I promised myself that I'd retire my Pre-Feudal Scots after the Conclusion of the finals in this years SAGA tourney. They'd battled Seleucids, Mongols (twice!) and Galatians among others to win the right to take the field in the championship game. They deserved a rest, what with paint chipped off in many places, flocking gone, spears broken or missing, my CiC with only the barest sliver of blue on his shield, two Viking standards faded and in tatters and a Norman figure to carry the banner of Macbeth, as the Scotsman who'd fielded the standard had somehow made his way into an enemy encampment and was never seen against.

There remained just one battle left to fight and then my lads would be granted a long, long rest. Besides, my Crusader Normans were painted, primed and ready to carry the Gore standard in the future. But first there were the Nikephorian Byzantines and the 1988-89 final tourney to attend to.

Greg Hauser had beaten all but one of his divisional opponents (Dave Ottney and his Galatians being the exception) to win a by into the quarter-finals. He had decisively beaten Dave Sweet (see battle report in the December Vol. IV #1 issue of SAGA) and I had gotten past Ottney so now Greg and I were the finalists. I'd only played Greg once before and had been defeated. He utilized the Nikephorians an an attacking army, not a defensive one as Dave Armer played them, and with the swiftness that regulars possessed, Greg could switch groups of horsemen rapidly from flank to flank.

The week before our game, I took out my charts and plotted my different troop's effectiveness against each of Greg's; i.e. LMI, 2HCW, Sh. vrs. SHC in wedge, both charging, etc. My knights stood a fair chance of beating his catafracts and klibinaphori, but I only had two 6-man units of them. The Viking Huscarles also wouldn't have any problems, but I only had 12 figures of them. The Scots Lowland foot (MI, LTS/Sh.) in 40-man warbands would probably be fine -- no cavalry ever went near them anyway. The Galwegians (LMI 1/2 Irr. A) were an absolute crapshoot ... and what little LI I had would be busy keeping the Byzantines pinned and unavailable for the massive shifts of cavalry blocks. The Scots generals (CiC with 5 HC Scots and 2iC w/7 HI 2HCW/Sh.) would stay out of combat unless absolutely needed. I never understood the morbid suicidal tendencies of certain gamers who needlessly threw their leaders into impossibly perilous situations for no reason ... and besides, my generals didn't have enough shock value to do any good anyway!

Well, those charts and graphs certainly cleared the air ... now what the hell was I going to do with all of my knowledge?

First of all, any army which has Vikings does well to try to fight near water, buy boats and sail the Norsemen to the enemy rear, bypassing the normally restrictive terrain and hostile units impeding a straight land advance. Okay, I'd do that. Next, get some decent woods, close to the center to ambush out of with the Irr. A types...always fun to watch, especially if you can get a flank hit. Also, the woods definitely funnel enemy cavalry attacks into the defensible corridors between them. A hill would offer that all-important "high groundg which is always nice to set up on.

Finally, I would use a "combined arms" type of attack; cavalry alternating with LMI/LHI for the good old onetwo punch which effectively negate the superior charge range of the Nikephorian cavalry over my infantry.

With army, rules and plan in hand, I arrived at our local club Sunday afternoon for our match. Greg showed up (Darn ... no forfeit here) and we got down to work. I'd brought along my nice piece of blue felt (the North Sea) all measured and ready to place. We rolled for terrain placement and I lost. No big deal, except Greg managed to place a piece of clear terrain (string) within 10" of my left edge of the table... Oh, well, if I roll a 4, 5 or 6 (1 added one to my terrain roll for 'home climate'), I would still get to place the ocean. The die hit the table and... a ONE! So much for fighting near the water.

Well, there was still the chance to get a good-sized hill to place the MI on. Greg placed his second piece of clear terrain while I rolled... another ONE!Well ... this might not be much fun, my plans of the last week falling away - all I could picture were those myriad units of lance and bow-armed cavalry, riding circles around my terrain-less, exposed and waver-testing bands of Scots/Vikings... a Manzikert in reverse.

Come on dice, don't fail me now... Daddy needs WOODS! Greg placed a hill to my left flank and I finally placed a forest opposite it. Greg muffed his final roll and I placed a smaller woods on my right flank ... at least I could anchor my line.

