Manlii v Julii Game 8

Game 8 – Byzantine Era 4: Later Macedonian/Doukas dynasties

Nikephorian Byzantine (Alec 6,400 pts) v Early Fatimid Egyptian (Gordon 6,500 pts)

Minor defence 995 CE (MeG Magna, 15-Feb-2023).

Battlefield Effects: Byzantine: Late arrival 4 - choice of three

The Plan (penned in advance of the battle)

As the Late Arrival Battlefield Effect was rolled for the benefit of the Byzantine army I was prepared to go a bit lower in my bidding ending up on 6,400 v 6,500 for the Fatimid Egyptians. Gordon didn’t seem to want to match me.

The Nikephorian army benefits from having elite Tagmata units as well as the famous close order Kataphraktoi with fully armoured horses, otherwise it is a typical Byzantine type army, with charging lancers and bow-armed Skutatoi infantry.

As I don’t know what the Egyptians are bringing to table, or what my Battlefield Effect will turn out to be, my plan has to be a bit flexible in order to react to events. I don’t want to be totally passive however, so I will go with a Kataphraktoi TUG as my main strike force supported by a couple of Tagmata cavalry TUGs and try and control the pace of the battle by using them to dominate a part of the table. I would rather Gordon was reacting to me than the other way round. 

I will go heavy as possible on Skutatoi also, to use as a shield in the part of the battlefield that I don’t won’t to dominate, supported by the Thematic cavalry TUG and use the other Tagmatic cavalry TUG as a fire brigade.

The Talented sub-general can command the strike force; the Competent sub-general can command the Skutatoi whilst my family representive C-in-C, Georgio Kontomanos, who is classed as Mediocre, can command the two reserve cavalry TUGs. Until they are needed he can gift cards to the others as necessary.

That’s the plan!

My army is as follows, split into the commands I went with for the battle:

On the left is my family representative, a mediocre professional C-in-C with a cavalry TUG of Tagmatic superior charging lancers and another cavalry TUG of Thematic average charging lancers. Both have the 'Charge only' bow characteristic, which enables them to shoot but only when charging and crucially they must be in bow range at the start of the charge to do so .

In the centre is the competent professional sub-general with three infantry TUGS of Skutatoi. I have gone with the version the army list allows of having essentially archer units with 'Spear protection' which helps ward off enemy cavalry. The front TUG also has the 'Shieldwall' characteristic which enables them to stand up to enemy infantry a bit better; I would have given this to all three Skutatoi but didn't have the points.

On the right is the strike command consisting of the talented professional general with two more  Tagmatic cavalry TUGs, same as the one above, plus the Kataphraktoi TUG of close order fully armoured (including the horses) cavalry, with short spears and bows. They also have the 'Charge only' bow characteristic but also have the 'Devastating charger' characteristic.

I was hoping that I would be able to replicate Gordon's success in game 6 where he used his lancers to great effect to get 'Shatters' in the charge combats, I would need to watch out that my cavalry didn't share the fate of his though when they broke through the Bulgar line and were rolled up in the flank by my reserves.  

Another concern was that I wasn't able to go with a fortified camp but there just weren't enough points for everything.

Gordon selected the following from the Magna Early Fatimid Egyptian list, split into three commands:

He selected three Competent Professional generals.

Command one, on the left: Front left is a TUG of superior quality Royal Mamluks, to which he added the Melee Expert characteristic, front right is a TUG of Mamluks. In the rear is a TUG of Lancers armed with long spears.

Command two, in the centre: Consists of two more TUGs of long spear armed Lancers plus two SUGs of javelin armed Berber light horse, both with added 'Cantabrian' characteristic which upgrades their shooting considerable when in the Cantabrian formation.

Command three, on the right: Consists of two infantry TUGs of Sudanese 'abid-al-shira, drilled infantry equiped with short spear. To one of these he added the 'Support' characteristic, i.e. a back rank of supporting archers. I assume he would have done both but had run out of points.

In the rear is a fortified camp.

The Battle

The Campaign Battlefield Effect

Immediately before commencing the battle I got to draw to see what Battlefield effect I could use, in this case from the Late Arrival list. I drew a four which meant I could play any one of three effects at a time of my choosing - Caught with their pants down enabling me to push one of Gordon's command's to the rear edge after deployment where it would have to stay for a turn; Untimely delay which would effectively cancel an ambush; or Where are they? which would make it harder for a flank march to arrive. (All listed in Appendix 4).

