An Imperial Army-Crusading Warfare 7

If you are doing the Crusades you probably want an Imperial Army lurking in the background.  The Emperors, whenever circumstances permitted, acted to bring Frankish Antioch into line and to preserve the Crusader buffer states in the Holy Land.

Circumstances didn’t often permit but when they did the Imperial army was feared by all concerned.  Let’s have a look at it.

Like the Romans of old the Emperors Alexius, John and Manuel were happy to add good practice to their repertoire.  We find both deadly steppe horse archers and hard charging Latin knights in their armies.

The light horse archers were Pechenegs and Turkic Christians.  The were just as adept as their Seljuk and Turcoman opponents. Mine are from Outpost Wargames Services.  There will be three units the first one is here.

The Latinikon as the Frankish Mercenary Knights became known as were just that, observant of the Latin Rite .  Just as hard charging as any other of their kind.  I'm going to use the ones from Outpost. They are equipped with a slightly more near eastern version of the standard kit.

Another addition to the mix will be the exiled nobility of England. After the Norman Conquest the game at home was really up for these lads and they made their way into Imperial Service.  They fought just as they had at Hastings, on foot with axes. I've bought some from Legio Heroica to represent the English exiles in the Varangian Guard.

The Byzantine regular army still formed the core of Imperial forces though it was much reduced.  The cavalry were now mainly armoured lancers who charged hard.  The infantry was armed with spear or bow. Standards of training and discipline could be high and armour was provided whenever possible.  Light troops were still regularly deployed.

Once more I have opted for Outpost Wargames Services.  They scale well with Legio Heroica.

To represent the numerous units of foot archers I've gone for a mixture of manufacturers.  The ones below are Legio Heroica Armenians.  They are very versatile troops and could be found in Armenian, Byzantine, Fatimid and Frankish armies.

More Byzantines soon.