I had the pleasure of running a game of Medieval Warfare at Cold Wars 98 pitting the hard-charging Normans under Guiscard against the post-Manzikert Byzantines under their newly crowned Emperor Alexius Comnenus. The battle of Durazzo, was on, Medieval Warfare style.

I used the scenario from the back of the rules as my guideline for force structure and classification. I was able to borrow and paint enough 25mm figures to field the entire listed order of battle, with the exception of the Byzantines' Serb ally and two units of Saracens listed for the Normans. I listed the game as an 8-player maximum but had 12 show up to play!

I anticipated this possibility and was able to stretch the game to 10 by modifying the number of orders available. (The two who didn't get to play are both members of a gaming group I play with and one had already played the scenario when I was rehearsing at our local club.)

The scenario called for 4 Norman generals with a total of 15 orders to issue and 3 Byzantine generals with a total of 11 (based on the quality of generals specified in the scenario). I generated another Norman general increasing the total number of orders for the Normans to 17, and 2 Byzantine generals increasing the number of orders to 13. The added generals were not given the morale and combat bonuses of being a general, merely the issue-ordering capability, so as not to skew the scenario balance.

Deployments

The Byzantines deployed with Alexius in the middle and Pakourianos on the right with his light troops in or near the light terrain (brush and gentle hills) on the flank. Mellissanus was on the left with the Varangians near the shrine marked by a Byzantine style church (treated as an obstacle and cover). The added generals were with Alexius' Pechenegs and one of Mellissanus' Varangian units. The Byzantines all deployed with the infantry up front, along with a few units of skirmish cavalry towards the middle of the line. There did not appear to be an overall strategy except generally to take the first Norman blow on the shield of the Byzantine infantry and counter-punch with the cavalry placed in reserve.

The Normans deployed with Bohemond facing Pakourianos, Amiketas the Lombard general in the middle and Guiscard against Mellissanus on the more open side of the field. Gaita was placed between Bohemond and Amiketas, while the added Norman general was placed with one of Guiscard's units of Norman Knights. The Normans, as in the real battle, were far more unified and focused on a unified battle plan. They deployed their outnumbered forces with the Knights concentrated in wedges in two clusters, one each facing essentially the seams between the Byzantine commands. In fine Norman style they took aggressive charge of the battle from the outset.

The Center

In the center, the Normans charged a Byzantine spear block with two units of Knights and inflicted heavy losses, but did not rout the unit and were forced to fight three turns before finally breaking them. The turn after this initial contact saw the Byzantine skirmish cavalry deployed next to the besieged spearmen inexplicably abandon their mobility and stand and defend. The Normans charged right through these units breaking through with little loss into a reserve cavalry unit which reeled from the unexpected blow. At the same time charging Knights under Bohemond and Gaita charging a retiring unit of light infantry caused mayhem by hitting and routing a skirmish cavalry unit exposed by the retirement, leading a unit of Byzantine heavy cavalry behind to retire almost off the field. Only Pakourianos himself and one unit of Byzantine heavy cavalry stood between the Normans and wrapping up the Byzantine center and the Emperor himself who was busy organizing a defense against the breakthroughs coming in on the other side.

Meanwhile on the Byzantine left, the Varangians were shaking out their lines looking to give the Normans some payback for the memory of Hastings. The bulk of the Varangians at this time were Anglo-Danes, many of whom had actually been at Hastings, and those who had not had found the Norman conquest too distasteful to tolerate. The concentration of the Norman Knights in another part of the line left the Varangians and a unit of Byzantine bowmen to face only Norman archers and Italo-Lombard recruit spearmen against whom they advanced relentlessly. While the bowmen exchanged volleys and shared casualties, the Varangians moved towards and then struck an Italo-Lombard spear block. Contact was made about the time the Norman Knights were ripping through other parts of the Byzantine line. The Varangians dealt out heavy blows with their great axes and started to push back the Norman flank.

The Byzantines bravely countered the Norman incursions, with Pakourianos and his cavalry inflicting heavy losses on the Normans and breaking down their wedges. Alexius' efforts to stem the tide on the other side of the battlefield were also partially successful, restoring some order to the chaos that had threatened to overcome his forces. But the unwieldy command and control of the Byzantines would not permit complete recovery without a significant victory somewhere against the Norman Knights that could provide the respite necessary to put everything in order. The Varangians pushed on against their outclassed opponents, but became further separated from the decisive areas of the battlefield. The Normans, though battered and disorganized, grimly continued their assault and with the destruction of the initially contacted Byzantine spear block and the routing of a Byzantine heavy cavalry unit Alexius counted the day as lost and resolved to save what he could of his army and fight another day.