As it was a randomly 'rolled for' Battlefield Effect, rather than one listed below the Enemies table, I also had the option to convert it into the Universal Battlefield effect. 

In the end I didn't get to use it.

The Setup

The Pre-Battle system resulted in a secure flank of mountainous terrain down one edge (the light brown areas) with a couple of good-going hills on my side of the table, one of which was in a useful location for me.

Gordon out-scouted me by 30% so he could respond to my set up to a great extent as I had to put 30% of my troops down before he had to, followed by tranches of 33%. I placed my infantry command down first, behind the hill where I would be able to rush onto it in short order, then the reserves at the rear and lastly the strike command on my left, opposite his Mamluks which he had put on table first.

I thought Gordon didn't particularly take advantage of being able to deploy second, he placed his heavier and best cavalry down on his right first, his lighter cavalry in the centre (to my surprise given how he got caught out doing something similar in game 7, but at least he had left pathways for them to evade down this time, so may be not a bad move after all) and lastly his infantry on his left opposite mine. 

On the whole I was glad that Gordon had placed his light cavalry in the centre as it meant there would be no threat to my hanging right flank. 

The set up of the terrain and our armies can seen in the picture below:

Gordon, being the invader went first, he cautiously advanced all three of his commands, I considered playing the Caught with their pants down Battlefield Effect but decided against it as I wanted him to advance. I advanced my infantry onto the hill as planned supported by the reserve cavalry which I brought forward in the centre left to act as a support for 'Strike' command. My strike command I held back as I wanted Gordon to move his cavalry forward a bit more. I needed to make sure I would be able to use their 'Charge only' shooting capability so it was a bit like a Chess game on that flank. (So much for using my Strike command to dominate the battlefield!).

So after the first move:

So, with no charging or shooting at the end of turn one it was straight into the movement phase of turn two. As I still wanted Gordon to come forward a bit more I sat and waited to see what he would do - what he did do was advance with one of his light horse, moving into Cantabrian formation as he went. Then we both passed so the turn ended. 

The position at the end of turn two: 

As you can see, Gordon has moved one of his Berber light horse right up to get into javelin range of my cavalry, and then put it into 'Cantabrian' formation. a risky move I thought against opposing cavalry, but hey, it's only a SUG I suppose and it was definitely going to cause me grief if I didn't do something about it. [Cantabrian formation upgrades a shooting unit by one skill level so their shooting would be potentially very effective. The downside is that if forced to evade and they choose to retain that formation there is a deduction form the evade distance roll, increasing their chance of being caught].

So at the beginning of turn 3 I decided to charge forward with my Thematic cavalry. I was hoping that with my 'Charge only shooting' I would be able to get at least one hit on his Berbers, which would slow their evade move down by at least 1 base width (75% chance with two dice together). I failed.

Gordon did decide to Run Away rather than Skirmish. This meant he had to drop out of Cantabrian formation and whilst it maximised his evade distance it reduced his shooting rolls at chargers. He didn't get any hits either. The result was that I now had a unit a bit exposed. See below:

I did at least feel that my family nominee, one Georgio Kantomanos, was doing his bit and leading from the front.

In turn three there was no shooting in the shooting phase as everything was just out of range or out of arc, or had already shot in the charge phase. In the movement phase the only movement was in the centre, Gordon moved a TUG of lancers forward and turned his Berbers around moving them back in range, he also moved the other Berber SUG forward a small amount; both he put into Cantabrian formation again. He left the two SUGs just over one base width behind the front edge of his lancers so that if I were to charge I wouldn't be able to contact them. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

I advanced my other reserve TUG of Tagmatic cavalry forward to support the Thematics. I didn't like the way things were going as my two cavalry in the centre, being charging lancers, would have to be held or they would continue charging (possibly to destruction) and I didn't want to move my left wing forward first before he moved his cavalry as I knew Gordon would position his cavalry just out of 'Charge only shooting range' as that's what I would have done in his place! So I just sat there on my left still not dominating the battlefield with them.

At this point I was wondering if this was about to turn into a debacle.

