A Timeline In Games

From a blog run by Magnus Ingvarsson, 2017

The Army of John I Tzimiskes


Of all the Byzantine Army set-ups (pre-11th century, of course), none are more intriguing or popular than the Army at the time of John I Tzimiskes. The reasons for that are myriad, not the least of which is the fact that Tzimiskes' force was so varied that one doesn't necessarily need to buy complete Byzantine sets in order to field a comprable force. However, one needs to be careful with buying and combining alternate sets, as one tends to go overboard and make their army less-Byzantine and more foreign than it actually was.

Background

John I Tzimiskes (hereafter referred to as simply Tzimiskes) was the Byzantine Emperor for roughly twenty years in the 10th century (969-987). He is widely credited with securing the Empires Northern borders after reaching an agreement with the Rus, as well as regaining the Holy City of Jerusalem and Antioch (assisted, in large measure, by internal conflicts in the Islamic Caliphate and the beginnings of the Turkish invasion of Persia). He is lauded as one of Byzantiums best Emperors, though his death threw the Empire into a bit of turmoil as various factions clashed with each other, opening the Empire to various Slavic, Norse, Islamic, and other threats.

The Sins of Army Composition

One of the largest sins people trying to do a Tzimiskes build commit is by filling their ranks with Varangians. This is a cardinal sin; while Tzimiskes agreement with Sviatoslav of the Rus (ending the conflict between them) did call for "four-thousand warriors to serve the Emperor at Tsargrad", they were by no means the majority of his army. These Varangians were not viewed as cannon-fodder, and were not peasents with sticks; many were fairly well-trained warriors, with decent equipment. They are credited with helping Tzimiskes achieve his victories as shock troops at the right moment.

However, many people simply fill their ranks with Rus peasant spearmen or axemen; I have seen some extreme cases where a Tzimiskes army had a ratio of Varangians to Byzantines of 2:1! Many people do this to save points for their more elite tagmata units and heavy cavalry, or just to swarm enemy positions with fodder; this, however, breaks the purpose of having a Tzimiskes army and should disqualify them from a tournament bout.

Example Composition

An ideally built Tzimiskes army, with the standard point limit, should end up looking something like this-

Tagamata
1 Commander Unit (Either a generic Byzantine General [900-1000 set] or a Tzimiskes piece)
10-15 Vigla (Super Elite Heavy Cavalry; the point differential with getting the generic General or Tzimiskes is just about enough for five more Vigla)
20 Scholae (Elite Heavy Cavalry)

Cavalry
30 Katafraktoi (Heavy Cavalry)
30 Koursorses (Medium Cavalry)
40 Horse Archers (Light Ranged Cavalry)

Infantry
100 Varangian Infantry (Rudimentary armor/shields, axes or spears, maybe some swords)
50 Varangian Elite Infantry (Scale or chainmail armor, swords, shields)
25 Varangian Skirmishers (Mixture of bows and javelins)
50 Armenian Skirmishers (Mixture of bows and javelins)
100 Armenian Spearmen (Shields/Spears)
50 Byzantine Archers (Light equipment)
200 Byzantine Infantry (Shields, chainmail, swords and spears)

Auxillary
75 Other Foreigners (Could be Frankish axemen, Scythian horse archers, etc.)

An army like this, with some minor variations, is considered to be the ideal custom-Tzimiskes set up. Scenario battles are, of course, a different animal, but in regular tournament play, an army like this is the standard for a Tzimiskes Byzantine set.

As always, happy fighting!
 
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This is my first little attempt to make an offering to this site! :O Let me know what you think! Thanks all!
 
This should probably go in the Alternate History Books and Media section unless you're going to write a timeline of how that historical information came to be. Of course, if the blog style is actually an elaborate framing device and the game to which you refer doesn't actually exist, I'd like to see more.
 
This should probably go in the Alternate History Books and Media section unless you're going to write a timeline of how that historical information came to be. Of course, if the blog style is actually an elaborate framing device and the game to which you refer doesn't actually exist, I'd like to see more.
I was hoping to use the blog and various other future posts as a device where information about the world is revealed, in a way that shows the timeline. Would that still go there or would it stay here?
 
From the website Game Masters, 2017

Imperial Wars III Preview:
The Raid on Constantinople


So, being the journalist of the game industry that I am, I was able to get my hands on an advance copy of the long-awaited Imperial Wars III, the third (and final) game tracing the history of the Roman Empire. This game focuses on the Empire's final incarnation, the Byzantine Empire based out of Constantinople, and has a lot of cool features not really prevelent in the previous titles- like a revamped mercenary tree, an overhauled diplomacy system, and a new focus on court intrigue.

