Manlii v Julii Game 21

Game 21 – Byzantine Era 4: Later Macedonian /Doukas dynasties

Nikephorian Byzantine (Gordon 185 pts) v Kingdom of Georgia (Alec 190 pts)

Major Invasion 1022 CE (ADLG Std, 7-June-2023).

Battlefield Effects: None

The Plan (penned in advance of the battle)

In this era the roll turned out to be a Byzantine Major Invasion of the Kingdom Of Georgia and we chose to use the ADLG ruleset.  As there are three points up for grabs on a Byzantine victory I was prepared to bid a bit lower than the 190 point Kingdom of Georgia army, may be by up to 7-8 points, but as Gordon bid 185 points I would have had to bid 181 points or less and decided that was a bit too low. Gordon consequently played as the Byzantines and chose the year 1022 CE for his invasion.

The main fighting arm of a Georgian army in this period was a mass of mounted impetuous nobles armed with spears and other melee weapons, backed up by a useful number of horse archers and spear-armed peasant infantry.

My strategy will have to be one of getting those hard-to-control nobles into melee combat as soon as possible and letting them win the battle for me without being outwitted and outflanked by superior Byzantine command and control. To that end I will try to get as open a battlefield as I can and point my nobles at the main Byzantine battle line where they can be allowed to charge home.

The role of other arms – the horse archers and infantry spearmen, will be to keep the flanks clear of Byzantine chancers as much as they are able in their own ways, or at least pin them down until the battle is won.

That’s the plan!

The Battle

 As usual I'm on the left of the table and Gordon is on the right. Gordon chose to invade in the plains and the terrain ended up as follows - one road, one gentle hill and three fields. 

After some thought I decided to use my skirmishing light horse command on my left in the open terrain, my infantry command in the centre where it could act as a hinge, and possibly take advantage of the gentle hill as an anchor, and my impetuous noble cavalry command on my right where it could sweep round in a right hook; its left flank guarded by the infantry and its right flank guarded by the fields. To help control the nobles I placed them under command of a brilliant commander, choosing a competent commander for the infantry command and an ordinary commander for the light horse.

Battlefield prior to deployment:

Gordon went with an infantry centre, the usual Byzantine mixed spear and bow armed heavy infantry skoutatoi and two cavalry wings with the elite cavalry on his left wing but all led by brilliant commanders. I placed my units in accordance with my battleplan as described above.

It appeared it would be a race - Gordon trying to defeat my light horse screen in order to get around my left flank whilst I attempted to smash his left with my eleven medium and heavy impetuous cavalry units versus his four heavy cavalry and one light horse unit. There was also an ambush to consider, but given that Gordon had given up five army points to be the Byzantines, had upgraded quite a few units to elite, had selected three Brilliant commanders and had fortified his camp I wasn't thinking there would be much in it if at all.

My plan for my left wing was the harder of the two to pull off, to basically flit around evading where necessary to try and keep Gordon's heavy cavalry occupied and stop them making any progress. My right wing was, theoretically at least, one of simply sweeping forward and around to overwhelm his cavalry as fast as possible. The most troublesome looking Byzantine unit was his light horse prokoursatores on his extreme left wing - it would be difficult to pin down with my, far less manoeuvrable, Georgian nobles. 

Troop positions on completion of deployment:

So, as Gordon needed to win the battle to get his three points he wasted no time in advancing his centre and right wing. Obviously seriously outgunned on his left he angled his cavalry back whilst predictably sending his light horse prokoursatores out wide.

Position at the end of Gordon's first turn below:

In my turn I sent both cavalry wings forward as far as possible. On my extreme left wing I charged Gordon's lone prokoursatores unit with my light horse - he evaded. In the centre I moved my infantry at an angle to occupy the high ground whilst sending my skirmish infantry forward to harass his heavy infantry. On the right I countered his light horse with a couple of units of my second line medium cavalry.

The first turn shooting favoured Gordon, three successes to my one.

