Manlii v Julii Game 44

Game 44 – Byzantine Era 6: Late (fractured) Empire

Palaiologan Byzantine civil war (150 pts each)

1384 CE (ADLG Std, 3-Apr-2024).

Battlefield Effects: None

The Plan (penned in advance of the battle)

An End of Era result was rolled by me so, as neither of us have any positive Prestige Points, this is a civil war battle brought on by Gordon to determine who will be the ultimate victors in this era.

We are both going to be choosing from the ADLG Palaiologan Byzantine army list which is the only period that allows the Byzantines to have heavy knights, so you have to have at least one unit surely? Or do you?

Knowing Gordon as I do he will try and pull something unusual out of the bag so I need to be prepared for anything. As far as I can see there are two ways to go, one is to select an army that has a balanced selection of what is available in the list, the other is to go extreme either on elite units or cheap and poor units.

I have prepared two lists, one fairly balanced but leaning more towards ‘eliteness’ and the other full of extremely poor units maximising quantity over quality. The first will require me to set the pace, the second will be a race to see if Gordon had break through my lines before I can turn on his flanks.

I’m in two minds of which to choose; perhaps I’ll leave it to the day of the battle and decide then.

That’s the plan or plans!

The Battle

So I've decided to go with the second list full of mediocre and cheap units, I will try and overwhelm Gordon's army with numbers and swarm it's flanks! All the light troops gave me a good initiative rating of four to Gordon's two so giving me the advantage on the roll which I promptly won. I decided to attack in the Plains.

Terrain

It fell as below, three fields tucked away leaving both a nice open space in the centre and room for a couple of light infantry ambushes on my left plus one road running along my deployment area which was to prove marginally useful.

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

Deployment

Ended as below. Gordon was defending so, as he placed his commands on table first, I got to line my men up to best match his. I decided to stick five light infantry bowmen in ambush in the fields on my left, with the six mediocre medium spear also in that command two ranks deep to their right. Next to them I placed four mediocre heavy spear units and four light infantry javelinmen in front. To their right I placed my cavalry command - two medium cavalry impact and four light cavalry - two of which were the famed elite light horse Vardariotai. I deployed the cavalry well to the right leaving a nice big tempting gap in front of my camp; I figured I could close it up well before Gordon got anywhere near but in the meantime it may just tempt him to press forward.

Gordon deployed a command of two heavy knight impact elite Kavallarioi, one bow-armed medium cavalry and two bow units on his right, a command of three heavy spear and two light infantry units in the centre; and a cavalry command of four Stratiotai heavy cavalry impact and two light horse bow units on his left. 

In addition Gordon placed a light horse unit in the field on his right in ambush; this was strictly speaking illegal as under the rules only light infantry can hide in fields but it made no difference to the game as he revealed it early on.

My turn one

Ended as below. I advanced with my light troops and cavalry whilst shuffling my medium and heavy foot on the road to their right to extend my line in order to face some of Gordon's left wing cavalry. This meant I wouldn't be two ranks deep facing Gordon's knights but you can't be strong everywhere and I figured as Gordon only had the two units of shock troops on his right it wouldn't be enough to take me on successfully on that flank.

Gordon's turn one

Gordon decided not to hang about, advancing all along the line and revealing his light horse in ambush which he sent out wide on his left. I achieved the first shooting hit of the game with my massed light horse. 

The position at the end of Gordon's turn was as below:

My turn two

I decided to stretch my left wing out so in my turn I revealed both my light infantry ambushes which I advanced to occupy the fields and brought my rear rank spearmen medium spearmen into line with the front rank. My thinking was Gordon's paucity of units on this flank should give me opportunities to sneak around his units in due course.

My turn ended as below:

Gordon's turn two

Gordon charged my light horse with his heavy cavalry which evaded away; he also started to redeploy a couple of his heavy cavalry further towards his left wing leaving a big gap opposite my heavy spearmen. On his right Gordon angled his two bow units to face my light infantry and also advanced his lone bow-armed medium cavalry unit to start shooting at my mediocre spearmen.

Gordon's turn ended as below:

My turn three

In my turn I returned my light horse back to the front whilst retreating my medium cavalry which I felt were a bit too exposed. 

In the centre, as Gordon had left a large gap, I moved a couple of my heavy spearmen units forward at an angle to threaten Gordon's infantry flank; I figured that as Gordon had moved his two heavy cavalry facing them away towards his left flank I would give him something to worry about - should he reverse course and send them back or leave me with a potential flank attack opportunity? 

I also began sneaking a light infantry bowmen forward on my extreme left flank towards Gordon's camp which was largely undefended. My turn ended as below:

Gordon's turn three

So, in Gordon's turn we finally got to hand-to-hand combat, Gordon attacked the right of my line with his light and heavy horse and in the centre we come to close quarters with our heavy spearmen. Gordon came off slightly better scoring two disorders on my forces for none in return. 

