Book I:
Battle of the
Syrian Gates
Background:
Minimus Gluteus, Roman General had been
defeated at the Battle of the Narrow Plain on
the Pontic coast road between the town of Amisus
and the Halys river. Trying to flee back to Roman territory, Minimus was
apprehended by a special armed guard from the Roman Senate at the Grecian
Port of Nicopolis and sent north to fight naked barbarians somewhere in
the wilds of Germania.
The Roman Senate raised new Legions and sent
them East, hoping to finally bring the citizens of Pontus under Roman rule. Although
if the truth be told, it was more the idea of large numbers of population not
paying taxes to Rome that irked them than bringing Roman civilization to the
world. The Roman General decided on a bold plan to attack Pontus from the South, up through Syria and into Cappadocia.
Roman colonies in the near East would provide a convenient base to support his
campaign.
He advanced on several fronts hoping to out-flank
the Ponts and their numerous allies. Most of the routes were in open terrain
and the armies of Pontus
with abundant cavalry were able to dispute any Roman advance. One route
however, was through a mountainous region of Syria
over the Belen Pass, also known as the Syrian Gates.
Due to its narrowness, it could be defended by a small force. The Roman General
decided to send a single Legion without support troops to take the pass. He
hoped quick and decisive action by the Legion would overcome whatever token
force the Ponts had to defend it. He thought that the Ponts would surely only
defend the pass with light and maneuverable infantry that would be no match for
his tough cohorts.
The Empire of Pontus had many troops but not
enough generals. All leaders of adequate ability had been briefed and sent to
defend the many avenues of possible Roman advance. Thinking the Romans not
likely to use the Belen Pass because of its narrowness, the Ponts called on
retired General Mitchradates who was on a vacation trip in Cilicia
with his wife at the time. Mitchradates had previously been defeated by Minimus
Gluteus at the battle of Dragonium, but had delayed Minimus sufficiently that
the Ponts were able to raise enough troops in time to defeat Minimus at the Battle of the Narrow
Plain. Tired of being harangued by his wife for not attending to chores around
the household, Mitchradates readily accepted the command and set off to defend
the pass. The only troops the Ponts had available were two infantry phalanxes
and some Armenian archers. Not the best for difficult terrain, but the actual
pass was fairly level clear terrain. So Mitchradates deployed his troops while
the Roman Legion advanced up the pass hoping to find it lightly defended.
Deployments:
Mitchradates pondered how to best deploy his phalanxes.
They were not very maneuverable and were very easily flanked in open terrain. Side
by side they would completely block the Romans from advancing and in the narrow
part of the Pass they could not be flanked. They could not support each other
though and could easily be worn down if the Romans chose to attack only one and
leave the other un-engaged. So Mitchradates decided to angle the phalanxes so
that they could wheel slightly and advance to support the other if the Romans
attacked on one side only.
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Initial Deployment
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The Roman Legate was surprised to see heavy
infantry occupying the pass when he arrived, but it didn’t delay his attack.
His Legion had fought whole armies with pike phalanxes before and won, so why
should just two units of heavy infantry intimidate him. He decided to engage
the phalanxes with as many units as possible and to maximize his Pila attacks.
This meant deploying the cohorts individually so that they all had opportunity
to throw their pila. In the narrow pass, the only way to get as many cohorts as
possible to engage the phalanxes was to deploy the flank cohorts in line and
the center cohorts in column. This would result in each phalanx having to fight
two cohorts.
So the Roman cohorts advanced and were soon under
missile fire by the Pontic archers, Mitchradates had sent in front of his
phalanxes. They would get a couple of volleys off before evading behind their
heavy infantry.
The Battle:
The Roman Legion advanced toward the Pontic
Phalanxes, the leading Cohorts each taking minimal casualties from the Archers.
The inside two cohorts advanced slightly ahead of the outer two in order to all
hit the Pontic line at the same time. The Pontic archers evaded behind the
heavy Infantry, their part in the battle concluded.
Mitchradates, seeing an opportunity in the
Roman deployment, advanced his Phalanxes slightly to engage the outer Cohorts
before the inner cohorts made contact. This enabled the Ponts to force Cohorts
1 and 4 to each exchange blows with a full Phalanx. The resulting melee was
deadly with both sides taking equal casualties. Unfortunately for the Romans
the deeper Phalanxes were able to withstand more punishment. Cohort 4 was
totally shattered. Some Pontic phalangites after the battle commented it was as
if in their eagerness to attack, they literally hurled themselves at the Ponts
only to be impaled upon the eighteen foot sarissas of the Phalanx. The larger
size of the Elite 1st Cohort enabled to stay in the fight, but they
had lost almost half the number in this first round of fighting.
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Initial Contact, 4th
Cohort is broken
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Cohort 5 moved up to take the place the
misfortunate 4th as did Cohorts 2 and 3. These did not fair any
better and soon Cohorts 2, 3 and 5 were all routed to be replaced by Cohorts 7,
8 and 9. Eventually the 1st Cohort was worn down and when it broke,
the Romans decided to call it a day. They retreated down the hill leaving the
Ponts in control of the Syrian Gates.
The Pontic Phalanxes
had suffered heavy casualties but were never in danger of breaking. The depth
of the phalanxes had proved to more than a match for the well trained Roman
legionnaires and their Pila. As he directed the disposition of the dead and
care of the wounded, Mitchradates thought about the cost of the battle. The
armies of Rome
were many and they would come again in an attempt to subdue the Pontic
Empire. But at least on this day and at
this place he thought, they would not do it through him. He smiled as he
considered that fighting Romans was far more enjoyable than being harangued by
his wife. She damned near gave him a heart attack about doing chores around his
estates this past season. He decided to send her a note that it was likely to
be a long campaign.
