Early Byzantine civil war
This game both me and my opponent tried an Early Byzantine army: I used a normal general. while he choosed an Inert one. I thought the game would be a difficult one, because I could not survive an attritional combat against such a larger foe. I had to outmanouver my opponent and strike him fast.
Luckily I was the attacker, so I could deploy last and move first. This was the battlefield seen from my side: Two vineyards in the center, an enclosed field and a DH on the right, and a Bua in contact with a paved road on the left.
This is the situation after my first turn. The opponent deployed some Ps on the DH, a skirmisher corps in the center, and beside it an infantry corps. On the far left not in the picture there was the CiC leading the 8 RCvS. I decided to offset my deployment, with a PsS force sent on the DH to outflank and engage the enemy skirmisher. The LH of that corps had the task to sprint in the gap between the vineyard and the DH to go behind the enemy flank.
The enemy skirmishers were to be attacked by my strike corps with LhS leading and CvS behind ready to interpenetrate if possible. The left flank, where the enemy mounted arm would hit, was to be defended by my infantry.
The idea was to smash the enemy skirmishers and roll the infantry before the inert CiC could outflank me.
Once my central corps advanced in charge reach, my opponent immediately charged it. Enemy CvS manouvered to hit my center in the flank, while a column of LhS was formed to engage the infantry. These troops were still on the far left and out of the picture. The enemy charge made me recoil almost along all the line, and my opponent made a mistake choosing not to pursue.
This let my CvS interpenetrate and charge. I was confident, but the combat was inconclusive, because I killed just one Lh element
The situation started to be tense. My opponent was able to advance with his left wing LhS in an outflanking position, while his CvS was ready to start rolling my center. Furthermore, the combat round was terrible, I lost 4 CvS and was on verge of being disheartened
I manouvered to protect my flank and with a desperate attack started killing some more enemy LhS. My right corps was finally threating the enemy flank, but would I have resisted to the continous enemy attacks?
This time I took no casualties and did some. My ps S were slowly eliminating enemy skirmishers on the hill, immobilized by being out of command. The enemy center was collapsing
I sacrified some elements on the left to gain time, and when finally my right corps hit the enemy in the rear, his attritioned Lh corps in the center broke
My Bd attacked now, because my CiC command was disheartened and I needed to protect and save it from being broken
A hard fight started between my skutatoi and the enemy CvS. Slowly I disengaged the disheartened corps, while some LhS of mine were in charge reach of the enemy baggage. Having lost one regular pip dice the inert CiC now started having problem to react to my initiatives
Enemy Bukellarioi overlapped started to die, creating hard flank opportunities
Losses mounted up and I had to risk some disheartened LhS to cover the infantry right flank, while the enemy committed all his reserves. In the meantime there was an important combat near the baggage, where the enemy pip dump corps tried to block the pillage of the camp
With both my infantry and enemy CvS corps close to the breaking point, the game ended when I was able to kill the pip dump general, breaking the small corps and the enemy bukellarioi command too thanks to 1ME loss transmission. Game over 20-5 for the rightful Emperor
A close game that again demonstrated how good are inert armies with 4 regular generals, but how less effective they become once they lose one corps and thus one regular pip dice.