The Crusaders deployed with the mass of their infantry, mostly poor-quality spear and crossbows, holding the right. The commander's force of irregular knights held the center, while the Order knights (Hospitallers and Templars) were on the left flank.
The Byzantine Latinikon and Kavallarioi were spread between the Byzantine left flank and screening the Crusaders in the center, supported by the commander leading a force of archers. The picture above shows the Byzantines, on the left, advancing on the Crusader forces, with the left flank in the distance, trying to outflank the Crusader infantry. A force of mounted Varangian guardsmen formed a mobile reserve on the rear of the Byzantine right.
Meanwhile, the Crusader knights in the center advanc
Soon after tha
While the center collapsed on both sides, the Order knights on the Crusader left were making very slow progress. The knights had the lowest of the regular command dice, and Bruce was maki
Finally, it came down
As usual, this proved to be an enjoyable game and showed that DBMM moves pretty quickly once everyone is acquainted with the rules. We managed to finish this with enough time to spare to pick everything up before the store closed. This doesn't mean that there weren't a few lessons and, in retrospect, a couple of rules I think we missed. (Has anyone, anywhere, managed to play through a complete DBMM game without realizing that they got something wrong along the way?)
Stratagems - We still haven't worked out the best way to play strategems. I purchased 20 points worth, because it just doesn't seem like Byzantines without strategems, does it? The scouting was mostly done to prevent another Elephant Stalks at Midnight night battle (a game we failed to write up anywhere). All that accomplished was to kill the one light horse sent scouting. I never really saw an opportune time to use the feigned flight. The hidden path through the rocky hill was useful to slightly annoy Jim by racing the Varangians onto his flank, but I'm not sure it was worth 10 AP.
Breakpoints - ARRGH! Biggest thing we forgot was disheartened commands! I only realized this long after the game. That would have broken the Byzantine center earlier.
Outcomes - I'm also wondering whether we forgot to check for fast knight losses any time. I remember the Kavallarioi fighting a fair number of battles toward the end, and I can't recall whether we ever had a -1 for losing in enemy bound.
Finally, a quick shout-out to the fine folks at Game Kastle, who provided the venue. Bruce, Dave, and I all bought copies of the DBMM book 1 army lists. (Just trying to let the GK folks know that the historical minis crowd aren't total skinflints. And Jim probably would have bought a fourth copy if they had one.) I don't think any of us has a DBMM-sized army of Book 1 chariot forces. I did note that the Early Lybians may now be fielded with 144 stands of superior horde, for anyone who wants to spend the enormous amount of time painting up that much lead for something so idiotic. Wow. That's kind of tempting, isn't it?