A Nastiness of Normans

A Headless Body Production

Venue: Lancaster County Convention Center.
Event: Historicon 2024
Theme: Early Medieval, Round 3
Players: Phil Gardocki running Kingdom of Sicily, list 188
               Kornel Burnacz running Normans
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.

A note for my viewers.  Due to upcoming travel, this will be my last published AAR for a few weeks. 

 

It is 1300AD. The year is important in the Kingdom of Sicily list as there are 4 major selections based on the year as control of the island changed from Norman to Spanish control. The Sicilians are led by Frederick Tertius. The second of his name and not to be confused with his great grandfather Frederick II, the first of his name, but second king of his line. 

 

The Forces:

But back to the game. The Kingdom of Sicily are led by King Frederick Tertius, Darrell and Darrell (no relation). All are Competent
10 Medium Knights, 8 Impetuous, 6 Elite
6 Almughavars, Medium spearmen, Impact, 2 Elite
3 Crossbowmen, Light Infantry, Crossbow
2 Jintes, Light Cavalry, Javelin
Breakpoint of 21

The Normans are commanded by FitzWilliam D'Arcy, the Competent, Billy the Bastard, a Strategist, and Breton, who is both Ordinary and Included
8 Milites, Impetuous, some Elite
1 Breton Horse, Medium Cavalry, Javelin
4 Breton Scout, Light Cavalry, Javelin
4 Heavy Spearmen, one with Armor
2 Bowmen, one Mediocre
6  Light Infantry, various
Breakpoint...25

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ouch!", this implies a disorder from missiles. 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.

Inappropriately capitalized words are used to highlight terms that are specific to the game. For example Brilliant, Competent and Ordinary have specific game values for the commanders.

"XX" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn.

Any inaccuracies and vagueness as to specific units is to be regarded as fog of war and part of the fun.

 

The Bretons deploy on the Norman right. 

"Billy the Bastard" takes the center with 10 or so units

FitzWilliam D'Arcy forms up on the left with 4 troops of knights.

The Sicilian Army deploys Darryl's Almughavars in the terrain strewn left. 

I mislaid one of my ambush markers, and used a chocolate bar quarter instead.  What a temptation as the game went on.

Frederick's knights take the center.

While Darryl's knights take the right.

So what is the plan here?  Hold the Almughavars back to just hold the left, and try to engage the Norman Knights with a 5 - 4 advantage.

The Breton lights go racing around the board.  While this looks exciting, it's not to worry about.  Where are they going to go?

Billy's command has a lot of command points and all his bodies advance somewhat across the board.

Darryl, no relation, holds one unit of Almughavars back.  Effectively defanging the Bretons end run.  The rest of his forces are facing units (cavalry and bow and heavy spear), which they should be able to handle.

Frederick recalls his disordered Jintes.  And advances his knights.

I don't know why, but Darryl's knights didn't keep up with Frederick's. 

Turn 2:

The Bretons continue to pursue an envelopment tactic.

The Norman Milites advance fearlessly

A successful rally and a successful crossbow shot later...

Darryl, no relation splits his forces to deal with their respective threats.

Probably not a good idea.  He is only competent, and 3 bodies is about all he should handle.

The knight blocks were 3.?? distance apart.  Now they are just in "bend their lance range"

Darryl still lags behind.  Enough to give the Normans a bit of advantage on the next bound.

Turn 3:

Breton scouts continue to go for an envelopment.  Hoping for a missile disorder.

By then that bit of chocolate was looking real good...

The Almughavars are dealing with missile troops.  Not their best matchup.

Due to command point limitations, the large block of Norman spear are way in the back field.

One block of Milites charge, winning one, losing one and tying two.

The other block held their charge.

Almughavars charge.

And again, and again.  One unit of bowmen is destroyed.

A bad set of die rolls, including a 1-6 for the Sicilian knights.

Followed by Darryl's knights winning and losing 2.

Turn 4:

 

 

Norman Spear finally get their marching orders

Another Sicilian knight is routed

Darryl's knights are doing better, but 3 of 4 of his knights are disordered.

Their bowmen enemies defeated, the Almughavars line up

A good turn for the Sicilians.  3 Milites are routed.  And where the Normans have punched through, a Jintes has them ZOC'd.  Limiting their options to flank charge.

The score is 14 of 21 for the Kingdom of Sicily

To 14 of 25 for the Normans.  So a tie in their favor

Turn 6:

It seems like I missed taking pictures for turn 5, so some summery is required.

On the left, a brace of Almughavars charged and ran long to the Breton Lights running short.  Leading to the loss of a unit.

The Norman foot were able to get into charge range destroying 2 of 3 Almughavars facing them.

Frederick's knights are flanking the center command of Norman Milites.

While Darryl's knights are cleaning up the Milites on his side.

But the clock ran out at this point.  The Sicilians were at 19 of 21.

To 17 of 25 for the Normans

So a winning draw for the Normans.  

What went wrong here?  I am not sure.  I rarely have games go only 6 turns.  The Almughavar command did what it was supposed to do, it held it's flank, losing 2 units and destroying 3.  

The knight commands failed to advance together, and so were committed piecemeal a turn apart.  So where one command succeeded, it did not have time exploit that advantage on the adjacent command.

 

 

 

 

 

A Nickels Worth of Nikephorians

A Headless Body Production

Venue: Lancaster County Convention Center.
Event: Historicon 2024
Theme: Early Medieval, Round 2
Players: Phil Gardocki running Kingdom of Sicily, list 188
               Duncan Richards running Nikephorian Byzantine
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.

