Empire Divided - Sassanian Tank Core (Total War: Rome II Online Battle #271)

Hey what's up guys it's Oakley and we're replaying some more Empire Divided. I'm going to be fielding an army of assassinates here. It's going to be some awesome gameplay with two Indian Armored Elephants at the core of my force. So it's a 2v2 actually. I have the Calidone on my right hand flank. He is facing off against Palmyra and then we have I believe the Mark of Amani here in opposition to us. So let's go over my deployment. So the armored core as we already stated is going to be two of these Indian Armored Elephants. Very very expensive units but they can take a lot of punishment, a lot of archer fire, and really beat up infantry clusters once the melee is engaged. But this sunk a lot of money so the rest of my force is actually going to be quite light and nimble which is kind of cool. Makes for a slightly different playstyle. Speaking of light I have two Persian Horse Archers pushing up through the front. So these guys do have heavy shot I believe so they're just going to be meant to push forward and try and snipe at enemy cavalry. Perhaps even bait some volleys from enemy bowmen and essentially be a pest. And what they can do is they can close in on infantry engagements once they get underway and these guys can just shoot and close support into the back. So very good versatile units. Now continuing along in the center I have the Zayden Immortals here. This is going to be basically almost like a cataphracted General's unit. Not the top tier one that you can get but still pretty sturdy. And they look freaking badass there staring out from behind their visors and the male face mask. So that's pretty cool. And then here's the main infantry core. So it's going to be creeping up through the force. I do have a single Immortal Guard Infantry. This is going to be my only high tier infantry unit. Keeping them in reserve in the center to be a bit flexible perhaps in support of my general or the elephants. But like I said the main push is going to be from my light troops. So I have three of these Kurdish archers. Again they've been hidden so they're on the prowl up through the woods here. And they have some close support of several units. And these are going to be four of the dialamites. So kind of like medium melee infantry. They can do decently. They can hold out relatively long in combat. And that's why I put this whole force in the woods so that they can get the drop on the enemy in the woods. But then also if there's archer fire or cavalry get in the mix the woods are going to provide cover and allow me to hold out long enough to do something else more interesting on the other flanks. So anyways the archers are now going to turn and start to pepper some of these forces. I want to take out some of these gothic archers and perhaps start to peel away some of his Germanic spearmen core which would otherwise be a pretty good counter for my elephants. So this isn't something I can take head on. Continuing over this force here. Looks like not everything is revealed. So perhaps some in the forest here. In the back Gruthungi and Typhalli cavalry. So a couple of cavalry stationed in the back. He's wary. He's going to be a bit more defensive. His ally here is also being a little cautious as well. Palmyra. If you play online you will undoubtedly be seeing people bringing pikes. I found that they're relatively easy to counter. You just got to be careful with how you do it because they can be rather tanky and hard to defeat up front. But anyways that's going to be his main line. And then he of course has some of these Hamian archers as well. Backing that up. He also has some Palmyrene cohorts armed with the spear. Some armored swordsmen. And Palmyrene legionary cav and the Palmyrene palace guard. And yeah here comes his line. Continuing up to the front. So big long wall of pikes. Our guys here with almost all sword infantry is going to have a hard time beating that front line. So we'll see if he can get around the side. Although these Skatha shadows do have anti-infantry bonuses which if he can exploit a gat should tear through the enemy pretty well. So they're going to be slowly sneaking up on the using the cover of the woods to prevent the archers from doing too much damage. And if I were Palmyra I would disengage here. You don't want to run into a big barbarian force in the woods. That's where they'll have an advantage. And he's missing out on so much potential time to fire here by getting so close. But the Skatha shadows are able I believe to vanguard deploy. So he didn't quite expect that. The rest of the force here being visible but at a further distance. So that's why he moved up. So he's a little bit too close and now he's going to realize the danger that he's in. But then again he's a bit too close to disengage. So we'll see how we go. Oh and this is cool. So the Skatha shadows actually moving up while they're vanguard deployed. And are going to get some preliminary javelin volley. So coming out of the brush here going to force back those Hamian archers back behind the pike wall. And just as I said they didn't really have the chance to disengage. They're going to go ahead and do just that. Although that is risky. If the cavalry decide to push up they could easily take a chunk out these Hamian archers. Had there been some more bowmen in close support these Highland archers they could fire into the back of the pikes. But it looks like he's timed this decently. Yeah he's going to take a couple volleys in the rear. But he's timed it decently to the point where he can still disengage. But this may rupture the flank here. Oh a guard position actually of Tervingi warriors here. Positioned and revealed from the scouting force. So potentially this force here could get isolated if we're able to force the Palmyrene troops far enough back. So we'll see if we can do just that. Anyways this has been enough. Now we finally get to see the revelation that's taking place here. So just as I was trying to push up and turn the flank of these Germanic warriors with my bow fire and all that. Trying to ward them off. Now is going to come the surrounding maneuver. So out of the force comes a Germanic Spearmaster force and several Gothic warbands. Compared to my Dalamites with not much support this isn't really going to go my way. I have to bring in close support. So my cavalry is going to pivot over here and we'll see how I engage with this. Before we go into real time I do want to show that I am posturing here with my elephants. I see that there's no real archer support. Just a couple of them. I'm going to position these guys here just to ward off this blob from doing a flanking strike. Meanwhile it looks like the forces here are going to try and envelop Palmyra. But Palmyra is taking a nice position back here at the initial deployment and allow a big killing zone in the open to form up. So it's going to be up to me to turn the tide. Let's take a look at the flanking engagement here and how I'm going to be able to take it. So immediately once I see those guys coming out of the woodwork I'm going to pull out and form a almost like an orbis formation that the Romans would have formed in certain instances. And essentially what it is it's just forming a circle and then you send the messenger to call for reinforcements. That's what I'm doing here. So my guys are going to form up to take this charge of the barbarians. Infantry is going to be doing pretty well. Now I'm going to tank that out. So just blunting his assault with one force. I was threatening a rear strike with my immortal cav here but unfortunately I was scared of these germanic spearmasters. So okay I'm going to hold them at arm's length with one eye forces. Meanwhile my skirmishers and other units here held back to provide supporting fire up and over into that blob. Ideally I would want to move them up on the flank to shoot into the flank of these guys but for now I'm going to hold back because there is yet another force that's coming in. But they're going to get a face full of projectiles. Actually the new shields on the assassins actually look really cool. Loving this. So we'll see how the engagement gets underway. This gothic warband is trading worse than my guys probably from that initial engagement. But these 144 to my 142 plus a flanking force so my guys here could potentially be enveloped. So what's been going on is over here I pulled two of my archers. So I had three of them or I had a skirmisher and two archers. So the skirmisher here is going to be meant to isolate forces trying to go around my flank. So fire armor piercing into them and then recommit some of my dalami infantry. Two to hold the front two were pulled back in reserve. These guys are going to be going this direction. Meanwhile he was threatening to come in and completely cut me off with spears and cavalry. What I decided to do was come in with my mortal cab and steamroll this germanic spearman force. And I was yeah it was a bit of a risky move to charge into these spears. But you can see just as they're getting back up they're almost none of them so I'm able to pull them over and get out of here without taking too much damage and force his cavalry back. If he's able to recommit and tie me down they'll be really bad for my general. But I've been able to get a pretty good hit and there you go they break before I take any losses. So excellent on the cavalry on that front. And now I'm going to recommit my skirmishers who are otherwise trying to do some preliminary volleys against these germanic spearmen bringing them down by 20 men. They can now come here and be kind of a soft front on this side where the only real threat I have is the cavalry. If infantry try and come in I can do delaying tactics and fire and kite. But I have a unit in the back here that could be troublesome if he tries to sandwich my guys here. And I'm getting torn in half. My elephants are positioned over on this this flank where not much is happening there's just the flank is continuing to be turned. This position here is continuing to just hold for its own. The center is trying to be committed with some skatha warriors tying up these guys. He did break some of the spears which is nice. Taking out more and more of their spears makes these elephants more viable long term. But now look at this force the germanic army is going to start to collapse in on my guys firing into my persian horse and starting to hit some of my immortals. So it's a matter of time before I have to disengage. Although I did pull in both of these horse archers to try and tie down the tifali cavalry or at least beat them back. But in the center a lot is collapsing in on me. That cavalry that was going around the flank is going to recommit against my guys. So my dalamites here holding okay. They seem to be trading evenly so I can hold this front but it's a question of whether or not he can turn the tide. I had to sacrifice one of my skirmishers to take that brutal cavalry assault but luckily it means that my own archers here can just fire point blank with heavy shot into the cavalry. So you can see a couple of those guys yeah getting taken back and I believe it might have even saved my skirmishers. Yeah these guys down to a third strength but still holding back that cavalry assault. The other cavalry force here trying to disengage but my archers can't see them off. Now I have a big blob of travingi warriors and spears coming in here. Not much I have that can counter this so he's going to be able to charge right in. But what's happened here is these archers have gotten out of range and this is going to be the cue for my elephants and the allied cavalry to come in. We sense blood in the water. They only have one germanic spear force holding them out so potentially this is going to be one hell of a surround here. And we'll see if these spears are ready to deal with this. I can easily dodge which is why I brought two elephants. Looks like the cavalry is going to tie them down. Not going to be the most effective of trades but it's going to buy an opportunity for me to punch through the gap with my immortals here. Come at the cavalry come at other units and perhaps even hit these archers. So here come the elephants coming in. Some ambushers and others trying to reinforce. Palmyra is going to send some units to try and help this out because he knows he has to rebuff my assault. Let's go ahead and take a quick look on this flank just so you can see what's going on. It looks like the chosen swordmen which are really strong are going to be trying to trade against the palmyran cohorts. Doing pretty decently. Relatively even. So palmyra is going to be able to hold the front at least on this flank but you'll notice the pikes have been left alone and they're just going to be shot at by these highland archers. So it's going to be a bit of a trade between the hemian archers and the highland archers. Let's go ahead and see these guys. I haven't looked at their models too closely although they do look pretty awesome here. Robin Hood-esque. Yeah so trading in. The advantage for them here is they're firing into units in the open whereas they themselves are in cover and then there's two units bunched up top which means there's more density of units. So this is going to go our way but if they fail to penetrate this flank. Oh and look at this the cavalry palmyran legion opening up the hammer and anvils. If they can turn back this tide and hold this flank then these archers are going to run out of ammo and have no way of busting this line. So the victory may go to palmyra. It depends how these cavalry pan out. Meanwhile on our side my elephants have been able to shoot the gap. The spears here did fend off the enemy cav. They're going to be trying to come back and save the archers but as they're redeploying I'm going to charge right in. They didn't quite have the bearing to see me off so one of my elephants is getting positioned to take them out. Meanwhile the other one is coming to the rescue along with my general to try and save my forces here. Palmyran cav had come in to try and turn the tide. Had clipped my kurdish archers. My infantry here was starting to collapse as more terengi warriors come in. My dalmite front line was destroyed by germanic horsemen so my flank here was starting to collapse and it's up to the elephants to try and save the day. So they're going to come and knock about these cavalry. They do pretty good against that. You may know over here this elephant force with 238 kills flattening a lot of archers along the way. Some of the pikes. Pikes are going to pursue but now they're weak. They're out of position. The archers have no real way to deal with these elephants so now I have a bit of free reign and most critically it means that my guys in the back line here can really start to do hammer and anvils and do good work. So the heavy cataphracts and the archers you know one two punch volley in there to clean them up and then the general to finish them off. Being very quick and efficient there. So 119 almost yeah 120 kills on the general and this guy just running about and he can kite these spears to death and shoot them up. Meanwhile the elephants here are going to be able to pull over. My infantry corps has been demolished but they're holding out pretty well. The dialomites here clustered around their standard bears and the tree here holding out very very well. Actually very impressed with how they're trading although it is against kind of mid-tier barbarians but still pretty good on them. The elephants continuing to be in the background and this is going to be the sturdy immortals that I had brought. These guys were not meant to break and so of all my units on this flank taking three losses and 72 kills. Yeah that in combination with the elephants is going to mean that it's virtually unopposed. Over here calvary tried to charge into my guys but now the elephants are in the mix. They're running uh they're rampaging now that's fine. I don't really worry if they're in the mix. Not much that can punish me for having rampaging elephants. Yes there are some pikes but they're pretty weak at this point. Meanwhile the engagement has gone underway here. Looks like more of the just standard infantry was pushed onto the flanks. The palmyran cav did some hammer and anvils but has now been countered by a heroic rider bodyguard force which is going to be at full strength. So whoever can win the cavalry fight then gets freed up for hammer and anvils. Although we'll see how this trades. The front lines here looks like the armoured swordsman and pikes have pushed forward to try and take out the remaining forces on this front. So yeah it looks like victory in the center will go to our enemies which is interesting. The flank is still up for debate here. The concentration of archers though we'll see where they're firing. If they can fire into the general and keep him at bay that'll be really good for them. So center goes to our enemies. Flank is still disputed. On my side however the tide is turning. This infantry cluster is still holding strong. The immortals holding very strong and then the elephants still at full strength being unable to be defeated or taken down. This one with 100 level and the other one at 300 kills. Absolutely insane. Nothing can stop them here. And then the general is going to come and chase after them to try and get a second wind to get them back to active status to allow them to do so much more damage. But anyways let's go ahead and check in on the immortals here. We have gone ahead and caught up with one of these cavalry forces. My archers point blank also running and shooting into them. That guy takes an arrow to the face. The other horse is grunting as the blood splatters over them and I'm not quite sure they're going to stay in this engagement. Yeah it is pretty glorious to see the immortals charging out here. Last volley through there. Clean up these cavalry men. So yeah this was an awesome whole mixture of some cheap but effective units and then super tanks. The immortals and the elephants. Deadly combo. I really like how this plays out. A couple more shots of this. Even the archer on top there. Not quite sure who he was shooting at. He may have sniped one of these guys. But it's always cool to see these guys. Oh a couple horses being taken out by javelins and whatnot. So there you have it. Victory has been achieved on my side. Let's see. 178 on them. That's the same force. 129 on the immortals. My dalamites with 129 and 82. So really really good stuff. I still have one archer unit left alive. He's almost out of health but he's going to be picking apart the remaining forces on the plane. So here come a couple arrows. Most of them missing but doing enough to ward off this last unit of spearmen. This guy catching an arrow on his shield and realizing that that's it. The last force in the center is going to get sandwiched by my horse archers and other units. This guy up to 523 kills. Absolutely insane and let's see. Yep still at full elephant numbers although their health is likely very depleted. Yeah we're gonna get a bit of combo here. Everyone coming in to finish off this warband. Pretty epic stuff. I do want to see if we have any new kill animations. So here come the elephants pushing forward and there you go. So they're gonna go ahead and regroup with their other cohort and I was able to get them back to fresh. The other one is still exhausted but once my general's ability gets back to normal I'll be able to pop this. So I'm rallying my forces. I have a ton, almost a full strength immortal guard unit. Still some archers, some ranged units and still my general in very good standing with 181 kills. So overall pretty happy with the outcome of this fight. It was a bloody one that had combinations of forces deployed on both sides. Back on this it is very much a grinding battle. Let's see what happened to that cavalry. Looks like it was heavily depleted. Let's see where those corpses were. Looks like it was tied down a bit too long in this engagement. Took a lot of arrow fire. I can't really trace the corpses but I don't see too many cavalry bodies for hammer and anvils. A couple in here so it looks like both enemy cav forces were taken out before large hammer and anvils could take place. Which means it's just down to the infantry to grind it out which for both sides is gonna be pretty devastating. It means that even if Palmyra wins here they should hope that they have enough numbers to fight against my few but very impressive and well armored forces. Let's look at the corpse field that my elephants are trotting over. That's pretty cool. In the center the enemy had taken this position. Yeah actually these troops are very much depleted. I am coming in to save the scathachadows who appear to have been fighting the entire time here in the center. So here I come to the rescue. Spearmen are on the brink of routing and this will seal their fate. Easy stuff. Not even encumbered in that assault. That's awesome. Let's see where the other one is going. Looks like he's getting ready to land a strike in support of these tervingi. Sorry of the scathachadows. Oh and they do take out one of my elephants showing just how low they are on health. Just how susceptible I will be here in the coming engagement to javelins. So one goes down. That is gonna really piss off the mahouts here and they're gonna try and trample these guys without further