Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 120 Battle of Caen (2)

After driving away the enemy's cavalry, the light infantry pressed forward again to harass the Gauls' infantry line.

These centuries that had already used javelins temporarily retreated behind the battle line. Each of them could carry four javelins, but there were whole carts of javelins on the supply carts behind them that they could use, and they would replenish them with new ones after using them.

The straight-line distance between the two sides gradually decreased from several hundred meters to hundreds of meters, and later the opponent was within the range of the javelin.

The Roman legionnaires in the center of the formation began to throw javelins at the enemy. Since the enemy's positions were too densely packed and most of them were not protected by armor or shields, the javelins thrown by the Roman infantry could even penetrate two or more people.

In a tense and uneasy environment, people actually react the same way as many herbivores, they all like to gather together for warmth and rely on the collective strength to give themselves a sense of security. Troops that have not received sufficient training will stand too crowded to the point where they cannot swing their weapons normally, which is the case with these people now.

Tia was certain that only one in ten of these people had ever been on the battlefield, otherwise they would not have made such a poor mistake and stupidly ran into the firing range of the legion infantry.

They didn't need to aim, they could just throw it at the crowd and get something. After four rounds of javelins were fired, the formation of the villagers in the front was riddled with holes.

The legion infantry on the left and right wings did not shoot in order to guard against the enemy cavalry, but the light infantry who had retreated to the wings of the army were still not idle and continued to shoot at the nearby Gallic militia.

The reserve troops at the rear of the formation started to replenish their javelins after shooting. They were guarding the supply trucks with plenty of javelins. The terrain here was a slightly undulating hill, and they could shoot down at the approaching Gallic militia from their high position on the hills.

The Gauls did not have many strong archers or slingers, and were completely suppressed by the Romans in long-range attacks.

Many people know that armies in the cold weapon era had low morale and were prone to collapse, and often began to retreat after only 10% to 20% casualties. Their organization and training were indeed not as good as those of later troops, but the account is not entirely that way.

Suppose the subject of the discussion is a fully staffed Roman legion, which has about sixty centuries. The 20% casualty rate does not mean that each century suffered twenty casualties, but that the first dozen or so centuries that engaged in the battle were almost completely wiped out, and a long line of battle was directly penetrated by the enemy.

The formations were broken and destroyed. Except for those strong men and their elite troops, this battle was indeed impossible to fight for ordinary armies and generals.

If the frontal formation collapses, the long-range troops at the back may also collapse as well. The nearby troops will also lose confidence when they see their friendly forces being defeated. Those who are not well trained will also begin to collapse. Word of mouth will spread from one to ten, and from ten to a hundred, and the army will collapse across the board.

To put it in an entertaining way, this is called chain defeat and belt collapse. To put it more formally, this should be called large-scale collapse.

According to Tia's estimation, the army composed of these militias should not have much fighting willpower. After four rounds of javelins were thrown, the enemy's formation had been broken up and destroyed. The subsequent rout should be natural, but she did not expect that these people's fighting determination was beyond expectations.

Although they were unable to reorganize their formation as quickly as the elite troops in front of the enemy, these people still charged forward in an incomplete formation and came into close combat with the Roman legions.

The following story will certainly not be a battle of equal strength, but a simple massacre.

The Romans did have enemies that they could not deal with head-on, such as the hedgehog-like Macedonian phalanx infantry, but these militiamen were not one of them. Their inferior weapons and even farm tools could not break through the Romans' mail, ring armor, and scale armor defenses, and hitting their large shields was not painful. On the other hand, the Romans were professional soldiers, holding standardized killing weapons in their hands, and they could basically kill an enemy every time they attacked.

Use the large shield in your hand to block the enemy's stab or slash, then stab the dagger in your hand without delay from under the cover of the large shield, hit the enemy's vital parts, then push the enemy down with the shield and pull out the dagger. Similar movements can be done smoothly and in one go.

As the saying goes, don't use your hobby to challenge other people's jobs. Killing is the job of these professional soldiers, and the price of failed challenge is life.

The heavily armored legionary infantry reaped the lives of their enemies like they were reaping wheat. The Gallic front suffered huge casualties. The Gallic commander who was observing the battle in the rear also discovered that something was wrong, so he ordered his main cavalry force to detour to the enemy's flank, hoping to crush the morale of these Romans by attacking from behind.

Tiya's cavalry troops had not taken action yet, waiting for this moment.

She raised the sword in her hand and said, "Stop them! Follow me!"

After saying this, he temporarily handed over the command of the main battlefield to his adjutant, and led all the cavalry units to face the Gaul cavalry head-on.

With the speed of the charge, the two sides soon collided with each other, and then a brutal and indecisive hand-to-hand combat ensued.

The Gauls' cavalry were all elite warriors or nobles with relatively strong combat effectiveness, while the Roman cavalry had always been a weakness. They should have hired Germanic cavalry to deal with these Gauls, but because of their hostile relationship with the Franks, the Germanic cavalry could not be hired for the time being, so they could only use the cobbled-together cavalry to do the job.

Even though Tiya was good at boosting morale and had strong combat capabilities, they continued to fall at a disadvantage. However, Tiya's goal was not to defeat the opponent head-on in a cavalry battle, but to delay them.

While the two sides were fighting hard, the Egyptian auxiliary troops gradually surrounded the cavalry of both sides in the melee from the other side, and then they began to besiege the Gallic cavalry.

They did not use long-range weapons anymore. Instead, they took out their javelins as spears, approached the Gallic cavalry, and either threw javelins at close range or stabbed the opponent's horses directly to disable them, and then rushed forward to deal with the fallen Gallic warriors.

The Gaul commander also discovered this problem and wanted to pull his cavalry out of the encirclement, but Tia stuck to him and refused to let go, and his cavalry was stuck in place by the Roman cavalry and could not move.

The greatest role of cavalry in this era was not charge but mobility. Armored cavalry had not yet become popular, and cavalry that had lost its mobility was not necessarily much stronger than infantry.

The Gallic commander was too impatient. Seeing that the infantry formation was about to collapse, he rushed to attack the rear of the Roman infantry line. He got too close to the infantry formation and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Roman cavalry. He was then stuck by the Roman cavalry, giving the infantry a chance to sneak up.

This ruined the Gauls' only chance of victory in the entire campaign.

(End of this chapter)