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Post by fairies wear boots 👢 on Jun 18, 2022 20:59:24 GMT -5
Failing to protect the crossing of the Po at Placentia, Otho's legions move to intercept Vitellius' at Fidenza on the southern side of the river.
VI Victrix
VI Hispania
VII Gemina
III Gallica
XIII Gemina
X Gemina
Praetorian Guard
Otho
Otho Titianus
Paulinus Suetonius
Cassius the Younger
Antonius Primus
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Post by Gandalf on Jun 19, 2022 9:44:19 GMT -5
"Rhine men... Foooorm up!"
Yelled Verus, with the command repeated down the ranks by the grizzled centurions. Otho's men would see the men of the Germanic legions clearly, now, with the rising sun glittering on their finely polished armour. Suddenly, the first ranks of the first cohort of Rome's finest would break out of their column formation into a run, spreading outwards like an opened fan across the riverside plain. It was a fair day for battle, Verus thought. Sunshine and not a cloud in sight, with barely even a breeze to make the standards dance in the wind. Auspices had been given and augured well. Jupiter was watching them.
They were perhaps a few hundred paces from the ranks of their opponents, now. They were forming up into a wide line that stretched several cohorts across, followed suit by the rest of the mutinous guardians of the Rhine that had broken through the shield of the Alps and into Italia itself. Of their own accord, the men began beating their blades rhythmically against their shields, roaring and bellowing across the plain like a fearsome rolling thunderclap. It was the job of the vanguard to make an impression upon the enemy, and it was quite an impression they were making. The barbarian peoples of Germania favoured such displays of intimidation, having used them on the Romans more times than one could count. Living among them had made the Rhine men half savage themselves. Verus did not envy the green levies of Galba a place in the ranks opposite them. He wondered, silently, if such inexperienced men could respond to such a challenge.
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Post by Royal Joker on Jun 19, 2022 12:51:35 GMT -5
Aulus Vitellius looked on with satisfaction as Marcus Verus roused the legionnaires for the coming battle. Sitting atop his horse and surrounded by his new personal bodyguard of hardened Batavi warriors, the would-be emperor had a good look over the battlefield. The sun-basked fields running along the Po river were beautiful, and soon they would be all be his. He made a motion for his servant to bring him some fresh fruit, harvested from the gardens of Mediolanum,before turning to his generals.
"Legates, the hour is at hand. Here, on the banks of the Po, we will save Rome from a destiny of malice and destitution. To your command, and deliver us victory!"
---
Legio I Germanica
Legio IV Macedonica
Legio V Alaudae
Legio XXI Rapax
Legio XXII Primigenia
Numerus Batavorum (1,000 men)
Aulus Vitellius
Marcus Verus
Valens
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Post by Royal Joker on Jun 19, 2022 15:48:42 GMT -5
Vitellian Army: {Battle Orders}5 legions = 30,000 men (25,000 legionaries, 5,000 auxiliaries)
1,000 Batavi warriors (auxilia?)
Commanders:
Aulus Vitellius
+1 Resilience
+3 Dignitas
Marcus Verus
+3 command
+1 resilience
+2 intelligence
Fabius Valens
+2 Resilience
+2 Command
+1 Dignitas
+1 Intelligence
---
Planning to utilize the veterancy of the Germanic legions to the fullest, the frontline of the army is made up of 20,000 legionaries. They will begin with an aggressive assault on the Othonian lines, hoping to break their enemy early.
The flanks are made up of 2,000 auxiliaries each. While keeping pace with the legionary center, their job is more defensive - keep the enemy left and right occupied and protect the flanks of the center. If the Othonian starts to break, they are to begin their offensive push.
In reserve you have 5,000 legionaries, 1,000 auxiliaries, 1,000 Batavi.
- The legionaries are to stay put until told otherwise.
- The auxiliaries are to scout the outer flanks for any hostile movements.
- The Batavi are to be sent forward and try to flank the enemy, if the auxiliaries report that one of the enemy flanks are exposed. |
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Post by fairies wear boots 👢 on Jun 20, 2022 14:31:37 GMT -5
Otho's great plan
Otho, confident in his advantage in numbers, wants his legates to envelop and surround Vitellius' legions. He ignores Suetonius and Primus' battle advice, which is actually sound.
