Meanwhile, to the north…
The heavy infantry at the center of both armies’ lines is mismatched. The enemy holds numerical superiority, but the Rebel infantry has a +12 net advantage in Discipline (+19 vs. +7), a +1 advantage in Offense (nothing, really), but a +7 advantage in Defense. These seemingly small numbers are apparently having a big difference in the combat tables. Despite the enemy numerical advantage, and the enemy advantage in die roll, they’re still taking serious casualties! Almost as much as our own.
This contest, however, is not worth going another bad round. Both sides lost around 5,000 dead, and Cinna is forced to withdraw to Gallia Cisalpina.
The Battle of Picenum continues…
By the time Roman Longinus begins to gain a handle on the tactical situation, he has virtually nothing left to fight with! And, despite his die roll, he’s still taking the vast majority of the casualties (more than 3:1).
The cavalry cohorts Pictor started with (which had been through an earlier battle) are injured, but the new cavalry sent by Caesar could go another lap! Of the only 6 units of Longinus’ front-line which still contain more than 300 men, one of them is an archer cohort!
In the end, Longinus’ entire force (having been reduced below the 10:1 ratio) was annihilated. Not a man escaped death or capture.
Now, I must admit (this is the battle where the “quirk” came into play), things were changed A LOT by my unintentional exploit, and that certainly lessens my honor at having won it. My men had an extra week or two to recover from their combat against the rebels. They had another 1st of the month to recover manpower (but so did the enemy, who would actually have recovered 3 times as many men as I did!). They were not forced into a situation which caused TWO armies of less than 10:1 odds were overwhelmed and forced to surrender (despite the fact that, together, they were greater than 10:1 and would have survived as a combined army).
However, what restores my honor somewhat is this: The greatest impact, altogether, on this victory is not anything related to the exploit (other than one day’s timing). It is that just after my army’s annihilation would have happened (pre-quirk), my cavalry arrived from Caesar and completely turned the tables. This new force of 9,000 cavalry somewhat evened the numerical odds. But, more than that, their unique advantages (thanks to my chosen National Ideas) just dominated the enemy and cost her tremendous casualties.