The Battle of Manzikert

A Headless Body Production

Venue: An Undisclosed Basement
Event: The Battle of Manzikert
Players: Phil Gardocki running Nikaphorian Byzantine
               Steve Turn running Seljuk Turk
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre v4, 15mm, 250 points per side.

The Forces:
Byzantine Empire under Nikephoros, and the Sneaker Brothers, Adidiasphoros, Pumaphoros, and assisted by their cousin, Justdoitphoros.
8 Tagmata and Thematic Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry, Impact, 1/2 Bow
6 Varangians, Heavy Swordsmen, 2HW, 2 of which are Elite
4 Skutatoi, 1/2 Heavy Spearmen, 1/2 Bow
4 Psiloi, LI S/Bow
4 Light Cavalry, B
Breakpoint, 27

Seljuk Turk under Malik Shah, the Strategist Zekai Pasha, the Competent, Ishmael Pasha, the Competent, Mehmet Pasha, the ordinary
That's a whole lot of Turks. 16 Heavy/Medium Cavalry, 7 Light Horse
Breakpoint, 23?

The historical battle of Manzikert was one of the more decisive battles of history.  Nikephoros, the Byzantine Emperor  decided he was going to deal with the Turk problem once and for all, and committed overwhelming resources to the effort.  They met in the middle of what is now Turkey (spoiler alert), and the end result was his capture, their sacred standard defiled, most of the professional Byzantine army mauled.  Survivors of the battle were mostly from the traitors and mercenaries.  

This lead to 20 years of civil war, while the Turks solidified their hold on what was prime horse raising lands.  It took another 300 years for Byzantium to fall, but they were never able to force project like they could before.

The Wikipedia article is here.  There seems to have been a lot of revisionist history since I first read of the battle.  But I am only an amateur historian, and a lot of my sources are game designers,  

A note on annotations. When you see a word bubble "Ouch!", ("Ahia!", "Aie!", "Merde!") this implies a missile hit.

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, HKn Heavy Knight, HC Heavy Cavalry, Md Medium, Sgt Sergeants, LC Light Cavalry, Chr Chariot, Cat Cataphract, Pa Pavise, LI, Light Infantry, HG Hand Gun, FKn Foot Knight, Hvy Spear, Heavy Spearmen.

"XX" marks a unit killed in that location on that turn.
"????" is an ambush marker, and so it is unknown at this time.

Deployment:

Since this is a scenario game, and not a competition, the board is expanded to allow the Turks to have more space to shoot and scoot.  The board is 4 feet deep, or 30 UD's and 4.5 feet wide, or 34 UD's.  The town of Manzikert is out of bounds.  

I left the standard size mat on the middle to provide color, but in retrospect, it just confused things. 

The peaceful village of Manzikert, in the shadow of the Tree of Woe.

Buried under the mass of terrain building supplies and old figure slide drawer holders, is a much dinged copy of Axis and Allies. I have no memory of buying it, and I am not sure it has ever been played.

Turn 1:

The Turks roll a 6 for their unseen command.  They will be arriving next turn.

The Turks right hand command race up the right flank.

Malik Shah's plan is to take advantage of their 100% mounted force, and focus it's attacks on the Byzantine left. Relying on slow response time of the heavy infantry to destroy the Byzantine left wing.

He leaves Zekai Pasha on the left with a sizable force, so the Byzantines cannot just redeploy in mass to react.

A flank march is arriving next turn.  Nikephoros sends his Skutatoi to receive it, while advancing his cavalry to receive the Turk's right wing.

See what I mean by confusing?  Sorry about that.

The Adidaphoros and Justdoitphoros both roll an abundance of command points, and both triple march across the board.

Pumaphoros is also able to double march his horse and foot.

Turn 2:

Rapidly mounting up after a night in the brothels of Manzikert, The Turkish flank march pours out of the town.  In their eagerness, they get in the way of their right flank forces, causing a bit of a traffic jam.

Zekai Pasha does not like his odds, some mediums vs all heavies, and orders a retreat to a nearby hill.

The Turkish center force of 8 heavy horse is forming up too much for Nikephoros's comfort.  He takes an opportunity to maneuver onto the flank marches right flank.

And with adroit skill on the march, one infantry force crosses the phase line of the other. 

Pumaphoros's horse is in hot pursuit.

Turn 3:

Malik Shah, Zekai Pasha and Mehmet Pasha keep up the pressure on Nikephoros

Can they destroy him before the Byzantine infantry intervene?

Tagmata and Theme cavalry turn and face their foes.

Byzantine foot push forward.  The bows of the Skutatoi are in reach.

Pumaphoros is fighting a wholly different battle.

Turn 4:

Turkish light horse run of the Byzantine light horse.  Historically, the a lot of the Byzantine light horse switched sides.