My advance with the heavy spearmen in the centre had forced Gordon to return one of his heavy cavalry to refill the hole.

Gordon's turn ended as below:

My turn four

In my turn I rallied one of my disorders off and continued the fighting, throwing two of my Commanders into the fray - which worked - both disordered their opponents. I continued moving the light infantry unit threatening Gordon's flank forward figuring he would have to react soon our risk losing four points. 

My turn ended as below:

Gordon's turn four

In this turn Gordon decided to throw his knights into action. Having paid so much for them he probably thought there was no point not - and they were only facing mediocre medium foot after all. Unfortunately for him it didn't pay off, Gordon chose this moment to throw two ones - phew! I not only survived but disordered one of Gordon's knights by rolling a six.

Elsewhere, Gordon was finally forced to move his right-wing cavalry unit back to guard his camp. In the combat phase Gordon lost one heavy cavalry unit and we both lost a light cavalry unit.

Gordon's turn ended as below:

My turn five

Now that Gordon had committed the bulk of his army I pressed forward through the gaps in the centre, and started chasing Gordon's light horse away with my medium cavalry on my right. 

My turn ended as below. I was still managing to hang on in there in the fight against Gordon's knights, partly because Gordon didn't manage to roll particularly well but also because I had support on both sides which Gordon couldn't do anything about due to lack of numbers on that flank.

Gordon's turn five

The fighting continued and ended as below - disorders were piling up on both sides:

My turn six

In this turn my numbers began to tell as I managed to turn three flanks. Gordon lost three units and suddenly it was all over. My turn ended as below - Gordon's dead units are marked with a 'D'.

End of game

The final position was as below. Gordon had reached his breakpoint of 17 whereas I was only at 11 out of 26.

Post-mortem

My plan worked it seems, Gordon didn't have enough units to stop me creeping around in places and getting on to his units' flanks. It was touch and go on my right wing for a while where Gordon matched me in cavalry and light horse but my advantage in numbers eventually told and my massive advantage in army breakpoints meant that I could easily go down one-to-one if necessary and still win. 

It largely came down to the charge of his knights - for Gordon I think it was a case of win big with them or go home; rolling two ones when his knights went in pretty much sealed his army's fate as once they were held Gordon didn't have enough power elsewhere to force the issue.

Gordon's comments

 Pre-Game

Alec and I have to choose from the same list. It can be all out aggression (knights and impact cavalry) or massed defence (mediocre spearmen and bowmen). I struggle with defensive play so aim for an aggressive army with enough spearmen to form a base around which the cavalry can manoeuvre, and to protect the camp.

One command of heavy cavalry and light cavalry, one mixed command of knights and archers, one command of heavy spearmen.

Thinking is I will match the flexibility if Alec goes cavalry heavy and I might be able to find a flank if he chooses infantry. 

The Deployment

Some fields on both flanks leave the table largely open, although protect Alec’s left nicely. I don’t have the troops to fight in the terrain so put the mixed command facing this flank: the knights can frighten any infantry Alec deploys here and the bowmen and medium cavalry might do some shooting damage. The field on my left flank does rather restrict the manoeuvrability of my cavalry but if I am quick I might be able to get around it to exploit the open terrain and maybe even threaten Alec’s camp. The infantry go in the centre.

Alec deploys an army, a vast host, of mediocre infantry. This is going to be a challenge. The knights have some chance against the medium spearmen, but I have only two units. The hope is my relatively strong cavalry flank command – they should be able to beat Alec’s cavalry and outflank his centre.

I am going to have to advance, but the centre and right don’t need to commit immediately. 

The Game

Alec advances on my left and in the centre with his light troops to cut down my movement and options. I advance to close and to try to open up the left flank. Lots of ineffective shooting and melee as his light horse evade. But not before I get bogged down and his infantry start to pin my cavalry and threaten my infantry. Looks my plan has failed already. However, with the infantry support Alec stands up to my cavalry charges and withstands the heavy cavalry. Things are clearly starting to go badly wrong so I commit the knights to combat. Meanwhile my archers are proving themselves to be poor shots for the most part (although there was one turn when they did some damage). The knights on my right don’t do much damage in the first round, but might be more useful in follow up melee.

Alec’s cavalry continue to win the combats, one unit of knights ties every one of four or five combats, and the other goes down. My infantry are outnumbered and in a bit of a seesaw battle eventually collapse.

Game over. 

Post-Game

Despite what looked like a very open table, Alec stymied my plan on his first move and I was unable to open up the left flank or to defeat his weaker cavalry flank. Just too many infantry for me to beat frontally. 

Result

 The Manlii win the battle and take the era.