Pics & History of your Empire

[Bregil the Bowman]

(I must say how much I am enjoying sharing these tales of MTW adventure - picking up some tactical and strategic tips too...)

Part Four of an Account of a VI 2.01 campaign as the Almohads

The Reign of Ibrahim “The Mad”

In 1275 Ismail the Magnificent ruled over an Empire that stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea, commanding the largest armies in Europe under the most capable generals. His Treasury boasted more than half a million florins, buoyed by the trade of Europe’s wealthiest cities. Europe was rapidly converting to Islam under the influence of the Almohad ulama, even in those realms where Ismail’s word was not law. The Italians of Genoa and Tuscany, along with the Papacy, lived in uneasy peace within this sphere of power, within which only the Sicilians offered any resistance. The King of the Poles and the Prince of Novgorod also maintained the uneasy truce, but the Triple Alliance of the Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich III (confined to Bohemia), the Byzantine Emperor John III and the Great Khan Khogibag still offered the threat of war in the East.

This was the kingdom inherited by Ibrahim II, or Ibrahim the Mad.

Eight years before his ascent of the throne, Ibrahim had been responsible for the defence of Cetatea Alba in Moldavia against an invading Mongol army. The main Almohad force was off to the West under the Qadi, subduing Hungary. Prince Ibrahim would have to endure a year of siege before relieving troops arrived.

The Mongol commander was impatient, and chose to assault the castle. He had overwhelming superiority of numbers, but his cavalry troops were ill-suited to the task before them. Ibrahim felt confident - until he heard the boom of the mortar and the sound of tumbling masonry.

With the wall breached, Ibrahim’s small garrison could not hope to hold out against such overwhelming odds. The Almohad prince thought quickly. The enemy mortar was placed so as be within range of both the inner and outer walls of the castle. Would they be within bowshot of the walls? He dispatched a party of Desert Archers to the outer courtyard to see. Bending their bows, the sturdy Saharan troops found they could just reach the mortar crew. Volley after volley arced across the battlefield. Mongol gunners reeled away, clutching at their wounds. Parties of horsemen rode beneath the walls, shouting challenges, but the Prince’s orders were clear – “Shoot only at the mortar! Only at the mortar!” Another shot demolished the ramparts, but one by one the gunners tumbled. The last pair abandoned their post, but even as they ran the arrows scythed them down.

Without artillery to batter the walls, the Mongol commander’s army could do no more than circle the walls under a rain of javelins and catapult stones while the defenders jeered at them. Inevitably the Mongols withdrew to lick their wounds. Ibrahim’s reputation as a great defender of castles was established. And yet something broke in his mind that day. The confident, bold young prince was gone. He would scowl for days at unseen enemies, then laugh hysterically at unknown jests. Despite his early achievements on the battlefield, the prince who eventually ascended the throne would be known forever as an unhinged loon.

Fortunately there was no shortage of capable men to lead the Empire forward, not least the Khalifah’s two brothers, Abdullah and Mohammed. Other notable servants included the ever-faithful Qadi al Quda, the Amir al-Bahr, and Amir Ibn Badis of Ireland.

In 1277 Prince Abdullah led the attack on Kiev in overwhelming force. The Mongols under Kaishan Bator offered no challenge, and the province soon surrendered. Kiev had enormous strategic value. Not only could Abdullah secure the Empire’s border along the line of the Don, but also he was able to recruit to his flag the elite warriors of the steppes – Cumans, Rus, Avars, Khazars and others with no reason to love either the haughty Byzantines or the rapacious Mongols.

The Byzantines responded with an attempt to lift the siege, but were stopped at the crossings of the Don in a particularly bloody battle. Pavise arbalesters, halberdiers and an organ gun made mincemeat of the Byzantines as they surged across the bridge – the only problem for the Almohad Prince being that the placement of the organ gun meant that the enemy had been allowed to leave the bridge before being engaged. This meant a desperate melee to hold off the elite Kataphraktoi, during which nearly half of the Prince’s bodyguard fell. But once this was done, successive waves were driven back in confusion until, as the enemy was reeling, a party of Steppe Heavy Cavalry and Faris crossed downstream to harass the enemy flank. Morale collapsed, order was lost and the Byzantine army fled. They would not risk another pitched battle for 12 years...

Meanwhile, the Qadi’s attempts to reduce the Byzantine garrison of Hungary had been frustrated. A force small enough to lure the garrison forth had been chased away by a German relieving force which then returned to Bohemia. Against a larger army, the garrison promised to hold out indefinitely. But the Qadi hatched a cunning plan. In 1277 he reduced the sieging force to a mere handful of sergeants, enough to tempt the Holy Roman Emperor into another relieving attack the following year. But the Qadi immediately reinforced the besiegers with his main army. Crossing into Hungary, Heinrich III realised he had bitten off more than he could chew. He ordered his men back into Bohemia.