It is 1300AD. The year is important in this list as there are 4 major selections based on the year as control of the island changed from Norman to Spanish control. The Sicilians are led by Frederick Tertius. The second of his name and not to be confused with his great grandfather Frederick II, the first of his name, but second king of his line. 

 

The Forces:

The Kingdom of Sicily are led by King Frederick Tertius, Darrell and Darrell (no relation). All are Competent
10 Medium Knights, 8 Impetuous, 6 Elite
6 Almughavars, Medium spearmen, Impact, 2 Elite
3 Crossbowmen, Light Infantry, Crossbow
2 Jintes, Light Cavalry, Javelin
Breakpoint of 21

 

Duncan easily wins the Furthest Traveled Award at 14,000 kilometers.  That is 8,800 miles in real distance ;)

 

He is playing one of my favorite army's, the Nikephorian Byzantines.  They have the best cavalry with a solid base of foot troops in the form of mixed spear/bow and enough 2 handed cutting weapons to make them dangerous.  I do not have his list, so I'll have to look at the pictures.  Lets see what he brought...

4 Skuts and a pair of Varangians.  No noticeable commander.  Possibly included with the Varangians

And two ambushes on the hill...

Only three Kataphracts, and the start of another line of foot.

And more Skuts, with one odd Kataphractoi. 

The Byzantines look like this:

For commanders, I'm guessing a Brilliant, a Competent and an Ordinary.  2 are "Included"
3 Tagmata Kataphractoi, Heavy Cavalry, Impact, 1/2 Bow, probably Elite
1 Theme Kataphractoi, Medium Cavalry, Impact, 1/2 Bow
1 Light Horse
8 Skutatoi, mixed Heavy Spear, Bow
4 Varangians or other Heavy Sword, probably 2HW
4  Light Infantry, various
Breakpoint...21

 

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ouch!", this implies a disorder from missiles. 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.

Inappropriately capitalized words are used to highlight terms that are specific to the game. For example Brilliant, Competent and Ordinary have specific game values for the commanders.

"XX" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn.

Any inaccuracies and vagueness as to specific units is to be regarded as fog of war and part of the fun.

 

We apparently were a bit slow in starting.  On the next table the action has already started. 

And to my right, ok, they haven't.  So we are good...

Turn 1:

The Byzantines Skutatoi race across the board.

 

It was here I realize how much I shot myself in the foot.  I placed this marsh, I deployed in the marsh, and to engage the Skutatoi while still in the marsh would have my Almughavars fighting at a -1.  To not engage them would mean they will just continuously suffer from volleys of arrows.

The Tagmata advance fearlessly

Taking advantage of the road, the Byzantine left command heads for the tables edge.

Almughavars advance

Both knight commands advance on a united front.

The Jintes are recalled to cover Darrel's flank.  Any fight between the two light horse is just 50/50.  No sense forcing an engagement at this point.  With the field and an ambush in the rear, I am not concerned about their lights getting behind me.

Turn 2:

The Skutatoi cant their line and loose arrows.

Tagmata arrows find their target

Even their lights score against armored knights. 

The Almughavars advance slowly.  This is going to be a hard day for them.

Now both leftmost and right most knights are disordered.  Good shooting Tex.

The Jintes challange the Byzantine lights.  It was a trap, because if they had received the charge, the knights would have supported it.

Turn 3:

The Skuts are happy with their current position.

The Byzantine shooting has been superb. The annotation is not quite correct.  The two knights in the center were disordered by Jintes routing through them.

It is time for a reversal of light on light charging, with a supporting cavalry in the wings.

At last, the Almughavars get to engage.  The Skuts have the flanks, but are mediocre.

The Byzantine Tagmata evades from the flower of Aragonese knighthood.

Jintes return, but the Byzantines hold.  The dice roll even for a tie.

Turn 4:

Another mis-annontated "Ouch", which is a rout through and not a missile strike.

Frederick's last skirmisher is shot away

After many turns of maneuvering, the Byzantine left wing approaches in an orderly fashion.

A chaotic brawl is brewing.  Flanks are being turned everywhere.

Another charge.  One of the Tagmata reaches the safety of the edge of the board.

Darrel's knights "advance" away from the Skutatoi line.

Turn 5:

A win for the Jintes

Two more Almughavars are routed

The Tagmata perform an excellent bit of dressage. 

The Skuts split their formation.  3 to chase the "advancing" knights, 3 to pin the now trapped Jinte.

An Almughavar routs a Skut

Three turns charging, but this one rolls short, saving the Byzantine camp for another turn

Not quite as trapped as they thought, the Jintes squeeze past the Skuts towards board's edge

The Kingdom of Sicily are at 18 of 21

While the Byzantines are at just 12, also of 21

Turn 6:

An elite Almughavar is surrounded, but holds it's ground.  Another is routed by Varangians.  That's two points for 20

In front of their camp, the Tagmata pull off a hammer and anvil attack for the last point and the win

What went wrong?

Since the Byzantines had faster cavalry, I wanted to restrict the board.  That lead to the choice of the marsh as a pick.  But coming in the middle of my deployment zone was bad.  I tried to compensate by deploying my Almughavars in it.  The Byzantines took advantage of it by double marching up to where they were able to get extra shots in on the approach.

 

On the right, I had a knight command looking at a spear command.  But I can win that fight.  But Duncan knew that as well, and delayed the approach of the knights.  So basically about 40% of my army did not fight.

The center command also was pretty useless.  Tying up 3 cavalry units with 5 knights.   I'm surprised I scored as well as I did.

 

So in essence, I had made a bad decision on terrain, a questionable deployment, a lackluster implementation and my opponent, who had an excellent feel for the board, refused to make any mistakes.