War of the Strategists at Alicante 2023
Berber vs Ghaznavid
The Journey to Alicante (via Valencia)
Game 3 Berber vs Maurikian Byzantine
Game 6 Berber vs Feudal English
The Journey back from to Alicante (again via Valencia)
So.. Berbers. The first question is of course a simple "Why?"
Unfortunately the answer is nothing too clever - last year at Alicante I took a rather comedic Peoples Crusade list to this Iberian festival of warm weather winter gaming, and this time around I wanted to try and take something with at least some degree of poetry in it's choice too
In a theme of "Every army must have a Strategist" I had resolved to pick an army that fought in, or ideally invaded Spain successfully at some point, thinking that there would probably be an El Cid option, or maybe a clever Roman force to wheel out.
Unfortunately I then got hung up on how the El Cid versions of the two lists he appears in really aren't as good as the options when he isn't present as leader. Romans were too early, and would be run over by Knights, Visigoths would just be insane and a bit rubbish, so maybe some of the Arab ones perhaps..?
Again the choice was a tough one, with nothing really jumping out - so much so that I had even considered taking a simple Elephant army, maybe Burmese, to just have a drinkers approach to the whole event.
Until I spotted something weird in the Berber list..
The Almoravid Berbers, with a Strategist who invaded Spain in the shape of Yusuf ibn Tashfin can sneak in a few Medium Knights as Christian mercenaries (or turncoats, as you wish..).
They also have a novelty troop type of Medium Sword with Support, loads of spearmen (optionally with Support too) and lots of LH Javelinmen, a troop type that I did fancy trying to use in quantity as they had surprised me on a few occasions when used against me in the past like that.
The end result is a hodge-podge of random stuff with no real cutting edge beyond 3 Knights, but with enough supported spearmen and other infantry to hopefully at least slow down the enemy while the LH attempt to do something clever on the flanks. Maybe!
So, that's how the Berbers ended up being taken (as the only Berber list in the competition) to Spain.
The first game seemed to be drawn on the basis of pitting highly ranked 'international' players together - rather harsh given my ranking was inflated by having attended more international events than many, and also rather tricky as I did suspect my army was a bit pants after having had just the one practice game (after submitting the list!) which they lost in about an hour and a quarter leaving barely a scratch on a very smug Samurai force only a few days beforehand!
The end result was a rematch against Rafa Tortosa driving a Ghaznavid army, following crumbling to defeat at Warfare against him in the last round a few months before
The lists for the Berber and Ghaznavid from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at Alicante can be seen here in the L'Art de la Guerre Wiki.
The table was greatly congested with terrain, a fitting showcase for the extensive array of retail opportunities Rafa was (even as we deployed) using to tease away the willpower of all of the other contestants in the entire event.
This gave a nice dense corridor for the Berbers to stuff with Spearmen, all of whom soon realised they were facing very little of the two-command Ghaznavid army, the rest being on a flank march!
The Almoravids and the Battle of Sagrajas, 1086
The presence of elephants - and in a threesome (ouch) - in the Ghaznavid army had prompted some serious action from the Berbers at deployment and soon after.
Light horse, and especially the Medium Cavalry Javelinman Elite had immediately dismounted, all the better to challenge the Pachyderms in mortal stick-hurling combat
The three Christian Knights however were in entirely the wrong place, and opted to split up (always a good idea when they are all Impetuous) and go hunting for slightly easier fare than Elephants - including one haring off to face a possible flank march arrival point on my right, the logic being that an Impetuous Knight may not be easy to control, but at least it will hold up a few units for a while as the rest of the army sorted itself out to respond to any outflanking arrivees
What's in this nonsense of a Berber army list then?
Let's start with the smallest command, the three Knights.
The list is allowed 4 Impetuous knights, 2 of which can be Elite however I chose only to take 3 of them. Their function in this list is to be a bowling ball of chaos to throw at the enemy, grabbing all of their attention while the rest of the army kinda sneaks up and overwhelms them. With that role in mind I felt that 3 was arguably better than 4, as a block of 3 is far easier to manoeuvre into a position to cause chaos, and would leave a smaller hole in the army (and it's break point!) if they were overwhelmed and destroyed .
The list allows 2 Elites, but I didn't feel that I had the points to upgrade 2 of them (especially for a set of units I expected to lose) and so only upgraded one, which (of course) contained an included Ordinary General as well.
