Tuesday, August 04, 2009

The Turning Point! ( 14 )

As the Gallic army closed in from all sides on the grizzly Army of the Rhine, the master stroke of the battle fell down to one man, Centurion Paullus of the 2ND Cohort XXI Rapax. Seeing his fellow legionaries cut down by ex slaves he called upon his tired, bloodied Cohort to charge one more time. The charging Cohort hit like a thunder clap and shattered the lose ranks of the Gladiators and the whole unit broke apart. The 3RD Cohort and the 2ND now turned the tables on the Gladiators and there was little mercy in the slaughter.
For the Gladiators may have been skilled with the sword, but they lacked the unity and training of the Legionaries. Without the iron discipline of the legion the Gladiators turned and ran, cutting down friends and foes alike in order to escape. No Roman oath could hold them and they fled the field in disarray.

3 comments:

BigRedBat said...

Not a Wabber, but is that because the Glads have no FBIGO?

Secundus said...

you may have to spell that one out for me....BRB

Scutatus said...

You got it in one Bigredbat.

No Fall Back In Good Order for the Gladiators, so when things finally got too much for them, they were unable to withdraw and regroup in an orderly fashion as Legionaries are able to. They failed their break test and just collapsed.

With their stubborn discipline the legionaries attacked, were beaten, withdrew and attacked again, and again, and again; but the Gladiators, weathering it all time after time, ultimately only needed to falter the once. Which eventually, they did.

Basically it came down to a battle of attrition. The Gladiators took everything Dewolfus could throw at them but in the end, faced with yet another attack after so many before, they finally decided, "to hell with this, we're off!"