Slitherine

Hi Folks,

as promised to a couple of you, the first of three scenarios I am working on. This reworks the Durrazo scenario from Swords and Scimitars. That one seems to balance game play by having lots of Varangians - in reality there were just not that many Varangians. This scenario is a set up much more similar to the historical one. I have set up the scenario on a large map so that it can include the raiding force Alexius tried to use to take the Normans in the rear. It failed as the Normans had moved off, leaving part of Alexius' army out of the battle. bad news as he was outnumbered anyway! These really cannot intervene in the battle, but are included so that those of you who want to play a 'what if' can put them back into the Byzantine battle lines to see what effect it has. Plenty of guesswork here of course - the accounts of the battle focus on the edited highlights. So while we have a fairly good order of battle for the Byzantines, this is less clear for the Normans. The overall action is also a little obscure. Anyway, this has been game tested quite a bit and plays fairly well. Warning - the AI does not play the Normans very well, but is passable as the Byzantines. The AI may play better without the Byzantine scout force raiding the Norman camp (the AI still wants to attack these, I think, even though there is a lagoon in the way!). Anyway, hope this downloads ok etc. Link to the zipped scenario below.

Tony

UPDATE 10/2/2011

Two links - the first to a revised version of the scenario, as promised, with George Palaeologus and a detachment of the Dyrrachion garrison present across the bay from the battle. George got around to the battle to see it finish and was then cut off from Dyrrachion, meaning he could not get back there and had to withdraw. Talk about adding disaster to defeat! The second link is to a 'what if' scenario. The Normans have not destroyed the causeway across the bay. George has broken out and looted their camp and now stands ready to cross the bay to threaten the Norman rear. This is pretty much what Alexius planned to happen.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17052915/Dyrarachion.zip
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17052915/Dyrrac ... Sprung.zip

I haven't had a chance to play test your scenarios yet, Tony, but can I just say that all three of them look spectacular and include very interesting terrain and troop elements.

Thanks Pete - am chuffed!

Tony, I am playing this battle online with somebody now. I think that it is an excellent scenario but there is one issue with it that I think you need to consider. Looking at the screen you have set the conflict up on a west-east axis (across the screen) whereas FOG battles usually take place on a north-south axis (up and down te screen). The reason this matters is that routing units will still rout north-south, so you are going to get examples of cavalry routing right down a line of troops causing absolute havoc, particularly if some of those troops are already disordered or fragmented. This would spoil that battle.

If it was my scenario, I would edit the battlefield onto a north-south axis - it would take about an hour to do and you could work around the troops quite easily. You don't have to start the whole thing again to make this change. Everything else is fine, spectaclar, in fact.

Yes, I see what you mean. The disadvantage of this for the Normans is that when they rout, they rout towards the sea! In fairness they did do this in the real battle, so perhaps it is not such a strong objection. I will get around to turning the map as suggested. Am doing Ayn Jalut at the moment and I have manipulated the map a bit to get that effect. Will need to consider Dorylaeum too. Thanks Pete, helpful feedback,

Tony

Hi - done. Map reoriented. Took the opportunity to do a few edits. BTW - the curve of the bay is much more shallow in reality. I have made it something of a hairpin to get it to fit on the map. It does not effect gameplay at all (though if ever FOG introduces boats it might!). If you want to field test Ayn Jalut at some point let me know.

tonymcenery wrote:Hi - done. Map reoriented. Took the opportunity to do a few edits. BTW - the curve of the bay is much more shallow in reality. I have made it something of a hairpin to get it to fit on the map. It does not effect gameplay at all (though if ever FOG introduces boats it might!). If you want to field test Ayn Jalut at some point let me know.

That's great, Tony. And those Thracians could certainly do with a few of my "boats"! I will be back late on 27/12 and I would be very happy to test Ayn Jalut with you then.

Smashing - have a great break. Looking forward to the boats!

The Byzantines reversed history very comfortably in our first play-test, Tony. We are going to have a re-match after Xmas on the new version and my opponent is very keen to play-test your other scenarios too.

Hope you enjoyed - sounds like a good battle!

Some tinsel for Christmas - have re-read the account of the battle given in the Alexiad and have added some commander names to units I have not counted as having generals, just for a bit of decoration!

Tony, there is still a slight problem. We have started a second play-test and we are both having to play with our own armies at the top of the screen instead of them being at the bottom (as if we are behind our own lines as is usual). I think it is a very quick fix - go into "scenario properties" in the editor and swap "Side 1" and "Side 2" around. That should do it. "Side 1" is the army at the bottom of the screen in the editor when you set a game up and they always move first.

Further to that, I have a feeling that you will have to click on each unit and edit them from Side '1' to Side '2', and vice versa. Otherwise each side will have the wrong units.

It takes a while, but it works.

Hi Pete/Maximus - done. The two sides have been swapped around - it was, as Maximus suggested, easy enough. All units had to have the values for Nation and Side changed (the 2s to 1s and the 1s to 2s). Then I just needed to swap the sides around in the scenario details and voila. Thanks guys, especially Pete, I really welcome the feedback.

Tony, you have put the Dorylaeum scenario in your edited first post this time instead of Dyrrachion.

So I did - too much Christmas cheer in all likelihood!

Another fine scenario, thanks!

Playing as the Normans against the AI, at first I thought this was going to be cakewalk - I was completely wrong. Despite their numerical inferiority, the Byzantines managed to hold on both wings while their center crushed mine:



The Varangians in particular where almost unstoppable, only breaking after mobs and levies attacked them from all sides in the chaotic fight which followed the collapse of my center.

At the end it was a bloody Norman victory, 50 to 59.

My pleasure - and the Byzantines should be pretty tough. They had a pretty good army and for this show the Emperor had brought the whole lot with him - including the Varangians and two of the three palace cavalry regiments. One reason the losing the battle turned out to be such a problem for Alexios is that the two palace cavalry regiments contained many high ranking nobles. Dyrrachion saw a good few of the Byzantine nobility killed off.

The Varangians on the day were pretty unstopable - in part because this was a grudge match. Many of them were refugees from England who had fled William's invasion. It was probably this grudge which led them to make their critical mistake. They ran ahead of the rest of the army, were surrounded and destroyed. If it had not been for this Dyrracchion could well have been a Byzantine victory - they did rout the left and right wings of the Norman army. But after the Varangians were cut off and wiped out, the Norman reserve cavalry took out the Byzantine centre and the Byzantines collapsed. Alexios was very, very lucky to get away with his life. Anyway, glad you enjoyed - and thanks for the screenshot!

This is a very nice scenario now, Tony. There is just one issue for me - the small group of Byzantine troops, led by Antiochus, who are stuck out at the end of the peninsula, really need to have a leader flag allocated to them so they can move a bit quicker. Even if the command radius is limited to 3 squares then it would give them bit more of a chance to join proceedings.

Hi Pete, am on holiday at the moment but can very easily and reasonably fix that when I get back. These troops met up with part of the garrison led by the commander in charge of Dyrrachion, George Paleologus. After slogging it around to the battle they arrived when it was over and George had to withdraw. I will put him in charge across the way and add some garrison troops if that sounds ok.