In tradition to PB92 over at civforum, I want to celebrate the last victory with a RP contribution.
After newspaper report and situation discussion with the Shogun this time a Wikipedia entry.
I translated this with DeepL, I don't want to translate the large post and I don't trust myself to do a good translation.
Battle of Antium
The Battle of Antium was a the only battle of the 3rd Eastern Roman campaign and the last major battle of the Roman Civil War.
Date: Spring 1520
Place: City of Antium in the Western Roman Empire
Outcome: Pyrrhic victory of the Western Romans
Belligerents
Western Rome
Eastern Rome
Troop strength
Western Rome
10 legions
- 5,000 Praetorians
- 1,000 Axe Fighters
- 1,500 pikemen
- 400 catapults with operator crew
total of over 100,000 troops
Eastern Rome
32 [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxilia#Alae"]Ala[/URL] Cataphracts
- 1,000 horsemen
~ 1,100 catapults with operating crew
~ 200 heavy machine guns with operator crew
~ 11,000 man garrison armed with muskets, longbows and crossbows
total of approximately 56,000 soldiers
Casualties
Western Rome
Nearly all catapults
- ~ 39,000 man operating crew
~ 20,000 soldiers
Eastern Rome
Total loss of the army
~ 50,000 dead and prisoners
Remainder dispersed
Background:
The Roman Civil War had a quiet period after the end of the 2nd Eastern Roman campaign and the destruction of Neapolis (1020).
Apart from isolated skirmishes, the conflict flared up again with the 3rd Eastern Roman campaign.
Byzantium marched on Antium in 1498 with about 40,000 soldiers and 2,100 guns.
Western Rome was able to delay the advance for a long time, but in the fall of 1512 Byzantium captured Antium, which had been evacuated.
After no direct counterattack and an additional 13,000 men of reinforcements arrived at Antium, Byzantium withdrew much of its ordnance-especially its modern cannons-and much of its modern infantry in 1519.
This provided Western Rome with an opportunity to counterattack.
Course:
Initial Situation:
The Byzantine army was largely divided into three.
Outside the ruined walls of Antium, the cataphracts and guns were encamped in separate camps. In Antium the musket, longbow and crossbowmen had taken up positions.
Furthermore, the machine guns were also positioned in Antium.
The Western Roman general managed to bring his large army to Antium undetected and surprise the Eastern Roman army.
Day of the battle:
Surprisingly, the Byzantine commander sent out patrols. This happened unnoticed by the Western Roman commander.
The beginning of the battle was massively determined by the Roman guns.
All 4,000 guns opened fire on the city and the army camps in front of the city.
Counterfire from the heavily outnumbered Eastern Roman guns was relatively ineffective and the Byzantine catapults were quickly destroyed by their Roman counterparts.
In contrast, the Byzantine army's most advanced weapon, the machine gun, had more success before the machine gun nests also had to be abandoned due to catapult fire.
After the massive shelling, 3 legions stormed the city and met little resistance despite the extensive garrison.
The rest of the Roman legion, however, had to face the Byzantine cavalry.
Despite the shelling, the Byzantine cavalry formed up and counterattacked.
When the Byzantine cavalry threatened to break the Western Roman lines, Arminius gave orders to the Western Roman reserve to reinforce the legions fighting on the field.
With the reinforcements, the legions managed to encircle and kill the Cataphracts.
The deployment of the reserve allowed the Byzantine patrols, returning unnoticed, to fall upon the Western Roman cataphracts and destroy them almost completely before the Ala were confronted and dispersed by the legions returning from the city.
Casualties:
Western Roman losses are estimated at about 20,000 soldiers and nearly 400 catapults. In addition, almost the entire operating crew of the catapults, another 40,000 men.
Eastern Rome suffered a total loss.
Of the 56,000 men in the army, only a fraction returned to Byzantium.
Consequences:
Byzantine ambitions for western Rome were pushed back by the Byzantine Emperor Greenline until further notice, precisely because Byzantium was again in conflict with the Aztecs at the other end of the empire. Despite all this, the Roman civil war was not ended.
However, the Western Roman striking power was also massively weakened, which resulted in a revival of the Malinis-Roman war.
The Greenline thing is just a guess, since there was no attempt to start another conquest with the riflemen and cannons - I don't think I've reported on the current war with Bing yet ?
I calculated with 1000 men per unit and 100 guns with 10 men operation for siege units. The numbers are perhaps a bit much for antique conditions, but theoretically possible. [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cannae"]Cannae[/URL] had 8 legions and about 120.000 soldiers in total[/SPOILER].
Translated with
www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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In this game that's going to help us because he's going to go to the negotiating table with twitchy eyes and slightly too wide a grin and terrify the neighbors into favorable border agreements, one-sided tech deals and staggered NAPs."