The position at the end of turn three was as follows:

So, on to turn four. Starting with the Charge Phase, being 'Charging lancers' I decided to let my two TUGs in the centre do just that and damn the consequences. So in they went, my Shoot and Charge rolls ended up causing one 'Wound' as it's called and one slowing effect. You can see the brown Wound marker in the picture below along with a green marker with two arrows, this is a Slow marker, meaning slowed by two base widths. If this TUG were to move again this turn its move would be reduced by those two base widths. Slow markers that are 'unused', that is have not actually slowed the TUG in the turn because it hasn't tried to move, are removed at the end of each turn.

In MeG each base can take two hits before disappearing in a cloud of smoke, the first is called a Wound, though it doesn't mean that all the defenders are wounded. It purely means that the TUG has become vulnerable, one more wound and a base has to be removed so it's more akin to a disorder in the ranks caused by enemy action that can be taken advantage of by the enemy, however it has no effect on combat of any kind (unlike ADLG). Generals can rally wounds away at the end of the turn if they have the right cards and are close enough, akin to restoring order in the ranks otherwise they remain as a sword of Damocles.

Now, it was at this point that Gordon (and me too!) realised that he had made a mistake by leaving his two Berber SUGs just over one base width back from his lancer TUG's front edge, even by just a smidgeon. It meant that they couldn't shoot at my TUGs charging into combat as they were more than one base width back from the path of charge. With their upgrade for being in Cantabrian formation they could and probably would have done quite a lot of damage to my charging TUGs. 

Somehow my lancers had chanced upon the one blind spot in Gordon's defences. I'd like to take credit for spotting it but I wasn't thinking about it anymore than him, I should have been of course.

It's not that we both are not fully conversant with the rule, it's just that neither of us considered it until we  got to that sub-phase of the charge phase; perhaps it's an age thing. I could hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth all the way from London!

So, onto the charge combat. I did one wound on Gordon's lancer TUG, he caused no damage to my units. a bit on the disappointing side for me considering the damage he did to my Bulgars in game six with his Shatters that swept my units away in short order.

In the following shooting phase his two Berbers could shoot at the overlapping files, though at a colour downgrade due to them being in melee support (slightly more complicated as one of my units was superior quality but I won't bore you with the detail). The result was a wound on my TUG of Tagmatic cavalry.

In the movement phase we continued to glare at each other on the cavalry wing but I moved forward a touch on the infantry wing just to get into shooting range.

Gordon toyed with the idea of wheeling one of his infantry to charge my cavalry in the flank but in the end decided it was too risky with all my infantry sitting not far away.

At this point I forgot to take a few photos but not much changed for a couple of turns. The melee combat was underwhelming and so was my shooting at his infantry with the experienced bowmen of my Skutatoi TUGs, a whole string of blanks on the shooting dice, I think I got two hits in total over several turns of shooting.

Then onto turn seven or eight. As is so often the case when a combat starts getting dangerous it spurs the players into action, the combat in the centre had reached a point where Gordon's lancers were getting near to destruction so in the movement phase Gordon advanced his cavalry right up to mine.

The position at the end of the movement phase was as follows:

Onto the melee phase and finally Gordon's lancer TUG broke, routing through the TUG behind it causing a wound. The two SUGs evaded away leaving one of my TUGs to pursue into the lancer TUG behind, the other was slowed by fire so didn't quite make it but charged in in the following turn.

Sorry, a bit blurred

Finally, below is a picture of the cavalry charging in. As usual my Charge only shooting was under-whelming, only causing one wound and in the charge combats I failed to get any Shatters again except when there were no adjacent combats to influence.

After a couple of turns of melee combat where neither side scored any decisive results my Kataphraktoi eventually came good and with a couple of lucky rolls routed their opponents, the Egyptian's best unit - their elite Royal Mamluks, whilst in the other cavalry fight in the centre Gordon's lancer TUG broke also.

At this point Gordon, with three broken TUGs out of the four required, and with no prospect of breaking any of mine, resigned the game.

I think what won me the game was being able to get two of my cavalry TUGs into contact with Gordon's central command cavalry which he deployed one behind the other allowing me to gang up on each in turn. I can't claim it was anything to do with a master plan and if Gordon had deployed his Berber light horse that bit further forward on each side the result may have been a complete disaster for me. On such small things do battles turn.

