Interlude-Blood in the Water

Porphyrios was the admiral of the Epirote fleet. He had been named for the King of the Giants who had once challenged the gods themselves by his mother, a noblewoman from Locri in Magna Graecia, because he had been born rather large for a newborn, requiring several hours of labor. As he grew, his great size had given him an advantage in Pankration and Wrestling, enough that as a youth, he had competed in the Olympic games. He had lost in the semi-finals of the Pankration event to the eventual winner, Aristophon of Athens. The fame however had won him his first commission as a naval officer. Since then, he had risen in the ranks to the command of King Pyrrhus' entire navy.

His flagship, the Ambracian Spear was a peculiar vessel. One of the King's new ideas. A large galley with an extra sail and full deck. Instead of a ram, it had a ballista, a small beak on the prow above the waterline was the only concession to the usual tactic of ramming the enemy. Still, the King's ideas had not yet led them astray. The full deck was supposed to allow a better fighting platform for boarding actions and the ballista gave the ship a ranged option that other ships lacked. It was also supposed to be both sturdier thanks to the method of construction, and faster due to the extra sail. It had performed ably so far, but Porphyrios wasn't certain about how it would do in actual battle instead of in training.

Fortunately, the rest of the fleet was with him on this expedition. 60 triremes and 40 quadriremes sailed with him to box in the Labatae Pirates and ensure they could not escape. Such a force was only of moderate size compared to some. Carthage, perhaps the strongest naval power in the Mesogeisos Thalassa currently, could put a fleet of over 300 ships to sea, for instance. It would still be enough to keep the smaller, pirate, liburnians of the Labatae penned up in the harbor. A fleet needed time to make ready to sail after all, and with just land troops opposing them, it was unlikely the Labatae felt the need to prepare for naval combat.

Imagine Porphyrios' surprise, when as soon as the Epirote fleet sailed into view of Lissos, the Labatae began to unfurl their sails and head out to meet the oncoming Epirotes in a fleet battle instead of stay in port.

"How did they know we were coming?" Asked one of his officers, a younger man named Andros who was in charge of the oars.

"Perhaps they were preparing to sail around the King's siege and escape?" Asked Autolocus, commander of the Ballistae crew.

"It matters little. Signal the fleet to form up. If they want a fight, we'll give them one! Autolycus, get your men firing at their lead ships! If we can take some of them out of the fight before they can get to grips with us, all the better!" Ordered Porphyrios.

Immediately, men snapped to. Autolycus badgering his crew to begin loading and aiming, while Porphyrios' pyrseia operator began to signal the nearest ship with his flags and the fleet came about into a battle line. The larger quadriremes formed the center around the Ambracian Spear while the smaller triremes formed the wings of the formation. The smaller Labatae liburnians formed a wedge formation and cut through the water like daggers. Porphyrios could see their decks were packed with Labatae warriors in leather armor and iron helmets, carrying Illyrian axes, sica style swords, and round shields. This was no ordinary raid, this had been planned.

The imposing sight of the Labatae advance lasted just long enough for Autolocus' men to launch his first stone at the lead ship of the Labatae formation. The 57-pound stone flew in an arc at the liburnian at over 60 miles per hour and smashed into and through the deck, scattering warriors near the stern and smashing straight through the deck and out the bottom of the ship. The liburnian's momentum ceased immediately as it foundered and began to sink. The Labatae spearhead had just lost its tip.

2 things happened next, the liburnians behind the lead ship slowed and tried to go around the sinking ship, disrupting the formation, and Autolocus reloaded. A second ballista stone flew into the stalled formation of Labatae ships, crashing into the bow of another one and sinking it. This caused the Labatae formation to be disrupted even further. By the third stone, the Labatae fleet had separated into 2 wings, breaking apart around the 3 sinking liburnians. This is what Porphyrios had been waiting for and he ordered his triremes forward to take advantage of the hole in the Labatae forces.

The triremes on the wings sallied forth and combined into a wedge of their own, smashing into the weakened Labatae center with their rams and breaking their formation apart, sinking several liburnians and boarding others. The Labatae on the outermost wings tried to break off, to flee the battle that had gone so poorly, but Porphyrios ordered his quadriremes to hem them in. A fierce contest ensued, where the Labatae fought to repel Epirote boarders and even in some cases counter-board their opponents. Seemingly, they realized they were doomed and tried to take as many Epirotes out with them.

On his flagship, Porphyrios spotted a pair of Labatae liburnians manage to slip past one of the circling quadriremes and moved the Ambracian Spear to block them. As he moved forward, Autolocus launched another ballista stone at the rearmost of the 2. It smashed into the side of the ship as it tried to move to go around the Spear. It went straight through the smaller ship and capsized it. The last ship poured on oars, intending to ram the Spear push it out of the way bodily. 

"Brace for Impact!" Called Porphyrios. Then the ship collided with the Spear. 

Instead of smashing into the side of the flagship, doing a large amount of damage, the smaller liburnian bounced. The flagship was bigger by quite a bit, but the skeleton-first construction made for a sturdier ship as well. As Epirote marines poured onto the deck of the Labatae liburnian like a wave, the stunned Labatae warriors hesitated for a crucial moment, allowing Porphyrios' marines to gain a foothold on their ship. Porphyrios himself cut down the enemy captain with a combination of wrestling and a thrust of his xiphos while the man was tripped on the deck.

The larger battle itself took only a little longer. Some of the Labatae liburnians managed to reverse course and disengage in time to avoid sinking or capture and make it back to Lissos' harbor. Not many, though only 17 of a hundred ships. 850 of 5,000 Labatae warriors would live to fight again. Some 23 liburnians and 612 Labatae Warriors wound up captured as prizes and slaves. The rest, 60 liburnians and 3,538 Labatae warriors were sunk and killed. In exchange, the Epirote Navy lost 11 ships damaged and 600 marines and sailors killed or wounded. Roughly 5 percent of its strength. By any measure, this was a crushing victory.

King Geta would send a message asking for terms again the day after the battle of Lissos. 

No one was surprised. . .

XXXX

AN: Geta's plan was to use his fleet to land 5,000 warriors, half his army, in Pyrrhus' rear, then sally out with the other half while Pyrrhus was attacked from behind.

The Pincer could have worked if Pyrrhus hadn't sent for the fleet. Liburnians and pirates are no match for a proper navy, so they get smashed much worse than Bardyllis did for the ratio of casualties with the enemy.