A Byjesus of Byzantines

A Headless Body Production

Venue: Harve de Grace's Community Center, in the land of the HAWKS.
Event: Barrage 2024, Round 2
Players: Paul Bellerive running Komnenan Byzantine, list 193
               Phil Gardocki running Samurai, list 221
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.

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The Forces:
Samurai commanders include the Strategist Yoshitune, Darryl-san, the Competent, and Darryl-san, the Ordinary and Included
2 Heavy Cavalry, Bow, Elite
2 Light Cavalry, Bow, one Elite
5 Samurai, Heavy Sword, 2HW, Elite
6 Samurai, Medium Sword, bow, 2 Elite
3 Peasant Bowmen, Mediocre
2 Peasants armed with Naginata, Medium sword, Mediocre
3 Light Infantry, Bow
1 Stampeding Cattle, played as a Scythed Chariot
Breakpoint...23

The Byzantine commanders include a Brilliant, a Competent and included and an Ordinary
1 Tagmata Heavy Cavalry, Impact, 1/2 Bow, Elite
3 Norman Knights, Medium Knight, Impetuous, 2 are Elite
3 Themata Heavy Cavalry, Impact, 1/2 Bow.
2 Themata Medium Cavalry, Impact, 1/2 Bow
2 Varangians, Heavy Sword, Armor, 2HW, Elite
4 Skutatoi, Heavy Spear, 1/2 Bowmen
3 Pecthnegs, Cumans or Prokoursatotes, Light Cavalry, Bow
3 Psiloi, Light Infantry, various
Breakpoint of 21

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ouch!", "ああ！" or "Ωχ!",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.

"XX" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn.Inappropriate capitalization is for words that have a specific meaning in the game. 

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

The Board:

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

Luck favored the terrain placement and supported my preset plans of two pieces of terrain in each of my flank zones.

The Byzantine right has a strong force of foot, including fully equipped Varangian Guards

On the left is the actual Byzantine army of Impact cavalry with 1/2 bows.

Introduced in ADLG v4, 1/2 bow means the unit shoots as one level lower than the quality of the unit. So Elites shoot without benefit. Ordinary shoot as Mediocre.

Yoshitune deployed just two horse units on the Shinjuku road. They are facing a lot of bow armed Skutatoi.

In the Plantation are two ambush sites containing two samurai and two peasant units

In the center is Darryl-San, Included in a heavy cavalry unit, escorting a herd of cattle. On the right is Darryl-San with 5 units of samurai and 3 units of peasants.

Turn 1:

Seeing naught but two horse units in front of them, the Byzantine foot command advances fearlessly.

Their Norman allies keep pace with the foot.

Facing a lot of archery from rough terrain, the Tagmata/Themata advances cautiously

Samurai reveal themselves to challenge the Varangians.

Yoshitune orders the rest of his samurai forward, and his lights to taunt the Normans.

It doesn't seem like the Byzantine horse are going around the flank, so Darryl-San orders his samurai archers to cant towards the edge of their line.

Turn 2:

Across the great divide, Jim's Malay elephants are ready to trample.

Turn 2:

Psiloi go for a shooting advantage against the Japanese skirmishers.

The Normans can see the trap a mile away, and the knights are ordered to rein in.

Byzantine horse archers trade shots. Mutual cursing arises from both sides.

Samurai advance and loose arrows

The cattle herd is ignited and stampedes

Arrows darken the skies

Elsewhere in the main room, an Arab town is laid out. Many of the buildings are made from printed and folded postcard stock. They can be found here...

Excellent theming here.

Pumpkin Heads join a battle for the land of Oz.

In the land of Oz, ostrich riding knights about to enter the spooky forest.

Turn 3:

Even with +2 protection for cover, sometimes you take a hit.

The Byzantine commander loses control the Normans. One stops to support the Psiloi. Others run off the Japanese skirmishers.

The herd of cattle is dispersed by Byzantine archery.

Another ambush is revealed. The hidden peasants are called forth to advance.

The thought here was that the Samurai were going to be engaged with the Byzantine heavies. So the peasants can charge the flank of the Norman knights when they charge.

Katana waving samurai advance to charge range of Normans.

Samurai continue to darken the skies. Just missing dispersing a Themata.

Turn 4:

The Byzantine foot advance to plantations edge.

The Byzantines have no choice but to release the Normans. There is a rumble of steel shod hooves. The Normans win 2 of 3 battles on contact.

While the Byzantine professionals advance more cautiously.

They are not in a hurry, and pull back their disordered units.

It is unknown at this time IF the Varangains will enter the rough.

On Norman knight is routed, trading for a katana wielding samurai. But the peasants are on the flank, and there is nothing there to distract them.

Byzantine horse charges. But the battles are all even up.

The current score is 6 (of 23) for the Samurai...

to 9 (of 21) for the Byzantines.

Turn 5:

With the Normans no longer sucking up command points, the Byzantine foot forces are free to advance.

The Normans "Conform", onto the Samurai to good effect.

Byzantine horse bring up support just in time for their left most cavalry unit. But their right side Tagmata is giving way.

Peasant bowman turn to protect the flank of the left most samurai unit. But the samurai just rout through the same peasant, so that didn't work out so well.

On the other side, the one Varangian unit has 3 hits and is ready to rout.

The remaining Normans are flanked and routed.

With the Samurai horse running off to flank charge the Normans, Darryl-San's samurai are just holding their ground.

Looking at this now, I traded a knight for not killing a Tagmata.

At the bottom of the turn, the Samurai are at 11 of 23

The Byzantines are at 12 of 21

Turn 6 or 7:

I missed shooting pictures at the top of the turn. So the bottom of the turn will have composite shots.

The peasant bowman hold their line against Varangians. But one of the Varangians was destroyed by a flank charge, and another is now engaged on the flank as well.

The Byzantines cavalry Disengage, and then are challenged in the front and flank.

Samurai archers exit the rough for better shooting.

Turn 7?:

Skutatoi push forward, and flank the peasants

Tagmata charge, and are cut to ribbons by sharp swords.

The rest of the Japanese line up for archery, but seemed short on arrows.

When your opponent is at 16 of 21, you take chances. This is a Light Horse charging a Skutatoi in the flank. The Skut's keep their base factor of 2 against the Light Horse of zero, +1 for flank. So almost even up. And this time, fortune favored the fools.

Samurai invite the Tagmata to a rumble, but get an RSVP instead.

Samurai horse also charge the flanks of the Themata, who also decline.  I should have been patient, in another turn the Byzantines would have been surrounded.

In a bit of a mini game. A Tagmata had charged a Japanese unto the field covered hill. Then the skirmishers weaseled onto the flank, but off the hill, so the Tagmata was ZOC'd. Then the Tagmata charged, running off the skirmishers, which returned and shot the Tagmata disordered.

 Which kept the Tagmata from looting the camp.

 And that was it.  Time was called with the game declared a draw.

On the main floor, an interesting layout.  Game unknown.

A setup on Easter Island.  If you look under the table, you can see their feet.