As Saint Anselm says: “Disasters teach us humility”. In the glory of one triumph after another, perhaps we became delirious. We saw how Sicily sent their second army to besiege us in Bologna, and how we destroyed it, and logically concluded that their garrison in Naples would be minimal to compensate for this army. As such, we divided our rather large force which captured Ragusa and transported approximately half of it over the Adriatic to besiege Naples to punish the Sicilians. Alas, the Prince of Sicily, Ario, was waiting close by with a heavy Norman contingent - 3 Norman Knights units and 3 Dismounted Norman Knights, along with a few Pavise Crossbowmen and the Prince himself with his mighty bodyguards. Our army, led by Captain Johann, consisted of 4 ragtag and semi-depleted bands of peasant and crossbow archers, 2 merchant cavalry militia and 3 semi-depleted spearmen who were decimated most brutally by the Norman charge, which came like a storm to hand us a clear defeat.



TIP: When fighting a superior army (especially with a high ratio of cavalry) with an archer heavy army, place archers behind infantry so they do not get caught or have to relocate time and again, as their missile salvos are so decisive in causing enemy casualties. The added bonus is that in the case the cavalry or infantry charges your infantry and they get decimated, those archers can always withdraw from battle fast. Also make sure you stay at the very end of the battle lines to expedite escape.

In my case, the Norman Knights, after a few feints, overwhelmed the archers so fast they had little time to withdraw. In any case, the army composition was too flip-sided to win even if I countered first with my spears, as even they were decimated pretty soon in face of the charge. That leads to my second tip:

TIP: Troop composition is extremely important before a battle to understand whether you can win or run away.

We also recovered some standing with the Pope in this turn as he noted our punishment of the Moslems and the brazen aggressions by Sicily (standing increased 2 crosses). The Vatican also decided to install four new cardinals, three of them German priests who had been working very hard in Stettin to convert the pagans. At last this Pope appreciates German piety. We have little hope however that he will continue to do so as his behavior with our Emperor, who makes the most just of claims, is most outrageous. Another incident highlights our piousness and the Pope’s vain pride, as a Papal lickspitting inquisitor tried one of our priests, Lothar Zirn, who triumphed most successfully in that test of faith. Perhaps that also played a role with our improvement in Papal standing.