Weather, time of day and battle conditions all rolled normal and generals were all bold for me, one cautious for Greg and, as neither one of us was outscouted, we set up one unit at a time. I kept all of the Vikings hidden in the woods on my right and the Galwegians and Highland LI in the woods on my left - the other troops placed as shown. Greg set his army up in a large square in the center of the table where he could move in any direction rapidly. The battle then began. (See Map 1).

Greg immediately dispatched his LI staff slingers around the rear of his army to flush out any ambushers I might have placed in my left flank woods - a good move on Greg's part - as he slowly moved his EHC and LMI archers toward my waiting Spearman.

I wasted no time in deploying my Vikings out of the woods and in a weird looking jumble of units, tried to sort them out before they could be hit by Greg's cavalry. Actually, I had planned on tempting his horse with the LMI and LHI units t hey have to take a waver test if responding to a cavalry charge but he only sent his LC and one unit each of EHC and SHC their way.

As I saw his main army bearing down on my weakly held center (only LI, a unit of Islemen and my few knights were with Macbeth's bodyguard holding that sector), I shifted some Vikings that way as well as pulling the Highland LI out of their ambush position in the left-hand woods. A quick series of sharp melees developed on the right flank as Greg's cavalry attempted to break through my infantry screen. My Scots LC managed to hit Greg's Pechenegs, hitting them in the back as they tried to flee and routed them. This forced immediate waver tests on his other LC unit, which was shaken as a result for the rest of the game.

Greg's EHC unit hit my Viking bondi and forced it to recoil, shaken, while his SHC maneuvered into position to cover the EHC flank. The bondi unit , required to waver test because of a second cause of disorder, shook again and routed, shaking a LI unit of "running gillies" who worked in conjunction with my Cic's bodyguard. He would spend a bit of time trying to rally the two uneasy units. Fortunately, I had managed to maneuver a unit of Viking Huscarles and mercenary knights along with the Highland LI to cover the suddenly empty flank sector. Greg quickly marched the Byzantine CiC with his SHC bodyguard to keep up the pressure on my right as he continued to push on my center, not daring to close with the spearmen, but trying to exploit any gaps which I didn't have the troops to fill.

At this point, Greg's successful EHC unit, which had routed my bondi, was struck in the flank by a wedge of LHI Huscarles and broke.

The Byzantine SHC vainly charged my LC which managed to continually outrun them for three turns. As the time for the game was just about up, Greg and I squared off in the center with my Viking wedges of Huscarles and berserkers along with a unit of mercenary knights impetuously charging his two large units of EHC, which charged me in turn. I pushed him back, but with no decisive results.

On the right flank, the Byzantine CiC faced off against my remaining unit of LHI Viking wedge, while his other SHC charged my second unit of mercenary knights. I won both of these contests as well, and as Greg now had one command which had 2/3 of its units either routing, or shaken, he was forced to retire. The final points tally had Greg losing 383 points to my 85.

In retrospect, this was a typical game of position and maneuver. Once the Scots had formed their line, anchored on the left woods, the Greeks attempted to pressure first one point and then another, but could never really manage to concentrate overwhelmingly, thanks to the Scots interior lines and their ability to shift cavalry and LI rapidly from place to place. By avoiding waver tests, not exposing flanks, sending out troops with supports and rallying back instead of trying to stay in place, out in the middle of no-man's land, the Scots offered little in the way of an "easy" target for a devastating Byzantine cavalry charge. As long as a foot unit remains unshaken and is attacked frontally, it has a fair to good chance of holding on.

The Scots, who had been on the defensive most of the game, finally got themselves in position to deliver the type of attacks they needed to win the day. The combined arms type of attack worked well, with the first unit absorbing the Byzantine shock attacks and the second usually able to prove decisive. The LI units were especially effective in screening off the Byzantine counter-attacks -- Greg couldn't "get in" to attack my own units once he was involved and tied down.

One problem with the small, highly mobile Byzantine units was their propensity to be seriously hurt by an impetuous charge. They usually were good for only one attack before being badly fatigued. The larger 12-man cavalry units, though not slipping so easily through gaps as their smaller counter-parts, certainly could deliver at least two strong attacks before tiring out.

All told, this was a very intense game of chess-like movements, rules point vrs. rules point discussion, sudden and often decisive hand-to-hand combat and a clear decision b; games-end. As I put the lads back into their boxes, I felt that after working with them for almost two years, I'd only just begun to develop a tactical sense of their capabilities. The more I thought about it, I realized that the" Scots deserved at least one more tournament. SO...See you at SIMCON, lads.