A Bytch of Byzantines

 A Headless Body Production

Venue: An undisclosed basement
Event: Saturday afternoon
Players: Phil Gardocki playing Nikephorian Byzantine
              Tom Worden playing Samurai
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 200 points per side, 15mm
Theme: None

The Forces:

Nikephorian Byzantine(list 128)

Led by the Sneaker brothers, Nikephoros the younger and Brilliant, Adidasphoros, the Brilliant and Pumaphoros, the ordinary, and somewhat unreliable.

4 Thematic Kataphractoi, Medium Cavalry Impact

4 Petchnegs, Light Cavalry, Bow

1 Turkomons, Light Cavalry, Bow, Elite

2 Varangians, Heavy Swordsmen 2HW, Armor, Elite

8 Skutatoi, ½ Heavy Spearmen ½ Bowmen

4 Light Infantry, Bows and Javelins

Breakpoint of 24

Samurai (list 210)
The Samurai are commanded by Larry-San, the Strategist, his brother Darryl-San the Ordinary and his other brother Darryl-San, also Ordinary.
9 Samurai, Medium Swordsmen, Bow, Elite
4 Yari, Medium Spearmen, Mediocre
4 Mounted Samurai, Heavy Cavalry, Bow, Elite
2 Followers with Bow, Bowmen, Mediocre
Breakpoint of 19

The Byzantines win the initiative and elect to attack in the plains.

The Board:

Terrain is evenly distributed. Which favors the defender in this case.

Deployment:

Yoshitune is a Strategist, allowing 3 ambushes on the board.

Samurai Cavalry refuses the left flank

Pumaphoros takes the left with 4 Skutatoi, Nikephoros the center with 4 Skutatoi and 2 Varangians.

Adidasphoros will take the scenic route up highway 1.

Note on annotation. Letters in parenthesis represent some value change for the specific unit. For commanders it is b for Brilliant, c for Competent and o for Ordinary, u for unreliable. For troops it is e for Elite, and m for Mediocre. Other abbreviations, Hvy Heavy, XB Crossbow, LB, Longbow, Jav Javelin, 2HW 2 Handed Weapons, B Bow, Kn Knight, HC Heavy Cavalry, Md Medium, Sgt Sergeants, LC Light Cavalry, Chr Chariot, Cat Cataphract, Pa Pavise.

XX implies a recently killed unit.

Turn 1:

Pumaphoros rolls a 2 for command points. So he is responsive, if only barely

Game note, a roll of 1 for an unreliable commander means you can't use him for a while. Threats, jeers, bribes all help, but usually it takes enemy cooperation to get the into combat.

Nikephoros rolls a 6 and takes this chance to triple march his foot troops.

He is aiming for the bend in the Samurai line

At the bend await the elite Samurai horsemen. While the Byzantines have Impact and numbers, the Samurai have armor and morale advantages.

The Japanese are not going to wait, their forces advance down the line

Both sides lose arrows. Japanese foot archery proves superior.

Their horsemen trade hits with the wily Petchnegs.

The Petchnegs occupy the the steppes of what is now The Ukraine. They were known for both their timidity and audacity. Once, the Byzantine Emperor tried to convince a Petchneg leader to fight the Turks, the reply came back reading something like this:

"Since the Turks are both numerous and fierce, we don't want to do that. And we would regard it bad form should you bring the topic up again."

Turn 2:

The view from the heavens

Apology for the brown images. Sometimes the camera has enough light to shoot sans the flash.

Pumaphoros approaches to charge range, loosing arrows all the way.

So to, Nikephoros.

So to, Adidasphoros

No subtlety here. Great shooting. 1/4 of the Samurai forces are already disordered. And if you count just the front line troops it's 40%

Japanese morale proves without peer. 2 of 3 foot troops rally from their wounds.

Their arrows finding targets.

Both horse units rally as well.

So now it's down to just one Samurai unit disordered :(

Turn 3:

One Skutatoi is badly fragmented, and is left behind.

The main battleline charges, winning 3 of 4 fights.

The Thematic Kataphracts charge, also wining 3 of 4

At the tree of woe, the score is 6 all.

An ambush is revealed. 2 Yari and a "Followers with Bow" All Mediocre, But far more than what a Psiloi can handle.

