Caesar Module #2 - Veni, Vidi, Vici

While Caesar was in Egypt accumulating rug burns with Cleopatra and fighting off the somewhat peeved Alexandrians, Pharnaces, King of Pontus (and son of the Romanly infamous Mithridates) decided that now was a good time to set himself up as Overbearing Tyrant of Asia Minor. he had spent a lot of time leading his armies to dozens of victories against small forces, and the Pontine army, somewhat improved from its day at Chaeronea, was starting to believe its press clippings.

To keep Pharnaces at bay, and to stop him from castrating the locals as a "lesson," Caesar sent Gnaeus Domitius and 3 legions, only one of which had anything going for it, into Armenia where, at Nicopolis, he promptly got thrashed by the Pontines at virtually the same time Caesar was fighting off the locals at Alexandria.

As soon as Caesar had driven off the Egyptians, he grabbed the VI Legion, so depleted from the fighting and campaigning over the past year or so that it numbered only around 1000 men, and 2 of its cohorts were almost non-existent, and headed towards Pontus. He joined up with the remnants of Domitius' army, adding the XXXVI and Deitorus' (a local satrap) legions (the latter had suffered great losses at Nicopolis), plus a hastily gathered "Pontine" legion and some Armenian light cavalry.

After some initial maneuvering, Caesar gained a good location for his camp, atop a fairly steep hill. While most of his cohorts were inside the camp, finishing its construction, Pharnaces, to Caesar's amazement, marched out (from his camp - Zela is some miles to the south) in full battle deployment. Thinking this was just one of those macho displays, he ignored the Pontines. Pharnaces, however, continued to move forward. When his troops started up the incline towards Caesar, the consul reacted quickly, ordering his in-camp cohorts out and into line.
The initial Pontine chariot charge did disrupt the Roman front line, but the arrival of the rest of the cohorts quickly restored order. The VI Legion pushed the Pontine Left Wing down the slopes, and the rest of the Pontines soon followed suit.

The battle was over quickly, as Caesar noted in his dispatches to Rome: Veni, vidi, vici. "I came; I saw; I conquered."