Battleplans: The Legion's Way

Your eyes swept across the assembled **** before you, taking in the sight they presented. Odoacer had managed to move faster than you would have thought, you suspect he had settled a good chunk of his men near to his capital.

Observing the enemy, you noted that the only piece of uniformity was that they all had a round-ish shield, and an iron helm of some variety. Some had maille shirts, some had muscle cuirasses, some went into battle in their tunics. Some had some had axes, most had spears, and some had left their spears at home in favour of swords.

“It surprises me how much maille is on display” you comment to Strabo idly as the two of you sit astride your horses between your two armies, waiting for Odoacer and his retinue. He had marched against you earlier than expected, but thankfully you had scouts posted, and could thus march your own army to meet him, taking a spot of high ground right in the enemy’s path.

“And I’m surprised that they’re forming neat lines” Strabo replied “Odoacer must have had a hand in that, always the honoured general” he added, you could clearly hear the distaste in his voice.

“General Strabo, it’s been some time” Odoacer called as he rode into earshot. “And who’s this with you?” he asked.

“I am Solus and I hereby declare this land and all lands of Italy the rightful territory of the Sol Empire” you cut in, Rapidash even taking an authoritative step forward. Odoacer gave you a once over before turning his attention back to Strabo.

“Pretentious isn’t he?” Odoacer asked and Strabo chuckled.

“And arrogant on occasion, but not without merit” Strabo replied.

“Rebellion? General? I knew you didn’t agree with what was happening in the Empire, but to rebel? This is still the Empire even if a vassal state of it” Odoacer said.

“You are the first King of Rome in a thousand years” you comment “The last one was a tyrant” you add.

“Your men pillaged and burnt their way through the southlands, what was I to do but rise up?” Strabo asked “What is a man to do but lead a **** against the armies torching our homes and **** our women?” he asked “killing our nobles and betraying our Emperors?” he asked. Odoacer gave a pained look and turned away.

“You must know that this won’t end well,” Odoacer said, facing Strabo once more. “No matter how many men you’ve managed to muster, I can summon more, can you?” he asked, turning his gaze to the legionnaires behind you. A bit over five thousand soldiers in total to face off against Odoacer’s roughly ten thousand men.

“We will suffer very few losses” Strabo replied “I should think the next time we meet in battle, I will have more troops than I do now” he added. You should certainly hope so, with all of Apulia under your control after this battle, it would be easy to train up a much larger army.

“How are you even paying for all of this?!” Odoacer exclaimed, giving an expansive gesture towards your army.

“With difficulty” was Strabo’s prompt reply. Odoacer chuckled sadly and slumped into his saddle.

“We will win this day” You state “You may surrender if you wish, I’ll accept it, and your men will even be free to go” you say and Odoacer snorted.

“We shall see” the King told you gravely “We shall see” and with that he wheeled his mount around and trotted off.

“To battle it is” You sigh, wheeling Rapidash around and trotting up the hill you had summoned behind your formation. This area of southern Italy was so extraordinarily flat that you had to actually summon some high ground for your troops to build a camp on. While you had every intention of getting rid of the hill you summoned for observation purposes, the hill your Legion had pitched tents on seemed like a great place for a permanent fort.

“So what happens now?” Asked Andraste as you reached your observation point.

“Now we wait” Strabo replied “We have the advantage, Odoacer has to come to us to relieve Monopoli and we can afford to wait” He explained.

“He’s also not totally sure how many troops we have and will likely just want to see how we deploy for battle” you add. As you say this, Odoacer’s forces began to psych themselves up for battle. Cheering, jeering, smashing their shields, and high pitched shrieks, broke out in **** as the enemy worked out their nerves and built themselves up.

“Get the drums going and give them our response” Strabo ordered and a mounted runner darted off to deliver the order. A moment later, the drums began;

Pom popoPom popoPom popoPom popoPom.

The drums beat for a short time, giving the men enough time to get the feel of it before the next phase. As one, the legion took up their javelins and began slamming them against their shields in time with the drums.

Shom popoShom popoShom popoShom popoShom

The cacophonous noise even being heard over the racket the enemy was making. Based on how much more frantic the enemy was getting, you could tell that it was unnerving them.

You took your eyes off the enemy troops and found Odoacer riding around the lines like mad, clearly screaming at the top of his lungs in what appeared to be an attempt to stop his men blindly charging you in a fit of nervous impetuousness.

“Get the men singing” you suggest to the venerable general beside you.

“Singing?” Strabo asked thoughtfully, pausing for a moment before turning to one of the runners and nodding. The runner galloped off to carry the order to the troops and a short while later, keeping time with the drums, a loud, clear voice rose from among your men. Soon the entire formation had picked up the song, thousands of voices all in unison were singing about the beautiful waters of Tarantium or the verdant fields outside of it. There were even a couple of racier songs, though most of them were about what they were fighting for, rather than just random marching songs.

“Are we going to fight today?” Andraste asked, her own mount, a small, white thing, getting impatient with all this standing still.

“Nope” you reply. Andraste turned her gaze to Strabo who also shook his head. “We’re messing with them for now, we’ll carry the battle to them tomorrow” You explain. Again, Strabo got another look from the bunny goddess.

“For all his faults, strategy doesn’t appear to be one of them” Strabo commented, eliciting a chuckle from Andraste and an offended look from you.

“We’ll go back to the camp when the sun starts getting low, Odoacer will either attack and we’ll have our camp’s defences to our advantage, or he’ll do the same and we start the next phase of my plan” you explain. “Tell the troops to eat heartily and turn in early” you order Strabo. “And to expect rain . . . lots of it,” you add.

“What are your thoughts?” Andraste asked, patting her horse to try and calm the impatient thing down.

“The rain will wash our enemy out of a good meal, and **** them to go to sleep wet and cold” You begin “Then, we’ll get up in the twilight before the dawn and have ourselves a hearty breakfast” you continue reminiscing on your time teaching Sera how to build stealth fires, and all the sex it took to get the lesson to stick. “And then, before they can enjoy a hot breakfast themselves, we’ll launch our attack” you finish.

“The ground will be very muddy” Andraste told you, frowning with concern at the terrain the battle was to take place on. In response to this, Strabo stuck his foot in the air for Andraste to see, showing off the hobnails in his caligae.

“It will affect us a lot less than it will them, I saw many of their troops wearing smooth leather boots” Strabo replied, putting his foot down again.

“You two have thought of everything” Andraste commented with an amused huff.

“Speaking of thinking, I never knew you were a general in the Roman Legion” You say, turning to Strabo. The man sighed before nodding.

“Generals weren’t needed, not Roman ones anyway” He told you “I’d have died in service to Rome, but Rome was too busy hiring Germanic tribes to fight her wars for her” he told you.

“Doesn’t help that Rome hasn’t been ‘Rome’ in some time” You add, getting a sigh and a nod from the venerable general. You decided to drop it after that, no need to touch on painful subjects after all.

“This is going to take a while, isn’t it?” Andraste asked with a sigh. You took a look at the sun and noted it wasn’t even noon yet.

“Oh yes” you reply “We are going to be here for hours” you add with a smirk. By now, the Federates had gone silent and, in response, your own men had stopped beating their shields and striking their drums. They were still singing though. The Federates made a few attempts at matching your troops in song, but ultimately their lack of uniformity was their undoing.

“I’m going back to camp then, I wouldn’t be needed anyway” Andraste told you, wheeling her horse around.

“Me too” You say, getting a look from the bunny goddess “I’m not needed either, even if battle is joined, but I want to make damn sure the troops have a hot and hearty meal waiting for them” you explain, wheeling Rapidash around and trotting off to camp.