Let’s Play Legion Arena #5

Index.

The early republic. The Roman republic was established when Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last Etruscan king of Rome, was overthrown after his son raped Lucrecia.

: …!

The fledgling republic would have hard times ahead, with dissent internally, and many powerful enemies including the Etruscans.

: We continue where we left off, with another skirmish between early Rome’s neighbours. Those Skirmishers present juicy targets as they stand there all by themselves, and the Legate will direct fire off of our Scouts as they charge the Skirmishers.

: I had no idea Roman military strategy was like this!

: Meanwhile, the Auxilia and Militia hides in the forest to deal with that enemy cavalry.

: The battle begins auspiciously.

: The enemy Scouts go after our Scouts, not in our calculations. I wonder how this will affect the battle.

: Er… that was just an exercise.

: (*sighs* We were able to beat the Scouts, but apparently one Auxilia and one Militia can’t beat two Militia. Fucking difficulty level. Let’s try that again.)

: By comparison, the “clump everyone together” strategy, while crude, is far more effective.

: I can tell it’s still the early game, because they simply haven’t stopped using Peasants yet. They suck. We’ll slice through them like a knife through hot butter.

: I know a good simile too. Like an Auxilia through a hot Peasant!

: As I was saying, the plan is to strike the only actual thing resembling a threat, the Militia. Then we’re home-free. I don’t understand the option of rocky ground, all their units are light infantry.

: The Scouts chicken out at one point. Even when they flee they have a chance of trampling a unit.

: Victory was never in doubt.

: C’mon, you were a bit scared of their sheer mass.

: …

: Coriolanus has a respectable army, that would be a bit of a hassle to defeat, but thankfully all we have to do is offing him. Which is rather easy when you know what you’re doing.

: Heh, it could scarcely have gone better…

: This feels like cheating!

: I didn’t expect them to kill him, but merely wound him… and more importantly, make him recklessly charge the rest of our forces, lying in ambush in the forest.

: They seem to be attacking some Skirmishers, though.

: What?

: Well, damn… looks like I forgot to give them the order to Hold. I think we could still win this, though.

: Yes, we did it. I’d say breaking even in the kill/death ratio is a fairly good outcome considering the circumstances.

: I saved up some money to be able to afford these fellows. With some proper heavy infantry on our side, our fledgling army should have more of a chance of survival. They’re decent later on, right now they’re flat-out superb.

: Cool!

: This is the first of the “take less than X casualties” battles where you’re forced to step out of the role of the absent-minded general for once. It’s not that difficult, though. The battle plan is to avoid the forest and take out one of the Scouts first, then try to flank the Skirmishers.

: Our Scout goes in first to avoid trample. The plan is holding up so far.

: I did not manage to get the squads in the right position before the other Scout force came, but it shouldn’t matter that much since we don’t have ranged units yet.

: My Scouts were only able to force one Skirmisher into melee, but the other one only has a limited set of javelins after all. They stand no chance of winning as the Hastati mow down our enemies.

: Nice of you to care for your men for once, Squirtle.

: Oh, er… sure.

: Wolfman!

: Yeah, I ditched the Militia in order to afford them. Only five more denarii were needed, but still. I want Velites to start earning XP early in order to reach level 6, to buy those extra javelins.

: The Etruscans actually have some decent quality units this time around, but conveniently there’s some mud we can use to negate that quality. The Militia are a bit annoying, though, so I want some units on the flanks to deal with most of them.

: The Auxilia fire some javelins to entice the Scouts to attack them.

: Oh dear… our Hastati managed to fall into the trap, though. Let’s retreat and start over again.

: I noticed the enemy cavalry didn’t take the bait, so with nothing better to do, we’re letting the Hastati get some of dirt under the fingernails, and see how much it can take.

: The enemy Spearmen are on boggy ground, so let’s strike with our light infantry while we have the chance. The Velites manage to score one hit on them before they rout.

: The Hastati finally buckle after heavy causalties and become routed just before we win – while they didn’t last the whole battle, I’m very pleased they could make it this far.

: They’re our heroes!

As the republic became more established, its military policies became more aggressive, though even 300 years after its founding, Rome had not secured its own region of Latium, and faced serious challenges ahead.

: Sounds like a cliffhanger!

: Yeah… maybe if you squint.

: Our army is finally gaining some substance. Let’s look at the current promotions before the end of the update.