ADLG - Game Report 318

Arab Indians (135) vs Thematic Byzantines (126)

Another Thursday, another day at Entoyment. We were all continuing the momentum with design and redesign of our Kegworth options. For this battle I decided to bring out the Arabs Indians again against Robin's Byzantines. I was invited to defend in the plains. We deployed with the cavalry refused on the left (again) and this time the Elephant moved to the right expecting, and Robin delivering, enemy Horse on that flank.

On the left the light cavalry moved to screen the medium cavalry from the ravages of Byzantine horse archers. While on the right the elephant and his light cavalry are moving to disrupt the horse archers trying to delay the engagement of elephant against Byzantine cavalry.

For once the bowmen on the ends of the line of the spearmen have been effective in causing attrition on the Byzantine cavalry, all of which will significantly reduce the likelihood of their mediocre bow fire proving effective. On the left the light cavalry screening the Hindi medium cavalry has ended behind the enemy's flank, but it is not clear whether this will benefit us or not. However, the elephant is an excellent position!

The Byzantine horse took fright against the elephant and evaded, while on the left the Arab horse at the end of the cavalry line has been successful while the centre has suffered from the Byzantines, but their flank is now exposed.

The Byzantine cavalry has tried to both move away from the edge of the battlefield, but at the same time others are trying to screen he camp from the elephant; will they stand or run away again? In the centre the Arab spearmen are now making short work of their Byzantine foes, and to their left the Arab horse only have one Byzantine cavalry unit to contend with.

The Byzantine cavalry stood against the Elephant and wounded it with their archery and have wounded it further in the subsequent combat. However the Byzantine centre has been broken.

Outcome

An Arab Indian victory losing 14 of 26.

Lessons Learnt

The initial deployment of the elephant could have been improved by putting both swordsmen on the outside flank; one of them didn't contribute anything meaningful to the battle.

The tactic of covering the medium cavalry with the light cavalry worked well, it managed to push the enemy light horse archers so far back they were no longer able to influence the battle.