Nikaian Byzantine vs Faudal French

Medieval Byzantine armies have a lot of charme to me. Nikaian Byzantine is one of the most succesful, being able to win some battles and retake Costantinopolis from the treacherous Latins.

I have organized the list with two big strike corps, made by Latinikon and support cavalry, and a small reserve with the wost part of the army.

My opponent fielded a typical feudal host, not much different from the Latin Empire that was one of the historucal byzantine opponent. The game was going to be a confrontation between sheer frankish power and cunning byzantine manouver.

The table from the byzantine side. The French defended,  and tried to cover the flanks with some terrain. Unfortunately this didn't worked on one flank that was open. On the right there was a vineyard and some rough patch, with a marsh, a big wood and a rocky patch in the byzantine deployment area. The wood was going to have a big impact on the game, because the byzantine, deploying second, could use it to mass all their forces on a flank.

The Northern French had a large infantry contingent, made by IBdI and IBw. The knights were just 12. The french deployed with some deep and with reserves.

I squeezed my Latinikon in two lines on the left, using the medium and light horses to exploit the flanks. The poor cavalry reserve was near the baggage.

The French boldly advanced trying to engage it frontally before I could manouver. The IKnS reserve of the left wing passed through the infantry looking for my Latinikon knights.

The Byzantine cavalry rushed out of the bad going outflanikg the enemy infantry.

The French tried to manouver the infantry to cover the left flank, while poor pips delayed the advance on the right flank. There the byzantine light horses withdrew.

Under heavy pressure the French advanced accepting to be cgarged first. He could no more wait, with the flank every turn more exposed

The byzantine charge was unsuccessful, expecially versus the frankish infantry attacked frontally and by side.

After some combat bounds, the french situation was very critical. The Knights fought well, and caused many losses to the Byzantine.

On the right the Turcopoloi used steppe tactic to disorganize the western knights before charge them

The French skillfully were able to reorganize their line, and the byzantine Lh decided to charge, trying to add more losses to the french corps, heavily engaged on the other side.

The French infantry was overwhelmed and the left corps broke. The CvI reserve made an excellent job.

The fight has not been bloodless for the byzantine, that had both the  large corps near the breaking point. On the last round The French commander, in the top central position in the picture, engaged a byzantine general trying to kill him and win the game, but failed. The byzantine counterattack dispached him and broke the French army. 20-5 for the Byzantines.

An heavily fought game, with the Latinikon suffering heavy losses (7 elements lost out of 12). The flanking manouver did win the game. The French were near to gain the victory, using just a portion of their IKnS. The terrain was a big handicap to the French, expecially the central wood that cut out of the fray an important portion of them.

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