After a hiatus of way too long I finally managed to host a Field of Glory battle. This time the Nikephorian Byzantines were playing at home to Jonathan’s Carolingian Franks freshly arrived from Canada. This promised to be a battle of maneuver between two great cavalry armies.

Wrong! I was dismayed when the outnumbered Frankish cavalry decided to dismount leaving little room for me to turn their flank especially after their cunning commander rolled for a flank march at the beginning of the first turn. My deployment was not ideal. The best of my Tagmatic regiments were deployed where I could not use them effectively or where they would almost certainly face a armoured wall of spears and then be outflanked. Doh!

In the distance, on the Frankish left flank, a mass of Breton light horse threaten the exposed Byzantine right.

View of the Byzantine forces from the Frankish lines. Armoured offensive spear deployed to the right and light foot supported defensive spear deploy across gentle hills. This great shieldwall sat here, encouraged by Charlemagne, for the first few turns of the game – in fact they turned around and exposed their bottoms to the Byzantines tauntingly. It almost worked!

The javelin armed Breton light horse advance swiftly across the field.

The Byzantine Tagmatic regiments and all of their light horse start to redeploy to the right flank as the Frankish shield wall looked on impassive and more importantly immobile. A series of unlucky rolls for the flank march meant that the Byzantines were able to redeploy unmolested.

The bow armed Byzantine light horse reinforcements begin to arrive on the right flank. At this point I got so excited by the action that I forgot to take photographs of the initial exchange between the Byzantine and Breton light horse which resulted in a fragmented unit of Breton LH and more importantly catching their nobles in the flank with an intercept charge from my Tagma unit!

This is how the Byzantine right looked after the Breton nobles routed and the Breton light horse began to flee in all sorts of directions. I spent too much of the game chasing them across hill and dale – well, open ground and enclosed fields. Tres frustrating, but they were theoretically the easiest kills on the battlefield.

The red tagmatic unit on the left of this picture prepares to ride down the unprotected medium foot bow who have emerged bravely from the enclosed fields to their rear. I got too excited again at this point and forgot to capture their rout!

My newly based Byzantines re-deploy (again!) to the left when the Frankish flank march finally arrives. I agonised about this wondering if I had split up my best attacking units over too wide a front. The Frankish shieldwall has begun to creep forward slowed only by the Byzantine light foot. I fear that the Skutatoi (first rank defensive spear, rear rank bow) will act merely as a speed bump for the Frankish armoured foot when they get close enough to charge.

Breton light horse almost running out of room to evade, that is until they squeezed out along the board to their right the following turn. Sigh. One unit, however, had been caught and routed and another fragmented.

Charlemagne rallies the bow armed medium foot in the enclosed field.

A full sweep of the field of battle with things looking decidedly unpleasant for the Byzantine centre as the armoured foot draw near to their target. The Byzantine cavalry in the centre will soon be forced to charge a defensive shieldwall!

On the Byzantine left, however, things are looking much better. The Skutatoi have managed to hold their ground after being charged by a block of Frankish armoured horse. The Skutatoi even rallied after initially becoming disrupted! Tagmatic cavalry move decisively to outflank the Franks whilst Kataphraktoi offer moral support to their infantry comrades from a safe distance.

The rightmost Skutatoi unit is charged by the first shieldwall of dismounted Frankish spearmen and loses a base and becomes disrupted. The second shieldwall eagerly awaits their turn in the next impact phase! This is unfortunately where the battle ended due to time constraints and exhaustion.

The Byzantines had managed to rout two Frankish battle groups by the end of play and fragment another. They were, however, about to experience some unpleasant moments, especially their Skutatoi. The Frankish cavalry on the left were about to be flank charged (see below) and the Breton light horse were running out of room. The Frankish camp, however, was close enough for the Byzantines to strike at within a couple of turns. Could the Skutatoi facing the dismounted units of Frankish spear hang on for a couple of turns? Sadly, we didn’t have another couple of hours to play.

Clarification please!

Could anyone please advise me if this is a valid flank charge. I think it is because there is no part of the enemy to the blue tagmatic regiments front, and at least one full base is behind the Frankish flank line. The only problem is the first point of contact. The first point of contact is the back of the Skutatoi base fighting the Franks. I think the Tagmatic regiment can contract a base to avoid contacting friends in which case the rearmost Frankish base is contacted clearly on the flank.

Am I right?