alxon's elephants to attack the Roman's left, at risk of being yourself surrounded ?
@Anderbal : You are not engaged in combat : Do you support the left and in particular Baudon or do you disengage to pursue what is left of the Roman light skirmishers before their regroup
@Balitim : You are the furthest right of the infantry line, with no one facing you. Do you envelop the enemy infantry - at the risk of being yourself beset on your flank or back by the enemy cavalry - or do you quite literally hold your line ?
 
Last edited:

ValeVelKal

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
1,605
Andrebal really appreciates you baudon :
New

"While the pursuit of routed men is what our light cavalry is best suited for, Baudon seems to be in desperate straits. Anderbal the Magnificent rallies his men to come to the aid of his fellow cavalry commander! "
 

ValeVelKal

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
1,605
216 BC - Battle of Cannae - 12 AM.

As you may remember, this was the situation :



Baudon was in dire straight, and all the cavalry that could help him tried to harass the back of the Roman lines.

But the Romans were neither Spaniards nor Gauls, and they remained steady :



And then, what could not be avoided happened :

Hannibal's prized cavalry commander fall in combat :



Meanwhile, the whole center was locked into melee, a situation that Hannibal knew could only end in disaster, if allowed to last :



With Baudon's cavalry still holding without their leader, Hannibal tried one of his risky moves : an all out charge with the light and the heavy cavalry on the right wing of the Romans. If the Romans had not estimated properly how close to rout Baudon's cavalry was, it would probably disrupt and maybe flee …



… the Romans certainly, disrupted, and were on the brink of total rout... but they held !

This was not turning into the double envelopment that Hannibal had hoped.

In the center, the infantry was already giving ground. For all its experience, the Punic infantry was not meant to go toe-to-toe against the Roman heavy infantry :



The only satisfaction was the elephants chasing the Roman cavalry in front of them... but for now it was an equal number of units neutralized for both sides.

Yet, the assault on all sides of the right Roman wing started to bear some fruit, as one of the Roman commander was killed in combat, spreading panic in its unit, which routed :



This was - with the rout of some infantry in the middle of the front line thanks to Bolkonim's efforts - the only satisfaction that Hannibal had for the moment. The Punic lines carried on moving backward, and Zeppax infantry collapsed and run for its life.



The right wing, under Paullus personal command, still held ! Grimgravim and Lammo were barely coming back from their pursuit !

The Gallic reinforcement cavalry were now full of rage, and they were now rivalizing with Itebal's Spanish cavalry as to whom would be the most daring. Recklessly, they charged in the middle of the Roman line. For a moment it seems it was a decisive move : the Roman general Atius was slain, his infantry routed. But the price was steep : the cavalry was now totally surrounded.

As for the Punic infantry, it was now incredibly depleted, often disrupted, about to break :



@Grimgravim : It is time to take a difficult decision : Will you try to save the left wing from collapse, or will you help the Punic right way, going through the battlefield ?
@Swuulibal : Once the Roman cavalry will have been pushed out of the battlefield, will you keep an elephant unit to stop it from coming back (unrouted units which leaves the battlefield can come back) or will you bring back all your elephant to the battlefield.
 

ValeVelKal

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
1,605
216 BC : Battle of Cannae, around 16.00

This was, as you remember, the situation :



Baudon was killed of wounded ; Itebal and the Gallic cavalry were surrounded.

The first order of business on the left was to disengage the heavy cavalry from the trap. The light cavalry attacked the Romans from all sides, pinning it in place - the raw legionaries in particular were neither experimented enough or equipped enough to deal with constant light cavalry harassement. The Romans held their ranks magnificently, but they left a gap in their rank where the Gallic cavalry could pass. As for Itebal, it was too late.



As for the infantry combat, the right wing of Carthage was winning as it was flanking the enemy, but the left infantry wing was collapsing in front of superior Roman equipment and training.



And quickly, once again, Teepasthenès found himself holding a flank alone :



Westbral - witout surprise - and TheLoneGisco had routed. On the leftmost of the Roman infantry line, just like Teepasthenès, an Hastatii unit was holding against all odds against Andjorbal. This time, Andjorbal infantry were not making the difference. Their raw élan would not overcome the disciplined Romans.


On the left cavalry wing, Grimgravim and Lammo are finally back from their pursuit, and their return, with the fine manoeuvring of the Gallic cavalry, with also the constant harassement of the skirmishers, were starting to put pressure on the raw Roman legionaries. Could Itebal hold long enough to be saved ?



No.



After Baudon's, Itebal's elite cavalry had routed and Itebal himself was nowhere to be found.

At this point, you may wonder what happened with the Roman cavalry ? Well, it had been pushed out of the battlefled by Swuulibal's and Alxon's elephants. While not routed (they can still come back), Swuulibal ordered the elephants to turn back to support the faltering Punic lines :



The battle could still go either way : the infantry was losing, but the cavalry - it seems - was slowly gaining an advantage over the Roman elite infantry and had a chance at killing Paullus himself :




it is time for decision :
@hym oscar : Do you carry on supporting the cavalry, or do you start harassing the infantry to help Andjorbal's force ?
@Badadabon : Do you go further behind the enemy lines or do you harass the unit currently in front of Nostra / Balitim ?
 

oscar

Arcane
Joined
Aug 30, 2008
Messages
8,038
Location
NZ
Support the cavalry. Time is of the essence here and we need to free up the cavalry wing to bail out our infantry ASAP.
 