Included Ordinary is a bit of a risk with Impetuous troops as there is a 1 in 3 chance each turn that he will not roll enough pips to allow him to control them (aka "order a halt"), as this requires 3 pips for impetuous troops in charge range of enemy (Generals get 1 pip themselves each turn irrespective of quality, and then a D6 of pips divided by 2 and rounded up).
On the flip side, a Competent General would have cost 3 more points, would cause an additional hit point loss for the army break point if ("when..") he was killed) and would still be unable to control his fellow knights on a roll of 1 anyway. This is not a great trade-off for a 1 in 6 benefit I though, especially as I was committed to throwing the knights at pretty much anything they faced anyway - far better to hold them back initially and try to point them at a suitable target that they wouldn't mind charging anyway!
This theory informed their deployment, and also the wider army deployment too - typically this command would be placed on table first, in the centre but some distance back from the "start" line so they would have space to redeploy towards any suitable target in the enemy army.
And, not a moment too soon apparently as the cloud of dust rose in the distance to my right signifying the rapid arrival of a flank march.
The Berber commander responded with a pretty decent pip dice roll, conjuring up a host of pips with which to try and reshuffle the right wing of the army to face the new and soon arriving threat
L'Art de la Guerre hint - Flank marches arrive on a pip roll for that command of 6 in the first turn, and then 5 in subsequent turns. Once the requisite score has been rolled, you tell your opponent which flank the flank march is due to arrive on (so they do get a slim chance to react), and then in your next turn you roll pips as normal and on they come.
The battle soon began in epic fashion, with both sides launching arrows and other projectiles at each other as the two lines closed to combat distance ready to test their swords and spirits in the crucible of teeny tiny tabletop war!
As the streets of Caasablanca filled with laughter for the festival of Tripolitania's mostly-Sunni Surrealist Kebab-shop, the Berbers had used their mobility to reshuffle their units to put the right troops in front of the Ghaznavid elephant Corps, and brought up the almost-mythical anti-elephant threat of Medium cavalry Commander Zaid and his (once dismounted) Elite Javelineers, fresh from their sweaty saddles (and pleased to be away from them in this heat) to feint at the mighty beasts.
L'Art de la Guerre hint - You can dismount any mounted troops at the very start of a game of ADLG if your opponent has deployed any elephants, war wagons or fortifications. I tend not to do this as you're sacrificing the mobility that being mounted gives you, but in this case with a narrow table and when it's only LH and a potentially specialist anti-elephant unit in the shape of MCv Javelin Elite, dismounting as Elite javelinmen, its a bit of a no-brainer to get a few of the guys off their horses. hey then become pedestrians for the whole game
The Andalusian spearmen stood ready for battle, their spears held high and their knees a-quiver as the elephants approached. Their armour gleamed in the sun, their faces were determined and their gazes fixed on the enemy elephants that their commander had tasked them with stalling as his home grown bona fide Berber troops looked on in admiration and a degree no doubt of relief that they were not yet involved quite so pivotally in the fighting.
In a thunder of hooves and a sweaty cacophony of horseflesh the flank march arrived - a handful of Heavy Cavalry and a couple of Light Horse.
It was a PITA to be sure, but perhaps with the tiny overall size of the Ghaznavid force there was a chance not only of holding it up, but by keeping it separate from the main line of battle, giving the Berbers a chance, with a discipline born of a belief that the army list itself was a bit pants so I'd have to think quite hard about how to use it, to defeat the Ghaznavid army piecemeal?
As the battle raged on, the casualties began to mount on both sides. The Andalusian Spearmen had paid the ultimate price for, well, not being Berbers, and had taken the brunt of the Ghaznavid attack on the chin and been run over immediately for their pains.
The Berbers poured in more spearmen who continued to fight with great courage, but the Ghaznavid Elephant Corps was relentless, using their superior weight and impetus to push forward, putting themselves in the firing line of some of the by-now essentially fully-rogue Christian knights.
More AWOL Knights were now lumbering towards the newly-arrived flank march, intent on stopping it in its tracks.
With the Ghaznavid army fully committed to supporting their Elephant attack, there was also now plenty of opportunity for the Berbers own troops, and mercenary crossbowmen to join in the blocking move - Moslems and Christians, fighting side by side for their beliefs and their faith, their love and their pride (other songs from mid 80's British new wave one hit wonder bands are also available - ed), but also fighting to basically prevent their baggage train being looted and carried off to Samarkand along with their hope of victory!
The elephants rampaged forward, however, just when all hope seemed lost, a band of young Berber javelineers, freshly dismounted and led by that chap I already mentioned once, called Zaid, stepped forward.
