For the recent Outremer and Reconquista MeG competition held at Battlefield Hobbies I took a Syrian States army.
To find out how it fared, read on ...
The army has similarities with others I like to use, in that it is based around a core of Muslim troops many of whom are horse archers of one sort or another. However, this list also included an allied contingent from the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia list which provided a shock cavalry component.
I should note that although the MeG list allows this ally I have not found any evidence for such an alliance. Unless I can find any I will be suggesting the list is amended to remove the option - the list has an Outremer States ally allowed which is historical, and this could fulfill the same function.The first round draw matched me up against Philip Powell who was using a Sicilian Norman army. As is his wont, his army was nearly wholly mounted and comprised of shock cavalry, and was led by a Legendary general. My army cannot just stand and fight it, I needed to break it up and weaken it with my archery. Philip's list, along with all the others used can be found here - https://gamer-at-the-end-of-time.blogspot.com/2023/06/outremer-and-reconquista-army-lists.html#more
With the Legendary general Philip won the PBS dice off and invaded into Coastal. He tried for a secure flank, however, I managed to avoid that. I tried to get a few pieces of Rough Going on the table to break up his massed cavalry, however, by rolling 6's each time Philip removed them. This we ended up on a wholly empty table 😮
I won the scouting by a little meaning Philip had to deploy troops before me which was useful. he stretched his cavalry across the plain whilst I massed mainly to my right, with my Turkmen ally thrown out on the left wing to distract as much as possible. As I had a Fortified Camp I was happy to leave this unprotected as it is pretty much invulnerable to Philp's army. It all looked like this:
My plan was, obviously from my deployment, to overwhelm the Norman left whilst "mucking around" on my left. As I was deploying after Philip I had what I considered good unit matchups and I considerable out winged him on my right.
Both my allies were reliable, although the Armenian did draw 3 white cards before getting a colour so I was a tad nervous at one point 😛
The initial move saw the Normans advance a bit cautiously (cards may have been a factor here) whilst I surged forward on my right. On my left Philip committed 2 units to chase my Turkmen ally; as one of these was Superior I was happy about this.
Move 2 saw little hanging around. On my right the lines closed and with combat troops on both sides we'd have fighting pretty soon. We both had 3 "proper" fighting units but I had my Flexible Bedouins aiming to get round the outside into the rear and also 2 shooting units, one of which was Skilled Turkmen. So whilst a lot of the combats were going to be relatively equal, I felt my additional units could sway it my way. On the other hand, Philip had his Legendary general leading a Superior Norman unit so there was potential he could break through with that very quickly.
On the left more dancing around ensued, but I got a unit of Skilled shooters into position to shoot at an Average Norman unit next move.
Next move fighting started as expected. It would have taken a lot of playing cards to hold to avoid it 😂 I think I can say that Philip was (justifiably) disappointed with the results. The Legendary general fluffed his lines, did very little and so the unit he was with broke off at the end of the move having inflicted just 1 base damage.
I, on the other hand, was quite happy. Firstly the Legendary general being a damp squib, and secondly because I took 2 bases off the other 2 units I was fighting for just a single base loss myself.
Elsewhere on the field I was teeing up more shooting at other units and was generally feeling pretty happy about things. All under control.
The following move the Legendary general again led a charge in against my Frankish unit. And again he fluffed his lines. I lost another base and so did the Norman unit. Dice were definitely against Philip there. The other combats didn't see much in the way of damage either, however, my Bedouin flexed into Loose formation and so were placed to charge into the rear of the enemy next turn.
On the left my shooting was a tad indifferent, but I had by now reduced one unit of Average Normans to 4 bases.
The next move was decisive. The Bedouin charge into the rear caused 2 units to break, although my Franks also broke in this move, but they had held up the most potent unit in the enemy army far longer than they should have done.
In addition, combinations of good shooting and combats resulted in 2 other Norman units being broken in this move as well. meant I had 4 of the 5 I needed to break the Norman army. One of my mamalik units was rather battered though, but that was not an issue.
The next move teed up the dénouement. I moved my Armenian nobles and the Bedouin into a position where both could charge Philips bow unit, with the Bedouin being able to deliver a flank attack. Philip's victorious Norman unit was not in a position to intervene as its compulsory pursuit had taken it away from the action.
We didn't actually play out the destruction of the archers. OK, in theory it may not have happened but the odds of that happening were very very low indeed and Philip was happy to call it a day. He had ridden down the Armenian skirmishers as a consolation, but nothing else was going to happen.
So a 15-3 victory to me to start the competition. Very satisfactory 😎
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