A couple of weeks ago I led my Early Crusaders (draft list) against a Fatimid Egyptian army of Dave T's.
The draft list upgrades the Kn to (O), which makes them a little tougher, but slower. Perhaps surprisingly for me, I didn't take a Brilliant C-in-C, instead seeing what I could achieve with stratagems. I had three Crusader commands, each with Kn, Sp, Ps and Bw, with the C-in-C's the largest, the first ally a bit smaller and the second ally smaller again. A Byzantine ally with some Reg LH (S) rounded out the army. The C-in-C had fortified baggage, while the two Crusader allies had Bg (I).
For stratagems, I took Scouts, Exaggerated Numbers and Delay Battle. My plan was to have a go at recreating the battle of Dorylaeum, with a large Crusader force facing the enemy with the support of some Byzantines, while two other Crusader forces flank marched.
I should have thought just a little before I dived into this...
The terrain suited my opponent perfectly. He got a dune on each flank, with a BUA behind the dune on his left flank. There was just enough room behind each dune for my Crusader allies to arrive. No other terrain played a significant part in the game.
Well, after Dave's fortuitous terrain dice, my first mistake was to try to optimise my use of the Delay Battle stratagem - as it can't be used if the battle starts before dawn, the first thing I wanted was for dawn to be as early as possible, so I invaded in summer. (In Dry.)
The Fatimids deployed conservatively - a large block of Irr Sp (I) supported by Bd (I) and (X) on the flanks and a reserve of Cv (O) and Hd (O) was the centre command. Each flank command consisted of a mix of Cv (O) and LH (O), supported by some Bw. I deployed the Byzantines on the left, with the C-in-C's Sp in the centre in two ranks. The Bw were between the Sp and the Byzantines, with the Kn on the right. Beyond the Kn were the Ps, which I hoped to sneak into the BUA to make it friendly to me and thus switch the thirst effect to Dave's army. I used my Exaggerated Numbers stratagem to add a third rank of Sp to my centre command - I thought that using the full extent of the stratagem to put a 4th rank might have looked suspicious.
Next came the dice roll for time of day and weather. Wouldn't you know - a 6-1. So the battle was starting at 7am, after sunrise, but the weather condition was thirst - which applies to armies after midday which don't have easy access to fresh water (defined as a friendly BUA or watercourse of some sort further to their rear than their most advanced element). With the BUA almost on Dave's table edge, he didn't have a problem. And I didn't yet, either, because the effect didn't apply for five hours yet.
Then came the dice roll for the amount of the Delay from my stratagem. And I came up with a 5. So I'd successfully delayed the start of battle by five hours, greatly increasing the chance of my flank marches arriving. Only I'd delayed the battle so much that the main force was thirsty!
Now I was in a cleft stick. If I advanced, I'd quickly give away my stratagem, but I'd be able to pin the Fatimids nearer his baseline and nearer my arriving flank marches. If I held back and let him come to me, my flank marches would have further to come, but I'd maintain the illusion of a strong Sp line for a little longer. I decided to advance slowly, except for a couple of turns in which I rolled a 1 for the C-in-C, which I instead used to simply hold the Crusader Kn. The Ps raced into the dune. I moved the Byzantine LH out to the left, opening up a gap between them and the Crusader Bw, daring the Fatimid mounted on that flank to advance. Dave took his time, wheeling Bw around to face the LH, and supporting them with some LH. On the other flank, Dave detached some LH to sit between the dune and the BUA, blocking the Ps from reaching the village.
The first combat occurred when Dave's Bw shot at the Crusader Kn, and knocked over two of them - one-third of my C-in-C's Kn dead in one go! Further shooting knocked over some Sp as well.
Eventually I had to let the Kn go impetuous, and they charged into Dave's Cv and Bw. I was even able to get a Ps into the flank of one of the Cv. The result was one dead Cv. Meanwhile, in the centre, my Crusader Bw had shot down a couple of Bd (I), while Dave's Sp (I) moved closer to mine, unmasking my Exaggerated Numbers stratagem. Had I rolled a decent PIP dice, I had a range of moves possible, including a couple of overlaps and flank hits on his Bd with my Bw, and on his Sp with mine. But the low PIP dice I got allowed only a frontal attack, which achieved nothing, while I lost another Kn to Dave's Cv - enough casualties that the C-in-C's command became disheartened. In his following turn, Dave's Sp and Bd hit my line, and basically scrubbed the front rank out of existence. These casualties were so high that the C-in-C's command was broken.
Game over.
Now you might be wondering what happened to the other Crusader commands. Well, after about six bounds the larger Crusader ally command arrived on my left flank, a long way from where Dave's flank command was. At the speed the Sp moved, it'd be a long time before they reached the Fatimid camp (which was fortified anyway). And Dave had turned around his Cv to await the slowly arriving Kn. When my army broke they were still a couple of moves apart. The smaller Crusader ally never arrived.
I shudder to think what the odds were of those events occurring: the weather result was a 6-1; one flank march took six bounds to arrive, with a 33% chance of arriving each bound, while the other command didn't arrive in eight bounds, with a 33% chance of arriving each bound. I calculate it's roughly a 13% chance of a Delayed Battle flank march not arriving by the 5th bound, and a roughly 4% chance of it not arriving by the 8th bound. I wonder whether a couple of ally generals didn't say their prayers that morning...
Still, it was a very entertaining game, despite how one-sided it was, and my thanks to Dave T for the game. If nothing else, it's an indication of what DBMM games in the statistical outliers can be like.
Cheers