Meanwhile, the Amir al-Bahr advanced dispatched a force from Austria into Bohemia, expecting to meet token resistance. In fact there was none whatsoever. Heinrich had left his capital entirely unguarded. The Amir al Bahr’s men quickly seized the passes and the Danube crossings, catching the Emperor between two armies. The Imperial army refused to fight, melting away into the night or throwing themselves on the mercy of the Almohads. Heinrich was slain by his own servants for what little treasure remained in his broken camp. It was only with difficulty that the Qadi was able to identify his stripped carcass to give it an honourable burial. Without a battle being fought, the Holy Roman Empire ceased to be.

The British Isles, meantime, were quickly falling to the armies of the Amir Ibn Badis. By 1281 Northumbria was taken and only the Staffords of Scotland offered any resistance. The Amir and his personal troops were withdrawn for a refit while his lieutenant, Ma’mun Ibn Idris, delivered the coup de grace.

This plan, however, had not foreseen the stubborn resistance of the wily and able Edgar Stafford, King of Scotland. Stafford had seen the English kingdoms crumble and was determined not to suffer the same fate. His loyal lowland regiments included a large number of handgunners, the largest such force in Europe. From the north he called down the Highland clans, stout footsoldiers whom the Almohads severly underestimated. Withdrawing to the hills, Stafford picked his spot well and offered battle with a slight numerical advantage over the invaders.

For General Ibn Idris, things did not go according to plan. The Scots quickly withdrew beyond the range of his demi-cannon, which he decided to abandon. His mounted skirmishers were then able to disrupt the Scottish right, but an attempt to sweep away the clansmen on the left with his Ghulam and Armenian cavalry quickly came to grief. The Scottish claymores proved remarkably effective against the horsemen, and a bitter clash left more men dead than alive on either side.

With his infantry centre threatened by the advancing handgunners and clansmen, Ibn Idris chose to attack, concentrating all of his forces on bringing down Stafford. In the ensuing melee, hundreds were slain and panic spread to both sides, but it was the Almohads who at last had the breakthrough. A handful of Faris were able to delvier a decisive charge into Stafford’s rear, and as his lines wavered the Scottish king fell.

Ibn Idris had still not won the battle. Though Stafford was down, and hundreds of Scots were fleeing the battle, the hills were packed with Scottish reinforcements, while Ibn Idris’s men were scattered and weary. He hastily reassembled them around a hilltop as Highland clansmen and peasants poured from the mountain passes and swirled around him. Almohad reinforcements had to run a gauntlet of enemy patrols to reach him. For a moment or two the situation seemed precarious.

Fortunately the Highland weather did not allow the Lowland handgunners to bring their weapons into play. As desperate Almohad archers loosed their last arrows, the tale of Stafford’s death began to spread among the newly arrived troops. Outnumbered many times over, the Almohad infantry launched tentative attacks to try and spread panic. At last the Scottish force wavered. As more Almohad reinforcements appeared, the men on the hill finally launched their attack in earnest. The Scots broke and fled, though here and there a particularly bold clan would stop and make a stand. Ma’mun Ibn Idris, at the moment of his victory, fell on the same field as his opponent, cut down by a chieftain’s claymore as his men finally broke the Highland spirit. Scotland had been beaten down, but at a high price.

The following year (1283) it was all over. The last Scottish fort was attacked with mortars and demi-cannon, its defences ruthlessly pounded to rubble before its garrison was overwhelmed and slaughtered. Ma’mun Ibn Idris was avenged, and all Britain was in Almohad hands.

Ibrahim’s faltering health led to much speculation as to which of his ambitious brothers would succeed him. The birth of a son, Umar, in 1285 helped to quell these rumours, though it was by no means certain that the Mad Prince would live to see his son reach manhood.

That same year, Hardeknud II of Denmark – who had been raised at the Almohad court – chose to break the peace by sending an army of Vikings to lay siege to Stockholm. The following year he led his Royal Knights across the Skaggerack to join the besieging army, but faced with a large relieving force crossing from Norway he chose to retreat back to Denmark immediately. On landing, he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by one of his closest advisers – a man secretly recruited years before by the Syrian assassins. Only the quick actions of his personal bodyguard prevented his death. Hardeknud, never the bravest of men, developed a nervous complaint. While his army was based around a core of Catholic Danes, a majority of his subjects had been converted to Islam. While this was the case he could ill afford to send a substantial number of troops overseas. Any threat to the Almohad presence in Scandinavia and Saxony was thus averted, though Hardeknud could not be persuaded to make peace again.

With Hardeknud neutralised, attention turned back to the Byzantine-Horde alliance. Armies had been built up in Morocco and Spain in preparation for a bold push from the Baltic coast to link up with Prince Abdullah’s army in Kiev. The generals chosen for this task were Idris Al-Mu’tamid, a Royal Uncle, and the Amir Ibn Badis of Ireland. He had shown his mettle subduing the English rebels – could he prove an effective commander against the disciplined Byzantines? The next few years would surely tell...