Zaid was a skilled fighter, and he rallied his fellow warriors, inspiring them to continue the fight and hurl their javelins at the mighty beasts of war.
Zaid personally led the charge, his sword flashing through the air as his spear flew unerringly toward the most vulnerable point on the mighty war elephant's panoply of armour - striking home to inspire the rest of the Berbers to once again surge forward, determined to claim victory.
L'Art de la Guerre Stats
Elite Javelinmen certainly have the edge against Elephants in the first round - even Elite Elephants, as this chart shows. Not only do Elephants not count their first round "Impact" against Javelinmen, they also don't get "Furious Charge" if them win, as the mighty beasts get swamped in the marshmallow-like embrace of these javelin-throwing infantry semi-skirmishers
Inspired and refreshed in confidence, the Berber forces took the fight to the Ghaznavids with deep formations of resilient Arabian spearmen now joining in the fight, giving Rafa a wonderful opportunity to deploy and promote several of his rather spiffing MDF die cut casualty markers as fashionable accessories on each elephant base
The Berbers were taking hits too, but with the rest of the Ghaznavid army unable to face up to the Berber spearmen, the elephant corps of Ghaznavidavia were soon looking surrounded
The Ghaznavid Strategist is Mahmud of Ghazni also known as "Mahmud Ghaznavi" (this second variant not being that great a stretch even for the most linguistically challenged to be fair). He was the founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty, ruling from 998 to 1030 abd by the time of his death, his kingdom had been transformed into an extensive military empire, which extended from northwestern Iran proper to the Punjab in the Indian subcontinent, Khwarazm in Transoxiana, and Makran.
"Ghazza", as he was known to his friends, took the throne at the age of 27 upon his father's death, although a brief war of succession with his brother Ismail was also involved (isn't it always ?) in which his best friend Ahmed Five-bellies played a key role by always getting in the first round at the bar. Once on the throne "Ghazza" used the title Sultan to pretend that he had an ideological link to the original line of Abbasid Caliphs, however as he had absolute power and a load of elephants it seems fairly likely that no-one would have questioned him on this anyway. During his rule he invaded and plundered medieval India seventeen times, either because he wanted to use the booty to build his capital in Ghazni up to be a centre of learning and culture, or perhaps because he wasn't able to get a decent Dhal Makni in any of the local Indian restaurants near his home.
The decidedly soft underbelly of Indian archers were now plugging the front line of the Ghaznavid force, as it struggled to match up to the endless multitude of warriors flooding down from their North African mountain fastnesses
These Berbers must have seemed endless to the harsh warriors of Samarkand, as their army of random components stretched almost across the entire width of the Iberian peninsula on which they had only just landed
With the Captain of the Christian Knights now also personally committed to this particular fray, suddenly the loose formation Ghaznavid infantry were starting to quake in their stylish slip-ankle faux leather boots at the prospect of being rapidly skittled by a ferocious Knightly charge
The flank march had now reached the point of no return, stumbling over a brave blocking crossbow unit, after their rapid gallop across the extremities of Extremadura to arrive oh so promptly on the Berbers flank.
With the rest of the Ghaznavid army being so narrow, and already largely committed as well, the Berbers were able to assemble a seemingly hand-picked collection of troops perfectly designed to hold up a mid-sized cavalry force from the left-over troops who were not needed to advance down the narrow battlefield.
Things were not however going entirely Berbaria's way, as the other Cavalry contingent of the Ghaznavid army was now gaining an advantage on the opposite wing
Fighting dangerously close to their own elephants, the well drilled Samarkandian horsemen had outnumbered the Taifa allied contingent of the Berber army and were looking to grab the upstart desert dwelling Berbers by their short and curlies to finish them off and achieve a breakthrough here on this flank - even as their colleagues in the flank march started to see the door of opportunity swing shut in their faces
Ah, Zaid, wherefore art though brave Zaid?
The Berber Javelineers had done their best, but it was not enough! Ghaznaviaria's elephant were battered, bruised, but they now held the field (just about) as the story of heroism seeped like the shed blood of the Javelineers themselves slowly into the dusty surface of one of Rafa's excellent playmats
The flank march was suddenly starting to get worried too, as more errant Knight arrived at speed to get right in their faces.
More significantly the Christian techno-bowmen had taken down some of the Ghaznavid horse, creating a nasty hole at the end of the flank marchers supposedly well drilled line.
