Sicilian mini-campaign

[Barritus]

Cobbled together from a couple of posts to the DBMM email list:

Dave T reported:

The DBMM claque at the Canberra Games Society ran a kind of mini-campaign over the last couple of weeks.

The setting was Sicily and Southern Italy between 1070 and 1320. Each player provided a 150AP army using the DBMM100 rules. 8 players participated.

In round 1:
Communal Italians (post 1265 version) beat the Sicilians
Normans beat Sicilian Aghlabids
Komnenan Byzantine beat Imperial Germans
Communal Italians (early version) beat Nikephorian Byzantines

In round 2:
Komenenan Byzantines and Imperial Germans beat Communal Italians and Sicilians
Communal Italians and Nikephorian Byzantine beat Normans and Sicilian Aghlabids

The following week the campaign came to a head when: Komnenan Byzantines, Imperial Germans, Communal Italians and Sicilians took on and beat the Communal Italians, Nikephorian Byzantine, Normans and Sicilian Aghlabids. (So 8 players controlling 2 600AP armies)

By dint of his victory as CinC in the final round the Komnenan player was proclaimed the winner.

Curiously in the last battle the 2 Byzantine Armies and the 2 armies with significant numbers of Saracens (Aghlabids/Sicilian s) both lined up against each other.

We have tried this approach before as a club event and it works well. I have no doubt we will return to it in the future with Meso-America getting an early mention as possible setting.

Now my turn:

I had a great time, admittedly partly because I ended up overlord of Sicily.

Komnenan Byzantines (1155 - at the time of the Italian intervention) turned out to be a good choice. With 150AP I had enough for 5 Reg Kn (F) (including the general), 4 Irr Kn (O), 8 Irr LH (F), 1 Reg LH (S), 2 Reg Bw (I), 2 Reg Ps (O), and 2 Reg Bg (I).

With a regular general and a preponderance of LH, my plan was use the LH as a screen for the Kn, keeping the general out of harms way, and finding some use or other for the infantry on a flank.

Game 1 v German Empire: I was expecting to face either irregular or (I) knights (Sicilians or Communal Italians) or cavalry of some sort (Aghlabids or Konstantinian Byzantines). The first I could outmaneuver and surround, the latter I could overrun. What I wasn't expecting was a bunch of Reg Kn (O) supported by some Reg Bw (O). Tim's army was a lot smaller than mine, but he had as many Kn as I did, which was a worry.

As defender I placed as little terrain as I could, and deployed as planned. I then proceeded to roll low PIPs for most of the game, resulting in my troops being outmaneuvered by Tim's. Tim sent some Kn out to his left, a move I matched with some LH and Kn. He moved his Bw up in the centre with his general, and started to advance on his right with the rest of the Kn.

Tim made the first contact with his Kn against my LH, killing one and fleeing a couple, along with a Kn which was too close behind. I countered by charging his Bw with my Kn, and advancing the Bw on my left to have a long range plink at his Kn. First contact didn't produce great results, but in Tim's next bound I killed a couple of Bw. This allowed me to hit his general front and flank, for a successful kill.

In the confused melee Tim shot down a couple of Kn and LH, but opened himself up to a series of counterattacks when my PIPs came good. My Kn hit one of Tim's front and back, while others swamped a now disheartened Bw, and a LH hit a Bw in the rear. The resulting successes were enough to break the Germans.

Game 2 (with Germans) v Communal Italians (with Sicilians): We were again defending, and the terrain fell with a couple of pieces on our right flank, and more open space on our left. So Tim deployed on the right with the Bw on the flank and the Kn inboard, facing the Italians. I took the left, with much the same deployment as last game, down to having the infantry on the outer flank. I was facing the Sicilians, who had a line of Kn (O), mostly irregular. In the gap between the Kn and the Italians were some Bw (I), and there were more behind the Kn. The end of the Siclian line had a couple of LH (O).

Once again our PIPs weren't great, so we advanced at the speed of the lower PIP dice roller. Tim dismounted his Kn to face the massed Communal Sp (I) with Caroccio insert. Duncan detached his LH to threaten a move around my flank, and I wheeled the infantry to face them. I was sure that once my archery split the LH into separate elements he'd never be able to threaten me.

In the bound my troops were in range of the Sicilians, I rolled another 1 for PIPs, so sent the Kn through the LH into Duncan's Kn. Amazingly I knocked over a couple of Kn, including one adjacent to the Sicilian general. Duncan's Kn counterattacked and caused a couple of casualties, but the LH proved incredibly useful reserves in bounds I rolled good PIPs, providing overlaps all over the place.

Sicilian losses steadily mounted, while the Italians and Germans traded relatively light casualties. Eventually the Sicilian command broke and this, combined with Italian losses, was enough to break the enemy army.

Game 3 (with Germans, Communal Italians and Sicilians) v Communal Italians (with Konstantinian Byzantines, Normans and Aghlabids): On a 10' x 4' table where we were defending, we placed as much terrain as we could muster. A lot fell on the right of the table, and a little on the left, leaving a very big open space in the middle.

The Sicilians took the right, their right flank covered by a wood. The Bw deployed next to the wood, and the irregular Kn inboard from them. The regular Kn and LH sat behind the Bw as a mobile reserve in case the enemy tried to come around the wood. Next was the Germans, followed by the Italians, with the Sp and Bge (S) out the front and the Kn (I) forming an impressive reserve. I took the left, confident my command could cover the remaining open space.

Facing the Sicilians were the Aghlabids, with the enemy Italians facing the Germans, the Normans facing our Italians, and the Konstantinian Byzantines facing my Byzantines. The Konstantinians had an impressive force of Bw (X/O) DBEs, a relatively small Cv force, a couple of LH (S) and some Ps (S) and (O). The Bw (X/O) were facing my mounted troops, while his Cv were facing the gap between my mounted and infantry.

With a good PIP score in the first bound I sent the LH forward and turned the Kn line into column, marched to the left to face the Cv, then turned back into line. My archery against the LH (S) was singularly unsuccessful, while John's against my LH (F) was pretty deadly. Things got hairier when John charged his LH and Ps into my Bw and Ps and knocked over three elements in one bound. Add the loss of a Kn to archery and I was disheartened.

But then my Kn charged John's Cv, and ripped them open. John counterattacked successfully and knocked over another Kn, pushing my command to the brink of collapse, but another sequence of Kn quick-kills on Cv also pushed the Konstantinians to the edge. My only failure was the front and flank attack on the enemy general.

Meanwhile, the Aghlabids made a slow move through and around the wood, while the Sicilian Kn attacked the Aghlabid infantry with some success. The Germans became disheartened while causing a few casualties to the enemy Italians. And just to my right my Italians' Bw and Sp absolutely ripped the Norman command apart, with either crossbow fire or Bge (S) inspired Sp (I) despatching Kn (F) elements left, right and centre. When the Normans broke the +2ME penalty tipped the Konstantinians over, and this and other losses was enough to break the enemy army.

The other highlight of the game (from my point of view) was a lone Communal Italian Kn (I) element charging the end of the Byzantine Bw (X/O) line and destroying a DBE.

So Greek-speaking Sicily was returned to the control of its rightful Greek-speaking overlords, and all was well...!

Thanks to Michael, Dave and John for their work in organising a bunch of players over two successive weeks, including a couple of late notice ring-ins. My wife was very pleased to be informed that she was an overlordess. All I need now is to get her a tiara...