Slitherine

Battle results for Dorostolon:
Romans (Edmund) 38/58 vs Rus (allendeuce) 86/85
Edmund 10.1
allendeuce 6.6
The game was fairly even throughout, but then the Rus position in the centre collapsed just before they could get to the markers at the rear.

Thanks for the game Jim, it is always good to play you.

Interestingly, unsure whether it was deliberate, I explored the option of sending cavalry down the extreme right hand side of the Roman position and attacking the Rus baggage. The result was 4 points taken from the baggage but 3 units of Rus spearmen surviving on that flank compared with none on the other. Fogman later confirmed this was not intended. Wrist accordingly slapped, but little difference made. That said, I'd be happy to replay it if desired.

Battle results for Stilo:
Germans (Edmund) 19/30 vs Kalbids (mcfcivo) 56/52
Edmund 10.8
mcfcivo 6.3
The game lasted 7 turns, just long enough for Otto's lances to break through and kill the Emir and for the German infantry to pick up their marker points, but not long enough for the Kalbid cavalry to make a significant impact. 2 more turns and it would have been a different result.

Thanks for the game Andy.

Interestingly, I just noticed we started this whole journey 3 years ago! 51 battles later, we're still going strong. The year 1000 beckons.

fogman wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 12:40 am Interestingly, I just noticed we started this whole journey 3 years ago! 51 battles later, we're still going strong. The year 1000 beckons.

That means we are all three years older !

iandavidsmith wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 7:30 am

fogman wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 12:40 am Interestingly, I just noticed we started this whole journey 3 years ago! 51 battles later, we're still going strong. The year 1000 beckons.

That means we are all three years older !

Sic transit gloria mundi, I’m afraid.

Battle results for Dorostolon:
Rus (Edmund) 68/85 vs Romans (fogman) 58/58
Edmund 10.0
fogman 8.0

The Rus flanks held on just long enough for the rear rank units to get to the Roman markers at the back. In fact, no less than 40 of the 58 points the Rus scored came from Roman markers. The Romans were ahead on points all the way through, but the Rus only need 58 to win and got there before the Romans reached 85.

Thanks for the game fogman and for 3 years of excellent scenarios.

Battle results for Stilo:
Kalbids (Edmund) 34/52 vs Germans (iandavidsmith) 32/30
Edmund 10.7
iandavidsmith 6.5
It would seem that the longer the game lasts, the better the chance the Kalbid cavalry has of turning it in their favour. The dice were unfriendly to Ian, with the German cavalry and their poor spears both underperforming. As a result, the game went into the 8th turn, with Otto himself perishing at the death. So the Kalbids won, despite fewer points and higher casualties.

Thanks for the game ian.

iandavidsmith wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 7:30 am

fogman wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 12:40 am Interestingly, I just noticed we started this whole journey 3 years ago! 51 battles later, we're still going strong. The year 1000 beckons.

That means we are all three years older !

To put a positive spin on it, we're all still alive! (I don't think Fogman would give any of us permission to kick the bucket until we've finished the entire campaign!)

Stilo

Londo (Kalbids) 43/52 - Jim (Germans) 31/30

The Kalbid cavalry at the rear got through the delay markers and made it forward quickly. Some of them got up to the ridge line, helping to hold the Krauts back until the flanking forces arrived. Thanks for the game Jim!

Dorostolon

Me Romans 29/58 beat Ian Rus 92/85

Cheers for the game Ian!

Andy

ROUND 26: THE QUEST FOR HEGEMONY

Around the turn of the second millenium AD, the East Roman Empire under Basil II was growing in power, not seen since before the Muslim conquests. It had strengthened and expanded the Anatolian frontier but had been unable to crush the Bulgars and recover most of the Balkans. The campaign that led to the battle of Kleidion in 1014 would restore Roman hegemony on its European territories. Farther East, Mahmud of Ghazni had made himself master of Khurasan and was casting his eyes beyond the Khyber Pass and the riches of India. His decisive victory at Chach in 1008 over the Hindu Shahids would leave the Indo-Gangetic plains open to Muslim expansion in the following centuries...

CHACH 1008
Mahmud marched his army over the Khyber Pass into the Punjab where Anandapala offered battle. But on that day, Anandapala’s elephant corps failed him and he himself fled the field, and despite fierce resistance by his tribal allies, his army was routed and Muslim penetration deep into India became inevitable.

KLEIDION 1014
Basil II’s army was blocked by Bulgar fortifications in a mountain valley near Kleidion but one his generals found a way around them. The outflanking force erupted on the Bulgar rear, precipitating a rout. Desperate fighting ensued as tsar Samuel rushed forward with his reserves to salvage what he could of his stricken army.