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1st Cohort finally
Breaks
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Turn by Turn
The following is a turn by turn log of the
dice rolls and movement. It’s very boring unless one wants to see how the rules
for combat are played. They are almost identical to T1. Where a unit fights more than one opponent, it must divide its melee dice evenly against all opponents. Heavy Infantry are awarded two melee dice extra for every rank deeper they are than their enemy. This is for each melee area, not each unit. Therefore you can see how a Phalanx with protected flanks is very difficult to beat. Romans would have been better off sending in "reinforced cohorts" ( i.e two cohorts combined) instead of piecemeal and concentrated on one Phalanx. To win the Romans must get at least 32 kills on one Phalanx to route it. As it happened they put 17 hits on each phalanx, well below their individual break point. Ponts must route enough Cohorts to get a total of 44 kills which they did.
1st Turn: Romans have initiative, they
move first. Romans all advance 8 inches. Pontic Archers back up to stay out of
Roman HI move next turn.Archers shoot getting 2 dice for every three archers
due to Roman armour, so ten dice total. They decide to break it up 3:2:2:3 from
left to right. They roll 6,5,4 : 1, 6
: 4,6, :
1,3,4 so three hits total, 1 ea
on Cohorts 2,3 &4.
Turn 2: Ponts get intiative, but let
Romans go first.Ponts divide shooting as before 3;2;2;3. They roll 1,1,1 : 2,2
: 5,3 : 3,4,6. Only one hit on COH1.
Turn3: Romans get initiative and decide
to go first. They all advance 8 inches except cohorts 1 & 4 which advance 7
inches so as to permit them to all contact on same turn. Pontic SK
evade first behind the PH's. Pontic PH decide to advance to contact. They
contact COH's 1 & 4.
Melee
direction is Left to right.
COH
4 throws 8 pilum at HI1, 1 hit. 8 Melee dice results 6 hits. Total 7 hits oh
HI1
COH
1 throws 8 Pilum at HI2 2 hits. 8 Melee
dice results 4 hits. Total 6 hits on HI2
HI1
throws 12 dice minus 1 for the Pilum hit plus 6 for 3 ranks deeper. 17 Melee
dice results 7 hits on COH4. That’s 8 total so COH4 is Routed.
HI2
throws 12 dice minus 2 for the Pilum hit plus 4 for 2 ranks deeper. 14 Melee
dice results 6 hits
COH
3 must take a morale test since rear of their unit is within 4 inches of COH 4.
They roll a 7, passing barely.
COH
5 is beyond the 4inch rout path so don't have to Test.
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Turn 4
Turn 5: Romans get initiative.
Only
move is COH8 moves up to support COH3 but beyond 4 inches.
Melee
direction is left to right.
COH
5 gets 3 melee dice, scores 1 hit on HI1
HI1
gets 6 dice plus 4 for 2 ranks deeper. total 10 dice results 2 Hits on COH 5. COH
3 gets 4 dice, scores no hits.
HI1
gets 6 dice plus 4 , total 10 dice. Score 3 Hits on COH 3.
COH2
gets 4 melee dice and scores no hits on HI2.
HI2
gets 6 dice plus 4 for 2 ranks deeper. 10 dice results 1 hit on COH 2.
COH1
gets 7 dice and scores 2 hits on HI2.
HI2
gets 6 dice plus 4. Total 10 dice results 3 hits on COH 1
Turn 6: Melee direction is right to
left. Ponts get intiative.
There
is no movement.
COH1
has 4 figures left. rolls 4 dice. Result 1 hit on HI2.
HI2
gets 6 dice plus 4 for 2 ranks deeper. Total 10 dice result 1 Hit on COH1.
COH3
has 3 dice. Rolls and gets no hits.
HI2
gets 10 dice against COH2 and gets 3 hits enough to break COH2.
COH3
must test morale, but others are safe. It rolls a 7 passing barely.
COH3
gets 2 dice and gets one hit on HI1.
HI1
gets 10 dice and gets 5 hits more than enough to break COH3. Luckily for
Romans, there are no COH's in Rout Path.
COH5
gets 1 dice and scores no hits on HI1.
HI1
comes back with 10 dice and scores 4 hits on COH5, more than enough to break
it.
No
one is in Rout path.
HI1
decides to take no Bonus move and stays put.
Turn 7:. Romans get initiative.
Melee
direction is Left to right.
Roman
COH's 7,8, 9 all advance to contact.
COH9
throws 8 pilum dice and gets one hit.
COH9
throws 8 melee dice and gets 2 hits. Total 3 hits on HI1.
HI1
gets 6 dice minus 1 for the pilum hit plus 4 for 2 ranks deeper.
Total
9 dice, results 3 hits on COH9.
COH8
throws 4 pilum dice with no hits.
COH8
throws 4 melee dice with 2 hits.
HI1
gets 6 + 2 dice = 8dice. Results 3 hits on COH8
COH7
throws 4 pilim dice and gets 2 hits.
COH7throws
4 melee dice and gets one hit, total of 3 on HI2.
HI2
gets 6 minus 2 for the pilum plus 2 for one rank deeper, so total 6 dice.
Scores 2 hits on COH 7.
COH1
throws 3 dice against HI2 with 2 hits.
HI2
gets 10 dice against COH1 and scores 3 hits, enough to break COH1.
Romans
are now at 48 figures routed which is over their Break Point.
If you have any questions about the Tactica Rules, Battle Chronicler or wargaming in general, you can send an email to me at bandrsntch at wavecable dot com
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