 Position at the end of my first turn below:

In Gordon's next move he predictably charged with his heavy cavalry on my left and I evaded - at least that meant he couldn't shoot with his charging units, his right wing light horse prokoursatores returned to pin my light horse; elsewhere he stood still. The turn's shooting proved ineffectual for both sides.

Position at the end of Gordon's second turn below:

In my turn I got lucky with my command point roll on my left wing and, as my light horse had evaded to just outside of the Byzantine cavalry ZOCs (zones of control) I chose to use the opportunity to pull them all to either side of his advancing cavalry, if I had kept them where they were they were in danger of being chased off the board. This way, if Gordon wanted to catch them he would be forced to break his line up and go after each one individually.

In the centre I advanced off the hill with my mediocre heavy spearmen in order to threaten the skoutatoi.

On my right I advanced into charge range with my heavy cavalry and swung several of my second rank medium cavalry around to guard their flank from the Byzantine heavy infantry skoutatoi. On my extreme right I charged Gordon's light horse unit with more of my medium cavalry nobles, forcing him to evade.

In the shooting phase Gordon managed to disorder one of my heavy cavalry.

Position at the end of my second turn below:

In Gordon's turn he started coming around my left flank with some of his medium and heavy cavalry, forming into column as he did so, he did split one of the heavy cavalry off from his battle line to guard his rear.

In the centre he formed his heavy infantry skoutatoi into a curved front to avoid being outflanked.

In the shooting phase Gordon managed to disorder three more of my right wing cavalry with his shooting. If this continued my plan could get into serious trouble, whilst Gordon had fewer cavalry they were extremely effective, both at melee and shooting.

Position at the end of Gordon's third turn below:

On my left things were continuing to move fast. I moved some of my light horse back to pin some of Gordon's heavy cavalry from behind as well as moving my left-hand most infantry spearman unit forward to pin the head of his cavalry column.

In the centre I decided to charge into contact with the Byzantine heavy infantry skoutatoi, I had a 50/50 chance of victory and it would stop the skoutatoi shooting. An interesting little combat was launched as I attacked a Byzantine light infantry bow unit with one of mine. I came off worse in the first round of melee combat, getting three disorders to Gordon's one.

On my right I charged forward with my nobles, however Gordon evaded with both his heavy cavalry and his light cavalry.

Position at the end of my third turn below:

In Gordon's next turn on his left wing he turned his heavy cavalry back to face my nobles after their evade move last turn and also finally managed to get his light horse unit past my flank guards - there was now nothing to stop it running all the way to my unguarded camp.

On Gordon's right the cavalry melee had broken down into a swirling mass of individual units, exactly what I had wanted. What I would try and do now is keep that going for the rest of the battle.

In the centre the infantry fight continued, this time I got the better of it causing two hits to taking one, the one was against my light infantry bowmen on the end of my line destroying it - Gordon's light infantry had won that fight.

At the other end of the infantry line my cavalry was continuing to be peppered by arrows, one unit had now suffered two disorders.

Position at the end of Gordon's fourth turn below:

So in my next turn on my right wing I finally managed to charge home with my nobles - Gordon had run out of room to evade so had to accept the charge. The question was had he done enough shooting damage to my heavy cavalry to sway the battle, this was counterbalanced by the double overlap I had achieved with my six units to his four. The result was balanced - we each achieved two wins.

The fights elsewhere rumbled on with no win by either side.

Position at the end of my fourth turn below:

In Gordon's next turn things began to happen. In the infantry fight my Georgians began to get the upper hand destroying one Byzantine skoutatoi, however Gordon did finish off one of my medium cavalry with his shooting. In the cavalry fight one of my noble units was destroyed but I did manage to achieve one more disorder on Gordon's. Worryingly Gordon made the expected run for my unguarded camp with his left wing light horse.

Position at the end of Gordon's fifth turn below:

In my next turn things broke down even more, I destroyed one Byzantine cavalry unit fighting my right wing and a skoutatoi unit in the centre, however I lost one of my spearmen units. On the far left in a fight between one of my horse archers and Gordon's prokoursatores unit my unit won destroying its opponent.

