Scene Three: Maedi
The man was standing his ground, he was visibly shaking and his knuckles were white where he held his spear, but he was not moving. Keraunos had to have the man honor for being brave, even as Keraunos’ cavalry spear forced its way into the man’s head. Letting go of the spear Keraunos took out his sword and continued to charge down the street of this small town. They had needed supplies so it was decided that this town would give them supplies. When its citizens refused the army descended on to it like a plague of locusts. All around Keraunos the sounds of sporadic battle filled the air. This was not a fight so much as a slaughter and he allowed his men to break ranks as soon as they got into the town. Some of his men, and himself, were in small patrols sweeping the streets of any resistance that could be mustered there. The rest were rushing through the buildings putting everyone to the spear. Keraunos stopped and looked at the darkening sky; he had picked a great time to invade. By attacking just before dusk he had made the people inside the town wait in fear all day, this caused them to be tired and have almost no morale when he finally attacked. A short time after that his men met him in the town square, “Good job men. For many of you this was your first time spilling blood, and for none of you will this be your last time. Make no mistake this was not a real battle. In a real battle we would have attacked at dawn and stayed in formation the entire time. This was a raid and a massacre. I want you to go through the town in groups and collect all the food stuffs and anything of value that you can. Each man may keep a few things of value for his own, but if anyone is caught taking provisions they will be dealt with swiftly and harshly. I want the wagons filled by the time Apollo has completed his ride through the sky. Then we march to distance ourselves from this place.”
And so they had marched. The horse archer scouts were starting to bring back reports of people being very disgruntled by the events of the town and some surmised it would only take a strong leader to get these people to rise up against the Macedonians. In late February such a leader showed himself. His name was Sitalkes Zoltid, a leader of a semi civilized tribe of barbarians. He was the veteran of several campaigns and managed to keep each major power in the area at an arms length. Where Sitalkes really shined however was in the art of oratory. He was known throughout the region as the best speaker and his silver tongue could convince a mother to kill her baby. His tribe and most of the fighting men from other tribes and some cities gathered and placed themselves in front of the Macedonians. On March 1st the armies met each other in a wide valley flanked by hills.
Keraunos looked at his aides “How many men do we have?”
“9,500 my lord. Through the hard marching, some bad weather, the attack on the town, and some small raids we have lost a total of 500 men since we left Pella.”
“How many men do they have?”
“They have seven thousand. Three thousand are barbarian warbands with one unit of town militia fighting in hoplite fashion. They have two thousand horses arrayed as light spear wilding cavalry as is wont among barbarians. They also have one thousand archers, a mix between barbarian archers and archers levied from towns.”
Keraunos thought for a moment and looked at the drawing of the valley laid out on the table. “He is probably going to put his archers behind his line with the infantry in the middle and horses flanking. The town militia will probably be on the left of his line being in the place of lest honor. They are the place we have to hit. Hit the left and fold it. It has worked time and time again against hoplite formations and it should work again. Since they are militia it should be easy to break them and with them retreating, the entire left flank becomes wide open and we can fold it and possibly surround the far right units. Our forces should be set up with the heavy infantry in the front, two units of horses on the right and one on the left, and all our archers behind. I shall personally lead the horses on the right but the inner unit rather than the outer unit. We have to negate his horses by using their knowledge that they are faster and get them to fight us in the hills separating us from his army.”
The mighty phalanx that was faced that day
A few men looked on with fear and tried to turn to meet the coming horsemen but it was too late. The leading lines of the Champions hit the unprepared side of the hoplites hard and the unit started giving way almost immediately. Panic started filling its ranks as more horsemen pushed into their formation slaughtering them. To make matters worse the trained phalanx in front of them was still steadily pushing forward sarissas finding every opening and exploiting it. Then the coup de grace happened when the right flank of the Champions wheeled around the back of the formation and added a third side to the attack. The route was sudden and quick. Men that had been fighting hard and bravely the moment before were now dropping their spears and shields in hopes of being able to out run death. Keraunos watched impassively and when a few started making it past the horsemen in back he told his men to let them go. Now the Champions and the newly freed up phalanx had to worry about the warband that was starting to surge toward them. A bitter fight was still ahead.
That night Keraunos walked through camp inspecting the damages. He learned that his entire force stayed together and every time the new recruits were looking close to breaking rank from the fierce barbarians ahead of them shouts of “Hold the line, hold your ground” would rise up in chorus. About the time Keraunos and the men he was leading on the right had routed the first warband and were starting to work on the second the morale all up and down the barbarian lines were breaking. The far right warband kept together until it became clear that if they did not run now they would be alone to face the might of the Macedonian heavy infantry. With the entire army in route the barbarian cavalry broke off the conflict to try and screen the route. Just shy of half of the barbarians never left that valley. Three hundred and seventy eight Macedonians made their way to Hades that night.
