Trebisonda in peril!
To play the tournament "mamma li Turchi", a competition with the theme of the ottoman wars of expansion, I decided to use an army for which I had the figures but never had the opportunity to play competitevely: Trapezuntine Byzantine.
Trapezuntines are basically a light and nimble army, based on medium and light cavalry, supported by some good quality infantry. Having low aggressivity they can usually fight on a battlefield well suited to them, trying to outmanouver and outflank the opponent. Their troops are not ideal to a frontal shock action, and need to be properly positioned before to engage the enemy. Ideally hitting a weak section of the enemy battle line.
After some thinking, I put down this list:
1- CiC RCvO, 6 RCvO, 8 ILhS - 20ME
2- SG RCvO, 12 RLhS, 4 RPsO - 20ME
3- SG RCvO, 8 RBwO - 12ME
4- Turkoman AG ICvO, 2 ICvO, 8 ILhS, 6 IPsO, 1 IBgF - 18ME
5- 4 IBgI - 4ME
The army is nimble but not very tough. Unusually for an LhS host I decided to not take the feigned flight stratagem. A sort of experiment, that was well suited to the trapezuntine elan and fearsome reputation. Ideally I wanted to stick in combat at the right time and against the right enemy and fight there a short and decisive battle to break through the enemy line.
Shortly before the tournament, I decided to change the army composition above, to give more importance to the shooting action as support.
The new C3 was SG RCvO, 8 RBwO, 4 RPsO with baggage, total 16ME, while the turkoman was reduced to 3 CvO and 8 ILhS. With hindsight, this was a mistake, but at the moment it seemed to me a good idea. The games showed that the turks were always in the hot of the battle, while the archers role was secondary and basically pip dump.
These were my two games:
I ended the tournament with 27 points, 26 from games and one for early picking bonus. I could have done better.
The army proved to be fun to use, and even stronger I thought. The low breaking points and the nature of fighting involving Lh give very tense moments in the battles: not an army for the faint hearts. It need some aggressive tactic and a good eye for manouvering. As expected deciding where and when to fight is not that easy.
After two games I can say that the original army list is the better one. Turcomans are very important and need decent BP. I will use this army again.