Gordon's comments

Pre-Game

The Byzantines are likely to be largely cavalry with charging lancers and short range shooting. There could be a few heavy infantry.

To give some extra shock power I will take The Sultan and his Royal Mamluks. Three units of lancers, and a couple of units of Sudanese spearmen to hold the centre and protect the fortified camp. Two Berber light horse units just to provide a bit of annoyance and some protection to the flanks.

So: three professional generals for a small army (8 units), 5 shock cavalry with two Mamluks providing a bit of firepower, look for open terrain. Hope he hasn’t gone infantry heavy.

It will probably be a simple clash between the cavalry which will determine the game quickly. Long spear or superior gives me some chance if I survive the charge.

 The game

A secure flank and some hills in Alec’s half. Not a big deal, but annoying as one of the hills was my choice.

He deploys some superhuman infantry on his right (good bowmen with spear, shield cover and shieldwall, a direct line to the infidel God and close support from a battery of HIMARS) and they will be on the hill. My cavalry shooting will be useless, and they will get shredded in close combat. That is that flank closed down. I put my infantry there and figure not much will happen.

He has a frightening number of superior cavalry. He has one less unit than me, and two of mine are light horse. I cannot figure out how he has so many good superior cavalry (I am not suggesting anything untoward – when army lists turn out to be wrong it is always my list – Alec is a lot more thorough than me). Just an indication of my fatalistic outlook on this battle.

Anyway – put my best troops on my right flank, where he matches it with lancers and cataphracts – they should destroy me in the charge phase and then mop me up in the fighting phase. However, mu two superior units, inc. melee expert Royal Mamluks, give me some chance of winning if they survive the charge. I might even be able to get a round of shooting.

My centre is a bit of a balls-up. I don’t feel light troops have much place on the board in Magna, but I have to have some. So, will try something different. a couple of cavalry lancers flanked by Berber horse. Maybe the Berbers will skirmish a few hits on his horse before they hit my lancers.  I deploy the lancers two units deep to allow the light horse in. The idea is that the lancers will expand to fill a gap caused by retreating/destroyed Berbers.

On to victory! (See earlier comment about a fatalistic outlook.)

So, my left flank is pretty much a standoff – infantry cannot keep up with the pace of the cavalry and I am not going to waste my time going uphill. The infantry are to keep my centre’s flank safe. On the right I go for it and then stop. Two reasons: I would like to do some shooting damage and if I get too close too soon he will simply charge me and then the odds are with him. Also, my centre don’t get great cards so cannot support a double move on the right. Alec doesn’t do much other than occupy the hill on his right.

Next turn I move the Berbers forward and hang around on the right (centre’s cards still not good – whites and blacks).

Next turn Alec charges my Berbers and they run away without causing damage. Centre doesn’t have the cards to move the rear unit from behind the front unit.

I figure I am going to lose in the centre so might as well lose on the right as well – the Mamluks advance to glory. Point to note, advancing the unit of lancers which form the third unit in this command might not have been a good idea. It means I cannot skirmish away with my mamluks as the lancers have no ability to do that and there is a good chance of the lancers losing due to facing superior numbers. Possibly not as much of a problem as I feared as the Mamluks could turn around and charge in the next turn. Cards allowing.

Alec hits my front unit of lancers in the centre and destroys them and the rout damages the unit behind. On the right he is very unlucky in the charge – little or no damage from shooting and no shatters. However, he has the best of the combat, causing more damage. In the fighting phase the Royal Mamluks break and it is all over.

 Post-Game

I do not understand Magna. Or, maybe I do and it is simply a game of deployment match-ups and all you can do is move forward. Then, if you are rolling white dice you lose. Why bother playing the game after completing deployment, or turn one if you are of an optimistic mind?

Otherwise:

–       my central deployment was too ambitious and ill thought out; and after that I played it poorly;

–       on my right perhaps I should have moved the Mamluks separately ahead of the lancers and tried to skirmish a wee bit;

–       on my left Alec tells me his superhuman infantry weren’t that superhuman. They are a type new to MeG 2023 and I am not familiar with all the new bits. However, sticking them on a hill tends to win combats when all you have against them is short spear.

Result: 

Byzantine win - One Prestige Point to the Manlii