Originally Posted by
YLC
Anyone have a critique of play though? I'd like to know how well TF and I did
I'll give it a try. Of course, I welcome a critique of my critique. 
YLC - Your tactic of having your infantry wait in comfort while the enemy approached you uphill was sound, and you did well to exploit the fact that TheFlax's front lines were too far forward with your 1st cavalry charge. I think the second charge was ill-advised though, since the TheFlax changed his formation to defend against it. And without the Militia Cavalry you had to withdraw your Skythikon even further back for protection. I would have had the Skythikon pepper the enemy line with arrows as you did, kept the Militia Cavalry close to protect them as well as hit targets of opportunity, and kept your general between your infantry and cavalry to force The Flax to commit his own general in order to chase off your Skythikons.
It was a good idea to charge TheFlax's lines before they made contact with your own, but I think it would have worked better if you had your infantry charge down hill also. They would have been able to exploit the disruption caused by the Knights. Also, TheFlax left gaps in his line both before and after your charge that you refused to attempt to exploit.
Once the lines met, you did a good job using your general. You defeated his exposed Feudal Knights and kept yourself behind his lines, hurting his men's morale.
Overall I think your tactics were sound, and made good use of terrain. You also chose well in focusing your attention on eliminating his cavalry as a factor, allowing your own complete control. Some minor quibbles, but aside from not exploiting the gap in his formation I don't think you could have done fundamentally better. B+
TheFlax - You should have gotten your formation straight at the start before you started advancing. By having your forward units too far out you left them vulnerable to the cavalry charge, which YLC exploited to great effect. Also, you should have started out with your spearmen at the front. But you recovered well, and when YLC tried the same thing again you stopped him cold. You should also always have your soldiers facing YLC's line so as to get the maximum protection against his arrow fire. The important thing at the beginning was not to let the Skythikon annoy you into making mistakes like tiring your troops out to early, as their arrowfire by itself would not cause too much damage.
You should have had your soldiers in a line, ready to crash into his, before you got close. YLC could have easily charged his men downhill while your soldiers were still in square formations, leaving gaps between your units. You also left a huge gap in your center when you sent your infantry to chase Anargiros. Since you had the advantage in infantry numbers and quality, your best bet would have been to advance your infantry in a uniform line, keeping both your calvary units opposite his general.
Once the lines met and the melee began, your biggest mistake was not keeping your cavalry together. YLC was able to whittle them down. He used his much more effectively. At that point he was free to march behind your lines, and you couldn't stop him. At that point you had too choices. Either sound the retreat, and get your men captured instead of slaughter, or get behind *his* line and execute some hit-and-run charges in the hopes of harming the morale of his generally-low morale militia.
Finally, you chose to commit your general to a battle he could not win. Of course, that can be an RP choice. Pride is an important thing after all.
I recognize you were in a bad situation, so these results may not even be largely your fault. But you failed to prevent him from disrupting your advance, you didn't make use of our advantage in infantry, you left your cavalry divided and vulnerable. A D+, since you corrected your mistakes as the battle went on. You have my sympathies.
Finally, here's a picture from the battle that I took of Helarionas and Markos, taken a few second before Markos' capture.
Re: OOC Thread and Chatroom 2
). Only then I noticed that it was Io with his army and not Vartholomaios. So it was a little surprise to me to see Io there since we are at war.
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) I bet you put forth a good effort. I saw that map you fought on...
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