Out of the Desert

[Karvon]

The first in a series of semi-historical battles of the Arab Conquest.

1. Battle at the Oasis.

The prophet directed us to bring the desert tribes into the fold, so our army marched out to secure a key oasis. The Bedouins rallied to oppose our advance. A large plateau lay in the center and most of the right sectors, surrounding the oasis, which lay in the right center, and a large farm in about the center of our deployment area. A long patch of rough ran along the plateau on our right, looking down on the oasis.

We deployed our foot in the large farm with our light and mounted on our right on the plateau. The Bedouins deployed opposite us, with mixed mounted on both wings and their foot in the center.

We left a few of our spears to hold the farm and shifted the rest to our right, marching up along the plateau toward the oasis. Our mounted swung wide around the oasis, supported by a few of our foot and lights.

The Bedouins swarmed toward the farm and along the plateau to oppose our advance. On our left, our spears grimly held out in the fields surrounding the village, though they took a lot of losses from skirmishers and from repeated attack by enemy horse. On the plateau, our spears ground forward, slowly driving back the opposing horse, but taking a fair number of losses from enemy bow fire in the process. On our right, our mounted supported by our lights and a few foot, slowly drove off or destroyed the opposing horse as they swept around the oasis, and then enveloped the Bedouin center, leading to the final collapse of the enemy.

Final Score: Arab Conquest 64 - Arab Bedouin 44.

[Karvon]

The 2nd in a series of semi-historical battles of the Arab Conquest.

2. Battle of the Farm

Following our victory over the desert tribes, we marched on a nearby town to bring more people under the banner of the faithful. The townsmen met our army near a central farm overlooked by some hills, several of them rather steep.

We deployed our spears, supported by bow in the center with some mediums on our right screened by our lights and camels. A small division of lancers covered our left initially.

The city folk deployed a massive block of spearmen on their right along a ridge overlooking the central farm. A fair number of bows and mediums screened by light foot deployed along the slopes of a couple of steep hills securing their left. A large division of lancers supported by a few light horse covered their right and a smaller mixed division of camels and lancers screened by a few light horse covered their left.

We pushed forward our lights and camels backed up by our infantry on the right and the city folks mounted fell back around the steep hills covering their left. Their spears advanced across the ridge to the slopes overlooking the central farm and their right wing mounted swept wide to move in on the flank of the farm.

Lacking the troops to effectively assault the steep hills, our infantry wheeled left and moved into the central farm, while our lights and horse reversed and shifted to cover the rear and left flank of the farm. The city folk descended from the steep hills and advanced after our shifting infantry and horse, supported by some light horse and camels.

The city folk stormed down the hill and assaulted out spears in the farm and that did not go well for them with several units disrupted or fragmented fairly quickly. Our bow and camels rained arrows on the lancers facing us on our left, disrupting and fragmenting several of them as well. We unleashed our own lancers and swept these away. Demoralized by these losses, the city folk leaders surrendered.

Final adjusted score: Arab Conquest 44 Arab City 19

[Karvon]

The 3rd in a series of semi-historical battles of the Arab Conquest.

3. Invasion of Sassanid Lands

With the Arab tribes united under the banners of the prophet, our attention turned to our northern neighbor, the decrepit Sassanid empire. Our army marched across the border and found their forces mustered to oppose us on a plain fringed with date palms and several farming communities, one in our center, one in the enemy center and another off to our left flank.

We massed our foot behind the embankments screened by our lights and placed our horse in reserve on our right, supported by camels and screened by our light horse.

The Sassanids fielded an all horse army, several ranks of their armored horse archers screened by a few light horse.

We steadily advanced on the right from our farm towards the opposing one with our horse covering our right alongside the palm groves. The Sassanids galloped up and began pouring arrows on us along the line. Our lights managed to absorb a lot of the early fire before finally retiring or breaking. Our own foot bows and lights inflicted a bit of damage though in return.

Our spears charged, scattering his lines, and our own horse followed up, catching and destroying a number of his mounted. The Sassanids regrouped and came at us again, with our spears stoically absorbing the fire and then driving them off, with our mounted chasing some of them down.

While we lost a few units eventually to fire, we managed to grind the enemy down in the end, and they surrendered.

Final Score: Arabs 57 Sassanids 39.

[Karvon]

The 4th in a series of semi-historical battles of the Arab Conquest.

