Game 3 vs Alan - Mamma Li Turchi 1/2011

After two unimpressive games I was in the middle of the pack, with a lot of players eager to gain a victory to climb the classment. In round three I met an Alan army.

An all mounted all impetous army was a good opponent for my byzantines.

Again I defended and I had some terrain to cover the flanks: a rocky patch on the left and a difficult hill on the right. My AxI were quite happy to hide in the hill, being near to useless in open going. The rest of my army deployed deep. Alans had a large host of Lhs shielding the nobles IKnF in the center.

With my left wing weaker in number and quality (I had some LhF) I advanced to the RGo edge staying outside of it, to lower enemy CF by 1

The Alan was very aggressive, and immediately attacked. This round combats were very important, because an early demise of my LhF would have exposed my left flank.

LhF behaved well.

After having stopped the enemy wing I withdrew the LhF and let the BwI take the brunt of the enemy charge, to save my CvO in the center. My shooting proved accurate and some LhS were killed. In the meantime I moved LhS from the center to the left to bolster that sector.

The Alan in the turn of engagement against my main battle line rolled very low pips, and his charge wasn't well coordinated, with some troops going spontaneous and exposing to my countercharge.

Byzantine heavy cavalry charged, causing a lot of casualties to Alans

The Bw held well their line. The combat was turning to byzantine advantage

All of sudden the Alan army collapsed with a streak of bad combats. 23-2

The game was extremely wild and violent, in few combat rounds we had an incredible amount of lost elements. The Bw this time were solid as a rock, and protected the rest of my army, providing some vital overlaps. My opponent was unlucky, both with pips and combat rolls. When you are reckless, this is a recipe for disaster