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.