The Battle of the Iron Bridge

[GeneralHankerchief]

Turn 3 feedback

Komnenian feedback:

Feedback to Andronikos

For most of the turn, your men sit back and watch as Nikitas Moschos takes the lead in trying to crack the Tagarian defenses. He does so, but at a terrible price - most of the infantry he brought over has ceased to exist. Luckily, you have more, and they'll have a much easier time crossing the Iron Bridge than their predecessors.

Your eastern archers once again somehow did not fire, but it's not too much of a concern as your mission was still accomplished. However, they may need closer looking-after in the upcoming fight against the Tagarian reinforcements, as you are by no means finished this day.

Feedback to Nikitas

Well, nobody ever said this would be easy. Cracking a bridge defense without any flanking involved requires brute force, plain and simple. The majority of your infantry that crossed the Orontes provided the required force to do so, at the cost of their lives. Things wouldn't have been so bad had it not been for a thundering Georgios Angelos cavalry charge that tied up a lot of your infantry and impeded the flank effort. However, your spearmen, aided by your own bodyguard, dealt with him. The melee power of the enemy cavalry, aside from the bodyguard of Ioannis Tagaris, is no more.

Your men have done their job and the threat at the south side of the bridge is all but gone. You'll still have to be watchful, but in the meantime, you have a lot of infantry you need to pour over the bridge and set into a line. Bart Ksiros and Iosef ek Artas may be coming up.

Tagarian feedback:

Feedback to Ioannis

As Nikitas Moschos's men pour over the Iron Bridge and deal with failed cavalry charges from both Aleksios ek Kerkiras and Georgios Angelos as well as your spearmen, you see your dream to stay Basileus and reunify the Byzantine Empire rapidly dying.

Should you somehow manage to turn things around and win the day, Ioannis Komnenos III and his massive forces at his command still loom in front of you, and you yourself are down to precious few men, with no possibility of recruting more. After all... if you can't afford proper bridge defenses, good luck recruiting replacements for the hundreds of brave men who have died here today.

Under your personal command are your bodyguard and one regiment of archers (the other was shot to pieces by Nikitas's missile cavalry last turn). You really have little choice but to withdraw. Hopefully your reinforcements will be waiting for you.

Feedback to Aleksios

You charged. You died, but not before killing a significant amount of Komnenian infantry. The charge may have been more effective were there not so many men. A lot of the impact power was lost because of that.

Feedback to Georgios

Abandoning the ford overlook, you order a near-all-out charge to the eastern bridge defenses, which are quickly becoming overwhelmed. The charge power definitely works as the men you're aiming at are quickly knocked out. However, it works almost too well.

Filling in the gap your men created are Nikitas's spearmen, eager to showcase their strength and kill cavalry. Nikitas himself arriving to join the battle only worsens matters.

Eventually, you do deal with the spearmen and you do get out, however, the only melee cavalryman to survive the charge is... you. You are now in command of two regiments of horse archers and nothing else. The corpses of your bodyguard are added to the pile on the south side of the Orontes.

Feedback to Bart

At last! The Great Cross is fixed and you're finally on the road again - marching alongside with Iosef ek Artas, who has caught up with your men. You will be ready to deploy this turn, however, instead of being reinforcements you may find yourself quickly at the front of the fight - the Komnenians have cracked Ioannis's bridge defenses.

Feedback to Iosef

Catching up with Bart Ksiros on the march, you grin. You were supposed to arrive on the field after him, although this is probably more attributed to Bart's broken Great Cross than your making good time.

However, your grin is quickly reversed as you see the grim scene on the battlefield ahead of you. You have barely any army to reinforce, as the Komnenians now hold both sides of the Orontes.

Please send me your deployment for Turn 4.

Orders

Komnenian orders:

Aleksios, inform Anthimus that his services are no longer needed. He obviously wants to see the fighting up close. You are the new leader of the foot archers. Fire at the enemy cavalry if they come into range. Inform Peter to do the same.

I'll cross the bridge behind Nikitas' cavalry. Once across I'll charge straight for the boy king. I'll only fall back to our infantry if I'm in severe danger of dying or they underhandedly send more regiments into our combat.

Cyrus, cross the bridge immediately after Nikitas' militia.

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map

ooc: Ituralde's orders made it sound like he wants to attack the foot archers so that is where I put his cavalry on the map. However, I am not 100% sure of that.

Also, Aleksios is the new leader of the foot archers. If I don't make good on my threats, the hecatontarchs will start getting uppity

Division III advance slightly to make room for Division II which should start making its way across the bridge at full speed.

