Regaining Past Glory: A Kingdoms Byzantine AAR

[Zim]

Why the Byzantines? They're one of my favorite factions, their campaign goals require fighting just about every faction in Kingdoms:Crusades, and those flamethrower guys look cool. I apologize in advance for any missing letters. My keyboard has see better days.
-Difficulty H/VH
-Long campaign
-General anti-cheating and Role-playing houserules, although I may take a screenshot every couple of decades with the fog of war turned off, just to show the progress of the different factions.

And now, without further ado:

The year is 1174, the the Eastern Empire has seen better days. The Fatimids control the Egyptian provinces, Turks have most of Anatolia and an empire that extends as far eastward as Baghdad, and the crusaders sent to "help" nearly a hundred years prior control powerful kingdoms on the Levant. Meanwhile the Empire hugs the Western and Northern coasts of Anatolia, and of its remaining cities only Constantinople has retained anything venturing on its past glory and economic vitality, while the rest of the citie of the empire have become little better than hovels after decades of war, pestilence and famine.

Still, the Imperial armies are strong, and emperor Manuel Comnenus has plans to regain the Empire's former glory. He only awaits an opportunity.


His opportunity comes quickly, and due to an unexpected source. The Muslims have declared a Jihad on the Kingdoms of Jerusalem and Antioch. Turkish(and, less importantly, Egyptian) forces will be tied up fighting the nascent Catholic states, bleeding their armies dry and providing new allies in Manuel's war.


Two Imperial armies are quickly formed, one in the north of Anatolia under the command of General Mavros, and one in the south under General Theodoros Comnenus. Meanwhile, one of Manuel's daughters is sent to sign a treaty with the Principality of Antioch.

Mavros' army is prepared first, and he marches on the town of Doryleum. The town garrison is small, but led by an able general and includes some of the dreaded Hasham soldiers.



Mavros has a unit of Slavic auxilaries push a ram towards the city gate, while Pronaioi move another one to take down part of the town's wooden wall. Despite coming under a barrage of arrows, the men do their duty.



The gate and part of the wall fall quickly, and soldiers stream into the city. Despite being slaughtered by the more heavily armed Turkish soldiers, our Slavic auxilaries manage to take down the enemy general. The Turks flee to their town center, and we take control of the town walls.



Expecting an easy victory, Imperial soldiers rush to the town square, but resistance is unexpectedly strong.



General Mavros orders a unit of flamethrowers to march around the city and attack the town square from another side. They douse the enemies in Greek Fire.



After much hard combat, victory is finally attained, but at a high price. Hundreds of Byzantine soldiers have died, including General Mavros himself.


Doryleum has been captured, and Theodoros in the south is ready to advance. A new general is being sent to continue to take the northern amy deeper into Anatolia. The first battle is over, but the war has just begun.

[Zim]

Chapter 2: Advances in Anatolia and The fourth Crusade.

As the 12th century came to a close, the Anatolian war turned more and more in the Eastern Empire's favor. Turks' armies were divided, and with the arrival of King Phillip with the Third Crusade their Anatolian forces were crushed.




Massive Imperial armies found themselves attacking cities with miniscule garrisons consisting of small units left as observers and whatever locals could manage to arm themselves. Apparently they had decided to pull their men back from Anatolia where they were sandwiched between Imperial forces and the barbarian crusaders, regrouping in their remaining power center, Baghdad. While the men of Antioch cut a swath through Turkish lands north from their capital city, the Romans swept east across the peninsula, and General Thodoros Comnenus faced his last halfway decent opposition in the Turkish settlement of Armorium.



Whether from overconfidence or desperation, the garrison of Armorium decided to sally forth from behind their city walls and attack Theodoros' army.

The Turks made a mad charge at the Imperial battle line, but were quickly routed.





This was the last major resistance in Anatolia and by 1196 the last Turkish controlled settlement in the peninsula, Kirsehir, had fallen. Peace terms were signed with the Turks, deemed to now be too far away to be a credible threat.

