Turn 1 - Early morning
Turn 0 feedback:
Originally Posted by GeneralHankerchief
Orders:
Men, we march! Andronikos has deployed opposite the city from us, so let us get into column and march!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
OOC: I'm not sure how far the soldiers can get in the alotted time, but this is where I'd like to end up anyway. If Constantine knows how far he can march, he'll purposefully feign having trouble forming the column so that they reach the position at the end of the time period without obviously stopping and waiting. If the enemy should approach and put Constantine in danger, he'll retreat clockwise around the formation in order to get away. Also, I assumed that the towers can't fire arrows if there are not defenders in the vicinity, like in the game. If this isn't true, then Constantine would choose to end up just outside of their range, but otherwise right in front of the gate.In addition, two messages were sent this turn:(OOC: For some reason I forgot to explicitly state that I wanted the troops ON the walls, not behind them... oh well)
Dispatch riders will be sent to the east and north gates with orders to open the gates for Kousinos Sophianos' troops.
Message to division 2 (peasants): Every unit will move on the walls, between towers S1 and S4! Face the enemy ladders and tower! Drive the enemy from the walls if they dare set foot on it! Give no Quarter! Stay steady, reinforcements are on the way.
Message to division 3 (militia): Move on the walls between towers W2 and W7. Face the enemy ladders and towers! Drive the enemy from the walls if they dare set foot on it! Give no Quarter! Stay steady, reinforcements are on the way.
Division 4 (reserve) will move to block the gates if enemy ram succeeds in breaking it.
Archers will stay behind the spearmen. Do not fight to the death but make a fighting retreat towards the town square if overwhelmed by the enemy.
Division 5 (Great Cross) will follow Div4(res) to the western gate where it will give the men courage and help guard the main road to town square.
Saddle up men! We (Division 1) will ride against the enemy in the south! We will sally forth and charge their ram! After exiting the gate we will make a small detour left and strike their flank! If Nikitas tries to intervene out superior numbers will crush him down!
(OOC: Try to charge the infantry pushing the ram from the flank. Do not be distracted by the horse archers but if they are caught in a melee then all the better. Countercharge Nikitas if he intervenes, our superior numbers (Ioannis has 43 BG) and quality (Bart has 9 exp) should overwhelm him easily. I do not know how long the turn lasts but if the charge and battle against Nikitas are successful the archers are next priority. If Nikitas doesn't charge withdraw back behind city walls.)
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Constine decide that, first of all, he must attempt to establish contact. He summoned a messanger, giving him the following instructions.
"Raise the white flag, and go to enter the city through the east gate. I shall take the army counterclockwise past the north gate (OOC: Orders to follow), so they will have little to fear from you and should let you in. Do everything you can to deliver this message to Vartholomaios Ksiros, Grandmaster of the Knights of St. John, as well as this banner."
The Message:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
The Banner:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:Umpire notes for Turn 1:
Roll for Kousimos’s message to Bart: 4 (gets through).
Roll for Bart’s message to Kousimos: 2 (message lost).
In addition to the standard orders tests, Bart also decided to open the northern and eastern gates to Kousimos’s men.
Roll for northern gate: 2 (gate opens).
Roll for eastern gate: 2 (gate opens).
Units failing orders test: None. Random.org was exceptionally kind this round.
Kousimos’s troops will reach Cecil’s specified position just at the end of the turn, also when the northern and eastern gates open. He will be in position to enter the city next turn. He and Bart will gain knowledge of this happening, but Andronikos and Nikitas may not because the only troops in position to see this are on the walls on the opposite side of the city. Decided to roll. 4-6, they find out. 1-3, they don’t. Rolled a two.
I PM’d TC what to do:
TinCow’s response:Hi TC,
There's a few engagements to fight out this turn. Andronikos and Nikitas are going for the walls.
In the west, Andronikos is deploying all of his ladders and towers (but not his ram) to the walls, where Bart's four regiments of militia are climbing up to the walls to meet him. The battle spots are marked on the map below. The towers will be firing for most of the time.