Division V will join with Nikitas and move East towards the Archers. If the Archers don't fall back engage them but keep an eye out for the enemy bodyguard to the South. Keep one unit of Cavalry back for flanking. Do not follow fleeing Archers and stay close to the Infantry.

Ioannis Tagaris' Orders

Division I: Retreat to Antioch.

Division II: (Dead)

Division III: Retreat to Antioch.

No orders from Tristan de Castelreng.

New orders for Bart:

General withdrawal to Tortosa.
The Great cross and escort will leave the field first, protected by the militia of 2nd division. After that the second division will leave with Bart commanding the rear guard.

If it aint obvious already: retreat ;p

Umpire notes for Turn 4:

Units failing orders test: Andronikos’s ever-failing archers.

The Tagarians gave up this turn, calling for a general withdrawal. As Bart and Iosef weren’t even on the field, they were able to retreat without incident (i.e. I didn’t even simulate anything). For the remnants of the Tagarian advance guard, however, it would be a bit tougher.

First of all, Tristan de Castelreng gave no orders. Ordinarily his retreat would be covered for by TheFlax, as Overall Commander, sending in general orders. However, since Flax only sent in division-specific orders, Tristan was left out to dry for this turn.

woad’s map that Nikitas and his cavalry would attack the remaining Tagarian foot archer regiment, however, Ituralde specifically said “move east and attack the archers”, which I interpreted as Georgios Angelos’s horse archers. These would be the only Tagarian regiments in danger this turn, as Ioannis and his foot archers would be able to leave unopposed.

In terms of simulating the actual battle, Georgios’s horse archers were slightly out of range of Andronikos’s archers (especially since the one that was actually doing the firing was Peter, the divisional commander farther back). I turned off skirmish mode for Georgios’s HAs as they were inactive this turn. As such, they were slowly overwhelmed by the steady influx of the remaining Komnenian forces coming over the Iron Bridge. They didn’t cause enough casualties in order for it to show up on the map.

Thus, the Battle of the Iron Bridge concludes with a minor Komnenian victory. Although it took them probably more casualties than they would have liked, Andronikos and Nikitas cracked the Tagarian defenses and sent them retreating south. The casualties for the Tagarians is worse. While they were able to get the reinforcement armies out alive, most of their initial forces, including Aleksios ek Kerkiras and Georgios Angelos. The Tagarians may or may not be seeking a settlement with Andronikos, but the one thing that is certain is that the War of Four Basileis will continue, with Constantinos Ksanthopoulos and, of course, the more-and-more imposing Ioannis Komnenos III yet to be dealt with.

Public feedback for Turn 4:

Turning his gaze to the south, Matthias can see... finally... the armies of Vartholomaios Ksiros and Iosef ek Artas nearing for the battlefield, preparing for deployment, and... turning around. Evidently Ioannis Tagaris has had enough and called his forces back from the battle, seeking safer ground.

Matthias quickly averts his gaze from the belated reinforcements that weren't to be. They had no chance of being caught by any of Andronikos's forces. Instead, he looks to see, once again, the forces by the Iron Bridge. Ioannis Tagaris, whom the Komnenians had derisively dubbed "Boy-King", would surely be a target in the withdrawal... but he isn't. Ioannis and his remaining foot archers are also able to make a clean getaway. Some of the later Komnenian forces that cross the bridge seek him out for a bit, and then, seeing that he is so far away, give up and turn their attention elsewhere.

The one force that seems to have been left behind is Georgios Angelos and his remanining cavalry. For some reason, as if he didn't issue any orders, he made no attempt to withdraw along with the others. This would be explainable to Matthias had he charged or something, perhaps a holding action in order to buy his leader time to get away, but he didn't even do that. There was no motion.

Naturally, the Komnenians take advantage of this and quickly swarmed the remaining Tagarian commander on the field. The man who had spent nearly all morning vigilantly watching the ford to the east for a crossing that never came, who had left his position to partake in a futile charge, was unceremoniously unhorsed and killed by the seemingly-numberless Komnenians. The sight of so much needless death was probably only appealing to Matthias, whose hatred of Greeks knew no bounds.

For the rest of the soldiers, however, on both sides, it was a grusome sight. So much death... for so little purpose. It seemed like nothing was resolved. Ioannis Tagaris was bloodied, yes, but he also escaped with a significant portion of his forces. And thus, the War of Four Basileis would continue.