The Empire seemed to be ascendant again, but something trouble the dreams of Emperor Comnenus. Lately he had dark visions at night concerning a trifling matter that shouldn't have concerned him. This was sparked by rumor of the so called "Fourth Crusade".

The crusade's goal was to help the crusader states in the Holy Land, but it had taken a rather winding path. Rather of sail to the Holy Land, the immense Venetian fleet carrying the crusaders had landed near the Catholic city of Zara, sacking it.



More disturbingly, it seemed to be heading towards Constantinople rather than the Levant, though hosile intentions had never been declared. As the Crusade neared, Emperor Manuel's dreams worsened. In them Constantinople was burnt to the ground, with it's people killed and treasures stolen. A Catholic puppet was installed as the patriarch, and the lands of the empire were parsed out to foreigners.

Manuel put little stock in the dreams at first, but they only grew worse. When he learned that the Crusaders harbored the son of a deposed rival to the throne, and was disavowed by the very pope who had called them, he decided to ignore them no longer. A large army was formed to defend Constantinople, most of the cities gates were bricked over, and defensive structures fallen into disuse were repaired. The new Rome would not be defiled by these barbarians!



Manuel's concerns proved to be well-founded when a massive Venetian and Frankish army appeared at the gates of Constantinople. They claimed that this boy of Manuel's rival, who had spent much of his life in Germany, was the rightful heir to the throne, and announced that if he didn't if he didn't renounce the emperorship, they would assault Constantinople and depose him. This threat was given the respect it deserved, and the diplomat who brought the message was hung from the city walls as a warning to the Catholics.

In response, the Venetians besieged one half of the city, while the Franks sieged another. They spent weeks preparing assault engines, while the Venetian fleet cleared the waters arouns the city of Imperial ships.

Then one night they launched what they hoped would be a cowardly sneak attack, despite their greater numbers. Byzantine spies caught wind of it and both sides were prepared for battle.

[Zim]

Chapter 2, continued.

Emperor Manuel took command of the main Imperial force facing the larger Venetian army, while a cousin of his commanded the troops facing the Franks.

Imperial archers, mostly militia, gathered nervously on the battlements, eyeing the tremendous army facing them.



They loosed thousands of arrows at the Venetians as they approached, but this scarcely caused a dent in their numbers.



Emperor Manuel smiled as the Venetians broke through the front gate in a matter of minutes. It didn't even seem to occur to the barbarians that this was too easy, and that they might be walking into a trap. Upon the destruction of the gate, they swarmed through the entrance to the city, completely heedless of the danger they faced.



Specially prepared militia spearmen, wearing rags doused in water as a mostly ineffectual protection, lined up in formation and pinned down the Venetians coming through the gate. Venetian soldiers bribed by Manuel earlier then held the gate, trapping the Venetian generals and much of their army between the bribed troops and the Spearmen. Then the Byzantine Firethrowers unleashed barrels of Greek Fire on the Latins, killing hundreds and sending the rest fleeing.



Fighting was much fiercer on the walls, where such tricks could not be used, but the stalwart speamen and Varangians guarding the walls beat back the enemy knights.




The Franks, who had come to battle with weak catapults incapable of harming the city walls, were forced to give up their siege of the city's other side. They rushed around the city to the breach the Venetians made, pelted by rocks and arrows from civilians atop the walls. Squeezed into the narrow gateway, they fell as easily as the Venetians.

They left behind a rearguard of spearmen with their siege engines, an Manuel rushed his bodyguard to the rear gate to take the engines and guard out. Sadly, he fell to a lowly spearmen. Manuel died protecting his city, and his foresight has ensured the Empire's survival, temporarily at least.







All captured soldiers were executed as a warning to those who would attack the city, including the Venetian traitors who helped the Empire. If they were not loyal to their own country, they wouldn't be loyal to their new one.