ValeVelKal

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
1,605
216 BC : Battle of Cannae, around 18.00

As may remember, this was the situation :





The resolution of the battle would depend on how long the Cavalry would take to wipe out the left and come back support the infantry.



It actually went very fast : Lammo was back from his pursuit and arrived in the back of the Triarii already engaged against Grimgravim. The charge from the rear was devastating :







Meanwhile, Anderbal and Narval routed most of the Velites, with the Gallic cavalry turning their attention to the last solid Velites unit :






And just like that, the Roman right was reduced to Paullus's infantry and some raw legionnaries, surrounded by hundreds of Punic horsemen.


In the center, the last Carthaginian troops were destroyed: Teepasthenès's hoplites were turned and dispersed. Teepasthenès, on the front rank, was slain as his men turned their back to the enemy. The old mercenary was dead.

On the right, Andjorbal finally broke his opposition. Now, the whole Punic right was free to move toward the Romans, which had not finished their rotation yet :







Badadabon's men pelleted the Roman exhausted Roman infantry by all sort of projectives. As the badly wounded Italian foot were covered the best they could, they saw Balitim's infantry moving their direction. This was enough for them, they broke rank and left, leaving a gap in the rank :







For the Romans in the center, the defeat of Teepasthenès was a respite that they could use to assess their general situation. What they saw was not great :

- Their right had disappeared, along with all their leaders. Maybe Paullus was still there, but it was hard to see from here, in any case his infantry was surrounded by hundred of not-Roman hordes

- Their left was fleeing toward them. Nothing makes a man panic more than seeing a fellow panicked man,

- The Roman cavalry was nowhere to be found,

- Everywhere else, they could see at best light skirmishers surrounding and harassing them, at worse, for some of them, more than one hundred elephants coming at them.



Many Romans, leaderless, came to one conclusion : the battle was most probably lost, and if there was one opportunity to flee, it was now...



And therefore, the Romans dropped their weapons, and scattered in all directions





[a bit disappointing, but the Romans had - in percentage of their initial force - 25% more units out of action, so that's a defeat. It can seem, in campaigns with unbalanced starting force, that the battle was not a done deal yet, but well I don't think they could have won this at this point]



The loss were significant.











In addition of thousands of men and horses, Hannibal had lost some of his best (or not best) commanders. Hannibal's favorite commander, Baudon survived, but would be too wounded to see battle again, Teepasthenès laid dead. Westbral's body was never found. TheLoneGisco and Itebal were wounded too, but survived the ordeal.



Teepasthenès and Westbral infantry were so depleted that they had to be dissolved, the men joining TheLoneGisco's and Tigranax's units respectfully. Similarly, there were not enough cavalry left in Baudon's and Itebal's infantry to be viable, and similarly what was left was redistributed :







[Teepasthenès and Westbral infantry were dissolved by the game, Itebal and Baudon's by me as they were absolutely not viable anymore.]



It is time to prepare for next battle. Some of the commanders will be reallocated to some of our future Campanian recruits, as at this point Hannibal cannot expect to win the war on Carthaginian reserves any more.
 
Last edited:

ValeVelKal

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
1,605
baud : Good news, you were not dead after all. Bad news, you are crippled. Worse news : There is no retirement package in the Punic army.
 

ValeVelKal

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
1,605
Teepasthenès, on the front rank, was slain as his men turned their back to the enemy

Andjorbal finally broke his oppositio

Excellent timing to get rid of my rival I would say :troll:
Well, I am OBVIOUSLY going to replace him by another commander, most probably TheLoneGisco [from OTParadox]. Most of the other infantry commanders are from Paradox ; though Baudon will be replaced by Grimgravim. Grimgravim better not die, else, RPGCodex will lose the cavalry command :)
 

Andnjord

Arcane
Joined
Aug 22, 2012
Messages
3,060
Location
The Eye of Terror
Teepasthenès, on the front rank, was slain as his men turned their back to the enemy

Andjorbal finally broke his oppositio

Excellent timing to get rid of my rival I would say :troll:
Well, I am OBVIOUSLY going to replace him by another commander, most probably TheLoneGisco [from OTParadox]. Most of the other infantry commanders are from Paradox ; though Baudon will be replaced by Grimgravim. Grimgravim better not die, else, RPGCodex will lose the cavalry command :)
giphy.gif
 

baud

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 11, 2016
Messages
3,992
Location
Septentrion
RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
baud : Good news, you were not dead after all. Bad news, you are crippled. Worse news : There is no retirement package in the Punic army.

:negative:

Instead of riding with Hannibal to the gates of Rome and coming back to Carthage covered in glory, I'll end up as a crippled hobo. A glorious death would have been better
 

ValeVelKal

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
1,605
But silliness aside, do you get anything from Captures enemy troops? Recruit some of them, sell the others into slavery?
Nah. It has no impact except fluff. The game is just a string of battle, linked together with a simple experience system and some binary choices like the one I had (reinforce the units but have less of them, or don't reinforce and get other troops you don't really choose).

This will change with the release of Field of Glory : Empire, done by the AGEOD team and which will allow to play the battle in FOG2. It is actually one of the reason I bought FOG2 : to prepare myself.
 

ValeVelKal

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
1,605
Kalarion : WAnt a commander ? Just come up with an era-appropriate name, including Italic since it is what we are going to recruit.
 

Krivol

Magister
Joined
Apr 21, 2012
Messages
1,991
Location
Potatoland aka Prussia
This game would be perfect with Panzer General type of campaign - with building your forces with virtual "gold" (number of gold would depend of success on battlefield) from some pool of units.

Still great LP!
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom