Force Sub: Battle of Cannae

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Its the Second Punic War, Rome is getting her ass handed to her by Hannibal, and Hannibal is confronted at Cannae. However, in a flash of smoke, Hannibal's army disappears and is replaced by an army of Menzoberranzyr drow, precisely half the numbers that Hannibal had. Hannibal retains command, instantly learns all knowledge concerning the dark elves, and the drow obey him unquestioningly. The Roman army's morale does not change, they are completey unfazed by sudden change of foe. They do not fear the dark elves any more than they did the Carthaginians.

Hannibal's cavalry are replaced by lizard riding drow warriors, and for every 10 warriors there are 2 wizards and 1 priestess. He is given a command staff of 10 high priestesses.

Does Rome still get whipped? Or can they defeat the inferior numbers?

[xiophen]

Its the Second Punic War, Rome is getting her ass handed to her by Hannibal, and Hannibal is confronted at Cannae. However, in a flash of smoke, Hannibal's army disappears and is replaced by an army of Menzoberranzyr drow, precisely half the numbers that Hannibal had. Hannibal retains command, instantly learns all knowledge concerning the dark elves, and the drow obey him unquestioningly. The Roman army's morale does not change, they are completey unfazed by sudden change of foe. They do not fear the dark elves any more than they did the Carthaginians.

Hannibal's cavalry are replaced by lizard riding drow warriors, and for every 10 warriors there are 2 wizards and 1 priestess. He is given a command staff of 10 high priestesses.

Does Rome still get whipped? Or can they defeat the inferior numbers?

Rome would win because of the sunlight. If you remove that from the equation rome would be in trouble. the wizards and preistess would destroy massed numbers of romans alone without much help fire balls earthquake spells etc would decimate the roman legions. Drow are physically faster and their training is superior *give you hundred years of train on how to kill something and see what happens* As for equipment most everything a Drow owns is magically enchanted and made out of Admantite Which would be a hell of alot strong then roman shields, armors and weapons of the time.

Roman massed combat Again once the forces close will counter drow ability but that last till the wizards and preistesses drop fire balll and spells as meantioned above. once that happens the roman legion will be broken in formation and the Drow warriors would rush in.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Change of scenario:

1) The battle takes place 1 hour before sunset.

and

2) The battle takes place 1 hour before sunrise.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Its the Second Punic War, Rome is getting her ass handed to her by Hannibal, and Hannibal is confronted at Cannae. However, in a flash of smoke, Hannibal's army disappears and is replaced by an army of Menzoberranzyr drow, precisely half the numbers that Hannibal had. Hannibal retains command, instantly learns all knowledge concerning the dark elves, and the drow obey him unquestioningly. The Roman army's morale does not change, they are completey unfazed by sudden change of foe. They do not fear the dark elves any more than they did the Carthaginians.

Hannibal's cavalry are replaced by lizard riding drow warriors, and for every 10 warriors there are 2 wizards and 1 priestess. He is given a command staff of 10 high priestesses.

Does Rome still get whipped? Or can they defeat the inferior numbers?

Can I use the Roman Republican Army from Thomas Harlan's Oath of Empire series? Same force as was at Cannae, just with the appropriate modifications for that universe's Battle of Cannae as opposed to the historical one.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Change of scenario:

1) The battle takes place 1 hour before sunset.

and

2) The battle takes place 1 hour before sunrise.

Hannibal would have to decline battle until then; but that's hardly impossible. The situation is considerably changed, anyway: He doesn't have the numbers to effect a double envelopement of the Roman force, but OTOH he does have thaumaturgic units, which I think are an unfair advantage (And could be counterbalanced reasonably - see my post above).


If the Romans are an Oath of Empire Republican force then they've got their own combat thaumaturges attached to the legions, if not to the same discipline as the Augustan organization of the Oath, and this is really a question of if Hannibal's tactical genius can find a way to compensate for having his troop numbers reduced by half, and the ability to double-envelope the enemy denied to him, and if the Drow are good enough to make up for the severe disparity in numbers, when they are fighting a civic militia army made up of volunteers who are defending their home soil.

Remember that the Consuls commanding at Cannae were not imaginative tactically, but they were quite aggressive. Hannibal doesn't have the forces for his historical tactics there anymore: And with those removed the natural and famed ability of the Republican Legions, and especially of their NCOs to improvise (Remember how the Romans crushed the Macedonian Army just a few years later) could make this rather tricky for him.