For the western assault, I've noted that there are backups for every siege engine. I imagine you'll have to send them up as well, because I doubt the first wave will be successful (aside from the northernmost engagement). Once Andronikos's men inevitably kill all of the wall defenders they will be allowed to gain control of the gatehouse, but will not be able to move down into the city.
For the south, it's pretty much the same thing, but a bit more complicated. In addition to the battle for the walls, Bart has also ordered a sally/charge by his two generals against the enemy ram. Woad's provided orders for Nikitas (Ituralde's been busy) mentions nothing about a reaction, so I would leave the troops carrying the other siege engines out of this one. He didn't say anything for Nikitas, but I imagine that Nikitas, sensing a threat to the ram, would charge anyway, with or without orders. Your call if you want to get the missiles involved.
Rowan's orders were to first flank the ram troops, then go after Nikitas if he moves to intervene. After these two fights, depending on how much time passes he wants his generals to go after the archers. I don't think the fights against the ram troops and Nikitas will last that shortly, however, so the archers will most likely live to fight another day.
In terms of gatehouse mechanics for the south gate, Rowan's moved his infantry and Great Cross down from the town center to right behind the south gate. Not sure if that affects control of the gate or not since Nikitas's men will probably hold the gatehouse proper.
Let me know if you have any questions.
GH
Map:
As there was one discrepancy, I sent this follow-up:Ok, done.
I'll spare you the intimate details. In summary, I ended up simulating it in three separate battles. The west wall assault, the south wall assault, and the south sally. The setups were pretty standard, except that in order to simulate the double size Basileus bodyguard, I used two identical general's bodyguard units in the battle, since that's about the same thing.
West Wall Assault:
The town militia do a surprisingly good job of defending the walls in all scenarios, probably due to the lack of swords for the attacking units. Spears just aren't good at storming defended walls. All three units up the ladders/rams in the first wave are destroyed for the loss of less than 1 full defending town militia unit. However, the gate is broken down about the same time as the first wave is routed, and the gate is undefended. It's sensible to assume that at least some of the nearby second wave units would thus use the gate instead of going up the defended walls. Thus, infantry use the gate and then go up the towers to flank the wall defenders while they remain engaged with the remnants from the first wave and the second wave attackers who do choose the wall. This results in a quick destruction of all defenders. Flanking is king on walls.
End result: All defending units are destroyed. For the attackers, all first wave units are destroyed, plus the equivalent of 1 more town militia unit in the subsequent fighting. Gatehouse and all of the western wall is captured.
South Wall Assault:
The unit that unloads into the defending peasants actually takes decent losses, proving yet again that defended walls are a significant obstacle to overcome. However, the unopposed ladders are a huge move. Since they are ladders, they get up the walls quickly and can flank on the walls quickly. It doesn't take long to reach the fight on the walls, and the remaining peasants are quickly destroyed. With that part of the wall secure, it makes sense to move on to the next bit, and those peasants are also destroyed relatively easily, since their defensive wall bonus is lost.
End result: Tower town militia unit is destroyed, along with the two westernmost peasant units on the wall. Time in this phase runs out before the third unit can be engaged. Thus, end position is two attacking town militia on the wall to the west of the gatehouse and one defending peasant on the wall to the east of the gatehouse. Gatehouse is not captured.
South Wall Sally:
This is the one bright spot for the defenders of Antioch. Despite it only being a sally by two units, they are very beefy units. One is a double sized bodyguard, and the other has triple gold chevrons. Given the proximity of the horse archers and Nikitas to the ram unit, I assumed they would get involved when they saw what was happening. Not only is it wise to defend their best infantry unit, but they have an opportunity to kill an enemy Basileus right there.
