The Sarmatian chieftain demanded our immediate surrender, otherwise their forces would attack.
I replied instantly, in the name of us all :
We didn't have to wait long for their reaction. Predictable, as always.
As You can see, the hordes have insane amount of horse archers. We on the other hand are almost all infantry, slow moving one at that.
It's like Armenia all over again, except this time i am going to be on the receiving end.
Then again... Forests are fun.
Our archers start shooting early on, revealing their position. But it hardly matters. Any attempts on charging my archers will result in slaughter.
Did i mention that our heavy infantry can throw javelins too?
And the best part is, they can hide behind the trees quickly. Let the routing begin.
We hold our ground. Let them come to us. Why run, when you can kill staying in place?
Our left flank cavalry (3 generals) take care of those stupid enough to come close. Horse archers move faster than the heavy general cav, but when encircled, They will soon not move at all.
The AI needs to learn to avoid edges. And by that i mean my swords.
Sarmatians begin an all out attack. They have some guts.
Let's see them.
Our right flank has plenty of infantry, while our left has just one line, and the archers.
But our left flank has also the generals, and the time has come for some high quality charging to the side.
The right one throws javelins like crazy, and there is simply no way for anything with light armor to stand its ground.
Sarmatians have mostly light or no armor.
Enemy general is routing message? That's right. There were enough pilas thrown even for a general to run. (actually it's a mix of the pila spike damage, unit loses all around the general, exhaustion, exposed flanks and number of enemies. Know your morale, and you will win!)
The left flank is still decimated by our heavy cav. It would take a lot of position changing for the enemy to put up a solid resistance on (their) right flank. All this under my archer fire.
They have tried doing just that, so i counter it with.. retreating my general. Check.
The two others will arrive in but a moment.
Enemy reinforcements still haven't merged with their main army. And the combat loses are piling up.
Now i have charged again, but this time with three general. All three on the same, weak, left flank (their right).
Enemy general retreats once again. This time with only 8 men left. (he has hit one of my infantry units though, hence the high loses).
Also : Our cav unit on the right flank makes sure that the enemies can not form a stable front line that would threaten us.
Aye, the unit will most likely get wiped out, but i can replace them in Aquincum, and the heavy infantry i can not.
The enemies are now in quite a pickle. I managed to rout even their heavy infantry (rather mediocre quality, but still heavy infantry) Their loses are piling up, while my troops are barely touched. Forests are a perfect anti-missile-cav cock block.
I could toss in a dozen other screenshots, but they wouldn't show anything new. Our right side cav has collapsed, but allowed us to easily wipe out incoming wave.
Eventually their general managed (with a little help from yours truly) to get surrounded by overwhelming forces. It's not very healthy.
Is it because of his godly agility, some foul witchcraft or pure luck.. he managed to escape.
But the news he will bring to their unwashed chieftain will not be as glorious as he had hoped.
Western Roman Empire laughs at you, Sarmatians.
I had hoped for a heroic victory, but i think we had too big advantage (me being.. myself, and all that) for it to be anything other than curbstomp. Here be ze results tables.
And the individual one.
You might wonder why did i put the most pressure on our main general. It's quite easy. The more experience bars he gets, the better he will be, and the tougher to rout.
And as you know, the main general routing = tide of the battle turned against you.
Some of the enemy forces managed to escape. A general, some cavalry and infantry, not a great deal of enemies. I've sent General Big Balls (the one who slaughtered 2300 people in one sitting) to deal with them in the next turn.
There are two more things to deal with before the turn is over. First one of them is named Berbers.
Gandalf : So passes Hamza, Son of a Bitch, ruler of Berbers.
Yes, i hear all of you "BUT WE WANT TO SEE THIS BATTLE" criers. You won't. I'm not going to show any more boring battles.
We will skip to the results, such as this one :
Hey, at least i've shown you the troop count. I could have skipped right to the faction destroyed, as i did with Saxons! (i kept pressing X instead of Z under which i have screenshot capture..
)
Still, their city was a cluster of mud and bug ridden huts, defended by half naked barbarians. On the other hand looting them gave us 10 grand.
The entire west is ours. We can redirect our attention to the eastern border fully. Two strong stacks will deal with the Sarmatian invasion, while general Big Balls finishes off the fleeing reserves. It's a perfect, fool proof plan. I hit end turn.
I realize then, that there was one small detail that i've overlooked.
Enemies can reach General Big Balls and his small cavalry force.
They outnumber and out-gun us. In this case, all i can say is :
Pray to whatever gods you believe in for mercy, for you shall receive none from me.