The Byzantines still had a fair amount of combat power on the battlefield, but could not get it where it needed to be to influence the result of the battle. Despite having a preponderance of forces their inferior command and control could not quite cope with the focused, determined assault unleashed by the Normans. Had the Byzantines used their skirmish cavalry a little better and attempted to redeploy at least one Varangian unit towards the center I believe the Norman attack would likely have bogged down and been repulsed, but I guess we won't know - until next time.

The participants all seemed pleased with the game and thought it provided a good feel. Many liked the unit approach of the game (including one DBA/DBM player who is planning to switch his primary ruleset). Another (also a DBA/M player) is not comfortable with simultaneous movement, but otherwise very much enjoyed the game as well.

Spectators

While running the game several spectators stopped by, attracted by the color and heft of the "big lead" I presume, including Dave Bonk who was scheduled to run a Medieval Warfare game of his own later that evening. Having seen his event listed in the program I had already signed up to get his take on how to run a Medieval Warfare game.

Dave ran a 12th century scenario pitting a German army against a Polish force with Mongol/Hungarian allies. The Germans had only 3 units of heavy cavalry (including a General), and two crossbow units, with the remainder consisting of units of solid spearmen. The Poles had extensive heavy, medium, and skirmish cavalry (horse archers) along with some, generally fairly light, infantry, including mixed spear/bow units. On an open field the German army would have been dead meat, but rough hills on both flanks and a wooded hill in the middle effectively channeled the attack against the heavier German forces.

The Mongol/Hungarian force deployed against my infantry guarding the right hand pass and spent many turns shooting the lone crossbow unit deployed in the rough hill on the flank. Eventually the crossbowmen were shot down and soon to be overrun by light infantry eventually brought up to clear them out, but not before almost wiping out two units of skirmish cavalry. With the missile troops gone the horse archers started to pelt the spearmen, but without decisive effect before heavy engagement in the other pass.

The forces in the left pass deployed similarly to my forces with the lone missile unit on the rough hill on the flank and heavy infantry next with a space between the infantry and the wooded hill from which to sortie the German Knights should an opportunity present itself.

The horse archers not deployed with the Mongol/Hungarian forces led the Polish army and began to pepper the infantry with arrows when the Germans charged out in wedge to drive away the cavalry. They were able to destroy two units of skirmish cavalry and hammer a unit of Polish heavy cavalry before Polish mounted reinforcements could be thrown into the fray and Polish bow/spear units brought up to support the counterattack. While this dramatic cavalry battle played out in the middle of the field the Poles brought up heavy missile power to bear on the crossbowmen on the hill and broke them. But the Poles exposed some of their lightly armed and armored forces to a counterattack by German spearmen who dispatched them from the field.

At this point the German infantry was still largely intact along with the mounted General, but there was no more offensive punch to the army. The Poles (and Mongol heavy cavalry) could still put an attack together, but the Mongols would need more time to soften up the infantry (which had a unit in reserve) and the Poles would need time to see off the German cavalry and reorganize before going in on the other side. Especially difficult for the Poles would be clearing out the wooded hill in the center that had been occupied by a unit of German medium infantry and past which was by far the best route to take to catch the Germans in the flank.

A couple of interesting house rules Dave added for use in this scenario included allowing the Mongol skirmish cavalry to maneuver without the penalty of paying 2 inches for every inch of wheeling, and an option to retire from any charging unit upon passing a morale check, regardless of the order given to that unit. In addition, to help prompt uncontrolled charges from the Knights, any time a German Knight unit took a casualty from horse archers they had to pass a morale check orcharge the horse archers. These were interesting ideas and the increased maneuverability of the skirmish cavalry in particular may have much to recommend it, but the others may have better implementations which could be examined in further playtest. None of these changes proved to be decisive as the German cavalry opted to charge before receiving bow casualties and one of the two Mongol units charged by the Knights failed its morale test and stayed to fight (and die).

All in all, two fun and interesting games during which I learned a lot and picked up a better feel for the game. I am looking forward to playing and running more games in the future. (By the way, Dave and I are discussing building the Mongol and Polish armies of the Liegnitz campaign to run games at Historicon and Fall In, so look for us in the PEL when it comes out.)

[Ed. Thanks to Jeff and Dave for their interest in making MW available at Cold Wars. Bruce, Mitch Abrams and I will be running at least three games of Ancient Warfare at Historicon in conjunction with Jeff and Dave's MW games. We certainly hope to see some of you there.]