Flanks are as such:
Left
VI Victrix
VI Hispania
Suetonius (legate) +4 command, +2 intelligence
Cassius Minor (tribune) +3 intelligence, +2 dignitas, +1 command
Center
VII Gemina
III Gallica
Praetorian Guard
Otho (imperator)
Otho Titianus (consul) +3 Intelligence, +1 Command, +2 Dignitas
Right
XIII Gemina
X Gemina
Antonius Primus +3 command, + 1 dignitas, + 2 resilience
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Post by Gandalf on Jun 20, 2022 18:07:07 GMT -5
Battle of Fidenza
The Rhine legions advanced, chanting their war cries and battering their shields as they advanced. Otho's men charged to meet them, and soon the field descended into a pit of bloody slaughter. To the surprise of many, it seemed that the Caesar of Rome's all or nothing strategy worked. While the men of Verus smashed through the centre, the left and right of the Vitellian army was outmanoeuvred by the more numerous ranks of their Danube counterparts. They were driven back, much to the frustration of Verus, who had the enemy encampment in his sights and was prepared to deliver the deathblow to the usurping Augustus. Instead, he was forced to cover the retreat of his own Caesar back across the river Po, sustaining a minor wound in the process.
This war, however, was far from over. Both sides were blooded, but neither beaten, though Otho could rightly claim that the field was his this day.
Casualties:
Otho:
1175 dead (800 legionaries, 375 auxiliaries)
945 returned to action
Vitellius:
1500 legionaries, 665 auxiliaries
Verus and Valens sustain minor wounds
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Post by Gandalf on Jun 20, 2022 18:28:15 GMT -5
Cassius watched from horseback as the battle largely passed him by. A junior officer's duty was to watch and learn, or so his father had said, and so the young noble had done little actual fighting. Instead he had watched on horseback with Suetonius as the men of the Danube legions shoved and pushed their way into a bloody huddle of steel and flesh. Eventually, it seemed that they had apparently won the day, but even from this distant vantage point it was difficult to follow what was going on. Occasionally a centurion or prefect would scramble back to the legate with a vague report that would be answered by an equally vague order. Push here, retreat there, march forward, backward. At last the day's muddled business came to a conclusion when the stubborn centre of the enemy's army pulled back across the Po, leaving a trail of corpses behind them.
---
"Hoooold, men of the Rhine! RAPAX, HOLD!"
Bellowed Verus, who had foregone his horse to stand with his men in the ranks. Blood was streaming from a nasty cut on his thigh, but the general ignored it for the time being.
"Stand firm, now!"
The Centurions echoed his commands as the Rhine men gradually gave the enemy inch after inch. Victory had been close enough that he could still feel the sting. They were turned back at the death, the flanks giving way even as Otho himself had crumbled before them. But they made the enemy pay for every life taken twofold. If Caecina had been there with them, they would have carried the day. But it was done and over with now. They were beaten, but not defeated. The men of the Rhine would fight again.
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Post by Royal Joker on Jun 21, 2022 15:36:59 GMT -5
Vitellius watched the battle from a safe distance, surrounded by his Batavi bodyguards and closest retainers. Messengers went back and forth with updates and orders, though the would-be emperor rarely dealt with such matters directly. Other men were suited for the art of war.
While the center led by Verus fought admirably and delivered the Othonians a bloody nose, Vitellius felt spine crawl when he received the reports on the faltering combat on the flanks.
While Vitellius began to panic at the sight of the pushback, cooler heads among his retainers made sure orders were given for an orderly retreat across the Po. They had lost this bout, but the German legions still had plenty of fight left in them.
Vitellius himself was having serious doubts, though. It took the intervention of his inner circle to make sure he did not run away or, worse, surrendered to Otho then and there. The emperor had to be supplied with wine mixed with opium to sedate him enough to not cause a panic.
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Post by Gandalf on Jun 21, 2022 15:49:34 GMT -5
"Caesar."
Verus addressed his superior casually, after having washed the dirt and blood off his face following the battle. The sun had set, now, and the exhausted Rhine men were sequestered within the walls of the armed camp they had established a few days prior. Vitellius had not taken the defeat well, which is why Verus hoped to assuage his concerns to prevent a full blown mutiny within the ranks.
