A Niktation* of Nikephorians

A Headless Body Production
Venue: On Military Matters Book Store, Hopewell, NJ
Event: January Doldrums...
Players: Phil Gardocki running Nikephorian
                  Al Kaplan running  War of the Roses English
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.

The Forces:
War of the Roses English
Their commanders names are lost to history.
Note, I originally wrote up this AAR thinking this list was 100 Years War English.
I have tried to correct some mislabeling of the troops, but some errors probably remain.
5 Longbow, Medium Swordsmen Bow, Stakes
4  Shire Levy Longbow, Mediocre
3 Foot Knights
4 Armored Billmen. Heavy Swordsmen, Polearms.
2 Medium Sword
2 Light Infantry
Breakpoint of 21

Nikephorian Byzantine(list 127)
Commanded by the Sneaker brothers! The brilliant Nikephoros, the unequally brilliant Adidiasphoros, and their ordinary sibling, Pumaphoros
6 Tagmata, Kataphractoi, Heavy Cavalry Bow, Impact, Elite
5 Petchnegs and Prokoursatores, Light Cavalry, Bow
1 Varangians, Heavy Swordsmen, 2HW
5 Skutatoi, ½ Heavy Spearmen ½ Bowmen
5 Psiloi, Light Infantry, Bows, Javelins, Incendiaries.
Breakpoint of 22

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ωχ!", or "Ouch!", this implies a disorder from missiles. In this AAR, quotes from Shakespeare about death.

Letters in parenthesis represent some value change for the specific unit. For commanders it is s for strategist, 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" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn.

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

The weather is good.

Dennis Shorthouse is the proprietor of On Military Matters book service. A delightful book store in Hopewell New Jersey that specializes in military books.

I have misplaced my dead markers to place where units had been destroyed. You are just going to have to rely on your imagination of the carnage being described. 

Walking into On Military Matters, there was already a battle in progress. Probably a better one then our feature.

English Longbow have turned the Turag flank.

Off in the distance, impetuous camels have pushed too far and were being flanked by English forces. Closer to the front, Taurag mediums are coming out second best against Henry's knights on foot.

That's all for the teaser photos.

Deployment

The English right has a command of 4 newly raised yeomanry, and a pair of Gascon foot.

In the center is their best troops. Hardened knights on foot supported with Yeomanry well trained with bow and sword.

The War of the Roses English list benefited with the V4 upgrade. Their longbowmen are now Medium Swordsmen, Longbow and Stakes With both protection and combat value of one.

 In V3, they were just "bowmen". With both protection and combat value of zero.

On the English left, more Yoemanry, bolstered by most excellent billmen and knights on foot.

And off fame on the English left, sneakily waiting in ambush, some boys with sticks.

On the left, the Byzantines have deployed a considerable force of their Psiloi. Kitted out with bows, javelins and some recently developed technology.

After finagling the list, I was at 195 points. So what to spend 5 points on? The cost of a "Incendiary" Light Infantry. Incendiaries are +1 against elephants and War Wagons, for both missile fire and melee.

Turn 1:

Behind the mass of lights, Nikephoros commands a block of Skutatoi and Varangians.

The Skutatoi are similar to the War of the Roses English Longbow in that they are a mix of spear and bow. But only half spear, so they fight as Mediocre, but shoot normally. Not counting the stakes, they cost the same as the War of the Roses English Medium Sword Longbow at 10 points.

His brother Adidasphoros takes the center with the Tagmata.

Another change in V4. Byzantine Cavalry are now only 1/2 Bow. They cost one point less, but shoot as one grade lower. Since these are all Elites, they shoot as Ordinary.

But where is Pumaphoros?

Turn 1:

The unseen force of Byzantines roll a 2 and continue not to be seen.

The Byzantine light cloud advances, dragging their odd contraption with them. The English ambush in the field was revealed to be nought but a hurriedly assembled scare crow.

Nikephoros orders his "Skuts" forward.

The Tagmata also advances. It is hoped that the screening lights will cover them enough.

And they were really hoping that the English will forget to put their stakes out.

