So now Huub who s still testing his army will meet longbows and pikes . I had one scouting card he had three but outscouted me only by 10%. I went for terrain but got a flat center . One protected flank and some forest terrain on the other flank .
My burgundian army, an older list, consisted of a bunch of pikes ( 2 TUG) , some foot men at arms ( 2 TYG ) some longbows ( 2 TUG ), some crossbows ( 2 TUG and combat shy ), some burgundian knights, some mounted squires and a french ally ..facind some skutatoi, average varangians , tagmata, themata , light cavalry and kataphracts . The burgundians are on the left side so you will deduce that the nikes are on the right side and yes his mounted are facing my longbows ...
The byzantine cavalry the kats being on the left .
Average varangians and some pointed sticks ..;well LS skutatoi¨..
So you make the link with the cavalry
My longbows protected by the average ally french cavalry who has better be reliable . Huub never faced lonbows before ..he will learn!
My line with a mix of crossbows protected by pikes and men at arms. Those are deployed deep as they rather fear impact but do like melee being melee expert, fully arpured and 2HCC .The sup brugundian knights help hold the flank the average squires ...well they are there .
The french ally is reliable and perhaps too excited !
Very montypythonesque manoeuver on the right side you can see the pikes coming in a hurry as they heard "cataphracts are coming ) . So the CIC ordered them to double move and go ..It was to be the only coloured car for that command untill the end of the game when they got another one ..it was all black and white !The longbows get into position under protection of the french knights.
Advancing steadily towards the enemy. They do look numerous indeed that's why they do advance towards us
Squire to the left, foot to the right quick march
1,5 MU between the infantry ..the crossbowmen are being prudent the knights outside 3 MU
The longbows did score as the byzantines did loose some bases ( 1 tagmata and 1 SK = a wound in the themata ) Worse was to come as he hesitated coming frontally . He had completely forgotten that if he had manoeuvred he could have sent the kataphraktoi vs one longbow TUG . Those guys are fullt armoured, horses also so he could have tried a frontal charge the LB shooting on white it is manageable .
He decided to go back with his cavalry but would remain in range !
He decided to charge but oups ...lost a base
They also decided to charge and routed as longbows do like mounted
General melee ..and the skutatoi will discover how resilient dismounted men at arms can be
The whole line goes for it ( except my crossbowmen )
The burgundian knights ( Sup ) did not do that well and now during melee the k-skutatoi do face a hard time vs the yellow and red dice of the men at arms .
The pikes will outflank the skutatoï and the squires just watch it all .
So here what happened ...the themata was destroyed when charging ...the tagmata lost impact with the french knights at impact and disolved under impact while inflicting some loses and the french knights pursuing happily just go for the cataphracts ..;ah les bonnes gens
The kataphracts being busy, the pikes hit the skutatoi in the flank and the squires just charge long spears, integral shooters as they get over confident ( 2 black and a white token hard to hold some formed cavalry ) . the funny thing is that they will fare better than the sup burgundian knights and will survive the battle
The fight is on
French knights and kataphracts are enjoying each other
The sup knights are broken but the byzantines are in a bad shape
A hard long fight
His line is breaking everywhere and the KAB test will rout the unit on the right and the byzantine army is gone .
A good game, Huub is learning and has discovered the longbow and the dismounted men at arms and also that pikes, well supported can be deadly . My judgement is that I won byt mutual support and thet the byzantines should have deployed one TUG of infantry closer to the mounted in order to support them and anihilate my longbows . Combined arms can be deadly .