With the Black Guard now also in play, this swinging shut door looked set to slam right in the Ghaznavids faces at some pace
The Ghaznavid elephants, commanded somewhat unusually (you can say that again - ed) by a 28mm mounted El Cid figure (and I thought I was weird?), were now wheeling dangerously towards the rest of the Berber army, their moment of potential doom against Zaid and his Elite dismounted Javelineers only a distant memory (and a cause of some un-rallyable hit markers)
L'Art de la Guerre hint - Elephants can't rally off hits in ADLG. This gives them a textbook "glass cannon"-like characteristic in which if things start to go wrong, they tend to carry on going wrong - your general can't persuade an injured elephant to return to the fray!
But the Berbers still had men to throw at the problem. Willing, eager men, and also some Light Infantry archers who were perhaps not quite so keen as Zaid and his mates had been.
But, given the factors and the Elephants injuries perhaps they could even afford to not be utterly pessimistic?
Maybe this was the turning point, and the actual bona fide hero that the entire Berber army had been praying so fervently for on their treacherous journey across the straights of Gibraltar was indeed finally at hand?
In a flurry of sword strokes, spear thrusts and close range archery large swathes of the embattled Ghaznavid army simply evaporated, leaving the stunned and exhausted Berbers masters of a surprisingly blank battlefield !
Off in the distance, lunatic Christian Knights were continuing to chase away anything even vaguely mounted in the Ghaznavid army, leaving the Berber infantry to take stock and work out how best to mop up the surprised remnants of what had at one stage appeared to be a battering ram of Ghaznavid elephants with a full suite of supporting cast members
With the Ghaznavid centre now barely possessing enough units to even count as being "in tatters", attention swiftly shifted to the flank march, where it turned out that a potent combination of Black Guard Spearmen, Christian Knights, supported African foot and heroic Christian Crossbowmen had been way too much for the Ghaznavid mounted archery team to handle.
They too had been crushed, and with them the Ghaznavids chance of victory too
The Result is a significant win for The Berbers!
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition, or read on for the post match summaries from the Generals involved, as well as another episode of legendary expert analysis from Hannibal
Post Match Summary from the Berber Commander
Today, we gather to celebrate a monumental victory, a victory that's been won by the sheer brilliance and tactical genius of yours truly. I stand here before you as a proud Yorkshireman, the leader of the greatest army of Yorkshire Moors army the world has ever seen!
Now, I know what you're all thinking. How did I, a simple Yorkshireman, lead this army to such a resounding victory? Well, I'll tell you how. It's all down to my heritage, my roots, and my love for all things Yorkshire.
I mean, let's face it, no one does it like us Yorkshire folk. Our food, our drink, our way of life, the beauty of the Yorkshire Moors, it all gives us a unique advantage in battle. It gives us the determination, the courage, and the resolve to succeed where others have failed - especially when a flank march arrives really early on in the game.
But, I don't want to take all the credit. My men, the legendary Yorkshire Moors deserve a round of applause for their unwavering loyalty and their bravery in the face of battle. They followed my every command, and they never once faltered. They're a true testament to the strength and resilience of our people - especially those with Rear Support, which has proved to be great value all round really.
So let's raise a mug of tea, not just to me, but to all of us. We've achieved something truly great here, and we should be proud of what we've accomplished. And remember, it's not just a man, it's a Yorkshireman who has led his army to this victory. Eh Oop, and Allahu Akbar!
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
Listen here, you inexperienced Northern pretender. I am Hannibal, the greatest general to have ever lived. My military tactics and strategies are unmatched and my victories are legend.
You see, I have conquered more lands, won more battles, and inspired more fear in my enemies than any other general in history. And don't even get me started on my tactical brilliance. I once won a battle without even being there, can you imagine that? I sent a letter, that's all it took.
Thou art but a novice, unworthy of standing in my presence. Thy attempts to emulate my success are but a pitiful facade, a sorry attempt to mask thy own shortcomings.
Good sir, thou art a simpleton of the utmost degree. In claiming this victory thy tongue runs like the wild horses of the Tartary, with no sense or discretion to guide its fervour. Verily, thou art a most lamentable fool.
So, I say unto thee, depart from this field of battle and let the true master of war take command. For I am the one, the only, the incomparable Hannibal, and I am the only one who can continue your trail of undeserved victories into the next game
My own 10-minute video run-through of the game
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition
You may also like....
The Journey to Alicante (via Valencia)
Game 3 Berber vs Maurikian Byzantine
Game 6 Berber vs Feudal English
The Journey back from to Alicante (again via Valencia)
View My Stats for My Match Reports Pages