"We should resume the march at daybreak. Move upriver, search for another crossing, and this time take the fight to Otho's brigands."
The Legate appeared to walk with a slight limp as he paced towards the Augustus. As ever, the Spaniard looked implacable, but his tone threatened a hint of malice.
"I would suggest you remain far from the frontlines, August one. It would bode ill should a stray javelin end our campaign before its time."
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Post by Grand Admiral Chesser on Jun 21, 2022 19:18:27 GMT -5
Paulinus moved through the ranks of cohorts shouting orders and giving words of encouragement; the chaos of battle erupting around him, yet he seemed unfazed. "Hold fast men, they will not take us today. Mars gives us his strength and Fortuna her favor." On the outer edges of the flanks the auxiliaries were starting to backpedal. Preparing to bark an order, an alert centurion beat him to it, wheeling his cohort over to fill the line. Sweeping his gaze across the battlefield appraisingly he knew that barring any surprises his flank would hold, though they would still bloody the men greatly. As to the other flanks... why did Otho have to insist on leading the center himself. He hadn't yet decided if it was bravery, stupidity, or both.
---
A while later "Tighten ranks and push forward. We have them on the move." He bellowed as the enemy flank started to waver. Soon the the entire flank was driving forth. Were it not for the poor performance of the center, they may well pin their enemy against the river. As it were, he would have to advance the line more carefully. All the same, he intended to bleed the enemy the best he could.
--
Stopping next to a dead body to wipe off his blade before sheathing it. The battle over, Paulinus watched from a distance as the enemy finished his semi-controlled retreat back across the Po. The field laden with dead and wounded, and though victorious, their force was almost as battered as the enemy. Holding a knowing look, this was only the first round, they would be back, and he would be ready.
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Post by fairies wear boots 👢 on Jun 21, 2022 20:05:46 GMT -5
"After them!" Otho barked from horseback as the rebellious legionaries buckled away from the flanks commanded by Suetonius and Primus. "Don't let them get away!"
Of course, none of that happened. After a few minutes of such a display, the Caesar and his red-eyeshadow were led away from the field of death to the safety of a castra. His own center had nearly entirely collapsed, but the man pretended that either he did not understand that or that it was part of the plan. No one else had been confused about why the center nearly fell in on itself.
"We must pursue them as soon as possible and destroy them to make good on this victory," were his first words upon the appearance of his legates in his principia tent.
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Post by Gandalf on Jun 22, 2022 16:11:24 GMT -5
Battle of Bedriacum
The two armies met again the following day at Bedriacum. They swiftly converged upon one another - and all sense of stratagem was lost in the sheer scale of the conflict.
In short, however, the armies of the Rhine legions were once again pushed back by their Pannonian and Italic counterparts, their defeat all but assured when Marcus Annius Verus was cut down in the fighting. After this dire news, Vitellius opted to flee the field rather than stay and fight, which meant that none were left to rally the men after Fabius Valens was seized from his horse and taken prisoner. As a result, the Rhine men broke. Those that did not flee simply surrendered on the spot.
Some auxiliaries caught up to Vitellius and brought the would be Caesar back to Otho in fetters, but not before beating the living hell out of him first.
However, all was not well for Otho. His half brother Titianus was slain in the confusion of the rout, perhaps by an errant Praetorian.
Casualties:
Vitellius: 3400 (2800 legionaries, 600 auxilia)
Otho: 400 legionaries, 60 Auxilia
Other changes:
Legio I Germanica
Legio IV Macedonica
Legio V Alaudae
Legio XXI Rapax
Legio XXII Primigenia
Defect to Otho
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Post by fairies wear boots 👢 on Jun 22, 2022 17:32:27 GMT -5
Marcus Salvius Otho felt the muscles in his jaw halt and fall, looking out over a field full of many thousands of legionaries, as the momentous realization set in: he was victorious, and it looked like he had thoroughly crushed his contender for the purple. By mere fortuna, by sheer grace. The short, wigged man looked up to the sky from his horse, gazing into the blue sky of an early Italian summer with eyes dominated by bright red eyeshadow and black liner. Then, he smiled, like a gleeful child; and when a grown man of Otho's stock does that, it becomes a wicked, hungry grin.