Psiloi was sent to cover the flanks of the redeploying heavy foot. 

On the left, the Turks see an opportunity to destroy the Byzantine lights before the heavies get in range.

Nikephoros can charge now, and get a minor advantage on his right.  Or wait a turn, and the Turks will have support advantage on both flanks.  He charges, hoping to last till the infantry can save him.

Turkish Light horse is trapped by Byzantine Skutatoi.  A volley of arrows disorders one unit of lights.  But lights caught on the flank manage to out fight the Skuts on their flank for a tie.

Byzantine foot attempt to trap the Turks.

The edge of the jaw of the trap is being protected by a single, disordered, Turkish light horse.

On the other battle, the lines begin to close.

Turn 5:

The battle on the left rages on.

The slow moving jaws of the trap continue to close.  But it looks like some of the Turkish horse have already squeezed out of the trap.

Pumaphoros continues to advance.

The score is Byzantines, 10 out of 27

To the Turks, 8 of 23.

Turn 6:

Nikephoros's heavy cavalry is mostly destroyed, his command doomed.

Malik Shah is now able to work Justdoitphoros's flank.

Ishmael Pasha's horse is broken up into too many groups.

Nikephoros throws in his reserve units.  A Turkish horse is routed, the other wins against it's flankers.

Adidasphoros and Justdoitphoros continues their advance.

Zocing a Turk lancer.

A charge by Varangian Guards causes another Turkish horse to flee.

Pumaphoros continues to move forward with a unified front.

At this point we broke for the evening.  The game was a virtual tie, around 10-10.  

Two weeks later...

Turn 8:

Nikephoros's last Tagmata is destroyed, the Turks begin to turn the Byzantine left flank.

The Turks are largely fragmented before a largely unified line of Byzantine foot. 

But the board is big, and the Turks have plenty of space and therefore time, to form up again.

Ishmael Pasha recalls his heavies from their chase of the Byzantine lights.

The Skutatoi receive a a fresh supply of arrows, which is put to good effect.

In response to the Turks encirclement, it is the Byzantines turn to fragment their lines.

But there is a victory of sorts, Pumaphoros has run 3 of his opponents off the board.

Turn 9:

Some Turkish horse are now behind Adidiasphoros's line.  Only distance and a disordered light protect the camp.

Turkish horse form up in the distance, while their lights shoot a gap.

Another light horse zoc's Varangian heavy foot.

In my opinion, the rule change that Light Horse can ZOC heavies and mediums is the single biggest change in the game.  Melee support is the second biggest.

Somewhere in the middle of the field an extra command point is spent.

You miss every shot you don't take.  So take all the shots you can, because you never know when a 5-1 will happen.  This was ordinary slinger at -1 against elite heavies at +1.

The situation is looking bad for the Byzantine foot.  The Turks have reformed, and space is not the friend of infantry.

The foot of both Adidasphoros and Justdoitphoros close the gap, but their missiles fail to score.

More Varangians arrive to save the Guardsmen.  It's now a matter of who gets lucky first.

Adidiasphoros reforms his line of heavies, and summons his lights to harass the last Turks.

Turn 10:

The Turkish horse continue to infiltrate the Byzantine left flank.

Their lights escape, and their heavies continue to redeploy.

The Varangian guards are destroyed.  The rest of Justdoitphoros's foot are scattered, disordered and surrounded.

This is a really great example of cavalry tactics here.  When they have room to maneuver.

Ignoring the plight of his fellow commanders, Adidiasphoros continues an orderly retreat.

Another Varangian falls.

Pumaphoros orders his Tagmata and Thematic horse to a full gallop.

Turn 11:

Brave defenders of the camp successfully repulse the first attack.

The Turks ignore Adidiasphoros's foot marching back to the camp.

They have plenty of targets in the center to deal with.

Without a commander, the Turkish left flank can only move on a 3+.  This turn they order a charge on the harassing lights.  They may not like that decision.

What's this?  Nikephoros and Adidiasphoros Suddenly go on the attack, leading with their bow armed Skutatoi.

The womenfolk of the camp have a bad feeling about that.

Pumaphoros extends his line, ready to save the day!

He even has enough command pips to advance his Skutatoi to bow range.

Turn 12:

The Turks are clearly winning,

but they also have a lot of wounded on the board.

Pumaphoros approached to bow range and charge reach.

The camp holds out for two more rounds!

Turn 13:

Since this the last formed force of Byzantines, Malik Shah coalesces his horse on them.

With the arrival of reinforcements, the Byzantine camp falls, forcing a retirement of all Byzantine forces.

I think this is a good example of the the limitations of the game for cavalry armies.  With a board 10 UD's deeper, and no time limit, an all horse army will decimate a combined arms or all foot army.