Game 50 – Byzantine Era 4: Later Macedonian/ Doukas Dynasties
Nikephorian Byzantine (Gordon 216 pts) v Serbo-Croatian - Serbs (Alec 200 pts)
Major Defence 1042 CE (ADLG Std, 5-June-2024)
Battlefield Effects: Serbs: Terrain advantages 1 - Outmanoeuvred, and Special adjustments 3 - Fear
The Plan (penned in advance of
the battle)
I’m currently at one Prestige
Point to Gordon’s minus three in this era so am happy enough to let Gordon get
the Byzantines in order not to imperil my precious positive Prestige Point. I
let Gordon win the bidding at 216 points v the Serbs 200 points – an 8%
advantage.
The game rolled is a Major
Defence against the Serbs and comes with two Battlefield Effects for the
benefit of the Serbs: Special adjustments – Fear, and Terrain Advantages –
Outmanoeuvred. These are both middle-weight Battlefield effects which aren’t
game winners in themselves for an attacking army but may just give the Serbs
the edge to win the game.
So the question is whether to go
with a cavalry heavy army or an infantry heavy army? I decided on an infantry
heavy army with the maximum number of bowmen. The plan will be to use the
Outmanoeuvred Battlefield Effect to try to place a couple of terrain pieces at
the end of terrain placement where I can box the Byzantines in a bit in order
to make them sitting ducks for the Serbs bowmen. If Plain then maybe a couple
of gentle hills in the centre of the table, which I can get to first with my
bowmen and then use as pivotal points to extend my attack with the spearmen; if
Mountains then maybe a couple of Impassable areas.
That’s the plan!
The
Battle
Deployment
I placed two identical commands on my right and centre comprised of four bow and four mediocre swordsmen units each. The only difference was that the one on my right was led by a competent commander and the one in the centre by an unreliable ordinary commander. On my right I placed my bowmen in front of the medium swordsmen ready to take advantage of the interpenetration rules which allowed the swordsmen to come through when I felt the moment was right.
On my left I placed a command consisting of four ordinary heavy spearmen units, three mediocre heavy spearmen units, four heavy cavalry units, two light infantry bow units and one light infantry unit armed with javelins which I placed in ambush on my far left. This command was led by a brilliant commander.
Gordon, as I hoped, was forced to squeeze his commands in gaps, he deployed twenty good quality units in three commands. My plan was to ambush the heads of his columns as the Byzantines emerged from the passes. He also placed an ambush on his right in the brush, it could have contained troops but only light infantry due to the ambush rules so I wasn't too worried about it.
My turn 1
I didn't have a problem with the unreliable command and so I advanced with all the commands across the board, lining my bowmen up ahead of the rest of my line as planned. I decided to march my nobles to the right to act as a central reserve.
Gordon's turn 1
Gordon advanced out of the defiles, his troops already moving into my eight bowmen's shooting range and immediately began to pay the price - suffering three shooting hits.
Gordon charged my light infantry with his light horse which I evaded to safety; this was to turn out to be the only time the other Battlefield Effect came into play, the charge costing him two CPs.
My turn 2
I advanced further and seeing Gordon move his heavy cavalry to my left turned my reserve cavalry around to face the other direction. In the shooting phase I scored four more shooting hits with my eight bowmen; Gordon's unprotected medium cavalry in the centre, in particular, were beginning to suffer badly.
Gordon's turn 2
Gordon advanced towards me with his infantry, he moved his Tagmatic heavy cavalry further towards his right and he pulled his medium cavalry back as they were already badly hit; replacing them in the line with cataphracts. I only achieved one shooting hit this turn as did Gordon.
My turn 3
I advanced my heavy spearmen on my left wing forward to close down Gordon's opportunities with his heavy cavalry but otherwise was content to stand where I stood.
In the shooting phase I was a lot more successful than the last turn, Gordon had suffered eleven hits by the end of the turn, four of which had now been hit twice; I had even successfully hit both of the heavily armoured cataphracts. This was enough to make Gordon fold his hand - game over.
Post-Mortem
There's no doubt that that the terrain fell well for me here, but then the Battlefield Effect was always going to ensure that it would favour my side. Perhaps Gordon had seriously underbid for this one, or maybe just adopted the wrong tactics.
Gordon's comments
Pre-Game
The
Serbs have some very strong battlefield effects. I think the Byzantines need a
50% points advantage to have any chance. However, that does not happen in the
bidding so I have 216 points to Alec’s 200.
And then
I forget that I am the defender and choose a strongly aggressive cavalry army.
With one strong heavy infantry command.
It is all downhill from there.
The Deployment
Oh
dear! A waterway three impassable bit so terrain, two of them in my deployment
zone and plenty of rough terrain to destroy any hope of manoeuvre for my army.
I have to fit my troops into a very small space. I put the infantry on my left
against the waterway and hope they can either defend securely against what
comes through the rough terrain or get lucky fighting in the rough terrain. The
cavalry are probably completely screwed, but they might be able to hold any
opposing infantry and fight on even terms if Alec has chosen cavalry.
I
find myself facing lots of heavy spearmen on my right backed up with a strong
cavalry component. There is an interesting mix of bowmen and medium swordsmen
on my left and centre.
So, plan is for the heavy cavalry to delay the spearmen, the medium cavalry bow to delay and ideally charge the opposing bowmen, and the infantry to try to clear the bowmen from the rough terrain while moving some of my spearmen to the centre to support the cavalry.
The Game
Alec
advanced quickly further reducing what little options I had for manoeuvre. I moved forward because there wasn’t much else to do.
Alec
shot my medium cavalry to pieces so that I had to pull them back. I replaced
them with cataphracts who also got badly shot and disordered.
When
my heavy infantry got into range of his bowmen he shot them up as well.
At
this stage it was clear I was not going to get into successful contact with his
bowmen, who I had some chance of beating in combat. Two of my medium cavalry
were one point from destruction, both cataphracts were disordered and one was
one point from destruction, the heavy infantry on my flank were pretty much all
disordered so had little chance of winning combats in the rough, and the heavy
cavalry were not going to destroy eight heavy spear and four heavy cavalry with
shooting, or anything else.
I conceded.
Post-Game
I have
no idea why I thought I was the invader. The usual choice for defender is go
for lots of heavy infantry and try to hold on. That was an option for the army
and I didn’t take it.
Once
the terrain was down it was clear I had little chance, but there were some
tempting weak points in Alec’s line so I gave it a go. Unfortunately his
archers did a good job of stymying my attacks before they started.
Interesting
game in that bowmen won the game.
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