Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 183 Script Exchange
The battle lines were roughly divided into three types - spearmen versus spearmen, sword and shield versus sword and shield, and spearmen versus sword and shield. The secondary troops of both sides were spearmen, and the elite troops also chose a combination of shields and one-handed weapons.

At the beginning, the Germans were able to gain a certain advantage by relying on their impact and explosive power, but as time went on, they found that something was wrong - it seemed that the Romans' weapons and equipment were designed and built to restrict them.

The spears of their spearmen were generally shorter, about three meters long. Although this was sufficient, the Germans discovered that the Roman spears were just over four meters long, which was exactly longer than their weapons.

The battlefield is not a duel, there is no room for evasion, to put it bluntly, the battle between ordinary pikemen is just stabbing each other, and the weapons are half a meter shorter, which is a fatal problem. In the confrontation, the Roman pikemen often have a significant advantage, and the Germans can only passively take the beating.

They never expected that Orville would throw out the spearmen, a type of soldier rarely used by the Romans, so they did not make any relevant plans. The situation was quite passive for a while. The spearmen could not be relied upon. Harold was very clear about this matter. He could only let them delay time and look for opportunities to win from the heavy infantry or the flanks of the battlefield.

However, the situation of the Germans in these two battlefields was not optimistic, because they were still being targeted everywhere.

Influenced by the Viking invasion, the locals also learned some of the Vikings' military concepts, such as heavy infantry shield wall advancement. This tactic is generally useful because it can play to the physical advantages of the Germanic people and a certain degree of discipline, but the Romans have more experience in playing heavy infantry push than them.

The imaginary enemy of their shield wall is generally light or medium infantry, and they have not fully considered the situation when dealing with heavy infantry. After all, their enemies are mainly light infantry with poor quality. It is better to have a broader solution than to spend time focusing on dealing with a few heavy infantry.

Their shields are generally smaller in area, but their weapons are relatively larger. The English mainly use long swords, while the Vikings mainly use axes. Both weapons are not as direct and convenient as the Roman dagger when pushing the phalanx.

It is quite difficult to swing weapons with a large range in a dense formation. Once the density of soldiers is reduced, the mass will be insufficient, and they will suffer in close combat. This puts the German army in a dilemma.

The Roman dagger was not designed to be so short due to limitations in metallurgical technology, but was deliberately designed to be so short, because this length was suitable for pushing and fighting between phalanxes.

The Roman dagger is mainly used for stabbing, and does not require much space to use, while both the longsword and the axe are mainly used for slashing, and they are somewhat difficult to use in such an overly narrow scene.

They have larger shields to protect their bodies, and hide their arm movements under the shields so that the opponent cannot see clearly. When they seize the opportunity, they will stab the dagger from under the shield, hitting the opponent's vital points and causing fatal damage.

The war experience accumulated by the Romans through countless wars over the years is not useless, and Orville, the time traveler, has a more active mind. He knows how to restrain the Germanic soldiers. Since it is determined that the enemy is Germanic, he will build weapons completely according to the enemy's arms and weaponry.

It would be strange if the Germans did not find it difficult to face such an enemy. They were better at short-term waves of attacks. They had excellent explosive power but lacked endurance and stamina, which was a common problem among barbarian or semi-barbarian soldiers.

As the battle dragged on, this advantage gradually turned into a disadvantage, and some soldiers' physical strength and endurance began to be unable to bear it.

Harold Godwinson, who was in charge of the rear, saw this and did not immediately order the Frankish cavalry to charge forward. Instead, he calmly ordered the soldiers to raise a flag. It was a large flag with a griffin on it, which looked quite impressive. After the soldiers fighting at the forefront of the war saw the flag raised, they gradually understood.

Seeing this, the officer commanding the soldiers on the left wing of the army began to order the soldiers to retreat.

The soldiers' fighting spirit had already been somewhat shaken, so when they heard the commander's order to retreat, they naturally began to retreat in a hurry.

The Germans were not organized enough to retreat in an orderly manner, so the retreat naturally turned into a rout, and the German left wing quickly collapsed.

This was a deliberate tactic by Harold. To put it bluntly, it was a gamble by a skilled and daring man, betting that the Romans would be impulsive and abandon their strict formation to pursue the retreating Germans. Even if the Romans had a high level of military literacy, this was not impossible. Even Caesar and other military talents had encountered this problem, not to mention the soldiers under Orville.

Once their formation was broken, the reserve troops hidden in the dark would rush forward to hold back the pursuing Romans. Then the cavalry that the Germans were proud of would come in handy. They could rush into the Roman position through the gap, and things would be much easier afterwards - either the German center would be defeated, or the Romans would hold their ground and defeat the Germans. Harold naturally felt that the former was more likely, so he decided to take a gamble this time.

But as the war progressed, things did not happen as smoothly and naturally as Harold had expected. On the contrary, the Romans did not fall into the trap and rush down the hillside. Instead, they still maintained a tight formation, ready to resist the enemy's attack at any time.

This immediately made Harold's heart sink to the bottom. He knew that he might have made a wrong bet this time. The Romans were not so easily fooled. Orville was not only a very cautious person, but also had a good ability to control his subordinates. No soldier left his post.

This was not because Orville was very strict in military discipline, but more because he was on guard in advance and repeatedly emphasized to the soldiers not to leave their posts.

Maybe he didn't know how to lead troops in battle correctly, but he knew this day in history and how the Battle of Hastings was fought.

Basically he took Harold's playbook as the defender, while Harold took William the Conqueror's playbook as the attacker.

When William the Conqueror faced Harold, the Breton army on the left wing also suffered a rout, but the Anglo-Saxon army was not so obedient.

They ignored orders and broke away from their formation to chase the Breton army. Without the cover of their formation, they faced the Norman cavalry charge head-on.

This was one of the most threatening cavalry forces in early and middle medieval Europe. When it faced infantry without formation, the result was obvious.

(End of this chapter)