The lesser Yoemanry advance, and the arrows fly.

The rest of the English line advances.

Turn 2:
 

The Psiloi advance into the field. and the poorly referenced Shakespearean comments begin.

The Skuts advance and loose arrows as well

Adidiasphoros orders his horse forward, and arrows loosed at them...

The English revealed their ambush on turn 1, advancing it towards the Byzantine camp. But the missing Byzantine command was not on a flank march, but hiding behind the hill.

With the exception of the fire syphon, the rest of the Psiloi are shooting very well.

But on the main line of battle, it is the English shooting well.

After only two flights of longbow shafts, the Petchnegs have had enough are were departing the field.

The English lights climb out of the gully. Motivated by riches to be gained from looting the camp.

Turn 3:

I missed taking photos of the Greek portion of the bound, so we will pick up the story at the bottom of the turn.

The Shire Levy from Doncaster have had enough, and routed from the field. While the Yoemen from Hereford are having a sit down watching the panto that is lighting the fire siphon.

The lines converge, more missiles fly.

The Tagmata realizes they cannot resist the arrow barrage and retreat out of range. The English longbow pick up their stakes.

Turn 4:

One troop of Yoeman ran off their Psiloi taunters, but now find themselves in a worse position.

The remaining Skutatoi charge. Largely they are victorious.

The Tagmata return to range. They will need to support the Skuts, and hoping (without cause) that the English will forget their stakes.

Amazingly, another Yoeman troop is dispersed by Psiloi javelins and arrows.

One Skutatoi is destroyed, but a foot knight is flanked.

And the stakes come out again.

I only paid 12 points for Pumaphoros and company. I got what I paid for.

Turn 5:

The good men from Gloucester are surrounded and surrender.

The last of the Gascons flees, while the foot knights are taken in the flank and destroyed.

The battle in balance, the Tagmata cannot leave now. Fortune favored the foolish as a desperate charge by the Tagmata disorders another unit of foot knights.

The game is surprisingly close. The Byzantines are 17 towards their break point of 22.

The English are 19 towards their break point of 21.

The Byzantines need only 2 to win, and avoid 5 to lose.

Unfortunately, of the remaining battles, all are in the English favor. For example, on the left, foot knights vs mediocre heavy spear.

A Troop of Tagmata, after a brief victory, is taken in the flank.

Add in two successful missile shots and that is four to the English.

Keeping their own losses to zero for the turn.

Turn 6:
 

A successful charge by the "light" brigade puts the English at 20.

So if either side loses one point the game is over... The Tagmata retreats.

Can Pumaphoros pull the last point? No.

 With both sides at 1 away from demoralization, the English pull off 2 successful rallies.

In the field, the lights pull a win destroying the last Shire Levy

This is the same picture as above, but the Yoeman is destroyed, it's commander is now isolated and captured, taking the English back to 20!

But the knight on skut battle, upper left, is a win for the English, taking the Byzantines to their break point of 22 for the win!

What went wrong?  Well, you could say the plan was bad.  But there wasn't many choices.  The Byzantine right had 3 pieces of terrain, which largely protected the English left.  The concept of limited engagement with the Tagmata, with their bows was a losing proposition against longbow, but if I could stretch it out time wise, until the Skuts were well engaged.  Which almost worked. 

But overall, it was a bad plan.

One thought is to dismount the Tagmata.  Which dismount (pg21) as Heavy Spearmen (3 cohesion points) armor,  missile support.

As much as I hate the idea of dismounting, this seems to have merit.  The Tagmata are still elite and armored.  So the LB has a harder time disordering them.  LB was +1 v zero against Heavy Cavalry, but it is zero v +1 against armored foot.

Even if the dismounted cavalry has a cohesion hit before contact, it will defeat a fresh Medium Swordsmen 55% of the time in 4 rounds.  83% in 3.7 rounds if fresh.

And I think I have enough Skutatoi to use...

hmmm...

* Nikitation: Adj, a useless application of force.

** swearing translated as "Son of a Turkish whore"