Manlii v Julii Game 32

Game 32 – Byzantine Era 4: Later Macedonian/ Doukas Dynasties

Nikephorian Byzantine with Georgian allies (Gordon 162 pts) v Seljuk Turks (Alec 170 pts)

Minor Defence 1048 CE (ADLG Std, 11-Oct-2023).

Battlefield Effects: Weather Effect 2 – Fog (representing a night battle)

The Plan (penned in advance of the battle)

This is a Byzantine Minor defence against the Seljuk Turks in 1048 CE. Gordon was prepared to bid down to 162 points to be the Byzantines so I let him take it at that point, so one Prestige Point is available to the Julii for a Byzantine victory or draw but two are at risk for a Byzantine loss. 

As we are playing the special Battlefield Effect noted below the Enemies charts in Appendix three this is going to be a night battle which means both movement and command ranges will be substantially reduced. Despite that theoretically it affects both sides equally, it makes it harder me in particular as I will need to force a win to get a point. It is easy to run out of time so I will need to find a way to draw the Byzantines into battle on my terms as soon as possible.

The Seljuk Turk army's strike force is mostly straight-forward mounted bow, with a small amount of supporting infantry. Gordon's army has the opportunity to be more varied. The Byzantine heavy cavalry is bow-armed too but will also have the Impact ability which is a good thing from my point of view as it will be a waste of points unless Gordon manages to charge his cavalry into contact with my forces. The Georgian allies are composed of numbers of impetuous heavy cavalry which will be susceptible to my bow fire if they just stand, so again need to close with mine to be effective. 

My plan, therefore, will be to use my army's shooting ability to 'encourage' Gordon to close with me and then evade until such time as I can weaken his forces. The night conditions make this ideal as there will be no chance of my units being caught whilst evading, even infantry will be able to melt into the night and avoid enemy cavalry until ready to engage.

I have chosen two commands composed of entirely bow-armed cavalry - heavy, medium and light, and one command containing four mediocre javelinmen plus a couple of light infantry bowmen. I had originally thought of having infantry bow units, but they would have been unable to evade so switched to the javelinmen option as this worked better with my plan. 

Gordon can, of course, in addition to his cavalry also field spear and bow-armed Byzantine Skoutatoi, these may turn out to be his most effective units being good at shooting cavalry and hard to attack. I will try to avoid these and concentrate on picking off the cavalry if at all possible.

That’s the plan!

The Battle

The terrain

The terrain fell as below. Gordon tried to maximise the bad terrain and I tried to minimise it presumably for the same reasons, I wanted to speed up the battle and have multiple avenues of attack whilst Gordon tried to slow it down and create kill zones where his infantry shooters could wreak maximum damage. So we ended up with a marsh, two plantations, two fields, a gentle hill and a road. As is the case with the ADLG terrain rules nearly all ended around the edge of the table, only the gentle hill made it into the middle. I wasn't unhappy with the result.

As usual I am playing on the left and Gordon on the right of the pictures.

Deployment

As below. Gordon deployed his entire army on his right, placing one ambush on the hill and a second in a plantation on his right. He placed his Georgian ally on his right (with his impetuous nobles right on the rear edge) and two Byzantine mixed infantry/cavalry commands to their left. I deployed with my main mounted command (containing the heavy cavalry nobles) on my left, my infantry in the centre and my smaller cavalry command on my right.

My hope was that Gordon wouldn't be able to resist occupying the hill so I could sweep around with my right wing and concentrate fire on his most exposed units.

Turn one

As, invader I began the battle and advanced along the line. Very poor command dice and the night rules limited my move severely. Gordon advanced along the line too, he clearly wasn't going to let the fact that he was the defender hold up his advance, I suspect the sight of my mediocre javelinmen opposite his lance-armed Impact cavalry was an opportunity he thought too good to miss. The position at the end of Gordon's move was as follows:

Turn two

The position at the end of Gordon's second turn was as below. We had both advanced further and begun to trade fire, me coming off slightly worse; three hits to Gordon's one.

Turn three

The position at the end of turn three was as below. I had rallied a couple of hits away but then took some more. At least I had done some more on Gordon's army so it was four to three.

Gordon charged my javelinmen with his central cavalry but I evaded away, disappearing into the night. At this point I think Gordon realised that the night rules meant he was not going to be able to run my infantry down as he had hoped.

Turn four

The position at the end of turn four was as below. I continued to pepper Gordon's line with arrows and Gordon continued charging in the centre. Hits were slightly in my favour at this point, Gordon having lost one light infantry unit in addition.

Turn five

The position at the end of turn five was as below. In my turn I decided to pull back my right wing medium cavalry units which were getting the worst of the exchange of fire with Gordon's Skoutatoi (not entirely unsurprisingly).

In Gordon's turn he continued pushing my javelinmen towards my camp but also decided to charge my heavy cavalry elite units with his impetuous Georgian heavy cavalry - his came off worse.

Turn six

The position at the end of turn six was as below. On my left I had destroyed both of Gordon's Georgian heavy cavalry units and one of the light horse, both remaining Georgian units were disordered. In the centre Gordon's advance towards my camp had reached its high point; he didn't have enough units to risk going any further, particularly as some of my javelinmen were now in the marsh where he dared not follow with his cavalry.

Turn seven (the last)

The position at the end of turn seven was as below. Gordon's Georgian ally on his right was crumbling fast and his central push towards my camp had run out of steam from lack of flank support, in fact in the last turn Gordon pulled back in order to avoid shooting casualties that just might have won me the game in the closing moments, he was up to 15 casualties at one point prior to rallying one off. At game end Gordon had lost 14 points out of 17 whilst I was on 14 out of 21.

