ADLG Umayyad Arab v Khazar

Another practice game for one of Gordon's future competitions, this time with a Dark Ages theme. Gordon was trying out Khazars which was a slight problem as I'd consigned all my Dark Ages armies to the loft!

Looking at the lists Umayyad Arab seemed a suitable historical(ish) opponent especially as not all the army had been relocated yet. A search found some, but not all, of the rest of it leading to a composition I probably wouldn't have chosen had I been able to find them all!

However, when we chose the terrain it appeared that the unusual army composition might be an advantage. Gordon was expecting massed heavy spearmen and impact mounted (the figures I couldn't find) and as a result picked a lot of rough terrain which suited me as I had a fair few medium foot including some of the fearsome Dylami impact swordsmen. As a result the table was very cluttered. 

Gordon had a flank march which was allied and went unreliable, his mounted were facing mixed heavy spear and bow and his Slav medium infantry up against my better quality Dylami and medium spear. So far so good:

Both sides move up to contest the plantation:

The Khazars attempt to redeploy their mounted wing:

The Umayyad heavy foot advance anyway hoping to outflank the Slavs while the cavalry and bowmen redeploy themselves:

Crunch! The orchard is the scene of heavy fighting:

The Umayyad's fight hard and gain the upper hand:

The Khazar cavalry have few opportunities to get into the fight:

Losses rack up for both sides. The Khazar flank march continues to fail to arrive:

The Umayyad heavy foot are starting to threaten the Khazar's flanks while the mounted and bowmen from the right flank will soon be in action as well:

The Umayyads have constructed a solid line of battle while the Khazars are struggling to get much of their army into action:

With the Khazar flank march due to arrive next turn the Umayyads manage to get the last few hits to break the Khazar on-table army giving victory to the Arabs:

An interesting and fun (for me, less so for Gordon!) game where my unusual army composition paid off helped considerably by the initial deployment being heavily in my favour and Gordon's flank march failing to turn up (though flank marching with an allied general is risky). 

The Arabs had not had a run out in years, I'd forgotten I had rebased many of them for FoG-R (which was why I had so few heavy spear) and I'm not sure what happened to the rest of the army (the generals and loads of light horse) but they must be somewhere....