He wasn't an augustus when the praetorians killed Galba, nor did he feel legitimate when the senate proclaimed him. Now, he felt the wind blow at his back and lift his spine into what he imagined must be a regal pose. He was Augustus in the flesh. Him, Marcus Salvius Otho. The first thing he desired was to gloat it over Nero and Sabina, or whoever remained in their memory. However, them and all they loved were long gone.
The day continued on, and the gloating imperator watched as whole legions surrendered and swore loyalty to him. The sun was in the western half of the sky when his brother's corpse was brought to him. Caesar began demanding at every face he saw to know who had killed a consul of Roma - the Caesar's own brother. Eventually, someone produced an answer to lift the pressure off themselves - one man had heard others speaking - the emperor's brother was slain by a Praetorian.
A Praetorian.
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Not an hour passed before Otho Augustus demanded the praetorian prefect, Licinius Proculus, appear before him. He immediately began laying into the man, lingering on the cruel irony of bodyguards slaying the family of the emperor, as if it had never been done before.
"You will produce the praetorians responsible for this, or the entirety of the praetorian cohortes will be punished for this murder..."
He stopped, nearly stumbling over himself to add emphasis. "Murder of a consul!"
Then, he said the word.
"Decimation. I have been gracious and generous to the cohortes, but this.."
He pointed an admonishing finger at Proculus.
"Bring me the criminals, or face decimation."
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Post by Gandalf on Jun 23, 2022 14:44:08 GMT -5
Proculus took his admonishing like a man, acting suitably humble and cowed before the Caesar without so much as uttering a word in his defence. But something definitely had shifted in the mood of the Praetorians. They began to look at the Emperor differently, a mixture of distrust and ambivalence that was perhaps only a step away from outright hatred. Nonetheless, they duly produced some hapless soldier that they fingered as being responsible for the killing. After being severely beaten by his comrades, he had confessed to being an assassin in the pay of Vitellius.
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Post by fairies wear boots 👢 on Jun 24, 2022 21:54:06 GMT -5
The Numerus Batavorum was declared disbanded, though many of its members had escaped. The survivors were either folded into existing auxilia units, or sold into slavery.
Two men were quickly beheaded that evening: one man named Aulus Vitellius, and a praetorian scapegoated by his comrades as an assassin under the pay of the former. Their bodies were returned to the battlefield, to be buried with the other countless dead. The triumphant Caesar Otho did not witness it, and spoke no more of the two men.
The next day, in the early hours just after dawn, Otho summoned several men to the castrum's principia, including Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, Marcus Antonius Primus, and Gaius Cassius Longinus Minor, along with all the legates of every assembled legion.
The youthful Augustus - "youthful" was a relative term, contrasted with a host of greying, bald, hook-nosed senators - was, as to be expected by this point, done up in his characteristic bright crimson eyeshadow, with rouge toning on his cheeks and an obnoxious perfume radiating from what could only be his expensive wig. He wore an ornate breastplate, attempting to project a martial image beyond it all.
Once all the legates and tribunes were assembled - all the military men of note - Otho began dictating his thoughts to them.
"Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, I am appointing you as suffect consul; the senate will officiate it in your absence, and you will finish my late brother's term."
He looked to another legate now. "Marcus Antonius Primus; you are henceforth governor of the provinces of Germania Superior and Germania Inferior."
"Suetonius," he glanced again to the victor of the Icenian war, "I bid you take eight legions to the Rhine, with Primus as your second. Bring the border into order and crush any rebels you find like you did in Britannia."
He smiled strangely at Gaius Cassius Longinus the Younger, then looked back to Suetonius and Antonius in turn.
"You will take Gaius Cassius Longinus as a military tribune, and you will keep him close so that he may continue to learn from esteemed generals."
Suetonius (with Antonius Primus as sub-commander) is assigned the following eight legions:
VII Gemina (Italia)
X Gemina (Hispania Tarraconesis)
XIII Gemina (Pannonia)
III Gallica (Pannonia) *Antonius' former legate post*
I Germanica (Germania Inferior)
IV Macedonica (Germania Superior)
V Alaudae (Germania Inferior)
XXI Rapax (Germania Superior)
The following 3 legions and the Praetorian guard remain with Otho in Italia:
VI Victrix (Italia)
VI Hispania (Italia)
XXII Primigenia (Germania Superior)
Praetorian Guard
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