Now the last game. I was to face George one of the best greek players who played what I consider one of the very best army of the period the Nikephorian Byzantines and I would have to use my not so shock Late Moorish ! This was going to be remarkably interesting !
I was also feeling tired! what Am I already looking for excuses!
I outscouted and even managed to put a lot of terrain ! I got scarred as usually when I manage such good results I finish loosing the game
As you can see he deployed very concentrated
So let's start. I went in to try to kill his skutatoï and mercenaries and drawn his cavalry out
His heavies du push me away and I struggle to reach him on my right flank
I just hope my infantry on the left will hold long enough
here is where I stupidly made the mistake that will cost me the game . I deployed a supporting file on the left not on the right so his exceptional varangians would crush me in the flank
My DC vandal cavalry prudently waits in rough terrain facing the Nikephorian cataphracts
Some heavy fighting but my infantry is slowly loosing it. They face the SUP normans and Tagmata
Better view but last picture
Nearing the end, I managed to kill both the normans and the tagmata + I had overwhelmed two of his infantry units . He was near breaking but if we played one more turn it could easily have been 8-15 or 15-8 as we both were in position to inflict the last deadly wounds ! I failed by one wound so he won 8-15 to the Nikephorian . All in all not too bad for later Moorish
At 8-8 when George was willing to concede the draw, he had won the tournament so playing the very last 15 minutes for the possible win was real fun
Now he owe me another game as he is the only greek player to have beaten me twice. I hope to meet him in may 2023 for the European MEG championship once again at Athens but this time as very first player !