However, the sheer power of the sallying bodyguards is immense. A third of the ram unit evaporates in the charge, and the rest is quickly cut down with little loss. The horse archers get off a couple volleys during the charge (well within range) then they too charge into melee into the rear of the engaged bodyguards, as does Nikitas. However, the size of the Basileus' unit and the experience of the other general's unit are decisive, and the battle is clearly theirs.
As I see it, Nikitas and the horse archers are very mobile and near friendly units. The infantry unit cannot escape, but they can. After a few minutes of melee with the sallying bodyguards, they realize their situation and get the hell out of there. I would say they move west to take some shelter behind the ranged missile power of the archers.
End result: Ram infantry unit is destroyed. Nikitas' bodyguards and the nearby horsearcher units are both reduced to half strength. For the sallying bodyguards, the doublesized Basileus unit is reduced to half strength, but the triple gold unit remains intact.
Does that all make sense?
After this exchange, I decided the time would end on the western part of the battle with the second wave of Andronikos’s troops just about to hit.
Public feedback for Turn 1:
Antioch:
Several horns sound to the south and west of the city. Andronikos and Nikitas are going in. They've brought several siege engines with them, and enough men to use them as well. The Tagarian troops, having raced up to hold the walls, the best of them being mere town militia and the worst of them being pure peasants, look somewhat frightened as the veterans - lower-end soldiers, but veterans nonetheless - of Andronikos's many campaigns begin heading straight for them.
Luckily, they have support from several of the city's towers, While it is not enough to destroy any of the engines, it does drop a decent amount of Andronikan soldiers. Off to the west, Andronikos looks on, cringing as he sees every man go down. All of these battles, all of this bleeding, is starting to take a real toll on his numbers. These damn Tagarians sure knew how to pick their defensive positions.
As the towers stopped wheeling and reached their targets, there is a moment of brief silence, broken only in the north by Kousimos Sophianos's marching, as well as some shifting going on in the city itself. Then, the usual sounds of battle began anew as Andronikos's and Nikitas's men started up the ladders and the towers. Interestingly enough, their rams did not move. Perhaps Andronikos was confident that they would not be needed.
He never gets the chance to find out if this is the case in the south. Right as the majority of Nikitas's infantry is committed to the walls, the gates burst open and 60-odd heavily-armed horsemen come charging out. Ioannis Tagaris and Vartholomaios Ksiros, having been chased around for the majority of the campaign, are finally on the offensive. They are making up for lost time with a fury, first wheeling to the east and then slamming into the ram troops on the flank. Completely shocked at this turn of events, Nikitas hesitates for a moment. This was not expected in the least. He has to make a judgment call.
Nikitas thinks for a second. These are the enemy generals, one of them being the rival Basileus. They are strong, yes. They have momentum, yes. But they're attacking his best regiment of infantry remaining - infantry, being oh-so-valuable anyway in this age of Byzantine bankruptcy, but doubly so in a siege assault - and are threatening his entire army. This cannot be allowed to happen. Nikitas orders a cavalry charge, roping in the horse archers along with him.
The charge is moderately unsuccessful. The infantry cannot be saved, and Nikitas realizes that Ioannis and Bart simply have too many horsemen, as he realizes that half of his own riders have fallen. Grimacing, he orders a withdraw, having only accomplished halving Ioannis's bodyguard at the cost of his Dismounted Lancers and half his cavalry.
On the walls, things aren't much better for Andronikos. Buoyed by their defenses, the Tagarians held on, obliterating Andronikos's first wave to the west. Andronikos's second wave is already on their way up and will hit within a minute. To the south, Nikitas's lucky infantry that survived the cavalry charge flanked and destroyed most of the peasants holding the walls. They will now slug it out with the one remaining regiment of peasants. Neither gatehouse has been captured.
The two armies seem to be bleeding themselves out, both of them apparently unconcerned about Kousimos Sophianos's force, appearing more imposing every minute, now close enough to the unmanned northern gate where one of the regiments can knock on the door.
Map:
DEADLINE FOR TURN 2 ORDERS: April 25th, 12:00 GMT-5.
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