Robert Guiscard advances in Sicily and William 'Iron-Arm' takes on the might of the Byzantine Empire.....

The campaign continues:

As Robert landed his army in Sicily, William 'Iron-Arm' has remained undefeated..(so far!)... and sent his Normans into Apulia- Byzantine territory! He's beaten all manner of Lombard forces and even the army of Pope Leo IX himself....and as he was EXTRA nice to the captured Pontiff...he had Papal endorsement ....which meant that more Normans joined his rampaging forces....could anyone stop him?

The Byzantines ....in formation as described by the Treatise of the Emperor Nikephoras II Phokas himself....( although he'd been dead for nearly 80 years by this stage)- Spearmen with archers backing them up. Cavalry ready to charge out....the Norman army in the distance.

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.

William "Iron-Arm" at it again, causing trouble in southern Italy.

Our campaign was back on!
In the next move, after successfully conquering the Duchy of Amalfi ( in the colour Burgundy below) William launched his reinforced and rested army against the Duchy of Benevento (white). The Lombard Duke of Benevento was having none of it and a battle was fought in the province of Benevento. 

Lombards on the left - Norman freebooters on the right.

Robert 'Guiscard' Hauteville takes on the Byzantines ...again....

 In the next phase of our Normans in Italy campaign,  Robert 'Guiscard'  decided to hit the Byzantines again after his disastrous defeat. He regathered his forces, called on reinforcements from Norman freebooters from Normandy and went after the Byzantine province of Rossano again. Another defeat could see him facing serious trouble - ( 3 defeats in a row and I'm out of the game).

Robert's Norman psychopaths.

William 'Iron Arm' is the Green pins. Robert is the yellow pin.

Robert 'Guiscard' Hauteville takes the field against the Byzantines....

 In his first action to begin carving out his new fiefdom, in imitation of William 'Iron Arm', Robert 'Guiscard' sent his rampaging Normans to the south and got into a big fist fight with the armies of the Roman Emperor...the EASTERN Roman Empire.....or the Byzantines if you prefer.

The first line of the Guiscard's force.....lots of Norman cavalry..hard charging, hard fighting lunatics!!

The opposing byzantine left flank.

William "Iron Arm" strikes again.

 Well William did it again......got his butt kicked ...but managed to pull the fat out of the fire...

In his second move he launched his army deeper into Lombard territory (Duchy of Capua) to fight a 'step 2' battle. In this case, after defeating the main Lombard army in a (step 1) encounter battle between 'equal forces' he advanced and had to fight a Lombard army in a defensive position.

The defending Lombards. The Lombards anchored their flanks on two large woods and had a row of hills in front of their position. A solid defensive spot that was going to be a tough nut for William's army to crack.

The Norman line. On the far left all the cavalry.
In this battle William had a lot less cavalry. He dismounted much of it as he needed the extra 'punch' to smash the Lombard defensive line.

Normans in Italy - Move 1 - William 'Iron Arm' Hauteville

 Game 1 has been played! 

Ross has taken on the role of William Iron Arm and has launched his first attack on the Duchy of Capua - attacking the province of Amalfi. 

The Lombard defenders ( played by yours truly) were waiting. 

As a 'Step One' the battle is an encounter battle with 'equal' points forces. 
William weighted his cavalry on one flank- the sight of 8 units of Normans on one flank was intimidating!
Naturally they came forward in an attempt to swamp my right......

The Lombard center- spearman and archers holding a hill

This was one of the toughest and closest fought games I have played in years.  By turn three it looked like it was going to go one way.....but the game finished on a very surprising set of die rolls!!

Normans in Italy

 After our last Norman vs Norman punch up I was reading the book by John Julius Norwich about that other Norman conquest; the conquest of southern Italy in the 11th Century.  Ross and I both had Norman armies, I have the core of a Lombard force, he has Byzantines and we both have Arabs that can easily be used as the emirates of Sicily at the time.

I came across a website dedicated to DBA campaigns and borrowed the map (with a few small changes) and realised that all these things had the making of a great little campaign. Rather than have every 'side' represented, our campaign was to focus on both regular players being Normans competing to conquer areas. They don't fight each other, but various opponents in an attempt to conquer 'the fastest with the mostest'. This way it can be run as a two player campaign, but able to accommodate other players who can pop in to play the Normans' opponents. 

Normans...Normans...Normans.....

 Unable to sleep due to the humiliation of my last defeat and not being left alone by the ghosts of William the Conqueror, Robert Guiscard and Bohemond of Antioch, I had to get my Normans out again to wipe the smug look off Ross' face. 

Mid-game- close and bloody melee.

Normans at it again

 Two evenly matched Norman armies clashed one afternoon - and it had the makings of a bloodbath.

Rampaging knights, crossbow men , mercenary spearmen and archers were all part of a game that turned into a huge melee ....and a lucky crossbow shot changed the direction of the game!

A very close fought game that had the potential to be a very bloody draw.....but ended prematurely....

My right flank

My left flank

Normans and Anglo-Saxons

 

Looking back to a couple of posts a looonnngg time ago I noticed that Ross' Normans had beaten my Anglo-Saxons a couple of times and I had only had a single victory against his mounted thugs.

It was time for a rematch!

My side of the table- Sitting behind a low series of hills. His crossbowmen unable to get too many hits.

Normans vs Byzantines

 Lockdowns are finally over..so time for more games!! Ross threw his Byzantines into the path of my rampaging Normans. A good historical match that looked like it might go to the Normans in the early stages, but by mid game the tide had turned......but ended with both armies exhausted and over 50% casualties..so a bloody draw!

Anglo-Danes vs Normans

View from the Anglo-Saxon line .  All Fyrd! Select Fyrd in front, general "cannon fodder" in back.

I recently completed my Anglo-Danish army with lots of spearmen (Fyrd) and some axe wielding Huscarls and a few skirmishers. Ross took one look, thought 'Hastings!' , fielding his Normans and then proceeded to completely smash my army to a pulp. In the parlance of the Brothers it was a complete 'pants down'.
I was too embarrassed to write up the blog so I demanded another rematch. In our first game Ross had done his homework and sat back shooting with his crossbows and archers.
I sat on a hill. It hurt.
So in the second game I had to come off my hill, and the unedifying spectacle of my Fyrd and Huscarls chasing his cavalry was tragic. Oh the shame of defeat!
So for our third time, I tried something different- well I thought it was something different..I put my Fyrd in two lines on my left and my Huscarls in two lines on my right......but Ross predicted it again.  The big difference was there was enough gap to enable the front line to retreat or be pushed back without interfering with the second line...........

Normans don't like Normans.

     Over the years, when you have known some of the Brothers as long as we have known each other, some of us find ourselves thinking along the same lines. As they say, great minds think alike, and morons never differ. take your pick! Anyway I said to Ross the other day in a very excited state that I  had finished my Norman army. 

His response was precise and to the point. 'Who cares? I finished mine weeks ago.'  Clearly at some stage in the last year or so we had decided to build the same army. To be honest, he did start before me, I got inspired, hence the conversation above. 

Now in my mind that sort of answer is a sign of disrespect and lack of enthusiasm  which deserves to be thrashed out on the table. So it was Norman vs Norman.

First clash of the Cavalry: the Normans won this round!