4. Battle of the Date Palms.

Pressing our invasion of the Sassanid lands, we met the next enemy army in another farming district. A large farm lay in our center with a large date palm grove along the right side of it covering a large part of our right sector. A stream wandered across the center of the field. Medium-sized patches of rough ground stretched beyond the farm on the left to the stream, and another similar patch lay beyond the stream a little to the right. A couple of rough patches were on our side of the stream near the right edge. Another smaller farm sat along our far left flank. A couple of farms were visible in the distance on the far left and center of the Sassanid side of the field. A number of small patches of rough were scattered across the plains.

Given the likely Sassanid number of horse with possible elephants, our plan was to initially defend the farm and neighboring palm grove and counterattack where feasible. To that end, we deployed most of our spearmen in the farm complex screened by a few lights and supported by a couple of our bowmen. We hid a small division of Bedouin lancers and camels in the palm grove, screened by the rest of our lights, some Bedouin foot, and bowmen. We place our Bedouin light lancers in a loose picket line close to the stream.

The Sassanids surprised us by bringing a predominantly infantry army. A long line of their heavy foot formed their center, with a second line of levy spear backing them up as a reserve. A couple of elephants formed up to the left, supported by a veteran Dailami foot, and a small horse archer division covered their left flank. A few lights screened their front.

We decided to stick to the original plan and hold the farm complex, letting their foot come to us. We shifted our lights to our right in an attempt to draw this horse archers away and ahead of his foot.

The Sassanids obliged, and their infantry slowly advanced towards the farm, while their horse archers galloped across the stream, scattering our opposing lights ahead of them.

We shifted our spearmen around in the farm to maximize the embankments as our lights continued to skirmish with the opposing horse archers. We saw off one with our shooting and disrupted another, losing one of our lights in the process. We then sprang our Bedouin horse out of the palms and swept away his remaining horse in a series of flanking attacks.

The Sassanids assaulted the farm and that did not go so well for them either, given our better morale and defensive position; a couple of units disrupted or fragmented fairly quickly. We shot up one elephant and the other slammed into our spears for a grinding combat. His Dailami proved more troublesome, and we sacrificed a bow unit to keep it occupied while swinging some of our Bedouin foot and reserve spear around the engaged enemy left and punched through his reserve line of levy spears pretty quickly. Our horse swept along right, taking away some fragmented units and pursuing his routers. For several hours, the Sassanids verged on breaking, but each time managed to hold together somehow.

One of our spear holding the corner of the farm was finally ground down and broke, but the rest of the line held. We managed to recall some of our horse, and they began to envelop the Sassanid foot embroiled against our foot behind the embankments of the farm. More of their foot disrupted and then broke as we counterattacked out of the farm with our spears. This proved the final straw, and the Sassanids finally collapsed.

Final Score: Arabs - 59 Sassanids - 28.

[Karvon]

The 5th in a series of semi-historical battles of the Arab Conquest.

5. In the Hills Beside the Sea.

With the defeat of the Sassanids, our attention shifted to the west and the lands of the Byzantine empire. Our army invaded Palestine and met an imperial army in some hills along the coast. The sea lay along our right. A series of hills ran across the middle. A few scattered woods were on our left.

We initially interspersed our bow and spears in a long line from the sea to the woods on our left. We hid our lights and a few mediums in the woods. We placed one small division of lancers and camels behind our food on our left and hid another behind the woods. A few light lancers screened our far left.

The Byzantine army was all horse, a lot of lancers supported by a few horse archers and a couple of light horse. They were deployed in roughly three equal divisions with the light horse out on their right flank.

We slowly advanced our main infantry line and supporting horse, while keeping the rest hidden. The Byzantines began shifting their center and right divisions further right behind their screening light horse while their left cantered forward to delay our infantry line.

We pressed forward on our right to pin down the opposing horse with a token number of spears, while the rest of the line pivoted to our left to face the horse trying to outflank us. Our light lancers chased off some of the screening lights and engaged the others. The Byzantines sent in their lancers and horse archers in support and saw off one of ours. We, in turn, jumped on the pursuers with our hidden camels and lancers and our lights moved out of the woods to shoot up some of his horse. Another of our light lancers finally broke and fled off the field, taking a couple of the Byzantines along in hot pursuit. Fortunately, these never returned.

Our pivoting spear and bow line came into support the ongoing melees on the left. The bow, adding to the lights, shot up several more of his horse. The spears drove back, and then flanked several lancers tangled with our horse. We threw in more of our horse to flank or finish off fragmented units.

On our right, our two spear kept his four horse pinned down, but his focused shooting eventually shredded one, though it held out to the bitter end, despite being charged a time or two.

On the left, our spears and horse enveloped the surviving lancers, and most of them folded after a few hours of fighting. Our light horse harried routers to insure none of them rallied, and the Byzantines finally gave up.

Final Score: Arabs 56 - Byzantines 28.