Blood and Fire - The Last Battle

It seems that nothing changes in the savannah. It was the same grass, the familiar sound of songbirds, the same sun and the same giantic boulder right in the middle of them all. While the rest of the world changes, the grasslands still looked the same as before and it seemed that they will remain so till the end of time.

"I have changed but my home remains as it is."

Basti the Kushite warrior stared at the boulder of his childhood, his Grey Fortress which was the anchor of his youth. How have things changed. Now the general has to rely on his armies, his men will have to do what his childhod fortress had failed years ago.

"Men! For ten years, the Bantu tribes have plundered the land and killed its people. For ten years have they dishonored the dignity of the Empire and her armies. Now men of the Empire, I appeal to you. Beyond this huge rock lies the fortress of Dongola. March with me my men, together we will bring down the fortress, together we will bring down this rebellion that has brought about so much loss in our lives. Together, we will have REVENGE. Together we march to Dongola!!!"

"Dongola! Dongola!" shouted the men. Slowly but surely they converge towards the fortress town that started it all...

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“Men! We will adopt the Narses formation. Heavy cavalry in the center followed by light cavalry in the flanks. Crossbowmen will take the extreme flanks of the army. The entire force will be shaped like a crescent moon with two equal halves with myself personally leading the Latinkoi knights”, ordered Basti.

Like a well drilled warmachine, the entire Imperial force move into position forming a glorious battleline when viewed from above. When this was done, the entire force move confidently towards the rebel forces arrayed against them.

Alas! The moment the rebels came into view, Basti realized that his tactics are too predictable. Imperial military tradition was to place the best cavalry to the right and the weaker cavalry to the left and his crafty foe had positioned their elite Bantu knights to his left while light cavalry skirmishes are at his right, ready to pepper missiles at his powerful but clumsy Byzantine cataphracts. Basti had barely registered his error when the dreaded rebel horse archers shot down scores of Balkan cavalry to his right. Curses! In no time will the rebels peel off his Balkan light cavalry screen, leaving his precious cataphracts exposed.



The setup. Since the rebel player happened to be also the Imperial/Byzantine player and also the narrator, the rebels are able to stage the optimal deployment. Yes this game is staged...only the dice are beyond the narrator's control and the results are unexpected.

Realizing that he needs to be decisive, the Kushite immediately joined the cataphracts and instructed his men to prepare for a frontal charge. Cataphracts are slow and can only proceed at a trod thus it will take sometime before Basti and his men were able to reach the enemy. Meanwhile the imperial light troops began to fire back at the rebels but soon it was obvious that the rebels will win the shooting contest as more Balkan light cavalry were killed.


We are losing men to shooting, we better charge soon!

To add insult to the injury, the dread Numidian light cavalry of the enemy totally out maneuvered Basti’s light cavalry screen and charged straight into his exposed crossbowmen behind! Numidian cavalry are famed throughout the world and conventional military wisdom dictates that they will prevail. But this day was not their day, somehow the crossbowmen managed to fend the Numidians and cut down many of the famed horsemen [see note 1]. Shocked by the reversal, the Numidians fled with the battle crazed crossbowmen in pursuit. After realizing that the Numidians seemed to be fleeing from the battlefield, the crossbowmen decide to stop and fire at the remaining rebel light cavalry instead, dropping many cavalry archers from their steeds and freeing the Imperial right flank from harassment!

Being in the forefront Basti was unaware of the miraculous development to his far right and rear. Yelling commands, he led the Byzantine cataphracts straight into the center of the rebel forces lead by the hated Bantu commander Pewas Heartbreaker while the neighboring Latinkoi knights charged the Nubian spearmen so as to prevent the latter occupied and from assisting Pewas’ unit. In the extreme left, the Byzantine Kavallarioi charged straight into the Bantu Knights but they were totally outclassed and were totally slaughtered.


All 3 Byzantine cavalry units charge. The cold one knights represent the Latinkoi of course.

In the center, the Latinkoi easily smashed the Nubian spearmen while the Byzantine cataphracts in their wedge formation rammed straight into Pewas’ bodyguards. Spying Pewas at a corner, Basti immediately lunged forward to deliver a thrust with his lance only to be blocked by Pewas’ tower shield. Too late! Basti do not have time to withdraw his arm and this momentary exposure in his defence is all that his experienced opponent needs. With a quick swing of his morning star, Pewas delivered a downward blow onto the Kushite warrior’s head, smashing the skull and killing the general instantly. Nevertheless, the Byzantines were unaware of their leader’s demise and it was only when Pewa’s bodyguards began to fall back in good order [see note 2] that the Imperials realized that their loved commander is killed.