The man was standing his ground, he was visibly shaking and his knuckles were white where he held his spear, but he was not moving. Keraunos had to have the man honor for being brave, even as Keraunos’ cavalry spear forced its way into the man’s head. Letting go of the spear Keraunos took out his sword and continued to charge down the street of this small town. They had needed supplies so it was decided that this town would give them supplies. When its citizens refused the army descended on to it like a plague of locusts. All around Keraunos the sounds of sporadic battle filled the air. This was not a fight so much as a slaughter and he allowed his men to break ranks as soon as they got into the town. Some of his men, and himself, were in small patrols sweeping the streets of any resistance that could be mustered there. The rest were rushing through the buildings putting everyone to the spear. Keraunos stopped and looked at the darkening sky; he had picked a great time to invade. By attacking just before dusk he had made the people inside the town wait in fear all day, this caused them to be tired and have almost no morale when he finally attacked. A short time after that his men met him in the town square, “Good job men. For many of you this was your first time spilling blood, and for none of you will this be your last time. Make no mistake this was not a real battle. In a real battle we would have attacked at dawn and stayed in formation the entire time. This was a raid and a massacre. I want you to go through the town in groups and collect all the food stuffs and anything of value that you can. Each man may keep a few things of value for his own, but if anyone is caught taking provisions they will be dealt with swiftly and harshly. I want the wagons filled by the time Apollo has completed his ride through the sky. Then we march to distance ourselves from this place.”
And so they had marched. The horse archer scouts were starting to bring back reports of people being very disgruntled by the events of the town and some surmised it would only take a strong leader to get these people to rise up against the Macedonians. In late February such a leader showed himself. His name was Sitalkes Zoltid, a leader of a semi civilized tribe of barbarians. He was the veteran of several campaigns and managed to keep each major power in the area at an arms length. Where Sitalkes really shined however was in the art of oratory. He was known throughout the region as the best speaker and his silver tongue could convince a mother to kill her baby. His tribe and most of the fighting men from other tribes and some cities gathered and placed themselves in front of the Macedonians. On March 1st the armies met each other in a wide valley flanked by hills.
Keraunos looked at his aides “How many men do we have?”
“9,500 my lord. Through the hard marching, some bad weather, the attack on the town, and some small raids we have lost a total of 500 men since we left Pella.”
“How many men do they have?”
“They have seven thousand. Three thousand are barbarian warbands with one unit of town militia fighting in hoplite fashion. They have two thousand horses arrayed as light spear wilding cavalry as is wont among barbarians. They also have one thousand archers, a mix between barbarian archers and archers levied from towns.”
Keraunos thought for a moment and looked at the drawing of the valley laid out on the table. “He is probably going to put his archers behind his line with the infantry in the middle and horses flanking. The town militia will probably be on the left of his line being in the place of lest honor. They are the place we have to hit. Hit the left and fold it. It has worked time and time again against hoplite formations and it should work again. Since they are militia it should be easy to break them and with them retreating, the entire left flank becomes wide open and we can fold it and possibly surround the far right units. Our forces should be set up with the heavy infantry in the front, two units of horses on the right and one on the left, and all our archers behind. I shall personally lead the horses on the right but the inner unit rather than the outer unit. We have to negate his horses by using their knowledge that they are faster and get them to fight us in the hills separating us from his army.”
The mighty phalanx that was faced that day
A few men looked on with fear and tried to turn to meet the coming horsemen but it was too late. The leading lines of the Champions hit the unprepared side of the hoplites hard and the unit started giving way almost immediately. Panic started filling its ranks as more horsemen pushed into their formation slaughtering them. To make matters worse the trained phalanx in front of them was still steadily pushing forward sarissas finding every opening and exploiting it. Then the coup de grace happened when the right flank of the Champions wheeled around the back of the formation and added a third side to the attack. The route was sudden and quick. Men that had been fighting hard and bravely the moment before were now dropping their spears and shields in hopes of being able to out run death. Keraunos watched impassively and when a few started making it past the horsemen in back he told his men to let them go. Now the Champions and the newly freed up phalanx had to worry about the warband that was starting to surge toward them. A bitter fight was still ahead.
That night Keraunos walked through camp inspecting the damages. He learned that his entire force stayed together and every time the new recruits were looking close to breaking rank from the fierce barbarians ahead of them shouts of “Hold the line, hold your ground” would rise up in chorus. About the time Keraunos and the men he was leading on the right had routed the first warband and were starting to work on the second the morale all up and down the barbarian lines were breaking. The far right warband kept together until it became clear that if they did not run now they would be alone to face the might of the Macedonian heavy infantry. With the entire army in route the barbarian cavalry broke off the conflict to try and screen the route. Just shy of half of the barbarians never left that valley. Three hundred and seventy eight Macedonians made their way to Hades that night.
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