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Thursday, November 1, 2018

Nikephorian Byzantines versus Empire of Nicea

Almost a Byzantine civil war.  In this game my opponent was Olivier playing his first Basic Impetus 2.0 game.  He had read the rules, but had failed to bring his dice and so was sharing mine.  He didn't stand a chance!

 I was the attacker which gave me an advantage in deployment,
and for a change there was a lot of terrain.
(a wood, an impassable marsh and a gentle hill)

 First turn and the Niceans hardly moved.
I sent my cavalry out to harass their knights.

 By the end of the second turn, skirmishing had just about commenced.

 Turn three saw the Stratiatoi (medium cavalry) covering the Nicean knights 
dealt a mighty storm of arrows and comprehensively fail their cohesion test.

 They were then charged by my Prokoursatores.

 The melee held up the enemy knights until...

 Finally I was able to play the Betrayal Ace in the Hole to devastating effect, turning a retreat into a rout and dealing devastating damage to the knights.

 Turn five and a rather ineffectual light shower of slings and arrows befell the enemy knights.
On the rest of the battlefield only a cautious advance had been made.

 The Nicean knights attempted to drive off their harassers.
They didn't succeed.

After more arrows and then two charges the cream of the Empire of Nicea was lapped up.

At this point Olivier had suffered enough and we ended the game.

4 comments:

  1. Betrayal - fun concept but how often did it really happen DURING a battle? The Stanleys at Bosworth, sometimes allies failed to arrive or sat or a battle from a distance but changing sides during combat?

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    Replies
    1. I always pick that option. It is hard to use it successfully as the opportunities are just not there, but, it can happen.

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  2. Gotta have some more of these battles. Some kind of Civil War seems to be indicated...

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