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Scipii campaign update.

Scipii Campaign part 1
Scipii Campaign Part 2
This is Scipii Campaign part 3
Scipii Campaign Part 4
Scipii Campaign Part 5 (Final Part)


 With all of Gaul conquered and pacified my Northern legions turn their attention to the celts of Britain who had carved out a fair chunk of territory in North-Western Europe. Like most Barbarians their eagerness for battle is matched only by their lack of understanding of tactics. The British King commanding almost 2000 troops tried to hold off my legions but his massive army of footsoldiers had no cavalry support and presented easy pickings for a smaller co-ordinated Roman force of foot, horse and archers. Only the Kings own chariots presented any real threat of resistance but happily I discovered that lightly armoured skirmishers fare much better against chariots than heavy infantry and the British king met an untimely end when his chariots became entangled in a troop of velites. This victory leaves the British overseas territories virtually undefended. My Diplomats have forged an alliance with the Germanic Hordes so the reminaing British hav to fight on two fronts. I don't really trust those Germans and I guess we will come to blows later but for the moment I am happy to let them pick off one or two of the smaller British regions while I cherry pick the better ones. The Britsh themselves still retain a large fighting force on their island home but sinking their navy and blockading their only port has rendered them completely impotent.

In the South I slowly chip away at the massive armies of Egypt. I beat Pharaohs forces in battle after battle but his purse seems bottomless and still he sends armies against me. At least my troops have finally taken a decent sized city in Alexandria. This will deny Pharaoh a source of high level troops and also allow me to replenish my own  losses locally rather than rely on the long voyage back to Sicily. Hopefully this is the turning point in my Egyptian campaign because I am beginning to find these repeated large scale conflicts quite tedious I miss the fluidity and excitement of the early game when a small force of Romans with audacity and a bit of luck could conquer an empire. I suspect things are only going to get worse as I move on to end game and the Roman civil war. None of the other Roman factions have grown as powerful as Egypt but their armies will be tougher and fighting them all together is likely to be an enormous challenge.

A note on battle tactics:
For the most part I use a simple three line formation - Heavy infantry in the first row archers and ranged troops in the second row and cavalry at the rear ready to flank around the sides. The archers can fire over the head of the front line which generally taunts the enemy into charging head first into my legions. While the legions hold the line I flank the enemy using cavlry and lighter infantry/skirmishers. A little bit of micromanagement of the ranged troops is required to prevent them killing friendly troops but It is a simple effective technique as long as you have enough infantry to hold a line. The enemy AI often tries to pull off its own flanking manoeuvre so I always try to have tough anti cavalry troops on the left and right edges of my line. These proved ineffective against  Egyptian chariots unfortunately who just carve a swathe through heavy infantry and also chop up any cavalry I send to try and stop them. Following my successes against the British Chariots I am going to try and provide a mob of  skirmishers on my flanks in future battles against chariot troops in future so fingers crossed this works.

Scipii Campaign part 1
Scipii Campaign Part 2
This is Scipii Campaign part 3
Scipii Campaign Part 4
Scipii Campaign Part 5 (Final Part)

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