ado. Let's watch this. Yeah there we go. No messing around. Gonna just slaughter them and there goes the route. And the scathachadows still alive. Still low in number and they're gonna do really quick cleaning up operations. Beheading all these men. Lots of skulls to bring back home tonight. Let's see how many of these elephants are at. 466, excuse me, triple chevrons. Really good stuff. The other one charged forward and is hitting these hamian archers. My general is also pursuing some more hamian archers. They're getting lots of kills. Still one left standing. I have to be a little bit careful because these guys can whip out the spears. My ally general apparently didn't quite realize that and the archers are just gonna turn around and have a word with him here. So you gotta be careful with these hamian archers. If I charge in my own general, yes on the charge I could be pretty but the second they turn around, especially in cover like this, they'll do pretty well. So I was a little worried about that especially after the beating I've taken. So I'm a little bit worried about engaging these guys and that's why I'm deploying the full force. Two armored elephants to try and have just a knockout blow before they can even stand up and take me out. What I'm also gonna do is turn back on fire at will with my bows. I was trying to save it for this particular moment so as I get close hopefully my archers should start to fire. I know at least one of my elephants still has ammo. There you go. I'm gonna turn it on at this point and we'll see if it takes its toll. It should at least start to do a little bit of morale damage and here we go. Here comes the charge. So the enemy really should have stood and held their ground here. I guess he's trying to draw me away from the main force but it is not gonna last. These guys should be routing pretty soon. Very frightened here and now my general just circling around the side and he's gonna seek to head them off while the elephants are basically hurting them. My guy like the third lioness is gonna cut off the pack and ambush them right here in the open. There you go. So like I said I mean these guys can take a charge in the brush and then face off with spears. There goes a couple of my horsemen going down but I should have just enough numbers I think here to take them out. They are wavering down to 39 men having lost. I'm trying to count the bodies on the ground. Looks like two or three horsemen so not too bad overall but that's because I was more careful with my engagement and my elephants here still with oh my god 512 kills Jesus Christ. This one with 294 yeah so this guy just got a second win so he's back to fresh. The remainder on this side my ally still has I mean he's lost his general but you see he still has three of these or two scuttle warriors and a that's pretty cool so pretty good force and it'll make for a nice distraction. They're gonna go around the flank. Pamyra still stands bloodied but uh but strong and they have a couple pikes so these pikes do have me worried. Still pretty healthy. We don't quite have a way to get them off the battlefield. Two of them could form up in depth and face off against my elephants. If I don't get the perfect charge against these guys I'm pretty sure they could wreck my elephants so I gotta be careful here and that's why I'm gonna be pulling up with my core. I think the immortals are gonna be key. A solid infantry force. No javelins or precursors left on them but they could probably charge those spears head-on and not die instantaneously. Pinning them down and allowing the elephants to get the charge off that they need. Same thing goes with these rather disposable dial on my infantry but we'll see if I even have to shed Sasanian blood here. I do have some scatha shadows and other units who could do just that although they're gonna be ambushed by a force that was waiting in the back here. I think my ally may end up dying. Yeah, scatha shadows are gonna be routed but this is opening opportunity. It looks like the general's pulling over here, getting away from the pikes. Pikes are coming back to try and reinforce. Here they go. The guy in the back is doing a double take to try and give them cover but he's in his eagerness to try and take out these scatha shadows. What's gonna end up happening is, yep, he's gotten away from the cover of the spears. They're trying to reform by the trees here but they're not going to drop their pikes in time and there you go. Elephants in the ranks and this basically is going to seal it for Palmyra. The legionaries here just, sorry not the legionaries, the immortals here are going to be told to just in deep formation pull through and try and get as far into the flank as possible. Some pikes are otherwise tied down by my dial mites but again none of them are really facing the right direction. The pikes over here have been routed off the face of the earth and now a big rumbling force of armored elephants coming around the side. They're going to line up for the trample. We'll see just how this goes. So here come these guys. They hear a thud, thud, thud and there you go. One of them charging all the way down the line, clipping the end. The rest charging right into the meat of the spears and my general nearby overseeing the carnage and there you go. I believe this force, yeah, it's dropped its spears. It is still fighting