Position at the end of my fifth turn below:

In Gordon's sixth turn the melees continued and casualties continued to mount. Possibly Gordon had to make one of the most crucial decision of the game, should he attack the flank of one of my heavy cavalry with one of his to save another Byzantine unit from being destroyed or send the light horse prokoursatores unit to get closer to my unguarded camp - Gordon chose the former.

Position at the end of Gordon's sixth turn below:

In my next turn the nice neat front lines continued to break down, it was every unit for itself. I had managed to close the door on any attack on my camp, getting two units in between the camp and Gordon's prokoursatores. 

Position at the end of my sixth turn below:

I forgot to take a picture at the end of Gordon's seventh turn but the picture doesn't change much, units continue to die as we edge towards destruction. As it happens by the end of my seventh turn the battle was over I had pushed Gordon over the edge first.

The position at the end of my seventh turn and the end of the game is below. The final score was Byzantines 19 losses (breakpoint: 17), Georgians 21 losses (breakpoint: 25).

Would there have been a different result if Gordon had chosen to send his prokoursatores light horse unit towards the camp instead of using the command point to try to save a unit that was to die anyway a couple of turns later, we'll never know.....

Gordon's comments

 Pre-Game

I fancy trying to win some points, so bid a little low to win the Byzantines. I choose 1022 to reflect Basil II’s invasion of Georgia.

The Georgians will have lots of impetuous heavy cavalry. The Byzantines Tagma can match them but as they are also bow armed they are more expensive and I will have fewer of them. Still that is what will win the game. I upgrade half to elite and put those four in one command with one unit of light horse. Another four tagma with some medium horse archers and one unit of light horse form another cavalry flank. Some decent infantry to provide a firm centre or flank depending on terrain.

I need to avoid melee with his heavy cavalry and try to shoot them into disorder while getting around the flanks.

Clear terrain is essential. 

The game

Terrain was fine; basically open.

I deploy the elite cavalry command on my left, the infantry in the centre to protect the camp or threaten his centre, and the other cavalry command on my right.

Alec lines up a terrifying number of impetuous cavalry facing my left, an infantry centre that looked much like mine and a lot of light horse facing my non-elite cavalry flank.

So, I am going to have to skirmish with his heavy cavalry on my left by going forward fast to get in range and then evade and pull back until I have to stand up to them. The light horse make be able to tie him up a bit, but he has so many troops, albeit unmanoeuvrable, that I am not optimistic.

In the centre my Infantry will simply march forward, relying on the retreating left flank cavalry (?) to protect the flank by posing a threat in being to his cavalry. On my right the cavalry have some chance of seeing off his light horse and getting behind his centre. But I will have to go all out and hope to stop him running rings around me; I don’t have time to waste here.

So, all commands advance to stop him doing the same.

On my right his light horse evade a couple of my charges, but manage to evade outside of my threat zones and then start running the rings I had hoped to avoid. I end up spending command points to keep his light horse from shooting me to bits and from getting attacks on my flanks and rear. Doesn’t go too badly and I manage to destroy a couple of units and do start to get onto the flank of his infantry. Meanwhile, our infantry are simply battering each other and honours are basically even and I even manage to shoot one of his cavalry to destruction.

Unfortunately, despite some sterling shooting from my elite tagma and my light horse holding up some of his cavalry, the overwhelming number of heavy cavalry destroyed enough of my elite tagma to win the game. There was one point of big decisions that might have made a difference here, but it was not a clear decision. I had an opportunity to move my left flank light horse to get one move from his undefended camp. Or! I could destroy one of his cavalry and delay what seemed to be the inevitable destruction of my left flank. I chose to attack his cavalry.

However, it didn’t save me – the losses had mounted up and the death of my General broke the army. I think Alec was close to destruction and one more turn might have seen my cavalry get into his infantry.

Post-Game

My fears on my left flank were realised. Too many heavy cavalry for me to defeat despite some lucky shooting.

The centres were evenly matched and my infantry held while my right flank eventually go through Alec’s light horse.

Taking his camp would have got me four points, but my left flank could easily have been defeated a turn earlier. 

Result

 Kingdom of Georgia win - minus one Prestige Point to the Julii