Battle of Asculum

 

The last battle of 2021 was a romans vs Pyrros game. After his "success" in the battle of Heraclea the epeirote king has moved further north and clashes with the legions under consul Publius Decius Mus

A wide river with wooded banks separates the armies, and soon their light troops move in

While the heavy infantry keeps back the skirmishers of both sides trade javelins

Meanwhile the greek left has been moving further away for unfathomable reasons

After several rounds of innefective shooting the first losses start to mount up on the legions, pushing them to advance into the fray 

Both sides enter the riverbank becoming disordered

While Pyrros and the roman left flank fight it out

First blood goes to the romans, that destroy a mass of light cavalry

Next the legionnaries crash into the greek line, and albeit the phalanx is pushed back...

...the lightly armed oscans get the upper hand in the broken terrain of the river

Things take a turn for the worse when the roman equites in front of Pyrros are routed

And then the Oscans manage to disperse an entire legion of allied troops

With losses mouting up the roman right retreats to deny their points to the enemy

It all now depends on the legions led by Decius, that fight an icnreasingly desperate struggle with foes charging from behind

Some velites are trampled down by the epeirote companions

But when all seems lost the legions manage to pull through, destroying the pike phalanx...

...and the tarentine hoplites, losses that push the enemy over its moral threshold and win the battle in extremis for Rome