Samurai archery proves ascendant

The Varangians are doing their jobs.

The cavalry fight is just about even.

There was a successful Samurai rally, and an immediate hit.

Nikephoros has joined the fray, so the Byzantine left is +3 to zero, but still cannot defeat their Samurai opponents.

So what are the odds here?

The Samurai are Heavy Cavalry, Elite, the Byzantines Medium Cavalry, Impact. Giving the Samurai armor and elite advantage against an initial +2 to +1 combat round. 

Straight up, MC, Impact vs HC(e), the MC win 23% of the time, taking 4 rounds on average
With support, the MC, Impact vs HC(e), the MC win 61% of the time, taking 3.9 rounds on average
With support and a commander, the MC, Impact vs HC(e), the MC win 90% of the time, taking 2.5 rounds on average.

So the Byzantines are lucky in the center of this cavalry scrum, but unlucky on the edges.

The Byzantines are up 9 (of 19) to 7 (of 24)

Turn 4:

Psiloi do a slip and slide, dazzling the archers with bow.

Pumaphoros realizes he cannot win a archery duel. He doesn't have the command points for rallying, and the shooting is elite vs ordinary. Things are not going to get any better, so he orders a charge

However, Pumaphoros has forgotten the corollary to "not getting any better" is "it can always get worse!" For whatever disadvantage the is shooting it out with elites, you can only take one hit per turn. Not so once in hand to hand and it's Mediocre vs Elite.

How bad is it?
Charging fresh, the Skutatoi will win 11% of the battles, in an average of 4.6 turns
Charging disordered, the Skutatoi will win 2.5% of the battles, in an average of 4.9 turns
The Samurai win in an average of 2.8 turns
If the Skutatoi just wait for the Samurai to charge, gaining missile support on the first round the numbers go up to 17% and 3.2%.
Not that significant except it happens a turn later.
And since Pumaphoros's mission is to hold and survive, not win, that difference is important to the battle plan.

The Varangians have won but cannot penetrate as their supports are collapsing. The right Skutatoi, figuring the battle was well in hand, breaks off to attack the Samurai horse.

Spoiler alert

.

.

.

.

.

. He was wrong!

The cavalry scrum continues. A Skutatoi is brought over for a flank charge, and misses getting there by the thickness of the lacquer of the Japanese armor.

Petchneg horse sees the Japanese camp, and races for it!

The view from the sky, the camp is not where the Petchnegs think it is :)

The Samurai have taken the lead, 12 to 10.

A bad situation got worse.

Their supporting Skutatoi scattered, the Varangians are taken in the flank.

In a complete oversight, the Skutatoi here forgot to charge Yoshitune's cavalry.

The score is 18-9

Pumaphoros is down to his last formed foot, and that has 3 levels of disorder on it.

At last, the Japanese horse crumbles!

But too late to save the day.

In a misguided thought the Byzantines had 25 points to Demoralization, the battle continues.

The body count just grows at this point.

The real score is about 28-9

So what went wrong?

First, going into this fight, I commented to Tommy, that the Samurai army was uniquely suitable to defeat the Byzantines as I was running them.  The main troop type I am running is the Skutatoi.  Good shooters, Good against cavalry, not so good against foot.  The limited number of ordinary quality lancers have a good punch, but not so good on followup.  It is an army that relies on surprise in it's composition and size at 24 units.

As far as shooting goes, the Samurai are mostly elites.  So an archery dual against them is a losing proposition.  Going into melee is even a worse option where it is elite vs mediocre.  My lancers match the Japanese cavalry 1-1, and had an initial advantage.  But after that it was ordinary nothings vs elite and armor.  

In short, the only advantage I had was numbers.  To some extent I used it to my advantage, but not enough.  Most of the lights did not get involved in supporting the combat troops.  Eventually I was able to crack the Samurai horse, but not till it was too late.  Ditto with the Varangians.  Who did their job, ploughing down the Samurai, but their supports were then destroyed, and then they were also.  

On the left, I over committed.  My thought at the time was I was losing the archery duel, so lets see if I can keep those Samurai occupied while winning the center and the right.  In the end I accelerated the loss of the left and center and the game.

And, the Samurai didn't even commit their final reserves, 2 spearmen and a bowmen, all mediocre.