But while that is all awesome and great, what really sets Imperial Wars apart from the competition has been their detailed, grand-scale real time battles. Some news about a team shake up at Stone Anvil Games made a lot in the strategy gaming community nervous about how this games battles were going to turn out. This made my playthrough of this preview battle very important to me, and, hopefully the community at large.

First Impressions

Just to let you know, right off the bat- the soundtrack was awesome. I lingered on the menu for a little bit before going into the actual battle, just to hear the song play out. Stone Anvil always does a good job with their soundtracks, and this really sets the stage for the final days of the Empire.

Cutscenes have never really been their strongsuit, however (I am sure we all remember their cringeworthy clips from their story campaign in Imperial Wars I), and sorry to say, IW3 continues the trend. A narrator, speaking in what I think is a heavy Greek accent explains that "the Empirrre es en cryses; the Rus Khagkhanate under Sveeartosleav aprroaches Constantinople" or something like that. To be honest, I could barely understand what he was trying to say. The gist of it is the Rus, under the appropriately villanous looking Khagan Sviatoslav (the man rocks the scalp lock) approach Constantinople by sea and by land. The city is undermanned, as the Emperor, John I Tzimiskes, had been off in Anatolia fighting a rival claimant named Phokas (I think). He is rushing back victorious to the Imperial City with the navy in tow, and it is your job as the leader of the local garrison to keep the Rus out of the city proper.

Constantinople

I think you all remember my reaction on seeing Rome in the first Imperial Wars, and I can say that I was even more blown away by seeing Constantinople rendered on screen. The city and its suburbs are teeming with life- civillians milling about nervously, cows in the fields, sheep and goat herds wandering about (!), dogs (!!!), etc. The buildings were rendered with loving detail- I can tell they left no stone unturned in making Constantinople look like a truly Imperial city.

However, all these individual characters made even my rig earn its pay, and I shudder to think what less-optimized machines will do with it. I think that Stone Anvil will actually have to make their game less impressive graphically to appeal to the average consumer.

The Gameplay

Our mission in this scenario was simple- keep the Rus from sacking the city. This turned out to be harder than it seemed, because I made the mistake of contesting the outer suburbs in an attempted delaying tactic. I planned on routing a few lighter Rus formations before pulling back closer to my walls. This turned out to be nearly fatal; my troops were slightly heavier than the Russians initial waves, who actually used tactics and outflanked me. By the time I realized my mistake, several of my units were cut off and I had to abandon them to save others. (Turns out the Byzantine commander on the field made that same mistake)

The Battle AI has improved dramatically, which threw me off for a moment. After dealing with the loss of some of my units, I decided to abandon the suburbs and flee to the protection of my walls. This turned out to be super complicated, as traffic got clogged with civillians also seeking refuge. This threw me off, and it dawned on me that my decision to abandon the suburbs completely may have led to the civillians trying to escape as well en masse. If that is the case, I tip my hat to Stone Anvil- that is amazing.

My docks were then attacked by a Rus flotilla, and the few ships I had got demolished (I am comically bad at naval battles, so I didn't feel too bad). The amphibious attack mechanics have imoroved since IW2, as the Rus quickly streamed out of their boats rather than casually disembark like the Vandals in the previous game. My archers at the quays did a decent job of pinning them down, however.

Most of my troops fleeing to the cities finally made it to the walls, but the clogged roads resulted in some of my units getting caught. It turns out, however, that abandoning the suburbs may have been a good thing- the Rus spent precious time ravaging the undefended villages (which actually happened in real life), giving me time to breath and regroup.

The final Rus assault on the city began just as the fleet of John Tzimiskes appeared on the minimaps far corner. The Rus had a variety of rudimentary siege implements, which I thought almost comical, and they were held off the walls with a tough fight (almost taking a gatehouse at one point). Tzimiskes scattered their fleet as they were coming close to breaking my wall defenders (in true cinematic fashion), and soon my men on the walls were relieved by much more cool looking units, the Rus were staved off, and I achieved victory.

The closing cinematic talked about, in the same heavy Greek, how Tzimiskes was worried by Muslim threats to his East, and instead of pushing against Sviatoslav made him a deal. Sviatoslav returned to his capitol with Byzantine tribute, while allowing some of his men to fight for Tzimiskes (an actual mechanic that is going to be implemented in the game). So I guess everything ended okay...?

Final Thoughts

This preview battle made me excited for IW3- the graphics look amazing, the AI is semi intelligent, and the actual battlefield mechanics are on point. But the graphics requirements, the poor cutscenes, and a few minor issues make me worried for its widespread appeal (mostly the graphics issues). I think if they lower the graphics requirements, at the cost of some details and extra bits, they will have a solid finale to their ambitious series.
 
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