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September 29, 2011, 02:17 PM
#21
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September 29, 2011, 05:22 PM
#22
Re: **********AAR - After Action Reports**********
You do seem to lose a lot of generals in battle, the cost of Chivalry ?
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September 29, 2011, 06:57 PM
#23
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January 13, 2014, 04:16 AM
#24
Laetus
Re: **********AAR - After Action Reports**********
This is from a Byzantine campaign I did a while ago. This is the first part, which focuses on the Battle of Angora, while the second will focus on the Great Jihad--when every Tom, Dick and Harry who lived under Muslim rule grabbed whatever marginally dangerous thing he could find and marched on Constantinople. Unfortunately, I didn't take any screenies of any of the battles, but I hope you'll enjoy my wall of text here.
Prelude
The Battle of Angora
In 1098, a great battle took place outside Angora, in central Anatolia. Two powerful armies
met in the field of battle, both led by the sovereigns of their respective empires, both determined,
both knowing that the fate of their empire could well ride on this one battle.
Alexius Comnenus was emperor of Constantinople then. In the preceding years, he had
consolidated his power base in Greece and Thrace by annexing Albania and bringing the rebels in
Adrianople and Cyprus to heel, as well as capturing the important trade node of Crete. Alexius was
an able administrator as well, as he proved by strengthening the economy political atmosphere at
home.
With this strong power base at his back, Alexius himself led the liberation of Anatolia from the
evil Turkish invaders who had taken that land from the Roman Empire not so long ago. Everything
went quite well for a time; Smyrna, Nicaea, and Sinope were captured and raids made on the area
around Iconium, but then disaster struck at Angora. Alexius led his army of professional soldiers
against the rabble of the Turks, most of whom had no armour and little formal training, unlike the
well-equipped professionals under Alexius.
He was severely outnumbered, but confident. On the opposite side, the Turkish sultan had come
to command the battle personally. He knew he needed a sound victory, and soon, or the Romans
might well push him all the way back to Mesopotamia. Though they had never faced one another in
the same battle, he also knew all about Alexius, whose fame as a commander was well-known from
Spain to India. It was time for the sultan to show his people his own worth, and so though he feared
the Roman emperor he made mockery of fear on that day in 1098 and resolved either to win in this
valley near Angora or die trying.
The Battle of Angora was a tragedy for both sides. The fighting was hard; the Roman formations
were broken, their cavalry badly cut up while the infantry battle had been reduced to a mass brawl.
There, in the thickest part of the battle, at the very centre of the fighting, Alexius raised his eyes and
he saw the Turkish sultan. Their eyes locked, and each man knew he would leave this field the victor
or the last thing he would see would be the other’s gloating smile.
They ordered their bodyguards not to interfere; they dismounted and approached each other,
swords drawn, a lust for blood filling both pairs of eyes. They shouted and charged; the sultan made
for the emperor first, but his swing was knocked away and followed up with a swing for the sultan’s
leg, but that too was blocked. They parried for a moment before the sultan found an opening and
struck—whether to bless the Turks or to curse the Romans no man is in a place to answer, God was
with the sultan’s sword-arm that fateful day, guiding his blade into a chink in Alexius’s armour between
his helmet and his mail shirt. The blow left a deep gash in the emperor’s throat; he clutched it, tried
to fight on, but choking on his own blood the great Alexius fell to the ground.
Thus died Emperor Alexius Comnenus. The cry was immediately spread through the Turkish
ranks that the emperor was dead, and they began a thunderous chant as if the victory was already
theirs; but the day was not yet spent. When a group of knights numbered among the emperor’s
personal bodyguard saw him clutch his throat and fall to the ground, they instantly charged for
the sultan, cutting a path through his men. He saw them coming for him and grabbed a spear from
the ground, bracing himself for impact. His own bodyguards saw it too, and kicked their horses to
a full-out gallop as well, but the Romans were closer. First one tried to spit the sultan on his lance,
but he was spit on the sultan’s spear instead, but before he could unsheathe his sword again, the
second knight drove his sword through the sultan’s heart.
However, the Turks were right about one thing; the victory was already theirs. Many Romans
fled the field of battle as soon as they heard of the fate of their leader, but the emperor’s bodyguards
remained and to a man they fought to the death. It was a victory for the Turks in that it brought the
Roman advance to a halt, but it was a victory won at a dear cost.
No chase was given to the broken Romans as they fled across the river. They were too badly cut up
themselves to chase their enemy even had they wanted to. In a surprising act of respect for the enemy,
the Turks allowed a few of the Romans to return to the field and take the body of Alexius with them on
their sullen journey back to Constantinople.
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June 11, 2014, 08:26 AM
#25
Civis
Re: AAR - After Action Reports
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. Though I admit I'd better cool down if I don't want to have to adopt any knight. And save the Comnenus name 