The surviving Latins fell back to a camp outside the city, licking their wounds and awaiting reinforcements. A new emperor, Stefanos Comnenus was crowned far east in Trebizond, and Manuel's young cousin Alexios was put in charge of the city's diminished garrison. As expected, the Latins attacked again, assaulting the city before many more men could be raised.



The enemy brought catapults to the battle, but a unit of Vardaritoi made short work of them, though they exposed themselves to enemy crossbow fire to do so.



Imperial luck continued to hold out as the enemy ram was lit aflame by burning tar dumped on the enemy. The Venetians would be forced to use their siege towers now.



Most of the fighting in this battle would take place on the walls, where the Byzantines would be hard pressed to hold against the heavily armed Latins.



Eventually, the exhuasted Imperial troops threw back the invaders, and even followed them out the city, routing them.





Among the now empty enemy camp a great prize was found. The Venetians had somehow acquired the very shroud that covered the body of Christ as he lay in his tomb! General Alexios confiscated this item, vowing to have it displayed in the Hagia Sophia.



The Crusader's force was now broken, and wandered aimlessly raiding small towns in the countryside. Newly crowned Emperor Stefanos himself insisted on finishing them off, and set forth for Constantinople with a newly raised army. He was abe to corner them a scant few dozen miles from the city walls.



The enemy attempted to bombard Stefanos' men with catapults, but the battlelines closed to quickly for them to cause any casualties. While the melee soldiers clashed, Firethrowers incinerated the catapults.


The enemy appeared to be demoralized, putting up very little fight. Before long, a member of Stefanos' guard managed to run through the very last leader of the Venetians. The rest of their army, all but wiped out, scattered into groups to small to bother chasing.





The unwelcome Latin presence in the Empire had ended,and no more foreign armies would threaten the Empire's capital, atleast for now.



The immediate threat to the Empire ended, Stefanos schemed to expand the empire as Emperor Manuel had. First, the now unneccesary allaince with Antioch was ended. They had taken Imperial land from the Turks and refused to cede it to the empire. Stefanos planned to make them regret that decision.



The men of Antioch put up a surprisingly strong defense, and the war went on with little change of territory as large armies from both sides tiptoed around eachother, not wanted to commit to battle where the other would have the stronger defensive position. Many began to whisper that Stefanos was afraid to engage in battle with the Crusader Kingdom, although he pointed to the gain of one small city.

While things were slow on the Imperial front, great events were happening elsewhere in the region. In Egypt, a new regime consisting of former Mamluk slaves took control, apparently frustrated by their own ineffectual war with the Kingdom of Jerusalem.



Meanwhile rumors that fierce nomads called "Mongols" were sweeping across the east spread. It was said they had forced the leader of the Hashishem himself to surrender.



These men were said to number more than the sands of the desert lands they had invaded. They were merciless in victory, and one Mongol was said to be the equivalent of ten other soldiers.



Stefanos brooded over a map of the nations of the region. What many thought was indecisiveness on his part he considered a predilection for careful deliberation. Antioch's armies could be taken in open plains, but not in mountains where they have the high ground. While the Imperial armies might win in such conditions, they'd be too weak to withstand the other threats in the region. He had to wait for the best moments to attack.

The Empire reigned supreme in the west, but Antioch's owned much of the Levant and Eastern Anatolia, and had the largest armies in the area. Turkey was confined to their eastern territory, partially cowed but strong enough to lash out at their neighbors and regain power, should they survive the Mongol assault.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Egypt were locked a an orgy of mutually destructive war. As long as they fought, they were weak, but should one gain an upper hand, they'd control an abundance of rich land, and be a threat to any nation that displeased them. If the Empire were to regain it's past glory, Stefanos would have to plan carefully...


Edit: I'm all caught up now, and ready to play a few more decades. Comments and criticism are welcome, especially concerning the pictures(too many, too few? Should I put the battle pics in spoiler tags to help those with dialup?).

[Ferret]

Well written and good to read :), maybe a few zoomed out battle pics would be a nice addition.