Romanian Franks vs Aragonese Spanish

Romanian Frank is one of my preferred KnS army and also a sort of bonus I received from my medieval byzantine collection.

After having painted 12 Latinikon, and the usual mix of kavallarioi, skythikons and light infantry, I realized that with just 9 more Kn elements I could field this enemy of the Byzantine Empire.

One of my preferred composition is this one. It has a good punch with 21 IKnS, and enough support troops to protect the flanks, have a reserve and also skirmish in front of the battle line.

My opponent decided to use a Medieval Spanish Aragones army, based on massed archers and almugavars. An host less powerful, but larger and wider.

My main problem would be smash thorough the enemy line before to be outflanked

I was the defender, and tried to place terrain to protect my flanks and deny any advantage to the enemy infantry. I choosed 2 1FE GH, 2 1FE vineyards and 1 1/2FE orchards. My opponent picked RH. My army deployed first on the left. The relevant terrains were a large RH on the right, then a vineyard in central position, a couple of GH and an orcherd on the far left of the battle line.

Deploying first, I decided to line my IKnS between the difficult going, with the left flank well protected directly by the terrain, while the right one had 8 IPsS and 3 ILhS to skirmish and delay the enemy.

My opponent, deploying second, decided unwisely to confront me head on with a wall of IBwO in the center. This had as a consequence that his wing on the far left had no room to deploy the mass of Cv and Lh he had. He had to deploy deeply losing the opportunity to outflank me.  On the right, were he had the room to manouver around me, he had just some almughavars as light troops and these were used to attack the vineyard.

Basically I think my opponent should have deployed inverted his wings. The combination of terrain and army composition blocked his mobility and left him just a straight forward soluton that was exactly what I was looking for.

In the first two turns I advanced all along the line, withdrawing my LhS right flank guard to avoid being shot at pieces. The ICvO reserve was sent on the left to restore the balance. The aragonese waited attacking just on the right.

The Frankis knights enter the shooting zone of the spanish infantry

The Aragonese fire disordered the knights line, that was then charged by the spanish left wing. The Franks lost just 1 element, the left corps general.

The Franks charged the archers line, but were repulsed or stopped everywhere. From this moment, the fight was a hard melee with no room or pips to manouver nothing else that the reserves.

The second Frank charge against the shooter line. The spanish mounted wing was slowly mauled by the IKnS

The archers suddenly collapsed and the central spanish corps broke. The Spanish CiC left wing was overwhelmed.

The Spanish fueled the combat on the left with their reserves but were not able to stop the KnS tide. Finally the aragonese CiC had to enter combat, was outflanked and killed. At this point the spanish army fled. 22-3

This game was very simple and straightforward, and possibly lost by the Aragonese at the set up. It's a typical example of how is dangerous deploy and play the enemy letting him dictate the engagement rules. Never let your opponent this degree of freedom.