| Battle Reports August 2005 | ||
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1. Romans Come A Double Cropper (Republican Romans vs Spanish)
2. The Struggle for Southern Italy (Normans vs Byzantines)
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The past few weeks we had 2 games of Early Republican Romans vs Ancient Spanish. The first game the Spanish had a good win by barely holding in the centre with skirmishing action of the light troops (closely supported by scutarii), while a combination of medium cavalry and the light troops streamed around the left flank of the Romans rolling it up at the end. The Roman cavalry on that particular flank was initially weakened by Spanish slingers and javelin fire and finally broken in hand to hand - opening up that flank! The Romans would have done better by going earlier into melee with their cavalry instead of standing stationary while the slingers took potshots at them! Win to the Spanish! PS I graded the Romans average and not veteran to help the Spanish a bit - obviously the Romans actually need to be veteran especially against the very effective Spanish troops. In the second game the Spanish won again but not without heavy losses themselves, and the Romans could actually withdraw some of their troops out of harms way. Again the superior fire power and skirmisher troops gave the Spanish a big advantage against the Romans! The slingers were very effective and the Romans had no effective reply against them! The slingers by themselves took out an entire base of legionaries. When charged they just evade: leaving disordered legionaries in their wake susceptible to being charged by supporting Scutarii behind the slingers! The Roman army needs to use their Velites in the front to screen their legionaries, which none of us did in these two games! The Romans must use more Italian medium infantry to protect their flanks and cover the bad terrain especially against the Spanish with many effective troops for bad terrain! Both games were great and finished within 10-12 bounds (about 3.5 hours including setup) Petrus Jansen
The Struggle for Southern Italy We played our third Vis Bellica game - a Byzantine army vs. Normans set in Southern Italy in 1180 AD - on May 21, 2005. We used 15mm troops belonging to Jim Pitts. The General Situation Gathering his forces together, Duke Robert Guiscard, fresh from campaigning against the Arabs in Sicily, turns his attention again to forcing the Byzantines from their possessions in southern Italy. Duke Robert has allied himself with the Pope, promising riches and lands for the Papal See once the campaign is successfully concluded. Commanding the rather large Papal contingent is Bishop Rudolfo Valentino, the strong right arm of the Pope. Robert's forces slowly close upon the Byzantine provinces in southern Italy, determined to win through any defenses to take the port of Bari. Basil, the Katopan of Langobardia, getting reports of Robert's preparations, sends to Constantinople for reinforcements. Expecting them to arrive at any time, Basil begins to organize his army to repulse Robert's attack and, hopefully, go over to the offensive himself to retake all of southern Italy for the Roman Empire. Basil, marshalling his territorial forces, moves out to meet Robert, intent on defending as far forward as possible to give his reinforcements as much time as possible to arrive. Special Situation: Norman Army of Duke Robert Guiscard As commander of an allied force, the Duke Robert has a specially delicate problem. The Papal commander, Bishop Rudolfo Valentino, is known far and wide for his contempt for anyone who does not pledge full faith and loyalty to the Pope. He has been reported as saying that he doesn't fully trust the duke to fulfill his part of the bargain (which Robert had not planned on doing anyway). Duke Robert doesn't trust the Bishop. After all, a man as gaunt and ascetic as that churchman is must be up to no good. The Duke has a good force of Normans and allied Italians under his immediate command. With Roger, Bohemund ,Richard, and Tancred, he is completely satisfied. With Pandulf and Rainulf, Robert must have his doubts, but so far they haven't done anything obvious to incur his displeasure. The striking power of of the Norman knights gives this army an edge in any conflict with the Byzantines. After all, what can stand against the might of a good Norman knight, blessed by the Pope himself! The Normans' Victory conditions:
Special Situation: Roman Army of Basil, the Katepan of Langobardia Basil knows that he has reinforcements only a couple of hours away, maybe even closer. But until they arrive, he will have to make do with what you have. Still, the Byzantines solid infantry core of scutatoi and psiloi, plus thier incomparable klibanophoroi and kataphraktoi cavalry should be more than enough the hold that Italian and Norman rabble at bay. Basil is not too sure how loyal the Russ infantry and Steppe cavalry are. But their leaders have been paid immense sums to fight for Rome. Basil can only hope that the hated Papists can't buy them out from under him. The Byzantines' Victory conditions:
A Special note from the umpire to Bishop Rudolfo Valentino Commander of the Papal Army You're not sure you can really trust Robert. After all, he's just a Norman barbarian, descendent of Vikings. And we all know how heathen they are! Just in case, you've brought plenty of gold and dispensations to lure Princes Pandulf and Rainulf to your control, if necessary. But the main threat is still those heretic Byzantines! You'd really like to capture Basil and burn his heresy out of him at the stake. You might even overlook Robert's machinations to be able to do that. Your private Victory Conditions:
The Game The troops in their positions at the start of the game. The Byzantines are on the left and the Normans are just barely visible on the right:
Some Byzantine psiloi archers and slingers hide in the woods on the right flank:
The back side of some of Jay Stribling’s Byzantine klibanophoroi cavalry in the center of the line:
Ed Sansing’s Norman infantry heads up the road toward the waiting Byzantine enemy:
This picture shows the right center of the Byzantine line with scutatos in front backed up by psiloi slingers and archers on the hill:
Ed Sansing's infantry moves up the road. On the left Travis' infantry. On the right Mark Gilbert's cavalry. Note the blue command point dice next to each command stand. This is a reminder of how many command points each officer received at the start of that turn. This is the number of units that he can motivate:
Change: Mark Gilbert's Norman cavalry moves to try and turn Sean's flank. The reserve Steppe light cavalry has been called forward by the Byzantine commanders:
Ed Sansing has deployed his Norman infantry units. Both columns have bowmen in the front and are trading shots with Sean's Steppe light cavalry. On the left the Italian Allied infantry are advancing in support:
Travis and Bill advance slowly toward the hill. Travis' infantry head toward the town.
Sean deploys against Mark's cavalry:
Jay's cavalry moves up to keep the flank secure:
Comments by the Game-Master This was our third game using the Vis Bellica rules. We have the problem of not having the games often enough so that we can remember the rules or come up with tactics. I enjoyed the game, but I need more practice with this rules set. The battle itself was a draw with a Byzantine "strategic" victory. I believe that I set the forces up too far apart so we never really closed into hand-to-hand range before we ran out of time. I may try the same scenario again with the forces deployed closer together at the start and more emphatic instructions for the Norman players. I feel that they didn't really get into the traditional Norman's aggressive mind-set. We hope to play more Vis Bellica games! Words by Jim Pitts; photos from Ed Sansing
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