Robert 'Guiscard' Hauteville defies the balance of probability........and William 'Iron-Arm' Hauteville fights the battle of his life.

 We are at this point in our Normans in Italy campaign:

1)  The Pope is about to attack William 'Iron-Arm'
and
2) Robert 'Guiscard' has landed safely in Sicily. 

So in our campaign Year 1048 Anno Domini Pope Leo IX raised an army of Lombards, Byzantines, Italians and Swabians and went south to rid the Italian Peninsular of the Norman menace: primarily William 'Iron-Arm'!!
(Historically this happened in 1053 and the battle was fought at Civitate....our campaign is running ahead of the historical version!)

But before we could sort out the Pope and his campaign, our first engagement was Robert's invasion of Sicily and his attack on the Ahlgalabid Muslims.

Our Campaign Map. Robert is the yellow- small pins show control. Large pin is the leader and army. Robert safely landed in Messina and took on the army of the Muslim rulers. Sicily was divided into two Muslim emirates: in the east the Ahlgalabids and in the west of the island the Zirids.

Norman center right and right wing. For Robert 'Guiscard' this was a crucial battle. Having landed in Sicily- a defeat could mean a hasty retreat back across the straits and the danger of storms.

The Muslim Cavalry. Solid light cavalry and good dependable heavies....but not quite as tough as the Normans!

The Norman line.

Norman left wing..outnumbered just a little bit!
A long line of enemy cavalry in the distance!

So much for the long lines....and orderly advance....the Normans are all impetuous- under our rules they will charge automatically if they are within charge reach- and you have to pass a discipline test to hold them- which will disorder them...poor things get upset if they can't just 'go'!
So I don't bother...line 'em up and let rip! As you can see in the picture above, there are six or so Norman cavalry units and most have charged. A unit if spearmen ( in the very middle of the picture) and at the bottom right, some crossbowmen and Robert himself ( Next to his standard bearer). In this series of melees each charging Norman Unit can roll up to 10 dice - the Muslim cavalry 7-8 depending on their melee value. I rolled over 40 dice in total and scored 26 hits. Ross rolled 32 dice in total and scored 3 hits across all the melees....he changed dice three times. It didn't help!

Another units of psychotic rampaging Normans hitting the Muslim archers......they didn't last long.

Swirling melee on the Norman right. 

On the Norman left, Ross as the Ahlgalabds, had abysmal dice throwing and this continued apace. In fact in one round of melees, three of his cavalry units failed to inflict any hits. I did NINE in return.

I was having extraordinary luck with my die rolls. I even had two dice firing at the Arab infantry in the wood...and said....' A double six would be nice'.......and that's what happened!

Melees.....I inflicted 4 hits...and got none in return.

My Normans driving his flank back.

In the end, I can very happily say ( from my perspective) that the Emir's army was shattered and mine was ready for the next round! Robert has established himself ashore at Messina...I think the independent Muslim emirates on the island are in trouble!!

One of the fun parts after a game is the commiserations, congratulations is the post game analysis. In some games- poor generalship or bad deployment or anything like that is clearly a factor and pointed out.

This was one game that was very easy to point to the culprit- Ross' dice rolling. I lost count of the number of ones and twos....and that meant:  the failure to score hits, the failed morale tests. By contrast, I was having the time of my life...inflicting 3-4 times the casualties each melee and hammering away at the enemy!

Ross swore he was buying new dice.....he would need them ....for his next round.....see below.

The Map- my next move- ( yellow marker) - heading south along the east coast of Sicily.

In the very center, the big GREEN marker was William Iron Arm- and the BLUE one was Pope IX...come to get the Normans. So... while Robert (me) was having success in Sicily , William ( Ross) was facing a much larger Papal army and a pissed off Pontiff!

WILLIAM'S FATE!!

William (Ross) was facing his biggest challenge...Pope Leo IX was barrelling south to smash the Norman menace. He had Lombard cavalry, Italian militia spearmen, Swabian swordsmen, Byzantine allied cavalry and mercenary archers. For Ross ( William) this was crucial. The activation of the Pope can only really go one of two ways:

It's either win outright...or lose the campaign. 

Attacking anyone else in our campaign can be forgiving if you lose a battle or two. But against the Pope.....no second chances. I know Ross spent a lot of time considering his army and his deployment.

Turn 3- I forgot to take pictures in the first two turns.

On the Papal left flank - Lombard Cavalry and William's Normans fight it out.

The Normans vs the Swabians.  According to the info I read, the Swabians carried big two handed swords and stopped the Normans dead. Historically ( and in our game) it took a lot for them to be finally defeated.

Fighting all along the line. The real strength of the Norman line was not his cavalry this time..it was his combined archers and spearmen ( with a few crossbow units).

The Pope's Lombards and spearmen putting pressure on William's center.

Normans vs Lombards.....close fought.

Lombards sweeping away the Norman Crossbowmen but getting ht by Norman spearmen.

The Pope even had support from the Byzantines! A couple of Kavallaroi units wth bow- caused the Normans on this flank some problems.

The Swabians holding up the Norman Cavalry....the Normans ( both game-wise and historically) found it very difficult to beat these German mercenaries - the Pope relied on them heavily.

Papal spearmen forcing the Norman center back.

This last picture- on the far side the Normans had been forced back. On the close side of the picture. there are only two Norman Units left , and a few Papal spear Units .....

This was undoubtedly THE TOUGHEST game of the whole campaign. Outnumbered ( 650 pts to 550Pts) William's army took a pounding. His knights were smashed and one flank broke.  By turn three the usual rampaging Norman Cavalry had been blunted, held by a combination of Lombards and Swabians on the Papal left. On the Papal right flank, the Norman Cavalry had been forced back by the combination of Byzantine Kavallaroi and Lombard Cavalry. 

At the beginning of Turn Four, Ross sighed that the game was not going to go William's way- and that the campaign was going to be essentially over...as he was getting smashed. 
A tough hard fought campaign with William pulling the fat out of the fire and to use the cliche;  'snatching victory from the jaws of defeat'.

Don't ask me how...but he did it...William pulled off his greatest victory....and Pope Leo IX was now his prisoner and the Papal army was shattered. William's army was not in great shape- but he was still undefeated!!

The Map; William controls all of central Italy after taking the Pope Prisoner...