Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

Orville continued to confront the Pontic people in Sinope. Small-scale conflicts continued to break out between the two sides over issues such as water sources, supplies, outposts, roads, etc. Overall, there was victory or defeat for each other, and no decisive battle broke out.

After about ten days like this, Sinop welcomed another unexpected guest - Tia and some of her Guards soldiers, about two to three thousand people.

It felt a little strange that he had not been informed in advance, but Orville still welcomed the other party in, and then consciously gave up the position of army commander to Tiya.

That night, inside the Chinese military camp, Tiya looked at Orville apologetically.

She said after careful consideration: "I'm sorry for what happened this time, but this was my father's order. He asked me to come over quickly to direct the war with Mithridates, so I was transferred from Rome urgently. Because time is tight. , I didn’t even have time to write you a letter informing you of the situation or anything like that.”

"It's okay, I understand this very well." Orville waved his hand, but he really didn't care about it and didn't feel any grudge.

Vespa's intention is almost written on his face - it is nothing more than to increase Tia's prestige so that she can be more relaxed when she succeeds and takes over the position of emperor. This is not bad for Orville, and he doesn't mind letting her His wife shared the results of the battle with him.

Having said that, changing generals before the battle is really not a good thing. It will have an impact on morale and army command to a greater or lesser extent, so Orville went on to make suggestions.

"What did father say, do you want a quick victory?"

"He told me to resolve the war quickly and change later."

"Then you'd better get familiar with the army quickly starting tomorrow. The good thing is that many of these people are the troops I brought out with my own hands, and they must be convinced by you. But no matter what, you need time to get used to your soldiers. "

"I understand this," Tiya said with a confused expression, "but I'm still very sorry for you. This should be your honor."

She attaches great importance to honor, or most officers attach great importance to honor. This is not a trivial matter. The defeat of Mithridates is barely worthy of a triumphal ceremony. This is the military career of a general. The highest honor in the world, ordinary people have few opportunities to obtain it. Seeing such an opportunity slip away from their hands, or because of such naked political reasons, ordinary people must feel a little uncomfortable.

Orville, on the other hand, stretched out his hand to hold the other person's wrist, and then intertwined their fingers with each other. This behavior made Tiya feel a little calmer.

After a while, he slowly said: "Don't worry too much about some external things. I feel happy to be here. We haven't seen each other for almost a year, so it's a good thing to take this opportunity to meet."

He really doesn't think the Triumphal Ceremony is more important than Tiya. It's dispensable. He doesn't feel lost without him. It just broadens his horizons and he doesn't take it seriously.

This statement made Tiya blush a little. After a while, she reluctantly answered: "Okay, anyway, I will take note of this matter. I will compensate you if I have a chance in the future. I owe you this." Second-rate."

——

The Romans generally believed that it was not good for a general to bring his female companion when he went on an expedition (excluding situations where he was stationed in a certain place for a long time and found a female companion). However, it was quite rare in history for a couple like Orville to go into battle together. Below are the officers and soldiers. At least they didn't have any bad feelings towards Orville and Tiya, so this incident became a good story in their mouths, and no one had any objection to the two living in the same tent.

None of this affected the next day, when Diya got up early in the morning and started giving lectures to the soldiers and handover work with the officers. These things actually went very smoothly. Although this was a general who was airborne, the soldiers were vaguely happy with this kind of airborne landing. Seeing its success, it is more of a conversation piece.

If time had passed like this for another week or two, Nadia would have completed the training of the soldiers. However, after learning that the Romans had changed their commanders before the battle, Mithridates thought this was an opportunity and made a decisive decision to assemble the troops at hand. All the troops began to march towards the Roman military camp.

It would be no good for him to delay any longer. He had already discovered that the Romans were logging and building a port there. Once the port was repaired, they would be able to transport more soldiers and baggage. The situation would be more troublesome for them, so they might as well take advantage of this opportunity. Bet he didn't want to be strangled to death bit by bit in silence.

Faced with this situation, after deliberation, Tiya also gathered the army and began to confront the opponent. She also believed that this was an opportunity to gather the main force of the Pontus people in one place for a strategic decisive battle with her side. , otherwise it would be unknown how long it would take to fight guerrillas with the other party in the mountains. Tiya didn't want to waste her life for such a thing for no reason.

As a result, more than 20,000 people on the Roman side and 50,000 people on the Pontic side faced off at Sinope. This battle would determine the outcome. The Romans were mainly composed of legionnaires, supplemented by a small number of Egyptian, Byzantine auxiliaries. The composition of the people on the Pontus side seems a bit complicated. Pontus, Greeks, Franks, Scythians and even some sympathizers from all over the empire have gathered together. It is a typical coalition. The two sides can barely be considered mutually beneficial. Advantages: At first glance, it seems that the Bendu people have a slightly greater advantage.

——

Mithridates' formation method is relatively traditional - the phalanx pikemen line up along the flat ground as much as possible, and the two wings are covered by heavy infantry with swords and shields. In front of the phalanx soldiers are a certain number of skirmishers, and in the rear are A small number of archers and reserves.

The cavalry of each nation was scattered all over the battlefield by nation. Mithridates did not want to effectively command these people. Except for his own direct cavalry unit, he could only let them act according to circumstances and be cautious and not to rush.

It can be said that this is a conventional formation arrangement, not ingenious but not wrong.

The Romans' formation was a bit strange. If someone could observe the situation from the sky, they would clearly find that Tia used a relatively unconventional formation.

In the middle was a thin layer of phalanx spearmen, with only seven or eight people in each row, which was weak compared to the phalanx spears of the Pontic people, which were more than ten or twenty layers thick. There were several Roman centurions behind each long spear phalanx to cover the bottom. A large number of legion infantry were deployed on both wings, and the entire position looked a bit like the word "concave", weak in the middle and strong on both sides.

Behind the spearmen's position, there were relatively large numbers of archers and crossbows, and the number of scattered soldiers in front was relatively small. The cavalry was deployed at the back of the two wings. The overall idea of ​​the formation looked quite novel.