ADLG Komnenan Byzantine v Feudal German

Stan and I played another game of ADLG, this time with my Komnenan Byzantines against Stan's Feudal Germans.

The Germans managed to get a waterway down one side of the table with the rest of the terrain along the Byzantine base edge and flank. Having gone for a skirmisher-heavy army I decided to deploy one command of impact cavalry and light horse in the centre, some Varangians and light foot on my left and flank march with the remaining command of Latinikon and light horse. The Germans consisted of two heavy foot commands and a Knight command:

Much of the German foot has been left with nothing to face, though the Byzantine cavalry and Varangians look vulnerable to the German knights until support arrives from the flank march:

The Germans advance quickly. Falling back for the Byzantine cavalry is hindered by the terrain behind them:

No sign of the approaching flank march yet and the German knights are cutting down the Byzantine cavalry and Varangians:

The flank march finally arrives but it looks like it will be too late:

The German knights continue to batter the Byzantines but have to detach a couple of groups to face the approaching flank march:

The German foot join in the action and will soon be able to attack the Byzantine camp:

Most of the Byzantine cavalry are down and the Varangians are about to be over-run. The flank march gets into action but it looks too late to be decisive:

German foot approach the Byzantine camp. It is fortified so may be able to hold out a little while. Meanwhile the Byzantines have looted the German camp and started to inflict losses on the Germans:

The Latinikon continue to rack up kills and both armies are approaching their break points. If the Byzantine camp can hold on maybe victory can be snatched at the last minute!:

The camp fails to put up a fight and is taken by the German infantry breaking the Byzantines and routing them:

This game was closer than I thought it would be, for a long time I was merely hoping to kill a couple of German elements but by the end thought I'd had a chance to win.

As ever with flank marching it is a lottery, if they had arrived a turn or two earlier that could well have turned the battle in my favour. I think I'd have been better off flank marching with the cavalry command in fact, they would have moved faster and the Latinikon would have held up better against the German knights.

I also hadn't realised that all the terrain on my base edge and left flank would make it harder to withdraw to gain time (though in fact Stan had no terrain troops either and if I'd thought about it I could have happily withdrawn my cavalry into the olive grove anyway).