Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

After a tense confrontation, the war between the two sides officially began.

Orville was replaced as the commander-in-chief and temporarily served as the commander of the Ninth Legion [Spain], deployed on the right wing of the entire formation, which was the main attack direction designated by Tia.

The first to arrive were the scattered cavalry units of the Pontic people. They were cruising around the battlefield, looking for opportunities to take advantage of, ready to attack the Roman formation at any time.

Tia sent out her own cavalry to drive them away. Due to the relatively disadvantaged number, the restrictive effect was limited. She could only slightly block the opponent's cavalry within a very wide range, so as not to go directly around the back of the formation in one breath.

They did not dare to go too far forward. Mithridates now knew that the Romans' crossbows were powerful and could start shooting from a long distance. At the same time, he had done his homework in advance. He knew that the new pilum (heavy javelin) had a longer range and was specially designed for cavalry.

The cavalry of both sides tested each other, and the infantry gradually engaged in battle. The first to start shooting were the skirmishers of the Pontus. They were mainly slingers, supplemented by some spear throwers. In terms of numbers, they could suppress the sparse skirmishers of the Romans, but Tia simply chose to push the crossbowmen forward and shoot at the enemy's soldiers, and the situation suddenly became unfavorable to them.

The weakly protected long spear phalanx in the middle was guarded by the heavy infantry on the left and right wings. With these soldiers' restrictions, the enemy's skirmishers did not dare to move forward too close, for fear of being sandwiched on the left and right, and could only shoot at the legion infantry on both wings.

In this stage of shooting, the damage they caused to the Romans was generally not painful - with large shields and perfect armor, stones were naturally not worthy of being in the hall of elegance. Even those javelins had not undergone special design, and their range could not compare with the Roman javelins, so the Pontus were often attacked first.

In addition, the performance of several centurions was particularly eye-catching: they propped their shields on the ground, relied on the shields as cover, and leaned out their upper bodies to shoot at the enemy with crossbows in their hands.

The shooting speed was not fast, and the accuracy was only satisfactory, but the Pontus people on the opposite side really had no way to deal with this tortoise shell. After several rounds of shooting, it could only be said that the effect was minimal, and they could only take the beating.

After the opponent's pikemen gradually pressed forward, the Romans' scattered soldiers and a small number of archers retreated, the main infantry line pressed forward, and the archers and crossbow positions behind also began to fire.

Orville was located on a small hill, and he stood on a high platform made of boxes and wood to observe the situation from a high position, and the field of vision was quite good.

From his point of view, the Romans had a slight advantage in terms of numbers on the left and right wings, but the position in the middle seemed very dangerous, with only a thin layer. If it was pierced, they would be in the center.

Suppressing the vague uneasiness in his heart, Orville raised the long sword in his hand. The long sword was slightly red under the blessing of special power. All the soldiers within a radius of dozens of meters felt refreshed, and an indescribable self-confidence rose from the bottom of their hearts.

"Long live the emperor! Kill the traitors!" "Ah!!!" Orville simply shouted, and the soldiers responded.

Several captains blew the whistles hanging around their necks, and their centurions led their own centurions forward and began to fight with the opponent's sword and shield infantry.

First, there were two or three rounds of mutual javelin throwing. The Romans took advantage of the range and fired one more round, and then there was a bloody and tragic hand-to-hand fight. Both sides were the most elite divisions on the entire battlefield. Their combat coordination and willpower were impeccable, which made the hand-to-hand fight quite tragic, and it was difficult to tell the winner for a while.

At the same time, Orville sent several centurions to the flanks and front of the opponent's spearmen and began to throw weapons at them.

It was not the kind of javelin used against heavy infantry and cavalry. The soldiers shot out smaller javelins, which were slightly less lethal but could carry more. Each soldier could carry five to eight javelins.

The opponent's pikemen were undoubtedly a bit crude in Orville's opinion. Only the pikemen in the front row had an arm shield to resist the attack. The armor protection was quite chaotic, and to some extent, almost non-existent. Such soldiers could still cause considerable damage even if they had javelins, let alone javelins.

These legionnaires quickly shot out all the javelins in their hands, and then retreated to the main position before the opponent's pikemen rushed up, replenished their ammunition, and then went over to shoot.

The effect was so good that Orville himself was a little surprised. In order to deal with the legionnaires, Mithridates arranged the pike phalanx too densely, and the javelins had a good killing effect even if they were not aimed.

He was a little regretful now, regretting that he made too few javelins, only enough for these people to shoot a few rounds to test the effect.

——

Outside the main battlefield, Cu Chulainn rode alone in the forest.

I have never seen what Cu Chulainn looks like after he went berserk, but Orwell has explained it very thoroughly. His normal combat power is about the same as that of a first-class talent, and his combat power after going berserk can barely touch some traces of the mythical era, so Tia is more careful when using Cu Chulainn.

In her mind, this kind of soldier is similar to a war elephant, a double-edged sword. If used well, it is a weapon of victory, but if used poorly, it is easy to burn yourself.

So she arranged Cu Chulainn in this relatively remote position so that he would not accidentally hurt his own people.

Cuchulainn understood this kind of order very well. It was better to say that this was what he wanted. It was better to fight freely than to be timid. Now he was waiting for the order from Tiya.

After a while, the cavalry of the Pontus began to move and tried to go around the back of the Roman position.

At this time, Cuchulainn finally saw the signal he wanted to see - the crossbows in the position began to fire.

Cuchulainn rushed out of the forest while the crossbows were firing, and went straight to the position of the cavalry.

On the way to the charge, his figure kept twisting and expanding, and finally turned into the little giant with a terrifying figure and fierce momentum. He jumped off the horse and started sprinting on foot, even a little faster than when he was riding a horse before.

The opponent's cavalry officer was obviously also a gifted person, and after all, he was a gifted person from the edge of the civilized world. He was strong and confident in his ability. He led the soldiers to rush towards Cuchulain head-on without dodging.