in close quarters combat but without the spear support and with the dial mites nearby. Oh and here comes the general as well. Yeah, these guys are toast. So that is going to seal the deal. This force crumbles and there you have it. So overall a really fun fight. I love the combination that I was able to pull off with the Sasanians, sorry I was going to say with the Sasanians, with the Sassanids. Really cool stuff. The Indian armored elephant core, very very strong as you can see. Although you have to be careful with how you commit them but the light infantry slash medium infantry with, you know, just select cavalry support and some archers and the positioning on them was really really crucial here. And yeah, it was a really fun battle. So I hope you guys enjoyed that one. Let's end the replay. I know I'm giddy to kind of see the final kills and oh my god, Jesus Christ, 638 on those elephants. 440, 209, 174, 231. My god, everyone did really good. The immortal guard with 159, triple chevron, super impressive. Even the dialmites with 122, 130. The only thing that didn't really trade well would be my Persian skirmishers which were, at the end of the day, pretty cheap and supposed to just do a good amount of armor piercing and then pull the enemy in. Same thing with my Persian horse archers, again just to draw enemy fire and do supporting roles. And yeah, wow, lots of value here. 2,406 kills, very impressive. And the least number of losses on the whole battlefield. So pretty cool stuff. If we look at my ally here, the ambushers, fair amount of kills. I expect, yeah, scathachadows, 192, doing really good. And actually, the Caledonii oathsworn and swordman trading pretty well against the Palmyrene legionaries. Pretty surprised to see that. And even the highland archers doing well, although that's probably more having to do with their positioning in the woods than it has to do with their stats. If we look at my main competition here, yeah, he got a decent amount of kills on these tervingii, but they traded essentially with my dialomites. And they didn't quite get the kills that they wanted because I had the support of cavalry and elephants. Although some of them gothic warband, these guys were fighting, I think they got into my archers, they did pretty well. But his main core of germanic spearmen would have been great against my elephants, but they just got picked apart in the center. His archers also, three gothic archers, caught out in the open flat-footed, weren't able to trade. I mean, these archers plus the spears, should have just been following my elephants and keeping them at bay. And then that flank, I mean, he did a good job. I think he just, when he caught my units on the flank isolated, he should immediately push forward aggressively with the archers and the pikes and the spears, and just forced a wedge between my elephants and my infantry, keep my elephants at bay, and then just digest my light infantry without their own support. That would have been good. And then even come around with his cavalry to do hammer and anvils on me. So he had the advantage in cavalry and mobility, but I was able to bring in the elephants just at the right time, which paid dividends. Meanwhile, if we look at the Caledoni facing off against Palmyra, Palmyra doing pretty good. Both archers trading really well for the armies here. Huge investment in cavalry, which doesn't seem to have traded too well, probably because they engaged in the woods and got tied down. These guys would have loved to stay behind or find a little gap in the armies and punch out and then do hammer and anvils. But it looks like cavalry play this battle wasn't super great. The main line of the cohorts not trading, I mean, they did okay. Armored swordsmen pretty good. But again, they just kind of obliterate each other at that point, the infantry and their, you know, when you see units like this with, okay, lots of kills, but, you know, low health, it means that, yeah, maybe they traded with another unit, but they didn't trade as effectively. You take this force and you give it the advantage of a hammer and anvil blow to the back. And this guy comes out of this fight with just as many kills, but half the strength, or half the strength remaining, more strength than you could see here. And that would have tipped the tide further in his favor. So yeah, overall, the engagement not super clean on Palmyra's side. And in the end, just, I mean, MVPs go to the elephants. What can I say? So I hope you guys enjoyed this one. Really liking the Empire Divided. Hope to see you guys in multiplayer. I know I've been running into a fair amount of viewers online. And yeah, hopefully we can recreate some more epic battles and share that with the community. Also, speaking of sharing it with the community, if you guys could go ahead and check out my Patreon campaign, that would be awesome. And pledge your support. What ends up happening is any money that you donate goes into a war chest that goes to fund the production of documentaries. The money goes towards artists, researchers, and the accumulation of books, prizes, and giveaways for the community as well. So it's an overall really good stuff. And I really hope you guys support that so we can push forward with more documentaries. So that's it for this one. Hope you guys enjoyed. Stay tuned for more. See you in the next one. Peace out.