Meanwhile back in the Imperial’s left, the Bantu Knights realized that they had actually smashed through the imperial line. Spying only some psiloi skirmishers and crossbowmen, they gleefully run down these expose infantry. The left flank belongs to the rebels!

At the Imperial’s right flank, the hidalgo mercenary skirmishers ran straight in front of the Balkan cavalry and fire point blank at the Imperial cavalry. They all missed [see note 3]. To their horror, a hundred Balkan light cavalry are now charging straight towards them!

Back in the center, the imperial heavy cavalry charged into Pewas and his guards again. Pewas was injured by a vengeful cataphract soldier. Although the guards were butchered by the charge of the heavy cavalry, they held.

Time for a counterattacked! With both heavy cavalry units pinned down by the bodyguards, the duelists to the left quickly charge the Latinkoi knights in the flank. Being experienced mercenaries, these troops were good in taking the initiative and in no time they were dragging the Latinkoi knights down the horses. But the tide turned again as Pewas was killed by a random kick from a Latinkoi warhorse in the chin. Seeing their commander killed and their fellow comrades killed by maces of the cataphracts, the remaining guards drop their arms and fled towards the fortress of Dongola. Disheartened by this turn of event, the duelist also fled from the melee. Luckily for the rebels, the Imperials did not pursue but merely re-dress their ranks [note 4].

With the rebel main forces fleeing, the cataphracts then charge into the rebel crossbowmen and destroying the hated rebels. The Latinkoi reformed to face the rebel skirmishing line and were greeted by a hail of arrows from archer skirmishes, losing 80 men from the devastating volley [note 5].

However the troops on the left flank can tell that the battle was lost. Their general was killed and the melee infantry in the center was destroyed while the Imperial Balkan light cavalry destroyed the remaining rebel troops at the opposite flank. The rebel recalled their forces and fled to Dongola.

Notes
1) The Numidian light cavalry fluffed all their attacks and were pwned by the Latinkoi crossbowmen.

2) Falling back in good order is unique to WAB. The bodyguards were originally stubborn but the Latinkoi knights have the first charge rules (which effectively give them the WHFB 7th edition fear rules for 1 turn). As it was a mass combat of 4 units, the charge of the 2 heavy cavalry units caused the imperials to win by a good margin. The Nubian spears fled and were cut down while the first charge rule of the Latinkoi NEUTRALISED (on a 4+) and removed the stubborn of the bodyguards. However instead of fleeing, the bodyguards are allowed to fall back in good order, which is what they did. Latinkoi knights and Byzantine cataphracts are a deadly combo and one provides the autobreak while the other provides the kills. It was lucky that such a combination was illegal for most games due to army composition rules and historical correctness.

3) The light troops at the Imperial right are very lucky. Conventional wisdom dictates total pwnage but tons of failed to hit and to wound rolls mean the right was fully intact! Compare this performance to the left flank where the equivalent units were just a red smear in the ground.

4)The Latinkoi were unable to pursue the duelist because you cannot pursue units that charge you in the flank in WAB (you were caught offguard and need to redress your formation!). The cataphracts on the other hand restrain pursuit as the bodyguards were down to three models and can no longer rally.

5) I rolled 4 ones for armor saves. The Imperial left was unlucky indeed.

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And so it is over. Quite an epic ending with both commanders killed in the final story. The battle report was very detailed and clearly explain a lot of things so I doubt I need to explain much here. I was happy to actually use a more or less legal byzantine army this time althought I still need to proxy models. As I just had a game of WHFB two days before so it is natural for me to make comparisons. I like the WAB system more. I find that WHFB 8th edition was more forgiving when you make tactical errors because the list matter more. But in games like WHFB 6th & 7th edtion and WAB where poor quality troops can defeat a powerful one with the right execution, tactics become more important. Anyway what to do, that is the way WHFB is like now. I guess I should stop harping on it since I believe YOU THE READER has gotten my message. Hehehehe.

As I said earlier, I will play 8th ed for my friends while WAB is a personal thing with Junxian. And oh the concluding fluff for this WAB campaign will be in the next post. Stay tuned.

Merry Xmas!