---------------

Scenario files

CHACH 1008
KLEIDION 1014 ----------------
CHALLENGES FORTHCOMING

Dorostolon

Londo (Byz) 50/58 - mcfcivo (Rus) 93/85

Londo (Rus) 60/85 - Ian (Byz) 60/58

The scenario hinges on whether the Rus can break the Byzantine centre before the cavalry jaws of death close around them. The Rus managed this in one game; in the other the Byz infantry held on (barely). Thanks Andy and Ian!

Fogman, something that puzzles me: why were the Russians of this era still fighting mainly in big dumb blocs of spearmen? Their neighbours - Byz, Bulgars, Magyars, and of course Mongols - were heavy users of cavalry. In the open steppes of eastern Europe, cavalry would seem essential?

Londo wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:48 pm Fogman, something that puzzles me: why were the Russians of this era still fighting mainly in big dumb blocs of spearmen? Their neighbours - Byz, Bulgars, Magyars, and of course Mongols - were heavy users of cavalry. In the open steppes of eastern Europe, cavalry would seem essential?

Actually at that time most of their neighbours were the Balts and various Ungrians Finns tribes in the north and north east. Most of Russia was vast forests, marshes and waterways. It was still largely wilderness of course. Only along the Black Sea latitudes do you find steppes. Because of the distances involved, Rus armies would move on boats along rivers, like Scandinavians (the eponymous Rus) or assimilated Scandinavians who formed the basis of the warrior class at the time. It follows that they also fought the Scandinavian way, on foot even if they might have travelled on horses, like huscarls in Anglo-Saxon England. Only slowly did Russian elites, at length removed from Scandinavian models, start to adopt cavalry warfare. Like all settled societies, only the rich could afford horses, and the fighting mass of Rus armies were made up of peasant levies, foot soldiers by default. Not that they did not appreciate cavalry; in the Dorostolon campaign, the Rus had Pecheneg allies (who withdrew before the decisive battle). Along the forest steppes boundary, for centuries there was an equilibrium between the foot armies with their strongholds and the smaller horse armies with their empty space: no one could decisively defeat the other so there was no great impetus for change, and change itself was no simple matter. It was the same in ancient China where they ended up just building a wall because they could not possibly defeat the barbarians and it was just not the simple matter of raising horse regiments. Keep in mind it was not until the late Empire that the Romans developed heavy cavalry to fight the Persians and they had fought them since Republican times! It was not that the settled societies in the Middle East preyed upon by nomadic desert Bedouins did not think of raising camels to beat them at their own game; for a host of factors, they just could not. The equilibrium was broken by the Mongols who came to Russia with Chinese siege engineers and were more sophisticated militarily than the random Iranic or Turkic tribe.

CHACH 1008

Shahids vs Ghaznavids

Fogman vs Edmund
Edmund vs Allendeuce
Allendeuce vs Londo
Londo vs Iandavidsmith
Iandavidsmith vs Mcfcivo
Mcfcivo vs Fogman

-------------------------------
KLEIDION 1014

Bulgars vs Romans

Fogman vs Allendeuce
Edmund vs Londo
Allendeuce vs Iandavidsmith
Londo vs Mcfcivo
Iandavidsmith vs Fogman
Mcfcivo vs Edmund

-----------------------------

First named initiates challenge, no fog of war, no double moves.

No worries at all, Richard. Playing you is always fun, but I am content with the way it turned out.....


(Cheater)....

Where’s everybody?

Challenges

Chach 1008 vs Edmund
pw: edmund

Kleidion 1014 vs Allendeuce
pw: allen

Challenges Posted
CHACH 1008

Shahids vs Ghaznavids

Iandavidsmith vs Mcfcivo

password = Mcfcivo

KLEIDION 1014

Bulgars vs Romans

Iandavidsmith vs Fogman

Passord = Fogman

Good Luck
Ian

Hello guys!
Challenges are up;

Chach 1008 for Londo; pw is londo

Kleidon 1014 for Iandavidsmith; pw is kleid

Best of luck to you both, and have fun kicking butt or being kicked!
allendeuce, aka Jim

Hello. Results for Kleidon;

allendeuce/Bulgars 38/38, 10.0

iandavidsmith/Romans 34/46, 7.4

Good game, Ian!

Challenges issued for Londo and allendeuce. Passwords Londo and allendeuce.
We await Basil the Bulgar Basher!

Well, you'll not have to wait long!
Let the bashing commence!