Post-game thoughts

The game had actually developed largely as I hoped it would, and as suspected Gordon's Skoutatoi proved the most problematical units for me to deal with. I felt that the night rules worked well, units were able to shoot and disappear like "wolves in the night" so the battle had a good feel; different to the norm. 

Whilst my plan was working (to draw Gordon into battle asap) Gordon was helped by a couple of turns where his forces performed particularly well in the shooting phase and mine didn't. This prevented me from keeping the pressure on when I needed to in order to force a win in time, however, I was getting close as Gordon was only two points off losing the battle at one point. I lost fourteen points out of twenty-one so it wasn't an entirely one-sided game but I didn't feel that I was in danger of losing the battle at any time. That said, a draw was never going to be good enough so I should obviously have somehow pushed harder and risked more.

Gordon's comments

 The Seljuks invade Anatolia 

Pre-Game

The special battlefield effect of night means that a defending Byzantine with some decent terrain and some light troops and ambushes should be able to slow down an advance and a draw seems very possible. I am not good enough to win as the attacker without significant numerical advantage.

So, I shall be the Byzantines.

The Seljuks have to have a lot of bow armed cavalry and light horse, with an option for a lot of elite. They have some infantry options, but they are less of a thing to fear.

I am preparing to play defensively, and think commands of impact/bow cavalry and mixed bow/spear infantry are my best bet. They should be able to hold their own in melee, and the infantry have some decent firepower. The mediocre shooting from the cavalry is better than nothing, but the main point of them is to get to grips.

The movement restriction to a maximum of 2 means that catching anyone who doesn’t want to be caught is pretty much not going to happen. So, the infantry will scare the Seljuk horse and the cavalry will try to chase them off when required.

The Georgians are the weak link and I take only the minimum for the mounted troops. One unit of spearmen might prove useful as a bulwark to hide behind.

Two superior generals to lead the Byzantines, maximise command radius, rally shooting losses, and see if I can manage to chase off horse archers and then fall back to the defensive line. A competent general for the Georgians as I hope to keep them close together and out of trouble until it is too late to control them.

Dense terrain would be good to limit superior numbers and protect the flanks. 

The Deployment

A fair bit of terrain but all of it on Alec’s side, bar one plantation and a hill. I don’t get the terrain fortress I hoped for! However, my right flank looks pretty secure.

Alec deployed a strong cavalry command on my right, a weakish infantry command in the middle and a strongish cavalry command on my left.

I cannot extend to match the length of his line, so decide to focus on the right and centre. I deploy the Georgians on the secure right flank and hold the heavy cavalry back until I know what is going to happen. The two Byzantine commands deploy to their left.

My left flank is being asked to do a lot, but the night rules means that his light horse won’t be able to zip past me to catch flanks or loot the baggage. Both lack of movement distance and the difficulty of commanding a spread out command will hinder him. Which is also a problem for me, but as all I need is a draw I can afford to sit back and pose a threat with one unit of cavalry and the Skutatoi – the other two units of the cavalry will join the central attack and amuse his infantry. They might even inflict some shooting casualties on the mediocre javelinmen, who they outrange.

The plan in light of the terrain is to attack the Seljuks and:

1.      if they stand I will meet them in melee where I have an advantage,

2.    or keep them evading so that their shooting is less effective and at some stage, time allowing, they have to fight,

3.    catch his infantry if they stand, or when they flee back into the marsh (somewhat optimistic), but if they keep evading I have some chance of beating anyone who has to stand to stop me looting his baggage.

The Game

The first turn shows how difficult it is going to be for Alec to develop a rapid attack that makes the most of his numbers and my short line.

I advance in the centre, supported with the left flank. The Georgians advance slowly to provide support to this attack. They are facing a lot of good cavalry and I think they will suffer from shooting without reply, but they pose a threat to them and I am hoping that the heavy spearmen and Skutatoi will absorb a lot of the shooting and force the cavalry to evade when charged.

When we get in range the first round of shooting goes my way – some losses on the Seljuk infantry and on the cavalry. However, this was the first time it really went my way. The cavalry’s mediocrity at shooting was well demonstrated, although they brought one unit of infantry close to destruction. They certainly managed to chase everyone away in the centre and one unit was in position to attempt to melee with a light cavalry unit and then the camp!

The Skutatoi inflicted a steady drip of losses, which helped a lot on both my flanks.

The Seljuk cavalry on my right flank inflicted a lot of hits on the infantry (one had three hits at one stage). This slowed things down a lot as I had to devote command to rallying the units. And the Georgian heavy cavalry had to be brought up to prevent a disaster. They took one hit to shooting, which encouraged Alec to stand when they charged. Both units lost the combat and were soon destroyed, along with a unit of Skutatoi.

On my left things went pretty well: the Skutatoi inflicted a lot of damage. Although they took a fair number of losses I was able to rally the losses, but at the expense of moving units. One of the central cavalry units had to be diverted to support the flank, and one was killed by the infantry. However, Alec’s difficulties in moving so many units at night and his need to rally so many units saved me.

In the last turn we were pretty much equal on losses, although I needed far fewer more to break. So, units most at risk ran away from shooting and I tried to rally the others.

And I got the draw I needed. 

Post-Game

A far more aggressive game than I expected or wanted. It was close, but in the end the aggressive attack worked and I got my point.

The Georgian cavalry charge could have gone the other way. My heavy infantry could have withstood the shooting better. My first round of shooting could have been worse.

The attempt to take his camp was very ambitious, but standing in front of my camp and letting his army advance close to me and shoot me to pieces didn’t seem a good idea. 

 Result

 Draw - one Prestige Point to the Julii